The Blood Pact (Rite World Rite of the Wolf #3) - Juliana Haygert Page 0,1

bring the shadow fae king down first.”

Her dark eyes narrowed. She considered it for a minute. I was sure she didn’t like the idea of having the fae king in the human realm. He was too close for comfort, and he was purely evil. He would soon rage war against not just the fae, but all supernaturals, including witches.

It was in her interest—in all of our interest—to have the fae king gone.

The seconds ticked by, and I fought not to squirm under her intense stare.

“If you don’t agree,” I said, starting to get too uncomfortable about this. “I won’t let you have me. I’ll fight my way out of here, and if I can’t escape, I’ll kill myself so you can’t use me as you intend to.”

Corvina didn’t flinch. For a full minute, she didn’t even move. She just stared at me, as if she could see something I was hiding inside my head.

Then she finally said, “I need time to consider this.”

2

Wyatt

I couldn’t believe she had left me like this.

Again.

What the fuck?

This time I wasn’t desperate, or worried, though. I was fucking pissed. Why was her excuse now? She was going to turn herself to the fae king? Hadn’t we already established that wouldn’t work at all?

After getting dressed and washing up, I stomped out of my bedroom and into the communal area in between the guests’ buildings. Thankfully, not many people were awake or out at this time of the morning, but the ones that mattered were here: Daleigh, Ariella, and Kayden. The trio was seated at one end of a long table, tea mugs in front of them.

They saw me approaching with easy demeanor, but when I got close, they noticed something was amiss and tension spread through the group.

“What’s wrong?” Ariella was the first to ask.

“Farrah left,” I told them.

Daleigh shot up. “What? What do you mean?”

I shrugged. “I woke up and she was gone.” Again, I almost said out loud, but shut my lips tight. Ariella might remember that, but the others didn’t need to know.

Ariella blanched. “You don’t think she went to the fae king?”

I shook my head. “Why would she have left just to go back there? There’s something else going on, I just can’t pinpoint what.”

“We should go after her,” Kayden said, standing up. “She can’t have gotten far.”

I nodded, though I had been asleep most of the night. She could have left hours earlier and be very far away. Still, I couldn’t stop having hope. I wished I would step outside and find her there, frozen in place, unsure about leaving, considering coming back to me. I would hold her hand and tell her to stay.

Where the fuck had she gone?

We agreed to pack small bags and meet at the front gates of Starlight Vale in fifteen minutes. I was in my room, shoving some spare change of clothes in my bag when there was a knock on the door. A moment later, Luana stepped in.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her eyes on the bag over the bed. “You’re leaving?”

I let out a sigh. “I’m going after Farrah.”

Luana frowned. “What do you mean?”

I told her about Farrah just upping and leaving, and that it wasn’t the first time she did that. If I knew Farrah, she was up to no good, and I had to find her before she did something that she would regret.

After a tense silence, Luana crossed her arms and nodded. “Go. Find her. But then come back here. We’ll keep an eye on the fae king. If he tries anything, we’ll stop him, but Wyatt … from what I’ve seen, from what I’ve felt, I’m not sure we can defeat them so easily. We might need help. All the help we can get.”

“I know,” I whispered. Defeating the shadow fae king before he stepped foot outside his new castle was a priority, of course, but I couldn’t just focus on that and forget about Farrah. Besides, Farrah was fucking powerful. We needed her here, helping us. I turned to Luana. “I’ll be back soon, I promise.”

Luana clasped a hand over my shoulder. “Take care.”

Daleigh, Ariella, Kayden, and I left Starlight Vale and started our journey through the forest, trying to track where Farrah might have gone. But there was no clue, no track. There was no way of knowing which direction she had gone.

At some point, we separated and went different ways, trying to find something, anything that served as a clue. But Farrah wasn’t stupid.