Page 57 of Fae Trials

“This is a trial to the death, you moron!” I swung the chain like a lasso.

Lady Gala opened her mouth and screamed, blowing out a gust of air so fierce and cold, it froze the surface of my skin. Squinting against the attack of frost, I turned around and protected my eyes.

The wind lashed at my back, not easing until her voice echoed from far up in the trees. I held position until I remembered that Helen ws still in danger.

“Shit!” I dropped the chain, dashed through the remnants of the Fated’s magic toward the frozen horse.

Helen slid further off the mount, her face twisted in a mask of panic. I grabbed my friend around the waist, pulled her off the saddle, and scrambled back toward the trees.

A heartbeat later, the spell vanished, and the horse twisted around with a blood-curdling shriek.

Helen flinched in my arms. “What happened?”

“You were right.” I set her onto her feet and pointed at the chain on the ground. “It was a trap. The Fated wanted to strangle me with iron.”

Helen stepped back, as though the chain was a rattlesnake. Her gaze landed on my neck. “That touched you and didn’t burn?”

“Apparently, I’m impervious.” I bent down, picked up the iron chain, and weighed it in my hands. Two pounds of scrap metal could provide a three-generation family in Doolish enough to live like kings for a month.

Helen whistled for her horse, which cantered further into the trees. “Are you alright?”

My fingertips slid over the tender skin on my sore neck. “I’ll live.”

She gave me a tight smile that made me wonder if she was already anticipating my death at the hands of the Fated. “That was sloppy of them to gift you with all that iron.”

I stared down at the chain coiled on my palm. “At least I can lash out with this if they get close.”

“The wards must have informed them that you were passing.” After three tries at calling for the horse, the beast trotted through the trees and offered its nose. Helen reached into her pocket, fed it a cube of something white, and gave the horse several calming strokes on the muzzle.

“Let’s hurry to the Mound and see if you can find a blacksmith willing to fashion that into defensive weapons,” she said.

My dappled horse trotted out through the trees with its nostrils flared.

“But I don’t have money beads.” I patted its flank in thanks for returning.

“You won’t need any if you let him keep some of that iron for himself.” After mounting, she leaned over to offer my horse a cube.

As the horse ate from the palm of her hand, I placed a steadying hand on the base of the horse’s mane and hoisted myself onto its back. “Let’s go.”

The ride through the rest of Prudence Woods was uneventful, apart from a pair of silver unicorns riding at our sides. Although Helen reached out to pet the one closest to her, I stared ahead, ignoring the beautiful creatures.

Recent events had heightened my paranoia, and I couldn’t help thinking they were another trap. Everyone knew unicorns were judges of virtue and only allowed a virgin’s touch. If I so much as looked one in the eye, they would gore me with their horns.

Eventually, we reached the edge of the woods, and the unicorns rode away. Poppies the size of sunflowers occupied a field beyond the thinning trees, and around them stood a tree large enough to fit my entire house.

“The entrance of the mound is through that trunk,” she said.

“Do we have to leave the horses behind?” I strained my eyes to see a hidden doorway on the bark, but it just looked like a regular old tree.

“We’ll need them to get around,” she replied.

As we galloped through the poppy field, the flowers on Helen’s side dipped their heads, but the ones on my side stayed upright. The morning sun shone down, lighting the ends of their petals a bright scarlet. For a moment, I thought it was also warming the side of my face, but I turned to meet Helen’s assessing gaze.

“What?” I asked.

“Those girls see you as a major threat,” she said.

I raised my shoulders into a shrug. “Or they relish the opportunity to exercise their inner bitches.”