The Unseelie Crown (Maze of Shadows, #2)

by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

“I am to be pursued day and night, then? Hunted by both clans alike?” She let out a whine. “What manner of life is that?” “We do not get to choose the paths before us, simply how we wish to walk along them.”

Ivory. Who would have thought to fashion down the tusks of slaughtered beasts to decorate musical instruments? And the humans call us monstrous.

“The way you speak of him, I would think you hated him.” “That is how everyone speaks of the prince.” Cruinn snickered. Why did part of her feel sorrow about that? Valroy deserved the scorn, certainly. She forced her thoughts somewhere else.

With that fury…was fear. Fear. Real fear. Not for him, or his plans—but for her. What have you done to me, Abigail? What have I become?

She hesitated before following the elf outside. She looked back at Beatrice. “Must…must he and I be enemies? Is that what we are to become?” Beatrice smirked. “That is entirely for you to decide, my child.”

She could see the beauty in him no matter how he smiled. She delighted in his kindness, even as she was revolted by his cruelty.

“He is overwhelming,” was her answer when she opened her eyes again to fetch more cheese and bread. “He is a force of nature.”