Kaitlyn
How could I have gone from feeling safe enough in Linton’s arms to fall asleep in the air to a nightmare so vicious I could have sworn I was going to die?
But I am not dead. Instead I have a pacing mothman who only stops when he takes my hand. His are rough, clawed, and gnarly with his use of weapons. But they’re warm and big enough they shouldn’t drop me.
My mind is still too full of all my past, and whilst I can’t forget what happened, perhaps I don’t have to let it define me.
Linton shakes his head, hard enough I think it might come off. His feathery antennae lift until they’re fully erect and his eyes are huge.
“What is it?”
He scents the air. “Tam Lin.”
“He’s here?”
“He’s on the move,” Linton growls.
His hand is still around mine. I curl my fingers between his. In the last strange, strange twenty-four hours, I’ve shared more than space with Linton. There has to be something in my heart and something in his which has made me give him even one iota of my trust.
But then Linton has done nothing but look after me. The Redcaps in the bakery, the inn, and now landing here in the middle of nowhere when it clearly isn’t safe.
“What do we do?”
“Stick to the plan.”
“You have a plan?”
Okay, so yes, I trust Linton, but his brand of havoc is completely unique. I had not expected there to be a plan.
“We return to my lair.”
“Does Tam Lin know where that is?”
Linton studies me for a while. “Probably.”
My mothman is a chaos monster. Complete and utter chaos.
“Perhaps going there is not the best idea?” I suggest.
Linton does one of his long, slow blinks at me. I think it means he’s thinking, but I can’t be sure. I’m not convinced he has thoughts, only vibes.
And those vibes are completely different to the ones the rest of us have.
“Then we will go to the stronghold.”
“What is the stronghold?”
“It’s on the outskirts of the Night Lands,” Linton says, his wings shivering. “Tam Lin won’t go there when there’s a risk Warden might take him.”
He sweeps me up into his arms.
“Who is Tam Lin?”
“He was the original human taken by the first Faerie Queen, but now he is not human anymore.” Linton knits his eyebrows together. “At least I think he was human? I’m not sure.”
“I’m guessing it probably doesn’t matter anymore. But why does he want me? The Faerie have been vanquished. Reavely is the king of the Yeavering now.”
“No one ever controls the whole of the Yeavering. Even the Faerie didn’t have it all. Where were Reivers in the Night Lands or the Shellycoats on the coast. There are plenty of places they would fear to tread.”
This isn’t what I was led to believe about the Yeavering. I mean, I knew there were plenty who feared the Faerie and the monsters, but I thought the entire place was under their control.
It’s something I should have known. My secret runs deep, something even Linton can’t know. Not yet, not until I get to the very heart of the Yeavering.
Until I have the absolute proof.
Because Reavely might be in charge, but it hasn’t stopped the Faerie and their lottery beyond the veil. Until that ceases, the whole of the human world remains in danger, if not from abduction, then from another virus they would seek to release.
It remains in their hands the ability to kill us all.
For a moment, I consider. With Linton on my side, perhaps I’d get closer to breaking the walls down. But I don’t want to put him in danger, nor do I want him to decide he doesn’t like my side mission and put a stop to it.
“What Tam Lin wants, Tam Lin gets, unless he has to go through me.” Linton growls at the horizon before his blood red eyes turn to me. “That means he won’t get it,” he adds unnecessarily.
“I got that part.” I nod.
Linton flashes his fangs in a quick grimace which might be a smile.
“It’s time to go, my mate,” he says.
I squeeze his hand. “I’m not your mate,” I say as kindly as I can.
“Why not? You gave me blood, you gave me your nectar, and you have ridden in my arms. If that doesn’t make you a mate, I don’t know what does,” Linton says with infinite confidence, wrapping one of the aforesaid arms around me and launching us into the sky.
“It absolutely does not,” I say, but my words are lost to the air and the blue.
And I suspect Linton won’t be convinced of any alternative no matter how much I argue.