A Court of Fear and Faith

Chapter One

She found The Angel the day after her mother's birthday.

It was strangely cold for the middle of spring so Lily grabbed a shawl before wandering into the forest to forage for nettles. She nodded to the guards as she passed through the castle gates but they just sneered at her. 

"Crazy girl, somebody needs to put a leash on her or a Fae will." 

Ever since the fall of the wall, the mortal Queens have kept a clear motto to all of their citizens: Fae is the enemy. It was called through villages squares, weaved into the lyrics of bards and whispered into children's ears at night. Whilst the Queens locked themselves into their bedchambers, they secured a barrier of hate within their kingdom, let it spread like consumption. Despite the defeat of Hybern and the plea of peace from their High Lords, Prythian was still a world of terror and villainy to the humans.  Around the ginormous walls of the castle in which Lily resided as a cook and maid, they used old, forbidden magic to cast wards to keep anything of Prythian out. 

"Once a prison, always a prison." That's what Lily's mother would say. 

She smiled to herself as she felt the magic pull at her as she pushed out into the dense clearing. On the bare skin of her ankles, it felt like ropes of ice water tying her to the place, whisps of it pulling strands out of her long brown braid. After on final step, she was finally clear of its sickly pull. Turning her face to the slithers of sun breaking through the branches, she let the rays warm her eyelashes and the birdsong wind into her ears. Spring was always her favourite time of year, it reminded her of picking flowers with her grandmother and chasing sheep through the farmer's fields. Nothing bad happened in spring. 

When she was truly out of sight from the castle, Lily bent down to slide off her worn leather boots, exposing her feet to the cold air. She then dutifully tied a knot in the laces and flung the pair over her shoulder. For a moment she just stood there wriggling her toes in the moist earth. 

"You little woodland wraith, get your shoes back on before your grandmother wrings my neck. Water-Lily come back!" Her mother called through the clearing as the little blue-eyed girl ran away gleefully, her bare feet slapping the ground like fat raindrops.  

Nettles are mostly found near lakes or streams. Make sure not to touch the leaves and avoid the sprigs with flowers. 

Lily repeated these instructions to herself as she made her usual route to the clearing near the stream. Every week since she was eleven, Lily's mother had taken her out to forage for anything nature could offer them: mushrooms, flowers, nuts and seeds. That was why the people within the castle walls called her crazy. Her family always ventured out, they were never afraid of the Fae threat outside of the Queens' protection. Even now, when Lily was the only soul to leave footprints up the familiar trail, she never felt afraid. 

She spotted him between the branches of a low, overgrown willow tree which she usually crawled through to get to the slip of green before the stream. His wings stretched behind him on the grass as he reclined back on his elbows, face basking in the sun. In the light, the reflection of the blue gems dotted around his armour made her eyes hurt. 

"Can I help you, young lady?" 

Lily barely registered he was talking to her until he turned his face to look directly in her direction. Slowly she crawled through the branches and shrubbery before rising to her feet and brushing the debris off her skirts. The Angel stood before her, dark as night, with eyes kinder than any others she's seen, the golden-brown irises like drops of pure sunlight. He slowly raised a hand to her and she flinched away.

"There's a caterpillar in your hair," he smiled to her and she blushed, rushing to pick it out of the ragged braid that ran over her shoulder. 

"Mother help me, I must look a mess," she cursed to herself as she smoothed over her hair and wiped the mud from her hands on her skirt. When she looked back up, a bemused look had settled in his eyes. He was about a head taller than her but something about his presence was undoubtedly intimidating, maybe it was all the black leather. Swiftly she threw her boots to the ground and walked around him.