The Princess
We decided to bury the Demon Fae. We didn’t want anyone else stumbling upon it—or worse, another Demon Fae to appear, drawn by the smell of blood.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to do about the bloodstains on our clothes.
I used my waterskin to clean the black blood off my skin, but the hunter was covered in it.
And it mingled with his own blood, which stained his clothes and hands crimson.
He tried to stifle the bleeding, but he was losing too much.
I whistled for Mauro, and he arrived within seconds.
“Shivering bones, you survived,” he breathed. His dark eyes fixed on Theron. “Oh no…”
“He’s been poisoned,” I said, wiping sweat from my brow. My hand came back slick with inky blood. “How far are we from the nearest village?”
“I’m fine,” the hunter growled. “We need to find a river or stream to clean the rest of this blood. Otherwise we’ll attract other fae beasts.”
“He’s right.” Mauro pawed nervously at the ground. “If we head for town, we’ll only draw the creatures there.”
“But everything is frozen this time of year,” I argued. “We won’t find any bodies of water nearby.”
“How did you kill it?” Theron’s gaze was pinned on me, his coal-black eyes full of accusation.
I glared at him. “Can we discuss this later? You’re dying.”
“If you have magic that can help us—”
“I don’t have any magic that can cure you! And that’s our most pressing concern. So will you shut up and let me think?” The last thing I wanted to do was attract attention to my powers of invisibility. I dug through my pack and thrust a sparkwood apple toward the hunter. “Eat this.”
He waved it away. “No.”
“Eat it. You need your strength.”
“I need a healer, not a damn apple!” he snapped.
Groaning, I shoved the apple back into my bag. Stubborn ass.
“The pixies,” Theron said, his breath winded. “They have healing powers. There are colonies of them that live in the mountains.”
“Pixies are unpredictable little bastards,” Mauro grumbled. “They don’t emerge unless they want to, and they rarely associate with the fae.”
“Maybe not seelie fae, but they do associate with fae creatures,” Theron said, raising his eyebrows.
Mauro snorted. “You want me to approach the pixies?”
“No. I want him to.” Theron jerked his head to the side.
I followed the direction of his gesture and frowned. “You want… the trees to find the pixies?” Maybe the poison was messing with his head.
Theron rolled his eyes. “You can come out now.”
“Damn.” Frisk the arctic fox materialized, his snowy form bobbing toward us. “I’d been so careful. How did you spot me?”
“Frisk?” I shrieked. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“What’s it look like? I’m following to make sure you don’t get yourselves killed.”
“Oh, really?” I crossed my arms. “And where were you when the Demon Fae attacked?”
Frisk licked his paws idly. “Perhaps I was kicking snow in its face.”
“You were not,” I said with a laugh.
“All right, fine, I was hiding. But don’t be mad at me. I’m not the only stowaway.”
My stomach dropped. “Who—” I broke off, my heart skittering in my chest as I frantically looked around. “Shit. Kendra, where are you?”
For a moment, nothing happened. I felt Theron frowning inquisitively at me, but I was scanning our surroundings, my cloak, my pack—
Something clinked in my pack, and Kendra poked her white snout out of the satchel. Her wide blue eyes fixed innocently on me. “Don’t be mad, Snow.”
Theron made a choking sound, his eyes growing wide. “What… is that?”
Kendra released a puff of icy air before burrowing her way back into my bag.
“She was in your cloak for most of the trip,” Frisk said. “When the Demon Fae appeared, she jumped into your pack and was with Mauro the whole time. Don’t worry, she was safe.”
“Safe,” I scoffed, my heart still racing at the thought of tiny Kendra in close proximity to a Demon Fae.
Theron groaned and swayed slightly. His face was growing paler by the second, his hand pressed to the bloody wound in his side.
Gritting my teeth, I said, “We’ll discuss this later. Frisk, do you know where the pixies are?”
“Yes.” Frisk lifted his head, his ears perking up. “The hunter is right. I can track them down. If anyone can do it, it’s someone who can be invisible. Am I right?”
My lips thinned as I caught his meaning. He wanted me to go with him. “Right.”
“We’ll have to be careful,” Theron said. “Pixies are ruthless and brutal. They value strength and trickery, and they consider themselves the strongest species. So it’s best we don’t appear threatening.”
“And if we do appear threatening?” I challenged.
“Then you’d better hope you’re the stronger opponent.” Theron leveled a hard gaze at me. “Because if you fail, they’ll devour you.”
I held his stare, refusing to cower despite the way his words chilled me to the bone. I had once researched the pixies, thinking their magic could cure me and buy me more time. Unfortunately, it couldn’t. My condition had festered for so long that it was incurable.
Besides, everything I’d read told me the pixies would kill me before I could utter a single word.
“We head for the mountains then,” Theron grunted, moving toward Mauro.
“Don’t you dare get blood on my fur,” Mauro snapped.
“Mauro,” I chided. “He’s dying.”
“Will you quit saying that?” Theron barked. “I’m fine.”
Mauro huffed and knelt in the snow so Theron could climb on his back. “This is only because you fought to keep Snow alive.”
“He just didn’t want to break our bargain,” I grumbled, but at the look of agony on Theron’s face, something within me softened.
Mauro was right—Theron had protected me.
When I’d screamed as the creature drew closer, its rotten stench overwhelming me, Theron had assaulted it with a recklessness that had gotten him stabbed, skewered by the beast’s claws.
If the Demon Fae hadn’t been preoccupied with him, I wouldn’t have been able to deal the killing blow. I wasn’t sure what exactly he’d done to stun the creature like that—it had gone completely still, allowing me to make my move.
Whatever he’d done had saved my life.
And he had been prepared to face the creature alone while Mauro and I rode to safety.
Sure, the fae bargain might have claimed his life if he’d let me get hurt. But I wasn’t so sure. Theron had a haunted look in his dark eyes, something that told me he’d seen enough death in his life.
Perhaps he didn’t want to add mine to the list. At least not yet.
“Hop on, princess,” Theron said in a bored voice.
I eyed Mauro’s back uncertainly. I didn’t like the idea of riding behind Theron, but it was safest if my arms were around him, keeping him astride Mauro in case the hunter passed out.
With a sigh, I swung my leg up and straddled the stag, tucking myself against Theron’s back with my arms around him. He smelled of sweat mingled with Demon Fae blood, and that annoyingly charming scent of woodsy mountains.
“Don’t try anything,” Theron said over his shoulder.
I snorted. “Or what? You’ll bleed on me?”
“Injured or not, I can still best you.”
“We’ll see.”
“Oh shut up, both of you,” Mauro said, rising to his feet. Theron grunted from the shift, and I tightened my grip around him to keep him steady. “I’m surprised you’ve kept quiet about their bickering, Frisk. Usually you love a good banter.”
“Oh, I do love it, but I appreciate being a bystander,” Frisk said, his voice full of amusement. “These two will rip each other’s heads off before long. Can’t find better entertainment than that.”
I ignored them both. “Still with us, Kendra?”
The tiny dragon poked her snout out again. Her razor-sharp teeth were munching on something. “You’re right, Snow. These apples are delicious.”
“Don’t eat all my damn apples,” I snapped, but I couldn’t hide the smile from my face as she disappeared in my pack, no doubt to continue eating.
I dug my heels into Mauro’s fur. “As fast as you can, Mauro. I don’t want to have to bury another body today.”
“You won’t,” Theron growled.
I said nothing. Theron couldn’t lie… but if he believed he would live, it wasn’t a lie.
He could still die from this.
And then, my whole plan would be ruined.
Mauro set off at a brisk speed, and Frisk became a white blur beside us as we took off through the woods.
I tried to keep Theron conscious by teasing him.
I poked his arm every few minutes, earning a grumble or two, and mocked him for losing a battle with a Demon Fae, leaving a fair princess to save his sorry ass.
At first, he responded with his own barbed insults, but after a while, he slumped backward against me and fell silent.
If he was still conscious, it was only just barely.
We were running out of time.
“Is it just me or is this hunter even heavier when he’s passed out?” Mauro complained.
“Just focus on speed right now,” I said quietly. I would never admit it, but I was genuinely concerned Theron would die before we made it to the mountains. “Frisk?” I couldn’t see the fox, but I knew he was nearby.
“I’m here, Snow.” His voice came from somewhere to my left.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the Demon Fae?” My bones were still quivering from the incident, and I couldn’t shake the empty look in those dead eyes or the foul stench of its magic.
It dredged up the horrifying memories of Calista that I thought I had buried deep. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
“What do you mean?” Frisk asked, but there was an edge to his voice.
“You knew they were out here. And you didn’t warn me.” It wasn’t a question. Frisk and Mauro were fae creatures; if anyone knew about the Demon Fae, it would be them.
I didn’t know the Demon Fae lived in the woods, though. The only one I had ever encountered before was Calista. I assumed that all of them, like her, had been warped and twisted into monstrous creatures by dabbling in black magic.