Hunted by a Night Fae

Chapter 43

The music was louder in the hallway. Despite the distant sound of the fae party, the halls were dark. Shadows swallowed them whole, and only a few sparsely placed sconces with their eerie blue light lit the way.

At first, I stumbled and tripped, my eyes not adjusting to the darkness. Earlier, when Hekate had dragged me through to the room where I had been kept, I hadn't been able to see anything. 

Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself. To pull this off I had to seem like I was meant to be here. Slow down, I told myself. Stumbling and running about would just make me mroe suspicious. 

I ran a hand over my hair, making sure it fell over my face and ears, hopefully concealing their blunt tips. The maid's clothing fit me well, though it was a bit tight in the waist. I focused on the ground ahead of me. From what I gathered in my limited interactions with higher fae, it was considered disrespectful to look them directly in the eye.

The hall bent and turned, then forked off. The music grew louder, and I could hear it more clearly. There was a haunting violin, drawing out a long intoxicating melody. Unbidden, my feet started to drift towards it. It wasn't until I turned a hall, this one lit much brighter, that I paused and caught myself.

Focus.

The next hall I turned down was lined with tall floor-to-ceiling paintings. The darkness was broken up by windows, moonlight shining down in streams. They stood open, a sweet scent wafting on the night air. It reminded me of the lavender smell that had filled Gran's bedroom. Cautiously, I moved down the hall, my eyes scanning through the darkness.

As I continued forward, I felt like I was only moving deeper into the halls, and no closer to a way out. As I passed a window, I risked pausing slightly to peer out it. A vast city lit up a valley below, glowing as if the world had been inverted, the ground becoming the sky. I was high above it; as if entangled in the stars, the bright purple moon close enough that imagined I could reach my arm out of the window and touch it.

Moving faster, I finally found a stone stairway and took it down to the next floor, then the next. The further I went down, the louder the music became, to the point it was all I could hear. Eventually, the stairs stopped. I came to a stop, not sure where to go next.

Light flared, filtering up the dark stone walls. It danced, revealing more paintings, their details bright and vivid in the splash of light. Tall hauntingly beautiful fae with dark ebony skin peered back at me, a lush tapestry depicting the stars falling from the roof to the floor across from the stairwell.

The sounds of the faerie revelry were loud here, and I looked around the corner before I stepped into the hall, making sure the coast was clear. 

A brightly lit doorway stood wide open, leading out onto a balcony within the castle walls. I eased closer to it and saw that it looked out over a bursting room, music and laughter spilling out over its edges like a bonfire blazing within the night.

I passed by it quickly, not daring to get too close. This hall was circular, leading me around the length of the ballroom below. On one side were more paintings and windows that stood wide open. Every time I glanced outside, my head felt a little lighter. I continued until I saw another stairwell. 

I started to move towards it. The darkness beyond it suddenly rippled, shifting as a shadow took form next to a nearby window.

I stopped within the doorway. My mouth went dry.

A masked face turned to me from where they had perched on the low ledge of the window sill, one hand splayed out precariously into the endless night. Feathers and gems caught in the dark, set atop an ornate silver mask. It obscured one half of the faerie's face, exposing dark features and a sharp-angled jaw. 

He wore a dark silken cloak around his shoulders, his hair loose in the small breeze that rolled through the corridor. Rounded horns decorated the sides of his head. They were similar to Ankou's, though his were smaller, curving down and back from his face.

He stared at me a moment, then looked away, his masked face returning to the view outside the window. There was a quietness to him that seemed unusual on a faerie.

I lowered my head, reminding myself that I was pretending to be a faerie servant. I let my hair fall over my face, hoping it obscured my features and my blunt-tipped ears. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him tilt his head. Beneath the darkness of his mask, it was hard to tell if he was still looking at me.

I urged myself to move, careful to control my pace. I steadied my breaths and continued to the stairwell. It was only a few paces away from me now. 

There was a shift in the air just as I turned my head away from the faerie, and it served as my only warning when a warm hand grasped my wrist. Cool metal rings created patterns against my bruised and battered skin.

The faerie inhaled deeply before he spoke, his voice as soft as a whispering midnight breeze. "You don't smell like a servant."