Freed (Imprisoned by the Fae 3)

Lovely.

After I check that Jim is eating human-safe food—he eats the same meals as Riley so that neither one of them becomes a slave to the faerie fruit—I quickly eat one of my apples, burying the core just in case. Jim makes a face when I do, though he doesn’t ask me about it. I’m glad, too. I didn’t even realize how weird that must seem to some of the others until I did it.

Though it’s hard to tell when the Shadow Realm is so dark, eventually night starts to fall again. My apple gave me a boost of energy, but it isn’t long before I begin to flag a bit. Jim’s slowing down, too, and while I know the shadows weigh heavily on Rys, he seems fine—but I’m not so sure he is.

I’m ready to go to bed.

Problem is where?

In the Shadow Realm, it’s cold, it’s dark, and who knows what’s lurking in the surrounding blackness? And while I’d give just about anything to cozy up to Rys and share some of his heat like I did when we were in the oubliette… yeah. That’s not going to happen.

I try to hide my yawns. Since everyone else is still trucking, I don’t want to be the weenie who complains first.

I didn’t notice how closely Rys was paying attention to me, even though he’s more than a few feet behind us. The third time I yawn, I can’t quite swallow it, and he tuts before calling out, “We can’t go much farther tonight, Nine. We should stop, start over when there’s more light.”

“He’s right,” says Riley. She’s not buzzing as much as she was before, though she sounds way more awake than I’m feeling right now. “I can’t see anything in front of my face.”

Me, neither.

“A little longer, my mate. I’m looking for a fleasc,” Nine says. A what? “They’re native to these woods. We can use the shadows if necessary, but with the humans, a fleasc is best.”

I have no idea what he’s talking about. And maybe my being so tired is making me short, but I also don’t really care for the way he says “humans” like that.

“We don’t need one of those things,” I tell him. “I spent weeks in these woods before. I was fine.”

He raises an eyebrow. “And how did you manage that?”

I shrug. “I found a place. Well, not a place, but a warm spot in the woods that kept me safe at night. No big deal.”

Rys lets out a sharp whistle. “You never told me about that.”

I didn’t? “Like I said, no big deal.”

“You’d be wrong about that,” Nine says. “I didn’t think it was possible for a human to stumble upon a fleasc.”

With four pairs of curious eyes on me, I wonder what it was that I said. “I didn’t say it was a flesh-thingy. It was just a circle of flowers. Sure, it was magic, but it didn’t even have any glamour.”

“That’s exactly what a fleasc in the Cursed woods is,” Rys explains. “Fleasc. A charmed wreath. They’re not uncommon, but humans… I never would’ve thought.”

“Me, neither. And you found it on your own?”

Nine sounds so surprised that I wonder if I should be offended. Then I remember that, technically, I didn’t find one. Grimly brought me to it.

Nine doesn’t need to know that, though. “Do they all have lily of the valleys marking the circle? Because, if so, then maybe I can help find one and we can get some rest.”

Now he looks impressed. His eyebrows rise, dark slashes that nearly melt into his wild curls. “A few do,” he admits, “but not all. In the Winter Court, any flower powerful enough to thrive in the cold will trigger the magic.”

“And then we just have to imprint on it. Right?”

Nine nods. “Yes. Since there’s a group of us, the one most in need of protection will have to do the imprinting.”

“Hmm. That would have to be the human then,” Rys says.

“If we find it, I’ll do it. Sure. No problem.”

From the soft sound of disagreement he makes, I know Rys isn’t happy that I purposely volunteered instead of letting him call out Jim like that.

Because—whether he’s got a point or not—that’s totally what he just did.