Chapter 22 #2
Her manner of being right about things was starting to get deep under my skin too.
That, combined with her unfounded confidence, her tireless persistence, and her inner strength was, well…
infuriating. It captivated my mind when she was around and perhaps even more so when she was not.
I chewed over it when I tried to sleep and it only caused me more wakefulness.
She was quickly becoming the scourge of my thoughts, and I desperately wished to make her kneel to me.
I was an outcast prince for a reason, a Fae who had struck fear in the hearts of my own people.
But this girl, this human, walked through this forest with the air of a being far more powerful than she could ever hope to be alone.
But with that Dragon… well, if she learned of its gifts and worked it to her will then I’d be hard-pressed to stop her.
It was clearly resisting her command though, the way it had destroyed the castle in an attempt to kill us was proof enough of that.
I was playing a risky game by encouraging her to learn how to wield it, because there was no guarantee she wouldn’t turn on me once she did.
If the boon was to be mine, I had to try harder with her and truly win her onto my side. The truth was, I needed her. For more reasons than just the Dragon – though the spirit’s aid would make it all the more likely that we would survive this cursed place and make it to the Great Elm.
From that diary to the bowing of the forest at her feet, Ferris Creed was a gift between these trees that had been granted to me and I could not squander it. Why a beast such as I had been offered her was beyond my understanding but far be it from me to deny it.
For a moment, screams echoed in mind and the past brushed by all too close, death crooning in my ears like a songbird.
There had been so much blood the day I’d been outcast from Rivenspire.
Every day since had been walked with the taint of it upon my skin and I’d come to embody it after so many years.
After I’d parted from my home, I’d fed on the harvest of my bad deeds.
I’d become the monster they named me. And I planned to hunt down every last one of the Coterie for what they had caused, carve them out of their gilded towers and force them to face me Fae to Fae in the end.
If Islasees really was here in the forest, then he would be the next to die for all he had done.
And with a Dragon on my side along with the spirits I had already earned myself, how could I lose?
Perhaps Ferris really was the answer to all my woes.
“Your hair rather suits you like that,” I commented, the brightness of it catching my gaze again. “Your beauty was obvious before, but that strength you possess wasn’t. I see it more clearly now. The glimmer of magic upon you was all it took to unveil it.”
She cast a withering look at me over her shoulder and I regretted voicing my thoughts.
“Don’t play nice guy with me, Hendrix. I know the truth of you.”
My jaw flexed. “You don’t know the half of it,” I muttered grimly.
She turned to face the path again, deciding not to answer me, and I swiftly moved to her side, my arm brushing hers.
“If you want to talk, then tell me more about this supposed key to the labyrinth,” she demanded.
Feisty thing. If only she knew how lethal the fire she played with truly was.
“Ah, the key,” I mused. “Well if I told you too much, you wouldn’t need me anymore and I expect you’d run away with your pretty Dragon. I can’t be having that, lightwing. I’m growing far too fond of keeping you.”
“It’s me that’s keeping you now, Hendrix.” She offered me a rogue smile and my mood simmered into something roiling and dark.
“I am no one’s prisoner,” I growled, thinking of the past. The clinking of chains, the ripe scent of blood in the air. There were ways a Fae could be tortured that no human could survive. I had known the taste of many torments. I didn’t plan on ever returning to the feast.
“You’ve been someone’s before.” Her eyes narrowed, reading the truth in my expression.
“Yes. I was tortured once… years after I was outcast. I was taken by a Fae who held a long-lasting grudge against me – a male who had caused me all manner of torment in the past. And I believe that male is here in this forest. Islasees Bellatorn.” The trees shivered around me as if they feared that name – and so they should.
“Who is he?”
“He’s the Lord Protector. Leader of Queen Sorshana’s army and King Arthrun’s before her.
His soldiers are broken in like horses to obey his every command.
They’re ruthless, mindless Fae that are brutally efficient in every sense.
One word spoken against the queen and you will find yourself at their mercy – she is a fierce creature who took the throne and refused to relinquish it after Arthrun’s death.
Islasees has always been the royals’ loyal hunting dog, willing to do their dirty work without ever questioning orders.
He revels in it too. He’s never happier than when he’s making someone scream. ”
“Sounds like a delight.” Ferris wrapped her arms around herself as if she could feel the chill of him in the air. “So, he captured you? You must have really angered the royals. What did you do?”
“What didn’t I do?” I said with dry humour, but she didn’t smile.
She stepped away from me, warier than ever.
That was no surprise, but I was surprised by how much I didn’t like her parting from me.
I couldn’t remember how many years it had been since I’d kept a companion who didn’t know the depths of my depravity.
She remained silent and I figured I had to give her something of the truth.
“I rebelled, I suppose. Some knowledge came to light about the royals and their lap dogs that I didn’t care for.”
“What knowledge? What did you do?”
There was that question again. What did I do…
well, that was a twisted tale if ever one was told.
She didn’t need to know the whole truth.
But perhaps I could share a part of it. She hated the Fae after all.
We weren’t so different in that respect.
And some broken piece of me wanted her to know me better. The real me.
“I stood up to them. I punished them, at first in small ways. Acts of anger, you might call it. But that anger didn’t lessen as time went on.
It festered. The more I learned, the more riddled with hate I became.
You see… there are a group of Fae in our realm who have been around so long that they established the foundations of Fae society.
And there is one thing which Fae that old have in common, Ferris. ”
She met my gaze at her name, hanging on my next words.
“They are bored. I know this, because I am one of them. Or at least, I was. Time eats you from the inside out until you’re left…”
“Empty.”
I smiled grimly, nodding in confirmation. “People like them, like me I suppose, we do things. Bad things. Because when all the good wears thin, there is only bad left to explore.”
“What kind of bad things?” Her voice was a whisper now, like she feared the answer I would give. And so she should.
I crept closer to her on the path and her feet slowed to a halt, the Bear ahead of us stopping too and waiting for us to follow again. She backed up against the sheet of rain behind her as I prowled closer.
“A lot of them got a taste for killing. Humans, at first.”
She cringed.
“Then Fae,” I continued. “A long time ago, they marked themselves as other. Called themselves the Coterie – an inner circle of Fae who command power. The requirements to be accepted into the fold is to be born into one of the seven great families and to reach the ripe age of two hundred and fifty. Most of their blood is royal – ‘superior’ as they call it.” I sneered.
“The rest of the Fae bowed to their power. And slowly, piece by piece, the Coterie took more and more from them. Riches, land, rights.”
“I thought Rivenspire was a haven.”
“That’s a lie,” I bit out, heat bursting through my veins.
“Says the outcast,” she retorted, raising her chin.
“I was cast out for turning on them, for taking a stand against their heinous acts.”
“Are you sure? Because it sounds like you broke the law too many times and they got rid of you for it.”
I bared my teeth at her. “You have no idea what they’re really like.”
“Oh, I can guess. Trust me, I’m not sticking up for them.
I may not have met many Fae but the ones I have are arrogant creatures who think nothing of those they see as beneath them.
It’s no surprise you all turned on each other.
But if you think I’m going to feel sorry for you because your kingdom of monsters cast you out, then think again. ”
I shook my head at her. “I don’t want your pity.”
“Then what do you want? Because your sob story isn’t flying with me. You allude to their terrible crimes, but what of yours? We all choose our path. You’re an outcast because you’re no better than them. It sounds like you might be worse.”
A serpent coiled around the inside of my throat, no words able to get past it.
Because what could I say to that? She was right.
There was no hiding it even when I tried to paint a picture of the merciless Fae kingdom I had turned on, she saw me for what I was.
I was no rebellious hero. I’d done things that would make her skin crawl.
And sooner or later, she would discover that truth and I would lose her once and for all.