My heart raced as we climbed higher and higher. I’d completely forgotten how truly terrifying flying was. The first time I’d been doing it, I’d also been in labor with Fae. Now I had nothing to take me away from the terror I felt as the world slipped away from us. Jay’s arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer to him so my back was up against his chest. He’d done it to calm me down, but being in such close proximity to him had only made my heart beat even quicker. I inhaled deeply and focused my eyes on the ground to do what we actually came up here for.
Green, green, and more green as we sailed over the meadows and valleys that gave Vale its name.
A fierce determination enveloped me.
“Thank you,” Zacarina’s voice whispered through my mind. “It means a great deal to know that this is as important to you as it is to me.”
I patted her neck, wordlessly conveying that thanks were not necessary. “We’ll find them.”
She jerked her head in a curt nod.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Jay called to me, his voice raised to make sure that I could hear him over the wind in our ears.
I exhaled shakily. "Wouldn't know. You’re handling the looking part of this mission, right?”
He tightened his grip on me and whispered in my ear, tickling it with his breath. “I’ve got you.”
My whole body trembled in a way I wasn’t sure had to do with fear anymore. I leaned back, content to enjoy the feeling of his body against mine, knowing my fear of heights gave me the perfect excuse.
We passed the meadows where I usually strolled, but the hills and valleys of Vale extended far beyond the palace. After perhaps an hour, Zacarina began to descend to a valley bare of trees. From up here, it looked like a smooth green plain.
Jay's grip around my waist tightened again as we descended, and the wind in our hair picked up.
We both grunted with the impact when Zacarina's hooves struck the ground, but other than that, we were unscathed. I could finally breathe again.
He helped me to the ground, and as I was busy praising any gods that would listen that I was back on solid ground again, Jay pulled out the bag he’d packed.
"Lunch?" he asked brightly.
I’d given him a hard time about it after my stomach growled, but I sure was glad that he’d brought the food with us now. If I’d been a little hungry before, now, over an hour later, I was starving. But Jay had thought of everything. He threw Zacarina another sandwich and laid the rest of his food out on a blanket he’d packed. There was only one sandwich left, but he’d brought plenty of snacks.
"Girl."
"Hmm?" I looked up from the half sandwich Jay had given me and found Zacarina staring at me intently. "What is it?" I asked, using my mind to speak.
"I knew that I felt drawn to this clearing for a reason. Look." She jerked her head to a small patch of plants. "Do you see that?"
I did. Some branches were full, the leaves untorn, while others were ripped, branches snapped.
They almost looked as if they’d been stepped on. I got hastily to my feet and brushed my knees off.
"Eliana? What is it?" Jay got up too and looked around for the source of my investigation.
I pointed, walking quickly toward the plants. "Do you see those? They look like they've been trampled."
Jay followed me toward them, and he knelt down in the dirt when we got to them. "Unicorn tracks." He whistled lowly. "I think we just found our second clue, Eliana."
A swell of pride that came at the accomplishment quickly collapsed when I considered all that we still needed to do and all that we hadn’t done. A second clue was good... but it didn't mean that we'd found them. And that was what I'd hoped to do here today.
I noticed a silvery sheen on some of the leaves, and my heart dropped. That looked an awful lot like...
"Blood," Zacarina and Jay said at the same time.
Jay looked up, and his eyes met mine. "Unicorn blood."
I swallowed. "Who would do this?"
Jay shook his head slowly. "No one that I'd like to meet in a dark alley, that's for damn sure."
Zacarina's eyes rolled. I thought that if it had been possible for a unicorn's face to pale, hers would have. Instead those golden eyes darted about, finding it impossible to settle. "We need to get out of here. My flock is gone, but whatever is after them would bleed me next."
"Zacarina, it will be okay," I said.
She reared and, with no reins to seize to help her keep all of her feet on the ground, Jay ran forward to grab hold of her stirrups instead.
All four hooves fell back to the ground, but it did not calm her for long. She looked at me steely-eyed. "We leave now, or I leave without you. I will not leave my daughter without a mother."
A pang went straight through my heart. She was right. Baby needed Zacarina. And Fae needed me. I couldn't take the chance of something happening to us if whoever had hurt the unicorns came back this way.
"Let's go, Jay. It's getting late. The guards and Mother are bound to be looking for me soon. We have a starting point of a trail, at least. Whenever we can get back here, we can see if we can find where it leads."
He nodded and slung the saddle blanket over his shoulders. I put one foot in Zacarina's stirrups and slung the other over her back. She lowered her body so that Jay could mount as well. And no sooner had he hooked his arms around my waist again than we were off, leaving blood and a sunset behind us.
Zacarina returned us to the staviary. We dismounted, and Jay told me to meet him in his office. But I stayed behind. I wanted to console the beautiful unicorn, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to find the words. "We'll find your herd," I whispered.
She just shook her great head, her mane flipping to and fro with the movement. "Will we? I'm not so sure."
"We will."
Her eyes seemed sad and tired when she looked at me. "Your mate is waiting for you. Go. I don't feel much like talking anymore anyway."
I sputtered. "My mate?! Jay's not—he's—We are not—"
A small tinge of amusement lit her gaze. "Humans. You protest the strangest things.”
After that exchange with Zacarina, I only ducked my head back into Jay's office to quickly say goodbye. I could barely look him in the eye, and I was sure my face was beet red. I walked outside and found Avery and Williamson exactly where I'd left them. As neither of them said anything about the amount of time they’d been waiting for me, I could only assume they’d not looked to the sky and seen my unicorn flight.
"All set there, Your Highness?" Williamson asked.
"Yes." I adjusted my overcoat, tightening its ties. I didn't want them to notice the informal clothes beneath. Better to let them believe I was simply the unicorn princess, visiting the only known unicorns left in Vale. Let them believe I was chatting with Jay all day.
It was better than them reporting the truth to my mother. That was a headache I certainly didn't need.
They escorted me back to the palace and dropped me at my rooms. Inside, I found my mother, sound asleep in the rocking chair, with Fae dozing fitfully on her chest.
My heart swelled inside of me. These were two of the people I loved most in the whole world. And this was why I felt I must keep these truths to myself. My mother looked so peaceful, an expression of utter contentment written across her face. No worries wrinkled her brow. No grunts of disturbed dreams escaped her mouth. She just slept, holding on to her granddaughter.
I hated to wake her, but it had to be done. Gently, I put my hand on her shoulder and whispered a feather-soft, "Mother."
Her eyes fluttered open and met mine. "Eliana." She yawned and then blinked hard to clear the sleep from her eyes. Her eyes caught on the darkness outside of the windows. "What time is it?"
"About seven."
"PM?" she asked, incredulous, and started to sit up.
"Shh, shh!" I held a finger to my lips and pointed frantically at Fae.
"Oh!" She fell back to whispers and cradled Fae protectively. "I can't believe I
slept in the middle of the day like that. This little one can really take it out of you."
I trailed a finger over her soft little forehead. "I told you. Did she scream bloody murder?" I asked fondly
"Like a banshee. I think she must have missed her mama."
Guilt only a mother could know squirmed within me. My child had wanted me, and I hadn't been there to hold her. But I steeled myself against falling into that trap. Just because I couldn't be present for every breath she took didn't make me any less of a mother. I had been off trying to solve a mystery that would make this a safer world for all of us.
7
5th May
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"Your Highness?" Williamson’s muffled voice came through the door after his knock as I rocked Fae beside her bassinet. It was pretty early in the morning after the stomach-curdling discovery that not only had the unicorns gone missing, but that they were being harmed. My thoughts were consumed with worry for the creatures and the uncertainty of where to go next. I didn’t know that we could follow the trail—if, indeed, there would be any trail for us to follow. That might have been it. Plus, we’d left so hastily, I wasn’t one hundred percent certain that I would be able to find my way back there.
So I was left waiting until a brilliant idea struck me to make my next move. Left wondering… and waiting
Speaking of waiting, poor Williamson was probably still waiting for me to respond with permission to come inside before he poked his head into my suite.
“Sorry!” I called. “I was a bit distracted. What can I do for you, Williamson?" I asked.
"Mr. Jay is here to see you again, Your Highness."
I stood up curiously, Fae still cradled against my chest. I hadn’t gotten her to sleep quite yet, but her eyes were at half mast. Jay? Maybe he hadn’t been able to rid his thoughts of what we’d discovered either. Well, two minds were better than one. Maybe if we talked it over and brainstormed together, we’d come up with something that neither of us could on our own.
“Thank you. Send him in."
Unlike when he'd dropped in earlier that week, this time when Jay walked in, his shoes and clothing were spic and span. The leather of his boots practically gleamed under the light.
"Come to visit your favorite princess?" I asked.
His eyes flew to mine and his face colored. I felt my own cheeks heat in response.
Oh gods, bad joke. Bad joke. Undo it.
“Fae," I amended hastily. "I'm talking about Fae, of course.”
I turned Fae around so he could see her. Her sleepy little eyes shot open and I bit my lip. Had I woken the beast? But they started to lower once again, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing her, his expression brightened for a moment before he sobered abruptly. "I wish this was a simple social call. I’d much rather be making silly faces at her than telling you what I’m here to say,” he said. He thumbed toward my sitting room and motioned to the sofa. "Could we talk?"
My smile faded. That sounded awfully serious. I guessed that my first instinct had been right. This wasn’t about visiting with Fae. It had to have something to do with the unicorns. “Oh. Sure."
We sat down next to each other and I nervously tugged a piece of my hair behind my ear. It was strange how self-conscious I felt. His knee was barely bumping mine. Yesterday, his body had been wrapped around me and I hadn’t felt half as nervous. I supposed it had something to do with the setting. We’d been with Zacarina, out in the wide, open air yesterday. But being in my suite, when my bedroom was just steps away… somehow it felt just far more intimate.
It felt more intimate than it had even a week ago.
But so much had happened in a week. The unicorns had disappeared. Now, we knew they were in more serious trouble than we’d initially thought. And through it all, Jay had been right there beside me, lending me a hand whenever I asked.
And I’d asked him on a date.
Things were changing. Was I ready to meet the future, whatever it might bring?
I wasn’t sure I knew the answer.
Jay looked up to the ceiling and sighed. “I’m not sure exactly where to start. I barely slept last night.”
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Focus on anything besides the warmth of his leg beside yours, Eliana, I instructed myself sternly. You’re probably imagining it anyway.
Fae started fussing and I gratefully seized the excuse to move this conversation somewhere a little less… awkward for me. Hastily, I jumped back up like someone had lit a match beneath my bottom. "Actually, would it be all right with you if we walk and talk?” I bounced Fae a little and explained. “Lately, she's just much better if I'm moving around with her instead of trying to hold still for too long." Not a total lie. Although I probably could have achieved the same effect if I’d just had Jay follow me over to her rocking chair and we’d spoken there. But I wanted to get out of here.
Jay blinked twice, startled by the request, but still, he said, “Sure,” and pushed to his feet.
Once his skin wasn’t touching mine, I could think clearly again. So I strapped Fae into her stroller and we set off for the palace gardens. It would take less time to reach them than the meadows and I didn’t want to keep Jay waiting long. It was an ideal location because it would be quiet there so we could talk privately without any fear of being overheard and we'd be able to feel the sun on our skin—which I always seized any opportunity to do.
Jay had an anxious, tense sort of energy to him as we walked swiftly toward the gardens, but he wouldn't speak yet. Every time I prodded him, he shook his head. "Not here," he said tersely. It was all he would say, eyeing different ladies of the court, servants, and guards. Did he have reason to believe that an insider was at work in the palace? I worried, but I sincerely hoped not. Hopefully, he just didn’t want it getting back to our mysterious culprit somehow that we were on to him.
But just before we left my living quarters, I had noticed how his eyes lingered on the word Rumpelstiltskin on the walls.
Now, I swore inwardly, cursing myself. I wished that I had gotten over my damn spell of self-consciousness. If he had news about Rumpelstiltskin, I wanted to hear it and I wanted to hear it quickly. It made me quicken my step, eager to hear what he had to say. The faster we got to the gardens, the faster I could find out.
The palace gardens were beautiful but not often busy, and today was no different. We walked inside where tall hedges towered over us, stretching toward the sky.
When you lived in a place like Vale, you didn't often have a need for meticulously maintained flower beds—the ones that grew wild and free in the meadows were just as beautiful and much easier to access for most people, so that was where they went. But this was where our gardeners cultivated the seeds that were gifts from other kingdoms—the ones with climates similar enough to Vale. Others went into our greenhouses. So we had native flowers here as well as rare, fragrant blooms. It was a beautiful place, if a little… overly manicured.
Though this trip had been under false pretenses, supposedly for the purpose of getting my daughter to sleep, it had served that purpose: Fae had fallen asleep during our walk from the palace to get here, lulled by the gentle motion of the stroller's wheels over carpeted floors. Even when we’d left the palace, she hadn’t stirred when those soft floors transitioned into cement pathways.
I found us a stone bench to sit on and Jay and I settled down. This time, I sat at the edge of the bench. I messed with my skirts a bit so that they provided a little more cushion on the rough-hewn stone, and once comfortable, I idly pushed Fae's stroller back and forth, getting into a rhythm. I fixed my attention on Jay and whatever it was that he had to say.
"What is it that you wanted to talk about?" I asked.
Please be about the unicorns. Please be about the unicorns. Please be about the unicorns.
"After we saw the unicorn blood yesterday," he started slowly. "I couldn't get it out of my head."
“That’s right,” I said. “You said you didn’t sleep
much.” Now that I knew it, I could see that there were deep, dark circles beneath both of Jay’s eyes, and that his eyes themselves were shot through with red.
He nodded. “Right. And it wasn’t just because of what we found. After you left the staviary, I went somewhere else.”
My mind went immediately to the blood splatter we’d found. I’d thought that there wasn’t much of a trail to follow, but… “You didn't follow the trail alone, did you?" That would be irresponsible. And irresponsible was not Jay’s M.O.
He scoffed, dismissing that idea. " No, I would never do anything like that without telling you where I was going. I wouldn't have been able to follow a trail in the dark anyway. But I wanted to do something. Instead, I thought about what we’d talked about the day before. About Rumpelstiltskin.”
My heart jumped into my throat. So I’d been right. He had been eyeing the art in my rooms with renewed interest.
“What is it? What did you find?” I asked eagerly.
He got up and began to pace, raking his hands through his hair. “It was late in the afternoon but still early enough that when I went into the city, the library hadn't closed yet. I took a page out of your book." I cringed at the bad joke and he gave me an unabashed grin. “Ba-dum ching," he said, miming a drum and cymbals.
"I knew they wouldn’t be open very much longer last night, so that was my first stop,” he continued. "I asked the librarians. But that got me nowhere. They have what they assured me was an incredibly thorough indexed catalog that included every subject, every title, and every author contained within that library's walls. There wasn't a single mention of a Rumpelstiltskin. After all of our years of hide and go seek, I know how it's spelled, obviously, but I even had them try alternate spellings, just in case your mother had gotten her decor wrong for all those years. We tried Ramplestiltskin, Remplestiltskin, Rimplestiltskin…” He ticked the variations off on his fingers and shook his head. “Got me nowhere. Nothing."
My heart sank. He’d come all this way and acted like it was so important just to report another dead end?
Eliana: Remembering Rumpelstiltskin (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 5) Page 14
