I blinked, my anger temporarily forgotten. I’d never seen Sage so riled. Her moss green eyes glared, and her lips curled back from her teeth.
“We must do this,” she insisted, her face whitening. “We cannot afford to dally. Aliza is the first human to come to these lands, willingly or not, in over two centuries. If we give up now, how long will it be until the next one comes? I—we cannot turn back. Aliza is our only hope.”
I buried my face in my hands. To the surprise of nobody, they weren’t going to listen. They couldn’t care less about me or my life. I was a tool. A tool to get what they wanted. I was trapped.
“I hate spiders,” I whispered, my body succumbing to trembles once more. “I can’t do spiders.”
Somebody wrapped their arm around me. “It’ll be alright,” Pansy murmured, stroking my shoulder.
It wouldn’t. It was a disaster, and I was woefully unprepared. I was no promised one. I was no queen. I was just a pathetic human, trapped in a situation much too big for me, and I wanted to go home.
A pair of small hands cradled mine. Hands splattered with oozing blue liquid. The spider equivalent of blood. I snatched mine away, scrubbing them on my sopping trousers, but looked at Sage, half crouching to peer imploringly at my face.
“Aliza. I know you didn’t ask for this. If I could wake the princes myself, believe me, I would have done it hundreds of years ago. But I cannot. We cannot do this without you. If the spiders are too much for you, I will scout the area and see to it that you never lay eyes upon another, but we need your help. Please, Aliza. Help us.”
I swallowed. Moss green eyes held mine. They were using me. I, as a person, meant nothing to them, but… if I turned my back now, how many innocent people would die? Could I give up, live my life, with that weighing on my conscience?
I licked my lips and nodded. “Okay. But you have to keep them away from me.”
Sage deflated, sagging with relief. “The spiders?”
I nodded again, my throat tightening. I didn’t want to think about them, or even hear their name.
“Right.” Sage straightened, all business once more. “Hazel, Meadow, with me. Pansy, can you, er…” She gestured vaguely in my direction with a faint expression of distaste.
Pansy snatched my hand, tugging me to my feet and up the bank to dry ground. I walked with my head low and my shoulders hunched, as though that would prevent anything lurking above from reaching me. “Tea. That’s what you need.” She leaned in and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “And a cookie.”
I couldn’t force my lips to curve. Not now that I knew exactly what stood between me and my freedom.
14The End Is Nigh
Sage and her hunting party returned late in the evening, all heavily splattered in blue liquid. Hope of walking any further that day faded with the light, and we pitched our tents along the bank. The witches had burnt the monstrous body, and I was glad of it. I was certain I wouldn’t sleep after the day’s events, but I didn’t need a dirty great spider shadow flickering over my tent wall as I lay awake all night.
I looked up from what might have been my hundredth cup of strong, sweet tea as Sage marched through the camp and straight to Hyacinth. They shared a whispered discussion before Sage headed to the river and began stripping off her stained clothes. Apparently, she had no qualms about privacy as she waded, stark naked, into the water. I averted my eyes from her slender but surprisingly muscular form. Nobody else batted an eyelid. Maybe nudity was the norm within witch covens.
Hyacinth approached the log I shared with Pansy, smiling.
“Sister Sage has done as she promised,” she said, “but what’s more, she has spotted signs of strange magic not far from here. It’s likely, given the… guardians, that the princes are closer than we’d imagined. With any luck, this will soon be over, and we will be home in time for lunch tomorrow.”
She gave another encouraging smile and hurried away, but the flame-roasted mushrooms I’d picked at curdled in my stomach. I could well be dead before lunch tomorrow. Still, it was an entire day later than I’d anticipated when that many-legged monstrosity had been coming at me.
“Isn’t that exciting?” Pansy leaned in close. “You’ll meet Prince Anwir tomorrow!”
“Hmm.” Excited wasn’t the word I would choose, but I thought of that painting, and that lopsided grin, and butterflies erupted in my belly. They were almost immediately squished by the weight of my dread, but still, they’d existed, however fleetingly.
Supposing I did manage to survive the following morning, what would the almighty immortal Prince Anwir make of me? I coiled the end of my plait around my finger. The fae I’d met so far had been beautiful beyond reason, and I was just a bog-standard human. Pretty, by our standards; everyone commented on how blue my eyes were, and how long my legs. But compared to the fae…
Urgh. I didn’t care what the prince thought of me, did I? This wasn’t me. I wasn’t some preening fool whose only thoughts centred around impressing boys. I had a brain, and a good one at that. I was worth so much more than some man’s–male’s–opinions of my looks.
“I can hardly contain myself,” I said in answer to Pansy’s question. “I suppose I should get some sleep. Big day tomorrow, after all…”
In truth, I wanted to be alone. This could very well be my last night on earth, or wherever the hell I was. What if I did die? What if I never made it home, and my parents spent the rest of their lives in ignorance of my fate? What if I never got to see them again? Never got to graduate and give them a better life?
The ball of dread I’d nursed all afternoon tightened into a physical ache and tears welled in my eyes. I missed them. I couldn’t leave them, not without a chance to say a proper goodbye. I had to live. I had to get through that rift.
I spent an extra few minutes checking the folds of my blankets for spiders. After the horrors of the day, it would take only one tiny beast to tip me over the edge, and I had enough to deal with already. I checked Pansy’s too, just to be on the safe side, and finally crawled beneath my covers.
The camp was quiet. I might have found the snap of the fire and the tinkling of the stream soothing on any other night, but my body was heavy, weighed down by the thought of my parents wasting their lives searching for me. I slid my hand into my pocket and pulled out my phone.
“Please,” I breathed, holding the power button down.
The screen remained stubbornly dark.
I hugged the phone to my chest and squeezed my eyes shut. Tears seeped into my hair.
Frigid wind whipped my hair across my cold-raw face.
Gliding.
I looked down.
Dark ice sped beneath my bladed feet. My lips curved into a beaming smile as I spun, noting the twirling white trail I’d left in my wake. It wasn’t the only one. Another set wove and intersected with mine, criss-crossing and spiralling under the starry sky.
Strong hands closed around my waist, hoisting me into the air. My head fell back, lifting my face to the twinkling heavens, and we revolved gently before my blades met the ice once more, gliding to a halt.
Those hands wrapped around my front, palms pressing into my flesh as they travelled up my torso. A warm, solid body pressed against my back, and when I rolled my head onto the waiting broad shoulder, feather-light lips found my neck.
