The Court of Outcasts

by Allison Rose

  He lounged in a tree above where humans gathered in the daylight hours, what Nola called “a good place for picnics.” He didn’t look up when she landed lightly next to him on the same branch. His hands were busy at work weaving the air currents in and out of each other. Kelty marveled at how delicate he was with his hands; it was at odds with his tough demeanor. Moreover, she had never seen magic such as this.

  “I have the solution to your air quality,” he said quietly. Kelty nearly sighed in relief at his discretion.

  “What?”

  Anthem flicked his eyes down to the humans below as an answer. Kelty closed her eyes in frustration.

  “I cannot get rid of the humans. This is their world.”

  He didn’t reply, fingers still weaving in intricate patterns.

  I have to make sure he will not mess with them. “What did Fable mean about you almost being in human jail before he saved you?”

  “Fable thinks he has saved us all,” he muttered. “I would have been fine.”

  Kelty waited. After a moment, he looked up at her, then rolled his eyes. “I revealed myself to a group of males that had been stalking a female for their own amusement.” A wicked grin spread across his face. “They were nearly shocked to death.”

  “And the Day Courtier you nearly choked?”

  “He was guilty of much worse than those humans.”

  I feared worse. She let out a breath she hadn’t been aware she had been holding.

  “You will come to me should you ever feel the need to end a life.”

  “My ruler,” he said in what Kelty assumed was agreement as he leaned back, hands returning to their weaving.

  A little thrill went through Kelty at the words. They felt right.

  “And you will not use your powers to harm others of the court or the humans,” she threw over her shoulder just before she spread her wings and took off.

  His devious chuckle drifted to her as she flew off to find the last member of her court.

  Chapter 19

  After a rather tense end to dinner—Nola was too sick to her stomach to eat anything, or even ask what the strange-looking vegetables were—Allora dismissed the humans, who walked up the stairs and disappeared into separate rooms. Allora showed Nola and Briar to another door close to the room where they had spoken to her only a few hours earlier.

  Nola gripped Briar’s arm, fearing Allora would try to separate them, but she merely gestured to the room and walked away, a satisfied look on her face.

  She is so sure we won’t try to leave…and she is right. I wouldn’t want my friends or the others to suffer any more for something I did.

  Briar let her walk into the room first. Nola briefly took in the simple twin bed with a wooden bed frame, one wooden chair, and something that looked like an old-fashioned trunk, before turning to face Briar. “How do we get out of here?”

  Briar let out a sigh. “I cannot tell you that,” he answered wearily. “Did you do something to Cameron back there?”

  “Uh, I’m not sure. I tried.”

  There was a beat of silence as he stared at her.

  “What happened between you and Fable?” Nola pressed on, lowering herself to sit on the edge of the bed. Fable had to be the key to getting out. “Why did Allora say you had fallen out of favor? Did he find out the real reason you got Kelty banished?”

  Briar’s lip twitched a little at that. “No. He was actually rather impressed with that stunt. He fears no one and so relishes a challenge.” He paused and looked out the window as he continued. “I was angry about the…dead faerie that your father found. Fable has erased things, little things, here and there throughout our lives. Sometimes I don’t think he even knows he does it. But nothing that ever involved the death of another—at least not anything I remembered. Things like that leave a strong impression and are the hardest to erase, sometimes leaving a lingering feeling, or disjointed pieces of thoughts. I told him I was going to walk away from him forever. It was too dangerous to be around him with my memories of you easily within reach.”

  Nola tried to digest this information. “He let you walk away…just like that?”

  Briar turned his gaze back to her. “He made a promise to my mother that if I told him to leave me alone, he would. I hadn’t asked until now.”

  “And he listens to your mother?” Nola asked in disbelief.

  “She took him in after his family perished in the Silver Dusk. She’s probably the only one he has ever looked up to.”

  She must be one special faerie. Nola wanted to ask more, but the urgency of their situation nagged at her. “So what do you think he is doing with the humans?”

  “I imagine he is trying to figure them out. Improve them in some way.”

  “By bringing them to a place where they will die if not protected?”

  “I didn’t say it made sense,” Briar pointed out.

  Nola heaved a sigh. It didn’t ease the building frustration. Then it hit her.

  “This is the Court of Outcast’s doing? Does that mean Kelty will find out?” Nola’s hopes rose.

  “I do not know what he is doing with Kelty, but it’s likely she won’t find out. Fable has control over them all.”

  Eventually, they both grew weary of trying to find a solution.

  Briar slept curled up in a ball on the floor, one wing covering him. Nola’s cheeks had flushed when he refused to leave her side despite it being night, but she was grateful for the protection.

  Nola attempted to sleep on the surprisingly soft cot, but energy kept her body from relaxing into rest. She slipped off the bed and tiptoed across the small space to the window, bringing her knees to her chest as she sat. As she watched the moon rise in the sky, she understood why Kelty thought the moon of the human world paled in comparison. This moon was pure light, bathing the world below in a soft glow. There were no craters visible on its surface, no imperfections. Staring at it was both comforting and slightly painful on the eyes, even through Briar’s protection, which he somehow kept up while sleeping.

  I’ll have to trust him to get us out of this. The thought was an unwelcome one. She had gone along with everything he had done up until this point, mostly because he knew more than she did, and he was the one with magic that could actually do something useful. Now she wondered how smart it was to keep doing that.

  What if Fable already messed with his mind and Briar was supposed to bring me here?

  What if Fable removed important things from his memory that can get us out of here?

  What if Briar wouldn’t stop Fable from doing horrible things?

  She started to shake, fear hitting her hard.

  What if we don’t make it out of here alive?

  What if no one ever knows what happened to me?

  What if—

  “Nola.”

  The way Briar said her name, emphasizing the two syllables as if savoring the way it sounded, usually started a fluttery feeling in her stomach. She was too freaked out for butterflies now, but he did break her out of her panicked thoughts.

  He stood gracefully, as if he hadn’t just been sleeping on a hard stone floor. Wordlessly, he took her hand and gently pulled her to her feet and guided her back to the bed.

  “Sleep,” he said in a voice equally as gentle as his movements.

  That’s it? Nola thought, but she could feel herself letting go of some of the nervous energy. As she did so, her eyelids became heavy.

  Briar laid directly next to the bed this time. Nola eventually drifted off.

  Chapter 20

  Kelty sighed in frustration as Sayra ignored her summons once more.

  Feet submerged in the lily pond, Kelty tried to coax Sayra to speak with her, as she had multiple times throughout the past few days. Lark had been skittish around her since their awkward conversation, and Kelty did not want to be too harsh with Sayra as well.

  Well, she will have to talk to me eventually.

  Kelty stepped out of the water, shook her feet off, a
nd flew up to perch in a nearby tree. She settled in and closed her eyes, opening herself up to her spirit affinity.

  Fable had not shown his face around her woods since they first met with the outcasts. She was growing increasingly worried about his absence—and about what would happen when he did show again.

  If I am not ready, Fable will easily be able to influence me—or worse.

  She started off by building up her mental shields and attempting to strengthen them. Then she moved on to sensing the energy of those around her. Dane, Anthem, and Sayra were nearby, yet Kelty after what felt like hours of trying to read them, she could only sense their general moods—resigned, agitated, and melancholy, respectively—nothing beyond.

  I will need to do much more than that if I am to hold my own against Fable, she thought as she let out a frustrated hiss.

  “Are you finished?” Rowan’s voice jolted her back to reality.

  “Yes,” Kelty called down to him, annoyance in her voice.

  “Have you spoken with Sayra yet?” Rowan prodded her with a frown.

  “No.” Kelty sighed.

  He disapproves of my handling of the court, but he won’t say it.

  The other members of the Court of Outcasts had done well keeping to themselves. They came and went, attending to their duties with cleaning up the human world both in her wood and elsewhere. She only required that Lark keep an eye on their activities and report. For outlaws who were reluctant to even be a part of a court after the Day had failed them so badly, they at least were cooperative in their physical duties, if not in sharing information with her. Even the pond waters were clearer, leading Kelty to believe Sayra was doing her job despite refusing to answer her ruler. It made Kelty wonder, again, how Fable orchestrated all this. Or were they just that in need of a sense of community that they participated for that reason only? They still preferred to dwell elsewhere, despite Kelty telling them they were welcome to stay in her woods. She tried not to feel too hurt by that.

  One thing was clear to her: Fable was the real threat. She could deal with the Court of Outcasts when she was more sure of what he was doing and why.

  And so Kelty spent much of her time attempting to strengthen her spirit magic, as it could be their only defense.

  Rowan had been distant since her conversation with Lark. Kelty longed to speak with him about it, but she was also terrified of what he would say. It was becoming clear he didn’t approve of her actions thus far, or at least some of them, though he never made his objections known.

  Males, she cursed to herself.

  “I will seek her out again.”

  That got her another stiff nod from Rowan, who then spread his wings and jumped up into the branches, disappearing from sight within a few moments.

  Kelty stared at the place she had last seen him, anxiety churning in her stomach. Then she shook her head and jumped down from the tree, striding up to the lily pond again.

  The sun was setting, reflecting brilliant colors on the surface. There were no humans around, making this the perfect time for a conversation with a wallowing faerie.

  Kelty dipped her feet into the water and then sank until her lower half was submerged. She tuned into her water affinity and closed her eyes.

  I wish to speak. Please.

  She made sure to infuse the silent plea with desperation, hoping she wouldn’t have to dip below to search below the surface for the faerie.

  “You are troubled.”

  Kelty startled at the raspy voice and turned to see Sayra’s head poking out of the water. A pink lily sat atop her head, the adornment at odds with the faerie’s sorrowful eyes.

  Moon and stars. Kelty let out a breath. “You have been avoiding me.”

  “My last ruler took everything from me,” Sayra answered with startling honesty. As the sky darkened and the night animals started to emerge, her blue eyes seemed to glow. They locked on to Kelty with a focus that made her feel guilty for being a ruler, though she had not been the one to destroy Sayra’s life.

  It must’ve been The Glorious. “What did she do?” Kelty asked.

  “The worst.” Sayra sank below the surface again.

  “Wait!” Kelty rose to her feet as if she could stop her. She sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. She could slip into her water affinity and go down there with her, but communication would be nearly impossible. Though her heart went out to the faerie at her loss, whatever it was, she was still irritated by the faerie’s lack of communication. And something still nagged at Kelty about Sayra, an instinct that made her uncomfortable and warned her not to trust the other faerie.

  Bubbles preceded Sayra’s rise to the surface again.

  Kelty scrambled to think of something that would keep the faerie talking.

  Sayra spoke before she could come up with anything. “For your own sake, leave me be.”

  Kelty’s eyes widened. It didn’t sound like a threat, only a warning, threaded with the sadness that Kelty took to mean the faerie thought everyone was better off without her. But the sharp look in her eyes seemed to suggest the warning was more than that.

  She thinks she is a danger to us.

  Sayra dipped below once more. And did not rise again.

  Kelty rose wearily from the water. I will reach out to her when I know more, she vowed. Whatever is going on here, I will save them from it.

  When Kelty arrived at her home tree, Lark was waiting up above. She briefly touched down in front of Kelty and breezily informed her, “Fable will see you tomorrow,” before flying away.

  Kelty turned to Rowan, who sat cross-legged next to her tree, an unreadable expression on his face.

  A muscle in his jaw tightened. “I do not like this.”

  His words were both irritating and touching. “Neither do I.” Kelty took his hand. “Come,” she said, pulling him to his feet and then into her tree.

  Rowan’s eyes widened slightly as he realized where she was taking him inside.

  Kelty’s stomach fluttered with nerves, but she wanted his company. It felt like it was time to move forward, take a step toward confronting whatever held them back from a true partnership.

  He glanced around as he entered and took up a position leaning against the wall.

  “What are your criticisms?” Kelty asked abruptly.

  He surprised her with a ready answer. “You are avoiding your duties.”

  Kelty raised her eyebrows. The close proximity made his words seem like more of a challenge. And it made it a little hard to breathe.

  Act like this is normal. We normally share a tree.

  “I know,” she admitted after a charged moment.

  “They will trust you more if you spend time with them,” Rowan went on. “And maybe they will give us answers. They will only say so much to me. They do not see me as they do you.”

  Kelty had feared this would happen. She had worked to establish order, to make sure her few courtiers knew to obey Rowan just as they would her, but she didn’t want to be that ruler that made others uncomfortable.

  “I wish I could speak to Mother,” Kelty murmured. Kye of the Night had the perfect balance of gentle yet commanding.

  Rowan’s expression softened, and his posture relaxed. “I think she has taught you all you need to know.” His deep voice was comforting.

  “It doesn’t feel that way.”

  “They respect you. And they will eventually see that you are opposing Fable. The time will come when you will free them, and they will love you for it.”

  His words warmed Kelty’s heart, but then he abruptly changed topics again.

  “Now can we talk about what we are not seeing?” Rowan asked.

  “What?”

  “Nola. And Briar. We have not seen either of them in days.”

  Guilt wracked Kelty as she realized he was right. There were some times Nola did not show up for a few days, her time taken up by human activities or her parents’ orders to stay home. But it had been nearly four days since Kelty saw Nola. T
his was odd.

  “Moon above. What if he got to her?” Kelty asked.

  “Maybe Briar is hiding her from Fable,” Rowan suggested.

  A sliver of hope broke through Kelty’s dread. “You think he would do that?”

  Rowan nodded. “He would.”

  Kelty stared at the faerie she kept forgetting dealt in the knowledge of others and who watched her for weeks before showing himself. And he thinks himself inferior to me. He knows and sees so much more than I do. I am so lucky.

  “I will check her home at dawn,” Kelty decided.

  “And then I will go with you to see Fable.” Rowan fixed her with a stern look much like her father used to give her.

  Kelty sighed. “Fine.”

  Rowan nodded. Then he pushed off the wall and made to leave. Kelty reached out and grabbed his arm.

  “Stay,” she insisted.

  His eyes widened. He waited, as if expecting her to take the words back in the next instant. When she only gazed back steadily, he backed up onto the blankets, pulling her with him.

  Nestled in his arms, Kelty relaxed for the first time in a long time.

  But if I feel this way, then why are we not partners yet?

  * * *

  Kelty crept around the back deck to Nola’s house.

  Though the humans couldn’t see her, she still tucked her wings in close and hid most of her body behind the inside curtain on the glass sliding door as she peeked into the kitchen. She hoped to find Nola’s parents discussing life in the room they most often did so.

  The room was dark despite the daylight outside, but there was a figure seated at the table inside.

  Kelty froze as the girl turned abruptly to look directly at her.

  Fighting the urge to run, Kelty realized it was the blonde girl from the group of humans responsible for the dark magic she and Nola had vanquished months before. Jeanine.

  A smile curved the girl’s pretty features. “Perfect timing,” she said as she rose from her chair to pull open the door. “We were going to look for you.”