Enchanted Revenge (8 page)

It has been eleven days. Eleven days of walking together through the forested woods. Eleven days of staying mostly quiet. Eleven days of him giving me weak and not-quite-there answers. Eleven days of torture to my angry feet and inflamed legs.

And it had been eleven nights. Eleven nights of training to try and stand. Yeah. To stand the right way. Lame.

Eleven nights of sleeping on the cold ground. Eleven nights of staring at the fire until I was so mesmerized I didn’t even realize I fell asleep. Eleven nights of dreaming of my parents. Eleven nights of crying myself to sleep.

But it had also been eleven days and nights of seeing new things and learning new things. It had been almost two weeks of getting closer to them. Of getting closer to my goal.

And even though Alec was arrogant, and often impatient and annoyed with me, and all the time focused and determined, he was also kind.

After a few days, we had come across a bird that looked very similar to a cardinal. It wasn’t one though, cardinals in the Mortal Realm only had two wings, not four. The two wings on its right side were twisted and broken. They had pieces of bark sticking out of them, and the bird couldn’t fly.

So Alec picked it up, cleaned the wings, whispered some magic words-or maybe just something like, “I hope you feel better.” I wasn’t sure, since I couldn’t hear what he said. Then the wings straightened out. Alec carried the bird with us for two days, and on the third day he released him.

To see that bird take flight again, after being grounded for who knew how long, was more than extraordinary.

It was almost lunch time, which was great because my stomach was growling at me, begging for sustenance. Though the cheslins were great, he was right when he told me they would get so
blah
. I would kill for a cheeseburger right now. Even though he says the animals are connected to us, I loved me some juicy meat.

You know that feeling you get when someone is watching you? The one where the hairs on your neck and arms lift, and it’s like you have a target glued to your face? Almost like extrasensory perception, but more paranoid than that? For a minute I totally felt that. Like someone was watching me from behind one of these trees, lurking close by, spying on us through the scope of a sniper rifle.

I slowed down and turned in a circle, looking for something. I examined the branches and leaves and tried to find something out of the ordinary.

I searched for anything other than green or brown, but I didn’t see anything. I saw the trees, I saw the bark and the leaves and the grass beneath my feet. But nothing that shouldn’t be there. I didn’t even see any animals scurrying around.

I listened, trying to make out something, anything, that hadn’t been there the whole time. It almost felt like there were ghosts or something around. Something watching us that I couldn’t see or hear.

Dude, where are the freaking Winchester Brothers when you need them?

“It’s nothing we have to worry about.” Alec had turned around, noticing that I had stopped and was spinning like a maniac trying to find something that apparently wasn’t there.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s been following us since this morning. We are strangers in this land and he watches us to make sure we don’t do anything he doesn’t want.”

“You know, I really hate it when you talk in code.” More than that, I hated not knowing what he was saying, feeling so ignorant and incompetent.

He shook his head, as if he was just as frustrated as I was.

“Fenris. He is one of the oldest Nemophilist. He is the leader of the wolves in Ardennes,” he explained. When he noticed that I still didn’t fully understand, he continued on. “Let’s keep walking. Stopping here like this will unnerve him, plus it will only cost us precious time. I’ll explain as we go.”

I nodded. I didn’t want to waste any time.

“Ok. So what’s following us?”

“The Wolves of Ardennes are fierce. They are like wolves in the Mortal Realm, but larger and smarter. They are capable of logical thought, feeling and action. They are protectors of Ardennes.”

I nodded, showing that I was following along. We continued down the trail as he talked.

“A nemophilist is an ancient protector of the woods. Almost anything that lives in Ardennes can become one, usually after something bad happens, like their whole family is killed or something.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. They are very lonely and sad and care only for Ardennes. There are several around Ardennes. If they think you are out to harm Ardennes, they kill you. They are fiercely magical and dangerous. It doesn’t matter to them the reasoning behind why you might be doing something, if it infringes on the land, they kill you.”

“And you’re okay with
that
following us?” I asked, because I was so not okay with that following us. “Shouldn’t we do something about it?”

“It would take a lot to kill him. This nemophilist is Fenris, the leader of the Wolves of Ardennes. He is very strong and very powerful. You would not survive.”

Wow. Blunt.

“Great, so let’s not piss him off, and we’ll be okay?” I had to make sure I didn’t have to watch my back.

“Yes. As long as we don’t bother the land or him, we’ll be fine.”

I walked next to him, hoping he was right. I mean, I really wouldn’t survive if an ancient leader of a pack of wolves wanted to kill me. Especially since I hadn’t even seen him.

Alec looked down at me, his fingers just brushing my arm. “I will not let anything happen to you.” His eyes looked liquid in that moment, the green swimming around his dark pupil. “Don’t let him worry you. I thought about asking for his audience hoping we could assure him we are no foes, but I worried seeing him would upset you. And there are risks associated with speaking with him. He may ask things of us.”

“I don’t know, not seeing him and only thinking something was out there was pretty freaky.”  I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. “What kind of things?”

“He may want us to prove we are no enemy of Ardennes. I can’t really say what that may entail.”

I sighed. On the one hand, it would be scary as hell to see an ancient, apparently talking, wolf.  Especially if he wanted us to do something. But it was also pretty terrifying to know he was following us, and he currently had no proof that we were not enemies. Because what if we did something, and it was only accidental that it upset the land somehow…? I didn’t know the customs of the land, and what was or was not allowed.

“I think it may be smarter to talk to him, to make sure he knows we don’t wanna harm the forest,” I told him finally.

He nodded, stopped, and turned around. He knelt down on one knee and withdrew his sword, laying it flat on the ground in front of him. He bowed his head, leaning so far down it almost touched his knee.

I copied him, not wanting to be insubordinate or anything to the wolf, and not wanting to do anything that might ignite his wrath.

I could hear him before anything else. He sounded big, heavy, his feet crunched into the ground, squishing the grass and leaves beneath him. I glanced up, only a little, and saw the biggest freaking paws on an animal ever. His paws were bigger even than a bears, at least a foot wide.

His fur was brown, with tints of red throughout, making it shine like copper. I didn’t dare look all the way up at him. I would probably already have nightmares just from looking at his paw.

A deep rumble came from the wolf, his hot breath blowing my hair back from my face. It didn’t sound mean though, but not a welcome either. It was a warning.

Alec lifted his head and spoke to the giant beast.

“Fenris. I appreciate your audience. I am called Alec, Sylph Realm Guard to the King.” His voice was strong and brave. He didn’t sound scared at all.

My breath was coming out in whooshes, so fast, just like my pounding heart. I was certain if the wolf wanted to stomp on my head, he could do it easily. He could kill me without any effort on his part. My whole journey would be over.

I felt sweat trickle down the back of my neck, and really wished I had a shower.

“She is called Lily. And no, not even a novice yet.” It almost sounded like he was answering questions. Maybe the wolf was talking to him in his head, like the abada did, but since I was too young I couldn’t hear it.

Child, look to me.

The voice that broke all privacy laws and penetrated my brain totally freaked me out. It was deep and calm, and if it had been a man’s voice, might’ve been attractive. But coming from a giant wolf, scared the piss out of me…well, almost.

I did as I was told though. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and hoped he didn’t choose to bite my head off.

He was so big. So red. So beautiful. Yes, he was scary as hell, but he was gorgeous. His fur so soft, I had to fight the urge to reach out and pet him. I’d probably lose my hand that way.

His eyes were green, almost the same colors as Alec’s, and his nose was the blackest of blacks, shining with moisture.

When those eyes looked into mine, I felt like he was looking into my soul, reading my mind. Maybe he could read my mind, who knew?

Are you Jacob Black?
I thought, knowing he would never get the reference anyways.

“We come in search of a group of Fae,” Alec spoke to him.

Why are you in my home?
That deep voice scratched inside my brain as he asked me the question. I tried not to let my fear rule me. I knew that I would have to convince this giant wolf that I wasn’t the bad guy here, if I wanted to stay alive.

“Just as Alec said, we are looking for some Fae.”

She is young. She should not have left Kamalani, not now, not in this time of peril.
Though I felt like he was talking to Alec now, I could still hear him.
You must follow me.

I thought about arguing with him. We didn’t have time to waste. We have places to go, people to find. But Alec nodded his head indicating his agreement.

“Thank you, Fenris,” Alec said, even though the wolf never took his eyes from mine.

The wolf bobbed his big head once, and then turned and trotted away.

“What did he say to you, Alec?”

“He said he was going to test us.”

“Oh. Should I be worried?” Because I was
so
freaking out right then.

“We are good, inherently. We have the bonum. We should be fine.”

Should be, he said. Should… I took a deep breath, held it in, and then released it in a whoosh. I had to stay calm. I couldn’t freak out.

“So,” I asked him as we followed the giant wolf away from our destination into an unknown area, “Can he read minds?”

“Yes.” And then he chuckled, “Most people around here wouldn’t understand or appreciate how truly spot on that was. He looked just like the wolf in that movie.” He was teasing me. I could tell. But I welcomed it, accepted it. It helped to ease my frazzled mind.

Plus, I could so hold it over his head that he’s watched those movies! 

“But come on. I’m way better than a glittery vampire.” And then he winked and smiled at me.

I couldn’t help but smile back at him, despite the sense of my impending demise.

Chapter Fourteen
Virtus Animae
: Courage of the mind. A title given to a Fae who portrays strength, bravery, valor and boldness of spirit. It is a great honor for an elder to give you this title. 

We walked behind Fenris for just a little while before things started to change. I started hearing noises all over. Maybe I was just paranoid, but it felt like we were being circled, surrounded.

What if it was all a trap? I guess he was powerful enough that he didn’t have to surround us, and could’ve killed us before, but I could almost swear I had eyes on me from all around.

Then the nastiest smell ever penetrated my nose, making me gag a little as it reached inside my mouth. It was worse than rotten eggs. One time a huge rat got stuck under my porch and died, and baked in the summer heat and it stunk forever, even after we found it and cleaned the whole area. It was a smell worse than that. It was like decay…death.

“What is that smell?” I finally whispered to Alec.

“I’m not sure.” His funny, cocky side was gone. It was like this Alec standing next to me was a different man altogether. He was focused on everything, constantly looking at our surroundings. He was serious, and obviously concerned.

He was prepared, his hand resting on his sword hanging off his belt. His wings fluttered in response to the lack of wind. Everything felt off. Wrong.

I noticed up ahead the trail went up to the top of a hill, beyond which I couldn’t see.

Then, out of nowhere, wolves appeared. All along the top of the hill, right where we were headed, were wolves. They stood side by side, one after another for as far as the eye could see. The only spaces between them were a few trees.

I stopped walking. I couldn’t help it.

That shit was too scary.

I couldn’t just walk into a group of hundreds of wolves. Wolves that were larger than any animal I had seen back home, and I lived in Kansas where there were horses.

But Fenris didn’t stop walking. He continued up the hill.

“He is not Fae, so he cannot sense people the way we can,” Alec said, after turning to look at me. “He will want to make sure we mean them no harm. They would have no reason to harm us.”

“But look at them! There are so many.” The words came out in a rush.

“You need to be brave.” The seriousness of his tone shook me down to my bones. He was right.

He’d already told me that Fenris would be hard to defeat, and now we were surrounded by tons of them, and yet he was willing to walk into their group. If he could do it, then I could too. Yeah he was a strong, soldier fairy. And I…wasn’t. But it didn’t matter. This was something I would have to get through if I wanted to avenge my parent’s death.

Time to put my big girl panties on and get with the picture.

I nodded at Alec, and then looked up to where Fenris was waiting for us. He had walked to the top of the hill, the other wolves moved aside to let him pass.

Come
. So freaking creepy to hear a growling wolf voice in my brain…

But we did. We climbed up that hill, through the hallway of wolves that parted for us as well, closer to that retched, gag-inducing smell, and looked down at the horrible sight.

From the top of the hill, for as far as I could see, everything was dead.

Black trees. Black grass. No deer. No squirrels. No birds. No animals at all.

No flowers. No leaves. No plants…other than dead, black ones.

No life.

“What happened here?” Alec whispered.

This is what is becoming of Ardennes. Our magic is depleting. Our lives are being lost. So you see,
this
is why I am wary of outsiders.

“Outsiders? We are both Fae.” Confusion shrouded Alec’s words.

You are not Nymph!
I winced as he growled into our heads. Then more calmly he added,
You are outsiders.

“What can we do to prove our intentions are not to harm Ardennes?”

I need to test your bonum. Follow me.

We walked down the hill, toward the death of Ardennes. The smell was all-encompassing now. It was in everything, everywhere. My eyes watered from the stench in the air. My throat itched as I breathed in the nastiness through my mouth, which was still better than trying to breathe through my nose. It was seeping into me, through the very pores on my skin.

I felt the urge to cry, but I wasn’t sure why, I didn’t really care about this place very much. It was just so sad to see everything so lifeless.

“What’s causing this?” I finally asked Alec.

He shook his head once, then murmured, “I’m not sure.” He cleared his throat before adding, “Though I would bet it has to do with how much magic is being taxed right now. When the Nymph don’t have magic, they can’t help the land. I also wonder how Muircadia is…”

He looked down at me, as if remembering I wasn’t from around here and hardly knew what he was talking about.

“Muircadia nourishes Ardennes. I wonder if something has happened that has stopped the flow of nourishment,” he elaborated.

“Well…” I wasn’t really sure what to say to that. “It sucks.”

“To put it lightly,” he added, and a ghost of a smile appeared for about a nanosecond.

We are here. I will test your mind.

The wolves that had followed beside Fenris moved off to the sides. All the wolves around us moved further away as well.

I didn’t really know where here was, but it didn’t look like anything special to me. There was a dead forest around us that stank like hell, but that was about it.

When Alec moved forward, I had to scramble to catch up to him.

Behind Fenris was a deep ravine. It had to be at least forty feet down and maybe twenty feet wide, and it stretched on, never-ending in both directions. A group of briars slithered and moved at the bottom. Like, the thorny branches were literally moving. For real.

They were freaking
moving
!

I shivered. Talk about creepy.

You must find your way across,
the beast told me.
 
I looked over to Alec, but he wasn’t there anymore. I was standing alone at the edge of the ravine.

The wolves were gone. All of them. Even the giant, red Fenris had disappeared.

I turned in a circle, looking for any sign of them, but couldn’t hear or see anything.

“Alec?!” I shouted, hoping maybe I could find him. “Alec, where are you?” The hysteria in my voice threw me off guard. I sounded kinda crazy.

You must find your way across;
Fenris growled again, scaring me even more than before. I couldn’t see him, couldn’t feel him or smell him, but he could still talk to my head? What was that about?

Then I got it. This was the test.

Okay, I could tackle this.

I looked back at the ravine, making sure to stay a good distance from the edge. Below, deep in the bottom, those weeds thrashed around, their thorny arms scrapping and slapping the walls, reaching for me and beckoning me down.

To the right I noticed a wooden bridge. It was up high enough that the branches wouldn’t be able to reach it, but it looked pretty crappy. I walked over to it to get a closer look. Several of the wooden planks were missing, and the rope attaching to it was frayed.

“Yay,” I murmured to only myself, sarcasm dripping off the single word.

I noticed to the right, a rope was attached to a tree branch. When I went to look at it, it was evident the poor branch was about to fall off the tree, and wither. The rope was attached to another branch over the ravine, and looked like it would easily reach the other side. I could try to swing across and scream a Tarzan shriek. Could be fun, but was mighty risky.

I looked over the edge, my hair spilling around my face, and felt this pull as if the briars were pulling the air down to them.

So…swing and hope I could hold on long enough despite the freaky air-pulling-me-down thing or walk the bridge and hope it doesn’t break?

Definitely the bridge. I wasn’t so naive to believe I was strong enough to hold myself onto that rope all the way across the gorge.

As I walked back to the bridge, I noticed one other option. Towards the bottom, there was a stone path across. It was smooth, and looked to be about three feet wide. It would be the sturdiest method for sure, though it was only about two feet above the briars.

I walked closer to it, and noticed there was a super skinny stone stairway that led down the wall of the ravine to the stone bridge below.

“Crap. Crap. Crap.”

I didn’t know what to do. Risk the bridge breaking only to fall to my death? Try to hold onto the rope? Or get close to the briars.

He didn’t say I couldn’t get hurt…he only said I had to make it across.

I went over to where the skinny steps were and started making my way down. The stone was rough and easy to grasp, thankfully, since I was basically crawling down.  It was pretty steep, so I went down slow to make sure I didn’t slip.

When my feet landed on a flat surface, I knew there was no going back. This had to be the way. It wouldn’t break, and as long as those thorny branches didn’t pull me off, I would be ok. I hoped…

I wished I had some kind of weapon, something to push them away from me with, like Alec’s sword or at least a branch or something. But I didn’t. And there was nothing around me that I could use as one.

I took one step onto the stone bridge. Nothing happened. The briars continued to sway about, but they didn’t go crazy and try to attack me or anything.

A branch slapped the stone bridge and dragged its sharp thorns along it making a screeching sound that reminded me of fingernails on a chalkboard. I imagined they did it on purpose, like they were sharpening their thorns, getting ready for an attack. But they didn’t seem to be aware of me or anything.

I shivered again. Wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. Took a deep breath. Found my resolve.

I took another step.

Nothing.

I took another one.

The briars screeched, a sound that was both blood curdling and gut wrenching. It was like they all moved at once, stretching, pushing, throbbing. The thorns clashed against one another and against the walls, and against the stone path. They shook, they trembled, they quaked.

I ran those few steps back to the edge and pushed myself against the wall, hoping they couldn’t reach me.

As soon as I was off the bridge they relaxed, and started swaying again.

My heart pounded in my chest. It felt like it would pound right out of me and fall to the floor, flopping around like a fish out of water. I closed my eyes and placed my hands on my face, because for some reason that helped me calm down. I had to do this. There was no turning back. I had to. I just had to make it across.

I took a deep breath. Then another. And one more.

And then I ran.

The briars pulsed and screamed again. I ignored them.

When one slapped the bridge right in front of me, I just jumped over it.

When one slapped across my face, I ignored it. And I ignored the blood that immediately welled up and out, only to start the flow of a crimson river down my cheek.

When one scraped my arm, I ignored it too, and the blood that started to flow there as well.

I ignored the briars. And my pounding heart. And my mind screaming at me that I was a lunatic. I ignored it all and ran to the other side.

When a huge, thick branch sprouted up right at the end of the bridge, I did the first thing that came to my mind. I jumped as high as I could, hoping it would be high enough to get over the limb.

I landed on my hip and knew it would be bruised, though it was my wrist and ankle that really took the brunt of my fall.

“Lily!” Alec said as he rushed to my side. He pulled out a cloth from who knew where and wiped the blood from my cheek. “Hold it here.”

I did as I was told, holding the cloth firmly against my cheek. The giant wolf stood off to the side, with all the other wolves standing around him. I was back on the right side of the ravine, or they were all on the other side with me. I wasn’t sure.

Alec held another cloth around my arm, twisting it and wrapping it up, from my elbow to my wrist, to cover the twisted slash. He stood back, and looked me up and down.

“Were you hurt anywhere else?”

“I might’ve twisted my ankle and my wrist. But I think I’m okay.”

He nodded then turned around to face the huge animal. He knelt, just as he had when we first saw the wolf.

Virtus Animae. 
Fenris spoke to my mind.  Then he bowed his head to me.
You are welcome any time here in our Ardennes.
When he lifted his head and looked back at me he added,
You may leave now.

And we did. We got the hell out of there as fast as we could.