"Are you okay, Princess?" the guard asked, looking from Chalcedony to Coal, and back again.
Bren, she remembered. One of Madoc's personal lackeys. He had ash-blonde hair with tawny-colored skin. His face was twisted in disgust and anger emanated from his pitch-black eyes.
Coal stepped slowly in front of Chalcedony. She wanted to tell him to stop. Bren was more likely to hurt him than her, but she didn't want to take her focus away from the guard. She felt for the hilt of the knife she hid underneath her shirt. "What are you doing here?" she asked, looking over Coal's shoulder.
"I was sent to patrol the forest." His hands shook, but he never lowered his sword.
"Are you going to attack me?" she asked with a haughty toss of her hair, hoping to draw his attention away from Coal. Bren flicked his gaze towards his weapon before he lowered it.
"I'm sorry, Princess. Of course, I would never hurt you."
Chalcedony relaxed, released the knife, and stepped out from behind Coal. "Since when do we patrol the forest?" she asked.
This forest hid the door to the human realm, but it was not guarded. Only a select few were supposed to know it existed. Patrolling it would only attract attention. Instead, an invisible barrier that prevented anyone from entering without permission protected the forest.
"Um," Bren stuttered, his eyes lowered.
"Madoc sent you, didn't he?"
"He ... um, I was sent to patrol the door," Bren answered. She closed the space between the two of them.
"Look at me," she ordered. He met her gaze. "Are you lying to me?"
"No, Princess. I was assigned to patrol the forest today. I didn't know you would be here."
She studied him, searching for a lie. She was not a mind reader, but Tetrick had taught her to look past a fey's surface to recognize emotions and truth. Chalcedony saw fear, embarrassment, and disappointment, but there was no indication of a lie. Perhaps Madoc had set him up.
"Leave my forest before I have you banished for spying on me," Chalcedony ordered.
"Princess, I'm sorry. I swear I didn't know you would be here," Bren said, shaking.
"Leave now!"
"Yes, Princess."
He placed his sword in its sheath and stalked away. Once Bren disappeared between the trees, she walked towards the bridge.
"Are you alright?" Coal reached for her arm, but she flinched and moved away.
If she wanted Coal to live, she could never let him touch her again.
Coal followed her over the bridge. "Shouldn't we talk about what happened?"
"No. I shouldn't have done that."
He was about to argue with her, but everything was different, wrong. The air became denser, making it harder for Coal to breathe. The trees, the grass, and even the sun were less vivid. It was as if he were looking through a smudged window.
"Chaley, where are we?"
Chalcedony met his gaze. "We're in the human realm."
"I didn't see any door."
She placed her hands on her hips. "If it could be seen, everyone would know where it was."
He turned in a slow circle, drinking in all he saw. The tree's brown bark was dull and washed out. The green leaves were watered down and muted. The grass cracked and moaned underneath his feet as if it were dying of thirst.
He had never stopped to listen to the everyday sounds of life; they'd always been in the background. But the singing and harmony of the forest had disappeared. This terrible silence made him feel as if something was missing.
The human realm, Coal decided, was a weak, lifeless version of the fey realm.
"Chalcedony, stop. I don't understand. How did we get here?"
She frowned, gazing into Coal's eyes as if deciding something. "Few fey or humans know this. You have to keep it secret."
"By now, you know you can trust me," Coal said.
She scanned the forest as if she were scared someone would overhear her. Satisfied they were alone, she said, "During the war, humans and fey decided to separate themselves so we couldn't destroy each other."
"I'm not stupid. I know that." His anxiousness over the new environment was giving away to agitation.
"They also created portals to connect the two realms, because, in spite of all the war and death, complete separation seemed unfathomable. Also, giants are humans. Every now and then, a giant will have a normal human child, and they wanted to be able to take those children to the human realm if they needed to."
"Ambassador Eli said giants weren't humans."
"Giants used to give birth to humans on a normal basis, but now that humans and giants don't interact as much, it's rare."
"Why haven't I heard of the portal before?"
"Because if everyone knew, the human realm would be overrun with rogue fey," Chalcedony said.
He decided to ask another question. "Why does the air smell so different?"
"Their technology pollutes the air." Chalcedony walked through the forest.
The ground was littered with broken tree branches that snapped underneath her feet. Coal marveled. He was in the human realm, his birthplace. Despite his curiosity and excitement, the image of the two of them kissing kept replaying in his mind. As he followed behind her, he wondered when it would happen again.
"Wait." She stopped so abruptly that he almost bumped into her.
She pulled a pouch from the pocket of her pants, placed her hand inside of it. Her fingers came out of the bag covered in a multi-hued powder. She recited a few words before she placed it in her mouth. Slowly, her long, sharp canine teeth widened and shortened. They lost their edge and became flat. Her slim pointed ears curved. Her large red eyes dimmed and turned black. She had changed into a human.
For a moment, Coal did not recognize the person standing in front of him. His vision adjusted as if it was adapting to the dark, and he saw past the illusion. She had swallowed glamour. Humans would look at Chalcedony and see the false image. For him, it was transparent, merely an overlay, barely hiding her true features.
"I'll be glad when I can change my teeth and ears. Tetrick says I should be able to do it soon. Then I won't have to use glamour every time I come here. Do I look human enough?" she asked.
"Yes," he answered. "But it's not as if I've seen many."
"Oh, right." Chalcedony rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, let's go look at some humans." She held out her hand. "We haven't gotten to the fun part yet."
He stared at her hand for a moment before he grabbed it and let her pull him out of the forest.
Cars. He remembered them from his childhood.
Red, yellow, blue, green, black. They sped by one after the other, leaving metallic fumes in their wake. Slowly he remembered other things, forgotten memories of concrete, laughing and running, and a woman's touch--soft and tender.
"Stay close." Chalcedony's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "Are you okay?" she asked, staring at him intently.
He tried to put what he saw into words, but the memories were gone just as quickly as they'd appeared. "I'm fine." He looked around in an attempt to anchor himself. They were waiting for what he knew was a streetlight.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"A coffee shop," Chalcedony said. "It's not far."
When the cars stopped, he followed her across the street. As they walked, Coal studied the people's faces. Most avoided eye contact, but some stared directly at him and smiled.
"We're here." She stopped at a building with a sign that read "Ground Beans." "It's a coffee shop. I figured this would be a nice place to sit and relax."
Coal shrugged, noting the hesitation in her voice. "This is your adventure. I'm just along for the ride."
She stood a little straighter, and he followed her into the shop. Coal sat in one of the wooden chairs next to a window while Chalcedony ordered. The noonday sun beamed onto the table, and the smell of coffee and baked bread permeated the air. Chalcedony brought him coffee and a cream-filled pastry. For the second time that day, he was remi
nded how he hadn't had breakfast. He ate the pastry in three quick bites. He'd expected for it to be bland, like the dull colors of the human realm, but it tasted sweet and flavorful.
"I never get to do anything like this." Chalcedony bit into her pastry, chewed, and then swallowed. "I hunt rogue fey and then, we immediately go back home." She leaned back and smiled as the sunlight danced on her face.
"Why did you bring me here?" he asked.
Chalcedony stared out of the window at the crowded street. "I wanted to show you this. Most of the people here are college students. Look at how easy they live and how happy they are. They're a few years older than us, but they have no responsibilities. Their only job is to go to school. That's it."
Coal noticed half of the people in the shop had devices in front of their faces and wires connected to their ears. They didn't look happy. They spoke in high, grating voices, a sharp contrast to the husky and almost guttural sounds he had grown used to in the fey realm.
"I dream of running away and living here--maybe just the two of us," Chalcedony added.
"Why can't we?" Coal asked. He loved living around magic and being in the fey realm, but if living here meant that he would be able to be with Chalcedony, he would do it a thousand times over. He reached out to touch her hand, but she pulled away.
"Too many of my fey would die while Tetrick's mother and Queen Isis fought over Everleaf."
"Why can't you just leave everything to Madoc?" Coal asked, trying to hide his embarrassment at her rejection.
"No male shall rule. You know that. The other queens have only left me alone because it's against the law to rage war against a queenling. Besides, my mother made it clear before she died that my duty would always be to rule and protect Everleaf. I've never had an option, and neither will my oldest daughter. I'm cursed to reign, just as Madoc is cursed to serve."
"Hi," squeaked a small child wearing a pink dress and a tiara. Surprised, Coal and Chalcedony stared at the child, speechless.
"Hi," Chalcedony said, the first to recover.
"Are you a fairy princess?" the girl asked.
Chalcedony laughed nervously. "Why?"
"Because you have pointy ears. I'm a princess, too." The girl tapped her tiara and swung her waist-length jet-black hair from side to side. "I'm not a fairy, though. Are you?"
Chalcedony glanced briefly at Coal. "What's your name?"
"Elizabeth. I'm six." The girl smiled, showing a large gap where her two front teeth should've been. "Where did you come from?"
"I am from the land of the fey," Chalcedony said with a low, mischievous tone.
"Fey like a fairy?" Elizabeth's eyes were wide with joy. "Can I go there with you?"
"Elizabeth!" Someone shouted from across the shop. A woman, an exact copy of Elizabeth, only taller and plumper, walked towards them. Behind her sat a baby strapped in a high chair banging a piece of bread against a plate.
"Momma, look. She's a fairy. See. She has pointy ears," Elizabeth said when the woman reached their table.
"She does not have pointy ears," her mother said with a strained smile before she faced Chalcedony. "I'm so sorry. She says some of the most incredible things sometimes."
Chalcedony said, "That's alright. She's not bothering us."
"Let's go, Lizzy." The woman pulled Elizabeth towards the table where the baby sat.
Chalcedony spun towards Coal. Her eyes glowed with elation. "I've been to the human realm dozens of times. Besides you, I've never met another human who saw through glamour. Never!"
Madoc sat in his office, hunched over his desk, trying to find the source of the pollution in the giants' water supply. He'd gone out himself to track the cause but had found nothing. If it had only been poisoned once, the giants probably would have ignored it, but it had happened three times. They blamed the dwarves who lived and mined in the mountains upstream. Thankfully, neither the giants nor Madoc proved the dwarves had anything to do with it. The last thing they needed was a war.
A slow, hesitant tap at the door brought Madoc out of his thoughts. "What is it?" he asked, welcoming the distraction.
Bren stepped into Madoc's office. "Sir, I'm checking in from the forest."
Madoc leaned forward in his chair. "I'm listening,"
"They were there," Bren began. "I was hiding as you recommended, but when I saw them in a ... questionable position, I had to interrupt and make sure the princess was not being harmed."
"What do you mean questionable position?"
Bren cleared his throat. "They were ... they appeared to be kissing."
"It's either they were or they weren't." Madoc suppressed a smile, amused by Bren's obvious discomfort. Bren paused and lifted his head.
"They were kissing, sir."
A grin crept across Madoc's face. Well, they finally crossed the line. "What did the princess say when you interrupted them?"
"She was surprised and asked where I had come from."
"Did you tell her I sent you?"
"I told her you had ordered me to patrol the forest."
"And she believed you?" Madoc asked.
"Yes."
"Good." Few of his guards were so good at lying. "Did you tell anyone else about this?"
"No, sir," Bren said, recoiling as if he'd been insulted. "Of course not."
"Well." Madoc sat back in his chair. "Don't feel like you have to keep it a secret."
Bren grimaced and narrowed his eyes in confusion. Madoc crossed his arms across his chest.
"I want you to spread this rumor of them kissing. It may be a helpful catalyst to get the human out of this realm."
Bren nodded. "Yes, sir. I understand."
"Good. You're dismissed."
After Bren left, Madoc closed his eyes. He tried to predict where this relationship with Chalcedony and Coal would lead. It could only end one way: nowhere. He wanted to kill the boy to ensure that, but he trusted his prophets. They rarely foresaw anything, so when they did, he listened and obeyed. He felt change in the air. He had no idea what was coming, but he was looking forward to watching it play out.
Chalcedony couldn't stop staring at Elizabeth. The girl reminded her so much of Coal at that age.
"Chalcedony," Coal said.
She turned towards him. For a moment, she'd forgotten he'd come with her.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine." Coal was trying to look comfortable. But she'd known him for too long to be fooled. His shoulders were squared as if he was waiting for someone to start a fight with him. He gripped his mug as if it was the only thing between him and death.
"You don't like it here, do you?" Chalcedony asked.
"No," he answered without hesitation.
"Why?"
"I'm not sure. I was homeless before you found me. Maybe that has something to do with it. When we first arrived, I remembered a woman. I think she was my mother, but then she left me." Coal changed the subject. "What are we going to do about the kiss?"
She rubbed the back of her neck. She could dodge the question again, but he would just keep bringing it up. Besides, he was right. It needed to be addressed. "There is nothing we can do about it. Madoc will kill you if ..." she trailed off. "We have to forget it happened." She glanced at the ground, willing the memory of their kiss away. "We're best friends. That's all we can ever be."
"Queen Isis, in the south, has a human mate and no children." He stared at his cup.
"She's a hundred years older than me. No one doubts she's strong enough to fight for her lands. I don't have that luxury."
"Why don't you fight for what you want?" Coal pressed.
She couldn't let herself even think about being with him. The thought felt like a betrayal to her mother and all she'd worked for since birth. "Why did we have to grow up? It was so much simpler when we ran around Legacy all day without--"
"Without wanting to kiss each other in the middle of it," he said with a crooked smile.
"No." She laughed despite herself. "When we
were younger, we spent all day together without everyone gossiping."
He sobered suddenly. "Are you going to leave me here?"
"I told you already. I would never do that. Do you want to stay?"
"No, I hate it here," he responded as if she'd accused him of stealing.
"Don't worry about it." Yes, it would solve everything, but the thought of being without him scared her. Out of the corner of her eye, Chalcedony saw Elizabeth waving goodbye as her mother hustled her out the door.
"Are you finished?" Chalcedony asked, standing. Coal placed his cup on the table and stood.
"Yes."
"Let's go." Chalcedony hurried out of the shop. Just as they bounded onto the street, Elizabeth and her family turned the corner. Chalcedony walked faster.
"Are we leaving now?" Coal matched Chalcedony's pace.
"Not yet."
"Then, where are we going?"
"You'll see," she answered, but she didn't really know herself. She wanted to talk to the girl again.
As Chalcedony expected, Elizabeth and her family didn't live far from the coffee shop. Humans drove most places, but not if they lived on a college campus. Elizabeth's mother unlocked the door to their apartment and stepped in. Chalcedony waited a few moments and knocked.
"Why are we here?" Coal asked, with an impatient, accusatory tone.
"Shh."
"No. Why are we here?"
She knocked again, ignoring his burning gaze.
"Oh, hi? Did I forget something at the restaurant?" Elizabeth's mother asked after she opened the door.
"Yes," Chalcedony said. "Can we come in?"
"Um." She eyed Chalcedony and Coal. "What do you want?"
Before she lost her nerve, Chalcedony brought the pouch of glamour from under her shirt and blew the powder into the woman's face.
Chapter Four
When the glamour hit Elizabeth's mother, she flinched and blinked, trying to clear her eyes. After a long moment, she shook her head and refocused Chalcedony. The suspicious look she'd had earlier disappeared, replaced with a too-wide smile.
"What was that?" Coal asked.
"I'm glamouring her. That way, she'll have to do what I say," she said in a low, impatient voice.
Coal: Book One of the Everleaf Series Page 3