Chapter 16
The next morning, I went on a walk to clear my head. My hand had healed but it had to remain covered, so I appeared to be human. The only thing that remained was my brand below my collar bone.
I went to the lavender fields, my favorite place in the kingdom. Here, I could unburden myself of courtly matters. Here, I could think clearer. I could breathe without worrying if I was going to be struck down for doing so. Here, I could feel my mother. The fragrance was hers.
My fingers traced the soft petals of the plants, taking in the vibrant shades of purples and green. I brought my healed hand to the pendant Gaelin had given me. The green in the stone was truly the same shade as my eyes. Even though he had given it to me, the pendant was now mine. It was a reminder that no matter where I was, there was freedom to be found in the smallest moments.
Suddenly, a high-pitched scream came from the woods behind the field. I jumped to my feet; my attention fixed on the thick clustering of trees. Another scream came, followed by sobbing and cries for help. I took off without thinking, running straight towards the pleas.
I pushed past the thick foliage, the low branches, and thorny bushes. The scream came again, forcing me to pick up my pace. I could think of nothing but the pain I heard in the victim's plea for help. Barreling through the thick coverage, I stumbled into a clearing—and froze in horror as I peered up at the source who was just moments ago crying for help.
A human woman was strung up in the trees by her arms, completely naked. Her skin was slashed to ribbons. Her eyes were covered in blood that streamed down her face like tears. Her back had been torn open and her ribs pulled backwards and out to resemble wings. Her breasts were gone, and her genitals were unrecognizable.
I began shaking as I felt bile rise in my esophagus. I fell to the ground, my stomach emptying at the mortifying sight I had just beheld. I gasped for air and tears of fear saturated my face. From behind me, buzzing cut through the air. Loud crunches of leaves followed. I was no longer alone.
I turned slowly to see five fairies standing in front of me in an arc. I was so screwed. Lean, muscular bodies covered in pale white skin, slightly tinted with a blue hue. Their noses were sharp, their ears pointed, and their long faces came to a rounded point at the chin. Long lashes lined large, almond-shaped eyes. Their thin lips didn’t conceal their sharp pointed teeth.
I fell back onto my heels, searching for a weapon or anything for that matter to protect myself with. Their wings were magnificent. Long and powerful, and as the sun poured through the canopy of the trees, they seemed to change colors like a rainbow. Iridescent at times, with flickers of color trickling through them like a wave.
A female walked slowly towards me, tilting her head to study me. I gradually stood to my feet before them.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Her voice, high pitched, yet sophisticated in some way. She examined me up with her electric orange eyes.
“Another snack?” a male asked.
“How lucky are we?”
“Two in one day.” The fairies surrounded me, leaving me no option for escape. They licked their lips as the all too familiar chattering of teeth erupted from the group. They closed in, herding me like an innocent lamb. I looked up at the girl hanging from the trees, wondering if I would soon be hanging next to her, filleted into an angel.
One of the fairies came from behind me, digging their sharp teeth into my shoulder blade. It shook its head as its teeth locked into my skin. I yelled out in pain as another took a quick bite out of my leg.
“Enough!” said the female in charge as she circled me, sniffing the air. The two fairies let go and I stood panting in pain. She faced me and smiled with those sharp, deadly teeth. “What are you? You don’t smell human, but you aren’t alfar either.”
I stood silently.
“Kill her and let’s get back. We can’t stay here much longer,” said another female. The one in front of me stepped closer, dragging her sharp nail along my cheek. Blood spilled from my face. I watched her bring her finger to her mouth as my blood dripped onto her tongue. Her eyes closed as she moaned with pleasure.
“Oh yes, you are delicious. Whatever you are, I am going to enjoy you very much. Yes, I am,” she said, wrapping her long fingers around my arm. She pulled me into her, still smiling. Suddenly, her eyes snapped up to look behind me as her body tensed. The other four fairies drew weapons, waiting to strike at whatever was coming from the tree line. I pressed my eyes shut as hard as I could. How could this get any worse? Leaves crunched behind me, but I didn’t dare open my eyes.
“Now, I am not from these parts,” came a familiar voice from behind me, “but I am certain fairies are not allowed to step foot on the light court’s territory. Am I mistaken?”
I turned my head to see Erendrial and five other dark alfar beside him. The female that held me chuckled, relaxing a bit at the sight of him.
“Ambassador Lyklor, nice to see you again. We were just passing through. No harm done. We will take our leave now,” she said, pulling at my arm to follow her.
“I wouldn’t call that no harm done,” Erendrial said, nodding to the girl strung up in the trees.
The female exhaled in frustration, turning back to face him. “Blasphemy to their Christian god. If they love angels so much, why not become one?” The female fairy chucked, shaking her head from side to side with a wicked smile. “It is our gift to the light court and their Norse gods. I’m sure Azeer would appreciate our artwork.”
Erendrial began to laugh mockingly under his breath and folded his hands behind his back. His long dark coat fluttered in the wind as he hung his head low, walking towards us. “Cerci, please do not assume that you can begin to understand what our god does and does not enjoy. The matter remains that you are on light court territory, uninvited. You took one of their pigs and hung them up in the trees and have the audacity to call it art. How is that pig going to serve her alfar lords now?”
The female fairy trembled slightly as Erendrial approached. I noticed her face go somber “Doesn’t matter to me. They can just go get another to replace her. These humans produce faster than rodents. Shouldn’t be a problem since you all can cross the border whenever you please,” she snapped.
He smiled at her, now with only a foot between them. He looked down at her possibly assessing what to do next. Then, he smiled and nodded his head. “You’re right. She is of no importance. Off you go before a light guard finds the lot of you. It would be such a shame to see that pretty head of yours removed from your body,” he said.
She smiled and bowed her head to him. I looked at him, begging for help with my eyes, but I couldn’t find the word. He didn’t even glance in my direction.
“Thank you, ambassador. You are one of my favorites, yes you are. We will be on our way. I look forward to our next meeting,” she said, pulling me roughly back to her group of flesh-eating savages.
“Leave the human, Cerci,” I heard Erendrial say behind me. The fairy stopped, stiffening every muscle in her body. She turned around slowly as possessiveness and rage flickered through her eyes.
“She is mine. I found her so I get to keep her,” she hissed.
Erendrial stood calm, not even a flicker of panic or worry. “Actually, she is Gaelin Atros’s. The future king of the light if you were unaware. Now, how do you think he is going to react when he finds out you stole and ate his favorite plaything?”
“The future king is your problem, not mine. I want her, I take her,” she said, digging her nails into my bicep.
I felt warm pools of blood well underneath her nails. She sniffed the air with one long inhale. She looked down at me with a hunger I had never seen in any living thing’s eyes before. Her teeth bared from behind her thin lips as she brought the saturated nails to her mouth, licking my blood from them. “She is delicious. Do you know what she is?”
“A human,” replied Erendrial coldly.
Cerci’s teeth chattered together as she cocked her head like a reptile. “No, no, no. I have never tasted a human this delicious before. She doesn’t smell of it, nor does she taste of it. I will take her and that is final.”
Erendrial walked casually towards her, hands still behind his back. He stopped only when he was inches from her face. He slowly bent his head down to her, his face now stone cold like something out of a nightmare. “Cerci darling, please do not force me to kill your comrades and then string you up like the Christian girl. You already have wings, I don’t see why you need a second pair,” he whispered coldly.
Cerci growled, baring her teeth at him. She looked behind him at the other alfar warriors casually waiting for their command. She threw me to the ground, standing powerfully against Erendrial. “I will remember this, Lyklor,” she said, shooting straight up into the air.
Her companions followed suit, clearly not wishing to spend another minute in the dark alfars’ presence.
I scampered back away from Erendrial and the others, unsure if I had just escaped one hell to be trapped in another. Erendrial looked at me with that unfeeling smile he wore as a mask to hide his wickedness. He walked over to me and extended his hand to assist me to my feet. I pushed myself up on my own, standing with my head tall. He smirked at my feeble attempt to show strength.
“What? No, thank you. Do they not teach manners in The Frey? We’ll have to remedy that. Come, let's get you back to your master,” said Erendrial as he turned back to the others.
“He’s not my master,” I barked.
The other alfar began to laugh under their breath.
Erendrial turned around to face me. “What is he then? Your friend, companion, lover? Surely not your protector. The banquet dinner made that very evident to everyone who had the pleasure of watching you be mutilated for a simple look.”
I felt the rage building inside of me. I hated this bantering. If he was going to torture me or kill me, just get on with it.
“What are you going to do with me?” I asked through my teeth.
“What am I going to do with you or what do I want to do with you? Two very different questions, two very different outcomes, little one,” he said.
I rolled my eyes, tensing my fists together.
“I am going to escort you back to the castle. When I am sure you are safe, I will leave you in the care of your...hmm, not master. What about, mounter, rider, penetrator?” The other alfar were laughing loudly at this point. “Fucker, yes. He shall now be known as Gaelin the fucker. What a valiant king he will be,” said Erendrial
I pushed past him, heading back to the castle. The others looked at me with amusement. Gods, I hated him. Erendrial appeared at my side, poised and elegant as always.
“Did I push too far?” he asked.
“I’d like to walk back on my own,” I said, trying to quicken my pace.
“You may walk back, but not alone. You tend to find yourself in trouble when you're left to your own devices.”
“Why do you care? You should have left me back there. One less human to care about, right?”
His tongue clicked sharply as if a warning signal. “You’re right. It would have been one less human to worry about. If you were human that is.”
I felt my lungs collapse on themselves as if someone was suffocating me. I didn’t dare look at him. He couldn’t know. How could he have known? He wasn’t a mind reader...or was he? He did say he knew my father.
“I’m human,” I responded shortly.
“Whatever you say, little Genevieve.”
We walked for a few moments in silence. My mind kept replaying the images of the human girl through my memory. All the blood and skin, just hanging there. The way her ribs were pulled apart. How her breasts were cut clean off. I felt the bile rising in my stomach again I turned just in time to puke in a nearby bush.
I pulled myself up slowly, feeling dizzy and cold. Erendrial held out a handkerchief. It was black and silk, just like the trim of his jacket. “Go on, take it,” he said.
I did, using it to wipe my mouth. I shoved it in the pocket of my dress as we started back towards the castle. I couldn’t help but think of Lilian. “Is that what you do to humans for entertainment? Back at the dark court?” I asked.
He smiled. “Would you believe me if I said no?”
“No,” I replied coldly.
“Then why ask?” I didn’t respond. He nodded. “Ah, Lilian. You are afraid the same fate awaits her.”
Dammit, he was a mind reader. What the hell?
He laughed again. “As I said, Lilian Thomas is safe and contrary to popular belief, we do not treat our humans like that. Why waste a perfectly good warm body in that manner?”
I rolled my eyes. “So, you don’t sacrifice them to Azeer?” I asked.
“I didn’t say that, but that little display of ‘artwork’ you saw back there is only practiced by the fairies.”
A chill of disgust ran up my spine. I thought back to the young girl Gaelin and the others gave the fairies when they were transporting us from The Frey. I wondered if she met the same torturous fate. Her skin torn apart and eaten as she watched. I couldn’t imagine that type of pain
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“You’re welcome. Let’s keep our little outing from your ma—Gaelin for now. I am on thin ice since someone spoiled my perfectly executed plan and I don’t need him looking at me any harder than he already is.” He walked past me as we entered the city arches. The dark alfar followed him, not looking back in my direction.
I made my way to the room, changing my outfit and washing the blood from my skin. This was becoming a habit. When I exited the bathroom, Gaelin and Levos were standing at the table looking at a map. I walked over to them, taking note of their tense faces.
“They have to be coming from the south,” said Gaelin. “That is where our scouts last saw them. They wouldn’t have time to move everyone without tipping us off. We attack tomorrow. We’ll have the dark alfar take to the sky, creating a cover for our ground troops to move in. If we attack from the east and west, we will have them pinned with no hope of escape.”
“I agree,” replied Levos. “That is the best plan. I am just hesitant about our enemies’ abilities. The dark alfar have had little interaction with them. We don’t know what they are capable of. I don’t want to be surprised.”
“I agree, but we can’t let this opportunity to kill Otar escape us. This may be our only chance.”
I moved to Gaelin’s side, looking at the map spread out on the table. He wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed me on my head softly. I smiled up at him, returning my focus to the map.
I took note of all the different colored markers representing different infantries and attack teams. I looked at the southern border of the kingdom where Gaelin expected the attack to come from. My eyes slowly trailed up the map to the northern wall behind the castle. The room began to spin as my vision got hazy and spotted. Electric shocks zapped at the nerves in my back up my neck and then into my brain. I felt myself falling slowly. Gaelin caught me before I could hit the floor.
A vision of a battle commenced behind my fluttering eyelids. Light armies rushed to the southern border, but once they arrived, their enemy was gone. Ragamor flew overhead, searching for a threat, but there was none. Confused and angered, the troops return home only to be greeted with the castle overrun by massive wolf-like creatures on their hind legs. Body parts littered the halls. Blood stained every wall and every rug. The humans were ripped to pieces.
In the throne room, the king, queen, and princess hung from the ceiling with long red ulyrium spears piercing their hearts. A black-skinned figure sat upon the throne. His yellow eyes glistened and blood dripped from his claws. He wore the king’s crown. I saw Gaelin and Erendrial along with both light and dark warriors enter the hall. As soon as the room was full, massive explosions overtook the city. Each detonation propelled pieces of ulyrium through the air, cutting the army down. Then, everything went black.