Chapter 21: Escape’s Promise

Note: Thanks to B0b and WRC 264 for beta reading this!

Princess Ava – Echur, The Kivoneth Princedom, The Strifelands of Zeutch

I squirmed in the saddle of my horse. Every moment, I wanted to turn around and ride back to the castle. My pussy ached and my writhing just increased my need. I rubbed my pussy lips and clit into the hard, leather saddle.

Only my father could satiate the hot hole between my thighs. Only his cock fucking into me would make me cum and cum and...

I clenched my fists down around Delicate’s reins. I sucked in deep breaths, fighting against the mounting lusts growing inside of me, that incestuous urge to feel my father slide his dick into the depths of my cunt and breed me.

I needed Sven. I needed to break this curse.

“We’re almost free, your Highness,” Greta said. My bedmaid gave me a soft smile. “See, there’s the gates. Once we’re out of the castle and riding for you betrothed, you’ll receive that satisfaction that you crave. Sven will give it to you. Everyday, we’ll get farther and farther away from your father.”

“I know,” I said, my voice so tight. The heat wafted through me. It was so hard to fight my depraved passions. It would be easier to go to my father’s chambers. One last time with him, enjoying his dick, then I could escape.

It wouldn’t hurt, right?

“I’ll never get away if I do that,” I whispered to myself. The words sounded so hollow. A part of me didn’t care. The part of me enchanted by that horrid, treacherous priestess’s curse. If I ever met her...

“Princess Ava?” a gruff voice asked. “What you doin’ here?”

I blinked, realizing we had reached the gate. One of my father’s guards stared up at me, a polearm gripped in his right hand. He had bushy, brown mustache, the ends drooping down past his lips. He cocked his head at me, a conical helm perched on it.

“My maid and I are going to enjoy this wonderful day,” I said, putting authority into my words. “I have been cooped up in the castle for too long. I need to breathe fresh air.”

“I don’t know,” he said, sounding dubious. “It’s dangerous out there.”

“Dangerous?” I asked in such a haughty tone, lifting my chin in an imperious manner. “Within an hour’s ride of Echur and my father’s castle? Are his men that poor at protecting his lands and chattel?”

“It’s just ... last week, your highness, dangerous bandits were spotted a half day’s ride from the city. The guard chased them into the Forest of Lhes and—”

“So it is perfectly safe for me to ride then,” I said, squirming, my pussy so wet. “The Forest of Lhes is days away.”

“They might return,” the guard said doubtfully. “I wouldn’t want to endanger you. At least let me send an escort.”

“An escort!” I gasped. “And what if my maid and I wish to bathe in the Korval Spring? Would your brutish guards spy on our virginal flesh?”

“How horrid,” shuddered Greta beside me.

“My men would do no such thing,” the guard protested.

I narrowed my eyes and put on my most withering look.

He wilted beneath it, his armor clattering as his shoulders shifted. “Still, your Highness, I at least need your father’s permission.”

“My father is very busy. He would not want to be interrupted.” I swallowed. “He received some truly devastating news last night. He is sequestered in his study. He does not need me or my maid underfoot, distracting him. It is your duty, guardsmen, to allow us to ride through the countryside so he may know peace.

“Because if you disturb him, he will be most vexed. Especially when he hears my opinion on your conduct.”

The blood drained from his face. He sputtered, his eyes wild. I trembled, waiting to find out what he would do. If he sought out my father’s permission ... Would Father give it? Or would he be too busy even to listen to the messenger?

I fought the shivers attacking my body. The cold stress brimmed in my body, expanding until I felt on the verge of popping. Sweat formed at my hairline. I wanted to dab at it, but I kept my imperious gaze on the guard.

I needed to escape today, or I would be lost.

Aingeal – Queen Sidhe’s Palace, Faerie

“We’re doomed,” I groaned as I trembled against Sven.

He turned around and clamped his right hand over my mouth. Pain tightened his face, his middle finger bent and twisted, broken. He sucked in a deep breath as his sister and the aoi pressed against us, Kora’s back to the guards, her fingers moving and...

We ran away. My eyes widened as I witnessed the six of us break away from our huddle and race back for the palace where we just came from. Guards descended from the sky, lunging at them. Blasts of purple magic hurtled down at us.

I goggled as I watched myself, wingless and naked, jump into the air, dodging a ball of energy that stuck the ground at my feet. Sven danced around another guard who landed before him, moving with more grace than I had ever seen in my life. Kora ducked a ball of streaming death then burst out of the courtyard into the palace. She darted to the right and out of sight. Sven and myself followed.

Illusions?

The six of us—the real us— were invisible. I hadn’t even realized when it happened. Kora had ... had used her magic. She painted something so perfect, so skilled that it had fooled even my senses. If I hadn’t been one of the fleeing persons, I wouldn’t have even considered that they were fake.

And neither had the guards.

The entire palace shuddered and rang like a gong as the soldiers charged after us, landing and darting into the corridors to give chase. Conleth and Turlough both hovered in the air above us, gaping in shock.

“I didn’t think humans could move with such grace,” Conleth said, drifting towards the palace.

“Well, Lady Kora did dance with that divine energy last night.”

“Yes, her primal energy helped obscure the clumsiness of her movements.”

Kora gave a soft hiss somewhere to my right. “I was perfect.”

Sven pulled his unseen hand from my mouth. “See, Aingeal,” Sven said. “All part of the plan.”

“You knew they would betray us?” I gasped, glaring at the two sycophants as they landed and peered into the palace.

“It was so obvious,” Sven said, not loud even with the alarm ringing from every direction. “And now the guards are busy hunting us and the alarm rings through the entire palace. So if we enter the garden...”

“You are a genius!” I gasped. “They won’t notice another alarm ringing in this cacophony.”

“I know,” Sven said and I pictured his cocky, confident grin that always came so easily to his lips.

“You can inflate your self-worth later, brother mine. We need to go. Now.”

“Yes, we cannot tarry,” the aoi si said. “The guards will soon realize that we didn’t just evaporate into thin air, but that they were lured away by decoys.”

Sven found my hand, squeezed it. Someone else took my other hand, slender. Nathalie.

“Everyone got each other?” Sven asked.

“Yes,” Kora said.

“I have your sister and Zanyia,” the aoi si said.

“And I got cute Nathalie.”

The soft hand holding mine squeezed down. “I won’t let go of Mistress Aingeal.”

Sven squeezed mine. “Let’s go.”

My back muscles twitched, trying to flutter wings that were no longer there. But even that didn’t diminish the joy bubbling through me. I felt so light that I could almost soar without them. We would escape back to the mortal world. There would be no returning to Faerie for me, but I wouldn’t be alone on the other side.

I had my new family.

Sven led us across the courtyard, my hands squeezing tight to his and Nathalie. We passed through the arch. I shuddered, feeling the ward we crossed, but if an alarm rang out, it sounded no different than the one already booming through the palace.

“Right, left, then left,” Sven muttered as he navigated us through the maze. “Then right again.” We passed through the colorful bushes, heading deeper and deeper into it. Each hedge had a different hue, some purples, other gold, or silver, or even a light blue. The colors seemed random, but they blended together in such a way that always arrested the gaze, drawing you to the shape of the plant’s limbs, each pruned to be pleasing to the eye.