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“Alessia!” Felix calls from somewhere behind me.
My heart jumps into my throat and my body jerks. Half delirious and trembling with cold and fear, I turn to see Felix approaching me. I hadn’t heard him or the steed beside him, the one he presumably rode in on.
He shrugs off his cloak, stepping toward me with it outstretched in his hand.
“Gods, Alessia. You’re freezing.” The concern in his voice sounds genuine. “Let me take you home.”
Home.
That place was never my home. Especially not without Char.
“I—I can’t go back there, Felix.”
“Let me protect you,” he says, his voice cracking. “Whatever happened, let me protect you.”
“Like you’ve protected me so many times before?”
“What are you talking about?”
I scoff, my vision spotty and weak. “I really thought you cared about me,” I whisper.
“I do!” He steps forward and I jolt backwards—closer to the Gleam. His eyes widen, and he looks over my shoulder then back to me. His voice softens when he says, “I do care about you, darling.”
But I think of all the times I tried to ask Felix for help, subtly bringing up Lord Edvin’s violence, only to be shut down. Whether Felix was truly ignorant to the lord’s cruelty, or he purposely tuned it out, it doesn’t matter.
So many times the lord hurt me when Felix was just one room over, letting other women plant their lips on his skin, their hands on his muscles. While the lord violated me, he received pleasure.
I’m not disillusioned enough to think Felix loved me back. But I thought he was my friend. I thought he cared.
I thought he could protect me, but in the end, it was Char who freed me.
And now, it’s up to me to save myself.
“You’re only here because the lady sent you,” I mutter dejectedly. “Aren’t you?”
He presses his lips together, his shoulders slumping. “It’s not like that. She told me to come after you, yes, but—”
“And you’re not just a stablehand.”
His eyes widen in fear. “I don’t know what you heard, Alessia, but you have no idea what—”
“It’s much too late for that, Felix.”
I turn my back to him, stepping closer to the Gleam.
“Don’t, Alessia, please,” Felix begs. “You have no idea what lies beyond that border. The monsters I fight to protect you from!”
“I loved you, Felix, and it was all a lie,” I mumble as I close my eyes and step forward.
Felix’s desperate cry is cut off as a rush of energy overtakes me. My skin prickles. The hairs on my arms stand up. I’ve never felt anything like it.
A sizzle of heat scurries up my legs and a flash of neon color assaults my eyes, forcing them shut.
My whole body thrums with energy, and I grow warm as I thaw out, thinking of all the stories I’ve heard over the years: how the fae are terrible, magic-wielding creatures who partake in shenanigans purely for entertainment, at the expense of human lives.
They’re cruel.
Unforgiving.
