{A Wattpad Featured Book}
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Her heart or her people. Only she can decide.
Hated, cursed, outcasted. It was Eleena Asterin's life ever since she was blamed to have betrayed her village. So when she is offered a task to earn back her honour and prid...
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The brown-haired Seelie Faerie, Kallistê, and another Seelie Faerie with tan skin and platinum blond hair tied in a man bun were lounging casually at the table when Willodean returned me to the dining room. They no longer had plates before them, but still sipped from golden goblets. Real gold—not foil or paint—real. Our mismatched cutlery flashed in my mind as I paused at the other end of the table. Such wealth—such staggering wealth, when we could hardly get a copper.
Idiotic wild beasts had the villagers called us. But compared to them, this place, the elegant, graceful way they held their goblets, how the brown-haired one had called me human without hesitation ... we were all idiotic wild beasts to them.
Food still remained on the table, the array of spices lingered in the air, beckoning. I was starving, my head unnervingly light from not eating for so long.
"Before you ask again: the food is perfectly fine for you to eat," the master said, pointing to a vacant chair at the other end of the table. When I didn't move, he sighed sharply. "What do you want, then?"
I said nothing. To eat, to slay the Imperial Lords, to save my family ...
The new Seelie Faerie drawled from the other end of the table, "I told you so, Phoebus." He flicked a glance towards his friend. "Decades alone with no woman to idle with has made your skills with females rusty."
Phoebus. He glowered at the faerie, shifting in his seat. I tried not to show my shock and stiffen at the other piece of information the faerie had given away. Decades. I tucked the new information away.
Phoebus didn't long much older than me, perhaps a year or so, but his kind was immortal. He could be hundreds of years old. Thousands. Millions even.
"Well," the new faerie said, his attention focusing on me. "Excuse my companions and their rude manners and let me introduce myself." He smiled broadly, "I am General Oberon. Commander of Elanor's armies. Nice to meet you, lovely lady."
Is this some kind of joke they are playing? A game to taunt me? Wolves ready to pounce—that's what they were. I was all too aware of my every breath as I returned a small, shy smile. Best to start acting now, it might take some time befriending them.
The faerie wore a leather baldric over his plain white shirt, though it bore no weapons. I doubted he needed them, judging on the scars he wore on his skin. You didn't need weapons when you were a weapon yourself.
"At least she doesn't look half as bad now. A relief, I suppose, if she were to live with us. Though the tunic isn't as pretty as a dress," Kallistê said, blue eyes fixed on me.
"I'd prefer not to wear that dress," I said, keeping the shiver from my voice.
"And why not?" Kallistê crooned, her voice alluring.
It was Phoebus who answered for me. "Because killing all of us would be easier in pants."
I kept my face blank, willed my heart to be calm as I stood there. Kallistê coughed breaking the silence and said, "I will take my leave now. I have a meeting with one of the courtiers tomorrow." She stood up and gave a small incline of her head to Phoebus before disappearing into the hall.
