Chapter 29
I really wish fae could lie.
Then, Katiya’s statement that a pack of poisonous beasts is closing in on us could be a joke. But despite the excited, feral gleam in her eyes, I know she’s telling the truth.
“They’re coming here? Right now?” My voice squeaks over the second question.
“Oh yes,” she confirms, still grinning. Her smirk twitches as she takes in my face. “No need to worry.”
“No need to—” My brows pinch as I shake my head, completely at a loss.
She saunters back out of the yurt, and I follow. Maybe it’s foolish to leave the shelter, but I have a feeling she can protect me better than the thick fabric that makes up the walls of our sleeping place.
Outside the yurt, commotion has picked up. A few of the guards who came with us jog in one direction—toward danger or away?
“Where should we go? What do we do?” I ask Katiya’s retreating form.
She spins around putting us almost face to face. “You fluster so easily.” She pats my head like I’m a dog. “My brother is taking care of them. They will not make it into the camp.”
“They won’t…” I shake my head. “He’s scaring them off?” I ask instead.
“Perhaps some of them.” She shrugs. “Have you seen his magic yet?”
“I—” Suddenly I remember the day Orek and his group stalked me down. When Elias returned and showed his true form, the air had crackled with something like dark lightning. “Some of it,” I say.
She gives a short nod. “Would you like to watch then?”
Katiya doesn’t wait for my response before she makes a graceful leap onto a chest-high wooden crate and then holds out her hand to me, as if I could possibly make such a jump even with her help. “Come. They’ll reach him soon.”
A deep howling splits the air, and the familiarity of it is striking.
It’s the same sound I heard my first night in Faery, but this time it’s much closer.
Curiosity peaked, I grab Katiya’s hand. I’ve just opened my mouth to ask how I’m supposed to climb up when she literally yanks me off my feet.
A startled yip slips past my lips and then I’m stumbling to a halt next to her.
I’m still wobbly on my feet when she leaps to the even higher crate next to her.
This time I wave off her help and climb up myself using the side boards as a sort of ladder.
Once I’m atop the crate, she points into the gloomy night. “There.”
Moonlight glowing through the hazy sky illuminates Elias’s pale hair, making him easy to spot.
He’s a little way from our camp already, much further than I could have travelled in the short time since he assigned Katiya and I to our yurt.
But what I don’t see are the creatures that made the terrible howling.
“Where are they? The canyena?” I stumble over the word, but Katiya doesn’t correct me, so I assume I must have gotten it right.
“Just that way, past my brother.” She points into the night. “Can’t you see them?”
“No.” Not surprising given fae senses are much stronger than human ones. “What do they look like?” I ask.
She tilts her head to the side. Her tail brushes my leg where it whips excitedly behind her, and I nearly jump off the crate. “A bit like wolves. Do you know those?”
“Yes.” Assuming they’re similar to the ones on Earth, but I doubt there’s time to compare notes.
She nods. “They run on all fours, are similar sized, and hunt in packs, but their skin is dark and hairless. Their fangs can be vicious, but the real danger is their claws.” She curls her fingers and claws at the air in front of us. “Each paw has four claws and all contain deadly poison.”
My mouth gapes open. “What?” I squeak in alarm.
Another howl splits the sky, followed by a series of yips.
“They’re closing in now. Usually they scavenge rather than hunt, but food sources are few out here.”
A campsite full of fae and supplies is the perfect target. No wonder they’ve come to investigate.
Finally, I spot movement in the dark, low figures slinking toward Elias from multiple directions, almost like they’ve ringed him in. My anxiety spikes. “Why is he out there alone? Shouldn’t we help?” My God, what if one of them strikes him with poisonous claws?
“Some of the guards are waiting nearby just in case.” Katiya waves a hand toward them.
But they’re not close. Not really. Far too distant for my liking. “Just in case?” I echo in disbelief. “They’d let their king fight beasts with deadly poison alone?”
“My brother asked them to let him handle it,” she says like it’s no big deal. She must have overheard a conversation that I could not. “I think he sees it as a way to release some frustration.” She shrugs again.
There have to be better ways to do that. Ones that aren’t so deadly.
“Anyhow,” she continues. “The guards will help carry the corpses back afterward so that we can harvest them. The meat isn’t the best, but their hides make excellent leather, and the poison from the claws works well when applied to our weapons.”
All of that makes it sound like canyena hunting is a regular pastime. Still not reassuring. Not in the least.
Elias draws his sword, the tip of the blade shimming in a stream of moonlight.
“Ugh,” Katiya groans. “The sword? Really?” She’s clearly talking to her brother, but he’s too far away to hear her, even by fae standards.
“Is that a problem?” I ask. My body tenses up as I tilt forward, as if those few inches might make all the difference in making out the scene before me.
“He’s always so worried about wasting magic.” She clicks her tongue and shakes her head. “Finish them quickly, brother!” she calls across the distance.
He gives no indication that he’s heard.
One of the beasts leaps toward Elias. Breath catches in my throat, my body going rigid. I barely see him move before a high-pitched yelping fills the air.
“One down,” Katiya remarks.
I glare at her from the corner of my eye. She is way too casual about this.
Deep growling and more yips fill the night. I stretch on my toes, trying to see, but I can’t make out what’s happening. “Is he okay?” I ask quickly. “Is it almost over?”
Rather than answer, Katiya calls out, “Aimee is worried!”
Suddenly, an almost transparent wave rolls out from Elias like a pale fog. There’s a blur as a few dark shapes go flying. More whining rents the air.
“Much better,” Katiya purrs.
A few streaks of darkness spear through the night, leaving cracks of thunder in their wake. A final strike lashes out, and the last of the animalistic sounds abruptly ends, leaving an eerie silence in its wake.
It’s only when the guards who’d been hanging back start to casually advance that I ask, “Is that it?”
Katiya turns to me. “Yes. I no longer hear them at all.” She grins. “I told you not to worry.”
Easier said than done. He did seem to handle the threat with more ease than I expected. And I’ve never doubted his promise to keep me safe. But seeing him in danger has me on edge.
She hops from the crates, showing off her feline grace, and then hold her arms up toward me as if I should leap off into them.
Instead, I take my time climbing down, half hoping that Katiya’s mention of me will cause Elias to come check in on us. Maybe I can finally talk to him and resolve the weirdness between us. At the very least, I’d love to see for myself that he’s uninjured.
But he doesn’t. He heads straight back to the ruins without so much as a wave toward us.
The cold-shoulder leaves me feeling heavy and worn-out.
After Katiya and I re-enter our yurt, I plop unceremoniously onto the closest mat. “Why not bring more people and get the work done faster? Then he wouldn’t have to do so much himself either.”
Katiya takes the one opposite me and immediately begins unlacing her boots.
“Too much activity could destabilize the ruin. And it’s hard to shift many here.
My brother brought those who are loyal and strong yet careful.
Bringing too much of our force here, or the wrong ones, is a risk he does not want to take.
” She sets the boots aside with a thump, her gaze settling on me. “Especially not with you here.”
And now I know exactly why he left me with his sister. He trusts her. But she can also protect me better than probably anyone else.
“More guards wouldn’t help protect us from things like the canyena?”
“They were unexpected, yes. But he did not need the help. Already many sat idle, did they not? She raises one brow.
“True.” I huff a sigh. “But why not leave me behind if I’m such a burden?” I ask.
“You think my brother would leave you behind if he did not have to?” She laughs before starting on the buckles of her armor but pausing in her work to stare pointedly at me.
I blink, momentarily confused until I realize it wasn’t a rhetorical question. “Um, I guess not?”
“Exactly,” she says, continuing to remove her armor. “Besides, your nearness grants power, and we need all that we can get.”
“That’s why,” I say, barely a whisper.
Katiya pauses. “You think he only wants you for that?”
Shit. Should have figured she could hear that. “I didn’t. But today he’s been…distant.”
“Ah, yes,” she says knowingly. “The recent battle was hard on us all. He is fearful. For us all and for you.” She takes off some of her armor, setting it aside.
Outside, the night has gone eerily quiet again.
I can see the slight flicker of light from the campfire through a slight gap at the bottom of the entrance flap, but no more. “He told me about this morning.”
I glance back at her.
“It scared him to nearly harm you,” she says.
“He didn’t mean to,” I say.
Her head cocks to the side. “You are not afraid of him now?”
“No. I—” I pause. “Maybe I should be, but I’m not. I know he wouldn’t hurt me.”
“Good. I shall tell him. It will ease his worries.” A feral grin pulls at the corners of her mouth. “But now, you rest with me.” Her tail flicks playfully behind her, and she almost looks like she’ll pounce.
My stomach sinks. What a great night this is going to be.