Page 16 of Wrath of the Fae

Surprisingly, nothing has attacked us yet.

I feel eyes on me. Right now, watching me.

The snarling stops. I half expect something to come hurling through the trees to tear my throat out.

But it remains silent.

Lucca has told me a lot about the creatures that live in the forests.

Great big wolves with leather skin. Creatures of bark that skewer their prey with branches so sharp, they pierce bone like butter. Winged horses made of black fire. Horned demons that look like toddlers to lure in their prey which they paralyse with a kiss and eat alive.

I’ve not seen a single one.

None of us have.

But I hear them. Feel them. When I asked Lucca if he could, he shook his head. I wonder why they don’t attack. Why not a single one of us has died a hundred different ways.

As I stare at my palm, I wonder where my power is now. My eyes focus on the metal band around my finger. A ring engraved with strange symbols that no one understands or can read. The Elder woman gave it to me soon after I got here. She placed it in my hand and muttered some riddle or story no one understood. Apparently, it conceals power.

It hides me from the likes of Ezra, who can mimic power.

But really, it hides me from Cyrus.

When the Elder woman was asked where she found it, she grinned and giggled like a child, singing that Fate is a bitch, but sometimes she likes to play fair.

She’s mad. Utterly insane.

‘I thought you were supposed to be sleeping,’ Wolf says from behind me.

‘Couldn’t,’ I reply absentmindedly.

‘Can I get you some food or-’

‘I’m fine, Wolf. Please go back to camp.’

But he heads towards me and sits by my side.

‘You know what I like the most about you?’ he asks.

I look at him.

‘You know what you feel. You know what you want. What you think. You don’t need someone to tell you.’

‘Meaning?’

‘You are curious about… them,’ he says. ‘And you should be. You want answers, and you deserve them. Don’t let anyone tell you answers are a waste of time. Or that questions are not worth asking. After all. That’s what leading means. What ruling means.’

Before I can tell him again that ruling and leading is the last thing I want, there’s a snap of a twig, and we both face its direction.

‘We are being watched,’ he mummers.

‘I heard snarling. But I don’t think it’s going to attack.’

‘Strange, don’t you think?’ He looks at me. ‘Before you returned, monsters and beasts slashed and clawed whenever we came close to these woods. Not since you returned, though. Now, we walk amongst demons unbothered by teeth or talons.’

‘Maybe now they sense a bigger monster,’ I laugh, twitching my wings.

‘Hmmm.’ He looks at them, a deep frown on his face as he actually contemplates my words. He takes a deep breath and looks back at me. ‘We are preparing to leave soon. You should get some rest before we do. It’s a long journey.’

---