Page 43 of Fae Mates

Mr. Whittaker clenched a fist. “Now, see here—”

“Stay away.” Flora swished her whippy branch at the remedial teacher.

“What are you doing?” I shoved Flora on the shoulder, but she wouldn’t let go of my arm.

“Prince August is missing.” She sprinted through the trees, pulling me along with her. “Did Pokeweed hide him away?”

“No.” I tried dragging my feet, but Flora had the strength of a girl used to wrangling with wild horses. One hard yank of my arm had me stumbling forward. If I didn’t keep up, she would drag me out of the woods and through the field of garlic flowers.

I glanced over my shoulder to find Mr. Whittaker, but Flora pulled me through a thicket of hazel, blocking my view of the path.

“You’re in danger,” she said as she darted through the tall stems of garlic flowers. “If any guards catch you in this state, you’ll end up their weeks’ entertainment.”

Her words drenched my heated skin like a bucket of ice water. I picked up my pace and jogged alongside Flora. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re in the first stages of a faerie heat. If you don’t find a suitable male within the next few hours, you’ll emit a scent that will carry through the wind.” She broke into a sprint, making me run faster. “At first, only the most powerful of faeries will smell it, but if none of them mate with you, your scent will become strong enough to attract weaker males.”

The tip of a giant dandelion leaf brushed over my arm, and I tried not to shudder. “What happens then?”

“My father once told me about what Queen Maeve did to her rivals.”

I gulped, wondering if she locked them in a room with satyrs or something.

Flora raced toward the edge of the garlic meadow, where a row of apple trees stood like sentinels. “She would keep them imprisoned for days until her scent reached even the lowest levels of the mound. Every male would go crazy with the urge to mate.”

“Then what happened?”

“After a week, the Queen released the rival into the wild. She and her ladies-in-waiting would watch the males fight to reach the faerie.” Her expression turned grim.

“So, the strongest male won?” I asked through gasping breaths.

“The poor female never survived the frenzy.”

A jolt of terror seized my spine, making my feet stumble over a garlic root protruding through the earth. I fell onto the ground, pulling Flora down with me. If I didn’t get out of these woods and back to the safety of Pokeweed’s tree, every single male in the academy would catch my scent, and Lady Gala would watch them tear me apart.

Flora let go of my arm and pulled herself to her feet. By now, she’d already nailed the importance of staying out of sight in my head. I wanted to reach the treehouse before my heat attracted the worst kind of faeries. My breaths calmed, and I stood.

As we approached the last clump of garlic flowers, she hissed, “Fucking hell.”

“What?” my voice trembled.

“A bunch of guardsmen are standing outside Pokeweed’s apple tree. One of them looks like the Duke of Medietas.”

Chapter 11

My legs collapsed. I landed on my knees behind the tip of a giant garlic root, my hands scrambling over its papery surface. Pokeweed’s treehouse stood several feet away, and the males in their pristine, white uniforms contrasted with its burned exterior.

Flora ducked behind the tall stalks. “Shit. If they catch a whiff of your scent…”

Between us stood multiple apple trees, including a row containing huge, golden fruit that had been grown into a low fence. Purple and white spheres made up the meadow’s canopy, each consisting of hundreds of smaller flowers and each pungent enough to disguise my smell.

A breeze blew through the meadow of tree-sized garlic flowers and into the orchard. One of the guards raised his head into the air like a hunting dog and turned in our direction.

Our eyes met. It was Helen’s father in all his white and gold finery. The thick canopy of Pokeweed’s tree placed his face in shadow, but there was no mistaking the snarl of white teeth.

Terror clenched at my heart, but my clit throbbed with the excitement of having caught the attention of a powerful male. A force I couldn’t control rooted my legs to the spot, and warmth gathered along my aching slit.

“They’ve seen us.” Flora yanked on my arm. “Get up!”