The Court of Outcasts Read online

  She thought she had been terrified when Briar froze her and left her in her house. Oh, that hadn’t been terror.

  And when Fable retreated and warmth started to seep back into her body, she couldn’t tell if he even did anything.

  What did he do? Heart pounding, she frantically tried to search her mind, looking for holes, for emotions without a memory, anything suspicious or out of sorts.

  “You may leave.” Fable’s soft voice jarred her out of her thoughts.

  What? He’ll let me go? Hope bloomed in her chest, but skepticism covered it up. Why would he do that? Has he already done something horrible to me? Is he finished?

  “And you may take your friends,” Fable continued. Nola waited for the catch. And then it came.

  “If you will renounce your claim to Briar.”

  Nola almost burst into laughter, but caught herself in time. My claim? He truly is crazy. That isn’t even how faerie relationships work.

  Then the fear came back. “What do you mean?” she managed to ask with only a slight wobble to her voice.

  Fable cocked his head to the other side and leaned back as if she had just posed a question he found interesting.

  “You do not know,” he muttered softly.

  Anger sparked with Nola, and she worked to keep it off her face, but he must’ve felt it anyway because he smiled. It was a wicked smile.

  “Choice is hard.” His voice held a note of pity. “But it is how we grow. I can align your human and faerie selves. However, should you choose this path, you will leave behind Briar and all your memories of him. He in turn will not remember you. Choose now.”

  Oh, so he is serious. How exactly will he take Briar from me? The answer came to her a second later. Fable would erase Briar from her memories, like they never met. Nola’s chest tightened. This was her chance to get out—and to become whole again.

  But can I live with that? Who would I be if I had no memory of him? Would I still speak to him? Would he still speak to me? What would happen to Briar? Why does Fable want us apart?

  He says he can align my human and faerie halves. I would be able to live. But what would I be?

  “I—I would be human?” she asked tentatively.

  Fable nodded.

  The answer gave her no hope. In fact, it filled her with dread. Why does it have to be either/or? And why did the answer have to come from a psycho faerie like him?

  “Why do you want to keep me from Briar?” she blurted, emboldened by the fact that he hadn’t attacked her yet and had even answered a direct question.

  “As you are”—Fable gestured to her with a flutter of his fingers—“you will only bring him down.”

  A strange, cold anger spread through Nola. You forced him to participate in murder, yet I’m the one who will bring him down?!

  Fable watched the emotions play on her face with a calculating look. He waited for her to speak.

  Fear gradually replaced the anger. This is wrong. I can’t trust him. And I would rather live as I am for however long that is than give up my faerie half. And Briar.

  “I will keep my memories and my magic,” Nola said with as much confidence as she could muster, bracing for whatever reaction was to come.

  A smile curved his lips, and this was somehow worse than rage. She had opposed him, yet his expression made her feel like she made the right choice.

  What kind of sick game—

  “I am finished with this place.” He unfolded his long body from the chair as he spoke. Nola backed up a few steps. “Go. Take the humans with you.” He paused, giving her an evaluating look. “Look within.”

  “Why?” was all Nola managed to ask.

  “You will soon see.”

  He made a hand gesture that made Emily gasp. Nola’s attention was momentarily drawn to the girl she had forgotten was even in the room. By the time she looked back, Fable had gracefully stepped onto the windowsill. He spread his white wings and dove out of sight without a backward glance.

  Nola collapsed on the floor as if she had the wind knocked out of her.

  Chapter 24

  Kelty rushed through giving Lark orders on what to have the other outcasts do for the day. They had been making quick work of cleansing her wood, even more than she could, and expanding to the surrounding area, though curiously avoiding the Throne Wood.

  Today, I will find Fable, she thought with grim determination. And I will find out what is going on. This ends today.

  Lark nodded and sped off to her duties. Kelty sprung lightly up into the branches of her tree and climbed to where Rowan brooded. He had not returned to her tree the night before. Kelty laid awake most of the night waiting.

  “I need you,” she said softly. “I tried to do this on my own, but I can’t.”

  His gaze searched hers. She held her breath for a moment. Then his whole body relaxed slightly as he nodded.

  “Whatever is wrong with that wood must be tied to Fable somehow,” Rowan said as he rose to a crouch. Without waiting for her, he dropped from the tree and spread his wings into a glide.

  Kelty breathed again. It is a start, she thought as she followed.

  Rowan touched down in the woods surrounding the empty throne. Kelty landed in the clearing closer to it, sending her power with the land through her feet into the ground, as she knew Rowan did as well.

  The dark, wrong feeling was stronger this time. The trees had drawn their energy inward as if saving it from something. Before, Kelty had felt it all around. This time, she turned, able to pinpoint the source of the disturbance.

  The throne.

  Rowan came up beside her, and together they stared at it a moment.

  Then Kelty offered Rowan her hand with a small smile. We will be more powerful if we combine our magic. And if I am to destroy my throne, I want him to be a part of it.

  Rowan took her hand with an answering smile, and his strong energy flowed into her as only a potential partner’s could. Kelty set her eyes on the throne and unleashed the power, sending it down through the ground and up into the twisted branches that made up the throne. They unraveled, reforming into a hollowed-out tree. There was a hole in the tree that led into the ground, just big enough for a faerie to fit through.

  Rowan gently untangled his hand from hers, then he gestured for her to go first.

  With a nod, Kelty stepped forward, ducked into the tree, and dropped down into the earth.

  The darkness was cloying, making it hard for her to breathe. Kelty reflexively put a hand over her nose and mouth, as if that would help. Rowan landed behind her and put a comforting hand on the small of her back.

  Moon and stars, what is going on down here?

  She stepped forward, trying to see through the darkness. After a few steps, she stopped, toeing the ground at her feet until she found a palm-sized rock. Light, she willed her magic to infuse the stone and shine outward.

  Light flooded the cave, illuminating Fable standing twenty more paces in front of them and a black cloud of magic hovering before him. Though it was more subdued, it still reminded Kelty of the black death, the magic Derek and his crew had created.

  Fable began to explain without looking at them, as if he expected their arrival, his eyes alight.

  “Born of the human capability to cut themselves off from the land and the life surrounding them. I have found a way to capture the energy of this world. It does not destroy, only creates a barrier between a faerie’s energy and the ara of the land. A perfect punishment. A slow death with plenty of time to surrender. A spirit-user has to have entered a mind once to know it. A powerful one can find these minds across great distances.”

  Horror spread through Kelty. Rowan stiffened behind her, his hand remaining on her back.

  I was so worried about the humans. And now he has created a weapon of death to use against faeries.

  She swallowed, forcing a question past the closing of her throat. “If it is made with human hands, how can you wield it?”

  Fable looked at
them then, his expression more alive and demented in the presence of the dark magic. “I have taken in human blood for a time. It has made me more human perhaps, but it allows me to walk among them. I have heard their sorrows and learned their secrets. And I have used them to concoct this.”

  “What would you use it for here?” He could use it on my court, but he already has control over them, though he gave me the rule. Other outcasts, possibly, but what danger would they really pose?

  And then it hit her.

  “It’s not for this world,” she said in a dead voice.

  She cursed herself for her stupidity. All this time he has been preparing. He never wanted to rule the Court of Outcasts because he has bigger plans. And he wanted all of us distracted so he could concoct this plan. The Glorious must be behind this. I don’t know what she is planning for Faerie, but she cannot get her hands on magic such as this.

  A pleased look spread across his face. “No. It is not for this world.”

  “You planned this. You put me on the throne so that I would be distracted, not for the good of the court or this world,” Kelty accused.

  He had the audacity to look offended. “I still believe in rebuilding this world, and ending the plight of the humans. It is just that bigger things have caught my attention.”

  Fable beckoned to the magic with one hand and the black slid up his arm and settled on his shoulders, like a cape of sorts, before leaking into his skin. The sight was unsettling. “You have done marvelous work with the Court of Outcasts.”

  He continued, turning his full attention to her and Rowan, “You realize it for their own good, despite what others may have taught you. Nothing holds you back now. Tell me, Kelty of the Outcasts, do you wish to go home?”

  This was the first time that question caused an immediate feeling of revulsion. No. I do not want to go home if it means joining forces with you and this horrible magic.

  “She can expose you,” Rowan said in a soft warning voice.

  Fable kept his focus on Kelty. “You will have to get the courts to accept you first.”

  Moon above, he’s right.

  She could not think of a way to stop him. As it was, she had no way to get back to Faerie until her mother reconsidered. Kelty hadn’t even made a formal request for her court to be considered legitimate to The Glorious. Both of them held the power to make her court a reality as far as Faerie was concerned, or shut her down and doom her to live in the human world in an illegitimate court forever. Unless she was on equal terms with the other rulers, she would not be able to bring Fable’s plans to their attention. And if he was already working with The Glorious, it might not matter anyway.

  Kelty fought a rising panic.

  Fable waited patiently for her answer, a cocky grin on his face. And then another thought hit Kelty.

  What will happen if I refuse to join him in whatever it is he is planning?

  She was being given the chance to stop him, to play along until she knew the whole plan and then figure out some way to thwart it.

  But could she deceive him for that long? She had already failed at that numerous times.

  Rowan’s hand pressed into her back. She so wished she could consult him on this, but they stood between a murderous faerie and the only way out of an underground cave. Fable had revealed his power to her, and there was no way he would let them leave without an answer at least—if he would let them leave at all.

  No. I cannot go along with this. It is not right. I will have to stop him some other way.

  “There is too much keeping me here now,” she said in a strong voice, the words ringing true.

  She expected disbelief, anger, another attempt at manipulation. Instead, Fable’s smile grew, a tinge of amusement in his gaze. “Long may you rule.”

  He brought a Telk stone out of the folds of his clothes and, though Kelty rushed forward as if to stop him, he flashed back to Faerie.

  Kelty stared at the spot, beyond stunned and more defeated than ever. She lifted desperate eyes to Rowan. He gave her a helpless look back.

  This is so much worse than I imagined.

  Her next thought came with a pang of anguish.

  Now he is gone, and we still have not found Nola.

  * * *

  Leaving Rowan to scour the land for traces of Fable’s black magic, Kelty set off in search of Dane.

  He saw Nola. This time, I will make him tell me where that place I saw in his mind is. I should have prodded more in the first place.

  She touched down in the treetops near the edge of her wood again, readying her magic—and then froze. The trees were emitting a nervous energy.

  What—

  A gust of wind ripped her from her perch. Her first instinct was to fight, but she recognized the energy behind it. She let the rather harsh gust deposit her on the ground.

  Anthem was in her face the next second, eyes blazing.

  “You have ruined us. Why?”

  Before Kelty could respond, roots sprung from the ground to trap her legs and feet, expanding up to encircle her neck and pinning her wings to her back. She looked past Anthem to see Dane standing a few paces into the trees. Lark and Sayra emerged from opposite sides of Anthem, expressions guarded.

  Kelty turned her confused gaze back on Anthem.

  “What is it you think I have done?”

  The branches around her throat tightened.

  “Just because you have the power to do so does not make it right. We have done nothing but obey you.” The hurt was apparent in Anthem’s voice.

  The air was ripped suddenly from Kelty’s lungs. She fought a rising panic. Moon above, what have I done?

  She gasped loudly as air returned to her lungs.

  “Speak,” Anthem demanded.

  “I do not know what you mean,” Kelty pleaded. She could not fight them all, not at once. And she did not want to fight her own court. She hurried to placate them. “Explain please.”

  Anthem’s eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the arrival of Rowan.

  “Step back,” her potential said, voice low and menacing.

  Anthem fixed him with a glare. “You would defend her.”

  “I would,” Rowan said back evenly. A spark of appreciation broke through Kelty’s fear.

  She turned to Lark, who was staring at the ground off to the side. “Lark, what is it you think I have done?”

  Lark gave her an equally accusatory look. “You have separated us from the ara.”

  “What?” Kelty’s eyes went wide. “Why ever would I do that?” They would waste away without their connection to the ara. Unease spread through her at the similarity to her conversation with Fable. If he used that magic on them and blamed it on me… “I do not even have such a power.”

  They only stared with disbelief in their eyes. She looked to Rowan for help. He looked just as confounded as she was.

  Kelty shook her head. “So all of you are no longer connected to the ara?”

  “No, we are not,” Lark answered. The others remained silent, hate in their eyes.

  She sighed. “I do not know what Fable told you, but I did not do this. Do you remember anything about how this happened exactly?”

  Lark cocked her head. “Who is this Fable?”

  Kelty gave a startled laugh. Then she realized everyone looked confused, even Sayra. She desperately tried to think of what could have happened. I haven’t had the chance to get to know my court well enough.

  Then dread spread through her as another thought crossed her mind.

  What has Fable done?

  “Fable. He brought you all here. He gave me this throne.”

  “You brought us together,” Dane said quietly. His unwavering tone suggested he believed it, as did a quick check with her spirit magic. The others nodded, critical gazes still aimed at Kelty.

  For a moment, Kelty wondered if she had imagined Fable. She desperately found Rowan’s gaze. “Do you remember?”

  He nodded
, and she felt a flash of relief.

  “I do not follow liars and murderers.” Anthem abruptly turned away. “Fix this,” he threw back over his shoulder.

  “Wait,” Kelty called, but the others followed suit. Dane’s expression was cold, and the vines squeezed once more before releasing her. Lark’s posture drooped as she walked away without looking back. The look Sayra gave her held a good amount of pity, but she, too, turned her back and drifted away.

  Kelty looked after them, utterly lost.

  Fable erased himself from their memories. Kelty gave another dry laugh, bordering on hysteria.

  He gave me a throne—and then turned my court against me.

  Chapter 25

  A hand on Nola’s arm startled her. She looked up into Emily’s face. “Are you all right?” the girl asked, eyes wide with fear.

  Right. We need to get out of here. Nola forced herself to stand, panic still living in her chest.

  “Briar?” she called as she ripped the door open.

  He was close. His eyes widened when he got a look at her face. “What—?”

  Relief flooded her, but she was filled with the need to get out. She grabbed his arm. “Where were you?”

  He blinked, then recognition flooded his features. “What did he do?” he asked, squinting at her as if he could see into her mind, too.

  “I don’t even know,” Nola admitted. She recognized a thread of hysteria in her voice, but kept speaking. “He felt around in my mind. I don’t know what he did, if he took anything. I don’t know. But he was sitting there basically taunting me. And I’m done with him messing around in my life⁠—in everyone’s lives! But he is letting us go,” she gasped. Then she realized what she said. “That sounds like a trap, right?”

  “Yes.” Briar pushed past her and Emily into the room. Emily shied away from him and rushed out into the hall.

  Frustration and fear threatened to overwhelm Nola. “Let’s just go,” she pleaded. “It’s the only thing we can do, right?”

  Briar frowned as he beckoned her out of the room. “I don’t like it. But you’re right.”

  Nola looked at the humans standing silently in the hall, eyes trained on her and Briar. The other three had joined Lauren and Cameron. They were shifting nervously, a welcome sight after the robotic way they moved around before. Nola noticed their magical binds that she thought looked like halos were gone, though all three still had the faint glowing.