Chapter 18
Eighteen
We flew over the mountains, over a changing landscape, over dark forest and purple-blooming trees, over other villages, and cities, until we came to an enormous spreading city.
It looked from above like no mortal village I had ever seen. Forest and streams seemed to break out between the stone walls of buildings, as if the wild couldn’t contain itself from spilling out amongst the Fae.
It was beautiful, the silvery ribbons of streams and rivers, the flower-choked bridges that rose over them, the flowering trees that seemed to try to overtake the buildings with spreading limbs burdened with pink and white blooms.
In the distance was the shine of sunshine on blue water, vast and endless and unlike the lake at home. Dragons circled over the water, catching spray with their wings, soaring upward toward the clouds.
We flew toward the sea as if we were going to join them, but then began to dip lower, toward the cliffs that edged the ocean—and the spaces carved into the cliff.
I closed my eyes when the world started to grow larger, until Anayla rested her hand on my shoulder. “We landed.”
Fieran stood at Asrael’s side and held his arms up to me. “Slide down. I’ll catch you.”
I debated whether or not I would rather just fall to my death. At least then I wouldn’t have to look at his face anymore.
But my fear of heights won out.
I swung my leg around and let myself slide as slowly as I could on my ass. Anayla watched me with concern, and then the wind blew and my hair flew over my face. Temporarily blinded and trying to spit out my hair, I felt myself switch from sliding to falling as I lurched into the air.
Fieran caught me against his chest. His arms wrapped around me, and he set me gently on my feet.
For an instant, catching my breath, I was pinned against his hard chest and couldn’t help breathing in his scent. He smelled too good—like woodsmoke and fresh greenery—and I didn’t want to like it.
I pulled away from him as if he was covered in poison ivy, then looked around to get my bearings. I breathed in a salty scent that I had never smelled before, something fresh and strange.
We stood at the center of an enormous arena that seemed as if it had been carved out of stone.
Though there were trees all around us, they felt wrong somehow, because in the distance were towering stands, row after row of them.
Strange enormous mirrors stood around the arena, the sun glinting off them blindingly.
I imagined the stands full of cheering Fae and mortals, and my throat tightened as if I would choke.
“It will look different other days,” Fieran told me. “The arena changes daily during the Trials. And beneath us run the labyrinths, where we hunt monsters when the arena no longer wets the appetites of our audience.”
I nodded. I’d never felt so small and overwhelmed as I did then, and I wasn’t ready to think about the Trials. “Can you show me where I’m sleeping? It’s been a long day.”
I needed to be alone. Needed to brood over Lidi’s lost magic, over something that was part of her carved away as if it were nothing. The memory of her wisps of hair and flowers floating away on the breeze would haunt me now, as if it had been a message from the gods.
“This way,” he told me.
We walked through massive arches into a marble entryway that was dizzying in its beauty and overwhelming nature.
A waterfall cascaded down one wall hewn out of stone and then rippled in a river cut through the entryway; the scent of fresh water and greenery and the roar of water filled the air, dulling the voices of the shifters who filled the space.
Plants and flowering trees bloomed in clumps, with tables and chairs beneath them, making many separate living spaces.
The ceiling seemed to be open to the sun, a dozen floors up; the walls were lined with open, arched windows. I stared around me. There had to be more people living here than in my entire village.
Fieran was watching me. As soon as I became aware my jaw was hanging open, I snapped it shut.
“The mess hall is to our left, and the library and classrooms are to our right,” he told me. “The labyrinth is beneath us, and so is the zoo. We’re going up.”
“How far up?” I asked, looking at the many levels above us. Of course there would be stairs. I was exhausted.
In response, his wings snapped open.
“No, thank you,” I told him.
“Fine. Take the stairs.” He nodded toward the twin stairs that flanked the waterfall, switchbacking back and forth across the opposite wall. “I’ll meet you at the top.”
“The top?” I asked incredulously.
He didn’t deign to answer, since he was already flying upward.
Well, even having my legs burn was better than being in his arms again. I set off, climbing up the stairs. Each landing led to another arched door dug into the stone, through which I could glimpse shifters moving around, bantering back and forth.
Their voices made me feel more alone.
I reached the top, panting and trying my best not to.
Fieran was waiting, looking tranquil. “I’ll show you to your room. Each clan lives in their own hallway.”
He led me into a large common room. There was a door behind it leading to a hall, and rooms clearly off the hall. I started toward it, but he led me toward a door off the common room.
“Servants’ quarters,” he told me over his shoulder. “No clan keeps servants overnight anymore, so it’s storage.”
“Why do I have to sleep in the servants’ quarters? Because I’m mortal?”
“No. You keep looking at me like you plan to kill me, and you can’t sleep next to me if you’re going to try to kill me.”
“I don’t want to sleep next to you!”
“If it doesn’t ruin your plotting, then why do you sound so offended by the distance between us?”
He opened the door and showed me into a room that was larger than the cottage where I’d grown up. Windows along one side opened up to the gorgeous entryway, and through a doorway on the other side, I caught a glimpse of a luxurious bathroom. I was determined not to be impressed.
Especially when these were servants’ quarters, though nicer than anyplace I’d ever stayed in my life.
And especially when they were distinctly dusty and crowded with a wide variety of miscellany. There were spare lamps and mattresses, a stack of chairs, training mats piled up in the corner, a wood-and-leather horse, and crates of books.
“I’ll be back to get you for dinner,” he told me. “Please stay in your room unless you’re with me or one of the others.”
“Why?”
He raked his hand through his hair. “Mortals aren’t always treated well.”
I glanced at our reflection in the dusty mirrors that leaned up against one wall.
We were a blurry reflection, but it was still clear enough he was tall and chiseled and beautiful.
I looked short and rounded in comparison, my features as soft as my curves.
“You know this is a mistake, Fieran. I’m not a dragon shifter. I can’t be.”
“Then what’s this?” He reached for my neck.
I whirled away so quickly that his fingers never brushed my skin. “Don’t touch me, Fieran.”
He raised his hands in silent apology. “I won’t.”
“You brought me here.” Every word was crisp. “Knowing I’ll suffer.”
“You were going to suffer either way.” He sounded unrepentant.
“If you could go…”
“Perhaps being up here in the tower will help you conquer your fear of heights before you have to fly with your own wings.”
“I’m not afraid of heights.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, gripping imaginary horns with both fists so tightly that his knuckles went white. “I could tell.”
I stared at his offensively handsome face. His accusation stung far more because it was true. “As I said, if you could leave me…”
“Tay will be brought here tomorrow,” he told me. “It wasn’t safe for him to fly with us, so I’ll arrange medical transport. He’s going to be fine until we get a Fae cure. I’ll put him up in my house, and you can visit him any time.”
I wanted it to be true so badly that it hurt.
I stared at him, feeling as if he kept doling out information so he could leave on his own terms, instead of when I demanded it. I resisted the impulse to tell him again that he could leave and managed a curt, “Thank you.”
He nodded. “I’ll be back in an hour. Wash up before dinner.”
As soon as he was out the door, I locked it, fuming. I hated that I needed him, hated trying to stay in his good graces, hated that my brother’s life was at stake.
I ran a bath and washed. The enormous tub felt so luxurious compared to what I was used to, but I couldn’t shake my discomfort being here, feeling vulnerable. Then I changed into my clean clothes.
And then I was alone, in a strange place, in a stranger city. I put my few things away, just for something to do, and stared out the window, and realized maybe I’d made a mistake by insisting on being on my own.
There was a knock on the door, and as soon as I made the faintest sound in response, it was thrown open. So much for the lock.
Anayla came in, accompanied by a tall, glamorous Fae.
She was unnaturally slender, as if the Fae didn’t need several bodily organs mortals found essential, with long thin ears that jutted from flowing purple hair.
I took a stutter-step back, then remembered the window was behind me and put the wall against my back.
“Is she afraid of Fae?” the beautiful Fae asked with a frown, turning to Anayla. “Fearful mortals are so tiresome.”
“Cara is not afraid of anything,” Anayla said, which was patently untrue and pretty remarkable given she’d flown next to me today. She gave me a loyal smile that I didn’t deserve, given that I was still fantasizing about killing her clan leader.
“Who are you?” I asked the Fae. I’d already had my magic stolen; what would Fae want with me now?
“I’m here to make you over,” the Fae said magnanimously. “And Anayla brought you tea.”
Anayla set a tray down on the table. Delicious scents rose from it: tea and fresh-baked cookies, a plate of cut fruit, and a small bundle of flowers.
Anayla took the flowers off the tray and put them on the nightstand, then huffed and bustled off to the bathroom.
The next thing I knew, she was wiping the dust off every surface.
“A makeover?” I repeated.
“Do you want to look like this forever?” the Fae asked.
Anayla put up her hand to pause her. “Kami. Don’t be a jerk. She is beautiful.”
“For a mortal.”
“Fieran thinks she’s beautiful,” Anayla said, with a twinge of savageness in her voice.
Kami looked offended. “Fieran is a god among Fae. And he thinks this mortal is—”
“Adorable,” Anayla finished for her, with evident satisfaction.
I didn’t want to be adorable. But I was ridiculously short compared to the two of them, so it seemed unlikely I was going to be anything but adorable at best.
“How exactly does a Fae makeover work? Is this like in the books?”
“The books.” Kami turned to Anayla with a delighted smile. “They write our ways into fairy tales, don’t they? Gods, mortals are hilarious.” To me, she said, “Are you excited?”
“Not at all.”
“Sit in the chair,” she said, dragging a chair over to the window. The sun was sinking low, so the light was fading. “Let me see what we’re working with.”
“She’s not going to do anything permanent,” Anayla reassured me. “It is like in the stories. She’ll make your skin look perfect, make your hair a little fuller—just a perfected version of yourself, really. Before you go among the Fae, you need to look…” She shrugged.
Kami opened her mouth, clearly prepared to supply all the adjectives which Anayla was too polite to use.
“Fine.” I cut in to save her the effort of insulting me. I didn’t hate the idea of looking less scrubby next to the Fae and dragon shifters.
Anayla and Maura looked both badass and effortlessly gorgeous. If I had to be a mortal among them—which still seemed like it had to be a mistake—at least I could be a mortal without acne scars.
I plopped into the chair. “Do whatever you want.”
Kami looked surprised and pleased. “I’m starting to like you better. Smile.”
I did.
“Even with those teeth. You drink a lot of tea, don’t you?” she asked sympathetically as she leaned close to me, studying me intently.
I gave up on smiling. Anayla mouthed, “She’s mean to all of us. But she’s the best.”
Kami opened up a kit and began to apply various powders and lotions to my skin. “Drink this,” she said, holding something to my lips. Anayla nodded encouragingly, so I swallowed it. It tasted sweet and grassy all at once.
“There you are,” she said, stepping back. “You’ll need new clothes. Your wardrobe will be delivered tomorrow.”
“My wardrobe?”
To Anayla, she said, “What does she need besides training clothes and a few gowns? Does Fieran have any requests?”
I was about to respond to that when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and the words died on my tongue.
My hair was long and thick and shining, loose around my shoulders, and the color was the deep, burnished gold that it only was in the most flattering light.
My skin was smooth and perfect, my cheeks shining and pink.
I looked like the version of myself that one sometimes manages for a moment in the mirror, angled just the right way in flattering light, but never manages to keep.
“I’ve got to get her to dinner, Kami,” Anayla told her.
Kami clucked her tongue and gave me a sympathetic look. “I wonder how that will go!”
“That makes two of us.”
Anayla held the door open for Kami, and I caught a glimpse of Fieran outside, tall and broad shouldered; I could feel Kami’s beaming smile and joyful energy radiating toward him as soon as she saw him. He smiled in response, that irresistibly confident, charming smile.
He was smiling when he’d brought me into this fuckery?
“Fear and I usually have breakfast in the common room, though most of the clan eats downstairs,” Anayla said demurely, though with a raised brow that made me think she’d clocked my extra-murderous impulses toward Fieran. “Join us in the morning?”
I wasn’t sure which I dreaded more: a loud space full of shifters or a small space full of Fieran