Page 26 of The Fae King's Labyrinth

“I am grateful.” The pooka let his head fall back so he could stare at the sky. “I just hate to see a perfectly good pair of boots ruined.”

The moment Calypso left my arms, the curse crowded into the gap her magic had left behind. It clawed at me, trying to rip me apart in different directions. I set my jaw and prepared for the excruciating pain, but it never came. Instead, exhaustion hit me like a solid wall, knocking me to my knees. I collapsed in the grass, slowing my descent with my burnt hands.

“What’s wrong?” the pooka asked.

“Azulin?” Calypso’s concerned query reached me right before I passed out.

∞∞∞

Calypso

It was strangely disconcerting to transition from cat to human. Balancing with a tail versus without a tail felt strange.

However, it didn’t frighten me like the sight of Azulin collapsing onto his hands and knees in the singed grass around where his portal had dumped us. The flame over my head blinked out and darkness descended.

“What’s wrong?” The pooka scrambled to his feet with strangely unreal speed.

“Azulin?” Taking a step before I recalled my injured foot, I gasped in pain but put weight on it, regardless. I stumbled, falling short of Azulin as he collapsed face-first in the dirt. Not giving up, I dragged myself to him and wrestled him onto his side so he wouldn’t suffocate. “What’s wrong with him?” I asked, glancing up at the pooka standing over us, the full moon at his back, casting him in shadow.

Then he turned his head, I caught my first glimpse of the unnamed pooka in the moonlight. He made a striking image standing there, his jet-black hair ruffling in the breeze and fanning over his forehead. Beneath his inky brows, his eyes shone an unnaturally vibrant green as he narrowed them at me. He looked back and forth between me and Azulin, which made me suspect he was assessing the way our magic entwined. The longer he studied us, the deeper his frown grew.

“I suspect it’s the moon.” The pooka nodded toward the orb behind him. “The curse hasn’t been completely broken, but you defanged some of its bite. However, as long as the moon is full, he’s going to have to continue to fight the curse.” He glanced over his shoulder. “And since the moon is at its pinnacle for this cycle, he should regain his strength as it wanes.”

“But what do we do while we wait for that?” I asked. Scanning our surroundings, my panic increased. “We’re exposed out here in the center of a strange field.”

“Not strange.” The pooka frowned at the stars above us. “We’re a dozen miles or so north of the Wild Woods’ border and a handful of miles south of the Miliander River that marks the meeting of Unseelie and Seelie lands.” He turned in a circle, surveying our surroundings. “Though you are correct that we need to seek shelter. The high fae’s impressive display of magic has caught the attention of the locals. Establish skin-to-skin contact with him and stay out of sight while I speak to the curious herd approaching from the south.” He motioned toward the approaching group. I could see them only dimly in the moonlight despite the glow their light sources gave off.

Hunkering down close to Azulin, I sought out his limp hand and threaded our fingers together. Pressing our palms flush, I watched over Azulin’s still body as the pooka reached the approaching fae.

At that distance, the most I could hear was the rise and fall of the conversation’s volume. Occasionally, one of the fae would gesture toward where Azulin and I waited. When they did, the pooka would shake his head and motion back the way they had come. Finally, one of the group threw his hands in the air and glared at the pooka. A second fae shook a finger in the pooka’s face. Then the whole group turned their back on him and marched away. After a moment, the pooka started back toward us.

“Get everything together. We need to move. Quickly. Roll him on his stomach. I’m going to have to carry both of you.”

I complied so Azulin lay prone, his head turned so he might not suffocate in the grass and dirt. “Why the haste?” I asked, scrambling to my feet as best I could with one lame ankle.

“The land owners are displeased with our presence and have already alerted the local authorities. The Unseelie king won’t be tickled that his pet victim escaped his new snare, so unless we want to leave Azulin to his fate, I suggest we best get moving.” The pooka surveyed Azulin’s position. “Lift him slightly on this side. I need enough space to get under him in my rabbit form. Once I change into a horse, you’ll have to find your own way onto my back because I won’t be able to help.”

“Understood.” Grabbing fistfuls of Azulin’s tunic, I pulled with all my might.

Azulin was heavy. But considering he was twice my size and well-muscled, the fact I could move him at all was miraculous. I’d barely lifted his shoulder when the pooka barked at me to stop and hold.

I only managed to comply for a few moments before my strength began to give out, but apparently that was enough. The pooka became a rabbit, scooted under Azulin, and transformed into a horse, lifting Azulin’s unconscious body onto his back. By some miracle of magic or trickery, he stated on.

“Get up. Fast,” the pooka ordered. With the king’s body slung over the stallion’s back and shoulders, it left little room for me to climb up, but I intended to try. I didn’t want to be left behind after all of this.

“Centaurs incoming,” he warned, pawing the ground in his impatience. “I can outrun them, but you have to get on now.”

With a running start, despite my aching ankle, I jumped for the pooka’s back. I managed to sling myself over the halfwaypoint. The pooka didn’t wait for me to adjust my position before he started galloping for the tree line to the north.

Apparently, not a moment too soon. The pounding approach of a herd’s worth of hooves thundered around my bobbing head. Pressing my hands against the pooka’s side, I tried to lift my head to look around. I glimpsed flashing hooves and heaving horse flanks. A glint of moonlight on a metal weapon caught my eye just as someone yelled for us to stop.

“Not a chance,” the pooka replied. A swell of magic tickled my nose, and I sneezed. Losing my balance, I face planted against his side. Disoriented and bouncing painfully across the pooka’s spine, I missed whatever spell he released.

One moment we were surrounded and the next we were galloping across an open field with no one nearby. Angry shouts in the distance made me strain to look back. The centaurs were far behind us brandishing weapons and hollering.

“We are approaching the river. Hold on.” The pooka’s magic swelled around us, tickling my nose again. I sneezed hard just as he leaped into the air, so I missed whatever it was we hit. It might’ve been a spell, flooding in like a great prickly blanket of watchfulness. Whatever it was, it held us a moment in midair as it prodded at me, and I glimpsed the roaring white water beneath us. The wild, churning waves reached for us unhindered by the strange time suspension that affected us. But the water couldn’t do more than spray the pooka’s hooves and sprinkle my forearms and feet before the spell released us.

It spat us out onto the opposite bank in a chaotic jumble of limbs and bodies. Somehow the pooka transformed into his human form, landing in a graceful roll and elegantly bouncing up onto his feet. Meanwhile, unconscious Azulin and I collapsed in an untidy heap.

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