Escaping Destiny (The Fae Chronicles, #3) by Amelia Hutchins
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank the fans who inspire me to
write each and every day. Thank you for your continual support, and encouragement. For your dedication, and loyalty, and everything you do. To the Minions who are too many to name, thanks for spreading the word and making this series what it is. To the amazing woman and my friend who helped shape this book into the perfect mold. I couldn’t have done it without you Gina. To the beta readers, and the editor, I treasure you all. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Chapter One
Destiny has a way of finding you, even if you’ve been hidden from it. My destiny was chosen for me and written before I was born. Right after I was born, my parents signed me away. They signed a contract with a monster whom in return, stopped harassing our people and freed my brother.
Terrified for my future, they had broken the contract and I was hidden among Humans in the least likely place I would be looked for. They created an elaborate illusion so that I wouldn’t be found, and in doing this, they had resigned themselves that they would never see me again. They figured that what they had planned for me was a better future than what had befallen many of the Horde King’s other toys. Too bad destiny had other ideas. My parents were only able to hold the illusion together for six short years before the evil, in the form of my brother Faolán, and the creature before me, ripped it away. They seemed to be the galvanizing forces that prompted the journey that shaped me and eventually brought me to this cavernous hall, kneeling at the feet of the most feared creature in this world, or the Human one.
Liam, my brother, had been captured, tortured, and broken by the same man who stood before me now. The Horde King had done everything in his power to ensure I was his. Why? What was so important about me that the Horde wanted me so much?
Children? He had many children, mostly boys if the whispers about him were correct. Power? It was the most likely reason, but that only added more questions to why this beautiful, deadly creature wanted me as his concubine since I held no power for him to take. Was it to keep my parents under his thumb? Could be, but why did he need to bring them to heel when he could so easily kill them as he had my grandfather?
Nothing made sense, and even now, as I knelt at his feet awaiting my fate, I wanted answers that likely wouldn’t come. Here was this creature who could easily wipe out anyone he chose to, and for some reason, he wanted me. He’d ensured from my birth that I would end up here at his feet. As his slave.
Me, he wanted me.
The room was filled with the noise of the celebrating Horde, while I remained on my knees at his feet. I was still dressed in a beautiful gown, with an almost laughable weapon hidden in the bodice of the dress—one that was supposedly created to kill the Horde King. I had no plans of using it on him. It wasn’t because I didn’t think I could, I just wasn’t stupid or suicidal.
There was no way in hell I could kill him and get away with it. I was going to figure out why the Horde King wanted me, and I was going to escape him. If I used the dagger, I’d be dead before I could figure out the bigger picture, and killing him would seal the fate of too many people who depended on this contract.
I’d lived so much of my life trying to help others, and do what I thought was right. The Guild, with the exception of Alden and Marie, had used my hate and anger for their own purposes and betrayed Adam and I in the end. I hadn’t been living then, I’d been surviving. Ryder had been right, and up until I’d met him, I’d merely been existing. It was time to end that part of my life. I’d been going through the motions of living, oblivious to what I had wanted for myself. Deep down, I’d known I wanted love; real soul ripping love.
Blinding love that made you do stupid things, and I had. I had fallen in love with a Fairy—I mean, how much stupider could that be? In his arms, I felt whole, protected. Sure, he’d given me to Adam to wed, but he really didn’t have any choice in the matter and I’d seen the pain in his eyes from doing so. Point? He wanted me for more than just sex.
Yes, Ryder had this need to dominate everyone, including me. But, we could work past that, and I was sure I could make him love me. It just really sucked that it had taken me this long to figure it out. I wasn’t the key to saving Faery, and that in itself was a huge relief. Unfortunately, that also opened up more questions as to who I really was and what I was meant to do.