Cypress led me along the crowded street. Men, women, and children walked by. I’d met a few Fae women at Nightmare Penitentiary. One of them even raised me for two years during her sentencing. They were ancient, peculiar people. They liked to speak in riddles and moved like the air, graceful and silent. They’d worn the modern clothes of the cities I’d read about in books, but made adjustments that paid homage to their people. Flower crowns. Bracelets made of vines and dipped in gold. Their long hair fell like curtains around their pointed ears.
I stopped to stare in awe at a mother with her baby. She was playing with a puddle of water, lifting the droplets with a graceful pull of her fingers and forcing them to dance around her giggling child. My heart panged at the love between them, and the time lost between my own mother and me.
“Princess,” his harsh whisper bounced off the shell of my ear. I sensed Cypress’s heated presence at my back and went rigid at his nearness. “We need to keep moving.”
I tore my gaze from the family and shook my head. “I thought you said the Fae were loyal to my family,” I said, for once playing along that what he’d told me was true.
“They’re also self-serving tricksters that’ll turn their back on you if given half a chance. We don’t have time for you to stare at little babies and mourn the childhood you missed out on.” I opened and closed my mouth. Had I been that obvious? “How about you focus on staying alive so we both can have a future we envisioned?”
I pursed my lips together and nodded. “Right. Lead the way.”
“Good girl,” he replied, patting my head patronizingly.
I swatted his hand away. “I grew up in a prison, Cypress. Don’t speak to me like I’m ignorant, or I’ll give you a reason to fear me.”
His grin shocked me. “Did you just threaten me? I kind of love it. Come on.”
I shook my head. He loved it? What a masochistic psycho.
I followed after him, hurrying to keep up so he wouldn’t annoy me with pleading urges to walk faster. People openly stared at us. I was like a puzzle the Fae wanted to figure out. Cypress seemed to notice the blatant attention on us and eventually grabbed my arm, yanking me closer. When our bodies clashed, his scent drifted over me. He’d sweat a little bit, but it was a warm, clean smell. How was it possible that his sweat could smell like that? I probably stank to all hell. In fact, I’d never been so conscious of my personal appearance as I was just then. How badly did I come across that every Fae in this place stared at me like I’d grown a second head?
We headed toward an inn, me hurrying to keep up with him as we went. I stumbled up the stairs and rolled my eyes at my own clumsiness. If there was a way to embarrass myself, I always found the way to do it.
“Be careful, Princess,” an older man said as I steadied myself. I turned to look at the man standing in front of me. The wrinkles in his skin were deep set, eyes were purple, and his toothless smile was somehow still threatening. “Some of the people around here have thorns. But then again you are the thorn, aren’t you?”
I blinked. What had he said to me? How did he know who I was and…
Cypress glared at the old man. “Don’t talk to anyone. Ignore him, Layne. The Fae will say anything to fuck with your mind.” The old man tipped his head back and cackled as if he found Cypress amusing. The haunting laugh made me tremble all the way down to my bones.
Cypress ignored him and pushed me inside the inn. I took a deep breath, and as the variety of sounds filling such a small space assaulted me, I flinched, nearly throwing myself back out the door. Hell, I might have done so if Cypress didn’t have a hand on me. There were so many...noises in such a tiny space. It almost made it hard to breathe. I grabbed onto my neck.
“What’s the matter?”
I didn’t like small spaces. My cell—my home—had actually been safe. But I knew that getting shoved into someone else’s could be a death sentence. And the cafeteria practically burned with aggression. I’d avoided it, trying to eat alone in the corner as much as I could manage. No, this was too much like that.
I waited for his sharp comment, but none came. Instead, he gentled his grip and walked me forward. “We need to eat.”
“Right,” I replied while shaking my head. “Eat.”
Cypress guided me toward an open table, and I leaned into his hard body, not caring if he thought I was crazy or not. I pressed myself against him as we walked, and focused on the feel of the warmth coming off of his skin to distract me from all the movement.
I hated feeling this way. In Nightmare, seclusion and silence was all I’d known for the last several years. Of course, occasionally I was given the opportunity to chat with people, but it was rare. My perception of normal didn’t match the outside world. Seeing this crowd of people functioning and enjoying the loudness made me feel like a stranger in my own skin. I might have escaped Nightmare Penitentiary, but it still held my mind captive.
“Stop thinking,” Cypress whispered in my ear. It was a heartless command, but I focused on his lack of empathy instead of my fear of the crowded room.
“I’m sorry that I’m not adjusting to your standards,” I snapped.
A Fae woman wearing an apron and carrying a tray passed by, and Cypress stopped her, ordering me a glass
