Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) by Katerina Martinez (novel24 .txt) 📗

noticed he was thinner than the others, smaller, younger, and not as muscular, but he walked just as tall. “It healed quickly.”

“Magic,” the woman scoffed.

“She did not summon any. I would have known.”

“Silence, all of you,” Toross grunted. He had reached the circle of five stones and was standing inside it.

I followed him, noticing instantly how the air truly was warmer here. Warmer, and possessed of a kind of strange hum, a vibration I could hear and feel. I looked over at Mira, who had just as confused an expression on her face as I had on mine. Still, she mouthed the words place of power, and I fell silent again, nodding.

The other two fae joined us in the circle. A moment later, they fell to their knees, got onto all fours, and took their wolf forms. I still couldn’t get over how impressive it looked, how smooth the transformation was, how silent, and mystical. Without so much as a nod to each other, the wolves tipped their snouts up and howled at the moon, their cries long and deep.

I became aware almost immediately that the wind had suddenly changed direction. It had been blowing my hair one way a moment ago, and a phantom gust had come and pushed my hair the other way. Faerie lights then started rising from the stacks of rocks; soft, blue, and glittering, they rose from the ground and steadily climbed into the air, each creating a little stream of light that disappeared into the night sky.

I followed them with my eyes, watching as the beams converged above our heads seemingly meeting directly under the moon itself. My stomach churned, my chest felt light for an instant, and when I lowered my eyes, I realized we weren’t surrounded by forest anymore.

A hill rolled away from us and into a valley between the mountains; a valley filled with light, and life, and huts with little chimneys puffing soft white clouds into the air. People moved within it, shapes, shadows going about their business in the relative safety provided by the sharp cliffs on either side of the village.

Above them, the gibbous moon shone bright and beautiful, providing ample light by which to see it all.

“What… the hell…” I said, the words falling from my mouth on the back of a breathless sigh. One of the wolves at my feet growled at me. I put my hands up. “Yes, move, alright. I’m going.”

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

 

 

With Mira still slung over his shoulder, Toross led us away from a stone circle identical to the one in the forest. The stones stood at the top of the hill, on a small flat outcropping just large enough to accommodate them. On some nearby rocks I noticed several wolf head skulls had been propped up, all of them adorned with bits of hand-made jewelry and surrounded by freshly cut flowers.

Still, the air itself hummed with magic, with a vibration that was both strange, but also somehow familiar. I was sure I’d never felt this exact vibration before, and yet it seemed to harmonize with my… soul. Like that makes any sense, Dahlia. You’ve been kidnapped again, get it together.

“Can someone tell me what this place is?” I asked.

None of them spoke.

Toross was the only fae out of his wolf form. The other two had chosen to keep walking on all fours, flanking me, like I was going to make another daring escape attempt. I didn’t know where I was, there was nowhere else to run, and I had no idea how to activate that portal—or whatever it was.

Once again, I had been brought to a place from which I couldn’t escape, but at least it was pretty out here. Despite the frozen peaks surrounding the valley, the air down here was warm and the ground wasn’t covered in frigid snow. There were even flowers to be picked and plucked. This place had a cozy vibe to it that made me think of home.

You know, if my home was filled with angry, nasty wolf-fae people.

I followed Toross down the hill, noticing once we started reaching the huts and tents that there was a sweet, smoky aroma playing in the air. My mouth watered and my stomach rumbled. It smelled like a barbecue, like an animal was being roasted on a spit somewhere, but I couldn’t see it. I also thought I could smell apples, warm apples, and maybe bread?

The first villager I came across was a man wearing only pants, boots, and a loose, dark shirt. He, and the woman and the child in the tent behind him, watched us as we walked through. All three of them had the pointed ears and angular features I had come to expect from the fae, but it was the child that stood out to me the most.

He couldn’t have been older than seven, or eight—in human years, at least. With wide, blue eyes, and from behind his mother’s back, he watched me as I was marched past him. I had never seen a fae child before. I hadn’t had any proof that they even existed, until now.

When our eyes met, the child backed up, went around his mother’s back, and emerged from the other side as a wolf pup with his ears and snout low to the ground. The father stepped slightly out of his tent and snarled, bearing his large, sharpened teeth.

“What are you looking at?” he asked through his teeth.

“Nothing,” I said, turning my eyes away. “Sorry.”

“Keep your eyes to the ground,” Toross said as we walked, “They do not like outsiders.”

“Noted,” I said, lowering my eyes.

It would’ve been good to have known that before they’d brought me down here, but I didn’t think any of these fae particularly cared whether I got along with the villagers. They had been pretty keen to let Mira freeze out in the woods, after all. I was eager to know what they wanted with us, but I had a feeling I wasn’t far from finding