Both friends gave her a grateful nod though she didn’t feel deserving of it.
“So you have complete control then? You don’t just bounce around minds and hear things in passing?” Jakon queried further.
“I can hear things if they’re projected loudly enough, when a person doesn’t realize just how loud their thoughts are. But mostly, I have to sort of…reach in.” She cringed at the notion.
Faythe went on to explain about mental barriers and how she got Nik to teach her how to protect her mind—from herself, but mostly from other Nightwalkers. She struggled to put her ability into comprehendible words and had to admit there was a lot she was still figuring out.
When they settled into silence, Faythe rose to her feet. “There’s something I have to do,” she said, going for her cloak.
“We’ll come with you,” Jakon responded immediately. He went to stand but winced, clutching his middle.
Faythe gave him a scolding look. “I don’t think so.” Then she looked down at Marlowe, offering an encouraging smile. “I think you two have a lot to talk about.”
The blacksmith nodded in appreciation for the opportunity to explain what she knew of her oracle gift. She glanced at Jakon, and his face also smoothed out in realization of the time they needed alone as a couple.
“Where are you going?” he asked in concern. He had every reason to be anxious with the trauma of the thugs’ ambush still fresh. Nik had assured her he’d take care of them, but she didn’t have the stomach to ask what he meant by that. She’d told Jakon as much, but if the tables were turned, she’d be sick with worry too.
“I’m not putting you in any more danger than I already have. I’m going to tell Ferris I’m done.”
Chapter 39
Stepping up to the large white house, Faythe felt confident when she rapped on the door and took a step back. To her relief, Ferris’s mop of wavy red hair came into view, and he grinned at her.
“How are the preparations for your big fight at the end of the week?” he asked in greeting.
She didn’t match his dark delight. “I’m out, Ferris.”
His face fell instantly, and he stepped outside, closing the door behind him. “What do you mean, you’re out?” he hissed.
She didn’t balk at his switch in tone. “I mean exactly what I said.” She went to turn on her heel, but he grabbed her elbow. Her head snapped around to snarl at him.
“You can’t back out now—not for this one,” he said with a hint of trepidation that alarmed her. In all her years of knowing him, she had never seen him cower from anything. But right now, there was genuine dread in his eyes.
“What have you done, Ferris?” she asked calmly, though her heartbeat quickened in anticipation.
He let her arm go to run his hand through his rugged hair and began a short pace. “I didn’t do anything except what we agreed,” he shot defensively. “But the fae—he’s expecting you, and it’s my head if you don’t show,” he said through his teeth.
Her frown deepened. “Just tell them I’m no longer interested.”
“Did you not hear me?” He halted in front of her, his face grave as he said, “It’s not about the money, the glory, or any of that anymore. If you don’t show, he said he would kill me.”
She paled. “It’s just a stupid fear tactic—”
“No, Faythe,” he interjected. “He was deadly serious. He’s one of them—you know he can get away with it.”
Horror clung to her like a frozen blanket. “I was attacked last night, Ferris. Jakon was stabbed by one of those vengeful monsters I fought in The Cave, and he almost died because of it! Do you understand? I won’t risk his safety again for others’ entertainment,” she tried to keep her voice low, conscious of the occupants in the household behind them.
Now it was Ferris who blanched chalk-white. “I—I didn’t know…”
Faythe shook her head in disbelief, turning to walk away again.
“You don’t have to win! Just be fast enough to dodge until he can get you to submit,” he said desperately.
She huffed a humorless laugh. “Is that all? And what if he decides he wants to kill me?” Faythe wanted to shout and rage at him—it was his crazy plan to challenge a fae in the first place—but, frustratingly, she realized she couldn’t. This was just as much her mess for being so foolishly naive to agree to it.
“I’ll make sure there are men in place to intervene,” he said, though even he knew it was little consolation.
She wanted to laugh in his face at the completely futile offer of protection. If a fae wanted it, she’d be dead before another man could take one step. Her hand was forced. It was either risk her life or forfeit Ferris’s. While she didn’t particularly hold the strongest love for him at the best of times, he was still a friend, and she’d be damned if she let anyone else get hurt when she had a chance to prevent it.
“If I save your ass now to die in that cave, you’d best believe I’ll be seeing you in pits of the Netherworld when Jakon gets a hold of you.”
“Don’t I know it,” he muttered.
She didn’t plan to ask Ferris for his help in gaining access beyond the wall yet. Admittedly, she wanted to hold off just a little longer in fear of the daunting task. But it seemed like the perfect—and perhaps the only—opportunity she would get since he owed her for risking her life in The Cave.
“I need something in return,” she blurted.
Ferris cocked an eyebrow, folding his arms inquisitively. “Whatever you need, it’s yours.”
She exhaled a long breath, closing her eyes for a moment, not quite believing she was about to ask such a foolish request. “I need a route into the inner city…then to the castle,” she got out quickly. When Ferris didn’t immediately respond, she squinted one eye open to check his reaction. It remained the same: unflinching, deliberating.
“When?” he asked at last.
Relieved he wasn’t reprimanding her for the obvious recklessness of such a plan, she straightened. “Soon,” was all she answered. She had to get through this fight first and couldn’t let the thought of her impending fool’s mission distract her.
Unless I die in that cave. Then Aurialis will be free to torment my soul with my failure for eternity in those woods.
“You may want to listen carefully then. It will not be an easy task.”
No—nothing ever was. But it had never stopped her from trying before. She tuned in carefully to Ferris’s instruction, all the while trying to tame her leaping heart, which was close to eruption now.
Chapter 40
“Absolutely no way in rutting damn!”
Though she expected Jakon to blow up at the news of her fight with the fae, Faythe winced at the outburst. “They threatened his life—I have to at least try,” she argued.
Jakon’s eyes were livid, and she would be lying if she said it didn’t scare her a little. “Better his life than yours,” he growled.
She gave him a flat look. “I’m not going to try to win. I only have to be fast enough to dodge and let the fae beat me—safely,” she added quickly.
He scoffed. “You’re good in combat, Faythe, I’ll give you that, but you’re not that good to outrun a fae!”
“You’re right—no mortal is. But you forget I have other…advantages,” she countered with a cunning smile.
He caught on to her meaning but shook his head. “They’re still too quick.”
Faythe explained how she had been training with Nik to reach in and glean her opponents’ maneuvers before they physically made them, and how she’d succeed to some extent against the fae guard. Surprisingly, Jakon looked impressed, and his anger even cooled—slightly.
“That damned rutting bastard. I swear, when I next see him—”
“You’ll do nothing,” Faythe cut in. “I agreed to it. If I can just get past this one last fight, I promise there will be no more.” She held his stare, and she could see he was fighting against the will to protest further. But he conceded with a
reluctant nod.
Marlowe had gone back to her cottage for the night after much persuasion from Jakon that he was almost in full health and didn’t need coddling. Her two friends had worked over everything, and it was an immense consolation to know nothing had changed between them because of what Marlowe was. Jakon always had a heart of gold, and Faythe felt horribly guilty she ever doubted his acceptance of either of them.
She was relieved when the blacksmith hesitantly agreed to stay at home for the night. Faythe’s cot was much too small for the two women to get a comfortable sleep, and she had been dealing with a stiff neck and back all day from the previous night. It was also liberating that Faythe could tell Jakon about her plans to meet with Nik. Although she didn’t need to sneak out anymore, Nik still insisted they meet after midnight. She didn’t press the reasons why but hated the uneasy feeling he wasn’t being entirely open about his assignments in the guard beyond the wall. He still never spoke of it.
She quickly dismissed any thoughts of suspicion. He had given her no reason to be paranoid or distrust him. She swallowed the feelings of caution and passed them off as nerves for what was blooming between them. She had yet to fully understand what it was.
Jakon retired for the night after a long lecture on being safe and careful, throwing in a few threats to Nik should anything happen to her. Faythe rolled her eyes the whole time at his overprotective nonsense—the irritating downside to him knowing everything.
She envied his soft snoring she could hear from the kitchen, where she stood cloaked and ready to leave. She was mentally exhausted from the beating of emotions she’d taken after her confession to Jakon and confrontation with Ferris, both piled on top of an abundance of new information she’d received from a Spirit she’d long believed to be a myth. Faythe was surprised she was still sane, and she craved a long, restful sleep to keep it that way.
But she longed even more to see Nik, she realized, and it made her giddy with excitement. She forced everything else she had to deal with to the back of her mind. She had to find a way to ask him if he’d agree to meet her every night this week for practice. She only had five nights left before she would face off with a fae opponent in The Cave, and she needed every second of learning to tune in to her abilities if she were to even stand a chance of not being annihilated. She only hoped she wouldn’t have to tell him exactly why she was so eager to exercise her mind so much. She feared his reaction would be far worse than Jakon’s.
When the hands of her watch hit midnight, she left the cottage quietly to not disturb her friend and made off down the streets, stealthy under the cover of the shadows. In the woods, she made out Nik’s figure with his back to her as the clearing drew close, and her heart leapt with a thrill at the sight of him. He turned to her when she emerged past the tree line, and his greeting smile was enough to make her breathless. He took a few steps forward to meet her, and they stopped within arm’s reach.
“How are your friends?” he asked quietly, his emerald eyes sparkling as he looked down at her.
“I don’t think I want to talk about them right now,” she said, taking the last step to close the space between their bodies. Her hands reached up, fingers curling in the back of his hair, as she pushed up on her toes to kiss him. She could never get enough of how it made her feel; how being close to him sent her into a whole new world of blissful freedom from any of her fears or worries. He kissed her back fiercely, and she felt the longing in him too.
When they broke apart, neither stepped back. Nik traced his fingers along the side of her face, and she leaned into the touch.
“I’ve been waiting quite a while to do this,” he mumbled softly.
Her eyes bore into his, telling him she had long desired it too. She kissed his palm at her cheek and then abruptly stepped back, out of his hold. At his look of protest, she chuckled in amusement.
“As much as I’d love to do that all night, I need your help.”
He didn’t answer, instead folding his arms and tilting his head inquisitively.
She nervously shifted her weight. “I need to work on my mind abilities in combat. Will you go back to being my test subject?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “I’m sure we could dedicate a couple of nights to—”
“Every night?” she blurted before she could stop herself. His face fell into a frown, and she cursed inwardly. “I mean, the sooner I get acquainted with what I already know I can do, the better I can get at exploring other things,” she recovered quickly.
Faythe new she’d ruined it when his eyes narrowed a fraction.
“Why so eager for it to be in combat?” he questioned accusingly.
She cursed herself again and wracked her brain for an excuse, but nothing came that would withhold the inevitable reveal of her foolish mission.
His frown deepened at her floundering silence. “What aren’t you telling me?” A look of hurt crossed his eyes—that she would attempt to hide something from him.
She sighed in defeat. “Promise me you won’t blow up about it?”
He gave her a look that said he could make no such guarantee.
“Promise me,” she repeated, a plea in her voice.
His only reply was a small nod, and she scowled at him. Taking a deep breath, she rambled through the deal with Ferris and why she couldn’t back out of it. When she finished, she dared to look at him through one eye. His face was a mask of calm, dark rage, and it shook her far more than Jakon’s outburst.
“You are not going to that fight,” he said in a lethal quiet that would send most men running.
“Didn’t you hear? I don’t have a choice—”
He was a foot in front of her in an instant, his green eyes much darker than they were moments before. They burned holes straight through her.
“I don’t think you quite understand what you’ve naïvely signed yourself up for. It’ll be your death warrant, Faythe. Win or lose.”
“I can do this,” she argued, her own anger simmering. She was sick of everyone believing they knew what was best for her and what she was capable of. Sick of being treated like some delicate girl to be protected.
His eyes flashed. “The fae don’t go easy. They don’t give in—especially not to a human. They won’t hesitate to kill you given the opportunity, and you’re offering yourself on a damned silver platter.” He seethed, walking away.
“If you won’t help me, I’ll damn well teach myself. But you can’t stop me.”
He whirled back around, and there was nothing kind in his face at her defiance. They stared off for a moment, neither backing down, until Nik sucked in a long breath and ran a hand over his face.
“Your heroism is not admirable; it’s reckless,” he said, but she didn’t respond to the remark. He sighed. “If you can’t best me by the time this fight comes around, I don’t care if I have to tie you to a gods-damned tree—you will not be going.”
A compromise, she supposed, and a challenge.
She straightened, a smile tugging at her lips. “Deal.”
His face fell, and she knew he was struggling internally not to screw the deal and be sure she never made it back to The Cave regardless. She knew he could by brute force alone, so it was a small relief when he agreed to at least give her a chance to prove herself.
“This friend of yours means nothing to me, but you…” He trailed off as if unable to finish the sentence. He didn’t have to say anything more; his face was laced with fear that something could happen to her down there. She was as fragile as an insect compared to him.
She closed the distance between them and held a hand to his face. “I know,” was all she said, and he loosened under her touch. Faythe kissed him once—in promise that she would walk out of that cave alive. Though she knew it was not a promise entirely in her power to make, it was all she could do to curb his worry.
She stepped back and walked a few paces away. Drawing her sword, she turned to him with a goading smile.
“Shall we begin?”
Her eyes locked on his. “As always, don’t hold back.”
Chapter 41
“Are you even trying?”
Faythe ducked as she narrowly missed yet another of Nik’s inhumanly fast swipes. Without giving her a second to respond, she saw his next move and jumped before he could knock her feet out from under her. She wanted to scowl, but she knew better than to listen to his taunts by now. He had been using them as a distraction tactic, and it had taken her a while to catch on before she started to block his words out completely.
“Honestly, I think you should just give up,” he drawled, bored and not in the slightest bit out of breath. But he didn’t stop, or even slow for that matter, as she parried against his brutal onslaught of attacks.
She was sweating and had not once broken eye contact, using all her mental focus to foresee his next anticipated move. It was the last night they had before her fight tomorrow, and she had gotten better. A lot better. But it still took an incredible physical and mental toll on her, and she took every moment she could get when she wasn’t training to fall into a dark, restful sleep and regain her strength.
The thoughts had started to come to her quicker, and now, she was able to dodge more swiftly through practice. She found that although she could remain in his mind without maintaining eye contact, the information came a lot quicker if she held it. Nik had opened his mind enough to let her in for those immediate thoughts only. She didn’t dare try to go beyond, though she was sure he would be guarded in case she tried anyway.
No one liked to have their personal thoughts raided, and it wasn’t the way she wanted to find out more about him.
After a couple more dodges and clashing swords, she twisted away from his next move before he made it and held the point of her sword to his back. She let out a breathy laugh of victory and began to lower her blade, but the moment she let her guard down, he twirled, taking her feet out from under her. In the same breath, Nik held her as they twisted so she fell on top of him instead of the hard ground. It wasn’t much better; he was almost as solid as stone, and the air was knocked from her despite his chivalry.
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