Page 47 of Wings of Lies (Daughter of the Seven Circles #1)

At his disbelieving eyes, I nodded.

“You didn’t die,” Oliver said, stunned.

“Nope. And he didn’t seem to care either way,” I shrugged.

“Or he knew you’d survive it.”

Oliver had a point. The king didn’t want me going to the Mother of Demons to be torn apart. He didn’t want Marcus to have me. So what did he want, and how did it tie in with the test I believe I passed because I survived against all odds?

“Has he told you anything else?”

I glanced back at Oliver’s suspicious face, wondering what to say. I didn’t forgive him. Rage still faintly poked at me. But I understood why he did it, and that helped the need to wrap my hands around his neck. “He’s been searching for my mom, but I don’t know why.”

Oliver rubbed at the rune on his wrist. “Well, that’s kind of helpful. He seems creepy enough to have all the right resources, especially if he’s a king.”

“Yeah,” I sighed.

Oliver stood, walking over to me, and reaching out a hand. “So, assuming your memories haven’t returned yet, have you somehow figured out a place to start looking?”

Blankly, I panned between it and his face. “Who says I want your help?”

He flinched and twisted over his wrist to show me the black rune. “Sorry, sweets, but you don’t have a choice. He directed me to you. I found you. Now you get to keep my ass.”

“Fine. But only because I know I can’t survive in Elora without help, so I’ll call a truce and not burn you in your sleep.” Despite my threat, Oliver still held his hand in front of my face.

“Don’t worry, Luce. I’ll get back into your good graces soon enough.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Ignoring his hand, I stood, wiping off the dirt on my pants. “Where are we anyway?”

“You wandered into a graveyard,” Oliver said, crossing his arms and smiling around at the area.

“What does that mean?”

He winked, keeping his cheerful attitude. I didn’t like it.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Because we actually are in a graveyard, and I’m enjoying your reactions. ”

Great. No wonder it was so silent, and the trees hummed like they were alive. Everyone was probably too scared to venture into this part of the forest and I wandered in, welcoming it with open arms.

Oliver laughed. “Relax, Lucy. It’s not like they will pop out of the ground and grab your leg.”

I gave him a nasty look.

He snorted. “Even though dead bodies are underneath our feet, and ghosts are possible in a place like Elora, this forest is pretty cool. The remaining essence of dead angels, Nephilim, and Fallen are buried here.”

Not sure how that made it cool. A burial ground creeped me out, no matter who was buried there. And ghosts—yeah, I would rather not.

Oliver flung out his arms toward the trees.

“They’re what makes these so ginormous. Whatever powers we have left over seep into the forest floor and affect the nature.

Enchanted and haunted, or so they say.” He waggled his eyebrows, and I refrained from smiling.

He wouldn’t get under my skin that fast.

“Why is it so silent?”

Oliver’s eyes lit up, and before he could say anything outrageous, I stopped him. “A serious answer, please.”

“You can’t feel it?”

“Feel what?”

“The energy around us.”

We slowly walked, not going far but wandering around the giant beasts. My fingers grazed the rough bark. “No, but I can feel it in the trees.”

“It’s in the air too.”

I stopped. “I can’t feel it. ”

He shrugged. “Well, I can, and I’ll tell you no insect or animal with enough survival instincts would come near here. I wasn’t joking when I said this place was said to be enchanted. Weird stuff happens here.”

“Does this weird forest graveyard have a name?”

“The Forest of Damatha.” He gestured wide and spoke dramatically. “It’s an old word for weeping. The Forest of Weeping, fitting for a graveyard.”

It was almost too perfect of a name. “So, we aren’t in Drune Forest anymore?”

Oliver side-eyed me. “They connect, but no, which is a good thing. You don’t want to mess with those Drunes.” He shuddered. “Blood-sucking beasts.”

Reaching my hand up to my ear, I touched the spot where the Drune sucked. Even if I lost some of my power, it was worth it. Partially. I escaped but still didn’t have any information on my mom. My mood soured.

With each step, I bounced between thoughts of my mom, the king, and the dead angels beneath the moist ground, especially when flowers moved without cause. After the third time, I showed Oliver, but he just shrugged.

“So…can you get those cuffs off, or will I have to suffer through the sounds of a jail yard for the foreseeable future?”

I shot him a glare. “The king said they can’t come off without the key.”

“Super.”

A seed of guilt grew within my annoyance at his attitude. But I shouldn’t feel any guilt. I didn’t have the key .

“You do know if we are going to try to evade Aspen, we need to muffle those. I might dislike him a whole lot, but he isn’t some stupid brute. He’s trained to track, among other things. She made him into the perfect weapon.”

True. Plus, with how fast he melted the ice last time, we needed to move faster.

“I don’t have anything to muffle them.”

“Have you tried to burn them off?” he asked.

“I can’t. They block my angelic powers, so save transforming into a monster for someone else.

” I couldn’t try my black Infernus flames yet with how little energy I had left.

Not that I thought it would work. The king was right about the tampering and everything else, so I doubted anything would unlock them but Aspen’s key.

He raised a brow. “I don’t transform into a monster.”

“But when we camped?—”

“That’s not my power. It’s much worse than that,” he said.

“Then what is it?”

Oliver paused, staring into the darkening forest as the sun we couldn’t see lowered.

“It’s fear.” He met my questioning gaze.

“I can sense it and invade anyone’s mind and pry out their worst fears.

Or any fears. It depends on how far I go in.

The farther I dive, the more power I use to dredge them up.

Surface-level fears are easier to manipulate, and I don’t have to touch someone to use them. ”

“The monster was one of my surface-level fears?”

He nodded.

“Why are you so reluctant to talk about it?”

He let out a breath, running a hand through his hair.

“Because I hate it. The surface-level ones are easier. But my power isn’t some pretty walk in the park.

No, I have to suffer through nightmares to pull it to the surface and scare the living shit out of them.

Sometimes, even break them. I have to see the horrors in their minds.

” From the little light left, I watched the blood seep from his cheeks.

“I’ve seen unimaginable things that still haunt my thoughts. ”

If my surface-level fear could demolish a tree, I couldn’t imagine the damage a deeper fear could create.

“It’s… terrible. This power was never meant for someone like me. So, I try not to use it. Unless, you know, we get chased by crazy ass Powers.” He gave me a weak wink, finally revealing how he managed to get us away. “But shadowing. That’s the only part of my power I like.”

I gestured for him to explain.

He smiled, one of those sneaky ones he had. “I can hide from demons, humans, and most angels. Everyone’s a little scared of the dark, so when I wrap that fear around me, they subconsciously don’t want to look. It’s very handy. ”

“But it doesn’t work on me,” I said smugly.

His smile dropped. “Yeah. But the moment I met you, I could tell you were strange.”

I rolled my eyes. A piece of bitter tension chipped away from the wall I put up between us. I forgot how much I enjoyed Oliver’s sarcastic commentary.

With the sun’s departure, the forest turned black.

Oliver became a barely visible silhouette beside me.

But it didn’t last long. The tiny flowers on the forest floor glowed with a white light.

And they weren’t the only nightlights. The blue mushrooms erupted, glowing neon, along with the orange moss.

Their glowing colors lifted my lips, but the trees dropped my jaw.

Each trunk erupted in light-blue shimmering veins of light, stretching to their leaves .

“Did you know this happened?” I asked, feeling like a little girl lost in a fairyland.

A genuine smile lit Oliver’s face. He marveled at the spectacle as much as I did. “I heard stories. I’ve even made up some of my own and spread them. So, I never knew which ones were true or superstitious shit.”

I was curious about the other stories, smirking at the thought of what rumors Oliver spread when that same feeling of urgency reared its ugly head.

“Where are you leading me?” I asked. We needed to find a place to hide, food, and water.

“I was following you.”

“You just told me how skilled Aspen is at tracking, and you’re choosing to follow me nonchalantly through a forest in a world I know nothing about?”

The glow of the trees illuminated a funny look on Oliver’s face. “I asked you if you had any ideas! You never answered, so I assumed you’d take us somewh…” He trailed off at my disbelief. “Okay, okay.” He threw up his hands. “So, where do you want to go?”

“To find water, food, and Magda. In that order. Do you know where she lives?”

He whipped his head to stare at me. “The wicked witch of Elora?”

“That’s what she’s called?”

“No.” He snorted. “I just liked the ring of it. But yeah, I know where she lives, and that’s where my knowledge ends, not counting all the rumors about her.”

“Bad rumors? ”

He mulled over my question. “Yeah, I’m trying to figure out how a fence full of decapitated skulls could be a good rumor, but I’m coming up blank.”

I side-eyed him. What an Oliver thing to say. “She answers all your questions, though, right?”

“So I’ve heard. If you can pay her price.”

“I’ve already paid plenty of prices. What’s a few more?”

Oliver groaned. “Come on, Lucy, you can’t possibly be thinking of going to that witch. She has a fence of skulls! That doesn’t exactly scream, please come and join me for a cup of tea and answers, ” he said in a high-pitched voice, holding an imaginary teacup.

I threw my hands in the air. “How else am I supposed to find my mom?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe from the nice male who likes to invade our minds?”

Nice? Yeah, that wasn’t the word I’d use to describe the male who used ice claws to stab my brain.

“We have no idea when he’s going to contact us next. What if we go to Magda, ask her questions, and if I can’t pay the price, we leave?”

He opened his mouth, clearly about to protest, and I said the only thing I knew that’d convince him and take my guilt away.

“I know a way into the Tenebrous Kingdom. But I’ll only tell you after you take me to Magda’s,” I said.

His jaw dropped. “You’re serious?”

“Dead.”

“You have a way?”

I nodded. “Yes, I have a way, and it doesn’t include any angelic runes.” Just a pair of cuffs and a key we’d have to steal from Aspen .

Oliver held out his hand, and I shook it. “Deal, but if we’re going to Magda’s, I’m having a full belly, so if she decapitates me, she has more to clean up than just blood.”

“Seriously?” I scrunched my face, disgusted. “You couldn’t keep that to yourself?”

He shrugged, strolling forward with a hop in his step like the little hope I gave him made his entire day. “Nope. Where’s the fun in having a filter? Life’s more enjoyable this way.”

Maybe for him, but not for my ears.

“So, fill our bellies first, then go possibly die at the hands of Ms. Decapitator, then finally get my sister back?”

“And my mom,” I added.

Oliver nodded. “And your mom.”

“Sounds wonderful. Now lead the way,” I motioned.