Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
ALLERIA
“—looks how I remember.”
“Did you expect it to change?”
“It’s been a long time. Something might have changed.”
“You’ve spent far too long in the human world. Underhill rarely changes. You know that.”
Underhill?
My eyes snap open, and I frown, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing. There are two gray ears directly in front of me.
Selveryn isn’t gray …
And a second ago I wasn’t on the back of any steed. I was on my knees in front of Cairn, my heart racing while I tried to confirm he hadn’t burned himself out breaking the spell the mages cast.
There has to be a reasonable explanation for this.
Except I already know there isn’t. The last thing I remember is his hand on my face, his mouth on mine, and then nothing—and now I’m staring at ears that don’t belong to Selveryn.
“You’re awake.” The voice that comes from behind me isn’t Cairn’s. It’s … Vessara.
The world around me comes into focus with nausea-inducing clarity. I clamp a hand over my mouth to stifle my gasp.
The Nightwild Guard is spread out along the road around me, mounted on their steeds, riding at an easy pace. And they don’t look the same.
It takes me a second to pinpoint what exactly is wrong.
Vel rides ahead of us, and there’s less stiffness in the way she holds herself. Her body moves with the steed beneath her, as though she and the beast are one.
Brael, riding beside her, is enormous. To my left rides Sorel. When he catches me staring at him, he grins, sharp white teeth flashing before his mouth closes again.
“Our newest member is awake,” he says. He bows low in his saddle. “Welcome to Underhill, Alleria.”
I twist in the saddle to look at Vessara. She smiles at me. Her cheekbones are higher. Her eyes are a sharper, paler green. The points of her ears are longer than I remember them.
“We can stop for a while so you can adjust, if you wish.” There’s a quality to her voice that reminds me of music.
“I … You look …” I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to process what I’m seeing.
Her smile widens. “We look whole.”
Whole. Yes. That’s the word I’m looking for.
This is how they’re supposed to look. This is something else that was taken from them.
“How long was I—”
“A few hours. The Eldráfn wanted to ensure we were far enough away from the doorway before you woke.”
Hours? Far enough away?
He used magic on me. Kept me under for long enough that when I opened my eyes, we’d be too far away for me to argue about it.
He didn’t even ask me if I wanted to come here. He just treated me like … like the prisoner I was all those weeks ago. Like what I might have wanted wasn’t even considered.
I open my mouth, then close it again. What’s the point in arguing with Vessara? He made the choice, and he isn’t here.
He made sure of that too.
I look down at where my hands rest against her steed’s neck. The skin across the back of them seems paler, with a sheen I don’t recall ever seeing before.
My stomach lurches.
Oh gods. Have I changed too?
“Alleria, are you hearing me?”
I blink, forcing my attention back to Vessara. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“We’re almost to Nightward. Cairn and Therin stayed behind to wait for the rest of our people. Then they will join us.”
“Why didn’t he tell me what he was going to do? He didn’t have to use magic on me.”
“Would you have come with us if he’d asked?”
The words of course form on my tongue, but I swallow them.
The truth is, I don’t know. I hadn’t let myself think past the next breath, let alone about being sent to the fae world while he remained behind.
Maybe I would have fought him. Maybe I would have begged to stay with him.
It doesn’t change anything. It was still my decision to make, and he took it from me.
“We’re going to stop here for a short rest,” Vessara calls out as she brings her steed to a stop and dismounts. “Can you get down or would you like me to help you?”
“I can do it.”
I regret not accepting her offer of help almost immediately when the world tilts and I nearly tip headfirst off the back of her steed. Vessara laughs and catches me by the arm.
“Steady.” She helps me to the ground, and doesn’t let go until she’s certain I’m not going to fall.
“Why do I feel so dizzy?”
“Our air is different to yours. It might take you a little while to acclimate.” She guides me over to a rock formation and I sit down, then hands me a waterskin. “Small sips.”
I do as she says, taking a small, cautious sip. The water is cold and refreshing, and I savor the way it cools my body as it slides down my throat.
“There’s a stream in Feriwyn that can heal mortal wounds.” Caelum sits beside me.
I’m not sure what part of that sentence I’m more curious about. “Feriwyn?”
“It’s a … I suppose you would call it a town. It borders the Mountain and Hollow Courts, so they often fight about who has ownership.”
“Cairn mentioned courts, but didn’t tell me anything about them. Is that like our kingdoms?”
“A little. There are four—the Sea Court, Mountain Court, Wild Court, and Hollow Court. Each one is ruled by a Queen. There are some powers that only manifest if you are born to a specific court.”
“What court is the Nightwild Guard part of?”
“Oh, we aren’t part of any. We are the ones who stop them destroying each other.”
“They fight?”
He laughs quietly. “When the day comes that the courts aren’t fighting over something, it means all fae are dead.”
“Are you at war with each other?”
“No.”
“But you just said—”
“We bicker and we fight. It sometimes leads to bloodshed. Fae often don’t know when to stop. The Nightwild Guard is there to step in before it comes to that … or used to be.” He sighs. “Who knows what has happened here in the time we’ve been gone.”
I take another sip of water. “If the Guard isn’t part of any of the courts … Does that mean you’re a court of your own?”
He shakes his head. “No. Each of us was born to a court, but when we were called by the Nightwild magic, our allegiance to those courts was cut. We belong to Nightwild.” He nods toward Vel.
“Vel and Vessara, and Iorel were Mountain Court. Sorel, Maerwyn, and Riahn were Wild. Kaelith, Serath, and I are all from Hollow.”
“What about Cairn?”
“Cairn, Brael, and Therin are all from Sea Court.”
“None of this is in the stories I’ve heard.”
“Mount up,” Vel calls. “I want to get home before dark.”
“Than—”
Caelum’s hand covers my mouth. “Don’t say it, Alleria.
Not here. We could ignore it in your world, because Underhill was sealed and our magic was weak.
But here … don’t ever thank a fae.” He lowers his hand.
“There are so many things you need to learn, and we don’t have time to go through them all now.
So, if we see anyone on the road, the best thing you can do is stay quiet.
If you are addressed, wait for one of us to respond for you. ”
“I …” I swallow, and nod. “All right.”
He walks with me to where Vessara waits, already mounted.
She reaches down a hand once I’m close, and helps me up.
I take position behind her, the saddle beneath us shifting and changing shape to accommodate us both.
Once I’m in place, she touches her steed’s flanks, and it moves forward, following Vel at a slow walk.
Our passage disturbs the birds in the trees, and they take to the sky as we pass. One lands in a tree further down the road. It’s small and gray, but as we get closer, the gray shifts to a deep red, then to gold, and back to gray again. It tilts its head at me, eyes bright, and opens its beak.
The song that comes from it is beautiful and haunting, and tears prick my eyes. The urge to move closer is hard to ignore.
“Look away, Alleria.” The warning comes from Serath, who’s riding beside us. “That’s a soulscraper.”
I drag my attention away from the bird. “A soulscraper?”
“Soulscrapers have a symbiotic relationship with the bloodrift tree. If you listen too long, you’ll become enraptured.
It’ll draw you to the tree which, as the name suggests, has a taste for blood.
The soulscraper’s song will keep you in place, while the tree feasts.
Once it's drained you, the bird takes the remains.”
Nausea rises. I swallow it down. “That’s … horrific.”
“No more so than humans collaring fae and slaughtering us for fun,” Riahn says from behind me.
I tense, but before I can say anything, Kaelith speaks.
“Enough, Riahn. Cairn was clear. She is one of us, and should be treated as such. Everything that came before the Guard is left in the past. You know that.”
“But she is—”
“Partially responsible for us being home. She stayed silent when she could have given us up and gone back to her life. But she didn’t.
And that silence gave us this.” He waves a hand around.
“The Nightwild magic chose her. Our Eldráfn chose her. And she has chosen us. That is something you need to come to terms with, otherwise you weaken the Guard.”
“I weaken the Guard? I’m not a halfling with more ties to humans than to fae.”
“I think you’ll find her ties to Cairn are far more binding than any that may have linked her to her human half.
” Vel half-turns in her saddle to look back at us.
“Not only is she part of the Guard through the Nightwild magic, she’s bound to him through blood magic. Are you questioning his decisions?”
“No, but—”
“But nothing. You either trust him to do what’s best or you don’t.
If you don’t, then that’s a problem we’ll need to address when he returns.
” Her smile is cool. “If you think being collared for three centuries was bad, I can’t wait to see how that pales in comparison when you tell Cairn you want to kill his chosen female.
Especially when you consider the fact that you’re only free because he was so enraged she’d been taken prisoner that his magic ran wild.
Maybe think about that before you go after her again. ”
Riahn falls silent, and drops back to ride with Maerwyn and Iorel.