Page 46 of Crowned A Traitor
The cabin disappeared behind them into a collection of toadstools. Lottie tugged at Wolfgang’s trousers and crawled up his back. "Little legs," Wolfgang half-smiled before catching himself.
"Keep up with me, or I will leave you behind" Klara said, moving ahead of them.
“Right behind you Princess.”
Klara spun to face Wolfgang, “call me a princess again, and you’ll see just how like the High Queen I can be.”
~12~
On the edge of the Forest, Klara looked at the gravel path. She let her shifting potion reset, feeling exposed out in the open. Too many eyes would be on them as a group.
"We shouldn't use the paths," Klara said, noticing the tracks they were leaving. "And if we get lost in the darkness?" Wolfgang argued with Lottie's head resting on his shoulder.
"We will be harder to track, and I know where we're headed."
They didn't need to know I burnt the map.They didn't even know there had been a map.Lilith had brought her as far as Lokey. Now it was up to Klara to get to Kharon. She had visited the River Ferrier once with her Father. The King thought it was vital for her to meet Death's deliverer.
Arthur was already off the Forest path and walking through the leaves and fallen branches.
“We are wasting time. Move it or stay," Arthur said, and Wolfgang followed without argument.
The group held a steady pace as the hours past. Klara needed the others to keep up if they were to make the Ferrier with time to spare. Kharon was devious at the best of times. Klara recalled her last visit with her Father. The Ferrier had pushed a Creature from the longboat and into the River for merely looking at them wrong. Klara looked over her shoulder to see Wolfgang watching his foot placement as his sister slept on his back.He must be tired from carrying the extra weight for hours, Klara thought as Arthur walked beside her.
“How does it feel to be out of the Castle?” She asked, and Arthur stared up at the trees.
“Strange, I haven’t left that place in decades, I know I’m dead but being out I’ve never felt more alive.”
“Lilith got you out?” Klara tried to hide the sorrow in her voice. “I was just finished the night’s feast when she came and snuck me into the Forest. Lilith knew you had returned before the others.”
“Do you know why Lilith helped us?”
“I think of you as a granddaughter, and Abadan knows this. I’m the first on the list as leverage against you.” Arthur pushed aside a low hanging branch for them to step under. “Lilith released my binding spell to the Castle.”
“How did you know where to go?”
“She told me to head East until I reached the toadstools.’
“You had been there before?”
“Decades ago, Tapped was once a haven for Fae who had been banished from Kalos. When Malum and Kalos were ruled under the Fae Queen, Warlocks used to go and treat any wounded in secret before the treaty was signed.”
Klara had a million and one questions about Arthur and her Father’s past, but she had settled for knowing there were thousands of years’ worth of secrets between them.
Klara studied the Forest floor, “Lilith always acted as though she hated me. Made me fight until my ribs cracked and not just on one occasion. I was surprised when she came to my cell. I was sure she was going to kill me.”
“Lucifer told her to raise you, make you an Heir, and that’s what she did. Lilith was always very literal.”
“Maybe if she and the others had been more lenient, I wouldn’t be leaving.”
“If Lilith had, you wouldn’t be strong enough to leave,” Arthur countered, and Klara knew he was right.
“Lilith could have broken you, but you rose to every challenge much to the High Queen’s dismay,” Arthur said, and she looked over her shoulder making sure Wolfgang and Lottie hadn’t fallen behind.
“I’m not the Heir. As Lucifer’s daughter I should relish the misery and darkness, but I don’t.”
“Not yet,” Arthur smiled, and Wolfgang groaned quietly.
“Let me take her,” Klara said, and Wolfgang squinted in mistrust. “We can’t stop, and you have been carrying her for hours.”
