“Does he?” I asked.
Haldek was a wraith fae as well, with four black horns instead of two curling out of his head. He was a brawny male, which served him well being a tavern-keeper in the Borderlands. I’dseen him break up a fight between two shadow fae once with barely any effort at all. And he’d been more than kind to me, never asking why I’d come here or why I’d decided to be so far from my own kind. For that, I respected him most of all.
“Aye,” he said, setting his bowls on wooden plates with thick slices of buttered, brown bread. “But he’s come a bit early. The snow must have cut his trapping off too soon.”
I dipped the ladle into the bubbling pot of stew hanging over the fire spit. “He’s had a good run, it seems, even if he was cut short.”
“Good for the old one,” he added as he carried out his platters of food.
After I set the brimming bowl of stew on the platter, I cut two thick slices of the brown bread, and then a wedge of sharp cheese to put on the side plate with extra pats of butter. That old trapper needed sustenance if he was heading back out in this weather. The snows had come early.
I carried his meal to the table. He grunted with appreciation as I set the bowl and each plate in front of him.
“Now that’s what I call a feast.” He dug in hungrily.
Smiling, I asked, “Can I get anything else for you right now?”
He heaved back and tapped his tankard. “I’m afraid I’ll have to bother you for another of these, soon as you can.”
“No trouble at all.” I took his tankard and headed back into the kitchen.
Haldek kept his regular barrels of ale and mead behind the bar in the dining hall, but his special cider had to be heated over the fire. After pouring another tankard for the trapper in the kitchen, I pushed the door open back into the dining hall, completely oblivious until it was too late.
“Nay,” Haldek was saying to the four moon fae males in the doorway with blue and golden fae wings, all of them large and armored with swords and fur cloaks. But most specifically, all ofthem wearing the sapphire and silver colors of Mevian royalty, their lord’s regalia. “None of that kind here.”
I was frozen in the doorway, fear sinking its claws into my gut.
“We were told someone of this description—” The moon fae male who was speaking suddenly stopped when the one beside him slapped his shoulder and pointed to where I stood.
Haldek snapped his head to me, his eyes fierce. “Run!”
I dropped the tankard and spun, looking back over my shoulder to see the old trapper shoot out his walking stick and trip one of the warriors while Haldek wrestled with the others, shoving two back against the wall.
Where fear had frozen me a moment before, it now jarred me into a full run, panic spurring me on. I flew through the kitchen, around the chopping table, through the larder, and out the back door into the snowy night. Without a thought, I fled north, determined to go as far into dark fae territory as I could. I should’ve left months ago. I should have known they’d find me here in the Borderlands.
The dark swallowed me, the snow falling lightly now. The half-moon far above peered through the clouds, casting a pale glow on the white-covered forest floor.
“Help me,” I begged the moon goddess Lumera, running faster into the woods.
Though I’d not worshipped her much in the past, she was a light fae deity. Surely, she’d have mercy on me.
My feet quickly began to numb. Though I always wore the boots Haldek had given me, made of thick deer hide, the freezing cold was seeping through. Still, I ran fast and hard, my breaths puffing out in white mist. I’d rather die in the cold than be caught and taken to Mevia.
In the far distance, I heard one of the moon fae calling, “Jessamine! You can’t run forever!”
“Like hell I can’t,” I muttered and ran faster, snapping branches as I delved deeper into the forest where the trees grew closer together.
Before long, my feet and legs were stiff and frozen, my limbs moving automatically to take me farther away. My face stung, the tip of my nose and ears pierced with the sharp pain of cold. I couldn’t feel my fingers or hands. But still, I ran.
The clouds covered the moon, darkening the forest, enveloping me in an ethereal haze. For a moment, I couldn’t tell if it was the moonlight fading or if I was dying. My shoulder clipped the trunk of a tree, knocking me to the ground.
I gasped in pain, panting, my lungs stinging as I gulped down air before pushing myself back up and trudged on. My energy waned. I hadn’t summoned my magick to help me see, too afraid the light would guide my enemies closer, but it seemed my body acted on instinct, more determined to save my life than I was.
Heat suffused my body as the magick ignited my blood, my skin glowing with pearlescent light. As my mind grew fuzzy, I determined that if they caught me, I could at least try to use my magick to subdue them. To kill them. But they’d have been warned about me, about what I could do, and I’d not escape all four moon fae males.
The radiance of my skin shined bright, magick pouring heat through my blood, so that I could still find my way through the forest without running into a tree again, or over a ravine. While the bitter cold beat against me, my limbs frozen to the bone, the warmth radiating outward from my chest put me into a drowsy state.
Somewhere behind me, I could hear the moon fae calling my name and saying nonsense, like they wouldn’t hurt me. My mind drifted back to another time when I had run deep into the woods.
