Summer Prince

by Juliana Haygert

  The ogres tugged me back. “Wait! Wait!” I jerked against their holds, but they were too strong for me.

  “Ah, and don’t forget to give him a bath,” the woman said matter-of-factly. “He stinks.” She then turned to the other two ogres in the chairs. “I heard you had trouble with the Bloodwrath witch again.”

  “Bloodwrath didn’t do anything, but she was spotted a few days ago,” one of the ogres said, his voice deep and rough and the words slurred and unsure. It was gritting on my nerves to see them all speaking a human language, but that only made me assume this woman was human.

  “So what’s the matter?” the woman asked.

  “She’s a witch!” the one ogre said. “She’s powerful. She has done too much to us already. We want her gone.”

  The woman examined her nails. “She’s powerful, yes, but she has been quiet lately. I don’t think there’s a necessity to go after her and kill her.”

  One of the ogres leaned forward. “Are you afraid of her, Carlyn?”

  The woman balked. “Of course not!” Even from across the room, I could see her cheeks growing red.

  I let the ogres take me, my mind reeling with this new piece of information. I had no idea who Carlyn was, but if she was in league with these ogres, it meant she was powerful, and if she was powerful but was afraid of the Bloodwrath, then it meant this witch was even more powerful. They were all afraid of her.

  Perhaps I was deluding myself, but if there was a powerful witch out there, I had to find her. She could be my ticket home.

  I had to come up with a solid plan to escape.

  I waited in my cell patiently. First, the ogres brought me food—something that looked like porridge but smelled and tasted nothing like it. I forced myself to eat it because I needed to keep my strength up.

  Second, I knew the creatures would take me out of my cell at some point because that Carlyn woman had told them to give me a bath. So, when they finally came for me the next day, I pretended to fight back, as if I didn’t want to be taken from my cell, as if I was afraid they would kill me. I was careful not to say anything since it seemed some of these ogres could speak more than one or two languages.

  I was dragged out of the dungeon, led to another part of the building, and finally pushed into what looked like a private courtyard. I blinked several times, trying to adjust my eyes to the sudden brightness of the two suns. From the way they shone down on me, I could tell it was early in the day, but soon they would heat up, and the air would be as blistering as the desert in the Summer Court.

  I forced myself to open my eyes and take stock of my surroundings. Brownish grass, high concrete walls, and a few yards away, a wooden building.

  The ogres took me inside; it was an outhouse. One side had a large wooden tub, and the other side held what looked like stalls and holes on the ground for toilets.

  The smell inside this outhouse was unbearable, but at least the water in the tub looked clean.

  Not that I would have time to find out.

  Once the two ogres and I were alone in the outhouse, I called my fire. Glad to know this part of their keep wasn’t warded, I let the fire engulf my arms and sent potent blasts toward the monsters. They shrieked and jerked back, letting go of me so they wouldn’t be burned.

  I didn’t waste time.

  I jumped and conjured fire jets underneath my feet, which gave me enough propulsion to arch over the tub and land on the other side of the outhouse, where there was another door.

  I ran out and didn’t stop running, not even when I faced the wall. I used the fire jet under my feet again to jump over the wall. When I landed on the other side, I found myself at the edge of a forest.

  Blaze. I would probably get lost in here, but it was better than staying and getting caught again. The angry shouts of the ogres bellowed from the other side of the fortress wall.

  I placed a glamour over myself and ran into the forest, determined to find Bloodwrath.

  6

  Layla

  The damned imps had played in my garden again. Those little demons. I didn’t really know what they were, what they were called—like most of the creatures from this realm. Besides the ogres and trolls and goblins and a couple more, I didn’t know what the dozens of different monsters I had encountered were. I just gave them a name so I could call them something in my head.

  Sometimes I wondered how many different monsters were in this world that I hadn’t met yet. I shuddered, hoping I never would. The ones I already knew were more than enough.

  I grabbed my rake and started piling the herbs they had pulled out from their beds and spread through the grass. The little imps often came out at night—and sometimes during the day too, like today—and just made a mess. They were naughty and reminded me of children with too much energy. They never attacked me directly unless I attacked them first. Then, they were nasty. I just wanted them to leave me alone! But they were the only ones who didn’t seem to care about my reputation.

  I piled the herbs carefully, hoping I could salvage some and sell them at the marketplace next month, but something else caught my attention. A thin line of upturned earth, going from the back of the garden into the woods.

  “Oh, no, not again,” I muttered. I dropped the rake and followed the line through the thin trees, a few yards into the forest, until it reached a small clearing, shadowed by the trees' crowns, but still well illuminated by sunlight.

  The line stopped at the wood plaque I had made and staked to the ground. The mound of earth in front of it was intact this time, at least. I ran my hand over the ground, smoothing the earth. I swear when I saw these imps again, I would skin them alive.

  A twig snapped and some ruffling came from the cottage.

  Oh, those little imps would meet their fate right now.

  I opened myself to my magic and went to meet them.

  7

  Varian

  I ran without rest and without direction for hours. All that mattered was to get away from those monsters, far enough away they wouldn’t be able to catch up with me.

  Weary with fatigue, I allowed myself to rest.

  I didn’t drop my glamour, though, because I could hear and sense other creatures close by and the last thing I needed was another fight, another scuffle that would send me back to square one.

  After some rest, I looked for someone to help me out. I was probably delusional, feverish and whatnot, but I had seen Carlyn inside the ogres’ lair. If there was a woman like her—not a monster who was willing to bite my head off at first sight—in that fortress, there was bound to be someone else on the outside too.

  It took me a while and many narrow encounters with different creatures, but I found a row of precarious market stalls in a wide clearing in the forest.

  I was trying to develop a plan of how I would sneak into what seemed a marketplace and ask in my language about Bloodwrath, when a short and stocky monster walked out of the stand row and into the forest.

  With greenish skin, long nails, and a huge, round nose, the creature looked like it could give me a good fight, but I didn’t give it a chance. The moment it walked by a tree a few yards into the forest, I wrapped my fire around it, immobilizing it.

  “Do you speak my language?” I asked, my voice rough. I leaned over the creature, fire-like daggers coming out of my hands, and pointed the weapons at its face. “Answer me.”

  The creature mumbled in a different tongue.

  Blaze. “Can you understand me now?” I said, changing to English.

  “Y-yes, a little,” the creature stuttered. I let out a relieved sigh. It would have been messy if I had to let him go and grab someone else. “What do you want?”

  “Where can I find Bloodwrath?”

  The creature’s glassy gray eyes went wide. “She's dangerous. You should not go to her.”

  I tightened my fire around him, still not burning, but warm enough to give him a fright, and brought the fire in my hand closer to his face. “Answer me! Where can I fi
nd this witch?”

  “I d-do not know! Nobody knows! But I hear she is often seen in the woods.” The creature pointed his hand to the other end of the marketplace. “That way. That's what I know.”

  I frowned. He could be lying. Someone else might know more than he did, but I didn’t have time or the will to let him go so he could warn others of my presence, or to grab another monster for more information.

  I marched in the direction the creature told me.

  When I was a quarter of a mile away, I let my magic drop and the creature go.

  I searched for hours without luck. At some point, I was sure I had never been more lost in these forsaken woods. I had even come across my old hiding trunk, which was fortunate because I was able to grab the sack with my things from it—something I had thought lost by now.

  Despite moving and walking all day, I hadn’t found the witch. Night came and I hopped into a tree, staying high on one of its branches, glamoured to all. Every sound and little movement put me on high alert, but thankfully no creature saw me or attacked me. I was sure the ogres would come after me. They would find me when I was sleeping, and I wouldn’t have time to wake up and fight properly.

  But thankfully, that didn’t happen.

  In the morning, right before the two suns rose, I resumed my trek.

  After a couple of hours, sweating and hungry, I was convinced I had either misunderstood about this Bloodwrath witch and she didn’t even exist, or I had been tricked and was on the wrong path—the latter was a good possibility. Why the blaze would a strange creature help me when I was threatening him?

  I didn’t know how long had passed. My legs were trembling, tired. My stomach growled, hungry as it had never been. My eyes wanted to close, take a break. But I kept pushing. I had to find this witch. She was my only hope, and I wouldn’t stop searching for her until I found her.

  The two suns had started their slow descent when I stumbled past a few trees and came to a thick hedge of thorns. I halted and stared at it. This didn’t look natural. Someone had done this.

  Perhaps a witch who wanted to be left alone.

  I called my fire and took a step forward, then stopped again. What if this witch was truly fearsome and horrible as Carlyn and the ogres had made her out to be? What if she didn’t hear me out? What if I was walking into a death trap?

  My only hope was to be careful and do my best to get on her good side, if she had one.

  I inhaled deeply and used my fire to cut a small gap in the thorn hedges, big enough for me to crawl through. The moment I crossed the hedge, they closed behind me.

  Magical.

  Now I was sure this was where Bloodwrath was hiding. It had to be.

  With my magic under my fingertips, in case I had to defend myself, I slowly advanced. The trees here were tall and thin, and they became scarce the more I moved forward until they finally opened up into a wide garden and small wooden cottage.

  I frowned, taking everything in. The garden was immaculate, with a variety of plants and colorful flowerbeds. A dark wooden bench separated the garden from a long patch of diverse herbs. Some I had never seen before, all of them bright green and strong. The cottage looked old but quaint and well taken care of. There was a small table and a rocking chair on the porch and a neatly folded blanket over it.

  Whoever lived here couldn’t be an evil witch.

  Could she?

  I made my way to the porch, still holding my magic. I raised my fist to knock on the door, but sensed movement behind me.

  I turned fast and saw someone at the edge of the forest across the garden. A woman. A beautiful woman with long blond curls, striking blue eyes, and fair and smooth skin.

  This couldn’t be Bloodwrath.

  She drew a small, crude dagger from the pocket of her blue dress and pointed it at me. “What are you doing here?”

  I stared at her. Something about her was familiar. She took a step forward, her curls bouncing around her shoulders. She turned the dagger in her grip and I saw the star tattoo covering her hand. “Answer me!”

  Scorching sun, I knew where I had met this woman before. “It’s you,” I rasped.

  8

  Layla

  What the hell was that fae doing here? I didn’t need a dagger, but I wanted to look fierce to him without resorting to my magic. The fewer people who knew what I could do, the better.

  Still, how had he escaped? How had he found me? And why?

  “You’re the woman who came to my cell and asked about the medallion,” the fae said, his voice deep. He looked like a homeless man I had seen before in the human world—with his brown hair like a nest of snakes on his back, dirt on his face and hands, and his clothes in rags and grimy. Even his boots were covered in mud. “Why did you leave me there?”

  I shrugged. “You didn’t have what I wanted.”

  “And that’s reason enough to leave an innocent to be devoured by those monsters?”

  “I don’t know you, so I don’t really care what happens to you.”

  He took a step closer and I took a step back, raising the dagger a little more. “What the hell are you doing?”

  He rolled his shoulders and let out a long breath, as if trying to calm himself down. “Are you the Bloodwrath witch?”

  “No,” I said too fast.

  “You are!” He seemed content about that. “You … I thought you would be an old hag with a wart on your nose or a hunchback.”

  I rolled my eyes. “How many fairy tale books have you read?”

  “Not many,” he said. “I was busy reading books about politics and fae magic.”

  “All right, enough of this shit.” I brandished the dagger in his direction. “What are you doing here?”

  “I heard how powerful and scary you are. The scary part is still up for debate, but I’m hoping you’re powerful.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “And why is that?”

  “So you can take me home.”

  He didn’t have the medallion, but he wanted to go back to his realm. Welcome to the club! “I’ll give you a similar answer to the one you gave me a couple of days ago: If I could use my magic to take someone to another realm, I wouldn’t be here.”

  His wide shoulders deflated. “But …”

  Suddenly, the fae looked like a lost puppy, one that could still bite my fingers off, I was sure, but something tugged inside my chest. Five years ago, I had just arrived here alone. I had wandered this land, praying I would live another day, another hour. I hid from monsters and became scared of every shadow, every click.

  I wished there had been someone who had been kind to me, helped me figure out a few things, even if in the end I still had to go on my own way and be alone.

  I let out a long sigh and lowered my dagger.

  “Stay here,” I told him as I walked past him, giving him a wide berth, and went inside my cottage.

  It was small, with a living room, a kitchen with only a table and a wall on the side, and one bedroom. The bathroom was outside and there was no shower.

  I went into my bedroom and rummaged through the trunk I had there—a trunk I had found in another abandoned cottage miles from here. Most of my furniture and belongings had come from other houses and villages, places that had been abandoned who knew why or how.

  I found a large tunic, grabbed a clean cloth, and in the kitchen, I found an unused bar of soap I had made a few weeks ago. I hugged everything and went back outside.

  The fae was still standing in the same spot, though now he had his arms crossed and a knot adorned his forehead. He glanced at me, suspicious. “What is that?”

  “A cloth for a towel, soap, and shirt I hope fits.” I handed them to him. He took it and I instantly backed away several steps. “There’s a small lake a hundred yards or so that way.” I pointed to the line of trees behind him. “The water is usually warm.”

  He stared at the things I had given him for a moment, then brought his eyes back to me. Only then I saw his eyes were a luminous dark
golden-green color. “Thanks.”

  I nodded and watched as he turned around and disappeared into the forest.

  While the fae was gone, I made a creamy vegetable and herb soup, grabbed some blankets from the trunk in my bedroom, and left them on the couch in the living room. The couch was made of wood and leather, not too comfortable, and I started to think the tall fae wouldn’t fit on it. But that was up to him. If he wanted to sleep on the floor, he could. As long as he stayed far from me.

  I was starting to think the fae had been found by a wild kitsune and eaten, when almost an hour later, I heard his heavy footsteps on the porch. He knocked on the closed door.

  “Come in,” I said, feeling weird. Why the hell was I helping this fae again? I didn’t owe anything to anyone. I had been alone in this realm for many years. Certainly, I didn’t need anyone.

  The door opened and the fae stepped in.

  I stared at him, confused. This couldn’t be the same fae I had sent to the lake. He looked completely different. He looked handsome. His face was devoid of dirt, and for the first time I could see the sharp edges of his jaw and chin. His olive skin was smooth and unblemished, and his long brown hair, now damp and clean, fell behind his back. He was as tall, but the tunic I had given him hugged his entire torso. I realized he also had a wide set of shoulders, and his arms, corded with muscles, barely fit in the sleeves.

  He had his pants back on, though I could see they were damp too, which meant he had washed them in the lake. Even his hips and thighs were strong. From the little I had seen, I could tell he was pure muscle and strength and—

  I shook my head, ridding myself of those thoughts.

  Yes, he was handsome and hot, but I had more important things to worry about.

  I pointed to the kitchen. “There’s also soup on the wood stove.” Next, I gestured to the blankets on the couch. “You can sleep here.” I glanced back at him, sure he wouldn’t fit on the couch. That was his problem.