“It doesn’t matter anymore why, it matters that you are here now, both of you. Forever. I’m glad you’ve found it cozy enough and have each other’s company, as I am away a lot, dealing with Aveta and the Unseelie army. I still lead them for now, and there have been some changes going on that I personally have to take care of.” He slowly pulled off his black leather gloves and rubbed his eyes, looking more and more exhausted. “I’ll take my leave now. Continue to enjoy the grounds, but I warn you: don’t try to go past the gates of my castle. You will not be able to pass, and it will alert me immediately.”
“Wait, how do we find you if, you know, if we need to ask you something?” Shade attempted to stall him before he disappeared to who knew where for who knew how long. “And why can’t we remember anything at all?”
Corb sighed, partially turning away from them, obviously annoyed. “I will explain a lot of this later. There is nothing to fear, for this is your home now. That’s all you need to know.” With that, he disappeared behind the closing doorway as if he’d never been there. Only the small specks of dirt left in his wake told otherwise.
“Well, that wasn’t very helpful.” Shade groaned and plopped back onto the bed, staring up into the open sky above. The snowfall had stopped, and only white clouds shifted above like billowing puffs of cotton. “That Aveta he speaks of, do you know who that is?”
Dylan slumped onto the bed, leaning on his arms as he turned toward her. “Not a clue. It does sound oddly familiar, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.” She slipped in between the sheets, more out of habit than from the cold, and bunched the pillow under her dark locks. She felt homesick, but where was home? She had no memories of home and couldn’t remember, try as she might, if she had any family. It was an odd and sad feeling, like a lost photograph which should have been the most precious of treasures.
“I guess it’s just you and me, then.” Dylan traced his fingers over her cheek, sending sparks of electricity along her skin. “Are you tired?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure why, I’ve been sleeping forever, it seems.”
“Me, too. I’ll let you rest. I’ll be down the hall, three doors to the right, if you need me.” He sat up to leave, but she curled her fingers around his wrist before he got away. Turning to see the fear in her eyes made him stop cold, unable to leave her in such a state.
“Please stay. Don’t leave me alone in this place,” she begged.
He nodded, crawling back up to the pillow next to hers. He shifted until he was comfortable but remained above the sheets. He knew they were close, but he couldn’t remember how close they really were. In the meantime, going slow seemed to be the right thing to do.
A flash from her necklace caught his attention, and he reached out to stroke the two ampules hanging from the silver chain. Another charm, a familiar-looking acorn-like seed also hung there, held in place by a metal loop. Something about it made his mind tingle, like a forgotten memory, and he stared at it a good while.
“They’re beautiful. What are the vials for?”
Shade tilted her head down to peer at the necklace. The charms sat on his fingers as he softly caressed them. The blood-red fluid inside sloshed and glinted in the harsh white illumination of the room. She shrugged, unable to recall what the necklace was for.
“I don’t know. I can’t seem to remember. It is beautiful though, isn’t it? I feel like it must mean a lot to me.”
Dylan let the charms slip back onto her skin and nodded. “They must, yet here we are. We can’t remember any of it. Do you think anyone misses us? Would anyone know where we are?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe.”
He reached out and continued to caress her hair gently, spiraling her locks around his fingers and staring into the infinity of her eyes. Shade smiled as she watched him get comfortable next to her. This way, she would be able to rest without her nerves waking her every two seconds. Just being near Dylan could keep her fear at bay. She continued to study the lines of his face as he watched her right back. Slowly, her eyelids dropped, and sleep lulled her away to a sweet dream.
Chapter Fifteen
THE BREEZE SWIRLED in through the opened glass doors and made Soap’s golden-brown hair fly behind him, swaying in the wind like ribbons. The setting sun painted his face with its tangerine-gold colors and reflected across the pools of green of his eyes. His arms were crossed tightly on his chest as he watched the sunset. He’d been so distracted lately, wondering about Shade, hoping she was okay. He’d wanted to go with them and now, with them missing, felt his guilt rip through him and settle like a bad meal in his stomach.
He trusted Dylan to keep her safe, but that didn’t mean he didn’t think that he should’ve been there for her. He should’ve insisted on going, regardless of what needed to be done here. Brisa was his charge now, but it didn’t mean his heart wasn’t elsewhere. His love for Shade was unshakeable, but the longer she spent time away with Dylan only created further distance between them.
Soap was losing this battle; he could feel it with every day that ticked by: the way she didn’t look at him with bright eyes anymore, the way her kisses had been so soft and tender initially, but how the heat of them had faded. It could all be in his head now, what with all she’d been through. He had to give her that benefit of the doubt and allow her space. It could take all the time in the world to heal her scars, and he’d give it to her. No matter what, he’d be there for her in the end.
But would she also be there in the end?
A knock resonated through his room, and he turned. No one usually bothered him on these lonely nights. The days had dragged by so slowly, yet it was still ten days before the full moon. He would go mad if it didn’t go any faster. Not a man to sit and wait, he headed toward the door, unlatching it and swung it open to find Brisa standing with a jug and two mugs.
“Um, hi.”
“Hello, Brisa. Please, come in.” He extended his arm to let her pass, closing the door behind her. “What do you have there?”
Brisa chuckled, holding the jug up for him to grab as she made her way toward the breakfast table near the porch where he had just been standing. “Hot chocolate. Do you like it? I had a hell of a time getting the faeries in the kitchen to understand my request. Seems to be an unpopular drink compared to honey wine.” She set the mugs down on the circular table and took the jug from him, pouring the hot liquid into both before settling into one of the chairs. She waved for him to sit as he stood there watching her curiously. “Apparently, whipped cream is not a popular choice, either, so we’ll have to do without.”
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you. I don’t feel like drinking it alone. Not much to do here besides mope and read. I’ve never seen so many books! Oh, did I tell you that I hate to read?” She took a swig of the hot drink before setting the mug back down.
“No, I didn’t know that. Then why are you reading?” He grinned, sniffing the hot chocolate before taking a gulp of it himself. It burned his tongue but felt good sliding into his stomach.
“Well, there’s a ton of interesting stuff in them, it just sucks you in! Like The History of Faerie, Magic and Oak Trees, The Fae of Faerie, Magic Spells for Witches. Oh, and I found the one about the Teleen called Cavern Faeries which I especially find quite fascinating.” She drank down the last of her hot chocolate and served herself another mugful. “So how come I can’t find much about changelings? Especially hybrids like you and Shade?” She eyed him suspiciously, studying his face intensely before taking another sip.
Soap smiled. He enjoyed Brisa’s company and was impressed with all the research she’d been doing about his people. “You know, that stuff is forbidden for a human to read.” He finished his own mug and set it down gently on the table. He laid his hand on the table as he sat forward, taking in Brisa’s furrowed face.
Enough time passed by for her to begin squirming under his stare. “I just think that’s kinda weird,” she said. “You know, don’t you want to know more
about yourself? What all a changeling can do? Did you know Teleen males have a hard time finding mates because of the scarcity of women? How’s that for Shade’s chances in finding a guy among them? They’ll be coming to court her if she doesn’t choose someone soon.”
At her words, he flinched, jerking his eyes away toward the sun sinking below the trees. The room suddenly felt colder.
“She has to choose one of you. Who do you think will win?” Brisa eyed him as he jumped up to close the glass doors. “Only one can win, you know.” She shook the jug, frowning, for it was now empty. She sat back, crossed her legs and watching him stare out through the doors.
“I don’t know.” He ran his fingers through his hair, frustrated by her probing. “Why do you even want to know?” He was facing her again, his expression blank as he waited for her answer.
It was Brisa’s turn to harden her looks as she let his green eyes hover over her. He was incredibly good looking and it made her heart race just being face to face with him. She wondered what Shade’s intentions were, faking her way through their relationship. She knew more than anyone that Shade wasn’t in love with Soap. Why she would choose the steely-eyed full Teleen faery over Soap was beyond her. Nothing Shade did nowadays made sense to her, especially her rejection of this man.
If he was hers, she’d never want another. Ever.
“I just want to know….”
Soap was approaching her and he kneeled down before her, taking her hands into his.
“Do you love her?” Brisa asked softly, feeling her face flush as his fingers traced over her knuckles and fingertips. It made her breath seize, and she was sure her face was an unattractive shade of red as she began to sweat from his proximity.
“Yes, I do love her.” He slipped his fingers between hers and held them tightly. His eyes hovered over her hands before flicking back up to her. “But she doesn’t love me back. You know that as well as I do.” His eyes were a deep emerald-green abyss into which she wanted to get lost.
“She does love you, you know. But Dylan, I think he had her heart long before, and she didn’t even know it.” Her breath was panting now as he shifted his weight, leaning forward to hover so close to her, she could feel his breath on her skin, sending tiny shocks down into her chest. Was her heart locking up?
“I know.” Soap’s sad eyes made her heart melt, and she wanted nothing more than to lean forward and meet his lips with her own. “Do you love anyone?” he asked.
Surprised by his advances and questioning, she shot out of the chair, backing away with her heart hammering in her head. “What are you doing? What is this?” She felt the room spin, trying to shake her head clear.
“I’m not doing anything. I learned my lesson with Shade. Women don’t tend to like being charmed by a faery. I only wanted to know if you love someone.”
She sank onto the edge of his bed and threw him a confused look. She wanted him to come closer again, make her forget everything. Shade was her best friend, but her feelings for Soap were turning into something she might not be able to resist. “Besides my family and Shade, of course?” She shook her head. “No. I’m not in love with anyone.”
Soap walked over to sit next to her on the bed, lifting her chin up to bring her gaze toward him. “Do you know what it’s like to love someone who will never love you back? Not the way you’d want them to?” Brisa shook her head again, tears glistening in her eyes. “I have to let her go. I don’t want to, but she’s made her choice, even if she hasn’t voiced it out loud. I feel it in every fiber of my body. I feel it burn inside me, like a volcano bursting, and it hurts more than any dagger could.”
With that, his lips were on Brisa’s, and she kissed him back, feverishly as though the world had vanished and left them only to each other. His kiss felt like fire, and he pulled her closer. She let him, for since she’d met him on the steps of Shade’s house, she could say she’d always known that he was going to mean something to her, more than anything she could’ve imagined or hoped to control. Giving him what he wanted was the easy part as his lips explored her skin, down her neck and back across to her lips. His kiss was intoxicating, like a drunken stupor she could not hope to snap out of.
Not that she wanted to. This was everything she’d wanted, hoped for. Soap’s fiery scent sent chills down her body and her breath felt stolen. He’d also stolen her heart. He slipped his hand around the small of her back and lifted her into his arms, shifting her deeper into the bed.
Brisa prayed that Shade would be understanding and forgive them both.
Chapter Sixteen
HOW MANY DAYS had gone by? Shade stared out the entrance of The Great Divide as the snow flurries hurried by, whipping in the wind and landing in piles upon piles of snowdrifts. The land was all glistening white, like a million diamond jewels embedded into the earth. Time didn’t exist here. Nothing but her, Dylan and Corb. Corb was rarely there, always away with duties. Duties to whom? What else existed beyond this white abyss? Shade longed to remember but couldn’t.
She enjoyed her time with Dylan. They had found a library filled with books, some ancient and crumbling, others not so old, but nothing from the modern world. Shade knew the literature of the current time was missing but couldn’t, for the life of her, remember a single title of a book she’d read recently. It bugged her to say the least, but Dylan would pull her away from the dusty volumes to play chess to pass the hours. His company was comforting, and she never felt happier. Or so it felt that way to her.
This particular day, she was in one of the atriums where frozen trees and flowers littered the room, covered in frost in icicles. She wondered if they were alive under all that ice. Maybe they were. It seemed that not a lot died in Faerie. Everything was alive in one way or another. As she walked past the atrium, she had an overwhelming urge to enter. She walked to the middle of the atrium and looked up. The light illuminated the vast room from the skylights above, and the flurries floated down gently, sticking to her hair.
She sat down on the frozen ground and began to dig. She dug and dug with nothing but her own hands and a rock she found partially sticking up from the ice until she hit the dirt under the floor. Once she got an inch down into the permafrost, she reached up and plucked the acorn-like seed from her necklace and gently laid it in the hole. Covering it up with the mixture of dirt and snow, she patted the site down and got back up, wondering exactly what she had just done.
Shade stared at the spot where she had buried the seed. She hoped the purpose of it would come to her. Her actions baffled her, and she couldn’t even begin to find a reason for why she had felt compelled to do what she’d done. I’m losing my mind, she thought. She turned to leave and ran right into Dylan.
“You okay? I was looking for you.” He gave her a hug and then observed the pile she had just patted down. “What are you doing? Hey, where’s that acorn charm? Did it fall off your necklace?”
Shade shook her head. “No, I buried the seed.”
Confused, Dylan glanced between her and the pile. “Why did you do that?”
“I don’t know. I felt like I had to.”
“Do you know what that seed is for?”
“No. Do you?”
“No.” He shrugged, taking her hand in his as he led her out. Walking the halls was a favorite pastime of theirs. It made the place feel not so enclosed. “Maybe you do know, but you just can’t remember. Maybe you know subconsciously.”
She nodded, feeling a bit foolish for her unexplained actions.
The rumble of the ground made them freeze in their steps. Was it an earthquake? Shade wondered. She gripped onto Dylan, and they both turned around back toward the atrium.
The sound of ice breaking and shattering made them want to run, but after a moment, the noise faded, and all was silent once more.
“What was that?” Shade asked.
“I have no idea. Come on.” He pulled her toward the atrium to investigate the ruckus.
“I don’t think that’s a good
idea,” she mumbled, unsure of what they’d find. At the entrance to the atrium, they peeked around the doorway to find a completely changed room. “Oh, wow!”
They both ran inside to find an enormous oak tree, fully grown and extending its branches high up above them and out of the roof of the castle. Its grey leaves looked dusty, but the overall color of it was a metallic grey. Its majestic branches stretched across the room, filling it with its reach.
“What is that?”
“It’s an ancient oak of Faerie! I’ve seen only one other before, but I can’t remember where.” Dylan wrinkled his nose as he dug through his memories, failing to come up with the answer. “No matter. I just remembered that they are supposed to be sacred and offer something to those who are in need.”
“Wow!” was all Shade could muster. She reached out to touch the smooth bark at the base and marveled at how gigantic it was. How had it grown so fast? The seed she’d planted had been so tiny. “It’s beautiful.”
“What’s this?” Corb’s brash voice echoed across the cavernous room, making both of them jump. They gripped onto each other as the Ice King walked toward them and the oak tree. “Where did this come from?”
“I planted the seed I had on my necklace. I didn’t know what would happen. This tree just sprung out of it,” Shade offered. Her voice cracked as the rage on Corb’s face slowly faded.
“I see,” he answered back. He scanned the large trunk of the tree before landing his eyes back on them. “Do you know what it does?”