The Princess #2
The white light vanished. It was likely only a few seconds, but the duration of that cry made it feel like an eternity. When Theron went limp again, there was more color in his face. Only when silence fell among the pixies did I realize I was gasping for breath, my heart racing.
“Our magic isn’t for the faint of heart,” said the pixie next to me, a tall, wiry woman with bright pink hair and emerald skin. She winked at me conspiratorially as if we were sharing a joke.
“Your companion is healed!” Nyra announced, and the pixies all cheered.
“Is he all right?” I asked the emerald pixie beside me. Theron still looked limp and unconscious.
“Oh, he’ll be fine.” The pixie waved a hand. “He’s healed, but he’ll need to recover from the intensity of the spell.”
I nodded numbly. As much as I didn’t like the idea of spending the night with pixies, perhaps it was for the best if Theron was in too poor a shape to travel.
“I’ll go check in with Mauro,” Frisk said.
“Wait.” I turned toward him.
He looked at me, his black eyes appraising me with curiosity. “What?”
“I—thank you. For bringing us here. For negotiating with the queen. I know that wasn’t easy.”
“Anything for you, Snow. Don’t get into too much trouble while I’m gone. No more fae bargains, understand?”
I chuckled as he trotted away, his white tail bobbing until he disappeared in the crowd of pixies. Suddenly exhausted, I moved closer to the colorful fire and sank onto a log, my eyes pulled in by the explosion of colors.
“I’m here, Snow,” whispered a voice in my ear. “Please don’t be mad.”
I closed my eyes, relief filling me as I turned to find Kendra tucked in my cloak, her tiny form balled up on my shoulder.
“I had to keep an eye on that hunter,” she went on.
I smirked. “Right.” With an exhale, I shook my head. “You need to be careful around him, Kendra. You can’t trust him.”
“He hid me from the pixies,” she whispered in astonishment. “He ensured I wouldn’t be seen.”
My frown deepened. Yes, that didn’t make sense to me. What had Theron been playing at? Was he trying to get Kendra on his side? Or did he have some other motive?
“Just stay out of sight,” I muttered, as Brune, the orange-skinned pixie approached me. Obediently, Kendra burrowed herself deeper into my cloak.
“Refreshment for you.” Brune shoved a platter into my hands. Startled, I accepted it, scrutinizing the sizzling meat alongside leafy vegetables and bright purple berries.
“Um,” I said uneasily. “What kind of meat is this?”
Brune flashed his sharp teeth. “Best I not answer that, princess, since I cannot lie.”
I shuddered as he bounded away, then steeled myself and inhaled deeply. Whatever meat it was, it smelled heavenly. I took a tentative bite, and an explosion of flavor caressed my tongue, the spices and seasonings making me groan with pleasure.
“Shivering bones, this is delicious,” I said to no one in particular. I glanced around and found the emerald pixie smirking at me. “This isn’t human flesh, is it?”
She laughed. “No. It’s wyvern. Brune was just trying to scare you.”
“Wyvern? Really?” I looked up as if expecting the dragon-like creature to screech and fly overhead. Kendra uttered a tiny gasp from my shoulder, and I felt her squirming. I couldn’t tell if it was out of curiosity or fear. I wagered she had never met a wyvern before. I certainly hadn’t.
“Oh, yes. They often dwell in mountains like these. The tenderest meat you can find. We wouldn’t dare touch the fae breeds, but the feral ones aren’t smart enough to dodge our traps.”
“I see. And, uh, do you eat… dragon?” I tried to sound nonchalant. Kendra’s trembling intensified.
“Certainly not,” the pixie said haughtily. “Dragons are sentient, majestic creatures. We would never slaughter them for meat.”
“Oh.” I cleared my throat and sat up straighter. Kendra stopped shaking, clearly appeased by this response. “How long have you lived here?”
“A few hundred years,” said the pixie.
I nodded, unperturbed. Though I was half human and wouldn’t have as long a lifespan, I was accustomed to being around immortal creatures. “So do only some pixies eat humans, or what?” I took another bite of the wyvern meat and groaned again.
“Some do. But we do not associate with them. We believe sentient species should be preserved.” She flashed her teeth in a grin. “Even one as feeble as humans.”
I shrugged one shoulder. “We are pretty feeble.”
The pixie’s eyes widened, and then she laughed before sinking to the log beside me. “I like you, princess. It’s not often we meet humans who surprise us so.”
“Well, I’m only half human, so that’s probably it.”
“Probably.” The pixie crossed one leg over the other, her pale green wings quivering behind her. “My name is Sage.”
“Eira.”
“I know.”
I shrugged again and took another bite.
“I knew your father.”
The meat stuck in my throat, and I choked. After hacking and coughing, I finally spat the piece onto the ground and whirled to stare at Sage. “You did?” As far as I knew, pixies were a wild species who didn’t mingle with the seelie or the humans.
Sage nodded, her smile vanishing. “He was a kind person. One of the few seelie who treated me with respect. We were discussing a negotiation between our kind, and I was to be ambassador for the pixies.”
My heart lurched at this revelation. I’d had no idea.
Sage fixed her intense black eyes on me. “I think that’s why my queen believed your claim. Not because of the blood bargain—but because you are your father’s child. If anyone can unite the seelie with the unseelie, it’s you.”
My eyes burned with tears, and a hard lump formed in my throat. Blood and ice, I missed my father. He had done so much for our kingdom.
I shook my head faintly. “I don’t know about that. Thousands of years of prejudice can’t be erased overnight. But I’ll certainly do my best.”
“King Judas believed it could be done. And if it weren’t for that wretched harpy he married, he might have accomplished it.”
“My father was a well-respected full-blooded fae,” I said. “Perhaps I could have earned the respect of the people for being his daughter, but once he died, Calista made it quite clear my human blood tarnished whatever claim I had to the throne.”
Sage cocked her head at me. “You fear her.”
I whipped my head toward her. “What?”
“The queen. You fear her, don’t you?”
I swallowed, my appetite gone as I stared vacantly at the platter on my lap. “Of course I do,” I whispered. “Who wouldn’t fear a fae who has power over blood?”
“But you can do this trick again, can’t you?” Sage gestured to where Nyra stood chatting with a few other pixies. “With your blood?”
I huffed a hollow laugh. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. This was more of a parlor trick. But the magic of the queen is quite literal. If she has my blood, nothing will stop her from wielding power over me.”
Sage leaned forward, her black eyes glittering. “Then you must wield power over her first.”
I would have laughed or rolled my eyes at the incredulity of that statement… if it weren’t for the intensity in Sage’s hardened gaze. Her expression was so full of fiery determination and harshness that all laughter died in my throat.
She was serious.
And perhaps she had a point.
I knew Calista better than anyone. She may have distanced herself from me as soon as she’d assumed the throne. She may have despised and spit on me, but she’d still been my stepmother.
“If blood has power,” Sage said slowly, “then you should seize it.”
I blinked at her, my mouth falling open as realization clicked into place.
Calista’s blood. If she could control a person with one drop of their blood… did that mean I could do the same with hers?