Curse of the Thorn King (Exclusive Edition)

‘Please.’ She glanced up at him, barely keeping her voice from cracking again. Why did he have to be so tall? ‘If I swear I won’t tell anyone – won’t harm you again – can’t you just let me go?'
The smirk dissolved. ‘No.’
‘Please.’ Her blood sang in her ears. ‘I’ll tell you everything you want to know about the Princeps and Lady Millicent – I’ll—’
‘Human promises,’ he interrupted with a scoff. ‘Thank you, Miss Iavi, but if I wish to gamble, I can make it more amusing than that. The answer is no.’
‘But—’
‘And pleading won’t help.’ He sauntered another step closer, moving with impossible ease – as if he were gliding rather than walking. ‘The matter is not that I don’t want to be rid of you. I could think of more welcome company, as a matter of fact. The trouble is that I’m not able to let you leave the castle.’
She stared at him.
He quirked up his eyebrow, a crystal-clear challenge for her to shriek, to burst out crying, to get the vapours like a proper young lady. Between them, his words hovered in the air, sinking in as she sat frozen. Nonsensical words, impossible words …
But he was fae.
Which meant that some way or another, they had to be true.
‘I don’t understand,’ she breathed. ‘I walked in. Why couldn’t I leave the same way?’
‘Those defences you so cleverly avoided.’ Another step forward. His hair fluttered around his shoulders, his boots gleamed in the candlelight. ‘Now that you have attacked me, they know I am in danger. And in response, they’ve hermetically locked the castle.’
It took a moment for that to come through.
‘Do you mean …’ No, her thoughts repeated frantically, like the rhythm of a pounding heart, no, no, no. ‘Are you saying neither of us can go out?’
His living jaw twitched. ‘Exactly.’
‘But you’re the king of this place!’ she burst out, and finally her legs regained their strength; shaking, wobbling, she rose. ‘You’re not dependent on your own defences, are you?’
‘I wasn’t,’ he said softly, dangerously, ‘before you humans ruined everything.’