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“Stick close, Windsong,” Evie whispers, tucking her arm into mine. She lifts her hood over her curls. “Lift the hood of your cape. The worst of the wolves guard the mouth of the cave and feed on innocent girls.”
“I met two of them on the way in,” I say as I raise the covering over my head and keep up with her long strides. Based on her appraisal of the guard situation, I can tell she’s been the subject of harassment before.
When we finally reach the switchbacks leading up the hill to the forest, both of us release the breath we held passing the guards. Evie lets go of my arm and removes a long, curved blade from the inside of her jacket. It glimmers in the light of the moons above.
“Have you ever had to use that?” I ask, unsure of how I will ever get to where I can intentionally take another life—Supe or not.
“At least three or four times a month.” She doesn’t stop her ascent up the trail to wait on my slow, labored steps.
As much as Avren prepared me for academic success, they reserve physical training for soldiers. The climb up the hill Grayson and I descended earlier might kill me before a Supe has the chance. Heart racing, I stare up at Evie, who is almost at the top. I try to catch my breath, my palms braced against my knees as I lean forward. What I wouldn’t give for a glass of water.
“Come on, slowpoke,” Evie calls from above. “We have a surprise waiting for you at the cabin.”
I don’t want any surprise Evie has to give me, but if Levi and Grayson are involved, it might not be too bad. All I want to do is flop down on my bed and process my chance meeting with Flynn.
When I finally reach the top, Evie leans against a tree, eating an apple like the one Grayson gave us the first night. Beneath the luminescence of the tree above, with the soft glow highlighting her features, she appears to be an angel, not the demon she’s presented to me. Will there ever come a time when I can refer to this woman as my sister?
She pushes from the tree and begins down the trail, not giving me a second to rest. I’ll learn to savor the times when Grayson or Levi travel with me to work.
“If you can’t tell me about Gray”—I jog to settle in beside her—“tell me more about Bastian. What’s his story? He mentioned something about working on his father’s farm. What happened to his parents?”
“Bastian’s more secretive than Gray.” She reaches up and plucks a glowing leaf from the tree above us. Without missing a step, she pulls a small black pouch from her bag and shakes a powdery substance onto the leaf. She rolls it up, finally stops to strike a match against the bark of a nearby tree, and lights the end of the leaf, sticking the other end in her mouth. Smoking—just like Bastian. “You make me nervous. It’s a wonder Gray can stand to be around you.”
Nervous? Because of me? I’m the one trying to navigate a world that is completely foreign to me. “I can’t hit a target five feet in front of me with an arrow. I don’t know what you need to be nervous about.”
“That you’re a spy sent here to infiltrate the opposition. Lady Raven wants to squash the rebellion before they set foot in Avren.” She sends a puff of smoke in my direction. “I don’t trust you.”
“Then why send me to the city for work if you think I’m going to relay information to them?” I grip my hair, feeling the reality of my circumstances crashing down around me. If what Robert said about the Council intentionally releasing the sickness is true, then I understand Evie’s concerns. “After all these years, surely someone has removed these tracking anklets.”
Evie keeps her head down as she walks, crunching the gravel beneath her feet. “Besides those born in the wilderness, only one person has successfully left Avren, removed his anklet, and lived a life free from the interference of the soldiers.” She looks at me, and for the first time, I sense fear in her eyes. The woman holds an air of silent confidence like a shield, warding away those who wish to defy her. “Arazian.”
“Gray mentioned how he was on the Council many years ago before I was born. He said Lady Raven took him as a lover.” I purse my lips, the wiring in my brain convinced I just uttered a blasphemy. But I want to understand the world I grew up in better, from the outside looking in.
“He witnessed the disgraceful ousting of the man determined to change Avren for the better. Gray was only five years old, but the pageantry of Arazian’s expulsion left a lasting mark on him.” Evie drops her leaf and grinds it into the dirt with the toe of her boot. “He vowed that day he would never go through that kind of shame. But look at what leading his life as a model Citizen got him.”
And me.
I had expected the disrespect from the Undesirables. A person fallen from her high and mighty perch in the perfect city. Maybe we deserve to feel an ounce of what they feel. But in the Sweet Street Bakery, I never expected Guy’s barking orders—for him to call me a phaloc. A place where in the past, he had greeted me with a smile and served me as the daughter of a Citizen.
“Tell me more about the First City.” Images of a black fortress surrounded by dead trees, dying people, and black birds pecking at their flesh come to mind.
“We don’t travel in that direction.” Evie ducks beneath a low-hanging branch, letting it swing back and almost hit me in the face.
I duck, annoyed but waiting for an answer to my question. “But you know about it from stories.”
“I’ve lost friends to the First City,” she quips. “It’s built on the site of the Great Battle where Lady Raven sent her forces in blind. None of them came back. The walking carcasses of Avrenians built his fortress on top of a graveyard filled with their own soldiers. He used the sweat and sheer power of the Redeemed and Supes to create his unholy city, then turned them into his army of unnatural beings, ready to take down anyone who stands in their way.”
“In the way of what?”
“The total annihilation of Citizens and taking back Avren.” She lets out a soft chuckle as if the idea pleases her too. “He’s biding his time, having his zombie crew snatch more unwilling recruits for his army. I honestly think he’s afraid of the prophecy.”
“What prophecy?” In Avren, I was told to not rely on supernatural folklore. Wisdom, science, and education are the pillars of any successful society.
“The ancient books of the unspoken laws of the fae world reveal what is to come for the two cities. A great fae ruler wrote them before either city existed.” Evie lowers her voice as we are now in darkness, the luminescent forest well behind us. “It is said that both cities will fall at the hands of the two who will rise from the center. The center is the wilderness. With the cities gone, the Redeemed and Supes will forge a treaty and live in peace.”
“Do you really think that will happen?” In my world, the Council was a stronger force than a multitude of armies.
“It is happening.” She leaves the words hanging between us as the cabin’s warm lights appear before us.
