Chapter Eleven #2
“Are you honestly planning on walking?” He chuckles.
His mighty wings—all four of them—unfurl on his unspoken command and spread out behind him.
So it’s true what he told me about the fae being able to summon and dismiss some of their animal features.
The wings had vanished after we’d toppled in the stream and now they seem to grow in size.
Slightly translucent streaks pick up the light of the forest floor.
He’s positively radiant. With a mighty flap, he half jumps, half glides over the creek and steps next to me.
“There’s a much faster way. And if I’m treating you like an equal, then I should extend it to you as well.
” His arm wraps around my shoulders and he pulls me to him.
Once more, the strong length of his body leaves me breathless. “Do you trust me?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper.
“What a state we’re in, aren’t we?” he says with a smile so dashing it should be a crime. “I can’t trust you and now you seem to have some reason not to trust me.”
“Well, you did betray my trust too,” I say.
He seems genuinely surprised by this. “What? How?”
“You lied to me about who you are.”
His brow furrows. “What should I have said?” he asks softly. I’m staggered by the sincerity. “That your new husband was a fae who was destined to leave you? Would that have made you happy?”
I can’t meet his eyes anymore. I don’t have an answer. “I suppose I just wish things were different” is all I can say. He puts a finger under my chin and guides my face up to him. His eyes are open and inviting.
“I have spent my whole life wishing things were different. And we are on the cusp of it all changing. And once it changes for me, it will change for you too.” Truth.
Truth. Truth. “Once I have the power that’s in you, I will see you back to your world.
You’ll still have that house. You’ll still have all the riches I left behind.
You will live with every comfort you want and whatever joy you can buy. ”
“What about the fae in the forest?”
“They were after me, not you. Without me there, no one will come and harm you. And you will still be under my protection, even in that world, which is indeed a boon.” His arm tightens once more.
“So I will ask you again, an impossible question to a human from a fae…Do you trust me? Will you trust me? Can we start over?”
I should say no. Every human instinct in my body screams no. I can’t trust this man. As a fae, he is designed to be my enemy.
And yet, in a small breath, I defy even myself and utter, “Yes.”
His movements are a blur. In one fluid motion he pulls me to his chest while reaching with his free hand to catch the backs of my knees. He bends forward and sinks low into his legs. Then he jumps upward with a mighty flap of his wings.
We take to the skies.
The forest canopy rushes past us. I try to shield myself with a hand, pressing my face into his chest. Davien shifts as well, taking the brunt of tree limbs with his shoulders and neck. The forest becomes a distant memory as we break through its leafy barrier and slow to hover among the stars.
“Look,” he whispers.
I peel my face from his chest and shoulder as we begin to descend.
We’re falling much more slowly than should be naturally possible.
Davien stretches out a leg and points his foot.
With just the tip of his boot, he meets one of the upper branches of an oak tree, then pushes off once more with another flap of his wings.
We arc back up, magic sparking like embers off the wings behind him.
“See, it’s not so bad.” He looks down at me with a grin. I bite my lip and finally admire the world around us, now that I’m at least somewhat confident I’m not about to fall to my death.
Even though I know I should be afraid, even though my stomach has fallen from my body, my heart is soaring.
“Not so bad,” I repeat, the thought getting lost among the splendor.
From this vantage I can see the entirety of the Bleeding Woods.
They spread all along the distant mountain range and thin as they near a vibrant city at the top of a hill in the distance.
I can make out the spires of a castle against the dark sky.
It’s the only significant sign of life that I can see.
Above us, the heavens have never been so bright.
The stars look more like the sandy shores of an ocean rather than the tiny specks I’ve always known.
“It’s incredible,” I whisper. I loose a hand from around his neck and point toward the castle. “What’s that?”
Whatever it is, he doesn’t like it. I can feel his shoulders tense before a scowl sweeps across his face. Even the brilliance of his eyes seems to dim with the shadows of trauma.
“That is the High Court. It’s the hill on which the first kings were crowned, where the glass crown of the fae resides, and where the Fae King lives and rules.”
“And you want to kill him.” The words are easier to say than they should be. But I have no horse in this race. I hardly care about Fae Kings.
“How do you know that?” He glances down at me as his toe touches another treetop and he launches us off again.
“You told me you wanted to become king once.” I relax more into the safety of his arms.
“You didn’t forget.” He chuckles. “I thought you would’ve shrugged that off.”
“I would’ve if I’d smelled smoke.”
“Smelled smoke?” He furrows his brow. I realize I haven’t told him about my gift.
“Well, you see…” Every time I try to tell someone about it, things end badly. I tear my eyes from him, look away. That’s how I see the motion in the distance. There’s a blur of shadow. I blink and the figure is gone, only to appear from a puff of smoke closer. “Look out!” I shout. But I’m too late.
Davien turns. His eyes widen as he sees what I see.
A man has come seemingly from out of nowhere.
A shawl of shadow identical to that on the woman in the woods that day is around his shoulders.
He condenses darkness and hurls a spear of it right at us.
Davien tries to evade it, but not even he is fast enough.
His cry fills the air as the spear punches through his shoulder; blood pours down on me, his arm goes limp, I slip from his grasp, and we plummet back down to earth.