"Hedera, come forward."

As soon as the Queen called for this faerie, everyone backed up. Our guards pushed us toward each other and stood around us at a distance. Oh no, what craptacular crappy crap was happening now?

A pretty female came out of the crowd. She had golden blond hair and yellow wings. The short dress and tights she was wearing made her look like a figure skater about to perform. She stood directly behind the bush on the other side of us and looked at the Queen.

"Close them in," the Queen smiled, and the guards backed quickly away, leaving us alone.

Hedera closed her eyes and brushed her hands over the leaves in front of her. The bush sprung into vines that rose to the sky. They continued to grow at an alarming rate, and I realized why the leaves looked familiar; these were the same vines my cage was made from. 

She lifted her hands and swirled them together, and the vines started to spin above us. So fast that it didn't seem possible, they came crashing to the ground surrounding us. They didn't just sit on the top of the ground this time. They spun around us in a circle, throwing up dirt as they dug in.

When everything stopped moving, the four of us were inside a giant birdcage made of vines. It was exactly like the one I escaped, only bigger. With the way the vines buried themselves in the dirt, there wouldn't be any sliding under to get out.

Now that we weren't surrounded by guards anymore, we all turned to look at each other. Ash and Tate looked pissed, and Mark looked like he was in shock. I was somewhere in between, a little shocked but getting more pissed by the second.

Hedera walked away as soon as her task was complete. The Queen flew down from her pedestal and walked toward the crowd. She mingled through them, stopping to talk with only a few. With the way they were all fawning over her, it looked like she was just there to soak up the adoration. 

I looked at Ash, "I don't get it. Are we..."

He shook his head, telling me to stop. Whispering, he said, "Not yet."

Staying in the middle of our cage Ash motioned for us to sit. There was enough room for us to spread out, but it felt safer in the middle.

Mark and I sat next to each other, watching the crowd, while Ash and Tate sat on either side of us with their backs to the vines. They were watching us like they thought we were going to do something; we weren't.

Mark was staring at the ground, looking lost. Probably wondering how we ended up like this, I was doing the same thing. My hands tingled uncomfortably. Sitting with my arms tied back wasn't ideal.

A cheer went up from the crowd, and I saw the Queen flying away. I guess she'd had enough attention.

I was glad she didn't feel the need to talk to us before leaving. I was ready for everyone to go away so someone could explain what the hell was going on.

I thought since she was gone, the crowd would leave too, but they didn't all go. Most of them did, but an overzealous few felt the need to come to visit with us first.

There were about fifteen of them, and they were enraged. I didn't feel especially safe sitting on the ground when they looked that angry, but I knew they probably couldn't get in here. They couldn't touch the vines. That must be Hedera's talent.

Looking over the group, I was amazed at how beautiful all the hateful faeries were. It made me think of Clara and her theory about ugly attitudes being bad for the skin. Judging by this, she was wrong.

Thinking about Clara made me smile, and one of the guys shook his head at me in disgust. He was rude, but crap, he was good looking.

His hair was so blond it was almost white, and his eyes and wings were the same shade of the lightest blue. He was around Mark's size, muscled but not bulky.

Going to the gym must be mandatory here in faerie land. I chuckled, and he gave me a mean look. It's possible I was freaking out a little.

"Look at them, repulsive," he snapped, his lip curled in revulsion.

There was so much hate in his stare; it made me want to say something to defend us. I wanted to tell them we never even wanted to come here.

Ash cleared his throat and gave me the smallest shake of his head. I guess I was supposed to ignore this, fine. I looked away from the faeries lined up around the outside of our cage and studied my shoes. 

Another voice that was just as hateful said, "Jealousy, that's all it is. These sad little creatures wish they could be like us. They can't, so they come here just to wound their betters and see what they can take."

One of them laughed, "They didn't wound anyone; they couldn't have. Those magicless little apes couldn't stand against one of us."

"They needed these traitors for that, to fight their own kind for them," this voice was female, and she sounded calmer than the others. "I'm not surprised. The Dream Walker's parents thought the human world was as good as ours too." They all laughed at that. "He should've been better off with them dead, but I guess he couldn't learn."

My neck was hot, and my hands were starting to shake; I was so over this bullshit. How could she stand there and talk about his parents like that? That was over the line.

We were magicless apes, fine, whatever. At least we weren't total assholes. I looked up at her, and she was staring back at me with wide purple eyes, daring me to say something.

Ash scooted closer, leaning toward my side. He rested his forehead against my temple, and I felt some of the tension go out of me. I relaxed against his warm chest and got as comfortable as I could with my hands tied back.

If he thought we should ignore this, then that's what I would do. I wasn't going to listen to them. Instead, I thought about him, and the last time we saw each other before I knew about any of this. Meeting Fawn, then finding out Tate was his best friend.

I smiled, thinking of Tate joking around, obviously trying to make me comfortable. I liked him. Glancing over, I saw he was watching Mark stare at the ground; his face was totally blank. I guess we were all working to ignore these jerks.

Ash kissed the top of my head, and I closed my eyes. If he hadn't wanted to go to high school, I never would have met him. Never would've held his hand walking down the hall or danced at Coffee House.

Dancing. That was the day he asked me to be his girlfriend, the day we kissed for the first time, it was amazing. I felt my cheeks tingle, and I knew they had to be red. I peeked up at Ash, and he gave me a cute little smirk. I almost felt embarrassed.

Knowing he could feel my emotions was pretty weird. I guess he wasn't feeling anything new, so it shouldn't matter. But I didn't know he knew, and...

Mark's whole body flinched, snapping me back to reality. He was looking at the taunting faeries, and he was seriously pissed off. I wasn't sure what was going on, and then I saw something wet run down his neck.

Holy crap, one of those jerks spit on him! So freaking gross! He couldn't even wipe it off with his hands tied.

Ash could feel how livid I was and whispered, "Wait."

Mark looked like he wanted to say something, but in the second, it took me to figure out what was happening, Tate was already on his feet.

Facing them, he said, "I will get out of here, Lochlan. Don't push me."

Judging by his reaction, the blond guy was Lochlan. He looked nervous for a second, but then he looked at his friends. "You don't scare me, human lover." His friends laughed and nodded like he'd said something brilliant.

Tate glared at him. It was weird to see his handsome face twisted in anger. He was scary. I was glad that look wasn't directed at me; Lochlan didn't look too thrilled about it.

Tate smirked as his upper body tensed, the muscles in his chest and arms flexed. Suddenly, the cloth wrapping that held his wrists burst into pieces. It fell to the ground in scraps, and Lochlan took a quick step back.

"Where are you going? I thought you weren't afraid?" Tate walked up to the vines and leaned toward him. With his voice calm and even, he said, "You should fly off before I decide it would be worth going through these vines to get to you."

Lochlan backed up, "I think I will leave. I have other things to do. Have fun in there with your friends. I doubt they'll make it through the trials."

He gave Mark and me one more disgusted look before turning away and flying off. Thankfully, his friends followed. I guess bullies are the same everywhere, faerie or not; they don't know what to do when someone stands up to them.

Mark was watching Tate with huge eyes as though he couldn't believe he'd stood up for him like that. It was pretty awesome, but Tate's a good guy; I wasn't totally surprised.

Tate was still turned away from us, watching them fly off. As he took a deep breath, I watched his profile soften and change back to the Tate I was used to. Turning around, he stopped to pick up a few of the bigger scraps of cloth.

He walked over to Mark and knelt in front of him. Without saying anything, he reached over and lifted Mark's chin; using the cloth; he gently wiped his neck clean. Before he released him, Tate ran his thumb over the scruff on Mark's jaw, and one side of his mouth turned up in a smile.

Mark was staring at him like a deer in headlights, and when their eyes met, a light blush colored Mark's cheeks. Holy crap! What did I miss? There was definitely something going on between them.

I glanced back at Ash to see if he'd noticed, and he was watching them with a happy little grin on his face. Oh man, I couldn't wait to talk to Mark.

Going around behind Mark, Tate pulled at the cloth on his wrist to straighten it before tearing the edge and ripping the binding off of him. Bringing his hands to his lap, Mark rubbed the red lines on his wrists.

Tate undid Ash's ties next, and when they looked at each other, Ash had a huge smile on his face.

"Stop looking at me like that," Tate mumbled before turning to me to remove my ties. I couldn't help it, I knew I was grinning at him too, but he just gave me a wink.

When he sat down next to Mark, we all turned to face each other. I had so many questions I didn't know where to start.

Looking at Mark, I said, "Don't touch the vines. They knocked me down in my last cage," I held up my hand to show him what was left of the welt.

"Damn, that looks like it hurts. Is this thing electrified or what?"

Tate shook his head, "No, but she's right; don't touch them."

Mark gave Tate a look that said duh. He had no intention of touching them.

"How did you guys get here?" I asked before Tate could say something smart assed.

"The same way you did, through the passage in the basement." Tate looked at me like it was a weird question, and I realized they didn't know how I got here.

"I wasn't awake to see anything. Dahlia threw some powder in my face that knocked me out. It was freaking fast too. I passed out on the front porch and woke up here, in a cage."

"I should have known she was only there as a spy for the Queen; I never liked her." Tate was shaking his head, annoyed with himself.

Ash was angry, "She knocked you out with a powder?"

"Yeah, some shimmery stuff that she threw at me. It burned like hell. I couldn't breathe."

Rubbing the sore spot above my temple, I could feel that the lump from when I fell was a lot smaller, so that was good. I started to say that, but judging by the look on Ash's face, he didn't need to know about the lump at all.

"I will end her. Let her come close enough to touch; it will be the last thing she ever does." He was furious.

"It's OK, Ash."

"She could have killed you. If you had inhaled too much of that, you never would have woken up. You would be gone."

It took a minute for that to sink in. "Wow, she really doesn't like me."

"Alright," Tate clapped his hands together. "I'm all for getting rid of Dahlia, but we have bigger things to worry about. How are we getting out of here before the trials?"

Mark looked up, "Why don't we go through with the trial? Everything the Queen said was a lie."

Tate gave Mark a blank look, "We're not getting a trial. We're going to be put in the trials. No one's going to listen to us. And the Queen didn't lie; she just left out some of the truth."

I shook my head, "Nothing she said was true."

Ash sighed, "She said we didn't tell anyone you were here, we protected you, and we fought our own kind. That's all true."

My mouth fell open, "But she made it sound like you brought us here!"

He nodded, "She did, but that's not what she said."

Mark rolled his eyes, "That's annoying. What are the trials?"