by J. A. Curtis
A mischievous smile came across Dramian’s face. He took the armband and then the ring, which was dangling from its chain, from a pouch attached to his sword belt. “You mean this emerald?”
I gasped, taking them from him. “How did you—”
“Margus doesn’t control all of my decisions,” he said, watching me. There was meaning behind his words.
“Thank you,” I said as I shoved the armband in my sweatshirt and then placed the chain around my neck. “Who should I be?”
“Actually, you’ll be fine as you are. As long as we don’t run into Bres, nobody should object to him carrying a weakened enemy through the building.”
“So Bres is the top dog around here, huh?”
“From what I can tell, he’s the highest. Let’s go.”
He threw the door open, and we entered the hallway. We walked, trying to appear casual, making our way through the long hallways and down several flights of stairs. Even though we passed several people, no one gave us a second glance, even though my worn body was lying in Bres’s arms. Just another day in evil faerie life, I guess.
At one point, Dramian signaled to be careful. “We’re going to pass Bres’s office,” he whispered.
My heart hammered in my chest as we snuck past. I shut my eyes, listening to the thumping. Despite my nervousness, the sound was more beautiful than anything I’d ever heard.
We made it past Bres’s office without incident. The only other time Dramian tensed up was when we neared rooms he called the barracks—two rooms on each side of the hallway. I glanced through the wide-open doors as we passed. My heart sank. Even though there were only a few faeries in the rooms, I counted at least ten beds per room. With four rooms, that meant forty beds.
“Dramian,” I whispered, dread stealing through me. “Are you and your faeries living here in these rooms?”
He shook his head, a bitterness filling his eyes. “Bres and Margus haven’t extended such an invitation to us. Margus has made it clear how generous he has been in allowing us to continue living in our cow barn.”
I felt bad for him. But still—forty beds.
“And are those who fill these beds kids like us?” If I was lucky, maybe most of the enemy also fell during the big fight fifteen years ago.
He shook his head. “Mostly they are adults. I’ve only seen maybe twelve younger faeries here? All of them our age.”
I tried to swallow past the anxiety lodged in my throat.
We were horribly outnumbered.
Dramian led us out a back door before releasing his dragon. Faerie Guardian Bres loaded me onto the dragon before returning to my arm.
As we flew, the wind whipping my hair from my face and the cool air stinging my eyes reminded me I was still alive. More than that. I was free.
I sat close to Dramian, holding him so I didn’t tumble off his dragon as we flew. I wished I could see his face. “Don’t go back. Don’t work for Margus anymore.”
His shoulders tensed. “Mina—” his voice held a clear warning.
“You don’t have to be at his mercy.”
“We’ve already been through this.”
“Join us. We’re not strong enough to protect the queen on our own,” I said. “Unite with us and be one army again. Like we were meant to be. We will share our supplies with you.”
“Arius—”
“Arius isn’t in charge. I am the general, and I’m making the call. The best way to protect the queen, to protect everyone, is to unite our forces. There’s no longer any choice if we are going to survive.”
Dramian didn’t respond right away, but then he said, “The queen would never accept me after what I did.”
That was a hang-up. Technically, Chels outranked me. “I can convince Chels. She only cares about herself. When she understands that this is the only way to keep her alive, she will give in.”
“You really think this will work?” he asked.
“It has to. We don’t have a choice.”
Dramian slouched forward. “All right, Mina, you win. We’ll join you.”
23
Failure of Duty
Mina
“You have strong sense of loyalty. Find those who will be loyal to you in return.”—Nana
BEFORE WE REACHED THE Haven, Dramian and I split ways. I flew on my griffin and watched Dramian’s form on his dragon grow smaller as he flew off to his camp. I hoped I hadn’t just made a huge mistake.
He would show up with the faeries who followed him at first light. I had until then to convince the queen and the faeries of the Haven that I wasn’t crazy. As the burnt leftovers of the manor came into view, the weight of what I was trying to do felt like I was trying to hold up the earth itself. This would not be easy.
The resounding of a horn marked my approach and as exhausted as I felt, a smile split my face. I hadn’t been gone even a week, but it felt like a lifetime. The familiarity of the Haven called to me. I was home.
Faeries gathered around as I dismounted and stumbled, my legs holding me up but trembling under my weight. Clutching my faerie guardian, I used my griffin to steady me until I felt confident I could stand on my own, then pulled it back on my arm.
I immediately began searching the group of gathered children. Palon came forward and bowed. “My lady, it is a relief to see you alive and well.”
“Where is Arius, Kris, Chels?” I asked. “Are they here? Did they make it?”
“Mina!” A voice shouted and arms locked around me from behind.
Panic spiked, and I latched onto the shoulder of the person behind me and flipped them over onto their back. My arm jerked back, my hand balled into a fist, ready to pound the face of—
“Kris?” I gasped.
A laugh of relief bubbled up, and I dropped to my knees, tugging her into an embrace. “You made it!” I sat back to look at her face. “And Arius and Chels, did they make it too?”
She nodded, and the last bit of tension seeped out of my shoulders. “Her Majesty hasn’t left her tent since we arrived. And Arius—um, after he got here, he disappeared. The others said he’s at his special spot?”
Of course. Arius, ducking out, avoiding responsibility that was his. Things had gone right back to the way they were before we left. I don’t know why I thought they’d be different.
I scowled, rising to my feet.
“He was amazing,” Kris said quietly, reading my face. “Chels and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. But losing you, or the thought of losing you, did a number on him.”
Maybe. Or maybe Arius was just slipping back into old habits. Interacting with him outside the Haven—a short time to leave the pressures and guilt of the Haven behind us—had brought out a different side of Arius. One that wasn’t always weighed down by Nuada’s deceptions. But now he was back.
“I’m relieved you’re here, safe,” I said to Kris.
“Me? Mina, I worried about you. What happened?”
Man, she was taking this all super well. There was a reason Kris and I, despite our differences, were such good friends.
“I’ll tell you later,” I said. “Right now I’ve got to go talk to...”
I wasn’t sure who I was going to talk to first, but both Chels and Arius were on the list. I couldn’t avoid either of them.
“Right, of course,” Kris said.
I stepped around her to Palon. “Thank you for taking care of everything while I was away. Did you have any problems?”
“No, my lady,” he said. “Everything has been normal here since you left.”
“And Thaya?”
“Still locked up, my lady. She tried to escape, almost got close once, but we handled it.”
I nodded and moved to step around Palon, but then paused, turned back, and bowed. “Thank you again, Palon. Your service has been irreplaceable.”
Palon’s eyes widened. “You’re welcome, my lady.”
I moved around him and started toward the tent Kris had indicated housed Chels. Jorgeral sto
od guard outside the tent flap. I wondered if Arius had placed someone there to guard the queen or make sure she didn’t run off. Perhaps both. At least he’d done that before running off and abandoning his duty.
My faerie guardian materialized before me as a white stag. I pulled myself up on the creature and rode off into the woods. The forest was quiet, and I took a moment to breathe in the rich smell coming from the surrounding foliage. When I reached a spot right outside the small glen, I dismounted, the stag melting back onto my arm.
He relaxed by the small pond, skipping stones across the water. The way his arm thrust the stone caught my attention. It was too tense, and he wasn’t getting the distance he normally got from a single throw.
I came and sat down next to him. And waited. There was a scowl on his face and something simmered beneath the surface of that dark gaze that avoided mine. Wasn’t he happy to see me?
“Say something,” I said.
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You were doing your duty, I was doing my duty. We were both just doing our duty.” He skipped another stone across the water.
“There’s more to life than doing your duty,” I said.
His dark, hard eyes finally met mine. “Is there?”
The accusation in his eyes revealed the hypocrisy in my last statement. He stood, took several steps away, his back to me.
“The faeries miss you,” I said.
“The faeries.” He turned to face me. “Is there some part of my duty I have neglected?”
I rolled my eyes. He wasn’t going to let this duty thing go. “You came back but then left, leaving Palon in charge. You should be in charge, Arius.”
“Palon is capable,” he retorted.
“Yes, he is. But it was your responsibility the moment you returned. Not his.”
His jaw clenched, and his eyes narrowed. “We both know I have lost the right to lead them.”
“You have not lost the right to lead them. You are still my lieutenant general you—”
“I don’t care about ranks and titles anymore, I don’t care!” he yelled.
I stared in disbelief. Had he just said that? I stood and stepped toward him. He watched my approach warily.
“You don’t mean that,” I said.
His eyes flashed, and he stared me down with those dark eyes. “Faeries can’t lie. We both know Chels is no queen. I am the duped pawn of Nuada. And you... you are just a girl we found living in the suburbs who we convinced to be a general and protector, and we’ve done such a good job at it. Look at you, you’re ready to give everything, and nobody will be able to stop you.”
He stepped forward, taking my arm gently in his hands. “I know what this is,” he said, his voice low. His finger traced the edge of the bandage, and a tingle slid down my arm at his soft touch. “I know what they did. How much did they take?”
I jerked my arm from his grasp. “I am the general, Arius. And you’re not the only one who has messed up, but we have a duty to protect the queen. To protect all the faeries. I fought for that duty, even as they drained the last drops of my blood. I fought for it. So don’t go telling me it's all fake and meaningless. Don’t you dare.”
His head ducked, but I saw him press his lips together, and I wondered for a moment if he was about to cry. He stepped back, an emotionless mask slipping into place as he raised his eyes and stared at nothing. “What are your orders, General?”
“I—” I hated how he just closed off like that. I would rather he yell or cry or anything besides shutting me out. And I did have orders, but I wasn’t sure now was the right time to give them. But time was running out, and I needed to get this over with. He wasn’t the only or even the most important person to convince.
“We will unite with Dramian and his soldiers when they arrive. Tomorrow. So I order you to be civil and to show the other soldiers how to back up your general in this decision.”
And like that, the mask slipped away. Arius’s mouth fell open. “Mina, no.”
“See this? This is why everything went south with Nuada. Because you’ve never recognized my authority. You’ve never trusted me to really lead. Everything I say is optional, like you can choose—”
“Was I treating your orders as optional when you ordered me to abandon you?” He roared, eyes ablaze. “Never in my life have I had to do something so...”
His hand ran over his face, and he took a shaky breath. Next thing I knew, he reached down and pulled off his leather cuirass, dropping it to the grass. I stepped back, sucking in a sharp breath. The last thing I expected was for Arius to become bare chested in the middle of our argument. My entire body grew warm at the sight of him.
He gripped my hand and pressed my fingers to the bottom of his rib cage. “Do you feel that?”
The perfect sculptedness of his body? His toned muscles? Focus, Mina. I swallowed and willed my fingers to move across his skin. The skin was slightly raised, and I noticed the thin white line stretching between his ribs.
“Why do you have a scar?” I asked in a scratchy voice. With Caelm around to heal, there was no reason for him to have scars.
“A reminder,” he said. “You're not the first to try trusting Dramian. And you won’t be the first to get hurt when he double crosses you.”
The desire to keep moving my hand across his bare chest was almost irresistible, but somehow, I drew my hand back. “What happened?”
“We were kids. I thought we could be friends, and I got sliced between the ribs for it.”
That was surprising. I had always pictured them as enemies, but Arius had tried to befriend Dramian. And Dramian had betrayed him. The dragon boy had deflected all of my questions about his intentions. Which wasn’t like him. It made me suspicious.
“You may be right. But he helped me escape. And if we don’t unite with them, Margus will use them against us. We’re outnumbered. Vulnerable. We can’t stand against those working with Margus and Dramian and his camp. We have to unite. It’s the only way.” I ran a hand through my hair. “And I need your help convincing the rest of the faeries to go along with it.”
He sighed and shook his head. “This will not end well,” he muttered. But then he bowed. “But I shall do as my general commands.”
24
Leader of the Faeries
Arius
“A good leader always seeks what’s best for those they lead.”—Nuada
WE HEADED BACK TO CAMP together. Mina walked ahead of me. I couldn’t help but notice her pale skin and the off-balance way she stepped—signs that she hadn’t fully recovered from her blood loss.
I wanted to kill someone for that. Preferably Margus.
When the horn sounded, marking her return to camp, I had climbed up onto my golem and observed her approach. Seeing her alive but looking like she’d been through hell sent pangs of relief and aggravation through me.
I had done this to her. I brought her here and convinced her this was her role, her duty. And she bought into it as fully as I had bought into Nuada’s lies. That I had thought I was revealing the truth to her was little consolation. The sense of duty I’d convinced her to take on would get her destroyed eventually, all the same.
And I couldn’t figure out how to stop it.
We entered the camp, and Mina marched up to Jorgeral, who was standing outside the tent housing Chels. “Thank you, Jorgeral, for keeping watch,” Mina said. “You are relieved. Arius will stand guard for a bit.”
“Yes, my lady.” Jorgeral bowed before walking away. I took up his spot outside the tent.
Mina’s eyes closed briefly, and she released a pent-up breath. “Be reasonable,” she muttered before entering.
“So, you’ve made it back.” Chels voice came first. “You look terrible.”
“Getting your head bashed in and your blood sucked out will do that to a person,” Mina responded.
“How much longer are you going to keep me here?”
“You realize,” Mina said, “we are the only ones standing
between you and death right now—”
“My father will hire private bodyguards to protect me.”
“You think he’s going to believe you? You think anyone will believe all this?”
“He will when I bring him here.”
There was a pause.
“This is about more than you, Chels,” Mina said, her voice low. “The faeries have a life here—”
“What life? You mean the babies and children living here in rickety, ancient tents playing soldier with no parents? Come on, Mina. We both know exposing them would do them a favor.”
Mina was quiet. A nervousness twisted in my stomach. Did she agree with Chels? Surely Mina realized scattering us among the humans would be disastrous.
“It doesn’t matter,” Mina finally said. “There’s no way we can risk taking you back. We don’t have the numbers. You wouldn’t make it back alive. Our best bet at this point is to hold what we have and reinforce our strength as much as possible—which is why I’ve asked Dramian and his followers to join us.”
“You didn’t.” Chels voice sounded incredulous.
“They’ll be here at sunrise. They’ll be a significant support in fortifying ourselves against Margus and—”
“You’ve invited the boy who attacked me? The one we’ve been running from, who has been working for those who want me dead. You invited that guy here?”
Chels’s voice was rising in volume. The thin tent walls did little to muffle their voices. I pushed on the tent flap. The movement would hopefully remind Mina to keep the volume down. The tent flap hit Mina in the back. She’d been standing just inside the entrance the whole time. Closer to me than to Chels.
She reached behind, and our fingers brushed. Her shoulders squared, and she stepped deeper into the tent. “I get it. At first thought, it sounds like a terrible idea. But Dramian hates Margus, who helped kill Iris, his brother. If we can liberate him and the faeries he oversees, we can probably get him on our side.”
