Page 74 of Court of Winter

I grew so lost in the aura of the land around me that it wasn’t until the prince touched my shoulder that I stopped.

“We must go, Ilara.” His tone was soft, and when I met his stare, raw emotion was in his eyes. With a blink, it was gone, but I only grew more flustered when I saw that all four of his guards surrounded us.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Near evening.”

“I’ve been doing this all day?”

“You have.”

My heart beat harder since the time felt as though it’d vanished in the blink of an eye. Around us, areas of the field were now bare as piles of snow sat to the side. Withered crops lay exposed to the elements, and footprints littered the land.

“Do you think my being here helped?”

His lips curved. “I think it did something.”

I cocked my head, but he didn’t allude further.

“I must meet with Barvilum’s council before we return to Solisarium,” he said. “We must go.”

The sun hung low in the sky. It’d grown much later than I’d been aware.

The prince opened his arms, and I stepped into them. A surging jolt buzzed through me when we made contact, but it was only when he pushed from the ground and into the skies that I realized how easily I’d stepped into his embrace. As though I trusted him.

My brow furrowed as he flew us toward the town. I didn’t trust him. There was no way I could possibly feel that for the male who’d taken so much from me.

CHAPTER19

The small city of Barvilum sat at the edge of the Tala Sea. Homes lined in faded sea wood with thick glass windows overlooked the rolling ocean. Salt filled the air, and I inhaled the tangy fragrance as the prince landed us on the cobblestone streets of the small city center.

The city council’s building sat near the wharf, and a crowd had gathered. A tall male fairy with exceptionally pointy ears and spindly legs stood at the building’s front door, several steps up from the crowd. He kept waving his hands, and from a distance it looked as though he was trying to quiet the crowd.

“That’s Lord Sillivul of the Barvilum Council,” Haxil said under his breath.

“Do they know you’re coming, my prince?” I asked as we began walking toward them.

The prince’s aura darkened. “They know I can be coming at any time.”

“It’s what keeps the streets in order here,” Nish added with a wink. “It’s the only thing that’s kept this town from burning itself to the ground in recent months.”

My brows furrowed. “Because of what’s happened to the crops?”

“The crops are only one small problem in this city,” the prince replied, his deep voice carrying through the night. “As a seaside town on the southern end of our continent, they also regularly deal with the Lochen fae.” He jutted his chin toward the sea. “There’s a series of islands called the Glassen Barrier Islands, just thirty millees off the coast here, that the Lochen claimed centuries ago. Unfortunately, the short distance also allows the Lochen easy access to our shores.”

“The Glassen Barrier Islands,” I repeated and felt so stupid that I didn’t know what he was talking about.

The prince pointed toward the sea. I squinted and was able to make out a rising mound, still visible in the dying light if one knew where to look for it.

“It’s an island chain far away from the main series of islands that the Lochen call home,” the prince explained, “but centuries ago in a sea and air battle among our kind and theirs, they claimed them in their victory.”

I ducked my head, feeling uneducated and stupid, but my learning had halted at primary school. I’d been sent to help part-time in the fields when my affinity never manifested, and further learning wasn’t required, so my education had stopped once I’d read all of the books in my village’s small library. I’d always liked to read. I just hadn’t had books available to learn from. Well, until a month ago. I’d read a number of books from the castle’s library when I’d been locked in the Exorbiant Chamber, and the prince had been away, but I hadn’t read any geography books. Perhaps I needed to change that.

“Can you tell me more about the Lochen fae, my prince?”

He inclined his head. “Since the Lochen fae are a seafaring race, they only occasionally come on land. Unlike the Solis, Lochen can breathe underwater and are adept swimmers whose magic allows them to morph into fish-like creatures when they stay submerged for months on end. But even in their fae forms, they can still move much faster than us in water.”

I frowned, trying to remember what I could from my primary days. “But they can also reside on land, right?”