Lex woke with a pounding headache. But like all her aches and pains, this one disappeared within minutes. She was a fast healer, and yes, that was odd, but that wasn’t why she was hyperventilating.
The man.
He was the most terrifying person she’d ever seen, standing inside the dorm. Short black hair, dark stubble that accented full lips, and a chiseled jawline. But it was his eyes that truly alarmed her.
The color should have made them beautiful—pale blue and clear as a summer sky. But it was the cold intent behind them that struck her numb.
And that was the last thing she remembered.
The room she was in now was pitch-dark, with the exception of a lit firepit, and the air held a crisp bite with the scent of dirt and decaying leaves.
Her vision acclimated to the dark and she saw three shadows standing off to the side.
Lex crawled backward. “Where am I?” Her voice bounced off the walls that felt as though they were closing in on her.
Long legs clad in all black approached, and a man hunched in front of her. The man. “That is all you wish to know?”
Her mouth parted and her heart rapped against her chest. His eyes were bright even in this dim light, but she couldn’t hold them for long, fear making her peripheral vision darken and narrow.
“Very well,” he said when she didn’t answer. “I suppose you would call this a cave. My apologies for the lodging. We were in a hurry, and this is somewhere we’ll not be tracked.”
Lex breathed in slowly, attempting to stave off the panic flooding her. “I have to get back. To-to Jasper.”
“Impossible,” he said, no hesitation, no softening of his tone.
Lex turned from the man and clawed her way up the cave wall until she was standing. She patted the surface, searching for an exit. “Please,” she gasped. “I can’t stay here.”
Forget her paper and keeping her word to Jasper. She was trapped inside a cramped, dark space with strangers. The panic attack she’d staved off for months was gaining steam, bubbling up, and siphoning her breath.
The man stood next to her now, studying the side of her face. “What is wrong with you, Halven? Why do you breathe so heavily? I assure you, there is plenty of air in here, even for one such as you.”
Her palms grew cold and clammy, and her vision winked. “I…”
Darkness enveloped her.
When Lex next woke, she was on her back, and the man from before was leaning over her. “You are a curious female.”
Her heart raced, the shaking returning to her limbs. “Have to get back. Find Jasper.”
“Who is this Jasper person?” He glanced to the side and tipped up his chin. “She is doing it again. Calm her, Zirel. She is not well.”
Another man, just as tall as the first, moved closer and hovered over her. His hair was lighter—red? He rested a large palm on her head.
Lex flinched at the touch, but no pain accompanied it. Instead, the panic that had tightened her chest and made it impossible to breathe eased.
“That is better,” the man with the strange eyes said to Zirel. “Her color is back.” His gaze swept her features. “My guard Amund says he senses your energy level now that we’ve taken you from the building where you lived.”
Energy level? “Who are you? What do you want with me?” Her chest might have stopped pounding, but her brain was going haywire, this way and that and nowhere at all. She couldn’t be away from Jas for long or the anxiety would cripple her. It always did.
“My apologies,” the man said, and delivered a charming grin that might have disarmed a normal person. But Lex wasn’t normal. “I am Garrin Branimir, Fae prince of Dark Kingdom. And you are?”
Lex’s jaw unhinged. “Fae prince?”
She’d been kidnapped by a madman.
“Please let me go,” she begged.
This time, Garrin’s eyes softened. “We cannot.”
She was having a bad dream she couldn’t wake from. That had to be it.
Lex sat up and scooted back. She used the cave wall for leverage to straighten her legs and stand, but the men blocked the exit.
When her head stopped spinning, she darted around them in the direction where pitch-darkness turned gray and what she hoped led out of the cave.
And was immediately ensnared by the prince’s arm, her body pressed to his broad, warm chest.
More heat than normal radiated off him as he tipped his head toward her ear, his mouth inches away. “You cannot leave, Halven. And it would be better if you accepted it.”
She attempted to hit him where it hurt, but his body was solid and unyielding, and he dodged her. Every time she tried, he shifted just enough that she slammed her fist into his muscular thigh instead of his nuts. Dammit!
He chuckled, his deep voice filling the space around her. “You can’t hurt me, Halven.”
She let out a harsh sigh. “Why do you keep calling me that?”
He eased his hold and turned her to face him without letting her go. “Because it is what you are. Created by the mating of one of my kind and a human.”
For a moment, Lex couldn’t speak. Couldn’t get her mind to wrap around his words. “Your kind? You called yourself a Fae prince.”
He grinned, and her eyes widened. He might be a devil, but he was a handsome devil. “Now you are catching on. We are from Tirnan, the Fae realm, as is one of your sires… Curious, that. I wonder who in my kingdom created you? What did you say your name was?”
She hadn’t. And what was with this guy? He’d kidnapped her, but he didn’t know her name? “I’m Lex. Make note of it, because you’ve got the wrong girl.”
“Lex.” He said it as though the word stuck to his tongue like peanut butter. “That is an odd name. But Halven are an odd breed. I give you permission to call me Garrin.”
Breed? Like some dog? “What is a Fae?” she snapped. His companion must have done something to her when he touched her head, because she was braver with these men than any other strangers in her life.
“Ah,” he said, and glanced at the other two men. “If you don’t know you are Halven, you wouldn’t know our history.” Garrin gestured to himself. “I and my people descended from the mating of angels and a few honored humans. We live in a realm known as Tirnan.”
“Oh my God.” He was certifiable. And big. And how was she going to get past him? Lex glanced around desperately.
He cocked his head. “No, the grandchildren of God. Please pay attention.” He looked at the others leerily. “We’ve been told Halven are lesser beings, but I didn’t take your kind for having low intelligence.”
Zirel, with the magical touch that slowed her heart rate, shrugged his broad shoulders, his cropped red hair brighter now that he stood in the faint light of the fire. “Perhaps the Halven brain is…” He made a small space between his thumb and forefinger.
Were they calling her dimwitted? “I’m not slow, you arrogant asses.”
The one Garrin had called Amund laughed low, and Garrin shot him a deadly look.
“Take me home now,” she said.
Garrin motioned for Zirel to block the entrance. “You cannot go home. Others search for you as we speak. Dark Kingdom is fortunate to have found you first. As far as we know, the prophecy has spread wide in Tirnan, and others wish to use you against us.”
These men didn’t seem like lunatics, not that she knew what lunatics looked like. They were well dressed, if strangely, and they were healthy-looking, if extremely tall… Lex gripped her hands together. “What are you going to do with me?” she managed to get out.
“Take you to my home,” Garrin said.
“To, to…” Visions of what men did to hapless females choked her.
Garrin’s brow furrowed as though he were confused at her response. “To introduce you to my people. And to find your magic.”
So they weren’t going to… Wait— “What magic?”
“You are a powerful Halven, Lex. I do not understand how it could be either, but the prophecy is real.”
Her eyes widened. “I’m the weakest person I know. You’ve got the wrong girl!”
Garrin’s wide, full lips compressed. “I am never wrong. Dark Kingdom lies a great distance through the Land of Ice. We must leave this cave and prepare for the journey.”
“You’re not listening to me. And what do you mean Land of Ice…as in snow? You’re not taking me to-to the snow, are you?” Lex’s mind whirled, her words coming out choppy.
“There is a great deal of snow in the Land of Ice,” he said absently as he grabbed a pack and shoved garments of some kind inside. They looked puffy, like coats people wore for heavy winter.
Lex sank to the ground. She couldn’t get past these men, but she wouldn’t go willingly. Suddenly, the cave didn’t seem so bad after all. “I won’t leave.”
Garrin stopped what he was doing and frowned. “You will eat something, and then our journey begins. It will be long and grueling. Unless you have perfected your abilities? I assumed not, but…” He looked hopeful.
She threw up her hands. “What abilities? Of course I can’t help you. Have you listened to anything I’ve said? I’m not the person you’re searching for.”
He let out a soft sigh. “You are her; you will see. However, without your magic, we must make the journey the hard way.”
Lex grabbed the sides of her head. It wasn’t pounding in pain and her heart wasn’t racing, but her mind spun like a tornado. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Garrin paced away, his back to her, and said, “To save my people.”
