We both go quiet, watching the cottage again. Raef steals another hard berry.
“Should we go in there?” I ask eventually.
He sighs, thinking it over, when the door finally creaks open, the light from the cottage seeping out. Daegan emerges. He doesn’t say goodbye to the witch, and he doesn’t look at either of us as he strides past us. “Let’s go,” is all he grumbles.
He wears his usual expressionless mask, so it’s hard to guess his mood after his private meeting with the witch.
We take off after him, falling into our usual formation. Raef keeps quiet behind me, and I take that as my sign to do the same. He knows Daegan best. Clearly, it’s best not to press him right now.
Our trek through the forest is much quicker and far less eventful this time. I guess Maethrel must have called off all of his beasts.
When I think we must be getting close to the edge, Raef gasps. Not in a way that makes me think he’s in danger, more in a way that sounds like he’s excited.
“What is it?” I ask, still trying to keep pace behind Daegan.
“I thought I saw…” He pauses. “No. I’m sure it wasn’t.”
“What?”
“I thought I saw a fairy.”
“Was it a shimmering golden light that looked like a million tiny specks all clustered together?”
“Yeah. Like, a trail of that. And then it disappeared in an instant.”
I shake my head. “It can’t be. They don’t live in this region. Never have.”
“Then what do you think it was?”
“This world holds many mysteries.” I shrug, unable to offer him a more sufficient answer. What he described sounded exactly like the fairies I’ve read about and seen illustrations of. But what would one be doing here? They live in the forests by the shores. The idea that one might be so far away from their natural habitat worries me.
“I want to bond a fairy.”
I scoff.
“What? You don’t think me worthy?”
“I’m sure you are. But that hasn’t happened in thousands of years. It wasn’t even common before the curse.”
“That you know of.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
We finally reach the clearing where we left our horses, and a strange feeling overtakes me. Now that we’ve emerged from Wraithmere, the hard part begins. The part where we must decide if we’re going to work together now. If we can trust each other in our quest to find the rest of these relics. Then all we have to do is figure out where and how to unite them and break the spell for good.
Daegan stops at the horses, finally turning to face us. His expression is even more hardened than before, if that’s possible. For a moment, it seems like he’s avoiding meeting my eyes, but eventually he focuses and locks on. Reluctantly.
“Thank you,” he says.
“For… what?”
“For saving our asses in there. For taking us and letting us in on this… secret. And for trusting us.”
“I never said I did.”
I could swear the tiniest twitch of his lip occurs, but it’s gone before I know it. “You do. You have no choice.”
He jaunts off toward his horse, and I’m left staring after him with my mouth open, arms raised, and my palms up.
