First Chapter

#WedWIPAesthetic 08.05.19 – First Chapter

“The king is dead!” the man shouts. Silence falls over the market at his proclamation and his dark eyes rove the crowded square. He turns to his men. “Find her.”

Panic grips my heart, rooting me to the spot. When his eyes find mine over the heads of the crowd, I’m startled by the darkness in his gaze. A darkness I know all too well. Fear freezes me in place; I don’t feel Felic tugging on my arm, I don’t see the terror sweep through the crowd like a wave. I only know this man and his darkness.

He takes a step towards me, but something draws his attention to the side. The spell breaks, and Felic pulls me onto the side of the road as the men jump down from their horses and push into the crowd, dragging people forward and throwing them to their knees in the middle of the road. They tear off scarves and hats, revealing identities, revealing fairies who have lived in the city for as long as I have. Felic clutches my arm; she winces every time someone is thrown to the ground, every time the men grab someone by the hair, drag their head back. The mortals are let go; the fairies remain kneeling on the ground, huddled together. Iron gleams dully as their hands are bound in cuffs.

“Nova,” Felic hisses in my ear. She has never used my real name in public, and it snaps me out of my thoughts. I look at her sharply. Her eyes are wide; her chin trembles, but she fights the tears that threaten to spill. My heart lodges in my throat. Seeing Felic cry will undo me completely.

“You have to leave,” she tells me, steel replacing the shine of tears in her eyes.

“What?” I blurt. The crowd begins to surge towards the city gates and I push her into an alley, urgency lacing my voice. “No, I can’t leave.”

Behind us, someone screams. Felic drops her basket of bad fruit and grips my arms. A man on a horse charges past us in the street; steel flashes in an arc, and a fairy falls to the ground, blue blood spilling from his split neck. I toss up a quick, desperate prayer to the stars for his soul as we stumble deeper into the alley.