Soul (Chaos #1)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

I didn't see Brendan again until Imbolc. My companions whispered about the king, how stressed he seemed, how without Drake he was. Sorcha looked like the cat who caught the cream, but my cat had vanished again. I found more wooden carvings in my room and hid them with the others. I didn't know where they were coming from, and I didn't want anyone else to see them until I did.

We travelled to the introduction ceremony in carriages. I kept looking outside, trying to figure out where we were, where we had been, but the landscape was too confusing. The only clarity was Brendan riding beside the carriage on a jet-black horse. He turned to me, and I held my breath in case he was still angry. But he gave me that confident, boyish smile that came so easily to him, and I could breathe again. Everything would be okay.

We arrived at the meeting point. Amidst a noisy bustle of faeries, my group headed to a tent where the pixies prepared me for the introduction ceremony.

"Brendan wants you to look as vulnerable and innocent as possible," Anya whispered. "As human as possible. They'll discuss you and make a decision, and then you will be shown around."

"Paraded, you mean," I said.

She smiled. "There is that. But we're close, Cara. We're almost at the end. You'll be free soon."

I swallowed hard. Free to do what?

But there was one thing I couldn't wait for, so I pulled Anya aside to speak to her privately. "You need to cut the bond between us. Brendan said it was okay to-"

"You're sending me back?" She sounded heartbroken.

"No! That's not what I mean. I just don't want you to feel my pain, Anya. Stay with me. We're friends, right? That's better than this bond. I don't want it. I don't want to worry about hurting you all the time. Can't we just be like two normal people? Like me and Zoe."

"You would be my friend?"

"I already am," I said, confused by her hesitation. I took her hand. "I want us to be equal."

"When you leave... will you take me with you?"

I looked at the other pixies, at the way they never relaxed, not even for a second. "Yes. You can come with me."

She hugged me, and I didn't know how to tell her that I might not leave, that I might not get the chance. She led me back to finish getting ready.

The pixies left my hair down. Realtín and Anya entwined some slim green ribbons through a couple of thin plaits, and those were my only decoration.The white dress was magnificent, and I felt like a princess, but I was really a pawn. They left my feet bare. When I looked in the mirror, I appeared a couple of years younger, as innocent as I could possibly look.

"You're all really good at this," I said, my palms sweating.

"We'll do this for Brendan's queen some day," one of the pixies trilled excitedly.

Brendan slipped in to speak to my companions. He wore tight green leather trousers, and his hair had some thin plaits with green ribbons the colour of mine.

"My family colour," he explained when he saw me looking. "That's what the ribbons are for, a subtle reminder of whom you speak for. And please stop leering at me, Cara. It's most unbecoming for an innocent human witness."

I flushed as the others laughed nervously. Even Dymphna was with us, keeping hidden until the right moment. We all had parts to play, and the time to open the curtains approached.

"The time has come," he said, gazing around at us: Arlen, Sorcha, Líle, Anya,Dymphna, Grim, and Realtín. "I want to be a different kind of king this time around. I won't waste this chance. I'd like you all to know that I won't force your loyalty any longer. If you want to leave, you may, and know that I appreciate everything you've done in my name. Anya, you are unbound from Cara, untethered from me and the rest of my pixies. You may all do as you wish."