With these fuckers, you had to be very distinct about what you wanted, or they turned around and screwed with you. I didn’t have time for nonsense.
His smile had no mirth in it. “For the right amount of gold, I think you will like what you are told.”
And again with the rhyming.
I pulled gold out of my pocket. Not enough to pay for a locating spell, but maybe this fucker would take it. “That’s all you’re getting from me.”
He leaned back. This time when he spoke, there was no rhyming involved. “The assassins paid a troll to take her. You might want to do better protecting your property. She put up a pretty good fight, but the troll hurt her. Maybe she’s already dead.”
He smiled as he spoke, and a surge of anger had me wanting to reach out and carve that toothless grin off his smug face. A series of scenarios went through my mind as I tried to piece together what this meant. It had only been an hour, and assassins weren’t allowed within a five mile radius of this city. I just had to guess what direction they would go.
“The assassins’ devotee would take a boat,” the trickster said while walking away with the coins in his palm. I chewed over his words as he touched his money with the pad of his index finger.
A boat. Of course. A boat would be the fastest way out of the Fae city. And if Layne was unconscious, it would be easier to carry her that way. The Zanth River was just across the city. If I ran, I could catch them.
I gripped my pack and started jogging toward the mouth of the river. I needed to go there before it was too late.
Chapter Seven
I woke to the sound of rushing water and hums. It was a struggle to open my heavy eyes, and my body ached. “Good! You’re awake,” a familiar voice said. I twisted my head to look at Roota, who was tying a boat to a stump.
“I was worried there for a little while that I’d hit you too hard. They won’t relieve my debts if you’re dead.”
I rubbed at my aching head. “I can’t know for sure that they’ll help you. But it turns out that I’m royalty. Maybe my parents could pay off your debts if you bring me to them instead.”
“Oh no,” a male voice shouted out from the distance. “The time for making deals is long over, Princess. You can go, troll. Your debts are paid.”
I stared at the man talking to me. I’d never seen him before in my life, but I knew his type. People of power radiated it from their very skin. In their cells. In every ounce of their body. I knew them in prison. Most of them were there to avoid a problem that they needed to temporarily sit out. They controlled things even from within the prison walls.
This man was like them. With at least two dozen warlocks behind him, he walked toward me, bowing his head slightly. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Bhaltair. And I have been after you since you were born. That assassin who lost you? I trained him. That’s what I do. I run the Assassins Guild.” He indicated his followers. As he spoke, I rose off the ground, floating in the air. This time, I knew it wasn’t something I had done. No, this was him. He had me in some spell and pulled me to him.
“W-why have you wanted me since I was born? I can’t have done anything.” It was hard to talk through the pounding in my head and the way my body seemed immobile, caught in the trap of his spell.
“It’s not you I want,” he said with a cruel chuckle. “You’re not particularly worth the effort. But your powers? Your powers are priceless, Princess.”
I shook my head in confusion. My head was pounding so hard that it was difficult to piece together what he was saying. “My powers?”
“My brother is the warden, you know. He’s kind of an idiot, but he runs a tight ship over at Nightmare Penitentiary. It was easy to convince him to hold you. That cage they kept you in wasn’t just bars and concrete. It was a vessel. I’ve been siphoning your power since you were born.”
I dropped my mouth open in surprise. “No,” I whispered. He’d been holding me captive for my powers—powers I didn’t even know I had until recently. “How?” I asked.
Bhaltair dropped me on the ground, and the hard dirt dug into my knees. My skull rocked, like sandpaper was being rubbed along the bone. “I guess since I’ve taken so much from you, the least I can give you is answers.”
He picked me up by the hair. “You’re powerful, Princess, and I found a way to draw that power from you. It was a tricky process. Keeping you ignorant was half the battle.”
“Why did you want to keep me ignorant? You kept me locked up. It’s not like I could have done anything.”
He dropped me again, and I cried out in pain. I got the sense that he wasn’t going to answer my questions anymore. “The Druid gifts have quite the perks. It is a power unlike anything else.”
“So what now?” I asked.
“Now you go back to Nightmare. Now you live in that cage until you are nothing but dust. I’m going to siphon your powers until there is nothing left. Since you left, my fucking reserves have gone dry. I can’t have that.”
I shook my head. No, he couldn’t do that. I’d been okay when I’d been in there, but now that I was out here, I didn’t think I could survive it. I couldn’t go back in. I’d never be able to
