Chapter Seventeen - Rhea
Neera shifted her weight nervously beneath me. The horses in front of us and their riders were sure of the steps that took them through the veil, but Neera could sense my reluctance to cross again through the magical barrier that had nearly claimed my life on my first crossing.
It’s alright , Dante said in my mind. He and his white mare rode behind us, and I found myself wishing that we were again sharing the same saddle. When I’d crossed over before, his arms around me had felt like a vice. How things had changed…
What if I faint again? Neera’s a good mount, but even she can’t hold me in the saddle if I fall…
You needn’t hold your breath this time , Dante replied with an air of amusement. The veil is meant to keep humans out of our lands, but it’s much more forgiving of humans who would like to leave.
Was I meant to just know this information? I pouted, feeling the electric buzz of magic in the air as Neera’s ears pinned back against her head.
I thought you’d been reading. Or did you not try to learn a way to escape back to the human lands?
I never thought I’d get that far… I admitted. Whether I’d found a way to control the weapon or not, I had never expected to leave this place. I would have either burned with this world or been burned by it. But instead, here I was, a member of a rescue party bent on infiltrating the place I’d called home.
Dante’s consciousness wrapped around mine like a blanket, soothing the anxious thoughts. I welcomed him, letting his dark comfort seep into every corner of me. How had I ever lived with the loneliness before? How had I ever thought I could fill the hole in my heart without him?
The veil pressed in around us, and this time, I could wonder at the look and feel of it instead of focusing on the back of the white mare I’d ridden and forcing myself to hold my breath. The trees we passed through were heavy with a thick white substance that couldn’t have been snow. It was too warm at this time of the year. I reached out a hand carefully to brush my fingertips across a branch as we passed.
Sparkling white mist drifted from where my fingers touched to fill the air around me. Where it touched my face, electricity buzzed but did not burn. It felt like the first swallow of an elixir when your blood was alight with energy.
I giggled as the substance gathered itself around my fingers. What is it?
Magic , Dante answered with a smile in his words. Pure and ancient.
We walked on, the magic of the veil fading until all that was left was a bit of the white sparkling energy clinging to Neera’s mane as if reluctant to let us leave. When that, too, fell away, the world around us felt stale and dry. We were in the human lands once again.
“How does it feel to be home, Shrike?” Horst called over his shoulder to me.
“I remember it being warmer… and the men were prettier,” I called back, earning a barked laugh from my large travel companion.
“Don’t forget why we came here,” Aeon reminded us coldly. “These are enemy lands. No place for making merriment.”
Why is he such a spoil sport? I asked Dante in my mind as we continued the ride.
Vella is my sister, but she is Aeon’s mate , he answered solemnly. As much as I want to see my sister saved, his drive to rescue her is maddening.
I blinked at the back of the blue-haired male. Since I’d known him, he’d been of a singular mind, to get back to the human lands and complete this quest. How he must be tortured inside to know his mate was a captive.
What does it mean to have a mate? I asked Dante.
It’s a kind of fate, though not one marked by an oracle. It comes from some higher power. When two fae are mated, the bond is deeper than any in this world or the next.
I pondered the statement, how powerful and all-consuming a bond like that must be for two souls. When did your sister and Aeon know they were mates?
Dante’s inner voice was full of sadness when he answered after a long pause. It was only a week before they took her that the mating bond was made between them.
We walked on in silence for a while, the sun beginning its slow descent over the hills and towards the western horizon. The citadel was a three-days’ ride from this part of the continent, and that was if the weather held and we were able to ride long stretches at a time.
And once we reached the citadel, how was I going to get three dangerous fae males inside? What possible pretense could I have for such a feat?
“Where is Vella being kept in the citadel?” I asked aloud, bringing the other two into the conversation.
“In the catacombs,” Dante answered.
“I don’t understand why that would be the case,” I mused. “The catacombs are an ancient burial ground, not a dungeon.”
The three males exchanged glances.
“What?” I asked.
“There are things, it seems, the humans keep even from their prophesied savior,” Aeon answered. “Fae folk are kept in the catacombs because what is done to them there can never be known by your folk.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, a pit of nerves balling painfully in my gut.
“Those elixirs you wore when first we captured you here,” Aeon sneered. “Do you know where they come from?”
I snapped a look at Dante, but he only looked ahead up the winding trail. He neither denied nor confirmed what Aeon was saying, but I didn’t need him to. I could feel in my bones where Aeon was going with this, the dark realization seeping over me like I’d stepped into the shallows of a lake only to be swallowed by black mud.
“They come from the catacombs. They come from the fae folk who are drained there. Held for centuries by the hand of death but never allowed to fully embrace him. Your people have created evil devices that drain the magic and the power from us fae and make your damned elixirs from our souls.”
My stomach turned, and I had to fight the urge to be sick over the side of Neera’s neck. The elixirs that Dante had cut from my belt with such venom… No wonder he’d been so hateful when he’d seen them hanging around my shoulders, when he looked in my eyes and saw my pupils dilated from the elixirs I’d already drank that night.
I swayed in the saddle until Dante’s shadows gripped me about the waist, holding me still and steady. He caressed my mind with his own and imparted on me one thought above all else.
It isn’t your fault. You didn’t know.
Kiya’s words came to me as the sun dipped below the ridge, igniting the clouds in shades of pink and orange from the forest’s edge to the ocean beyond.
Now that you know better, you must do better.
I gripped the reins tightly, determination replacing the dread in my chest. I would see Vella freed and the creation of elixirs stopped. No matter the price.
The colors of the sky deepened from orange and pink to violet and indigo.
“We should make ca—” The words were cut off in Horst’s throat as a mournful howl ripped through the air to our right. The horses stamped their hooves and nickered, their eyes widening as they searched for the source of the sound.
“Wolf?” Aeon asked, reining his horse in tighter beside Dante and me on the trail.
“No,” I said grimly. “Not a wolf.”
As if summoned by my words, a howl sounded again, closer this time, from the very edge of the forest on our right. Then the creature emerged.
Its body was huge and hunched, standing on two legs and dragging its long, clawed arms on the ground behind it. Its chest heaved up and down as it turned in our direction. Huge yellow eyes glinted in the fading sunlight as it met my gaze.
A werewolf, one of the most terrible fae beasts.
The beast threw its head back and screamed, sending the horses into a frenzied panic. Dante’s mare reared back and bolted up the road as Aeon and Horst fought to get their mounts under control. But Neera was accustomed to terrible monsters. She only shuffled her hooves beneath me with a nervous blown breath.
As the werewolf dug its claws into the ground, running towards us with a frenzied speed, I slid off of Neera’s back. Dante’s frantic mind pulled against mine, desperate to stop me from whatever madness I was about to do. But I shut him out stiffly behind the wall in my mind.
The beast was only a few feet away as I knelt to the ground in front of it, holding out my palms face up. I started to sing.
By fate we met, by chance we stayed,
Two hearts conjoined in every way.
The beast slowed, sniffing at me as it circled my body kneeling in the grass and dirt of the road. My heart beat out a terrified rhythm. What if this beast wasn’t like the kelpie? What if its soul was too far gone to be pulled back?
One lonely dark soul shared by two,
Everything I want, I've found in you.
Panting and drooling from the side of its maw, the werewolf stopped its pacing in front of me. It snarled, revealing two long bone-white fangs. I swallowed past the fear that rose in my throat and raised a hand towards its face.
“Remember the feeling of rain in the summer heat,” I whispered. The creature balked away from my hand, muttering and mumbling an incomprehensible speech. When it stilled, I brought my hand again towards it. This time, it let me touch the coarse fur on the side of its neck. “Remember the face of your mother.”
Suddenly, the werewolf howled in agony, throwing its head back towards the sky. I fell backwards to find Dante had come up behind me. He knelt in the dirt as he caught me, holding me against his chest as the beast before us began to convulse.
Its skin tightened around the bones and muscle beneath as they steamed and shrank. Then, there was nothing but the body of a naked, pink-haired male in the grass and wildflowers that lined the road. I pulled out of Dante’s embrace and knelt beside his young form, pulling off my riding cloak to wrap around his shaking shoulders.
He looked up at me, his bright blue eyes at first a thousand miles away. Slowly, they focused on mine, and a tear ran down from one as a shaky smile found its way onto his lips.
I smiled back at him and ran a hand through his still steaming hair. “It’s okay, you’re safe now.”
Tears flowed freely down his face as Horst and Aeon joined us.
“Mother Mara above,” Horst muttered as he saw the male in the flowers.
“Get him up,” Dante said to Horst, his arm wrapping around my waist. “We’ll need to get him back to the other side of the veil.”
“Dante…” Aeon growled from behind us.
“Horst will take him,” he said flatly. “The rest of us will continue on.”
Aeon set his mouth in a line but nodded in agreement. Horst cradled the male in his arms as he stood. As I turned to follow him and to gather the horses from where they’d run to, Dante took my hand.
His violet eyes were glowing with unrestrained emotion. He pulled me close and kissed my forehead softly. I blinked up at him as he drew his hand to the side of my face.
“Look how you shine,” he whispered before pressing his lips to mine.