Chapter 22
That evening, we all sit around the common room, lost in our own pursuits. Levi and Bastian play a game of dice at the table, Evie provides a sullen ambience with the melancholy tune coming from her fiddle, Grayson reads, and I am on the floor by the fire, sketching out my ideas for the Kindred Few’s new fighting gear. In my plans, it’s sleek, breathable, and reflects each of our personalities, while brandishing our common symbol of five interlocking circles on the sleeve.
Grayson perches reading glasses on the edge of his nose and sets his book to the side. He clears his throat to make his big announcement. “We leave tomorrow.” As if expecting protests, he adds, “We’ll continue Mari’s training along the way.”
The tune from Evie’s fiddle stops abruptly, with a squeal of the bow against the strings. It’s clear our tactical leader didn’t bother to inform his girlfriend of his plans.
Levi jumps up from his bench at the table. He signs wildly, “Impossible. She’s not ready to stand before Cirrus.”
Grayson buries his fingers in his hair and leans his head to the side. “I spoke with Matthias today. The Council knows. They’ve ordered a group of twenty soldiers to move in on the cabin tomorrow.”
“They know what?” I close my sketchbook. Icy tendrils of fear creep through my veins.
Grayson leans forward, tenting his hands. “Matthias is my informant among the soldiers. One of the few friends I have left in the city. Somehow, they know you’re the one the prophecy speaks of. This was their worry about releasing more Undesirables into the wilderness. They sit on their high thrones, sentencing their own people to a life outside the city, trying to control them with the anklets so they can watch for the rise of the savior.” He slips down from the chair onto the floor beside me. “You know what they’re like now. How Lady Raven and her lackeys don’t care about the people. Our whole lives, we’ve grown up thinking they’re gods, incapable of fallacy, because they hide the truth in a neatly wrapped package of Avren’s beauty. Anything and anyone outside of this is discarded without a second thought.”
“We can take twenty soldiers.” Bastian opens the weapons cabinet. “Bunch of weak, pretty boys.”
“If we can avoid conflict and attention when they show up and Mari’s not there, they might leave us alone for a while.” Grayson pulls a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolds it. “We’ll spend a couple of nights in Tenny Rocks to prepare. It’s the Equinox Festival, so the streets will be crowded with visitors.” He holds up an advertisement for the festival.
Evie sets her fiddle on the table with a bang. Her gray eyes are ablaze in the firelight. “And why am I finding out about this with everyone else?”
Grayson rakes his fingers through his hair again as worry lines crease his forehead. Making decisions where four other lives are at risk can’t be easy on him. “I only found out this afternoon. I’ve spent the last hour thinking it through. If we could stay, I’d keep us here, but the wards only protect against Supes.”
“And what if the soldiers follow our trail?” Bastian straps two daggers into his cloak and reaches into the cabinet for more. “Can we kill them then?”
“We’ve got to be careful with our trail. Word will get back to Avren if we kill a bunch of their soldiers.” Grayson looks to Levi. “Maybe a bit of fae glamour?”
Levi can use glamour?
“I think I can arrange something.” He shoots me a guilty grin. “We’ve got to protect the savior at all costs.”
What will it cost Levi to use the magic of his people? I don’t have time to ask. Everyone gets up and heads to their rooms, probably to pack for our trip.
When I enter our room, Levi has a sack open. He stuffs in his green cable-knit sweater. He appears different from this afternoon, during our training session by the falls. Despite Bastian’s comments from the day before, Levi was relaxed and provided me with a wealth of information about fae customs and traditions. It was as if we had all the time in the world, so we took a break to swim in the pool beneath the falls, laughing as we splashed each other with water. Now, his face is drawn, his lips set in a firm line as he places two candles in the sack.
I close the creaking door, which doesn’t alert him to my presence. It’s only when I step into the space near his bag that he looks up. “Do you think this is a mistake? Do you think we should stay and fight so we have more time to prepare?”
Having faced Quinn Malum and the soldier in the woods near the entrance to Avren, I don’t want to fight the fae or the humans.
Levi rolls a long-sleeve shirt, stuffing it in beside the sweater. “We need to trust Gray’s connections. He wouldn’t ask us to leave unless it was necessary.”
That night, I lie in bed staring up at the ceiling and wondering if this will be my last night in the cabin. As much as this entire experience has felt like someone has thrown a whole bucket of ice water in my face, I’ve begun the process of acceptance. These people are my family, and this place is my home. In the three weeks I’ve spent in the wilderness, I’ve experienced more than I ever did in my eighteen years in Avren.
Three weeks.
I must be eighteen now.
Happy birthday, Maribel Nexis Windsong-Barellis.
A silent nod to the long-lost father keeping me from being a true orphan.
Boots stompingdown the stairs wake me in the morning. Levi’s bed is empty when I lift my head from my pillow. Tenny Rocks is northeast of the cabin along the way to Frostacre. My heart skips a beat. My father lives somewhere in the north. But as a man who works with Supes, strikes fear in others, and bears the nickname the “Northern Duke,” I don’t think he lives in a village where they hold dances and partake in afternoon teas.
Levi told me more about Tenny Rocks the night before. It’s the human outpost where they mostly reject the resistance. A majority of the former Avrenians go to work in the fields to grow the city’s food, and those born to the wilderness support them. They hold onto the fa?ade of peace for dear life, even if it means a life of slavery to the Citizens. Roughly a quarter of Tenny Rocks succumbed to the sickness when it ripped through the wilderness, taking many human lives with it. They’d rather hold festivals and spend time at the tavern than deal with the realities of losing loved ones and being relentlessly oppressed.
Maybe I’d still hold onto my former beliefs about Avren if Gray had brought me there instead of to the Kindred Few.
I dress in traveling clothes—a tunic and linen pants—and plan to wear a cloak with several daggers. I’ll carry my quiver and bow.
The others are in the common room gathering supplies and weapons.
“Good morning, Mari.” Levi shrugs on his cloak after signing his greeting. “Gray says we need to be long gone by eight. We’ll shut the cabin up tight to keep the soldiers out.”
If the soldiers are anything like the ones I ran across at the cave entrance, they’ll burn our home to the ground. My heart aches knowing this might be the last time I see the cabin.
Grayson smiles and hands me a sack. “Breakfast to take with you.”
“Thank you.” I lift my cloak from a peg and pull it on over my traveling clothes before picking up my quiver. “How long will it take to get to Tenny Rocks?”
“About five hours.” Bastian closes the weapons cabinet. A pile of swords, bows, and daggers lie at his feet. “Evie… Levi… give me a hand.”
The three of them gather the weapons and carry them to the back door.
“What are they doing?” I ask Grayson.
He finishes packing the last of the breakfast sacks. “Hiding the weapons from the Avrenians. We have an underground bunker hidden in the yard.”
“Then why don’t we just go there and wait out the soldiers?” The thought of facing King Cirrus so soon seems absurd to me.
Instead of answering right away, Grayson crosses the room. His sandy-brown hair hangs loose over his forehead, and a warm feeling fills me as a dimple forms on his right cheek when he smiles. I’ve really come to trust my older brother. “I know you’re scared. On our walk back from Mafekadi, Levi told me all about your encounter with Quinn Malum.” He touches my cheek with his palm. “No one else understands how overwhelming all of this is—to go from your safe apartment with your future planned out into this cold world.” He drops his hand, his eyes delving deep into mine, probably trying to assess my level of fear. “Cirrus won’t harm you. He’s too superstitious for that. Dire consequences could come from killing a prophesied savior.”
“But what about the rest of you?” I won’t be able to leave Frostacre without their help, but I realize the danger it poses.
“We’ve dealt with our share of the fae.” He looks to the back door as the others return from the yard. “Your primary role is to distract while we find the prophecy. Piece of cake.”
“You always make everything seem as if we’re making a trip to the Sweet Street Bakery for a cocoa and a sticky bun.” I need Grayson’s calming presence to help offset Bastian’s intensity.
Evie pinches Grayson’s cheek and then his ass. “That’s because he’s sweeter than a sticky bun.”
“Is everyone ready?” Bastian stands by the front door. He wears his long cloak, which is filled to the brim with weapons. “I want to reach Tenny Rocks by noon and settle in so we can talk through our plan in Frostacre. Levi, bring up the rear so you can cover our tracks.”
Our trek through the woods differs from the ones we’ve taken to the Grove or the falls. No one speaks. The threat the incoming soldiers pose is real. Part of me wonders if Flynn will be among the ones tasked with rooting out the rebellion. If he is, I left nothing behind to identify my ties to the Kindred Few.
I watch as Levi leaves a trail of iridescent dust behind us. Our footprints disappear, every bent blade of grass straightens, and snapped sticks reform. It is as if we were never there. My friend holds secrets I’ve not even begun to uncover.
“Only about three more hours,” he finally says as we pass through a meadow still holding dew on the shorter grasses and drenching my boots.
“Will the people in Tenny Rocks turn us in?” It’s a question I’ve held inside, not wanting to speak badly about the Redeemed.
“They’re rule followers, mostly.” He sprinkles another layer of dust behind us. “They do what Avren says, but they won’t betray a fellow member of the Redeemed. Peace is more important to them than anything. If they don’t stir up trouble, the Council leaves them alone.”
A gust of wind whips through the meadow, bending the grasses to the earth. I cling to Levi to keep from falling over as the other three duck low to the ground. Bastian looks back to make sure I’m alright. And then, after clearing the meadow of every insect and bird, the wind stops.
“What the hell was that?” I run my fingers through my hair, which is now a knotted mess.
“The fae.” Levi scans the woods as if expecting to see something. “Cirrus is making it clear that he knows we’re coming.”
“Great,” I mutter. “So much for a surprise visit.”
“It’s not impossible.” Levi picks up the contents of his sack, which fell during the gust, stuffing them back inside. “My limited magic is magnified when I’m in Frostacre. There’s a chance I can shield the others from Cirrus’s watchful eye, especially if we’re distracting him.”
“You’re coming with me?” My spirits lift. The idea of facing the fae king alone made me shudder. Levi understands the people of Frostacre better than anyone in the family.
He loops his arm through mine as we follow the others back into the forest. “Do you really think I’d leave you to face him alone? He cursed my family. The guy’s a major dick.”
I smile at his assessment, never expecting those words out of my mild-mannered friend’s mouth.
The surrounding forest differs from the ones near the cabin. Tall pines stand close together, while shorter bushes pepper the floor, making it difficult to see too far ahead. Animals and birds alert us to their presence with squeals and the occasional flutters from the bushes. Darkness creeps along the ground, providing perfect shadows for a predator in hiding. Every noise has me on edge as my fingers grip a dagger in my pocket, ready for an attack.
“Chill, Mari.” Bastian falls back to walk beside me as Levi walks with Grayson, but I can’t help but notice his attention remains on the woods. “The Supes won’t bother us at this time of day.”
“And what about the beasts?” I hold my dagger in front of me. When I was a child, my father told me stories about giant cats and wolves roaming the forests of the wilderness.
“You mean the ones I eat for breakfast?” The corner of his lip lifts as he looks at me to gage my reaction.
I stick my tongue out at him. He should know better than to mock my fear. In my short stint in the wilderness, a werewolf killed someone right in front of me, a vampire tried to attack me, and a fairy kidnapped me and poisoned an innocent fae.
Out of view of the others, he slides a hand along my lower back, reassuring me.
“I’m more concerned about Cirrus. What if I’m not able to distract him, and he senses the three of you?” Flashbacks of Quinn flattening Levi with the touch of his hand still rattle me.
His hand slips from my lower back to my hip, squeezing before he releases me. “You worry too much. There’s what…” He holds up his hand and counts out each finger. “Five of us and like hundreds of them? No problem.”
Bastian’s lighthearted approach to my upcoming appointment with the king of the Unseelie Court does nothing to ease my worries. Without a miracle, there’s no way the five of us will make it out alive.