Page 14 of The Faebound Trials (Mates and Madness: The Phantom Prince and The Bloodweaver #1)

The first test ended with two humans dying at the stretch of the forest.

I sighed at the stench of dried blood on wool and linen, sweat-soaked tunics, and the foul smell of urine clinging to broken skin.

They put us in a pigpen-like house.

What are we a bunch of animals? Is that how they see us?

I observed the boys. Wild eyes, pale face, a few of them were in shock like I was a few hours ago.

Some of them had marbles for eyes, some were looking at nothingness like they were left like an empty shell, some were just angry, wounded, and defeated.

The pigpen was suffocating with the rest of the boys. And I tried to blend in the background as much as I could. I tried not to make a sound. I tried not to direct attention to myself. I quietly scratched my arm.

“We need to run!” The boy with the red hair frantically exclaimed. “I don’t know but we should’ve left hours ago! We shouldn’t have let those freaks control us! I don’t know!” Both his hands were pulling the ends of his hair.

He started heaving. I closed my eyes, trying to keep still. It wasn’t like I could help him. And I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.

The sudden shift of tension was heavier than before. Everyone was affected, some of the younger boys started bawling their eyes out and their cries of fear and trauma gave me chills.

A bigger man grabbed the collar of the much skinnier boy. His nose flared and his face was red in anger.

“We didn’t have a choice! We were trapped here. Did you feel the overwhelming urge to submit to them? These creatures are enchanted. They have magic beyond our understanding.”

Red hair pulled away harshly.

The more they fought, the more I shrunk into the corner.

“We obey them until everyone is dead, is that what you want to say?”

“That’s the safest way to survive,” the man who had his left eye seemed permanently closed spoke.

“There’s no way to survive a land where every single thing can kill you. The air, the trees, the water. Everything could kill us.” His eyes were wide with hysteria. “We should leave while we still can.”

Majority of the boys hummed in agreement.

Resigned and exhausted, the bigger man had his shoulders slumped.

“Then tell us how,” another said.

“But I don’t know how.” The desperation in his voice made my stomach coil. So many emotions were hidden in his words, a plea for help to devise a plan to escape, or a plea for someone to tell him that there was a way to not die here, that there was a way to live.

I was sure I wasn’t the only one who felt the despair and fear clouding his thoughts. Everyone could, everyone was terrified of what awaits us.

“Then who knows about this place? What is it called?”

Silence fell on us. No one spoke because no one knew. I wanted to shrink into a ball. I knew this place. I just wished I had the confidence to speak around a large number of people without trembling and without getting attention.

But there was a part of me who was unsure of what they call this place though. What should I tell them? That this place was ancient Enoranthas? What if I was wrong then? What if this place wasn’t called Enoranthas in this time? What if I said the wrong thing and they would start asking questions I didn’t know the answer to? What if they found out I was a person who belonged in the future because I tried to draw attention?

Anxiety was slowly crippling me little by little.

“Have you heard about Thesavrian Folktales? The ones our mothers told us about when we were little kids?”

My brows narrowed when one of the boys who hadn’t spoken stood up from the corner he was sitting.

Thesavrian? I hadn’t heard about that.

“The myths? Fables?”

The rest nodded. Some listened, I was one of them.

“These creatures aren’t humans.”

A big circle formed as the boys started to gather information.

“They’re faes.”

“We hadn’t danced for hours.”

Some agreed and some shrugged.

“But the forests had us running in circles before we got here.”

“They were not just folklores then.”

“Yes.”

After agreeing at the conclusion. The boys started to pale at the realization from the folklores they had remembered.

Fear was evident in their faces as they recognized the stories passed from one generation to another, from the stories they had heard originating from the towns and mountains. From the myths that were once just stories their townspeople who would tell to scare the kids still playing when the night looms darker in the sky.

“Tomorrow we need to split into groups.”

“How?”

“Split into groups to survey the lands. Find a way out.”

They started pointing out men. Some volunteered. There were 14 of us left. They had decided to have three people each to scout the area.

There were two people left. One was the one who could walk, an injury puncturing his legs. While the other one was me.

That was when the attention turned to me.

“Oh, right we have a female.”

Dozens of eyes fell on me when they had finally noticed my existence. My stomach twisted in knots as my palms grew clammy from the stares.

“No one touches her.” The man who once had red hair by the collar was the one who spoke. He had become somehow the leader as he looked the strongest and he was the biggest among these boys.

But the evident reason for that warning slammed me with a wave of unease. Though the stern order felt absolute which made me exhale in relief.

Though I knew better, I would never sleep tonight. Or attempt to stay here. I need to find a place to spend the night.

Thankfully the attention was short lived and I slipped quietly when they started discussing how to wash and mend their wounds. Two boys shared their knowledge in plants and offered it to the rest of the boys. That was my que to leave.

I felt relieved when they told me I could just wait and do nothing. It wasn’t because I was weak–you’d feel that especially if it came from a man. I think most of the men in this time were genuinely kind and maybe because they had felt my fear and distress.

I hadn’t felt the hostility and discrimination about me being a girl when they said I could rest. I didn’t feel a certain prejudice against women. They had seen the horrors of what transpired earlier, and somehow by letting me not do anything felt like they wanted to protect me not because I was weak but because I was a human too like them–that we’re going through the same thing and it felt like they wanted to take this burden while they still can.

So used to the stink of humans, I unconsciously breathed in the fresh air the moment I stepped outside.

The same air that killed humans in the span of two hours.

I sat quietly at the foot of the tree just beside the house. And recollected the events that happened earlier.

Death was something I was used to. Enara was a place ridden with death and sickness, and I’d seen rotting bodies piled at the corners of the streets, some dumped at the murky river just behind Solestra. Sure I was in shock as I watched someone fall to their death, but there was still a part of me that will never be used to it.

I stared at the tree trunk then stabbed it using a stick I found. Pushing the thoughts away from my mind, I folded myself quietly with my chin on my knees and my arms hugging my legs.

I sniffed myself and gagged and stabbed the tree trunk again. I badly needed a warm bath.

I blamed myself a couple more times, soaking in self-loathing and despair when an Etaran Servant stopped before me.

I looked up to find an Etaran girl fidgeting and waiting for me to recognize her.

I had to blink a couple of times to take in her beauty.

I needed a minute to process how someone could be this pretty.

Her velvet purple eyes brimmed with innocence and curiosity as she watched me watch her in awe.

“I… Are you lost?” I had to ask a dumb question because I was lost in her charm.

I stood up and threw away the stick I was using to stab the tree trunk. I’d hate to freak a pretty girl out.

“Can you come with me? The Lord Prince is waiting for you.”

Even her voice somehow caressed the aching of my wounds.

What the fuck is happening? I don’t think these are my thoughts.

“Huh?” Who’s that?

She turned away and started to walk. I had no choice but to follow her.

And I almost pulled out all my hair in regret.

Why am I so weak for pretty faces? Why can’t I resist their charm and beauty? Fuck me.

We walked and walked. And walked.

It was endless.

The path was an endless maze of never-ending trees.

How could she know the forest like it was a short distance from her house to the market?

How could she know if the path she was taking was the right one?

I find her incredible. And I find her so beautiful that maybe that was the reason I hadn’t bolted for a run and attempted to bloodweave.

But I knew I was too weak to even try. If only I had enough sleep, if only I hadn’t bled earlier, I could’ve tried it. I could’ve escaped. Where is this confidence coming from?

Was it from the lack of sleep? I don’t think I’m that good at bloodweaving. I even threaded in the wrong timeline. I went back too far.

How could I have escaped? You’re not fucking good at this! You’re barely even a beginner! Wake up! I was losing it. I shut my mind.

I stopped feeling my feet a couple of hours ago since I had decided to follow her.

She kept looking at her back, checking if I was still following. I waved at her like a fool to show her I had no intention of running away and somehow, she laughed at my foolishness.

Too exhausted to think, the right thing was to keep my mouth shut. I was too tired to take one more step.

But when we neared rows and rows of flowers as old as time and as beautiful as the starlight my knees had given up. I almost lost my consciousness. I bit my lips as hard as I could to keep myself awake.

I took in a deep breath as I faltered to gawk at the heart of the court that boasts meters high above ground, it glows in coppery shades of metal, some were loosely hanging in silver crystals.

Like the underground city I had seen, the prince’s court wasn’t made to measure a human’s size.

I was tall for a girl, which had to do with too much exposure from the sun.

Being tall was probably the reason why I was arrogant and proud. A way to protect myself.

I never looked weak, though I was scrawny and thin from hunger and neglect, I was never small in the eyes of anybody.

I was never frail. And I took pride in it.

But even with my height, there was this unpleasant feeling of their ancient architecture and height because my human brain couldn’t grasp or couldn’t process the colossal difference between its heights and my mortal size.

I felt like an ant crawling for safety. And the atmosphere felt like it wanted to crush me down. Its looming height weighed heavy in the back of my mind. I had never felt small in my entire life until I stood before the prince’s court.

The massive stone door had inscriptions and characters that were as ancient as time. Lines carved in silver resembling roots and branches reconnecting like threads of time.

How did they build this?

The sound of my heels echoed throughout the colossal hall. And I followed the fair lady like a lost child. She was lithe as a fairy, she walked without sound, mirroring the stealth of a cat.

Warmth embraced me when we reached the court, it reminded me of my walks above the Crescente Hill, how its gentleness rivals the majestic beauty of the realm.

I didn’t realize the fair lady stopped walking.

I was too busy processing how the entire place could glow a hue so beautiful I had no words to describe it.

Maybe I was just dumb. Or maybe they didn’t even have names for the colors existing today.

The hairs at the back of my neck rose as I felt the burning stare of someone watching me.

I looked up and my eyes landed on him, and the moment I did, he held my gaze, locking it in. Never letting go. As if there was a whole universe inside my eyes. As if it was worth it to watch me stand proud against his scrutiny. As if he was willing to know what I was thinking.

But how would I know?

I could feel the curiosity behind those eyes, the intensity in the way he held my gaze. The way he frowned when I bit my lips to see if it was really me that he was seeing.

I hid a small smirk when I got my answer.

Somehow, he didn’t seem to hate me. I could feel the tension between us.

There he stood like a displeased god, silver-white hair flowing gracefully against his back. His beauty matched the downward curve of his lips when I winked at him playfully.

I guess he hated that.

Now I wanted to tease him even more.

“Do humans ever bathe?” The sass in his tone made me twitch in annoyance.

I blushed so hard I could replace the word red.

Now I lost the cockiness in the tilt of my head and almost bowed, a blushing mess.