Sapphire Falls (The Lost Realm #2)

42. Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Avery

“ A very?” A voice from the doorway made Avery look up from the letter she’d been writing to Morgan. “May I come in?” Darby stood in the doorway, carrying a letter in her hand.

“Of course! What can I do for you?” Avery stood and met the pale green woman near the door, closing it behind them.

“I’ve received a letter from the guards near the portal north of Orofine. They’ve intercepted another one of the Hunters. I’d like to take you there to meet with the guards and question the Hunter.”

Avery reached for the letter and read the scribbled note about the Hunter who was caught. “Savine would want to meet him too. He’s speaking with the trees right now. Why don’t you send a message to bring the Hunter here?”

Darby rang her hands together. She looked toward the closed door. “We don’t have much time. We should travel there on our own and send a message for Savine to join us.”

She wasn’t making any sense. Avery didn’t know Darby like Savine did, but something seemed off. “Why do we have to go now?”

Darby didn’t hesitate to answer. “Everyone has heard about the human weapon used against you and the king. I’ve heard the guards sent to the portal were uncomfortable with being attacked without your protection to stop the human powered weapon. They want their queen there to ensure they aren’t harmed by another attack.”

The fae couldn’t lie, but she’d witnessed plenty of them twist truths. However, Darby did have a point. She knew that many of the fae thought she’d been able to protect them from an explosion, not because of her magic, but because she was a human.

Since the attack, there’d been a growing fear of the Hunters. Savine was even in the woods, talking with the trees to find out if more had made it through undetected. Rumors of fae with an essence wasted away were flying through the city, along with rumors of strange explosives found in the forests.

Maybe if she went with Darby, she could calm the concerns of the guards, and she could interview the Hunter without giving Savine another thing to worry about.

“Okay. Let’s go.” Avery wrote a quick note for Savine to find, letting him know where she was going, before she put on her boots. Instead of reaching for her own jacket, she grabbed the one Savine wore the day of the explosion. Her jacket hadn’t been returned to her from cleaning after the blood splatter stained it, and she’d borrowed his. It was far too big on her, but she liked being wrapped in something belonging to Savine. Under the jacket, strapped to her hip, was her axe. Darby pursed her lips as Avery attached the weapon to her hip, but didn’t object.

Outside, a heavy layer of fresh snow had fallen on the deep snowpack. She trudged through the snow, working hard to keep up with Darby’s light, nimble steps. Everything was easier for the fae, including walking in deep snow apparently. Each step up the steep, mountainous trail was becoming more challenging as she post holed through the snow, sinking up to her calf and pulling herself up and out of the hole only to do it again. Darby slowed her pace as she walked above the snow, not even sinking as she stepped.

“Can you not use magic to walk above the snow?” Darby asked. She looked around them like she was waiting for someone to come and help Avery make it up the mountain.

“I doubt it,” Avery grunted as she took a few more steps up the steep slope. She paused to talk, not able to push through the snow and ask her question at the same time. “Where is the portal anyway? I saw it on the map, but didn’t think the trail was this steep.”

“Over the ridge and down the next draw. It’s a great distance, and you can see why I wanted us to get there as quickly as possible. Come! They’ll be waiting.”

Avery hesitated. Despite the fresh snowfall from the previous night, there should be tracks from the messenger. Either Darby wasn’t leading her to the portal site, or there had been no urgent messenger this morning. Her intuition was telling her that this was a trap. Darby had something planned for her. But if she was wrong—if Darby’s intentions were innocent, Avery didn’t want to attack first and ask questions later.

She didn’t want Darby to do something drastic either, so she followed behind Darby, tunneling into her magic as she walked. She reached deep into herself and drew her magic until it itched under her skin. Down the bond, she sent Savine her concerns and fears, hoping he could follow the bond to their location.

How powerful was Darby? There was so little Avery knew about the fae she followed deeper into the wintry woods. Darby was like a second mother to Savine, and she’d stayed behind in Orofine to put Savine’s mother’s body to rest. But, if she was so loyal to Savine, why didn’t she flee Orofine and join him in the Middens?

At the top of the ridge, Avery felt the palpable change in the energy around her. The forest was dense just below the ridge, but from where she stood, a rocky outcropping cut across the spine of the mountains. She’d never wished to have Savine’s power of communicating with the trees until now. Avery could plan her next move if only she could ask them what lies ahead.

“Not far now,” Darby murmured as she began her trek down the trail. There still weren’t other tracks, but Darby left faint tracks of her own. Maybe Avery was worrying about nothing? Perhaps the messenger’s tracks did get covered that quickly. Regardless, she gripped onto her axe and continued to channel her magic until it was burning under her skin to be released.

Avery followed Darby into a thick ring of pines. As soon as she stepped into the circle, she heard the familiar ring that had once transported her to Quartz Mountain. Her eyes widened and she lifted her axe to defend herself against a potential attack. Something from behind her made her jump and Avery swung around, releasing a powerful jet of green energy from her fingertips.

Avery gasped.

On the snow laid four guards, their throats slit as if they didn’t have time to draw their weapons. The crimson splatters were dark against the white snow. The Hunters had murdered the guards.

“Now!” Darby growled. Out of the woods emerged half a dozen fae. Their tattered clothes and faded essence immediately gave them away.

The Hunters.

Avery let her magic roil out of her, green power knocking down two of the fae. But there were too many of them. Even with their weakened essence, they attacked with a strength that she couldn’t go up against.

“Please, don’t let them do this!” Avery shouted.

A burning sensation hit Avery in her lower back. Pain seared through her skin, making her feel like her flesh was doused in acid. Avery fell to the cold, deep snow hard. Her knees snapped against the push of the snow and she rolled back, seeking relief from the stinging burn that ripped across her back. Hands were on her, binding her arms behind her back and her legs just above her worn hiking boots.

The all too familiar feeling of her magic being stifled hit her as the magical manacles suppressed her power within. Even the mate bond seemed to trickle to an ember within her.

“Let me go!” Avery shouted. The piercing buzz of the portal seemed to grow louder. Were they going to kill her and toss her through the portal?

Darby squatted near Avery in the snow. “In due time, My Queen. ” Her voice dripped with sarcasm, her face was screwed into a sneer.

“Savine trusted you!” Avery cried out. Her back was burning so badly she thought she would blackout from the pain coursing down her spine.

“I would never betray the True King. All I’ve done was for Savine. But you ! I know better than to trust you! Humans, with their lies twisting the truth so thoroughly, they can deceive even the smartest fae. I know you have tricked Savine into believing you are his soulmate and our queen. But I see you. I know you’re working to bring destruction to our realm. You and your sister are the ones foretold so long ago!”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! ”

This was about that damn prophecy again. Avery was so tired of the fae expecting her to bring about some sort of cataclysmic change thanks to some arbitrary nonsense muttered to a select few folk.

“Even now you lie with that wicked tongue. You’ll bring the ruin of our nations if we allow you to stay. The Hunters have worked tirelessly to stop you from entering Aeritis, and yet you beguiled them in your realm. We will have no more of your lies and tricks.”

Avery tugged against the bindings on her wrists. There was no way in hell that she was going to sit here and be killed by these fae. These fae who have spent the last decade working to end her life. Well, they’ve failed so far, they weren’t going to get the satisfaction of killing her off now.

As she fidgeted against the bindings, she felt something in Savine’s coat pocket. Something hard and round.

The relic.

She needed to work the magical bowl out of the pocket and within her grasp. She began working on her gloves, trying to slide the bindings off the cuff of her leather gloves so she could free her hand.

But she also couldn’t let Darby know what she had. She had to continue to keep them all distracted. The Hunters had formed a semi-circle around them, desperate and hungry looks glowered at Avery.

“So what? You’re going to kill me?” Avery asked as she tugged a finger out of the glove.

“I would never risk that. You wear a crown, probably a false crown, atop your head, but I won’t risk my soul, or the souls of the Hunters in killing you. You aren’t worth the risk.”

“Then what? Toss me through the portal and hope for the best?”

A few fae around her chuckled. Darby parted her teeth in a sharp smile. “You’ll be convinced to take your own life on the other side of this portal.”

Avery’s heart thudded in her chest. She needed to buy herself some time until she could get the relic in her hand and draw up its power.

She tugged one glove off. The cool snow buried her fingertips. “So you’ve known all along about the Hunters?”

Darby’s eyes glowed with malice. “Of course I have. Kings have known of this portal for centuries and I suggested the idea to King Jasper.”

“But how would you know that I’d go through the portal? Did you hear the prophecy too?” Damn, this prophecy seemed less of a secret and more like a well-known statement at this point.

“Jasper trusted me enough to tell me the prophecy, and after he thought about the humans who crossed through the portal, he began to realize the prophecy pointed to twin witches. I assumed the Goddess would mark them out as a warning, and I was correct in my predictions. Once I shared this knowledge, he trained the Hunters to seek you out.”

Avery’s mind was rattling. How could Darby have deceived them so thoroughly? How was she even capable of such lies?

“I thought you were loyal to Savine? You’ve betrayed him by working for Jasper all these years!” Her frustration mounted, but she didn’t stop working on her bigger purpose: getting herself free. She twisted her arms and shifted enough for the heavy fur coat to fall to the side. The pocket was almost in line with her hand.

“I am loyal to King Savine. I never wanted anything more than to see his mother happy and free. She never had that privilege, and now supporting her son as king is my gift back to her. Jasper was a terrible, cruel ruler. But, once Savine fled, I never let Jasper doubt my loyalty to him. I knew my job was to secure a place for Savine to return to. That included keeping it safe from any threat, even a disastrous match with a human like you. Now it’s time to be rid of you forever.”

Before Avery could respond, Darby motioned to the Hunters behind her. Their grasp on Avery was tight as she twisted and tried to get loose, but there was no way she could get out of this.

The portal’s high-pitched hum grew louder. Avery gulped the last few breaths of air in Aeritis, trying as she could to wriggle enough to knock the relic out of the coat pocket.

Just as she was ready to give up hope, the wooden bowl fell to the blanket of snow below.