━━━━━━━ ♚ ━━━━━━━

Freezing sweat dripped down Kendra's limp hand as Seth desperately  held on. The rest of her body dangled in mid-air. Patton's arm wrapped  around his midsection, and Seth's legs clamped down on Raxtus's back,  but Kendra's deadweight threatened to pull his arm out of his socket.

Seth  loved adventure. He loved adrenaline rushes. He loved that  death-defying feeling. But this experience was none of those. This was  his big sister's life at stake, and he was terrified. Cold blood rushed  through his veins and his breath evaded his capture like a clever  fugitive.

Wind whipped at his eyes. Raxtus shuddered. Freezing  raindrops slashed at his skin. Panic filled his thoughts until all he  could think was: Aaaaah!

All he was sure of was his horrible grip on his sister as they plunged through clouds and plummeted towards the ground.

Kendra's scarf flew off. A raindrop hit Seth's eye. Someone screamed. A huge elephant sat on Seth's lungs. He couldn't breathe.

A finger slipped from his grasp. He readjusted his hand to reconquer it.

Kendra's hand slid. He readjusted again.

Hot frost bit into his fingers. He couldn't feel them. He couldn't think. He couldn't hear. There were no thoughts, only panic.

"Seth!" Patton shouted. The whistling wind muzzled his words.

Seth yelled a terror-filled scream back in response.

Cold  cloud mist stung his face. What was he to do? He was terrified to  re-adjust his grip on Kendra again, the sweat of their hands building. A  ticking time bomb. He could see it: her slipping loose and her body  exploding against the ground.

Her fingernails scraped his palm.  Rain slashed at his eyes, his face, his mouth, his nose, his hands, his  neck. Patton yelled again.

He could do this. She would not fall.

Wind roared. Kendra's hair whipped the air. Frost bit. A spot of turbulence hit.

Her hand lurched out of his grasp.

Seth  panicked—his immediate thought telling him to jump after her. Patton's  arm around his midsection tightened, anticipating such rash thoughts as  Seth tried to lunge forward.

Kendra's form disappeared in the  roaring mist. She was gone. His sister was gone. Why was Patton holding  him back? He saw her fall!

"Let me go! She fell!" Seth screamed.

"No!"

Frantically, Seth fought to break his grasp. His voice was hoarse with cold, wind, rain, and grief. "Let me go!"

Roaring  wind stole Patton's response as Raxtus pinned his wings to his side and  he plunged—so rapidly, Seth worried for his ability to hang on and he  flattened himself to the dragon's back, but Raxtus quickly outpaced  Kendra's fall. Finally, they pierced the fog between them. She floated  above them, also in rapid descent.

Seth looked up at her hair and coats and skirts billowing. Her placid face was out of place in the horror. It terrified him.

"Catch!" Raxtus roared.

Raxtus barreled straight towards Kendra's path just as she fell down towards them.

With his hands outstretched, Seth snatched Kendra's skirt and pulled hard. Patton braced for impact.

A  thousand pounds of force hit Seth at once. His jaw rattled and his head  whipped back. It was by the grace of a miracle that they stayed  clinging to Raxtus.

Seth hugged Kendra's body, but she didn't say anything. Unconscious. But, before or after the fall?

His entire body was shaking.

Had  an arrow hit her? Seth thought they had escaped the range of any  archers a while ago. He wrapped his arms tight around her and hid his  tears in her hair. He was holding her, she was okay.

The roar of the wind only increased.

The  ground hurtled towards them even as Raxtus spread his wings to catch  air. The thin film of Raxtus's wings trembled against the force of the  wind, and it sounded like thousands of papers in a tornado. Seth peaked  out of Kendra's hair and spotted their miracle.

"Lake!" He  screamed, his throat shredding in the freezing air. The blue splotch in  the distance twinkled under the afternoon sun, and he only hoped it was  close enough. "The lake!"

Raxtus turned towards it and soon the  water appeared underneath their hurtling descent. The air became denser  with humidity, and Seth had to blink constantly to try to see clearer.

Closer and closer and...

"Release your claws!" Patton yelled.

Screams  pierced the wind as Eve, Garreth, Warren, and Vanessa plummeted.  Splashes soon followed and Seth crossed his fingers that the fall was  short enough that they were okay. At least it wasn't the ground that  they crashed against.

They were coming closer to the surface. 30 feet, 20, 15...

Seth's mind blanked with his sister in his arms. He didn't know what to do. How was he supposed to do this?

"Kick hard!" Patton yelled. What?

Patton tightened his embrace on both Seth and Kendra and then jerked sharply to the right to bring the three of them off.

The  whistling of the wind immediately became impacted by the roar of the  water as they shot downwards in the depths. Darkness filled his vision.

The  air had been knocked out of Seth on impact and his involuntary gasp of  air sucked in water. Panic seized his heart, mind, lungs, and he  couldn't even comprehend that he was drowning. Through the blurry  underwater, Kendra's hair floated like a brown jellyfish.

The heavy coat on him weighed him down, and someone's hands pulled at it frantically until it slipped off.

An  arm wrapped around his chest. Through the blurry underwater, Kendra's  hair jellyfish jerked sharply as they were both pulled up. The water  became lighter until sunlight broke open on his face and he could  breathe.

He coughed and spluttered, blinked and blinked. Water  clogged his ears and the roaring took over his hearing. He was on his  back, as Patton treaded water. Patton held both the siblings up and his  mouth was opening, making noises Seth couldn't hear.

Seth shook his head and the bubble drained.

"Shore!  Shore!" Patton yelled. His voice was ragged. Seth looked to the shore  they had flown over. He could see humanoid blobs in the distance already  making their way there.

Seth wanted to speak to Patton but  breathing already felt tenuous. He couldn't afford to waste precious air  on words. Instead, he lifted Patton's arm up and swam out, lightening  Patton's load.

It was Patton who had just saved his life again.  When fans had asked Patton how he had survived all his great adventures,  he had always told them luck, but Seth knew it was more than that.  There was a steadiness to him. He was the kind of man that became a  diamond under pressure. Seth would never ever be able to pay his debt of gratitude to that man.

But, he could begin his repayment by listening to him.

Following  his directions, Seth swam toward the shore. It was a decent distance,  so Seth utilized the survival swimming the knights back home had taught  him. He flipped onto his back and scooped the water with his hands and  legs. As the water became relatively warmer, he knew it was becoming  more shallow, and he flipped over.

His feet touched the lake floor  and soon sand. Looking back, he saw Raxtus asleep half-way in the water  on the other side of the lake. Vanessa quickly swam past Seth, going  further into the lake, and probably on her way to help Patton. All Seth  could think of was collapsing onto the dry sand.

Eve was huddled  into a ball next to Warren who sluggishly twisted a twig back and forth  on another one. Garreth scoured the sand for twigs and brush. They were  missing their coats, and everyone's breath was white in the air.

Seth  looked behind him and scanned until he spotted Vanessa half-way to  Patton. It was hard to see with the sun's glare on the lake, but he  thought he saw Patton making progress.

Warren looked up from his futile endeavor and scanned Seth up and down. "Seth! Are you okay?"

Seth  nodded and sat down next to Eve, watching Warren twirl his stick back  and forth. The adrenaline had left Seth's muscles achy and tired.

Eve tilted her head to look at him. Her teeth chattered and her wet coils had frost growing on them.

Seth felt utterly exhausted. He wished he had enough magic to raise the temperature, but he didn't. Useless.

This  was already so much worse than the journey to Terrabelle. On the way to  Terrabelle, Noble had been his trusty steed. They had traveled with  plentiful packs and had known that they could probably find shelter at  Terrabelle. It hadn't been the dead of winter, and they hadn't been  shivering.

Now, their stuff was ruined. Packs and cloaks had been  sacrificed for the ability to swim and not drown. They had no clue if  they would ever be safe again, and even though they hadn't formally  discussed objectives, Seth had a feeling that whatever their goals were,  they would be insurmountable.

They had Eve and Garreth, but  neither of them had much experience adventuring. Garreth was trained as a  knight, which was good, but he also seemed protective of his sister to  the point where Seth was worried he would interfere in their plans.

Eve  had the spirit, but no real skills. She knew a lot of things about a  lot of people, but that knowledge diminished in value the farther they  were from Terrabelle. Seth worried that he had brought her on a suicide  mission.

And, Kendra. Fear twisted his stomach into knots. Something was very wrong.

Seth watched as Vanessa brought Kendra in, and as Patton floated on the lake presumably to catch his breath.

Patton, Vanessa, and Warren now had to make up for the youth of Kendra, Seth, Eve, and Garreth. The balances were tipped.

They  had all lost any claims to a kingdom. Their only hope was to outpace  the speed of communication, and maintain relative anonymity.

But, their mode of travel was currently passed out in the lake, and their acting queen was as well.

A spark flew from Warren's branches.

The  spectators cheered. The sparks seemed as futile as Seth's hope, but  when Garreth rushed over and pushed the bits of dry brush he had found  into the twigs before wrenching his fingers back to avoid a burn, a fire  blazed into being.

The fire grew brighter and Seth reveled in the  heat coming off. It felt like the only thing that mattered anymore. His  limbs stopped aching from existing and his fingers could move.

Vanessa reached the shore with Kendra in her arms. "Help!"

Everyone rushed over except for Warren as he continued to build the fire.

"Please someone take her," Vanessa cried. Patton trailed behind, sopping wet and panting hard.

Garreth reached in and scooped Kendra up.

"What's wrong? What happened? Is she okay?" Garreth asked as he rushed her over to the fire.

"We  were in the sky and she just fainted. Pitched right out of my arms,"  Seth said. His fingers trembled. "Then, Raxtus did the dive to catch her  and here we are."

"I checked her pulse on the way, and it's there but faint," Vanessa added. "She's alive."

"I've  never been much of a doctor, but with the little magic I learned of the  path of the fairy queen," Patton began, "I see a dimmer light in her."

Garreth laid her gently on the sand next to the fire. "I don't understand."

"It  must be her magic," Vanessa said. She began checking Kendra's pulse,  breathing, and other things Seth didn't know about. At Garreth's alarmed  look, she added: "She over-exhausted herself. Her teacher always warned  us that the bigger the gift, the bigger the consequence for depleting  it. Her magic is a part of her Iike the blood that flows through me.  Imagine if I let my blood until the very last drop. That's what Kendra  did this morning. Siphoning energy to Raxtus must had been the final  drop."

"What do we do?" Seth asked. "How long will she be out?"

"Of that, I'm not so sure," Vanessa said.

A  deep pit opened its maw in Seth's stomach. What if she was in a coma?  What if something had permanently changed in her? What if...

"Gather  round the fire. Warm up. Vanessa will monitor Kendra's health as we  wait for the dragon to wake," Warren said. "There is nothing else to  do."

━━━━━━━ ♚ ━━━━━━━

Light was low in the cave that they had discovered  earlier, before the sun had dipped below the horizon. Warren snored  lightly, and so did Patton. Together, their chorus made a lullaby that  prevented Seth from getting sleep. Vanessa sat next to the fire and next  to Kendra, tending to both. She had taken first watch.

Then, it  would go to Patton and then Warren. Everyone else was cut out of the  rotation. Kendra for obvious reasons. Seth so he could recuperate his  magic quicker. Garreth and Eve because Warren did not trust them  completely yet.

They had spent half the day on the beach  discussing plans. It was decided that their course would only be decided  after Kendra awoke, and until then, the only priority was keeping  everyone safe as they fled from Terrabelle's land.

Raxtus had  woken up complete with profuse apologies after he had regained his wits.  He had confirmed that Kendra's termination of energy had exhausted him,  that he only had had the energy to catch her and not enough to land  well, and that he was deeply sorry. So deep, he apologized every couple  seconds. It was hard to stay mad at the dragon, and even Garreth had  acquiesced his anger.

Seth had suspected Garreth was wary of a  betrayal as, after all, his notion of the Fablehaven party had been  completely upended in the past 48 hours, and he was still relearning who  everyone was. The dragon dropping them into a lake was the cherry on  top.

Of course, Eve had harbored no ill will as she knew Raxtus  the best. She had never doubted the dragon's intentions for a second,  and had assured everyone in the interim while Raxtus had been  unconscious that it wasn't his fault in any way.

Although Seth had  at first despaired at bringing Eve into this, she had slowly emerged as  the glue of the team. She trusted Raxtus, Seth, and Garreth deeply and  it was impossible to not admire her when on the receiving end of such  love. The ice thawed, stories were shared, and smiles followed. Her  curiosity about magic smothered Garreth's hesitancy, and her  cheerfulness was quick to spring back once Raxtus let her under his wing  to become all warm and toasty.

In fact, that was where Seth was at the moment, cuddled up under Raxtus' wing with Eve.

It  was odd at first, as Seth had never desired to really be this close to  Eve, and he was pretty sure she hadn't either, but Seth was one hundred  percent sure that they were the warmest and most comfortable in the  cave.

As a plus, it allowed secret communication in low tones.

"I've never slept anywhere outside of Terrabelle before," Eve whispered.

"Really?"  Seth whispered back. It was dark under Raxtus's wing and he could just  faintly make out Eve's white eyeballs staring at him. Freaky.

"Really."

"Wow."

Her  eyes closed. Good. He was getting the creeps. "I've never done anything  like this before. I've dreamed of it and fantasized of it and spent  hours designing the perfect little adventure, but I've never done it."

Seth hummed to show he was still listening. They had had conversations like this before, of her desire for adventure.

"While it's been exhilarating and wild and in some ways exactly like those dreams...it's also been really terrifying."

Her  freaky floating orbs of stark white opened and stared at him. Her voice  dropped to an even lower whisper. "I thought I'd be courageous and cool  and just like you in your stories. But, I'm terrified. I'm so scared  for Kendra and I'm so scared for us. It's real now. I really left  Terrabelle and I really betrayed my father. It's all real, and the  reality is so much scarier and sadder than the dream."

"Do you still want it?"

Eve  closed her eyes and was silent for quite a while. Long enough that Seth  thought she might have fallen asleep. Seth had worried she wouldn't  like the reality her fantasies had described and it was one of the  reasons he hadn't planned on Eve departing with them. Of course, when  the departure had occurred, no one really had the choice to deny Eve.

"Yes.  I want freedom and I want Raxtus to be free. I want you and your magic  friends to be free. I wanted those things, and I still want them. I just  hadn't realized how hard they would be to get. But, I still want them."

"Good.  You're braver than me. Eve, I'm also terrified. All the adventures I  told you where I was some funny hero never had the stakes of this  adventure. Plus...I will admit that I do exaggerate those stories a  little."

"I never could have guessed." Even in the darkness, Seth knew the face Eve was making at him.

"Hey.  But, still. I'm glad you're here, and I hope one day we can go on fun,  not-terrifying adventures that you can smile while telling the story  of."

"Me too. Thanks for being my friend," Eve said. They listened  to the duet of Patton and Warren's bad sinuses for a minute. "I've  never had one before."

"It is my pleasure to have the coolest person's hand in friendship. Good night, Eve."

"Good night."

━━━━━━━ ♚ ━━━━━━━

The  next morning, Warren set everyone to tasks as soon as the red hint of  the morning sun tainted the sky. To be fair, as it was winter, they had  precious few hours of sun. Still, Seth had believed their death-defying  stunts yesterday entitled them to sleep in...a least a little bit.

Warren  did not share those beliefs. He had rattled off a list of chores with  so much description and detail that, for a moment, Seth believed himself  to be back in some boring courtroom. He snoozed through most of it but  perked up at the sound of his name.

Seth was paired up with  Garreth to forage. He could only assume Garreth was picked for his  knowledge of Terrabellian flora, and that he was Garreth's bodyguard.  Well, more like Garreth's keeper. Or a prison guard. But in the nicest  way.

See, Eve was easy to trust. She personally led most of the  court through Terrabelle and had befriended a dragon that had been their  saving grace. Curiosity consumed her in the face of the unknown, and  she has spent most of the last two days rattling off questions to  someone to answer. Her youth helped, and even in the face of probably  the scariest conditions of her life, she smiled.

People liked her. She was getting closer to Patton. (Which was fine. It wasn't like Seth was annoyed that his valet was spending all his time with someone else. His valet! Not Eve's! But it was totally fine.)

On  Vanessa's part, she adored Eve's curiosity and tried to give her a  scientific education and explain the logic behind her explanations every  time she could.

Warren didn't spend much time with Eve, but it wasn't like there was tension there at all.

No.

The problem was Garreth.

Sure, he had made huge sacrifices to come with them.

But,  the thing was...he was different. He had always been his daddy's boy.  Never in a million years did they ever count Garreth in as a possible  deserter. Never.

Not even Kendra.

Garreth was older.  He was the heir. He had more to lose or gain. By helping the Fablehaven  court, Garreth could have lost his kingdom for a noble cause. Or...he  could have just paved his way to usurp the throne on his return.

He  was charming. So charming. So diplomatic and charming that it was  undeniable he had the capacity to be convincingly deceitful.

Seth had never liked his cheesy smile or his charming words. It was too fake for him.

No one believed Garreth was all in.

The  only possible route to truth was that maybe Garreth was truly in love  with Kendra. But, even that was hard to know. He wouldn't have been the  first suitor to "fall in love" at the sight of Kendra's power or title  or wealth.

And, most importantly, there was no indication that he was not regretting his decision to leave.

Quite the opposite. He was sullen and withdrawn. He didn't engage as much. He was quiet.

So there Seth was...trudging in the cold, cold wilderness with a sullen Garreth.

Seth  couldn't claim that he was as pleasing to look at or talk to as Kendra,  but, damn, Garreth could possibly throw him a bone if he wished for  Seth to come back praising the man.

They had already collected  half of their required herbs, and they still had a while before noon.  Seth wasn't worried about their progress. He was worried that he was  going to die of boredom. Why couldn't he have had the other Dalgorel  sibling?

Eve would have been so much more fun. But, no. Eve and  Patton got to snare a rabbit, and he got to look at a bunch of leaves.  Oh, well. Play the hands you're dealt.

"No offense, but are you usually like this?" Seth asked.

Garreth  paused his perusal of the leafy shrub at his crouched feet, and looked  at Seth with some drop of amusement. "It is astonishing I'm not supposed  to take offense at that. But, no. I don't suppose I am."

"You're  just so...like, shrunk in on yourself. I knew the charming silver tongued  Garreth and I knew the wrathful sword fighter, but this sullen Garreth  is hard to have a conversation with."

Garreth raised an eyebrow  and continued plucking the shrub. "You're almost as harsh as my sister. I  can see why you two get along so well."

"I'm glad you have practice with sharp tongues. That will make this easier."

"I'll  give my gratitude to Eve. But, no. You're right. I was angry. I have  had so much anger lately. I was choking on it," Garreth said. "But,  funnily enough, when I was hacking away at my father, every swing took a  bit out of me—anger and all."

"Well, that seems...healthy...enough. I  am sorry about you having to lose your dad, but think of it as losing  some dead weight. I mean, what was he doing for you, anyway?"

"Thanks,  Seth. That's great. I will one-hundred-percent think of becoming a  virtual orphan as the best thing that has happened to me in my life."  Garreth scrunched his face as his realization hit. "Not that being an  orphan is bad or anything..."

Seth slapped him on the back. "No  worries. I don't take offense. Seriously, my man. Because, with our  histories, any conversation about family will be full of landmines."

"Kendra and I used to talk about our deceased family. It was never this hard."

"Slow  down a minute," Seth said. Kendra might not have told him all, but she  told him some. And Garreth's rendition did not match. "Wasn't it? Maybe  this is a bad time to bring it up but...your mom was killed by a sorcerer.  I'm pretty sure Kendra had complex feelings about it."

"Complex? It's simple. She was murdered." Garreth stopped picking leaves.

"Simple if you can answer this question for me: was it bad because it was murder or magic?"

"Murder, obviously."

"So, is it okay to murder someone who used magic to speed up laundry?"

"No,  but—" Garreth stood and opened his mouth for more, but Seth had had  enough. He couldn't hear Garreth try to justify anything else.

"See,  that also happened. In Terrabelle. A month ago. Kendra attended the  execution, and so did I. The thing is, anyone magical is going to be  terrified of you and your family. Furious, even. And they're not going  to care about your dead mom, because it's also their dead cousin, aunt,  dad, and friend."

Garreth turned away from Seth. There was little thought in Seth's mind as he barreled on.

"I'm  sensing you're upset. But, you need to understand. This whole time in  Terrabelle, all I could ask myself was: would my new friends kill me if  they knew the truth? They've sat by these executions often enough. Would  it matter if I was just another head rolling off the block or burning  in the pyre?"

Garreth stayed silent.

"We all know it was a  huge show of solidarity for you to forsake your kingdom and father and  come with us. I'm just telling you all this now, in some random place in  the woods, so you can work through it before we meet people who only  know you for horrible, horrible things." As he spoke, he realized why  Kendra hesitated to bring him along to diplomatic talks. All in all  though, he felt he was doing pretty good. "Garreth, don't tell me  anything, because, let's be honest, you're a very talented liar. I love  those talents, by the way. Not saying it's bad. I just won't believe you  if you say that, right now, you agree with me. You'll need time to  think this over."

Garreth picked a few more leaves and tossed them in the basket. "Okay. I heard you."

Seth  smiled. Yay, he did his duty. The only other burning conversation he  wanted to have with Garreth was about his intentions with Kendra...but  that would have to wait until the thought of her didn't inspire crushing  worry about her comatose condition.

"Okay, then, let's head back now. We've got enough berries. To be honest, I only stayed out here to have that conversation."

Garreth massaged his forehead in exhaustion. "After you."

━━━━━━━ ♚ ━━━━━━━

Tall,  shapeshifting shadows danced around the cave walls as the fire crackled  and puffed hisses of smoke. Seth and Eve leaned up against Raxtus's  warm side, and Patton warmed his hands against Raxtus's puffed out  steam. Warren stoked the fire and sat next to Vanessa, who stroked  Kendra's head of hair in her lap. Garreth sat at the end of Kendra's  curled form and stared at the fire.

Kendra had begun waking up for  short moments at a time, disorientated, and would fall asleep too  quickly for anyone to get a word in. She wasn't nearly well enough yet,  but her short periods of wakefulness set the group's worry at ease.  Smiles cracked more often, and others ventured tentatively into humorous  territory.

Which is good in Seth's book. They couldn't change  anything about their circumstances except their attitude. What better  way to improve it than cracking jokes?

Warren thwapped his stick against the cave floor. "I have an idea."

"Please, can we keep the planning for tomorrow morning?" Vanessa asked.

"Yes, yes," Warren agreed. "No planning. A fun activity."

"Activity?"  Eve perked up and nudged Seth's side like he didn't obviously hear what  Warren said five feet from him. "Seth's on my team."

"Yes, please," Seth said. "We're going to demolish you guys."

"No,  no teams. I thought it would be nice if we re-introduced ourselves and  traded stories around the campfire," Warren said. "And ones we don't  already know. So, none of your well-known legendary tales, Patton."

"Fair," Patton said. "Then, could I go first?"

"Blow us away," Warren said.

"Hi  everyone. I'm Patton Burgess. For the first few decades of my life, I  spent my time wandering the countryside and looking for someone to  fight. But, when a cousin of mine asked if I could mentor her unruly  grandson, I agreed thinking it would be some easy, glorified babysitting  fit for a retirement. Obviously, I was very wrong."

Laughs crackled around the fire like the embers popping and sizzling.

"Nevertheless,  I met the love of my life in Fablehaven, and I wouldn't trade her or  Seth or any of the fine people of Fablehaven for the world." Patton  smiled, and Seth felt his heart swell with gratitude. Patton always knew  how to make him feel special, and it was a feeling he craved. Patton  tilted his head and scrunched his nose. "Except for maybe that time when  Seth became a frog."

Eve burst out into shocked laughter.

"It's only funny now that it's not our reality," Vanessa said.

"How long were you a frog?" Garreth asked, bewildered.

"Only  a few short, terrible hours. Kendra tried to feed me lettuce. But, no,  we ended up having to visit her creepy teacher and get her help to turn  me back. That was the end of my participation in her education."

Warren  playfully raised an eyebrow. "Didn't we, only a month later, have to  visit Muriel again when the fairies turned you into a seal?"

"That  one was my fault." Seth took a deep sigh. Better repent now than later.  He stared up at the cave ceiling. Hopefully the big fairy slash unicorn  slash goddess lady up stairs was listening. "I admit that was my bad. I  have kept my promise to never accidentally turn a fairy to an imp  again. Please repay me by fixing my sister. She's like your favorite, so  please do that. Thanks." He blew a kiss to the ceiling.

Eve leaned towards Garreth. "What was that?"

"It's the Old Religion," Patton said.

"Why are you doing it if it's so old?"

"Not an  old religion. The Old Religion. Most magic users follow it. When Kendra  gets better, you should ask her about it," Seth said. "She's like...a  magical priestess."

"Handmaiden," Vanessa corrected.

"Handmaiden," Seth amended.

"I've never heard of such a thing," Eve said.

"It's a well-kept secret."

The  air rippled and revealed the prismatic dragon. "Sorry. Didn't mean to  eavesdrop. I'm just coming in. I've actually met the Fairy Queen before,  but I never met a handmaiden before Kendra."

"Do you have a story about the Fairy Queen?" Warren asked.

"Sure do."

"Well, then come on in and share."

The  night passed in a series of stories that functioned as a magical  education for the two Terrabellians. Eve was quick with questions about  magic, and Garreth would pause when an unfamiliar name cropped up. By  the end, they were able to laugh at a magical joke without it being  explained which Seth thought was pretty impressive.

As he looked  around, he documented the moment in his mind. He knew it was going to  get harder, scarier, and more harrowing, but at least tonight, despite  his small dinner of rabbit and berries, his stomach was full from  laughter.

┌────♚────────────┐

thank you for reading!

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