Fairy Keeper (16 page)

Nell whipped the bow off her back with startling suddenness, but she was so smooth and silent not even a bird took flight. Before Sierra could blink, Nell had already nocked an arrow, drawn, and shot. A flurry of movement in the waving grasses suddenly came to a complete stop.

With only a cursory look around, Nell strode out into the field. Her intense expression indicated she was on high alert, trusting her senses to warn of danger. She picked up the fat animal by its legs, her arrow protruding from its back. Sierra saluted her, and the older girl made a tiny sardonic bow. Sierra’s lips quirked, but she hid it. Nell had a sense of humor. Who knew?

“Next time I hunt, you’re coming with me, and every time after that,” Nell called as she walked away. Clearly, the lesson was done. But when they got back to camp, she handed Sierra a spare bow.

“Keep it on your back, strung and ready. Practice. A lot.” Nell rolled her eyes.

Sierra didn’t even roll her eyes back. She was too excited.

The next day, as they walked along, she practiced sighting on distant pine trees sprinkled here and there before the forest began in earnest. The tall grasses slowly faded as more and more trees blocked out light.

Corbin watched Sierra practice that night, before the sun sank. He stayed curled up on his bedroll on the opposite side of camp, feeding twigs to a very small fire. Didn’t want any out-of-control fires in the middle of a field sprinkled with crispy pine needles. Sierra aimed at a tree fifty feet away and let out all her breath. She released the arrow… and missed. Again. She was too tired to curse or kick anything, but her disappointment still stung.

“Gee, Sierra, I thought you’d be pretty good at shooting things. You’re quick to shoot people down who argue with you, after all. Your tongue’s sharper than a razor,” Corbin joked.

It was the first time he had teased her since they accidentally bumped lips. That moment couldn’t even properly be called a kiss, so Sierra was glad it had been forgotten. Relief flooded her at the familiar sight of his mocking grin, and she stuck her tongue out at him. Her shoulders dropped a bit, and some hurt place in her heart that had felt like an icicle finally began to thaw.

She brought out another arrow and aimed again at the tree. This time, she imagined her feet sinking deep in the earth as she stood there, eyes half closed. Relief at Corbin’s normal behavior loosened something tight in her chest, and her breath came easier. Her fingertips protested as she pulled on the string―no calluses yet, so the skin was raw and sore from repeated practice. The string twanged as she released the arrow, her breath whooshing out with it. There was a solid smack, like the sound of a ripe melon hitting the ground.

She looked at Corbin, startled, who sat up in astonishment. She ran to the tree, not believing her eyes in the dim twilight. But there it was, her arrow, finally where she’d aimed. Pride and happiness filled her, and a huge grin split her face.

Before Sierra could think, she ran to Corbin, who swung her around in celebration, her feet not even touching the ground. She was just as happy to have her best friend back as she was to have hit the tree. He set her down with an exaggerated plop and offered a salute. Sierra laughed and saluted back, tilting her head when he looked over her shoulder and quickly took a step back. Sierra paused, knowing who she’d see causing him to back away from her.

Slow clapping came behind her, and she reluctantly turned. Nell walked toward them, clap, clap, clapping her hands, but her face was not shiny with excitement. It was guarded. When Sierra saw Nell’s eyes flit from Sierra to Corbin and back to her, it was easy to guess why.

“Nice work, Sierra,” Nell stated.

Sierra bit the inside of her cheek at the chilly tone.

Nell continued, “Next I’ll have to teach our friend Corbin to hunt, too.”

Corbin cleared his throat and said, “I’ve thought about asking, actually. Maybe sometime you could show me, too…”

He pawed the ground with his foot like a lovesick unicorn. Nell gazed at him with careful consideration.

Sierra rolled her eyes but managed to turn her back on them both before they saw. The idea of Corbin hunting with a bow and arrow was ridiculous. He ate meat, true, but he loved animals too much to bring them down himself. Anyone who knew him understood how gentle he was.

When he was younger, he was the child who always brought home hurt animals for his parents to heal, or returned little sea crabs washed up on shore back to the water. Even as he grew older, his tender nature remained. During a collection run when he was twelve, Corbin and Sierra found a blue jay fluttering in circles on the forest floor, wings spread out, clearly hurt. He couldn’t ignore the bird’s squawks of pain. He carefully checked its blue feathers, singing softly to the bird all the while. That wild creature sat calmly in his hand, like his fairy did. He brought the bird home, binding its wing for the next few days, until the strain had healed. When he set it free, the jay shot through the trees like a blue arrow. She’d never forget his proud smile. He was obviously trying to impress Nell with this half-offer to learn to hunt. It wasn’t like he’d actually shoot anything.

Nell said, “Let’s start now.”

Sierra, shocked, spun to gape at her. What was her game? Didn’t she know Corbin at all? Guess this showed who knew the boy better, after all. Sierra smirked.

Corbin looked surprised. “Isn’t it a bit dark? Shouldn’t we stick close to our camp?”

Nell smiled slowly, eyes twinkling in a way Sierra didn’t know was possible. Nell kept her eyes on Corbin, who flushed. She smiled wider, and Sierra’s smirk melted away.

“We can begin right here. We’ll use Sierra’s tree. I’ll show you how to stand.”

Nell stepped behind Corbin and moved him into proper position by wrapping her arms around him. If she tilted her head, she could lay it against the back of his neck. His neck appeared too tense to be a comfortable pillow, though. Sierra could practically see the muscles cording up, tightening from Nell’s nearness.

Sierra chewed on the inside of her cheek and tasted the salty metal flavor of blood. She didn’t have to stand right here and watch this nonsense. She went to the far edge of camp to tend the fire. They had already eaten a small meal of flatbread and some kind of bird with dark brown feathers that was greasy but tasty. Her body obviously needed fuel, because even the fat had seemed delicious, slick on her fingers. Corbin cleaned the dishes already too. Now there was nothing to do except try to ignore those two. Tough to do when she found herself straining to catch every word they said. She didn’t care what stupid things they talked about, but somehow she couldn’t fully ignore them, all googly-eyed, like there weren’t more important things to focus on.

Sierra finally decided to get ready for bed, even if the sun wasn’t all the way down. She couldn’t stand sitting there any longer. The scent of smoke curled against the sharp clean scent of pine trees. They could bank the fire… later. Sierra fought not to glance at the two bodies silhouetted against the dying light, merged so close as to look like one.

She crawled in her bedroll. She didn’t care if Nell saw it as defeat. The hot sting of tears pressed against Sierra’s closed eyelids, and the only thing worse than crying over Corbin right this minute would be if Nell saw it happen. Sierra didn’t begrudge him happiness, but that girl wasn’t going to bring it to him. Nell carried death with her wherever she went, and shouldn’t be in Corbin’s life. But if she was, would Sierra lose him in hers forever?

She might have hit her target tonight, but Nell had gotten the bulls-eye. A sweetheart would always end up being more important than a best friend. At that moment, a laugh floated by that practically held little hearts and roses.
Ugh
. Sierra didn’t want to hear that. She fell asleep to the murmur of their voices and told herself it didn’t matter.

It didn’t. Really.

ierra awoke, once again, tired from chasing fairies all night in her dreams. The flavor of nectar was so strong in her mouth, she almost wondered if someone was dosing her with Flight. She’d never taken Flight itself, but all keepers occasionally got nectar on their hands and then in their mouths. She heard they tasted much the same, and there were definitely no fairies around to make nectar. The weird dreams, the tastes… but she would have hallucinations if she were being slipped the elixir. So far, the only weird things she saw during the day involved her best friend cozying up to Nell. Sierra might wish those images were hallucinations, but, too bad for her, they were reality. She guessed the taste of nectar was so familiar that her subconscious must have been dragging it to the forefront of her mind as she slept.

The good news was Nell and Corbin didn’t act particularly besotted, despite their cozy scene last night. Things could be worse. He did touch Nell’s arm when he asked a question about hunting―
as if he cared about hunting, the liar, the sneak
! And he watched her so closely it was like a puppy watching its master. Nell played her feelings closer to the vest, but sometimes after he brushed by her, she flushed a cherry red that highlighted how her pale blue eyes sparkled like sun off snow-covered fields. Their blooming affection was tough for Sierra to stomach, but she pretended indifference.

But even Corbin and Nell’s joking and flirting dissipated as they moved toward the deeper shadow of the forest. They had been in and out of trees the whole day, the tall grasses slowly disappearing, but now they were entering the territory people feared. The Skyclad Mountains truly began here. The trees crowded tightly together, fifty feet tall and wide as houses, as if to keep people out. This was the place of nightmares, of threats, of the unknown. An eerie silence hung in the air. The very lack of chittering wildlife made Sierra’s skin crawl with goose bumps. An unnatural forest.

The three exchanged glances, survival uniting them even in the face of their tangled relationships. Ten feet into the trees, the darkness was so thick it was hard to see beyond them. As the wind shifted the branches, shifting shadows slid in and among the tree trunks. To Sierra’s fevered imagination, the darkness took the form of giant bears, skeletal arms, ghostly screaming banshees. Every tale she’d ever heard about these mountains filled her mind. Fear crept through her with prickly fingers and set up camp right in her stomach. Her feet felt like boulders dragging through mud, but she thought of Phoebe. Picturing her face, Sierra forced her limbs to move.

When they crossed into the shadows of the crowded trees, Sierra’s keeper mark flared to life for a split second, burning like someone had touched her with a hot poker. She gasped, and Corbin reached his hand to her.

“My mark,” she choked out, looking to Corbin, fearing for him as well.

His eyes were dark with concern, but he didn’t seem to be in any pain.

Nell held her sword ready. Sierra planted her feet and took a deep breath. Whirls of colors flashed in front of her like streaming ribbons, and she squeezed her eyes tight as the world lurched around her. She wasn’t sure what was happening to her, but it was too much like her kaleidoscopic dreams, dreams of queens. Great, she had hallucinations now, along with the wild, vivid dreams and nightmares. What a terrible time to go crazy. Maybe someone really was messing with her, dosing her to make her more compliant on the journey.