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The pixie didn’t reply, already set on his goal. It occurred to her that maybe she hadn’t come from the shore but somewhere else—an opening that remained a mystery, taking her straight from the ocean to that forest.
“Yu, stop. I know you can’t understand me, but maybe you can answer my questions with some gestures. Yu?” At the lack of response and continuous motion, she raised her voice. “Yu, stop!”
The magic already gathering on her palm made its way toward him, poking twice until he finally did halt. Yu whirled to face her, stunned, as she finally caught up and heaved a breath.
“You fly too fast. I can’t use my magic too much because I might need it later.” She gestured. “Where are we?”
A cold sensation pricked her neck and fluttered downward. She turned her back on Yu…then, froze when she noticed that he was floating away from her. A second later, she saw it: shadows moving from the trees, but only on the upper side in line with her sight. Which meant…
“Em,” Yu sang out. “Yu.”
The pixies circled her, some smaller than Yu but the majority as big as her head. Not that she had a big head, but…this wasn’t good.
Danger,instinct warned, crystal clear and insistent.Dangerous in groups.
As if the books weren’t clear enough, their narrowed eyes cemented that conclusion. Only Yu and a selected few remained confused despite joining the circle seamlessly. She swallowed. She opened her mouth and fisted her hand behind her.
“Hello. I’m Emerald. Em.”
She patted her chest again and repeated what she did with Yu, but the group was unresponsive. Giving up, Emerald took a step back—and just like that, felt the air shift until she felt positively chilled with tension.
“Well, it was nice meeting you and—”
At the first hiss and baring of sharp teeth, Emerald ducked and threw her magic in the air. It lit a brilliant green and gave her a head start as she scrambled away from their circle. She stood up—and ducked once more when something zoomed and hit the tree beside her, shattering into powder form. Immediately, she closed her eyes and held her breath, then lunged for the exit as more of those things whizzed her way, intent to catch her.
Magic became her ally as she willed some into her legs, lightening them so she could run faster. Frustration brimmed that she couldn’t use that magic to create a shield around her—her one weakness, just as all her siblings also had one specific weakness. At the sound of more hissing, she glanced back and felt her stomach drop when she glimpsed the pixies going after her like a tornado.
“Oh, no. Oh, Yu, why did I think I could trust you?”
She was so preoccupied with getting away from them, she didn’t even bother looking at where she was going. Her frantic escape jerked to a stop when she slammed into a hard, solid object and tumbled down. Then she was rolling to the ground that sloped downward, too fast for her magic to react and reach for something—
“Damn it.”
The falling sensation stopped and an arm banded around her waist. The voice registered, deep and masculine, with just a hint of melody that piqued her attention. She looked up.
Magenta eyes framed a face of perfect angles, with only soft lips stopping all that sculpted hardness. Black hair streaked with gray curled and fell all over his forehead and ears, covering them.
“Bad word, I know,” those lips mused, the melodic hint growing stronger. Mesmerizing. “Or I heard. We don’t use it, but it feels like the best words to use given the situation.”
Fae,her mind screamed as she took in the rest of him in fancy silk clothes that couldn’t quite hide lean, well-formed muscles and an ethereal quality. Maybe it was his paleness. Maybe it was the way he talked. But one thing she was sure of when it came to Fae was just how dangerous and manipulative they could be—a fact that couldn’t be hidden as La Fleur was commonly known as a magical, deadly island.
And a Fae beat you from getting that gemstone.
She pushed his chest out of instinct, then clutched his shirt hard when she started to fall. The arm around her tightened as he eyed her in confusion.
“You don’t speak, little creature?” he asked.
Run.But her mind was working a mile a minute, surmising thathewas the solid object that had just jeopardized her escape before preventing a possibly deadly fall. Trapped, she looked down, the darkness seemingly endless. Then she glanced up and felt the dread building again.
“Can you fly?” she blurted out.
Magenta orbs blinked in confusion. He shook his head. “What? Why are—”
“Let go,” she commanded, a second before she heard the thrum of hissing again and spotted the flurry of wings above.
“Are you insane—”
“Let go!” she yelled, then pushed at him again—this time, with energy infused in her strength.
