“You’re wet too.”
“Trust me, I’m fine. You stay here and warm up.”
I nodded, my stomach full of lead as he left.
“That monster got them all?” Lei asked, her voice was stronger than seconds prior, a good sign.
“We can’t be sure,” I said. “But I’m willing to bet it lured others before it got to you and Samantha. You shared a tent?”
“That’s right. We went to bed when you and Prince Vale left, and everyone else except Ronaldo had gone to sleep. Ten minutes later, Samantha got up and walked out. I followed, saw the horse, and said we should capture it. After that, I remember little.” She met my eyes.
“Back home, I always pictured the fae as smaller, but mostly, like you: beautiful and kind and spreading pixie dust or some shit.” She shook her head. “How unbelievably wrong I was. There are all kinds of fae, and they’re just as likely to be monsters as they are like you, aren’t they?”
Lei differed greatly from the humans I’d grown up alongside. The other blood slaves knew of fae and vampires and the other creatures in this world. Countless vicious beings. But Lei and many of the humans we traveled with weren’t from this world. Their lips uttered different stories of fae. They held different perceptions, some of which could get them killed. We’d taught them much along the way, but tonight drilled into me how much more they have to learn.
“Fae of my race, faeries, can be monsters too. Anyone in Isila can. You have to remember that.”
She stared into my eyes before dropping her gaze to the fire. “I’ll never forget.”
Guilt crashed down on me.Vale and I left for half an hour and we lost so many lives.
Could I lead these people to safety or were their lives the price I had to pay for the night Prince Gervais had rippedout Anna’s throat and I’d made a bargain with the powers that be?
Secretly, I feared that was true, but couldn’t bear to think that any power above, be it the dead gods, the Fates, or the Faetia would be so cruel. They wouldn’t punish so many people because I’d made a deal to save Anna . . . right?
All I knew for certain was that I’d failed to keep two hundred humans safe. If I couldn’t do that, did I really have the ability to reclaim, lead, and protect Winter’s Realm?
I didn’t know, but it seemed to me that the odds weren’t in my favor.
Chapter 3
VALE
Eyes followed us as we rode our horses into the closest town. On my right, Neve remained quiet, just as she’d been since the number of the humans lost came to light.
At the final count, nineteen died at the hands of the nøkken. One man killed himself after others found sleep. We’d discovered his body at first light near the woods, wrists slit by a dull knife someone brought from the mines, blood staining the surrounding snow. His wife had been one of the women the nøkken pulled into the lake.
My stomach churned. Yesterday, I’d been teaching young Samantha to draw an arrow.
This morning, we’d buried her in snow along with the other fallen—everyone realizing the dead would not stay there. Once we left the area, animals would find the bodies and feast, but the humans agreed they’d rather the dead be buried.
As it stood now, under one hundred and fifty humansremained. The number unsettled me as much as remembering the faces of the dead, for I was fae and prone to looking ahead for long lengths of time. I worried over what would happen when they got to Dergia. And after.
Their reproductive ages were more limited than my kind. It was often difficult for fae to conceive, but to balance the scales, they could have younglings for hundreds of turns. Humans rarely lived to see a century and could not have children for that long. Was the human population too small to sustain them? Protect them? And even if they survived a few turns, one day someone with no regard for their kind could find them—orcs probably.
The longer this journey stretched, the more I doubted our plan.
“Stables are over there,” said Caelo. “Let’s stop there first. The horses are exhausted.”
For this trip into civilization, my old friend was playing the part of a wandering soldier named Týriel—Caelo’s middle name. Just to be safe, I too, would go by my middle name of Trahal, and Neve had shortened Isolde to Isol. As an added precaution, Caelo had glamoured us all to be unrecognizable.
All this in case the King of Winter, or even the Red Assassins, still searched for Neve at the command of the vampire queen. For now, we wished to remain hidden.
“Once the horses are taken care of, we should visit the inn and eat before we procure supplies.” I said, and the other two nodded their agreement. It had been a long ride into the village, and we not only wished to gather food, but also gossip.
Stories and tales, true or not, were feed for the masses and always being traded at taverns. Had there been any word of us in the area, we’d hear of it while others spoke over horns of ale. Additionally, we were curious as to what was happening at court.
Was the Festival still happening? How many Red Assassins remained in Avaldenn?
