Chapter 15
Levi draws an iron dagger from the inside of his coat, leaps to his feet, and holds it in a shaking hand pointed at Quinn. “Over my dead body.”
With a bored expression, Quinn holds a palm to Levi’s forehead. “Fine with me.”
My heart pounds, and I watch in horror as my friend crumples to the ground. Without a second thought, I drop to my knees beside his lifeless body, my hands trembling as I try to shake him awake, the weight of fear and helplessness settling in my stomach.
Wake up, Levi.
“You said no one would get hurt.” Avo’s voice sounds miles away as I gather Levi into my arms.
A hand grips the back of my cloak, and I’m ripped away from him. He falls back to the floor. “He’s not dead, only in a deep sleep. Should give us enough time to get halfway to Frostacre.”
A coal of hatred ignites deep inside my chest, ready to burst out and show this evil fae exactly what I’m made of. With two swift strokes, I jab him in the face with my elbow and execute a perfect round kick, knocking him on his ass.
Bastian would be proud.
I race to the front door and throw it open, only to find two enormous wolves waiting for me outside. Saliva drips from their mouths as they claw at the ground with paws the size of my head. My beleaguered heart races with adrenaline, which is rapidly dropping with the loss of my escape.
“You don’t think I travel alone, do you, Miss Windsong?” Standing, Quinn crosses the floor in two long strides, snatches my arm, and pulls me tight against him. “When the king of Frostacre delegates a task to me, I don’t disappoint.”
The same icy chill I felt the night before rushes through me in a shiver.
Quinn muscles me out the door, practically throwing me on top of a wolf. To my surprise, I’m resting belly-down on top of a saddle. “Sit up, or it will be a very uncomfortable two-day ride.”
Besides the stupid prophecy, what does the king of Frostacre want with a “useless woman from Avren” as the commander puts it? I struggle into a seated position, finding the rancid, steaming breath of the creature beneath me almost too much to take. The wolves seem so out of place in the peaceful valley of Mafekadi.
Avo clutches the doorframe, his face sheet white and tears streaming down his face. “I’m so sorry, Maribel. You’re such a pleasant girl, but he threatened to kill Levi.” He looks back into the room behind him. “I’ll make sure he recovers, if he doesn’t stab me with his iron dagger when he wakes. I’m afraid he’ll never forgive me for this one.” The fae closes the door, leaving me alone with Quinn and his monster wolves.
“Why did you manipulate him?” I clutch the saddle, afraid I might fall from my mount. I glance over the side at the dizzying height.
Quinn adjusts his saddle, places a foot in the stirrup, and with one lithe movement, sits atop his wolf. “It’s the only way to get what you want.” A wicked smile spreads over his lips. “Besides, he won’t have to worry about it for too long. I dropped a healthy dose of ground Sneed Root into his tea. Deadly to fairies.”
With that, Quinn’s wolf takes off, with mine right behind it. I don’t have a chance to process what he said because I’m clinging to the saddle for dear life. The wind howls around us as the wolf’s powerful muscles surge beneath me, propelling us forward through the forest. The rhythmic pounding of its paws against the earth echoes in my ears along with a voice somewhere in the back of my mind screaming that I need to turn back. But it is impossible.
The world blurs around us, trees becoming a kaleidoscope of greens and browns as we speed through the dense forest. As it navigates the wild terrain, the wolf maneuvers around obstacles, leaping over fallen logs and weaving through the underbrush. My hands ache from holding on because half the time, it feels as if I’m about to fall to my death.
And yet, like Mafekadi, there’s an untamed magic in the journey somehow keeping me from slipping. When I entered the fae village, I felt alive for the first time in my life, making my mundane existence within Avren’s walls feel lifeless. Although Quinn is taking me to a place that turns my skin cold just thinking about it, this journey is what the wilderness is all about.
We finally slow to a halt outside of Rumsford. Quinn dismounts his wolf but doesn’t make any kind of move to help me get down.
“I need to pick up something I left behind.” He crosses his arms, giving me a smug expression. “My wolves will babysit you while I’m gone.”
As he strides away, the arrogant straightness of his back, along with his confidence, makes him even more attractive. I shake my head, trying to clear it of his glamour.
“Oh, and Maribel, darling.” He turns, looking a hundred times better than any of the models in the city. “If you try to escape, we’ll ride together for the rest of the journey, and Brutus will go back to Mafekadi and tear your friend to shreds.” He pets his wolf on the muzzle.
When Quinn is nowhere in sight, I test the waters by slipping slightly to the right in the saddle. It garners a low growl from my wolf. A warning. Even if I manage to drop to the ground, I believe the fae’s word about killing Levi. What’s the worst that can happen if he takes me to Frostacre? The king wants me for a reason, which I assume involves keeping me alive. He sent a bounty hunter after me. I play out different scenarios: he keeps me in prison, he sends me to a laboratory to test my abilities, or he wants me as his queen. Ok, my mind is wandering a bit too much. I give into my furry prison, pitching forward and laying my head on its neck.
The absolute worst scenario would be if the Kindred Few come to rescue me. Grayson and Levi won’t hesitate. They were in Frostacre days before. Bastian and Evie will grumble about wasting time and resources on me, but in the end, they’ll give in to their brothers because they’re family.
I close my eyes, succumbing to the gentle rhythm of the wolf’s breaths.
“Wake up, Maribel,”a voice tickles my ear. “We need to get to the Gretis Expanse by nightfall. Word of your existence has spread, and I have little doubt the vampire queen wants in on this action.”
“But why?” I sit up, my back aching from lying in a strange position for so long. If I fulfill this damn prophecy and take down two cities with my bare hands with a mystery person by my side, who’s saying I won’t dismantle the Supe kingdoms too? Apparently, I have kickass, untapped skills I have no knowledge of.
Quinn mounts his wolf, then circles around me as easily as if he were guiding a horse. His silver hair flows over his shoulders as if painted by an artist’s brush. “I am the simple retriever. Those are questions for King Cirrus, if he chooses to answer.”
“If I’m so powerful, Mr. Malum, why aren’t you shaking in your boots?” I wish I had the power to call lightning down and blast him into oblivion for what he did to Levi and Avo.
In a slow, methodical motion, Quinn sidles up beside my wolf and leans in close. His breath has the power to freeze me from the inside out. I shudder as the pad of his lip touches my earlobe, but I can’t seem to move away. “Because you haven’t had your awakening. When we reach the expanse, I can lay you down in the grass and show you all kinds of things.”
I lean away from him, almost falling from my wolf. “In your dreams, fairy boy.” The real power coursing through me is the ability to resist his glamour in brief spurts. If I can push the edges out for longer periods, I might see the bloodthirsty, disgusting creature hiding behind his pretty face.
He frowns. “Methinks, you have a too much freedom for such a smartass little girl.” With a wave of his hand, golden rings encircle my hands, keeping them in place on my wolf’s saddle. A shimmering material floats through the air and covers my mouth.
What the hell?I try to say the words out loud, but nothing comes out.
“Behave yourself, and I might remove them tonight.” And with that, Quinn takes off again, my wolf following closely behind.
We ride along a less-travelled path, circling the Lake of Glass. The day before, when Levi and I walked the shore, my heart was full, basking in the opportunity to get out of the cabin and explore. Today, going to a new place fills me with dread. The bindings make me feel more helpless than I did before, and I still don’t know what the king of the Unseelie Court wants with me.
Beyond the lake, the landscape thickens with pine forests, farther to the south of the Grove. As Quinn slows his wolf near a stream, I gaze into the valley below. How far away are Bastian, Grayson, and Evie? What will they do when they return and Levi and I are gone?
Quinn dismounts, leading his wolf to the water. With a flick of his wrist, my bindings disappear, and he holds a hand to me. “Get down. Humans have so many needs to attend to.”
I twist onto my stomach, placing a foot in the stirrup, and hop down, stumbling and landing on my bottom.
“So graceful, my dear.” He takes the reins of my wolf and leads it to the stream, where the creature greedily laps up the water. “The king prefers curtsies.”
“Remind me to practice after I use the little girl’s room.” I inch toward a tree and motion with my thumb. “Do you mind?”
He removes a pipe from a satchel slung over his shoulder, strikes a match, and lights it before slinking down and sitting against a tree. He closes his eyes. “Don’t be gone for too long.”
Behind the tree, I rest the back of my head on the bark and envision my next move. About ten minutes ago, we passed a stand of boulders I recognized as a place close to the Grove. And the Grove isn’t more than ten minutes from the cabin. A mixture of fear and excitement stab at me. If I make a run for it, he will catch me—especially on a wolf. But there’s a possibility I can make it back to the cabin within the safety of the wards before he knows I’m gone.
I need to try because the alternative is too horrific to imagine. Levi never told me about the king in Frostacre, only about his uncle.
Not wanting to think about it anymore, I creep along the leaf-littered path until I’m confident I’m out of earshot, and then I sprint. I can only pray to the wilderness’s gods above—something I’ve never done before—that I’m headed in the right direction. After a minute or two of running, I’m out of breath. I want—no, I need to stop, but the fear keeps my legs pumping.
With the Grove in sight, I hurtle over a log, only to trip on my own feet and land flat on my face. A spray of loose dirt enters my mouth and I sputter. From the sting on my knee and elbow, I’m certain I have multiple scrapes. But I need to keep moving. Scrambling to my hands and knees, I pull myself to a standing position, though my body cries out to remain vertical.
The air is suddenly thick with magic. Unlike the magic in Mafekadi, this has a stranglehold on me. I struggle to free myself from my invisible bindings.
“If you take advantage of the freedoms I afford you, I’ll have to keep you close.” Quinn saunters toward me from beneath the shadow of a large tree. “And I have no option but to punish you. Which do you prefer—a rat’s tail or a pig’s snout?”
I pinch up my face, frustrated to have come so far yet fall just short of my goal. There’s nothing I have to say to Malum.
Take me to your king. Let him do as he pleases. I hope you rot in hell for this, you piece of fairy shit.
“Where’s my wolf?” I grumble. “You’ll have to help me up.”
Quinn’s lips pull into his infamous, evil smirk. “Oh, no, my dear. You’ll walk the rest of the way to the expanse. And if we don’t make it by twilight, you’ll suffer the consequences.” He pats me on the cheek.
An invisible force tugs me along behind him through the forested path. It’s when I’m looking down, counting the square-shaped stones, that I hear something whiz past me, and then the sickening smack of an arrow hitting flesh. I duck, unsure of who or what is attacking us, before looking at Quinn.
Lodged in his chest is a flaming arrow, his beautiful fae face melting away from the heat right before his entire body bursts into flames. My invisible bonds disappear, and I scramble on my hands and knees to the nearest bush, diving into the foliage. I struggle to control my staggered breathing as I try to picture the creature brave enough to take on a fairy. And what other kind of Supe wants me badly enough to risk its life?
Footfalls crunch on the path beside my hiding place. I bite down on my lip, trying not to breathe. Through the leaves, I see heavy black boots. If it’s a vampire or werewolf, I’m sure it can smell me from a mile away.
“Are you going to come out of there or continue your silly game of hide-and-seek?” The deep gravel of Bastian’s voice lifts my spirit and mortifies me at the same time.
I stand, unsure if I should burst forward and hug him or remain in the safety of the bush. “You killed him.” It’s an obvious statement with the fae’s burning carcass catching a nearby patch of grass on fire.
Bastian mumbles one of his favorite obscenities, removes his coat, and uses it to bat down the flames. “And I’ll kill you and Levi once you tell me where he is. You scared the hell out of us.”
“You weren’t supposed to be back for a week,” I say, hanging my head.
“And the two of you thought it might be a good idea to hand you over to the Unseelie Court on a silver plate?” He rakes his fingers through his hair. Bloodstains and jagged rips cover his clothing. A fresh scar runs from his right eye down to the corner of his lip.
Impulsively, I reach out and almost touch his cheek but pull back when he flinches. My heart drops. I repulse him. “What happened?”
“Failed mission,” he grumbles, shrugging his coat back on. “Lost Lyden and could have damn well lost Mav if it wasn’t for Evie’s quick thinking.” Impossible as it seems, his eyes darken, strands of hair falling over them like the first time we met. “And then when we get home, you’re gone. We thought the Miscretes had you.” He cocks his head to the side and crosses his arms. “But no, it was only a powerful fae bounty hunter, and your brother’s still nowhere to be found.”
I stare at my shoes, unable to look him in the eyes. They’re icy fire, able to ignite me like the smoldering corpse on the ground. “Levi’s safe. He’s in Mafekadi.”
“Mafekadi!” He grips my hand, yanking me from the safety of my mulberry bush. Despite the situation, I feel a charge of electricity with his calloused skin against mine. “He exposed you for an entire day. No wonder Cirrus’s pansy sniffed you out. We have wards on the cabin for a reason.”
“Well, maybe I’m tired of you confining me to the cabin. If I’m let out, I need a babysitter.” I drop his hand, balling mine into fists. Yes, the Council controlled my life in Avren, but my situation here isn’t much better.
“You don’t understand.” His eyes drill into mine as if begging me to see his side. “We don’t know the complete prophecy yet, but if you fall into the hands of a Supe leader, they’ll do anything to find the other piece of the puzzle, do away with Avren and the First City, and set up their own dominion. Do you want to see the humans who survive the attack subject to slavery?”
I bite into my lip, chewing on the hypothetical projections he’s thrown at me. “And what’s the alternative?”
He takes a step closer to me, making my hands shake slightly. His palms lightly grip my upper arms as I drown in his lakes of crystal blue. “Peace. No pillars of fear rising as sentinels in the north and the south. The prophecy promises balance once we defeat Avren and the First City.”
With his fingers practically burning through the thin material of my sweater, I swallow, wondering if he feels the tight cord between us. “And your job is to keep me safe and get me in shape for the monumental task ahead of me.”
He drops his hands, and I breathe again. “Exactly. And having you wandering miles to the south, unguarded, doesn’t make my job any easier.”
“Why don’t you trust Levi to protect me?”
He glances at the pile of ashes lying on the ground, a testament to where trusting his brother got me, and I don’t say another word.