“Daegal? No.” Xander’s eyes narrowed before he shook his head. “I had my suspicions, but you just confirmed it for me,Aileana.”
He wielded my name like a weapon. The moment it came out of his mouth, I forgot how to breathe. A choked, strangled sound came out of my throat.
“Why did you run?” he asked.
My heart froze, and my lungs constricted as I raised my wide eyes to his golden ones. “Xander,” I pleaded with him. Tears filled my eyes, and I swallowed. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” he snapped.
“Don’t tell them. I won’t go back,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “You can’t make me. I’d rather die than go back to him.”
“Why not? You’d be a princess if you went back. Married to the High King’s heir.” Xander sneered as he tightened his grip on my hand. “Prince Remington. Lord of the entire province of Ocheka. Death Elf. Bearer of the Opal Scepter. And apparently,your fiancé.”
“Being a princess is nothing if it means going back to my cage.” My eyes flashed as Xander continued to press me against the tree.
“Tell me why you ran,” he insisted.
“You want to know why I left?”
“Yes!” he bellowed. “Yes, dammit. Tell me!”
I glared at him. “I left because I won’teverlet anyone tell me what to do ever again. Not him. Not you. No one!”
Xander just blinked at me, as though my outburst surprised him.
“I told you. Now, you need to let me go.” I pounded my free hand against his chest. His very large, very hard chest.
“Not yet. This conversation isn’t over.” A beat passed as he tilted his head, studying me. His voice was softer as he asked, “What did they do to you?”
“It’s not your place to know!” I yelled.
I wouldnevertell him all the things that were done to me. The things I suffered as the king’s pet. The brutal whippings I’d suffered as punishments for crimes I didn’t commit. Silence. Loneliness.
Those were my stories. It was my pain. Not his to pull out of me when he felt like it.
As I yelled at Xander, I felt something breaking apart within me. I gasped as a vibrant green light flooded through my skin.
Behind me, the treeshifted.
Welcome, Protectress of the Woods. We’ve been waiting for you.
Protectress of the Woods
Avoice that was both young and old echoed through my head, and I screamed. I couldn’t help it. The cry ripped through me, shattering the silence of the evening.
As the sound of my voice rang around us, something stirred in the woods. The ground beneath my feet trembled as dozens of green ribbons exploded from my fingers. Gaping, I was rendered speechless as a sense of vibrancy that I had never felt before filled me. The ribbons wove around me like slithering snakes before diving into the dirt.
For a moment, everything was deathly still.
The wind stopped howling; the birds stopped chirping; even the leaves stopped cracking. Time itself seemed to pause.
Xander lifted shaky eyes to mine as he opened his mouth. “Aileana, what are yo—“
“I don’t know,” I whispered. I stared at my fingers. A faint green glow still emitted from them. My voice shook, betraying the terror coursing through me. “I have no idea what is going on.”
Then one of the trees behind Xander moved. I watched with wide eyes as two large branches that were the size of my entire body reached out and wrapped themselves around Xander’s waist.
“Stop this!” he yelled as the tree dragged him back into a tight embrace. Xander continued to shout, his cries furious as his limbs flailed wildly. “Aileana, help me!”