Page 134 of Court of the Fae Princes

Her grin simply widens.

“No, seriously, are daggers going to be coming at me in my sleep?” That’s just what I need after the weird nightmares I’ve been having about the princes since they disappeared from the Summer Court. Nightmares while I sleep and daggers coming at me.

She turns, whistling and stirring the food.

This is going to be a long trip.

I glance away from her and to the trees. A dead raven watches me, and I swear it’s the same one as before. A chill rolls down my spine. I glance at Lady Nova to see if she’s seen it, then back, but the thing is gone.

FIVE

Cassia

My eyes open to a dark sky illuminated by a fire, a welcome break from the nightmare involving Prince Sulien being tortured in a cold, dark place. I’ve had similar nightmares every night since we started traveling two days ago, although, to be fair, I’ve had the occasional good dream mixed in with the bad too. Embers float into the air above me, dancing with the stars. There’s nothing but the sound of the cracking fire, and yet, something woke me. I lay on my pallet of blankets for a bit, trying to figure out what disturbed me. I don’t hear anything. I don’t sense anything.

Lady Nova sleeps peacefully on the other side of the fire, which should tell me everything I need to know. That woman has the instincts of a feral cat. If there was something around, she’d be awake right now.

So what woke me up?

Part of me wants to awaken Lady Nova and ask. Part of me thinks she’d gut me like a fish out of annoyance just for being so stupid if I did. But I guess I don’t need to bother her right now. The only reason to wake her would be if I thought there was something dangerous, which I don’t think there is.

Still, I can’t go back to sleep. Maybe it’d be worth it just to take a look around.

I quietly climb out of the blankets and slip into my boots. I also grab a dagger and hide that in my boots, just in case. Standing, I glance around. The firelight shines on our campsite alone. Outside of that, there’s only darkness.

Hesitating just a moment, I pick a direction at random and move away from the firelight. Something in the forest is calling to me. Maybe the lull of the moonlight, maybe something else, but I won’t be able to sleep until I find out what.

An indescribable feeling makes me keep going when logic would say to stop. Slowly, there’s a sound. Something soft that I can’t quite place. I walk through the forest, unimpeded, and follow the sound.

The forest is awake. I hear animals rustling. I see them scurrying about as I make my trek. As the sound grows closer, I notice that it’s soft and almost musical. Like the song nature would play if she could. There’s drums, or are those the sounds of animals running? And a flute, but it could be the whistling of the wind.

In too deep to stop, I listen and choose my directions with care, the sound growing louder with each step I take. At last, the music reaches an all-time high, and I stop in front of a tree and stare. Is this tree the source of the sound? That’s impossible.

Staring at the bark, I squint my eyes. Something’s off. The bark looks funny. It’s thicker and bumpier than any bark I’ve seen before, but it could be the fact that everything is different under the moonlight.

Is this some pixie nonsense? I don’t know a lot about pixies, but the little creatures are trouble.

This might have been a mistake.

Still, I lean in closer, trying to understand what the hell is going on with this music producing tree when a pair of eyes opens and blinks in front of me. I jump back and curse, grasping my chest as if that will get my heart pumping again. It does. It’s too fast though, because my heart is racing.

What the hell am I looking at?

The eyes stare back at me, and I suddenly realize it’s a tree spirit. These creatures live in many trees but usually slumber within the tree for long periods of time. Sometimes, no one knows why, they awaken. Knowing that they’re harmless, for the most part, I let out a breath and turn my attention back to it. I’ve never been this close to one.

The spirit's gruff voice breaks through the sounds of the forest. “Who’s disturbing my slumber? With the help of a little magical music, I finally fell asleep after the last lizard crawled across my face. Do you know how hard it is to sleep with animals crawling all over you?”

Wait. I bothered him? “Sorry.”

“Sorry,” he humphs. “Such a fae thing to say. A useless thing to say. Now, who is it that’s disturbed my peace?”

I hesitate, trying to remember tales about tree spirits. Can this one turn me into a beetle if I piss him off? Or shrink me to the size of an acorn? I’m pretty sure he can.

I proceed with caution. Caution and politeness. “I’m Cassia Withers, and I’m honored to meet such a fine tree spirit as yourself,” I say, hoping that my words might soothe the creature.

Besides, I can kind of understand where he’s coming from. Having animals crawl all over your face while you sleep does sound annoying. Still, this spirit was making the noise that attracted me and woke me up. That’s how I found him. So he really has no room to be annoyed at me coming over to investigate.

“Cassia Withers?” The spirit's eyes widen. “It’s you! Our future queen! Excuse me for not bowing, but…” The spirit looks down at its non-existent body then back at me, raising what could be its eyebrows.

---