Reign Check by Michelle Rowen Read Free Book Online Page A

first.”
    “Such a gentleman.” I turned from him toward the swirling gateway.
    He grabbed my hand before I went through. “Princess, I just wanted to say thank you.”
    “For what?”
    “For wanting to ignore the rules when it comes to me. You don’t know how much that means.”
    I smiled at him. “I guess I’m a rebel.”
    “You’re so completely different from how I expected you to be. I still can’t get over it. You’re not a spoiled brat who thinks she can get whatever she wants whenever she wants it.”
    “Maybe if I’d been born a princess, I’d be more like that.”
    “Somehow, I doubt it.”
    “I only want a few very specific things,” I said pointedly. “But I do get cranky if I can’t have them.”
    I really didn’t care about any rules, especially those that told me who I was and wasn’t allowed to like. And I’d make that very clear to my father.
    Michael was my boyfriend. And if my father didn’t like it … well, that was just too bad, wasn’t it?
    I stepped through the gateway feeling a new surge of purpose. I could change things. I knew I could. Just because it had been one way for thousands of years didn’t mean it always had to be that way, did it? Shadows shouldn’t be forced to be servants. And they should be able to date whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted, without anyone telling them they couldn’t.
    How difficult could it possibly be to change some stupid and outdated rules?

5
    The moment after I stepped through the gateway there was a familiar feeling of vertigo, where I couldn’t see or hear anything. But before there was a chance to get scared or think about anything at all, I’d already arrived on the other side.
    The gateway from the human world opened up at a beautiful pastoral clearing between the Shadowlands and the faery realm. Green grass replaced snow-covered pavement. The scent of spring flowers hung in the air. It was warm enough for me to remove my winter jacket immediately.
    A second later, Michael appeared next to me—just like magic. He pushed his dark hair back from his face. “So are you ready to see your father again?”
    I looked toward the line of tall thick trees—the forest that bordered Rhys’s land. So beautiful and lush and strangely welcoming. Then I turned to look at the field of flowers where we stood. Slowly it changed from soft green grass to sharp gray rock, leading to a black, windowless fortress with massive spires reaching up into the stormy, lightning-etched skies above.
    The Shadowlands castle—the nasty-looking, scary place my father called home and that filled me with a healthy dose of dread whenever I saw it.
    Despite how uneasy the castle made me instinctively feel, I finally nodded. “Let’s go.”
    The walk took ten minutes, after which we reached the twenty-foot-tall front door of the castle. We stood on the threshold, and the door slowly began to creak open enough to let us inside. It did that automatically for me—apparently the castle itself could sense that I was the princess and therefore allowed inside.
    Michael led me through the cavernous foyer toward a spiral staircase at the center that seemed to extend right up to a ceiling so high I could barely even see it. I’d been here before, of course, but this time I took a moment to look around at the darkness that surrounded me. This wasn’t a happy place. It was cold and unwelcoming, and it sent a shiver of fear down my spine.
    The very stone this castle was made from helped keep unwanted elements from the dark worlds—including any demons who would like to find a way into the human and faery worlds for malevolent reasons. Supposedly it worked well—and had for a long time. I guess it didn’t have to look like Disneyworld, did it?
    Still. A few colorful cushions or wall hangings might be a nice, friendly touch.
    “I can’t believe you’ve lived here all your life,” I said to Michael in a hushed voice.
    “Since I was a baby,” he said. “It’s