Her voice grew wistful. “I’d watch him through the trees every month when he came, bringing a different boy for the shadow king. He fascinated me, this commanding pirate of a fearsome crew. One day, I said hello through the tree line. We started talking. We became friends. He told me of his adventures at sea. I told him of my long life as a pixie. He painted a picture of the world. For the first time ever, I wanted to see it, to leave my home. The more we spoke, the more this place began to feel like a prison. We both felt trapped in our own way, I suppose. We understood each other.”
“So that’s why you wanted to leave,” I said through heavy breaths. “To see the world?”
I finally got to the top of the hill and hoped we were close to the boys’ camp. Shadows swooped down, closer than they’d ever come before.
“We need to hurry.” Her emerald eyes flicked to the shadows. She turned and lifted through the air again, and I quickened my pace. “I can’t stay here anymore,” she said finally. “I need to let go. I need to start over.”
Pain filled her voice, and I didn’t want to pry. “So you’re just going to leave your life behind?”
“I’m going to do what I need to,” she said softly. “To save myself.”
“Save yourself from what?” I hurried to catch up as she flew under vines hanging from a tree.
“Him,” she said simply.
I was having a hard time following the conversation, putting the pieces together.
How she worded it made it sound like she felt threatened... but her tone.. . it didn’t sound like she was afraid. I recognized that tone. Recognized that sadness in her voice. I’d felt the exact same after that fight with Bastian at the earth court. Him, she’d said. The shadow king. That must’ve been who she was talking about. But she wasn’t afraid of him. She was... “You love him,” I said. “You’re in love with the shadow king.”
She stiffened when I said it. “It doesn’t matter.” A sadness filled her voice as she continued to fly through the air. “I need to leave. I need a fresh start. This place reminds me too much of him.”
I couldn’t even begin to imagine how a pixie fell in love with the shadow king.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry you have to feel that kind of pain.”
“That is life,” she said.
“Do you know what he’s planning?” I reached up and grabbed her arm. She jolted and looked down at me. “Please, if you know why the shadow king is doing this, you have to tell me.”
She shook her arm away and scowled at me. “I do not know his secrets any more than you do. That is part of our bargain with him. He protects us; we bring him the boys. We don’t ask questions. But I can tell you he’s powerful. I suggest you leave and forget the shadow king.”
That wasn’t going to happen. The shadow king had started something, and we were going to finish it.
A low hiss filled the jungle, and Goji’s eyes snapped to the shadows, who were creeping closer. “The shadow king must know something is wrong. The shadows react to his moods.”
“Can they communicate with him?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, but they’re connected in a sense. He won’t know you’re planning to escape. But he was expecting us, and we’re not at his castle. So he’s agitated.” She gestured to a shadow who flew toward me, swiping at me with its wispy hand. “Meaning they’re agitated. We need to get to safety.”
“Where is the camp?” I ducked as a shadow swooped down.
“Just there.” She pointed to the hanging vines. “Run. I must go back to the shadow king. I’ll tell him you escaped and that I’m looking for you so he won’t suspect anything is amiss. I will come tomorrow at dawn. Be ready with whatever you’re planning.”
Dawn tomorrow. That was far sooner than we’d expected.
“The shadows are going to be hard to catch,” she said. “It can take days for a shadow to bind back with its body, so you need to be prepared to catch them and trap them until the binding is complete.” She shoved me forward. “Now run.”
I listened, pumping my arms and legs as I flew through the jungle. I didn’t dare look back. Shadows darted in front of me, jabbing at me, and one reached out and touched me. I cried out in pain, a cut appearing on my arm from the shadow’s touch. I tried to run into the small slices of sun that filtered through the canopies, keeping the shadows at bay, but there was far more darkness than light in this jungle.
My heart pounded as shadows closed in on me. Darkness started to creep in like I was stuck in a gray fog, and it was harder to see what direction I needed to go. I looked all around me but couldn’t see anything, no trees, no Goji, no camp. Goose bumps prickled along my arms as the shadows hissed and whooshed all around me. One of them reached a hand out, swiping at my face, and a searing pain sliced across my cheek. I touched it, my fingers coated with blood. I froze for a moment, losing all sense of direction. These shadows might very well kill me because of the shadow king’s current mood.
Then I heard it, not far from me: a laugh. I knew that sound. Lochlan.
With a final burst, I leapt in that direction, and shoved through the wispy shadows, through the vines of the camp. I landed with a crash in the sun-filled clearing. I lay in a heap on the ground, letting the sun fill me, pulse still racing from that effort. Arms wound around me, lifting me, crushing me to a hard chest.
I curled into Bastian as he cradled me.
“You’re safe,” he whispered. “You’re safe now.”
