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Chapter 24
Bree
When they reachedthe nearest territory of the Wilde Fae, nothing was as Bree expected. She had conjured up images in her head of vicious creatures building forts within the very depths of the earth. Instead, the rolling hills were covered in rows upon rows of cute little huts, made from grass and the limbs of the nearby forest. There was no chaos here or violence. Instead, Bree found nothing but peacefulsilence.
Eurig frowned and jumped down from his horse. “Something is wrong. It is far too quiethere.”
“It is in the middle of the night,” Bree said in a whisper. “Can they all besleeping?”
Eurig jerked his head. “The Wilde Fae enjoy the night, reveling in the deepest parts of darkness. They celebrate it. On a normal night, this place would be an orgy of drinking, dancing, and…” Eurig swallowed hard and glanced away. “Andsex.”
Bree’s entire body warmed, and she was far too aware of what she must look like right now, covered in the mud from the swamp. Why, oh why, had she thought that was a good idea? He probably thought she looked like a drownedrat.
“So, then what do you think is going on?” Bree asked, turning the conversation back onto the task at hand. She could not think of Eurig right now, not like that, though it was impossible to rid her mind of memories of the feel of his skin againsthers.
“Either they are not here, or…” Eurig let the rest of his sentence fall into silence as he tied his horse to the nearest tree and turned toward the Wilde Fae camp. Bree followed just behind him, grabbing a dagger from her rucksack just incase.
They slowly eased their way down the hill, careful to keep themselves hidden in the shadows just in case a Wilde Fae was keeping watch from somewhere hidden from their own prying eyes. Bree could barely breathe as they stepped in the midst of the huts, and her heartbeat was racing so fast that her entire body trembled from the force ofit.
Eurig stepped up close to the door of the nearest hut, ducking his head low so that he could gaze inside. She reached out toward him, instinctively, desperately wanting to pull him back close in fear that a Wilde Fae would catch him lurking around their hut. Eurig’s back stiffened and he sucked in a sharp gasp, causing Bree’s heart to throttle into the nextgear.
She expected a hand to reach out from the depths of the hut and wrap itself around Eurig’s throat, but instead, nothing happened. Eurig stumbled back from the hut and whirled toward Bree with wideeyes.
“What is it?” Bree asked. “What’shappened?”
“They’re all dead. That, or cursed.” Eurig sighed and ran a hand down his tired face. “I would put bets on them beingcursed.”
Bree’s eyes widened, and she shook her head from side to side in disbelief. “That’s impossible. They can’t be cursed. Not if they’re the ones who were doing thecursing.”
“You’re right,” Eurig said with a frown. “The only way these Wilde Fae could be cursed is if they weren’t the ones behind it in the firstplace.”
All the blood drained from Bree’s face, not because of worry for these fae but because of what that meant. If they were not the ones who had cast the curse on Taveon and the rest of the Court, then who was? The truth was, Bree and Eurig had no other leads other than what they had found in the fae village. She had staked all of her hope on the Wilde Fae. And now that they had discovered they were wrong, Bree felt as though all the fight had gone out of her in the single blink of aneye.
“There’s more,” Eurig said, his voice edged in something akin to wariness. He eyed Bree with a strange expression, one that made her feel as if he did not want to share whatever else he just seen inside thathut.
“Tell me, Eurig,” Bree said. “It’s only fair that Iknow.”
“Only if you promise that you will do nothing about it. And I do meannothing.”
What the hell did that mean? And why did he look as though he almost feared her in a way? Bree sighed, shook her head, and shoved past Eurig. He might be built like a tank, but he hadn’t expected her to charge straight past him so that she could see whatever it was that he had discovered in thehut.
Inside, she saw three fallen Wilde Fae, their signature yellow skin pale from the lack of light in their eyes. All around them, dead ravens dotted the floor, and their blood was a painting against the beige surfaces of the hut. Bree jerked back, shaking her head. More dead ravens. Everywhere they turned, there weremore.
They had been in the castle, they had been in the village, and now they were here. They were always wherever the curse wasfound.
Pieces of the puzzle began to fit together in Bree’s mind. Dead ravens, the curse. It was all connected. Including what had happened to the fae in the village. Bree’s eyes widened, and her heart began to jerk inside her chest. She whirled toward Eurig, and his face reflected every thought raging through hermind.
“That’s why they came back,” Bree whispered. “Because of the raven. It was dead, but I brought it back. And then the next morning, the fae came back,too.”
Eurig held up his hands as if in warning or surrender. Or both. “Bree. Let’s not jump to conclusions. I know it seems that way, but those two events might not be connected atall.”
She shook her head and took a step away from him. “You’ve suspected it all this time, haven’t you? You don’t seem surprised at all. You came to this conclusion back in the village, didn’tyou?”
“The thought occurred to me, but it’s nothing more than a hunch that is probably wrong,” Eurig said slowly. “Just because it happened once does not mean it would happen again. In fact, it is more likely to have no effect atall.”
“But there is a chance that itdidmake every difference in the world,” Bree said in a whisper. “There is a chance that if I bring these ravens back to life that every single Wilde Fae who has fallen here will wake up. And if that’s the case, then you know what I need to do. This is how we bring Rafe and Taveonback.”
“That power is not normal, Bree,” Eurig said, his voice strained. “Now is not the time to jump to conclusions. Please. We have found what we came here to find. I think it is time for us to go back to the castlenow.”
