by Megan Linski
“The Phantom is a menace. It’d be best for everyone if he was caught. He impedes the justice system in this city,” Ethan rattled off. “The sooner he’s put behind bars, the better.”
“He saved my life!” I shouted.
“So have I— twice now. It’s really not anything special,” Ethan said. “The whole school will probably get a chance before you graduate.”
I felt my face turn red. “It doesn’t matter. The Phantom and I— we have a connection.”
Ethan paused. “What do you mean?”
The words were coming out of my mouth before I could stop them. “I felt the bond. He and I are mates.”
A horrified expression crossed Ethan’s face. That was before he suddenly broke out into an insulting laugh. “Mates? You can’t be serious. Dream on, Emma.”
“I am serious.”
Ethan stopped laughing and shook his head. “Okay, this isn’t funny. The Phantom is mixed up in some really shady business. If you go looking for him, you could get hurt.”
“Well, apparently I’m good at that, right?” I snapped back.
He frowned. “That’s not what I meant. I’m just saying… I know the Phantom. Not personally, but I know what he is. And there’s a darkness in him that you don’t want to mess with.”
“You don’t know a damn thing.” He could fuck right off. The spires of the school were coming into view now. Ethan and I crossed through the west gate. The moment we did, I made sure to separate myself from him further.
Ethan took a steadying breath. “All I’m saying is, don’t go chasing after fairy tales when reality is right in front of you.”
Oh, this guy was rich. Was he jealous of the Phantom? It was sad.
I tried to contain my fury before I said, “Whatever happens between the Phantom and I is none of your damn business.”
I ran off before he could say anything more, and shoved my shoulder into the double doors so I could get away from him. The guy was a judgmental jerk.
Ethan was wrong. I wasn’t going to stay away from the Phantom. If anything, I was going to run toward him.
And nothing anyone could do or say would stop me from seeing him again.
Chapter Eleven
Ethan
Emma thought she was in love with the Phantom. She didn’t realize that she was truly in love with me.
When we’d touched as I was in disguise as the Phantom, the mating bond fell in place— and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. We’d brushed each other before, in Monster Hunting 101, but this was different. Holding hands after we’d been in a life-or-death situation together was intimate. It provoked the magic to come out and seal our souls together forever.
But how could we truly be in love? We barely knew each other. She’d only been in my life for a few weeks. She didn’t know me yet— who I truly was. I wanted more between us than just primal instinct.
If we were going to be together, I wanted her to like me for me. I wanted us to be real. I didn’t want us to be together because some magical bond told us we had to be. And I had to get to know her better, too.
I’d made the Phantom out to be a villain when she brought him up. I had to disapprove of the Phantom in public as much as possible, to lead away any suspicion that it was me, but with Emma I was over the top about it. I told her those things because I wanted her to stay away from me. The Phantom and Prince Ethan were two totally different beings. They lived in different worlds, one light and the other dark.
Of course, it had to be the tortured side of me that she fell for. And not the man underneath the mask.
I was walking a very thin line here. If Emma tried getting in contact with the Phantom again… it would lead to consequences for her. I had enemies. The Black Claw knew I was onto them, and if anyone guessed that the Phantom had someone in his personal life he was close to…
She’d become a target. For both the Black Claw, and the police. If she found out who I was and kept my identity a secret for me, she’d risk getting accused of charges herself for conspiring with me. That is, if I ever got caught.
Then there was the matter of the King’s Contest. I still didn’t know what I was going to do about that. The Contest was quickly approaching, but I didn’t know if I should make my bond with Emma clear, or protect her by choosing another girl as my queen— someone stronger and more likely to survive, someone who didn’t mind risking their lives for a chance to be in the monarchy. It wasn’t uncommon for Marked or Companions to perish in the Contest. And I wasn’t sure I could sign Emma up for that, especially if she didn’t want what I was offering.
Everything I was doing was putting Emma in danger. And that’s why I needed to keep pushing her away— so she could be safe. It would be far better to for me to pine for her for the rest of my days than it would be to grieve her death.
I was coming back from hockey practice one Friday afternoon when I saw her again. She’d been avoiding me since the last incident with the giant spider. She was sitting on the lawn of the school, surrounded by textbooks and looking puzzled.
Despite myself, I gravitated toward her. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as I dropped my hockey gear and sat down beside her. I noticed she was wearing a big-knit sweater, along with black leggings and light pink leg warmers.
I was really into leg warmers. And socks. I loved knee-length socks on girls. Couldn’t tell you why. Yeah, I had a sock-fetish. Wasn’t afraid to admit it, either.
“I didn’t say I was ready to talk to you,” Emma said. She turned a page idly and tried to ignore me.
“I didn’t think you were, but here I am anyway.” I leaned back and smirked. “You looked like you needed some help.”
“Not from you.” She gave me the finger. I laughed.
“Come on. What’s troubling you?” I asked.
She made a face. “I’ve been here for nearly a month now, but I still don’t understand this world. Nobody’s told me the basics. I’m expected to know everything about the Arcanea, but I barely know why spells work in the first place.”
“Well, there’s your problem. You can’t master magic if you don’t know what it is,” I said.
She gave me a sour look. “I suppose you could teach me?”
“Of course.” I put my elbows on my crossed legs. “There are multiple branches of Arcanean magic,” I explained to her. “Illusion is obviously the first, and the most important. Sorceresses are gifted at illusion. Companions are as well, but they aren’t half as powerful as Marked. The second is shifting— only Companions can change into animals. The third is enchanting— infusing objects with special charms that change its composition for a certain purpose. The fourth is alchemy, which almost every magical race can do, so it’s nothing special.”
I rolled my shoulders, to stretch them. “The fifth skill depends on your Faction as an Arcanea. Alicorns have shield magic, which means they’re better at protection spells and can cast shields to defend themselves and each other. Dragons have battle magic— they can create magical bombs, or use their powers much like weapons.”
“Wow,” Emma said. “That’s intense.”
“Isn’t it? But I think griffins have the worst of it.” I kicked my leg out. “They’re empaths. They can feel the emotions of others. Which is useful in battle, because you can predict what your enemy is going to do, or if someone is being dishonest with you, but they can never turn their magic off. They’re constantly feeling multiple emotions all the time. Their own, and others.”
“Is that why Kiara is so quiet? Because she’s trying to handle everyone’s emotions?” Emma asked.
“Probably,” I said. “Griffins are easily upset. They just can’t help it. They process everyone’s feelings in the room all at once, if they don’t learn how to block it out. They have to be specially trained so they don’t go insane with experiencing everyone’s feelings.”
“What can we do?” Emma asked.
“Telepathy,” I responded. “All wolvens, male and female, can cast th
eir thoughts extremely far to mentally speak to each other. Although all Companions can speak mentally, only wolvens can speak to other Arcanea over long distances. We’re talking up to fifty miles, sometimes more. The female wolven have extra abilities, though. They can levitate objects with their mind. Someday you’ll be able to do that, too.”
“Lady Korva talked about that briefly in my illusion class, but didn’t go into it much, so I didn’t understand what it was,” Emma said.
“That’s because they want to start you with the basics. You’re just a First Year. They won’t get into the magic of different Factions until your second semester,” I told her.
She nodded. “Makes sense. But I still feel like there’s more to it. Something the school doesn’t teach. I’ve heard people… I don’t know, whispering about it in the hallways. Like it’s something forbidden.”
“If you want to get technical, there’s a sixth branch,” I say. “Dark magic. It’s what the Black Claw uses. Its drawing power from living creatures, or from the dead, to make yourself stronger. If you called it by a specific name, it’d be known as shadow manipulation. The Black Claw can make themselves appear as shadows, and usually, you don’t see them coming until it’s too late.”
“Holy shit. That’s horrible.” Emma cupped a hand over her mouth.
“It’s pretty bad,” I confessed. “I’ve stumbled upon… ceremony sites where the Black Claw have performed their sacrifices, and they never look good.”
Emma seemed conflicted. “In class, we were told that wands and crystals were objects of dark magic, and we should never use them. But I’ve seen someone I know wear one around their neck.”
Emma didn’t trust me with that information. She was protecting someone. But who? “Wands and crystals aren’t necessarily bad. They’ve just been used as tools by members of the Black Claw for so long, people see them that way,” I explained. “They’ve been used before to store life energy from sacrifices, but they can hold good magic, too. But I’d tell your friend to keep that crystal pretty close, unless she wants to cause trouble for herself.”
“She’s pretty careful. Plus she’s got me. I’ll kick anyone’s ass who tries to mess with her,” Emma vowed.
I smiled. She was brave, and she defended her friends. I liked that about her.
She tapped a pencil against her chin. “One thing I don’t get is how we’re able to do all of this. I know we’re descended from faeries from a different world, but there has to be a scientific explanation behind it all.”
“The faeries we’re descended from had extraordinary power, rumored to be gifted to them to the gods themselves,” I said. “If you look at our cells under a microscope, they can shift and influence the environment to create hallucinations on the mind, so that we can perform illusions.”
“But what power enables us to do this? Stuff doesn’t just happen,” she argued.
I shrugged in a carefree way. “What’s the power that keeps your heart beating? What’s the power that wakes you up every morning and makes conception possible so life can go on? Sometimes there just isn’t an explanation, onawilke.”
“Is that a Malovian word or something?” she asked in a sassy way.
“Yes. It means little wolf.” I gave her an affectionate grin, and she turned slightly pink.
“I am not a little wolf,” she grumbled. She seemed irritated by the name, and it only became more endearing to me.
An idea came to me. “You know… I don’t have class until tonight,” I started. “And there’s something I want to show you.”
Her one eyebrow raised. “Then show me.”
I got to my feet and extended a hand. She took it, and as I pulled her to her feet I swear I felt the mating connection spark between us.
We returned to our dorm block and left my hockey gear and her book bag behind. I changed out of my jersey into my school uniform, as I had class later and didn’t want to waste time once we returned.
“Where are we going?” Emma asked as I led her off campus and into the twisting woods of the Malovian landscape, keeping my eyes open for any monsters that lurked.
“Somewhere secret.” Twilight was lighting up the landscape. The shadows and colors loomed against the twisting trees, and I kept Emma close to my side… just in case something was to spring out from behind.
Eventually, the trees opened up to a clearing. Stone ruins formed a circular structure that resembled what was left of an ancient tower. Ivy and other plants had overtaken the ruins, and dead leaves clustered against the crumbling stone.
Within the ruins of the old castle was a giant willow tree. It was an unusual size, over a hundred feet tall, its growth blessed by magic. The trunk of the tree was beautiful. In the bark were the designs of faeries with gorgeous wings, their shifters morphing into the wood with them. The carvings stuck out of the bark, and were delicately designed. There were hundreds of carvings within the bark, and the fronds of the willow tree shifted and moved on their own, as if the very tree had come to life.
“You can relax,” I said to Emma as we walked into the clearing. “This land is sacred ground, blessed by the priestesses. Monsters can’t set foot here.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Why are we here?”
“I wanted to explain to you something of our heritage,” I explained. “The ruins are a faery fort— a place of supernatural fae activity. Our powers are strengthened here.”
“What is this place?” she asked. She nearly tripped over a rock before I caught her last minute. I helped her over a ruin carefully as we made a path to the tree.
“There used to be a chateau here. It was called the Zamek Marzenia; the Castle of Dreams. It was where the fae kings used to rule,” I explained.
“What happened?
“The castle was destroyed after the split of the Seelie and Unseelie courts. No fae king has lived in this place since.”
“Seelie? Unseelie?” Her eyebrows knitted together.
“I’ll explain in a moment.” We sat at the base of the tree. I reached out and took her wrist— when I placed her hand against the bark, she jumped.
“It’s okay. It’s not going to hurt you,” I said.
“The tree is warm. I can feel it pulsing— like it has a heartbeat,” she said.
“Because it does,” I said. “This is the Willow Maiden. She’s been here for many years.”
“Are you going to tell me what happened here?” Emma pressed both of her hands to the tree in wonder, her eyes widening as she felt the energy coursing through the willow.
“The first thing you should know is that there used to be two types of fae; two very different courts,” I began. “The first was the Seelie, the day court— they are the court that uses white magic, the court modern-day Arcanea are descended from. The other was the Unseelie— the court of night. They used dark magic. They no longer exist.”
She sent me a puzzled expression. “Why not?”
“There was a great war many years ago, between the Seelie and the Unseelie. It happened after we left Edinmyre. The two sides fought for who would have control of Malovia, and more importantly, what they would do with humans. The Seelie wanted to integrate, while the Unseelie wanted to use humans to grow their power,” I explained. “The Seelie won, and outlawed dark magic. The Unseelie died out because of it.”
“So there are other types of fae besides us?” she asked.
“There used to be. There were sidhe— fairies of the underground. There were also water fae, who lived in pools and rivers, and brownies— household fairies who used their powers to help humans. If I had to list all the fae that ever lived we’d be here a long time, I expect.”
“Do they no longer exist?”
“No one knows.” I shrugged. “They haven’t been seen for hundreds of years. The only fae on record that we know are still alive are the Seelie.”
“Can you tell me more about the night court?” Emma asked. She crossed her legs and held her ankles.
“The Unse
elie were known as tricksters. And according to the stories, they were ruthless.” I felt a shiver creep up my spine. “They were quite malevolent, and their dark magic was rumored to be so powerful that even the gods feared them. They worshipped Droga, and had other shifter forms than us— dark creatures that could manipulate shadow.”
“Do the Black Claw worship the Unseelie or something? They sound very similar,” Emma questioned.
“The Black Claw actually claim to be the last living descendants of the Unseelie that died out long ago. They see it as a sort of genocide that the Unseelie were wiped out, and wish to restore what’s left of the bloodline back to power.”
“Well, they’re going about it in the wrong way,” Emma mumbled.
I laughed lowly. “You could say that.”
I waved my hand around. “This was the place where the Unseelie were finally defeated, but before they fell, they cursed Malovia to a cruel end, and used their dark magic to seal the curse. The priestesses bless this area every year to keep the Unseelie curse from spreading further than this valley, though the Willow Maiden absorbs most of the dark energy and turns it into white magic.”
“So what’s the deal with the tree?” Emma looked up. “It’s definitely not ordinary.”
“A very old story.” I leaned in closer. “There was a priestess called Jadwiga Waldemar who swore to keep the Unseelie magic bound within the valley. A shifter fell in love with her, and tried to steal her away.” I shrugged. “When she left the valley with him, she succumbed to a terrible affliction and died. The shifter could not take from the valley what was never meant to leave, and Jadwiga was committed to keeping her vow, even if it meant her death.”
“That’s horrible.” The color drained from Emma’s cheeks.
“When he returned her body to the valley, it took root, and grew into the willow.” I ran my fingers through a few fronds. “Jadwiga kept her promise and is protecting the valley even to this day.”