8. Chapter Eight
~Evalina~
My breath came in short spurts as I inhaled the familiar scent of the Etta trees, safely back in my own realm. The night sky still glimmered with blue stars, but although they remained unchanged, the world around me felt subtly, irrevocably altered.
Or perhaps something inside me had changed.
Common lore suggested that none of the terrestrial beings should have been able to see me. Only those who had been to the fae realm could see its inhabitants, and yet, the towering, light-haired man seemed to notice me anyway. It defied everything I’d been told, everything I thought I knew, but the way his piercing blue eyes sought me through the darkness left no doubt that I hadn’t gone unnoticed.
I barely had a chance to register the tingling sensation that raced through my body when I saw him, barely had a chance to take in the broad, muscular bulk of him and the way his tight shirt seemed to cling to him as if it had been painted on, before he began to head in my direction. In a panic, I ran, and he ran after me. His voice, when he spoke, was somehow both gruff and kind, vibrating deep within me as he told me his name.
Felix.
A name I’d never heard before, it sounded exotic, dangerous, and somehow inviting.
Nothing about him was like any man I’d ever seen before, and yet, everything about him felt familiar. When he said I didn’t need to fear him, something deep within my soul believed it. Despite being a total stranger, something urged me to trust him. The sound of his voice lingered in the air like an unfinished melody, resonating in a part of me I hadn’t realized was empty.
I had no words to fully explain it and nothing I could compare it to.
“Evalina.”
The soft voice in the darkness nearly made me jump out of my skin. Heart pounding, I turned to find Tarron’s lavender eyes fixed on me.
“What are you doing here?”
His gaze flicked between me and the portal entrance, making it clear he already had it figured out. He must know about the portal and he must have guessed where I’d been.
“Your Highness.” I fought to keep my panic hidden beneath the practiced bow, knowing how much Tarron would relish my fear if he sensed it. “I’m gathering some heffa seeds for my mother. They help her sleep.”
The lie that sprang to mind slipped off my tongue easily enough, but Tarron didn’t buy it for a second. His voice turned sharp, his lips curling into a faint sneer. “In the dark? Even the most skilled forager wouldn’t see the pods in this darkness.”
“My work keeps me in the royal residence all day,” I said, and those words carried the ring of truth. “This is the only time I have.”
“Hmmm.” His noncommittal hum suggested he still didn’t believe me and his gaze sharpened as he took a step closer. The scent of Etta blossoms intensified as his shadow swallowed the space between us. “Have you found any seeds?”
He gestured down to the pouch at my side, the one I took with me to keep any silver I discovered in the terrestrial realm. Since I didn’t have a chance to find any with Felix chasing me, the pouch remained empty, so at least Tarron wouldn’t find anything there to incriminate me further.
Visiting the terrestrial realm without the royal family’s permission went against our laws and, depending on the circumstances, could be met with the harshest of punishments. I only had to look at my father to know that was true. Most people didn’t have any desire to leave our beautiful home for the dirty, messy alternative reality that lay on the other side of the portals anyway, so it didn’t usually pose a problem. However, if Tarron found any proof that I’d been there beyond the suspicions he already had, it would give him one more thing to hold over me.
I couldn’t let that happen.
“Not yet, unfortunately.” My fingers trembled as I turned the pouch inside out, silently willing him to believe me. “I better get back to my search if I want to get any sleep tonight. Good night, Your Highness.”
I bowed to him again before turning to go, but at the last second, something else crossed my mind and I found myself turning back again, even as my self-preservation screamed at me to get as far away from him as possible.
“What are you doing here?”
In the dim light, I almost missed the way his eyes widened in surprise and, unless I was much mistaken, a touch of guilt. “I… uh…”
He struggled for an answer, obviously not as accustomed to thinking on his feet as I was. He rarely had any reason to lie. When his word was law, he could say whatever he wanted, so why not speak the truth?
But at that moment, whatever he had come out to the forest for, he didn’t want me to know about it.
“I need some quiet to clear my head,” he finally settled on for an answer. “The woman I met tonight proved… disappointing. She can’t give me what I need.”
Memories of the grunting and panting as the bed creaked above me flooded my mind. Apparently, she’d been good enough to give him that . Tarron used her, just as he wanted to use me.
I pushed away the thoughts of him saying my name while inside the other woman, still not sure what it meant and not sure I wanted to know. Besides, I felt pretty certain he hadn’t come out for a walk to ‘clear his head’. He had a different motive, and though I knew I should let it go, I wanted to find out what it was.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I told him, infusing my voice with as much sympathy as I could muster. “I’ll leave you alone, then.”
With a nod of acknowledgement, he dismissed me, and I turned once again to go. That time, I did walk away, but I didn’t go far. Thick bushes concealed me as I circled back around to watch him from another angle.
As I suspected, Tarron stayed where he was, waiting until he thought he was completely alone. Glancing over his shoulders to make sure no one else lurked in the night forest, he stepped forward. A faint hum echoed as the portal shimmered to life, the air around it rippling like water disturbed by an unseen stone, and Tarron vanished.
A chill shivered down my spine, though I didn’t know exactly why. Given the items in the box under his bed, perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised me that our high prince was making clandestine trips to the terrestrial realm, but the way he lied to me and the fact that he waited until he could proceed under the cover of darkness suggested that he didn’t want anyone to know about it.
What exactly was he up to?
Part of me itched to go after him and see but I knew that would be unwise. With Tarron on the other side and the possibility of running into the unusual man who’d followed me, returning that night presented too many risks. Bravery was one thing and recklessness another. My questions would have to wait for later, and so would my attempts to find the silver I needed, but when the new day dawned, it would find me ready. My mother’s life, and perhaps my own, depended on it.