by Cilla Raven
The next morning goes by pretty quickly, with a flurry of excitement floating through me as we all take turns bathing and changing in the bath tent by the stream, and then eating breakfast with everyone at the camp, in what they call, the dining tent. It was a buffet style set up, where no one had to serve anyone else, and everyone could eat at the same time, even those that prepared the meal.
As my eyes took in all the different color-winged fae intermingling with each other and with the humans of the camp, as if there really wasn’t a huge difference between them, my conversation with the Doconqueh remained light and happy. However, as soon as we were finished eating, I could feel unsaturated bloodlust start to enter my veins the closer we got to base tent, where I was finally going to learn the names of the fae that killed my mother.
Shara is standing next to the round table in the back when we walk in, and as she looks up and sees me, she reaches out a hand, beckoning me over, saying, “Oh, good. You’re here.” I wonder randomly if she was even at breakfast with the rest of the camp, but as soon as I walk over to the table, all of my previous thoughts fly away as if they never existed.
There are maps and notes spread across the table, laid out and neatly organized so that as I walk around the table, I can see everything. The Doconqueh stand off to the side like they don’t know if they should be a part of this, but Shara waves them over too, and they come to stand around the table as well.
“Okay, I know this may seem like a lot, and it is,” Shara says with a note of hesitation. “But this is all we have on the fae we’re looking for and how we figured out who they were.” She picks up the list of names that was laying in front of her and hands it over to me. “These are their names, but I’ve got our guy coming in soon to give me their actual bounty sheets.”
I barely get a glimpse of the names on the list before her words draw my eyes to hers. “They actually have sheets on them? Like they were all charged with a crime, and they ran rather than facing trial?”
Shara looks back at me with surprise at first, but then it’s like awareness of who she’s talking to seeps in, and she answers me readily. “Yes. They’ve been charged with crimes unrelated to Lana’s, sorry, your mother’s murder, and every one of them has fled custody.”
“Okay,” I say. “Are we sure they haven’t been picked up by another bounty hunter since they committed these crimes?”
Shara nods her head enthusiastically toward me. “Yes, we’re sure that hasn’t happened.”
I nod back at her as I look down at the list of names in my hands.
Elm Rosefur
Trevan Brambledust
Aven Rouge
Morel Copper
Helio Rumblewink
Confused, I look back at Shara with a question on my face, and as she watches me, she answers my unasked question with one of her own.
“You’ve never heard those last names before, have you?”
I shake my head at her, and she nods like she knew exactly the confusion I felt as I read the list of names. “It took us a very long time to figure out who they were and where they came from, but it turns out, all of those last names are Amaryan surnames.”
My brain slows to a stop at her words, but then the memory of the conversation I overheard before I left the castle between my father and Chancellor Extol floats through my head, and for a second, all I can do is stare at Shara in shock.
What if that’s why my father wanted to kill the Amaryan king? What if he found out who killed my mother and was actually seeking vengeance himself, finally, after all these years? I mean, if the rebels found this information, there’s no doubt in my mind that my father would’ve been able to find it as well. But that goes against everything I know to be true about Father, I think as confusion rattles my brain. Better to focus on other, more productive things than entertaining any ideas that Father has anyone other than himself on his mind, Z.
“No one other than the monarchs come out or ever go into Amarya,” I say as I notice all the Doconqueh seems to be just as confused by this information as I am.
Shara nods again as she says, “That’s what we thought too, but eventually we figured out that those fae on that list… they’re basically Amaryan mercenaries, and they were hired by someone to kill your mother, but we still don’t know who it was that hired them yet.”
“I guess I’ll have to get that information out of them when I catch them,” I say, making everyone’s gaze around the table fall on my face, but I don’t care. These fae whose names I have in my hands are going to pay, and I don’t care who knows that I’m looking forward to it.
Shara smiles though there’s no happiness behind it, just pure determination and vengeance. “I wouldn’t expect any less,” she says as someone pushes through the door behind me, causing her eyes to drift, but she quickly looks back at me. “Ah. Here’s Jay now. He’s got their bounty sheets and will be able to tell you more about them.”
I turn around to see who she’s talking about, and for a second, my brain tries to argue with my eyes over who I’m seeing, thinking it couldn’t possibly be who I think it is walking toward me right now, but as the teal-winged fae gets ever closer, his teal eyes narrowed in on me, the surprise I feel is nothing compared to the level of betrayal I feel from my best friend.
“Riah?” I ask, hoping that somehow, he’s not here as the rebel camp’s inside man, but as he comes right up to me, I know I can’t argue with reality anymore.
“Hey Zin,” he says, and everyone around me becomes so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.
We just stare at each other for a few seconds, the weight between us feeling like it weighs a ton and is growing heavier as I look into his eyes. I know him, and his eyes are pleading with me for something, though I have no idea what that something is. Forgiveness? Understanding? No clue. But where my usual reaction in situations where I’ve felt betrayed is to jump immediately to anger, the fact that its Riah has sadness pooling in me instead.
“You two know each other?” Shara asks, and instantly, what she said last night clicks together in my brain like a puzzle piece being put in place. She’d said that somehow, back when they were sending rebels into the city walls, each of them ended up being returned to the rebel camp instead of being carted off to Eruxus, and as I stare at my best friend, I know he’s the one that made that happen.
“I thought so,” I say, my voice sounding as cold as ice, even to my own ears.
Lazlo slides up beside me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “Well, that makes sense now! You know, for a while, Ghosty,” he turns his head to look at me, “we thought Jay here was The Ghost.”
Riah’s gaze travels to Lazlo’s arm, where it drapes around me, a surge of jealousy swirling in the depths of his eyes, but he checks himself quickly and hands me the sheets I hadn’t known he’d been carrying in his hands as he walked in.
I take them from him, and as politely as I can manage, I turn back to Shara and ask, “Would you mind if we spoke alone for a minute?”
Shara looks surprised, and so does everyone else for that matter, but she nods, and everyone follows her lead as she heads out of the tent, leaving Jarriah and me alone.
I don’t know what’s going on, but I know one thing for sure: I’m going to make Riah tell me everything.
Chapter 20
“Do you want to explain to me what’s going on here?” I ask when everyone is gone, crossing my arms over my chest, as I level Riah with a glare.
He runs a hand through his hair and says, “Let’s sit.” He pulls out a stool for each of us at the table, and I sit, waiting not-so-patiently for him to get on with it.
Taking a seat, he blows out a breath of air as if he’s not too sure about how I’ll take whatever it is he’s about to tell me, but soon enough, he starts talking. “Zin, I’m sorry. I know how this looks,” he gets out, but before he can keep going, I can’t stop myself from cutting him off.
“It looks like you’ve been lying to me for years,” I say, da
ring him to tell me any different, and his gaze falls for a second, his shoulders slumping some under the weight of my words.
“I know, and though it’s hard to admit, it’s true. I have been lying to you for a very long time,” he says. If there’s one thing I’ve always valued about my friendship with Riah, it was his truthfulness. Well, I guess that’s one thing I used to value. However, even now, as he’s talking to me, I can sense he’s being honest, which just lies in contrast to the thoughts and worries plaguing me.
Reaching out to me, Riah lays a soft hand on my arm where it’s crossed over my chest, and out of habit, I send my hand out to his, only second-guessing the movement after his fingers are already interwoven with mine.
“Back when I was twelve, and your mom died, I’d beat my head against the wall trying to figure out how I could help you, how I could ease your pain, and make you feel better, but for a long time, nothing I ever did seemed to make a difference. You remember that, right?” He asks, the vulnerability in his eyes so pure and untarnished I can’t help but nod at him.
He really had gone out of his way back then to bring a smile to my face, even going so far one night as to sneak all the way to my chambers in the castle just to bring me a bar of chocolate he’d swiped off some noble. The memory makes me want to smile, but the impact of him being here, in the rebel camp as if he belongs here, tarnishes that smile and makes it fall before it really even takes shape.
“Then you told me about how Uncle was training you in his footsteps to be a bounty hunter, and I know at the time, I’d made it sound like I was happy for you, that I was wholeheartedly behind you, but Zin,” he says as his eyes get wide in remembrance and he sends another hand through his hair, “that almost killed me.”
My hand involuntarily squeezes his without me telling it to as I watch him, but even with his betrayal, it still feels right. “What do you mean?” I ask, concern lacing my tone, despite how much I want to be angry with him right now.
“The thought of you out there hunting the fae that killed your mom scared the fae out of me, Zin. I didn’t want to lose you or see you get hurt; you know that. I still don’t, but back then it was like I had no control over what you were doing, and it wasn’t like I wanted to control you, don’t take it that way, please. It was more like I just couldn’t be with you to make sure you were safe, so my mind went to the worst possible scenarios of all the bad things that could happen to you, and feeling like I couldn’t do anything to keep you safe from all that was enough to make me start considering other options.”
“Other options like joining the rebellion,” I ask as more puzzle pieces come together in my mind.
Riah nods. “Exactly. I thought if I were to join the rebellion, I’d be in a position to get to those fae before you did, but when I got here, and I saw what they really were…” his words trail off for a second, but I wait patiently until he gets his thoughts together. “When I found out those fae weren’t rebels, and that this camp was started by your mother,” he starts, “I was so surprised, but they let me join them with almost no hesitation. They didn’t look down on me just because I’m a trader, and that freedom, to be who I am without having to worry about stepping on anyone’s toes… it was awesome, Zin.”
I nod as I look to the ground for a second. “Yeah, I know the feeling. Nobody here seems to care that I’m the princess, walking around with my black wings. Everybody’s nice because I’m a person, not because of my title. At least, that’s what I’ve felt so far,” I say.
Riah’s thumb starts that little thing it does where he draws slow circles on the back of my hand with it, and the familiarity of the feeling calms me some as I look back up at him.
“They’re very welcoming, and once I joined, I really didn’t see a need to leave. See, the way I saw it was that if I was in with the rebels, I’d know everything they were doing, and I’d be able to do something about it if it ever turned out to be something bad.” He takes a breath and looks me in my eyes. “I also thought that if you were out looking for those bounties in the rebel camp, you’d never find them. And I let you believe it for so long because it was my way of keeping you safe, of making sure those fae didn’t do to you what they did to your mother.”
For probably at least thirty seconds, I just stare at him, and rather than rush me, Riah just waits patiently as I try to decide what to do with all the information he just gave me. Part of me wants to yell at him for lying to me, for trying to shelter me, for steering me in the wrong direction on purpose, but another side screams just as loudly that he only did all of those things to protect me, and after an intense conversation with myself, I know where I fall on the whole Riah situation.
“Alright,” I say.
“Alright?” he asks with a small, knowing smirk. “That’s all?”
I roll my eyes at him and ask, “What? Do you want me to beat you up for it?” He laughs with relief as a smile plays at my lips. “I know why you did what you did. I don’t agree with it, but I’m sure you already know that.”
“I do,” he nods.
I stand up then, pulling him with me. “Are there any other secrets you need to tell me?”
Riah throws his hands up in surrender as he says, “Nope. That’s it,” and knowing I’ve caught him, I look pointedly up at him.
“You don’t consider giving all the rebels I caught back to this camp as a secret?”
“Oh, yeah,” he says sheepishly. “That too,” and I laugh as he hugs me tightly to him, the comfort of his embrace like a salve for my soul.
“Why the fae do you let them call you ‘Jay?’” I ask as I turn my nose up at the name, but when Riah pulls back from me, and there isn’t any humor in his eyes anymore, I ask, “What?”
I know the serious look he’s giving me very well. It’s the same one he shows me when he thinks I’m going to do something stupid and reckless, or that I’ve already done something stupid and reckless, and he’s about to lecture me.
“Are there any secrets you need to tell me?” he asks, and immediately, my mind goes straight to Quinn and what happened last night, then bounces around the time that I’ve shared with all of the Doconqueh, and I know my face turns red as I think about all of it.
“Maybe?” I ask like a question, but Riah rolls his eyes before he crosses his arms over his chest and waits for me to explain further.
I guess it’s my turn, I think as I say, “Well, the Doconqueh kind of captured me and brought me here.”
“Kind of already figured that much out, Zin,” he says, unwavering. “What about how Laz had his arm around you, or why you smell like Quinn?”
“Ugh,” I say, shocked to be called out like that. “Well, I mean…” my words trail off since I don’t really know what to call the situation I have going on with the Donconqueh. I mean, I know I slept with Quinn and they tied me up and they made me laugh and I’m probably attracted to every single one of them and there’s no way I can deny that fact, even if I tried, but to explain all of that to Riah right now seems almost impossible.
Watching me, his facial features soften, and realization or understanding or something passes over his eyes, but I’m not sure which until he says, “I can read your face like a fucking book, Zin.” His smile is instant, and the relief I feel at seeing it spreads through me. “I trust them, so I’m not too concerned, but,” he says as he sends a finger out to trace my cheek, “if they hurt you, I will murder all of them in their sleep.”
A laugh tears from my throat, and within a few minutes, everything seems like it’s back to normal with us, and when Shara sticks her head through the door to see if we’re ready to have everyone come back, I nod at her, still smiling.
“Alright, let’s figure out how we’re going to get these fae and find out who hired them,” she says as everyone takes a seat around the table. I don’t miss the fact that Riah is included in the conversation, and welcomed to sit on the same side as the Doconqueh, as me as if he’d belonged there from the beginning.
; Chapter 21
Apparently, the whole country is in an uproar about the missing princess, if what Riah told everyone the other day when we were planning out this mission was true, and at this point, I have no reason to believe he was lying. He said that every nation’s leaders had stopped the celebration of Faedom Day as they pointed the finger at each other, labeling one another as the culprits in the princess’s disappearance. Riah also said that my father had made strict orders saying that none of the other leaders were allowed to leave the castle until I had been found, and we were going to use this to our advantage today.
With no royals traveling down the roads heading back to their nations as they usually would be at this time, we’ll have an easier go at getting to where we thought the fae we’re hunting are holed up, and that with fewer people on the roads, we’ll have a better chance sneaking up to them without alerting them to our presence.
The last known whereabouts for the Amaryan mercenaries that killed my mother said that they were trying to keep a low profile by staying hidden in an old abandoned city near the border between Tavatika and Igamoxar. From all the information the rebels had gathered, these mercenary fae live there permanently. When they receive orders from whoever is paying their way, they go execute whoever they were ordered to, and then head back to their little safe haven.
The rebels had acquired maps showing exactly where the ruins were located, and even had a fae who was very skilled at drawing go out and draw an accurate representation of what the ruins looked like, specifically, the building they were staying in to include all of its access points.
It’s not going to be safe for them for very long, I think menacingly as I creep through the woods leading up to the old city ruins with Riah and the Doconqueh following my lead.
None of them are as skilled as me at stealth, so I’d been tasked with getting all of us inside the ruins without being seen, and for the two days that it took us to get here, I worked endlessly with each person to teach them some of the skills that I knew.
