Page 136 of First Light

Things were beginning to break.There were cracks in the air around her, like ice splintering on the surface of a pond. Carys walked through the woods near the unicorn’s territory and felt tendrils of magic whispering through the trees.

It was the first time she’d walked in the trees since her bargain with the Crow Mother, and something felt different. Birdsong was quieter. The rustling and snapping felt less ominous and more familiar. She saw lights in the distance, but for the first time in her life, theydidn’t scare her. They danced like friends, calling her to play in the shadows.

“You’re different now.”

Carys looked to the left and saw a familiar figure kneeling at the base of a twisted oak tree. She had long dark hair curling past her shoulders with braids woven through it. Her flawless skin was a warm golden brown, and her eyes were brilliant blue.

The fae wore a string of golden hoops up to the tips of her pointed ears, but her clothes were plain and practical. Work clothes, if Carys had to guess.

“I know you.” Carys’s feet were off the path, and the ground beneath her boots was soft and springy. “Your name is Naida.”

“That is what some call me. And those same call you Carys.”

“Yes.” Carys stepped closer. “You sang at the banquet with Lachlan. You used your magic to make his voice louder.”

She was cautious speaking to the fae, but there was something warm and earthy about Naida that welcomed questions.

Careful.She heard Cadell’s warning in her mind.

The fae woman looked up. “I mean her no harm, dragon. This land isn’t even warded.”

“Wait, can you hear him?”

Naida smiled and sat back on her heels. “I’m not like the others here. And yes, I did sing at the banquet. But you are wrong that I sang with Lachlan. The prince needs no one to sing with him. That’s where his magic lies.”

Carys blinked. “Wait, really?”

Naida pinched a bright blue flower and added it to a woven basket by her knees. “Lachlan was quite jealous of his brother once, but he has learned to use the magic he was gifted.” The fae stood, and Carys realized that despite her presence, she was tiny, even shorter than Carys’s height.

“I thought all fae were tall.”

Naida’s eyes danced with amusement. “And I thought all Brightkin were mundane.”

“Trust me, more than one of my professors has said my work was plenty mundane.” She looked around the forest. “Wait. Where am I?”

Naida reached to the trunk of the oak and pressed her fingers into the bark. “Near an old fae fort, Nêrys. You don’t remember walking here?”

No. Carys didn’t remember walking off the path to the blessing, but apparently she had and she hadn’t even noticed. Why hadn’t Cadell warned her? She glanced up.

“The dragon doesn’t see me as a threat.” Naida knelt down in another spot. “I told you I’m not like the others.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Gathering herbs. And mushrooms.” She glanced up and took out a small, curved bone knife. “The knife is for the herbs and the flowers. The herbs that grow over old fae hills are stronger than others.”

“Is that why Aisling gathers them around here?”

“I don’t know the mageling’s habits,” Naida said. “But probably.” She took the knife to a bunch of wild yarrow, then hooked its tip around a large mushroom that she added to the basket. “What are you doing in the forest?”

“Why did you say that I was different now?”

Naida sat back on her heels. “An answer for an answer?”

Carys nodded.

“You’re different because you smell of the Crow Mother,” Naida said. “She has marked you.” Naida cocked her head. “You smell of someone else too.”

“What does that mean?”