by Bea Paige
“Yes. I couldn’t sleep. Rhain and Devin had dozed off. Rather than wake either of them, I went to see what you were doing.”
“Did you see where they took Rhain and Devin? Were they okay? I mean, they didn’t hurt them, did they?”
“Neither of them put up a fight, they appeared to be under some kind of spell. The fae are strange creatures, they all have these bizarre green eyes. They are just like the colour of the trees here.”
“Did you see a female with long red hair? The same piercing green eyes you speak of. Beautiful, tall, practically naked… She would have been hard to miss.”
“No. There was no-one of that description. Why?”
I bite at my nail, thinking for a moment. Had I been so desperate to see Clover that I had conjured her up in my dream? Or is there more to it than that? She had seemed so real.
“Why, Accacia?” Ezra persists. “Talk to me.”
“I think Clover came to me in my dream.”
“In your dream?”
“Yes, no. I don’t know,” I say, frustrated. “I must have been sleeping, and yet she seemed so real. Clover was trying to warn me. She said they were coming, that we were in danger. She was frantic, she wanted me to leave…”
“I see.” Ezra frowns. “Then she is fae now.”
“Wait, what? Just because she has the same weird green eyes, it doesn’t mean anything. Why would she warn me away if she were one of them now? She’s my friend.”
“Precisely, Accacia. This is called the Forbidden forest for a reason. We are not welcome here, and your friend knows that. Do you still have the stone?”
“Yes,” I say, bringing it out of my pocket.
“Warning or not, we have no choice now but to find Clover.”
“What about Rhain, and Devin?”
“If the fae wanted to kill them, they would have. We find Clover, we find my brothers.”
Chapter Three
Together, Ezra and I walk deeper into the forest. At one point it is so dark I can barely see in front of my face. The lack of any light, however dull, tells me that it must be night time. The day is only distinguished by weak rays of the sun attempting to penetrate the thick canopy above us.
“Shit,” I say, stumbling over a bush. I fling my hands out in front of me to catch my fall, only to find myself pressed against Ezra’s chest. For the briefest of moments, he holds me still against him, steadying me.
“Okay?” he asks.
“If I could see where I’m going, I would be,” I mutter, not sure why my heart is hammering in my chest so damn loud.
“Yes, sometimes being a vampire is useful. Heightened senses come in handy,” he says, and although I can’t see his face clearly, I have a sneaky suspicion he is smirking.
“You’ve decided to acknowledge what you are then?” I say, ignoring the fact he is obviously referring to my traitorous heart. It’s pounding so loud, I can almost hear it. Why the hell is the forest so quiet anyway? There’s no sound apart from our steps and my ridiculous, drumming heart.
“I kind of like the sound of it. Vampire. It rolls off the tongue rather nicely, doesn’t it?” This time he laughs, and I know he is ribbing me. I roll my eyes, not bothering to answer him. Ezra is a strange creature, even for a vampire. Most of the time he is miserable, brooding, hateful even, and then there are moments like this when he acts almost nice and I am thrown into confusion once more.
“Shall we keep moving then?” he asks, realising I’m not about to respond.
“Yes.”
Without saying a word, Ezra takes my hand in his and guides me through the darkness. Part of me wants to pull away, the other part knows that would be stupid. I am, for all intents and purposes, blind. A small voice in the back of my head keeps pointing out the fact that my palm appears to be tingling under his touch, but I refuse to acknowledge why. Shaking these new feelings aside, I clutch the locater stone tighter in my free hand. Even though I have only known Nostra a short time, I have faith in his ability as a witch. Rhain, Ezra and Devin found me because of him, why wouldn’t I be able to locate Clover now? It gives me hope that we will find Rhain and Devin too. The thought that we could lose them to the fae is too unbearable to even comprehend and I refuse to believe that it might be a possibility, just like I refuse to believe we won’t find Clover.
Since the Claiming I have felt a growing connection with Rhain, one I am not willing to think too deeply about right now. Devin too, in a different, but no less significant way. Just like Ezra, I care about them both and I’m not willing to lose either of them to the Forbidden forest and the fae.
“Lights damn it.” Ezra suddenly winces, stopping abruptly. He steadies himself against a tree and takes some deep breaths. His hand is trembling in mine. I reach out towards him, my fingers grazing the skin on his cheek. He is burning hot.
“Ezra…” I start.
“Don’t touch me!” he snaps. My hand falls away.
“This is because you won’t take my blood, isn’t it?”
He ignores me, pulling his hand free from mine.
“I know we haven’t seen eye to eye, but I can’t see you in pain, Ezra. Please, just take my blood. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
“I will not,” he grinds out.
“I know you said if you take my blood it will mean that we are joined, like you and Thalia once were. But I won’t hold you to it. The Joining is sacred, I understand that. I understand the way you feel about her, that you don’t wish to replace her. Ezra, you might be an infuriating, stubborn, obnoxious man but I won’t watch you die. Do you hear me? I will not.”
“Just give me a moment. This feeling will pass momentarily.” His words are lost to a scream that he has trouble keeping in. I can hear him slide to the forest floor and I blindly feel for him in front of me until I am kneeling between his parted legs.
“My God, Ezra, if I had known… This is getting worse.”
He lets out another roar of pain as he reaches for me, clawing at my clothes. I react on instinct and pull him to my chest, holding him as tightly as he is holding me. The cries of his pain shake me to the core and I find myself crying freely, rocking him in my arms like a mother would their child. “Shh, Ezra. I am here. I won’t let you go.”
Another scream rips from his mouth and I know that nothing but my blood will stop this. And yet, he’d rather suffer this all-consuming pain than take my blood and be joined with me. It angers me. I can feel the rejection ripping at my guts, even though I have no right to feel that way. I just want to take his pain away. I want him to let me.
“The pain. Accacia, the pain. I don’t think I can take it.” He turns his head and screams into my chest. It is an ungodly sound, like a wild animal caught in a hunter’s trap. I can feel the warmth of his tears against the bare skin of my neck as my own drip into his hair.
“Ezra, take my blood,” I cry, a sob escaping my throat. I feel helpless, so damn helpless. He shakes his head fiercely, pulling away from me.
“I. WILL. NOT!” He attempts to push me off his lap, but in his weakened state I manage to stay where I am.
“Damn it, why, Ezra? Let me help you.” I grab his face between my hands, barely able to discern the outline of his face. “Let me help you,” I repeat, softer this time. Even in his weakened state I know that he can see how distraught I am. Still he shakes his head.
“No.”
I don’t know if it is the desperation of his voice, the pain in it, or the deep ache in my own chest but I close the distance between us and press my mouth against his. For a split second, he does nothing, he just allows my lips to graze against his as more pain rips through his body.
“Please,” I say into his mouth, my own tears mingling with his. A strange noise slips from his lips, the sound caught between a cry of pain and a moan of desire.
“No,” he says. But instead of pulling away he grabs the back of my head and kisses me like the dying man that he is. I pour all my anger, my frustration, my heartache into the kiss and ho
pe he understands that come hell or high water I will never allow him to die. One way or the other he will take my blood.
Chapter Four
I don’t know how long we remain holding onto one another. Long enough for daylight to filter through the canopy and long enough for me to see Ezra’s face more clearly. He looks terrible, his skin grey, his eyes dull. A stubble has grown over his face, highlighting the hollow of his cheeks. The pain is evident in the way he holds himself, but at least he is calm now.
“How do you feel?” I whisper. It’s a stupid question really, but I ask it nonetheless.
“Like I’ve been trampled on by a horse.” He smiles, even though it seems to hurt him to do so.
“Do you have blood with you?” I know he needs it, and if he refuses to take mine then I will at least encourage him to drink someone else’s until I can change his mind. He points to his leather satchel that is lying on the ground a few feet from us. No doubt he dropped it during his terrible ordeal last night. “I’ll get it, stay there.” He groans as I get up from his lap. Even the slightest movement seems to pain him. Grabbing the bag, I return to his side. He takes it from me, opening the flap. From it he pulls a small glass bottle filled with blood. The moment his eyes fix upon it, his teeth lower from his gums and his mouth parts. He pulls out the cork stopper and downs the blood quickly, then drops the empty bottle back in the satchel. I hear it chink against the other bottles of blood in there.
“Better?” I ask.
He stands upright on shaky legs and leans against the tree. “I will be in a minute. Bottled blood is not as good as fresh blood from the vein, but it still has the desired effect. It just takes a bit longer.”
“Sure,” I say, unable to take my eyes off him. After a while, a little colour blooms on his cheeks and the bags beneath his eyes seem to fade just a little. He doesn’t look the way he did when I first met him, but it’s a vast improvement. “How much blood do you have left?”
“Three more bottles.”
“Will that be enough?” I chew on my nail, somehow knowing it isn’t going to be nearly enough.
He swings the strap of his bag over his head, adjusting it over his hip. “I will need to take blood more often to stay strong enough. This should keep me going for a few days, a week at most.” Ezra pushes off from the tree, far steadier than he was a moment ago.
“A few days? What happens when it runs out?”
He tucks his hand into the pocket of his coat, his eyes flicking up to mine. “I thought that was obvious by now. I will die,” he says simply.
My hand flies to my mouth. I knew his death would be the outcome eventually if he didn’t take my blood, I just hadn’t expected it to be so soon. After the trauma of last night, after all his suffering, after our kiss, I had hoped he would change his mind. Hoped that he would finally understand that he didn’t have to die, that he had a reason to live. But I guess that if Rhain and Devin couldn’t change his mind after being friends for a millennium, then I’m not going to be able to make a difference after such a short time. “You’re still determined then, even after…” my voice trails off.
“Accacia, I was out of my mind with pain.”
I flinch. “Oh, I get it. It meant nothing…” I start walking, following the vibrations of the stone once again.
“Wait, it meant something to you?” Ezra says, catching up with me. I look at him, unable to read the expression on his face.
“Do you play poker?” I ask.
“What? What is poker?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.” He waits, still expecting me to answer his question. I sigh heavily. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“So, you thought kissing me would be the answer?” he asks. He doesn’t appear to be annoyed, or upset, more curious than anything else.
“You were in pain, I thought… I don’t know what I thought. It felt like the right thing to do in the moment.”
Ezra looks at me for a long time. I wish I knew what he is thinking, but he isn’t giving anything away. “Don’t do that again… Kiss me like that, I mean,” he says, the curiosity gone, replaced instead with a poker face.
“Fine. I’m sorry I kissed you.”
He nods his head sharply. “We’ll talk no more of it. Now, let us get on with what we came to do and find your friend.”
We traipse through the endless forest. On and on we walk, stopping every now and then so we can both rest. Ezra is still weak, and I am a human who needs to eat and drink regularly to remain standing upright, so stopping is a necessity.
“Surely we must be close? I don’t understand how we can keep going for so long and still not come across anything resembling a fae village, or treehouse or whatever it is they live in,” I say, frustrated. “What about Rhain and Devin’s scent, can’t you just follow that or something?”
“I am not a wolf-shifter. I don’t have their keen sense of smell.”
“But Rhain, he could smell…”
“He was under the influence of the Claiming. His senses were heightened because of it. Your smell was… overpowering.” My head snaps around to look at Ezra, who is suddenly finding the canopy above very interesting.
“You smelt it too? But I thought you said that you don’t have a keen sense of smell.”
“I don’t have as keen a sense of smell as a wolf-shifter. They can smell a speck of blood from a hundred miles. We have a better sense of smell than humans, yes. I was able to smell you because you were undergoing the Claiming. Your desire was quite… pungent. It’s a wonder Rhain managed to hold himself together for so long.”
I feel my cheeks colour. Ezra eyes rest on my face, but I can’t look at him. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed,” he says quietly.
“What about now? How is your sense of smell at the moment, given you’re not your usual self,” I ask, ignoring his hot gaze.
“Not so great. I can’t track Rhain or Devin because I’m weak. My smell is not much better than yours and will weaken as I do.”
“Then take my blood, Ezra. Take my blood, you’ll be able to track Rhain and Devin. We can find them.”
Ezra stops short and sighs heavily. “This is the last time I am going to say this, Accacia. The answer is no. Nothing has changed. I will never take your blood.”
I grit my teeth, biting down on the frustrated scream that is desperate to be released. “Fine,” I snap.
“Besides, the fae clearly have magic. I don’t believe I would be able to catch my brothers’ scent even at full health. Your friend Clover is our only hope now. So, let us find her,” he says, holding his hand out. I take it, not because I want to, but because the canopy above is thicker in this part of the forest, and Ezra’s weakened senses are still better than my human ones.
We walk along in silence for a time until I notice a faint light up ahead. “Do you see that?” I say, pointing to a golden light flittering between the low branches of a tree.
“See what?” Ezra asks.
“There to your left.” He follows the direction of my pointed finger.
“It’s a firefly, they’re not unusual in Ever Vale. It is nothing.” He starts to move forward again, but the firefly catches my eye. This time there is another. They weave in the air about one another, a trail of light following their flight path.
“Wait. Look.”
Ezra stops. “So, there is another one. Perhaps they are mating?”
“I’m not sure, wait... Can you hear that?”
My attention is caught by a low humming from behind. I look over my shoulder and see a blaze of light as more fireflies move towards the dancing pair. There must be hundreds of them. The oddest thing is that the fireflies seem to be flying in the formation of an arrow. I watch in wonder as the brightness of their combined light illuminates the surrounding forest. They move at an alarming speed, I can feel the vibrations of their wings even from where we are standing. Just at the point I think they are going to smash against the tree, they disappear. One minute they are ther
e, the next gone.
I stare opened-mouthed at the spot where they vanished. “Did you see that?”
“I did.”
“Where the hell did they go?”
“Accacia, I do believe we’ve found the hidden entrance to the fae realm.”
“The fae realm? I thought the forest is their home.”
“It is. What you see now, it is all just camouflage hiding the magic that lies beneath.”
“How do you know? You’ve not been here before, have you?”
“Nostra,” Ezra says. “He told me that the entrance to the fae realm would not be easy to find. That we may never find the secret entrance, even with the locator stone. We are fortunate, I guess.”
“If there was a possibility we would never find the fae realm, why did you agree to come with me. Why did any of you?”
“I’m here because of my promise. Rhain and Devin have their own reasons,” Ezra says, refusing to elaborate further.
“What are their reasons?”
“That is not for me to say.”
I am prevented from delving further by an image of Clover’s beautiful face suddenly appearing in my head, the echo of last night’s dream returning to me. Floating above her are two dancing fireflies. I smile. Clover has done this. Somehow, she has shown us the way. Maybe she wants to be found after all.
Chapter Five
“Was this definitely the spot?” Ezra asks, frowning. He has his hands pressed up against the tree the fireflies disappeared into. There is no door, no portal. Nothing.
“Yes, it is, I am certain of it. I don’t understand.”
“Perhaps we are mistaken?” Ezra moves away to the next tree and begins running his hands over the surface of the bark. I’m not entirely sure what he is looking for, I don’t think he knows either.
“Shit.”
“What is it?” Ezra rushes to my side.
“The stone, it’s going mad,” I say as the locator stone vibrates wildly within my hand. Bringing my fist up, I uncurl my fingers slowly. A light erupts, so dazzling I have to shade my eyes from it.