Marked By Lies: A Reverse Harem Series (The Marked Series Book 1) by Paige Orr (the red fox clan TXT) 📗

"Hello Adelaide, you're right on the money. I have something that I need to find, and all my usual methods haven't exactly yielded me anything. I knew that if anyone could help me though, it would be you. I'm on a bit of a time crunch and to be perfectly honest with you, I've wasted enough time asking around after the blasted thing."

She hums, nodding her head and steepling her fingers beneath her chin, looking at me with a small smile tipping up the corner of her lips. "To find the thing you’re looking for child, I need you to tell me what it is. It's a bit hard to locate something when I don't have the faintest idea what I’m looking for."

I know she's right, but I also know she won't approve of the job I've taken on. On one hand, if I'm able to complete this job, I'll be set up for a good six months of rent and food. On the other hand, if I fail, I'll most likely be dead, so being late for my rent won't be much of an issue. Dead girls can't exactly have debt. I hate to make her worry about me, which is why I exhausted every other avenue before coming to her, but I can’t afford to let my client down.

"Well, my client has asked me to find the Necklace of Harmonica and before you start, yes, I researched it. But right now, I really can't be picky or I won't have a place to live anymore. I know that it's probably going to be guarded well, but the price will be worth it. Please Adelaide, you know I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate. I need to get my name out there somehow, and with how big this job is, I'm hoping my client will recommend me to their acquaintances. Right now I’m lucky if I’m able to afford my electricity, never mind anything else with the jobs coming my way."

"Oh, you're desperate alright, but you do not know that with which you seek and I see great terror coming for you. You will find great happiness on this journey, but you will have many hardships to work through. You must seek the Seelie Prince and only there will you find the answers you are looking for."

Chapter Two

Cailean

I lean back in my chair with a sigh, staring at my glass of single malt whisky as I swirl the liquid around. I can’t help but cringe as I think over everything that’s happened today. Coming to the human realm was supposed to be easy, and yet every time I think that I’m getting somewhere, something always shows me I still don’t have a fucking clue.

Things were supposed to be straightforward enough, I come here from Fairy, take some time to get used to the way the human world works, and then run the family company. How the fuck am I ever supposed to rule our court when my father steps down if I can’t even keep control of this company.

People think that being the Seelie Prince means that shit just gets handed to me, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. My entire life has consisted of lessons on how to be the perfect Prince while other people my age were out having fun, and I know if it wasn’t for my best friend and advisor Elias I would have gone mad by now.

I run my hands through my hair, feeling exhausted knowing that I need to figure out how to deal with this mess. To the rest of the world, Byrneth Enterprises is one of the world's largest non-profit organizations, and sure we do a lot of charity work in the human realm but the real use of this company is to help Fae transition from Fairy to the human realm.

We work together with the government officials here in the human realm who know of our existence to make it easier for those of Fae kind who wish to be here to settle in. From my experience I know how difficult it is to get used to the differences between our realm, hell I wouldn’t even be here if my father hadn’t demanded it. Fairy is the polar opposite of the human realm. It’s run by nature instead of technology, and the Fae do most things with magic, unlike the humans who are as mundane as can be.

Even the air here is different, more suffocating because of the pollution that’s slowly draining this realm. For a person so integrally connected with nature, it’s difficult to hear the Earth around me crying out for help. I would love to do anything to stop the Earth's pain, but that’s impossible when I have to keep what I am hidden, which leads me back to the events from earlier today.

The day started normal enough, with the usual suspects traveling through the portal here in headquarters between the two realms. But today we had a noble coming through from Fairy as a liaison between the courts and the human government. They came through the portal and everything seemed to go according to plan until we received a call from the secretary of state and everything went to shit.

It turns out that our diplomat never made it to his meeting, and no one can get in touch with him. That wouldn't be too serious on its own, as we'd simply send out our enforcers to find him. But since he isn't the first Fae to go missing in the last month, that means that there's something a lot more sinister going on. I hate to think that way, but most of the Fae who have gone missing aren't exactly the type to just up and leave everything behind. We can't afford to overlook the facts.

I'm supposed