“Hey!” I said, my hands on my hips.
Rafe grinned and Tristan scowled at me before they turned back to each other.
“I should be the one thanking you for your help in restoring my throne.” Rafe inclined his head. “I am forever in your debt, Prince Tristan.”
Tristan smiled, his midnight-blue eyes sparkling. “And I in yours, Prince Rafael.”
“Seriously?” I said, standing beside them staring with my mouth hanging open and my hands still on my hips. “You two are going to be friends now?”
“Maybe,” said Rafe, winking at Kalen. He bowed to me. “Goodbye, Princess Aurora,” he said formally, and my heart constricted in my chest. “I’m quite sure we will meet again. It seems I can’t avoid you, however much I might try.” He turned and disappeared into the trees, just as he had done so many times before.
“Nice fellow,” said Tristan, turning toward the cave entrance.
I glared at Tristan, and Kalen suppressed a chuckle. This was just great! Now the two of them seemed to be getting along swimmingly, but neither of them wanted anything to do with me. Although if Tristan was warming up to Rafe, it was some progress at least.
We entered the small cave in the mountainside. It narrowed into a passage that resulted in a dead end. As we neared it my hand lit up, illuminating the rock face within the mountain.
“You can see the part of the rock that holds the portal if you look closely,” said Penelope, pointing to the wall, which shimmered when the light hit it. It was an artfully concealed fae portal created by a powerful Ancient Fae. Without knowing it was there, it would be easy to miss it. “There are very few of these permanent portals left in Avalonia. Only the ones created by the strongest Ancient Fae have survived the test of time.”
I nodded. Rafe had explained this to me when I first came to Avalonia, but I had never seen or used one of these portals before. Except for the tapestry in Redstone Manor, through which I had come into this world.
“I’ll go first,” said Tristan, stepping up to the wall. He took a confident step forward and disappeared into the mountain.
We waited a few moments and followed.
Time stopped, and for a second that felt like a lifetime, it seemed like I was floating in nothingness. I blinked, and when I opened my eyes I was standing at the mouth of a small cave in a clearing, surrounded by an ancient forest. This was no longer the Willow Woods in northern Eldoren. We had crossed over the Cascade Mountains in seconds, into the Goldleaf Forest in the kingdom of Illiador. Usually the journey through the mountains would have taken us days, maybe even weeks.
I looked around at the massive oak and hawthorn trees towering above us toward the sky, the tops of the huge branches swaying in the spring breeze. On the surface everything looked the same.
But something was different.
Once a cheerful, bright forest with sunlit groves and sparkling waterfalls, the Goldleaf Forest was now eerily quiet. No birds chirped in the tall trees; no animals rustled in the bushes or peeked out to greet us as we passed. There weren’t even any butterflies, and the Goldleaf Forest always used to be awash with them.
Tristan had already sensed something was wrong. He had his swords out and was scanning the surroundings, his razor-sharp senses attuned to the forest. I missed having my fae senses and strength. I used to be able to connect with the earth, the air, and all the elements of this world, using them to shape my magic as required. Now it was gone, and I had to adapt.
I had started practicing my mage magic on my own, but there was so much I didn’t know about it. I had only finished a few months at the academy, and a fully trained mage took four years of intense study and training to reach the level of a warrior-mage. I needed a mastermage to teach me, but without professor Dekela and my granduncle, there was no one who could train me.
“This way,” said Penelope, appearing beside me and starting down a path deeper into the forest.
I followed Tristan, Penelope, and Kalen through the decaying trees, along a path toward Pixie Bush. The forest was still. Dried leaves crunched beneath our feet and twigs snapped as we made our way deeper into the Goldleaf Forest.
I thought back to when I had first come here, and how warm and kind Uncle Gabriel was to me, taking me into his home and giving me a family. Without him I was lost, and the world didn’t make sense anymore. He was the only one who had my best interests at heart. Everyone else had an agenda, something they wanted from me, or something they needed me to do for them. Uncle Gabriel only ever did what was best for me. It took losing him to realize how important he was to my life. Even in the few months that I had known him, when he was around, I felt safe, at home.
Penelope let out a gasp, snapping me out of my reverie. I looked up to see a sight that brought tears to my eyes.
Pixie Bush was gone.
The once-prosperous fae village was a charred mass of blackened leaves and rotting wood. The tiny cottages were reduced to heaps of burned wood and ash. The once beautifully flowering underbrush was now just mud and dirt.
I saw something black and shiny glitter when the midday sun forced its way through the towering trees, and I bent down to pick it up.
“What is that?” asked Tristan, coming over to me.
I held it up and dropped it as soon as I realized what it was—an arrowhead made of blackened iron.
Tristan bent down to inspect it but
