“Nothing of consequence, Your Highness,” Everett responded, his annoyance with the prince barely in check.
Sterling smiled at me, ignoring Everett. “I heard how your first day with the arcana master went. I didn’t know it was possible to fail the blood-and-water rite. Leave it to a human to screw up the most basic arcana test. So much for your ‘magical abilities,’ eh, Aurelia?” The prince grabbed a brightly coloured macaron and popped it into his mouth.
“What a sad, pathetic little thing she is. Is anyone actually surprised that she failed?” Sterling’s companion’s words cut through me. Then they both laughed heartily at my ineptitude with arcana.
I grabbed the cloth of my cloak and squeezed my fists as hard as I could to fight off the tears of anger welling in my eyes.
“Aw, it seems we’ve hurt her feelings,” the fae woman teased in a mock-pouting tone.
Their laughter grew louder in response to her observation. The familiar buzzing of my arcana built within me, and I knew that it was best for me to walk away before I made the situation any worse. I promptly stood up, pushed my chair away, and stormed off back toward the palace. Tears slowly ran down my face as I took off, their laughter fading as I put distance between us. Before I knew it, my brisk walk turned into a full-on sprint toward the palace gates. Fuelled by hurt and humiliation, I ran as fast as I could. I had to get out of here. I could not stay on these grounds a moment longer. Because Everett would be close behind me, the odds of making it past the gates were not in my favour.
Two guardians stood at the gates, one on either side, staring unblinkingly as I made my way up to them.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the one closest to me asked.
Out of breath from running, I could only get a few words out. “I just… want to check out… the human quarter.” I casually looked over my shoulder to see where Everett was but was unable to find him.
The guardian furthest from me replied, “Who cares where she’s going? Just let her out. It’s not right to keep one of them in the palace. Let her go and be among her kind.”
I stepped closer to the gate, hoping the guardian closest to me would follow his colleague’s lead and just let me go. At this point, I was willing to overlook the degrading comments if they would help me get free of this place.
“What about King Julian? He said to make sure she stayed on the palace grounds. What if he finds out we let her go?” A hint of worry tinged the guardian’s voice as he looked to his partner for reassurance.
“Who do you think he’s going to be more upset with? Us or the guardian who’s supposed to be watching her?”
With a loud sigh, the nearest guardian opened the wicket gate. “Do everyone a favour, and don’t come back.” He sneered as I walked past him and exited the palace courtyard.
I took off running down the main thoroughfare through the fae quarter. Sterling’s cutting words and laughter stoked a fire within me that raged and burned. That combined with the heightened alarm of escaping meant I ran faster than I have ever been capable of running in my entire life. Along the way through the fae quarter, shouts, gasps, and calls for guardians could be heard as I barrelled through the quaint and quiet town. It was obvious by their reactions that it was not often a human was seen running through their streets. Just up ahead, the jagged crystalline gates that separated the fae quarter from the human quarter loomed. Once I passed them, I could stop to catch my breath.
To my surprise, as I approached the gate, there were no guardians to be seen. Thinking about it, I supposed it wasn’t often someone from the fae quarter would go into the human quarter willingly. I reached the gate and twisted the handle, opening the wicket gate with zero resistance. I looked over my shoulder to see a small gathering of fae a few blocks away, gossiping among themselves. I was sure word of where I was would have reached King Julian by now. All I could do was my best to blend in and hide, giving myself some time to figure out where I went from here. A smile crept up my lips as I closed the gate and made my way into the human quarter.
By this point, Everett should have found me and dragged me back, but when I looked back at the fae crowd, I couldn’t see him. Maybe he had also grown tired of having to watch over me and thought facing King Julian’s wrath was preferable to chasing me down and keeping me around. I doubt babysitting a grown human woman was the most illustrious station a royal guardian could have.I pulled the hood of my cloak over my head, blending into the crowded streets of the human quarter.
A putrid mixture of urine, stool, and body odour permeated the air. It was clear that those who lived here did not benefit from the luxuries the fae did, with their indoor plumbing. Large wooden lantern poles lined the streets; each one was covered in numerous sheets of paper. I made my way over to the nearest pole to investigate. The pieces of paper were all missing posters, each one depicting a different human woman, all of varying ages. I slowly made my way over to the next lantern post and found that the sheets of paper attached to it were all missing posters. What in the Eternal Night was going on here?
I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the town and reading every cry for help from desperate families. Some of the women on the posters had been missing for years, while others had disappeared more recently. My stomach churned as I thought about what Everett had said about Sterling. I hadn’t believed him, because I didn’t think the man I knew was capable of such heinous acts. Now, seeing all these posters made me second-guess how well I knew his character. I had to talk to someone about this, someone local. Whatever was happening had been going on for a long time and was still continuing. I knew I couldn’t go back to the human realm, but maybe my time in the fae realm didn’t have to be spent locked up in someone’s palace. Perhaps I could make a difference here. Determination settled within me as I made my next plan of attack. I would seek out the town healer and talk to them. I could explain who I was and offer them my assistance.
As I wandered the streets of the human quarter, it was more complicated than I’d thought to get anyone to talk to me. It was clear that I was not from around here, and understandably, the people seemed to be very distrusting of anyone associated with the fae. As I walked deeper into town, something stood out to me as peculiar. In the shorttime I had wandered through the human quarter, I had already seen several pregnant women. It wasn’t the mere sight of the women that caught my attention; it was the sheer number of them, and they all seemed to be concentrated in certain parts of the quarter. A sense of unease filled me as I thought about the missing posters and the pregnant women. Something was very off, and this became more apparent the deeper I ventured into this town. It was like peeling back the layers of a rotten onion.
I slowly approached one woman, removing my hood so she could see that I was also human. “Excuse me. May I please ask you a question?”
The woman nodded in response, and I proceeded with my questioning.
“Have you lived in this town for some time?”
The woman stared at me with a look that indicated her thoughts were elsewhere. Seconds later she appeared coherent and smiled at me. “Why, yes, I’ve lived here my entire life.”
I gestured to a nearby lantern pole. “Are all these women actually missing?”
She nodded in response, a saddened look falling upon her face. Clutching her swollen belly, she began to speak. “The goddesses have stolen our women and girls. For years, they have preyed upon us, hoping we would be too naive to notice, but we have noticed.” The woman pulled at her thin floral dress. “They tell us we are important and that they need us, but then they throw us away.”
I looked at the woman, my brows raised as skepticism filled my mind. “The goddesses have abducted the women of this town? For what purpose?”
A wild look entered the woman’s eyes as she stepped closer to me. “They promise a better life for giving life. But when we ask for what we have been promised, they discard us. Then they find new ones to trick.” Furiously the woman rubbed at her belly.
I reached out and held the woman’s hands, stilling them from their frantic movements. “Are you saying the goddesses tricked you?”
The woman stared at the ground, muttering. An elderly woman then came over and wrapped an arm around her while rubbing her back in soothing motions. “You’ll have to excuse Zara. She’s just a bit tired.” The older woman turned Zara toward her. “Come, sweetheart. Let’s get you back home and into bed. Can’t have you wandering around and potentially losing that.”
