My heart was beating erratically in my chest, adrenaline pumped through my veins, my legs were pumping beneath me, the rough terrain whizzing by blinding fast. I never felt so free. I adored the strength hidden in my fae body. It was amazing. My dark brown curly hair was blown this way and that by the sudden strong gust of wind. I froze.
The sudden stillness of the night was alarming. My ears strained to hear. I smelled them before I heard them. The stench was overwhelming.
"A halfling. And A pretty one too." The voice that hissed behind me was neither female or male and caused a cold to creep up my spine. I swallowed. Twice. And turned around.
The creatures I saw were something out of Hellas nightmares. They were Ilken. And there were four. I had heard of these beasts along my travels to the Fire Queen in Terrasen, but I had hoped we would never cross paths. The beasts had claws as long as my forearm and bodies so misshapen it was hard to believe there were once human. It's skin an ashen gray and teeth gnarled stumps. I looked into the beast closest to me. I saw my reflection in its startlingly human eyes. My dark hair was coming out of its braid, my hazel eyes were round and wide, my short curvy figure was miniscule compared to the hulking beast before me.
"You are going to taste good." The beasts were salivating, prowling, waiting. They think I am weak, that I am nothing more than a snack on their way to the hell they crawled from. They thought wrong because I am Aeval of the Night and my swords and raw magic was going to destroy these monstrosities to shreds. My full lips twisted into a vicious sneer.
"Man, hell must smell worse than I thought. The stench coming from you is enough to make a girl faint." The things did not like my tone one bit. The leader one narrowed its' eyes.
"You have no fear. No matter, you will soon be quaking in your boots." The thing twisted its mouth into what I think is a smile. I didn't need to fake the shiver that passed through my body. The beasts noticed my tremble and started to move closer. Good. I needed them distracted.
"Ooh I'm so scared of the puppy." I rolled my eyes hoping to antagonize the creatures. And by the hissing noise seeping from their mouths, I succeeded.
"How dare-" I get the beast off with a hand gesture.
"Shhhh.. I don't understand puppy. Can you understand me?" I spoke loudly as if the animals were deaf and made wild hand movements to imply that it is also stupid.
"I am going to eat the flesh off your bones." The beast was spitting mad. Literally. I wiped spit from my face.
"One, gross. Two, you soon won't have a face to eat me with." A look of confusion was on the beast's face when its head was severed from its neck. The other beasts looked around, perplexed. Suddenly, there was a flash of steel and another Ilken was on the ground. The others started to panic at the unseen threat, but before they could do anything I took the remaining two down with a brutal swing of my blade.
"I said to distract the things, not send them into a fiery rage." My twin brother, Kalen, popped back into existence about three feet away from me. His unruly dark brown hair was windblown, his sea green eyes and plush mouth narrowed at disgust towards the abominations at our feet. I scowled.
"I need to put a damn bell on you." Even though Kalen had had his gift for as long as I can remember it still scared the bejeezus out of me every time he just popped back.
"And I need to put a muzzle on you." He snapped back with an equally impressive scowl. My eyebrows jumped at the sudden snap in his tone. He took a one look at my expression and sighed.
"You know I have reservations about going to Terrasen. What if the Queens court doesn't want us? What if they try to kill us? What if they're not even there?" I rolled my eyes. He had said the questions so many times these past weeks, I could have recited it with him. I didn't respond because he wasn't exactly wrong.
The Queen was rumored to have been taken prisoner by the evil Queen of Doranelle, Maeve. But Aelin's court is also rumored to have returned to Terrasen to regroup and replan. And we were going to offer our services to her mate, Rowan.
"You know how much we need to do this, Kalen. Not only will we help save the Queen, but we get a chance to kill Maeve." I walked to a little alcove in between the bushes to gather our supplies.
"There are better ways to do that! I want to kill Maeve as much as you do but we don't need to storm into a kingdom and 'offer' our help to complete and utter strangers who might try to kill us!" I turned around to see him shoving his fingers through his hair and huffing out a breath. I walked up to him, close enough that I to tip my head up to look him in the eye. He towers over me.
"Kalen, we need to do this. We have to. You know we do." He sighed his consent.
"Fine, whatever you want. But if the shifter tries to eat us, I'm feeding you to her and running." I laughed and shoved one of the packs at him.
"Come on Birdbrain, were almost there." We had been in Terrasen for days, traveling the last leg of our journey to the heart of Terrasen, Orynth. I riffled through the packs until I found what I wanted.
"Score! We still have some hard candy from that village." I opened the candy and popped it into my mouth.
"That's from like two weeks ago. You're disgusting." He shoved me to prove his point.
I stuck my tongue out at him. He flicked me.
The night went silent.
We both lost all happiness and stilled, listening for sounds of life. I heard footsteps and drew my sword. From the sound of it there were three people coming straight for us. Kalen looked at me and communicated silently the only way twins can.
I'll go invisible. Keep your magic ready and don't make them mad. I glared at him with enough venom to kill a witch.
I'll do whatever the hell I want, Birdbrain. He chuckled silently. I flipped him off.
The footsteps were closer and Kalen winked out of existence. The intruders scents hit me. I inhaled. There were definitely three and there were fae. Powerful fae. I braced myself for a fight and crouched down into a loose defensive position. The Fae crossed the tree line.
One of them had silver hair and pine green eyes. The others had matching golden hair, one with turquoise blue eyes and the other a tawny brown. There were all tall muscular warriors ready to kill first and ask questions later. The one with silver hair spoke first.
"Who are you." It was more of a demand than a question.
"Aeval." I gave them a syrupy smile.
"What are you doing here, Aeval?" The one with turquoise eyes asked.
"I have my business and you have yours. Do you mind if I asked your names?" The fae were not buying the innocent act.
"We are asking the questions here." The one that smelled of pine and snow snapped. The one with tawny eyes cut the silver haired one a sharp look.
"Where is your companion?" He asked. I gave him a vague hand gesture.
"Here and there."
"Who killed the Ilken?" He took a step forward.
"You're lookin' at her." The males did not like my tone one bit. The silver haired male snarled.
"Jeez don't get your panties in a twist. I'll tell you what you give me your names and I'll tell you what you want to know." I spoke to the one with the tawny eyes. He seemed least likely to rip out my throat.
"I am Aedion." The one with turquoise eyes voice was clear and loud in the empty clearing. "This is Rowan." He pointed at the figure with the green eyes and silver hair. "And Gavriel." He jerked his head in tawny eye's direction. My eyes widened and my throat dried.
"Maluhia." I barked. The males looked at me like I had grown two heads. Kalen became visible in the space beside me. He was in a loose defensive crouch, like mine, covering my left, my weak side. That's the way we were made to balance each other. He takes the left i take the right, he has the personality that calms people, makes them feel safe, while I make people laugh and have the desire to strangle me at the same time. I'm the sun, he's the moon. The males were recovering from their shock and started to draw their weapons.
"Woah." I sheath my sword and show my hands palms up. "We come in peace. We are Kalen and Aeval. We have come seeking a meeting with the court of Terrasen." I tried to sound respectful.
"Meeting denied." Rowan said bluntly. Gavriel shot him a look.
"I wouldn't be so hasty to turn us away." I said with a good dose of snark. "We are after all Furlan's kids." I watched their reactions closely. Gavriel and Rowan wore expressions of sadness and regret. Furlan after all, was the only one of their cadre to have been killed. By Maeve no less. And it was their fault.
"Meeting accepted." Gavriel and Rowan said in unison.
