Page 134 of The Shadow Path
So you can burn down the entire forest?
Call.
Carys made a mental note to make calling for the dragon a last resort.I will call if I am in danger.
Dru glanced at Carys and Duncan, and the corner of his mouth turned up in the hint of a smile. “This feels familiar.”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Duncan said. His hand fell on the hilt of the borrowed bronze sword. Dru had warned him that bringing iron into Yuten Woods would get them nowhere but into trouble with the dark fae that made the forest their home.
Carys was carrying her bow on her back along with a quiver of arrows at her waist.Dru said I could bring my bow.
Not as effective as fire,Cadell grumbled.
You can always come with us in your human form.
The low growl she heard in her mind was enough to tell Carys exactly what the dragon thought of that suggestion.
Dru held his hand out to Carys. “Last chance to turn back. I cannot bring any other fae with me when I go into the Yuten Woods, so you have only me to defend you.”
Duncan grunted. “I have a sword, Dru.”
Dru’s eyes didn’t leave Carys. “As I said, you have only me to defend you.”
“Fuck off.” Duncan laughed and started walking. “What’s in there? A bunch of willowy goth fairies I could knock over with a stick?” He looked up at the flashing blue lights that started dancing as they entered the woods. “Wisps? This looks like the woods behind my house except the trees are smaller.”
“Exactly.” The fae did not sound happy about it.
As they walked, Carys felt like the wind that had whipped around them as they flew over Saris Plain was still with them. Cold licked at her neck, and her feet were suddenly chilled despite the fact that they were walking swiftly.
“What’s this cold on our feet?” Duncan asked. “It feels like there’s wind blowing from underneath the ground.”
“The trees here are very old.” The dark-haired fae whispered something into the shadows, and the wind at their feet calmed.
“Seems like they like you well enough,” Carys said.
“They don’t like me—they fear me.” His voice was cold. “But if I need to invoke my father’s name, I will.”
“Your father was a sea god,” Carys said, “wasn’t he?”
“His power covered this land long ago.” Dru reached a long arm out and brushed his fingers over the tops of the ferns that lined the forest path. The fronds bent back as he touched them, cowering from his power. “The trees still remember it.”
As Carys walked behind him, she saw the optical illusion again, a pair of horns that seemed to rise from Dru’s head, branched like a stag’s antlers but twisted and curling at the ends.
When he walked into shadow, she saw a flicker, and the moment he passed into the light, they were gone.
She’d only glimpsed the dark fae in Alba, and she knew they looked quite different than the light fae that were the public face of the fae kingdom in Briton. Cadell said the dark fae were far less human than the light, with sharp teeth and wild features.
Antlers were more of a dark fae trait, which made it even more curious that they had appeared over Dru’s head when he claimed his power.
“Do you want to know how I know that your mother worshipped the horse goddess?” Dru kept his voice low as they walked.
“I don’t know. Do I smell like horses?”
“Your blood smells of magic in the same way that Regan’s did.”
“Regan?” The half-fae sorceress had been the one who helped kill Carys’s Shadowkin. She was also the natural child of Orla and Cian.
A thought suddenly occurred to Carys. “Regan was your niece.”
