AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER THREE
For a long while, I gazed through the window above the bed, studying the glow from the stars streaming through the bare branches of a tree outside the cabin. They rose toward the sky like skeletal fingers grasping for a shred of distant light. Meanwhile, the wind continued to whisper through the forest, causing the trees to creak and the cabin itself to tremble. The low-burning fire helped chase away the frigid air that seeped through each crack in the walls, but I was still grateful for the fur blankets I’d burrowed into.
Garrick had offered me a loose shirt that hung overlarge on my frame but covered me enough to avoid feeling too scandalous. Still, my legs had been bare, so I’d demanded that he turn away as I settled into the bed, piling the furs over me until I was comfortable and completely covered.
Now, I rolled over restlessly and studied the darkened cabin and then Garrick. Stretched out on a heap of blankets before the fire, he’d gone so still and quiet that I imagined he was already asleep. That was, until he stirred, as if sensing the weight of my gaze. His gold eyes met mine in the dimness.
Embarrassed to be caught staring, I tried to draw attention away from the fact by asking the question that had been haunting me. “You said we’d decide about my future tomorrow. But what does that mean? You’re a Silverfrost, and you told meyou sometimes hunt for the king and queen. Would you turn me over to them?”
Garrick’s eyes flicked to the fire. “I don’t want to. Though they’re my sovereigns, I don’t like the way they treat humans. You don’t deserve that life. As I said, I’ll protect you. But I’m not sure how long you can run from them, Starlight. They’ll send their soldiers after you, and I doubt they’ll care much for the condition you’re in so long as you arrive at the castle.”
I inhaled sharply. “As a hunter, don’t you know places to hide in these mountains?”
Garrick picked at a thread on his blanket. “I can’t guarantee you could hide forever. Or that the royals would ever stop looking for you. We could try to cross the border and enter another fae kingdom. Ashwood is far friendlier toward mortals. Though I’m not sure they’d welcome me. The relationship between Ashwood and Silverfrost is...strained.”
The way he spoke the words made me think he was greatly understating the tension between the two lands. I swallowed. “And the other fae kingdoms?”
“I’m not sure they’ll be any kinder to a human than Silverfrost would be.”
I leaned back against the pillows, closing my eyes. Imagining spending the rest of my life on the run and in hiding, praying to distant gods to defend me. “I can’t ask you to leave your life behind for me,” I muttered into the shadows.
Garrick’s head was turned away once more, studying the fire, but I could have sworn he whispered, “What kind of a life?”
Running my hands down my face, I tried to calm my pulse, tried to believe I’d be able to escape the Silverfrost royals. They were the center of every nightmarish story told in Altidvale, the villains all children feared when they drifted off to sleep. I didn’t want to believe Charles had truly cast me off to them, that I had no hope of freedom or happiness. That my miserable lifemight end at their hands, or worse—that I might be enslaved or glamoured into their service.
I wiped at a tear before it could slide down my cheek.That will not be my fate,I promised myself, even though I had no reason to believe I could fight it.
“This cabin is close to your town, and therefore where Silverfrost’s servants will begin their search,” Garrick said. “In the morning, we’ll travel deeper into the mountains, to another of my posts. It will take us nearer to the Ashwood border.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather send me on my way alone?”
Garrick huffed out a laugh. “Starlight, I’m a wolf with protective instincts and no pack to defend. Let me at least see you to a safer location before you cast me away.”
“I’m hardly more than a stranger. Why risk your king and queen’s wrath for me?” When I sat up, I met Garrick’s gaze.
“Perhaps I’d like a friend, someone worth risking my life for.” He tossed me a careless, dimpled grin before turning over. “Get some sleep, Starlight. We’ll have a long walk tomorrow.”
A scraping sound against the window jolted me awake. The cabin was even darker, immersed in night’s shadows, the fire burnt down to nothing but embers. I sat up in bed, blinking bleary eyes and turning. My heart froze in my chest, a scream rising and dying in my throat.
The scraping sound came from a claw running down the glass as a headless creature—its flesh grey and sagging, like an undead thing—stood at the window. In its other arm, it cradled a head, its fierce red eyes glaring straight at me. There was a hungry gleam in the severed head’s gaze as the monster scratched its claws down the windowpane, the noise grating against my ears.
Stifling another scream, I staggered up and out of the bed, slamming against the wall.
Garrick bolted from his blankets, his gaze fastening on the monster outside the cabin. “Dullahan.” He snarled the word like a curse. “The king and queen sent it to find you.” He drew a dagger from a sheath at his thigh and seized a bow and quiver from the wall. “Stay in the cabin. It cannot enter with the protective wards placed upon it.” As he approached the door, he cast a fierce look over his shoulder. “Bolt the door behind me, and do not let me in unless I call you Starlight. It can mimic voices.”
With that, he strode outside, slamming the door behind him. I darted forward and bolted the lock, shivering more with fear than with the blast of cold air. It was in that moment, as I slid down the wall and hugged my knees to my chest, that I wondered what I’d do if Garrick never returned. Gritting my teeth, I rose, scanning the wall across from me for any blade or bow that looked small enough I might manage to wield it. What a preposterous idea—me, a sheltered lady of Altidvale who had never even touched a weapon before in her life, fending off that nightmarish monster outside. Hysterical laughter threatened to bubble up, but I choked it down.
Another shudder racked my body, tickling my spine and cooling my palms.
Low growls shattered the quiet of the night, and I lurched to my feet, scarcely daring to peer out the window to catch a glimpse of what was happening. There was the scrape of a blade being drawn, and an animalistic hiss I assumed belonged to the monster. I caught a glimpse of shadows colliding before the forms vanished out of view.
Long moments passed, my heart pulsing in my ears and my breath fogging in the air. I wrapped my arms tightly around myself, determined not to lose control to the chill that wasbuilding within me. What if Garrick was right, and I unleashed more magic?
I was almost as terrified of the thought of wild magic as I was of the dullahan hunting me.
A spray of scarlet arced through the darkness outside the window, splattering along the ground. Blood. My mouth turned sour.
