Out of Evenfall (BOOK 1)

Chapter 21

ADARA

In a reflection of the first day of blood, the clouds in the sky threatened to bring down the endless rain. Adara pulled Jisa away from the converging knights as they swung over the barriers to hit the sanded ground. Lances and pikes held outwards, some of the younger knights moved forward.

"Stop," King Brien's voice thundered. The knights froze at the single command as he lifted himself out of his seat with rocking footsteps to the barrier. "You've had the gall to interrupt our festivities for whatever reason you seek. Your kind have not been here for fifty turns. We've banished all the magickae in this land. You will give me your names, and you will leave back the way you came."

Banished? Adara stopped a derisive laugh leaving her throat while Jisa clung onto her forearm. If only you were so merciful.

People around her jeered and hissed at the newcomers. The tainted magickae. A reminder of what they feared. The ice fae brought his shoulders up into a shrug. "Let's say I believe you in that you simply banished them — I'm afraid I'm a Storm Warden." He swung his arms out, snapping his fingers along with the drizzle. "I don't hold any loyalties, only to the world. So, what you tell me to do holds no weight, no meaning. I shall simply ignore it and get to why we are here, and we're not leaving until we get what we want, Brien. That is your name, isn't it?" The ice fae clucked his tongue, swiping it across his lips with a sneer, showing pointed canines. "What an affront to other Brien's you must be."

"You shall address the king as His Majesty, siren!" one of the knights snapped, lifting their pikes with the intent to skewer the ice fae. Adara never took her attention off either of the golden warriors.

The ice fae glanced at Fenrer. "Sorry, I don't see anything majestic about a stout king sitting on his fat rump all day while people toil underneath him." He grinned in wickedness. "We could go back and forth well into this storm, but let's cut to the chase. Some of us have important duties to attend to."

People called out for justice, for retaliation, but the king folded his arms. "What is it you people want that will get your kind out of my kingdom once and for all?" He flicked his wrist, and Adara jolted as some of the knights around him drew back into the crowd. Whether the pair noticed, it was hard to say as the hidden knights tried to block off the exits. Adara wanted to scream out in her urge of compassion, but fear locked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. 'Magick is a curse,' people screamed around her. 'It brings death, ruin, and destruction, and it is all those who practice it deserve.'

Adara brought a hand up to her mouth to hold back the bile. Old decay and mold filled her nose as she never left the shadows of a dying tree, whose fruits she never got the chance to share with Rosa. Where a creature, a monster, ravaged her and left her as nothing but a pile of ruined, chewed bones. Fenrer tipped his head in her direction, saying nothing while the ice fae spoke taunting words to agitate the crowd against magickae while knights readied themselves to end the threat which placed themselves at the centre of their joyless festivities. On the bones of the dead. Adara tried to steady her breaths, counting down as Garren had taught her. In a single moment, the ice fae followed Fenrer's gaze to her.

Both of them considered her.

Why are they looking at me like that?

"Oh, how rude of me, I suppose," the ice fae whispered, and the melody in his voice sent a horrific chill down her spine. He brought his fingers down his cheekbones as he shook his head with another tut, causing some of the crowd to stop their jeers as his slender fingers traced his own jawline to stop at his lips. Every movement full of grace, intent, and nothing more than a hunting predator. "I'm quite new here, you see. How rude of me to call out your name without giving you mine."