I missed my tower, I missed my books, and I missed life before I’d ever met Wolfe.
“You get used to him,” Cillian said from beside me. I appreciated his kindness but didn’t believe a word of it.
“I don’t think you do,” I said. “I’ve been with him for four days now, and I actually think I like him less than I did the first day I met him.”
Cillian barked out a laugh. “Well, you don’t have to like everyone, and everyone doesn’t have to like you.”
Except everyone usually did like me. Before my life in the tower,I was always the bubbly, extroverted one who people loved to talk to. I had a way of cracking people open, prying their secrets and wishes and fears from them. Ashami always asked me to do the talking for her because, according to her, I had a “gentle approach” that she lacked. She said the reason she was so well liked was because of me. It was one of my specialties, and my parents would always say I was their sunshine girl, spreading my light into everyone’s lives.
Up ahead, the guard ducked under an archway of stone that curved over the road. But not Wolfe. Wolfe was pure darkness. All storms and thunder and doom and gloom, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I cared to give him any of my sunshine.
He didn’t deserve it.
I glared at his massive back as he tromped ahead through the archway and along the muddy road, which led along a coastline, the glittering sea spread out before us, the sun glinting off its surface. Morton snored, clouds of smoke puffing from his nostrils.
I inhaled deeply, letting the briny air calm me, letting my thoughts of Wolfe drift away like the waves so far below.
“Hey, it wasn’t your fault, what happened earlier.” Cillian nudged me. “Wolfe just... well, he...”
“He’s an ass?” I finished for him. “He’s stubborn and rude and close-minded and doesn’t care to understand anyone who’s not like him?”
Cillian made a strangled noise in his throat. “Some might say all of those things, but not me.” Those last words were so quiet I almost didn’t hear them.
I should’ve dug deeper. I should’ve heard Cillian’s perspective and learned more about why he felt the need to stand up for this horrid man, but the truth was I didn’t want to. Because if Cillian told me why he admired Wolfe, it might make me feel sympathetic toward the guard, and I didn’t want to feel sympathy. I wanted to continue disliking him because that was easier than thinking about all the reasons why Wolfe probably disliked me—how he was one of the bravest people I’d met, constantly on guard and vigilant to keep ussafe. Meanwhile, I was the opposite of him, a coward, and he’d probably sensed it from the moment we met.
“Is Fairwitch Isle by the sea?” I asked, trying to once again turn my thoughts from the guard, gesturing toward the ocean far below.
“Yes” Cillian responded, “though it’s not easy to just go for a swim.”
“Why?” I asked, confused by that response.
“You’ll see. We’re almost there.” He tipped his head forward, but I didn’t see anything except more of the same winding path, cutting through grassy hills with lots of big rocks.
He’d said Fairwitch was hidden, but I didn’t see anything that could be hiding it. I arched my neck to look over the steep drop off, wondering if there was a hidden city down there among the cliffsides.
“What does almost mean?” I reached down to massage my calf. “Almost as in a few hours or almost as in by the end of the day?” I tried not to sound too hopeful, but my feet desperately needed to soak in a hot bath. Actually, my whole body needed to soak in a hot bath. I was dirty, smelly, tired, and so, so achy.
“We are here,” Wolfe said, and I looked up, realizing he’d turned around and was staring at us with his stony gaze.
Morton’s glassy eyes blinked open, still heavy with sleep. “Forgive me,” he said, “but am I the only one not seeing a castle or a town anywhere?”
No, no he wasn’t. There was nothing behind Wolfe. Certainly no castle. I understood it was hidden, but there was nothing to hide an entire city. Absolutely nothing as far as the eye could see.
Wolfe gave Cillian a meaningful look, and Cillian cleared his throat. “There’s a reason you can’t see Fairwitch Isle.”
My stomach dropped. This sounded ominous, and I immediately cursed myself for getting my hopes up. Of course this was too good to be true. Cillian and Wolfe were about to rob us, shove us over the cliff, and reveal that we were actually to become slaves and they were delivering us to their overlords. Or worse, that they were part of the Brotherhood of Magic. Though I’d already determined they weren’t in the right garb for that, and I just couldn’t picture Cillian as a brotherhood member.
“What if he’s the Butcher?” Morton whispered in my ear.
My gaze snapped to Wolfe, unease creeping through my veins. I’d never seen the infamous Butcher of the Brotherhood, but I’d heard he was fearsome and huge. A warrior with no scruples and no problem disposing of those who got in his way. Oh godwitches—could Wolfe actually be the Butcher?
Bad scenario after bad scenario ran through my mind as I fidgeted with my hands.
“The thing is”—Cillian rubbed a hand down his impossibly symmetrical face—“Fairwitch is invisible.”
My heart jumped. “Invisible?” I couldn’t imagine what that meant. How did one live in an invisible city?
“Can someone just spit out what is going on?” Morton was fully awake now, shaggy eyebrows drawn into a sharp scowl.
