“To the castle?”
“Yes.” He looked at me. “We can't fight this if we don't know what it is.”
“And you think we can find out at the castle?”
“I hope we can. Honestly, I've never seen nor heard of anything like this, Seren.”
“It was hungry, whatever it was.”
“Yes. If we can't figure it out on our own, we'll need to request aid from Danu.”
“All right.” I was back to staring at the men and women dressed in silk and flowers. Wilted flowers. They were beautiful, all of them, but empty of the brightness Anthousai were known for. “First, we need to talk to the victims. All of them.”
Chapter Eight
“We can't just leave you here,” Tiernan said for the fourth time.
The Anthousai man frowned and looked at the other Anthousai. “We're fine, Your Majesty. And this is our home. Where else would we go?”
There wasn't a communal hall like many fey villages had. The Anthousai gathered in the open. So, we were still in the field, standing at the edge of the village.
“You see, that's the question I'd like answered.” I jumped in. “Where do you think the other Anthousai went?”
One of the women stepped closer. “There's another Anthousai village about ten miles west. Hyacinthia. I think they may have gone there.” She cocked her head. “I don't know why. We weren't in any danger.”
“I just unearthed you from a pile of black ropes that obviously did something to you,” I huffed. “You are most certainly in danger.”
“The vines are from the earth, Your Majesty.” She looked suddenly serene. “They gave us strength.”
Vines? Oh, I didn't like that. It was too close to my magic. Annoyed, I spoke harsher than I intended. “It didn't give you enough strength to get out of its cage.”
“It wasn't a cage. It was a cocoon. We were being transformed.”
“That's just creepy,” I muttered.
“We can't leave them here like this,” Tiernan said to me.
“I think we should send someone to Hyacinthia and let the Anthousai there know that these people have been recovered, but to stay away from here for now.”
“But what do we do with them?” He waved at the Anthousai.
“We take them with us. Hopefully, they'll recover on their own, but if not, we need to help them.”
Tiernan nodded. “All of you are coming back to the castle with us.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the Anthousai said together.
“Fucking creepy,” I muttered. “You barely escaped becoming a pod person, babe.”
Tiernan went pensive. “Body snatchers.”
“Yeah, well done. You got the reference.”
“No, I mean, what if that's what this is?”
“Aliens?” I chuckled. “I don't think so.”
“No, Seren, not aliens. It could be a parasite born of this world.” He looked towards the forest. “A body snatcher.”
