by D. N. Hoxa
Vera grabbed my other hand, and with the knife that was still in it, she made a clean cut right under my thumb. The pain didn’t even register, and the cut was already healing by the time she reached in her pocket to get a glass bottle, half the size of the ones she used to give to me. She put two drops of my blood in it, and put the cap back on, then licked her fingers like she was preparing for the most delicious meal of her life.
I took my hand back and wiped the remaining blood on my jacket. The cut was already healed.
“Now we have a deal,” I said, and she laughed. She tossed her head back and laughed her heart out.
“Did I tell you that I like you?” she asked. “I seem to remember that I did.” Her fangs were slowly going back into her mouth. “But once this is over, and there’s no deal between us, you might want to sleep with an eye open.”
“I always do,” I said and stepped back.
“If you cross me, that night with the sidhe will seem like a friendly encounter to you.” She meant every word, and I believed it wholeheartedly. “Whatever you need from me, whatever I can provide, I will. Until then, ciao, elf.” She waved her black hand, blew Hiss a kiss, and walked down the street almost like she was dancing.
“Did I make a mistake?” I asked Hiss as we both watched her until she disappeared around the corner.
“Only time will tell,” Hiss said, climbing up my leg.
We made our way to Julie’s pub in silence.
Chapter 9
Chapter
* * *
Mace
* * *
Storm didn’t like Summer magic. I didn’t like summer magic, either. It was too heavy in the air, too intense now that we were almost in summer. Too warm. We both preferred the cold, but it was a long time until winter came again. I could see it in my magic, the way it hesitated to obey my commands. A quarter of its strength had disappeared with winter, but it was still strong. It was still reliable, and I reminded myself of that now.
I had the feeling I was going to need it soon.
“Relax,” I whispered to Storm and pulled her to the left. “Everyone’s going to notice.”
But she didn’t care. She kept huffing and neighing, and people were looking our way. We were in the Summer kingdom, and you didn’t see a lot of Winter fae around here. Our kingdoms didn’t get along very well, but then again, nobody got along with my father.
Still, it was the best choice I had.
After I left the castle, everyone in it frozen by a talking horse who claimed she was a Winter spirit, I knew I needed a way out of Gaena. I might have been a fool for believing in something that could have very well been a figment of my imagination, but I still believed it with all my heart. When the spirit said that Taran was alive, I believed it. Maybe because I needed it, maybe because everything in me insisted that the spirit spoke the truth. Whatever the reason, it kept my heart beating and my body moving. It kept my purpose clear—to go to the New Orleans Shade on Earth and find her. By the gods, I would, even if it was the last thing I did.
But the Winter Shade would be the first place my father would look for me. And he’d be angry. He’d be mad enough that he’d move every rock in Gaena to get to me. I had no doubt that his spies were spread all over by now. I’d not only challenged him, but I’d exposed his deepest, darkest secrets to all three kingdoms.
I felt no remorse. I’d do it all over again, and worse, if I had the chance.
That still didn’t change the fact that he had the power to put an end to my life. Just two days ago, that was everything I’d wanted. Now, things had changed. I couldn’t die without seeing Taran one more time.
“Easy, girl,” I told Storm when she refused to stop when I did. It was hot, I got it, but it was worse for me. I’d had to cover my head and most of my face with a grey shirt I’d stolen in front of a Summer fae’s house the night before when I entered the Summer kingdom.
The Summer Shade was at the other edge of it, but I’d needed food and clothing, so I’d had to go through the towns that led to it. Summer fae were usually blond in appearance, and they had light eyes, but there were dark-haired people among them, too. No reason to suspect that I wasn’t one of them—so long as nobody recognized me.
I still kept my head down as we traveled from town to town. Sometimes I rode Storm, and sometimes I walked beside her. She had never complained as much as she did that day, but she would soon be free. That had been my promise to her. The moment we found the Summer Shade, she would be free to go wherever she wanted. It beat me why she stayed and waited for me when the spirits froze every fae in the Winter kingdom, but she had. And now she was stuck with me until her freedom. Until mine.
The Summer Shade was halfway up a low mountain, right next to a pretty big town called Talice. The Summer fae had built it almost all the way around the Shade barriers, and that was the reason why this one was twice the size of the Winter one. My father saw no profit from the Shade, so he only ever left a handful of people to live there. When he’d banished me there a year ago, my battalion and I were the largest number of people to have ever lived in the Winter Shade. That’s why it had grown by almost a third of what it used to be within the year.
There, I’d found the Gateway on my first night because I’d asked the Shade to show it to me. Here, I was planning to do the same.
When we slipped into the Shade, nobody even looked our way. There were a lot of people coming and going to the town surrounding it, and it seemed they were used to living like this by now. Just like they did on Earth.
Small houses, almost identical to the town’s, were separated into five rows at the entrance of the Shade. There was no asphalt, only square cobblestones here and there, and patches of grass everywhere else. I walked deeper into the neighborhood, sending waves of my magic into the ground, but not too much, in case a Summer fae was watching me. If the ground turned to ice, even for a second, I would be in trouble. I didn’t need trouble right now, so I gave the Shade as much as I could with every step I took. And I asked it to take me to the Gateway.
Night had almost fallen. I walked and walked, pulling Storm by the reins while she complained. People were starting to notice me. Most everyone here seemed to know each other, and they could tell when a stranger was in their midst.
But just when I thought I was going to have to leave and come back another time, a blue Shade light lit up on my left, at the very end of the narrow space between two houses. There was still enough light from the setting sun, so the rest of the Shade lights hadn’t come on. That’s how I knew that I was being given a sign by the Shade.
I walked fast and kept looking behind me, in case someone followed me, but so far, nobody seemed interested enough to ask me any questions. They were only looking at me. Soon, they could no longer see me.
The Shade light led me behind two more houses before it stopped in front of one, hovering over the maroon rooftop. The rest of the house was made out of white rock, similar to the castle I’d lived in in the Winter Shade. This one was not even half its size, but I could bet that it was the same rock.
I waited for another minute for the Shade light to move, but it didn’t. It kept floating up there, showing me every inch of the rooftop.
Retreating back between the two houses, I gave myself a moment to plan. To wait for dawn would be the smartest move, but it was too long. To wait for whoever lived in that house to get in would be another, and that could be done. Storm was impatient, and so was I, but I’d rather wait and get this right, then mess it up on the first try.
So, before the sight of that Shade light tempted me too much, I hopped on Storm’s back and rode her slowly away from the house made of rock.
We kept going straight ahead, and I avoided everyone’s eyes. I avoided raising my head, too. We were atop a mountain, albeit a low one, and the Shade stretched all the way to the edge of it. There were no houses close to the edge, so that’s where I stopped to rest and drink some water. To wait for the darkness to take over the sky completely.
I looked down at the cliff, and at the dense woods below it. The fall would probably not kill me, but it would hurt me enough to make it impossible to run away. So, in case something went wrong, that escape route was a negative. If I couldn’t make it through the Gateway, I was going to have to leave the same way I’d come here—on the other side of the mountain, through Talice, to where the roads were.
For now, I sat on the edge of the cliff and let myself relax. I thought of Taran, of everything I was going to say to her when I saw her again. Of everything I was going to do.
Soon, darkness came.
The Shade was dotted with small blue lights, roughly half the size of what they were in the New Orleans Shade. I hid between two houses on the other side of the one made of rock, and I watched. Nobody went in or walked out, even though it had been at least two hours since the moon took over the sky.
“This is it,” I whispered to Storm. She huffed in complaint. “I need you to wait for me here. If I don’t return in a little while, run away. If I do…well, you’ll know.” I kissed her cheek and patted her nose. She didn’t like that very much, but for now, she let me caress her. “I’m going to miss you, beautiful girl.” She neighed, but it sounded content. She wasn’t going to miss me at all. It made me laugh. “All right, all right, just don’t start crying. Until we see each other again.”
I wasn’t sad to leave Storm behind because I was the only reason she refused to accept the freedom she wanted. I’d never stopped her. I’d begged her to walk away and live on her own since the day we’d arrived at the Winter Shade a year ago, but she refused to leave my side.
Now, she would have no choice.
I went around the house of rock, knowing it would be a bad idea to use the front door when there were still Summer fae in the neighborhood. I could feel eyes on me every step of the way, but it was too early to draw my sword out just yet. I sent my magic to the Shade every few seconds and reminded it of where I needed to go. The Gateway. All I needed was the Gateway.
At the back of the house, there were three windows that showed only darkness inside. They were high, but I’d jumped higher places before, and I’d never been as desperate as I was now. With one last look to make sure nobody was around me, I raised my hands and jumped as far as my legs allowed me.
My fingers caught the window stool, and the rough surface of the rocks made it easy for me to climb over it.
My feet slammed against the floor on the other side. Darkness all around me. There were no Shade lights in the house, but it didn’t look like a house at all. It was just an empty space with doorways and windows and tunnels through it all. Nobody lived here. Nobody guarded this place, either, which was curious. The Gateways were too important not to guard with at least a few soldiers, but I trusted the Shade for now. It would lead me there.
The Gateway would be below ground, so I went slowly and searched for stairs. What I found instead, at the heart of the house, was a hole in the ground. I looked inside it, but there was nothing to see, only darkness.
“Some light would be nice,” I whispered to the Shade and pressed my hand against the floor to give it magic until a layer of ice formed on the rock. I expected at least one ball of blue light to find me, but it didn’t. The Shade could be stubborn sometimes, too. I had no idea how far the fall was, but I didn’t have time to search for a gas lamp. Somebody could have seen me, and I could only have minutes to get out of here.
Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath, and I jumped into the nothingness.
A second later, my legs crashed onto a hard surface, and I rolled forward a couple times. More rock. When I stopped moving and sat up, the top of my head hit something hard. It sounded like the entire house fell on top of it, and it felt that way, too.
I stopped moving completely for a moment and just focused on breathing—and on my ears. If somebody was down here with me, the sound of me falling into that hole and then hitting my head was enough to alert them of my arrival. If somebody was down here, they’d be coming for me soon.
But nobody did. The complete silence made me feel like I was deaf for a moment. If I hadn’t heard the sound of my heart hammering in my chest, I’d have panicked. Slowly, I raised my hands up to see where the ceiling was—right over my head. I started moving forward on my knees, with my hands in front to make sure I didn’t hit something.
Rock. More rock. Ahead and to the sides and over me, there was nothing but rock. I kept on moving until my pants were torn and my knees were bleeding, all the while asking the Shade to guide me.
It felt like hours passed before I saw orange light to my left, coming from the far end of the tunnel I was in. It was probably meant to fit children, if that. I wondered how the Summer King used it when he used the Gateway or when he sent his soldiers to other planets. There had to be another way in here, but the Shade had only showed me this.
No matter. As long as I reached the Gateway, I would be okay.
The closer to the light and the end of the tunnel I got, the clearer the voices became. Somebody was there, wherever the tunnel led, and the fire dancing on the torch resting against a piece of rock enabled me to see both of them.
They were Summer fae, but they weren’t soldiers. They were dressed in plain clothing, just like the townspeople I’d spent most of the day avoiding. Their backs were turned to me as they hit the rock with their tools, not caring how much noise they were making. I’d been completely silent, so I doubted they’d heard me, even when I stepped out of the tunnel and could finally stand straight again.
The Shade hadn’t brought me to the Gateway at all.
The room I was in was large, easily the size of the Great Hall in my father’s castle, except this one was made of rock instead of marble, and the only view of the outside came from the massive hole in the wall, ahead of where the Summer fae were digging.
“It’s here, I know it is,” one of them was saying.
“Just stop talking. This is all your fault,” said the other. “If we don’t find it—”
“We will,” his friend insisted. And they kept slamming their iron tools against the ground, one after the other.
I looked around, desperate to find something that would tell me the Gateway was nearby, but there was nothing there. The missing wall ahead showed half the moon shining in the sky, and below it was only darkness. There were ropes close to it, and two big bags that the Summer fae had brought with them. That was the way they’d come.
Why had the Shade brought me here? This was not the Gateway. It had never steered me wrong before. Why now?
“I got something,” said the fae to the right, and they both stopped digging. My ears were so used to the sound, they kept on ringing long after.
“Yes—yes!” the other shouted, and then they continued to dig twice as fast, with a lot more strength. Pieces of rock and dust covered them while I watched, curious, impatient, confused.
I was searching for the Gateway. The Shade knew that. And there was only one reason why it would have brought me here, instead of taking me to it.
Whatever these Summer fae were looking for, the Shade didn’t want them to have it.
They slammed the rocks at a perfect rhythm, so I unsheathed my sword together with it, to make sure they wouldn’t hear. Then, I took a step forward each time their tools touched the ground, until I was in the very middle of the room. It was completely carved out of rock, with rough edges and uneven surfaces, puddles every few feet—and the hole the fae had already dug.
They both jumped into it—it was deep enough to reach their hips—and they really gave all their effort to pull something from the depths of it.
A box.
It was the size of a suitcase and made of wood, with a chain for a thick, rusted handle, and several nails all around the edges.
The men looked at it, eyes wide and mouths open, for a few moments, and then they started laughing. While they laughed, they turned around, no doubt wanting to see the box in the light of the torch.
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Instead, they saw me.
“Hello, fellas. What do you have there?” I raised up my sword. They froze completely for a moment but recovered faster than I thought they would.
Letting go of the box, they raised their hands toward me and attacked with their magic, but I saw it coming. I had my own prepared, and though it wasn’t as strong as theirs at this time of year, I managed to move away in time before theirs touched me. Summer magic felt like invisible fire on my skin, and I wasn’t very keen of the feeling. It was best to avoid it while I could.
“Who are you? How did you find us?” one of them asked. They were both out of the hole now, and they had their tools in their hands. By the way they carried them, it seemed they intended to use them as weapons.
I smiled. “Believe it or not, the Shade brought me here. You’re taking something you’re not supposed to take from it.”
“None of your business, snowman!”
It had been a while since I’d heard that one. Other fae called us snowmen because of our magic. Others might have been offended by the term, but I found it funny. Especially coming from these guys, who were covered in dirt, their arms so tired, they were shaking.
“It is now,” I said, and I jumped them.
It wasn’t a difficult win. They were exhausted from all the digging, and I took the tools from their hands by simply cutting the wood that held the metal heads. Once they turned to their magic, I had to keep moving from one side to the other fast. They pressed their backs against one another and attacked me from every side. I rolled back on the ground, toward the opening in the wall, and I looked down for a second. The dense dark woods I’d seen over the cliff’s edge earlier were there.
Grabbing one of the ropes that the fae had used to climb up here, I tied it and kept moving to the side while their magic came at me in waves of heat. I hated it, and I couldn’t get close enough to them without hurting myself, but that’s why I had the rope. There was enough distance between us that they would see it coming, but it would serve as the perfect distraction.
