Page 5 of The Faebound Trials (Mates and Madness: The Phantom Prince and The Bloodweaver #1)

I’d be dead before I knew it.

But I got up to my feet and tried to look for something.

There was nothing. It was just the pristine white field covered heavily with snow.

Am I still in the glade? Then if not, where?

I heard footsteps. But when I craned my neck to look for it, there was nothing.

The snow blanketed the field in serene stillness. The snow fell in a quiet mess.

Growing desperate in each step, I started shouting.

“Help! Please! Anyone?”

Fear cradled my bones.

I sniffed harshly. I could feel the temperature dropping lower as I tried to catch my breath. The altitude was rising and I was losing air.

Until I stopped in my tracks.

A person appeared in front of me as if she blinked from somewhere.

Her sudden appearance made me lose my balance and I fell on my back.

An old woman around her 50s stood in front of me. Her demeanor demanded respect. She was dressed lightly in a blue gray coat but she didn’t appear cold compared to my shivering state.

Hope bloomed inside me.

“Ma’am. Please help. Help me.”

Until I noticed her ears. Sharp and pointed.

And her eyes… Her eyes glimmered a different hue.

Fae .

Shutting my bewilderment and daze, I tried to get away from her and finally stood up.

Mesmerized by her beauty and magnificence, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. The rumors were true. The fae were otherworldly beautiful.

When I blinked a man appeared out of nowhere. I caught my breath stuck in my throat.

“How?” I stuttered in utter disbelief that I’d forgotten the frigid cold.

“You came from the line of Bloodweaver elites,” she stated. She didn’t ask.

“I…” I trailed and I shook my head as if it would help me. “Please help me.” I begged. Any minute I stayed in this weather I would drop dead like the man I killed.

My mind stopped working.

My head was light and heavy on my shoulders.

Annoyed at my mortal weakness, the lady snapped her fingers and then the flakes of the snow were suddenly suspended in the air.

My breath hitched. The cold dissipated.

The time stood still. The time had stopped.

“What—”

“Name?”

“Lowen Vespertine.”

“Do you confirm you belong to this time and era?”

“I… What. Of course. I do.”

The lady looked at her paper. Her brows furrowed in confusion.

“But there was no Vespertine in the lineage of Bloodweavers recorded in the Faebound Archives.”

Maybe because it wasn’t my real name.

But there were rules in stealing one’s destiny and that was to bury your old name along with the body of the destiny’s owner you had stolen from.

No bodies in Enara could be buried nameless.

Once you’ve stolen a destiny, you become it. And when you become it, you can never wear your buried name again. Or the ritual would be broken and you will have to suffer the consequences of breaking the balance of the world.

“Maybe you haven’t recorded mine yet.”

“Or maybe your name was a lie.”

The cold would easily make my lie spill but now that I could breathe, I kept my steely gaze firm.

“What have you found in my blood for you to throw me in this depthless abyss?”

“Bloodweaver elites serve another purpose other than trying to keep Enara from falling. Talents like bloodweaving wasn’t the only thing you could do. Bloodweavers can withstand Time Threading. Through bloodweaving you can weave your body back to its original state. Weave its thread and keep your body from shattering as you travel through time.”

“What? I don’t understand. Time traveling through bloodweaving?”

“Yes, exactly. Now we don’t have time. You will enter a different trial. One that assesses Bloodweavers powers. One that will serve Enoranthas for a greater purpose. Trialbearers would explain it better than I do.”

“Will I still go to another trial? A chance to still escape Enara?” I asked as if I didn’t hear her clearly.

I was too focused on escaping Enara that my mind was filtering out her words.

“Human. All the Bloodweavers serve Enoranthas. It was a mystery why you were hidden from us. Why we’re not aware of such power.” She touched the ends of my hair as she looked at me with those unblinking eyes. “We didn’t know of your existence until you came here yourself. With that I am grateful.”

A wave of unease washed over me.

Did I just do something I shouldn’t have?

“What is this then?” I gulped.

“This is the first test. You have innate power to withstand suspended time tethered by another.”

She regarded me with a hint of acknowledgement and somehow respect.

It didn’t ease my tense shoulders and rigid posture.

“Is that a good thing?”

“Yes. But don’t let them know.”

This time the fae behind her raised his hand and suddenly winter flakes covered us like a glass dome, sealing us in place.

I tipped my head to look up. The glass dome was blurry and the sound was muffled inside.

“Listen.”

Her demeanor changed into something else. I could hear the rush in her voice.

Her stoic face was gone, replaced with worry. As if the dome the fae created was meant to cover us and hide whatever she was going to say next.

Like she was afraid someone might hear her in these desolate frozen fields.

“You cannot show them how you can move while another freeze time. You cannot show them how you can use bloodweaving without needing to thread through time.”

I could feel the tension in her words. And it made me anxious.

“Why?”

“Because you had the power we lost 500 hundred years ago. And these creatures were not simple mortals. They were violent creatures hungry for immortality more than anything. When you traveled here, I had to hide the fact that it didn’t cost you as much as you were supposed to. Time threading was so effortless to you that you kept yourself intact while bloodweaving, without even knowing you were doing it.”

I blinked, processing her words.

“I don’t have powers. I’ve no talent. I don’t know how to bloodweave. I wasn’t even informed I could do it. There must be a mistake.”

I was lying through my teeth.

I knew I could do it too.

I could hear their heartbeats but I had never found myself using it to this extent. I didn’t know you could use it to travel through time.

“No. Wherever you’re hidden before, how we didn’t know your existence before. You should’ve kept hiding. Now they know about you.”

Her face changed into something similar to dread. And fear.

“But they said fae are immortals. What do you mean when you said they were hungry for immortality more than anything?”

“Enough.”

Then the glass dome made out of snowflakes shattered into a thousand pieces. It fell onto the floor as soon as it served its purpose.

She shifted her shoulders back to when I first saw her. Her gaze, stoic and lifeless. Gone was the woman who warned me about my new reality.

“Now hold your breath and weave your blood as you travel through time. Bloodweaving will keep your body intact, and your mind from bursting into tiny pieces. Time traveling is a highly dangerous power that demands so much from its threader. Now, go.”

And then I threaded in time.

I didn’t know what I was supposed to do but I slipped in time.

When I opened my eyes, the bright sun pierced my skin and I had to blink a few times at the sudden shift of bleak midwinter to summer heat.

Black spots clouded my eyes when I attempted to gather myself up.

Groaning, the sound of my bones echoed into the air.

I tasted iron in my tongue.

When I touched my teeth, crimson red fluid flowed in my mouth.

I could feel my insides bleeding internally from the dangerous shifting of time.

“What now?” I exasperatedly asked no one but myself.

Then someone spoke to my left, making me jump.

“Are you the last?”