Page 4 of The Faebound Trials (Mates and Madness: The Phantom Prince and The Bloodweaver #1)

They were gone. As if the swamp lured them somewhere else.

The dark clouds covering the moonlight were gone. This time the moon shined bright against the blue skies. We threaded slowly until we reached our boat.

The bleeding stopped but I still felt weak and nauseous. I blinked a few times because my vision was blurring.

We’re still in the lands of Enara. Where mortals lived. Magic didn’t grace our lands like that.

I glanced at my sister.

“Did that really happen?”

Her eyes were wide and bright. Excitement brought color to her face.

“I told you! Now that I sold you to the Phantom Prince. You have to pay him back.”

My brows furrowed in confusion. I was slightly dazed.

“Is that real?”

“Yes it’s real! I told you there was a shadow following us! It could be the Phantom Prince!”

“Lera, I told you the Phantom Prince is a myth. And don’t confuse shadows as if they were a solid being. Shadows cannot detach themselves from physical things. That would be magic.”

“But we literally live in a world where magic is real. You yourself, L, you have the ability to hear heartbeats, is that normal for human beings? No, right? You literally just told me I shouldn’t tell my friends I could hear their pulse! Because that is not normal!” She tried to fix her hair. “I know you heard the shadow too. Don’t make me out to be a liar, L. It’s bad.”

I looked away, it’s not that I didn’t hear the heartbeat of a shadow. I didn’t really hear it.

“Okay. Okay. Calm down. It’s just. How do we explain what happened?”

“We don’t need to prove anything. We don’t need explanations for everything, L! We just need to get out of here, before those loonies find us.”

“You’re always right, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am. I saved us, remember?”

I chuckled.

Even though my vision was blurry and I felt nauseous and was bleeding, it didn’t stop me from pushing the boat and rowing us out of Enara.

I hope the waves would be kind to us, I hope we reached it before I black out.

I didn’t expect the waters would be thick and heavy. The current almost never moved, as if the river wanted to keep us here. As if it didn’t want us to leave Enara.

It was scary at first. But somehow, I felt the wind push us further into the river.

My head was too blurry to question everything that was happening to me. All I wanted was to leave and never go back.

After two hours of rowing, we finally reached the part where the river was covered in mist and eerie murmurs.

My shoulders and back were sore from all the rowing I did.

“What is that, L?”

Lera clutched me tightly as she heard the buzzing noise of whispers in the mist.

Good heavens, I couldn’t see a thing!

“We are near, Lera. Just don’t let the voices get into your head.”

“But what if it gets into my head? I’m so scared, L.”

“I’m here, I won’t leave you. So only listen to my voice.”

She nodded.

I picked up my pace. But somehow my arms felt like they were burning from exhaustion. I couldn’t do it anymore. I was so worn out. I could pass out any second.

I let the river pull us. Only steering us when we’re straying away.

‘You should have never come here’

I snapped to my right when I heard a voice so close to my ears. I gripped the oar tightly. I shook my head. Those were the voices they told us about.

‘Your future was once your past. You just didn’t know it yet!

I shook my head, trying to get rid of the voices.

‘You should have never come here!’

“What do you know? I did everything I could to be here!” I felt stupid responding to the voices.

‘You’re now wearing the destiny of a complicated soul.

Now you have to bear the burden of its curse!’

I clamped my ears, an attempt to stop hearing the voices.

But this time they were louder and clearer.

‘You would make him fall in love again,

and he would live through it again!’

I gritted my teeth. My head pounded against my skull.

‘You heartless wench!’

“Stop!”

Lera jolted awake.

And guilt washes over my face.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s the voices. I heard it too.”

I hugged my blankets closer to me. I had my rest. I think it was time to leave this mist.

I shut my mind and focused on rowing the boat even though my hands couldn’t stop trembling.

Another hour had passed and Lera was fast asleep.

“L.”

This time I heard a voice. Not like the voices I’d heard before.

At first, I thought it was my exhausted mind, making up things that weren’t there.

I kept rowing and threading the eerie silence of the river. And focused on the current, heavy and murky but bearable.

But then the same voice called for me. A chill ran down my spine.

“L.”

The voice came from a man. Familiar and sweet.

His voice was sultry and deep. Rough and breathy, but it was also pleasant and gentle as if caressing me softly.

I blinked.

Wide awake from the call because the sound came directly to my face. As if he was sitting right in front of me.

Not another voice!

I didn’t speak. I ignored it.

Like the voices from before, this will fade too.

“You have to pay me back.”

I jolted away as I felt the cold touch brushing my cheeks.

“What? Who are you?” I touched my cheek to check if that really happened or it was one of the hallucinations the river created.

He chuckled, it was honey-sweet and deceiving.

I shooed it away. I touched nothing but the cold empty air blowing in the wind.

“You know me very well. You have to pay me back for saving you.”

“And now I’m speaking to a voice. I’m so tired.”

I brushed my hands to my face.

“I’ll visit you once you reach Enoranthas.”

I could feel phantom lips grazing my forehead, cold and burning. I lost my balance. My heart pounded in fear against my chest.

I sat there for a minute, unmoving and still. Waiting for another touch. Waiting for voices to cloud my mind and make me go mad. I felt my eyes heavy and the exhaustion weighing my shoulders down.

And went back to rowing. I ignored the limits of my mortal body because my fear was stronger than my exhaustion.

When we finally reach the end of the river. I wanted to collapse.

But it would be hard to do so as I finally saw mortals. My heart leapt inside.

The mortals here wore distinct clean clothes. Way too different from our tattered neutral tone clothes.

They wore something I had never seen before.

Their clothes covered half of their necks. A blur of calm colors. Light blue, light green, light purple and many more. I had never seen such beautiful colors on mortals.

And what made me stare was the bearing of Enoranthas’s symbol on their chests, they came in different ways. Pins, earrings, cuffs, or tattoos.

They were the ones who successfully entered Enoranthas. They were the ones who successfully left Enara to work in the Fae Realm.

The beating of my heart was loud against my ears.

I tuned out the sound of the river, the sound of countless heartbeats that sounded healthy and safe. I tuned out even the sound of my own.

“Are you leaving me now, L?”

I crouched down to meet Lera. And I noticed the little sprouts growing in the ground I was stepping on. It was different from what I was used to, the lands of Enara were dry and cracked. Dead.

I could feel life thrumming in the air.

“I am not leaving you. There’s a safe place Enoranthas prepared for mortals to stay while their family goes through the trials. We’re allowed to visit our families every week.”

“I’m still scared.”

I squeezed her shoulders.

“I’m scared too. But you will be left with humans too, humans who look like mom and dad.”

“Who looks like you too?”

“Yes.”

A human went to us. She was wearing a professional cut blue uniform that stopped at her elbows, her wide ankle length pants looked soft and comfortable.

A silver brooch was pinned on her chest. The symbol of Enoranthas. A white bird with silver eyes has three wings hidden behind three circles. Rings.

“Name?”

No greetings. No welcome to Enoranthas.

Or Congratulations for entering the Faebound Trials.

They were direct to the point.

Seeing them up close, the woman had marbles for eyes. That explained why she had a monotonous tone.

She looked dead. As if she gave her soul for a spot here.

That thought made me shiver.

“Lowen Vespertine.”

Lera looked up to me confused.

The human checked her scroll. After a few minutes of skimming through it, her eyes went to my sister. And showed us the way.

We followed her as she walked through a bricked road. Lera was carefully taking in the beauty of Enoranthas, her mouth agape as she saw the vibrant colors rich in the city of fae.

“The Faebound Trials will start in an hour. You are allowed to visit your family every week and you will be given a pass to enter the Lunairedel Heart, a temporary home for the families of Trialbound Mortals like you. Every week you are allowed to stay with your family for an hour. We have strict rules, so you should follow the allotted time given to you. Failure to follow these rules will result in deduction of points and we will cut food rations to your family as punishment for disobeying the rules.”

That didn’t sound nice.

We stopped before a half-moon, half-heart abode. I saw some families in the backyard with flowers blooming beautifully inside.

A few workers wearing green were humans too with the same stare as the woman in front of me.

“This is Lunairedel Heart. Your sister will be taken care of along with the other children with utmost care.”

I nodded and smiled at her. She returned it to me but her eyes didn’t reach her smile. That freaked me out.

I turned to my sister.

“I will be back. I promise.”

Lera gave me a tight smile. But she squeezed my hands to assure me.

“Of course you will. Win it for us. Okay?”

“Okay.”

The woman grabbed Lera’s hand and I watched until they finally got inside.

I turned my back and headed towards the Glade.

To escape Embergrave, to escape Nikolai’s obsession, and to escape my uncle’s bloodlust for power over the Bloodweaver’s Order I needed to enter Enoranthas.

I stood in front of The Bluelark Glade. I took in the details of the place to keep myself steady. Still, it took my breath away.

Covered by deep green leaves and massive wild trees, the glade looked alive. It breathed magic and power, something that Enara had lost a long time ago. Hundreds of flowers bloomed only in paintings I’d seen, each of its petals had colors I would never know the name of.

I’d never been to a place where the world feels alive. Not like this. It felt like I was walking in a dream where I’d finally know what being alive means.

The beauty of Enoranthas contradicts the smoke-filled, crime-ridden, barren lands of Enara. Butterflies were covered in bright colors, the birds chirped and sang their songs, little animals of the realm danced and clawed their food.

Everything was alive and in color.

My eyes couldn’t believe what it saw. My heart soared in joy. But my guilt took it away as I remembered the fear in that man’s face when I took this chance away from him.

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat.

Stop . Stop thinking. Just stop.

It was eating me away. I know.

I took a step forward inching the distance of the destiny I stole.

“Name?”

He was human. A Trialbearer.

“Lowen Vespertine.”

The name felt foreign on my lips.

The Mortal Trialbearer checked his vellum and he nodded towards the line in front. There, the other passers of the initial assessment waited for the next step.

While I lined up waiting for my turn, I felt a stare burning through the back of my head. I could feel someone watching me.

I turned around, I craned my neck but I saw nothing.

Everyone was busy with themselves.

But I could feel it. The strange prickling sensation of someone patiently tracking my every move. My mind could be playing tricks on me but there was a shadow, a presence.

“Trialbound. Your turn.”

I jolted back to reality and gave him a small smile.

“Do you consent to giving your blood for testing?”

“Yes. I consent.”

And without warning he pricked my finger, and blood trickled on the wound. He got the sample and placed it in a container.

I might have mistaken it for an hourglass, because of its shape. But it didn’t have sand. Instead, it had my blood in it.

The carving of the base showed broken flower petals and thorny hedges on the sides, and a dull silver engraving was etched directly to the frosted glass.

“Should I go?” I asked him.

I hadn’t seen a fae around yet.

All that were involved in the first step were mortals.

“No. Not yet. We have to wait for a minute more. Your blood should change into something.”

I waited. I watched him shake the hourglass container with my blood dancing inside it.

A minute had passed and nothing happened to my blood. It remained a scarlet red fluid.

My heart hammered wildly against my chest. My skin prickled with dread and sweat as I looked around. The others were curious why I hadn’t advanced.

“To the Phyton Frosts.”

Then before I knew it, guards grabbed me by the arms as I calmed myself in confusion.

“Where are you taking me? What did I do wrong?”

Panic and distress washed over me. I looked around for help, but no one did, not the Mortal Trialbearers, not even the mortals who passed the initial assessment.

Everyone looked at me in confusion or pity.

But none helped me. I’d do the same if I were in their position.

I stopped thrashing around and waited.

I saw the other Trialbound Mortals who passed the blood testing, they were headed another way in the Glade.

I grew desperate and anxious.

What went wrong?

What was wrong with my blood?

What was it supposed to do inside the Hourglass?

Shouldn’t it stay just a crimson liquid like it was supposed to? Then if not, what then?

Questions piled, unanswered.

Then the Bluelark Glade forest walls opened to a new hall.

The hall was pristine white carpeted by marbled gold.

The pillars had carvings of fae beings. They were huge and heavy—but the hall made me delirious, the hall was endless.

“Please tell me. What are you going to do with me?”

That was when I realized the mortals here were enchanted. They lacked human-like gaits. Every movement was precise and calculated.

Their expressions remained impassive. Their eyes lacked emotions, as if they were locked up somewhere too far from their physical bodies.

Their minds weren’t their own.

Their eyes looked hollow and dead.

What is this?

What have they done to these people?

Terror made me dizzy until they’d dump me on a pile of cold floor.

No, it wasn’t just cold. This was a pile of snow.

My eyes started adjusting to the bleak winter snow heavily falling on the ground.

I shivered. My teeth rattled like an empty can. I hugged my body as if my life depended on it.

It never snowed in Enara. There was only summer and hurricanes. I’d never been to a place where it snowed.