by Paige, Bea
“Like I’ve been trampled on by a horse.” He smiles, even though it seems to hurt him to do so.
“Do you have blood with you?” I know he needs it, and if he refuses to take mine then I will at least encourage him to drink someone else’s until I can change his mind. He points to his leather satchel that is lying on the ground a few feet from us. No doubt he dropped it during his terrible ordeal last night. “I’ll get it, stay there.” He groans as I get up from his lap. Even the slightest movement seems to pain him. Grabbing the bag, I return to his side. He takes it from me, opening the flap. From it he pulls a small glass bottle filled with blood. The moment his eyes fix upon it, his teeth lower from his gums and his mouth parts. He pulls out the cork stopper and downs the blood quickly, then drops the empty bottle back in the satchel. I hear it chink against the other bottles of blood in there.
“Better?” I ask.
He stands upright on shaky legs and leans against the tree. “I will be in a minute. Bottled blood is not as good as fresh blood from the vein, but it still has the desired effect. It just takes a bit longer.”
“Sure,” I say, unable to take my eyes off him. After a while, a little colour blooms on his cheeks and the bags beneath his eyes seem to fade just a little. He doesn’t look the way he did when I first met him, but it’s a vast improvement. “How much blood do you have left?”
“Three more bottles.”
“Will that be enough?” I chew on my nail, somehow knowing it isn’t going to be nearly enough.
He swings the strap of his bag over his head, adjusting it over his hip. “I will need to take blood more often to stay strong enough. This should keep me going for a few days, a week at most.” Ezra pushes off from the tree, far steadier than he was a moment ago.
“A few days? What happens when it runs out?”
He tucks his hand into the pocket of his coat, his eyes flicking up to mine. “I thought that was obvious by now. I will die,” he says simply.
My hand flies to my mouth. I knew his death would be the outcome eventually if he didn’t take my blood, I just hadn’t expected it to be so soon. After the trauma of last night, after all his suffering, after our kiss, I had hoped he would change his mind. Hoped that he would finally understand that he didn’t have to die, that he had a reason to live. But I guess that if Rhain and Devin couldn’t change his mind after being friends for a millennium, then I’m not going to be able to make a difference after such a short time. “You’re still determined then, even after…” my voice trails off.
“Accacia, I was out of my mind with pain.”
I flinch. “Oh, I get it. It meant nothing…” I start walking, following the vibrations of the stone once again.
“Wait, it meant something to you?” Ezra says, catching up with me. I look at him, unable to read the expression on his face.
“Do you play poker?” I ask.
“What? What is poker?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.” He waits, still expecting me to answer his question. I sigh heavily. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“So, you thought kissing me would be the answer?” he asks. He doesn’t appear to be annoyed, or upset, more curious than anything else.
“You were in pain, I thought… I don’t know what I thought. It felt like the right thing to do in the moment.”
Ezra looks at me for a long time. I wish I knew what he is thinking, but he isn’t giving anything away. “Don’t do that again… Kiss me like that, I mean,” he says, the curiosity gone, replaced instead with a poker face.
“Fine. I’m sorry I kissed you.”
He nods his head sharply. “We’ll talk no more of it. Now, let us get on with what we came to do and find your friend.”
We traipse through the endless forest. On and on we walk, stopping every now and then so we can both rest. Ezra is still weak, and I am a human who needs to eat and drink regularly to remain standing upright, so stopping is a necessity.
“Surely we must be close? I don’t understand how we can keep going for so long and still not come across anything resembling a fae village, or treehouse or whatever it is they live in,” I say, frustrated. “What about Rhain and Devin’s scent, can’t you just follow that or something?”
“I am not a wolf-shifter. I don’t have their keen sense of smell.”
“But Rhain, he could smell…”
“He was under the influence of the Claiming. His senses were heightened because of it. Your smell was… overpowering.” My head snaps around to look at Ezra, who is suddenly finding the canopy above very interesting.
“You smelt it too? But I thought you said that you don’t have a keen sense of smell.”
“I don’t have as keen a sense of smell as a wolf-shifter. They can smell a speck of blood from a hundred miles. We have a better sense of smell than humans, yes. I was able to smell you because you were undergoing the Claiming. Your desire was quite… pungent. It’s a wonder Rhain managed to hold himself together for so long.”
I feel my cheeks colour. Ezra eyes rest on my face, but I can’t look at him. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed,” he says quietly.
“What about now? How is your sense of smell at the moment, given you’re not your usual self,” I ask, ignoring his hot gaze.
“Not so great. I can’t track Rhain or Devin because I’m weak. My smell is not much better than yours and will weaken as I do.”
“Then take my blood, Ezra. Take my blood, you’ll be able to track Rhain and Devin. We can find them.”
Ezra stops short and sighs heavily. “This is the last time I am going to say this, Accacia. The answer is no. Nothing has changed. I will never take your blood.”
I grit my teeth, biting down on the frustrated scream that is desperate to be released. “Fine,” I snap.
“Besides, the fae clearly have magic. I don’t believe I would be able to catch my brothers’ scent even at full health. Your friend Clover is our only hope now. So, let us find her,” he says, holding his hand out. I take it, not because I want to, but because the canopy above is thicker in this part of the forest, and Ezra’s weakened senses are still better than my human ones.
We walk along in silence for a time until I notice a faint light up ahead. “Do you see that?” I say, pointing to a golden light flittering between the low branches of a tree.
“See what?” Ezra asks.
“There to your left.” He follows the direction of my pointed finger.
“It’s a firefly, they’re not unusual in Ever Vale. It is nothing.” He starts to move forward again, but the firefly catches my eye. This time there is another. They weave in the air about one another, a trail of light following their flight path.
“Wait. Look.”
Ezra stops. “So, there is another one. Perhaps they are mating?”
“I’m not sure, wait... Can you hear that?”
My attention is caught by a low humming from behind. I look over my shoulder and see a blaze of light as more fireflies move towards the dancing pair. There must be hundreds of them. The oddest thing is that the fireflies seem to be flying in the formation of an arrow. I watch in wonder as the brightness of their combined light illuminates the surrounding forest. They move at an alarming speed, I can feel the vibrations of their wings even from where we are standing. Just at the point I think they are going to smash against the tree, they disappear. One minute they are there, the next gone.
I stare opened-mouthed at the spot where they vanished. “Did you see that?”
“I did.”
“Where the hell did they go?”
“Accacia, I do believe we’ve found the hidden entrance to the fae realm.”
“The fae realm? I thought the forest is their home.”
“It is. What you see now, it is all just camouflage hiding the magic that lies beneath.”
“How do you know? You’ve not been here before, have you?”
“Nostra,” Ezra says. “He told me that the entrance to the fa
e realm would not be easy to find. That we may never find the secret entrance, even with the locator stone. We are fortunate, I guess.”
“If there was a possibility we would never find the fae realm, why did you agree to come with me. Why did any of you?”
“I’m here because of my promise. Rhain and Devin have their own reasons,” Ezra says, refusing to elaborate further.
“What are their reasons?”
“That is not for me to say.”
I am prevented from delving further by an image of Clover’s beautiful face suddenly appearing in my head, the echo of last night’s dream returning to me. Floating above her are two dancing fireflies. I smile. Clover has done this. Somehow, she has shown us the way. Maybe she wants to be found after all.
Chapter Five
“Was this definitely the spot?” Ezra asks, frowning. He has his hands pressed up against the tree the fireflies disappeared into. There is no door, no portal. Nothing.
“Yes, it is, I am certain of it. I don’t understand.”
“Perhaps we are mistaken?” Ezra moves away to the next tree and begins running his hands over the surface of the bark. I’m not entirely sure what he is looking for, I don’t think he knows either.
“Shit.”
“What is it?” Ezra rushes to my side.
“The stone, it’s going mad,” I say as the locator stone vibrates wildly within my hand. Bringing my fist up, I uncurl my fingers slowly. A light erupts, so dazzling I have to shade my eyes from it.
“Well, Lights be damned,” Ezra says loudly.
The light withdraws into the stone almost instantly and I find myself staring at an opening carved into the very tree itself. When I peer inside I can see nothing but the beginning of a set of stone steps leading down into darkness. I turn to Ezra, my mouth dropping open in shock. None of this makes sense. My scientific brain is reeling from the absurdity of it all.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Before I am even able to protest, he places his hand on my lower back, guiding me through the doorway. The moment we step inside the hollowed-out tree, the entrance seals shut behind us. It has the same earthy smell as Clover and, somehow, I find comfort in that. She is down here somewhere, and so too are Rhain and Devin.
“Looks like the only way to go now is down,” Ezra says.
“How will we get out?” I say, unable to hide the tremble of fear in my voice.
“I have no idea, Accacia. But if there is a way in to the fae realm, then there must be a way out. Do not be afraid.”
“I’ll try.” If I can survive a curse upon my head, being kidnapped by Roland, and the halflings’ attempt to kill me, then I could conquer my fear of confined spaces too. “So, the fae live underground?” I say, placing my hand on the wall of the tunnel to steady myself. Dirt falls away as I run my fingers along it. Beneath them I can feel the smooth curve of something embedded within the wall itself. The light from the stone is still glowing, so I hold it up against the wall, trying to see what I am touching. My hand falls away quickly as a vine as thick as my arm starts to pulse. Within seconds the walls light up with luminous green vines twisting and tumbling over each other, highlighting our descent into the earth below.
“Shall we?” Ezra says holding his hand out, and even though I don’t need him to show me the way now that I can see, I take it anyway.
We step downwards, following the winding stone staircase as it twists into the depths of the earth. The green vines in the walls glow as thousands of tiny orbs of light pulse beneath the surface. They remind me of how blood cells would look moving through a vein.
“Do you see that, Ezra? I have a feeling these vines are more than just a way to light the tunnel.”
“Yes, I was thinking along the same lines, Accacia.”
“Oh, how so?”
“When Queen Adrielle cast the curse, she trapped the people of Clan Terra within the forest itself. Tying them to the earth they once loved, making it their prison. Like we are prisoners of the light, they are prisoners of the earth.”
“What are you saying, that these vines are the people of Clan Terra?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Ezra frowns, placing his hand against one of the vines. It seems to brighten under his touch.
“But what of the fae you saw taking Rhain and Ezra? They could move freely. They’re human still, or at least part human like the wolf-shifters.”
“I am not saying the vines are the people of Clan Terra, but the lights that float within them. I don’t know how to explain it…”
“Try. It can’t be any crazier than what I am thinking.”
“Could it be possible that each of these lights represent the consciousness of each member of Clan Terra?”
“You mean that a part of their soul is trapped within these vines?”
“Something like that…” Ezra stops, the look on his face thoughtful.
“What is it, Ezra?”
“Something has been puzzling me ever since I saw the pods in your friend’s greenhouse.”
“Go on.”
“If the people of Clan Terra truly are confined to the Forbidden forest by the curse Queen Adrielle cast, how did those three pods come to grow in her greenhouse?”
“Hold on a minute,” I say, remembering the conversation I’d had with Clover a few weeks ago. “The last time Clover and I talked, she told me about these unusual saplings that she had found in her forest. She had been so excited about them. She explained how she thought they were a new species. Those saplings must have come from the Forbidden forest. They must have grown into those pods.”
“Yes, that would make perfect sense. The portal opened up on the edge of the Forbidden forest. Clover must have entered, seen the saplings and taken them back to her greenhouse, cultivating them there.” Ezra grins. Something inside my chest does a little flip-flop at the way his grey eyes light up. It’s like watching the sun emerge from a storm cloud.
“Then it would appear that the fae have found a way around the curse.”
“Yes!” I exclaim.”
“Which means…” Ezra starts, clearly thinking along the same track as me.
“Which means the fae must have believed Nostra, that they want to try and break the curse too.”
As suddenly as it appeared the smile slips from Ezra’s face, the storm cloud returning. “Perhaps not all. Clover came to you in your sleep. She warned you away, Accacia. She wouldn’t do that if all the fae were in agreement. Not to mention the fact that Rhain and Devin have been taken. There might be a faction within the fae who want to break the curse, but I suspect many more are not so keen about the idea.”
“But don’t they want their lives back?”
“You have to remember Queen Adrielle is powerful. Breaking the curse is dangerous for everyone involved. There will also be some who have become accustomed to their gifts, who enjoy the life they lead, and there will be others who simply cannot remember life before the curse or the freedom they once enjoyed.” Ezra sighs.
“Then Clover could still be in danger?”
“Yes, very much so. As are my brothers.”
“Then we should hurry,” I say, rushing down the steps.
Eventually we reach the bottom and find ourselves in a small, stone room. The shape of the room is odd, not square or even circular. In fact, if I am not mistaken, it is in the shape of a pentagon. Set in each side of the pentagon are five wooden doors. They all have a different flower or plant carved onto the surface. One has a rose, another ivy trailing across the surface. There is a bluebell carved in the third door, then a sunflower, and finally a dahlia. How strange. Perhaps this is a fae thing? I walk towards the centre of the room, stopping at a stone dais. Engraved upon it is a symbol. It is a pentagon again, but within its centre there is a circle. Lines divide the shape into five and meet the central circle. Each line has another circle centred upon it. I run my fingers over the grooves, wondering what on earth it all means.
“What now?”
I ask Ezra, feeling completely bemused.
He scratches his cheek. “I haven’t the faintest idea,” he says, moving from door to door. He gives each of them a gentle push to see if any will open. None of them do.
“I feel like Alice in Wonderland,” I mumble, half expecting to see an ‘eat me, drink me’ sign.
“Alice in what?”
“Nothing, nothing,” I say, feeling slightly hysterical.
“What about the stone? It opened the door above, perhaps it will open one of these too.”
“Good idea,” I say, walking over to the nearest door. It is the one with the sunflower. I hold the stone up and wait. Nothing. I push against it, still nothing. I do the same for each until I am finally faced with the door that has the rose carved into its surface. Ezra is standing behind me, peering over my shoulder.
I hold the stone up, but still nothing happens. “Now what?”
“Honestly, I have no idea, Accacia.”
“Damn it,” I say, slamming my hands against the door. I don’t know who’s more shocked, me or Ezra, as the door swings open with a gentle click.
Chapter Six
We step through the door and onto the brow of a hill that falls down into a sweeping valley below. Above our heads there is an impossibly high ceiling covered with millions of fireflies all twirling and moving about one another. They illuminate the space so brightly it is as though we are standing in the mid-day sun. I close my eyes, and something close to hope expands in my chest. Just beneath the surface of Ever Vale is a whole new world just waiting to be discovered. No wonder the fae didn’t take kindly to trespassers. If this was my home I would want to keep it a secret too. In the distance I can see another large forest, and within it lights dotted amongst the trees.
“What’s that over there?” I say, pointing in the direction I am looking.
Ezra shades his eyes from the light. “There appear to be buildings amongst the trees. Maybe that is where the fae reside, a city perhaps. I am too far away; my eyesight isn’t as sharp as it was before…”