Ahumaneye.
Her stew waslooking at her.
Her stomach lurched in horror.
Jumping to her feet, she knocked the chair, the bowl, and the mug of ale to the ground, her leg getting caught up in the leg of the chair, sending her crashing right back to the floor.
“Oh, no need to make such afuss,dearie.” Braega tutted. “It will not even hurt! You will not evenbleed.”She pushed up from her own chair with a groan. “Just a few words and I’ll have them in my palm, simple as that.”
“No—no!” Ava wailed, scrambling up to her feet, and heading for the door. Yanking on the doorknob—it didn’t move. “Let me out—you said I could leave whenever I wanted to! We had a deal!”
“Aye, we did. We said you could leave whenever you wanted. I never said the door would open for you.” She laughed. “Youshut it behind you, not me!”
“Help!” Ava screamed. “Somebody, anybody,help!”Who was going to help her in a prison for thefae?Tears were streaming down her cheeks again as she yanked helplessly, uselessly on the doorknob.
“Oh, dearie. It’ll all be over soon. Then, I’ll tell you what—Old Braega will find you a lovely creature who will take you as a pet, yes?” The old fae grabbed Ava’s wrist. “You are a beautiful, tasty creature, and you will be easy to trade, especially when your will is broken, and you have no eyes…”
“Please—no—please—” She knew begging was useless, but she had no other option.
“I can trade you to the most hideous, monstrous thing, you will never care, as I will have eaten your eyes! You will be loved, cherished,kept safe. How wonderful, don’t you think?” Braega smiled, still soundinggenuinethrough all her cruelty. “It truly is the best outcome for you.” She reached up a gnarled hand toward Ava’s face.
Ava screamed.
The door to Old Braega’s house burst inwards, sending them both flying.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ava woke up.
Or rather, she didn’t.
She knew she was dreaming, even if the world around her was just as vivid as the waking world. Namely, because her damn clothes were dry, and she wasn’t cold and fucking miserable.
One minute, she’d been standing inside a fae’s tree home, about to have her eyes stolen. She had been screaming for someone to save her, before the door had burst in. And then…
She was standing here.
In the strangest library she had ever seen.
It was two floors tall, reaching high up overhead some eighty feet or more. Rows and rows of books, scrolls, and stacks of old paper tied together were stored together in a maddening disarray. This wasn’t a neat and tidy library—this was barely-contained chaos. Stacks of books held up other stacks of books, which formed the platform for even more books.
Candles burned in sconces all over the walls. And down the center of the room was a long, elaborately carved white and gold banquet table that could easily sit thirty people. But it was clearit hadn’t hosted a dinner in a very, very long time. Someone had decided it was going to serve a different purpose.
The table was covered with papers and books, and scrolls, yes—but also inkwells and pens. Jars of things she couldn’t identify. Wooden boxes, labeled in a handwriting that was so over-flourished she couldn’t read it quickly enough, and there was too much to try to take in to stop and study them.
Tools and metal devices she couldn’t recognize. Something that kind of looked like an astrolabe? But not like one she’d ever seen before.
The smell of incense was thick in the air, along with the smell of leaves and the dampness of the woods in the rain. Because dominating the far wall of the library, growing up from the floor and through the roof some three stories above, was an enormous and winding tree, its branches tangling with the archways of the stone architecture until the two became indistinguishable.
Within several of its branches were built more bookshelves, stacks of scrolls tucked within knots of its bows. The leaves shimmered with amber droplets of rain coming in from above, catching the light from the thousands of candles.
Walking into the room slowly, she stared at the room in awe, her mouth agape, as she took in all the detail around her. Slowly, she began to realize that she might not be safe here, either. Because the things in one of the jars resembled human fingers a little too much.
Or because of the box that was labeledTeeth Extracted From the Living,next to one labeledTeeth Extracted From the Dead.As if there was some kind of important difference between the two.
Another hint was the stack of papers was held down with a human skull that she knew wasn’t a prop. And the heart in a glass case that she was going to bet money had belonged to a person, once.
Shutting her eyes for a moment, she tried to steady her breathing. This was a dream. But that didn’t mean it couldn’t hurt her.
