Liam and I sprang apart, only to find Shea leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. She shook her head and laughed. “You two are impossible.”
“Please don’t tell Alwyn,” I said, tugging the thin whispery material in a lame attempt to cover my very bare legs.
She arched an eyebrow. “Maybe you should have thought of that before you let your hormones control you. Sorry, Liam. You won’t be returning to the Academy after this.”
When dawn broke through the morning clouds, I changed back into my usual training attire and the deep red Summer cloak. I’d gotten approximately zero sleep, too dismayed by Shea’s words. I practically sleep-walked out my door. The rest of our party was already awake and downstairs by the stable, getting the horses ready for the second stage of our journey. Liam was waiting for me by his green-skinned horse, murmuring soft words into her flickering ears.
He gave her a heavy pat and beamed at me when I approached.
My feet slowed as I approached him. “You look strangely happy for someone who found out he’s to be banished from the Academy after this trip.”
“Ah, about that.” Liam stepped forward and grabbed my arm, yanking me to his chest. I fell against him, my mouth widening into an O. I might have even yelped a little, as embarrassing as it was. “I figure if I’m going to be banished, then I might as well make the most of it. There’s nothing stopping me from showing everyone exactly how I feel anymore.”
“Right.” I swallowed hard as my entire face matched the heat of the sun. “And Shea won’t...object?”
“Of course she’ll object.” He grinned. “But it doesn’t matter anymore, does it?”
I wasn’t so sure about that. One embrace was easy enough to explain away, but pushing things further than that—as desperately as I wanted to—would only aggravate the situation even more. Liam might have come to terms with the fact he wouldn’t be returning to the Academy when all of this was over, but I sure hadn’t.
I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him.
I wasn’t ready to not have him in my life.
It was impossible to imagine not seeing his fiery orange eyes, to see that crooked smile.
He couldn’t leave the Academy. He just couldn’t.
So, when it came time to mount our horses, I turned down the tempting invitation to ride with him on his steed. For now, I’d stick to mine and merely imagine my arms were wrapped around his waist.
We steered our horses around the side of the tavern where an archway led into what appeared to be a large, lush garden. Everything glowed with a strange kind of sheen, sparkling under the blazing sun, one that was much stronger and higher in the sky than the one behind us. I blinked and tried to make sense of it. The tavern was set back into a forest of towering cedars, and yet, they were nowhere to be seen within the archway.
“It’s a strange sight, isn’t it?” Liam eased his horse closer to mine. “This is our gateway into the Summer lands. The trees all around us are merely an illusion, an attempt to hide the beauty on the other side.
“So, there are two suns?”
He let out a low chuckle. “Not really. The sun of the free territory rises and sets with the changing of the seasons, just like in the human realm. Our sun—the sun of summer—is always as glorious as it is on the longest day of the year.”
I felt drawn toward it, transfixed by the golden glow. Something deep within my bones begged me to step forward and bask in the warmth of summer. Through the archway, a scent drifted toward me. One of sunflowers, of fresh grass, and of fire. It was so inexplicably Liam. And strangely and achingly, it felt like home.
It was then that I realized I’d nudged my horse forward, and I’d passed through the archway without any inclination I’d moved. The Summer Hunters had filed in behind me, and they were each looking at me with expressions of wary curiosity. Liam sat on his horse with his arms crossed over his chest, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
“We were about to give you instructions on how to pass through the archway, but it appears you’ve figured that out all on your own.” Shea strode forward on her horse, flicking her reins. She gave me a strange look. “Perhaps Alwyn is wrong about you, after all.”
The next few hours passed quickly. We continued along a dirt path that cut through fields and fields of glorious flowers. As we continued our journey, I spotted a cluster of gently sloping hills in the distance, topped with several white spires.
Those spires turned out to be attached to the top of the Summer Court’s castle. It rose up from the moss-covered ground, the peaks scratching against a perfect blue sky. Vines twisted up the side of every surface, clawing their way out of a babbling brook that cut through the very center of it all.
It was absolutely breathtaking.
The Hunters led us through the gates manned by two very stern and angry looking guards. They didn’t even let out grunts of hello as we passed, and the gates slammed heavily behind us. For the first time since I’d stepped foot in the Summer lands, an eerie flicker of unease passed through my gut. We were, effectively, trapped here. If we wanted to leave, we couldn’t, not unless they decided we could.
In the center of the courtyard sat a pair of thrones, ones that were covered in twisted limbs of moss and vines, identical to those that crawled up the walls of the castle. Several flowers had sprouted near the top of the chairs in varying hues of gold, red, purple, and orange.
And, of course, the seats were empty. Mounds upon mounds of flowers had been placed at the foot of them, and several Summers hovered nearby, sniffling into handkerchiefs. The deaths of the Royals had only just happened several days ago. Their people would still be mourning. And they would still be angry.
One faerie stood out from the rest. He was not sniffling, and he was not tossing flowers onto the pile. He wore the same cloak as the Hunters, and he strode toward us with flashing red eyes. The anger in his face was barely contained, and it made me pull on my reins without thinking. My horse stumbled back, a move that caught me off guard, and I went tumbling onto the grassy carpet with a sharp cry.
Liam was by my side within an instant. He wrapped his strong arms around my waist and pulled me to my feet. My knees were throbbing, as well as my face, though for entirely different reasons. This was embarrassing as hell.
The male fae who had come to greet us merely sniffed in my direction and narrowed his eyes. “This cannot be the changeling I asked you to bring.”
“I understand how unlikely it seems, but this is the one you asked for,” Alastar said, his voice dripping with derision. My face flamed even more, but I lifted my chin and dusted off my cloak. Before I’d come to Otherworld, I would have cowered away and let this male’s words get to me, just like how I’d reacted every time my step-dad turned his anger on me. But I wasn’t that girl anymore. I’d changed, in more ways than one.
“I came here because you apparently need my help,” I said, my voice clear and sharp. “But I can just as easily walk away.”
Liam chuckled, but the male fae before me didn’t find it quite as amusing. He sneered and stepped forward, his eyes flashing with that barely-contained rage. “You’re in my Court now. You can’t leave unless I say you can leave.”
“You can try to stop me if you like,” I said, smiling sweetly at him.
He scowled, and his eyes cut to one of the Hunters who had accompanied me. “She better be able to do what you say she can do. Otherwise, this has been a complete waste of my time.”
“I saw it with my own eyes, Phelan,” the Hunter said.
I frowned. “Saw what?”