If She Had Known

The Spring Court

We arrived in the spring court just as I had remembered doing once upon a time. I had not bothered the questions that had annoyed him, but Tamlin had still used his magic to sedate me for the journey. The magic still heavy in my bones, I strained to see the estate. I felt heavy and muddled. The tang of magic flowing through me felt wrong— intruding. The phantom bite of magical bonds pulled at my arms, keeping me from going for my knife.

Bastard then, bastard now.

The gates opened to reveal the Spring Court Manor sprawled across a rolling green land. Veiled in roses and ivy, it could have been taken right out of some children's story. I thought of all the time I had spent painting this place. The rolling fields and the rose gardens. I had once seen it as my salvation, then as a prison.

Now it was a trial.

*

My white mare followed Tamlin in beast form throughout the grounds. The absence of all the workers reminded me of my human weakness. They all saw me as some fragile thing, a girl who could easily be crushed or frightened. I shifted in the saddle, rolling my wrists. The bonds Tamlin had used to restrain me were finally lifted.

The faerie bounded up the staircase and prowled into the house, the doors opening on silent hinges. He had obviously thought to keep me unconsious to keep me from running. To keep me from making it back across the wall, and to my human home. Little did he know, was that that was not the home I would run to.

My knees buckled as I hit the ground, dismounting from the horse. I was still just as hungry, and just as desperate as I remembered being.

Thoughts of Rhys threatened to destroy whatever calm demeanor I had constructed. Even if I could make it home to Velaris, Rhys wouldn't be there. He was still trapped Under the Mountain. With her. I could possibly still make it to Velaris, although it would be a thousand times more difficult with only my human strength, and no magic of my own. But then what would I say to them? To Mor? They didn't know me yet.

I would have to bide my time. Here, in Spring. I would get to Rhys, one way or the other.

When I was steady enough to walk, I left the horse at the bottom of the stairs, taking the steps one at a time. My breath tight in my chest, I passed through the open doors and into the shadows of the house.

It looked exactly as I had remembered it, before Tamlin had destroyed everything in sight. Black and white checkered marble shone at my feet, flowing to countless doors and a sweeping staircase. A long hall stretched ahead to the giant glass doors at the other end of the house, and through them I glimpsed the second, larger garden. I had once thought this house to be beautiful, had thought I had walked into a dream. Those thoughts did not return.

A set of wooden doors swung open to my left, a growl sounding through them. A command to follow. I tensed as I entered the room.

The beast padded to the over sized chair at the head of the overflowing table. My stomach growled in response to the feast laid out. I lingered by the threshold, not sure what I was waiting for. Probably for some sense of surety, for a plan to form in my head. I had no idea what I was doing, or what I was going to do later on when all that I knew was thrown up into the air.

The beast plopped into the chair, the wood groaning, and, in a flash of white light, turned into a golden-haired man.

I was not crippled by fear and shock as I had once been. But I was hit with a sharp reminder.

Tamlin's green eyes stared back at me from behind and ornate golden mask. The mask that had been on his face for close to fifty years. But I was not supposed to know that. I was not supposed to know any of this, about the curse that held the mask to his face. But this was the high lord I had loved, the man I had sold my soul for. None of that love lingered inside me, but the memory of it hit me hard. He held no love for me now.