FOR THE UNKNOWN KINGDOM | BOOK 1

CHAPTER 9

Expecting everything to be a trap, a well-organized plan to lock me in an aristocratic cell with no water or food and leave me here to starve, I tried to stand up just to realize that I didn't need to force any kind of pressure on my body to move. I shook my head, then my legs. Not a hint of pain. I ran a hand over my right leg just to see that the bruised skin had completely vanished. Brand new, I could promise that every muscle of my body felt refreshed.

Slithering off the king-size bed, it was an effort to hide the excitement that was a result of my now completely healed leg. Yet I masked the relief and the gratefulness only because I had no idea what these people were capable of doing, what they wanted from me. I could feel two pairs of eyes monitoring my every movement, two pairs of eyes that weren't blue, but black and green.

I wasn't in Lantra then.

I turned my gaze to the woman on my left and asked, "Where am I?"

She shrugged like it was the most ridiculous thing I could have ever asked and maybe it was. A hunter would never reveal the exact location of the place he'd hidden his prey. But I had to know—or at least try to learn—for that hunch that made me believe I was in danger, that I had to run and fight in order to earn my life back—but was that what I really wanted?

"Welcome to the Gap World, darling," she replied. The red lipstick that was applied on her lips created the perfect kind of vibe for a dangerous outcast. But the lightness in her face told me otherwise.

The man raised his hands to the ceiling, and I stood there, observing the way his clothes could have been designed for a king or a prestigious man with endless fortune. A dark red jacket covered his upper body while splashes of purple and gold made their appearance on the parts of his shoulders.

"You should have never tried to beat Jersen," he almost shouted, a smile covering his face, revealing white teeth. "You know, I'm always going to be the king of bets."

The girl punched him on his broad chest and he started laughing. She accompanied him. For a prison, the ambience was rather pleasant. Yet what was going on, I didn't know. Why they were acting friendly, I couldn't understand.

Footsteps echoed on the polished floor along with the murmuring of a few sentinels.

"Jersen and Amanda put a bet earlier on whether you were going to ask first what time it was or where you were, and as always Jersen—who also happened to have healed your leg—won."

I looked behind me to face the person the voice belonged to. As I'd expected it, Denfer had just entered the room, looking more formal than ever. His dark purple hair matched the deep green color of his embroidered tunic, a pair of black pants and black ankle boots finishing up his look. In the dim lantern light, a scratch decorated his face, a thin line marking the spot between his lips and his nose. It hadn't been there before. Or maybe I hadn't noticed it.

"Where am I?" I asked again, taking a step closer to him.

He held my gaze, not taking his eyes away from me and said, "We are in the middle of life and death, Velian. So . . . let me properly introduce you to the Gap World."

With a slight movement of his still wounded hand he opened the curtains behind him, letting the fading light of the outside world bathe the room.

"Come," he commanded and offered me his elbow to wrap my own around. I did not accept such thing, for my personal space would be terrorized by a movement like that and there was no need to do so, nonetheless. Instead, I followed him toward the towering windows.

Mist and rain was all I could see as I focused my gaze on the view. We must be high up on some hill, or at least something like that, because a city full of small towers and even smaller houses lay beneath us. The absence of colors hit me hard as I stared at the fields across the city. There wasn't a tree to alter the grey pallet that had been used to paint this land, not a lake to shift the dull landscape into something brighter and clearer.