Page 90 of Into The Green

"I don't know. I haven't tried. It's usually triggered by fear or anger."

"Listen to me and listen to me good," he said, stooping to grab a mushroom and I did the same, feeling like he was going to give me some information worth having. "I haven't been putting up with Cass my whole life to have you strut in here with your pyro shit and ruin my chances at that throne. You need to go."

He straightened, moving casually around like he somehow sensed the redcaps had started to move in even though his back had been turned. He led us a little deeper into the forest as my stomach twisted in knots, not sure if he was threatening me or not. And also maybe wondering what Cass had put him through his whole life to make him so cool and detached.

"That poison in your boots," he said without seeming to open his mouth much at all, "is it any good?" I stiffened and he let out a humorless laugh. "I searched your room last night while you were having nightmares. I could have run an army through that room without waking you. Is it any good?"

"I don't know. I haven't tried it out. But it should definitely, at the very least, make whoever swallows it violently ill."

"Here's what is going to happen," he said, helping me pick acorns off the ground. "You are going to slip that vial out and pour it over those mushrooms over there," he gestured toward a small circle of them. "You and I will eat the ones you don't poison. Invite them to have the rest. They're too dumb to see a trap. Then while they're getting sick, you get pissed the fuck off and you burn me like you've never burned someone before. As soon as I am down, run. Watch the skies for birds. There aren't many in the Dark. You'll know you're back in the Light when you see them. Once you're in the Light, find your way to the Court and ask for asylum. They have to give it to you and not even Cass can drag you back out."

"Why are you..." I started, my mouth a little dry at the idea of poisoning people and then burning my own freaking brother, no matter how much of a dick he was.

"Don't get any ideas," he said, shaking his head. "This isn't out of kindness. I have no brotherly love toward you. You're just any other fucking fae that Cass is obsessed with. But you aren't taking my throne and you aren't causing war because Cass is keeping you from your throne."

"My... throne?" I choked out, shaking my head.

"Shut it and get that poison ready," he demanded, standing and facing the redcaps. "Women," he said with an exacerbated sigh, "do they ever shut up?"

I small-eyed him as I brushed past, slamming into his shoulder slightly, making the redcaps cackle. With a fist lodged in my throat, I dripped the vial across two of the mushrooms and plucked the other two, handing one to Jet who rolled his eyes but took it.

"There's plenty more," I said, waving toward them, giving them what I hoped was a sweet smile. "Just because you're working doesn't mean you can't eat, right?"

With that, the dumb creatures they were, they shrugged and went for the food. Beside me, I heard Jet chuckle slightly. I forced down my mushroom with a sour feeling in my stomach. "Knock it off," Jet mumbled as I watched the redcaps gorge themselves. "Your will to survive needs to be stronger than your moral compass if you're going to get through what is to come in the next couple of years," he warned and my chest seemed to deflate because I felt the truth in those words.

"I can't burn you," I whispered as I watched one of the redcaps start to rub his stomach, his brows knitted.

"You don't have a choice. From what I hear, your first venture into The Green wasn't exactly all sprite hair washes and nymph loving. Your friend was brutalized in the work camps, was she not? And your... boyfriend was tortured by his father as well, correct?" he asked, his voice dismissive and the tone alone was making my hands warm. "There you go," he said as the redcaps dropped to their knees, moaning.

"Where am I supposed to burn you?"

"Neck is probably smartest. It will look like you meant business but likely won't kill me. What did you do!" he suddenly roared at me, making me take a step back, my shoulders slamming into a tree hard enough to knock my breath out. The redcaps attention was on us as they turned a violent shade of red in their faces, their painful groans making my own stomach twist. But as Jet advanced me, I didn't have anger. What came over me was sadness instead. He shoved me hard in the shoulders, his eyes pleading with me to get angry as he screamed. "Everything you love," he said, drawing my attention. "Like that puny empath of yours. I'd like nothing better than to melt down some iron and slowly lower him into a bath of..."

Yeah, well, let's just say Jasper was a trigger point for me.

My hand sparked to life as the image of what iron had done to his wrists and, stomach upside down and heart in my throat, I reached out toward Jet's neck and pressed in. His roar of pain made my chest compress, made tears fill my eyes. He saw them too, which I would have found worse if maybe his didn't show how much he understood. I held on until he hit his knees then looked up at the sky and ran.

The tears blurred my vision, but I couldn't get them to stop as I furiously tried to blink them away, feeling more and more hopeless by the minute. I didn't want to be part of their world anymore. It didn't matter that it was technically my world as well, I just didn't want it. All it seemed to be filled with was ugly, brutal, conniving, and selfish creatures. But what choice did I have? If I left The Green, I was unprotected. I knew Cass wouldn't come to me with intention to put me back in my room with a slap on the wrist for being a bad girl. If he found me again, I would learn really fast how he drove my mother crazy.

So I had no choice. I needed to stay in The Green. I needed to swallow the bile and blink back the tears and find a way to get through it. Jet's words flashed into my head then and I realized he was right. My will to survive needed to be stronger. I needed to stop seeing things through my human eyes, my human conditioning. The rules of the human realm didn't apply in The Green. I needed to toughen up. I needed to do whatever it took to have me and mine come out unscathed. If that meant begging the Light for asylum, that was exactly what I would do. I would swallow my pride and figure out how the hell to get into the Court without being invited.

--

My hands curled into fists down at my sides, my hair a tangled mess, my stomach twisted in knots, and my spine set to steel, I was sure I was ready for everything. Literally anything.

Except maybe a welcome fucking party.

Yes, party. There were streamers and everything.

I stopped short outside the giant white brick wall, the gates left open like an invitation, striking me as odd. But I swallowed the discomfort and moved inside. That's when I saw the streamers and the signs and the freaking buffet table.

All eyes were on me, expectant, excited, and I never felt more freaked out in my life. If there was one thing I had learned from documentaries it was that happy, smiling people with long white clothes and uncut hair... yeah, they were cult psychos. A part of me felt more comfortable in Cass' castle surrounded by redcaps than I did standing in the courtyard of the Light Court.

"Took you long enough," a familiar voice said, making my heart fly up into my throat as I looked around wildly to find him. Then there he was, walking down the center of the courtyard, his arm cocked with an older, composed woman with deep brown eyes and white hair holding onto him.

"Jasper?" I asked, feeling my legs suddenly get weak.

"Yes, I was just getting to know your young man here," the woman said, patting his arm and smiling at him. He looked over at her with a smile as well.