At least the night is beautiful. The snow reflects the full belly of the moon, brightening up the shadows of the forest. Rocks and twigs glitter with hoarfrost as Tegwyn guides me with ease, helping me around difficult patches of ice.
I have to be slowing him down, yet he continues at my languorous pace, and I can’t help but soak up his delicious warmth and his rich, earthy scent of pine and woodsmoke. Maybe today won’t be so bad after all.
Five hours later, we finally reach our destination—a long, winding stretch of road that bisects the sprawling forest.
A sunken road sign made from blue slate reads: “Twenty mi to Est.”
It’s the first sign of human life I have seen in weeks, and the sight takes my breath away. How something as trivial as a road sign can leave me speechless, I’ll never know, but I’ve become so accustomed to the wild, treacherous lands of the north these last several weeks that I forgot how simple the human world could be.
The forest is much tamer on the other side of the road. Thick blankets of moss no longer cling to the branches or trees. The canopy reveals patches of grey sky, and even the birds seem to chirp louder.
Ferns have shrunk in size, and tree roots no longer twist up from the ground to trip you on your feet. The mist has cleared, too, and now I can see further than ten feet ahead of me.
The faerie wilds truly are primitive. It’s an ancient world untouched by humans—untouched bytime.
Tegwyn shrouds his face with his hood and scarf, taking up a position behind a tall spruce. I slump on a tree stump overgrown with toadstools, grateful for the chance to rest. I even take off my right boot so I can remove a stubborn stone; it’s been annoying me for miles.
“And who gave you permission to sit?”
I meet his luminous eyes. They burn brighter beneath the dark of his cowl, and I can tell by the way they narrow that he’s smirking at me. Nothing new there.
“I did. I needed a rest.”
He sighs, blowing the scarf on his face. “If you insist,princess.”
I really wish he would stop calling me that.
I’m not a princess.
A breath loosens from my own lips, unconsciously mirroring him. “So, twenty miles? Will it really take us that long to reach the market?”
The faerie snorts. “No. We’ll be hitching a ride.”
I look up and down the barren road. “A ride fromwhom?”
Tegwyn ignores the question, unfurling his map on the ground before me. He kneels, using rocks and twigs as paperweights. There are marker points for each town and city, and it appears this Fae likes to get around. He points his gloved finger on a small peninsula along the eastern coastline, and my heart flutters in my throat.
“This is where we’re heading—the Eastern Market. Or in other words, thelion’s mane…” He scoffs, “I don’t see it, do you? This shitty kingdom looks nothing like a lion.”
I barely hear his rambling as I stare at the peninsula, the one surrounded by a blue expanse.
Could it be?
After all these years, will I get to see the sea?
“You’re pulling a very strange facial expression right now. What’s on your mind?”
I meet his gaze, and whatever he must see in my eyes, it’s enough to catch him off guard.
My vision fogs, and before my eyes betray me, I reach up, wiping away a traitorous tear. “The…sea…”
“Yes. What about it?”
I inhale a shaky breath, wondering how I tell him that my dream of seeing the ocean is about to come true. I’ve been dreaming of this day since I was a little girl. Ever since I first opened the pages of a book, learning how big the world truly was outside of my tiny cottage. It almost doesn’t seem real, and I wish my parents were here to experience this moment with me.
Tegwyn pulls off his scarf, and a small, knowing smile curves his lips. “You’ve never seen the ocean before… have you?”
I lower my gaze, giving him a subtle nod. For some reason, I feel vulnerable exposing myself to him like this. But I’m starting to think that I can trust him, and he has proven himself more than enough times.
