Page 58 of Beyond the Faerie Gate

Rhoswyn

We don’t set off immediately, though I want to. Drystan and Jaro insist on taking a night to rest, and Kitarni seizes on the opportunity to teach me more about my people. She banishes my Guards and settles back into her spot to continue her tutoring. I try to regain my earlier enthusiasm, but the events of the day are starting to catch up with me, and my mind begins to wander. I’m almost asleep when she insists on rounding the night off with a quiz.

I’m saved when, halfway through, Maeve, Titania, and Mab finally reappear, and start sneaking me the answers. I can tell the dryad suspects something, but she says nothing until she closes her books and ushers me upstairs.

“You seemed to really improve at the end there,” she begins as we approach the door to the bedroom I was in earlier. “I thought you were nodding off, and then out of nowhere you started getting all of the answers right.”

I shrug. “Luck, I guess.” Not technically a lie. It was lucky that my three guides were there.

“Nicnevin, you answered questions I hadn’t taught you the answers to yet.”

Crap.

Kitarni studies me intently. “You do not need to hide things from me. If you know some things instinctively, it could be one of your gifts manifesting. One of your ancestors, the First Nicnevin, had an innate knowledge of plants as her seelie gift. You may be similar.”

I bite my lip, considering.

My whole adult life has been spent hiding my guides’ existence from everyone. I was open about them as a child, before I realised that they weren’t normal.

But this is Kitarni. Someone my soul seems to trust even though we’ve only just met. And we’re alone. My Guard remained downstairs to discuss the trip tomorrow.

“Is it… normal… for fae to see or hear things?” I ask tentatively. “Things other people don’t seem to be able to?”

“Certainly, with some gifts,” Kitarni’s eyes brighten. “Reading auras is uncommon but not unheard of, or there are some who can read thoughts.” Her brows furrow as I look blankly at her. “That’s not what you meant, is it?”

I shake my head slowly. “I see people. Fae. I always have.”

“What kind of fae?”

“There are three of them,” I whisper, staring at the trio behind Kitarni, all of whom are wearing carefully blank expressions. “Females. They taught me to speak Fae as I grew up, and they were giving me the answers to your quiz.” I pause, wondering how much to say. “They’re right behind you.”

Kitarni whirls, head twisting this way and that for a long moment, skipping right past Maeve who’s waving right in her face.

“I sense nothing,” she admits, “But that doesn’t mean they’re not real. They could be astral projections, manifestations, or illusions. I’ll look into it.”

I bite my lip and nod, relieved that she hasn’t immediately dismissed me as insane. My hand finds the handle of the door, opening it.

“Goodni—”

A pair of hands yanks me through the opening without giving me time to finish, and the door slams behind us.

“Quick, pretend to be asleep,” Lore hisses.

I don’t even notice him blinking us. One second I’m against his chest in the dark, the next I’m huddled under a blanket in a bed with no idea what’s going on.

Light floods over the room a few minutes later, and the sound of the door opening fills the silence. I force myself to breathe deep and even. I know I’m playing along with Lore’s antics, but I want to know what he’s up to.

“She’s asleep.” Jaro’s whisper seems to hold an unexplained relief. “I’ll stand guard outside.”

“No point,” Drystan grunts. “This tree is locked down by Lorcan’s troop. The Fomorian would have to get past a hundred insane redcaps to reach her. He’s a bastard, but he’s not stupid. Get some rest.”

We’re in a tree? The wooden rooms make so much more sense now.

The door slips closed again, and the bed disappears. When I open my eyes again, I’m back in the bedchamber from before—which I’m beginning to suspect might be Lore’s room—and the redcap in question is bouncing on the balls of his feet in front of me.

“Excellent! We ditched them.”

“We… did?” Why are we ditching the others?

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