Page 3 of A Tale of Treachery

I took in my surroundings, as if suddenly awakening from a deep slumber and noted the sunlight streaming through the marble behind him.

The sun.

I shook my head and hunched over, avoiding eye contact with the strange man.

The intruder walked closer. Advancing with the caution one would use to approach a wild animal, his hands held in front of him, he reached me and offered his hand. “My name is Redmond. Would you like to come with me?”

I eyed the man skeptically through the red strands of my jagged hair, questioning whether this was a trick of some sort, but ultimately decided to take his hand. And when I looked up, rays of light spread out behind him, creating a divine silhouette. My vision narrowed on our joined hands, warmth and comfort trickling through our connection, and I raised my eyes to his. Hope filled my chest.

My savior.

CHAPTER2

TEN YEARS LATER.

So much had changed over the past ten years. I had friends, a mentor, a new kingdom to call home, and an apprenticeship that gave me a purpose in life. They called me Dahlia now, a new name befitting my new life. I would never speak my old name aloud for fear thathemight hear it, but he never would, not ever again, because it hadn’t been uttered since that fateful night Redmond had found me and taken me under his wing.

I had him to thank for everything.

And that’s why I was here now.

Despite the changes that had taken place in the world, this forest would always remain the same—dark and haunted—but somehow holding the familiar comforts of childhood. The trees were still a stonelike material, as if they had been petrified, the leaves still crystalline, but the sun managed to break through during the daytime, lighting up the unearthly wood with a yellowish-gold hue that seemed to symbolize hope and rebirth.

My life wasn’t the only thing to change that night.

Events had transpired beyond my knowledge while Malachi and I were distracted by the invading soldiers—events that changed the ways of the world. While the soldiers of Cambriel had targeted the order’s encampment, the witches, mages, and fae had embarked on a different plan, a plan to close the rift to the otherworld.

And they’d succeeded.

I thanked the stars every day for what they had done, for unknowingly freeing me. Redmond had been in the forest that day observing the healing of the rift, and I was lucky he’d stumbled onto me. Because of him, I had a new life away from Malachi.

To this day, I remained clueless as to what had happened to Malachi, but could only hope he was dead.

The sun slowly sank over the horizon, settling behind the surrounding trees, making it difficult to catch a glimpse of that orange ball in the sky of which I’d grown so fond, and before I knew it, it was nighttime.

A twig snapped somewhere on my left, bringing a smile to my face, the sound meaning only one thing: Eulalia was here.

I’d met her for the first time in this spot five years ago after wandering through the forest to get away from my kingdom. My magic had finally shown its face, coming on in a sudden rush of restless waves like a catastrophic force.

Redmond couldn’t help me, despite being the most brilliant scholar in Cambriel. His focus of study lay in the fields of medicine, science, invention, and history. Magic, on the other hand, had been outlawed, even though those with magic had saved us all. His knowledge on the subject was limited at best, found only in the few books he’d been able to spare from the widespread post-war book burnings.

When my magic couldn’t be tamed or restrained, he’d told me to run, to get as far away from the kingdom as possible, for fear that I would be burned for witchcraft.

The idea was silly, since I wasn’t a witch.

I was something so much worse.

And that’s how I’d met the woman stepping out of the treelined shadows. It was fate, an internal compass of some sort that had led me to her, my magical tutor. She was wise beyond her age of twenty-four, and despite being only one year older than me, more experienced in the ways of the world.

A smile graced my face as she stepped into the light, though my lips turned down upon seeing her haggard and exhausted appearance. It was odd to see Eulalia’s pallor. Her umber skin usually glowed with a soft golden light. Her honey eyes were dull, bearing the heavy weight of fatigue.

“Eulalia, are you all right? You don’t look well.” I approached her with care, pulling her into an embrace. Her sheer white gown matched mine but was covered in thick layers of mud.

She melted into my hold, clearly exhausted, as her familiar, Silas, a black raven, perched on a tree branch. She pulled back to whisper to him, and he flew away with a loud squawk, likely to surveil the area.

Her shoulders sank, and a sickly gray color crept along the edges of her aura. “No, I’m not all right. Those soldiers have been growing bolder and bolder at sweeping the forest for collections. I only narrowly avoided them by climbing up a tree to hide.” She tilted her head slightly, her eyes growing hazy as she glimpsed our surroundings through her familiar’s eyes. “We’re safe for now. Silas is minding the forest and the soldiers seem to be far from the clearing. We have time to perform the full moon ritual, but I won’t be able to train you. Not tonight.”

After the war, the fae had signed a treaty with King Drake of Cambriel that stated no fae would enter the country, so long as the Scourged Forest remained a neutral zone for the witches and mages to live free from persecution. However, it appeared that the king no longer agreed with the terms of the agreement, since the soldiers had been scouring the woods to collect those with magic.

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