Page 72 of Shadows and Flames
The male was no longer paying attention to Blackwood, but looking at the rest of us. We formed a semicircle behind our employer, indeed guarding his back. He narrowed his hooded eyes. “Why do you have Raouga with you? Are you their pet?”
I’d never heard the word before, sounding round and full from his lips, but the assumption Blackwood wasoursin that sense elicited a sudden snort from my throat. I tried to cover the chuckle by coughing, but I felt Fenix’s gaze. Saw the tips of Blackwood’s ears go red.
“No,” he said, trying to stand even taller. “They work for me and are traveling with me.”
The one in front, who had been speaking, pursed his lips, considering us, but one of the others took a step forward. Her hair was white and fell long down her back. “What do you have to offer for passage?”
Ah, this had also been something Blackwood informed us about! Apparently, he’d been present during the first meeting between Paschal and these Folk, when they’d first been denied entry and come back with gifts.
He swung the leather bag on his shoulder around and unbuckled the flap that fastened it. “Three bottles of mead and five jars of honey from the best beekeepers in the realm.” He held the bag out, daring not to step forward uninvited.
The guards of the portal, though, they grew animated, ears twitching and shoulders leaning forward. Their expressions were otherwise impassive, but their interest was evident. Blackwood placed the bag on the ground, on the plush grass, and stepped back, deferring to them.
The one with the white hair crouched and reached inside, inspecting the gifts. When she pulled one of the bottles from the bag, it was an amber yellow. The honey, slightly darker, moved thickly as she tilted it from side to side.
When she stood and stepped back toward the tree, she took the bag with her.
Without needing to consult with the others, the first Folk nodded, and they retreated into the tree.
The five of us turned to each other, unsure of what to say, but Blackwood wasted no time. He walked up to the tree, hesitated, then planted his boot inside the trunk. The bark gave, revealing the portal still open, and then he disappeared like the rest.
My cousin was next to go, and her Shadow quickly followed. I watched, nearly bouncing on my toes, as they disappeared one by one.
“Fuck.” I heard Tomás curse as I approached the tree with a finger extended. Like the others, it went into the wood.Somethingwas there. Not resistance, nor a pull. It was similar to the barriers I erected whenever I had a room to lay my head down for the night, or when Meline and I had more permanent homes. That sort of magic was simple, then a bit more complicated the stronger or more selective you wanted the protection to be.
This was…
My skin prickled, and it was as if every hair on my body stood at attention. There was no darkness, no long tunnel or fracture of time. It was a doorway that, once my eyes had crossed and were able to see, revealed another forest.
This one was similar to the one we’d just left. The trees, the deepening sunlight as we grew closer to evening.
However.
Now, we stood on a path dug into the ground with trees reaching toward each other on either side of us. The type of growth provided a sort of enclosure, one that was almost suffocating, save for the gaps between branches allowing glimpses of the rays in the same shades of the mead and honey.
The Folk were already disappearing around a bend, with Blackwood not far behind. Meline and Elián were much closer to us, warily eyeing the vegetation around us, probably noticing what I had—that sensation of being watched. The pressure of an unseen presence.
A far more urgent concern, immediately drying my throat and sending a flash of panic through my chest, was the unmistakable severing once Fenix stepped through into this new world—realm. Once he was on this side, the bark hardened, and when I reached out a shaking hand, I felt the first true coolness of fear.
Because the portal was closed, we’d no way of going back without the help of these people we could not trust.
And my connection to the aether was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
TANA
“Um, Leen?” I caught up to my cousin, trying my best to shake out my hands at my side. Ever since I was a young child, I’d made friends with the natural magic of our world. The beating, thesingingof it. It was inevitable, had always been. Many of us reasoned the aether was a gift from the Mother. To bring us closer to her, to shape our world as we wished.
The absence of it left my stomach churning and sweat breaking out at my temples.
“Hm?” Meline was frowning and assessing our surroundings, no doubt cataloguing everything about this world, so much we were unfamiliar with. She and Elián walked stiffly, his scowl nearly matching hers. Could they feel it?
“I—” I lowered my voice to a whisper, sidling up to her ear “—there is no aether here. I don’t have my magic,” I admitted, and tears began to prickle behind my eyes. It was like a limb had been removed from my body.
She immediately stopped, and the rest of us did so as well. “You…” she swallowed, glancing at Elián. Blackwood had not yet noticed we weren’t right behind him, but no one made to speed up.
Beside her, Elián raised his palm and generated a flame that lapped at his fingers, licking toward the branches above. He furrowed his brow, and the fire grew slightly. I did not realize anything was amiss until he began to tremble. I could hear his quickened heartbeat, as well as those around us, and he bared his teeth.
