Page 4 of The Iron Vow

“Hey.” Puck stepped up, placing a hand on her shoulder. His green eyes were surprisingly intense as Nyx turned to him. “What does it matter?” he asked. “Who careshowit survived—it did. It took the Lady’s plans for genocide and spit in their face. And the Evenfey are still here. Despite everything, they’re hanging on.” One hand rose and pressed against her cheek. “So, no more talk of Fading, huh? You deserve to be here as much as anyone else. Evenfall survived, and the Evenfey still exist. Trying to figure outwhythings are in Faery is just a surefire way to give yourself a headache.”

Nyx arched one silver brow, though she gave him a faint smile. “Is this your solution to most things, Goodfellow? Ignore them and pretend they don’t exist?”

“Most things, yeah.” Puck shrugged. “I was going to offer to shove glamour down your throat if you started to Fade, but I might’ve ended up with a knife in the eye. Or the groin. And that just sounded painful.” Puck gave her a wry grimace before sobering. “You’re not allowed to Fade on us,” he told her. “If you start, just imagine me being sad and mopey for the rest of my life, until ice-boy gets so fed up he stabs an icicle through my heart to stop my whining.”

Beside me, Ash snorted. “If that was a viable choice, I would’ve done it years ago,” he muttered.

Nyx shook her head, then leaned forward and kissed Puck on the lips, very briefly. “I’ll keep it in mind,” she said in a soft voice, pulling back. “Though I will point out that, while we might not be in danger of Fading, without access to any glamour, things will be much more difficult.”

“And yet, you continue to stand here and keep talking,” Grimalkin said from atop an old stump, “instead of moving toward a solution. We will never find the Nightmare King if certain fey continue to...” He trailed off.

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense, Furball,” Puck said, turning toward the stump. “I assume you meant to say ‘be distracted’ but—oh, he’s gone.”

We all tensed, hands falling to our weapons. Everyone, even Nyx, knew that when the cat disappeared, something was coming.

Silence fell for several heartbeats. We backed into the shadows, watching and listening for sounds of pursuit.

My skin began to crawl. Something was moving through the distant trees. Something enormous and bulky that, impossibly, made no sound as it almost glided through the air. As it slid into the open, I bit my lip to keep the sudden fear and horror contained. I did not frighten easily anymore. I was Queen of the Iron Fey. I had lived in the Nevernever for a while now. Nowhere near as long as Ash or Puck, but I had seen my share of the weird, the scary, and the grotesque. I’d fought everything from dragons to trees to giant snakes. But this creature, much like the world around it, seemed to have come straight out of a nightmare.

It was longer than it was tall and had a body disturbingly reminiscent of a giant insect. Multiple jointed legs stuck out at strange angles, though when I looked closer, I realized they weren’t legs at all but thin, bony arms with long fingers grasping at nothing as it crawled forward. The body itself looked pale and featureless, until I saw what it was made of.

Skulls, hundreds of them. Animal, human, and faery alike, all jumbled together into one massive, nightmarish beast of bones and teeth and empty eye sockets. Tendrils of hair and bits of fur trailed from the skulls, giving the creature a mangy appearance, and the smell of rot and grave dirt drifted toward us on the breeze. A distended neck, ending in the bleached skull of a horse, swung slowly from side to side.

Nobody moved. I don’t think anyone breathed.

The skull-insect thing continued into the forest, its terrible body shockingly graceful as it glided over the ground. It moved like it was half wraith, half maggot, squirming forward but somehow barely touching the tops of the bushes as it crawled. Its long neck swung toward us, the horse skull disturbingly small against the bloated body, and an eerie sound, like a wail being muffled by pillows, emerged from the gaping jaws.

I clenched my teeth and did not move a muscle, despite the chills running up and down my arms. I could feel Ash tense beside me, his entire body coiled and ready to strike. The creature continued its distorted wriggling flight into the darkness until it was no longer visible, but nobody relaxed for several long minutes after it had disappeared.

“Okay,” Puck whispered when we were sure the creature was well and truly gone. “What wasthat? Is this how it’s going to be from now on? Every beastie we run into is some sort of awful Nightmare monstrosity?”

“Nyx?” Keirran looked at the assassin. “What are we dealing with? Was that a fey or something else?”

“I...don’t know,” Nyx said, sounding concerned and frustrated. “I’m sorry, your majesty. I don’t think it was fey, but I’ve never seen it before.” She stared in the direction the monster had disappeared, eyes narrowed. “There were always disturbing creatures in Evenfall, but nothing like that. Unless I’ve forgotten more than I realized. However...”

She gazed around the forest, furrowing her smooth brow. “I am starting to recognize this place. If we keep going, we’ll reach the Sinking Swamp, and if I’m not mistaken, Stilt Town is close.”

“A town,” Ash repeated. “That could be helpful. But do you think anyone is still alive out here?”

“I don’t know,” Nyx replied. “But I would like to see for myself. If there are still Evenfey around, they would know more about what has happened to the realm in the time I’ve been gone. They might even know where the king is.”

I nodded. “Then we should try to find it.”

My heart was still pounding. Ash reached down and curled his hand around mine. I could feel the strength in his fingers, the silent comfort because he knew I was on edge, and I squeezed his hand. So far, Evenfall was proving to be horrifically disturbing, but at least Ash was with me. Nyx, Keirran, and Puck were here as well, and Grim would pop up eventually. We were always stronger when we were together.

A bone-chilling wail echoed from the direction the Nightmare had disappeared, making the hairs on my arms stand up. Silently, we followed Nyx into the trees, and the eerie moans faded into the night.

I smelled the swamp before we saw it, the pungent odor of stagnant water, mud, and rot. We came out of the trees to see the remains of a town spread before us. At one point, either the swamp had crept forward and swallowed most of the town, or it had sunk into the muck. Structures lay half-buried in mud and brackish water, rotting wood and thatched roofs poking up from the glassy surface. Another town had been built atop the skeletal remains, with walkways and platforms strung between the ruins, covering the surface of the water like a rickety web. It was a jumbled mess of shanty town, sunken village, and city on stilts, all dripping with moss, algae, and the clinging smell of bog water.

We stopped at the edge of the water, gazing at the cluster of dilapidated buildings before us. A rope bridge led from the forest into the town, the bottom planks barely clearing the surface of the water beneath. I was certain that my boots were going to be submerged trying to cross it.

“Oh,” Puck remarked. “How charming. Really gives you that rustic, fishy, scum-covered feeling.”

Nyx scanned the town with troubled eyes. “I think this is Stilt Town. It used to be the last settlement before you crossed into the swamp. But it wasn’t like this before. The swamp has...grown.”

“Does anyone still live here?” I asked, searching for movement atop the bridges, ladders, and platforms. “It looks like it’s been abandoned.”

“I see light,” Keirran said, squinting as he gazed across the water. “Not much, just a candle or two, but that should mean someone in there is still alive, right?”

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