AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ervo,” she admitted.
I scowled.
He needed to make up his mind. Did he want me to be his mate, or didn’t he?
“One of us needs to head out to show them that we’re okay,” she said, looking at me.
“Mare is our ride out of here, so not her,” Sunny said. “Dots is the only real choice, since she’s the only other one with wings.”
We all looked at Dots.
She smiled. “I volunteer as tribute.”
Sunny snorted, and Dots winked at all of us before she took to the sky, shifting quickly and soaring up toward the larger phoenix.
The larger phoenix who did, admittedly, look like he was losing his shit.
“You care for them,” the leader said, and our attention jerked back to her. “The men in the sky.”
My face warmed, and I answered for us, pointing to North. “She’s mated to one of them. The rest are just… like family, I guess.”
Sunny made a gagging noise at my explanation.
She definitely had feelings for Teris, even if he didn’t respond well to said feelings.
The lead-woman’s forehead wrinkled, but she gestured for us to follow her without asking another question.
After we exchanged uncertain glances, we went.
Two
The menin the sky calmed down when Dots joined them. Ervo continued flying wide circles above the general area we had disappeared in, and honestly, seemed to have figured out the exact space that the island filled.
I kept an eye on them as we jogged into the island’s tropical version of a forest behind the women, struggling to keep up. The trees were different there, taller and slimmer, but still with the same shiny-smooth bark. Unlike the other forest, where most of the trunks were either black or white, with the occasional one matching the vibrant color of its leaves, every one of the trees had a bright greenish-blue trunk.
It made the land feel much more alien to me, but not in a way I disliked.
When we finally reached the center of the island, we found groups of women already packing their things into massive bags that looked like they were designed to be carried in massive talons or claws—probably for flying, I assumed. The fae women took down their colorful fabric tents with ease, quickly packing them along with everything else.
“You really were waiting for us,” Sunny remarked to the leader, who seemed to be supervising the clean-up party.
“Of course. When Vevol speaks, we listen.”
Wise words, I supposed.
“Tell me of your humans, and the state of the men. Particularly their leadership, and division,” the leader-woman commanded us.
All of us remained silent, glancing at each other.
“You rule, do you not?” the leader growled at North. “The most branded one is always the ruler.”
“Oh, no. Definitely not,” North said quickly. “I’ve only been here for a year and a half or so. Well, almost two years now, I guess.”
The woman’s narrowed eyes told me she didn’t think that was a good reason for North not to be the ruler.
“We’re the wrong people to ask about the world’s history,” I admitted. “North and Priel only just mated. We have a friend waiting on that side of the lake who would know a lot more than we do; she’s pregnant, so she couldn’t come with us.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “A life-bringer?”
