Chapter 30 #2
The males broke apart at the gate, both going their separate ways to relieve the waiting guards, and we slipped past them, picking up speed so they wouldn’t have a chance to sense us.
When we reached the first trees of the garden, I squeezed Danica’s hand, giving her the silent signal. We broke into a run, feet moving swiftly to cover the ground between the garden and the highborn district.
My gaze remained fixed ahead of me, on the smaller gatehouse in the towering wall that separated the elite from the commoners.
This was going to be my greatest test.
Falkyr never truly slept, the inns and taverns open late into the night, and merchants coming and going at all hours. I suspected the lower city of Evergreen Castle would be the same.
I was proven right as we neared the wall.
People came and went along the broad avenue that tracked the circular wall, and down the wide streets that formed the spokes between each district. We slipped among them, doing our best not to brush against any of them, heading for a point I had picked when planning this mission.
I pulled Danica around the corner to my right, into an alleyway, and focused all my strength, summoning my courage and banishing my nerves, because I could do this.
I wouldn’t get us killed.
We wouldn’t end up someplace weird.
Light swirled around us, and when it faded, my breath burst from my tight lungs.
The golden rotunda of the waygate gleamed with the swirling gold-flecked turquoise and cobalt maelstrom contained in the centre of it.
“Remember what I told you.” I checked no one was nearby and let my invisibility fall, unsure whether it would interfere with the waygate and unwilling to risk it.
Danica nodded. “Clear my mind.”
What if it didn’t work?
I had never been to High Vellswater, and neither had Danica. What if just me thinking about that name didn’t work?
What if Danica accidentally thought about somewhere else?
“Change of plans,” I said quickly and looked at her.
“Think the words High Vellswater. It’s a sort of spa town near a lake in the mountains, and it has this tower on an island in the middle of the lake.
I don’t really know what it looks like. So just have that sort of…
vibe?... in your head and think the words High Vellswater. ”
She nodded, looking more nervous now.
“Ready?” I tightened my grip on her hand. I would not lose her.
She nodded again.
Together we stepped into the whirling heart of the waygate.
I somehow managed to get my mind off Kaeleron, to not think about the Shadow Court, or Canada or how far from this place I wanted to be.
I thought of High Vellswater.
And I stepped out of the waygate, fighting the sucking sensation that felt as if it wanted to pull me back into it, and released a breath.
A quiet town of half-timber houses nestled along a shoreline greeted me, the lamp-lit streets empty as the dim light glittered on the calm water.
This had to be High Vellswater.
I turned slowly, scanning the mountains and the lake, seeking proof.
There.
On an island in the heart of the lake, a tower speared the sky.
I pulled Danica towards the shore, relief pouring through me as I stared at that tower. That stupid tower that the seelie loved to swim to as some sort of ridiculous challenge.
I had no intention of swimming there with Danica.
I gripped her hand and teleported again, and landed hard on the grass of the island, stumbling as my boots hit it and I heard Danica land behind me.
Fatigue swept through me to turn my muscles liquid and for a moment, I didn’t dare move.
I feared I would fall over if I did. I looked back over my shoulder at the distance between us and the town, an expanse of glittering water that I easily could have landed us in given how drained I was now.
I needed to practice teleporting longer distances.
I shook off my fatigue and looked up the height of the ancient stone tower, and then at the small island that offered very little cover. A few bushes dotted here and there, and a couple of boulders, but nothing that would hide us if anyone took a night swim to the island.
At least the tower was silent. Empty.
“How long do we need to wait?” Dani whispered.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Kaeleron just said night.”
A scream lodged in my throat as the large shadowy figure of a male stepped out from behind the tower and I shoved Danica behind me.
“Gods,” I snapped at Malachi as he came into view, his huge onyx leathery wings tucked against his back and his black leather armour covering him from neck to toe. “You scared the shit out of me!”
The corner of his broad mouth lifted.
I released Danica and leaned forwards, bracing my hands on my knees as I fought to calm my racing heart. “Son of a bitch. I thought you were some fae and we were done for. As it is, I think I might have peed my pants a little. Someone needs to put a bell on you.”
“There is a reason I am Kaeleron’s spymaster.” The big demon chuckled. “It is good to see you again, too.”
I blew out a sigh and straightened. “Danica, this is Malachi. He’ll take you to the Shadow Court and your brother.”
Malachi had looked as if he was going to greet Dani, but then his dark eyes lowered to me and I knew what was coming.
“I will be taking both of you to the Shadow Court.” His deep voice had a note to it that told me not to argue.
I did it anyway.
“No. You’ll be taking Dani. Get her out of here.
I can’t come with you. I’m not done here.
There’s still things I need to do. I feel…
I think I’m close to finding out what happened to Kael and Vyr’s brother.
” I was a terrible liar. I wasn’t close at all, and I wanted to see Kaeleron so badly, but I couldn’t just give up.
I had told Kaeleron I could find out if his brother was still at the Summer Court or at least what had happened to him, and I would do just that.
“I need to give him closure. He needs it, Mal.”
The demon grunted and gripped the heavy dark metal torc that joined before his throat with both hands, letting his arms hang from it as he regarded me. “He won’t be happy.”
“I know.” I tipped my head back, looking up at the tower, and then the mountains beyond it.
Mountains that if my calculations were right separated the light side of Lucia from the shadows, and beyond them was the Black Pass and then the Shadow Court.
“I want to see him again… desperately. I want to be home… but I’m not done yet. I just need a little more time.”
“He will not give it to you.”
I had dreaded hearing those words, even when I had known they were coming. “I know, and that’s why I need you to stall him.”
“Neve had a vision of him here in this court, I had hoped—we had hoped—that we would not need to stall him. You need to come home. That is the only way of stopping him.”
“Damnit.” I paced away from him, denying the part of me that wanted to take hold of him and let him do just that—take me home—but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t fail Kaeleron. “Just delay him. Figure something out. Neve’s visions might be wrong. What did she say?”
“I do not know. Kaeleron was very careful to avoid mentioning specifics. I only know he will arrive when a certain tree blossoms.” His hands fell from his torc to hang at his sides. “You know delaying him is impossible.”
“How long do I have before those trees bloom?” I recalled the flower Arianell had woven from threads of magic. It had to be that flower I was looking for on the trees. “Wait. Do the flowers have seven petals?”
He nodded and looked as if he wanted to ask me how I knew that.
“So how long do I have?” I spoke before he could.
He huffed. “Seven days at most.”
“Godsdammit.” I wasn’t sure that was enough time.
I hadn’t found a single entry about Kaeleron’s family, beyond the one that had said they were to blame for the murder of Sylas’s queen and heir, and I highly doubted the legitimacy of that account.
“I’ll just have to be quick. Delay him. I don’t know.
Beg him to give me seven days and come back each night.
I’ll come here when I’m done. I can do this. ”
The fierce debate raging in Malachi’s eyes said that he didn’t think I could and that he wanted to snatch me and force me to return to the Shadow Court.
Or maybe he doubted his ability to convince Kaeleron to give me more time.
“I will get into trouble if I leave you behind,” he said.
My insides knotted. I hadn’t even considered that.
Kaeleron was not going to be happy if Malachi returned without me.
He had given me those veiled instructions so I could escape, not so I could get Danica free and leave myself here, in an enemy court.
“It’s my decision, and if Kaeleron wants to be angry with anyone, he can be angry with me.” Putting my foot down felt sort of good.
Especially when Malachi reluctantly nodded, accepting it without question and without demanding I do what he wanted instead.
I felt a tiny bit powerful.
And I liked it.
Malachi muttered things beneath his breath as he stretched his batlike wings and flapped them a few times, as if warming up for take-off. Danica watched him through wide grey eyes, her eyebrows raised high on her forehead as she peeked around me.
“Mal will take good care of you.” I twisted and placed my hand against her lower back, and guided her forwards, into the open. “Won’t you, Mal?”
He grunted.
Apparently, he had accepted my decision, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it.
“He’s going to fly you over the mountains.” I pointed to the jagged peaks.
Danica blanched and backed off. “Fly? With those wings?”
Malachi stretched them wide. “It is generally what I do with them.”
“Can they hold my weight?” She cast a panicked glance at me.
He huffed now, and his sour expression perfectly relayed how deeply she had offended him.
“He’s big, strong, and quite good at being a demon. He flies all the time. I’ve seen him do it.” I patted Dani’s back. “You’ll be fine. You just need to hold on to him real tight and if you’re scared, don’t look down.”