thirteen
Myfirsttrialbeganexactly one week later. I was in The Forest with Liza, healing patches of earth while she trotted beside me, dirt on her cheeks, ponytail high. It was a rare day off from my training with Seer Goddard, but we’d gone almost all night the previous night, and he’d told me to take a day of rest.
“My mom says you’re the Triune Queen,” Liza said shyly, glancing up at me. “Are you?”
“What makes your mom say that? What do you think?”
“If you are the Triune Queen, then you just are,” she said with childlike but very straightforward logic. “Areyou?”
“There’s a very good chance,” I admitted. “I’m still learning what it all means. But Fae Queens usually work best with only one element. I’ve been working with three different elements, which is where the title comes from.”
“Cool. Mom says you’ll be good for us. She also says you should be prepared—they’re going to take you soon.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“For your first trial.”
“How does your mom know all of this information?”
“She just knows.” Liza’s gaze slid away, and for once the blunt little girl seemed evasive. “She hears things, I guess.”
Liza seemed unwilling to talk about the subject further. Though I was curious about Liza’s home life, and now her mother, I let it go. When the girl had found me at Wisteria Cottage this morning and asked if I wanted to explore The Forest with her, I’d taken her up on the invitation.
“Thanks for the warning,” I told Liza gratefully. “I’m doing all I can—training day and night with Seer Goddard.”
“Mom says the council is full of idiots who don’t want you to be our Fae Queen.”
“Has she met them?”
“No, she just knows things, like I said.”
I laughed. Apparently, Seer Goddard must have known I’d needed this day of rest. I’d been crawling into bed each night exhausted, falling asleep before Silas’s arms finished wrapping around me. Millie fretted I was too thin; Silas echoed her concerns. My skin had bronzed, my hair sun-lightened, but despite it all, I felt stronger than ever—focused, purposeful.
Today felt like a gift, to spend time with Liza, who was so buoyant in her enjoyment of the simple things in life that it took my mind off the rest of the world around me. Grueling training surely had its place, but taking a moment to enjoy the island that had become my life was important too.
Ahead, Liza pointed. “Let’s see what’s through there. You go first.”
Normally she bounded ahead, so her suggestion surprised me. Liza didn’t look frightened, though, so I shrugged and agreed.
Two trees stood before us, vines knotted thickly between them, dotted with huge white flowers like water lilies. I pushed the vines aside and stepped through.
“Oh, Liza, it’s just—”
My words cut off as I tumbled into darkness, falling face-first into a pitch-black abyss. I landed, shockingly gently, on a pile of loose dirt and gnarled roots. The air down here smelled ancient and clean, untouched by the world above.
A whisper brushed my mind, the same as the breezy soft voices of my sisters in The Glade. That was when I knew this was the first challenge.
“Liza?” I called, half expecting the girl to be beside me, but I remembered her guarded smile, her warning.
She’d known.Or her mother had known. Either way, Liza had led me here. Had Seer Goddard known my trial was today? Were they in on it together? Or maybe it had just worked out, in the way things were meant to fall together.
I stood and dusted myself off. Pure, powdery soil coated my clothes. I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face, it was so dark.
Slowly my eyes adjusted. I felt like I’d fallen deeply underground, in a tunnel well below the surface of the earth. Massive roots twisted around me, above my head, along the walls, giving off the impression of a carefully constructed labyrinth of tree roots beneath The Forest.
The ceiling here was so low they pressed against my head if I straightened fully. A wave of claustrophobia washed over me. I felt miles beneath the earth, with no ladder, no light, no help—completely and utterly trapped. Unlike the cave where I’d met my ancestors, there was no reassurance that this was where I was supposed to be. Now, I felt alone and terrified.
The darkness closed in around me, causing me to physically recoil. I crumpled toward the ground, making myself as small as possible, feeling the crushing weight of the earth on my shoulders. A burden that felt physically heavy stole the air from my lungs.
