If I Know You

Chapter 2

I frowned at the bottom of the empty bag, willing the crumbs to form themselves back into a slice of bread. Six hours into the journey and I had already run out of food.

This was shaping up to go just about as well as I thought.

Honestly, if I'd thought ahead, I might've remembered that when you're riding a horse through a bog by yourself, and you're a nervous wreck trying not to think about your destination or the flesh-eating monsters along the way, there isn't very much else to do but eat.

I tried to focus on the fact that, if Pippa were actually destined to be my true love, she would probably have a decent stash of edible material somewhere in her tower. That was everything I'd ever wanted.

Although, as I thought about it, me starving in the middle of a swamp would probably solve all our problems.

Pippa would get to sleep forever. I wouldn't have to wake her up and try to convince her that I wasn't the world's worst prince. Or that I wouldn't be the world's most mediocre husband. The sweet release of death could save both of us from the firestorm of awkward interactions headed our way.

But I would never do that. Not when I had my family and there was still cake in this land that needed to be eaten.

The swamp around me started to get less sticky and wet, the buzzy bug sound grew quieter, and the reality of what I was doing became more and more heavy. This wasn't a nightmare. The horror story of my happy romantic ending was rapidly approaching.

My heart sneezed when Senya's Tomb, the massive stone circle that sat directly in the middle of the realm of Nine Kingdoms, came into view. At least two hundred feet tall, flat-topped, covered in vines and creeping mosses. A giant, inedible doughnut filled with monsters.

Climbing was possible for people with bigger arms than I had, but unless one's mission was to get eaten alive by the fae who lived on top, there was only one way to the tower. Only one jagged canyon that led to the inside of the circle.

Senya's Narrows.

I didn't even know why we still had a road that led here. It had been dozens of years since anyone had ventured to the tower to try to awaken one of the sleeping princes or princesses. Nobody had ever managed to wake anyone up, and hope was quickly lost after years of failed attempts.

Besnik's old, somehow-sweaty voice popped out of my childhood memories and into my head.

They were our protectors, our guardians, before they wanted freedom and revolted against us and became creatures of darkness. Teeth like razors. Curly black claws and leathery wings. Completely green eyes. They hate the other races of the realm, and little men like you are their very favorite thing to eat.

Somehow, that weird terrifying statement was a compliment. Even if women hadn't been impressed by me, at least I looked appetizing to a group of murderous creatures. I would take it.

Above the rock, the sky was pink and orange with the sunset. My two least favorite colors. It looked like a bruise, and the yellowish clouds looked like Tory's daughter had projectile-vomited all over the sky.

I wheeze-laughed at the thought of a baby large enough to do that, then stopped when I remembered that I couldn't just be laughing to myself in the middle of a swamp.

I poked my head out of my cloak and looked around to make sure there weren't any Pippas standing around to witness me embarrassing myself. But the wheeze came back when I imagined how I probably looked like an angry spider. Although a spider would have more brow piercings than I did, depending on if each spider eye had its own individual eyebrow-