Protected by W. J. May

Author:W. J. May [May, W. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07H4YJSFK
Published: 2018-11-14T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

When Katerina was six years old, her governess had taken her on a rare outing to the local village. They’d gone in disguise, of course, accompanied by guards who were equally disguised, and the young princess watched with wide-eyed wonder as the peasant children put on silly hats and costumes and ran from house to house—knocking on the door, asking for sweets.

It was the Festival of Carnassas. An ancient celebration wherein the villagers feasted and danced and sang, sharing in the bounties of the harvest and beckoning in the new year.

She remembered watching in fascination as hordes of screaming children ran up and down the streets, candies and sugared fruit smeared upon their lips. Growing up with the strict protocols of the castle, she remembered being shocked by the simple audacity of knocking on a stranger’s door. Expecting them to welcome you into their house and give you things you didn’t deserve.

This felt very much the same.

“Good morning!”

The door to the farmhouse pulled back to reveal an elderly woman—a woman whose mouth fell open in shock when she saw the people standing on the other side.

“What in tarnation...?”

They had tried to be strategic. Only a few standing on the porch (the girls), and a few of the more volatile-looking candidates (the vampire and the renegade prince) standing farther back.

Those precautions seemed rather silly now.

“Good morning,” Serafina said again, smiling sweetly.

It had been unanimously voted that the Fae princess should be the one to speak. As if her angelic, trustworthy features weren’t enough, she was one of the only members of the group whose clothes had somehow not been stained with an incriminating layer of blood.

“I’m so sorry to trouble you,” she continued politely, “but my friends and I have found ourselves in a rather strange—”

“Good heavens!” the old woman gasped. “You’re all covered in blood!”

The friends shared a quick glance, but no sooner had the fae pulled in a breath to try again than the old woman was calling at the top of her lungs for her husband.

“Richard!” she cried. “Richard, come quick!”

There was a creaking in the floorboards above them; the friends shifted nervously on the porch. A second later, an elderly man was hobbling slowly down the stairs.

“Really, woman? If you don’t stop your yammering—” He stopped cold when he saw the collection of battered teenagers at his door. “Well, I’ll be...”

It was a gamble as to whether or not he recognized them. People who lived in the outer villages seldom visited the capital, and even if he had it wasn’t like he was going to run into any of the young monarchs walking on the street. Although the legends and lore had been filled with many colorful descriptions, most commoners wouldn’t be able to recognize their own sovereign.

Even if that very sovereign was to show up at their door.

“Please, sir, pardon the intrusion.” Serafina’s lilting voice eased the tension as she offered the man a lovely smile. “I know it to be an odd request, but

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