Tithe

by Chani Lynn Feener

  She’d yet to wake up, though she had moments of semi-consciousness when she couldn’t really process anything and mumbled gibberish. Cole had assured Arden that this was normal, and a good indication that she was getting better. Arden had no choice but to take his word for it.

  She could go and ask Mavek. But when she’d woken the next morning to find a note from him in her kitchen with another damn cupcake, she realized that he’d gone back to the manor. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to go there, too afraid of what she might see.

  Eskel rang the bell again, snapping her from her thoughts. With a growl, she yanked the door open, glare already in place. She wavered a bit when she saw him and the dark circles under his eyes.

  “Have you slept at all?” she blurted, gripping the edge of the door to keep herself from stepping closer to get a better look. The concern she immediately felt unnerved her, only serving to increase her ire.

  His hair was a mess and his right pant leg was tucked into his boot while the left hung loose. Even though he’d been the one banging on the door, Eskel dropped his gaze to compose himself before he managed to meet her stare with bloodshot eyes.

  Arden tilted her head suspiciously. “Have you been drinking?”

  She supposed she couldn’t judge him for it, not when he’d just found out that the dead brother he’d been secretly hoping to reach wasn’t coming back. It was hard for her to grasp that he’d believed they were ghosts, and that he’d been chasing what he’d thought were spirits across the country. Then again, wouldn’t she do that and more for Ainsley?

  “I want to show you something,” he told her, his voice almost flat. He was trying to keep steady, and she realized with a start that he was even more of a mess than she’d first realized.

  Arden had planned on saying no to whatever he was here for and sending him on his way, but found herself reaching for her leather jacket on the metal hook on the wall instead. Stepping out onto the porch next to him, she tugged the door shut and slowly eased the jacket on. When he didn’t immediately make a move down the steps, she inclined her head and lifted a brow.

  He opened his mouth, thought better of it, and closed it again, turning to lead the way. Arden expected to get into his car, so was surprised when he walked right by it, heading instead to the end of the drive and taking a left.

  She moved after him, matching his pace while silently waiting for him to explain. She felt another pang when he rubbed at his face, coming off a hangover that had probably lasted all weekend. She felt herself softening because despite his lies and secrets, she couldn’t fault him for his reasoning.

  “How did you know I wasn’t in on it?” she asked then, just as they turned down a narrow hidden path that few knew about. She’d find out how he’d discovered it later. “That Mavek isn’t the one who killed your brother and that I didn’t know about it?”

  Eskel licked his lips, stalling. “To be honest, I don’t trust Mavek, and from the sound of it, neither does Cole.” He glanced at her quickly, then away. “Maybe you should rethink your loyalties. And I didn’t know about you, not at first. That’s why I was so cautious.”

  She’d guessed as much.

  “It wasn’t until you started telling me about the Heartless, what and who they were, that it started making sense that you were in the dark. That you were maybe even going through the same thing that Everett did.”

  “How much do you know about what happened to him, really?” She asked.

  “He got involved with some bad people—” he scowled and corrected, “—Unseelie. I was too young to understand more than that. Just that our parents were oblivious to him sneaking out every night or about where he was going. He started acting weird, moody some moments, cocky at others. He was constantly looking over his shoulder, but not in the scared, paranoid way. More like… awareness.”

  Eskel lifted a low hanging branch for her and caught her eyes as she passed. “You get that look sometimes.”

  Arden swallowed the lump in her throat and moved forward, carefully stepping over clumps of uneven ground and clusters of rock. This deep in the woods, there were many things to avoid, not all of them as plain as stone and greenery. She made a point of not traveling through the forest, though she had been through this stretch of land many times before as a kid.

  “I see things others don’t,” Arden said. “Sometimes it’s hard to ignore.”

  “But you aren’t afraid,” he noted.

  “Not often,” she admitted, absently glancing up to the tall canopy above them. She couldn’t see anything unnatural moving among the bows, but that didn’t mean anything. “Not anymore.”

  “Because of what you are.”

  “Because I’m a Heartless,” she voiced. If they were going to talk about it, he might as well get used to hearing the word. “Yes. Being a knight allots me a certain amount of respect, protection, generally reserved for fae rulers. The Unseelie leave me alone.”

  “Unless Mavek tells them to do otherwise,” Eskel pressed.

  “He won’t.” She didn’t hesitate in her response, trying not to dwell on the strange encounter between her and the Midnight Prince the other night, or how she felt about all of the things said between them. How much Mavek knew about her feelings and how much she still didn’t know about his.

  “You’re so certain.”

  “Mavek isn’t up for discussion, Eskel.”

  “Even if he’s the one who killed my brother?”

  “He’s not.” Arden stopped abruptly and turned to him. Standing up to him was easy as all her anger returned in a split second, allowing her to look past the bags under his eyes and the pallor of his skin. “Everett was the Erlking’s Heartless. That means only the Erlking had the right to decide his fate. Mavek wouldn’t risk over-stepping.”

  Eskel’s brows winged up and he stared at her incredulously. “That’s why you believe he’s innocent? Because he wouldn’t want to cross a line? Not because he wouldn’t want to hurt an innocent person? Not because you think he’s secretly a good guy?”

  “He isn’t a man,” she reminded him, a bit harshly.

  His response was a snort. “You sure look at him like you think he is.”

  She clenched her hands into fists, feeling the blush threaten to show. Was it that obvious to the entire world then?

  “Did you bring me all the way out here to show me you can duel with your tongue, or because there was actually something legitimate you wanted me to see?”

  He took a step closer and then paused. Shaking his head, he sighed and angled his chin past her. “This way.”

  Sunlight spilled through the trees, illuminating dust and pollen particles and making the green tones as bright as gems. It would have been magical, if not for the tension that stretched between them. As Eskel brought her deeper and deeper into the forest, the tension grew, forcing them back into a thick, uncomfortable silence.

  She didn’t know why she cared so much; less than a month ago she hadn’t even known he existed. Ever since he’d shown up, everything had complicated. All of a sudden people from her past were coming back in droves, shattering her control and her calm.

  Cato and Cole were both people she could have done without ever seeing, let alone speaking to, again. Both had abandoned her in times of need, and both also knew more than they’d originally indicated. Arden was still trying to discover what exactly Cato was hiding from her; there was clearly something. But Cole… finding out that he’d been dragged into this world as well made her sick to her stomach.

  Like Mavek kept reminding her, Cole wasn’t just her ex-boyfriend anymore. He was her competition, and if she allowed herself to feel for him—to remember the way her heart had shattered when he’d left or how it’d flipped that first time they’d met—she’d fail. She couldn’t feel bad for him, not even for a second, because if she did then she might lose her edge during the actual standoff. Only one of them could win and become the tithe, meaning that only one of them could break their curse. His
curse was his own fault, while some ancient ancestor she’d never met had thrust hers upon her. And she had Ainsley to think about.

  Cole only ever thought about himself.

  Eskel led her through a thicket of eastern white pine trees and then up a steep incline toward a lone sugar maple. The leaves had already started to turn, so that shots of vibrant orange and green leaves with bright yellow tips filled it. A scattering of those fallen covered the ground, but even through them her eyes caught sight of the reason they’d trekked all the way out here.

  The faerie ring was smaller than the one that circled the tree Mavek had led her to weeks before. This one was only about three and a half feet in diameter, perfect for encircling a single person. The mushrooms forming the ring peeked out over the fallen leaves, gray and brown, their musky scent cutting through the crisp autumn air.

  Eskel moved close enough that his shoes almost touched the edge of the ring, staring down at it the whole time as if drawn to its oddity. He began to circle it clockwise.

  “After we talked and you told me what they were, I went home and looked up everything I could about faeries,” he explained as he continued walking slowly and deliberately around the ring, eyes still on the mushrooms. “Suffice it to say, there’s a lot out there, most of it more than likely false. What I read about faerie rings, fortunately, ended up being true, much to my surprise.”

  He glanced up at her then. “And I was surprised, mind you. I didn’t actually expect it to work when I went out searching for a ring of fungus supposedly capable of granting someone the sight.”

  Arden couldn’t find her voice, dread curling around her, forcing her to silently watch as he moved into his third revolution. She knew, of course, what he was referring to, and such an act could in fact work. She’d never tried it personally; since she’d been born with the sight, she’d had no need to.

  “It was a full moon,” Eskel was saying now, “I’d read enough to know I had to wait for one of those. I ran around the ring nine times, and then I heard them. They were all around. Do you hear them like that too?”

  “They aren’t everywhere,” she corrected, barely recognizing her own voice. “They come and go just like you and me.” But they would have been drawn there that night, the night of a harvest moon with a mortal performing a ritual in their woods with their tools. Arden was actually shocked that someone hadn’t mentioned it to her.

  So Cato truly hadn’t known. She thought back to his expression in the coffee house. He’d been just as surprised as she was when they’d realized Eskel could see Victor and Twila.

  He must have gotten lucky and only the lesser fae had been in the woods that night, watching from the trees, whispering amongst themselves about what Eskel was attempting to do. None of the regents could know that a mortal was wandering around in town with the gift of sight, and so close to the Tithe at that.

  Arden searched the trees a second time, watching more carefully for signs of peering eyes or fae. There weren’t any whispers now, nothing that could help her decipher whether or not they were truly alone.

  “I did more research but I couldn’t find anything to tell me how long it would last.” He looked at her questioningly, making his final rotation and then stopping a few feet away from her. “But I knew that in order to gain the full sight, to do more than just be able to hear them, I had to step inside the circle next. So I did.”

  Eskel tipped his head back all the way, staring up at the orange and gold leaves as if secrets hung from the branches. “I saw them. Tiny little black eyes all watching me from above, slipping from branch to branch like squirrels.”

  “Lesidhe,” Arden said, pronouncing it lay-shee. “You’re lucky you didn’t attract a sylvan. Do you know how foolish you were? How stupid?”

  “Well,” he grunted and shrugged a shoulder, the corner of his mouth tipping up into a partial smile, “with any luck I won’t have to do it again anytime soon.”

  “That isn’t funny,” she scolded, frustrated that she actually cared about him risking his life by being out here alone in the dark on a full moon. The next of which wouldn’t be until the sixteenth of October, which was twenty days away.

  “Tell me when, Arden,” he pressed, and this time there was no humor in his expression. “How long until it wears off?” Clearly Eskel didn’t like the risk of repeating the ritual any more than she did. Good. At least he wasn’t a complete moron.

  “You’ll have the sight until the next full moon,” she revealed, quickly adding, “but that isn’t an invitation to do it again! You can’t come back here, Eskel, not for anything. Especially not for that.”

  His eyes narrowed slightly. “There are plenty of faerie rings in this town.”

  “Why even bother?” Arden cried, aggravated all over again. “You know now what happened to your brother. Isn’t that what you wanted? If you think that you can somehow get revenge for his death, you’re delusional. These aren’t people, Eskel—”

  “They’re dangerous?” he finished for her, slipping his hands into his front pockets. “You don’t have to keep reminding me. I know what they are, and what they’re capable of. Maybe more so than you, even. Otherwise you wouldn’t be so comfortable around them.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she retorted, moving aggressively toward him without realizing she was doing it. “My mother is dead because of them and their damn curses. Seeing them drove her mad, and yet here you are willingly putting yourself in their crosshairs.”

  Realization dawned on him and his expression softened. “Your family’s curse.”

  “Yes. All of the women in my family inherit it. So, you can see why I want it gone so badly, why agreeing to the Tithe was my only option. You followed Mavek all the way out here for your brother. I’ll follow Mavek all the way to the Tithe for my sister.”

  Eskel shifted on his feet. “Arden, how much do you know about what the Tithe is, really? Because I looked it up and—”

  “All of the folktales say the same thing?” she guessed. “That the Tithe is a sacrifice of the soul that sucks the person into hell?” She lifted a shoulder, and the move was stiff even to her. “It’s partially right.”

  He blinked at her. “You’re willing to give up your soul? To go to hell? Just so you can avoid going crazy?”

  “And my sister,” she reiterated. “And I wouldn’t be going to hell right away. That’s the part that they got wrong. My soul would be forfeit, sure, and once I die, then I’ll go to the Underground. It isn’t the hell that we think of. It’s the realm the Unseelie come from.”

  “You’d be a sacrifice, Arden,” he pointed out. “You can’t honestly believe that you’ll be treated well in this Underground place.”

  She tried not to think about it, to be honest. But she wasn’t going to bother telling him that. Instead, she crossed her arms, determined to hold her ground and defend her choice. It was one made out of desperation, but so what?

  “Your brother made the same decision, Eskel. You’ve come to that conclusion, haven’t you? He was a Heartless, same as me. He offered himself as the tithe, same as me.”

  “And he got himself killed!” He practically yelled. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. After a moment, once he’d calmed some, he met and held her gaze again. “There’s a flaw in your hypothesis. My brother wasn’t cursed. I would have known.”

  Arden softened toward him and said, “You were a kid.”

  “Still,” he insisted, “I would have known if he had to eat goblin fruit in order to survive, or if he could see things that I couldn’t our entire lives.”

  “There are other types of curses.” Many. Thousands. “Some are passed down through generations and others are unluckily obtained along the way. There are so many, you wouldn’t have known what signs to look for even if you’d known to look. You could be cursed now and I wouldn’t be able to tell as much.”

  “Do you think I am?” Panic flashed in his blue eyes, turning the color dark like the sea,
and she winced at how careless she’d been.

  “Sorry, no, that was a poor example. I’m sure you’re not cursed.”

  “But you wouldn’t know,” Eskel demanded, “would you?”

  A loud crack sounded from the direction they’d come and Arden spun around quickly, almost tripping over the uneven ground. She halted, taking in the sudden, deafening silence that stretched around them.

  “What was that?” Eskel asked, keeping his voice low. He started to step out of the fairy ring but let out a guttural sound that had her whirling around to stare at him.

  He held his palms out before him, pressing against the air at the edge of the ring. His panic had returned, increasing when he twisted to jam an elbow at the empty space before him. He hit an invisible wall and stumbled back, tipping him backward against another barrier on the other side of the circle.

  “I can’t get out,” he told her, as if that wasn’t already abundantly clear.

  Arden crossed the four feet of space separating them and reached out her hand. It slipped through easily. She gripped the front of his shirt and pulled, but while her hand was able to exit, his body slammed up against the invisible wall all over again.

  He rubbed his chin, which he’d whacked against the barrier, watching the trees over her shoulders.

  Arden pondered what to try next. The Unseelie could trap a human within the circle if they wanted, but she still couldn’t see anyone, and even so, why would they want Eskel? Whoever had made the sound in the woods might be the one doing this now. Did she really want to go looking for the source of the noise? It could be anyone.

  Her thoughts turned back to the night of the autumn equinox and the mayhem that had taken place at Rose Manor. She shuddered and crossed her arms, pretending the move had been from the chill in order to keep Eskel calm.

  “Arden,” her name was barely a whisper off his lips, but the desperation there was as loud as a gunshot. He was staring off to the right now, eyes locked on something in the distance, some movement he’d caught that she hadn’t been paying attention to. “Run.”