“I do,” he says. “You go save Luther for me. I’ll go save Tulip for you.”
“I can’t let you go to Dark Village on your own,” I tell him. “It’s not safe.” And it’s already early afternoon. The chances of him reaching the place by nightfall are slim. Even if he manages to get past the forest, it’s going to be pushing dusk by the time he arrives.
“Lots of things aren’t safe,” Greg says. “Go get Luther,” he says. “And watch out for Wyatt. He’s sneakier than you think.”
Suddenly, Greg snaps his fingers. A burst of smoke appears and when it clears, the little kid is gone. Okay, so apparently, Luther has been teaching the boy some tricks. Fair enough. Maybe I underestimated the little guy.
A wave of relief washes over me as I realize that he’s going to do it. Nothing is going to stop Greg from getting back to my sister. Part of me feels incredibly lucky that my day has turned out this way. Who could have predicted that Luther’s ward would be the one who saved Tulip?
Certainly not me.
But my day is far from over. The afternoon sun is high in the sky which means that I don’t have a lot of time before nightfall. I don’t know if there are vampires in the capital city, but I’m not about to be caught outside after dark and risk them wandering around and catching me. Apparently, Wyatt has his claws in everything that goes on. If what Greg says is correct, then the king is kind of totally clueless about the whole thing, which is great.
Just great.
With a sigh, I get up off the bench and look toward the castle.
Time to go sneak in.
Time to save a wizard.
Chapter 7
Rose
The castle of Dark Falls is menacing.
It towers over the city with its turrets and its lovely stone design. There’s even a fucking drawbridge. People are milling about, walking around, and acting as though the world isn’t basically ending all around us.
It is.
At least, my world is.
So much has changed for me in the last day. My world has fallen apart, broken, and been fixed all at once. Now I’m standing in the shadows, lurking like a villain, and staring at a castle that is both quite lovely and entirely intimidating.
It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen and to be honest, it’s not really something I want to see. I had planned to sneak into the capital city and sneak right back home. I didn’t plan on breaking into a castle and catching myself a wizard.
That wasn’t part of the plan.
Then again, plans change. That’s part of being a good fae, right? Part of being a fairy means being willing to adapt. The other part was supposed to be luck, but I think my sisters and I have proved that being a fairy doesn’t make us any luckier than anyone else. Daisy, at least, can fly. The rest of us...well, we’re usually just happy when there’s food in our bellies and our doors are safely locked at night. The vampires are much stronger and much more powerful than any of us. So we can speak to animals and we can communicate with insects. That’s not a very big deal when your opponent can bite you and drain your blood.
Not that the vampires want to eat fairies. As far as I know, our blood is toxic to them. That’s why they only feed on humans and wild animals. In some ways, the vampires are very humane when it comes to what they’ll eat. In other ways, they’re monsters.
As I stare at the castle, the urge to stretch my wings and flutter them is almost overwhelming, but I push my need back. I can’t risk anyone seeing their deep color. Greg might be right. Maybe it’s not actually illegal to be a dark fae in the city, but maybe he’s wrong. Maybe it’s very, very illegal and he’s just an innocent little kid. It’s hard to say.
Still, my heart is racing as I approach the castle. I stand in the shadows and spin my amulet. One of these days, my luck is going to run out. I didn’t know until today that anyone with an amulet can see anyone else with one. Apparently, all the charms in the world won’t matter if I’m facing down someone else who has something similar. It explains why Luther noticed me when he was being hauled away. Wyatt hung an amulet over his neck before the guards took him.
Who has the amulet now, though?
Surely they didn’t let Luther keep it when they threw him into the dungeons.
I shiver as I realize that Wyatt likely wears it when he wants to be sneaky. I just hope that it doesn’t give him an edge on me. He knows this castle better than I do. He’s lived here forever, after all. If he even catches a glimpse of me, if he even gets an idea that I might be coming to the castle, then he’ll be ready for me.
I can’t let him catch me.
I approach the castle cautiously, carefully. I stay in the shadows where nothing can see me. My mother was a shadow shifter. She could transform herself into a shadow with just a thought, just a whisper. All it took was hoping that she’d be a shadow, and then she would be. She had tried so very hard to help me and my sisters learn the same skill, but none of us had been able to.
Still, we’re all very nimble, and today I’m proving that by staying in the shadows where darkness lurks. I near the castle. The drawbridge is open, but as far as I can see, that’s the only way in. Could it be so easy to just walk up it and waltz into the castle? Perhaps not. I hesitate, watching and waiting. I don’t want to wait too long to make a move, but I also need to be smart about this.