Ep 001 | A Dangerous Wish
Razrael
Tomorrow.
I clench my hands into fists as I glare into the distance, cloak billowing behind me. I stand on the rooftop deck, one boot on the low marble rail, watching the red sun disappear into the distant hills.
Tomorrow, my bride will marry someone else.
Yes. My bride.
It’s been ten years since she promised herself to me, but I’ve never forgotten. I said I would make her my queen.
And fae never lie.
Tomorrow, my bride will marry another man. But not if I steal her first.
Saelah
One night. That’s all I have left. Tomorrow, I’ll share my bed with a stranger.
I trace my fingertips along the stone window ledge. This tower has been both my prison and my sanctuary for the last year. After tonight, I’ll never sleep inside these walls again.
I don’t want to marry a stranger. Much less a man twice my age with three wives already, but I’ve stalled as long as I can.
Now I’m trapped.
I open the shutters and grab the metal bars bolted deep into the stone outside the window, giving them a shake. The bars don’t budge.
Of course they don’t.
Not that I’d survive a seven-story jump, anyhow.
I grab the door handle and give it a firm tug, but the lock barely rattles. Laughter drifts through the wall at my attempt.
Great.
The guards are laughing at me.
Born the king’s illegitimate daughter, this has always been my fate. And now that he’s passed, there’s no one left to protect me.
I’m on my own.
Clutching the necklace I keep hidden beneath my bodice, I think of the beautiful boy with vivid green eyes, the boy I found bleeding on the street so many years ago when I was but a girl myself. A decade has passed since then, yet I still dream of those eyes almost every time I close mine.
I brought him food and water and bandages, caring for him for three nights. When I returned on the fourth night, he was gone. All that remained was a necklace—the one I’ve kept hidden under my dress all these years.
Whether it was a gift or a mistake, I’ll never know.
I haven’t seen him since.
With my face tilted up toward the first stars lighting the sky above my tower, I close my eyes, clutch his necklace against my chest, and utter a silly nursery rhyme I heard as a child.
“Star light, star bright, wish I may, wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.” I pause, and for a moment, I swear I feel a strange warmth emanating from the pendant in my hands. “Please. I wish someone would save me.”
Bright green light flashes in front of my eyes as I snap them open, jumping back.
At first, the light seems to come from my necklace.
Then my ears register the floor-shaking boom as the light flashes out from the other side of the window, and the bars fall away.
A masked man swings one leg over the ledge as the curtain of billowing green smoke clears, the shadow of his cloak darkening all but his smirk as he steps nimbly inside. Cold air rushes in around him, despite the warmth of the night.
I lurch back, scrambling for something to hold on to as I stumble, but the masked stranger catches me before I hit the floor. His fingers burn hot against mine.
“Prepare yourself,” he growls in my ear as he pulls me against the heat of his hard chest. “I’m here to steal you, princess.”
I gasp, trying to pull away, but he only grips me tighter. Warmth streams from his body, like he’s drawn every ounce of heat from the air. His arms are strong and muscular, and his smirk sends my heart racing despite my fear.
I should be terrified.
I am terrified.
Yet there’s something deliciously familiar about him that I can’t quite place: A fresh smell, like green grass on a spring day.
I breathe in deeper, that scent lighting a memory inside me that I’d long ago forgotten. Maybe it’s absurd, a wild hope, but I know what his scent reminds me of.
Or rather—who.
“You’re here to grant my wish,” I whisper up into the shadows of his mask. “Then are you a genie?”
If only I could see his eyes. Then I’d know for sure if my mad hope is truly mad.
“A genie,” he scoffs. “Is that what you think?”
No. It’s impossible. He can’t be the boy from so long ago.
I pull back slightly, fear returning as I gaze deep into the shadows where his eyes must be. “Then you are a thief. Or a kidnapper.”
I reach for his mask, but he grabs my wrist in one strong hand before I can touch it.
“The guards,” he growls, glaring over my shoulder as someone drags the board away from the other side of the door with a loud clatter.
With a flick of his hand, my captor—or perhaps my savior—sends a tendril of green magic flashing out across the door. It sinks into the lock just as a key jingles on the other side.
“That ought to hold them for a moment,” he mutters.
I stare up at him in awe. I’ve never seen magic before. Not like this.
“You really are a genie.”
He laughs again, a low sound that reverberates deep in my soul.
“No, princess.” The rough gravel of his voice shimmers behind my ear as he leans in and whispers, “Not a genie. A fae.”
I gasp, stretching as far away in his arms as I can. A fae!?
Dangerous, dark, and deadly. That’s what fae are.
The doorknob rattles again behind us, and I debate about screaming for help.
“Oi!” shouts one of the guards. “Open up this instant!”
“So, what do you say, princess?” The mysterious, masked fae leans closer, letting the husky rumble of his voice melt into my ear. “The choice is yours: Stay locked in this tower and face your fate, or say yes and let me steal you.”
