These Twisted Bonds (These Hollow Vows, #2)(8)

“Why should I trust you?”

The male chuckles. “Oh, you shouldn’t. In fact, you should stop trusting anyone. That’s a dangerous habit around here, and you’ve made quite a mess.”

“Excuse me?”

The hoofbeats are closer now. Someone shouts, “Just ahead!”

Standing, I brush the hay off my trousers. I turn and look out the stable doors, expecting to see a group of horses bearing down on us, but I see nothing. “Where are they?”

“Beyond the hill, about a mile away and closing fast,” the male says.

I twist my face up in disbelief.

The male chuckles. “You’re not used to your keen fae hearing yet, but you’ll adjust. Now, shall we?”

I hesitate. On the one hand, I have nowhere else to go, and I know this male helped the children escape their prison at the queen’s work camp. For that alone I trust him. On the other hand, he’s right.

I can’t trust anyone.

“We don’t have much time, Princess.”

I ignore him and turn to his goblin. “Where are you taking me?”

“The Wild Fae Lands,” the goblin says, his eyes darting around the stables as if the enemy were hiding in the dark corners.

“But I’ve bonded with Sebastian. I . . .” I swallow. I can’t think about it too much or I’ll fall apart.

“I feel him,” I say through gritted teeth. “He’ll be able to find me.”

The goblin doesn’t reply, but his companion nods. “Yes, but he won’t be able to reach you without starting a war—one he cannot afford right now.”

I can’t go home. Even if I knew how to get back to Elora, I would be hunted for being fae, either killed outright or beaten and mutilated just like Oberon was before my mother found him and nursed him to health. Sebastian lived there for two years, glamoured to appear human, but I don’t know how to glamour myself—or whether my powers would even allow it.

I could go to Finn. He came to me in that dream the night I took the Potion of Life . . . or I went to him.

Are you happy?

Of all the things he could’ve said or asked, he wanted to know if I was happy. A lesser male would’ve gloated about the mistake I made when I trusted Sebastian.

I’m confident that Finn would give me a place to stay—he said as much in his brief visit to my dreams—but I don’t understand why. I no longer have the crown. I don’t have anything he needs, except maybe this power—but he should have his own now that the curse is broken. And even if he would take me in, am I ready to trust him? Sure, Sebastian’s betrayal was worse, but both males used me, manipulated me and tried to trick me. All for what? Power? The crown? They can have it.

“We don’t have all day, Princess.” Those russet eyes shift to the road outside.

“I am not powerless. If you’re tricking me, I will lock you in a darkness so deep and vast, you will pray for the refuge of your nightmares.”

He flashes a grin to his goblin. “I really like her.” He takes my hand and the goblin takes the other.

Then I’m falling.

Flying, reeling, going left and right and nowhere all at once until suddenly we’re in a dimly lit bedroom. The windows look out to the first tendrils of dawn stretching across a tree-lined vista below. The sun is just rising here, where it was full daylight in the Seelie lands. That takes me by surprise for a moment until I remember that the Wild Fae Lands are situated far west of the queen’s Golden Palace.

“Take care, Fire Girl,” the goblin says, then bows his head and disappears.

I frown at the vacant spot the goblin occupied seconds before. “Why do they work for you?”

“Excuse me?”

“The goblins—it seems that every powerful faerie has at least one at their beck and call, but they have this power that you need. Why do they serve you?”

The russet-eyed male gives me a crooked grin, as if this question somehow makes me more interesting. “Goblins take alliances with different courts for their own purposes, but usually for access to information, as their collective knowledge is the source of their power.”

“Collective knowledge?”

He lifts his chin. “Indeed. What one goblin knows, soon all goblins will know. Never be foolish enough to believe a goblin who does your bidding is serving you. They play a bigger role in the politics of this realm than most realize. They always have their own motives and rarely share them.”

His explanation makes sense to me. Bakken may have lived in my aunt’s house as her servant, but I never had the impression that she truly ruled over him.

Nodding, I take in the room—the large four-poster bed piled with layers of linens that looks so soft my tired body sways toward it, the windows that overlook a mountainous landscape as lovely as the gardens at the Golden Palace and the lush green valleys beyond.

This seemed like the best choice when faced with returning to the Golden Palace or trying to find Finn, but now that I’m alone with this strange male, I’m questioning my judgment.

“Where are we?” I ask.

The russet-eyed faerie folds his arms and cocks his head to the side. “We’re in my home.”

My gaze darts to the bed again. If he thinks—

“Settle down, Princess. I don’t take unwilling females to my bed. And even if you were willing . .