To Kill A Kingdom | ACOTAR

Chapter 1 - "Why are you answering a question with another question?"

Evette held her nightgown up as she ran barefoot through the woods behind the Palace - she ran and ran, and she didn't dare look back. After running for a fair bit, she skidded to a stop at the river, panting and breathing heavily. "Eve!" A familiar voice hissed, making her snap round and see Caspian racing towards her. Her cousin. Her aunt's odd eldest son.

Evette gasped and threw herself into the river, and it came up to her waist, and she began to splash and wade through it to get to the another side. Caspian leaped forward, grabbed onto her and the both of them were plunged under the water.

Evette shoved at the man and broke out to the surface with a cough, running her hands over her face. Evette moved to climb out of the river, but Caspian grabbed her. Evette thrashed in his grip. "Relax." He told her with a pant. "Relax. I'm not going to hurt you...I swear. I'm not going to hurt you."

Evette relaxed in her cousins grip and let out a small breath. Evette knew the Fey - unlike the Fae - couldn't lie. "What's going on?" Evette demanded of him. "What is your mother doing?"

"It's a coup." He replied as he climbed from the river and helped her out. Evette looked at him wide eyed and began to shake her head gently. "I'll send you to the mortal lands. I'll find you once this is over." He told her. "You can't die, but you also can't be controlled by my mother. I will find you. I promise. But you do need to go - to hide."

She began to shake her head at him. She was barely able to use her Fey magic - she still was very young. She was only 20, with her brothers and cousins being decades older than her. Her mother and aunt being a good century or two older. The Fey were mortal but they lived longer than humans - the oldest recorded Fey was 532 years old. Many didn't master their magic until they were at least 40 years old.

"You have rounded ears. You're half human." Caspian reminded her - which they all knew made her weaker than an average Fey because she'd likely die a few centuries before 500. "They will not suspect you being Fey. They don't even know about our kind. I'll winnow you at the wall - just keep your wits about you."

"Caspian!"

"I promise I will find you." He vowed as he held her arms length - his one bright blue eye staring at her earnestly. Caspian only had one eye - he wore an eye patch over the other after an injury, she thinks. She was quite sure what happened to his eye - he just randomly wore it one day, his old heterochromia brown gone. "You trust me? You trust me to find you again?"

"Of course I do." Evette replied.

Caspian nodded and took a few steps from her. He held his palms out to her and within a few moments blurs rushed past her and she was able to feel the shift of her body moving without her actively moving it herself. It was going fine, until all of a sudden there was a lurch and instead of moving...it was as if she were falling.

Because she was.

Evette found herself falling through the air and she let out a loud shriek of shock and terror as the wind whipped around her while she fell down towards trees. Evette hit the floor hard and pain shot through her entire body, and she let out a low moan of pain. After laying on the floor for a good few minutes, she moved to push herself up and found herself glad she was part Fey, else that fall would've killed her.

Just like it'd have killed a human, or Fae.

Once Evette pushed herself to her feet she took in her surroundings with furrowed brows - the night was dark and cold, and she was shivering (the fact she was soaking wet didn't help that). She was in what looked to be a woods - it was not any woods of her land. She'd have known - this place felt different to her. The nature around her gave off a dark aura - and it surrounded her.