One could hardly see beyond Theo, light after light blowing out in a wave, the light of the moon extinguished by the canopy of webbing above us.
Not knowing what else to do, I shoved my shoulder into Luka’s, knocking him down to the ground. I was unsure why my instincts had led me to do so, but soon realized.
A mass of fire blew overhead, catching the spiderwebs and nearly singeing everyone’s heads off. I scrambled to sit up as Luka sat beside me, my eyes flying to the source of it all: Adam.
The man panted deeply as he stood before the Gancanagh, smoke escaping his lips and ash covering the front of his body. I understood then why Theo had chosen Adam to make a deal with out of all people, whatever was in him, whatever his powers were—they were immense, and he had the skill to use them.
“You look pathetic,” Adam said, his voice heavy with exhaustion. Some of the Unseelie around him began to recede, coming to their senses. “Standing around here, forcing others to do your bidding and kidnapping young women—you’re no better than Theo. You’re one of the reasons why this country is such a mess.”
The Gancanagh stared at him, leveling his gaze for a moment and then—
“Wren!” Luka leaped but just barely missed me, failing to grasp me because of his ties and instead watching in horror as I was dragged away, a small, boney root pulling at my ankle.
I let out a furious scream and Adam tried to dive for the Unseelie, but missed as he vanished into thin air, appearing a few feet away. The world roared into a cacophony of sound and motion as the other Unseelie began to move, yanking guards off into the trees at the Gancanagh bidding.
I kicked at the root wound tightly around my ankle—
“Hello there, my love—”
I pulled at my ties, only managing to knock my shoulder out of place as I screeched in agony, tearing my arms over to the side of my body. Unable to do much more, I pointed my fingers at him as he leaned down.
My whole body coursed with pain as I writhed on the ground, sending every little bit of energy I had into that single touch before the creature’s mouth could press against mine.
A flash of light blinded me, the world turning white as I collapsed against the ground.
I opened my eyes to find the Gancanagh several feet away, thrown against a tree trunk. Theo’s footsteps stalked towards it as Adam emerged at my side, kneeling beside me.
“Little bird,” he said, a stupid name I’d only heard from him once or twice months prior.
“Have I made up for not practicing yet?” I asked wearily, letting my head fall to the side.
I heard another set of footsteps rush to my side, the owner dropping to his knees beside me and placing his head on my arm, breathing heavily. Luka.
“We’re done now, monster,” Theo snarled, his hand at the Gancanagh’s throat and the forest finally bending to his will. The branches of the tree wrapped around the creature, practically pinning him down. “You will do as we say and you will not try another trick.”
The creature sneered at him, taking a large swallow and then spitting red tinted saliva into the King’s face.
The King’s bejeweled hand smashed across its features, knocking the glamor right off of it. Suddenly, it was the strange, yellow haired man from the woods earlier, with his eerie blue eyes and permanently slotted lip.
“Give me your name now, your true one so that I may control you, or else you shall not meet a fitting end,” the King warned, his hand rising to the creature’s throat in warning.
I felt Luka’s shoulder brush against mine as I struggled to even my breath, still staring at the beast, at the way that it looked so unabashedly at Theo as it considered the notion. The King’s hand tensed, his thumb pressing hard against the creature’s windpipe.
“Caelan,” the Unseelie said finally, its voice breaking. “It is Caelan. I am meant to protect this forest.”
“And you failed at that,” Theo informed them with a smug look. “Now you will do as I say. You may say goodbye to your forest, because it will not be the same after this. I will not let it spread throughout this country like a curse.”
A stab of pain tore through me at that statement.
“You’re okay,” said Luka beside me, his shoulder pressed up against mine “I’m okay, Wren.” The urge to cry came with me at that reassurance, and his lips pressed against my shoulder as if to soothe me.
The forest, he would do something to the forest.
“What is he planning?” I asked warily, and Luka did not respond, simply brushing his cheek against my collarbone.
“No worries,” said the King, drawing everyone’s attention again. “This shall be written favorably in the history books, Caelan. Some might even think you to be a hero.”
I remembered what it had said about history then.
“You’re going to bring me to the roots of the Unseelie tree, aren’t you?” Theo asked, and I felt Luka pause at my collarbone, his eyes no doubt full of horror. “You’re going to lead all of us to the roots of the Unseelie tree.”
“I would rather die—”
“That can be arranged,” Nikolas spoke again, having finally recovered from being dragged off, his gun back at its temple as he locked eyes with me, or tried to. I immediately looked away, not so much as wanting to glance at him after what I’d heard. “I have a golden bullet with your name on it.” Never mind that it was actually Nikolas’s own name engraved on it.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the King look so pleased. “Don’t try to shapeshift again for pity,” he informed them. “I will have you killed on sight.”
“You will get up and walk,” Camden demanded when she stumbled to the king’s side, the sharp gleam of an engagement ring visible on her finger as she wrapped her arm around Theo’s waist. “You are going to walk until we see that tree, and you will not argue a word against it. Otherwise, you will have no forest to hide in.” Her voice was thick with implication.
The line had changed. With the new addition of the Gancanagh, walking close to the front, but not so far up that it was not flanked on all sides. A part of me wondered if it would actually lead us to the roots, but then one look at the beast and the guns pointed towards it, along with the torches that were oh so ready to burn whatever they could, and I knew it would. I knew that though every part of its body was rebelling, it would do what it was told, if only to stop another blaze from engulfing the forest.
It never looked back, only forward; its eyes trained on the darkness of the forest. I wonder if it was hoping that its last memory would be of that, its home. Theo would surely kill it once we arrived.
A part of me felt bad. Evil, even, for being a part of it all, even unwillingly, but then I was rewarded, allowed to walk beside Luka. In such uncertain times, it felt like a boon to me. There he was, his skin so close to touching mine, the dream of running away with him almost as fresh as the relief that he was still alive. I think Theo thought himself to be a saint for granting such a reward.
“What will happen when they get to the roots? What if they do something to them?” I asked him quietly. “Luka, what do the books say?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “No one knows.” And since he could not lie, I took that answer for what it was, a strange and frightening thing. Because he was Unseelie, and if the legend were true… What would happen to him? Would his Seelie blood save him? What was the King planning? “I will do everything I can to stay beside you, Wren,” Luka said. “Until my last breath, I will be there with you.” He knew that something would happen, that this could very well be the end.
My eyes drifted to the ground, my stomach churning. As we walked deeper into the woods, it was that that scared me the most, not the monsters just out of view. The idea that, whatever Theo was planning to do, it would change things in our world so completely that everything I knew would crumble around me. The world had a balance; even the most frightening and violent of things were meant to exist.
Above us, the spiderwebs grew thicker o
nce more, swaying in the breeze like shrouds hanging from the trees. I could only vaguely see the moon, full and bright, far up in the sky. The Unseelie were supposed to be strongest during full moon and harvest time, yet none of them dared to step into our path after what had happened. To do so was certain death. Instead, they only watched from the trees, unsure of what we were there for and rightfully frightened.
“I want you to know,” said Lindy as she walked ahead of us, Camden and Theo just a few feet in front of her, Theo’s hand on Camden’s waist. “That a true king does not walk ahead or behind his troops when they charge into battle, but beside them. A king doesn’t hide behind his soldiers. That is not how it is done in Haldia.”
“I’m sure the queen of Haldia would love to hear that philosophy,” Theo dismissed. “I’ll tell her you said it when I’m done with you, since you likely won’t be able to. I’ll also tell her just how much I enjoyed my usage of one of her maidens of the sea, and how lucky she was once I quash this conflict in my own country and move on to yours.” He looked back to Lindy with a smirk, telling her, “your wall won’t stop me.”
“You would never be able to handle Haldia,” Lindy said. “You can barely handle the giants you stole. When I die, I will laugh as you struggle.” Her hands tied behind her back, her voice simply stating, “you will never tame your country, and I will damn you with my dying breath.”
Theo chuckled, the light of the torches emphasizing his white teeth and the sharp gleam in his brown eyes. “Be prepared to eat those words, because once I burn those roots…”
“—What?” I interrupted, panicking as I looked around me. Ahead of me, I saw Adam’s shoulders fall, his head drooping at the admission. Theo was going to burn the roots? He was going to destroy what remained of the Unseelie tree?
“Oh, don’t you worry my dear Wren, you will be a part of it as well,” Theo said. “Your gift will be a boon to me, perhaps I will even reward you somehow once you do as I desire. Maybe if your lover survives, I will give you a nice little house to live in. And if he doesn’t? I will replace him.”
The air escaped me. “There’s a balance,” Luka snapped at my side. “There’s a balance to things, magic and life, this would throw it off. Your hunting of the Unseelie has thrown it off—”
“Oh, I am aware,” Theo said. “But Camden proposed a new balance, one that is far more favorable towards me. Perhaps if you had listened to me, I would have been kind enough to grant you a gift, use my magic to make you fully Seelie if you marked her. But you refused.”
“—That’s not possible,” Luka defended, speaking of becoming Seelie.
“You will destroy this country,” Kristin began to say.
“He will be this country’s salvation,” Camden said matter of factly. “He will finish what his mother started. Mark my words.” His mother, the one who knew so little? He would finish what she started? He would turn the country to rubble. He had said that he would kill all of the Unseelie, but not what they came from.
Doing that felt far more dangerous than anything else.
“We are nearing the roots,” Caelan said solemnly from ahead.
“Good,” Theo said as the branches overhead began to arch. He was pleased, far too pleased. “Put the girl up by Adam, they enter the cave first. Untie her once she’s there, and… Nikolas.”
He need not say anything else.
The young man stalked over just as I was pushed forward, moving past me to stand beside Luka, the whoosh of a blade hitting the air as he quickly withdrew a dagger from his side. His sea green eyes meeting mine, Nikolas raised the knife, holding it against Luka’s throat with a look of delight. I wondered how much it pained him to not slit it.
“Don’t try anything, Wren,” Theo said. “I don’t think Nikolas will hesitate for a second.”
“I have always hated you,” Luka muttered. “You useless fish.” The knife against his throat only pressed harder as Luka’s eyes met mine, momentarily pleading. I knew what he wanted, what he was wishing I would do.
But I could not run.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
There it was.
I knew it instinctually, that it was just feet away from where I had once been lured, just out of my view. A curving entrance formed into the mountain side, just below a plateau. A place where the trees still grew but were sparse enough that one could still see the night sky. A place where large, black cats lingered in the trees, the sìth, and horned, tree like men stood guard—Spriggan, if my one and only short glance at Luka’s book of the Unseelie gave me a hint. Monsters sworn to protect, but unable to as the King’s guards became larger in number, overwhelming them. All they could do was watch.
All I could do was stand at Adam’s side, before the curving entrance of the cave in front of us.
“You will do as I say,” Theo said in Adam’s ear, “or else I will make you. Do not upset me, Adam.”
Adam’s shoulders shook, an undeniable fear overcoming him. This, the handsome young man I had once admired at parties, the brave one who had saved me, the ruthless one who had hunted me down on the Kinsley lawn and tried to stop me from leaving—now reduced to nothing. Just another one of the king’s pets, utterly disposable. He had served his purpose ten times over that night, and now he only had one thing left to do, then Theo would see to him as he saw fit. Perhaps he would continue to rule over his life.
Adam had seemed so wholly independent at times that it was an impossible thing to imagine him having every choice made for him. That after this, the king would likely marry him off and wait for children, or else throw him away for his failures.
Adam had once been wholly obedient and now the man he loved was going to use him. He was going to force him to be a part of something horrible, something they would talk about in the history books of Whynne. Because, while some of the Unseelie may have been monstrous, one could argue that the Seelie were too in their own way—and now, all of the Unseelie would be gone. And Adam knew it.
“I will not hate you,” I whispered to him, because it was the only thing I felt I could do. “I will never hate you, Adam. Even if Luka dies, even if Whynne falls. I will be the last person to hate you for this. I understand.” Because when Adam looked at Theo, he still looked at him like he meant the world. Because that was it for him.
All he ever knew.
The entrance loomed in front of us, the beginning of a new world. In front of it, thick, unholy vines grew. Ones with a sickening purple hue, with thorns that jutted from their sides. Ones meant to dissuade people like us and mistakes one could not take back. The first barrier to the roots, and if I had to guess, the only barrier.
“I have not been a good friend to you, Wren,” Adam said in return. “I have never been a good friend, not to Kristin nor anyone else.” He swallowed, the King walking away as guards moved near us, readying to untie us. “I want you to know that if I do not live, if I do not make it back, I will find you in another life, and I will treat you properly. I will be as kind to you as you were me. I will repay your friendship, and everyone else’s as well.” His head fell back, eyes trained up towards the sky. “I swear that to you.”
We would die then, wouldn’t we? That was what he foresaw.
He the most powerful amongst the elementalists, and I the only one who the king thought to be of equal power and use. We would both die.
And then, Adam did something strange. Looking up at the stars with his head back and his eyes closed, he screamed.
Not an accidental scream, nor one of fear, just a loud, uninterrupted scream. One that ended just as quickly as it began.
I heard Theo turn around behind us. “What is he doing?”
And then another one. Another, unexplained scream. Confusion overtook me as I looked to him, there was the slightest glint in his eye as he looked back at me.
“Stop that,” Theo said as he began to stomp up from the back of the line to us again. “You stop that right now.” He sounded like it was more an annoyance than a
scare.
And then, a laugh. A loud, unending laugh as another scream was let out by Adam. Lindy. She sounded borderline delirious with joy.
“Adam!” Theo warned, commanding one of his guards. “You make the Haldian shut up! Gag the witch if you have to, we only need her presence.”
“Adam?” I asked. A small chuckle escaped him before he threw his head back one final time, his eyes connecting with mine.
“Adam, you stop—" The words left Theo as the world shook.
Lindy cackled, and I looked back to see her head back as well, her feet kicking in the air in joy as she fell back onto the ground. “You mess with things you cannot understand nor control,” she grinned. “You play with things that are not yours, King.” Another tremor shook the ground, knocking us all off our feet. “You are a pampered people,” Lindy laughed, knocked onto her back. “You will die from your insolence.”
“You’re meant to bring good luck and nothing else,” Theo snarled, “now shut up.”
“Oh,” Lindy sneered, looking up to the sky, “gladly.”
And then the moon disappeared as a large, grey foot blocked out the sky.
Giants.
There were giants on the mountain, brought to deal with the Unseelie. Beasts that I had seen before. Beasts that Theo had imported, stolen probably, from Haldia. Beasts that were meant to defend him from the Unseelie fae; these horrifying, gigantic monsters that lumbered about and hunted by sound.
And yet they never looked so beautiful as they did that night, the air stilling as only their calls filled it. And so many of the guards did not know better than to run. They did not realize that in moving, one drew the attention of the giants.
I heard the sound of a blade cutting through rope, and rolled over to see Luka, his hands untied, a decorative knife in his hand. At his side, Nikolas clutched at his shoulder, having fallen to the ground. The line of blood across Luka’s arm suggested that he’d let Nikolas cut him in the fall, if only to get his bonds severed. He looked across the way at me as rubble began to fill the space, not one nor two, but three giants arriving, their voices speaking in Haldian.
Quill and Cobweb (The Chronicles of Whynne Book 2) Page 22
