Chapter 4
four
I climbed into the back of the carriage and squeezed between crates of herbs wrapped in linen and bound with twine. The scent was a bit overwhelming—earthy, sharp, something like pine but not quite. It did not sit well with my empty stomach.
Three fae were already in there, a guy with yellowish golden hair who barely glanced up before he returned to the book he was reading, and two women who were too busy sorting through a satchel of dried leaves to even notice I’d climbed into the carriage.
The boy—Rikkin—had gone to talk to the owner of this carriage, and I could see him there, just at the edge of the building.
A woman I assumed was Malina wore a cream-colored cloak over her shoulders, and a mean expression on her face as Rikkin whispered something in her ear.
She stood there, hands on her hips, watching.
She didn’t move, didn’t speak—but her golden eyes locked on mine through the first row of crates behind which I sat, and my breath caught in my throat.
She knows, she knows, she knows !
But the woman said nothing, didn’t scream for me to get out of her carriage. Whatever Rikkin had told her had worked because she turned around and went inside the building, and then Rikkin smiled at me. Smiled—as if to say that everything was okay.
By some miracle, everything really was.
Because Rikkin walked away, and Malina came out of the building and put the hood of her cloak on and shouted for someone to prepare for departure.
I hardly breathed, and my heart galloped so fast in my chest I was surprised I was still conscious.
The horses the carriage was tied to moved. The wheels underneath us turned, took us forward.
I was genuinely shocked that I was on my way.
“Hey, you.”
My stomach fell. I turned to the guy reading on the other side of the carriage. He was looking right at me. “Who are you?” he asked.
The women who were handling those herbs still finally looked up at me passively.
I thought my voice wouldn’t work at all, but… “Nobody.”
The women returned to their herbs. The man shrugged. “Aren’t we all?” And he continued to read his book.
That was the beginning of the longest ride of my life.
The actual ride didn’t last longer than two hours, if I had to guess. I was starving, so thirsty I could drink a river, but I didn’t make a single sound.
Then came the gates .
I hid as well as I could behind the crates full of herbs, and I tried not to look outside at all, but what little I did see told me that we weren’t going out the same way we’d come in with Rune.
The carriage stopped for minutes at a time, in line with others on the three separate roads. I tried to keep my fear under control, but it was nearly impossible, especially as we went through the opening in the wall that surrounded the Seelie Court.
The tunnel wasn’t long, but I felt like I was suffocating until the blue sky was over us again, and my lungs expanded, and the guards who’d held the doors open on the outside of the walls were already waving for the next carriage, paying us no attention.
Tears in my eyes.
I was outside, and I was happy—so fucking happy—but I was also terrified. Because Rune was inside those walls, and I had no idea what the hell was happening, no idea whether I was doing the right thing running away, no idea if I should have maybe stayed behind and tried to explain.
Breathing didn’t help. Thinking didn’t help, and so I tried to look outside, tried to keep myself distracted, except all I could see was trees.
A forest stretched on either side of the wide dirt road that had possibly a hundred imprints of different wheels on it.
The wall got smaller and smaller the farther away we went, and I couldn’t even see the tunnel anymore because of the carriages that came after.
The more relief I felt, the more my anxiety heightened.
My God, I had no idea what was really out here in this realm—no fucking clue. I’d seen so little, and Rune had been with me all along to keep me safe—but now? My instincts screamed, but even they had no clear idea of what to do next, what was the best way.
And then the carriage turned to the right and the large trees blocked the sight of the wall almost completely.
Done. I was out of the Seelie Court. I had gotten away.
Unfortunately, the tiny bit of relief I felt didn’t last.
We’d barely made it into the dense forest when the carriage slowed again. The wheels creaked to a halt all of a sudden. I felt every pulse in my throat like a drum.
I looked at the others, and they had all raised their heads now to look around, surprised that we’d stopped—possibly because this wasn’t normal.
My hands tightened in fists and I held my breath.
Fae men and women jumped off carriages and boxes, and giant horses neighed in complaint.
Sounds pierced the air and filled my ears—footsteps and metal rubbing against metal.
The same sound those soldiers who’d let us into the Seelie Court had made when they’d walked.
Guards .
“By order of the palace, this is a check-up. We’ll be talking a quick look at your merchandise. The sooner you open the back, the sooner we’ll be done. Let’s go, people—move!”
Every inch of my body froze for a long moment.
Fae complained outside—and one of the girls who’d been working with those herbs said, “ Check-up ? By Reme, we don’t have time for a check-up!”
Yes, this was definitely not something that happened often, and there was only one reason I could think of why the palace had ordered this check-up: me.
I pressed myself deeper between the crates, but there was nowhere to hide, not really. The other girl shot me a look, sharp and questioning, and I didn’t wait for it to turn into something worse.
My legs moved before my mind could argue. I wasn’t entirely sure what the hell I was doing, just that I do it. I shoved open the back flap of the carriage and I jumped out. Just like that—I jumped out of the carriage. Hit the ground on one knee. Ran without stopping to take a single look around.
The world tilted beneath me as I darted into the trees. My ears were full of white noise, and I couldn’t tell you if someone was calling for me, screaming at someone to stop me, or if anybody had even noticed me slipping between the large trees at all.
Branches scraped my arms. Thorns caught in my clothes, but I didn’t care. Didn’t stop. Didn’t even breathe until the noise faded away and my ears were my own again to hear only the silence of the forest that pressed in on all sides, wild and unwelcoming.
I stopped then, breathing heavily, and turned in a slow circle.
Around me, the ground was littered with dry pine needles. Thin, whip-like branches curled toward me and saplings swayed in the breeze, their shadows dancing across the forest floor. The pines and oaks were so tall I couldn’t see the tip of them.
I wiped the sweat from my brow and listened.
Just wind. Just leaves. Just trees. No armor or swords or eyes watching me, even if I had no idea where the hell I was. Alive— that was all that mattered. I’d made it out of the court alive, and the only plan I had was to not get caught. That would have to be good enough until Blackwater.
And with that thought in mind, I ran again.