Page 49 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
I felt both the fae behind me stiffen. I glanced back at them, and for the first time, I saw true fear on both their faces. When their eyes scanned the crowd now, something had shifted within them. Not just Zev and Finch, but the crowd, too.
I saw their anger darken, turn murderous.
Panic began to rumble through the crowd.
I felt it, too.
More fae? From other realms?
When I looked back up at Rayner, my stomach twisted, and I had to fight the urge to be sick. I never thought I’d have to look at the stable master’s ugly face again, but here I was. Rayner had only just begun to speak, but I’d already heard enough.
More than enough.
I turned to Zev and Finch again, my heart pounding in my chest. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
“Uh, Zev …”
Finch’s whisper drew both of our eyes towards the cramped street behind us. The crowd continued to thicken, spreading out into the narrow side streets too. Soon, the crowd would grow too thick for us to even consider an escape. And from the sound of the crowd already, the last place I wanted to find myself was trapped in the middle of a thousand humans chanting for my kind’s demise.
They were not under my glamour, after all. They’d take one look at me and know who I was. I’d make a pretty prize to start out their rebellion.
I wasn’t sure my glamour had recovered enough to stop a thousand angry humans from tearing me, or the fae at my side, limb-from limb in their current rage.
“Right. Let’s go.” Zev took hold of me tight, and before I even knew what he was doing, he’d thrown me over his shoulder and hopped down between the buildings to the narrow alley, skipping the extra step it would take to use the ladder altogether. By the time we were straightening up and I was pulling my hood back over my head, Finch was just scrambling down behind us.
Zev’s grip tightened on my arm, his head suddenly straightening as he spotted something in the distance a moment before the rest of the crowd did, too.
“We need to get out of here,” he said urgently.
But we were too late, already.
Guards poured in from the outer corners of the city, their swords drawn, and the crowd scattered like rats—us among them. We had no choice. The moment the silver armor glinted in the light, the entire crowd surged.
Zev barreled at the head, holding me tight as Finch kept close at my heels. We were a formidable force amongst the crowd, but too noticeable. We avoided the guards, dashing out into the outer streets, but as soon as the crowd thinned enough for the panic to die down, a new kind of fear took hold—the kind that was filled with hate.
In the turmoil, my hood had fallen back. I noticed almost right away and went to pull it up, but I was too late.
I’d been recognized.
“Princess!”
The man’s shout turned heads, first at him, and then directly at me. Zev and Finch froze beside me unsure of what to do.
His should drew the attention of a guard, who took one look at me, and then his brow furrowed. “It’s a trap,” he said. “The princess wouldn’t be out here.”
The guard shoved his way towards us, face stern, hand on the hilt of his sword. “You there, what are you doing? What kind of trick is this?”
He never reached us, however.
The crowd, incited by Rayner’s rage, surged towards us. They overtook the guard first, pulling him to the ground and tearing his weapons from him.
In that instant, the crowd shifted. They swelled towards us, angry voices rising as their feet stampeded in our directions.
More guards started to converge then, too, but that drew even more rioters.
Because that’s what the crowd had become.
In the momentary distraction, Zev grabbed me, threw me over his shoulder once again, and ran. By the time we’d worked our way out of the district, we were half lost somewhere in the outer ring, but we were anything but safe. Word had spread fast that the princess was out amongst the rioters. Guards and rioters alike stalked the streets, weapons in hand, looking for me.
