I dove after her and caught her a foot before the ground. Gently, I landed and put her on her feet. “What happened? Are you all right?”
Peony twitched her features. “It’s my shoulder blade or my left wing. Suddenly I had this burning pain.”
I motioned for her to turn around, and she did. “I don’t see anything.” Everything appeared fine. Her wing wasn’t hanging at a funny angle and there was no blood, but just because the injury wasn’t visible didn’t mean it wasn’t there. “You might have overexerted yourself because you’re not used to using these muscles in this way. Are you okay with me touching your wing?”
She hesitated just a beat. “Yes, but be careful.”
“I will.” I could only imagine how hard it was for Peony to agree. A fae’s wings were extremely sensitive, and normally, only a lover had the privilege of touching them. I had only ever let Thorsten caress mine.
Thorsten. Finally, he was back in the Winter Court, returned to his rightful form, while I was trapped here. What if the Winter fae blamed him for my exile? What if his mind was permanently damaged from King Peter’s torture? I shook the dark thoughts away. I couldn’t worry about things I had no control over.
Slowly, I worked my way around Peony’s right shoulder where the her greenish-white wing grew out of the blade. As I reached the top, Peony screeched. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “It really hurts.”
“I’ll be careful,” I promised and put one finger an inch to the right. Peony hissed, and I removed my hand, taking a closer look. “I can’t see anything. You must’ve pulled a muscle or done something to one of the nerve-endings.”
“Okay,” Peony breathed. “What can we do?”
I took a step away, and she turned. We both knew that there wasn’t much we could do. What if this realm had hurt her or slowed her healing? “We wait until you feel better. We should probably get some food and water while we’re waiting.” I could take care of the water. Food? I had no plant magic so I hoped that Peony had a trick up her sleeve.
Peony nodded. “At the Vasara Center, I read up on magic apples. Lots of plants, actually. They give you all the nutrients and fluids you need, and they replenish themselves. Vasara had a seed collection that I’d work with in my spare time, and while I was in the castle dungeons with Caleb, they provided us with lots of seeds to experiment with.” Her gaze fell to the cave floor. She wasn’t proud of creating the Shield or the fertility plant, and I couldn’t blame her.
“It’s in the past. You were trapped by powerful people and had no choice,” I said, shocked I was forgiving her so easily. “Do you have some seeds with you?” I breathed out the tension I’d been holding in. Food had been a thought hanging on the horizon like an oncoming storm, one I’d been trying to ignore.
“The king provided me with all kinds of seeds to work with. I took some with me before I went to Virgie’s engagement party. I thought they might help me provide some, um, distractions.” Peony lifted her dusty yellow dress. Strapped onto her thigh, was a sewn-shut, leather pouch.
“That’s great.” My stomach growled. “We just need damp soil and water. How’s your magic?”
“Good enough, I think.”
An ice dagger materialized in my hand, and I held it out to Peony. She took it and ripped open the inseam to reveal a small cloth pouch inside. She emptied it into her palm and dark seeds tumbled out. “We’ll need earth and water. I can’t just make them grow in this cave.” She tapped the stone floor with her foot.
“Right.” I could supply the water, but I would have to return back out into the middle of the wastelands and hope that I could rip out a chunk of dried out earth and somehow make it fertile enough to grow the seeds. Plants needed nutrients and for all I knew, the soil here was poison. “I’ll be right back. Rest in the meantime.” I walked to the exit of the cave. The sun still shone outside, but it was a bit lower. Time in the wastelands sure seemed to pass slower. We had been here less than a day, but it felt much longer than that. I tried not to worry how much damage King Peter had unleashed in the Summer and the Winter Court since I’d been gone as I dove toward the ground. As soon as I was below the cave opening, I felt the deathly pull of the wastelands. My crown was my salvation, and with its help, I created huge ice chunks that dove with me and sent them forward into a dried riverbed. If anything would still have nutrients, it was a riverbed. My ice melted on contact with the heat warping the air above the ground. At first, the riverbed simply sucked up the water, but then finally after several rounds of ice, the earth softened and turned dark.
Landing and resisting the land’s pull, I scooped up the top layer of dirt. The one underneath was still as hard as clay. A few rounds of ice later, I collected enough soft dirt to fill a floating ice bowl I’d summoned. The bowl started to drip and melt. I had to get back up to the cave. Even with my crown, the wastelands were getting to me.
Beating my wings, I ascended back up to the cave. My breathing was heavy by the time I returned, and nausea turned my insides. I handed Peony the big, still-melting ice bowl and sat down, accepting that both of us would have to do a lot of resting in this energy-sucking realm.
Peony walked toward the entrance of the cave, where the sun still filtered in. She first overturned the bowl in silence and allowed it to melt onto the big pile of dirt. I could smell the soil which carried traces of murky river mud. Its scent was the first I’d encountered here in the wastelands.
Peony put the seeds into the earth and moved her arms for a minute. The air filled with warm energy. At last, a sapling pushed up from the pile of earth and grew bigger and bigger.
I leaned forward, unable to look away. I had seen plenty of magic before, but here in the wastelands, every bit of life was amazing.
With a whisper, the tiny sapling sprouted twigs. Buds formed on the twigs and began to bloom with white flowers that had a light-pink center. Finally, once the tree had almost reached the cave ceiling, two of those flowers fell away and golden drops—no, golden apples—swelled and hung in their place. Their intoxicating, sweet scent filled the cavern.
Peony caught her breath and picked them both, handing me one with a triumphant grin. “Good thing King Peter wasn’t too concerned with me stealing any of his seeds.”
I watched her as she bit and swallowed the first chunk, juice dripping down her chin. She moaned and bit into the apple again, eating with abandon until only the core remained. I was about to ask if the tree would produce any more of them, but the apple regrew in her hand immediately. Only then did she tear herself away from her fruit. “Why aren’t you eating? It’s safe. These seeds were made from apple seeds and Industria. The Summer Court had created them many centuries ago for when their warriors went to war. King Peter wanted me to use the seeds on the Shield to ward off hunger, but that created a volatile reaction. I sure am glad he gave the seeds to me.”
I snapped out of my state of wonder and bit into my apple. I’d never been a fan of apples, but this one was the most delicious fruit, no, scratch that, it was the most delicious anything I’d ever tasted. Now, I understood why Peony had eaten it with abandon. This apple was pure godly nectar. I chomped down on it, swallowing each sweet piece and needing more. Soon, I too reached the core and the apple regrew. But what was truly magical was how I felt. Alertness filled me, and the nausea had gone. Strength flowed through my limbs and I wanted to zip out of the cave. “How’s your wing, Peony?”
She flapped her wings. “It feels fine.” She pushed up to her feet and rose off the ground, then did a small loop in the air. She landed and twirled a blonde hair strand around her finger. “Looks like I’m as good as new.”
She put her apple away in her pocket, and I did the same. Then, I stood. “We should get to the high mountain while the sun is low.”
Peony gripped my hand, her face turning serious. “Onyx, if I fall again—”
“I’ll catch you. I promise. It’ll be like our training session.”
She nodded, worry lines around her eyes, and then motioned for
me to lead the way. Yes, things between us sure were changing. I beat my wings and left the cool cave. The long shadows coming off all the boulders and jutting rocks told me that evening had finally arrived. The light itself turned orange and purple. The sun was no longer beating down on us, but the air was still dry and magicless, giving it a dull and oppressing feel. I hoped Peony could fly out of here.
She joined me, hovering above the dead landscape. “Let’s get there before I run out of energy.”
Together, we flapped our wings and drifted above the ground. I didn’t hold Peony’s hand but was conscious of staying as close to her as possible without our wings brushing. Wind, probably created by the dropping temperature, blasted us from above, pushing us down, but thanks to the magic apple, I felt that I could handle it. We continued our slow but steady progress over the cracked earth, dry riverbeds, and jagged rocks. The top of the mountain crept closer. The sky faded to a slate color with the vanishing of the sun, but no stars came out. I could barely see the top of the mountain. But at the same time, the sky never got completely dark, leaving us able to see. Everything was leached, including the night. Still, night had arrived pretty early, and I wondered if in addition to time seeming to flow slower here, the days were much longer than the nights.
We finally neared the peak of the mountain, seemingly an hour later.
“Are those ruins?” Peony asked.
“Maybe.” I squinted. It looked like a stone mansion had collapsed on top of the mountain centuries ago. Large rectangular stones stood everywhere. Was I staring at a former castle? I pointed at the ruins. “Let’s be careful. Someone might be there.”
“There used to be a civilization here,” Peony said with awe in her voice.
Together, we landed about ten feet away from the peak and the huge, cavernous mansion that was missing its roof. The ground here still had that draining property, but it was not as severe as in the lower elevations. The wind, however, had turned cold and continued to snap against us. We hiked toward the enormous ruins quietly, which made shapes against the slate sky, and I let an ice dagger materialize in my hand as we reached the castle ruins. At least, it didn’t melt quickly now that the air had gone cold.
There was no noise, no light, no smoke here. No sign that someone was living inside. Still, I crept more carefully forward, stepping over fallen stones toward a wall of weathered bricks. A giant opening, like a misshapen mouth, was in the wall’s middle. We entered the space to be surrounded by half columns and an open ceiling.
“The wind’s not as bad in here,” I said.
“This used to be an entry hall.” Peony pointed forward. “Over there.” Right behind this first room was another one that appeared to be more intact, with no holes leading to the outside. I crept toward it and gasped. “Furniture.” The room featured stone chairs and tables, all in a ring around the center, and a pedestal in the middle upon which rested a stone book. Other stone books took up the stone shelves.
I blinked. I doubted anyone had carved all of this to look pretty. It appeared that this had once been a library with paper books and elegant wooden furniture before the wastelands had turned it all to stone. “What do you think happened here?”
“Something horrible,” Peony said quietly.
“I don’t understand.” I truly didn’t, and yet, my body propelled me forward and toward the big book on the pedestal. I had no idea what it was, and my next move wasn’t wise, but before I could stop myself, my hand landed on the book.
My palm tingled. More strangely, right above where I touched the book, the stone page...changed. It turned brighter, almost the yellow-white of paper. Legible letters appeared on the gray surface, dark enough for me to read if I leaned forward.
“Whoa,” Peony said.
“To reclaim balance, you must bring the darkness and the light together,” I read, then moved my hand lower. The line above disappeared, but the one below appeared. “The more the Court of the Eternal Summer fights the Court of Eternal Winter, the more damage will be unleashed.” I went a line lower. “Only when the two powers unite, will what once was, be restored.”
I blinked and turned to Peony, the meaning clicking. The wastelands hadn’t always been like this. Someone had written this and left a message in a dead world for someone to find. “The wastelands used to be a part of the Summer and Winter Court.”
“How did you do that?” Peony put her hand on the book. It didn’t respond to her, and she huffed. “Hmm. Whoever wrote this meant for it to be found by a royal.”
“Yes,” I said. “But who?” I placed my hand back on the book, and it lightened once again and answered with its dark text.
“The Grand Librarian of the United Fae Realm?” Peony asked.
I moved my hand down, and the tingling sensation returned. I felt as if this book was holding something alive, or at least the essence of something living. The Grand Librarian? I flinched as the strange magic, a type I had never felt, zapped through me. Another presence filled my head, one that felt like summer sun combined with the chilly breeze of a winter day, for a moment before vanishing again. “This book. It holds the spirit of someone. Or a piece of their magic that they left behind. Someone enchanted this book as this world was dying.”
Yes.
The single word appeared on the bottom of the page before fading again.
“Whoa,” Peony said. “I have never heard of magic like that before. And I’ve studied half of the library of the Vasara.”
I flexed my fingers, but the sensation had gone. “Well, the message is clear. Someone’s counting on us to heal the wastelands. If that happens, we might restore this place and get out of here. It might even become part of the regular faelands again.”
Peony bit her lip. “At the Vasara, we were taught that the wastelands are dimensionally sideways to the rest of the faelands. You can’t just walk in and out. We’re in a type of limbo zone that’s fallen out of the faelands altogether. I can feel that this place is vibrating at a lower frequency than the faelands.”
I nodded. “I feel it too. But if we combine our Winter and Summer magic, we might fix it.”
Peony frowned. “My magic isn’t equal to yours.”
“I think we should try,” I said slowly. “You fought and survived King Peter. You’re alive, even though the wastelands should’ve killed you as soon as you landed here. Your bloodline might be powerful enough.”
8
Virgie
“The fireball is indestructible,” Blair said, pacing. “I smashed it against the snow and ice.” She pointed at a patch on the ground. “The fireball also survived a trip to the bottom of the pond.” She smiled. “Most importantly, I managed to record a message.” She bounced the fireball to the ground where it settled to expand upward into a three-foot-high version of Caleb.
“Hello, Onyx,” the fire Caleb said. “I’m sending this message from the borderlands. To send a message back, allow the fireball to surround you before you speak. It won’t harm you and will know what to do, thanks to Virgie’s and Blair’s combined magic.” Fire Caleb vanished and the fireball shrank back to its normal form, then shot into Blair’s palm.
“I think we’re ready.” I smiled. “The fireball should survive the wastelands, and it’ll hold onto the new message for an hour, which gives us plenty of time.”
Nathan kissed my cheek. “Well done.” He high-fived Blair.
Caleb crossed his arms. “Let’s record the real message. We can’t afford to wait any longer.”
I pulled my wings in. “We need to discuss ways to get them out of the wastelands.”
“Only a monarch can do that. Even I cannot open much of a portal,” Caleb said. “We’ll need the crown and its connection to the Summer lands to manipulate reality like that. My father will…” Caleb took a deep breath. “My father will have to die for this to ever happen.” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, and he glanced away. Caleb knew his father was a monster. A part of him probably wanted his father dead. Yet,
King Peter was still his parent, the only father Caleb would ever have. We couldn’t expect Caleb to kill him.
We all stayed silent for a moment. I broke the silence, an idea coming to me. “Does the king need to die or does the crown work for anyone even if they’re not the monarch?”
Caleb’s forehead scrunched up. “The crown would give me power even if I was not king.”
“That’s good,” I said cautiously.
Caleb frowned. “My father would still remain the king. He would sense my location if I placed the crown on my head.” He gazed at the horizon and rubbed his temples. “Using a portal, the royal army would be here within twenty minutes tops. We would not win the fight. My father would deal with us, and then it would all be over. The crown has prevented royal children from stealing the throne for millennia.”
My heart sank, yet I refused to give up. “What if it wasn’t one of his children, but one of us? Would the king still find us?” Then I tensed, remembering Nathan’s vow. But Nathan remained still and eyed the trees, no doubt distracting himself so that his vow didn’t maim him.
Caleb let out a breath. “I don’t know. A non-royal trying to steal the crown just doesn’t happen. No one would dare. It’s too powerful for most fae to even touch without ill effects.”
Blair squared her shoulders. “What if a powerful, but non-royal fae steals the crown?”
“There are very few Summer fae like that. Almost all nobles have blood ties to the royal family. King Peter would know if any of them stole the crown.” Caleb paused and looked at Blair. “As for you, you’re elemental. The Summer lands would reject you or worse.”
Blair tilted her head. “What about Virgie? She’s powerful but has no blood ties to the royals.”
“That’s insane! Virgie’s not stealing the crown.” Nathan stepped forward, blocking me from the others.
I stepped around him and stared him down. “That would be my decision to make.” I turned to Caleb. “Do you think it’s possible?”
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