When the darkness lifts and the terrifying sensation of plummeting through empty air stops, I'm afraid to open my eyes. I can still feel the cold chill of the fatoris filling me with dread and terror.
Everything is completely silent.
I don't dare to move for several moments. I can feel the wind on my skin and dead grass underneath me. I should feel safe—there's nothing to be afraid of, except for that feeling that won't go away. The feeling that I'm about to die.
"Get up," an inhuman voice orders. A frozen hand yanks me to my feet, injecting me with every terrible fear imaginable and then some. For a second I can't breathe. My heart feels as frozen as the hand on my arm.
I open my eyes.
The two dark fairies who stole me out of the cave are still standing in the same position, wispy arms outstretched around me like spiders. Their closeness envelops me in so much gut-wrenching fear that I'm frozen to the spot, unable to move or to even meet their black, soulless eyes.
We're standing in an empty field surrounded by miles of yellowed grass. To the west I can see the silhouette of mountains against the night sky, and any hope I had that Alec would find me dissipates. The mountains are at least a day's walk from here, maybe more.
An overwhelming wave of sadness crashes over me, stealing my breath and filling my eyes with tears. "Alec!" I scream at the top of my lungs. My voice cracks. The thoughts of never seeing Alec again and Peter's betrayal are too much.
A solid black arm extends from one of the dark fairies and strikes me across the face. I fall onto the ground, a hand held to my throbbing cheek.
"Shut up." The fairy that hit me kneels beside me. I cringe away from it, but one if its arms holds me still. Its eyes close and for a moment nothing moves. When it removes its hand and moves away from me again, I gasp at the feeling of emptiness I'm left with. A bottomless cavern has opened up in my heart.
"What did you do to me?" I cry, my hands clutching at my chest. Uncontrollable tears stream down my face. I've never felt pain like this before.
Neither of the fairies answer me. Instead, I'm forced to my feet once again and pushed to the west, farther away from the mountains and from Alec. Each of them draws a wicked curved blade and jabs it at me as we walk if I don't move fast enough.
"Where are you taking me?"
Again, I'm ignored, and left at the mercy of the terrors that my mind conjures up.
The only thing that keeps me sane is the thought that Alec is safe. I didn't see any other fatoris in the caves aside from the two with me now. Maybe they'll leave Alec alone since they have me.
Part of me hopes that Alec doesn't try to come after us.
And Peter... I'm only glad that he's alive. I can't bring myself to be angry at him for what he's done. Only completely, uncontrollably heartbroken. It's pathetic, but I just wish I could see him again. He must've had a reason for betraying me.
A thought suddenly occurs to me, almost causing me to trip. One of the fairies shoots me a look that makes me tremble, but I swallow my fear and keep walking, holding onto the thought for dear life.
The poem on the tablet.
One of the simplest lines: A girl full of fire, betrayed by the cold. Yet I still didn't know what it meant. I still couldn't heed its warning that was so plainly spelt out for me.
I, the girl full of fire, was betrayed by a warlock with the power of ice. The cold.
What else did the tablet say?
I can't remember, it all seemed like gibberish. It told me I'm supposed to save the world, that there will be a battle at the end to decide the victor of this war. Light or dark, it's up to me. That much I understand. But the other parts—the parts about lions and feathers and switching loyalties—I don't. Are there more warnings that I'm missing? Did the second tablet have anything actually useful written on it?
Loyalty is a flaw, so loyalties she will switch.
That's the part that bothers me most. It says that I will switch sides. Or, at least, I think it does. Does that mean I'm going to turn evil?
I am on the good side, right?
If it's written on the tablet, does that mean I can't change it? Surely if I had understood its warning about Peter, I could have avoided the situation I'm in now. So I must be able to change my future. It's up to me, everyone keeps saying. My decision is to be good, not evil, and I will make sure that it stays that way.
*****
When night falls, I'm nearly tipping over from exhaustion and hunger. But on the fatoris march, dragging me along with them. I haven't said a word since earlier. The fairies aren't too talkative either, speaking only to order me to move faster.
It takes a while to muster up the courage to speak again.
"I'm hungry," I say, my voice dropping below a whisper. I can't keep it from shaking.
The fairies don't even look at me. They glide easily over the grass, black eyes staring straight ahead, curved blades ready at their sides. The mountains have long disappeared into the distance now.
"Did you hear me?" I stutter, my throat clenching painfully. "I said I'm—"
"We heard."
"I-I need something to eat. And I need to rest."
The fatoris to my left—the one who hit me earlier—turns and brings its blade up against my neck in one swift movement. Its eyes are inches from mine, glinting with murderous greed. A pathetic whimper escapes my lips.
"We aren't stopping. Now, be quiet." It narrows its eyes before pulling the blade away. I feel a tiny trickle of blood drip down my neck.
"But—"
The fairy silences me with a hard blow to the face. When its fist makes contact with my skin, I hear a loud boom in the back of my skull. It fills my mind completely until I can't hear anything else. My ears begin to ring and a horrible throbbing sensation spreads throughout my head and I suddenly feel like I'm falling.
I am falling. I'm on the ground now, laying in the soft grass and staring up at the sky. I can't move and I can't breathe. My body is frozen from the impact.
"We're supposed to bring her unharmed!" the second fairy yells. The first takes a step toward me, its dark fist balled at its side, but I'm too dazed to feel afraid. The second steps forward as well and slams its arm into the other. "Her majesty ordered us not to hurt the White Witch. Do not ruin this."
The first pushes the other off of it. "Fine," it growls. It kicks me in the shin, hard. "Get up and keep moving. Or we'll turn around and go back for that damn sulvel you were with." Its threat is enough to knock me out of my stupor. I get to my feet, avoiding the eyes of the fairy that I've decided to call Scary. Scary is taller, wider, and of course, scarier than the other. Scary grins wickedly at me, exposing a mouthful of pointy teeth. "That's right. We wouldn't want that, would we? Now, move."
I obey.
We keep moving, but walking quickly becomes a battle of wills. My stomach is painfully empty and my eyes won't stay open. Every step I take feels like my last one before I finally pass out, then I surprise myself and keep going.
I focus on Alec; thinking of him keeps my fear at bay. It keeps me from thinking of what Anabella will do to me when we reach her.
A smile nearly grazes my lips when I remember our brief moments at the Trävore dance, how he looked at me when he was trying to protect me from the werewolves, when he came alive again in my arms, the way he listened to me when I was rambling about my life, about things he shouldn't care about. I remember that he refused to kill an animal, even the smallest lizard, and how much he loved Syfi and Celeste. How he risked his life standing up for me against Queen Lili Mai and her monstrous pet, even when he didn't know me. And how I feel whenever he looks at me, when he touches me. It's something I've never felt before, but it feels...nice.
Am I ever going to see him again?
*****
A small house appears on the horizon not even an hour later. I expect the fairies to alter our course to avoid the farmstead, but instead their pace quickens. No words are exchanged between them and I'm beginning to think that they can communicate with each other in ways other than speaking.
I feel as if heavy weights have been tied to my body. Every step is difficult and my eyes want nothing more than to close. But I become wide awake as we approach the sleeping house and the fatoris draw their weapons.
"We should go around, so they don't see us," I say quietly. My voice is shaking again. Less so than earlier, but fear is quickly mounting again.
The fairies ignore me completely. The house is only fifty yards away now. A small barn is built onto the side of the house with two horses resting peacefully inside, the evil not far from them unknown.
Twenty yards.
My feet stumble to a halt. "If you hurt those people—"
Scary pushes me forward so roughly that I nearly trip. The fear of his sword keeps me moving.
To my relief, the fatoris head for the barn rather than the house. They must mean to grab a horse for me so that I can move quicker. Not good for me, but at least they don't mean harm to the owners of the cottage.
Scary holds my arm in a vice-like grip while the other fairy unlatches the flimsy stall door. Out come the horses, one fully grown and one clearly just a baby. Both look uneasy at the presence of the dark fairies, but the foal unleashes a shrill whinny and rears up on its hind legs. Its front hooves kick wildly in the air, nailing Scary in the shoulder.
The dark fairy shoves me to the ground and releases its own shrill shriek into the quiet night. The foal cowers away from the monster, but it doesn't get far. Scary brings its jagged blade up—and into the neck of the foal.
"No!" I scream, but I'm not the only one. I can hear the foal's mother screaming as well.
The body of the foal falls onto the ground in a heap of long legs, blood from its neck spilling thickly onto the ground and onto me. The mother attempts a getaway, but one of the fairies grabs her reins and forces her to be still. Her eyes are wide and terrified. The sight breaks my heart into tiny pieces. When I see tears darkening the fur underneath the mare's eyes, I feel my own cheeks become wet.
A wooden door slams open. "What in the 'ell is goin' on 'ere?" a man's voice exclaims, and I'm filled with dread. Scary pulls me to my feet and I turn to see a man standing in the doorway of the cottage, his mouth and eyes wide open in horror.
"Run!" I cry as a fairy takes a step toward him, weapon in hand. Scary hits me over the head with the butt of its sword and I see stars. Shaking my head to clear my vision, I watch helplessly as the fairy grabs the poor man by his shoulder and cuts into the flesh his stomach. The man's ragged clothing turns a sickening shade of crimson and he feels to the ground just as the foal, dead.
But the fatoris doesn't stop there. It ignores my begging completely while Scary holds me still and charges into the cottage where a screaming woman can be heard. When it returns, it holds a young woman in its fist by her long dark hair, probably not much older than me. She must be the man's daughter.
I beg for my fire to come to me, to help me save this woman from the monsters—but I feel nothing at all. My fire is not only dormant, but completely gone. The empty ache I felt earlier returns with this realization. What did they do to me?
The fairy points his sword at me. "This is your doing," it says over the pleas of the woman, and swings the weapon into her neck. More blood spurts onto the ground, mixing with the blood of her father and the horse, and her body falls to the ground to join the carnage. Both fatoris laugh and the one that just killed the woman tosses her lifeless head toward me. Their laughing rings louder when I scream and scramble to get away from it.
Bile burns in the back of my throat and I retch onto the ground beside the barn. Then, mercifully, my vision fades and I slump to the ground.
A/N: Yikes, this chapter was seriously hard to write, especially towards the end. Am I the only one who only feels sorry that the horse died? Oops.
The next chapter will be up this Friday! As always, thank you so much for reading and if you want to make me really happy, please leave a vote and a comment! <3