by Nicole Hall
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
1
RYAN
The last thing Ryan Nolan wanted to be doing was tromping through the Wood looking for a wayward fairy that refused to be found. Zee hated being called a fairy, so he did it as often as possible. A bare branch caught his long-sleeved shirt, and he slapped it away. December in Texas wasn’t exactly frigid, but he figured the less holes in his clothes the better.
“Stop playing with the trees and pay attention.” Sera frowned at him again.
“They were playing with me. The grabby branches are getting worse. I think they’re doing it on purpose.” Ryan took a few more steps away from the forest they’d just left and toward the safety of the road, tightening the fleece he had tied around his waist.
Jake snorted. “I thought you liked grabby things.”
An image of Maddie clinging to him in the Wood flashed across Ryan’s mind, but making a joke about Jake’s sister was in poor taste, even for him. “Can we not talk about this in mixed company?”
“Since when do I count as mixed company?” Sera asked.
“Since I don’t want to get punched again, and you’re a handy excuse.”
She crossed her arms and gazed past him into the trees. “That’s fair. Also, the trod is gone again.”
Ryan glanced over his shoulder. “It always disappears when we leave the Wood.”
“Yeah, but this time it was disappearing as we were walking on it, and did you notice the sprites?”
Jake swatted at a glimmer of golden light floating around his face. “What about them?”
“There were only a few on the trod. Usually there are enough to light the way for us.”
“It’s daytime, in the Wood and out here. Maybe we didn’t need as many since we could see fine.”
She shook her head. “That’s not how the sprites work.”
Ryan resisted rolling his eyes. Ever since he’d given Sera access to the Fae database, she’d become the de facto expert on magic and didn’t mind lording it around a bit. Admittedly, there was a lot of useful information in there, but Ryan had never wanted to know more than was necessary. Magic, in the wrong hands—in any hands—was dangerous, and the lure to use it multiplied exponentially. A quick glamour here, a little help there, and one day, the magic becomes necessary to everything.
Ryan could feel his mood getting darker as the sun went down. “Zombie bunnies.” It was their safe word. Sera stopped lecturing them on sprites immediately. “Did we learn anything new this trip?”
Sera pulled her ponytail over her shoulder. “Same as all the last times. The trods are basically closed to us. Whatever happened when I brought down the Fae barriers did something to the Wood, and until we can find Zee to find out what, I can’t get it to cooperate.”
“What if we asked really nicely? Have we tried that?” Ryan turned to the trees and spread his arms wide. “Oh, great and mighty Wood, have you seen Zee? We could really use her to explain some stuff.”
Jake snickered behind him, followed by the distinctive sound of Sera smacking him in the shoulder. Ryan wasn’t expecting an answer, smartass was his default personality, but then the light changed deep in the trees. The smirk dropped off his face as he lowered his arms. He took a step forward to get a better look, and a path appeared between the pines, dotted with tiny glowing sprites. He glanced over his shoulder, and Sera shook her head, eyes wide. Jake shrugged. If neither of them had called the trod, then who had?
He didn’t have to wait long for his answer. One second, they’d been watching the sprites float around, the next, a statuesque woman wearing wispy, trailing scarves, complicated Viking braids, and not much else, was propelled from the path. She didn’t have a weapon, which was good for Ryan because she slammed right into him.
She was damn near his height, tall for a woman, so they nearly ended up sprawled in the road. Ryan managed to quickly shift his balance and keep them upright, but reflex had his hands splayed over the smooth bronze skin of her back. Apparently, her sheer top tied around her neck and didn’t cover the back half, a style Ryan decided he heartily approved of. Add some wrist cuffs and a lasso of truth, and she’d be starring in some of his better fantasies.
Her body was pressed against him from shoulder to knee. If he didn’t do something, in a few seconds, she was going to find out exactly how much Ryan liked her top. And the scent of her skin. Not helping. He set her firmly away from him and removed his hands from her person.
Her green eyes were wide with panic, but recognition crept in as she straightened and studied the people around her. Ryan felt the weight of her gaze as she lingered on him. Absently, she looked down and noticed her clothes, then did a double-take. Her eyes narrowed in annoyance. He’d recognize those eyes and that look anywhere, even if the body attached to them was new.
They’d finally found Zee.
ZEE
Dammit, Chad. Zee was not happy. The trods had never been her favorite form of transport. They were draining and made her vaguely nauseous. Chad had assured her his newest trinket would speed the journey through the magical path, but it appeared to have changed her form and made the trip unbearably long instead. She’d left the Glade to join the battle against Torix, and at the time, she’d been wearing enchanted leather armor.
That had been hours ago.
She was definitely going to neuter him when she got back. The ridiculous dress she was wearing tied in a halter around her neck and flowed down into strips of fabric for a skirt. Not bad for movement in combat but terrible for protection. She could still feel the heat from Ryan’s hands on her back when he’d caught her. Another thing to be embarrassed about. Fae warriors were not flung from the Wood to stumble about.
Ryan cleared his throat, and Zee met his eyes. He gestured at her. “This is new.”
Sera piped up from somewhere behind her. “I’ve seen her like this before. New outfit though.”
Zee considered the dream they’d shared and silently admitted it may have been Sera’s vision that called the dress instead of Chad’s mistake, though no one should have been able to change her form against her will, and certainly not from outside the trod.
She studied the area around her again, more carefully this time. The humans stood outside the Wood, on the edge of a neighborhood street. Bare trees stretched high above them in front of the tidy houses across the road. Nothing like the cottages in the Glade, and not like anything she’d seen inside the Wood.
“Where am I?” Her voice was rusty, like she hadn’t used it in weeks.
“The outskirts of Mulligan. Across the street from Jake and Sera’s place…and Evie’s place, I guess.” Ryan watched her closely, shoving his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants.
The others were wearing pants and coats, and to her surprise, she had goosebumps breaking out all over her. She was cold.
How could she be cold? Fae could regulate body temperature with magic. She crossed her arms over her chest and shivered as a chilly wind blew right through the filmy dress. Everything was wrong, and she didn’t know where to start in order to fix it.
Ryan wordlessly untied his fleece and handed it to her. She slipped it on and immediately felt better. It carried his warmth and his scent, which was surprisingly soothing but also made her feel tingly and weird. Zee frowned. All three of the humans were watching her like she’d disappear if they blinked.
“What happened?” At least her voice was starting to sound more normal.
Sera and Jake shared a look, but it was Ryan who took the lead. “We’d been searching for you, then I got sassy with the Wood, and it tossed you at me.”
Zee blinked at him. “How long have you been searching?”
“Since Halloween, so about five weeks? Not very nice, by the way. We took care of your problem, and you all abandoned us.”
Zee’s
eyes widened. Five weeks? When she’d left the Glade, it had been Samhain, what the humans call Halloween. The trods had kept her walking for hours, but five weeks? She’d never heard of the time difference reaching such an extreme length.
“What about Torix?”
Ryan shook his head. “He got away, but Sera says he’s powerless.”
“How…” There were so many questions, she had to prioritize. She faced Sera. “What happened on Samhain?”
A soft flush stained Sera’s cheeks, and Zee was reminded that humans had silly inhibitions about battle. “I fought Torix, and ended up draining his magic away. It’s sort of what I do.”
Zee didn’t think her eyebrows could get any further up her forehead. “How did you get to him?”
Another flush. “Ah, I may have taken down the Fae barriers.”
“The barriers my ancestors placed centuries ago and we’ve been reinforcing for generations? The ones instrumental in our pact with the Wood?”
“Some new information in there, but yes. It released both Torix and Evie, who is currently stuck in her house because the world still thinks she’s dead. We hoped you could help with that.”
Zee didn’t answer. She pivoted and strode right back to the trees. If she ended up stuck in a trod for several more months, so be it, but if the barriers were truly gone, then the pact was broken and she needed to return to the Glade to check on her people.
She’d taken several steps into the forest before she realized no path had emerged. Zee was crunching over dead leaves and pine straw, but no sprites joined her and she had to weave haphazardly between trunks. Also, her fingers were still cold. She pulled the sleeves of Ryan’s fleece down over her hands and tried to use her magic to call on the Wood.
Nothing answered, and she stopped. The humans arrived seconds later. Where were the trods? Warning bells were going off in her head, but Zee remained calm. Warriors did not panic. She closed her eyes to block out the fading sunlight and the brambles, instead picturing the mossy green earth of the Glade. The circle set aside for teleportation. The symbols etched onto the surrounding rocks. She gathered her magic with intention and opened her eyes.
Ryan, Sera, and Jake stared back, waiting.
She was tired, but she should have had enough energy to teleport once. It had to be after-effects from Samhain, but when she’d reached to gather her magic, she’d felt nothing. No corresponding power, no tingles, no sense of purpose. A horrible thought dawned on her.
Zee had left the Glade in her Amazon form, as Sera had dubbed it, but she could change shape at will. When she tried though, her will left her the same as before. The change should have been instantaneous. As soon as she wished to be a small flying creature, she should have been. Instead, she remained a tall woman in a ludicrous dress.
The humans shuffled uncomfortably, and Zee’s eyes landed on Sera again. She belatedly remembered Ryan’s mention of Evie in his explanation. “What have you done?”
Sera visibly straightened under Zee’s scrutiny, and Jake’s arms came around her from behind. “I did what I had to do to stop Torix and protect our world.” Her eyes glazed over a bit as she stared, and then she gasped. “Your magic is gone.”
Zee trembled inside, but nodded. She’d begun to suspect as much. Sera had broken far more than she knew. “I have to get back to my people.”
Ryan sighed. “Good idea, but we couldn’t get to you or the rest of the Fae even before the Wood dropped you on me. After a lot of trial and error, we also think the power surge probably knocked out the Wi-Fi I set up. Honestly, it was pretty shaky to begin with since you boosted it with magic. The surge could have overloaded a capacitor or overheated a resistor. Either way, it most likely fried the repeater’s antenna, so it couldn’t send or receive at a 5G frequency…” He trailed off as Zee, Sera, and Jake all stared at him blankly.
Ryan ran a hand through his mussed hair, and a crackle of deep red magic zipped between his fingers like static. “Right. Either way, we need your help before you take your toys and go home.”
The lack of trods or technology would make it extremely hard to contact her people, but Zee was relieved she could still sense his power. Like so many other things though, it was twisted from the way it was supposed to be. Ryan’s magic shouldn’t be visible to normal sight. “I’m not sure I can help you in my current state.”
His jaw clenched. She knew what he wanted to talk about, but they’d agreed to tell no one of their deal. Sera and Jake may be his friends, but Zee kept an oath when she took it. The trees, absent of the magic of the Wood, had faded into twilight while they argued. Zee shivered again, and Ryan chose a different topic to be annoyed about.
“It’s getting cold and dark. Let’s get back to civilization instead of standing around wishing things were different.” He didn’t wait for them as he turned and started back the way they’d come.
Jake held Sera back, clearly waiting for Zee to precede them. He hadn’t said much, for which she was grateful. Sera’s eyes lingered on Zee’s bare legs for a moment. “Jake might have some sweat pants that’ll fit you. They’ll be baggy, but better than nothing.”
Zee swallowed her pride and nodded, then followed Ryan out of the woods.
Nothing happened when she stepped past the wild grasses and onto the road. Streetlights had come on, and a light was shining in the house across the street. The other loomed in the dark. Intellectually, she knew humans used the road to travel in cars and she shouldn’t linger, but she’d never had one under her feet before. The surface was cool and rough, and bits of rubble stabbed into her bare skin. It was novel and painful all at once.
None of her people had ever been able to leave the Wood, except to travel to other Fae villages. The pact prevented it.
In all her training, she’d never prepared for the possibility of being locked out of her home without her magic. Magic was an integral part of her, and the more time that passed, the more she felt bereft. Zee welcomed the pain in her feet as she hurried after Ryan to the dark house.
Inside, dressed in Jake’s pants and with hot tea in front of her, Zee tried not to gawk. Humans had so many things. Most of the electronics she recognized thanks to Ryan’s technological help in the Glade, but the sheer number of comforts seemed excessive. Why were there two rooms for sitting?
She’d seen plenty of media of human homes on the internet, but they never focused on the minutia. The little bits of marvelous convenience and the differences between one house and the next. Jake and Sera’s items were a mish-mash of new and well-used. She got the sense most of the new was Sera’s contribution, and it caused a flutter of pride to know she’d had a part in their coming together.
Exploring the house Jake and Sera shared offered her a respite from her worries over the Wood, but she couldn’t ignore it for long. The three humans gathered around the kitchen table, entirely unconcerned, or maybe just humanly oblivious, that decades of magic and tradition had been broken. Zee took the fourth seat and scolded herself. Why would it concern them? They were ancillary to the Wood; she was the one with the problem.
Ryan stared at her hands clasped around her mug, and she wondered what intrigued him so much. Something deep in the house creaked and rattled. No one else noticed, so Zee took her cues from them.
Sera was the first to break the silence. “Okay, obviously something has gone wrong if Zee is sitting here and can’t get back to the Glade. It sounds like you were stuck in the trods for over a month. When exactly did you go into them?”
Zee blew out a breath. Sharing information was a good start, even if it went against her instincts. “Samhain night. I was traveling to the clearing to deal with Torix. When did you break the barriers?”
“Right at midnight, when the magic in the Wood was strongest.”
Zee nodded. “That makes sense. The barriers were the Fae component of a pact between my people and the Wood. They were built to withstand all challenges.” She stared pointedly at Sera. “Apparently, they didn’t accou
nt for you. When the barriers came down, the pact was broken, and the Wood took action. In this case, it seems it closed the trods as entrance to the Glade and trapped me within one. I should have been in the nexus well before that, but Chad seems to have exaggerated the usefulness of his enchanted rock.”
“Who’s Chad? Wait, how were you able to survive a month of being lost wandering a path in the woods?”
“Chad is my third in command and the unfortunate Fae who is going to feel my wrath for convincing me to take an untested trinket to a battle.” Zee took a deep breath through her nose and continued when she felt calmer. “It wasn’t a month for me. The time difference made it so I was only wandering for a few hours, and I wasn’t lost. I simply hadn’t arrived yet. I sensed the power spike for Samhain, and then something foreign. Stopping would have done nothing, so I kept moving. But the trod never changed.”
“Until it did,” said Jake.
Zee nodded. “Until it did.”
Ryan raised his eyes, and she was surprised to see anger there. “Is the Wood sentient? It released you when I asked it where you were.”
Zee shook her head slowly. “We’ve always treated it as an instinctual entity. Elemental. It hasn’t ever responded directly before. More likely your request was an accidental spell that nudged the Wood into reacting.”
Sera snorted. “It figures your accidental magic is useful.”
Ryan didn’t look amused. He got up from the table and stood by the window looking out at the trees behind the house. “Magic is dangerous, even more so when it’s unpredictable.”
Beneath her calm façade, Zee was insulted. Her grip on her demeanor was fragile, but she attempted to respond with compassion for him rather than fear for herself. “That’s an argument for another time. The more pressing concern is that the magic in the Wood is chaotic right now. There’s no guidance in place to control it. I need to get back to the Glade before chaos takes root. It’s possible the Wood could become a danger to my people.”