Two

EVE

Sunlight exploded in my eyes as we emerged into daylight, but it was different daylight than I was used to seeing. The sun was a pink crescent moon in the sky, casting a golden and pink glow over everything as if it were in dawn's first sleepy stretches. Greedily, I took in the sweeping landscape. A large mountain rising high to the distant west. Its peak disappeared into the clouds.

"You there! Move!"

I jerked back to reality as a man with an armful of crates clipped me. The courtyard bustled with activity, and I had stupidly come to a halt in the middle of it.

People tended to horses. Court officials and women bustled about with herbs and spices, breads and cheeses. Everyone moved with a firm purpose. Well, everyone who had rounded, normal ears.

So many humans.

I wanted desperately to ask my guard if they were all slaves, like Peri had said. While they were all clearly working class, they all looked clean, healthy and well-fed with all their teeth, which was more than I could say for most of the kingdom back home.

Cassus barked some orders as a small human boy brought his horse out to him. The guards shifted, taking Ellis and me over to a large metal cage that was laughably similar to the one Viana, Queen of the Southern Realm, imprisoned Cassus and Ferar in.

The same Viana who'd betrayed us to Cassus and Ferar, and the reason we were here at all.

Fucking Viana.

And the cage wasn't empty.

Thunder rumbled out in the distance despite the lack of any storm clouds. A stray breeze lifted my air, the change in the air tangible.

A wave of unease went through the market.

Ellis grunted in pain and I grit my teeth as the guards opened the cage and threw us in, sticking their swords after us so the dozen humans already inside didn't rush through the door. It slammed shut behind us with a finality I felt in my bones.

"Oh gods, Lady Crestwell! No! They captured you as well?"

It took me half a second to realize the horrified voice was talking to me. I was Lady Crestwell, technically. No one had really ever referred to me by my title, though. Not much use for those back at the manor.

I spun around as much as I could while being pressed against a dozen other dirty, smelly bodies. Ellis bumped against me and tensed, like a string pulled so taut it was about to snap.

"Anne?! How did you get here?" I stared at the other sweaty faces, confused. Many of them looked oddly familiar. Was that the guard in the back who'd competed with me? "How did any of you get here?"

Anne wiped tears from her face with the back of her hand. "It's just like the black-haired fae said, isn't it? The minute the … thing exploded or whatever it was, we all ran. I almost made it back to the village before everything went black. When I woke up, I was here, with all of them." She jerked her thumb behind her, but obviously meant everyone.

"You all got here like that?" I asked dumbly. Murmurs of assent greeted me.

"They must have tagged the humans they wanted with blood magick, set to trigger at a predetermined time. I bet when the barrier fell, it triggered automatically, bringing them all here," Ellis muttered darkly, not appearing to be speaking to anyone in particular. His face was set into a harsh expression, full of pain.

I was irritated that was the first sentence he'd spoken to me here in the fae realm, but I dismissed my stubborn anger.

"Should it offend me that I wasn't tagged?" I joked darkly. Anne's haunted eyes were wide and terrified. I swallowed the rest; now was clearly not the time.

"I hope they all die," Anne viciously spat out, with heads nodding all around her. "I hope they suffer for what they did to everyone. To us."

I thought of Ferar's decapitated head and of Cassus's forehead scraping the stone floor. The horror and pain in his eyes at his friend's death hadn't been feigned. His sorrow at possibly never seeing his family again had been tangible.

I shook my head.

"He said we'd be slaves," said another woman next to Anne, with strawberry blonde hair tied back in a kerchief. "But I don't see any slaves."

The cart lurched forward, knocking us all together in a hubbub of pointy elbows and knobby knees. I didn't have the heart to tell any of them that slaves were alive and real—not when I didn't have any more concrete knowledge than they had.

"Whatever happens, we'll be together," I said instead. Ellis's spicy scent surrounded me, but he refused to reach out or touch me. His hands tightened into fists at his side. I allowed myself a moment to close my eyes and breathe. Whatever was wrong with him, it wasn't something he could openly talk about. I at least knew him well enough now to know that.

"I'm sure it can't be that bad," I said brightly.

He glared.

We all settled in for the ride.

This city was spectacular on a level I couldn't appreciate fully. While smaller, the buildings of the fae city were no less spectacular than the castle itself. Many buildings comprised the same swirling, green serpentine stone, while others used crystals and stones with pinks sheens, purples, and every other color of the rainbow. Some houses had crushed gems into powder and mixed it into the mortar, creating a shimmering lattice work to help hold their homes together.

It was beautiful.

They did not line the streets with cobblestones or bricks, but with one large, smooth white rock that stretched down the road and branched off into side streets and even personal walkways. Had they found one massive piece of white sheet rock and cut it to fit the design needed, or was some other technique at play? I answered my question as I saw a group of men (humans, of course), laboring to patch a small piece of the road ahead of us. As our cage carriage slowed to pass, they mixed stone with a liquid mixture in a large bowl, continually swirling it around until they poured it into the hole, where it hardened quickly like clay.

On and on through the city we went, watching as the beautiful fae went about their business, trailed by human servants carrying their bags and wares, or attending to horses and small fae children.

I didn't see any human children.

After what seemed like a few hours, we finally left the city behind us. There had been no walls, no gates, and no guards to pass through to leave the city. Did the fae leave all their cities unguarded? Perhaps that was another luxury I couldn't fathom; having no enemies or danger lurking around the corner.

Thick woods descended around us. Black trees and colorfully vibrant flowers punctuated thick meadows and fields around us. Was it midday? Evening? Night? Clouds had moved in, dark red in color and the thunder grew louder. I hoped it didn't rain on us.

The wind picked up, slicing through the cage's bars. Goosebumps erupted on my skin and I moved closer to Ellis, seeking warmth. He flinched, but allowed me to rest against him.

Everyone around us had settled as best they could in the cage, sitting down and leaning against the bars. I sat in the middle, sitting next to cold and hard Ellis. I kept trying to sneak glances at him, but he gave nothing away. He didn't appear sick, either. Looking around at the other terrified humans, I saw no one was paying us any attention.

"Do you know what happened?" I asked him quietly. "One minute we were getting our clothes, then Cassus and Ferar were there." I swallowed heavily. "Did they … They had implied … Viana had something to do with it, didn't she?"

Ellis's lack of reaction told me more than he ever could. I drew away from him, hurt. Was this why he was suddenly giving me the cold shoulder and ignoring me?

He noticed my flinch of realization, his cold mask cracking as his features softened.

"Eve, I—"

"You with your dreams and Viana with her stupid voices," I spat, wrapping my arms around my knees. "Is it a fae thing to be cryptic and vague? Or is it that I'm just a stupid human who couldn't possibly understand?"

Ellis ran a frustrated hand through his hair, the gold in his eyes glinting. "That's not it. Don't do this. I'm trying to keep you safe."

Men were so stupid, and I was so sick of it.

"By bringing me to the fae realm and then pretending I don't exist?" I spat back at him, uncaring as heads turned toward us as my voice rose. "Leave me alone."

Agony twisted Ellis's face, but I ignored the small stab in my heart and presented him with my back. He knew where I'd be if he quit acting like a jack wagon.

The heavens opened up, but it wasn't rain. Large chunks of hail pelted noisily off the metal top of our prison wagon. The wind shifted and it came at us sideways. Those on the left side of the wagon cried out with pain and tried to push inwards. The horses shrieked and the drivers of the carriage cursed.

We huddled closer in the cage, trying to stay away from the edges and the sharp bits of ice, but just as soon as it began, it stopped. The wind died down, the sky cleared, and the pinkish sunlight crept back over the horizon as if the terrible weather had never happened.

Was fae weather always like this? It was as ever changing as my mood.

Hours went by, and thankfully no more severe weather dogged our wheel tracks.

We trundled down the road and as I contemplated stealing a nap, a manor rose in the distance. After crossing through a large gate, the cart came to a stop, everyone getting to their feet and staring. I turned, only to be greeted with a large manor that looked as wide as the king's palace had been, if not as tall or ornate. The stone had an orange hue, glittering with bits of gemstone dust where the sun struck it. An ornate fountain threw water up a hundred feet into the air, only for it to crash down artfully in a marble trough to be collected and thrown up again in an endless cycle. It was completely unnecessary and yet I couldn't stop staring at it.

"New shipment! Present yourselves!"

I jerked as a single fae approached the cart. I tried to take comfort from the fact that none of them appeared to be heavily armed, but the fae didn't need to be armed to be deadly, did they?

Everyone in the cart stood slowly as a fae with ash brown hair to his shoulders flung open the cage and stood back, hands on his hips.

The other men and women with us didn't seem to be in any hurry to greet these new fae. I could tell they were all glancing at Ellis and I to see what we would do.

"Come on now. Let's go. Don't you want something to eat?" The first fae gestured with his arm over his head in the universal sign that meant ‘follow me.'

"Seems like a trap," Anne muttered next to me, but her hands clutched her stomach desperately.

I elbowed Ellis and walked out of the cage. "Come on."

The brown-haired fae looked delighted, shooting me a smile with his fangs. I shook off the shudder that ran through me.

"That's it. All the new ones are always shy. You'd think we bite or something!" The brown-haired fae laughed at his own joke as I hopped down from the cage and onto grass that was more of a blue tone than green. Ellis was right behind me, and Anne poked her head out from the wagon.

"Did you say food?" she asked pathetically.

The brown-haired fae gave us a winning grin. I just wished it didn't have so much fang involved. "Of course we have food! More than enough for all of you, since the new humans are always hungry." He frowned a bit at this, then shook his head. "Where are my manners? I'm Rolf. I'll be helping to get all of you settled and sorted at the manor."

His voice was business-like: firm, but light. One by one, each of us exited the wagon until we stood in front of him, blinking in the odd sun like a bunch of frightened school children.

"Follow me. Welcome to the Laurel Manor." He strode off toward the side of the manor, and I supposed he expected us to follow him. Ellis took my arm and off we went, the others following behind at a more sedate pace. The manor was large, so simply going ‘around the back' would take us a while. I used the opportunity to gawk more.

The manor itself wasn't the only thing to look at; there were flowers and gardens and long hedges and fruit trees every which way I looked, all precisely and meticulously manicured and maintained. Even as we walked, there were other humans tending to these plants, either trimming or cutting, or watering. All of them looked hale and healthy, though no one smiled or greeted us.

They simply looked busy.

Rounding the side of the manor took us under an elaborate trellis of vines and roses that stretched over our heads and pointed out the path ahead to the back of the manor. Thorns enclosed us on either side as we walked, but the tension was short-lived as we spilled out onto an open, vast lawn upon which a large tent was spread. And under that tent?

Oh, the food!

Chicken, fish, ham, pork … it was all there, laid out with sweet glazes covering the top, spices and sprigs of thyme and rosemary, and complemented by platters of cheeses, breads, and vegetables and fruits that I'd never seen before and didn't have names for.

The others didn't need to wait to take their cues from Ellis or me this time. They raced forward, nearly knocking the pair of us over in their haste to reach the food. My lips parted in protest, but I closed them. What was the point? They were just as hungry as I was, perhaps even more so, since I knew Ellis ensured I always had something to eat while we'd been at the castle, even if I wasn't hungry.

Without waiting for another word from our self-appointed guide, the humans dug in, no shame at all as they snatched and grabbed with their bare hands, stuffing it all right down their gullets.

I winced and shot a glance at Ellis, who was staring at his people with a hint of sadness in his eyes. The brown-haired fae paused by us, one eyebrow raised.

"You said the new humans are always like this. How often do you get new humans?" I asked him.

The fae's other eyebrow rose. "Rarely. Only during the games, really. We breed most of our own, but it's good to freshen the stock now and then." He gave the feasting group a wistful look. "This might be the last group for a while until the barrier gets repaired."

Ellis nodded toward the food. "Better get something to eat before it's all gone," he muttered darkly.

My irritation with him blossomed into fully fledged anger. He betrayed me with Viana, kept secrets, ignored me, then tried to act like an overbearing mother?

Two could play that game.

I pinched my lips together tightly. "I'll only eat as much as you eat," I fired back.

The fae snorted at both of us, taking in our aggressive stances. "Ah, we rarely get mated pairs." He scrutinized Ellis a little harder, frowning. "I didn't see any notes about half-breeds. You'll have to come with me when I sort the rest of them out."

Ellis glared at him, a sneer curling his lips back. "I don't go anywhere she doesn't go."

A warm, fuzzy feeling filled my chest, and for a glorious moment I forgot I was angry at him, and that he'd colluded with Viana to get us kidnapped and taken to this realm.

"Do not fear. We will not run out of food. We will simply bring more," the brown-haired fae said, misreading Ellis's anger.

To get away from my confused feelings, I stepped toward the tent. As soon as the scents of meat and spices hit my nose, my stomach rumbled loudly. OK, perhaps I was hungrier than I let on.

The sugared glaze, the juices that leaked from the meat … everything looked impeccable. It was all gone before I got to it. The humans were ravenous and greedy for their first hot meal in who knew how long?

In moments the tables we swarmed, with people grabbing food until the only bits of food left were a few desiccated bits of bones, and a thin slice left of ham. I looked around for a plate or platter and found nothing.

"Heads up!" called the fae, and we all looked up to see a team of human workers bringing more food out from the manor.

I waited with ill patience as they set another ham down on the table, and then I grabbed a huge slice of ham for Ellis and walked it over to him. Pissed at him or not, his health was in worse shape than mine, technically.

"Eat it."

I stuck the meat in his face, waving it under his nose. Shooting an embarrassed look at the fae (Rolf) who watched us curiously, Ellis snatched it and took a bite, eyes widening a bit when he tasted how good it was. I gave him a self-satisfied smirk and watched him devour the rest.

"Mates for sure," the fae commented. "Don't worry. I'm sure we will figure something out. Go. Eat."

I grabbed Ellis's elbow and marched him forward, determined to enjoy myself and take advantage of whatever hospitality was given.

The others had used their dresses or tunics to scoop up as much food as they could, and spread themselves out along the thick lawn to enjoy and soak up the odd sun. Down the tables of food, I saw I'd completely missed the drinks and desserts, a smile stretching my face. When was the last time I'd had a cake?

"You need—"

"If you try to tell me what I can and can't eat," I started tersely, "I'm going to feed you a knuckle sandwich." I held up my fist to show Ellis how serious I was.

He snorted and gave my bum a soft smack. My jaw dropped as I whipped around at his playful antics, but he'd already moved on to grabbing more ham and some of the new chicken that was just brought out. They'd stuffed it with walnuts and watercress.

I snapped my mouth shut, too pleased with the turnaround in his attitude to complain anymore. If I closed my eyes, I could almost ignore the odd-colored grass and sky, and pretend we were a normal courting couple at a picnic.

No. It wasn't meant to be.

Accepting my fate, I approached the dessert table and grabbed a croissant, as well as a piece of flaky bread drizzled with honey. I spied Anne, who sat dully in the blue-green grass, rubbing her stomach.

"Eat too much?" I asked casually, wandering over toward her.

Her brow furrowed. "I've just remembered something my father used to say. I was so hungry I'd forgotten about it." Honest distress twisted her face.

"What was it?" I asked, curious.

She swallowed heavily, pushing the rest of the food from her lap onto the ground. "He said never to eat from the fae … He used to say that if we ever found ourselves offered food, that taking it would mean we'd never go home again."

My heart sank. Hadn't my nanny always said something similar growing up? I shook off my childhood fears and tried to think about it logically. We were stuck here now; eating the food or not, it was unlikely any of us would go back. Perhaps the food was simply coincidental.

Looking down at the tears on Anne's face, I didn't have the heart to say any of that. "I'm sure it's fine," I said instead, keeping any dark thoughts to myself. "Just stupid fairy tales to frighten children into eating their vegetables."

Anne glanced away, and I eyed my croissant suspiciously.

Ellis came down and sat next to me, and eventually Anne got up and wandered off, back toward the food table. If you were going to break a lifelong superstition, might as well do it properly.

"I'm sorry for earlier," Ellis began the moment Anne had left and we were properly alone.

I didn't want to do this here. In my heart, I knew it made sense that he'd been in on it with Viana. They had a trust and a bond that I wasn't sure I'd ever manage with Ellis, even if we somehow could get back home. I wanted to rage and scream at him for lying to me—to pummel him in his chest with my fists and complain about how unfair it was to be led to the slaughter like a baby lamb.

But I couldn't do any of that because we had to keep it together. These were his people all around us, and they were taking their cues from us, whether or not I liked it.

"Viana betrayed us. Just admit you knew about it."

He stiffened, but met my gaze head on. "I suspected. I was prepared either way. I didn't directly help, though, so your anger is misplaced."

His half-confession only made me angrier. "And you didn't think to share any of that with me? A heads up would have been nice!"

Ellis sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. The rest of his ham sat uneaten in his lap. "What difference would it have made? Would you have done anything differently?"

I almost said ‘not gone with the fae' but stopped, realizing that wasn't true. I'd been determined to leave anyway, convinced that the kingdom and Ellis would be better off without me because of the stupid prophecy. I'd wanted to stop his nightmares and the voices that haunted Viana and hopefully bring peace to everyone—not more chaos.

"I guess … not," I finished lamely. I pushed my finger into his chest, accidentally toppling my pastries to the ground. "That doesn't mean I wouldn't have appreciated a discussion. I thought we were a team, unless you don't want to be … or, you want someone else for queen?"

I furiously wiped away the tears gathered in my eyes, horrified I was getting emotional when there were much bigger problems ahead of us.

Ellis's lips parted, and he shifted closer, his arm twitching like he was about to put it around me.

"All right everyone! Time to go!"

I craned my head back at the fae as he clapped his hands and called out to us, still with that wide, open smile of his. Much more trusting of him now that he'd made good on his promise of food, the small group gathered eagerly around him. The humans who'd brought more food started cleaning, while one man and one woman peeled off to stand on either side of the fae.

He rubbed his hands together eagerly, his pointed ears twitching.

"Right, we need all the females to go with Rosanza, and the men to go with Hoth. Go on! Two lines!"

Everyone quickly obeyed, forming two single file lines in front of him. The fae's eyes lingered on us, and his brow furrowed in thought. "You two come with me. I need further instructions."

I dug my feet into the grass. "Where are you taking the others?" I asked, feeling somewhat responsible for them.

The fae waved his arm dismissively. "They're to be bathed, dewormed, clothed properly, the whole bit. We make sure all our humans are in optimal health before receiving assignments." He paused, making a face. "You should see the teeth we get on the new batches. Absolutely barbaric."

I opened my mouth to protest, but had nothing to say. None of that seemed disagreeable, and many people back home didn't have access to healers. Who was I to deny them any needed care?

Ellis and I watched them disappear into the manor under the watchful eyes of the two humans. Once they'd disappeared inside, the fae gestured for us to follow him. I tried to catch Ellis's eye, but he ignored me on purpose, not even twitching when the guard behind me gave a rough push in the small of my back.

We stepped into the manor, and though Ellis was right in front of me, I suddenly had never felt more alone.