Olen’s expression strained with unrecognizable emotion, and his head glanced up toward one of the hallways then back to me.
“I do not know princess.”
“I cannot stop it,” I cried. “And I do not always know if I want to.”
Olen turned toward hallway three and I looked up, finding Ulrich at the end of the hallway I’d come from. His hands trembled at his side while he met my eyes.
Then I was carried away, watching the Unseelie King disappear in his shadows while a rage-filled shout, one that I wondered may have been regret, followed me and the man who carried me. Reminding me why I could not fall completely into the madness.
Even when my heart wanted nothing more.
Chapter 31
Two weeks.
It had been two weeks since I told Ulrich my decision.
He had done nothing.
I laid on the bench in thelooking glasswhile my hands stroked Olen’s fur. His snoring lulled my anxious mind when Adie appeared before me. I smiled at her, cocking my head at the wild grin on her face.
“Is there something you’d like to tell me?” I asked, sitting up while Olen yawned.
Adie glanced at him nervously before nodding her head. “There is a gift waiting for you on your bed.”
I froze.
“For tonight,” she continued.
“Tonight?” I asked, glancing at Olen.
“The party,” he replied with another yawn.
“I thought Ulrich was done with parties,” I responded.
“He can’t stop us from throwing a birthday celebration,” Olen said.
I stood. “Birthday?”
“A birthday ball,” Adie squealed. “It is abigevent, one he has not allowed to happen inyears.”
I eyed her. “How big?”
Olen laughed loudly. “It is not a Rite, princess. It is a party. While there will be plenty of moving bodies, this will be nothing like the Rite.”
“Your gown is waiting.” Adie smiled. “You only have a couple of hours.”
“Why wasn’t I told about this?” I questioned Olen.
His head pulled up from the floor. “Because Ulrich realized you spent your birthday in a cell in his dungeons and he wasn’t about to have that argument with you.”
I startled, stepping back.
“I didn’t think it would cross his mind.”
Olen’s snout bumped my calves. “We had not realized the day of. Gods, even in the months after.”
I brushed him away. “As long as I get to go home by my birthday this year.”
