bad, but it does. He knows what happened to me when I was a slave. The evidence is written all over my body in scars. But he let me go. Let the Catcher take me. All those times he told me he didn’t care for me—he was serious. The Catcher may as well have gutted me with his sword. And he may yet.
“Get up.” He grabs my hair and wrenches me to my feet as I scream into the gag. “We have a long way to go thanks to that winter realm trash.”
My scalp burns as I peer around. We’re in the woods again, but these trees are different. Not dark green like the ones in the winter realm, but lighter, airier somehow, and bits of fluff and fairy dust seem to float through the air. Like the Greenvelde, but not the same. Where are we?
“Move.” He pulls me along as fairies scurry into their hiding places.
There’s no point fighting him. The manacles have already proven that. He seems to know where he’s going, though I can’t tell one end of the woods from the other. Not that any of it matters. If he returns me to Granthos—and it certainly looks like he will—I’ll kill myself. I will not be a slave. Never again.
“Stop dragging.” He slaps me so hard the gag comes loose and the inside of my cheek splits against my teeth.
I’ve been hit harder. I blink away the pain and try to steady my steps, matching his pace as best I can.
“I hope you enjoyed your vacation in the winter realm.” He glances at me, his silver eyes as beautiful as they are cruel. “Granthos is anxious to have you back, and I can guarantee you that this time, he’s never letting you out of his sight.”
“The winter queen will pay you.” I know Taylor will do whatever she can to help me. It isn’t easy for me to put faith in another person, but her? I’d bet my life on it.
“This isn’t about coin.” He shrugs then swipes a curious fairy out of the way.
She skitters through the air, her pearly wings flapping furiously as her feet come perilously close to the ground. I gasp and try to reach for her, but she rights herself just before she touches Arin. Fluttering away through the trees, she leaves a golden trail in her wake.
I glare at him. “It takes a particularly vile creature to cause a fairy to touch the ground.”
“Killing fairies was child’s play for me.” He grins. “Literally.”
I shudder. A dying fairy is nothing to smile about, and the mournful sound they make as they turn into a weeping willow sapling is enough to haunt me for a lifetime.
“Monster.” I want to spit at him, but he’d just slap me again. “And what do you mean ‘this isn’t about coin’? I thought coin was all you cared about.”
“It is.” He shoves me forward, and I trip over a fallen tree while he laughs. “But this is a special bit of payback.”
My knees are already scraped and dirty, but now they’re bleeding again.
He smiles as I pull myself to my feet. “Do those unseelie idiots in the winter realm think I don’t know who’s been impersonating me? Phinelas isn’t half as good as he thinks he is.” He grabs my elbow and wrenches me along beside him. “Sure, he saves a few of you filthy changelings here and there, but I bag plenty more. And when I got the chance to take you right from under their noses? I jumped on it.” He sighs with satisfaction. “I wish I could see the looks on their faces when they realize their favorite changeling is back to being a slave. Gareth failed to best me, and I’m sure you noticed he didn’t bother following to retrieve you. The winter realm is pathetic. They couldn’t even protect their own.”
“Yeah, you really struck a blow.” I roll my eyes. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly a star of the winter realm. I’d just gotten there. You think you took their favorite changeling? I’m not even their second- or third-favorite. Maybe I’m down in the twenties somewhere. I don’t know. The winter queen just got mated. Her heels are in the air right now, and she’s screaming the king’s name. She’s not going to care about what happened to me. I don’t know where you got your information. But I do know that my disappearance won’t cause any of