Page 3 of Hunted

I paused. “This is going to sound really weird. But I gave a happy memory to an old crone I saw in my dream, and she made everyone forget who I was.”

My grandmother nodded, but didn’t seem to say much. It was Tallin who spoke. “You didwhat?” he asked.

“I’m sorry. She told me she could take me out of the Selection. I was… stupid, and reckless—”

“—yes.”

“But in my defense, I thought I was dreaming.”

“Oh, well, I suppose that makes it okay, then.”

“It… does?”

“No, it doesn’t. Do you need—I mean, do I have to explain to you all the ways in which this is totally—”

“Hushlittle antlered creature,” said my grandmother. “I believe she is already upset enough over what has happened. What Amara needs now is support, a warm bed, and a cup of tea.”

I shook my head. “That’s not everything,” I said.

My grandmother nodded. “Go on, then.”

“When I woke up, everyone had forgotten me. Radulf, Tallin. Nobody knew who I was. When I confronted Radulf, he told me he already had a sister, and that I wasn’t her.”

Helen’s eyes narrowed. “Did he?”

“I didn’t know what he meant, but then I met Valerian out in the woods and he… everyone had forgotten him, too. I don’t know how, or why, but as far as Arcadia was concerned, he didn’t exist. One minute he’s a contestant in the Royal Selection, the next he’s being chased out of the palace by guards. He said he felt compelled to come and find me in the woods.”

“If I’m understanding you correctly,” Helen said. “You made a pact with a witch, and she took the strands that bound you to your life and manipulated them in such a way that life was no longer yours. Now, someone else sits as the Princess of Windhelm, the world has forgotten you… your own family has forgotten you, and this stranger has suffered the same Fate. This is what brought you to my door?”

I nodded. Then I remembered… I couldn’t believe I had forgotten. A chill raced up my spine as my mind conjured an image of the shadow creature Valerian and I had been fighting in the woods before getting here.

“Fate is also trying to hunt me down and kill me,” I added, “At least, it was while I was in Arcadia. The creature didn’t seem to have followed me.”

My grandmother stroked her chin with her fingertips, turned her eyes up, and paused to process the information I had given her. I hadn’t yet gone into how, or why Tallin had somehow remembered me because Tallin and I hadn’t even spoken about it yet. My grandmothers also seemed to remember me and know who I was. Those were other wrinkles to this story that deserved ironing out and investigating.

With any luck, the answer to finding my way back into my life lay there, somewhere.

“We are going to need more than just a cup of tea for this one,” said my grandmother. “Come, let’s get you and your friends settled and warm. You must be exhausted from your ordeal.”

“I am. I just want to go home.”

My grandmother smiled and placed a warm, comforting hand on my shoulder. “Dear, youarehome. Come. Let’s get upstairs.”

I followed Helen with Tallin in my arms, stopping once I realized Valerian was still on the ground. Helen seemed to have forgotten, too. She spun around on her heel, flicked her wrist, and Valerian’s body began to levitate.

“Can’t forget you, now, can we?” she said, with a little chuckle. “Come now,strange Fae man.”

Valerian floated across the room, my grandmother guiding his unconscious, snoring body as it moved through the air gently past the beaded curtains, and up the narrow staircase that followed.

“That’s impressive magic,” Tallin said.

“Parlor tricks at best, my furry friend,” Helen said, “But occasionally useful.”

“Thank you,” I said to her. “I didn’t have anyone left in the world to turn to.”

“You don’t need to thank me. You came to the right place. We’ll get this sorted quickly, don’t you worry.”

I headed up the stairs with Tallin in my arms, following Valerian’s unconscious body. But my grandmother couldn’t hide her true feelings from me. I could hear the warble in her voice, I could hear her accelerated heartbeat—these were cues she hid so incredibly well from most people, but not from my keen senses.