Chapter 13 - Jael
Jael
XIII
With my decision made, we didn’t dawdle long in the cave.
I tidied the bed, made sure anything blood-touched was added to the fire, and strapped my dagger belt around my hips.
Kalla had cared for them while I lay unconscious, and they were in perfect condition.
I wished I’d been able to warn her to be careful, but the fact that she was still breathing was proof she hadn’t nicked herself while handling them.
Kalla puttered around, putting away the clean dishes, folding the extra bandages and tucking them into a basket in the corner.
She waited until I was outside before blowing out the last candle, not wanting to douse me in darkness, and my heart twinged at her kindness.
It prickled, like a limb that had fallen asleep slowly waking up, and to my surprise, I wasn’t inclined to crush the feeling.
A foolish decision, maybe. It was likely I was about to walk into more pain, more suffering, but I believed Kalla when she said she would speak up for me.
I’d also been serious when I’d told her I had nowhere else to go. If she hadn’t invited me to stay with her, I would have been as untethered as a leaf blowing in the wind. Chances were I would have walked directly into whatever fae stalked these woods.
Because they were out there. The coincidence of them approaching at the same time my magic had awakened had been a taunt of fate. A reminder of who I was. A question of who I wanted to be.
But my future didn’t lie with the fae, so it was better to take the risk of joining the vampires. In the worst-case scenario, Kalla’s fury leader killed me—but what would it matter? As a fae rebel, an enemy of my king, I was as good as dead most places anyway.
“I’ll have to blindfold you,” Kalla said when she came outside.
My heart stuttered. “You what?”
She grimaced, her gaze filled with apology. “We’re approaching my nest, our greatest secret. Thorn will be upset enough at your presence, but if she knows I allowed you to see where we are…”
They’d kill me immediately. I understood.
So I stood still and bent my head to give Kalla better access to bind my eyes with a torn strip of white cloth. Before the weight of the blindfold could send my panic spiralling, she slipped her hand into mine, and the contact settled my fear. I wasn’t alone.
I followed her without hesitation as we crossed through the trees.
We kept a straight path, mostly through forest, but the smell of sulphur told me we were close to the dragons.
Hours later, the air changed, and I guessed we’d stepped into another cave entrance.
This one was slightly wider than the entrance to what had been our haven for the past few days, and as soon as we passed through it, I detected a shift in energy.
A sense of life up ahead. That sense grew more prominent the farther we walked.
It transformed into the hum of multiple voices engaged in conversation, the warmth of many bodies close together, and the smell of blood and sex and mediocre food.
“Stay close,” Kalla murmured as she pulled my blindfold free. “Whatever happens next, stay with me.”
We stood at the entrance of a wide cavern. Colourful swaths of cloth were draped from the ceiling, and vampires abounded throughout what appeared to be a sort of market. So many of them. More than I would have imagined in one place. Obviously this fury had flourished in the dragon’s territory.
Kalla squeezed my fingers, then released me, and when we strode forward, the chaos of the crowd fell still. All eyes slid our way, and the vampires nearest us stepped aside, clearing the path to a collection of chairs set up along the far wall.
In the centre chair—a purple-upholstered armchair draped with a crocheted blanket—sat the woman who had to be the fury leader.
Her ash-grey hair was filled with small braids where it fell across her shoulders, pinned out of her face by small metal hoops that glinted in the light from the candles strung overhead.
Her leather armour was formfitting and left her arms bare, giving her the appearance of a woman comfortable in her own home but ready for danger to strike at any time.
Although her expression remained neutral on our approach, I caught the tiniest twitch in the corner of her eye when her attention fell on me.
“Kalla,” she greeted.
“Thorn,” Kalla replied.
“What have you brought us?”
“This is Jael.”
Thorn’s gaze swept over me. “Not much of a meal for the entire community.”
I hid my reaction, understanding that she wasn’t threatening me—not yet. She was making a point.
Kalla straightened her shoulders. “He’s not a meal. I found him injured in the woods. He’s… lost. Just as we are. But there are more fae wandering the forest. We need to be prepared.”
Two other vampires closed in behind us, and I glanced over my shoulder to find a stocky man and a lithe female flanking me.
“Take him to the others,” Thorn said. “My kin-daughter and I need to talk.”
“Thorn—” Kalla started, but Thorn held up a hand to cut her off.
“No harm will come to him for the time being. It seems we have a run of fae in the area. Cliff and his team found three survivors of an ambush off the trail. Those fae are recovering in the other room. I thought Jael might be more comfortable with his own while you and I chat.”
Kalla and I exchanged a glance. More survivors?
Despite Kalla’s concerns, I allowed myself to be led away, giving her what I hoped was a reassuring look before I turned. My heart thrashed in my chest, and I did my best to steady my breathing, not wanting to tempt these vampires with my rushing pulse.
The man on my left removed my dagger belt and patted me down for any other weapons, then gripped my arm tightly and jerked me forward, not cruelly, but not kindly, either.
“If you’ve caused harm to come to her, fae, you won’t live to see dawn,” he growled in my ear.
“You must be Cliff,” I said.
He bared his fangs at me but didn’t deny it. Good. Regardless of what happened to me, I was happy Kalla had people watching out for her if danger threatened their nest.
We reached a nook off the side of a narrow tunnel, and Cliff shoved me through a curtain of beige cloth. “In there. Don’t try to leave.”
I stumbled over the threshold, and when I caught my balance, I was amazed to find Pimmin, Hethyr, and—unfortunately—Corban sitting on the floor.
“Jael?” Hethyr’s disbelief filled the room, and before I could answer, she’d leapt to her feet and closed in on my space. “You’re alive! How? Thank the sun. I thought we were the only three left. Are there others?”
She peered over my shoulder as though hoping the rest of the Coynfare might walk in with me. Those hopes imploded when I shook my head. She staggered back and returned to her place on the floor next to Pimmin.
“How’d you make it out?” Pimmin asked.
“I—” I didn’t know how to answer. Telling them the truth—that I’d been set up comfortably in a cave with a vampire goddess for the past few days—seemed like an insult to the others who hadn’t survived, but hiding it from them would be futile.
Word of Kalla’s rescue would no doubt spread throughout the fury quickly.
“I guess my story is the same as yours—a vampire found me.”
Corban snorted. “And look where it got us.”
“We think they’re going to kill us,” Pimmin said, their gaze darting to the doorway. “We’ve seen the looks, heard whispers. They wanted to get information out of us. Now that they have…” They dragged their thumb across their throat.
My stomach twisted. I wanted to reassure them that Kalla would talk to Thorn but didn’t want to raise any hopes. She’d said she would speak on my behalf, but we hadn’t known any more rebels had survived.
What did it mean for me that they were here? For those fleeting days, I’d believed I could put the Coynfare behind me. Leonine. Soldara. But if my fellow rebels were here and Zath was dead, it meant I was their leader.
“We can’t let them kill us,” Corban said, his mud-brown eyes hard as stone. “Whatever happens, we have to try to fight our way out. We need to get back out there and carry out our mission.”
Desperation ate at me. I was ready to let this go. I’d reclaimed my music. I’d experienced something that felt like my magic. I wanted to explore more of that. I wanted to know how far Kalla could drag me out of the nightmare I’d lost myself in.
“What’s the point, Corban?” I asked. “The carriage is gone. More fae are in the area—no doubt more guards. Brynna is so far out of reach we’d need to come up with an entirely new plan.”
A plan that would likely also fail.
“The carriage isn’t gone,” Corban snapped. “I overheard them talking, Jael. The carriage was damaged, and there were too many injured soldiers. They’re only a few days away. We still have a chance.”
My heart stuttered. The carriage was close? There might have been a time those words were a raft in the current, but now they created a stone so heavy I had to lean against the wall to keep my feet.
The other two turned to look at me, and the weight of each of their stares added to the burden on my shoulders.
I’d escaped. I’d been free. But now, with the resurrection of the Coynfare, the void enveloped me once more.