Silver Flame (Vampire Girl #3)(29)

"And living in the Outlands would have taught me more?" I ask.

He chuckles. "You know so little of your people. Of your magical ancestry. You think the Outlands, as you call them, are all that's left of the Fae?"

This is news and gives me pause. "What are you talking about?"

"Come with me to meet Metsi, and I'll show you," he says. "There's a whole other world out there. The vampires don't know about it. Some Fae have even forgotten. But it is the way we have survived since the Unraveling."

"Not possible. We've raided every inch of this world. If there were a secret group of Fae living somewhere, we would have found them," I say.

"You vampires think you know everything. Makes you blind to the obvious. You believe you have the world mapped out, and so you have stopped exploring." He puts out the fire and packs his bag. "I'm going to Metsi. She will have information I need. And she may have a place for you. A purpose." He pauses. "Our people are at war. The vampires fight each other. You are as much Fae as you are vampire, don't you want to at least see what might be?"

"Are you giving me a choice?" I ask. "So I can leave if I want? Back to Stonehill?"

"You saved my life when you could have left me for dead. I'm not a monster. But… the horse, the pack, the food… that goes with me. If you leave, you're on your own. If you leave, you'll never know where your people are from. You'll never know what you could be. You'll never know whether Metsi could be a powerful ally or not."

"Are you still going to try to sell me to Metsi?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

"If I can get money for you, yes. But only if you want to stay." He holds out a hand to shake mine. "Deal?"

"And if I leave?" I still have Ari and Fen to consider.

"If you leave now, I won't stop you. But how far do you think you'll get alone, without a horse, without provisions, without someone watching your back?" he asks.

He has a point, and it irritates me to admit it. The weather is harsh. I am alone with nothing but the clothes on my back.

"How do we get there? To the Fae?" I ask, stalling.

"We travel by Waystone. There's one close by. Come, see for yourself."

And so I follow him, but I don't commit. Not yet. Not until I see the Waystone. Not until everything begins to click.

Because the Waystone is familiar. I've seen it before, or one just like it. With Fen, when Ari was missing and we went in search of her.

It is a wall, hidden deep within a damp cave, decorated with symbols of the Fae, a handprint in the center.

I run my fingers over the carved stone. "How does it work?"

"Are you coming?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

I sigh. "I guess I have no choice, do I?"

He grins. "There's always a choice, Princess. But I like to make it a hard one."

"What about the horse?" I ask as Tavian presses his hand against the center stone print, against the spikes there, and his blood flows into the carvings.

"He doesn't like the travel."

I soon understand why.

The stone grinds open revealing a slab that Tavian leads us both onto. And then it begins to move, dropping into the earth, moving us quickly through the core of our world. "Where are we going?" I ask.

"Avakiri. The Fae kingdom on the other side of this world."

"Other side?"

"You’ll see soon enough." Tavian grabs my hand. "Prepare yourself."

"For what?"

Too late.

Gravity ceases to function and I barely contain a scream as we both begin to float. Tavian demonstrates how to flip over so that his feet are facing what was the ceiling. I do the same, and then gravity hits us hard and we both fall against stone, the floor now above us. "What was that?" I ask, rubbing a new bruise on my shin.

"We are half way there," he says.

Half way to the other side of the world I thought I knew. Surely someone must have discovered these secrets, but I can see why they would be so closely guarded. The vampires made the Fae almost extinct, save those kept as slaves. The Druids were put to sleep, the Midnight Star and all blood ties killed… and yet the Fae found a way to survive. To live. To regrow.

And now they have Ari.

It's still so much to absorb. For so long we have lived in this one routine, existed with our ways intact. Then this human girl shows up and everything I know about my life is twisted into something different. I don't blame Ari, of course. If anything, she's more a victim in this than anyone. But it makes me wonder… how have I become so complacent with the injustices I see? How have I grown so jaded in this world? And what will this trip to Avakiri do to me? To everything I believe in?

When the Waystone stops moving, the doors swing open, and we emerge into a different cave, filled with sparkling green crystal. I can hear running water and smell the scent of fresh grass. Tavian reaches out and waves a hand over me. I feel a shimmering of magic, then it fades. "What did you do?" I ask.

"I cast an illusion over you, to change your appearance," he's says. "I don't know how many would recognize the illegitimate Fae daughter of the vampire king, but likely Metsi would."

I'm touched by his concern and begrudgingly thank him.