She shakes her head. Then, using her teeth, Morgan yanks off one glove, freeing her right hand. The skin is so fair, so pale, it seems to glow against the dark backdrop of night. When she begins to wave it in a graceful gesture, moving it back and forth, creating the infinity symbol in a repeated motion, I watch as
she starts pulling the shadows toward her, drawing them in, weaving them together.
How is she doing that?
Oh. Right.
It’s so easy to forget that she is Unseelie. In a way, I think of her as someone like me. Maybe not human, but definitely not one of the Dark Fae. She’s so sweet. So delightful. Innocent, too. And then she does something like this that makes me remember that Morgan is nothing like me.
So she might not have the ability to create a portal out of the shadows. I asked her when we were first starting out and she apologetically admitted that, while she had some gifts, shadow travel wasn’t one of hers. Same thing for the Seelie; I know not everyone in the Summer Court has the skill to manifest their fiery portals. Still, watching her work, I have to admit that she has some control over the darkness.
And that totally works for me right now.
I might not know how she’s doing it, but it doesn’t take long before I realize what she is doing. She’s creating some kind of barrier that shields us from the rest of the woods. Unless I’m wrong, it’s the same impenetrable black wall that protects her cottage.
With a start, I remember what she told me the day we met.
If you mean me no harm…
“There,” she announces. “They won’t get through to us.”
She sounds so sure, I don’t question it. I can’t see beyond the shadowy thicket. If it’s anything like her other shadows, no way the guards will be able to find us.
Phew.
Morgan fans out her skirts, easing herself onto the ground. The moment she sits on the grass, frost forms, inching out from beneath her skirts and her cloak. “Now we just wait until they’re gone again.”
I’m too freaked out to be dainty. I throw myself down, lying a few feet away from her where her frost ends; it’s still cold, but more tolerable. My heart is racing, my breath caught in my throat as I struggle to control it.
It takes me a few minutes before I feel like I can breathe again. I throw my head back, staring up at the purple sky as I exhale softly.
That was awful.
“So… do you want to tell me about that?”
Lowering my gaze, I peek over at Morgan. Her hands are folded primly on her lap, a curious expression on her lovely face. “Um. Not really.”
“Oh.” A delicate shrug. “Okay.”
My mouth falls open. I don’t know what I’m about to say, but the easy way she shrugs and drops it is… it’s astounding. If it was me, I never would’ve let it go.
Which is probably why I find myself blurting out, “Those guys were guards from Siúcra.”
“One of the Fae Queen’s prisons?”
I blink. “You… you know about Siúcra?”
A tinkling laugh. “Just because I choose to live in the woods, that doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about Faerie. I know more than you’d ever guess, Elle. It’s just the human world that fascinates me because I’ve never been. I’ve spent my whole life here.”
Huh. She has a point. I guess, just because she’s purposely avoiding the politics of Faerie, it doesn’t mean she’s oblivious. After all, she’s the one who told me a few stories about how terrible it was under the Fae Queen’s reign, and about how it’s not any better with Oberon on the throne. And her whole life? I’ve never asked her how old she was, but fae are basically immortal. She could be twenty—or two hundred. Of course she knows more than I guessed.
So maybe she believed hair coloring is the same as turning metal into gold. She’s still a treasure trove of information for me—plus, she saved me from the guards.
I’d never say it out loud, but I owe her one.
“Anyway, the guards are after me. Obviously. I, uh… remember when I told you about how I crossed into Faerie through a fairy circle? Well, before I found my way here, I had this noble guy. Seelie. Long story short, he’s convinced he owns me, I told him to get bent, and he had me thrown in prison. I didn’t like that. I escaped and… looks like the guards aren’t too happy.” I hold out my hands, giving them a tiny shake, like the world’s saddest version of jazz hands. “Yay?”
Morgan cocks her head. She doesn’t seem the slightest bit put out that I kept that from her all of this time. I guess, since the fae are well-versed in secrets and untruths, it doesn’t faze her that I kept such a big one.