“What does a Hunter do?”
“He hunts things.” Silas gave a darkly amused grin in my direction.
“Do you hunt things like curses or things like…people?”
“Depends. Though one might say I have a personal interest in this curse.”
“Have you lived on this island your whole life?”
“No.”
“So you like to use ‘no’ as a full sentence, too?”
Silas gave a short laugh. “I’ve moved around a lot. Hunters tend to do that. I’ve been called back recently.”
“You must have roots here,” I ventured. “You own a lot of land. People know you. Your grandmother’s house is on your property.”
“Some of my roots live here,” Silas said. “I have many roots.”
I let my line of questioning collapse as we approached the looming edge of The Forest. Another glance back, and I could see an actual distinction where the sunshine ended and the darkness began. Exactly at the halfway point on the bridge.
I pulled my gaze forward, working up courage to face what came before me. Med school hadn’t prepared me for this.
“Keep your wits about you,” Silas offered as his horse paused, hooves stuttering at the edge, resistance written all over the poor creature in every tense and strained muscle.
I studied the reluctant horse. “How risky is this situation on, like, a 1-10 sliding scale?”
“There is no way to quantify the risks in this forest on your little human scale.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?” I muttered.
“It’s not.”
“Well,” I said. “At least you’re honest.”
The Forest reached for us, a cluster of closely knit trees with sharp limbs drawing its prey inwards. The temperature in the air dropped ten degrees the minute we stepped foot under the canopy, a roof so thick with greenery it bordered on claustrophobic, like the entire thing was a living, breathing entity. In a way, it was.
I’d mostly felt annoyed and confused up until this point on our journey. This was the first time I felt true fear. I hadn’t had enough time to feel frightened during the Irina situation. Med school had prepared me to act first, save lives, figure out everything else later.
Now the reality of this situation was hitting me. What if I died here? I wasn’t dreaming, so if I died here, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t regenerate like a video game avatar. I was pretty sure that if I died here, I’d just be...dead.
“I’ve got you, Alessia.” Silas’s voice was hushed, as if to not upset the forces at work within the darkness. “I will die before I let you die.”
“My.” I feigned swooning. “You have a romantic way with words.”
But my joke fell short, seeing as my teeth were chattering from the chill.
“Can you talk to me?” I asked in a small voice. “Just something to keep my mind off the shadows.”
“What do you want to hear?”
“I don’t care,” I said. “Something fantastical. Something real. Bonus points for both.”
“Our world used to be run by queens,” Silas said, his voice reverent and calming. “The Fae Queens. The immortal lands used to be split up by courts: The Court of Cities. The Court of Skies. The Court of Isles.”
“You guys have a queen?”
“We should.” Silas didn’t meet my gaze. “We don’t any longer. The Fae have been extinct for centuries.”
