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When I return…

Her mind kept floating back to those words and whether they had anything to do with why they were trekking through the forest now. There were so many possibilities. So many reasons he could want them far from interruptions. Some made her heart leap with excitement while others made it fracture with crippling pain.

Though the sun hadn’t risen yet, birds were already chirping, ready to greet the new day.

She followed Rion down every path, trusting he knew the way, but when they reached the base of the mountains, Arianna hesitated.

The trees shifted, going from young to old in a matter of steps. They tripled in size and shadows seemed to shift behind the centuries-old bark. It felt as though something waited for her to enter its territory so it could devour her whole. Would they find her body at its base as they had so many others?

Rion noticed the shift in her scent and paused.

“I’ve always been told to stay away from this place.” She held herself tighter.

“As I’m sure you were told to stay away from me.” She blinked at him. “Not everything is as it seems. I swore to you once before, but I’ll swear it again. Nothing will harm you while I’m around.”

Arianna swallowed hard and peered into the darkness looming before her. The elders had warned her of monsters. Warned her of Rion too. How many of those old stories would prove false?

Rion extended a shaking hand, but she knew he didn’t tremble from the cold. This was him trying and whatever she chose to do next would change everything.

Arianna stepped forward, wrapped her small hand in his, and let Rion lead her into the darkness.

ARIANNA CLUTCHED Rion’s hand, her heart hammering in her chest the further they ventured into the forest. The young trees were a distant memory now. Snow crunched beneath her feet and, as if conjured by magic, strange lights began to appear in the darkness.

Lights that floated. Eyes that stared.

The full moon illuminated misshapen figures dashing between trees, too fast for even her Fae eyes to see. An enormous shadow shifted to her right. Arianna sucked in a breath and planted her feet, ready to run, but Rion tightened his hold in reassurance. Particles of sand floated between them, dancing across her skin as if it, too, were trying to comfort her.

She might have enjoyed this stroll, Rion’s hand in hers, had it not been for the sheer terror coursing through her veins.

They shouldn’t be here. A voice in her head kept repeating. How many times had the elders warned her? How many Fae bodies had they counted at the mountain’s base, mangled and beyond recognition?

Growling huffs echoed between the trees, like animals offering a warning before they struck, but Arianna couldn’t identify the creatures by scent alone. These were wraiths, beasts, demons. Beings only whispered about in their modern world.

Rion pressed his body against hers and she leaned into him, letting that familiar scent drown out the strange ones. He didn’t tremble like she did, and his sureness had her fear dissipating slightly. How many times had he wandered into this wretched place and survived?

Or did these creatures fear him as well? Most knew Rion as a monster, but she’d seen another side. A Fae male, battle-hardened and isolated his entire life because of false prejudices written in an old book by elders who no longer lived.

Arianna took another steadying breath, her heart calming further. The world had misunderstood Rion so perhaps—

“Don’t attack them,” he whispered. “They don’t mean to frighten you.” Her heart started up again, but she nodded and opened her eyes to watch the shadows.

Rion’s earth rose and he stepped away from her. Arianna reached for him, afraid even the shortest distance would leave her stranded out here alone, but sand particles wrapped around her hand, caressing her skin in reassurance. It enveloped her, cocooning her body in a protective half shell. If her magic wasn’t so depleted she’d have reinforced the barrier.

Arianna counted the five steps he took to separate them. She studied the shadows, scented the air, and inclined her ears for anything that might endanger him. But the fear she’d scented in Rion before had vanished entirely, replaced by a calm sureness.

The only thing Rion feared in the dark, mountainside forest was her.

They stood in silence for a long while and Arianna willed her heart to slow.Calm, she told herself.Just stay calm. Rion wouldn’t let anything hurt her and after seeing his reaction to Eoghan, she didn’t believe he’d abandon her either. Right?

They all vanish.Could this be where the missing slaves ended up? Left to fend for themselves against the mountain’s monstrosities? No, she assured herself, recalling Rion’s fear when he’d thought her injured. It wouldn’t make sense and he hadn’t been lying when he’d promised to protect her.

The sun’s morning rays were just beginning to turn the night sky gray when something moved in the shadows. Something big.

A black figure growled in the darkness and her heart sank when it stood to its full height. She could have stood on Rion’s shoulders and still not reached its chest.

Impossibly long, clawed fingers stretched from its arms and burning eyes, like a pair of blue flames, blinked at the male standing before it.

She tried to swallow, but her throat had gone dry and the fear she’d thought to have conquered came flooding back tenfold. Arianna stepped back and met Rion’s wall of earth. The same wall that’d been cocooned around her the whole time.