Chapter 16
I ’m running faster than I ever have before. Wind races across my skin, my braided hair trailing behind me like a kite. Nothing encumbers my steps as I run through the desolate wasteland. My lungs do not burn for air. Rather, I’m exhilarated, heady joy pushing me onward.
Suddenly, something grabs my braid. I’m jerked to a halt, pain ripping through my scalp as hair gives way. I fall backward onto the ground, not the barren landscape ahead of me but lush, soft grasses that cushion my body from the blow.
My hair is free once again. Whatever grabbed me is nothing but mist. However, trailing behind me, the way I’d come, is a stretch of verdant greenery no wider than myself. It’s a winding ribbon of life marking my trek.
“Aimee.”
The whispered, breathy plea has me whipping around, back in the direction I was headed.
“Elias?” But no matter how I strain my gaze, he’s nowhere to be found.
I start to rise, the urgency to get to him almost overwhelming. Then something grabs my hair again, and I’m yanked back to the ground. A scream tears from my throat. Tears blur my eyes as I shove up from the ground, once again free of whatever ensnared me.
“Elias!” I reach for him, though I know he is not close.
Something is wrong. I have to get to him. I need to—
That horrible pull comes again. With a screech, I swing my arm back.
And my eyes fly open as I jerk upright in bed, my fist slamming into the cushions at my side. Sweat trickles down my neck. I’m panting as my vision starts to clear.
“A nightmare?” questions a strange, melodic voice.
Gone is the healer from before. Instead, an unfamiliar fae with long pink hair blinks at me from where she stands beside the bed.
Her attire alone is enough to let me know she’s not another healer.
She may as well have just stepped off the battlefield, given her armor of dark leather and black plate.
It’s similar enough to another I’ve seen to spark recognition.
And if that wasn’t enough, the cat ears twitching atop her head and the similar way she angles her head to the side as she watches me would be.
“Katiya?” I hazard a guess.
The Unseelie King’s sister. She’s become a figure of infamy among the Seelie courts and humans alike.
A broad grin stretches across her face, two pointy white fangs peeking out between her stretched lips.
If not for what I’ve heard of her cunning and ferocity on the battlefield, I would almost say she looks cute and friendly.
Funnily enough, one of the first coherent thoughts I can muster is that Matt would probably love her, especially since she looks like one of the cat-girl figurines on his nightstand, just in a different costume.
“Hello, little human,” she practically purrs. Her steady regard has the hair on the back of my neck prickling.
“I—” A quick glance around the room confirms that we’re alone. “Where is Vada? I thought she was not to leave me.”
Katiya’s posture eases, and she plops onto the edge of the bed. “And she did not until my brother returned and gave her leave to rest while I guard you instead.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask who she is guarding me from when memories of how I ended up here resurface.
The dream that has quickly melted away in the light of reality surges back, and I can feel a phantom tug at my braid.
Quickly, I reach for it, pulling my hair in front of me.
I stroke my fingers down the length a few times before pausing, my brows knitting together.
My hair is clean and re-braided in a slightly different style, and my clothes—
“Someone changed me,” I blurt out in shock.
Gone are my ripped and bloody pants, my torn and dirty shirt. Instead, I’m wearing what looks and feels like a long, sleeveless T-shirt in the softest fabric ever. No bra, but thankfully, the fabric is reasonably thick, not that I have much to conceal anyway. I was never blessed in that department.
“Yes,” Katiya replies. “Vada and her healers tended your wounds and cleaned you.”
Now that she mentions it, I don’t hurt anymore. I turn my palms up in front of me, marveling at the clean, healed skin, only a few faint traces remaining to show where I healed.
“H-how long have I been asleep?” Healing like this would take weeks, time I don’t have. And while I’m not dehydrated, a gnawing sensation in my stomach tells me it’s been quite a while since I’ve eaten.
“Around two days, I believe. My brother found you in quite an unfortunate state. Our healing methods are slow but effective, yes?” She glances pointedly at my hands then back up to my face.
A humorless huff of laughter spills from my lips. “Slow? Healing like this would take much longer where I’m from.”
She leans in closer, forcing me to slide back amid the pillows. The glee in her golden eyes is a bit unsettling. “Then you truly were not among the Seelie?”
I swallow the sudden tightness in my throat.
This isn’t a visit to merely satisfy her curiosity.
She’s testing me, feeling me out, just as her brother did.
It’s a stark reminder that no matter Elias, or rather Kallan’s, help or kindness thus far, there’s no guarantee it will continue.
I said I wasn’t bait, but aren’t I? Didn’t the coven ask me to find the Unseelie King and lead him into a trap?
My fingers tighten on the bed coverings as a wave of dizziness strikes me.
Shit. I have my own reasons for being here, my own goals, but I am bait. Why did no one tell me I wasn’t the first?
“Are you in pain, human?” Katiya’s nose twitches as she inches closer.
Yes but not the kind she’s asking about.
“This is all just very overwhelming.” I run my hands down my braid again, flinching when one finger catches, and I feel the soft tug at my scalp.
“I came here to help my brother, to find ingredients to make a potion that may save his life,” I say quickly, trying to build an armor of good intentions over myself.
“Elias was helping me. Did he tell you that?”
She glances away with a frown before looking back at me. “Elias?” A touch of some emotion I can’t place lingers in her voice. “I have not heard him called that in many years.”
“It’s what he told me to call him,” I say. “I didn’t know who he was until I was attacked by the others.”
“Mm,” she muses, a hint of mirth returning to her features. “You called out that name in your sleep too.”
“Did I?” Now it’s my turn to look away. A hint of flush creeps up my neck.
“Of course,” she says, with a bit of confusion. “I just said so.”
Right. Because they can’t lie. I shake my head to clear it. That’s going to take some getting used to.
“Where is he now?” I ask, still not quite looking at her.
“Meeting with some others.” She stretches out on the bed, nearly lying on my legs.
It’s all the incentive I need to finally slide out from between the sheets. The cold stone floor is a shock to my feet, and a little gasp slips out of my mouth.
“He will likely come here once he is done,” Katiya continues, but I ignore her in favor of something that has just snared my full attention.
My backpack sits against the wall, and I hurry over to inspect it. My notebook is on top. I gently set it aside, trying and failing to ignore the bite marks, scrapes, and blood stains that now decorate the exterior.
The sound of the zipper being opened is strangely comforting in this world where so much is different, and I sigh in relief as I rifle through the contents, finding the ingredients we’d collected and my recipe still safely secured within.
“If you are truly not bait, you could be very helpful to us,” Katiya says from where she still lingers on the bed behind me. “My brother is quite interested in you and your well-being.”
The innuendo is layered so thick in her voice that it has the back of my cheeks flaring with warmth.
While still crouched, I twist around to look at her.
She lies fully across the bed on her stomach, head propped up on her hands, almost like we’re besties having a sleepover and chatting about boys.
The sight is so jarringly strange that my mind empties, and I sit there staring at her.
Katiya just smiles back, her long pink tail flicking in the air behind her like a contented cat. Which, I guess, she partly is.
Lost for words, I start to rise. But when I do, my braid brushes against something, and the sensation is jarring. Memories of being grabbed by the Unseelie, of my dream, flash before my eyes.
I suck in a deep, steadying breath. This is not going to do.
Once I have finally risen, I steel my nerves and turn to Katiya.
“I need to borrow a blade,” I say. She has one on her, sheathed at her hip. With the way she moves like it’s not there, it’s probably a regular part of her attire.
She goes eerily still. Even her tail ceases its movement. Slowly, her head tilts to the side. “What for?”
“I need to cut my hair.”
Katiya laughs, rolling onto her back. In a graceful move I could never pull off, she manages to twist around and sit up on the edge of the bed. “You are a strange human.”
“Have you met many humans?” I counter.
Her answering grin is positively feline. “A few.”
“And my name is Aimee,” I add.
She merely blinks, smile never faltering. “I know.”
Katiya slides off the bed with enviable ease, her tall, lithe figure the picture of lethal elegance in armor. Her long, claw-tipped fingers draw the blade and spin it in a blur of motion until it stops with the blade pressed between two fingers, hilt out toward me.
My mouth literally gapes open at the move.
“Do not use this to hurt yourself or others.” The stern command draws my gaze to her face.
“And while I have no wish to harm any humans, know that I will not abide treachery against my brother.” She pins me with a hard stare, causing guilt to swell against my ribs.
“If you hurt him, in any way, I will have my vengeance.”
The intimidation has my throat thick, but the passion in her golden eyes is something I can agree with. “I would do the same to anyone who harmed my brother.”
Some of the hardness leaves her stare. I must have passed her test, for she extends the hilt to me. I take it. It is simple black metal wrapped with leather. But what it lacks in ornamentation, it makes up for in comfort.
“Be careful. It’s sharp,” she adds as I turn it this way and that, the blade catching the light.
It’s heavier than I expected, and the edge is likely downright lethal. But that should make this easier. Before I can second-guess myself, I lift my braid with my free hand, slip the blade behind my neck—which earns a wide-eyed glare from Katiya—and slice upward through my hair.
There’s little give or resistance. The saying “warm knife through butter” doesn’t even do it justice. Instantly, my head—my whole body somehow—feels lighter. The severed chunk of hair starts to fall apart in my hand, loose strands drifting to the ground.
I shake my head, freeing more strands, before reaching back to feel the cut ends.
It’s then that I realize the mistake I’ve made. Not that the hair is gone. That I needed, but in my haste, I didn’t consider geometry. “Oh hell.” The back is shorter than the sections near my shoulders, which was not at all what I intended. “It works better than this in the movies.”
Katiya stares at me with a quizzical expression like I’ve lost it. Maybe I have.
I lift one of the longer sections near my face. “I guess I could cut this shorter.”
I’ve barely started to raise the blade before Katiya lunges across the space between us and grabs my hand.
“You’re not careful enough for that,” she chides. “Give me the blade.”
“But I—”
Behind her, the door swings inward, and the Unseelie King steps into the room. His focus darts from the empty bed to us, eyes widening. Katiya looks over one shoulder at him, her grip unyielding.
“Brother,” she greets him with a smile, as if nothing is amiss.
After a brief pause, he replies, “What is happening here?”