by Leia Stone
Her dark brown eyes narrowed, her grin sinister, especially with some blood staining her teeth. Figures she would hurt herself so badly just from tripping over a stupid dress. Even though her shifter healing had kicked in, and the wound was closed over, the blood remained long after.
“Say goodbye, Arianna of the red line. You are a failed queen. A failed heir. And a true disgrace to all wolves.”
She dived toward me, pulling a knife from her arm cuff at the same time. The dress was a hindrance for her, but she was still a shifter, so she made the six foot leap with ease. We tangled together, my back crashing to the floor as she plunged the knife toward my face. I raised my forearm just in time to deflect the blow, capturing her hand and stopping her from stabbing at me again.
She was strong, filled with energy, and we struggled for dominance, neither of us wanting to give in. “The royal guards will be here any moment. You have lost. Time to say goodbye to your freak of a friend. She’s going to remain a fae plaything for the rest of her days.”
I remained focus.
Nix and I are holding off the guards. Finn’s voice was briefly there, then he was gone.
Take that, Selene, you bitch. I twisted my body to the side; her knife slipped along my arm, cutting through my shirt and slicing my cheek. I didn’t worry about the cut, it’d heal soon enough, and she let me move enough so I could swing my elbow across her brow. It clipped her hard, the brunt force enough to open her face up right along her forehead and down her temple.
She howled, rolling off me. Larak appeared then, slithering out from wherever he’d been, and launched himself at me. I knew that damn snake would be nearby, and let me just say, there is nothing scarier than a massive anaconda throwing itself at you with both fangs bared.
“Ari!” Kade growled.
Ari! Finn was in my head.
I focused on the snake. My hand brushed along a metal object as I raised both hands to defend myself. I realized a second later that it was Selene’s knife. I rolled out of the way of Larak’s first strike, scooping up the knife as I went. By the time I turned, he was launching at me again.
I twisted to the side to avoid his fangs, throwing the huge body over my shoulder and using the knife to slice along his underbody as he went.
Selene started screaming then, these long howling shrieks, and I felt a hot surge of energy crash into me as she started throwing mecca bombs at me. Only been queen for four days and she already knew how to form the mecca into powerful little balls of energy. Unfair. Sabina must have trained her with knowledge she’d hid from me.
Knocked down by a particularly huge blast, Larak went with me, his dark-brownish blood splashing across my chest and neck. It burned a little, and I was hoping it wasn’t poisonous like his venom. The mecca bombs had hurt, a lot – my side was bruised and aching where she’d hit me. I had to get moving; she would keep trying to kill me if I didn’t. But Larak’s huge body was pinning me to the floor. I was strong enough to move him normally, but my current position had me unable to get enough leverage to heave him off.
Selene’s face appeared above me, but she wasn’t looking at me. She bent down so she could run her hands frantically along her familiar.
“Larak, don’t you die on me.” Tears ran down her face, smudging her makeup and giving her a goth clown look.
I had a temporary moment of insanity, feeling bad for Larak and Selene, but then I remembered how he’d almost kill Finn in an underhanded sneak attack, and my pity fled. In a flash the weight lifted off me. Larak was pulled away and Kade was scooping me up. Selene scrambled to where Larak lay bleeding freely; the snake had his glossy eyes pinned to his queen. Over the bear’s shoulder I could see that Kade had knocked Selene’s guard unconscious. A burst of mecca rocked down the hall and all of us turned to see what was coming at us now.
Sabina, in all her cloaked glory. Her white hair was already fanning out around her as she channeled mecca. She then dropped her cloak and rushed toward us.
Her pale eyes were glancing between Kade and me, then back to Selene and Larak, as if she couldn’t decide whether to shoot a spell at me or to help the queen.
“Heal him!” Selene shrieked, so loud I was sure the glass sconces that lined the halls would shatter.
As Sabina knelt to heal Larak, Kade’s hand slipped into mine and then he was pulling me down the hall.
Selene’s voice boomed out around me as she screamed. “This isn’t over Arianna! The next time I see you I will rip you apart limb by limb! You’re dead!” The final two words shook the walls and I knew then that she wasn’t kidding. And she was possibly powerful enough to do it. The mecca coursed through both of us. The next time I saw her it would be a fight to the death.
As we rounded the corner, I was beyond relieved to see the door to the sitting room that hid the mecca stone being held open by Blaine. A flapping of wings and a howl from Finn let me know the familiars were right on our tail. I didn’t dare look behind me as we all raced into the room, Blaine slamming the doors closed after us. Just as the door slammed shut, thuds could be heard, and we all jumped back as the tip of an arrow pierced right through the wooden barrier.
The royal guard were here. Nikoli stepped up and started chanting, holding both hands out. A blue mist leaked toward the door. Blaine dived to the side to avoid being touched by the magic born’s spell. The blue increased across the door, thickening until no more arrows were visible, but I could still hear commotion on the other side.
After a few seconds, Nikoli turned to us. “It should hold long enough, but we have to hurry.”
Racing across the room, I pulled down the book that was the secret door lever into the mecca stone room. As the hidden door popped open, I was blasted with mecca. More than usual. The energy had increased again. Great.
I wished I could get word to the Summer Prince to tell him all that had happened, ask for his assistance traversing into the Otherworld, but that damn flower was in my old room.
Kade strode in behind me and the others followed. From what I could see of my people, Monica’s right arm was injured, but otherwise she looked okay. The rest were pretty much unscathed. Blaine, Monica, and Victor were all grimacing as they tried to trudge through the mecca energy in the room.
“It’s stronger,” Kade yelled over the buzzing noise the crystal was emitting.
So much stronger. Touching it right now felt like a stupid thing to do. Who knew if any of us would even survive that much mecca flooding through our bodies, but … I had to try for Violet. She was my sister, present in almost every one of my memories growing up. Like the time she was seven and had had a rough day in the human world. Some of them had teased her for her peculiar pale looks, told her she was a freak. I’d been so mad, I told her that I wanted names and addresses so I could go beat them all up. She’d laughed through her tears, told me that it didn’t matter, that our friendship was all she needed. It was probably that moment I knew we’d be lifelong best friends. We’d even decided to seal our bond with a blood oath. Violet was my blood sister, and I would literally do anything to get her back. Some people were just worth dying for.
I could tell Kade had been reading my emotions, if not my thoughts. He grabbed my hand and together we touched the crystal. That told me he was all in. He would also risk everything for Violet. For me. She was that important to me and I was that important to him.
The mecca shot into me so hard I let out a strangled cry. Somehow I managed to hold on. I could feel Kade filtering the energy so it wouldn’t affect me as much, but it was straining him. We needed to do this quickly. Channeling the energy into what I needed, the portal began to open, the faint image becoming clearer by the second, trees and bushes appearing before us.
Someone gasped behind me, then Nikoli said, “I didn’t believe you could actually do it. We’ve always been taught that only fae can open portals to the Otherworld.”
Yeah, we’re part fae, I wanted to say, but that was a whole other conversation for another day.
“Go! We can’t hold it much longer,” I shouted. Blaine seemed cemented to the spot, staring at the image, but at my command he grabbed Monica’s hand and nudged Victor’s shoulder.
“We’ll head west before doubling back toward the east so we can meet up with you in a few days,” I heard Blaine say, before he stepped through. Finn ran in after them.
I’ll stick with them for now and keep in touch, he said. That way we can communicate easily between our groups. I hated being apart from him, but it was a good plan. He’d keep them safe.
Take care, old friend!
Nikoli and Nix went through next, and I noticed Kade’s forehead had broken out with beads of sweat.
“Arianna, go!” he bellowed, letting go of my hand, his other remaining on the crystal.
“No way! We go together!” I shouted, snatching his hand back up. The mecca was buzzing so loudly now I wanted to cover my ears.
I heard the door in the sitting room crash open. Now or never. On the other side of the portal, Nikoli and Nix were waiting for us. The magic born had a ball of orange fire in his hands, gearing up for some spell, hopefully to help keep the portal open while we jumped through, or maybe to stop anyone else following us.
On three… Kade said. I readied myself and tried not to think of what would happen if the portal closed while we were halfway through it. Most likely it would slice our bodies in half.
Stop thinking!
“One … two … three!” Kade shouted and we pulled our hands off in unison, stepping around the mecca crystal and charging at the open portal. As we neared it, it began to shrink.
“Jump!” I yelled, both of us taking a leap at the same time. We hit the portal just as Nikoli’s orange ball of fire slammed in from the side. The closing of the entrance slowed, his power keeping it open for us. As I passed through the portal opening, I heard that voice again, that familiar voice that had been in the mecca for weeks.
Arianna, I loved you dearly. Forgive me.
I hit the cold hard dirt with enough force to take my breath away, rolling a few times before coming to a halt. Lying there, I had to take a moment to catch my breath. Not just because of the fall, but because of that voice. It had been so clear this time. I knew who it was now. Without any doubt … it was the Red Queen. All this time she’d been trying to communicate with me through the mecca.
Dammit! We might have gotten our answers if I’d known that. I could have tried harder to find out how it was even possible for her to speak to me from the afterlife. But I was in the Otherworld now, and there was no time for me to deal with the Red Queen.
Jumping to my feet, I was up in time to see the portal crush the last of Nikoli’s orange ball spell. It was almost closed now, but I did see Selene running into the room with her guard. She took one look at me on the other side and screamed so loud I heard it in the fae lands. Then she was gone.
Earth was gone. We were in the Otherworld, and I had absolutely no idea how we were going to get back home once we found Violet. A problem to worry about later. For now we had a mission and I was focusing on that. Breathing in slowly, calming my nerves after the last thirty minutes of adrenalin, I let myself really see the land we’d arrived in, taking stock of threats and such that might be in the vicinity.
It was beautiful here, quiet and peaceful. I could sense energy in the land beyond what Earth had, a true natural force that quietly flowed beneath us. Rolling green hills, towering trees which seemed to expand out into the horizon – not to mention a plethora of flowering plants. It was pretty and it smelled good. And all of this beauty hid a deadliness which could get us killed.
In the distance, about five hundred yards away, I caught sight of Blaine and the others. They had wasted no time moving, and we needed to go as well. Thankfully, our travel bags had remained on our backs, even through the fight. We had everything we needed. It was time to go.
Nikoli and Kade started to stalk around, scouting the land. Nix was on Kade’s shoulder, not wanting to fly up yet. When we traveled, though, she would be our first line of defense against any attack. Through the trees I could see a few small huts that made up some type of village, and farther beyond it a huge white-stone castle.
Kade turned to me, his face more serious than usual. “Does it seem a little less vibrant than the last time we saw this world? The plants are sick. I can feel their pain.”
He was right. The last time the colors had almost been too much to stare at. Taking a much more thorough look around, I realized that many of the flowers were wilted, the trees and grass browning in some patches. The sky was also a sickly bluish green, which was different to what I remembered. The mecca was definitely affecting these lands.
A snarly voice came from behind us: “Announce yourself! You know protocol!”
I slowly turned, not wanting to startle them into an attack. I cursed myself for not pulling my hood up, but thankfully my long hair mostly covered my very non-pointy ears. No doubt I was a mess, covered in blood and dirt, which would not help alleviate suspicions.
When the fae came into sight, I was a little surprised, but managed to keep my expression from changing. I hadn’t been sure what to expect, but the four-foot creature with thick brown, wrinkled skin and pointy ears was not it. He had a humanoid shape, but clearly was not one of the fae I was used to seeing. His face had the texture and structure of a brown nut, with two very green eyes that seemed to be one pure color, no pupil to break it up. I scanned down to his toes and saw he was barefoot, with wide hairy stumps for feet. Weird, coarse looking, brown tufts of hair sprouted out at various places on his body.
Let me know what you want to do, Kade said, waiting at my side.
Let’s see if we can talk our way out of this before we attack.
Our conversation was cut off as the creature cleared his throat and took a small step forward. “Announce yourself,” he said again.
He wasn’t coming at us threateningly, but did hold a small knife in his hand, the blade beautiful and unusual. It had a twirled looking blade, the point sharp and glinting. The twirl of metals were a mix of steel and gold.
I had a pretty good idea of the type of fae we were dealing with here. The treeling in Kade’s garden had spent a lot of time talking to me about the different races. He was a gnome. They were great with metals, and they loved food, which gave me an idea.
Keeping my voice low, hiding the New York accent best I could, I said, “Greetings! We’re traders. We come with dried fruits, nuts, and meats in exchange for two nights stay and some finely crafted weapons.”
His wrinkled face went even more creased. My accent was still going to be odd, no matter what I did to smooth it out. My heartbeat was picking up. I really hoped he wasn’t going to attack, because we needed to sneak in without drawing attention to ourselves. We also needed weapons. We’d decided not to bring Earth-made weapons into the fae lands, for many reasons, but mostly because we would never be able to hide our foreignness with them.
The gnome studied us harder, and didn’t say anything, which was disconcerting. He seemed to spend a long time staring at my feet. His mouth dropped open slightly, revealing some sharp, pointed teeth. He then turned to look at Kade, taking in his huge body, before finally Nikoli. On all of us he paid particular attention to our feet.
I looked down, wondering what had caught his eye. Did we wear the wrong shoes, or something? Holy crap! The grass all around me, in about a two foot radius, was a bright vibrant green. It was the same around Kade and Nikoli. All of us had brought some of the mecca with us and it was healing the land here.
The gnome’s green eyes almost disappeared into his face folds as he shouted: “Ye ain’t no traders!” He said a few more things as he jabbed at my feet, but I couldn’t understand him. Finally he calmed a little and said: “Trader or not, we are low in food, so I’ll take ye up on yer offer.”
His accent was definitely an odd a mixture of Irish and something else. “Can I sample the foods to make sure ye are
n’t lyin’?”
I nodded and slowly swung the backpack off my shoulder. Kade did the same, and even knelt on one knee so as not to seem so tall in front of our four-foot friend. The moment I pulled a paper sack of cashews from my bag the gnome smelled the air and stepped even closer. I held the bag out for him to peer into.
“What are they? Look like nuk nuts but more curved.”
I knew I couldn’t say cashews, in case they had nothing like that here, so I just offered him two. He popped them in his mouth and moaned. “Splendid!” His entire demeanor changed now that he saw we had so much food. Part of me worried we might need this food, but it was better to make friends and sleep in the village tonight. Maybe we could get him drunk on whatever did that here and get him to tell us stories. Help us figure out where we were and were we needed to go. Despite the fact I was desperate to get to Violet, it would be a huge advantage for us to observe some fae and learn how to blend in.
Kade held out his palm. Upon it were two dried apricots. The gnome snatched them from his palm and popped him in his mouth. After a few chews he giggled.
“What are two high born from the royal courts and a magic wielder doing all de way out in these woods?” he asked, sniffing Nikoli’s bag. Nikoli produced a dried piece of beef jerky and handed it to him.
High born, the treeling had told me, was their terminology for the tall, human-looking, pointy-eared fae.
I chuckled nervously. My trader story wasn’t going to work. We had him enthralled with the food now, but it wouldn’t last.
Kade called the gnome closer as if he was going to whisper a secret. The gnome stepped gingerly toward Kade, and I too leaned in, waiting to see what my mate would say.
