I stepped over a fallen branch, studying it as I went by. I’d never seen a dead branch in Faerie before. Everything here seemed to thrive. “Is that good or bad?” I asked. “The different thing.”

  I knew, of course, why I was different. I’d grown up with humans instead of fae. Mostly decent humans, though some didn’t really know how to handle a bratty teen.

  “In most cases, different is good. But especially so in this case.” She stopped in front of a craggy rock face. “Here we are.”

  Squinting in either direction didn’t reveal anything, so I craned my neck up. That didn’t help much either. I tipped back until I almost toppled over, but didn’t see anything.

  “Up we go.”

  And then she grabbed me, hauling both of us up the rock face.

  I bit down on my tongue, hard enough to make it bleed, while trying not to scream.

  “Hey!” Starren yelled from the base, but we were already far out of range of her and her sword.

  I closed my eyes and shrank into the hyran. Should I be more afraid of getting eaten or dropped? I cracked an eyelid, looking down at Starren and Carver shrinking below. Eaten. I’d probably heal from a drop like that.

  Much to my surprise, the hyran actually let off quite a bit of heat. If I’d thought about it, I would have expected her skin to be cool, like the snake three quarters of her body looked like. But no, it was almost soothing.

  “What should I call you?” I asked, mostly to break the silence.

  She tipped her head around, looking me deep in the eyes to the point I almost wiggled free and let myself drop the three or so stories to the ground.

  “There is great power in names,” she said, uncharacteristically solemn. “But I will give you mine. Ratheothen.”

  Okay, no way that was going to come out of my mouth correctly. “Can I call you Wraith?” It just seemed appropriate, with the fog and all.

  And there was the laughing again. “Yes, you may. And what am I to call you? Your friend back on Earth called you both Trisha and Trish.”

  “I answer to either,” I told her. “Whatever you like better.”

  She heaved me over a ledge, her pale, corpse-like face level with mine. Her smile was much more intimidating at this angle, and I hadn’t thought that possible. I consciously kept my body still, stopping the automatic reaction to flinch back from those three inch needles.

  “As you wish, Trisha. I will be right back with your friends.” And then she fell.

  I jumped forward to peer over the edge, heart racing, but the dark crowded in enough that I couldn’t see to the forest floor.

  If she’d just died, how in the world was I going to get down from here? Same way probably, but that was going to hurt like heck for far longer than I’d like.

  It took too long, giving my anxiety enough time to ratchet up so high that I’d convinced myself she’d landed on Starren and Carver and all three of them were dead, leaving me alone in the world. But then, the slight scratching of scales on stone drifted up. Apparently Starren and Carver didn’t have much to say.

  Carver came flying over the ledge first, thunking on the floor to my right.

  Less than a second later, Starren got tossed up, rolling once and landing on her feet, of course.

  “She brought both of you at the same time?” I asked incredulously.

  Starren nodded, her face pale in the strong moonlight. The rocks blocked it below, but up here everything was bathed in a glittering silver glow.

  Then Wraith was there, living up to her name really well. She didn’t even use her arms, just slithered up the wall like it was no big deal.

  Yeah, glad she liked me for some reason. And I needed to keep it that way somehow.

  “So, introductions,” I said. I pointed at Starren. “Do you want to go first?”

  “Oh, I remember her,” Wraith interrupted. “In fact, I distinctly remember telling you, Trisha, that I would enjoy seeing you again, but not to bring her.”

  “Oh, snap,” Carver said.

  “What?” I asked. “How in the world do you know that phrase?”

  He shrugged. “Starren doesn’t always bring me the classics.”

  “Sorry, Wraith, I didn’t know you’d be here.” I intentionally left out that Starren would have come either way, and she definitely noticed. Not much got by someone who had seen so much.

  Carver bowed politely. “I’m Carver.”

  Nice and simple. Nothing that the monster who was our host could be offended by. I liked it.

  Starren played with the hilt of her sword, her face that stony look, completely without emotion. “Starren.”

  Wraith’s long neck whipped back, making her tower over us. “Starren? The Starren that killed the Council?” She dropped her head back down, her golden eyes zeroing in on Starren’s face, impatiently awaiting an answer.

  The playing with went to a full on grip of her sword handle. “Yes.”

  A creepy smile burst across Wraith’s face. “Why didn’t you say so! We will make the best of friends.”

  I whooshed out a breath I hadn’t noticed I was holding, and Starren blinked really fast, slowly releasing her death grip on her sword hilt.

  “As long as you don’t use your pheromones on me again,” Starren muttered.

  “Is that how that works?” I whispered. “I couldn’t figure out how she was controlling you back in Frisco when magic doesn’t work on you.”

  Wraith laughed. “As you wish, Starren. Come, come, I don’t have much, but what I do is yours.”

  She led the way down a small tunnel, surprisingly quiet for all her bulk.

  We turned a corner, and in front of us the tunnel opened up into a cavern. Completely opposite of what I would have expected, it was dry and warm, with some type of crystal lighting the walls.

  An ornate table took up the center, and a massive hammock took up the far wall.

  A hammock? An interesting sleeping choice for an eight foot tall snake monster. But then, what did I know.

  “I don’t have actual beds,” Wraith said. “I don’t get many visitors. But you can use those,” she nodded toward some cushions. “Things are much safer during the day right now. Not safe, oh no, but safer. You can leave in the morning.”

  Hearing her say that dropped my anxiety level a little. She was fae, so if she said we could leave in the morning, she had to mean it.

  Starren moved over to a cushion and sat gingerly down, legs crossed but still obviously able to get into a fighting stance within a second. “What’s going on that’s so dangerous? I’ve travelled these forests at night all my life.”

  “Things are waking,” Wraith answered. “Things that haven’t been seen in centuries. Things I wouldn’t want to tangle with.” She smiled, her pointy teeth not quite as scary any more. “Definitely things you don’t want to meet. There is even talk of a dragon.” She threw her hands up. “A dragon! Who would have thought. I’ve never even seen one of those.”

  I carefully avoided looking at Starren. Wraith was very good at reading things, and I didn’t really want her to know I accidentally had a pet dragon. Or did he have a pet fae? I didn’t know.

  Starren settled back a little, no doubt trying for the illusion that she trusted Wraith. I went over to join her, and Carver shuffled over behind me.

  “What’s causing all this unrest?” Carver asked. Though I had stereotyped him as one who would be nervous in this type of situation, he seemed perfectly calm. Either he was great at pretending, or he really was chill at the moment.

  “The infighting among the fae.”

  Starren snorted. “There’s always infighting among the fae, no one can get along with anyone.”

  Wraith’s golden eyes blinked slowly, staring Starren down.

  Starren held up her hands.

  “This is different. There is always petty squabbling, bids for power, attacks on a small scale. But it seems that Quintin has a nemesis, one who no one knows. His attacks are escalating, and he has a strong following. No one has ever seen him, or even the fae that do his dirty work. But many fae lives have been lost.” She grinned. “What a tragedy.”

  She’d made it very clear back in California when I’d first met her how she felt about the high fae. I couldn’t really say I blamed her. I hadn’t had much luck with them either. But that didn’t mean I just wanted them to die.

  “Good,” Starren said. “Let them all kill each other.”

  Ouch. That was more bitter than I knew she had floating down under the surface. Her hate for our father had come out very strongly multiple times, but I hadn’t heard that sentiment against the entire fae population before.

  “Let them weed themselves out.” Wraith reared back, a somewhat evil, satisfied smirk on her face. “High fae reproduce very slowly, preferring not to have children until they are over a hundred. This is the chance for the rest of us to come out of the shadows.”

  Oh boy. We needed to be careful here or we’d be accidentally joining some revolution.

  “I can see how that would appeal to you,” Carver said soothingly. “The high fae haven’t treated the low fae very well throughout history.”

  She cocked her head, like she was trying to figure out the meaning behind his words. Carver definitely did a better job of being fae than either Starren or I did.

  Carver gestured toward Starren and me. “I would just like to help my friends at the moment.”

  “Of course, of course,” Wraith said, coming back down to a more chill level. “And what are you helping them with?”

  “They need to find another friend.”

  “Her name is Nara,” I interjected. “Last we saw her was outside Fairbent Prison.”

  “I like this fae already too, if she was an enemy of Quintin,” Wraith said with a smile. “I’m meeting more decent fae today than I even knew existed.”

  “Do you know where she is?” I asked. How weird would it be if the monster I’d connected with in California could help me find a girl I connected with in prison in Faerie.

  “I don’t.”

  I drooped into the cushions, which were surprisingly soft. Of course she didn’t. That would have been too much to ask.

  “But I know someone who would. You aren’t going to enjoy speaking with him though. Ferid.”

  “Ferid?” Starren asked. “Ogre Ferid?”

  Wraith smirked at her.

  “That’s not good.”

  “Why is that not good?” I looked to Starren, to Carver, Wraith, anyone to give me an explanation. “What’s not good about that?”

  “Ferid and I… we don’t exactly get along. Well. Or any of his friends, for that matter.”

  I could totally read between the lines. Not getting along meant they’d tried to kill each other at some point. “Are you kidding me? They hate you too? What did you do to them?”

  She looked embarrassed. “You remember how Wade told you my sword was forged from ore out of the HighCrest mines?”

  “Yes?”

  “And that the mines are owned by the ogres?”

  A sinking feeling started in the pit of my stomach. “Yes?”

  “They don’t really like to give up their ore. I don’t know what they use it for, but they don’t share.”

  Oh great. Another group of fae that hated my sister.

  “What are our chances of finding Nara without help?”

  Starren winced. “Not good.”

  “Maybe you should just stay here, and I’ll go ask,” I said. “He doesn’t have any reason to hate me.”

  The whole room erupted in laughter.

  “What?” I asked everyone. “What’s so funny?”

  “Even if you made it to the Mines, which is very unlikely, you wouldn’t make it close enough to Ferid to get a word out. A morsel like you would be considered very tasty,” Wraith said.

  I sucked it up and did my best to keep the fear off my face. “Ogres aren’t considered fae?”

  “Yes, but lower fae.”

  “Lower fae have different standards than the high fae,” Starren adds. She sounded just a little more smug than usual, which was impressive considering a minute ago we were talking about the fact that this ogre hated her, and she hadn’t seemed too pleased about it.

  “We have to try something! Every minute we’re away is another minute that Dan and Nina could get in trouble because I’m gone! What if someone starts poking around and I’m nowhere to be found? What if the cops think I ran away and they didn’t report it, or worse, they murdered me or something? What if they leave Sanctuary and get grabbed by someone after me?”

  “We are going to help them. But if we go and try to pick up Nara’s trail, we have a much better chance of surviving,” Carver said.

  “Who are Dan and Nina?” Wraith asked the room.

  “Her human parents.” Starren settled back into the cushions. “They ate the food.”

  “Oh.” Wraith went quiet for a second. “You don’t know how to help them, do you?”

  “No.” I deflated a little. I hadn’t let my hopes get up far, but that was something I couldn’t completely control. Hope was all I had left. Hope, Starren, and Jaden.

  “Why did you take them food from here? That was very foolish.”

  “I didn’t. They were here. Father forced them to eat.” The thought turned my stomach. Wade I could just hate. My father I shut all thoughts of off as they came up. I didn’t want to think of him. Couldn’t think of him without the anger leaking out, without causing all kinds of accidental damage now that I was outside of Sanctuary and the plants felt what I felt.

  Quintin had better hope he never saw me again. His powers of manipulation couldn’t control my brain, and so couldn’t stop me if I wanted to do something. Or even if I didn’t consciously want to. The plants would have killed Wade if Nina hadn’t stopped me last time.

  This time, there was no Nina.

  “You brought humans into Faerie?” Wraith started her wheezing coughing fit. “And here I thought I couldn’t like you any more than I already did. Burning down the whole fae way of doing things, eh.”

  Okay, yes, I was, but not intentionally. I just wanted my family. And to be left alone. In that order.

  “Not that it matters much. There may not be any fae left before long.” Wraith said.

  “What does that mean?” Carver interjected. “Things have been bad, but not extinction of the fae level bad.”

  “And where have you been? Tucked in some tiny hole somewhere, reading your life away? It’s gone past bad.” Wraith settled in against the wall. “Fae are going to be the end of the fae. And I’m going to be here to watch.”

  I looked to Starren, to Carver and back. “Aren’t you fae?”

  Wraith laughed, but this wasn’t a laugh I’d heard before. Dark. Oh yeah, we were back to me wondering why in the world we’d followed her back to her lair.

  “Don’t you know. I’m a monster.”

  The cavern went silent. Okay, very stupid question. How did I always manage to mess things up?

  “Rest. I’ll help you down in the morning.” And then she jumped and grabbed the wall, climbing up into the dark. She wasn’t going to use her hammock?

  We all craned our necks trying to follow where she went, but it was far too dark.

  “I didn’t even know that wasn’t a ceiling,” I whispered.

  “Me either,” Carver answered. “Do you think she has another room up there?”

  “Shut up, both of you. She can probably still hear you,” Starren said, far quieter than the level at which Carver and I had been speaking.

  Well that was a creepy thought. And now I wasn’t going to sleep. At all.

  * * *

  * * *

  Unfortunately, I was mostly right about the not sleeping thing. Even more unfortunately, I was a little bit wrong. Whatever time I slept was plagued by the faces of the fae back at the Distribution Center. I wanted to say that I would find whoever had done that to them, but I couldn’t. I had to fix Dan and Nina. Had to.

  Grit in my eyes, I blinked a few times. The small amount of sleep I did have made it pretty tough to keep my eyes open. Why was I up again?

  “Trish. Trish!” Carver’s annoying whisper. That was why. What in the world did he want?

  “Go away. I just got to sleep.”

  “Starren is gone!”

  Okay, that got me up. I bolted into a sitting position from the floor, wildly looking around and grabbing at my sword.

  “What do you mean, gone? Wraith didn’t…”

  Carver’s face was barely visible in the dim lighting. “No, I don’t think it was anything like that. We were talking, after you went to sleep. She said she had something she needed to fix, and that she should just go to the Mines by herself since having us along wouldn’t help her case any and that we’d be in trouble because of her. I thought I had her talked out of it when we went to sleep!”

  The thing she needed to fix was that I was in this mess because of her. I’d thought she’d gotten past that, but in typical Starren fashion, she’d just not being showing me what she was thinking.

  I jumped up, mostly awake now.

  “We need to get going if we’re going to catch up.”

  Carver scrambled to his feet. “But your… friend needs to take us down the cliff face. I don’t know how Starren managed to get down. What if she fell? What if…”

  “It’s Starren. But hopefully managing all that did slow her down.”

  We took off for the cave entrance. Faerie didn’t seem to have a sun like at home, but the light was just starting to brighten our surroundings as we burst out of the cave.

  I made my way straight to the edge, peering over, hoping for a glimpse of Starren. No such luck.

  “Either she didn’t take that way, or she’s already gone.”

  “Oh, she’s long gone.”

  Wraith’s voice nearly sent me following Starren over the edge, but no doubt in a far less dignified and far more splat on landing way. Had she been listening to Carver and me this whole time?

  “How long?” I ask.

  “Since right after the two of you fell asleep. Four human hours? But she spent most of it trying to get to the ground.”

 

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