The Rise (15 page)

We emerged onto a road made of what seemed to be a mixture of red clay and brown dirt, where the rich green grass was trimmed close around its edges. I could see more cottages now, packed close together, some of them so tiny that a regular sized person would never be able to fit inside. The air inside the city seemed to be different somehow, too. Almost like sea air, slightly salty but fresh and soothing in my lungs, though I knew we were nowhere near an ocean on any human map. And yet, I could just hear the water somewhere in the distance, as it slapped against some mythical shore, as if had been doing so since before the beginning of time.

And then there were the people. If that’s what you could call them. Some of them I recognized as Vampire and Werewolf, not by any physical traits, but rather by the smells they emitted, which seemed to filling my nose along with dozens of other foreign scents. I found myself taking deep breaths, experiencing sensory overload. People paused as they passed us, whispered to each other in languages I had never heard. A couple with light blue skin and black wings tattooed on their arms and backs skittered away when they set eyes on us, glancing over their slim shoulders through a curtain of long turquoise hair, hurrying away.

Little troll-like creatures, only about a foot tall, with muddy brown skin and pinched faces, waddled about, in and out of the tiny cottages I’d noticed earlier. If Kayden hadn’t taken my arm, I would have been left behind, too caught up in my staring to notice that Camillia was headed down the red-brown path heading east.

“What is this place?” I whispered to Kayden, whom I noticed was also looking all around, through narrow eyes.

“It’s the Outlands,” he said. “I’ve heard of this place, but mostly only in bedtime stories my mother used to tell me when I was boy. I never really thought it actually existed.” He paused, looking around as though he still couldn’t believe it. That made two of us. “It’s a place where all supernatural creatures live in harmony with one another, a place without a ruler, a tiny bit of territory that was never designated to any race, like Two Rivers and its four sister cities were given to the Vampires and Wolves.”

“Other supernaturals?”

Kayden looked down at me, a small smile on his lips, as if he thought this were a cute question. I folded my arms. He gave a low chuckle around put an arm around my shoulder, drawing me close, and I got the feeling he was doing it to make a statement to all the onlookers.
Mine
, it said. This made my heart flutter a little, and I was glad to know that it hadn’t fallen out of my chest after all.

“Yes, Warrior,” he said. “Did you think we were the only ones?”

I scratched my head. “I guess I hadn’t thought about it all.”

Kayden’s arm tightened around me almost painfully as a man with long silver hair, dressed in just a pair of brown shorts that seemed to be made out of a soft material I had never seen before, torn where it hung past his knees, passed by us. His upper body and feet were bare, a sheath and arrows slung over his muscular back. He had those black tattooed wings on his arms and back, shaped like a dragonfly’s, and a face that was as beautiful as the sunrise over the ocean. He winked at me and grinned as we walked by, and my cheeks heated. I felt Kayden stiffen beside me.

“What was he?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder to see the man still smiling at me. I couldn’t seem to help myself.

“Fae,” Kayden mumbled, tugging me forward.

“Oh.”

We continued on, passing more cottages and more “people.” I got a dose of my own medicine when a group of women wearing long silk gowns and flowers in their braided hair passed by and giggled, pointing at Kayden. Lucky for him, Kayden paid them no mind, didn’t even look their way, even though I had to admit that they were more beautiful than any supermodel that ever walked a runway. When I looked up, though, I saw a small smile touching Kayden’s lips and nudged him with my elbow. He gave a low chuckle.

Soon we came to a row of cottages that were connected at the sides with clear walkways like glass tubes. I could see people milling around in them, crossing from one to the other. Camillia walked up the path to the cottage in the middle and knocked lightly on the door. While we waited, I looked down at the gardens around me and saw little winged people fluttering from flower to flower like bees. I took a step closer and bent a little to examine on of them. It was a female with pointed ears and severely slanted eyes which were orbs of jade. When she saw me looking at her, she flew away hastily, leaving a trail of shimmering dust in her wake.

“Pixie,” Kayden said, when I straightened back up.

Looks tasty,
my Monster mumbled in my head, but there was a slightly wary edge to its tone.

The door to the cottage opened, and an ordinary woman with unordinary scarlet hair stepped out. Her blue eyes widened as big as saucers when she saw Camillia, and her pale, delicate hand came up to cover her mouth. She opened her mouth to say something, and then her eyes flicked to me and she gasped. I shuffled my feet uncomfortably. All these fairytale creatures around, and
I
get gasped at? Seemed some things would never change.

The woman regained her composure quickly, taking in our little group. She turned to Camillia. “Cami,” she said, her pale arms opening wide. “I thought I would never see you again.”

Camillia nodded and came forward to embrace the other woman. They held each other for a long awkward moment. Finally releasing Camillia, the woman stepped back into the cabin, waving an arm for us to enter. “Come in, come in,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “Something has happened, hasn’t it? Come into the sitting room. I’ll have Darius bring us some blood. You all looked ravished.”

Victoria’s nose wrinkled. “I could go for some sandwiches,” she muttered.

The woman gave her a smile that made her plain face light up. “Of course, daughters of the Wolf do not drink blood,” she said, her voice a little chocked with tears.

She led us into what I assumed was the “sitting room,” which was actually more like a patio surrounded on three sides by glass. Benches with thick cushions sat in a square at the center, and exotic plants and flowers bloomed in pots all around; hanging from the ceiling in baskets and crawling up the glass walls on vines. Blue and black butterflies fluttered among them, bathing in sunlight streaming in through the windows and skylights. The air here was moist and warm, like a greenhouse. My companions took seats on the benches, and I sank into the cushions of one of them, Kayden sitting very close to me, his shoulder to my shoulder, thigh to thigh.

“I’ve forgotten my manners,” said the woman with red hair. “I’m Silvia, Camillia’s sister. I’m happy you all have come here.” Her blue eyes settled on me. “Especially you,” she said, and flounced out of the room before I could respond.

Great, I thought, more people with plans for me.

Just play it cool, Warrior. There could be someone here who can tell us how to…fix Nelly.

I nodded to myself. Right.

A few moments later, Silvia returned with a man carrying a tray of sandwiches and another tray with wine glasses filled with blood. I could smell the stuff from where I sat, and I heard my stomach grumble. It still disgusted me, the idea of drinking blood like water, having all these people around me, watching me do it, but I was hungry, and I knew it wasn’t the sandwiches that my stomach was asking for. I was still weak from all the blood Nelly had taken from me, and something told me that I would need to be in my top form for whatever lay ahead. I took a wine glass when the man holding the tray offered me one.

“This is my husband, Grimm,” said Silvia, taking a seat next to Camillia and gripping her hand. “But don’t let his name fool you. He’s actually very sweet.”

I studied Grimm as he set the two trays on a glass table in front of us. He looked human to me, and I couldn’t smell anything in his scent that said otherwise. His face was pleasant, but not handsome, and his build tall and thin. Dark hair fell into his eyes when he bent forward, and he tossed it back with an impatient hand. He looked up at me and saw me watching him. His dark eyes trailed down to my arm, and he studied my silver marks in a way that made me wish I had put on my jacket. Then he turned, offered a smile to his wife, and left.

“What is he?” I asked, only realizing that this was probably a rude question
after
I’d said it.

If it was, Silvia gave no indication. “He’s a necromancer,” she said.

When I just looked at her, she laughed, a high sound that grated in my ears, much like that of her sister’s. “He can speak to the dead, control them,” she explained.

“Oh,” I said, looking down into my glass of blood, embarrassed about my ignorance of this world. When my stomach growled again, I took a small sip. And then was I draining the glass in large gulps. It wasn’t as good as Kayden’s blood, but it was delicious nonetheless. I felt some strength returning to my muscles, felt the pain in my wrists lose its edge.

When I set the glass down, I saw that Silvia was studying me. “And you are the Sun Warrior I’ve heard so much about,” she said, her eyes glued to my arm. “I had wondered if it was true. Have you come to lead us?”

Camillia shushed her sister. “Silvia, we are all very tired,” she said. “Can we take some rest first?  I will explain everything to you after.”

I found myself sitting forward. “Actually,” I said. “I would like to hear all of it right now. Silvia, you’re talking about taking down the King, right? You want me to kill him?”

Everyone was silent, and I realized that this was probably an abrupt way of putting things. Well, I’ve never been one to mince words. Victoria surprised us all by saying, “Hell, yeah, we want you to kill him. You should have seen the things Nell—”

Tommy gripped her wrist hard, cutting her words off. Some silent message seemed to pass between them, and a moment later, Victoria looked down at her hands. Tommy’s voice was guarded when he spoke. “Yes, I think we can all agree that King William needs to be…taken down,” said Tommy. He turned his blue eyes on me. “But I don’t see why it has to be Alexa who does it. She has…other things that need her attention right now.”

For a moment, my brow furrowed in confusion, then I realized that he was talking about Nelly. And I picked up where he left off. “Right,” I said. “The answer to your question is yes, I will help you fight against the King, but…I have a personal problem that needs fixing. Is there someone here in the city who I could talk to?”

I felt Kayden stiffen beside me, but couldn’t figure out why.

“What
kind
of someone?” Silvia asked, considering my vague question. “Anyone one of the Wolf-children will be sure to give assistance, and of course our kind will as well. But the other races here have no allegiance to us, no concern for the politics in our territories. You’ll have to be more…specific about what you need.”

I hesitated, looking at the faces around me. Everyone here excluding Silvia knew that I was talking about Nelly, knew that Nelly was the real savior our people were looking for, but none of them would betray her to these people. Even Camillia, despite everything that had happened, wasn’t going to reveal Nelly’s true nature. I could hear the silent agreement between as if it were whispered in the wind. These revolutionaries still believed that I was the girl prophesized to save our kind, and we were going to keep on letting them think that. It was selfish, and dishonest, but my loyalty was for my sister first, always. Apparently, the others felt the same way.

“I don’t know,” I answered carefully. “Just…someone who
knows
things, maybe. Someone who knows how to…fix things that are broken.” I hoped the anguish wasn’t as clear in my voice as it was in my stomach.