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Soon, the mountain peaks darkened, turning black against the bright light behind them as they loomed over the land like sentinels—tall, strong and ancient. I’d been coming here for months, ever since I’d signed my life away to the Wild Hunt, figuring I might as well get used to the woods that would be my new home soon. The Wild Hunt called the woods of Faerie home after being exiled from the courts…or so said the legends.
When the sun disappeared completely, I’d go back to Karn, back to Drystan, where he lay in his bed, lips still blue and skin still pale as death.
I pulled a vial from my cloak pocket. Only one blue petal remained, and it would be the petal to save his life. I couldn’t afford to mess this up, but sneaking into the castle under the ever watchful castle guard was a dangerous, delicate dance. So, I took my time and enjoyed the last of my freedom, breathing in the open air and basking in the sweetness before all hell broke loose.
Below my perch on the edge of the cliff, in a small pocket meadow on the rolling hills just beyond the farmlands, was a field of acacia flowers in full boom. Their orange petals blazed in the light of the golden hour. It was strange how beautiful something so dangerous could be. A single petal of the acacia flower could kill any full grown man, beast, or even sicken a faerie in less than a heartbeat, even faster when ground into a fine powder. A shake of it in a cup of tea or sprinkled on the lips was enough. They were so beautiful…and so deadly.
The flowers swaying in the biting wind were practically glowing, seemingly floating along a rolling sea of deep emerald grass. I took in deep lungfuls of the sweet scent they gave off. I had minutes before I needed to return to reality. Neera would be waiting back at the shop, which I had no doubt she’d closed down for the evening in anticipation of tonight—my last night of freedom.
I twirled the stem of an acacia flower between my fingers, stalling. Though it was freezing cold so high up in the mountains, I still relished the smooth texture of the flower against my skin, thorns, ice, and all.
Something tickled my fingers. Looking down at the flower in my grip, I wasn’t surprised at all to see that my palm glowed with a gentle golden light. The brand of the Wild Hunt pulsated on my palm, growing brighter by the day. It was a constant reminder that I was living my life on borrowed time. The flower crumbled into fine black dust as the brand charred it, falling through my fingers until the wind carried it away, like it did to everything else it touched.
Hoofbeats echoing off of the ground alerted me to Zephyr’s approach a few moments before his massive head nudged my shoulder. Standing, I wiped dirt and charred flower dust from my black trousers, then turned to run my fingers through Zephyr’s mane.
The chimera was a beautiful creature. I found him on the edge of the wood six months ago when I first started coming up to watch the sun set. It took him three days to approach me, and on the fourth, he joined me as I’d been watching the flowers and the mountains disappear into shadow. Since then, we’d been inseparable.
It was strange for a faerie creature to wander so far from the Veil, and he wasn’t the only one to have come close in the last few months either. Creatures of nightmares, both beautiful and terrifying, filled the woods, even the occupied lands around Karn.
There were sprites that danced along the rivers at night when no one was watching, while beady, glowing eyes stared up at them before a spindly green hand would reach through the surface and latch onto their little wings, dragging them under for an evening meal. The nymphs were always lurking.
Now that my mind was clear and I knew what to look for, I tended to watch my step in the woods, always keeping a pocket full of sugary treats handy to leave behind me for any strays who happened to follow curiously on my tail.
Luckily, Zephyr wasn’t the sort of creature that could be so easily spooked, not without losing a limb or three. He trusted me, though, and I had a feeling it had something to do with my faerie half.
Powerfully muscled and as black as the night sky, Zephyr was gorgeous. His razor-sharp teeth snapped next to my face in a playful way, and I chuffed him on the ear affectionately. Those teeth were meant for ripping flesh, but I never feared them. Running my hands through his silky fur, I marveled at the power in his long body. He was almost as large as an elhorn, with the head of a lion, the long curled horns of a ram, and the scaled, taloned back legs of a dragon. Zephyr was terrifying, deadly, and one of my closest companions these days.
Climbing on his back, I settled into the leather saddle I’d fitted him with, much to his ire, and gripped on tight. “Let’s get this done,” I said with a heavy sigh. Zephyr rumbled deeply in response, unfurling his black, bat-like wings. They were so massive that they spread out like the sails of a mighty ship, casting a shadow a dozen feet wide. “I wish I could take you with me, but I’ll probably wind up in tiny little pieces in some faerie’s soup by tomorrow.” He growled this time, and I chuckled. “Sorry, you’re right. I’m being paranoid.”
But was I? I didn’t know too much about how things actually worked in Faerie seeing as I’d never been there myself, but the stories made the faeries out to be ruthless, soulless creatures who spat on humans and halflings alike. I vividly remembered the cold look in Cadoc’s eyes back in the faerie caves and shivered with dread. If they were all like that, then I was in more danger than I realized.
After a nudge to his side with one of my boots, Zephyr broke into a run, heading for the cliff’s edge. There was no hesitation as he launched us skyward, his heavy wings opening up and catching the air beneath us. This time of night was my favorite time to fly.
Zephyr was dark enough that he looked like a shadow, blending in with the night sky, so traveling was easier with so many humans around. It was a good thing that most fae creatures were invisible to the human eye, but there was always a rare human who possessed what the fae liked to callThe Sight.It was a dangerous ability to have, and nearly unheard of. I pictured the chaos his giant, flapping wings would bring to Karn as humans scrambled away like ants and laughed as we dipped and rose through the wind.
The farmlands on the outer edge of Karn were barren this time of year, brown with dead crops and sparse with empty orchards. After living in the slums for over two years now, it was sometimes hard to remember how wealthy the kingdom used to be. Now, all of that wealth seemed to be distributed to smaller and smaller factions of powerful families, leaving the rest of the empire to rot. Someday soon, the queen would get what was coming to her, and I sincerely hoped I would be there to witness it happen.
We circled the castle that I used to call home five times before spotting a safe place to land. When I lived in the castle, Queen Reena’s guard seemed to be posted in a different position every night, making it incredibly hard to come and go as I pleased. Before my exile, she’d kept me under a tight watch. Luckily for me, the rooftop of the observatory was unguarded. How long that would last, I had no idea, so I would need to move fast.
Zephyr managed to land quietly, kicking up dust as his massive form settled in the shadows. His muscles moved beneath me as I slid off the saddle. I patted his mane and whispered my goodbyes, and a moment later, with a grunt, he launched himself back into the air. He wouldn’t go far, and I had a few tricks I’d picked up from the halflings in the slums to signal him if I needed to make a quick getaway.
Pulling my hood and black mask into place, tucking my thick hair securely beneath the fabric, I slunk through the heavy door on the other side of the rooftop. Down and down I went, bypassing the cylindrical skylights that caught the moonlight, casting beams of white that slashed through the darkness on the spiral staircase.
Metal instruments hung from the ceiling, glinting in the barely there light, and I wished I had more time to stop and look. I passed maps painted across the stone walls, and tapestries that were falling apart at the seams.
When my father was alive, he used to take me up to the observatory where we'd look at the stars through a strange metal contraption the old astronomer made. It’d been years since the astronomer passed, and now the observatory sat empty, collecting dust without an apprentice to replace him, but the queen didn’t care about things like science or discovery. No, all she cared about was wealth and gluttony.
It didn’t take me long to make it through the west wing of the castle, slinking through shadows and bypassing at least ten servants pittering through the halls. None of them paid any attention to their surroundings, comfortable in the fact that the castle was heavily guarded. It was naïve of them to become so complacent. I realized that now that I’d been away for so long, now that I’d been exposed to the realities of the real world.
Drystan had a wing to himself, just past a large study that once housed a grand library before the queen had the books burned. My father had been an avid reader, and was openly fascinated with everything and anything to do with faeries, lore and legends—hence the reason for my accidental existence, I supposed. Now the room sat bare, save for a writing desk and cobwebs collecting dust.
Somehow, I made it all the way to my brother’s chambers without being spotted, meaning the queen didn’t have any guards currently assigned to watch over him. Typical, but it worked in my favor tonight. It was crucial that this went perfectly, because after this last dose, Drystan’s mysterious illness would be gone, my fate be damned.
I slipped into the unlocked room easily, shutting the door behind me softly, though I imagined I could probably scream as loud as I wanted and not a soul would come running to help the sick prince.
Drystan lay in his bed, tucked beneath his quilts, looking pale, but not nearly as sickly as he had months ago. His brown hair had more of a shine to it than usual, and there was a bit of pink staining his cheeks. It was so hard to see him this way. Drystan had always been the strong one of the two of us, the one who’d taught me how to fight like a man, how to shoot a bow, and how to play an expert game of cards. He’d been confident and charming, and I couldn’t wait for that man to return to us. Well, to return tothem…because I would be gone by the morning.
Putting it out of my mind, I focused on the task at hand, approaching his bedside and kneeling. I ran my fingers through his hair and smiled. “I told you I would figure out a way to make you better, didn’t I?”
