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I knew enough phrases and commands to spark my magic when I needed it, and I knew how to call them to me, but it was raw and unrefined, a skill I only picked up this past year from living in the slums among other halflings.
The faerie’s voice was deep and resonating, filling the cave and surrounding me on every side. Their language was musical, unlike the blocky roughness of the human language.
When I didn’t answer him, he sighed deeply and traded a glance with the white-haired male next to him. Some silent exchange happened between them, while the one with the dark, depthless stare never looked away from me. I felt naked under his judgment, and I wondered if the look on his strikingly bizarre face was one of hunger or hatred.
“Do you speak the common tongue?” I asked, finding my voice. To my surprise, it didn’t shake. Showing any kind of weakness was dangerous, and I knew that one misstep could end this before it had even begun.
“We invented the common tongue, halfling,” the white-haired faerie answered. His words were also musical, yet slightly mocking and lilted. “Come closer.”
I blanched at the command, my body immediately lurching forward as if tugged by some invisible tether, but I caught myself before I took another step. I stared down at the ring of mushrooms—the only thing separating me from a gruesome death. Flicking my eyes up, I met the hungry stares of the erasu. Their eyes bounced between mine and my feet, as if waiting impatiently for my next move.
Forcing myself to straighten, I took a step back into my original spot in the center of the ring, gritting my teeth against the strain it took to disobey whatever magic stretched between us. “I can hear you perfectly well from right here.”
The elhorns shifted, and the males tightened their hold on the reins, glancing at one another. The white-haired one smiled blandly, conceding a nod. “Wise of you…or maybe foolish. Tell me, halfling, do you have any idea whom you’ve summoned?” His eyes dipped to the mushroom ring, then to my palm, still dripping blood onto the dirt. “You’ve obviously come prepared.”
I wanted to tremble, to cower or even run. I knew who stood before me. There was no mistaking them for anything but what they were. “The Wild Hunt,” I said, surprisingly steadily. The Wild fucking Hunt stood before me. Of all the faeries in the world I could have summoned, it had to be them.
He nodded, a grin spreading across his beautiful face. “You’ve summoned the Wild Hunt—something that hasn’t been successfully accomplished in centuries. How did you manage it?” Tilting his head, he studied me, as did the males beside him.
How indeed? How did I manage to screw up this badly? The Wild Hunt was a thing of legend. They were mercenaries and bounty hunters—faeries who were being punished, banished from their courts and forced to serve for the rest of their immortal lives. The Wild Hunt were called upon by the kings and queens of Faerie. With no power to refuse a hunt, they were little better than slaves.
I stared at the three males that led the Wild Hunt, and I knew who they were by reputation. Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago, they were supposedly princes. Legend said they’d been banished from their respective courts—two brothers from the primal court, and the other…well, I didn't know a thing about him. The princes of the Wild Hunt were warriors, known for being vicious, ruthless, and evil to the core.
“It was an accident. I meant to summon just one, but something went wrong…” Very wrong. So wrong, it almost seemed purposeful. I silently cursed my typically horrible luck, or lack thereof.
“I doubt that,” he said dryly. “One doesn’t summon the Wild Hunt without intention, so either you’re too afraid to admit how grave of an error you’ve just made, or you’re purposely lying to me. Which is it? Think very hard about the answer you choose to give me.”
“I’m not a liar,” I said through gritted teeth. I felt myself flush with anger and embarrassment.
He chuckled bitterly. “What do you think, Cadoc? Do her lies smell as sweet as she looks?” His eyes traveled over me, and I fought the urge to recoil. “Humans always did have a penchant for deceit.”
Cadoc, his dark-haired almost twin, flared his nostrils as he breathed in deeply, his head falling back slightly. Small veins of black began to creep under his skin, snaking up the exposed portion of his arms and up the side of his neck.
Magic crackled in the space between us, and all the while, the short-haired one, with the kinder eyes of the three, simply watched on without emotion. I knew that if I turned to run, they’d only catch me. The only thing keeping me safe right now was the faerie ring, which they weren’t allowed to cross. It was the only reason I was able to straighten my shoulders and meet their eyes.
There were stories about the faeries, about gruesome murders, kidnappings, and enslavement of humans and halflings. Some said that humans were considered a delicacy in certain parts of Faerie where they were sold as concubines and slaves. Humans couldn’t see the fae. Those who could either went mad and clawed their own eyes out, or simply wasted away into nothing eventually. I could see them, given that I was a halfling, but I had to be careful. Humans could never know what I was. Essentially, I was living a life of secrecy and fear. Lost between two worlds I didn’t belong in.
I stared at their animalistic features, and the more I looked, the more I saw. My tongue ran over my own elongated canines, no doubt a product of my mother’s bloodline. They were sharp like a predator, contradicting the softness of my features and the bright hue of my eyes.
Cadoc breathed out finally, opening his eyes and staring directly at me. He had no pupils, only blackness, like the night sky without the stars. Cold wrapped around me like a fist, squeezing every last ounce of warmth from my body. There was something truly dark about him, something evil and wrong, something that went beyond the fact that he was a primal.
He said nothing, while his brother simply looked at him, then grinned as if somehow, they were communicating without words. For all I knew, they were and I was the odd one out.
“Luck seems to be on your side tonight. My brother thinks you’re telling us the truth, and he’s never been wrong before. So tell me, what was the purpose of all this?” He gestured around the darkened cave, then nodded to my still dripping palm. “You must be desperate if you’ve come to the edge of the Veil all alone.”
I shivered in terror at the thought of crossing the Veil—the barrier between the human lands and Faerie. I was as close to the edge of the mortal lands as I ever wanted to venture. Humans could only get so deep into the wood before they were either consumed by the monsters that lived within it, or they were turned right back around, only to end up where they started. This cave was on the edge of the boundary, and coming here was already the most dangerous thing I’d ever attempted.
“I need help,” I said finally, finding a confidence I didn’t have. Drystan needed me to do this. “I need the kind of help only a faerie can give me.”
The white-haired one raised a brow, a smile tipping his lips. “That request could mean so many things. After all, faeries are quite talented. There are so many ways I can help you…for a price, that is.” His eyes dipped once again, running over my body in such a way that had my toes curling in my boots. There was an unmistakable raw sort of sensuality to this faerie…actually, to all three of them.
“You must be desperate,” said Cadoc this time. My shoulders stiffened in response to his deeper, gruffer voice. His dark eyes flickered with the torches. “Desperate enough to give up something precious in return for a faerie’s favor? You’re either incredibly selfless or very stupid.”
I bristled at the insinuation that I’d come all the way out here for something trivial. “Maybe you underestimate halflings and humans a little too much.” I regretted the words the moment they left my lips. I shouldn’t provoke a faerie.
His lips thinned slightly, but his brother’s eyes beamed with delight. I was beginning to realize how different the two of them were. They traded another wordless glance before Cadoc returned his gaze back to me. “Haelo seems to think we should indulge this desperate request of yours.” My heart leapt as my eyes bounced between Haelo and Cadoc, hope flaring within me.
Haelo…What a fitting name for the white-haired faerie with the glowing-white eyes. His grin never faltered—the exact opposite of Cadoc. I couldn’t pretend like the prospect of striking a bargain with these exiled princes didn’t turn my stomach. It was wrong in so many ways, but I was down to this one option.
