Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
Torin glanced at me, and I nodded. Reluctantly, the men released their hold, and the stranger scrambled away from them, his fearful gaze never leaving mine.
"Who are you?" I asked gently, extending a hand to show I meant no harm.
My heart ached as I took in his grotesque appearance. I drew in a breath as I watched his wobbly stance. He had a twitch in his jaw muscle as if he were in perpetual pain.
The man cautiously looked at me. “I’m Ashton.”
Robert shifted his stance, making the man flinch. “Ashton, you may want to start talking because we’re running out of time. Where did you come from?” he asked in a sharp tone.
Beads of sweat formed above the unusual scar on his upper lip. His gaze darted between the two supernatural men, and his body started trembling.
I didn’t sense any supernatural energy emanating from the stranger. Was he a human who knew of the fairy realm portal, then?
Clearing my throat, I sent a serious look at Torin and Robert. Then I extended my hand to Ashton. Hesitantly, he reached for me. I pulled him up on his feet, noticing the two fingers missing on his hand—the pinky and the ring finger were cut off.
Taking a deep breath, I steadied my nerves. “Ashton, we’re not here to cause trouble. We’re looking for someone, and it’ll be helpful if you tell us where we are, who you are, and anything that can help us. Please?”
Releasing my hand, the short man looked around with wide eyes, and his shoulders sagged. His fingers clenched his tunic, wrinkling the material. I waited, grateful for the brothers’ patience, too.
“I am a human.” The stranger licked his cracked lips. “Twenty-six years ago, the fairy King entered the human realm and hired me as his errand boy. I was young back then and didn’t know the trouble I got myself into,” he said in a scratchy voice.
The same fairy King who wanted me dead? The one who’d sent the fairy assassin to kill me?
Then it struck me. The fairy King had entered the human realm around the time when I was born, then.
Torin sent me an intense look, a flicker of apprehension crossing his face, and then his gaze focused on the man. “What did the fairy King hire you for?”
Ashton scanned his surroundings once more. “My mission was to find the light witch.”
"Light witch?"
My heart raced as I thought about my biological witch mother who had entered the human realm and given birth to me at about the same time. It must have been the time when Willa had met my father in the human world and got pregnant with me.
He nodded slowly, his eyes filled with pain. "Yes, Willa. She escaped from the fairy King, and he wanted her back. But I failed to capture her.”
I drew in a sharp breath. Willa, who had escaped the fairy King to give birth to me.
I shook my head. “Wait,” I said. “If you and the fairy King didn’t capture her, then why is she in the fairy realm again imprisoned?”
Ashton blinked. “She must have gone back willingly."
The very thought left me shocked. Why would she return to a place that had caused her so much suffering to a fairy King who imprisoned her?
The man continued, "Because I failed, as punishment, he injured me, tortured me, but he wouldn't let me die. Then he left me in the human world, where cruel people detested me."
He pointed to his distorted shape with his short arm. His unnatural appearance must have frightened the people who shunned him.
“Then why are you here?” Torin asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"It was another witch," Ashton said hesitantly. "She found me in the shadows, half dead. She asked if I wished to escape the torture of my fellow humans."
"What was her name?" I asked, hoping to meet another witch in this realm.
"Cordelia," he replied.
I exchanged glances with the other two men. Torin scoffed.
The dark witch had shown kindness to Ashton.
A deep sadness haunted the stranger’s eyes.
"I had nothing left in the human world. Only pain and loneliness awaited me there.
" Ashton glanced back at me. "Once I arrived in the fairy realm, I hid from the vicious royals, fearing their wrath again.
But the Uprising Guardians took me in, offering me shelter and care.
They were kind to me, despite my cursed appearance. "
Ashton finally released his death grip on his long shirt and awkwardly stood, his gaze cast to the ground.
I rubbed the sides of my head and sighed. I would need to quickly figure out the foes and friends in the fairy realm to rescue Willa.
“Who are the Uprising Guardians?” Torin and Robert asked at the same time.
He let out a breath, his twisted shoulders lifting and dropping. "The dark fairies are followers of the dark fairy King. The Uprising Guardians are the other fairies who went against the fairy King and rebelled against his tyranny."
The realization that we’d entered a corrupted realm in a lot of trouble, and in the midst of a war, hit me hard. Had the dark fairies joined forces with the fairy King because it was easier? In desperate times, people could do anything to survive, even if it was the wrong thing.
As I surveyed the wrecked city, I wondered how hard it must have been for these people who called themselves Uprising Guardians to survive here.
“Why do you call the King’s followers dark fairies?” Robert asked.
“They are as corrupted as the realm. That’s why,” Ashton said.
We had to find some help if we wanted to make it out alive from this weird and dangerous world.
"Can you help us, Ashton?" I asked.
He jerked his head back and stared at me. "Help you?"
His eyes glimmered.
“Can you be our guide for the time being? We need to reach the prison where Willa is held.”
“She must be in the City of Fire where the fairy King resides,” Ashton said, and a flutter formed in my stomach.
The wind picked up around us, carrying the scent of ash and decay. I could taste its bitter flavor on my tongue.
"Where are we now?" Robert asked, surveying the gloomy landscape around us.
"You've entered the destroyed City of Earth and the West—Feliah. Once, it was a place of beauty and harmony, but now…"
"Will you guide us out of the city?" I asked him.
He nodded. “I’ll try.”
After all, knowledge would be our greatest weapon in the battles to come. Ashton was the key to unlocking the secrets of the realm, and we had to follow him.
Ashton led the way with a gesture, and we walked side by side. Glancing at Torin, I noticed his furrowed brows and squinted eyes, deep in thought. Tension radiated from his body. He must have not trusted Ashton, but just like me, he probably didn’t see another way.
We steered down the narrow, crumbling streets.
"Dark fairies still linger here, trying to capture and convert any remaining fairies," Ashton said.
Close to the edge of the City of Earth, the buildings looked jagged and broken, with dull and lifeless surfaces.
Before us stood what must have once been a grand temple, now reduced to a mere skeleton.
Cracks zigzagged over the once ornate pillars, and dark-brown ivy snaked its way across the crumbling stone.
Ashton traced my stare. "This temple was a source of faith for the fairies of Feliah…once upon a time."
On our path, we reached a massive rock in the center of a narrow roundabout street. Laying my hand on its cold surface, I jolted as the faint pulse charged beneath my fingertips, as if the rock itself were a living organism on the verge of death.
Ashton must have seen the surprise on my face. "It's the connection of Feliah to the earth," he said. "The energy emitted from this rock sustains Feliah and its inhabitants. But as you can see, it's dying."
"Why is that?" Robert asked, a frown etched on his face.
Ashton ambled to a pile of debris with his slight limp. As he placed his weight on his left foot, he let out tiny groans. He sat on the hard surface.
“If you want to survive here, you’ll need to know about the four fairy cities,” he said, and I hurried to his side, my instincts urging me to listen intently.
"Long ago," Ashton said, "there were four cities, each ruled by one of the elements—air, fire, water, and earth. They all coexisted in peace, providing balance to the fairy realm."
"It makes more sense now why the witches escaped to the fairy realm,” I mumbled. When I felt Ashton’s gaze on me, I explained, “The witches escaped the witch trials in the human realm by coming here. It seems their elemental magic would thrive in the fairy realm.”
"Exactly." He nodded, catching his breath. "The witches can manipulate the elements through their spells, but fairies are born of the elements themselves. The most powerful among them possess extraordinary abilities. They're nature spirits, guardians of the world—or they used to be."
I shuffled in my place. "Then what happened?"
"Darkness happened," the man said bitterly. "It consumed everything, leaving nothing but destruction."
Didn’t Ashton know it was Cordelia who had corrupted the elements in the fairy realm?
A chill ran down my spine. What horrors awaited in the remaining cities if this was the fate of Feliah and its element, earth?
Ashton pressed his palms against his thighs, and pushing off, he stood. "We can’t stay at any one place for too long."
Matching Ashton’s short strides, I walked next to him. Robert and Torin followed behind us.
“Do you know that a dark witch in alliance with the fairy King corrupted the fairy realm with this darkness?” Ashton’s deep, dark eyes snapped to mine. “And her name is Cordelia.”
Based on his gaping mouth, I’d guess Ashton didn’t know it was the same one who had saved him and brought him here. Cordelia's behavior baffled me. Had she felt guilty and attempted to redeem herself by doing a few good deeds? She would show kindness to this man, but then corrupt an entire realm.
We had reached the outskirts of the ruined City of Earth and exited on a dirt path leading into a dry meadow before the first line of trees.