Chapter Seven
We are led to one of the circus tents I had spotted earlier, but whereas Jasmin had entered the red, we entered the purple one. Purple like the portal. Purple likehisdamn eyes. I furiously banish my thoughts and take in our surroundings.
Many Chosen cram the tent, like sardines in a tin can. Thankfully, it doesn’t smell like fish. In fact… I inhale deeply. Gods, yes! Food!
I make a beeline for the buffet-style table along one wall of the tent, Akari hot on my heels.
“Whatisthat?” she asks, nose high in the air as we get closer.
“I don’t know, but it smells fucking divine!”
We stop at the edge of the table, salivating as we cast our hungry eyes over the selection of foods, trying to pinpoint the exact cause of the intoxicating smell. I blink as I realize it’s coming from a fruit, of all things. A golden apple-like bulb that glints in the flickering light of the tent.
I pick up one of them and twirl it curiously in my hands.
“I have never smelled an apple like this before,” I say, my eyes not once leaving the fruit. I’m completely mesmerized by it. From the corner of my eye, I see Akari lifting her own golden apple to her eagerly opening mouth.
“I wouldn’t.”
I blink as if coming down from a marijuana high. What the fuck? I glance at Akari and hastily smack the apple out of her hand. She berates me before she, too, is blinking rapidly.
“What just happened?” she asks nervously.
I glance across the table and into the tent’s shadows, where a slim, feminine figure stands.
“Who are you?” I demand.
The woman steps into the light, and I gasp as I take in the fine lines of her face and the graying hair at her temples. This woman, ahuman, was so much older than the Chosen who surrounded us. There was no doubt in my mind that she was one of the original Chosen. From the time of the Fae’s first invasion. From when my mother disappeared.
I search her features desperately for some familiar feature or another, but find my shoulders slumping when I come up blank. She was not my mother.
“I am one of the First,” she confirms sagely, but a small and friendly smile lightens her tired features. “My name is Anya.”
“I’m Akari,” Akari says, completely in awe of the older woman.
“Delta,” I say, more reserved. “I… have so many questions.”
Anya chuckles, “Of that, I have no doubt. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to answer a lot of them. The Faerie oath forbids me, and I have sworn to it.” At our blank looks, she explains, “The Faerie oath is unbreakable. Unless you seek to be cursed for centuries, that is. And a Faerie’s curse is not something I would wish upon my worst enemy.”
Akari and I both gulp as we glance at one another quickly.
“Right,” I say, “do not get cursed. Got it.”
Akari raises her hand as if in class at school, then blushes and lowers it as she realizes what she’s doing.
“I have a question,” she says. “What the hell is that fruit, and why did I want to eat it so bad?”
Anya looks towards Akari’s fallen fruit, and I gasp when I look too and see it has completely rotted in the few moments since it had left her hand. In trepidation, I look down at the apple still clutched in my hand and shriek when I see mine is just as festered. I drop it hastily and rub my palms over my dress.Ich!
“Faerie fruit,” Anya explains. “While just a sweet treat for the fae, faerie fruit can be dangerous and addictive to humans. It has a magnetic aura to it that most humans find almost impossible to resist unless they know what it is. From the moment you take your first bite, it’s very hard to stop. I don’t mean you’ll be stuffing one after the other into your mouth for the rest of your life, but as its poisons fade from your body after a day or 2, you will crave them desperately and won’t be satisfied until you have your next bite. It is extremely difficult to wean off of. I should know.”
Anya gives us a meaningful look, and we both nod. She knows from experience.
“Faerie fruit, faerie oaths, and faerie curses; all on the list of bad dojo. Got it. But, seriously, Anya, I am starving and I won’t be able to focus on anything else you say unless I have a full belly. Whatissafe to eat?” I practically plead. Akari nods eagerly beside me.
“I wouldn’t still be alive if there was nothing safe to eat in Faezgard.”
Fae-what-a? I give my head a little shake. Fucking feed me.
