AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We rode away from the camp not ten minutes later, Talia clinging to my waist like a scared cat.
“What about all your things?” she asked over my shoulder.
“They will be where we need them before we arrive.”
She harumphed, and the sound brought a smile to my face.
I choked on my next breath. The emptiness inside me, vast as it was, found a little more of my soul to rip. The sensation of her small arms around me was entirely too pleasing, too necessary. I let myself relish the feeling for several breaths—as if we might possibly find happiness—before coming to my senses and releasing her hand with a grunt.
She loosened her grip as well, clutching the cantle of the saddle instead of my waist. The gesture was pronounced—she didn’t want to hold on to me—and a little more of my sanity slipped quietly into the breeze as we cantered away from the campsite.
I had little magic left after calming the wolf, and I would need all that remained to see us safely through the hanging gates. I whispered to Lily and she accelerated into a gallop. The road was empty, our progress unhindered as we thundered across Avencia’s southern plains toward the border of my homelands. Hector rode beside us. Every few breaths, I muttered again the words that would carry our horses over these flats faster than their natural gait. The horses drank in my quiet commands and pushed harder.
“Sorry, girl,” I muttered to Lily after one such command. At least, she couldn’t feel any pain or discomfort as long as my magic carried her. The exhaustion would catch up later.
As we reached the mare’s top speed, Talia again had to grip my waist. At first, her touch was tentative, then, as we banked into a wide turn along the river’s edge, her arms latched tightly around me.
Fear was a potent smell to animals, but I’d trained my nose to identify it even in the hours I was not a bear. Talia’s own fear was subsiding as she rested against my back. I closed my eyes briefly in shame.
This was exactly what I’d wanted when I’d chosen her as my healer. And yet…
If my hope of healing came to pass, this fragile being clinging to me for life would surely die. And somehow, the feeling of her small body against mine pricked me with regret. I ground my teeth and ignored the feeling, instead drinking in the intoxicating knowledge that she felt safe with me.
We soon left the large road behind, tearing out across a field toward where the river tucked into a small ravine. For now, the horses were outpacing the Hunters, but not far behind us, trails of dust interrupted the otherwise clear dark night.
It cost to pass through these gates, a price I had grown accustomed to paying, but I feared for the woman behind me. Mortals rarely crossed into our lands, and even less frequently through the hanging gates—the entrances reserved for those exiled by their courts. Mortal maps didn’t show where these entrances were, and their minds couldn’t handle pain the way ours could. But given Hector and I belonged to no court, we had no choice.
Only at the top of the ravine did I slow our pace. Hector was beside us in seconds. The horses breathed hard, but not as hard as they would when the magic left them. Talia lifted her chin and peered around me.
“Where are we?” she asked. Her muscles relaxed against my back.
If she knew what was about to happen, she wouldn’t relax at all.
“At the entrance to the fae lands.”
She let out a surprised sound.
Hector caught my eye and lifted his brows. I offered him a faint nod, confirming his unspoken question. Yes, I will protect her, I said to his mind. If she was to fall for me, she had to live long enough to do so.
But Hector misunderstood my meaning, perhaps thinking I no longer wished to see her fall in love with me at all. He scoffed and sadness rolled off him like waves at the seashore; swirling in its depths was seething anger. He’d traveled this world by my side for over two centuries. My pain had caused him vast suffering, and he wanted me healed more than any other living being. He turned toward the river.
“The way through is…not easy,” I said over my shoulder. I didn’t realize I’d pressed my hand to hers again until she wriggled it free.
“What do you mean?”
Hector cleared his throat.
“It’s hard to explain, but you must do as I say. Don’t open your eyes, whatever you do, until I tell you we’re through.”
When her arms once more looped around me, I coughed and, to divert my mind from how fast her heart beat against me, I clicked my tongue in my cheek and urged Lily forward.
Hector followed. With a final reminder to keep her eyes closed, we charged toward the ravine. Slight fluctuations in the air rushed up and around us, and then the ground vanished beneath us.
Talia shrieked.
“Eyes closed!” I shouted. “It’s about to get worse.”
Lily whinnied and raced on, flying over nothing but the swirling mists that curled around her hooves, toward an imposing gate with grass and roots hanging down from its two massive stone pillars.
