“You don’t sound very sure.”
“They’re pixies. You can’t be sure of anything with pixies.” He made it sound like an obvious fact.
He stepped into the cave; Cam followed, and then Cinder. Regan grabbed my hand and we took our first steps into the darkness together.
Chapter 4
IT WAS dark, too dark for human eyes to see anything.
I opened my mouth to say something when a ball of green light rose from Ston’s palm and stopped a few feet above his head, illuminating a large area for us.
We had gone deep into the cave, taking a smooth, downward spiral path, and now stood in a large, empty cavern.
Stalactites and stalagmites rose from the ground and pointed down at us from the ceiling. I could never remember which was which, but I was more focused on how much it would take for one to fall on us. Probably not much.
The sound of drops of water hitting puddles was the only thing that broke the silence for a while, echoing in the large cavern. Finally, Cam spoke.
“How long until we find them?”
“A day until we reach camp. They could recognize me soon and take us there. Or they could follow us and try and figure out our motives. Or they could kill us now. It’s up to them what happens from this point on,” Ston replied, looking directly ahead of him, unlike the rest of us who were looking in all directions, trying to see beyond the ball of light.
“You make it sound like they’re here,” Regan said, obviously as uneasy as I was about the vagueness of the conversation.
“They are. They knew we were here the second we entered that cave. It’s the closest entrance to their home, so they watch it closely and have regular patrols around here, just in case someone comes in that entrance. We aren’t alone down here,” Ston said, his voice low and ominous. He kept moving forward, the green light casting its glow on his white hair and violet skin. His Life Force lines were brighter than I’d ever seen them. Perhaps it was the anticipation or the fact he was in the earth again. I didn’t know.
After an hour or so, I heard a sound I couldn’t quite place, like the sound a butterfly’s wings made, but not exactly. I was prepared to brush it off as nothing, but Ston stopped and grinned knowingly. “I told you that we weren’t alone.” He turned to the sound slowly, and his smile only grew.
I followed his gaze out into the darkness, but I couldn’t see what he saw. “What is it?”
“You’ll see in a second,” he said.
Cam moved closer to Regan and me, and I could feel her Life Force become agitated as she tensed, getting ready for a fight. Cam was always ready to assume the worst, but this seemed different—she seemed anxious, almost afraid.
Regan must have been a little worried too, because she reached down and pulled her gun from its holster.
I didn’t do anything, just looked into the darkness eagerly, hoping to see what Ston saw.
And finally the sound stopped, but I still couldn’t see it. I frowned and looked over at Ston, who was looking curiously out at something. “Why stop there? We wish you no harm, simply a way to the tribe. We have things to discuss with the chief.”
“I know what you wish to talk of, Ston Lowrain Malcar.” The voice was harsh, cold, and distant. It sounded like it came from all around us.
Ston Lowrain Malcar. It was strange to think it took so long to learn his whole name.
“Cheap tricks won’t scare me,” Ston snarled. I couldn’t remember seeing him like this before. “You do not know why we are here. We come in peace. We would not ask you to wage war upon those you have no grudge against! We just want your help, and if you let us talk about it, maybe you would find out why we truly are here!”
“We have heard the arguments before, all asking for our help in a war against those above. We do not wish to kill the innocent! Those who did us harm died thousands of years ago. We wish to live in peace. Now take your friends and leave this place,” snapped the disembodied voice.
Ston moved so quickly I barely saw him. His arm reached out into the darkness and grabbed at something. He yanked his arm back into the light, holding a young woman by the collar of her shirt. She had light hair that had been trimmed into a pixie cut, and her light green eyes shone with fear when he yanked her up to his eye level. She was short, even shorter than me, and delicate-looking. Her skin was pale, and she wore thin looking clothes. A dark gray shirt and black cargo shorts hung off her. The air around her seemed to shimmer, and as I focused on it, I noticed very thin, transparent wings were fluttering behind her.
I felt a rush of adrenaline and at the same time I was frozen in shock, unable to act.
She spat at Ston’s feet, and he glowered down at her. “Your disdain for my people is not my concern. What they have done is not my doing, Skye.”
“Liar! You brought them to us! You came and spoke of peace, and now our allies and friends are being dragged into a war they do not want! You are the cause of this Ston! You brought this upon us!” She started to struggle against him, but he didn’t even seem fazed by her attempts.
“If I wanted to make you fight the humans, why would I have brought them here?” he hissed.
The pixie, Skye, hesitated and looked up at us, seeming to notice for the first time that we were here. She looked back at Ston suspiciously. “What do you want?” she said slowly, carefully.
He sighed and set her back on the ground. “One thing you said is true: we do need you to join the war.” She started to say something, but he silenced her with an angry look. “Not for the reason you think. We need your help to protect the human world.”
“The surface has never needed us before.” She looked away, her eyes flitting around like she was going to run. She looked fast, and I wondered if Ston would be able to keep up with her.
“That was before the dark elves planned a war against them. They know nothing about it, and are unprepared for them, let alone the underfae that wish to rise up against the humans as well. They won’t know what to do. We won’t be able to stop the mass murder they’re planning by ourselves.”
Skye glanced over at us and then back to Ston. “You speak of the dark elves like you’re not one. Don’t forget who you are, Ston. The humans will only see your skin. They won’t see the man on their side. You would betray your entire race for people who will never see you as anything other than the enemy?”
“I am a dark elf, and I won’t forget that, but I also will not associate myself with those who are planning to commit genocide. There is no denying what I am, but I am not someone who wishes to wage war.” He lifted his chin in defiance, and the green light illuminated his sharp features. It was a thin line he was walking, accepting the fact that he was still a dark elf who had to stand up against his own people for doing something like this.
“Fine. I’ll take you to the chief, but I promise you nothing. Your kin have come to us, and we have barely kept them at bay. He may not wish to help you in your foolishness.” She turned on her heel and started walking off, her wings folding against her back. I watched as they morphed back into the shirt, and I couldn’t help myself.
“Skye, is it?” I asked.
She stopped, and Ston looked over at me. “Don’t ask her to take off her shirt, Casey,” he groaned.
I rolled my eyes. “Will you ever let that go? It was the first time I ever saw a dark elf’s Life Force lines. Did you think I was just going to ignore it?” He scoffed at me, and I turned back to Skye. “Sorry to bother you, but your wings, where do they go?”
She looked at me thoughtfully. “You’re no normal human,” she observed slowly.
My face heated in embarrassment, but I didn’t know why. “I’m a mage. My name is Casey Kelley, free from the Temple for a little over a year.”
“She stopped a necromancer a year ago,” Ston added. “Don’t underestimate her.”
“Necromancers died off before my people went to the underground. You can’t have killed one,” she argued.
I scratched the b
ack of my neck nervously. “It’s a long story,” I mumbled. “But, your wings, how do they do that?”
“Pixies are magical creatures too, and while wings are natural, they get in the way. Most of the time, we hide them back into our bodies. We have clothes that they pass through when we need them again. The wings,” she said, turning her back to me and lifting her shirt up over her head, “are still there.”
I stepped forward, my mind buzzing with excitement as I looked at the tattoo-like marks on her back. They were a shimmering silver and looked like transparent butterfly wings flattened against her back. I ran my finger along her shoulder blade, just to make sure, but only felt smooth skin. “How much magic do you possess?”
“Not as much as you, but enough,” she said, pulling her shirt back down.
“And you can do this?”
“As I said, we are born with them. They are a part of us. If left out, they take no Life Force from us, and it takes very little to hide them.” She turned back to me and now that I was closer I could see the slight points in her ears. I could feel my heart racing at the thought. How many had seen the underfae, let alone studied them?
“How long do you live?”
She shrugged. “Maybe eighty years. We don’t have extended lives; in fact, you mages are born of the old fae who mated with humans. That’s where your magic comes from.”
“So we aren’t really humans?” Mages had always been set apart from the normal humans, and there had been much debate over whether or not we were technically human. It was odd being wrapped together with humans but also being able to talk about them as if they were separate species. Were we the same, just with more power, or were we something different altogether? And how had my parents given birth to a mage if they themselves were not mages? How could my grandfather have fathered my mother with no significant Life Force?
“You are mostly human. The fae did not have many children with the humans, at least not many in comparison to the size of the populations. You are more human than fae, but you are different, I suppose.”
“My parents could never use magic. If they were also related to the fae, why couldn’t they? And how did they have a kid who could?” My heart was racing. Here was someone who was able to answer questions that none of us could ever hope to, and she was acting like it was common knowledge.
“It is weak blood. Your human side is much stronger, so if a mage has a child with a human, the human will pass on their blood and the mage will pass on the fae’s. The human blood is stronger, but the child will have both. If two children come together, there is a chance they could pass on the weaker sides instead of the stronger sides. Does this make sense?” I could tell Skye struggled by how she made strange gestures in frustration.
“I think I get it. We call it a recessive gene on the surface. Like brown eyes and blue eyes.”
She threw her hands up and smiled. “Yes, kind of like that. Only it is much more complicated and mysterious. The fae had something special in their blood that affected certain humans, changing them from human into something else.”
“And the pixies? Where did they come from?”
“Even older fae and the elves, but our life spans weren’t elongated. The fairies had long lives. They were a close relative of ours, long since extinct. They couldn’t breed, the fairies.”
“Casey, I know you want to know everything about all this, but we have to get moving,” Ston interrupted, crossing his arms over his chest impatiently. “How far away is camp, Skye?”
“We haven’t moved, so we will camp later tonight and arrive by lunch tomorrow.” She looked at us closely for the first time and stepped back so quickly I was afraid she’d fall over, but she had grace and agility instead. “What is that thing?” she whispered.
I followed her gaze to Cinder, who was busy sniffing a rock nearby before taking a leak on it. “A cinderwolf. My spirit animal. Really, he’s a pain in my ass, but I love him.”
“They live, still? My mother told me stories about them when I was young.” She stepped forward, hesitating slightly in front of him.
His tongue lolled out of his mouth, and he lowered his leg when he finished. He walked up to her and then looked to me.
Is she safe? he asked.
I thought for a moment, then said, Ston trusts her, and she’s taking us to someone who can help. I think she is safe, at least for now.
He turned to her and licked her bare leg, causing her to spring back in shock. I heard rattling in the deep pockets of her cargo shorts and she looked up at me in surprise. “Does he normally do that?”
I shrugged. “He’s really unpredictable. And he takes up the entire bed some nights. I also wouldn’t trust him alone with your dinner. He’ll eat it and blame it on a raven that swooped through the window, ate the food, and then left. Really, I wouldn’t trust him at all. He’s just insane.”
“He is good.” She reached down and touched his head. She closed her eyes and smiled at something I couldn’t see. “And loving. He cares for you, Casey. And Regan. And even Cam. He believes Ston means well.”
“How can you tell?” Regan piped up for the first time since we stopped.
“He speaks loud enough for others to hear. He’s quite outspoken.”
“Never shuts up,” I said with a smile. I reached out and scratched his back.
She laughed quietly and then said, “We must get going. The chief will expect me to be back by tomorrow.”
I COULDN’T tell you what time it was when we stopped walking. It seemed like an eternal night down there. It was hot too, something I never would have expected. It made sense why Skye wore the lightweight shirt and shorts down here. I wish I’d had enough sense for that. It was winter above ground, so I had brought warmer clothes, something I really regretted now.
Ston started a small fire as Regan pulled out some blankets to be used as thin mattresses for the night. Cam lay on the ground with a hand under her head. She held her other arm up, using magic to grow thick vines up her arm in an intricate pattern. I remembered when there had been light in her eyes at using magic so successfully, but now she just looked bored, as if she were too familiar with this way of passing the time. I turned away to take my mind off what might have happened in the Veil to change her this much.
I looked over at Skye, who sat beside Cinder and fiddled with something in her hand. I walked over and sat down beside her. If she noticed I was there, she didn’t act like it.
“What is it?” I asked, watching her.
“A puzzle,” she mumbled, sounding frustrated. “My friend Twitch made it for me. He’s a genius with this sort of thing. A total dunce with magic, but engineering and the like is what he’s best at. He gave it to me to pass the time on my shifts here. I’ve had it for a month, and I still can’t figure it out,” she grumbled. It was a metal sphere with moveable pieces, and Skye was working hard at it but never seemed to get anywhere. “He says that it can open when I finish it and that there’s something inside, but he won’t tell me what it is.”
I smiled. “You must be good friends.”
She looked up at me curiously. “The best. Since birth, really. Our parents were friends, and when mine died, his took me in.”
“How did they die?”
“Trolls raided our camp one night. A lot of pixies died trying to protect the camp, including my parents. Trolls have a habit of going after pixies. They think we… taste the best.” She grimaced at the last part.
“I’m sorry.”
“I never knew them,” she said. “Twitch and his parents have always been my family. You should get some sleep. You have a long day tomorrow.”
I nodded. “Don’t stay up too late.”
She smiled. “His little games always keep me up longer than they should. Go sleep, I’ll watch for a while and wake Ston when I get tired. You won’t be any help tonight on watch. You can’t see anything. And you don’t know what you’re looking for.”
I didn’t argue; she was right. I stood u
p and walked over to Regan, who was about to lie down on one of the blankets. I pulled one closer to her and lay down beside her. I rolled over and laid my head on her chest. “I’m not sure I’m ready for all of this,” I whispered.
“You weren’t ready for Jaysun, but we survived. It will be fine.”
“I think that you forget that you died, and then Cam died. We didn’t exactly make it out okay.”
“I’m alive, Cam is alive now, and you have experience. You’ll be fine. We’ll have an army with us this time.”
“More to die for me,” I muttered darkly.
“More would die if we did nothing,” she pointed out.
I sighed heavily. “I suppose you’re right. Maybe we can stop them.”
“We will.”
“You’re always so sure.”
“If we don’t stop them, how can we get married?” She kissed the top of my head. “I’m going to marry you, through hell or high water. Now sleep, you can worry about this some other time. You deserve some rest now.”
It took a long time, but I was finally able to slip away into a restless sleep.
Chapter 5
THE OLD Ones sent me a dream that night.
I opened my eyes to a stark white room, and was instantly transported to another time. A time with Jaysun. I expected the brunet to come forward, talk like he had always known me, threaten my friends’ lives, and tell me to be better. Tell me he wanted a challenge. I expected him to try to hurt me.
“Calm down, young one. You are safe tonight.” I whipped around, adrenaline pumping through me as I got ready to dodge an attack, or attack him myself, but it wasn’t Jaysun. It was one of the Old Ones, the one I had talked to before with the transparent blue eyes and beard that fell past his waist.
“You,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. I hadn’t seen him since before I fought Jaysun. Since before he took Cam from me. “How dare you?” I shouted, pointing a finger accusingly at him. “How dare you take Cam instead of me? You didn’t even talk to me! We had a deal! You were supposed to take me if I did that again! I could have saved her!” I sank to my knees, tears streaming down my face. “I could have saved her,” I whispered.
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