by Cilla Raven
But when I went out to check on him and tell him what had happened, whether he would understand me or not, planning to comfort him if he needed it, he’d ended up being the one that comforted me instead.
They don’t speak, and they’re not telepathic, but somehow, they just know things.
As soon as I’d made my way out to see him, he was already there waiting for me by the fence, and as soon as I saw him, I’d broken down in tears, falling to my knees and putting my face in my hands. A few seconds later, Loxmere was there, pushing his nose up against me and using one of his wings to guide me up onto his back.
There were tears in his eyes as he took off into the air that day, and I clung to him tightly for the longest ride we’d ever been on together. We went everywhere and nowhere, with no real destination in mind, but our bond solidified that day, on that flight. Since then, I ride him almost every day, and he’s become mine, just as much as I am his… just as much as he was hers.
A few ‘good mornings’ and head nods are passed around as everyone who’s joining in on the hunt gathers together, the conversations remaining light and impersonal while we wait for the horn to blow, signaling the start of the race.
We are all outfitted with our weapons of choice, mostly bows and arrows, and a few spears, but I’m also carrying my favorite twin daggers, one hanging from each of my hips while my bow wraps around my body and my quiver hangs from my right shoulder. The point of the race is to see how many animals we can each catch within a five-hour time frame.
There’s no real prize at the end, other than claiming this year’s bragging rights, but the biggest catch of the day is always served up as the main course for dinner later in the evening, while the other animals make their way to the tables as side dishes.
When the horn sounds, Loxmere takes off, quickly leaving the pack behind since he’s the fastest out of all of them, and he heads for the royal hunting grounds a few minutes' flight away. We pass over the parts of the city closest to the castle, and as the forest starts to loom a short distance away, Loxmere starts his descent.
“Hey, Loxy,” I say after we land at the edge of the forest where I’m supposed to get off to start the hunt, “how do you feel about heading back early?”
No one else has landed yet, and for that, I’m grateful because it means I can have this conversation with my pegasus.
He prances in place a bit, seeming to radiate a nervous kind of excitement, and I take that as a good sign.
“Here’s the deal,” I say as I lay my chest on the back of his strong neck and speak into his pert ears, “I really don’t want to do the hunt this year, and I’m sure, with everyone who’s going to be out here today, no one is going to miss my contribution. What do you say to us waiting for everyone to get here, and once they all start the hunt, you take me back to the castle?”
Loxmere leans his head to the side, and I sit up, so I don’t fall off while he sends a look at me with one of his big brown eyes. I don’t know immediately if that’s a ‘yes’ or not, but I’m hopeful as I hop off of him, pat his nose with a conspiratory smile, and make my way into the woods to hide while I wait for everyone to arrive.
As soon as I’m far enough away from where all the steeds will be staged, but still close enough to see, I pick a tree with a nice, sturdy branch, fly up to sit on it, and wait.
The way I see it, as long as everyone saw me start the race, I can’t be blamed for not participating, and the sooner I can get back to start planning my attack on the rebels, the better. I know I need every advantage I can get with those bounties.
It doesn’t take long for the high fae to start arriving, dismounting, and taking off into the woods with their weapons drawn, and everyone seems so excited to win this year, that no one even notices me sitting in a tree watching them.
I don’t know precisely how many fae were supposed to be participating this year, but two particular fae seem to be taking longer to arrive than anyone else: my father and Chancellor Extol. Now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing them before we took off either, and something about that makes me nervous for some weird-ass reason.
I wait and wait, but after a while, I get tired of it and decide enough time has passed for them to have made it if they were coming.
I hop down from my branch and sneak over to Loxmere. He greets me happily, and as soon as I mount him, he takes off without me needing to tell him where to go and flies me all the way back to the stables we just left from.
Saying goodbye in a hurry because I don’t want anyone to see me, I pat Loxy on the nose again and start flying back through the gardens and into the castle. But when I get there, I realize the whole place is like a ghost town. Even the servants aren’t going about their usual routine, and the entire scene puts me on edge. Something’s not right.
As quietly and quickly as possible, I go through the trap door and into the hidden passageways, making my way down to the servants’ quarters, figuring I’d start my search for them there. However, as soon as I start getting closer, I can hear music being played and loud bouts of laughter emanating through the walls.
The servants’ quarters have a common room in between all the bed-chambers, and as I sneakily open the hidden door to the room, a smile spreads across my face at what I see.
The human servants are partying hard, it seems, and I’ve never, not even on Faedom Day, seen any of them so happy before. I spot Mika a few seconds later, wrapped in a lover’s embrace with a human male, and when their kiss breaks, the blush on her cheeks as she laughs at something he said, warms my heart to see.
Laughing to myself for being so paranoid, I close the door and start heading to Uncle’s rooms so we can start hashing out a plan. It doesn’t take long to get there, but when I emerge to find his rooms completely vacant, I’m thoroughly confused. I think in all the time I’ve been training with him, he’s only not been in his chambers a handful of times when I’ve needed him. I mean, I know he leaves to get food from the kitchens, and somehow, he’s always scraping up new intel for me, but I just don’t know, him not being in his rooms completely throws me off.
Deciding I can come up with a plan on my own, I make for the stairs in the passageways and start heading to my room so I can grab the flowers I’ll need to disguise myself. However, right as I’m passing by the hidden door that leads to the chancellery, I hear my father’s voice, yelling at who sounds like Chancellor Extol, and my feet freeze in place, so I can listen to what’s going on.
“What do you mean I need to wait? I’ve been waiting for years!” my father screams angrily, and I can just imagine how red his face is, given how outraged his voice sounds.
“I know, your highness, I know,” Extol’s raspy voice says in response. “But think of it this way, if you will. If he dies while he’s in Tavatika, the blame is going to be on the Tava no matter what we do. I urge you to wait, your highness. Wait until they all leave to make your move.”
If who dies? I wonder, as my eyes get big. Something gets thrown against a wall and shatters right then as I try to understand what’s going on, but as my father speaks next, a chill spreads down my spine.
“Dammit! No one is even around to take care of him! This would’ve been the perfect opportunity!” he takes a second, I’m assuming, so he can take a breath, then continues, “Fine, I’ll wait for now, but as soon as that wretched piece of shit is out of Tavatika, I’m not waiting anymore. I’m tired of waiting.”
Who the fae are they talking about killing? I wonder as I hear my father and Chancellor Extol leave the chancellery and make their way into the hallway where I can’t hear them anymore.
Who doesn’t have someone taking care of them? Wait, I think.
No, I nearly gasp as my eyes get big in confused fear, they can’t actually be talking about killing the Amaryan king? That would most definitely mean one thing, and one thing only: war.
Chapter 6
Still strapped with my daggers, but having left my bow and arrows behind, wea
ring the same outfit I was for the hunt, my wings shake as they turn the brown color of a guard’s wings while I sneak out of the castle. I’m heading in the direction of the market when I leave, knowing that’s probably where I’ll find Jarriah Foxmist at this time of day.
He’s the only person in Arorial other than Uncle that knows about me doubling as a bounty hunter, and has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. He’s a trader with blue wings, just as his parents were before him. They were the highest-ranked traders in all of Tavatika while they were alive, and Jarriah and I were growing up. As such, we ended up having a ton of time to play together in the fields or run through the castle while our parents handled whatever business they were conducting.
Now, he’s who I hand off all my bounties to. He then hands them off to the traders that will ultimately banish them to Eruxus. He’s also the one who technically pays me for the bounties I catch, but every time he’s tried to actually give me the money or gems as payment, I’ve told him to keep it and give it to the Tava who need it.
Most of the time, the proceeds end up as ‘anonymous’ gifts to the food banks, orphanages, or other philanthropic charities of Tavatika. Other times, when he’s known of a family enduring a particular hardship, Jarriah has left the proceeds on their doorstep or in their mailboxes for them to find later.
He’s my closest friend and knows me better than anyone, probably even better than Uncle does, I think.
Standing with the manifest for the shipment he’s overseeing in his hands, Jarriah has his back to me and is caught completely unaware when I sneak up behind him, slipping in between his big teal wings so I can send my hands out to tickle each of his sides at once.
His reaction is immediate, and kind of scary, if I’m being honest.
He whips around, and I duck just in time, so he doesn’t slap me with one of his wings. His right hand raises in the air as if he means to throttle me with that metal board he’s holding, but as soon as he sees that it’s me, his hand lowers, and he smooths out the paper on the board with a look of relief.
Jarriah glances around, I assume so he can see if we’ve drawn any unwanted attention before he puts his manifest down and wraps a hand around each of my biceps, pushing me backward until I’m in his small office where he closes the door behind him with his wing.
I pull his hand off me quickly, saying, “Dammit, Riah, that fucking hurts,” as I press a hand to the bandage on my arm.
“What hurts, Zin?” he asks, but I can barely say another word before he’s pulling at my shirt, trying to get a glimpse of the wound that ails me.
I try to brush him off, but he’s not taking no for an answer since he just keeps at it until I finally succumb and pull the sleeve up on my arm, revealing the bandage Uncle put on there last night.
The look on his face is absolutely murderous once he sees what I’ve been covering, and he levels me with a stern glare before he sighs in frustration. Carefully, he peels back the bandage, pulling it off completely as he examines the wound for himself.
He’s always been way overprotective of me, but I just know that that’s who he is.
“Who did this to you, Zin?” he asks as he goes over to a small trunk he has sitting on his desk, withdrawing a fresh bandage and some healing cream.
I sigh but answer him anyway because I know he won’t leave me alone until he’s gotten the answers he thinks he needs. “One of the bounties I was hunting got a little too close is all. It’s nothing to really worry about.”
Chuckling some, he comes back over to me, and while he’s bandaging me up anew, he asks, “So where’s the other guy? I didn’t see anyone with you; I can’t imagine he walked away so easily once he did this.”
Immediately, I’m embarrassed again that I’d had to retreat last night, and I feel heat rise in my cheeks as I look away from his smooth face, and try to come up with a reasonable excuse to justify my actions.
His motions on my arm stop as I feel him looking at me, and after a second, his hand raises to my chin and makes me turn to face him.
“Zin, what happened?”
Fuck a fae, I can’t ignore him when he looks at me like this, his teal eyes searing into mine with an intensity I’ve only ever felt from him.
I sigh and roll my eyes, but he’s still holding my chin, so it's a useless set of movements. “I was hunting four rebellion members who were dumb enough to actually enter the city, and let’s just say things went a little sideways.”
“I’ll say,” he motions to my arm. “Did you get them?” he asks, the concern and confusion in his voice enough to make me squirm and question whether I should tell him everything or not, but after a small argument with myself, I know I can’t not tell him, especially when I need to ask him what he knows about them, so I can make a plan to catch them.
“No,” I say with a little too much hostility in my voice. “I went in too soon because I got cocky, and I ended up having to… retreat.”
His hands drop from where they were warming my skin. “You’ve never had to retreat,” he says almost to himself. “And one of them did this to you? Who are they? I need names.”
The fury in his voice betrays how angry he is, but his concern just brings a smile to my face.
“They’re actually who I’m here to talk to you about,” I say, still smiling.
Jarriah goes back to bandaging my arm, but his eyebrows are all drawn down in the center like he’s thinking really hard. “Alright then, let’s hear it.”
Breathing a small sigh of relief, I say, “Their names are Lazlo Cren, Roan Grissom, Quinn Frost, and Priya Ravenskull. Have you ever heard of them?”
His face goes blank, and I know instantly that he’s going to try and hide what he knows about these fae. It’s what he does when he doesn’t want to tell me something, and I’m in no mood, or situation, to let his overprotectiveness keep me from doing what needs to be done.
“Riah,” I start warningly, “what do you know?”
Finally done putting my bandage on, he gets up and goes over to lean against his desk, putting physical distance between us as he crosses his big arms over his chest. “I might not know much, but I do know these aren’t the ones you need to be hunting, Zin. Why the fae did your uncle give you these bounties in the first place? They’re far too skilled for you to go after them alone.”
“Excuse me, but why does everyone around here seem to forget that I’m the one who got the rebels to leave the city in the first place? Yes, it might’ve been a few years back, but if anything, I’m even better trained now than I was then!” My anger at Jarriah and Uncle for second-guessing my abilities is starting to get to me.
“Yeah, maybe, but since then, you haven’t had any practice against fae like these, Zin! They have been outside the walls, dealing with the kind of life the people out there face, and you’ve been in here, handling drunks and petty thieves,” he says pleadingly.
Standing up as my anger reaches a tipping point, I say, “Don’t discount what I’ve been doing here, Riah. You know damn well I’ve been getting worse criminals than that.”
Running a hand down his face as he takes a breath and sighs, he says soothingly, “I’m sorry, Zin. You’re right. I’m just worried about you is all. Those fae you’re hunting have a reputation. They run together in a group, and if they’re the ones I think they are, they don’t even take orders from the leaders of the rebellion very well, so it’ll probably be impossible to know what their actual motives are. If what I’ve heard of them is true, they’re like a rogue group within the rebellion, and every time I’ve heard of them, it’s been marked with fear.”
Walking over to Jarriah, I send a hand out to cup his face. “I know you worry about me, but I promise I will be okay. I just need to make a plan to catch them is all.” I take my hand from his face and drop my arms to my sides, as I explain. “Last night, I went in with no plan and thought I could take them all on in the dark, but I know now that if I want to catch these guys, and possibly have them l
ead me to even higher-ranking rebellion members, I need to strategize. Can you tell me what you know, so I can make a plan... please?”
Jarriah sighs, but smiles at me softly. “Yeah, I can tell you what I know, but you have to promise me you won’t go after them unless you know you’re going to come out of it with four bounties on your arm instead of in a coffin.”
Smiling right back at him, I say, “I promise, Riah.”
A short time later, I’m sitting on a rooftop, peering over the side of the building, looking down at the abandoned warehouse the trader group from last night had been talking about.
I knew I’d needed to talk to them.
Just as I’d thought, something about the red-winged smith they mentioned just didn’t seem right.
Apparently, from what Jarriah told me, this group of fae had shown up and started causing problems for the locals almost immediately. Though most of the people that interacted with them knew they were rebels, they didn’t report anything because they were afraid of what would happen to them if they talked. No one wanted the entire rebellion raining down on them for being snitches, so everyone had sort of been looking the other way when it came to these fae.
Jarriah said, from what he knew, they’d been here for almost a week but didn’t understand why they’d come into Tavatika. He said they were having a hard go of it, not finding anyone willing to help them seeing as how The Ghost still patrols the streets at night. That part stroked my ego a bit, I’m not gonna lie. He also told me that he thought they were hanging out or setting up shop at this abandoned warehouse on Trinkle Street, and as soon as the words left his mouth, I knew he was definitely talking about the same fae I’d fought last night; there was no question in my mind.
Luckily, with everyone still out on the hunt, no one expected me back for at least another few hours, so I decided I’d go ahead and case the warehouse and see what there was to see. Jarriah had insisted I take his blow dart, his set of five darts, and some sleeping liquid to dip the darts in before I left, and as I saw Quinn Frost exit the warehouse across from me, I sent out a silent thank you to Jarriah with my mind.