Page 64 of Faeling (Monstrous World #4)

Vallek lingered in that space between sleep and wakefulness, not quite ready to open his eyes. He could just hear the growing bustle of a camp coming awake outside the tent, but nothing too noisy and they were well ahead of the breakfast bell.

Plenty of time.

Except…

Vallek frowned when he realized there was nothing beneath his arm but bedding. Finally peeling an eye open, he let out a long sigh to find himself alone in their bed. Her spot beside him was cold, indicating his mischief-maker had long since slipped away.

Not only did that mean he’d have to wait to delight in her warm little body until this evening, but he likely now needed to extricate her from whatever scheme she’d gotten herself into.

Of course, if he was lucky, she was merely up and about with the unicorns or even chatting at— at not with —Mattias, but experience told him Ravenna’s penchant for mischief was too great to hope for such banality.

With another sigh, Vallek rose from the warm, cozy bed and stretched out his back.

Three days of marching had seen them departing the southern Griegens for the colorful swathe of the coastal foothills.

The rolling hills were blanketed by thick forests, many of the trees wearing their autumn colors.

The forest was sweet with the smell of decaying leaves, sometimes obscuring the path that led from the mountains out to the coast.

When Vallek stepped from the tent, he found camp a bit soggy from an overnight bout of rain. Morning mist clung to the hills, shrouding them in a damp cloak that moved heavily through the nostrils. His fellow early risers were bundled in cowls and scarves, huddling near stoked fires.

He never liked fog. It was the perfect place to suffer an ambush.

The coastal hills were notorious for their soupy mornings, and if Vallek could’ve made Amaranthe’s meeting date by following the coast of Dyfan Bay, he would have.

Instead, to make the Fae Queen’s meeting, just four days hence, on time, their party had to cut through the sparsely populated hills. And the fog.

Looking around, Vallek found Asta in the crowd but no Ravenna.

Keeping an eye out for his mate, should she materialize from the mist like the mysterious creature she was, Vallek approached his sister.

Asta nodded in greeting, offering him a bowl of breakfast mash.

Shaking his head to decline, he asked, “Where’s Ravenna?”

Asta’s eyes went wide before they slid away from him. “Uhmm…”

“Never mind. Keep mine warm.”

Shrugging further into his fur-lined cloak, Vallek allowed his instinct to lead him. There were far too many smells in camp to track her by scent, but his instinct proved correct when he spotted one of her guards hovering near the west side of camp.

Bowing her head in deference, the guard pointed him onwards.

Through the brush he went, following a newly made path. Every so often, he came upon another guard, who pointed him on his way to the next.

He’d walked nearly half a league and was thoroughly bewildered by the time he came to the sixth guard. The orc nodded in the direction of a bramble of blackberry bushes. There, along the lower branches, was the unmistakable silvery tail of Oberon.

Well, at least she’d taken guards and unicorns with her.

Rounding the blackberry bush, Vallek beheld one of the stranger sights he’d ever seen.

Ravenna lay on her belly fully dressed in her leathers, although no surcoat, instead covered in her blue cloak.

She had a set of manacles in one hand and what looked to be a small club in the other.

Oberon lay on his own belly beside her, his long head stretched out low to conceal him behind the bush.

Although, the last few inches of his wicked horn rose above the leaves.

“What is it exactly you’re doing?” he asked.

He expected a laugh or a flush of embarrassment—not for both Ravenna and Oberon to swing mighty glares at him.

“ Shh! ” she hissed. “Get down.”

Bemused, Vallek sank to the ground, sitting with his legs crossed in front of him.

“And the reason we’re sitting in brambles is…?”

“A vision,” she whispered, “and be quiet, we don’t want to scare them away.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ah ha.”

We’ve been out here for over an hour waiting, Oberon pouted.

The vision didn’t show when I needed to be here, just that I did, she grumbled.

I’m perfectly content to wait. It’s just the others are getting bored and asking when something will happen.

Well, tell the others that I don’t know. And to be patient.

Oberon let loose a quiet whicker, catching Vallek’s eye. Foals can be difficult to love sometimes.

You’ll get breakfast soon enough.

The unicorn huffed and grumbled but fell quiet. It was probably for the best that she had the unicorns away from the mess tent for a while. Three days in and the cooks were already complaining to him that the unicorns were bullying their way into the carrots and apples.

Vallek itched to ask more questions, and to fill his gurgling stomach with breakfast, but he found himself rooted to the spot.

To anyone else, it might look as though Ravenna and Oberon hunted, laying in wait for a deer or boar to pass by.

It couldn’t be so simple, not with her, although she seemed unwilling or unable to elaborate.

So Vallek stayed where he was, shifting a little to get a better view of what Ravenna watched.

Past the brambles sat a burbling little stream of crystalline mountain water.

Snaking along the floor of a small valley between hills, blackberry bushes lined one side while on the other sat a small meadow.

Tall grasses and mossy boulders decorated the clearing, and as Vallek watched, a handful of birds swooped down from the trees to root around for grubs in the dirt.

It was an idyllic scene, although he suspected Ravenna wasn’t here to enjoy it. A little frown of determination creased her brow, and she sat there perfectly still and silent, her focus entirely on that clearing. She only looked away to scowl at him when his stomach rumbled.

Although hungry, his curiosity won out. He stayed sitting there long past his feet going numb and having to change position. Gods, he hadn’t laid out in the wilderness on a hunt in ages—and now he remembered why.

At first, he thought the flicker of movement on the far side of the clearing to be a figment of his wishful thinking. He wanted breakfast and to stretch his legs and get the day’s march going.

He told himself the large shadow that passed between the trees had to be an illusion, a trick of the lingering fog. Maybe even just more birds.

But then the shadow grew.

He heard Ravenna’s sharp inhale as an extraordinary sight emerged from the trees.

Through the clearing, to the stream, came an ethereally beautiful white unicorn. With dark amethyst eyes and a lilac-colored horn, she was like nothing Vallek had ever seen. In the shafts of diffused light filtering in through the mist, the unicorn seemed to glow.

Even more remarkable was her rider.

Down from the unicorn’s bare back slid a fae woman. Her long white hair had been bound behind her pointed ears, falling between the folded sets of stained-glass wings. Beneath her simple tunic and trou, her dusky lilac skin gleamed opalescent, the glitter of the stream catching along her skin.

Vallek’s stomach clenched. This had to be who—

Now!

A moment after Ravenna’s command, Oberon and the other three unicorns burst from the bushes, encircling the white unicorn and fae woman. The trap sprung, and Ravenna was right behind them, wielding the manacles.

In a burst of speed, she flung herself across the stream, tackling the fae woman to the ground. Utterly shocked, all Vallek could do in the moment was stand and watch the…scene unfolding.

—white lashes—lilac horn—burbling stream—the spelled manacles in her hands—

In the span of a moment, it all made sense to her. Why her vision had woken her so early that morning it was still night. They had led her here, to this moment, this stream, so that she might find this woman.

Ravenna didn’t think anymore—she moved.

Leaping from her hiding spot, she ran at the fae, barreling into her. Wrapping her arms around the woman’s arms and wings, she took them to the ground, using her momentum and surprise.

The white unicorn screamed in outrage, trying to defend her rider, but Oberon and the other unicorns were there, blocking her from stopping it. The knock of horns and slap of angry hooves filled Ravenna’s ears as she tussled with the fae woman, working to get on top.

The woman was thin but deceptively strong. Magic buffeted Ravenna’s side, trying to knock her away, but she held her ground, countering with her own magic. Wriggling like a fish, the woman fought like a wildcat, all scratching claws and flashing fangs.

Ravenna let loose her wings, using their flapping to provide more force and momentum in keeping the fae down. The sight stunned the woman momentarily, her eyes, so dark blue they were nearly black, flicking over Ravenna’s shoulder.

Getting her hands round the woman’s arm, she clamped the first manacle around her slim wrist. A shudder passed down the woman’s body, and Ravenna hurried to seal the irons shut. She had only moments—she could hold her own for a while, but her magic would eventually fold to that of a royal fae’s.

When the second manacle clicked shut, Ravenna blew out a breath of relief.

The woman groaned beneath her, shuddering again as the fight went out of her.

“What have you done?” she growled.

“They’re spelled,” Ravenna answered in faethling. “They negate the wearer’s magic.”

Rising to her knees, Ravenna clambered off the fae woman to sit in the dirt beside her. It was the first chance she had to truly look at her.