by Allison Rose
“They are not the problem. Fable is. And Allora follows him everywhere.”
Kelty sighed. “Why hasn’t he shown himself up until now? Why haven’t any of them?”
“He’s been busy with other matters. The others do as they’re told.”
There’s the sly vagueness we know and love, Kelty thought dryly.
“Playing with dark magic? Building my court?” she guessed. “And what did Fable do to get himself banished?”
“He tried to kill The Glorious’s partner.” Briar winced a little at that one.
“Because…?”
“Because he is obsessed with her.”
Kelty heaved a sigh and tilted her head back as she turned to give her agitated feet something to do. “I want to know all of it, Briar, and I want to know exactly why you bothered to get the both of us banished here in the first place.” She paused in her pacing to fix him with another glare. “Now.”
He held her gaze. “I once called him brother. We are connected in such a way that sometimes he sends me visions without meaning to. I saw when he planned to kill Drake of the Day. And I saw him gathering forces once he was banished here. The human world is not a place we cherish, but I did not want to leave it in his hands. He is too powerful and unstable to go unchecked. Also, Fable somehow travels the pathway without a Telk stone. I believe it is The Glorious who allows him to do this. And so it is possible his madness and schemes could bleed back into Faerie as well. You seemed like the most likely and willing candidate to go against him—and the easiest to banish.”
It was the longest speech Kelty ever heard him utter. She stood in shock as she tried to wrap her head around the new information and put all the pieces together with what she already knew. Briar shifted his stance to lean against a tree trunk with his other side, posture still too casual for the weight of this conversation.
“Why now?” Kelty asked softly after a minute.
“Because now you have seen him, and now you may actually want to fight for this world.”
Kelty’s eyes widened at the hint that he, again, had played her completely. Her frustration turned into anger. “If I am so easy for you to manipulate, why choose me?”
“You truly see others, and you care,” he answered earnestly.
And with those words, the anger vanished from Kelty’s system to be replaced by fatigue. She folded into a crossed-legged position on the ground and put her head in her hands. “And if that is not what I wish to do?” she asked dully.
“You might like it,” he answered.
Kelty rolled her eyes. “So are we fully on the same side now? No games?”
She expected a smart reply or at least a smirk, but Briar nodded and said, “No games,” with a solemn look. This version of Briar was less infuriating, but bordering on scary.
Kelty eyed him. “Fable said he knows you brought me here and that I am the Star.”
There was no change in Briar’s expression.
“How are we to fight him when he already knows your strategy?” Kelty demanded.
“Because then he thinks he knows everything. He will not expect anything different.”
There he goes, making sense out of nonsense. But something still seems off about all this.
“You are really willing to destroy your brother?”
“Yes.” As he said it, a fierceness came into his dark eyes.
“Why?”
“There comes a time when you have to decide what is important. Nola is.”
Nola. Kelty hadn’t even given her a thought in the past hours. “What does she have to do with this?”
“If he discovers her, he will experiment with her mind to see how she is both human and magical.”
An icy fear made its way through Kelty. “He would break her in an attempt to understand,” she said, staring ahead at nothing.
Briar said nothing.
Kelty felt a strange urge to comfort him. “That won’t happen,” she said.
“No. It won’t.”
Briar gave her a nod, expression still serious, and took off into the night, dark wings nearly blending in with the surrounding darkness.
Kelty heaved a sigh as she watched him go. Maybe this was my destiny all along. She placed a hand to the rough, familiar bark of her tree, its energy humming as her body and mind stilled.
I will rule, she decided. Just not the court I thought I would.
Chapter 9
Nola rushed up the steps of the school, the notebook she had scribbled homework answers into on the walk over in one hand and a pen in the other.
School only started two weeks ago. Way too early to ruin my good attendance record.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t dodge students and finish the last few problems of her math homework, and as she rounded a corner, she caught Cameron’s eye across the hall. Things had been complicated with the popular, handsome blond since they met in Derek’s group. Now that Nola was pretty sure he was interested in her, it was even worse.
He started over to her. I have no time for this. She gave him what she hoped was an apologetic expression as she mouthed the word, “later.” Then she continued her mad dash, miraculously making it to her locker without running into anyone. She hadn’t missed a day of school, nor had she been late, even while taking lessons with Kelty and battling to stay conscious through this faerie stuff. She was not about to ruin her good record now, especially since her parents would really rip into her then.
Nola desperately fumbled with the lock on her locker, overshooting the numbers on the dial twice before it clicked open.
“Here.” Her homework was ripped out of her hand. Nola turned to Tris with a grateful look, but the other girl was working out the problems, brows furrowed. Her shiny black hair drifted over her face as she wrote.
“Out with Cameron again?” Lauren asked from Nola’s other side. The taller girl raised her eyebrows suggestively as she fixed the knot in her curly hair. Her top rose slightly as she did, earning her an appreciative glance from a few passing boys. Lauren didn’t notice.
Nola’s two best friends knew nothing of what went down over the summer. Derek had threatened their lives if Nola told them anything. Now that Derek was gone for good, Nola had her friends back, but she longed to talk about what happened, about how complicated things got with Cameron—all of it. But she decided the less the humans around her knew of the faeries, the better. Still, her friends guessed enough about Cameron to tease her.
Nola’s cheeks heated up. “No. That was one time,” she protested as she gathered up her books for class and shut her locker.
If only I could tell them all of it, she thought as Tris handed her notebook back and they made their way to first period. Annoyance bubbled up in her stomach, though she knew it wasn’t their fault she couldn’t tell them.
“Let her keep her secrets, Lo.” Tris leaned around Nola. “You won’t tell us about that mystery boy you met the other day.”
“What?” Nola nearly stopped in her tracks. “There’s a boy?”
“Don’t look so surprised,” Lauren said with an eye roll. “And I just met him.”
Nola wanted to ask more but knew if she prodded they would turn right back around and prod her. That one night with Cameron had been just that—one night filled with talk between two lonely people trying to figure out otherworldly problems. There hadn’t even been any touching. Not that her friends would believe her at this point. Cameron made it a point to talk to her whenever he could at school, as if they were friends. Or more. Nola wasn’t sure what she felt about him. About all of it.
The morning passed uneventfully. Then a wave of dizziness hit Nola as she made to follow Lauren and Tris to lunch.
Not again! She stumbled, reaching one arm out to brace herself on a locker.
One manicured hand clasped her arm. Nola blinked and shot Jeanine a grateful yet suspicious look as she threw all her concentration into remaining upright.
“Ladies, I need to borrow Nola,” the tall bl
onde announced in a very unapologetic tone as she pulled her toward the lunchroom.
Tris’s forehead scrunched in worry and Lauren glared, but there was no way they would contradict Jeanine. Or Adam and Cameron, for that matter. Derek’s disappearance before school ended last year, and the rumors that circulated about it, made Nola and the other three, who were now seniors, kind of like celebrities. Some were still afraid of them, scurrying out of the way or averting their eyes, but most looked at them with a kind of awe. Nola even had several seniors ask her to outings or to walk her home or even to study groups since school started. She politely declined all invitations, but she couldn’t deny it felt nice to finally be seen.
This newfound popularity, however, made it even more uncomfortable around Lauren and Tris and their other junior friends. It was like being pulled in two different directions.
Like that’s any different from every other aspect of my life lately.
“You look like a ghost,” Jeanine said, heels clicking on the linoleum floor as she walked at a brusque pace. Nola still leaned on her arm, hoping it wasn’t noticeable. The dizzy sensation was starting to recede, but she still felt weak enough that she almost fell into the chair Jeanine led her to.
Cameron gave her an evaluating look from across the table.
Great, now they both know.
“Don’t say anything,” she gave them both a significant look, not even bothering to lie. “I’m fine.”
Jeanine rolled her eyes and stole an apple from Cameron’s lunch. He didn’t even notice.
“Is there anything we can do?” The intensity of his blue-eyed gaze was unnerving.
Nola straightened a little, feeling the last of the lightheadedness subside. “No,” she said firmly. “Now, what did you bring me over here for?” She swung her gaze back over to Jeanine, who was staring at the apple instead of eating it.
Then both of their eyes focused on something over Nola’s shoulder. She was about to turn when a hand reached over her shoulder and dropped a folded-up piece of paper onto the table. Nola’s breath caught as she was reminded of another note being dumped in front of her at lunch, one that started this whole chapter of her life.
“Your Highness,” Adam, her least favorite of the cloaks, said with sarcasm as he sat to her right. He was dressed in all black as usual. Cameron gave him a glare, but Nola paid him no mind as she snatched up the note.
Eternal bliss awaits. Underneath was an address scrawled in an interesting form of cursive.
“What is this?” Nola looked to Adam.
Jeanine answered instead. “They’re being passed around the seniors’ lounge.”
“So, what does it mean? It sounds like someone is trying to get us to buy drugs,” Nola pondered.
All three shifted a little at the words, “drugs,” a term which was apparently a little too close to the substances they made out of faerie essence when Derek was alive.
Then another thought struck Nola. “Do you think it has anything to do with the missing girl? Emily?” She looked to Jeanine, who would have the best chance of hearing about it from her father, the cop.
“No idea.” Jeanine shrugged, then she met Nola’s gaze. “But the handwriting is a lot like the notes our benefactor sent us.”
Nola’s fingers tightened on the note, and her heart sped up. “Are you sure?” She looked at each of them in turn. Even Adam nodded without attitude.
This is not starting again. Nola’s mind raced. It can’t be Briar. But who is it?
After almost a full minute, she realized all eyes were still on her. Right. I’m kind of the leader now.
“I’ll figure it out.” Nola slipped the note into the pocket of her jeans and headed over to Tris and Lauren, to normalcy.
As she did so, she caught sight of Mark, accidentally meeting his gaze again across the sea of students in the cafeteria. He smiled, and a shiver went down her spine.
I will have to find out what is up with him, too.
Chapter 10
The hum of energy from Kelty’s home tree alerted her to a presence outside. A faerie. An unwelcome one.
She shot to her feet and pushed out her door, readying her magic as she did so.
Fable stood in the small clearing surrounding her home, golden skin and white hair looking incredibly out of place.
What now? Kelty thought darkly, shifting her magic from her core to just around her skin.
“Shall we begin?” he asked in a light voice, turning his golden eyes on her and then just as quickly looking away up into the trees.
“I did not accept your offer,” Kelty reminded him, unwilling to tell him she actually had just yet.
“The sun rises again regardless,” Fable answered.
Kelty sighed and ducked back into her home tree, shutting and magically sealing the wooden door. I will not be ordered around in my wood. But an uneasiness danced under her skin. What would he do if she refused?
She scooped up a handful of water and let it drip over her head, briefly slipping into her water affinity to guide it down her body in one cleansing sweep. If only I could cleanse my mind as well. And the words I spoke last night.
Guilt had made a home in her gut overnight. She hadn’t promised Rowan she wouldn’t consider it, but she still decided without consulting him.
Is it just that Nola could be in danger, or do I really feel for this forsaken human world?
A quick meal of berries and clover didn’t bring her any answers, though it left her feeling at least a little refreshed. A restlessness started in her feet and wings.
Please be gone. I need to speak with Rowan before I officially accept.
But as she rested her hand on the bark to check, she still felt Fable’s energy on the other side.
Kelty rolled her eyes and stalked out of her home. “What do you want from me, Fable?” She fixed him with her best challenging glare.
He looked down at her, listless, faraway expression unchanging. “Come,” he said softly. And then he took to the air, somehow managing to move through the tree canopy more gracefully than Briar ever did.
Kelty gaped upward. Moon and stars, what if he’s up to something terrible?
She vaulted up to join him as he sped directly toward the sun. Kelty hissed and shielded her eyes with one arm.
He is doing this on purpose, she thought angrily.
Fable flew over houses and roads and forest until he slowed to hover close to a metal structure Kelty learned was called a bridge—erected so that the wingless humans could cross bodies of water. Kelty winced at the feel of the iron as the cool wind whipped around them while she lightly beat her wings to hover next to him.
Kelty turned to give Fable a questioning look. He pointed at the water, face solemn.
“I saw a human jump from here once,” Fable said, looking down at the river below.
Kelty scrunched her brows in confusion. Why would a human—
“It was how he took his own life.”
Horror spread through Kelty.
“They must be very unhappy to wish to leave this world,” Fable continued in a contemplative voice.
“What is it to you?”
He raised an eyebrow. “It cannot continue.”
“If I recall correctly, your experiment with the cloaks only contributed to the unhappiness of a few humans. And Derek did a fair amount of damage to my wood with that death magic you had them conjure up,” Kelty accused him.
A sharpness came into his eyes. “He was out of line.”
“And what was the purpose then, if not to destroy?” Kelty pushed, knowing it might be dangerous to do so.
“To fix what is broken,” he said in that unnerving, soft voice. His eyes left her face and roamed back over the river.
“The humans?” Kelty prodded.
Fable glanced back at her with an expression that looked both surprised and pleased. “Yes.”
“And if it isn’t possible?” she asked, dreading the answer but knowing this may be the only tim
e she could get information like this out of him.
She barely heard his answer over the sudden gust of wind. “There is a way.”
He really believes he can help—whatever his warped vision of helping is.
“What is it, exactly, you plan to do?”
“Take away their pain.”
Kelty shivered. You cannot take away pain and expect to remain whole. It doesn’t work like that.
“Why would I help you do that?” she bit out.
He cocked his head at her. “The shield on your mind is weak,” he said in a suddenly sharper voice, ignoring her question. One of his hands hovered in the air between them—for what purpose, Kelty couldn’t fathom. “I will teach you the proper way.”
As he said the words, Kelty felt a gentle caress of magic against her mind. It came and went quickly, but she recognized the threat. Fear coursed through her, and her breath came faster. The danger from this one was very real.
But she may be the only one who could thwart his plans.
She thought of the human who had thrown himself from this height into the rushing waters to end his life. Whatever Fable was planning, she doubted it would actually help anyone.
Kelty steeled herself, then spoke the words that would seal her fate. “I will rule the Court of Outcasts.”
Fable merely regarded her as if he expected that. Then he nodded.
“I will prepare them,” he said and dove through the air back in the direction they had come.
Chapter 11
Once Nola got home from school, note clutched in hand, and prepared to take it straight to Kelty, her mother cornered her and insisted they go out shopping and then to dinner. Nola would’ve refused but for the look of pure hope on her mother’s face.
Nothing has happened yet, Nola reasoned. It can probably wait a little longer.
Keeping a smile on her face was tough during their mother-daughter outing. Nola was dying to know what happened with Kelty and Fable, if Briar actually did what she asked and told Kelty all of it, as well as the business with the note in school.