15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Sidon's line is a prideful House. Growth, expansion, and a drive for power are the blades they wield. They, of all the Houses, are the most worrisome. Pride corrupts the best of us.

~Kasan the Lifegiver, A History of Magic and Dragons

I hadn't expected the village of Aerwyn to be full of Fae. Maybe I was an idiot when I'd assumed it would be full of humans, but being around so many beings that I've thought of as the things that terrorize humans is unnerving.

Claws, feathers, sharp teeth, and ghastly appearances are as common as the beautiful and seductive here. The one thing that seems uniquely common is how many of the beings here look at me with hunger in their eyes. All of those appearances seem suspiciously apt for catching humans, and just like the harpies, I doubt I would escape any conflict with them.

Yet, none of them attempt any kind of attack on me. Maybe Cole was right. If I stay near him, no one will bother me.

Tonight, like most nights, according to Lee, everyone is sitting around the communal village fire. The stars light up the summer night, but tonight, I'm paying more attention to the attendants than to the environment.

The chatter around the communal fire seems so… normal. Talk of the drakeling and plants being infested with worms. Worries about the Nothing coming and overtaking the village. Everything sounds so much like the old men and women in the taverns would have talked about if they'd known what these villagers do.

There's no doubt in their minds why there are fewer animals or why there aren't any children being born. They know that the empty thrones are the root of the world's problems. Yet, they don't speak of it. Every time it gets close to those topics, they glance at Cole and the conversation shifts again.

The talk may be normal, but the participants aren't. "That drakeling was feeding on the wards Darian and Lee put up," a brownie says as he hangs from a tree by his hairy toes. He puffs on a long root-shaped pipe, and watching him makes me a little dizzy as I listen. He's three feet tall, with more wrinkles than most grandfathers. "You mark my words, there will be other creatures that come and do the same. We're the only magical thing between here and Draenyth. Won't be long before we become a feeding ground unless we can protect those wards."

A female Fae with long black hair that seems to be constantly wet wearing a nearly sheer white dress replies, "It wasn't always like that. There used to be many fonts of magic. But then…" When she speaks, I see the razor-sharp teeth hidden behind her blood-colored lips. Her voice is a whisper that makes it hard to turn away from her, yet I can hear it perfectly fine even amidst all the conversation and the roaring fire.

She glances at Cole, who is sitting on a bench, just like he has every night since Blackgrove, staring into the fire. Unlike the other nights, he's not ignoring everything around him, though. When Lee or Darian say something to him, he answers without looking away.

His lips curl into a smile. Without a fight. They're making him smile just by talking to him, which is so bizarre to me. I didn't know that it was possible. Maybe he really does have friends.

Everyone gives me little glances out of the corner of their eye, but no one seems to want to acknowledge me. I'm not sure whether that's because they want to eat me and don't want Cole to know that, or if it's because they don't want to accept that Cole brought me here.

I'm used to that, though. Being a Wyrdling isn't any more acceptable in a Fae village than it is in a human one. So I pick at the bark on a stick in front of me, pretending not to notice the fact that I'm both being ignored and being stared at.

Darian leans in close to Cole, and he whispers so low that I have to strain to hear it. "That's her, isn't it?"

Cole whips his head toward Darian, and the look he gives him tells him to be quiet. It's obvious that he was talking about me, but what did it mean? More secrets. No doubt about that.

I huff and shake my head, frustration welling up inside me. I run my thumb over the marks on my wrist and wish that I could talk to the Shade. There are too many secrets, and it feels like every time Cole reveals one, there's a new one to replace it that makes me rethink whether being around him is the best decision.

The only reason I haven't walked away is the same reason that I worry about walking away from him in this village. The same reason I followed him to begin with. Without Cole's protection, it would be too easy for something to kill me, and I hate that feeling. I spent my life being the strong one. The one that everyone else feared at least a little.

I yearn to be confident again, to be strong enough to protect not only me, but also my family. The stick in my hand reminds me of the sticks that Cole and I trained with on our trip to this village.

I haven't trained today. Not with sticks or with magic, and maybe that's exactly what I need. A way to burn off some of the frustration inside me. I glance at Cole for a moment, but he's staring into the fire again. His friends are doing the same thing while the rest of the village chatters away.

"I'm going to go for a walk," I say, directing the words at Cole. He immediately looks away from the fire toward me. The flames in his eyes are just as intense as the one in the center of all these people, but he doesn't say a word. I turn and walk away.

The whole time, my nerves are going crazy. What will he do? Is he angry? Interested? Is he just trying to keep an eye on me? Is he worried that someone in this village that he created is going to attack me?

Or is this just how he is when he's around all these people? The Prince of Flames. He's not just a High Fae. He's royalty, and his father is the person who attacked my mother's House.

I take step after step into the darkness of the village. Hidden from the world by trees and wards, it's a place that has been forgotten. I know I should be afraid, but this place feels so similar to Blackgrove. Forgotten. Unimportant. A simple place where no one wants me.

And all around me are the forests that feel like home.

When I'm barely out of sight of the last of the little cottages, I climb a tall oak tree, finding my way to the top by feel. One handhold at a time, I feel the bark bite into my skin. The anxiety and overwhelmed feelings seem to roll off of me in waves as I go back to a world that makes sense.

When I'm laying against a branch at the top of the oak tree, thirty feet above the ground, I feel like I can breathe again. The silent darkness that surrounds me is a soft and loving embrace. No different from when I was eight and my father disappeared.

I can't think of another moment in my life where I'd needed the solitude of the trees as much as I did then. The memory of him is always so crystal clear in my mind. He was the kindest person I've ever known. He loved without ever expecting anything in return. Even years after she abandoned him, he felt nothing but love for my mother. I know it's a strange thought, but one of the reasons I loved him so much was because of how much he loved me and my mother. The rest of the world looks at me like there's something wrong with me. Not my father. Sandor Arden didn't care what the rest of the world thought, and I still love him for that.

He is the best human I've ever known. Everyone thinks he's dead, but I don't know if that's true. I don't really believe it. He wasn't some fool from Blackgrove. He was strong and smart and… and I would know if he had died. I wouldn't feel like I do; like he's missing.

I remember the nights after he didn't come home. I'd hidden in the trees for almost three days straight, and Vesta didn't get onto me at all. She would have been able to find me easily since she was the one who'd taught me to hide in the trees. There's no way she'd have had any problems finding an eight-year-old Wyrdling.

She'd let the forest comfort me because she was not capable of it. I never understood why she couldn't, but I think it's because she was Fae. Like Cole, except nothing we did ever made her smile like fighting makes Cole smile. Where Cole has to control his emotions, I don't know if Vesta was capable of them. She'd always seemed so confused by them.

While I trusted Vesta more than anyone else in the world, I didn't love her. That feeling was reserved only for my father… and for Hazel.

I close my eyes and try to think about… well, everything. Except that as soon as I close my eyes, I feel the branch under me shift, and my eyes open instantly.

Standing on the other side of the branch is Cole, just like he was when he woke me up after finding me tracking him. This time, though, he's smiling. "You know you shouldn't have left the fire, don't you?" he asks.

"Why not? Are the village people going to eat me? You can't tell me you didn't notice them licking their lips when they looked at me."

Now that I know what to look for, I catch glimpses of the pixie wings buzzing nearly transparently from his back. "No, they won't try to eat you." He says it softly. "But they do think you're the rudest guest they've ever had."

Then I see the hesitation in his expression. He's trying to keep the smile on his face, but it slips. And he slips at the same time. The most physically skilled person I've ever met nearly falls off a branch I could walk on without any trouble. The smile snaps into place again, and he rights himself.

He's forcing an emotion, and that emotion has to do with a smile. His wings require a smile? Like shadows require desire?

Obviously not trusting his emotions, he straddles the branch, and I don't see the shine of those wings again. "My friends and I built this village, Wyrdling. We don't agree with how the Immortals in Draenyth live, but those aren't the only Immortals in the world. Even in Blackgrove, there are Immortals living amongst humans. They just act like humans, and you're none the wiser."

"Like Vesta, my tutor?" I ask.

Cole nods. "This place… it's full of people who would have terrible lives in Draenyth. A dryad should live in the woods, not bound to a High Fae's orchard. She should drink from streams and touch all the trees she sees. Not forced into touching the same trees every day. She should be in the wild with wild things. Her songs should be heard by the hawks and wolves and deer and mice. She should know the squirrels that live in the trees."

He sighs. "I made a place for the people to live like they should live. To escape the torment of eternal slavery. To escape the rule of the High Fae. It's not only humans that have something to fear in Draenyth. The High Fae rule there, and while the Lesser Immortals aren't eaten, any broken law could end with them collared and owned by a High Fae. Aerwyn is a place for runaway slaves, and Lesser Immortals who were being forced to do… unpleasant things for High Fae."

Slaves? That's what this place is about? "And you rescued all of them?"

Cole shrugs and stares past me into the darkness. "I rescued some. Darian and Lee rescued others. Some of them were found hiding in human villages after having escaped. We brought them all here to a place where no one would find them. The wards we've put up will keep any scrying from finding them. The physical placement of the village and the difficulties they've gone through to keep it hidden from the air will keep them safe from wandering eyes."

He turns his gaze back to me. "There's more wrong in the world than just the attack on the Houses of Earth and Shadow, Maeve. The High Fae are ruining everything. They've forgotten what the dragons taught them all those thousands of years ago. The Shattering of the Houses was the natural next step, and I'm not surprised that it happened."

That's… not what I'd expected. "But you and Darian and Lee are just three people. How do you change an entire world of corruption and hate?"

Cole shrugs. "Someone has to, or the path forward will be the end of the world as we know it. I'm the Prince of one of the Great Houses. Other than my father or the King of the House of Steel, there's no one who has a better chance of stopping the path we're currently on. And…"

He turns away from me again, not wanting to hold my gaze any longer. "And I need to make amends for the things I've done."

The way he says it, I wonder if he's even talking to me. I know that feeling of needing to make amends. I don't think that Cole ever meant to hurt anyone. He doesn't seem to be a cruel High Fae like he talks about the others being. He must have hurt someone, regardless. Just like I hurt Hazel by accident. That guilt still tears at me, and I wake up from nightmares because of it.

The breeze blows between us, carrying scents of the fire that we were sitting at only a short while ago. "Do you have any idea how overwhelming this all is?" I finally say, trying to redirect the conversation to less depressing topics.

Cole's eyebrow arches. "Not really."

"Literally three weeks ago, I thought all Fae were going to eat me, and now I'm in the middle of a magical war or something. I was sitting around a fire with thirty Fae, all of whom looked like they were having to fight the urge to taste me. I'm supposed to trust you with my life repeatedly because there's no other option. Trust your judgment on each step of this journey. All the decisions. All the information. I don't have any choices here, Cole. More than that, I don't know enough to make any actual choices. I feel like every other day, I'm being shown some secret that I should have known when I was five."

He's quiet as he listens to me. I don't know what else to say, though. I sigh and lean forward, putting my hands on the branch. "I used to be proud of myself. There was nothing I couldn't do. I was the best in my village at everything I'd ever done. I could run faster, jump higher, track better, and hunt more efficiently than anyone else. I knew what was happening when no one else did, because I had a sense of when people were lying. I was exactly what I wanted to be, and now… Now, I'm lost and need you to protect me from the entire world. Everyone lies, you included. The only thing I'm still good at is hunting, and from the look you gave me at the fire, I don't think you want me wandering in the woods around here."

I want to glare at him as if he's the bad guy in all of this, but I know he's not. He is a part of all of these changes. He is keeping secrets and only spooning them out to me on a need-to-know basis. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Cole. I know I'm just tagging along while you go home to visit your father, but I'm feeling overwhelmed by it all. I'm feeling not in control of my life, and it's getting to me."

The corner of his lip slowly curls up, and his wings lift him into the air until he's standing again. "You could stop being such a Wyrdling and spend some time getting to know the people here. They may think you smell delicious, but they won't eat you. It'll be good practice for Draenyth because in Draenyth, I can't make the same promises about your safety. Otherwise, spend as much time in the woods as you want. It's as safe here as it was in Blackgrove. You're less of an idiot human now."

He shrugs again, and just like that time before, he steps off the branch and slowly floats to the ground. The only difference is that I know to look for the barely visible glint of moonlight in the pixie wings.

He thinks I'm safe here? Did he not see the way all the village people were licking their lips? None of them made a move to hurt me, though. What reason would Cole have to bring me to this village if he thought I wasn't safe?

Do I trust Cole? That answer is the only simple piece of all of this. No. It's not because of anything that's happened. It's the tingle on the back of my neck when he says anything. The same one that I've had since the moment I met him, since I looked at the High Fae in a forest green cloak in the Tilted Mug. It's the way he hesitates when he responds that sets me on edge and has me looking for the hidden string to pull on to find out the whole truth.

There's nothing trustworthy about Cole, but should I trust that I'm safe in Aerwyn? I think so. At least as safe as I am anywhere anymore.

If that's true, then maybe I should get to know them. Like Cole said, it'll be good practice. Maybe then I can stop thinking of them as nightmares given flesh. Maybe if I learn their stories and find out why Cole saved them, I can think of them like people with terrifying teeth instead of monsters.

I need to embrace this aspect of my new world instead of hiding from it. The villagers may have answers to the thousands of questions about my new world.