The Faerie Prince

Chapter Fourteen

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

At first I'm not sure it will work—I'm not holding anything that belongs to Ryn—but I find him easily. I suppose it makes sense. We've spent a lot of time together recently, so there's already some kind of connection between us. What I am surprised at is his location; I thought I was the only one who went there these days.

I step out of the faerie paths onto a wide branch. Colors loop and swirl lazily within the bark, brightening ever so slightly each time I take a step. A night creature—cat-like, with fiery orange wings—bares its teeth at me before slinking away. I walk carefully along the branch, stepping around the glow-bugs. I climb onto another branch, and then another. I'm close to the canopy now; I can see the sky clearly between the leaves of the highest branches. Scattered stars twinkle between clouds lit up with early evening colors: soft blues, purples and greys.

It's beautiful.

And it's good to be home.

"I was wondering if you'd find me here," a voice says nearby.

I leap lightly into the hollow created where the giant arms of the gargan tree meet. "Sorry to interrupt your alone time. I need to check a few things about our assignment."

Ryn looks at me. "Is Violet Fairdale asking for my help?"

I put my hands on my hips. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that."

He pats the empty space on the blanket beside him, which I take to mean he's inviting me to sit down. "It just so happens," he says, "that I'm also finishing off my report now."

"Perfect." I sit opposite him and cross my legs. I pull my notes and some blank reed paper out of my bag, while Ryn does the same from a bag that was resting behind him.

"Did you bring a table to work on?" he asks.

"Well, no. I thought I was on my way to your house, not the top of a tree."

He removes a small block of wood from his bag and places it on the blanket between us. "Good thing one of us came prepared." He writes something on the block with his stylus, then pulls his arm back as the block transforms rapidly into a low table. It's pretty cool, I suppose, but my attention is caught instead by the scar I've just noticed around his wrist. A scar that matches my own.

"You're supposed to be impressed by the table, V, not my arm," he says, noticing my stare. "Although—" he flexes his muscles "—it is rather an impressive arm."

"I was looking at your scar, idiot."

"Oh. Yeah." He holds his arm up and examines the narrow strip of skin that's slightly paler than the rest of his arm. "Weird, isn't it. I thought it was impossible for us to scar, but Flint said there's something strange about the metal those bands are made of."

"Yes." I continue staring for a few moments, then blink and look down at my pages. "Anyway, I didn't know you still came up here."

"Sometimes," he says. "I avoided it for a few years after Reed's death, but not anymore."

"I brought Nate up here," I say before stopping to think whether it's a good idea to share that bit of information with Ryn.

"What?" His voice is low, but his eyebrows draw together in anger. "You brought that traitorous halfling up here?"

Why couldn't you just keep your mouth shut, Violet? "I didn't know he was a halfling, or that he was going to betray me."

"So you brought a random human up here?"