Page 140 of Faeling
I’m perfectly content to wait. It’s just the others are getting bored and asking when something will happen.
Well, tell theothersthat I don’t know. And to be patient.
Oberon let loose a quiet whicker, catching Vallek’s eye.Foals can be difficult to love sometimes.
You’ll get breakfast soon enough.
The unicorn huffed and grumbled but fell quiet. It was probably for the best that she had the unicorns away from the mess tent for a while. Three days in and the cooks were already complaining to him that the unicorns were bullying their way into the carrots and apples.
Vallek itched to ask more questions, and to fill his gurgling stomach with breakfast, but he found himself rooted to the spot. To anyone else, it might look as though Ravenna and Oberon hunted, laying in wait for a deer or boar to pass by. It couldn’t be so simple, not with her, although she seemed unwilling or unable to elaborate.
So Vallek stayed where he was, shifting a little to get a better view of what Ravenna watched.
Past the brambles sat a burbling little stream of crystalline mountain water. Snaking along the floor of a small valley between hills, blackberry bushes lined one side while on the other sat a small meadow. Tall grasses and mossy boulders decorated the clearing, and as Vallek watched, a handful of birds swooped down from the trees to root around for grubs in the dirt.
It was an idyllic scene, although he suspected Ravenna wasn’t here to enjoy it. A little frown of determination creased her brow, and she sat there perfectly still and silent, her focus entirely on that clearing. She only looked away to scowl at him when his stomach rumbled.
Although hungry, his curiosity won out. He stayed sitting there long past his feet going numb and having to change position. Gods, he hadn’t laid out in the wilderness on a hunt in ages—and now he remembered why.
At first, he thought the flicker of movement on the far side of the clearing to be a figment of his wishful thinking. He wanted breakfast and to stretch his legs and get the day’s march going.
He told himself the large shadow that passed between the trees had to be an illusion, a trick of the lingering fog. Maybe even just more birds.
But then the shadow grew.
He heard Ravenna’s sharp inhale as an extraordinary sight emerged from the trees.
Through the clearing, to the stream, came an ethereally beautiful white unicorn. With dark amethyst eyes and a lilac-colored horn, she was like nothing Vallek had ever seen. In the shafts of diffused light filtering in through the mist, the unicorn seemed to glow.
Even more remarkable was her rider.
Down from the unicorn’s bare back slid a fae woman. Her long white hair had been bound behind her pointed ears, falling between the folded sets of stained-glass wings. Beneath her simple tunic and trou, her dusky lilac skin gleamed opalescent, the glitter of the stream catching along her skin.
Vallek’s stomach clenched. This had to be who—
Now!
A moment after Ravenna’s command, Oberon and the other three unicorns burst from the bushes, encircling the white unicorn and fae woman. The trap sprung, and Ravenna was right behind them, wielding the manacles.
In a burst of speed, she flung herself across the stream, tackling the fae woman to the ground. Utterly shocked, all Vallek could do in the moment was stand and watch the…scene unfolding.
—white lashes—lilac horn—burbling stream—the spelled manacles in her hands—
In the span of a moment, it all made sense to her. Why her vision had woken her so early that morning it was still night. They had led her here, to this moment, this stream, so that shemight find this woman.
Ravenna didn’t think anymore—she moved.
Leaping from her hiding spot, she ran at the fae, barreling into her. Wrapping her arms around the woman’s arms and wings, she took them to the ground, using her momentum and surprise.
The white unicorn screamed in outrage, trying to defend her rider, but Oberon and the other unicorns were there, blocking her from stopping it. Theknockof horns andslapof angry hooves filled Ravenna’s ears as she tussled with the fae woman, working to get on top.
The woman was thin but deceptively strong. Magic buffeted Ravenna’s side, trying to knock her away, but she held her ground, countering with her own magic. Wriggling like a fish, the woman fought like a wildcat, all scratching claws and flashing fangs.
Ravenna let loose her wings, using their flapping to provide more force and momentum in keeping the fae down. The sight stunned the woman momentarily, her eyes, so dark blue they were nearly black, flicking over Ravenna’s shoulder.
Getting her hands round the woman’s arm, she clamped the first manacle around her slim wrist. A shudder passed down the woman’s body, and Ravenna hurried to seal the irons shut. She had only moments—she could hold her own for a while, but her magic would eventually fold to that of a royal fae’s.
When the second manacleclickedshut, Ravenna blew out a breath of relief.
