by Cilla Raven
I shouldn’t follow his command, but I have to, given my current situation, and the thought makes my top lip rise in anger and disgust as I remain seated where he put me.
“Like I was saying,” Quinn says, his voice back to normal as if nothing at all just happened, as if I’m not raging on the inside, “I don’t think you understand the rebellion or us. If you did, I don’t think you’d be fighting so hard to escape our company.”
“Of course, I understand them. They want to destroy everything,” I say through clenched teeth, but my words only make him look at me questioningly.
“Who actually seeks to destroy everything with no reason or endgame? The rebellion wouldn’t have nearly as many followers if all they sought was destruction,” Priya says, making my angry glare turn on her, but as I watch her, her words begin to process in my mind, and I have to admit, she might actually have a point there.
“Well, then, what is the rebellion’s goal? What do you guys seek, if not to just create chaos? How does disrupting trade routes do anything but create chaos?”
“Oh, Ghosty, you have so much to learn,” Lazlo says with his crazy ass smile. “The rebels didn’t stop the trade carts and ships. In fact, we think that’s part of why the rebels paid us to come find you, so you can help them stop the ones that are responsible.”
I can hardly even wrap my mind around what he’s saying. Of course, the rebels are responsible, who else could it be?
“You might want to start eating… Mika,” Priya says, emphasizing the way she says the name, letting me know she thinks I’m lying about it, “we aren’t going to be here long, and if you don’t eat now, you don’t eat.”
Chapter 9
The conversation basically dies off after Priya’s warning, and by the time everyone is finished eating, I’ve had maybe half of my food. When Lazlo threads his arm back through mine and makes me stand up, there are a few pieces of meat, half my roll, and most of my potatoes still resting on my plate that I’m forced to leave behind.
However, as I’m being led back to the front of the inn, I see the servant stack up all of our plates before proceeding to shovel my leftovers into his mouth as if he hasn’t eaten in days. The sight shocks me as I watch him walk toward the kitchen, our stack of plates in one hand, while he pushes more food in his mouth than can fit, and as he disappears behind the door, I’m left standing there with my mouth hanging open.
“Waste not, want not,” Lazlo whispers in my ear beside me. I turn my head to look at him and see he’s staring after the servant too, but he just shrugs at me and looks away as if that kind of thing should be considered normal.
Lazlo guides me out the front door, but instead of making me climb up into the cart like I thought he would, he makes me stand next to it as Quinn, Priya, and Roan start taking things off of the cart and heading back inside with them.
Lazlo doesn’t speak or tell me what’s going on, but he does start humming that infuriating song again, and with how frayed my nerves are already, the sound makes me want to explode. I shoot daggers at him with my eyes, but the smug asshole just smiles at me mockingly and keeps fucking humming.
I may be bound and out of my element, but I’m not wholly defenseless or easily mocked, so I send my shoulder flying back into his with as much inertia as I can manage, and say, “If you keep humming that song, so help me, when I get these ropes off, I’ll cut your tongue out.”
Lazlo’s bright blue eyes alight with mischief, and a sinking feeling begins to spread through me from the pit of my stomach. “Oh, the little Ghosty wants to play, does she?” he asks as he unthreads his arm from mine.
He takes a step or two away from me as he bends his knees enough that I’m looking down at him as he starts outright singing the song so loud, all the people I can see walking through the street turn around to stare at us. This faefucker actually starts dancing around me as his maniacal smile grows, and it’s everything I can do to not lash out at him.
Quinn and Priya come back out and see what Lazlo is doing but barely bat an eye as he continues to taunt me, and they pick up even more items from the cart to take them inside the inn.
Finally, Lazlo gets right in my face as he sings, standing over me as he sways his body dramatically, his long braid following behind him in his wake. I wait for the perfect moment, and as soon as his head is in the right position, I throw mine forward in an attempt to break his nose again. However, he’s extremely fast, and ducks out of the way of my blow just in time.
He stops singing, and comes back up from his crouch just as I’m planning to kick him in the nuts, and spins around behind me, jumps up onto the side of the cart, then does a backflip over my head, his teal wings slapping me in each of my shoulders as he goes, before he lands right back in front of me, and asks, “Care to try again, Ghosty?”
The smile on his face doesn’t seem so scary anymore, and despite myself, I start laughing at his antics because the whole show was just downright hilarious.
However, my giggles die off quickly as his face sobers, and he steps up to me, sending his hand out to cup my face with both hands, and for the life of me, I don’t know why I don’t pull away from his touch. “That laugh could tame the heart of any beast.”
Words leave my brain. All thought stops as I get lost in his eyes and how soft his touch feels against my skin.
He takes a deep breath and sighs it out slowly as he watches me, and for a moment, there’s no one else in the world, no troubles worth my attention. It’s just Lazlo and me, lost in this little bubble of connection as I feel my insides melt under his gaze.
Without any hint of warning, he bends down to pick me up, holding me under my knees and my shoulders as the air leaves my lungs, and he flies up onto the cart. He sets me back down in the same position we were in before, except this time, he doesn’t pull my head to his shoulder, but lets it stay upright, the whiplash of all the fast movements making my head spin for a second.
I notice suddenly that everyone else has already gotten on the cart, and I mentally slap myself for what just happened. Like why did I react that way? He’s a criminal, for fae’s sake! How did I go from wanting to rip him apart to wanting nothing more than to get lost in his eyes for eternity, huh? Come on, Z, get your shit together!
The cart starts moving, and Lazlo’s hold on me relaxes some, his hands resting on my sides, the warmth from his chest seeping into my back and wings, forcing me to relax too.
“That song used to be the only way I could get my siblings to sleep at night, and I haven’t seen them in so long, sometimes I find myself singing or humming it without thinking about it,” Lazlo says, his tone seeming like he’s reminiscing.
I don’t want to care about what he’s telling me, but something deep inside me makes my mouth move anyway. “How many siblings do you have?”
Lazlo chuckles a little to himself before he says, “I’m the oldest of nine. I don’t remember a single day passing that wasn’t filled without absolute chaos.”
I giggle some as I imagine such a scenario. “Well, that explains your craziness then.”
He leans his head forward, so his mouth is right near my ear as he says, “You’ve seen nothing yet, Ghosty. Just wait until I’m not worried about you flying away from me, and you actually want me to hold you like this. I’ll show you just how crazy I can be.”
My insides quiver, but my mind screams, Nope! That is a whole ass box of don’t you dare go down that road, Z.
Ignoring what he said entirely, I ask, “Where are we going?”
Priya speaks up from where she’s riding in the front of the cart, letting me know she’s probably heard every word that’s passed between Lazlo and me, and I try to keep my face from turning as red as the tomatoes that are still rolling around on the floor of the cart. “We’re going to the rebel’s camp. It’s a few days’ journey straight through, but we have to make a few stops along the way, so it may take us longer than that.”
A few days! I scream in my head as the reali
ty of my situation sinks in with a cold that seeps through to my bones. I’m already so late for the dinner, it would be laughable if I were to show up now. Even if I got loose from them somehow, right at this very moment, I probably wouldn’t be able to make it back to the castle before midnight, no matter how fast I fly, but there’s no way in all of Faedom that’s going to happen with the inescapable position I’m in right now, and that realization has my heart racing and my breath coming in fast little bursts.
Mika is probably freaking all the way out right now, not to mention Uncle.
Oh fae, Uncle… I bet he’s just going out of his mind with worry.
There’s no way out of this, I think before I nearly start hyperventilating, a couple of uncontrollable tears breaking the surface in my eyes to fall unchecked down my face, and I can’t find it in me to even try to wipe them away.
Uncle told me not to go after these bounties without a solid plan, not to underestimate them or overestimate myself, and look at the situation I’m in now. Fuck, even Riah told me these weren’t the kind of fae I needed to go after alone.
Oh, my fae, Riah!
If he finds out I’m missing…
My thoughts trail off as something sharp sticks in the side of my neck, and before I can even swat my hand at whatever caused it, my vision blurs until I can’t see anything but blackness, and Lazlo’s voice sounds distorted in my ear as he says, “Go to sleep now, little Ghosty.”
Chapter 10
Fuck a fae, my neck hurts, I think as I try to roll my head around in a circle to loosen the tight muscles there, but when I do, my head slams into something hard and unforgiving with a solid thump, and more pain spreads through my head as I open my eyes in confusion.
Memories from before slowly start to trickle through my mind as I realize I’m sitting on the ground, tied to a tree. My hands are still bound before me, my wings are still firmly held in place behind me, and it’s dark outside now. I can see that I’m in a forest, and even though the moon is bright in the sky above me, most of the light around me looks like it’s coming from a fire, though I can’t see it from where I am. As if those fuckers deliberately faced me away from their campfire, so I’m sitting in the shadow cast from the tree behind me.
I can hear them talking a short distance away, but not well enough to make out what they’re saying. As awareness settles into my mind more clearly by the second, I become cognizant of a few things at once: I’m thirsty, I really need to pee, and if I’m not mistaken, that tingly feeling in my wings is gone, which can only mean one thing: the dried brown flowers I’d taken earlier to disguise myself have worn off completely, and my wings have turned back to their natural black coloring.
A short burst of panic creeps up my spine, but I stomp it out quickly, knowing that I need a clear head to think this through, and succumbing to the fear I feel will only cloud my judgment.
Taking a deep breath, I test the strength of my bindings, trying to see how much wiggle room I have. There’s not a lot, but I think there’s enough that I can shimmy myself up through them. However, I need to be silent as I move, so I don’t draw any of the group’s attention with my movements.
It takes a little bit, and by the time I’ve managed to stand up, my body is cramping some from the awkward positions I had to move through. That’s what I get for only drinking ale instead of water all day, I think sarcastically.
The ropes are now hanging loosely around my calves, and I step out of them, a surging feeling of freedom spreading through me as I move.
I might actually be able to escape them!
Being careful to stay in the shadow of the tree I was tied to, I walk agonizingly slowly away from the group, making sure my footfalls don’t crunch the leaves loudly as I go. I keep my breathing as steady as possible, breathing in and out through my nose, but my heart rate is a different story. It’s hard to tell what I can hear with how much blood my heart is pushing through my ears, but I concentrate on being as quiet as a real ghost, and soon enough, I’m far enough away that I think I can make a break for it since the light from their little campfire isn’t reaching out to where I am.
Adrenaline floods my veins as I fall into the fastest run I’ve ever run in my life, despite my surroundings. It’s not a dense forest, so I don’t have to worry about thorns or brambles cutting me as I run. I just have to avoid crashing into the large tree trunks dotting the landscape, but the moonlight is enough for me to miss them entirely, and I send up a silent thank you to whoever might be listening.
It occurs to me that I have no idea where I am or where I’m heading, but at this point, I couldn’t care less, so long as I break away from my captors.
A few short seconds later, footfalls that aren’t my own make their way to my ears, and I don’t even take a chance to look back behind me. I push myself to go even faster, my body not even aching from the exertion because of all the adrenaline in my system.
I feel someone closing in on me sooner than I actually see them, and my uncle’s advice weaves its way into my mind, telling me to confuse my pursuer so I’ll have a chance at losing them. I turn left abruptly and keep throwing my feet into the soft ground as fast as I can before I suddenly turn right, and keep running.
After a short distance, I don’t hear anyone following me anymore, and I take a chance to look back behind me, not seeing anyone as I slow down, my body’s complaints about my sudden extreme workout beginning to make themselves known with a fierceness. My breathing is ragged, my heart pounding, and as relief soars through me, a smile plays at my lips as I bend over in an attempt to steady my breathing.
The flap of wings sounds loudly behind me, and as I stand up and spin around in shock, I’m met with Roan’s overwhelming presence looming over me. He’s landed right next to me, and before I can even attempt escaping, he’s grabbing me by my arms and holding me still while he stares down at me.
His light green eyes look unreal in the moonlight, and they look so deeply into mine, it's as if he’s looking straight into my soul.
He doesn’t seem angry. In fact, I think he almost looks proud, but that doesn’t change the fact that his giant form sends shivers of fear and… something else through me as I’m held before him like an errant child.
“To keela, Ghost,” Roan says, struggling on the last word as if it’s new for him.
I have no idea what he said, but he smiled while he said it, so I don’t say anything back, I just stand there since he’s making any kind of movement impossible while he holds me firmly in place.
Something catches his eye behind me, and the expression on his face goes from seeming happy to looking confused. Then it moves into something akin to fear before it shifts into something different entirely as his eyes meet mine again, and I know instantly, he’s just noticed my wing color.
My eyes get big as I stare at him, but a slow and devious smile spreads on his thick lips as he says, “Princess,” so clearly, an icy hot spike of terror shoots through me.
No one in all of Arorial, other than Uncle and Riah, knows I’m both the princess and The Ghost, and I’ve guarded that secret, kept it as hidden as I could my entire life because if anyone found out, I’d face some of the worst consequences this country has to offer.
But now Roan Grissom knows too, and from the gleam in his eye, I just know he’s going to use it to his advantage somehow, most likely, in a way that I’m almost guaranteed not to like.
“Stay,” he says fervently. At least that’s what I think he says as he lets go of my left arm, the pain of his grasp on my wound slowly easing after he lets go.
He reaches into the pouch hanging from his waist with his right hand, never once letting his eyes drift away from me even as I look down to see what he’s doing. I swear if he pulls out a dagger or something, I don’t know how I’ll be able to defend myself given the fact that I’m still bound, and his grip on my right arm is so solid, my arm might as well be encased in concrete.
With deft and nimble fingers, he turns the cl
asp on his pouch, and slides them under the flap, sinking them inside for a second before he pulls his hand back out, carrying something between his thumb and first finger.
“Eat,” he says as I get a quick glimpse of the same kind of dried brown flowers I’d used to disguise myself on countless occasions before he pushes them into my mouth with a little more force than is really necessary.
All I can do is chew and let my wings change color as I look up at him in confusion. He doesn’t say anything more as he turns me around swiftly, sends his arms through mine, clasping his hands together in front of my chest, and flaps his big brown wings that now match mine as he lifts us up into the air, just high enough that my feet dangle only a foot or so above the ground.
Roan starts heading back toward the spot I just fled from as hope seeps away from me by the second, and as we make it back to the rest of the group, I feel so defeated, it’s infuriating.
“You really do move like a ghost,” Priya says as Roan sets me down on the ground next to the fire and then lands beside me so that we all form a small circle around the fire.
Lazlo is across from me, stretched out on the ground, lying on his side, an arm propping up his head as he smiles at me. Quinn is next to him, sitting on a medium-sized rock with his elbows resting on his knees, and Priya is next to him, sitting cross-legged on the ground as she slowly turns a rabbit carcass on a spit over the fire.
Roan sits down without a word as if he doesn’t know who I really am, and out of nothing but pure bewilderment, I plop down next to him, astounded that he hasn’t told them yet.
I thought it’d be the first thing he’d do, run to tell the rest of this group, and then they would sit there and plot ways to use me and my position for their own gain, but Roan is silent. He just stares into the flames as if the answers to all of life’s questions are hidden in there, and I can’t even begin to unpack why he would help me disguise myself, much less, why he would have those flowers on him in the first place.