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In one swift move, this fae had taken my magic from me.
I wanted to cry over the very thing I’d been afraid of these past few weeks. I might not have liked what it did, how out of control it was, but without my magic, I felt like an empty vessel.
“Get off him!” Florin yelled, attacking the fae that had to be twice his size. I wanted to yell for him to stop, but I couldn’t find my voice. Had the net taken that as well?
I watched in horror as the fae disarmed my friend in only a few moves. He grabbed Florin by the hair, yanked him into his chest, then turned him and had a dagger at his throat before I could blink.
Instantly, worries for my own fate left me and terror for my loves, for Florin and Braz, overtook every other concern.
The fae’s voice echoed loudly in the clearing as he spoke. “Orc! Lay down your weapons or this one loses his head!”
15
Theon
Braz glanced at Florin and me, and I watched the color drain from his face. His helpless eyes met mine, and I could see the apology on his lips even though he had nothing to apologize for. Florin and I were the ones who’d gotten him into this situation to begin with, and really, Florin had only been trying to help me. If anyone should apologize, it should be me.
Braz said, “Do I have your word that no harm will come to him or the mage?”
The fae laughed. “No. But I can promise you that no one in this clearing will harm them. That’s the best I can do. I cannot speak for our elders.”
Braz wasn’t happy with that response, but it was clear that he didn’t have any other choice. He dropped his weapons and stepped in our direction but was cut off by two spears crossing in front of him. He snarled at the fae holding them but didn’t move again.
“Braz,” I finally managed to whisper. I didn’t want them to hurt him, and he hadn’t bargained for himself. Of course he hadn’t because he didn’t care about himself. He only cared about the two of us.
Braz looked pained as he met my eyes, but I nodded encouragingly to him in the hopes of keeping him calm and safe from these creatures’ blades.
“Tie him up, Okasa,” the fae holding Florin said, nodding to Braz. He dropped the knife from Florin’s throat, sheathed it, and tied Florin’s hands behind his back swiftly. “Walk, little one.” He’d said that almost fondly, and it rankled my nerves in a way little else did. Even in this situation, I was protective—and possessive—of my men the same way they were of me.
Florin took a step forward, toward Braz, but looked back at me to see if I was coming as well.
Glancing over his shoulder, the fae gave someone behind me a nod, and a hand applied pressure to the middle of my back, clearly asking me to follow, so I did. I didn’t want them taking my men anywhere without me.
Braz was made to follow behind me and whoever was pushing me. I was the only one in a net and not tied up. Although I could do little other than walk, my arms pinned at my sides, unable to move more than an inch or two no matter how much I struggled, and it seemed that this net kept my magic at bay. It doused the flames that wanted to burn every single fae to the ground. I couldn’t decide if that was a blessing or a curse.
We walked for what felt like hours, and I was waning by the time we finally came to a stop. Confusion flared for a few minutes because it seemed like we were stopping in the middle of… more trees, with nothing else around us. But the leader fae, who still had a grip on Florin’s ropes, had sent another of the group forward. Maybe they didn’t want us to see their village, or maybe they wanted to give the others a warning before bringing three strangers inside. I couldn’t blame them for that, even if rage, fear, and sorrow were boiling within me.
I’d gotten my men into this, and now, I didn’t know if we’d survive these horrible fae. What had I been thinking?
The leader fae abruptly pushed Florin forward again, and the rest of us followed behind him. One second, I was walking through more trees, and the next, I was crossing some invisible barrier and entering a land with more color than I could fully comprehend in one long look.
There were flowerseverywhere, of all different colors, shapes, and sizes, some were nearly as big as me. I’d never seen anything like it. The bottoms of trees were covered in radiant, colorful blossoms, as were the huts that seemed to be the fae’s homes. The huts and larger buildings were dispersed between the trees and blended in with the underbrush, in some instances making it impossible to see where one began and the other ended.
Some of the trees must’ve grown hundreds of feet in the air. I followed the length of one up and gasped. There, high above the ground, was a buildingina tree. My eyes widened as I took in more of the canopy above us.
Countless buildings and homes floated in the trees with small bridges connecting them, as if there was a secondary civilization above the one we walked through. There were ladders and ropes leading up to this tree village, including a few of the bridges that were on angles allowing the fae to walk up them to reach higher buildings.
I watched as a fae climbed one of the ladders, grabbed a vine, wrapped it around his wrist, and let go of the ladder. My breath caught, thinking he’d fall to the ground, but then the vine seemed to pull him up. I couldn’t tell if it was magic he used, if the forest itself was more sentient than the trees back home, or if there was a pulley system at work. No matterthe how, it was amazing to watch.
My eyes were wide as I took in this hidden village in the middle of the Enchanted Forest. I’d thought if we were lucky enough to find the fae, it would be a small group of them. Never in my life could I have imagined such a number.
Fae walked through the center of the village, chatting with others, carrying children, and shopping at what looked like a small marketplace. There was so much to see, so much going on, I knew I couldn’t take it all in at once.
The place was huge. This wasn’t some long-forgotten village like I’d been led to believe. This was an entire thrivingcity.
And there were tons of fae everywhere, all of them covered in those strange blue markings that looked a bit like tattoos.
This was Safire. The kingdom of the fae.
