Chapter 34

UNA

We were told to retrieve our horses but no more warriors and then follow Bezaliel. The chief warrior rode astride a gray Meer-wolf with his mate sitting in front of him, a good pace ahead of us. Our Pellasians didn't like the scent of the wolf and kept a good distance from him.

The chief kept his female protectively in the shelter of his arms, his hand spread atop her rounded belly. I smiled at the tenderness he seemed to feel for her. I also thought it interesting she was the only light fae I had seen amongst them. I wondered, did they welcome her here?

But I was also eager to finally meet her. I hadn't the chance before we began our trek across the open plain from Vanglosa to the copse of trees up ahead. Bezaliel had said there's a stream that runs through the small woodland, and that's where Grindolvek lives. Whoever that was.

Bezaliel stopped his wolf before we reached the trees. He helped his mate down, the wood fae I was sure I'd met once before, then sent his wolf trotting in a large arc around us back toward Vanglosa. The six of us stopped as well and dismounted as Bezaliel and his mate approached.

"Only one or two of your warriors can come with us into the trees," said Bezaliel. "Grindolvek is shy of strangers. He won't come out if there are too many of you. Especially warriors."

Goll turned to Soryn. "You and Keffa with me."

Meck grunted in frustration, but Goll turned to him with a smirk. "I can protect her on my own. No need to worry."

"Yes, sire," said Meck tightly. At his side, his brother also had his jaw clamped tight.

I smiled at them, giving them what reassurance I could. They'd become protective of me as my personal guards.

Pullo was beside Morgolith, glaring at the copse of trees. "We'll wait right here."

With that, we fell in line next to Bezaliel and his mate. I instantly went to her side. "I'm Una."

She turned to me, a bright smile on her face. "I know who you are. We actually met before. I'm Tessa."

"I thought we did. The Fall Solstice in Myrkovir Forest. But that was many years ago."

"Yes." She walked with a protective hand on her stomach.

"How far along are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Five months."

"Then you're halfway there," I offered cheerily. "What a blessing."

"We'll see if I'm halfway. I could have seven more if I follow the gestation period of the beast fae."

It was true that it took a full year for dark fae females to give birth following conception rather than ten like it was for the light fae. It had me wondering if it would be the same for me.

"I wonder," I asked, lowering my voice, "how did you come so far north from your home in Myrkovir?"

She glanced at me with hesitation, but then answered, "Our clan moved after the last Solstice celebration and settled just south of the Borderlands. Our high lord wanted to be far from the fighting."

"I see. And your sister? I remember meeting her as well." Her vision under the moonlight still burned bright after all this time.

Tessa hesitated, her gaze focused forward as she said softly, "She's still there. When I met Bezaliel, I wanted to bring her with me, but"—she shook her head—"she didn't want to come."

Recognizing the emotion radiating from her, I said, "You worry for her. You miss her."

"Very much. I understand why she wouldn't want to come and live with a beast fae clan. It's so different from how we grew up. But I couldn't leave my mate, and I worry for her living there on her own."

"But she has your father, right? The innkeeper?"

Her face tightened as she glanced at me. She didn't say anything, only gave me a sharp nod. Then Bezaliel stopped at the line of trees and turned to face us under the shade. He was truly a large fae. I nearly gasped aloud when I'd first seen Redvyr. The beast fae were molded like giants.

"Grindolvek is beast fae," he stated calmly, "no matter what he looks like."

Goll and I glanced at each other curiously.

"So that you understand, his mother went into labor here at this stream. A naiad heard her cries and helped her through the birth. Some exchange of naiad blood transferred to Grindolvek when he was born, changing him." He paused, his frown returning. "His mother died during childbirth, and the naiad who played midwife raised him. He chose to remain and live here away from Vanglosa, though we still count him as one of us."

"When was that?" I asked.

"We aren't sure," he answered gravely. "At least a thousand years ago."

"He's over a thousand years old?" I asked. The fae could live three, maybe even four hundred years, but not a thousand.

"The naiad's blood in him, I imagine." He glanced over his shoulder, then turned back to face Goll. "It would be best if only you and your mizrah go in. The other two can follow at a distance."

"You're not coming?" Goll asked.

Bezaliel pulled Tessa closer in a protective hold. "We will wait here."

His apprehension heightened the tightening tension as we drew closer to the trees.

Goll nodded to Keffa and Soryn, then took my hand as we made our way beneath the canopy of trees. The leaves had begun to turn gold and orange; our feet crunched on the fallen ones on the path. A murmuring brook drew my attention as we stepped into the cool quiet of this small woodland.

It was like an oasis of wooded beauty in the middle of the wide-open plains. Then I felt it. Gods' magick.

I squeezed Goll's hand. "Do you feel it?"

"I do."

It was strong. Like a stream of cool wind, it wound through this place, lacing it with vibrant energy. I felt as if I could breathe it in, my chest heaving from inhaling deep.

"Grindolvek," I called, having stopped before the stream.

While the trees had begun their change for the season, the thick growth of green lilies and vegetation around the water's edge remained as if it were deep summer. The clear stream had a pool deep enough I couldn't see the bottom, but then I saw something swimming beneath the surface. A shimmer of bluish-green sparkle. It caught a ray of sunlight dappling through the trees and glittered beneath the water before it disappeared. A naiad.

I was wondering if it might've even been Grindolvek when Goll squeezed my hand and tugged me closer to his side.

I looked up to find a being standing beneath a tree that was completely covered in greenery all the way down its trunk. He'd blended in with the moss and ivy-covered tree behind him so well that it took me a moment to see him. Then he stepped to the side and the darker shadow of the woods behind him revealed him more clearly.

He had the shape of a beast fae—a giant with horns, claws, and tail. But he was green. His skin was the color of spring grass, his eyes glittering green jewels in the dark. He wore only a skirt made of some sort of brown hide that stopped above his knees. His chest and arms bore no runes of any kind.

Grindolvek stepped from the shadows and stared straight at me. What I'd thought was decorative ivy winding in his hair now appeared a part of him, molding to his temples and down his face along his hairline, trailing down his throat. He looked like a naiad or dryad where the forest had woven itself into his flesh. His expression remained placid and unthreatening, yet he walked directly until he caught sight of Goll moving in front of me.

Grindolvek stopped, glancing at Goll then back at me. "You're the one."

His voice was a soothing rasp as if he didn't use it often.

I felt the others glancing around curiously, but I gently pushed Goll to the side, saying, "He won't hurt me." Then I looked back at Grindolvek. "Yes," I told him. "I'm the one. Do you have the words that I need?"

He inhaled a sharp breath, and then all at once, his green skin lit up as if a lantern shone from inside him. Keffa made a surprised sound behind me, but all I could do was stare. In dark lettering, words swam beneath his skin, lit up by some internal light.

"Gods below," muttered Keffa.

For a moment, I couldn't speak, absorbing the fact that the words were in his blood. Grindolvek simply watched me curiously.

He stared wide-eyed, looking more like a child, even in his giant body. "I've been waiting for you. I haven't given the words to anyone else, as the Goddess of the Wood instructed."

"Elska gave you these words?" I asked, incredulous.

He nodded. "She gave them to me at birth. But she has visited my dreams. She wants you to have them, the dark fae lady with white hair. Then my burden will be gone."

Yet again, I marveled at this description. I was born moon fae, a royal of the highest realm of light fae. Yet I'd been obviously marked by the dark fae world. Apparently, it wasn't all for nothing. This was my purpose.

"I don't understand," I said. "How am I to get the words you have for me?"

"You must drink them," he said simply.

Goll growled, "She is not drinking your blood."

Grindolvek's otherworldly gaze drifted to Goll. "She must."

Goll turned me to face him, his scowl deep. "You cannot drink the blood of another creature like that. It could be poisoned or diseased." He shook his head with a sharp shake. "I won't allow it."

Smiling, I reached up my hand and placed my palm on his cheek, recognizing his outrage as fear for me. His stiffened posture relaxed at my touch.

"Goll, this is what the goddess wants. What the gods want. I won't disobey them." Then I tiptoed so my face was closer to his. "We must trust in them. After all, they brought us together. This can't be wrong."

"I don't like it," he growled.

"It does not matter what you like," said Grindolvek, his voice vibrating with magick.

Suddenly, I was no longer next to Goll but standing a mere foot from Grindolvek like I'd vanished in one place and appeared in another. My vision was hazed with a film of green.

Goll bellowed near the stream, "Una!" Feyfire burst to life in his open palms as he spun around, looking for me.

His voice sounded so far away, but he wasn't far across the clearing. Everything looked strange through the green filmy netting that seemed to envelop me.

Keffa and Soryn put their backs to Goll as the flash of a green-limbed creature sped past Soryn and slashed across his face then disappeared up a tree. Soryn yelled and growled upward, swiping the air and grabbing nothing.

Another flash of a naiad, this one hit Keffa in the knee as it swept past. Goll shot a blast of feyfire which hit nothing but a bush that burst into flame. A wing of water swept out of the stream dousing the burning bush.

I stepped toward them, but Grindolvek grabbed my arm. "They won't hurt them. Come with me." Then he let go of me, turned, and disappeared into the grove of trees. "This way," he called back calmly.

"Una!" cried out Goll, all while he, Soryn, and Keffa fought the extraordinarily fast and slippery naiads whose laughter echoed from the canopy. Goll shot another stream of feyfire toward the branches.

Then I saw Pullo, Meck, and Ferryn appear, blades drawn and savage expressions.

I realized the naiads had somehow made me invisible, hiding me with their magick behind this filmy shield.

Sighing, I followed Grindolvek down a narrow path that wound along the stream and into an open glade completely covered by foliage above us. Even though the trees lining the woodland were dropping leaves for autumn, those on these trees remained green and thick. It was his home, kept unnaturally fresh and cool and green as a naiad's home would be.

Against a thick trunk, there was a bed of the giant lily leaves that grew along the bank of the stream. The leaves were flattened, as it was apparently where he slept. But Grindolvek stopped in the middle of the space that was his home and sat cross-legged. I followed and did the same, facing him.

For the first time since we'd stepped into his small world, Grindolvek smiled, his fangs curved and sharp, all of his teeth serrated like a dryad or naiad.

"You are very beautiful," he said. "You are a unique creature." His gaze skimmed to my wings.

Surprised, I let out a little laugh, taking in the green hue of his skin, the jeweled glitter of his eyes. "You are as well."

"I am," he agreed without boast but with honesty, that childlike candor making me smile yet again.

Without any warning, he raised his arm, dipped his head, and sank his fangs into his forearm. He then lifted it away and held out his arm to me, now dripping blue blood, the color of dark fae blood, not green like a naiad's. Words still slipped beneath his skin like living creatures.

"How much do I need to drink?" I asked.

"That has never been told to me in my dreams," he answered frankly. "I imagine as long as the gods tell you to."

Scooting forward, I held his arm and dipped my head, opening my mouth over the wound, the metallic tang of his blood sharp on my tongue. Then a whirlwind of whispers filled my mind, and I sensed nothing at all. Only the whispers of the gods.

A blurry vision of Elska, beautiful in a green dress, long brown hair blowing in a silent wind. She stared directly at me, her eyes glittering green stars as she smiled. "The faithful shall win. The faithful shall defeat death and live such sweet lives." She held out a golden chalice to me, filled with blue blood. "The offering shall fill your soul and seal your path toward righteousness."

The blood burned its way down my throat, racing wildly through my body. I snapped away from Grindolvek's arm, screaming up to the canopy of trees. The green film vanished from my eyes and from around my body as I slipped away into darkness and pain.