Chapter Ten
Ten
I’m not quite sure why it’s called the Bleeding Woods. Compared to the forest back home, this place is—dare I think it?—cheerful. My company notwithstanding, of course.
They talk amongst themselves throughout the day, mostly ignoring me.
Davien says little; he leads the pack and broods quite dramatically.
Oren also stays out of their discussions, lingering back, closer to me.
No doubt to make sure I don’t run. I keep my distance from even him.
Whatever trust he might have earned from me is now gone.
Inevitably, the conversation drifts back to me, as do their eyes. They ask how I’m doing. They say I must be tired. They say my weak, frail human body must be breaking down.
Every time, I assure them that I’m more than capable of carrying on. I can go a little farther.
But the fourth time they do this, I’m finally worn down.
The sun is setting on the other side, the wrong side, of the mountains that loom above us—a strange phenomenon for me and further evidence that I’m very far from home.
The sun rises from behind the mountains; it doesn’t…
set behind them. I come to a halt, cross my arms, and glare at them.
“Are you ever going to tell me why exactly I’m going to die within the next three days?”
“Do you really want to know?” Hol asks.
“Oh, can I tell her?” Giles seems a little too eager for my liking. He grins, and it’s then that I notice his teeth are just slightly sharper than a normal human’s would be.
“I suppose I’ll let you deny me the pleasure,” Shaye says to Giles.
“Tell her whatever you want,” Davien calls back. “But don’t stop moving.”
We begin our march again. Giles speaks as we do.
“Since you’re human, I’m going to assume that you know basically nothing about the world you live in.
” I roll my eyes. He ignores it. “What you need to know is this. There are three worlds: The Beyond—where you go when you die; Midscape—where you are now, and where those of us with magic still reside; and the Natural World—the land humans were given after the ancient wars, and where you’re from.
“Between each of these worlds is a barrier. The barrier between Midscape and the Beyond is called the Veil. The barrier between Midscape and the Natural World is called the Fade.”
“All right.” I think I follow. Though it seems too incredible to be real. “We crossed the Fade to get here?”
“Correct,” he says.
“So the people who try to cross the mountains cross the Fade and actually end up here? In Midscape?”
“Not quite.”
“Fortunately not, for them.” Shaye tilts her head back and barks out a laugh. “Death is kinder to a human than accidentally ending up in the fae wilds.”
I cross my arms over my chest and fight a shiver. I’m still in my nightgown and robe. What I wouldn’t give for the dignity of a pair of trousers or a proper dress.
“Humans and the regular creatures of Midscape aren’t supposed to be able to cross the Fade in either direction. Only a few of the elves can; it’s the Elf King who maintains the barriers between the worlds. By not allowing the majority of people to cross on either side, he keeps his power.”
“Elf King?” I repeat. “There’s more than just fae here?”
“There’s elves, siren, lykin, us…there were dryads long ago, but they died off after they made the humans. There’s also vampir, but they haven’t been seen in centuries. I think they were last heard from a couple hundred years after the Fade was created. They might have gone the way of the dryads.”
Dryads making humans…all the creatures from the old folktales being real…I feel dizzy and pause to brace myself against a tree and catch my breath. “It’s impossible.”
“What was that?” Giles calls to me.
“Don’t tell me—she’s finally giving up for the day?” Shaye asks.
“This can’t be real. I have to be dreaming.” I shake my head with a laugh. “Magical creatures? Ancient wars? Barriers between worlds? No. No, this isn’t real.”
“Unfortunately for you, it’s very real.” Giles puts his hands in pockets hidden by the folds of his loose skirt. “Because we haven’t even made it to the part that’s going to kill you.”
“Oh. Good. More things that can kill me other than the villains of all the stories I was told as a girl.” I scowl at him.
“Keep moving,” Davien shouts. I frown even deeper and push away from the tree.
We are marching at a fairly brisk pace, and while I wouldn’t say I’m tired yet, it’s a lot more than a stroll in the woods.
I glance behind me. It’s like we’re running from something.
Whatever it is that strikes fear into the hearts of these people, I know I don’t want to meet.
My thoughts go back to the woman who attacked me in the woods.
Perhaps there are more like her out here too.
“Humans aren’t made for this world,” Giles says. “Only one human can survive here—the Human Queen.”
“Where does she live?” If there’s a Human Queen, then maybe I can find my way to her.
Surely she would be sympathetic to me, right?
I curse inwardly. What am I thinking? Make it to a Human Queen?
Even if Giles told me where to find her, I wouldn’t know one city from another here.
I don’t know anything about this world. The sickening feeling of helplessness settles on my shoulders and I want to scream.
“Nowhere you want to go. She’s married to the Elf King and lives far to the south.”
“May they rot with all elves behind their wall,” Hol mutters under his breath.
“Let me get this straight. You’re saying that humans can’t survive here, so all humans were long ago pushed out into the—” I try to remember what he called my world. “The Natural World.”
“Look at that, she can be taught. I’m like a proud papa over here.” Giles wipes an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye, sniffling dramatically.
I ignore the remark. It’s the closest I’m going to get to affirmation, so I continue. “And because humans can’t survive here…I’m going to die?”
“More or less.” Giles shrugs. “Can’t say we’ve ever really tested it. Shaye, you once saw a human dragged to Midscape, right?”
Shaye glares at him for putting her on the spot.
But she answers anyway. “I did. It was a horrible idea from a horrible person who did horrible things.” Her eyes are distant as she speaks.
She doesn’t seem to look at anything. “It’s the food, the water…
In Midscape, humans aren’t nourished the way they should be. They wither and die alarmingly fast.”
I swallow thickly and glance back toward the mountains. I ask, as casually as possible, “How does someone cross the Fade?”
“Don’t even think about trying to do it.
” Hol sees right through me. He ties his long auburn hair back at the nape of his neck, combing it around his horns.
They look more like mother-of-pearl than bone.
“The Fade is a dangerous place even for us. Remember, no one is supposed to be able to cross it. We can only navigate it with magic and passageways that only exist thanks to broken magic and are a risk every time we try. If you tried to go into it, you would certainly die.”
It sounds like I’m going to die either way.
But I don’t say that. They’ve given me enough food for thought and I chew on it in silence for a while.
Every now and then I look up at them. The same three talk among themselves.
Shaye’s shimmering butterfly wings twitch on occasion, proof that they’re real.
Or that I’m having the most horrible, vivid dream ever.
I hold out my forearm and give it a firm pinch. It hurts. No, not a dream.
Sighing, I run my fingers through my hair. They catch on a series of knots. I begin tugging and teasing out the tangles. It gives my hands something to do while I think. As if untangling my hair will help me untangle myself from the mess I’m in.
I don’t even notice the group has stopped until I’m a few steps away from them.
Jostled from my thoughts, I look around.
The ruins of old houses are spread among the trees, like a child’s toys left out and forgotten.
A large oak tree rises from the remains of one home, boxed in by the crumbling walls.
“We’ll stay there tonight.” Davien points toward the building I was just looking at.
“Must we?” Giles shivers and wraps his arms around himself. “This is a cursed place.”
“It’s only cursed if you allow it to be,” Hol says firmly, though I can’t tell who he’s trying to convince, the rest of us or himself.
Oren has come to a stop beside me. I glance over at him and whisper, “Is that how curses work?”
“No, curses are—” he begins, but he is cut off by Davien.
“This place is not actually cursed.” His low voice rumbles through me.
I hate that it is the same voice I heard all those evenings this past month.
The same voice that kept me up in my bed late at night, sighing softly with my fingers dancing between my thighs and yearning for just a glimpse of the face that went along with it.
It would’ve been kinder if his voice changed when we entered this world.
I still don’t know how to reconcile the handsome, kind, and safe Lord Fenwood I was imagining and this powerful, deadly fae standing before me.
“It is merely a place of brutality and great trauma.”
“The sort of trauma not even the trees forget.” Shaye looks up at the leafy canopies we walk under as if trying to commune with those very sentries.
We enter the ruins through a crumbled archway and work our way over the boulders and rubble, around the central oak, to the back corner.