6. Chapter 6
Chapter six
Leena
T he village was like a fairy tale. Every color imaginable painted the houses, plants, and even the wildlife. Sheets of moss of matching hues laid across rooftops, each one vibrant and alive. The spongy material covered small, neatly arranged cottages of dark burgundy and polished wood, some oak, some pine, and some I didn’t recognize. Some were brightly pink like the blush of a flower, while others were ruddy and elegantly smooth. Paired with the moss’s lively greens, yellows, and unearthly pinks and deep-sea blues, the cottages looked more like a scene from a picture book than the body of a village.
This had to be a dream. How could it not be? This enchanting man—this being, whatever he was—swept me away into a place so unlike the one I was used to, so unlike the one that caused me so much pain. A place I wasn’t sure really existed. The more I looked at it, the harder it was to believe.
The colorful homes and thick blankets of grass over paths and hills wasn’t the most unbelievable part of this pocket of the woods. The most beautifully peculiar part of this world was the town’s occupants. There were tiny faeries of all shades of the rainbow, flying with brightly colored dust falling onto the lush blanket of grass in their wake. There were similar-looking beings that were tall, thin creatures with pointed ears, and others that blended into the shrubbery and flowers. There were even adorable pets that reminded me of the dogs back home—small, friendly log-like creatures trailing at the feet and calves of those walking by.
There were even more beings, whose origins I hadn’t read about in storybooks. Some were made of wood, others of grass or another form of plant. Some I did recognize—beings who looked more human. They appeared almost like anyone else back home; the only differences were their pointed ears and noses and the vibrant skin tones and hair colors that matched their effervescent town. From what I’d learned in books and over late, story-filled nights with my mother, these creatures had either branched from humankind or were at the beginning of everything. They were known as fae. Though varying in color, size, and any attribute a human may vary from the next, the identifiable traits they all shared were their ears, noses, and youthful appearances.
I still wasn’t sure if I was dreaming. It was all too fantastical. This odd, breathtaking world of magic was so far from the dreary, broken world I’d left behind.
“How do you like my home?” The Leshy asked, his fingers entwined in mine. At first, I didn’t want to look away, but his voice drew me in. When I looked at him, the muscles in my chest relaxed.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, and he smiled, which didn’t help the gooey sensation gathering in my chest. Our eyes stayed locked until a voice squeaked through the silence.
“Your Majesty,” it said, and we both looked down at a tiny creature with a body made of rounded wood. It looked like a wooden toy for a child but big enough to be a child itself. Only, from the cantor of its voice, I could tell it was an adult. Its eyes were amber buttons, and its mouth was a slit, like someone started carving a smile but gave up before they could finish the edges. Its clothes were made of leaves so glossy they looked like candy.
The Keeper’s demeanor changed. His face hardened, and his eyes turned cold. “What is it?” The words were curt and venomous. It was hard not to react, but I remained expressionless.
The creature bowed its spherical head. “We can’t find Melora, Your Greatness.”
“What?” he dropped my hand and grabbed hold of the creature’s arm. “What do you mean you can’t find Melora? I just spoke with her this morning.”
The creature quivered, his leaves shimmying. “Her visits are unpredictable. We—”
“I need to speak with her.” His voice was quieter now, a cold hiss, and I wondered if I was supposed to have heard the words at all .
“Yes, Your Majesty. We’re scouring the nearby villages for her. She—"
“Don’t dawdle,” the Leshy snapped, straightening his back. “Find her, and then report to me. Immediately.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the creature said with a bow, then scuttled off into a nearby bush. There were a few seconds of silence before I looked at the Leshy again. He was staring ahead.
“Who’s Melora?”
He bristled, then straightened and turned to face me. His eyes were suddenly gentle, his voice soft. “No one to worry about.” His deep voice fell into my ears like a spell. “Now let me show you more of my kingdom.” He offered me his hand, and I took it without hesitation.
As he led me along a sandy path deeper into the belly of the forest, I looked up at him. “You know my name, but I haven’t asked for yours.” I kept my eyes on his thick, dark hair as he led me along. He didn’t turn to me or answer right away, and when he did, he still didn’t turn to face me.
“You can call me Bratan.”
My eyes focused on the road ahead as his name etched itself into my mind. Bratan . We turned a corner into a place overgrown with plants and brush. I lifted my hand to shield myself and prepared to crouch through it, but with one sweep of his hand, he moved it away. Branches thickly filled with large leaves and plump fruits draped to the sides, clearing the path ahead.
I gawked at every inch of the world around us, but my eyes always ended up making their way back to him.He helped me over a slight incline. I watched his bicep move effortlessly with the weight of my body and remembered the tightness of his muscles and how the rich, sun-kissed glow of his skin glistened as he stalked me in that thin curtain of moss.
“We’re almost there,” he said, causing me to jump. My face must have been as red as the cloak I now had tucked between my arm and hip, but fortunately, his focus remained ahead as he lifted one last branch to reveal a crystalline pond in the middle of a rounded area free of trees, weeds, or unwanted eyes.
“Wow.” Roses and daisies bloomed together next to a pond littered with fish and cattails. The water was so clear it looked like glass. I never knew there could be bodies of water in the forest. Although, I never knew a town of woodland creatures could exist here, either.
“You must be tired,” he said, leading me to a soft patch of grass. “Would you like to rest?” He gestured to the ground. I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he helped me down. Had I nodded? I wasn’t sure. Something about this man made my brain turn to goo.
He smiled and let out a long sigh, falling onto his back. I watched the way his muscles tightened with every movement, studying the godlike construction of his body. He was something like a god. He was a guardian spirit, perhaps even something more. He turned onto his side and stroked the side of my face. “Lie next to me,” he purred, and as if on command, I did. Even if I hadn’t wanted to, my body gave me no choice. His request turned every part of me to gelatin.
When my back fell to the grass, I was instantly aware of how close his body was to mine. I could feel the heat of it against my shoulder and arm. He must have sensed it because when I looked at him, his expression was wicked. “Am I making you nervous again, Leena?”
My face heated. “What? No…”
He turned to be on his knees and knuckles, and I had to scoot away. The heat rushing through me was too intense. Air. I needed air.
“I’m fine, really.” I quickly crawled away. It probably wasn’t the daintiest sight, but the power he had over me whenever I so much as gazed into his eyes or lay next to him was frightening. I couldn’t risk losing myself. I had to have my head on straight if I wanted to survive. Yes, I needed to be seductive—I needed him to like me—but if I was nothing but mush in his hands and there was no chase, a predator like him would move on without a second thought.
“Is that so?”
I tried not to look at him, but…
The moment I turned to peek, I promptly regretted it. The wind whispered through his brown-black hair, and still on his knuckles, he prowled closer. Something vibrated in my bones, extinguishing any thought that was still in my head, burning my good sense to ash.
“I…” The word caught in my throat. He was in front of me now, and he wasn’t smiling. I shouldn’t have liked it, but I did. His eyes were dark with something wild and hungry. A primal starvation. Like I was his next meal and nothing else would satisfy him.
Slowly, the words I knew I should say jumbled into a mess of letters and fell to the back of my mind. I let myself drop onto my back and watched him crawl over me. My nerves lit up with each of his movements, especially when he leaned in until our noses touched. “Say my name,” he said, the warmth of his breath parting my lips.
I couldn’t utter a sound. He leaned in closer. My eyelids fluttered, then closed. His lips brushed against mine, and it was like he’d sucked the air from my lungs. “I—” My mind went blank, and when he dove into my lips, my consciousness left completely, and I lived only by feeling. My body sparked with tiny bolts of lightning as I tasted him. It flushed my skin and shook my bones, and when I felt his tongue swipe against mine, I had to stifle a moan.
I loved it. I loved the way my mind stopped whirring and the way my body was water beneath the heat of his flesh.
He kept kissing me, and I hungrily kissed him back. One of his hands gripped the back of my neck, the other grabbing hold of one of my hips. He held me tight against him like I was the only thing tethering him to this world. Like he couldn’t let anyone else have me .
He pressed his thumb into the hollow of my hipbone, and my head fell back, releasing his lips. I didn’t have time to move before I was immobilized by a kiss he pressed into my collarbone. He stroked it with his bottom lip and then licked up the side of my neck, making his way to my earlobe with the tip of his tongue. He bit gently, and shivers sparked all the way from my lips to my feet.
“Say my name,” he whispered. It was hard to breathe, let alone speak. He kissed me again, letting the warmth of his breath fall slowly against the space behind my ear and then down my neck. “Say my name.”
“Bratan,” I gasped, and I felt his lips curve into a smile.
“Good girl.” His deep voice rumbled against my throat. Although he purred the words, there was something off in the way he said it. I opened my eyes, still dewy from his lips on my neck, when the ground trembled. He backed away and got to his feet. My mind was still a foggy mess as the earth quaked beneath me. I frowned, confused and dazed, but the monster of the woods just stood above me, watching me with an unreadable expression other than a faint spark dancing in his eyes.
The ground thundered more violently. It rattled against my back with such violence that I thought my spine might snap.
“What—” I was cut off by a sudden pain snapping across my wrists. I looked down to find vines tying me to the earth. Then, another lash of pain wrapped around my ankles with matching restraints. The Leshy walked closer, smiling down at me as my heart raced. He touched the crown of my head and slowly stroked it until his fingers unpinned my hair and slid down the waves as they rippled down and over my shoulders.
“There’s no escape for you now.” His voice was a cold whisper against the nape of my neck. “You belong to me.”