Page 13 of Bound to the Fae Assassin

She watched as it grew, twisting and unfurling as it crawled toward the light.

In her mind’s eye, the sun rose and set in rapid succession, faster and faster until it was nearly strobing.

Then it paused and she saw the workers from the castle arriving with their slow-moving carts of stone. And the man with the gleaming machete, cutting down everything that stood in the path of where the king’s wall would be.

She cringed as the knife cut through a sea of waving green leaves. The ivy was connected, and though the piece she touched now had not yet unfurled from the ground when the wall went up, that terrible memory had been inherited from its fellows.

I’m so sorry, she told it inwardly.

She tried her best to show it the memory of the man from yesterday.

Do you remember him? she asked. I need to get to him. To stop my own friend from being cut down.

But the plants either couldn’t or wouldn’t respond.

Great.

She opened her eyes and let go of the leaf, feeling defeated. She was looking around for any other option when the ivy began to rustle as if from some wind she didn’t feel.

She watched in amazement as it began to reshape itself like a thousand slithering snakes. At first, she didn’t understand, but then the hand and foot holds became clear. The ivy was forming into a natural ladder for her.

Once it seemed finished, she placed a foot tentatively on the lowest “rung,” and put her weight on it. To her surprise, it easily supported her. She reached up and grabbed the next hold, and the ivy almost seemed to grasp her back.

Farrow made her way up the wall like that, trying hard not to look down, and even harder not to think about what would happen if a group of Blueguards spotted her. She was so focused on the climb that she didn’t notice when she reached the top until her hand closed around empty air, throwing her off balance. She had a heart-stopping moment where she was sure she was going to fall, but the ivy seemed to wrap itself around her other hand to hold her fast.

She clambered onto the top and risked a glance down, thankful that she’d never really been afraid of heights. Still, it was a far cry from climbing among the branches of the apple tree as a kid, and she was more than a little relieved to find the ivy had also made an easy way down for her on the other side.

A few minutes later, her feet safely on the ground once more, Farrow Barton took her first step into the land of the Fae.

Chapter 8

Farrow

Farrow looked around the field where she stood.

It was not unlike the one she had just come from, which made sense. The only thing between them was a wall, so it was technically the same field.

But it didn’t feel the same.

She had been aware that the mortal side of Fairweather had begun to lose its magic the moment the wall was complete. With each passing year, it was harder to find plants that were receptive to her touch, and harder for her to hear them when they spoke back to her at all.

But she hadn’t stopped to consider what might be happening on the other side.

The entire place seemed more alive than anything she’d ever seen. Ivy on the ground reached up to her, whispering. Trees swayed without a breeze, their branches waving as if they were trying to get her attention. Even the grasses danced and murmured.

It was as if the moment it was given over entirely to the Fae, everything here had come to life.

She was almost afraid to take a step, for fear of disturbing these souls.

But she thought of what she had done to Jericho, and she knew she had to press on. She thanked the ivy for its help, and the shapes it had made for her faded back into its natural growth.

“I’m sorry,” Farrow murmured to the grasses. “I have to find help for my friend.”

She jogged for the path that swirled like a dark brown ribbon through the field, leading into the trees. Her heart pounded in her ears as she ran.

The branches of the trees continued to wave and groan, the leaves gesticulating to her frantically.

“I can’t,” she told them. “I’ll come back one day and talk with you.”

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