Chapter Thirteen
Shay
As irrational and selfish as it seemed, I didn’t want to leave.
Queen Iduna’s land was perfect. Warm nights in sleepy forests. Friendly nymphs ready to hand over their own plate of food if you were hungry. Happy, music, dancing. Everyone worked together, everyone got along. Why would I want to return to Acadia where everyone wanted me dead? Or worse, Earth? Here, I was safe. No worries. No sadness. No fear. A fairy-tale. I deserved a fairy-tale. Didn’t I?
I wouldn’t feel guilty about wanting to remain here. I wouldn’t. In New York I was worse than scum. I was nobody. In Acadia I was ordinary when everyone expected me to be perfect, a saint. But here, here, I was one of them. And who wouldn’t want to be one of them? Magical, lovely, happy beings.
Determined, I brushed aside a branch, following the trail, and searching for the familiar sound of music that would indicate the clearing was nearby. But the world was quiet. Still. Not even insects chirped. I paused and glanced back. The trail behind me had disappeared. Only trees and darkness remained. Where was I?
Slowly, I turned. Hadn’t I been by a creek? Somewhere with Mak? The queen? A whisper of a breeze swept through the trees, rattling the branches and stirring me from my thoughts.
Keep going, it seemed to say.
I started forward once more. Yes, I’d be perfectly content staying here forever. Perfectly content watching the nymphs dance and laugh, while music played and the mead flowed, and everyone was happy to be alive. Just…happy. No worries. No troubles. No drama.
I felt like I belonged. Finally belonged somewhere. Anywhere. Everyone accepted me. No one expected anything from me. They only wanted me to be content. Happy. At peace.
A bird sang a sweet song from above, interrupting my thoughts and startling me.
“Why do I have a feeling you’re trying to tell me something?”
I smiled up at the delicate creature as I slid my hands into the pockets of my dress, willing to stand there all night and listen to it sing. But my fingers brushed something soft and heavy in my right pocket. Bemused, I pulled out a small, leather pouch.
“What’s this?”
A sudden memory flashed through my mind, something important, something I needed to know. Should know. Yet, it was confusing and muddled. A petite older woman with kind, dark eyes.
“You didn’t think to leave before saying goodbye?” She wrapped her arm around my shoulders and pulled me into her flowery scent. And as she hugged me, she slid her hand down my arm, secretly searching for my palm. “Take it, use it if you need.”
A whisper of a request. A secret.
She’d given me the pouch. Why? I tugged on the strings until it fell open. Golden glitter sparkled in the dim light. Beautiful. Magical. Was it moving? A breath caught in my throat. It seemed almost alive.
“What are you?”
Fascinated, I dipped my fingers into the golden glitter until it stuck to my skin. A tingling warmth swept up my hand, my arm. Startled, I dropped the bag. At impact, the glittery dust burst into the air, forming a cloud of gold that peppered the trail and leaves around me. Branches crackled, rolling back as if startled in outrage.
A dark, foreign trail came into view.
I didn’t remember the path. Surely it wasn’t the right way. Where was the music? The lamps? The laughing nymphs? The scent of apple tarts and roasted butternut squash? Where was the essence of happiness and peace? Everything felt so quiet, so watchful.
“Hello,” I called out, stepping closer to the trail. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
Silence. No one.
Tentatively, I moved onto the path. It was as if I’d stepped into a new world. Like a veil had been lifted. The stillness pressed down, weighing heavily, almost suffocating. When nothing happened, I took another step, and another, drawn to the mystery of it all.
The trail curved right, then left, twice more. I wasn’t sure how long I walked, but once I started, I couldn’t seem to stop. My feet moved of their own accord, as if I was no longer in charge of my body.
It was a mystery that needed to be solved. The night sky called to me. The very air smelled of sweetness and dew and…Christmas. Yes, pine needles. Slippery pine needles that were suddenly underfoot, making me slide and stumble.
And just when I started to grow nervous, the path opened wide and a dark, emerald field emerged. Bemused, I paused on the outskirts. A velvet green field, dew glistening like diamonds on the blades, and a million stars twinkling in a navy sky. No, not just stars. Wisps. Isn’t that what Mak had called them? My chest grew tight with so many emotions, I couldn’t decipher one from the other. I’d never seen anything so stunning.
“Beautiful.”
Light shone from the full, laughing moon above. This obviously wasn’t earth, nor did I think I was any longer in Magenta.
Magic, the world whispered back.
Was I in some sort of magical realm, lost between dimensions? Bemused, I turned, searching for the voice. Something glimmered in the trees, catching my eye. What was it? I inched closer. A large glowing pod of some sort. No, not one. Many. Many pods that hung from fir branches along the perimeter of the field like ornaments on a Christmas tree.
My heart hammered. “Cocoons?”
A shiver of unease whispered over me, and just like that the awe vanished. The warm, comforting cloak of magic disappeared, and in its place something cold, heavy weighed down on me. I moved closer. Closer. The brilliant colors morphed, pulsing. Green. Pink. Blue. And in the middle of that pod, a dark shadow of some sort rolled and squirmed.
My heart slammed wildly in my chest. My attention shifted to the perimeter of the field. There were hundreds of them. Hundreds of pods hanging from the trees, some still and some quivering with movement, like a butterfly about to hatch.
“What the hell?”
One of the dark shadows shifted closer to the glowing skin of the cocoon. A face pressed to the translucent pod. Gasping, I stumbled back. A female of some sort, with petite features and long, golden hair. Her eyes were closed, her lips slightly parted. She was asleep. Frozen like a caterpillar awaiting its rebirth.
An icy chill raced down my spine.
This was not fantasy and magic, this was a horror show. I tore my gaze from the girl and turned. She wasn’t the only one. Slowly, I started along the perimeter of the field. The chill dew on the blades of grass soaked my slippers, numbing my toes, but I barely noticed. Babies. Toddlers. Even teenagers slept quietly, curled up in their glowing cocoons, oblivious to the world around them.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” someone snapped.
Startled, I spun around. A nymph stood nearby, his golden eyes narrowed into a glare, his beautiful long, blond hair fluttering on the gentle breeze. I didn’t miss the sword at his side. My heart hammered madly, so hard and fast I thought I might faint. It was as if I’d been half-asleep and the truth had just come crashing down, throwing me into a cold, deadly river of reality.
“I…I…”
He rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. Without another word, I turned and raced toward the trail. I could feel his gaze on me the entire time I ran, burning into my back. And in those few minutes it took for me to reach the mouth of the woods, I fully expected to feel the sharp blade of his sword.
It was only as my feet hit the path and I started to slip on pine needles, that I dared to glance back. He was gone. The field empty. Dark. Only the soft glow of those cocoons remained. I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling cold. Alone.
Were they nymph children? But they didn’t look like natural beings.
The leaves unfurled, breaking and snapping back into place, covering the field from view. Mak. I had to find Mak. I bolted down the path, diving farther into the woods, running until my lungs burned. Not even the sudden fog that whispered at my feet, cool and damp, like manacles trying to tie me to the earth, could keep me from slowing.
I hiked up my skirts around my thighs. Night beat
against me, no longer relaxing but intimidating. Everything had changed. Over my harsh breath, I caught the first fine notes of music. I was getting closer. I could hear it. Sense it. I should have felt relieved. I only felt confused.
“Princess, listen to me.” Mak’s voice whispered through my memory. “It’s very easy to lose track of time in the natural worlds. Humans can’t handle the magic.”
Oh god, how long had we been here?
I shoved aside a low-hanging branch.
“You can go to bed, wake up, and a week has gone by. Time is different here. We have to stay clear-headed, and for god’s sake, don’t fall asleep.”
Had we slept?
The trees gave way and I burst into the clearing. The world spun around and around like a dizzying, merry carousel. The nymphs still danced, the music still played. It was as if no time had gone by. Everything was so…normal. Yet, nothing felt the same. I dropped my skirts so they whispered against my ankles. Mak stood near the table, drinking and laughing with a beautiful nymph who was pressed to his side. Close. Too close. I shouldn’t have felt a fiery rush of jealousy, but I did. Had he even noticed I was missing?
I stomped toward him. “Mak, we need to leave. Now.”
“Leave?” He smiled charmingly. “Why?”
Where had I left my boots? Where had I left my clothing, for that matter? I knew I hadn’t arrived in a dress, had I? “Now,” I demanded in a harsh whisper, grabbing his hand. “We need to go.”
Chuckling like an idiot, he left his nymph friend and stumbled beside me. “Alright, calm down.”
Was he drunk? Or was it the magic? I had to shake him out of it. But how? The pod children had shocked me out of my stupor. How could I shock him? Just when I was thinking about slapping him back into reality, the queen suddenly appeared in front of us.
“And why are you rushing off?”
I skidded to a halt. Mak ran into my back, sending me stumbling forward a step. Would she let us leave? Her green gown glimmered like grass wavering on the breeze, while her long hair whispered down around her. She was perfection. Always. Yet, there was something in her gaze, something hard and uncompromising that I hadn’t noticed before, something that said she wasn’t as caring and accepting as she pretended. Something that told me she hadn’t been merely welcoming us into her little family out of the kindness of her heart, but had planned all of this.
I swallowed hard. “We’re…we’re leaving.”
“I see.” She sighed, as if saddened by my statement. As if she cared. “Well then, you dropped this, my dear.”
There was no anger or malice on her face, only innocent acceptance. I didn’t buy it. She lifted her hand, my small leather pouch open on her palm. The gold glittered under the lamplight. Whereas before it had seemed ethereal, beautiful, now it seemed suspicious. It had led me to the children in the cocoons. I was sure of it. But why?
Fairy dust, the breeze seemed to whisper.
Mak snatched the pouch from the queen’s hand before I had a chance to grab it. His hazy gaze had cleared. It had taken children in danger to break me from my daze, but apparently it took only the prospect of fairy dust to get Mak’s attention.
His gaze jumped to me, his eyes full of wariness and condemnation. That carefree Mak was gone, in his place the man I’d met when I’d first arrived to this realm. The man who would do whatever it took to win. “Where did you get this?”
“I don’t know. I can’t…” The memory of an older woman pressing the pouch into my hand flashed to mind once more. Who was she? She seemed vaguely familiar, although I couldn’t place her.
“Shay?” Mak snapped.
I squeezed my eyes shut. My mind was slipping again. I could feel it falling, falling, into a pool of syrup, sticky, thick, sucking me under. No. I couldn’t let it. “I’m not sure.”
“Fairy dust,” Mak added. “Think.”
On a rush of confusing memories, it all came back, leaving me staggering and breathless. We were searching for fairies. War. There was going to be a war if we didn’t find the fairy magic. We were supposed to uncover an outcropping of fairy dust in order to save Acadia.
“We need to leave now,” Mak snapped, his glare on the queen.
Obviously, his memory had returned as well, and he blamed the queen for our lapse. Had she tricked us? But why would she? Nothing made sense. Everything was all so muddled.
She smiled sweetly, her face so pure, so stunning, it was hard to believe she was capable of dishonesty. “Well, why didn’t you say so, my dears? I’m certainly not forcing you to remain. You’re free to come and go as you wish.”
Mak tugged on my hand, but I refused to budge. “Why do you have those children in the cocoons? I thought only the fairies used human children?”
She waved her hand through the air, and a large, gnarly apple tree suddenly stood stately behind her, laden with perfect, ripe red fruit just waiting to be plucked. Of course it was perfect. Everything here was perfect. Too perfect.
“The human children? Oh delightful, you’ve met them!”
A brilliant red apple appeared in her palm.
“Children?” Mak asked, confused.
“Yes, children being kept in pods.”
She frowned. “We merely protect them for the fairies.”
Was she telling the truth? “Do they even know they’re human?”
She shrugged. “They know they’re here to serve the fairies.”
I lunged toward her. “You’re stealing their childhood!”
Before I could reach her, Mak wrapped his muscled arm around my waist and pulled me back into his warm body. “Easy,” he whispered. “Not here, not now.”
Then when? I wanted to ask. How could we leave them here?
The queen leaned against the apple tree. “Perhaps fairies destroy your childhood, but what is a childhood in exchange for immortality? Besides, humans are meant to be submissive vessels for the greater good.”
Vessels? What the hell did that mean? Dear god, did they mate with them? “We are not wombs for you to use for your own gain!”
“Some would say otherwise, my dear. Some would say humans were made to be submissive to the natural folks. That we are their masters, while they should be obedient, useful.”
My fingernails bit into Mak’s forearms. The anger that seethed through me burned. How dare she. I wanted to race toward the field and release those children. I wanted to grab a dagger, sword, something, and shove it into her selfish heart.
She pressed her hand to her chest. “Of course, I don’t believe that.”
“We have to go,” Mak said softly near my ear. “We’re greatly outnumbered. We can’t do anything. Not now. Not yet. If we stay, we’ll just get sucked back under.”
We’d gotten nothing from this trip. Nothing. Waste of time.
“Where is the fairy hive?” I demanded, seething. How dare she. How dare she keep those children captive. Steal their freedom, their lives. How dare she force us here for her own weird reasons. “Tell us.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Such an obsession with fairy magic! I told you, dear girl, you don’t need the fairy magic, if you would learn to use your own. It’s all around you.”
“How do we get the fairy dust?” I asked, surprised my voice sounded so calm.
She disappeared, only to reappear in the tree, lounging on a branch above us. “Fine then. You want fairy dust? All you have to do is kill them.”
A cold sense of dread filled me. “Kill the fairies?”
She shrugged, looking completely indifferent. “It’s the only way. You can get a little dust from live ones, but as your beast prince knows, its weak. If you want enough to win a war, you’ll need to kill the hive.”
A war. That’s right, we were headed to war, and I was supposed to save my people. I rubbed my aching temples. Things were growing foggy, confusing again. The fairies were taking our children. They deserved to die. Didn’t they? But could I kill them? “I won’t. I won’t kill fairies.�
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She swung her leg back and forth in a hypnotic way. Her foot was bare, yet didn’t have a speck of dirt from the forest floor. “Well then. You’ll have to find the magic within, won’t you?”
I shook my head, stepping out of Mak’s grasp. “Within? How?”
She stacked her hands behind her head and closed her eyes. “The sorcerer, of course.”
“They’re all dead,” Mak growled, apparently as tired of her games as I. “And you know very well ours is weak.”
She opened her eyes and looked directly at us. “Are they all dead?” She slid off the branch like water over smooth boulders. That wicked glint in her gaze had disappeared, and she was innocent once more. “Come, dears. Come dance. Come eat. Be merry.”
****
Makaiden
“No,” I growled, breaking free of the cloud where I’d resided the last couple days. “No more dancing, no more eating or drinking.”
Why did Iduna have the human children? It made no sense.
“We’re leaving now.”
Queen Iduna lifted her brows, but I could see the amusement in her gaze. This was all a big jest to her. She was playing games. Why else wouldn’t she tell us the truth about the human children? And by the gods, the truth was probably worse than any of us had imagined.
I took Shay’s hand and started toward the thick trees. There had been a path, hadn’t there? Shite, how the hell did we get out? Anger flared, burning like a flame in the pit of my belly and spreading. My hand tightened on Shay’s.
Control. I had to keep control.
“Careful, Prince Beast,” Queen Iduna warned.
Fairy dust.
The words whispered through my mind. The fairy dust. I tore my hand from Shay and opened the small pouch. Fairy dust. More than I had seen in a long, long while. Where the hell had she gotten it? And why was she hiding it from me? The glittering dust caught my attention and held, sinking its claws into me. It was worth a small fortune. Power. So much power from such a small pile of dust. Would it open a path for us?
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