Chapter 31
I feel frozen in place, just another icy statue in this ruined castle. Then, a familiar voice breaks into the conversation.
“I tried to warn you.”
I spin around to see Hunter step out from behind the ruins of old Gwyllion. His hair gleams gold in the morning sun. His brown eyes are pinned on Tristan in disgust.
“I told you not to trust the Wolf.”
Tristan straightens slowly, turning his head to study Hunter. “I wondered when you’d stop sulking and start tormenting me again.”
Hunter’s cheeks redden. “I’m not here to torment you. I’m here to do my duty.”
Tristan raises a dark eyebrow. “Since when are you a spy?”
“My duty isn’t to spy. It’s to protect Sienna.”
“She isn’t in any danger from me.”
“That’s not what it sounded like.”
The Wolf bristles. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have been listening from behind two tons of ancient stone.”
My head aches, and I rub my temples. “Enough!”
Both men turn to look at me. For a moment, it feels like old times.
Back when the biggest worry we had was escorting Tristan to the borderlands in one piece.
It wasn’t even three months ago, but it feels like ages.
I force my hands into my pockets to keep from strangling the two of them, and my fingers brush the little green book.
Hunter stomps toward us. The copper-plated sword at his hip glistening in the morning light. He must have gone back for it after abandoning it in the throne room.
Tristan doesn’t bother to stand up from the toppled marble column. Instead, he leans back on his elbows, as if settling in for a leisurely bout of sunbathing.
“If that fae has his eye on Sienna, we need to get her out of here.”
I wave my hand dismissively. “I’m not afraid of the fae.”
Both men turn to me and say in unison, “You should be.”
I roll my eyes.
Hunter folds his arms across his chest. “And if this beast is the one delivering his meals, I don’t feel comfortable with you training with him. Especially not alone.”
I tilt my head at Hunter. “Oh, and you’re here to boss me around now, are you?”
“I’m not trying to boss you around; I’m trying to protec—”
“I don’t need your protection!” I throw my hand up in frustration.
Hunter straightens his spine. “The queen assigned me to—”
Tristan barks a laugh. “Look who’s doing the dirty work of the Dead Queen now.”
Hunter’s face grows crimson. “I’m not doing this for her.”
Tristan’s cocky grin is back. “No. Of course not. You’re spying on Red for her own good. Patronizing prick.”
Hunter stomps up to where Tristan’s still languishing on the stone column. “What did you call me?”
I groan. “I can’t handle any more of this masculine pissing competition that you two have going on.”
They both turn back to me. I clench my fists to keep from punching them both in their pretty, stupid noses.
I point toward the sun-bathed Spires. “We have much bigger problems to deal with.”
They both glare at each other, but thankfully, don’t open their damnable mouths again.
“Hunter, can I speak with you?” I ask.
Tristan makes a move to stand, but I give him a firm head shake. I give Hunter a pointed look. “Alone?”
Tristan shrugs and lies back on the stone. He tilts his face to the sun. “Be my guest.”
By the look on Hunter’s face, I can tell it takes a great amount of effort for him to back down from the smug Wolf, but he does. I turn and trudge through the melting slush, toward the tree line. Reluctantly, Hunter follows a few paces behind me. When we reach the cover of trees, I turn to him.
“Hunter, I’m glad you’re here. I truly am. I missed you. But things have changed.”
His jaw is set. “I can’t help you if you keep doing dangerous things.”
I sigh wearily. “Everything is dangerous here, Hunter. I need you to trust that I know what I’m doing.”
He studies me, his brown eyes trying to read my mind. “All of this … Annwyn, the queen, you and Tristan … it hasn’t been easy for me, you know. I’m trying.”
I close my eyes and rub my aching temples. “I know.”
Hunter thinks for a moment, then squares his shoulders, facing me. Something on his face is open, vulnerable.
“How do you think this makes me feel? I sailed the frozen sea and lost a hundred good men to save you … only to see you with him. A Wolf.”
I stare at him, my eyes disbelieving. “You knew I came here with him.”
He shakes his head. “Not like that, I didn’t.”
“Like what? What’s that supposed to mean?”
His voice is firm, but I don’t miss the note of heartbreak. “You never looked at me the way you look at him. Never.”
All around us, the frozen forest glitters in the sunlight. Squirrels hop from branch to branch, knocking the remains of melting icicles to the ground. Birds tweet, grateful for the warmth and the promise of spring, but I still feel cold inside.
“This isn’t just about Tristan,” I say. “You’re clearly still angry with me.”
Hunter looks at me as if he can’t believe what he’s seeing. “You betrayed me. Of course I’m angry!”
“You betrayed me first!”
And there it is, the splinter between us that’s never come out. The one ghost that will forever haunt us.
“That was years ago.” His voice breaks. “How long do I need to suffer?”
“You sold me out to my father because you were jealous.” I pin him with a glare.
He sniffs and sets his jaw in defiance. “I was. I probably still am. But I’m trying to move on, Sienna. Why can’t you?”
“What do you want from me, Hunter?”
All around us, the forest sounds have ceased, as if even the trees feel the brewing tension. As if they’re afraid.
Hunter’s face breaks into bewilderment. “Forgive me already!”
“I DO!” I don’t mean to shout, but the pent-up pain that I’ve been tending for years bursts out of me. My voice echoes off the trees, sending my words into the still forest in an unending loop. I nearly choke on a sob. “It’s myself I can’t seem to forgive, not you.”
We stand in silence for several long moments. A breeze shakes snow from a pine branch, and it glitters as it falls gently to the ground.
When Hunter speaks again, it’s so quiet, I almost don’t hear him. “I just can’t stand to see you with him.”
The truth of it is plastered clear across his face. Hunter is unendingly loyal, yes. But he is also jealous. Always has been.
“But I’m trying, Sienna. I truly am.”
“Hunter, I—”
My words die in my mouth. The ground is shaking. I look to the trees around us to confirm. Leaves tremble on branches and melting snow rains down from the treetops. I listen intently. Beyond the sound of trees trembling, there’s something else.
Hooves.
I turn to Hunter, my heart in my throat.
His face is pale, his eyes wide in panic. He stands with his feet apart, ready to fight. “What—?”
A creature leaps out from behind a clump of brambles.
It’s a doe, I realize. Her eyes are red and wild; spittle foams at her mouth.
She doesn’t even see us as she races past, her breathing strangled in panic.
I turn toward the direction she came from.
In the distance, through the trees, there’s movement.
It’s so wide, I don’t know where to turn to get out of its path.
Hunter grabs my hand. “Run!” We turn to follow the deer.
It takes a moment for me to realize what’s approaching. It isn’t just one thing. It’s a stampede of forest creatures. I glance behind us. Rabbits leap over logs, their ears tilted back for speed. Squirrels dart from limb to limb, scrambling for purchase. Then, more deer.
I put one arm over my head as we dart between them, running in the same direction as we try not to get trampled.
Three bears thunder past, their paws indenting the soggy ground, spraying mud all over us. There’s nowhere to go, only forward as we try not to fall.
I stumble momentarily, and the little green book falls out of my pocket, into the slush. Panic floods me, and I reach out to save it, just as a buck leaps over me, crashing to the ground in front of us. Hunter hauls me to my feet as I stuff the book back into my pocket.
“Don’t stop!” He drags me forward with the tide of forest creatures.
They’re not all normal animals. A lynx-like cat with human hands slinks past us, darting between the feet of beasts much larger.
Its spotted tail is tipped in a lethal-looking barb.
What appears to be a boulder rolls past us, crushing a chipmunk beneath its weight.
As it passes, I spot limbs tucked in tightly to its core.
The boulder fae knocks into a tree as it passes. The pine comes crashing down, pinning another fae beneath its branches. Its scream is cut short as more creatures climb right over the tree trunk, pushing it deeper into the mud.
“Get down!” Hunter tells me as he drags me into a crevasse made by two trees held up by a pile of tumbled rocks.
Instinctively, I reach into my core. My power comes easily as I call it forward, then push it out from my body in a protective circle. It folds around us in a glimmer of light, where we crouch beneath the toppled trees.
We listen to the thundering hooves and scratching feet as what must be hundreds of animals leap and crawl over our hiding spot. A weasel-like creature with a human face scrambles up to us. It cowers in front of our shield until another bear lumbers past, then it scurries away after it.
Slowly, the rumbling stops and the sound of the stampede fades into the distance. Until all I hear is our ragged breath. I release my power with a gasp. It eases back into its hiding place, deep in my sternum. Relief makes me feel lightheaded.
Hunter crawls out first, slow and cautious.
I follow him, my hands and knees sinking into the slick mud left in the wake of the stampede.
All around us, the forest is a path of destruction.
It looks like a storm tore the forest to shreds.
Trees are overturned and branches are crushed to pulp.
Here and there, the remnants of creatures that were too slow or too small are scattered throughout the wide path.
I turn away, not wanting to look too closely.
“Red!” Tristan comes running through the trees. When he spots us, relief washes over his face.
“We’re alright!” I call back.
He runs up to us as Hunter turns slowly in place, taking in the scale of the destruction. Tristan grabs my shoulders, pulling me into his chest. I breathe in the cedar and salt smell of him, and I feel my heart rate slow.
“Why are they running?” I ask as the truth dawns on me like a wave of icy water.
Tristan releases me, his face grave. “They’re coming.”
The Llwyn army. My father.
Hunter shakes his head slowly, his face etched in disbelief. “What were those things!?” His voice is tinged with panic. There’s a long gash in his hand, but he seems oblivious to the blood as it drips down his fingers.
I wonder if the shock has rattled him somehow. “Hunter, they were animals. A stampede.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “Not the deer and the … the bear … the things!” He gestures with his hands. “The creatures with spiny tails and human faces!”
“You could see them?” I ask, dumbfounded.
“What do you mean?” Hunter looks at me incredulously. “Of course, I can see them! They nearly trampled us to death.”
“But Nalina told me most people can’t see fae.” I look to Tristan.
“They can’t,” he says flatly.
“Well, I saw them.” Hunter stares in the direction the stampede fled, his expression laced with both wonder and fear.
I gesture to the Wolf. “The only other person I know who can see fae is Tristan.”
The Wolf shakes his head once. “No, I can’t.”
“W—what?” I stutter, confused. “But you told me you saw Moribund. With your sister …”
“I said Moribund killed Isadora in front of me. I saw her murder. I did not see her killer.”
I shake my head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
His lips draw into a firm line. “In Annwyn, we coexist with the fae, but we cannot see them. We hear them. We sense them. We even make ill-advised deals with them on occasion.”
Goosebumps erupt across my skin. “Why do some people have the ability and others don’t?”
Tristan watches me intently. “It’s not that some people can. It’s that no one can. They’re invisible to the human eye.”
I blink, stunned. My eyes drift to Hunter. “No. Hunter can. I can. Clearly, some people can. Nalina said so.”
He turns to look at Hunter, who stands still as death. A drop of blood falls from the tip of his thumb into the muddy slush at his feet.
Tristan speaks carefully. “Only royal blood can see fae. Kings and queens who have the echoes of old magic in their veins. Nobility may give you the power to control light or shadows, but to see the fae … That’s an entirely different thing.”
I’m a royal, so that makes sense. But Hunter? I turn to stare at him, trying to understand.
“What does this mean?” I ask hesitantly. My heart hums in my chest, almost as if I’m afraid.
“Come with me,” Tristan says as he walks back in the direction of Gwyllion Castle.
“But what does it mean?” I call after him again.
Tristan turns to look back toward us. There’s something frightening in the hard lines of his face. “It means Hunter is the Heir to the North.”