Chapter Twenty-Eight Felicity

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Felicity

"A ND WHY, WHEN THE MOON is this high in the sky, does my child want to be taken to the northern mountains where the wild horses roam?" Nigel asks.

I fake my smile, even knowing I'm not fooling Nigel. "It's time. I can't wait any longer."

"I would like my child to stay here in the pretty castle where she is treated like the princess she should be. Where she is safe ," he says, wringing his hands.

I step toward him. "My mind is made up."

He grumbles something about foolish little girls, but he takes my hand, and moments later we're flying and spinning and folding into nothingness, and as always, just a moment before I feel panic starting to rise, just a moment before I feel this time it's taken too long, my feet are on solid ground.

I scan the moonlit, rocky mountainside and shiver. It's cold, and I'm glad I dressed in my fleece-lined leathers, but there's something else that sends a shiver through my blood. Something primal warning of the danger lurking in these mountains.

"Perhaps my child would like to return to the castle now?"

Yes. Please. Please take me back. But what's waiting for me there? Heartache. Discovery. Worse? "Not just yet, though you can wait here if you wish."

Nigel reaches behind his back and produces a fist-size gem from thin air. "Take this," he says, and as I take it, it glows to life, casting light in a ten-foot radius around me.

"An illumination gem." My heart tugs. I was going to use my own magic, but since I have so little practice with anything other than taking another form, I'm not a strong enough magic user to reliably conjure light. He knows that. "Thank you, Nigel."

My boots scuff on the rocky ground as I turn toward the north. I spot the fluffy red flower of the hiluca tree ahead, and my heart stumbles over itself. This is it. This is the area Misha came to before he visited the other faerie realm, which means the portal to the Hall of Doors is hidden somewhere on this mountain.

I roll my shoulders and begin my hike.

Behind me, Nigel mutters incomprehensibly. When I look back, he's gone.

I draw in a jagged breath. If I were hiding the court's most important portal on this mountain, where would I put it?

I follow the trail for hours—until my thighs are burning from the incline and the skin that felt so chilled when I first arrived is covered in a sheen of sweat. I'm not getting anywhere and have no way of knowing if I'm any closer than I was when I started.

I could have Nigel come back for me now, but I can't return to Castle Craige. Not now that Misha's been in my mind.

If I can't find the portal, I'll have to go somewhere else. Start over like I did when I first came to Faerie. The thought makes me feel lonelier than I have in a very long time.

I sink onto a fallen log to catch my breath and drink from my canteen. When Misha returned from using the portal, he had the hiluca's blossom tangled in his hair, meaning he'd been off the path. If I had to, I'd guess I'm looking for an underground burrow or a cave.

I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and stand up with renewed determination. I'll search every cave on this mountainside if that's what it takes.

I hike for another hour before I see it—a fresh trail in the leaves on the forest floor and boot prints. Boot prints.

I follow them around a thick patch of underbrush before I lose them again and have to search the area blind. The illumination gem is starting to lose its light. I'll need to call for Nigel soon—I won't die out here. But I'm so close.

So I search. And I search, and even when I feel like I've strayed too far from those prints, and I've turned myself around too many times to know which way to go to get back to the main path, I search.

The gem gives out right as I find the mouth of a cave.

It's low to the ground, covered by brush and trees, and would be the perfect place to hide a portal. All I need to do is see it. If I know it's there and pay close attention to how I return to the main trail, I can bring Hale back here.

I lower myself onto my belly to enter the cave, but the opening is even smaller than I thought, and I find myself wriggling through mud before the mouth of the cave finally opens and I can climb to my knees and then, finally, my feet.

I need light to find my way any farther, so I take a deep breath and focus my energy on the palm of my hand, willing it to glow.

When the cavern lights up, the light bouncing off the crystalline wings of the tiny pixies sleeping in the stalactites, I mutter a quick thanks to the Mother and push forward.

A small tributary flows across the cavern floor, draining out the mouth where I entered. It's mostly dry now but explains the mud. Ahead, the cavern forks. A glance to the right reveals a wide path toward the forest—probably the easier way to get into this cave than the way I entered. I make a mental note to exit that way. To the left, the cavern continues to wind deeper into the mountain.

As I advance, I watch my steps to dodge the stalagmites. I don't bother avoiding the water. My boots are as filthy as I am. If the portal is here, Misha must've used magic to clean himself off before returning to Castle Craige—or used it to shield his clothes as he moved through the cavern.

The tunnel narrows as it turns and twists deeper into the mountain. I have to walk sideways through the narrowest part, but a full-grown male would have to worm through the wider section at my feet.

Up ahead, on the other side of this narrow tunnel, something red glows.

The portal.

I need to get closer. To know for sure. Not all portals look the same. Some look like doorways and some look like tunnels, but when they're active, most glow, too full of magic to contain their light.

I shove through the last few feet of narrow tunnel and spill out into a slippery bowl. My feet shoot out from under me and my teeth snap together as I fall to my rear and slide all the way to the bottom of the muddy basin.

The red glowing portal is opposite the tunnel and stretches from floor to the cavern ceiling nearly ten feet above my head. It's the shape of a cat's pupil. All I have to do is climb up the other side.

My boots squish in the mud as I fight my way across. The glowing cat eye ripples.

I freeze and look again, watching something move on the other side. Is that a face? Is someone about to come—

The portal rips open.

No. Not a portal.

A bat as tall as this cavern. A cave demon.

The red-eyed beast spots me, and his angry cry echoes off the walls. His wings—bloodred and as glowing and translucent as a magical portal—extend at least twelve feet, nearly hitting the walls on each side.

His eyes meet mine, and I'm frozen. Frozen as my mind shows me images of my body rotting in this festering mud. He will tear me apart. And I will deserve it for waking him up.

I'm dead. I already know I'm dead. I'm sorry, Misha.

The demon scoops his wings back and lunges at me, his serrated teeth snapping only feet in front of my face.

RUN!

The word is a command, shouted in my brain. It doesn't come from me, but I don't question it. I conjure a fistful of fire and hurl it right into the demon's blazing eyes, then turn, fighting against the pull of the mud as I will my legs back to the tunnel.

Behind me, the demon roars. His pained cries threaten to tear apart my eardrums. With every step I take, I slide half a step back down toward the center of the basin, but I keep climbing, keep fighting my way toward that tunnel.

I grab for the ledge, and as my fingers close around it, a massive squelching sounds behind me. He's coming.

I take hold with the other hand and pull myself up, my hands aching, arms shaking. Up, up—if I can just get my knee on the ledge.

Something wraps around my ankle and in the next breath, I'm yanked back and my jaw slams into the ledge. I taste copper on my tongue. The cave demon has my leg, but I flail and kick until my foot comes free of my boot. I make it back to the ledge, but he's right there, only a step behind me.

Get out of there!

I pull my blade from between my shoulders. The demon's big hand swipes at me, long nails cutting deep trenches through my clothes and into my flank. With a scream, I plunge the blade right between his eyes.

He falls, taking my sword with him, and I run to the tunnel, pushing my way through as fast as I can with one boot and gaping wounds in my side.

When the tunnel opens again, I collapse to my hands and knees. All my strength is leaving with the blood seeping out my side. I can't bring myself to stand again, so I crawl, dragging myself around the turns.

Just as the cavern widens, I drop to the ground, my cheek lying in the mud. My eyes won't stay open. I'm so tired.

"Jasalyn, are you okay?"

This time it seems like Misha's voice is here and not just in my mind. I try to open my eyes to see if I'm hallucinating, but they won't obey. I'll just take a little nap. Just a few minutes and then I'll get out of this cave and figure out why I'm hearing the voice of the male I've betrayed.

"We have to go." Misha again. If I have to sleep in this awful place, at least I can sleep while hearing his voice. "You need a healer." The panic in those words has me fighting sleep again.

The cave demon screeches in the distance, and I'm scooped up into a pair of strong arms.

Misha's clean pine and rosewood scent fills my nose. I want to breathe it in, but don't have the energy for that.

Another angry shriek of the beast, and the whole cave shakes around us, as if threatening to fall apart.

"She won't make it if you don't get her an antitoxin immediately," a familiar goblin's voice says. "Take my hand." Nigel. Is he talking to me?

I want to tell him I'm fine. I'm just tired. If they let me rest for a minute, I'll be okay. But I can't find the strength.

"But you can't—"

"You can't outrun him," Nigel says. "And if you stay to fight, it'll be too late for her. I will return you both to Castle Craige. Now." Why does he sound so sad. So resigned?

I open my eyes and see the demon from the cave with his red eyes, wings tucked back as he dives toward us. There's a reason Shae wanted me to be cornered into a search before Hale could find the sword.

"He wanted me to die." It's the last thing I say before we disappear into nothing.

When the world reappears around us, I'm barely clinging to consciousness, and when Misha lowers me into the soft embrace of a down mattress, I loosen my grip on this world. All I want is to let sleep take me.

"It'd be best to stay awake, my child," Nigel says, his voice weak. "Nothing good would come of dreaming now."

My eyes fly open.

Nigel.

He was at the cave with Misha. Did he bring him there? Then the demon was back, and Nigel...

"You saved me," I whisper, blinking my eyes and bringing him into focus. He broke the code.

He gives a sharp nod, but I see the fear in his eyes. Fear for me, for these injuries. And behind it, resignation for his own fate. Goblins aren't allowed to interfere in moments of mortal peril. The only time I've ever known them to make an exception is when their ward is in danger, but that doesn't free them of the consequences.

Tears burn my eyes, and I feel them streaking through the dried mud on my face. "Why?"

"You know why."

Misha looks back and forth between us, confusion wrinkling his brow. "You know this goblin, Jas?"

"I've known him longer than anyone," I whisper, even though I know it won't make any sense to Misha. I reach out a hand, take Nigel's, and squeeze.

"The girl needs antitoxin and a healer," Nigel tells Misha.

"They can't punish you," I whisper, "if you let me die."

"Not so long as I breathe," Nigel says.

But I hear the sound of feet running in my direction. Misha's healer is coming. They'll save me, and then Nigel...

"This is my fault." I squeeze my eyes shut and hold on tight.

"Fault is so sticky," he says. When no action lives in isolation. The last words are only in my head, and when I open my eyes, Nigel is gone, and I know I'll never see him again.

Where his fingers were clutched in mine, there's only a single strand of hair I already know belonged to Jasalyn. He saved my life, and now he's giving me another day. One more day before my secrets are revealed. One more day to save myself.

I twine the hair around my fingers and clutch my fist to my chest. "Let me sleep," I tell Misha around a sob.

"The healer is here," he says, even as I feel a needle sliding into my side. Antitoxin . "She'll help with the pain."

But she can't. Not with this pain.