The romance was high on my list for obvious reasons. I desperately needed that kind of escape. But my gaze kept drifting to the book I’d grabbed about the history of my people, the shifters. Although there were only three kingdoms of shifters now—well, two, since the curse had essentially wiped us off the map—there’d once been five. Two kingdoms led by dragon shifters, two by the wolves, and a lone bear queen and her people. Only the wolf kings and queens now remained, tenacious bastards.
There were other kingdoms, of course, near and far. A few faerie kingdoms with their court politics and intrigues. Hideous goblins with their heaps of stolen treasure. The land of night, ruled by the vampires. And, of course, the cunning demon king who was slowly cutting down all of his competition. Within each kingdom, various villages and towns housed the hardworking people, usually all the same magical type—shifters lived in a shifter kingdom, faeries in a faerie kingdom—but occasionally a star-crossed lover would move in for a little magical diversity, sacrificing sameness for their love. That, or they’d escape beyond the veil to the human realm, disguising themselves within the mundane, often never to return.
The rumor was that the dragon prince had left our kingdom for that very reason. He’d fancied a noble faerie and moved away to her kingdom to be with her, shirking his duties as our prince and future king. Giving it all up for a chance at love.
I couldn’t say I blamed him. Everyone deserved a chance at happiness, even princes. I doubted he had known the cost.
Maybe he still didn’t know. Maybe the mad king had cut him off. We might have been erased from his mind.
It was impossible to know. Nobles weren’t known for hobnobbing with poor commoners, and we were the poorest in the kingdom. We had the least fertile lands and worst commodities. We were one of the farthest out from the castle. Whatever had happened, I doubted anyone in this village had known more than mere rumor. It was probably why no one continued to speculate. Why I hadn’t heard anything more about the curse once I was old enough to understand the larger picture.
The book from the library didn’t talk about the prince’s flight, of course. It was too old. Even still, it offered some sort of connection to our past, to the way things used to be, and I needed to believe they’d be that way again. So I pulled the book onto my lap and settled in.
After a while, a yawn took hold of me, and I bumped my head against the tree, feeling a wave of fatigue. Hopefully tonight I could catch up on some sleep. It was nearly time to go hunting again, and I’d need my stamina to face down those asshole boars. I was one of the only people in the village who routinely took on those beasts, but they had the best and most meat. It was worth the risk.
A moment later, I opened my eyes…and then blinked a few more times.
The light had dwindled around me. A cool breeze drifted across my face, signaling the coming evening. The book that had been in my lap had tipped halfway off, its edge propped against the ground.
I’d only intended to close my eyes for a moment, but I’d obviously fallen asleep.
I sat up, grimacing from the stiffness in my back and legs. If I’d wanted to nap, I should’ve done it in my bed. Not like I’d been planning it.
As I lifted my book and reached over to grab the others, prickles skittered up my back and crawled across my scalp. Eyes. Someone was watching me. A presence, likely dangerous. I didn’t need a connection with my animal to ascertain any of that. Hunting gave a person a certain sixth sense.
I stacked my books nice and neat, a little away from me, and uncrossed my legs. If I needed to move fast, I could.
Nonchalantly, as though I didn’t know anything was amiss, I stretched and did the ol’ look-over-the-shoulder trick. No one waited in sight, though that didn’t mean they weren’t behind me.
I pushed forward to my hands and knees, like I was going to get up, and then peered around the tree trunk. Nothing. Deserted.
I’d half expected Jedrek to be lingering around. I’d rebuffed him publicly today. He wouldn’t make the mistake of approaching me in front of an audience again, but a guy like him wouldn’t relent, either. His ego wouldn’t let him. I expected him to try to catch me alone and then scare me into acquiescing.
But he wasn’t a small man. If he were the lurking presence, I would’ve seen him. Still…the prickles persisted. A strange feeling of heaviness filled my chest, just like I’d felt last night before…
I froze.
Nothing sexual came with it this time. Only a trickle of fire that seeped into my limbs.