Chapter 5
THE COCOON BED had been lowered from the tree so it hung only a few inches above the mossy earth. She lay with the hatch open and one leg draped over the side, sneaker skimming the ground. Soon, thanks to the gentle swaying, she was asleep.
She woke when the rocking stopped. Jolting upright, she groaned when she saw Kaelan frowning down at her.
“What?” she asked, falling back again.
“We have to talk,” he said.
She stared up at the woven branches of the cocoon, sleep still thick on her skin and heavy in her eyes. She’d been dreaming about Endreas again—hearing his voice, trying to find him, failing.
“Or you could just go on pretending that I don’t exist,” she said.
“You can’t allow Honey to go with you,” he said.
She propped up on her elbows. “It’s not my decision. She has free will. She can do as she likes.”
Kaelan ducked into the cocoon with her, pushing her legs aside, as only a Prince could do. And even then she wasn’t sure why she allowed it. She sat up, scooting deep into the cocoon, leaning against the bumpy interior.
“She is not herself. You know that,” he said.
“I know that she has less of her soul than she used to, but what remains is still her.”
“You said it yourself, this journey is dangerous. She’s just a nymph.”
Magda crossed her legs and leaned forward. “This isn’t about her. It’s about you. You’re afraid.”
He opened his mouth as if about to protest, but she cut him off.
“If Honey goes with us, then you’ll feel as though you must join us as well.
And you don’t want to do that. And I understand.
But I promised I wouldn’t try to claim you, didn’t I?
And what happened before . . . It was just an accident.
We can control our instincts. We just have to be conscious of them. ”
He looked away, his hands knotting together.
“I have every intention of keeping my promise,” she said. “But we are what we are. It’s not just me, Kaelan. Any Rae you meet, you’ll find yourself desiring her. That’s just the way it is.”
“I didn’t desire Lavana.”
“It’s difficult to desire someone when they’re not with you all of the time.”
He looked up at her. “And that is why I can’t go with you.”
“If that’s your decision, I can’t force you. And I won’t try. But don’t think it’s going to end with me. There are plenty of Raes in this world. Another will find you.”
“This is not the way it is with the small folk,” he grumbled, shoulders slumping. “They are allowed to choose their mates.” The heavy swath of his hair fell over his brow. “I had no idea how difficult it would be to resist.”
She smirked. “Well, if it makes you feel better, it’s hard for me too. But it’s not impossible, Kaelan. And to be honest . . . I need you. If I have any real hope of challenging Lavana, if I have to meet her in battle . . . without a Prince to heal me . . . she will win.”
“What about the Prince she stole from you? Has he no loyalty?”
“No, he doesn’t. We were drawn to each other, because that’s the way of it.
But Lavana will claim him as soon as she’s able, and I’m sure he’ll be glad to accept her.
Partly because he doesn’t understand what it means.
And partly because . . . I think he’ll be happier with her.
She’ll give him everything he wants. She has the family behind her, the power, the wealth.
She’ll spoil him. He likes to be spoiled.
His parents sheltered him too much. He’s like a child. Give him sweets and he’ll follow you.”
“And you’re just going to let him?”
“I’m not sure why you think I have any power to stop him. Or Honey. Or any power at all. Did you get this notion before or after I was tortured and thrown into an iron cell? Or was it when I almost died on a warrior’s blade and you had to save me, again?”
“You survived the torture and escaped that cell, and you are still alive.”
“Thanks to you.”
His gaze fell away from her. “I’m afraid if I go with you . . .”
“I know what you’re afraid of,” she said. “And you’re right to be. But I can’t claim you without your consent, Kaelan. No one can.”
“And what about when you Shine?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I’ll tie you up with gorgon rope and hang you from a tree.”
He smiled, a little. But it vanished quickly. “What will happen?”
“When I Shine?”
He nodded.
She let out a heavy breath. “You’ll forget you want to resist our attraction. You’ll forget you don’t wish to be claimed. But I promise I’ll do whatever I can to avoid that situation with you. You have my word.”
His gaze flicked up to her and then away again, which seemed the only way he was willing to look at her since that charged moment between them at the bottom of Ouda’s tree.
“Honey is determined to help you. To join you.”
“I don’t know when I’ll Shine next,” she said. “It hasn’t happened regularly since I left this world . . .”
“Do you miss it?” he asked.
“The Shine?”
“No. The human world. Sometimes . . . you seem very sad.”
“You mean that you feel my sadness,” she said.
He glanced at her again, quickly.
“It’s all right to admit it, Kaelan. It might actually make this all much easier.
Just accept that you can feel what I feel and that you desire me, because you’re a Prince.
You don’t have to be angry about it. It’s not the end of your life.
We can help each other. You love Honey, I understand that. And I—”
Her words caught in her throat. Had she been about to say that she loved Endreas? No, but maybe she had been about to say that she had Endreas. That some part of her already belonged to him. Either way . . .
“If you help me become Radiant, I’ll be able to claim another Prince.
There are always a few . . . protected by their families, hidden, as you were, until their families find the best match.
As Radiant, I’ll be the most coveted Rae in the Lands.
I’ll help you hide yourself, with Honey, if that’s what you want. But I need you to help me first.”
“You’ve certainly changed your mind. I didn’t think you wanted to be Radiant.”
“I don’t,” she said, “and yet, I do. You were right. I miss the human world, full of poison as it was. I was truly free there. I made my own destiny. I was poor and weak and exiled, but I answered to no one. And no one looked to me for answers. I just ate pizza and sat on the beach. I woke up and did what I wanted. No fighting, no blood, no constant fear that I would . . .”
He looked at her fully, finally. “Die?”
“Fail.”
A distant bird shriek spiraled down from the sky, sharp and piercing.
Kaelan’s face closed off again. “The roc is here.”
Kaelan led her to an outcrop where the trees had failed to take root in the rocky soil. It overlooked an endless canopy of gold and green leaves below.
Perched near the ledge was the tawny and red-tipped feathered beast of a bird with piercing yellow-ringed eyes and a beak big enough to swallow all of them at once. Damion hung back by the tree line, his swords drawn. His color had paled to something like ash.
Standing before the bird, Honey sang softly to it. The roc lowered its head, big as a bull elephant’s, and nuzzled Honey. The nymph stumbled back a bit, laughing.
“I’m not doing this,” Damion growled at Magda. “We can’t really mean to—”
Magda, who had been doing her damnedest to ignore her own fears, swallowed them back and moved closer.
The black and gold ring of the roc’s eye zeroed in on her. She froze, heart hammering.
“Anqa, these are my friends,” Honey said to the bird, still running her hands down its neck. The feathers there looked as long as the nymph’s arms. “I would like to ask you to take us all to the Petra Islands, the northern cluster across the gulf. Will you, please?”
Anqa cocked her head, her eye tracking from Magda to Kaelan to Damion.
She opened up her ungodly large beak and let out a call that brought fear-sweat out on Magda’s chest and left her ears ringing.
Honey clapped her hands and jumped up and down, grinning. “She said she will.”
A wave of dizziness overcame Magda as she gazed up at the bird and then beyond it, where the land gave way. Her chest squeezed around her lungs, cutting off the air. Her pulse skittered and fluttered.
What had she been thinking? She’d never flown—not once. Not even when the fairies would give the Pixie children rides through the garden. The children would squeal with delight, chubby Pixie feet knocking petals from the flowers.
“Magda?” Kaelan’s voice was right next to her.
She flinched, not realizing he’d drawn so close.
“We must leave soon,” Honey called. “Anqa and her mate are in the midst of nesting. She cannot allow more than a couple of days away.”
“That beast is mating?” Damion sneered.
The roc lowered its head, eye fixed on the warrior, and let out a low clucking in the back of its throat—not a friendly sound.
Honey patted Anqa’s neck again. “It’s all right. He is nothing more than a Pixie. You don’t need to worry about what he says.” She smiled brightly at Damion. “Although, if you insult her again, she might eat you.”
Damion growled and charged up to Magda, crowding her, sucking up her oxygen. She took a step back from both him and Kaelan.
“We cannot do this,” he said. “I won’t.”
Her breath was too short and shallow to respond.
Kaelan’s hand skimmed her bare arm lightly. A cool energy passed through her, calming. She managed to pull a deep breath that slowed the dizzy swirl in her head.
“Then you can stay here,” she said to Damion. “But if we don’t find the Enneahedron, we may as well quit now.”
“You don’t know—”
“It’s our best chance,” she said. “Do you think I want to”—her throat clenched, but she pushed through—“fly on that to the Realms of the Throne?”
Kaelan’s fingers touched her shoulder gently, shaving away the lingering panic. “You don’t want to go,” he said. “So maybe . . . you shouldn’t.”
She shrugged his hand off and turned on him. “I have to go. And I can’t stop Honey from joining—”
“You can if it’s only the two of us,” he said. “I’ll take you.” His voice lowered to a whisper. “I know you don’t want to fly.”
“I thought you weren’t going to help me,” she said.
“If you don’t need Honey’s roc, then she won’t have any excuse to join you.”
“You could take both of us?” Damion asked, leaning over Magda’s shoulder.
Kaelan’s face darkened. “No. And I couldn’t come back for you either, not over such a great distance, not for a day at least.”
Damion scowled. “Well, then, we take the bird.”
“I can’t leave Damion behind,” she said, as much as she hated to.
Traveling with Kaelan through the Shadow Realms was far preferable to flying on the back of that giant Pixie-eater. But once on the Elf King’s islands, she would be taking an even greater risk traveling without Damion. She’d already almost died twice in the two weeks since she’d returned.
“I can come back for him,” Kaelan said. “We can find a safe place and wait until I’m recovered enough to travel again.”
“Then I’d have to wait another day, alone, for you to return with Damion?” she asked.
He nodded.
“I don’t like it,” Damion growled.
“Would you rather fly on that?” she asked, nodding to the bird.
“Why are you offering to do this, Prince?” Damion said. “Suddenly you want to help us?”
“I don’t want Honey involved in this any more than she has to be,” he said softly.
“Then we’ll leave at dusk,” Magda said, her pulse slowing.
“Wait . . .” Damion interjected. “I should go first. You stay here, rest another day.”
Honey bounded over, grinning. “When shall we leave?”
Magda smiled thinly at Damion. “I’m going first.”