Page 128 of Faerie Hunted

I’d started my journey within those four walls. The ivy-covered walls were the same and rocked me with such surprise it transported me back to the night I’d arrived.

Everything had been blurry and the world around me shifting under the effects of the potion I’d had to take. But the swirling design on the gates stood out in my mind. The great wide tree trunks lining the drive and my excitement for the fifty acres around the place to roam.

How did it all go to hell from there?

Too much had changed for me to start cataloging in my mind. My life took a completely different path from where I first began and these tapestries felt like snapshots of the pieces along the way.

Except for the Pixie Wars.

I’d only heard about those second-hand through Elfwaite’s stories.

Suddenly, a woman’s voice sounded from behind me. “You are just as much a part of our history as these images. I’m not sure you’ve fully grasped it yet. You will. I have absolute faith in you.”

Someone was watching me. I felt eyes on my spine and my hands started to sweat. Only there was no fear as I took my time turning to face her.

“You are a part of the land, the air, the breath of the world.”

A woman stood there, willowy and graceful, with her shoulders thrown back and long silver hair trailing past her hips. Her gown, a purple hue in shifting colors of violet and eggplant, flowed down to bare feet. She made no noise as she crossed the massive ballroom toward me. We met in the middle of that star-shaped design.

Still no fear came and I knew exactly who spoke to me.

Thiswas Faerie.

The goddess my mother had spoken to, the one I’d secretly laughed at her for naming and considered her crazy.

Faerie was so bright, beautiful, both young and old in the same instant. I almost couldn’t look at her without wanting to avert my gaze. Her features shifted without giving me a full moment to pinpoint her exact age.

It was like looking at the sun. Warm and searing and bright and dangerous.

“Well, I’m dead now,” I told her flippantly. “So I don’t know how I’m going to be a part of history. Unless someone wants to write a memoir.”

The goddess stared at me askance. “You aren’t dead, Octavia.”

This time I jolted. I’d never heard anyone use my real name. Not even in a serious situation. I’ve always beenTavi. From birth it felt like I’d been Tavi, and never Octavia.

“You are not dead,” she repeated kindly. “There are three prices to pay for the Abyss. Innocence. Self. And Life.”

If I were dead, then wouldn’t it take care of one of those things?

We stood facing each other and life-giving heat rolled off of the goddess in waves. “I’m listening,” I whispered.

I swore she smiled. The expression flashed across her face and disappeared in her luminescence before I had a chance to really capture it in my mind. I blinked and black spots danced across my closed lids.

“This is simply the cost of Innocence. Your ordeal taught you the fragility of life. Bad things will always happen to good people. It is outside of your control. And thus, through your experiences, the veil has lifted.”

“Why?” It was probably stupid to ask. “Why does it have to happen?”

“There is a balance in the world. It’s life. It is the way of existence.” The goddess stepped closer and her hair lifted in a halo around her, adding to her glow.

I forced myself to look at her until I couldn't take it anymore and had to close my eyes.

I stood in front of an actual goddess. The force behind Faerie. Did she know how the land erupted when I first stepped foot through the portal? How the thunderstorms and other unnatural weather phenomena had wracked the land?

She had to, right?

Would she tell me why it happened, if I was supposedly a part of Faerie?

“There will be two more prices to pay this night, sweet girl,” she continued, “before you reach the Abyss. You will need to make the choice in order to reach the place you seek.”

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