"You do not belong with the demons who have tried to destroy our world," she says. "You are Fae. And you are the true ruler of this world."
Hands grab me from behind. "Found her!" It's the shorter man. He snuck up on me while the woman talked. This time, I am too weak to fight. He places a cloth over my face. "Sorry about this, Your Highness. But it's time to get you home."
***
When I awaken, I find myself slung over the shoulder of the tall man. I struggle free of his arms, and he drops me unceremoniously on the snow-packed ground of a wooded forest.
"Be gentle with her. She is not to be hurt," the woman says.
"She bit me," the tall man says, rubbing his arm where I did, indeed take a bite.
"Seems she learned more from the demons than we realized," the short man says with a chuckle.
The tall man glares at him, but I interrupt their bickering. "Who are you and where are you taking me?"
My hands and feet are tied together with rope, and I can't stand or do much but sit on the cold ground glaring at the three of them. My wrist is still bleeding, and with my hands behind my back, I rub my finger into the blood and draw on the earth. I know the symbol by heart, having traced it on Fen's wrist so many times.
If I can call to him through magic, maybe he can find me.
The woman approaches me before I can finish the symbol, and I shift my hands to cover it, so she doesn't see what I tried to do. I need them to lower their guard, so I can try again.
"I'm going to cut the ropes on your feet so you can walk," she says, "but if you fight me, you'll stay in the ropes, understand?"
I nod and watch as she pulls out a knife and frees my feet from the constraints.
She helps me stand, and I look around for a way to escape, but I have no idea where we are.
"You will freeze to death before ever finding help," the short man says.
I'm still wobbly from the drug they gave me, and my vision is blurry. The woman grips my arm and escorts me forward, to a cave carved into the side of a mountain. "To answer your question, we are taking you to your rightful kingdom."
"What are you talking about?"
The cave is large, much larger than the one Fen and I escaped into. Stalactites hang from the roof like menacing crystal weapons. They are beautiful in a cold, hard way.
"You will see soon enough," the woman says.
We walk deeper into the cave and reach a spacious cavern. Two towering blocks of stone stand as sentinels at the corners of a stone door. In the middle is an imprint in the shape of a hand with a small spike sticking out from the palm. The woman places her hand on it, impaling her skin. The handprint glows a bright white as she pulls away, and the intricate pattern inside runs with thin lines of her blood.
From within the structure something shifts and moves, metal mechanisms clicking into place, and then the door opens. The tall man nudges me into the stone box, and the others follow us in. The doors close, leaving us in utter darkness. The woman speaks a word I don't understand, and a ball of light forms just above us, glowing bright enough to illuminate the space.
Magic?
I don't have much time to consider, because the stone box we are in starts to move. I gasp and nearly fall, but the tall man catches my arm and holds onto me as we begin to sink into the ground.
"This is one of many secret passages that connect the two sides of our world, allowing us to travel between them with ease," the woman explains.
"Where is it taking us?" I ask, my voice falling flat in the confined space.
"You'll see," she says with a secret smile.
We begin to move faster and faster, and my stomach flips and topples until I feel like vomiting. I shuffle to one of the walls and lean against it, my shoulders aching from being pulled behind me.
"Did you kill the king?" I ask, thinking of Fen's investigation and the missing pieces he hasn't put together, like how the enemy gained access to High Castle. "Is this how you infiltrated the castle?"
"All your questions will be answered in time, but nothing is what you think. You have been deceived by the ultimate deceivers. The princes and their kind cannot be trusted."
The dungeon warden said something similar to me the day I arrived here, and while I certainly don't trust most of them, I think the Fae are wrong to judge them all. Still, the princes have my mother's soul, and I can't leave her at their mercy.
"I have to go back!" I say, my voice urgent. "My mother is their prisoner. If I don't fulfill my contract, her body on earth will die and her soul will be trapped in their dungeon forever." I can't sacrifice her like that. Fen would try to protect her, try to argue I was taken against my will, but demon contracts are not so easily violated.
"Your mother is not our concern," the tall man says.
The woman frowns at him. "What Gerard means to say is we will do everything we can to ensure the safety of your mother, but our first priority is getting you safely home."
Home. I know they don't mean earth. And they clearly don't mean the Kingdom of Inferna. So where is home? "You've got the wrong person. I'm just a normal girl trying to save my mom. I'm not your leader, or whoever you think I am."
They say nothing as our stone elevator moves faster.
I don't know how long the journey takes. My mind is still muddled with drugs. But at one point something changes, and I begin to float. We all do. My stomach turns, and I vomit. Bits of food glide in front of me.