A Court of Fire and Thorns First Chapter

The snow was deep under my feet, and the wind whistled in my ear as I headed down the long and narrow path. In front of me, faint lights marked the village I was moving toward. Everything else was dark.

I breathed hard, the frozen air icy in my lungs. But I couldn’t slow down. I didn’t dare look back.

In my hand, I held the tiny potion bottle that was the key to my freedom.

“Do you remember me?”

The words whispered in the wind. There was nobody around. Just like every morning, when I woke up from them.

“Miss? Miss, can you hear me?”

Okay, that didn’t come in my dreams. I turned.

An old farmer was making his way to me in the field.

I shut my eyes and cursed inwardly. “Hello there. I didn’t see you.”

He grinned as he reached me. “Are you all right? I saw you crossing in the snow.”

“I’m good.” Shit. I should have woken up earlier, before anyone was out. The first rays of sunlight already crept above the fields behind him.

“Where are you headed so early?”

At least he didn’t recognize me. Clearly. Think fast. “I wanted to see the sunrise from that hill.” I pointed toward one that was halfway between me and where I was going.

“Why didn’t you just fly there?”

Because my brother’s guards would see it and catch me. And then, bring me back to him. “I flew a lot yesterday. My wing muscles are sore.”

He laughed. “Come. I’ll take you.” He gestured to a wagon that stood on the road.

“I…wouldn’t want to be a burden. You must be in a hurry to start your day.”

“Nonsense. Come on. Hop in.”

Hmm…maybe this would get me there faster. I turned and walked with him.

“So…I haven’t seen you here before. Are you new?”

“Just visiting.”

“Oh. We don’t get a lot of that in these parts. Well, except yesterday, when Prince Slúagh came here with his sister Freya.”

I gulped.

“She actually grew up in one of our villages. Right there, in Liliwae.”

“You don’t say!”

Liliwae. I missed it so much. The warm-hearted people, the food, the songs, the beauty of the river. And most of all: not being around a brother who wanted me dead, because I was a threat to his throne.

We reached the wagon. He concentrated. My air element felt his one rise. A ball of air appeared before the cart. Two strings materialized and tied it to the edges—air element could conjure useful things.

“Need help?” He held out his hand.

My fist closed on the potion bottle. I felt inside me for my magic—for my water element—to change it into something he wouldn’t notice: a bracelet.

Water. Nothing happened. Not again. Water. Water now!

He tilted his head, waiting. I gave him a sheepish smile.

Come on, water!

My magic rose, and my element flowed through me. The beads of a bracelet wound around my hand. I put it in his and boarded the wagon. He sat beside me, not seeming to notice my spell. I breathed out in relief.

My water element was such a handful in the past couple of weeks. Something was wrong with my magic in general, and water appeared to have the hardest block. But then, I had to be grateful: I had all five elements, and most fae only had one. Which was probably why he didn’t sense my water magic just now.

We started to move, the wheels marking the snow.

“So, how long have you lived here?”

“Almost a year,” he said. “Brought with me new knowledge from more sophisticated farms. They need a lot of help here. With Prince Slúagh’s new taxes and budget cuts, they can barely survive. They suspect he’s doing it so that their kids have no future except for joining his growing army.”

“Are you serious?” What? Nobody talked about that at my brother’s palace.

“You’re really not from around here, are you? They all say that, especially the mothers. But they have a new hope now: that somehow, his sister might take the throne instead of him, in a little over three months, at the coronation in Beltane. She is one of us.” Again, he looked toward Liliwae, then sighed. “But, as you know, she crossed the border and married the enemy crown prince, Kalan of Unseelie, so chances are, she won’t be able to rule.”

The wedding ring on my finger, under the glove, felt suddenly heavy.

I couldn’t remove it no matter how hard I pulled. This was the reason I had escaped my brother’s claws tonight, because I found a way to free myself from this marriage.

“Anyhow, you should see her hometown, Liliwae. It’s quite beautiful.”

It was. As the coach moved up the road, my eyes landed on the river, the fields, and the barren hill, where the remains of a burned farmhouse marked the home I once had. And ran away from when I was ten.

This was where it all started.

I could still remember the flames. And my mother’s confession: that she came from a strict noble family, who couldn’t look the other way when she had an affair—instead of waiting for an arranged marriage—and got pregnant. She ran away and came to Liliwae, where she raised me in secret, but they found us. They came in the night to kill me…the bastard child—the evidence.

They didn’t know that the affair was with the king. That I was his firstborn, and heir—Seelie kings didn’t marry. Prince Slúagh was also born out of wedlock. My mother didn’t tell me either.

She rescued me that night, and we parted. She crossed into Unseelie—into enemy lands—risking her life, so that they would never find me through her. And I used my magic to survive, and jobs in libraries to read about my elements and master them. I rose quickly, from smaller places to larger ones, until my talents landed me the luxurious role of a personal maid to one of the Matries in the Tower—the most powerful women fae in both kingdoms. At nineteen, I was considered for management. And then…

That bit was missing. My memories were…erased. A few weeks were just gone.

The next thing I knew, I was traveling to my brother’s palace. People told me I was the king’s first daughter and crown heir—which came as a complete shock—and that I’d somehow found out and proved it magically, which I didn’t remember. And also that I’d gone to Unseelie, where I was forced to marry our greatest enemy. Well, they did say a lot more about that one…

But nobody knew why I had crossed that border. Was it to meet my mother? Had I succeeded? Was that how I’d found out about my heritage? Somehow, I couldn’t even recall any planning of that trip, or anything about Unseelie.

Or why my magic was playing up.

That was two weeks ago. Now, I would finally find my answers.

“Almost there,” the farmer said. “It’s a lovely hill. Looks like you’ll get a good view. No clouds this morning.”

“I should hope so.” I had to hear myself say it. The hill would show me if the way was clear to my destination: another village, which I had been to when I was sixteen. A one-night stand. My first time. Logan. He was the one I kept hearing call to me in the night. I also dreamed about him. Vivid dreams.

One of the Matries said my ring could be removed and the marriage-spell broken if I found love, using the potion bottle she gave me. I knew exactly where to look for love. Not a day passed that I didn’t think of him. My body missed his warm hands on my naked skin.

“Your Highness!”

My heart skipped a beat. Five men came out behind large stones before us, blocking the road.

They were dressed in black, and their movements were swift, leaving no sound except for the clinking of their knives and the swords under their wings.

Seelie Kardaukars. My brother’s elite unit.

The old farmer pulled to a halt and, just like that, all my hopes of freedom went down the drain. I breathed out tensely.

The old fae looked at me, shocked. “Highness?!”

“Let us help you down.” The guards’ commander stepped forward. The Kardaukars were considered a myth. I didn’t know they really existed before I came to the palace. Now, they seemed to be everywhere I went. My imprisoners. My brother said they were guarding me. Like hell, they were.

One of them turned to the farmer. “You are arrested, on the charge of abduction.”

“No!” I rose. “He was responding to my command. I asked for a ride. To go watch the sunrise there.” I pointed to the hill. “I didn’t want to wake anyone up.”

They talked among themselves.

“I will just come with you now, if you let him go. Unless you want to join me? Enjoy the fresh air and the view of the countryside?” I had to play the game.

“We will let him go,” the guard said. “But we fly now, Highness.”

What was the point of using any titles, if it were so clear that they commanded my every move?

The old fae looked at me sadly as I spread my wings and hovered down. The Kardaukars gathered around me and we flew together in silence, back to Liliwae. They didn’t try to make small talk, and I was too bummed at getting caught. When I was so close.

From the height, I saw the familiar homes of my childhood paradise. Soon, the farmers would be out to clear paths from the snow and tend to their fields. And another day with my brother would start.

We landed by our inn, and the smells from the kitchen told me that rye bread with raisins and dried tomatoes—Liliwae’s specialty—was ready, fresh from the oven. I breathed in the familiar scents of home.

“Next time, take someone with you. You’re not safe alone, Highness.” The commander bowed and left.

I walked upstairs slowly to see whether my friend Aila, who was here with me, was awake. I didn’t want to involve her before, but I now knew I had to. I couldn’t do this alone. I hoped she would help me.

I used my water element to change my clothes to smart attire. For once, my magic behaved. I almost reached the turning which led to our rooms when I heard giggles.

“You think our people will let a traitor like her take the throne after she married that Kalan?” The voice sounded like one of the two concubines my brother had with him on this trip. “It’s only a matter of time until you convince her to abdicate.”

He’d wish!

“I mean, isn’t that why we’re here? You wanted to remind her of the country life, of the place she grew up in…see if she wants to leave court and come back here.”

I didn’t hear his reply.

It was the other concubine’s turn to speak. “There’s always the traditional way to clear the line to the throne, if she doesn’t do as you wish.”

I stifled a breath at the obvious hint.

“Let’s not talk about that,” Slúagh said. “Yet.”

That I heard.

Bloodthirsty, backstabbing bastard.

I marched down the hallway, enraged, until I reached our rooms. Tonight.

“Your Highness!” A guard quickly rose from his chair, eyes open wide at seeing me on this side of my door. He snapped to attention.

I couldn’t help but break into a smile. “No need for that. And good morning to you, too.”

He smiled back. “Yes. Um…good morning.” My brother’s men weren’t used to my down-to-earth approach. Slúagh was formal to the extent of coming off uptight.

“Is Aila up?”

“I think I just heard noises from her room. Before her ladyship came.”

“Thanks.” I knocked on Aila’s door softly.

“Just a minute. Still…figuring out which way this shirt goes. Okay. Just…um…right, like that. Hmm… I think I’m ready.” The door opened, and a tiny fae in her early twenties, with blonde hair and massive purple eyes that looked like she hardly slept, smiled at me cheerfully. “Wow, you cleaned up nicely.”

I laughed, glancing down at my buttoned purple top and orange trousers—the two colors of the Seelie court.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping in today?” she asked.

“Not the farm schedule,” I said quickly. “I thought I’d go for a walk before breakfast. Want to come with?”

The guard cleared his throat. “Please, allow me. I’ll call a few of the men to join you—keep you company, ensure your safety.”

Aila’s eyes met mine with disappointment. She’d caught my hint—that I had something to tell her—but they never let us speak alone. Which was part of why I trusted her. I knew very little about her, other than we’d met in Unseelie and became friends, where she was from or her job. She once tried to tell me that I used to behave very differently before my memories were wiped, but then, a guard walked in, and she swallowed, alarmed, and went silent.

We waited for the guards quietly. Aila looked like she wanted to burst and talk forever.

Finally, they came. Three of them. They followed us as we circled the inn and headed to the riverbank.

“Do you miss home?” I asked.

“I…yes, of course. Wait, which home do you mean? Is it my birthplace in Paladan or Kalan’s castle?” She was originally from Paladan—the misty land of the Death Marshes, where tribes with poisoned arrows and knife-masters lived. But now, she worked as Kalan’s deputy head of house.

One of the guards coughed.

“Relax. We’re just making conversation.” Goddesses, they were impossible! “Paladan.” I chose the option that I knew they wouldn’t hush.

Aila smiled. “Paladan is great. Soon, they will have the Rite of Spring. Everyone will come home for it. My family is large, and I was hoping to be there too.” There was a heavy hint in her words: that she hoped we would both be free to go as we chose by then.

I looked down. She was here, away from her family, to be with me. Again, I felt the weight of my ring.

Slúagh had actually written Prince Kalan on my behalf, requesting an annulment. All we got was that the crown heir of Unseelie was awaiting the return of his bride in the international territory, while healing from some knife wound.

But our spy network said that he was lying to us, stalling, while he planned a brutal surprise attack on Seelie to capture me. That, as usual, his people were looking for an excuse to start a war, and all my brother’s attempts at peace failed.

Kalan was known to be deadly: he could best dozens of guards without any weapon, using martial arts alone. And with just a small army, he could easily conquer our capital.

Tonight, I will try again.

We reached the river. At the familiar sight, something deep inside me relaxed. I used to love coming here. To watch the cool water flow by me as the sun rose above it, in sapphire skies with the Reeladin mountains in the distance. Just like it did now.

The light cast its sparkles over the water, which flowed slowly. Calm. Soothing. It made me forget my troubles for a moment.

The shimmering dots glowed between clear blue hues, and white snow covered the grounds along the banks. A fresh wind, cold from the morning frost, waved a dead branch past me, which tickled me over my gloves. I giggled.

My eyes traced the river down, all the way to the distant fields, and the hill that hid the village I’d tried to get to.

That night… I could almost see Logan in front of me. The farm boy, with gorgeous emerald eyes, who had recently taken over my dreams. Sometimes he would change, become older—my mind filled the gap of the three years that had passed. He would smile and whisper to me the words I wished to hear: “Freya, I found you again. Come back to me. I love you.”

At times, he would stand in a room with an ornamented ceiling—painted with beautiful blue skies—with a dark door behind him. I wanted to open that mysterious door and discover what hid behind it. To know him.

Two nights ago, I dreamed of us lying on a mattress in an empty room, where I conjured a scarf and covered my eyes. He went wild. “You did not just do that to me. You, naked and blindfolded!” It was right after I’d asked him to show me something from the things he had behind that door.

He was worth the risk! If it worked, I would be happy in more ways than one.

“Freya?”

I turned to Aila.

“Oh…sorry, I got absorbed there, with the, er,” I quickly looked to my side, “…beauty of the river.” We’d reached a patch where the water spilled over azure stones and became bubbling as it rippled over shiny rocks.

“Does that normally make you blush hard?”

My jaw dropped. I laughed.

She fidgeted. “Oh, sorry, I forgot my place. I shouldn’t have…”

“Yes, you should have! So…tell me more about the Rite of Spring in Paladan.”

Instead of answering, Aila winced. Her cheerfulness vanished, and gloom replaced it.

I followed her gaze.

Slúagh was walking toward us, from the inn. He advanced quickly. A group of men clad in the orange and purple colors of Seelie marched behind him.

There was a shuffle in the snow. I turned to see the three guards suddenly fly to him.

No way! I caught Aila’s hand. “I need your help. I have a plan,” I whispered, and her eyes brightened. “I’m going to get out of court. There’s a place I need to visit.”

“The international territory?” She beamed at me.

“What?! No.” Goddesses, why would I do that? It was the worst place I could go to. “To Istanguard. It’s a small village that I had been to once. I think I will find information there.” Goddesses help me, they would have some record of which village Logan was from. “I actually tried to get there early this morning.”

“What? Well, that explains…”

Explains what? Never mind. “Aila, I found a way to annul my marriage to Kalan, and free myself to—”

“No!” She clasped my hand in horror. “You mustn’t do that!”

What?! “Why?”

Aila lowered her voice. “Freya, you and Kalan…” She froze.

“Sister! How lovely to see you this morning.”

Great. Just great. Finally, she was about to tell me something important.

Slúagh grinned widely as he stepped between us.

His silver-blue hair—so much brighter than my black—fell over red eyes. The water reflected his royal uniform and the golden pin of the heir to the throne of Seelie almost darkly. As if his presence disturbed it.

“I trust you slept well, brother?” I faked a smile to match his.

“Better than you, it would seem. Early riser?” When I didn’t reply, he chuckled. “I had company to keep me warm, of course.”

“Of course,” I managed. TMI. I hated how obvious he was. Behind him, Aila looked away, disgusted.

He didn’t even call them by their names, just company. Maybe he didn’t remember. There were so many of them. After two weeks of being around his concubines daily, I still couldn’t recognize them all.

“So, had a nice trip? Saw your home? Ready to return to court?”

“We’re going now? But we just arrived.”

“We leave in an hour.”

He was punishing me. He figured out that I was up to something.

I breathed out tensely. This would ruin everything.

I’d also hoped to meet some of the people in my village. Aila and I were invited to an early dinner yesterday, and a few were eager to reconnect with the “princess who was one of them”—happy that I had survived that fire long ago. I wanted to ask them about the alarming things I’d heard this morning—they didn’t dare speak of that in front of my brother’s guards.

“Something came up, sister.”

Yes. Me.

“I have to be in Camolas tonight.”

Wait. Camolas? That was right next to Istanguard! Perfect.

But I had to play the game. Still look disappointed. “That’s really a shame. I would have loved to stay longer. I am, of course, grateful for your generosity in making time to come here.”

His grin widened, if that were at all possible. “Anything for my dear sister. I’ll arrange a longer stay for you. Would you like that?”

“I would love to come here again.” Without him.

We started to make our way back toward the inn, passing a group of farmers who carried a wagon to a field. They waved to me.

Slúagh tilted his head as he observed them. “So…you don’t regret growing up here, so far away from court?”

“Not for a moment. There is trust, warmth, and deep friendships here. Even if life was hard at times, and I had to get up in the middle of the night to warm up a neighbor’s child, using my fire element. We all pitched in. Fae with air element would rush down to the fields in the summer to stifle fires or conjure carts.” And then, there was the amount of support my mother got when she raised me alone.

“You almost make me wish that I was here instead of you.” He chuckled and patted my shoulder.

Amazing how people could fake friendliness when they actually wanted to get you out of the way.

At least I could see through his empty words easily. I knew Slúagh better than he knew me. When I worked as a servant in the Tower, I was just a random guest to him: a visitor, accompanying the Matries. He ignored the ladies’ maids. While I paid attention to him.

“Anyhow, we must hurry. Aila, would you be so kind as to join my girls in the charial?” The sphere of his royal vessel rose at the end of the path.

She looked at me, worried, but bowed to him and went there.

He turned to me. “Has she…said anything to you about your life in Unseelie?”

“No.”

“Has she tried?”

“No.” I lied. “As you sometimes tell me, brother, it was a traumatizing experience. Aila respects that.”

“Glad to hear it. And don’t go out alone again. I’m concerned for you. I must protect my greatest treasure.”

Sweet words, but he took my hand and his fingers brushed on the ring—reminding me of my fall.

“Thanks.” I tried not to sound cold.

“It is sad, what you are going through.”

Rub it in.

“You must be eager to be free from this enemy fae who kidnapped you and forced you into this marriage, to try and rule Seelie through you. At least you don’t remember your time there, or what they must have done to you, to make you agree to this.”

Or so he kept telling everyone around me.

But I didn’t believe him. I knew myself. There must have been a reason I’d agreed: a bargain. I would have to find out what the trade-off was. It had to be big. Kalan chose to marry me, and Unseelie didn’t have concubines. I was his only.

I knew our Matries had attacked his kingdom a few days before I was taken back to Seelie. The most likely agreement was that we would rule both lands together, to save everyone from war.

Still treason, but I would save millions of lives.

I cleared my throat and met Slúagh’s gaze. “I will happily be free of any man who took me against my will.”

“Well spoken, sister.”

He didn’t catch the sting in my words.

We reached the charial, and he looked back. “I’m sorry for you, that you must leave so soon. You know…a random idea just came to my mind, seeing how happy you are here, and how you fit this place so naturally—you could stay here. Court is not for everyone.”

Random idea, my ass. “I’m sure with your teaching, I could learn the ways of court, brother.”

Slúagh gave me an icy grin, and his voice went metallic, almost snaky. “I’ll be sure to teach you the ways of my court, sister.”