Page 123 of First Light
Duncan’s nostrils flared. “For God’s sake, woman, run!”
Darius put a hand on her back and pushed her past Duncan on the path. “You heard him—run.”
Carys’s feet moved automatically, racing up the hill, past Duncan, past the monster coming through the trees, toward a vengeful, jealous fae who liked rats and kept monsters to attack anyone who took a stick from her forest.
“Carys!”
She paused, gripping a pine branch, and looked back at Duncan just as the monster broke through the trees. The bear’s feral roar shook her bones as it reared on its hind legs, bellowing in anger.
Duncan jumped between the bear and Carys, holding the tree branch like a bat. “Darius, get her out of here.”
Carys saw the bear’s red, furious eyes. “No!”
Darius pushed her up the hill even though every instinct in Carys fought against leaving Duncan alone to fight the beast.
“It’s going to kill him! That bear will?—”
“Keep walking.”
“Why are you so calm?” She wanted to scream. “That bear will tear Duncan to shreds. He has no gun, no sword. All he has is one?—”
“It’s not real, Carys.”
She slipped and scrambled up the path, turning to snatch one last look at Duncan with her heart in her throat.
He was facing the animal, the branch still held up, as the bear snarled and batted at the branch.
“Come on, ya foul-breathed bastard,” Duncan shouted. “Why are you looking at them when it’s me who’s angered your mistress?”
She yelled at Darius. “It looks pretty fucking real to me!”
“We’re almost there.” Darius yanked on Carys’s arm and dragged her away from the fight. “Don’t distract him and he’ll be able to face the beast down. He knows the rules here; you don’t.”
He didn’t fucking know the rule about picking up a stick though, did he?
Carys swallowed the lump in her throat and kept running up the path. She felt dread creep up the back of her throat as they reached the top of the hill. Fog still whirled around them, and the rain was pounding on their back. She was soaked to the skin and shivering from fear, adrenaline, and pure, bone-chilling cold.
When the fog cleared a little, she blinked. “What is that?”
While she was expecting a massive castle like the one she’d seen from a distance, the building that met them was anything but grand.
The cottage was thatch-roofed and made of stone, a roundchimney in the center of the building pumping out a stream of smoke that blended into the drifting fog that had grown suddenly still.
Crows flapped and squawked around the cottage, flying from tree to tree and eyeing Carys with interest. One flew over and dropped a shiny silver locket at her feet before he hopped away and watched her with a single shining eye.
“Don’t touch it. She wants—” Darius’s voice cut off as a shower of gold swept over him and turned him from human back to his natural form. The golden-brown unicorn reared up a little bit, clearly perturbed that the fae magic had taken his voice when she needed it most.
“Don’t touch the locket,” Carys whispered to herself. “Don’t take even a stick.” She swallowed hard. “I’ll remember.”
She put her hand in her pocket and gripped the jar of honey. She hadn’t come empty-handed. She was visiting the fae, but she wasn’t coming with nothing.
Darius tossed his head and whinnied.
She turned back to the stone cottage when she heard the door creak open. Whatever this building was, it seemed to be inviting her in.
Carys gathered her courage and walked to the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE