Page 66 of Fae Trials

A cool wind blew through my hair and cooled the glowing tips of my traitorous wings, which fluttered in anticipation of seeing the princes.

Statues of faeries of all species decorated the gardens. We passed high faeries with butterfly wings made of stone, similar-looking beings with intricate dragonfly wings carved so fine they appeared transparent. Up ahead loomed a statue of an eight-foot-tall ogre with bat-like wings that skimmed the ground.

I pointed up at the monster. “Who’s that?”

“Balor, the god of destruction,” she replied. “He and the goddess Danu keep a balance in our world.”

“Does he operate the wards?” I asked.

“Of the Dubnos Dark Fae Prison,” she said.

As we continued past a statue of a slumbering faerie with stone elves crawling up his body, my gaze flickered back to the one-eyed ogre. His wings reminded me of the faeries who had taken Sicily.

“Is Dubnos the same as the Otherworld?” I asked.

“It’s in the Otherworld,” said Helen. “As are all most the powerful dark faeries.”

“We thought you weren’t coming,” said a snide voice from behind.

I turned around to find all four of the Fated standing in a row. Lady Salix was the tallest with her green ponytail blowing in the breeze like the branches of a sapling. She stood at one end, with Lady Gazania at the other. The dark-skinned faerie’s hair glowed brighter in the sunset, making it look like someone had set her alight.

In the middle stood the two wretches who had ambushed me in the woods. Lady Gala glowered at me as though she wanted to freeze me on the spot, but it was Lady Aster who spoke first.

The curvaceous, crimson-haired faerie bared her teeth. “We heard how you tried to seduce Prince Rory.”

My gaze wandered to Lady Gala, whose lips were pressed so tight, she looked like the proud owner of two anuses.

Making sure to smirk at having sucked off her supposed mate, I asked, “I take it that I won that particular round?”

“Nobody’s perverted enough to perform such a disgusting act,” said Lady Salix.

Lady Gazania shook her head. “It’s cannibalism.”

I raised a shoulder. “Not if you don’t swallow.”

All the faeries gasped, including Helen. I rolled my eyes. Even if they were too delicate to fuck outside their heats, nothing was stopping them from dishing out blowjobs.

Students walked in from all directions, some trailing in through the castle’s many exits and others flying down from higher levels. Instead of gathering around the podium, they crowded around us.

Lady Gala tossed her head. “We’re all happy to forfeit that round. It was a trick, anyway, to sort the virtuous from the depraved.”

I glanced at all four fairies, who gave each other congratulatory smirks. Tamping down the irritation fizzling through my gut, I asked, “So, I won?”

“Whore!” Lady Gala broke formation and rushed at me, icicles forming on her fingernails.

I held out my fist, making her recoil.

She stared at my new knuckles. “What is that?”

“Thanks for the iron.” I smirked and continued toward the podium. “If you hadn’t tried to ambush me, I would never have gotten a means to fight back.”

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen!” boomed a voice from up high.

I glanced up to find the four princes sitting on a golden sofa that hovered twenty feet in the air. The sun shone on their backs, illuminating their hair but keeping their faces in shadow.

The Fated straightened their outfits and simpered, while about three hundred students milling around the stone garden broke into cheers and applause.

Prince August pointed a scepter down at us. “The first official task in the fated mates’ death trial is a race.”