Prologue

I was running for my life.

Praying to whatever higher power I could, I dared to hope that I would make it out of here alive. I knew it was risky to break into the Castle of Royal Wolves, but I was starving. Though now I’m really wishing I would have just let myself suffer. I don’t know that even a sliver of food is worth all of this.

Making a sharp left turn, I run right into a fleshy wall. Momentarily stunned, I could have sworn I turned sharp enough to miss it, yet here I am on the ground rubbing my sore nose. Not understanding how I wound up on the floor, I look up only to realize that it, in fact, was not a wall but a werewolf in its human form. This particular werewolf was currently standing there staring into space, unknowingly providing me with an excellent escape opportunity. Even knowing that I should be using every precious second wisely, I couldn’t help wasting a couple of them to take a quick glance at him, and after taking in as much of that fine piece of man candy as I could, start running down the hall.

Again, I was seeming to catch all the luck on my attempt to escape because not but a couple hundred feet ahead came my salvation. An open window in front of me was just sitting there looking very inviting, but after making my way over and peeking over the edge I was hit with the hard realization that it was about a three story drop to the ground. Not sure if I should try the jump or not, I frantically look around for anything to aid me in my escape. That drop was one that wouldn’t necessarily kill me, but it would definitely injure me enough for the guards to catch up and lock me up for the rest of my life. After a few minutes of scanning the area, my eyes land on my saving grace. There, kind of close to the window, stood a tree causing me to mentally do a little celebratory dance. I quickly eyed the distance to the branch to see if I could make the jump or not, and figured that I just might be able to make it if I got a running start.

Wearily, glancing back and forth between the building and the tree, I became well aware of the fact that this was a major risk, and there was a huge possibility I wouldn’t make it. The tree stood about ten feet away, and the lowest branch was about even with the second story. The only way for me to be able to make it would be to tap into my powers, and I wasn’t sure that I had enough energy left to do it.

“Stop in the name of the King!” a guard shouted.

I could hear the stomping of their boots coming closer. Judging by how loud they were, they couldn’t be too far away. I’d actually be willing to bet my left foot that they were just around the corner.

Once that thought actually registered in my mind, my decision was solidified. In truth, there really was no choice. There was only the one option because being caught was not a path I was willing to take. I took a moment to take a deep breath and gather all of my courage. Taking a few solid steps back I closed my eyes for a second to prepare myself and hoped that my luck hadn’t run out yet. Gathering every ounce of energy I possessed, I opened my eyes and ran as fast as I could and dove out of the window.

The moment my body cleared the window it felt like I was moving in slow motion. Feeling a bit more confident about this leap, I risked a glance behind me and saw the guards standing there with their mouths wide open in shock, looking at me like I’m crazy. Snickering a bit to myself, I had to agree with them. I wonder about my sanity on a daily basis as well.

I felt like everything was going fine...until I hit the halfway mark. I gauged the remaining distance from me to the tree and could tell that I was going to fall a couple inches short. Panic was slowly seeping in and my decision was quickly back firing on me. I didn’t know if I had it in me to use the power that would be needed to get me those last few precious inches. Fortunately, my panic helped me out in that moment. Mid freak out my power flowed out of me without my acknowledgment. The branch moved, with a slight boost from me, of course, and I was able to get a loose grip on it.

Dangling by the tips of my fingers, I felt my heart leap into my throat when I looked down and saw three wolves circling the tree. A fourth was directly below me, jumping trying to get a hold of my foot, and I could hear the soft sound of several sets of paws thumping on the ground making their way towards me. I’ll never know how I was able to hoist myself up the branch. I had absolutely no energy left, but somehow I managed to do it. I climbed a bit higher up in the tree, and found a sturdy looking branch. I desperately needed to fall into a sleep induced coma for the next year of my life, but, alas, I was unable to do so for fear of falling out of the tree and the wolves catching me. Heaving a big sigh, I simply settled on taking a few minute long rests before I began my journey out of here.

Looking around me, I took a moment absorb the scenery. I have to hand it to the Royals; this place was gorgeous. They knew what they were doing when they put this place together.

Surrounding the mansion was a forest that was so brilliantly breath taking it made me do a double take. It was a rare thing anymore to find a thriving forest, let alone one that contained so much living beauty. The wolves seemed to have coveted their own little slice of heaven because everything was bright green and seemed to have a life of its own. It had been so long since I had seen any like this that it took my breath away. The tree were thriving and surrounded by some of the softest most luxurious grass I had seen both in my real life and in some of the pictures in books I’d read. I tried to get a glimpse of how deep the forest was, but it seemed to go on for miles.

The mansion alone was by far the most beautiful building I had seen in a long time, if not ever. It looked like an old time castle, but with modern updates. The whole thing was made up of bits of small stone pieced together in a meticulous order, and instead of there just being a hole in the wall for a window there were huge bay windows that went from floor to ceiling. There were several decks on the second floor off of what I would guess to be bedrooms, but it was the third floor where things got really impressive. One of the rooms had windows covering every inch of what should have been a wall, and that is including the walls in the interior. I had a perfect view into that room, and saw shelf after shelf filled with books. Next to the book room was another one of the balconies. I couldn’t see into that room, but I could see that it had the same style windows on the outside, and again I would guess it to be a bedroom.

At this moment I couldn’t help but be momentarily grateful to the wolves. As annoying as this whole day has been, if it weren’t for their need of the woods I would have more than likely been caught. The trees alone were going to provide me with my desperately needed escape. I stood up from the branch and eyeballed the closest tree. The wolves were still down below, watching, waiting for me to make my next move. I wouldn’t be able to outrun them in my current state, overly tried and starving, so I figured that my best bet to make it out of here alive was to stay out of the wolves reach. The only way I was going to be able to do that was by leaping from branch to branch. Shaking out my arms to ready myself for this, I took a deep breath and pushed off the branch, easily landing in the next tree. Well maybe not easy per say, that happened to be one of the scariest moments of my life because I could see the wolves below me just waiting for me to make a mistake and fall. I knew if I were to fall there would be no trial or jury of my peers. I would be killed immediately. Maybe if I hadn’t of ran I could have talked my way out of a death sentence, but wolves were known for their lack of patience and they had been chasing me for a hot minute at this point.

After jumping the first tree, I was relieved to find that the rest were pretty close to each other and a decently easy jump. It was like after I made that first leap my confidence rose and I knew I’d be able to make the rest. Jumping from tree to tree as quickly and safely as I could, I found myself farther and farther ahead of the wolves. Soon enough there were no wolves following me because I was out of the Royal territory. I wasn’t too worried about them tailing me any more because I had plenty of experience in evading and hiding my tracks, and they would have to go back to the castle to grab reinforcements. On the off chance that they were able to find and catch up to me, they would be in for the surprise of a lifetime when they found out that this girl fought back, and fought back hard.

They truly had no idea who they had chased out of that mansion. They had no idea that I alone could demolish the entire Royal mansion with the flick of my hand, and had I been at my full strength I would not have had to run. I could have taken on at least three of those guys at a time and came out victorious. To be honest though, I was actually quite lucky that they hadn’t figured out who I was. If they had there would have been a much higher probability that I would have been caught because they would have doubled down and done almost anything and everything to get me. I knew that once it was common knowledge that I was alive, I would be hunted down and used.

For I was the last of my family, the last of the Imperials, the last princess of my kind.

I was the last of the Fae.