Page 17

sixteen

I tried to keep my eyes down while we walked, I really did. But there were people who looked like Snow White’s dwarves and others who seemed to have been stretched far too long, with limbs no thicker than a weak tree branch and eyes that protruded from their skulls. There were women who had hair so long it touched the ground behind them, and a few more of those with glowing eyes. Another with the claws, though I didn’t see her face—I looked away as soon as I saw the claws—and a few more with two heads on their shoulders as well.

How could I not look?

Then there was the guy sitting outside a one-story building, smoking what looked like a cigar, with his heel over his knee and a brown cowboy hat on his head.

He might have been one of the most beautiful people I had ever seen in my life, almost as beautiful as Rune, which was why he stood out among the crowd. The way he moved, so slowly, almost seductively. The way he sucked on that cigar, then slowly blew the smoke out. His hair was dark and it touched his shoulders, his skin tan like he’d spent days sunbathing. He wore leather from head to toe, and his stubble looked like a shadow wrapped around his square jaw.

He must have felt me looking because then he looked at me and our eyes met, and my breath caught in my throat.

His pupils were slit like a lizard’s. And when he smiled, I felt this heat in my stomach, unnatural, completely irrational considering I was hanging onto Rune’s arm for dear life. But no matter how hard I tried to take my eyes off him, I couldn’t. It was like he had a hold on my mind, and I couldn’t even get myself to blink as he showed me more and more of his teeth.

Heat between my legs.

Rune pulled me to the side around the corner, and the moment the cowboy was out of my sight, it was like a bucket of ice was thrown over my head.

What the actual fuck was that ?!

“Rune,” I whispered, but I had no idea how to even ask him because it was too senseless. Nothing made any sense, and we’d turned the corner to a part of this town where there were even more residents coming and going. Most were headed toward the other end of the cobbled street where a large statue of a man stood with his legs apart and a trident between them. The statue’s face was completely ruined together with the better part of its left shoulder, and the three large pillars of the trident were gates, but from here I couldn’t see where they led.

“We’re here.”

Suddenly, I was pulled to the side again, and the sound of a door opening with a screech filled my ears. Darkness around me—we were inside, and that same heavy door fell closed behind us with a loud thud.

Safe, safe, I’m safe, I reminded myself, but it wasn’t really working. It still took me a few blinks to see where we were, to see the wooden interior that looked like it was about to collapse on my head any second. Broken pieces of wood hung onto one another, some even tied with ropes. Chairs and tables everywhere, and the space wasn’t small, but it was so full of furniture we could barely walk to the bar on the other side.

Six people in total sat at the tables. Four sitting alone, two together—a couple, they could have been, one a woman with no mouth on her face who was taking the food somewhere below the table where I couldn’t see, the other a man who looked ordinary enough if you could ignore the sickening green tint of his skin, and the unusually slow movements of his hand as he brought the spoon to his mouth.

A spoon full of soup that looked like blood.

Bile rose up my throat.

“Sit down and don’t move.”

Rune pushed me to the side and something hit the back of my knees, so I had no choice but to sit. My body was not in my command right now and I couldn’t really understand much of what he was saying, but I was sitting. My eyes were closed, and my ears were full of the sound of people around me moving, talking—most to themselves—and chewing.

God, this couldn’t be real. How in the world had Helid failed to mention all of this? Why wouldn’t he tell me what awaited me in this place before I agreed to come with him just like that?

If I ever see him again, his teeth and my fist will get all close and personal, I thought, but right now it didn’t matter. Right now, Helid wasn’t here, but Rune was. I was alive and I was breathing, and I could do it. I just needed to remind myself of the reason why I was here in the first place.

By some miracle, by the time a glass of water and a plate full of food was put in front of me, I had regained control. And by the time Rune sat across from me at the old, half-rotten table, I was even able to produce voice.

“What the hell is this place, Rune? Tell me right now or I’m going back.”

Never mind that the way back was through that same part of town where there were two-headed men, women with claws and fangs, and cowboys who could make me wet with a look even when I was scared shitless. Never mind about any of that.

“Eat first,” Rune said, pointing down at the food he’d brought me.

It was bread—and it actually looked like bread—and square pieces of cheese, a sliced tomato and four boiled eggs, as well as this small bowl full of soup.

Soup.

This one was yellow and it didn’t look like blood at all, but I still pushed it away. If I even tried to eat it, there was no way I wouldn’t throw my guts out.

But I was starving, and so I didn’t comment. I grabbed the water first, drank the whole thing at once, and thank God it tasted just like water. Even so, my hand hovered over the squares of cheese, and I was having second thoughts while my stomach turned and rumbled with hunger at the same time.

“It’s safe. Eat .”

This guy was really into orders.

So, I gave one back. “ Speak. ” Then I grabbed the cheese and popped it in my mouth.

Cheese. It was just cheese and I thanked God and my lucky stars and the entire universe for it, too.

But soon, when Rune began to speak, I forgot all about the taste of what I was eating and hung onto every word he spoke.

“Nobody knows exactly how many kinds of creatures exist in Verenthia, but there are ten main species that most of the others fall under as well. That’s fae, mermaids, golems, shifters, sorcerers, vampires, incubi and fomorians, which live on the main parts of the continent.”

My brain glitched. “That’s…that’s only eight.” Or maybe I’d passed out while he spoke and hadn’t heard the other two?

“The dragons and the giants live far away. Their territories are far beyond The Vale and Bloomsridge.”

My mouth opened and closed a million times.

“I’m sorry—dragons? And…and giants ?” As in the giants that lived in the sky in Jack and the Beanstalk ?

“Yes,” Rune said, like he couldn’t see the absolute shock reflected on my face or the fact that I’d raised a boiled egg halfway to my mouth when he started speaking and I hadn’t moved my arm up or down since.

Instead, he just reached for something underneath the table—a knife. A small knife, the blade no bigger than my index finger, but it had a pretty sharp tip. Rune looked behind him and at the bar—the bar where there were two women, identical to one another. Thank God they looked ordinary enough. They weren’t looking at us, though, and once Rune made sure of that, he stabbed the surface of the table and drew an oval shape on it. He added some lines in it, too, then began to stab each shape he created.

“This is where we are,” he said, the tip of the knife on the southernmost edge of the shape. Then he proceeded to stab the half circle across from it. “And these are the faelands. Seelie, Frozen, Unseelie, Midnight—the four fae courts.”

“Wait, wait, wait—hold on a minute? There’s four of them?” I was pretty sure I’d only ever read books with Seelie and Unseelie Courts before.

“Technically, there are three as of a few decades ago. The Midnight Court holds and controls the Frozen one,” Rune continued. “Focus.” Then he stabbed the space right near the Seelie court. “This is the Mercove. It’s the land of mermaids and we stay away from it at all costs. They are vicious.”

There I went, losing my voice again, and Rune continued.

Thankfully I was eating—just my body’s way of trying to cope again, to move, to do something.

“Next to the mermaids is Bloomsridge where the golems live. The smallest piece of land, and they are relatively quiet when they’re not provoked. But the shifters that are next to them, right here in The Vale”—he stabbed the square that was next to the shape representing the Neutral Lands where we were—“are just as bad as mermaids. We avoid them at all costs.”

Did I mention that I was basically stuffing food in my mouth and swallowing as fast as I could at this point?

“They shift into wolves and they have issues with anger. They’re very powerful—and they love mortal flesh. Can possibly smell it from a mile away. Which is why we stay away from this part of Verenthia altogether.” He dragged the tip of his knife from the Mercove, through Bloomsridge, and down to The Vale.

I stuffed the last of the cheese in my mouth at once and nearly choked.

“To the side of the Vale is Cloakwood, where the fomorians live. They can be anything—banshee, ghouls, imps, lizard-tongues. And to the side of Bloomsridge and the Mercove is Mysthaven, the land of sorcerers.” He stabbed the knife with even more force into the table. “They are the most dangerous kind of species here, and we have to avoid them first, and at all costs. They?—”

“Hold on a second—did anybody ever tell you that you suck at telling people things?” Because the way he spoke, it was like he expected me to just magically know everything, all the details, before he moved on to the next. “Because you do. You suck .”

“And I’ve seen wildcats eat with more manners when they tear apart their prey—but I kept that thought to myself.”

Oh, the fucking prick.

My hand closed around the metal cup he’d brought me water with, and it was a miracle I stopped myself before I threw it at his face.

His smiling face because now, apparently, he was amused. Now, when he pissed me off, he seemed to be in a great mood all of a sudden.

“I was starving, you arrogant bastard,” I spit. “What’s your excuse?”

He kept on smiling, but it wasn’t a full smile, though. I had yet to see one of those on him. It was just a curl of the left side of his lips, but it was his eyes that gave the look meaning. The way they lit up—and that silver line that went through the blue seemed to be glowing.

“I don’t need one,” he said, and this time I really nearly threw the cup at his grinning face.

But that wasn’t going to satisfy me, I figured, not after kneeing him in the balls.

What I could do, though, that would fulfill my very wicked soul, was this: “More water.” And I slammed the cup on the table in front of him.

The smile vanished. His eyes darkened.

My soul thrived.

Rune wanted to argue. Now he wanted to be the one to throw that cup in my face, but he didn’t. He stopped himself, and I honestly envied his restraint because he stood up, grabbed the cup, and went to get me more water.

When he brought it back, he didn’t even slam it against the table. Just gently placed it to the side of the empty plate.

“May I continue?” he asked when he sat. His eyes were still sparkling, though he wasn’t smiling.

“Depends. Did you put poison in this water?” I raised a brow.

“No.”

“Did you spit in it?” Because I’d pissed off waiters before. And Betty’s cousin from Indiana was one, and she once told her what she did to the drinks she served at a bar for people who weren’t nice to her.

Rune closed his eyes. “No.”

“Okay.” I took the cup in my hands. “Proceed.”

Yes, the look on his face was worth it even if he had indeed poisoned this water.

“Mysthaven.” He stabbed his knife onto the square. “We avoid it at all costs. Blackwater is vampire territory. Blood magic is very powerful, but they can usually be reasoned with.” Blackwater was, apparently, to the side of Mysthaven, and above it was the fourth fae court—the Midnight Court, he called it. “And down here is the Enclave.”

The tip of his knife touched the piece of land next to the Neutral Lands on the right side. Then he put his knife away.

“We also stay away from the Enclave at all costs. They are not to be messed with,” he finished.

Meanwhile I kept nodding my head, looking at the lines on the old wood, trying to figure out what the hell to think about first.

“So, which way are we going then? Because it seems to me we need to stay away from everyone at all costs— so how in the world can we get to the Seelie Court like this?!” Now I was panicking, and the sips of the cold water weren’t helping. The food I’d eaten, either—on the contrary. I could feel the boiled eggs coming up my throat.

“I have a plan,” Rune said. “We’re going to be traveling to Cloakwood, and once we get there, we’ll have to sneak into Blackwater. There is a tunnel here that was built a long time ago, which connects the faelands to the rest of Verenthia. It will lead us straight to the Seelie Court underground. It’s the safest way there—and the fastest.”

A tunnel.

My eyes closed and swallowed hard. “And all of this is going to take seven days?”

“Probably less, but yes,” he said. “It all depends on you.”

“Why’s that?”

“You need to give up the illusion of control you’re still clinging to and do exactly as I say.”

The way he fired me up wasn’t even funny—and, no, I wasn’t entirely sure in which way I meant. Make me angry or turn me on?

Possibly both. The guy was a multitasker.

“You’re not the boss of me, Mr. Moody. You don’t get to order me around.”

Again, the corner of his lips turned up. “I do if you want to survive, Wildcat. And I’ll take great pleasure in it, too.”

The asshole.

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, called for order in my head. “Tell me the truth, Rune. How likely am I to die in the next twenty-four hours?” He opened his mouth to speak. “The truth .”

“I don’t know about the next twenty-four hours, but your chances of surviving this trip on your own are zero,” he said. “With me, they are much better.”

Didn’t I know that already. “And if I actually make it to the Seelie Court? What happens when I try to come back?”

“Prince Lyall will take you back himself.”

“You don’t know that.” He was a prince, wasn’t he?

“I know him well enough to know that for certain.” Except when he said that he looked down at my empty plate like he didn’t really believe his own words.

Of course, I could be mistaken.

“And he’ll have a better chance at getting me back alive?”

“Yes. He’s the Seelie Prince. Nobody will dare to threaten him in any way. He’s become quite merciless in recent years.”

I cringed inwardly—the boy with the golden eyes I remembered from that meadow was not merciless by any means.

“How did it happen?” Rune asked after a moment. “How did he save you?”

I looked at him. “How did he save you ?”

His eyes roamed my face like he was in search of a hidden treasure. His lips stretched a little, and then he stood up. “Time to go.”