They both came to a stop at the bottom of the massive stairs leading up to the looming double doors. Who would they find behind those doors? Would this jaunt down memory lane allow them to cross paths with comrades that had been lost to them over the centuries? The idea both excited Peri and saddened her. Despite their long lives, the fae weren’t immortal. They could be killed, and many had fallen in battle over the years. So many who’d been at the fae academy with she and Nissa had gone on to the other side.
“What now?” Nissa asked.
“We chant, dance in a circle, and call on the blood of the ancestors,” Peri said dryly.
“Teenage you was just as much of a butthead as ancient you.”
Peri grinned. “Isn’t it nice to know that some things never change?”
“No,” Nissa deadpanned.
Peri’s head snapped to the side when she heard voices. “It’s coming from the training grounds.” She started moving again, heading to a place where she’d spent countless hours sparring with Nissa, as well as others.
“Is it weird to know that Cyn, Adam, and Elle won’t be here?” Peri asked her friend. “They’ve been a part of our lives so long that I forget they aren’t as old as us. They weren’t even born when we were at the academy.”
“True, but I rememberthatasshole.” Nissa gestured to the circle that was surrounded by fae teens dressed in their practice gear. A few of them parted, allowing Peri and Nissa to see who it was that fought in the middle.
“Xoltan,” Peri muttered the name under her breath.
“Spric, Darianan, and Orfin,” Nissa added.
“The four horsemen.” Peri’s lip curled at the remembered little band of jerks.
Nissa laughed. “You used to piss them off so bad. Remember how you constantly taunted Spric because his name rhymes with prick?”
Peri smiled. “It’s not my fault his parents gave him a stupid name.” As she watched the four males sparring one another, so many forgotten memories filled her mind. Those four had been a thorn in the sides of many females. They had been taught by their fathers that they were superior to females. Peri wasn’t an idiot. She was fully aware that there were facts about males and females that made them different. Males were physically stronger than females. She had no problem admitting it. But it didn’t make her any less. They both had strengths and weaknesses, and only a fool would think that either sexwas better. It didn’t matter to the group of boys that had deemed themselves ‘the four horsemen.’ She’d always thought the name fitting because they were plagues. They infected any weak-minded fae that would listen to their nonsense, the main premise of which was that females shouldn’t be allowed into the academy.
“At least we kicked their asses a few times,” Nissa reminded her.
“It took six of us.”
“So? Doesn’t matter the number, only the outcome.”
Peri couldn’t disagree. Who cared if it was one or fifty? The point was that the four males had been put in their place on more than one occasion. But it didn’t matter how many times Peri, Nissa, or anyone else fought them. Their attitude remained the same.
“Alston,” Peri suddenly whispered as dots began to connect in her mind.
“What about him?”
“He was Xoltan’s father,” Peri reminded Nissa. How had she forgotten that Alston had had a son?
A fae curse passed through Nissa’s lips. “I’d totally forgotten.”
Peri shook her head. “Not forgotten. The memory was blocked.”
“So this is part of what has been kept from us. Why?”
As they stood there watching the group, time seemed to spin around them, the forest becoming a blur until the movement ended, and they stood in a vast chamber. Peri, Nissa, Islalia, Florlae, and Organa were on one side and across from them were the four horsemen. They stood before the high fae council.
“They interrupt all of our studies and our battle training,” Xoltan argued, sounding like the bitter, spiteful man-child that she now remembered.
“How the hell could we interrupt anything when you are constantly taunting us?” asked Islalia, another female teen warrior who had been Peri’s friend. The beautiful fae had been killed in a battle against the trolls more than fifteen hundred years ago. She’d been a bright, happy fae with a quick wit and ready laughter.
“Not to mention all the pranks you were constantly pulling on us.” Organa was another female warrior Peri had trained with who had fallen in battle long ago.
Peri’s heart squeezed in her chest. So much death over her long life. So many people that she’d forgotten. Not on purpose. Not because she didn’t care. But because time kept moving even after they were gone. She’d mourned, but she’d had to move on out of necessity. It was that or let the grief of the losses overwhelm her, as it had almost done recently.
“Can’t handle it?” Darianan chided, a wicked gleam in his crystal gray eyes. He had long, dark blue hair that he had always worn pulled back in a long braid. His skin was tan, an unusual trait for a fae. Before he’d opened his mouth, Peri had found him to be handsome. But with one sentence, he’d become one of the ugliest males she’d ever met.
