Chapter 26
twenty-six
The large doors slowly swung closed behind us, and I was right, the soldiers remained outside. Not really sure whether that was a good thing or bad, though.
Grass beneath our feet, and towering hedge walls to our sides, but there were more of them here. Big and square and all over the ground, like fucking buildings made of plants, with these small openings in the front.
It was strange, to say the least, and the air became warmer and heavier with magic the farther ahead we went.
Rune remained behind me, and Lyall led the way, his every step sure, his shoulders back.
I kept my eyes on him, but my entire body was painfully aware of Rune, of his proximity, of the heat of his body on mine, of those soft lips on the side of my neck.
The memories of the night before flooded my mind for a moment, just when they felt my focus slip, and I was in his bed again, and on his table, in his arms.
“There.”
I blinked and the playground came into view again. Lyall had stopped walking and was pointing ahead at what I was sure wasn’t there a moment ago. A field with these large square hedges—that’s all we saw, but now…
“The game answered.” Lyall looked back at us, his smile as bright as the sun in the sky. “We’re officially its players.”
I had no idea what the hell kind of call he’d made to a game, and what kind of a game actually answered, but Rune had told me once that the way to keep my power was to always remind myself that everything was normal here.
Everything I saw, everything I heard, everything I came across had been here for thousands of years before me and would be here for thousands of years after I was gone.
This whole thing was normal, nothing out of the ordinary. And I would soon find out exactly what I was supposed to do to make it out.
“It’s beautiful,” I admitted when Rune and I stopped on Lyall’s sides. It went without saying that he remained in the middle, and I wasn’t even sure if it was intentional, or if Rune and I were keeping distance between us as to not raise suspicion.
“It’s quite something,” Lyall admitted with a nod, and we all took a moment to appreciate the view.
Towering trees lined either side, their trunks narrow and pale as bones, their canopies arching overhead to form a ceiling of those gorgeous colorful leaves.
It felt like walking into a cathedral or something, except this was built by nature—and a shitload of magic, judging by the weight of the air here.
Even the light hit differently when we stepped under the canopy.
It was softer, filtered through the leaves in scattered beams, falling like shimmer on the moss-covered ground.
The scents in the air—rain-soaked earth and peaches and flowers—somehow merged together without being overpowering, but it was the magic.
I tasted it on my tongue. Everything here was laced with it, and it balanced every detail perfectly.
The lights and the shadows, the scents and the silence.
No birdsong, no wind reached here, just the sound of our slow footsteps.
Between the lines of trees were these strange formations—stone arches half-sunken into moss, glass orbs hanging from some of the branches like fruit, violets nestled near trunks with their tips glowing purple.
A single mirror placed into the trunk of a tree that didn’t cast a shadow at all like the rest at its side.
“What exactly am I supposed to do here?” I asked in a hushed whisper, afraid I’d disrupt the perfection that was around us in some kind of way.
But Lyall laughed, and no bird flew away and no animal ran and nothing at all changed.
“Find what is an illusion among our surroundings, beautiful Nilah,” he said. “The game has already begun so I’m sure the magic has been planted. You must find that which is made of it, and it will vanish at the touch of your hand. That’s the only way to win your token.”
“That’s it ?” Because it sounded awfully simple to me.
“It’s not as easy as it sounds, but yes. That’s it,” Lyall said, turning around and walking backward deeper between the trees. “Spread out and focus. Let’s see who has the better eye.”
The smile on his face was that of a victor already, like he’d won even before we started the game. And, yeah, I got that he was a prince, but I also wanted to win now just to get that smug smile off his face.
The feeling only lasted until he turned around and started moving closer to the trees.
Rune was right there, walking with me, his eyes on mine for a moment, while the prince began to hum a melody under his breath.
His eyes were soft now, and I could have sworn he almost felt sorry— though what for, I had no idea.
Then Rune went closer to the trees on his side, leaving me in between them once more.
Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath and I focused.
It was a game, and I could try to enjoy it at least, couldn’t I?
It was magic, after all. Real magic, like the stuff they made movies about back home.
And I was pretty sure it would be easy to find what was an illusion among what was real. Very easy.
Unfortunately for me, I was dead wrong.
Lyall hummed such a beautiful tune, and I was sure if he started to sing right now, his voice would be phenomenal.
I let the melody slip into my mind just to distract me, to give me background noise while I analyzed the trees and the flowers and the blades of grass, went closer to the left just a few feet away from Lyall.
Then I moved to Rune’s side, too, and…
Fuck me, everything looks so damn real. There was no shimmer and no light and no transparent anything, not even a leaf or a branch or a petal on those violets—nothing at all that gave even a hint that it was an illusion.
I looked at the men, and they were completely focused on our surroundings, analyzing every little thing just like me, squatting down to look at the flowers, raising their fingers close to the pale barks as if to feel them without ever touching anything.
Neither of them seemed to have found anything that wasn’t real yet, and to know that I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t see any difference gave me a bit of comfort. Made me think that maybe I wasn’t way in over my head here like I thought.
But then the setting changed .
The tunnel made of trees we’d walked through opened into a willow grove that might just be the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and it reminded me so much of home that my chest hurt.
That’s because the willows were completely green, not a single blue or red leaf on them.
The grass that reached just above my ankles looked like it would be fluffy if I leaned down to touch it.
The prince continued to hum that soft tune as he went through the grove slowly, his hands raised to the sides, fingertips almost touching every branch and every leaf as he went.
Meanwhile, Rune was focused, thick brows narrowed as he looked around, suspicious of even the air he breathed, not in the least bit amused.
I was somewhere between the two, walking a few feet behind, taking in the view around me, both fascinated and suspicious, even a little scared. Not enough to actually ask if this was normal, though. There was just something about this place.
Then the animals came.
Lyall continued to move with his confident grace like he didn’t even see the hummingbird flying right over his head that seemed to materialize out of thin air.
My breath caught in my throat, but there was no time to even follow the bird with my eyes as it flew past, because more animals were moving around us now, coming from behind the willow trees, climbing down the branches, or just popping up from the grass, just like that.
Holy shit, the sound of them filled my ears all at once, and it was like I’d stepped into a different world altogether.
The magic was so heavy it coated my throat like honey.
The birds were everywhere, chirping, and there were squirrels running around, foxes and hares, hedgehogs among the grass blades, some of their spikes glowing just like the violets.
At first, they all looked normal, save for the hedgehogs—which were also incredibly fast as they made their way about the grass, I might add.
But the deeper into this playground we went, the more I started to notice the differences.
Moths had wings made of flower petals, red and purple and yellow.
There were frogs just casually hanging out near willow trunks, groups of over ten together, with glowing bellies that pulsed softly like they’d swallowed fireflies.
Then there were these wildcats, no bigger than the average cat at home, but with sleek, long tails the tips of which left a trail of shimmer behind them as they moved.
In the distance there was a deer watching us, barely moving, and its large antlers were covered in green moss and tiny blooming flowers in all colors.
“My God,” I whispered when his eyes locked on mine, and I felt his attention on me like a physical thing. “It’s impossible—they’re all real!”
The way they felt, the way they moved, the way they looked—everything in this place looked so real that it would be impossible to tell which wasn’t.
A chuckle from ahead—Lyall.
He’d stopped by a willow tree some ten feet away, holding the branches that fell like a curtain in front of it with one arm as he squatted down and looked at the fox curled there beneath a root.
It was no ordinary fox, though. I don’t know why I got the impression that she was a female.
She had a silver coat, and her fur glowed like moonlight, especially in the shade the willow offered her as she looked at the prince, her eyes changing color just slightly each time she blinked.
She didn’t look afraid. On the contrary—she seemed very curious.
“Look,” Lyall said, waving for us to get closer to him, and I was too curious to even hesitate.