Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
I’m lying on the sofa staring at the ceiling, feeling my anxiety growing with every minute that ticks by.
It’s been several hours since Bastian left to visit his mother.
Midday came and went hours ago, the sun beginning its downward trajectory.
If we wait much longer, we’ll lose the daylight and have to push this whole journey back another day.
The thought makes me feel like I’m going to crawl out of my skin.
I’ve gone stir crazy sitting around for hours like this.
I’ve already explored every inch of the cottage in an attempt to pass the time.
And by explored, I mean I snooped. Definitely snooped.
With Bastian away, I had free rein to poke through all the cabinets and wardrobes and chests he has scattered around the place.
There’s still so much that I don’t know about the male that I hoped looking through all his belongings could piece some things together about his personality and just him.
But no. He doesn’t own anything that would point to who he is, what he does, or what his interests are.
It’s infuriating. Who doesn’t have any keepsakes that could point at a hobby?
A monster, that’s who. Unless you count his collection of weapons as an indication that he’s a fan of… well, violence?
He has an armoire in the sitting room that’s entirely composed of different blades.
Longswords, short swords, daggers, and sheaths for them all.
In a drawer, there are three different bows with what I swear must be an endless supply of arrows.
Maybe he works for the palace guard? Why else would he have all these weapons?
Unless he likes to hunt innocent humans for sport, which seems like a bit of a stretch based on what little I do know of him, but I suppose anything’s possible.
I snort a laugh at the thought. Could you imagine?
Weapons collection excluded, the only other things I found around his cottage were the usual things you’d expect to find: clothes, food in the cupboards, jars of colorful pastes, bandages, a few books and maps in a language I can’t even comprehend, and… yeah, that’s pretty much it.
All that to say, I need to get out of this cottage as soon as possible.
The longer I sit around, the more I think about how much Fleur must be worrying at this point.
I snuck out in the middle of the night and fell through a portal into the Faerie realm.
I can only imagine how everything went down that next morning.
She would have gone to make sure I was awake to help tidy from Samhain and when she didn’t find me in bed, she must have been frantic.
At first, she likely thought I would’ve gone to Tom’s, but she should know I would never leave without letting her know or at the very least leaving a note.
The more time passes, the more worked up I get about still being stuck here in Alinea.
I need to leave.
The urge overtakes me. I jump up from the sofa, where I’ve let my thoughts run wild, throwing open the front door and stepping out.
I take a look around the horizon, searching and hoping I would spot the hulking shape of Bastian returning.
But everything is quiet, and I can see the sun dipping further in the sky. It’s going to start getting dark soon.
Panic claws at my throat. What if he’s left me here? What if he never intended to help me get home? What if I never see my family again? I can’t stay here anymore. I need to move. The walls press in on me, forcing my hand.
You’ll wait here until I return, right Liv?
Guilt rocks through my body at the fact that I’m about to betray his trust like this. But I simply can’t sit here any longer. I have to hope he’ll understand. Even though I know deep down he won’t.
I march back into the cottage and over to the bookshelf where I remembered seeing various maps.
There must be a map of Alinea in here somewhere.
The first map I find is the one Bastian showed me of the human kingdoms, I quickly re-shelf it and continue to rifle through.
Eventually I locate a map that looks like it could be Alinea based solely on what I know of the realm.
There’s a split through the middle with a strip of neutral land with a darker shaded land to the north that must be the Unseelie Court and a lighter shaded area to the south that must be the Seelie Court.
Now, I’m not entirely sure where on this map the cottage is in relation to everything else…
And where Grimhallow is in relation to that.
It’s all written in what I’m assuming is the language of the Fae so I can’t read a word, and the letters aren’t even part of any alphabet I’m familiar with.
Is that the palace there? I think it is…
I trail my finger south away from the palace which is where I’m pretty sure is the direction we went in.
I try to recall if he said anything about where Grimhallow was.
North or south? I look at the dots marked around the map that my best guess indicates towns and villages.
There are a few in all directions that look like they could be a two-day journey from here.
I spy one further south that looks like it’s long enough in letters to be Grimhallow.
Or at least I hope so. I’m purely guessing at this point, but it feels right.
I’m hoping that once I start walking, some sense will guide me in the direction I need.
Kind of like how it led me to him that first night.
With my mind made up to leave, I swap the borrowed shirt for my tunic and tie my hair back into a braid with my leather strap.
I grab a couple apples and a hunk of bread from the cupboard and fill a skin with drinking water before tucking them away into a satchel that I’ve commandeered.
I sling the bag across my body and with a fortifying breath, I leave the cottage.
I take a look around the forest and my steps start to slow when I realize how dark it’s gotten.
There’s no way that I’ve walked longer than an hour so the sun should still be high enough in the sky to provide plenty of light.
It definitely hasn’t been long enough for the sun to have set.
I stutter to a stop and look around at how dense the trees are now.
My boots squelch and sink into the mud as the forest shifts from the solid, packed dirt and leaves to a more marshy, swamp-like land.
I spin in a circle. Everything looks the same and now I can’t tell where I came from and where the exit of the forest is.
A shiver rolls through my body as I get an overwhelming sense of deja vu.
Dread curdles my stomach. I know now that I was originally seeing the clearing but this feeling of being lost, this dread, feels like the banshee nightmares. Goosebumps break out over my skin and send a shiver through me.
This was a terrible idea.
A rustling from behind causes me to whip around. Deep in the darkness, I see the shadow of a silhouette.
“Hello? Is someone out there?” I call out tentatively. “Bastian?” Maybe he finally got back to the cottage, saw me missing, and caught up with me.
Between one blink and the next, the shadow moves a few feet closer. I didn’t see it move. I can feel the panic clawing up my throat. I take a small uneasy step backwards.
Another blink and suddenly the shadow is standing behind the closest tree to me.
“Hello, pretty princess,” the shadow hisses.
My skin breaks out into goosebumps at the sound of its voice. It’s like nails on a chalkboard and full of menace.
“Come closer, little princess.” The shadow reaches its hand out and crooks a finger at me in a come here motion.
Yeah, no thanks. I may have wandered into the forest on my own but I’m not that stupid.
I take another unsteady step backwards, away from the shadow.
In the next instant, the shadow blinks entirely out of existence.
A presence is suddenly behind me and there’s the sticky humidity of a breath on the back of my neck, making the loose hairs of my braid flutter around my face.
I hold completely still and don’t dare let out a breath, as if I could become invisible and hide from the shadow.
My instincts are roaring at me to flee. And fast.
My body tenses in the moment before I make to sprint away. I barely make it a step before its hand shoots out in a flash and latches around my wrist. It twists my arm back in a way that sends me crashing to my knees with a pained yelp.
“Such a pretty ring for a pretty princess,” the shadow purrs.
I can’t see it, but I can feel the sharp pricks as it trails a taloned finger along the edges of the gold band on my finger.
Tears burn my eyes from the pain in my arm.
“But I don’t think you’ll be needing this anymore.
” At its words, I finally get a good look at the creature over my shoulder, though it’s blurry and distorted by unshed tears.
It looks almost human, but its skin is gray and wrinkled, looking on the verge of desiccation.
Its hooved feet sink into the marsh below as its horned head tilts in my direction, glowering oppressively down at me.
The eyes are a glowing blood red that unsettle me.
Long, greasy black hair hangs around its face in stringy clumps. It reeks of must and mildew.
Its free hand reaches to pull the ring from my finger, but I close my hand into a fist before it can take it.
The creature tsks at me in response. Next thing I know, I’m being dragged by the arm in its grasp. I kick out and struggle, trying to pry its hand from my wrist with my free hand. The creature grabs my other wrist and squeezes tight, causing me to release my grasp on its hand with a gasp of pain.
“Let me go!” I shout with a crack in my voice, the tears finally having burst free.