We flew over the mountains, over a changing landscape, over dark forest and purple-blooming trees, over other villages, and cities, until we came to an enormous spreading city.
It looked from above like no mortal village I had ever seen. Forest and streams seemed to break out between the stone walls of buildings, as if the wild couldn’t contain itself from spilling out amongst the Fae.
It was beautiful, the silvery ribbons of streams and rivers, the flower-choked bridges that rose over them, the flowering trees that seemed to try to overtake the buildings with spreading limbs burdened with pink and white blooms.
In the distance was the shine of sunshine on blue water, vast and endless and unlike the lake at home. Dragons circled over the water, catching spray with their wings, soaring upward toward the clouds.
We flew toward the sea as if we were going to join them, but then began to dip lower, toward the cliffs that edged the ocean—and the spaces carved into the cliff.
I closed my eyes when the world started to grow larger, until Anayla rested her hand on my shoulder. “We landed.”
Fieran stood at Asrael’s side and held his arms up to me. “Slide down. I’ll catch you.”
I debated whether or not I would rather just fall to my death. At least then I wouldn’t have to look at his face anymore.
But my fear of heights won out.
I swung my leg around and let myself slide as slowly as I could on my ass. Anayla watched me with concern, and then the wind blew and my hair flew over my face. Temporarily blinded and trying to spit out my hair, I felt myself switch from sliding to falling as I lurched into the air.
Fieran caught me against his chest. His arms wrapped around me, and he set me gently on my feet.
For an instant, catching my breath, I was pinned against his hard chest and couldn’t help breathing in his scent. He smelled too good—like woodsmoke and fresh greenery—and I didn’t want to like it.
I pulled away from him as if he was covered in poison ivy, then looked around to get my bearings. I breathed in a salty scent that I had never smelled before, something fresh and strange.
We stood at the center of an enormous arena that seemed as if it had been carved out of stone. Though there were trees all around us, they felt wrong somehow, because in the distance were towering stands, row after row of them. Strange enormous mirrors stood around the arena, the sun glinting off them blindingly.
I imagined the stands full of cheering Fae and mortals, and my throat tightened as if I would choke.
“It will look different other days,” Fieran told me. “The arena changes daily during the Trials. And beneath us run the labyrinths, where we hunt monsters when the arena no longer wets the appetites of our audience.”
I nodded. I’d never felt so small and overwhelmed as I did then, and I wasn’t ready to think about the Trials. “Can you show me where I’m sleeping? It’s been a long day.”
I needed to be alone. Needed to brood over Lidi’s lost magic, over something that was part of her carved away as if it were nothing. The memory of her wisps of hair and flowers floating away on the breeze would haunt me now, as if it had been a message from the gods.
“This way,” he told me.
We walked through massive arches into a marble entryway that was dizzying in its beauty and overwhelming nature.
A waterfall cascaded down one wall hewn out of stone and then rippled in a river cut through the entryway; the scent of fresh water and greenery and the roar of water filled the air, dulling the voices of the shifters who filled the space. Plants and flowering trees bloomed in clumps, with tables and chairs beneath them, making many separate living spaces.
The ceiling seemed to be open to the sun, a dozen floors up; the walls were lined with open, arched windows. I stared around me. There had to be more people living here than in my entire village.
Fieran was watching me. As soon as I became aware my jaw was hanging open, I snapped it shut.
“The mess hall is to our left, and the library and classrooms are to our right,” he told me. “The labyrinth is beneath us, and so is the zoo. We’re going up.”
“How far up?” I asked, looking at the many levels above us. Of course there would be stairs. I was exhausted.
In response, his wings snapped open.
“No, thank you,” I told him.
“Fine. Take the stairs.” He nodded toward the twin stairs that flanked the waterfall, switchbacking back and forth across the opposite wall. “I’ll meet you at the top.”
“The top?” I asked incredulously.
He didn’t deign to answer, since he was already flying upward.
