Journey into the Realm: The Stolen Child (Journey into the Realm Series) (14 page)

***

Elvina and Aimee agreed to our plan. I completed my strengthening spell just as the sun began to rise; the arrows were enchanted with magic to make them more powerful. Tavis and Nathan were ready for the attack. Daur had convinced Drasill to use their combined tree magic to help, even though it would ultimately require destroying the trees they were linked to. I felt horrible about this. I knew the trees were like pieces of their souls, but they had made their decision, and I wasn’t going to argue. None of us had time for that.

Already invisible, Aimee and Elvina waited in their tree for my signal. Once I shook the designated branch, they would begin their search for the crown while we confronted the Element fairies. The attack would begin with arrows from me and Nathan, then Daur and Drasill’s trees would pin the surviving Element fairies until Tavis gathered up enough energy for the explosions. Hopefully, by the time this was over, Elvina and Aimee would have the crown.

The plan was well-thought out, the most viable option for our situation. If it was a success, we would be in the Woodland Fairy Realm before morning’s end.

There was just one problem.

“I can’t see Ellie,” I muttered, pulse increasing as I became aware of this.

“What?” Nathan asked.

“I can’t see Ellie anywhere in Honeysuckle,” I repeated, louder this time so everyone in the tree would hear. “I can’t see her.”

Tavis shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe she left?” he offered up.

I shook my head. “And leave the chance of our escape up to her minions? Not a chance,” I told him. “Her disappearance can’t be good.”

“Elvina and Aimee are waiting for the signal. With each second, Elvina’s strength is draining. She can’t keep up the invisibility spell forever,” Tavis argued.

“I know, I know,” I replied heatedly, eyes still scanning the Flower Fairy capital for any trace of the fire fairy murderess. “But we can’t attack until I find her.”

“Ramsey’s right, Tavis,” Nathan said, hoisting his bag of arrows further up his arm to prevent any from slipping out. “Ellie’s smart. She probably knows we have a plan and is choosing to hide so she can remain one step ahead of us.”

I nodded. “And she could have something even greater planned. We can’t let her surprise us.”

“We don’t know anything for sure,” Tavis retorted. “We’re in a tree. Our vision is blocked by leaves and branches. What if she’s just out of our line of sight?”

“We can’t take that chance,” I said.

“And we can’t waste time. We’re losing a precious opportunity by allowing Elvina and Aimee to sit in that tree doing nothing. We can look out for Ellie during the attack, but we need to act now.”

I groaned with building frustration. Didn’t he understand how dangerous she was? How manipulative? How calculating? She had murdered Stellan, a trained soldier. If we weren’t careful, she could ruin us. Ruin everything.

I sucked in a deep breath, preparing to give him a speech that would surely change his mind. “But, Tavis, we need to focus during the attack. We can’t split our attention just because you want to –”

That speech was quickly interrupted when Tavis began shaking the one branch that was meant to signal Elvina and Aimee. And because they were invisible, there was no way to track their progress or see how quickly they were responding to the signal. Shouting would only reveal their cover and alert the Element fairies of their presence. Knowing we couldn’t stop our friends, we had no choice but to proceed with the plan.

“Go,” I ushered, fuming with anger over Tavis’s reckless move but determined to make the best of this horrible situation. “Go, go!”

Elves, although clumsy when running across uneven terrain, were known for being light on their feet. The three of us dropped from the tree without hesitation, landing noiselessly and perfectly balanced on the ground below. Despite our gracefulness, the four Element fairies noticed our presence right away. I withdrew my bow and notched an arrow. Aimed and ready, my bow moved with my eyes as I scanned the area for my first target. One of the air fairies began approaching me first. Knowing they were the weakest of the Element fae, I felt confident that my shot would at least immobilize her. I released the arrow; it traveled soundlessly until it made contact with her chest. Crimson drops of blood splattered the flowers. I swallowed back nausea as another arrow hit her forehead, this one from Nathan, giving her a fatal wound. With shaky hands, I notched another arrow. As horrible as death was, no matter who suffered from it, I had to keep going, or this killing would be for nothing.

I knew the other fairies wouldn’t be as easy to kill. Unlike the air fairy, the rest had had time to prepare their attacks, and walls of rock now headed our way. Nathan and I narrowly missed the attack as we jumped sideways into a patch of bluebells, the impact with the dirt leaving me sore but able to recover quickly. From a crouched position on the ground, I sent another arrow flying to one of the two earth fairies. The arrow embedded itself in the fairy’s leg. He stumbled, but didn’t fall, instead releasing a stone spear headed directly toward me. I flattened myself to the ground and heard the spear whoosh past my head.

And then, the snapping and crunching of trees coming to life.

I looked up to see the branches of Daur’s oak tree and Drasill’s ash tree spiraling toward the wounded earth fairy from both sides. Like Drasill had done to Tavis earlier, these tendrils wrapped around the fairy’s body until he was completely immobilized. Only this time, the branches didn’t let go. They tightened and kept tightening as the earth fairy gasped for breath. Unable to bear watching him die slowly, I notched another arrow and aimed for his head, looking away only when it made contact.

The second earth fairy, learning from the failures of her comrades, built a solid rock cave over herself and the remaining air fairy, sealing them off from us completely. Our arrows wouldn’t break through stone, and neither would tree branches.

“Tavis, it’s up to you,” I called to him. “Explode!”

“Myself?” he yelled.

“No! The fairies!” I cried, completely exasperated by his lack of battle skills. For an unnaturally strong elf, he was useless when it came to common sense strategizing.

“Right,” he said, nodding rapidly.

I held onto to Nathan and shielded my eyes, afraid of what Tavis’s power might do to us. Between my squinted eyelids, I watched his hands shoot into the air, as if he were collecting power from the sky itself. A glowing ball of black fire, dark as night, formed above his open palms. Using immense strength, Tavis shoved the fire toward the protected Element fairies. It absorbed into the hard stone and disappeared altogether.

For a moment, I didn’t think it would work. But I quickly changed my mind when the stone began to shake with tremors that vibrated the earth. The wall burst into a million tiny, sharp, rock pieces, jutting out in every direction. Too late to think of a spell, I tucked myself into a ball and prepared for the onslaught of debris. Shards of stone scraped my exposed arms. I could feel my blood dripping quickly, as if a knife had repeatedly sliced me open. I did my best to ignore the pain.

Confident that the explosion was over, I opened my eyes to make sure Nathan was okay. He was already standing, offering a hand to me. I took it and rose from the ground, just in time to see the Element fairies run off in different directions. Apparently, the blast hadn’t been enough to kill them. The stone must have absorbed too much of Tavis’s magic for the blast to reach them.

“The air fairy has stone embedded in his abdomen. I’ll go after him and finish him off,” Nathan said. “You and Tavis should take down the earth fairy together. She seems to be the strongest.”

“Okay,” I agreed, squeezing his hand before I ran to join Tavis. “Come on,” I said to the elf. “We have to go after the earth fairy.”

We headed through the line of trees surrounding Honeysuckle until we reached the open field. So far, I hadn’t glimpsed a single Flower fairy, which concerned me, but not enough to distract me from my current pursuit. In the distance, the earth fairy continued to run with no signs of slowing down. We would tire before her; I knew this. She wasn’t even flying yet. Element fairies had greater endurance than elves. And even my Golden fairy blood wouldn’t aid in our efforts to catch her. She was too quick and too strong.

I stopped running. “It’s no use. We won’t catch her. Hopefully, Elvina and Aimee have found the crown by now. Let’s head back.”

Tavis nodded in agreement, breathing heavily after exerting so much energy. “It’s a shame that my explosion barely seemed to affect her, but I have no qualms with her running away. It’s convenient for us.”

And that’s when it hit me. The earth fairy’s behavior was strange. Why was she running? She was Vortigern’s soldier, trained to capture me at all costs. Yes, our attacks thus far had been powerful and even deadly, but Element fairies didn’t just give up after a few hard hits. They kept fighting. I knew this from past experience. So why run?

The realization struck me just before she said her first words: “I must admit, you have grown quite strong during our time apart. Fearless, too. I’m thoroughly fascinated.”

I turned to face Ellie. She wore a smug smile and stood hip cocked, clearly impressed with herself for sneaking up on us like this. “I was wondering when you would turn up. It’s not like you to miss an opportunity to threaten my life,” I said, “or the lives of my friends.” I was hoping that my repeated mentions of Stellan would eventually distract her enough for me to execute a strong attack.

She faltered briefly, her smile disappearing for just a moment. Then she regained her composure and lit a flame in her open palm. “I’ve grown tired of reminiscing,” she said, before she hurled the flame my way.

“Deflect,” I muttered, swiping my hand to one side and watching as the flame mimicked my actions, setting a patch of flowers ablaze.

“Nice trick,” Ellie commented, flames appearing in both palms this time. “But I doubt
he
is as amply prepared.”

Ignoring me, the fire fairy threw both balls of fire toward Tavis. He was able to avoid the first, but the second caught him in the shoulder. He yelled out in pain, covering the blackened skin with his hand as he cursed. Angry and concerned for my friend, I notched and then released an arrow in Ellie’s direction. A stream of fire interrupted its course and the arrow disintegrated in midair.

“Let’s end this, Ramsey,” Ellie proposed. “Surrender now and no harm will come to the elf.”

“Say his name,” I commanded through gritted teeth. “He was your friend once.”

“That friendship was just a game, Ramsey,” she said, her devilish smile resurfacing. “It was all just a game.”

I scoffed. “Betraying me? Killing Stellan? That was all a game to you?” I shook my head. “I don’t believe it. I let you go because I could see the guilt in your eyes. I saw no triumph there.”

I could tell that Ellie had no prepared response to this. Unfortunately, she didn’t need one.

Slabs of rock rose from the ground, the disruption in the earth creating clouds of dirt and tearing the lovely flowers apart. The stone encircled me like a sturdy, cold blanket, leaving only my head uncovered. I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. I was trapped.

I should have noticed the earth fairy coming. I should have been prepared. But instead of distracting Ellie, she had distracted me. Now I was going to pay for my ignorance.

“Ramsey,” Tavis gasped, his voice shaking in fear and pain.

He was worn out from the explosion, the first time he had ever blown up anything that big in size and power. He was also tired from running and had a massive burn on his shoulder. He wasn’t going to save me. He could try, but he wouldn’t succeed against two Element fairies.

“Put your hands behind your head, elf,” the earth fairy instructed, nodding a greeting to Ellie.

Her voice was menacingly beautiful. I shivered at the sound. The rock only constricted me tighter. I fought for more air. Tears began to leak from my eyes as I gasped for breath.

Tavis did as she said and put his hands behind his head. He fell to the ground and onto his knees, weak, empty, and defeated. He knew just as well as I did that there was no escaping this. I had no idea how Nathan was faring, whether he had killed the air fairy or not. Daur and Drasill had disappeared after the explosion, and neither Elvina nor Aimee knew where we were, probably too focused on recovering the crown to pay any attention. Tavis and I were on our own.

“Good,” the earth fairy praised, kicking Tavis hard with the toe of her brown boot. He groaned but didn’t retaliate. “You listen well. We must kill you now, for you are of no use to us. Our only instructions were to take the half-fairy alive. Isn’t that right, Ellie?”

My eyes locked on the fire fairy, who nodded slowly. “That is correct, Terra.”

My stomach dropped. Tavis wasn’t just going to be captured by Element fairies. He was going to die by their hands. And just like the others before him – Daran, Janie, Stellan – he was going to die because of me.

“And you, dear Golden fairy, will watch. Won’t you?” Terra asked, patting my head harshly as I resisted the urge to scream. Before I could say anything, I felt the rock around me grow tighter still. I had to nod in order for her to stop. “That’s right. You listen well, too,” she complimented.

I couldn’t even cry for help; the rock was crushing me little by little. Not that calling out would do any good, though. Tavis would be dead before anyone made it to us in time. I could do nothing but wait and watch.