PROLOGUE
FIANA
‘No, Mama!’
My mother closes her eyes for a moment. ‘You must!’
‘No!’
‘Listen to me, Fiana. Please!’
Her thin fingers cup my face. Her eyes shine in the gloom. She’s so thin. We all are after so many weeks in this dark, stone place.
‘I know it’s hard,’ she whispers. ‘I know you want to stay with me. But you can leave the cell. I’ve seen you do it.’
I grimace. She’s told me not to show anyone what I can do.
But she smiles at me. ‘Our magick doesn’t usually manifest so early. The humans didn’t think to bind any of the faelings’ power.’
My mama strokes my matted hair. ‘I knew you were special the moment you were placed in my arms as a babe. None of the others here have such a talent.’
She tries to stifle a hiccupping sob.
‘Can you bring any of the other faelings with you?’
I shake my head. ‘I tried to take Berameia yesterday. She couldn’t follow me through the wall.’
Mama nods, unsurprised. ‘Then you must go alone. Find a way out. Tell our warriors, whomever is left in the Underhill, where we are. I’m sorry to put such a thing upon you, but you’re our only hope, my love.’
She glances back at the other women and faelings, all huddled together in the cell.
‘Soon, we won’t have any magick left for him to take from us. When that happens, he won’t let us go free, Fiana, no matter what he says. Nixus is false, a deceiver.’ Her eyes harden. ‘As all humans are. Don’t trust any of them. Find fae to help you.’
She looks up at the door that’s always closed unless they’re coming to take our mothers to bleed them of their fae magick and kisses my cheek.
‘You can do it.’
She turns me and pushes me toward the wall. ‘Go now. Before they return.’
Tears run down my cheeks, but I do as she says. I walk through the thick stone.
It’s easy.
I emerge into a bright passage, and I turn, running blindly into the maze of catacombs that I've begun to learn. I come out here whenever I get bored, so I know where to go.
At a junction of five tunnels, I turn to the left and take the first passage. This one is unused. I can tell because the floor is caked in dried mud from when it last flooded and hasn’t been cleared.
I keep to the very edge so that my bare feet don’t leave prints that will be noticed by any of the human guards. At the end is another passage, which I know is one of a few that lead to where the humans congregate. I hear a couple of them talking in low tones and I follow the sound.
They must know a way out of here.
But what then? I don’t know how to get back home to the Underhill. What if I can’t find?—
No! Mama and the others are counting on me. I have to find a way, a Ring to take me back. Then, I can find our warriors. I can tell them where the females and the faelings are, and they can save the others.
I follow the sounds of humans and get to a clearly well used tunnel that I recognize from when they brought us here.
I look to the left and then the right. Which way?
