“Mum...why can’t we leave here? What is outside here?”
Her features tighten, and she closes her eyes for a moment. When she opens them, she parts her mouth to say something, but she pauses. Her eyes flicker over me. “Do you remember the fairy tale I sing to you every week on a Sunday?”
“The one with the fae and the curse?” I ask, feeling confused.
“Yes,” she answers and pulls me in for an embrace. As she kisses the top of my head, she whispers ever so softly. “Fairy tales are real sometimes, Daesyn, and sometimes the evil in them is worse than a song could ever really describe. Remember my songs, my sweet girl, they will guide you in the Otherworld.”
* * *
I shoot up in bed, my hands gripping the sheets tightly as the dream of my mum disappears, like most of my memories of her. I feel like every time I try to remember her songs, remember her, the memory is impossible to catch, like oil in water. I can’t remember the fairy tale she used to sing to me or what she smelt like or even how she really looked. It’s all a distant blur, something my mind just can’t quite latch onto anymore. That damn guy in the fields has left my head full of questions and out of focus, which is something I can’t afford to have happen right now.
I have an academy to head to. An academy where what’s in my blood has to stay a secret and I have to keep my ass alive. Looking at the window, I expect to see sunlight, but then it hits me where I am. There is never sunlight, only darkness, only moon and stars for light. I flick on the lamp Poppy brought into the room for me last night and sit up in bed, rubbing my face.
“I have a present for you!” Mossy announces, climbing in from the window and kicking it shut behind him. A smile graces my lips when I look at Mossy, seeing a shiny dagger in his hands.
“Have I ever told you how much I love you?” I enquire as I take the dagger and hold it under the light.
“You only say that when I bring you things to stab other people with,” Mossy replies. “You’re a very strange person, did you know that?”
“Everyone wants to stab someone, Mossy, but most people can’t get away with it like I can,” I answer with a grin. He snickers in his monkey way as I admire my new dagger. The hilt is made with shiny silver metal wrapped in thick leather, and the metal itself has a brilliant balance to it. Down the blade are markings, strange ones that I have never seen before. The markings remind me of Old Latin, but it’s not like any Latin I have ever seen. They almost look like Protector runes...but why would they be on a dagger?
Either way, I’m keeping it. I get dressed and hide the dagger on my back, using my bra to hold it up. It’s not a classy way to hide it, but it damn well works. I just have to be careful not to cut my bra open when I get it out. I don’t want to repeat what happened that one time in Scotland. I shudder and push the door open as Mossy jumps on my shoulder.
“Hear anything juicy on your travels?” I ask Mossy as we head down the stairs.
He snickers again. “That Laelia girl tried to hit on the angel fucker. It was funny when he said no.”
I snort and stop when I look down the stairs to see Torfinn at the bottom of them, his arms crossed tightly across his chest and looking all sexy alpha with his cold gaze.
“Will you tell your monkey to stop calling me angel fucker?” Torfinn demands—his deep voice is nice in the morning. It’s almost better than coffee.
Almost.
Mossy answers. “Sure. Done. Angel fucker.”
Torfinn looks one step away from murdering my monkey as I step around him, holding in my laugh, but Mossy is snickering away nonetheless. I might need to have a discussion with him about not pissing off a demi-god with untold power. I smell the coffee like a siren smells desperate men on a ship. It lures me deep into the kitchen where Laelia is pouring herself a big cup of coffee. I walk over and grab the cup the second she stops filling it.
“What the hell! Give it back!” she demands.
“How very kind of you to make me a coffee on the morning I’m going to risk my life pretending to be you,” I sarcastically reply. If steam could come out of her ears, it would be right now. I smirk and move to the table, sitting down in the seat I was in last night. I take a long sip of the coffee, not giving a shit if it burns a little on the way down my throat.
“Oh yeah, this is good stuff,” I mumble as Poppy and Alun come into the room, followed by Velia, who looks like she hasn’t slept a wink. Poppy looks pale as fuck, and Alun just seems stressed. I guess this is what a normal family looks like when they are about to send one of their kids to a death academy.
“We must be leaving. The academy suggests no one eats before going through the gate,” Alun announces.
“Why?” I question, sipping on my drink. “And what is the gate?”
“The gate to the academy is made of pure original magic. It’s the oldest part of the city, and it marks everyone who enters through it,” Alun explains. “It also tests your magic, gives the academy teachers a fair judgment on you.”
“That’s not a great idea,” I mutter, knowing this is going to go wrong. “In fact, a magical test on me is a very bad fucking idea.”
“Language,” Alun scolds and sighs after. “I don’t know what your secrets are, Daesyn, but I’m sure nothing within you will damage a four-thousand-year-old magical gateway.”
I try not to snort.
“Now the ridiculous parts of the morning are over, can we get moving?” Torfinn asks, and I turn my eyes to see him leaning against the doorway. “I do not want to be late.”
“Of course,” Velia is quick to mumble, and I go to take one more sip of my coffee when she snatches the mug from my hands and then starts shooing us all outside the back door. I glance up at Mossy, who is observing everything around us as we head to the stable. I follow them all in to see six black horses. They are huge, towering over me as I look up at the first one. Its long black mane is plaited in several places, and its eyes seem even darker than its black fur.
“This is my horse and the one you will be riding,” Laelia tells me, moving to my side.
“What’s her name?” I question.
“His name is Stormfire,” she tells me and opens up the stable door. “He saved my mum when he was just a young foal from a fire caused by a storm.”
“I like the name. It sounds as fierce as he looks,” I reply, following her to Stormfire’s side. Laelia’s hand reaches out and grabs my arm, trying to pull me closer but with no luck.
Curious, I let her speak rather than reacting. “My sister means a lot to me. If you come out of this alive and she doesn’t, I’m going to drag you back to wherever my dad got you from.”
I smile before easily grabbing her arm and flipping her over my shoulder. She flies out of the stable, crying as she lands on her side.
“What is going on!” Alun roars, rushing to her side. I ignore them both and look at the saddle. I jump up and grab the top of the saddle to bring myself all the way onto his back. After sliding my feet into the stirrups, I pick up the reins. Finally, I look down at Alun, who is hugging Laelia, and Velia is in the middle of them now, cupping her daughter’s face. A normal family. But as I glance down the stable, seeing Poppy on her horse nearby, I figure not everyone in their family is doing good. Her jaw is tightened, and her eyes are burning with something I think is longing.