“Once a week isn’t enough!” Seven growls. “Look at her! She’s lighter too. I carried her to the bed because she couldn’t even make it there herself.”
My chest tightens. “Where would we even find more food? We don’ have time to get back to the human realm jus’ for a bowl of Mac N Cheese.”
We’re gonna have to travel to the border. Maybe we’ll get lucky.
“I don’t know,” Seven rasps. “But we’ve got to find something.”
“Fuck,” I growl, running a hand through my hair. “Then let’s go.”
***
There’s nothing within the castle. That doesn’t surprise me, but we still looked just in case. When we find nothing suitable, we go further out, searching for anything a human might be able to eat. It’s a right fucking waste of time though. Everything outside the castle is hardly alive, let alone suitable for eating.
“What the fuck are we gonna do?” Seven hisses. “We can’t leave and go back to the human world.”
We’re already walking a dangerous path. Christian would remind us that tomorrow, there will be no need to feed her, that she’ll be the King’s. But that doesn’t sit right with me. Fuck, it shouldn’t sit right with Christian. Asshole is determined to remain cold and aloof despite the clear signs.
She’s ours. And we need to do something or else we’re going to lose her.
“You found the fruit at the border last time, right?” I ask, looking over at Seven. When he nods, I gesture in the direction. “Then let’s go. Maybe we get lucky again.”
Together, we fly through the court, past the castle gates, the twisted and burning trees, the ash swirling around us. The air stings beneath my lids and I try to wipe it away but it’s pointless in this ashen kingdom.
We don’t speak as we search the darkness for anything that could be considered edible. Nothing grows in this hellhole. The humans, the few stragglers that linger in our realm don’t make it long. They’re either our food …or they’re dead.
We rush through the grounds for hours. Not a crumb is found. I don’t have much hope, and in the end, I think one of us will have to go to the human realm, but that’s not a viable option. If one of us leaves and shit hits the fan. . .
“The fae border’s up ahead,” Seven rumbles.
Our guard goes up, mostly because there’s never a guarantee that we’ll be alone here. The border is always moving, always being fought over. Boris never fucking respects the line and tries to take more, while the fae remind him that he doesn’t have rights to anything over their marked boundary. So they press in on us. I don’t see them but they’re there. Somewhere beyond the smoke, lies an army of fae. Just waiting for one of us to fuck up.
I’d hate to disappoint them. Especially when I’m so very determined to feed the woman who needs me.
And I do love a good fight so who am I to turn down an awaiting army?
I slow, taking in the edge between the burning court behind us and their gnarled treeline ahead. Suspiciously, there are no sounds here, not that I can detect. My shoulders lower but I can’t manage to relax. Seven does the same beside me, his eyes searching along the boundary for something Crymson can eat.
“I don’t see anythin’,” I comment, my eyes trailing along the tangled thorns and rotting tree limbs. “Fuck!”
Seven scowls. “She’s going to fucking die.”
“Not if we have anything to do with it,” I say, shaking my head. “Come on. We keep looking.”
I turn, intending to take off again, only to startle. I throw up my hands immediately and bare my fangs. Seven turns to look and falls into a defensive stance, his eyes hard on the two dark shadows in front of us.
Fae.
The two men step cautiously forward. Their hair hangs in long locks of dark, glossy strands. High flawless cheekbones and tanned skin are a cruel comparison to my own scarred complexion. Their pale starlight eyes shift over us as they step closer to the tangle of thorns, the only thing that separates these princely warriors from my ready fangs.
Their arms lift higher, in each of their hands, they hold baskets filled to the brim with. . . food. They have food.
“Gifts from his highness,” one of the fae says. “For his blood.”
My shoulders tense. How the fuck do they know we need food?
Just how magical are these fae-holes?
The two say nothing when neither one of us responds. I glance at Seven out of the corner of my eye, not sure what to say. I’m not about to thank them …am I?
