Page 80 of Samhain
He meant us, the disreputable beings hiding under here with the audacity to be born human.
Diana made a sad noise, almost like a sigh. “In all these centuries, Alberich, you have learned nothing.”
I tried to pay attention to the grandstanding above me, but a tingling sensation ran down my spine and up the back of my head, and I turned my attention to Ivy. Her eyes went white, and soon, I heard her voice inside my head. I saw her inside my head. And Ashley, too, from across the valley.
“I’m using my magic to conceal you, but I can’t hold it much longer,” Ashley said. “Take Poppy and go around back. No one will see you. Trust me.”
Trust her? Trust her? After all this nonsense, after she’d haunted Ivy for months and given us no help at all? Now, she wanted us to trust her? But what choice did we have?
“Protect Poppy. Protect the ring. Go. Now!”
Ivy didn’t waste any more time. She grabbed Lex’s hand with the other and dragged us to the back of the stage. We stood, and a part of me worried Ashley had lied, that as soon as we moved, any of the hundreds of Alberich’s soldiers would see us. Or maybe, Alberich himself. The power emanated off him in thick clouds and wispy black tendrils that could likely choke the life out of us with barely any effort. I could imagine what horrible things he’d do to us, but he didn’t seem fazed. He remained on stage, berating the queen, monologuing to an entranced fairy audience.
I followed Ivy behind the tents, weaving around bodies and tiptoeing to keep the sound of my movements to a minimum. I wasn’t sure where we were going, just that we were connected, and Poppy clung to Carter by the neck. My legs trembled, and I couldn’t get good traction on the slippery morning grass. Somehow, we climbed the hill to get out of the valley, and once we were far enough away from the fairies, we took off into a run.
I didn’t have time to question if Ivy knew the way. I had to get free, back to my reality, back to my kingdom. I didn’t belong here. The trees had tried to warn me, but I didn’t listen.
The trees always know.
“Where’s the child?” someone behind us shouted. “Find the child!”
Uh-oh.
Cover blown.
“Miri!” Lex said, glancing over his shoulder at me, the one with the shortest legs and the least impressive stride. “C’mon!”
I ran harder. Faster. If Ashley told the truth, this asshole couldn’t cross over into the human realm. Which meant as soon as we got there, we’d be safe from him.
Dark curls of smoke swirled around me, choking the plant life into decaying dust, disintegrating whatever it found. Their agony echoed through me like ice under my skin, like pinpricks right into my brain. The rottenness surged in my veins and I stumbled, catching myself on my hands and knees with a loud grunt.
“Miri?” Lex’s panicked voice forced me to my feet again, helping me to keep going. I just…I had to keep going. Keep breathing and keep running. Don’t look back. Anything except looking back. I didn’t want to know if Death was on my heels. It seemed better to greet the bitch by surprise.
The ruins crept up in the distance, and Ivy beelined for them, corralling the rest of us with her behind the wall, safe inside its crumbling barriers.
“We can’t stay here,” Lex panted.
I bent over at the waist and put my hands on my knees, gasping for air. This was the most cardio I’d done in years, and my heartbeat became a visceral thump I tasted in the back of my mouth. This, on top of experiencing the king’s fury through my gift, made me want to fall over and never get up again.
“We need to get our heads on straight,” Ivy said, resting both of her hands on her head while she tried to catch her breath. “We need to figure out where the fuck we’re going.”
“Ivy’s right. We can’t go circling the woods for another three hours,” Carter said, still holding the silent Poppy in his arms.
The galloping sound of horse hooves loomed closer, and we shut up, backing into one of the dark corners to stay hidden.
“Did you see them?” asked a voice on the other side of the wall.
“No, I lost them in the tree line,” another gruff tone replied.
“You definitely saw him with the girl?” The first voice moved toward us, and the sound of him getting off his horse made me take a deep, fearful inhale. “He had her. I’m sure of it.”
Footsteps echoed in the night, right up on us now. The jingling of metal on armor bounced off the crumbling stone walls. I backed farther into the darkness, Lex’s body hot next to me, Ivy on the other side, and Carter behind us with the child. Alberich’s darkness had cast out most of the sunlight, making this corner particularly well-covered. Maybe, with a bit of luck…
“They could have gone anywhere.”
The sounds came closer. So…so…close.
I held my breath, terrified that if I let myself exhale, they’d hear it. I prayed I was the only one who could tell how hard my heart beat. One of the guards entered the doorway at the far end, his body angled away from us so he hadn’t noticed us yet.
