“I know that.” I raised my chin and stepped into the mist.
Cool, wet air twisted around my ankles.
“See?” he said. “Not so bad.”
I bristled and kept walking.
We walked through the forest like we’d walked through the fields—in silence.
Our wings glowed brightly enough to light up the darkness. We continued on for well over two hours. And while the trees looked similar, I could have sworn we’d passed a particularly gnarly, knotty one twice.
I stopped and looked around. “Are we lost?” I asked.
Julian spun to face me, his eyes hard. “Do you want a turn at using the compass?” he asked.
“We’re lost,” I said.
“We’re not.”
“We are,” I said. “You wouldn’t be so snippy if we weren’t.”
“I’m not being snippy.”
“Yes, you are. Ever since the caves, it’s like you hate me.” My magic ignited, and electricity surged through the mist.
It hit Julian’s legs in less than a second.
His face twisted in agony, and he jumped up into the nearest tree, landing in the cradle of one of the branches. “What’re you trying to do?” he yelled. “Kill me?”
The bottoms of his breeches were browned, like they’d been held over a fire. Charred lines climbed over the trunks of the trees a few inches above the mist, too.
My chest tightened. Because mist was made of large droplets of water. Water conducted electricity. If the mist had been more condensed…
“I didn’t mean to do that.” I hung my head, unable to look at him. “I’m sorry.”
He said nothing.
Suddenly, a branch snapped overhead. Something huge and heavy dropped down on me, and I screamed as it crushed me to the ground. Something smacked into my forehead—the blunt end of a cane?—and my head spun. The mist was so thick that I couldn’t catch my breath.
Julian shouted my name and pushed whatever had landed on me to the side.
I sat up, and he already had two swords drawn.
The thing that had landed on me was a person, and he was fighting her.
Long silver hair flew out from under her cloak, and she blocked Julian’s blows with a wooden cane. Clearly a magical cane, otherwise it would have been sliced into pieces by now. Her long fingers were as gnarled as the tree branches, and her eyes glowed demonic red.
I reached for my magic to help out, but stopped myself. It was too dangerous with the mist. Anyway, they were moving too fast for me to aim my lightning at my attacker without risking accidentally hitting Julian in the process.
But Julian was an expert fighter. In less than a minute, he had disarmed her, knocked her to the ground, and shoved both of his swords through her heart.
Despite her demonic eyes, killing her didn’t disintegrate her. She just lay there, dead.
Julian left the swords in her body and stood over her.
I stepped cautiously forward. “What was that?” I asked, using my foot to push the hood of her cloak off her face.
An old crone. Her skin was as rough as tree bark, and her nose was hooked so low that it nearly touched her chin.
“That’s Muma Pădurii,” a melodic female voice said from behind me.
Julian and I spun around simultaneously. He held two fresh daggers in his hands, and I ignited balls of electricity in my palms.
We watched, stunned, as a woman with thick, rounded rams horns jutting out of her forehead pulled herself out of a tree like molasses. There was no hole in the tree—she’d been a part of it. She was the same texture as the bark. But then her skin—minus the parts over her breasts and hips—shifted to normal.
She was strikingly beautiful, even with the horns.
She twirled a strand of her curly auburn hair and giggled. “You can put your weapons away,” she said. “Because I don’t want to hurt you. I want to help you.”
Julian remained on guard. “Why would you want to do that?” he asked.
“Because you killed Muma Pădurii.” She dropped her hand down to her side and beamed. “Let me repay you this kindness.”
I kept my magic burning. “Who are you?” I asked, since it sounded more civil than asking her what she was.
“I’m Thalia,” she said. “One of the many zână who live in the Night Forest.”
Julian lowered his daggers, although he didn’t return them to the ether.
He must have heard of her species. And if they were dangerous, he would have already attacked.
So I closed my fists and snuffed out my magic. “I take it you didn’t like this Muma Pădurii?” I asked, hoping I didn’t totally botch the pronunciation.
From her amused smile, I assumed I did. Then she glanced at the dead crone, and her expression hardened. “Muma Pădurii hunted my kind, butchered us, and ate us for dinner,” she said. “None of us could fight against her enchanted cane. All we could do was hide. But you…” She slithered toward Julian, twirled her hair again, and smiled seductively. “You fought her bravely.”
I glared at her and stepped closer to Julian.
She stopped walking. “Ah,” she said. “This one’s yours.”
It sure didn’t feel like it recently, but that was none of her business. “Yes,” I said instead. “We’re soulmates.”
She leaned against the nearest tree and smiled again. “It’s easy to get lost in this forest, but I know it like the back of my hand.” She raised her hand, and the skin on it transformed to bark, and then back to normal again. “Can I guide you to whatever it is you seek?”
Julian’s daggers disappeared into the ether. The swords impaling the crone did, too. “We’re looking for the Green Lake,” he said. “Can you lead us there?”
Thalia brought her hands together and squealed. “How exciting!” she said. “Of course I can bring you to the lake. Come, follow me.”
She hopped, spun around, and skipped into the forest, and we hurried to follow in her wake.
19
Selena
We reached a shiny wall of vines, and Thalia stopped walking. “This is as far as I can take you,” she said. ”Go through the vines, and you’ll arrive at the edge of the Green Lake.”
I stopped myself from saying thank you, and searched for another way of expressing gratitude.
Julian got to it first. “I’m glad that slaying Muma Pădurii benefited you and your species, and that we were able to come to this arrangement,” he said.
“It will be a relief to live in the forest without fear of being hunted.” She smiled at him again. “Good luck in there. And remember—don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Before I could ask what she meant, she spun around and disappeared into a nearby tree.
Julian scratched his head. “That was an interesting choice of words,” he said.
“Strange,” I agreed, and then I parted the vines and walked through. One of us had to go first, and since Julian had been the first to enter the forest, it was my turn.
I stepped straight onto a sandy beach surrounding a sparkling green lake.
A single fig tree grew on an islet in the center of the lake. The trunk of the tree was shaped like a lithe nymph. Her arms extended up above her head, beyond the branches and leaves.
She held a golden branch with matching leaves growing out of it.
The Golden Bough.
Julian gazed out over the lake. “How good are you at swimming?” he asked.
“Water’s far from my favorite element, but I’m a capable swimmer,” I said. “And you?” I raised an eyebrow, since I already knew his answer.
Half-bloods didn’t have time to engage in frivolous activities like swimming. Especially the more impoverished families, who had to work as many hours as possible to make ends meet.
“I can hold my own,” he said.
“I’m sure you can,” I agreed. “But my training at Avalon Academy was extensive, and swimming was a required part of the program. I’ve got t
his.”
He nodded and pulled a longsword out of the ether. “You swim to the island and get the bough,” he said. “I’ll keep watch to make sure nothing attacks from the forest. And if anything’s lurking below the surface…”
I held out my hand and toyed with electricity between my fingertips. “I’ll fry them,” I said with a devilish grin.
He didn’t smile back. “I’ll stay out of the lake,” he said. “I wouldn’t want you to accidentally electrocute me like you did in the forest.”
I narrowed my eyes and snuffed out the electricity between my fingers. Smoke drifted up from the tips of them. “Given your recent attitude, maybe you deserve a good zapping,” I said.
He frowned, and I stared him down, waiting for an apology. Something to explain why he kept pulling away and speaking so aggressively to me.
When it was clear he wasn’t going to give me one, I spun around, stepped up to the edge of the lake, and dipped my fingers into the water.
Warm as a bath. Fantastic. I hated the cold.
I glanced over my shoulder at Julian. He was scanning the forest, not even looking at me.
Keeping my back toward him, I unhooked my cloak and let it fall to the ground. There was no need to get one of my two pairs of traveling clothes soaked and have to leave them behind.
Next, off came the shoes. Then I slowly peeled off my shirt, and then the tight-fitted breeches that luckily, females wore in the Otherworld while traveling. It would have been a pain to travel and fight in a dress.
Down to the undergarments that hugged every curve of my body, I glanced back over at Julian to see if I’d caught his attention.
He was watching, all right. He stood so straight that I could have sworn he was about to burst out of his skin and run toward me to make up for each time he’d rejected me over the past few days.
But he spun around again.
Ignoring me.
My heart sank at another rejection.
Yes, we were on a serious mission. A mission more important than my love life. But Julian was my soulmate. Our love was supposed to make us both better and stronger. We were supposed to be a team.
If we couldn’t bring light to each other in the darkest of times, what good were we to one another? How did it benefit either of us if we kept bringing each other down?
I removed my undergarments quickly and dove into the lake.
Immersed in the water, the world above disappeared. I was just floating—just being—and time stood still. A school of fluorescent fish swam by, their glowing tails and fins so sheer and billowy that they looked more like artwork than real life. All of the life inside the lake glowed with so much beauty that I wanted to stay there and revel in its magic for hours.
In my training at Avalon, I’d learned how to hold my breath for as long as possible. But now, with the extra strength from my magic, I didn’t even feel the beginning tugs of running out of air. It was incredible.
A splash from above, and the water shifted next to me.
Julian.
He got his bearings, then searched frantically, stopping when he found me. His eyes flashed with fear, and then anger.
Crap.
I kicked up to the surface and took a deep breath of air.
He emerged next to me, his shirt ballooning around his shoulders.
I rubbed the water out of my eyes. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“You were under there for so long that I thought something had happened.” His wet hair was slicked to his forehead. It dripped water down his face, and he looked so vulnerable. But then he pressed his lips together and shook his head in disappointment. “I see I was mistaken.”
“I’m fine,” I snapped. “I don’t always need you to save me.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“I don’t know what you think anymore.” I held his gaze, daring him to bite back.
He said nothing.
Instead, we circled around each other, neither of us looking away. Water lapped around us. Our breaths were slow and steady, perfectly in time with one another.
Unable to take it any longer, I swam closer, needing to close the space between us.
He took my shoulders in his hands and stopped me.
My heart shattered all over again. “What’s going on with you?” I asked softly. “You didn’t sleep last night. It was the first night I woke up and you weren’t there with me.”
“I told you that I went to Sibyl’s library,” he said. “She has books. Lots of them. I was searching for information about the plague.”
“Did you find anything?”
He lowered his gaze and let go of my shoulders. “No.”
Silence again.
But I was getting so close to breaking through to him. I could feel it.
“Please, talk to me,” I begged. “Something’s wrong. Tell me what it is. Let me help you.”
“Selena.” His voice cracked, and something in his eyes broke. “There’s something I need to— ”
He didn’t get to finish.
Because something slimy wrapped around my waist, and I took a deep breath inward before it yanked me under the surface and pulled me down below.
20
Selena
The soft, scaly thing swathed around me looked like a mermaid’s tail. I fought to free myself, but it pulled me closer and swung its arms around my shoulders to keep me still.
My eyes widened at the sight of its hands. Because they weren’t hands.
They were hooves.
I didn’t know what kind of monster I was up against, but I gathered my magic, ready to strike.
Then I glanced up.
Julian was swimming downward, searching for me. He was a slow swimmer, and he wasn’t making good progress.
No! I wanted to scream. Go back!
Even if I could yell underwater, the creature was wrapped around me so tightly that it was crushing my lungs. So I did the next best thing.
I stopped struggling and focused on my magic. I brought it close enough to the surface of my skin that my body glowed with it, while making sure not to release the dangerous electricity.
Julian saw me and headed toward me.
I shook my head no and made my body glow brighter. He needed to get out of the water.
Finally, he stopped swimming. We stared at each other, and just when I feared he was going to push forward, resolve crossed over his eyes.
He wiggled his fingers like I did when I played with my electricity, and I nodded.
I was going to fry this thing.
He nodded back. Then he rotated around, pushed up toward the edge of the lake, and the surface water stilled.
You better be out of here, I thought. If not…
I shook the thought out of my head. Julian was out of the water. He had to be.
I wanted to give him a few more seconds, just to be safe. But that familiar tug pulled at my lungs.
My air was running out.
I couldn’t wait any longer.
I pressed my palms into the tail wrapped around my waist and pushed out a deadly surge of electricity. Jolts of lightning exploded out of every part of my body. The water glowed bright white everywhere. The lake was like one of those electric orb toys, and I was the center of it.
The creature shook and whipped me around in a jerky circle. Then its tail fell limp, and I was free.
But I spun around to see what the creature looked like, too curious not to know.
Its top half was a horse, the bottom half a mermaid’s tale. It floated down, unconscious—or dead. Its mane billowed out like a jellyfish, surprisingly beautiful for such a deadly thing.
Another pull on my lungs—tighter this time.
I need air. NOW.
I twisted around and swam up. But the water was thick, like honey, and my muscles burned as I forced my way through it.
Bubbles floated out of my nose as the last bits of air left my lungs.
The bubbles floated to the sid
e.
That’s not right, I thought. They should float up. Bubbles always float up.
One more came out, and I watched in horror as it also slid off to the side.
The surface. I rotated around to face where the bubbles were disappearing out of my sight. I’ve been swimming the wrong way. This whole time, I’ve been swimming the wrong way.
I kicked harder, and my head pounded. My chest burned with so much pressure that I was going to explode. My hair floated in front of my face, and I couldn’t see a thing.
Which way was up again?
My lungs screamed. My arms refused to move.
Julian! I thought, and I must have actually screamed his name, because my mouth opened and water rushed into my lungs.
And then, silence.
21
Selena
Sharp, searing pain ripped through my chest. My body shook, I rolled onto my side, and I coughed so much water out of my lungs that my organs had to be coming up with it.
A muffled voice repeated my name and thanked the gods. Warm arms propped me up as I coughed up the last of the water and gasped for air.
Julian.
He rubbed my back in gentle circles. “You’re alive,” he said softly, as if he were saying it to himself as much as to me. “Thank the gods.” He wrapped me with a cloak and held me in his arms, trembling as much as I was.
I leaned into his embrace, and memories flashed through my mind.
Electricity lighting up the lake.
Water everywhere.
Trapped.
Lungs burning.
Each breath stung, until finally, it didn’t.
I pulled slightly back from Julian. His eyes were red and puffy, his cheeks wet with tears. “You saved me,” I said, and I reached forward to touch a golden curl plastered to his forehead, making sure he was real.
He took my hand and squeezed it. “There was so much light,” he said. “I waited for you to come back, but you didn’t, so I jumped in after you. When I finally found you…” His eyes glazed over, like he was seeing it all over again. “I thought you were dead. I thought I’d lost you.”
The Faerie Wand (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 4) Page 8
