I’vebed through eight books, and nothing mentions a spell that conceals Fae, not to the magnitude of thepound. There must have been at least five hundred Fae working, not counting the poor faeries that were trapped in those ss bottles and the other two buildings I didn’t search.


    I’m opening a new book on crystal magic when I hear Easton’s signature knock on my bedroom door.


    “Just a moment!” I yell.


    Jumping off the bed, I stash all the books in a loose floorboard beside my nightstand. It’s not an ideal hiding ce but it will have to do for now.


    I open my door to find Easton standing before me, a crooked impish smile on his lips and a small figure beside him staring down at her feet. My head rears back in shock. My mother.


    Easton strides forward, bending his head beside my ear as he passes me. “I found her wandering the halls.”


    With my heart in my throat, I open the door further, gently taking her hand. “Mother, are you all right?”


    It feels like an eternity before she finally lifts her head, the movement making any hope I felt seconds before dissipate as I stare into her zed, vacant brown eyes.


    “ck as night yet not alive.”


    She’s not lucid.


    Looking over my shoulder at Easton, I frown. “Was she speaking like this in the hall?”


    Rubbing the back of his neck, Easton nods.


    “Okay,e on, let’s eat dinner in my dining suite,” I say. Wrapping an arm around her, I guide her to the dining room, cing her in a seat beside mine.


    The dining suite in my quarters is simplepared to the main one in the pce. White walls, and a ck firece with a matching ck granite sitting table adorns the room. The kitchen staff has brought up enough food to feed an army. The dining table is full of steamed vegetables, roast chicken,mb, beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, and an assortment of desserts lining a silver tower dessert tray.


    “Busy, busy mutts,” my mother mumbles over and over.


    “Any news about the sectors?” I ask Easton, distracting myself from the pang in my heart at my mother’s ramblings. I ce a handful of meat and vegetables onto my mother’s te before serving myself.


    Easton helps himself, putting twice the amount of food on his own te. “No news after the attack. No one’s seen or heard from your father since, or his army.”


    Eyebrows furrowing, I set my cutlery down. “Again?”


    Easton dips his head, lowering his eyes to his te as he pushes his food around.


    “The n was for him to visit each sector. Is he going to do another surprise attack? Is that why his army has disappeared again?” I whisper.


    “No one knows, Delh,” he says solemnly. “They’ve cut offmunication.”


    I lean back in my chair. “What do you mean they’ve cut offmunication?”


    Easton sighs, his voice barely above a whisper. “They abandoned the messengers. All of them.”


    My mouth drops open as Easton’s lips tten. “How did he aplish that?”


    “An borate ploy, sending the messengers only for them to return to find their camp deserted.”


    Shaking my head in disbelief, I pour myself and Easton arge ss of wine.


    “The truth will be set free,” my mother exims.


    Turning to my mother, I try to see if she has another riddle for me. “What’s going to be set free?”


    My mother raises her head, her ssy eyes on me for once. “What should have been righted long ago,” she whispers.


    Warmth pulses at my chest. Setting down my wine ss, I look from my mother to Easton, his eyes downcast as he shovels mashed potatoes in his mouth. Quickly cing my palm over my chest, my eyes widen as it connects with the warm crystal pendant.


    My voice trembles as I say, “What’s going to be set free, Mother?”


    “The world,” she rasps.


    I lower my hand from my chest as I let out a long sigh. No more riddles. She’s gone back to speaking in a ramblingnguage that only she understands.


    Turning my attention back to Easton, he begins telling me a new training regime he’s created for us. My mother sits perfectly still in her seat as she eats. The pendant hiding under my shirt thrums and warms my chest the remainder of dinner.


    It’s making me anxious. I need to know why it acts the way it does; I’ve never had a pendant pulse at my touch or produce its own heat.


    By the time dinner finishes, anticipation has me bouncing on the balls of my feet as I stand waiting at my bedroom door. Pressing my ear against the wooden frame, I strain to hear servants milling about in the dining room. I might be paranoid, but I don’t want the off chance of anyoneing in here to find magic books strewn about.


    It isn’t until an hourter when thest of the servants leave, their puffs of air blowing out the candles hanging in the silent corridor, do I move to the side of my bed. Lifting the loose floorboard, I pull out the crystal book I started reading earlier tonight before Easton and my mother interrupted me.


    Pulling the crystal pendant off my neck, I ce it beside the book, turning page after weathered page. Theforting rustle of paper soothing my nerves as I search for anything that looks familiar to the pendant. About three hundred pagester, I stop.


    My heart begins beating so fast I can hear the rapid thumping in my ears. My mouth opens in shock as the air in my lungs leaves me in a whoosh. My mother was lucid when she gave me the pendant; she wasn’t insane or jabbering on nonsense. I lift the white crystal pendant, cing it on the page beside a doppelg?nger drawing of it.


    The title reads “Veil of Truths”.


    It’s not just any pendant or crystal. It’s a conduit crystal that had a spell cast to it over a thousand years ago. The crystal pendant unveils spells and truths for those who wear it.


    With my now trembling hands, I lower the book to the floor, my fingers making the weathered pages shake. I’m not insane or going mad—there truly are Fae trapped in the humannds.


    And how did my mother have the pendant in the first ce? She hasn’t been lucid since that night so I can’t ask her.


    Not giving it a second thought, I stand, running out of my room into Easton’s.


    I barge through the door, my heart hammering wildly. The second I jump onto the mattress, Easton jolts awake, his eyes wide and bleary as he sweeps me head to toe before scanning the room beyond into the hall.


    “What is it? What’s happened?!”


    “I can’t exin it. I have to show you,” I say, grabbing his arm as I drag him out of bed. I march him into his dressing room and pull out his riding clothes, throwing them at him as he stands there, his face a mix of annoyance and bewilderment. When all he does is stare at me, I p my hands. “Hurry up!”


    Snapping him out of his trance, Easton stumbles as he tries to pull on his pants. “Delh, you’re freaking me out. What is it?”


    “If you think you’re freaked out now…just you wait.”


    Leaving his room to change myself, I grab the crystal, safely putting it around my neck and under my shirt.


    I’m strapping one of my fighting swords to my hip when Easton strolls into my room, his brows shooting into his hairline when he sees me. “I need swords for this excursion?”


    I shrug. “You can never be too cautious.”


    Without another word Easton turns, only to shortly return with various swords strapped across his back, fighting knives dangling from his hips.


    Easing open my window, I hand chalk to Easton, directing him as we shimmy up the drainpipe. Taking the rope down the slope of the roof tile, I show him where tond, trying not to chuckle as Eastonnds beside me a momentter with a loud grunt.


    “So that’s how you sneak out,” he mumbles. Easton looks between the roof and myself several times before shaking his head. “I always thought you took the servants’ stairs.”


    Giggling, I open Creseda’s skylight window. “Where would the fun be in that?” Creseda moves to the side before I jump. Brushing hay off my clothes, Eastonnds beside me less gracefully, grunting and groaning as he falls on his side. “You need to start taking dance lessons. For a guard you move around like a stomping giant.”


    Easton scoffs as he drags himself into a standing position, his voice gruff. “Sorry that people can’t gracefully drop from ceilings.”


    I roll my eyes. “Stop being so dramatic and hurry up,” I whisper as I utch the stable door, pulling Creseda out of the barn. It isn’t until we’ve safely made it into the thick forest do Easton and I mount our horses, taking off into the darkened night to the treehouse.


    Easton and I tie the reins around the oak tree next to the old well. Taking Easton’s hand, I walk him in front of the mainpound building. I can’t see the Fae walking around the courtyard. They probably have a different routine when it’s nighttime. Perhaps they sleep in the other buildings. I can, however, still hear the nks and cks of some working inside.


    Confusion swirls in Easton’s eyes. “Ahh, Delh…it’s just the treehouse,” he says hesitantly.


    “Not for long,” I reply. Removing the pendant from my neck I hand it to Easton.


    I turn,ing face to face with the treehouse. I wave my hand at it, knowing thepound lies there behind a veiled spell that only those who wear the pendant can see. It truly is jarring. One moment there’s threepound buildings and arge courtyard in the middle of the dense forest, and the next, all I see is my rundown treehouse.


    Magic is fascinating.N?velDrama.Org exclusive content.


    “It’s very pretty but not particrly my style.” He chuckles.


    “Oh shut up and put it on. You’ll be speechless in a moment anyways.”


    Easton hesitates before taking the pendant out of my palm, but the moment the chain goes around his neck, Easton’s expression drops entirely. The color drains from his face as he stumbles backward.


    “What the fuck is that?” he yells.


    Grabbing his hand, I drag him forward. “Go inside and see.”


    Wild eyes lock on mine. “Over my dead body am I going anywhere near that thing!”


    I roll my own eyes. “It’s not a thing, it’s a building.”


    Easton sputters expletives as he shakes his head. “Nope. I don’t feel like dying today.”


    “You won’t die. Just go in there and have a look around.” I take his hand, rubbing my thumb up and down the inside of his palm. “You can’t see it without the ne. You must go in there alone. I’ll stay here and wait for you.”


    His eyes turn round. “You want me to go in there alone—”


    “I can’t exin anything without you seeing it for yourself,” I interrupt.


    “You owe me all the chocte in the pce for this,” he grumbles. Shaking his head, he approaches thepound.


    From an outsider’s perspective, it looks as if Easton is just walking aimlessly around the woods, but I know he’s about to step inside the building in just a matter of—


    A deep gravelly scream pierces the night sky as Easton trips over his own feet. I watch as he slowly walks around in circles, taking in the worktables inside the building. He’s sheathed his fighting swords, his hands dangling aimlessly as horror fills his eyes. I know he’s reached the trapped faeries in the ss bottles when he falls to the ground, his shoulders curving inward as a lone tear runs down his cheek.


    Momentster, Easton returns as white as a ghost, every now and then shaking his head in shock. He turns to face thepound once more, his voice quivering. “They’re still alive.”


    I take a step forward, standing beside him. “Alive, yet trapped,” I say solemnly.


    Easton takes the pendant off his neck, then ces it around mine. Thepound unveils before my eyes once more.


    “What is this?” he asks, voice full of awe, as his thumb brushes the glowing pendant.


    “My mother came to me in the middle of the night and gave it to me. She said, ‘In the eyes of the blind it sparkles, whereas the one who wears it prevails.’”


    I pick up the pendant, holding the warm crystal in my palm as it glows, brightening the forest floor beneath my feet. “At first, I thought she was bbering on in her usual way, so I didn’t give it much thought. I came here the day that sector seven was attacked… I forgot I was wearing it. Imagine my surprise when I not only saw therge buildings but Fae walking around in the courtyard.” I shake my head as I stare at the sleepingpound. “The pendant was glowing and radiating warmth against my chest.”


    Easton and I slowly make our way back to Creseda and Henry as I tell him about the Fae magic books I found in the family vault. Along with the crystal magic book exining the Veil of Truths spell cast onto the ne over a thousand years ago.


    We take a seat in the grass, gazing at the forest, my eyes seeing the quietpound while Easton’s sees the treehouse.


    “In all the books I’ve read, I haven’t found a single one that exins how or why the Faends died and whenever you try to ask someone about it…no one seems to remember.”


    “It was a long time ago, Delh. Perhaps people have forgotten,” he says warily.


    I shake my head adamantly. “No, it’s more than that. All the books stop entirely. The history is iplete, like thends vanished overnight.” I turn my gaze to his. “At least one person should remember what happened. It’s odd that nobody does.”


    Easton looks at me anxiously. “Perhaps people at the time didn’t want to acknowledge it or the ruling king banned those from talking about it.”


    “If so, they lived in peace together, East. People had loved ones in the Faends. It would have been heartbreaking for many. They wouldn’t have dismissed what happened, let alone forget.” Taking a deep breath, I continue. “Clearly something happened. We were told all Fae were extinct.” I fling my arms in front of me toward thepound. “But they’re not, and those Fae in the building couldn’t have escaped because they’re trapped in a spell.”


    Easton sits up, his brows pulling low. “You think the Faends still exist?”


    “What if it’s hidden just like thispound?” I suggest.


    “Why would they conceal themselves?”


    I lower my voice. “What if they didn’t do it voluntarily?”


    Easton blinks. “Fae were the most powerful beings in this world. How could they all have been trapped?”


    “I don’t know but clearly something went wrong, and it’s not a stretch of the imagination to think the Faends are hidden.” Turning to thepound, I lower my voice. “There has to be more than five hundred Fae here, Easton, and that’s not including the hundreds of trapped fairies in the ss bottles.” Disgust mars my words.


    I don’t voice my suspicions about my dreams being connected. I don’t know why I dream about the Faends, and Easton already looks sick to the stomach at the idea that they’re all still alive yet trapped.


    Easton’s deep voice pulls me from my thoughts. “Should we set them free?”


    I shake my head. “We can’t help them if they can’t hear or see us. Besides, I think the spell is moreplicated than just invisibility to hide them.”


    “What do you mean?” he asks.


    “They move like soldiers. I dare say whoever cast the spell is giving them orders that they can’t deny, otherwise they would have left a long time ago.”


    Both of us turn to the forest as it holds more questions than answers.


    Awe lines Easton’s words as he speaks. “I can’t believe the treehouse you have been going to for your whole life has been hiding this all along.”


    Perhaps that’s why I dream of the Fae.


    I shrug. “I call it the In-between now.”


    “Why?” He chuckles.


    “Because it’s in between bothnds, the humans and the Fae.”


    His lips lift into a grin. “Did you juste up with that?”


    “Yes,” I say smirking. “And it’s catchy so it’s sticking.”


    Easton’s chuckle dies off. “I can’t believe Fae are still alive.”


    My heart pinches, my voice lowering. “I can’t believe they’ve been trapped all this time.”


    “You’re not going to stop here, are you?” he says, quirking a brow.


    I lift my chin. “We’re going to find the Faends,” I dere.


    “I knew it,” he mutters to himself before sitting up. “You’d have to leave the pce and we don’t know if there even are Fae in the oldnds. What if all that’s left are the Fae trapped here?”


    “I can’t keep sitting around, day in and day out, not doing anything.”


    <i ss="calibre2">I can’t do nothing anymore.</i>


    “You’ve been freeing as many people as you can. That’s not nothing, Delh,” he says softly.


    “It’s not enough. I can’t do anything to help my people. I was kidding myself thinking I could try to help them from within. I mean, look at what happened to sector seven. No one can stop him.” For the first time in years, hope flutters through my heart. “Perhaps the Fae can,” I breathe. My voice grows with enthusiasm. “We co-existed before they disappeared. What if they can help restore our world to what it used to be?”


    “What if there isn’t any Fae in thends to help?” Easton’s voice grows solemn. “What if they don’t want to help?”


    “It’s the only hope of change we have.”


    “Are you ready to go against your father?” Easton whispers.


    “No, but I will be.” My voice lowers. “I have to be.”


    No one deserves to live like this anymore.


    Easton and I spread out on my bedroom floor the following night, books, maps, and pieces of paper strewn about in all directions. “The old Faends are about a two day’s ride from the south side pce border,” Easton mutters.


    I study the map before us. “It’s a mystery as to why my father never expanded. Half the country has just been left to rot,” I say tly.


    Easton and I searched the family vault together, umting more books, trinkets, and an old map of the Fae and humannds. The top northern part of Aloriah is the humannds. The southern half belonged to the Fae, divided by five elemental courts—Earth, Air, Water, Fire, and Essence. The elements of the Fae magic. Arge tree sits in the middle of thends, the Mason River snaking through the courts, linking them together. Starting from the Earth court, moving all the way down to the bottom of Aloriah, and ending in the Essence Court.


    I point to the river in the humannds. “We could shorten the trip by taking the remont River.”


    Easton waves his hand in the air. “We’d need a boat for that.”


    I lift my head as I stare at him nkly.


    He chuckles. “Oh, right. Secret mission princess and all that.”


    Ignoring his teasing, I return my gaze to the map. “I can get us a rowboat. Anything bigger and I think we’d be drawing too much attention.”


    Especially after myst prison escape.


    Easton rubs his hand over his chin. “How much water and food should we bring?”


    “I’d say two weeks’ worth of supplies. I don’t want to be caught unprepared.”


    “I think the bigger question is, how are we both going there? There’s only one ne,” he says, staring at the apex of my chest where the pendant lies hidden.


    I tuck my hand beneath my shirt, pulling out the silver chain. “I’ve added a longer chain so we can both wear it to get in. It’ll be ufortable but if the Fae truly are there, I’m sure one of them could ce a truth spell onto another crystal simr to this one.”


    “And if they don’t?” he adds warily.


    I wink. “Then we’ll truly be closer than ever before.”


    Rolling his eyes, Easton ignores my quip. “When should we leave?”


    I grimace. “Before my father returns. It’ll be too difficult to get all the supplies out of the pce while he and his cronies are here.”


    He nods. “We should start moving everything tomorrow night. We can stash it all in the In-between. Take two trips so people don’t get suspicious.”


    “Or we could just leave in the middle of the night. We’ll disappear either way, can’t get more suspicious than that.”


    We can’t lie and say we’re leaving for court business; everyone would know it’s a fa?ade. My father doesn’t let me leave the pce grounds for anything let alone court duties. He’s not a stupid man; if he knew Easton and I were going to the treehouse with weeks’ worth of supplies, he’d lock me up faster than I could say no.


    “Very true.” He sighs. “When do you want to leave?”


    I nod at the map. “Tomorrow night,” I dere.


    Settling into silence, Easton maps out the route we’re to take to the remont River. Drawing a lined path, his adorable face scrunches in concentration.


    “What about Creseda?” I ask, chewing my bottom lip.


    “I’ll take care of Creseda and Henry.” Seeing the anxiety written all over my face, Easton leans forward, covering my hand with his. “Do you trust me?”


    “Of course,” I answer quickly, not needing any time to think.


    Easton winks, returning his attention to the map. “Then there’s no need to worry.”