A Forest of Stars (Court of Starlight and Darkness #1)(10)

If she knew I was human.

Prior to this morning, everyone I knew was human. It was just the status quo. Now, however, I was the odd woman out.

Almost everyone else was hardly touching their food. Though it was possible they were trying to maintain their phenomenally lithe figures, I had a feeling it was more about nerves. Half the women looked like they wanted to puke up their coffee, while the other half looked so cutthroat that they were fueled by cold determination instead of food.

Since nothing put me off a good meal, I tucked in, focusing mostly on the bacon.

When the crowd began to murmur more excitedly, I looked up to see what the fuss was about.

Immediately, my gaze met that of the man who’d abducted me. He was just as insanely gorgeous as last night, and yet somehow, he was even colder. That was saying something, considering he’d seemed to have been carved from ice by Michelangelo himself.

He frowned, and I realized that my cheeks were full of bacon and bread. I must have looked like a deranged hamster as I frantically tried to chew and swallow.

He looked away.

Well, that went well.

I looked at Meria, who was staring at me. “He looked right at you.”

I grimaced and nodded. “At my finest moment, too.”

She laughed, but it faded off. “There’s something about you…” She shook her head, her gaze darting toward Evelyn, who was staring at us with avid interest. “Later. We’ll discuss it later.”

I was desperate to discuss it now, but she was right. I couldn’t afford for Evelyn to have anything to use against me. We’d barely shared three words, and I could already feel her interest in me. It wasn’t a good thing.

Meria leaned close and whispered. “It’s your ears. People think you’re hiding them for a reason, which makes you interesting.”

I just barely resisted reaching up to touch them.

Technically, people were right. My ears did make me interesting because they made me human. And if I trusted Meria, which I did, discovery could lead to my death.





4





Sia



* * *



“Competitors, welcome!” The bearded man’s voice boomed over the crowd.

He’d stepped onto the front of the dais a moment ago and taken up position on the right side of the king. Lore, according to Meria. What kind of name was that?

Actually, it probably didn’t matter. I had a feeling he’d want me to call him something like Your Royal Highness.

I wouldn’t. Calling him by his first name would be my own small rebellion. It was the least he deserved after kidnapping me.

Lore remained seated, sprawled like a lion surveying his pride. He radiated a tightly coiled power, despite the fact that he was the picture of relaxation. This man only revealed what he wanted, but there was no hiding his deadly grace.

The wind blew his long silver hair away from his face, and it gleamed like metal beneath the sun. Though I sat far from him, I could make out the brilliant blue of his eyes, the sharp slant of his cheekbones, and the fullness of his lips. He was truly the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, but also the coldest.

I dragged my attention away from him before he could catch me staring and leaned toward Meria to whisper, “Who is the bearded guy who’s talking?”

“Vusario,” Meria whispered. “King’s seer and moderator of the competitions.”

“Not the king himself?”

“He would never.”

I believed that. Ice sculptures weren’t capable of moderating anything. They just stared coldly and burned you with their frost.

“You’ve come from far and wide to compete for the honor of being named queen.” Vusario’s voice boomed out over the crowd. He wore a brilliant blue cloak that swept from his neck to his toes. He looked like a sapphire column, slender and harsh. He had a neatly trimmed dark beard and onyx eyes that seemed to see everything at once. “The competition will begin today, with a challenge meant to test your mettle against a Külmking.”

Mettle? I didn’t have any mettle. What I had was a freezer full of Ben & Jerry’s and a subscription to every streaming service in existence.

I drew in a breath, trying to calm my racing heart.

“A queen must be cunning and strong, capable of defending her people,” Vusario continued. “Defeating a Külmking will be the perfect test. There is one stalking the forests of Estonia and making an incursion into a fae village.”

There were faint murmurs throughout the crowd, and I got the impression that most people knew what a Külmking was. From the pale faces of my competitors, it had to be bad.

“You may work together or separately,” Vusario said. “But there can only be one winner. The one to kill the Külmking will win a prize and esteem in the eyes of the king. Enough victories in competitions—presuming you survive—and you will be crowned queen.”

The fearful murmurs turned to excited ones, and I had to keep my face from twisting into a grimace. The king was hot and all, but I couldn’t imagine being married to an ice sculpture that vacillated between only two emotions—annoyance and disdain. Not to mention, the guy was a homicidal maniac to allow a competition like this, one where people put their lives at stake to be his queen.

No thanks.