A Deal with the Elf King (Married to Magic, #1)(50)

“Yes, before someone sees you.”

We start heading back in earnest. Until something catches my eye, stopping me in my tracks.

There, in the back of an alley between two buildings, is Aria. She talks with shifting gazes and nervous glances to a lithe creature that has two deer antlers sprouting from the top of his head and dragonfly wings. I see the horned man hand over a small pouch to Aria.

Then, her eyes meet mine. She freezes and I quickly turn away to take several quick steps and catch up with Rinni.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, fine.” I lightly pat the brim of my hat, feeling for any stray strands of hair. There’s no way she noticed me in this getup, right? “I thought I saw something strange. But there are many strange things here, for me.” I force a smile and Rinni grins.

“We’ll be back in the castle soon.” She nods at the looming castle ahead of us and takes two eager steps ahead. “That’s at least a little familiar—”

A blur in the corner of my eye solidifies into the weight of a shape behind me. A hand clamps a wet cloth over my mouth before I can say anything. The scent of something sharp and tangy fills my nose and I quickly hold my breath on instinct.

But it’s too late.

I don’t know what concoction the rag has been soaked in but it’s not good. My muscles begin to go limp and my vision blurs. My lungs are already burning from holding my breath. But I can’t take another gulp of air. If I inhale any more, I’ll slip out of consciousness.

I lose sight of Rinni as I’m dragged between two buildings.

I’m not even able to scream.





Chapter 19





Farther and farther, I’m dragged off the city streets. The bright sunlight of the day is dimmed. A silhouette appears before me—horns and sharp angles, gossamer wings that stretch unnaturally out from his back.

That creature I saw with Aria.

“Keep holding, she’s still awake,” a man snarls.

I blink slowly and fight every instinct to inhale gulps of air. My lungs are revolting. I’ll have to breathe soon. Hopefully, if they think I’ve passed out, they’ll remove the rag.

As naturally as I can manage, I finally shut my eyes and allow my body to go heavy. Eldas had said there were enemies. Why didn’t I listen? Why didn’t I take it more seriously?

The movement stops as I hear shouting in the distance. It’s garbled, frantic words. The darkness behind my eyelids is quickly becoming more than pretend. I will pass out soon.

Yet, right when I think I’m about to lose my battle for consciousness, the rag is removed. I fight every urge to gasp in fresh air, instead inhaling slowly so I don’t alert my assailants.

“Go and throw them off the trail.” My eyes are still closed, but I can recognize the horned man by voice alone. “I’ll hide her.”

“You don’t have any ritumancy prepared,” another voice hisses, so low that I can barely hear the words. Ritumancy was the wild magic of the…fae?

Is it Aria? I think the speaker is a woman…but I can’t be sure. There’s more movement. Are there three, or four people here now?

My heart thunders in my chest. I want to call for help—for Eldas. He walked through the Fade itself and found me when I had tried to run away. I don’t know how the Fade works, but he’ll come if I call, right? I doubt it…there’s no way he’d hear me. He thinks I’m still safely tucked away in his castle.

Yet the thought sparks an idea.

Rinni has to have looked back and noticed I’m gone. The commotion I hear rising in the distance must be her leading knights to me. I just have to hold on and put up enough of a fight that they can’t take me too far away.

I can do that much, can’t I?

Two hands grab me, hoisting me up. I hear the buzzing of mighty wings. My stomach sinks as I’m suddenly weightless.

Are we flying?

I crack open my eyes and see the blurred flapping of the horned man’s dragonfly wings. He’s going to fly away with me, I realize. I take a deep breath and think of the square in Capton. I used my magic to turn what human hands made back into the natural world. I turned iron into trees. I turned stone into moss. I can do something to save myself.

It’s now or never. I open my eyes wide and look up at the face of the horned man. He has yet to notice I’m not as incapacitated as he thought. I’m surprised at how human his face looks, despite his wings and horns. But I don’t allow myself to get distracted.

I reach for the beaded necklace around his neck and curl my fist in it. He looks down, nearly dropping me. A hiss and a curse escape him.

Transform, I command, change into vines, tree branches, anything! The beads shudder, nearly coming alive. He jostles me in his arms, straining his neck away. I try and focus on my magic, but I slip from his grasp.

The necklace breaks and I fall back to the ground, landing with a hard thud. Luckily, I wasn’t too high up yet. But I was high enough that the impact steals the wind from me.

He lands next to me, stalking over with a snarl. “How dare you, human.”

I don’t even waste my breath on engaging. My magic might still be too ineloquent for me to command at whim. But I know something else that will heed me.

Bringing my fingers to my lips, I let out a shrill whistle. “Hook, come!” I shout. The horned man lunges for me as I see the air beside him shimmer. Hook bounds from between the shadows. “Hook!”