Rinko shoved the door open and it crashed into the wall, her arms full of our coats and scarves. It would be warm by the bonfire, but we had a ways to walk before we got to the town square.

  “Okay! Who’s ready for some fun tonight?!” Rinko asked, grinning from ear to ear. “Oh, and no, Riv, you’re not allowed to sit by the food tables all night. You have to come and dance with us for the last dance at least, as is tradition.” She added, her smile twisting into a triumphant smirk when she saw my disappointed face. I wasn’t much of a food eater normally, but when it came to party food? All bets were off.

  “Agreed.” Beth said, grabbing her coat from Rinko to put it on. “We can be antisocial tomorrow, but tonight we gotta enjoy tonight to the fullest before we get too busy in the coming months.”

  I wanted to argue, that a party could be enjoyed without having to mingle with anyone, but I would suck it up for tonight. It was one night, after all. I could do that at least. I only nodded, taking my coat from Rinko and put it on.

  After we were all ready, we walked down the stairs, Rinko and Beth chatting animatedly while I listened. Torgrud waited at the bottom of the stairs for us, his hair and beard neatly combed.

  “Torgrud!” Beth said, jumping down the last two steps to give him a hug. “You look dashing in your blue suit!” She winked, causing him to blush.

  He waved her off and held his hand out, helping Rinko down the steps where she stopped and gave him a hug and a kiss on his cheek. “Thanks Dad.” She said as he beamed with pride.

  He held his hand out for me, and I accepted even though I really didn’t need it, it was just a nice gesture and I appreciated it. “Thank you, and Beth’s right. The blue suits you.” I grinned.

  “Ah, geez.” He shook his head, still bright red in the face but smiling under his bushy beard. “You girls look beautiful tonight. Go have fun.” He said, waving us off.

  We left the tavern and he lingered behind, locking the doors behind him. Rinko and Beth linked arms and Rinko held her arm out for mine, so I joined them, listening as they talked about who they were hoping would ask to dance with them first.

  “I think Felix would be a good dance partner.” Rinko said, sighing.

  “He’s not still fawning over Eloise, is he?” I asked, hoping he’d gotten over that one-sided crush. I didn’t want to see him or Rinko be heartbroken because one girl was blind to Felix’s good heart.

  “Probably not.” Beth said, huffing. “But! You could try asking him. You won’t know til you ask, right?”

  “Mmm, true. I won’t get my hopes up too much though.” Rinko said. “I just hope she doesn’t break his heart too much.”

  “No, but see, if she does break his heart, you just swoop in and sweep him off his feet, then he won’t be brokenhearted for long! I don’t see how anyone could, especially with this gem picking up their pieces.” Beth said, laughing.

  “Gods you have a strange way of thinking.” Rinko laughed breathily.

  “Emphasis on strange.” I laughed. “But is she wrong?”

  “Not exactly.” Rinko snorted.

  “Of course I’m not wrong!” Beth said, skipping ahead of us. “I’m hoping Roman will ask me.” She said, grinning at us as she walked backwards.

  “I knew it!” Rinko said, pumping her arm in the air. “You do like him!”

  “Who doesn’t?” She snorted. “Just look at him.” She grinned to herself.

  I had to admit, she did have very good taste. He wasn’t the kindest guy our age, but he had a way of charming everyone around him with his hazel eyes and a smile that could light up an entire room.

  “What about you, Riv? I know there’s someone you’re dying to dance with.” Rinko asked, nudging me with her elbow.

  “Yeah, who?” Beth asking, coming to my left side to link arms with me.

  “V- uh…” I panicked, forgetting his real name. “James.”

  “Who?” Rinko asked, tilting her head in confusion, a smirk beginning to grow on her face. I rolled my eyes at her, knowing full well she knew who I was talking about.

  “The guy who sits with his nose in a book all the time? Sorry darling, but I don’t think he’ll ask you. You might have to make the first move on that one.” Beth said, bumping shoulders with me.

  “Yeah, probably so.” I said, shrugging. I smiled to myself, knowing she was probably right, but there was always hope. I smiled to myself, thinking about the last time I’d spoken with him a week ago. He’d come to get lunch at the tavern and read his book like he normally did, as he’d done for as long as I’d known him. We didn’t really see each other as often as we used to growing up, when he and his brothers would come and play with my siblings and I every day, but we did what we could.

  We’d grown apart over the years, after Elidyr had suddenly announced that she no longer wanted them to come see us. For months, I’d tried to keep the friendship afloat, but it was a failed endeavor after the oldest of the four had all but told me to give up on it. My brother, Alisdair, had followed in Elidyr’s footsteps as usual at the time, so it was just me and James, or Violet as I liked to call him. We would meet in secret on occasion, just to go catch tadpoles and watch them grow before releasing them, or talk about new spells we’d learned, or to spar with each other. The last time he’d come to the tavern, he’d left his bookmark in his rush and I had shoved it in my coat pocket so I would remember to give it back to him.

  “Well, good luck to all of us!” Beth said as we were getting close to the town square. “Remember, the last dance is ours!” She said, skipping off to where Roman was sitting.

  “And there she goes.” Rinko said, rolling her eyes. “Whatever happened to spending the night together?” There was a strange look in her eye as she watched Beth flounce off.

  “Technically, we are.” I shrugged. “We do our little meetups between dances to check in.”

  “Mmm, sorta. Well, good luck with Violet.” Rinko said, winking at me and ran off before I could respond.

  I silently laughed to myself and looked around at the square that had been completely transformed into an outdoor dance hall with a massive bonfire in the center, a small band performing on a stage to the left, storefronts decorated with silver icicles and snowflakes for winter. I followed my nose as it led me to the banquet tables laden down with all sorts of food from all over. I ducked as a few pixies and sprites flew overhead, not watching where they were going. I waved to Shalana who was drinking with some of her elven friends already.

  “Hey, Ribbit!” I whirled around as tiny voice sounded from right behind me.

  “Oh, hey Rafflesia! Egen!” I smiled as my pixie and sprite friends came to light on my shoulders.

  “I’m surprised you came.” Raflessia said, drinking from a tiny cup.

  “I told you she’d be here. Cereus gave her a dress after all. If she hadn’t come, Cereus wouldn’t have ever let her hear the end of it.” Egen cackled.

  “Ugh, don’t remind me.” I laughed, shaking my head at them. “Speaking of, where is she?”

  “The faeries haven’t shown up yet, apparently the Queen’s coming this year.” Raflessia shrugged.

  “Really? I wonder why now all of a sudden.”

  “You have to wonder?” Raflessia asked, tossing her cup and it disappeared with a tiny poof. “Probably to make a show of her power, I’m sure you’ve heard about the basilisk.”

  “Mm, yeah.” I nodded, reaching down to pick up a plate to fill it with an assortment of food. Suddenly, what Shalana had said earlier about the basilisk made more sense. With that threat out of the way, others could move in.

  “I wonder if the witches will come this year.” Egen sighed, draping herself across my shoulder.

  “A few of us are already here.” A bored voice sounded from just to my right, at the middle of the tables.

  “Mira.” Egen growled.

  “Peace.” Mira said, holding her hands up in defence.

  “Who let you out of the Witch’s Forest.” Egen sat up, glaring daggers at Mira.

  “Hey now, Egen.” I said in warning. “She has every right to be here.”

  “You’re just going to forgive her for what she did?!”

  “You started that fight in case you forgot.” Raflessia said.

  “I did not!” Egen shrieked.

  “Egen, you took her hat.” I sighed, shaking my head.

  “She stepped on my flower!”

  “I said I was sorry!” Mira said, crossing her arms.

  “Hmph!”

  “Egen, it’s been three years.” I said, turning back to the table and grabbed a roll.

  “That flower was the one you gave me!” Egen cried.

  “I gave you another one, didn’t I?” I asked, glancing in amusement at my fiery friend.

  “Yes.” She sniffed. “But the first one was special.”

  “Egen, I really am sorry.” Mira said, her blue hair hiding her face as she looked away.

  “Egen, do you forgive her?” I asked, passing her a cookie.

  Egen was silent for a while as she nibbled on the cookie, so I went back to filling my plate.

  “Yeah, I guess.” She mumbled, before flitting to Mira’s shoulder.

  “I will never understand sprites and their grudges.” Rafflesia said, as she flitted to the table and landed, walking around and inspecting the various platters.

  “Me neither.” I said, shaking my head. “I’m glad to see you here, Mira.” I turned to the witch in question.

  “I wasn’t going to come, but I thought about what you said a while back, about making the first move. I don’t want to live in the Witch’s Forest forever and having friends out here would help.” She shrugged, shoving a lock of her hair behind her ear.

  “Are any others coming tonight?” I asked, following her to a table a short ways away.

  “Mm, maybe.” She shrugged. “I heard something about the Faerie Queen coming tonight, and if she shows up, I imagine the Witch Queen and maybe the Elf King might also make an appearance. They seem to be a package deal, after all.”

  I nodded, savoring some cheese. We sat in relative silence, watching as people danced, filled their plates, and chatted. I had no desire to go dance, so I just sat and took my time eating my snacks while I listened to the band perform. Rinko and Beth might be upset with me if they find out I didn’t at least mingle with other people besides my friends, but I was comfortable right where I was.

  It wasn’t long before horns started blowing and everyone stood, watching as, sure enough, the fae queen, witch queen, and elf king made a very long procession in to the festival. The crowd started cheering and waving to them. This was huge. I wasn’t sure when the last time was that they had made an appearance.

  As the crowd grew and my plate got emptier, the less I wanted to be there.

  “Well, I came, I saw, I’m now leaving. I think I’ll go explore other parts of the forest.” Mira said as she stood and left without another look back. I watched her leave, wishing I could follow as she disappeared into the shadows. Literally.

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  I leaned back and chewed on my nails, looking for someone to talk to. Raflessia patted me on the cheek and then flew off, probably to go find Egen and plan some more pranks for the night. I was debating on what to do next when I looked up and made eye-contact with James. His purple eyes flashed in the firelight as he nodded in my direction, so I stood, set my dirty plate on the pile of other dirty plates and made my way over to him.

  “Hey, Ribbit. I’m… glad you came.” He said quietly when I got to the table he was sitting at with his three older brothers.

  “Well, when you’re not given much of a choice…” I laughed awkwardly.

  “Hey, Riv!” Sam, the third brother said.

  “Hi Sam, how’ve you been? I hadn’t seen you in a while.” I gave a small wave.

  “We’ve been really busy at the forge.” He shook his head, his cobalt blue eyes dancing in the firelight. “I’d rather not talk about it. What about you?”

  “I’ve just been hanging around the tavern, so not very much for now.” I shrugged.

  “Still planning on joining the army?” Rhett, the oldest of the four, asked.

  “Of course she is.” Rory, the second brother said, tossing a cookie at me, his red eyes lighting up in amusement.

  I caught it and shrugged. “What else do you expect?”

  “Not much else.” Rory said, grinning at me.

  I scoffed and threw a roll at him, which he caught and bit into. “Thanks!”

  “Hopefully we’ll be in the same squadron.” Rhett said, leaning back in his chair, his blond hair and green eyes reflecting the firelight, almost blindingly so.

  “I doubt they’ll let us be in the same squadron with us being from the same place.” I wouldn’t mind being in the same squadron as Rhett, but he could be overbearing and over protective of us sometimes, very much like Elidyr.

  “I’m a veteran member. They split newbies into veteran squads, so it’s not an impossibility.” He shrugged.

  “I still can’t believe it.” Rory said, shaking his head. “You, joining the army.” He said, his red eyes reflecting the sadness in his voice. “Feels like just the other day we were all sneaking through the forest together.”

  “As much as I’d love to reminisce, isn’t there something you’re forgetting, James?” Sam said, flicking their youngest brother in the head.

  “No. I haven’t forgotten.” James scowled, running his hand through his black hair, his purple eyes flashing in annoyance.

  “Well, then ask her.” Rhett said, standing up. “I’m going to ask Isla.”

  “Good luck!” Rory said, as Rhett disappeared into the crowd. “You’re all he can talk about these days.” Rory said, winking at me.

  I blushed bright red, wondering why he would be talking about me of all people.

  “Yeah, thanks.” James said, glaring daggers at Rory. He sighed and stood, grabbing my hand and pulled me away from the table.

  “Hey, what… what are you doing?” I tried pulling my hand away from him, but he held tighter, pulling me through the crowd. “James!” I called, but he shook his head and kept pulling me with him. I debated on jerking my hand out of his grip, but part of me was really curious, so I followed, dodging people as my heart pounded in my chest. When we got to the edge of the square, where there were few people, he stopped and turned to me, still squeezing my hand.

  “I’m sorry if I scared you, I just…” He looked away, his purple eyes hidden by his longer black hair. He sighed, facing me head on. “I didn’t want an audience… Will you dance with me?”

  “Is that…” Completely taken by surprise I started laughing. “Sorry, I’m just surprised. I really didn’t think anyone would want to dance with me tonight.”

  “I… uh…” He said, sheepishly, running his hands through his hair again.

  “Stop that, you’re fine.” I reached up and straightened his hair, smiling as I did so. Some things would never change. “Of course I’ll dance with you.”

  Relieved, he visibly relaxed and released his grip on my hand, but still held on to it as thought I might disappear if he let go.

  From where we were standing, we could barely hear the music, but it was enough. It was a livelier tempo, but not so much that it was difficult to dance to. I drowned out the rest of the crowd and started to feel the music, swaying my hips and I held my other hand out for his and he followed my lead and we danced. After the second song, he finally started to relax, a smile lighting up his entire face. Song after song went by, and we grew closer, blocking out everything around us. In that moment, it was just us. It felt natural. Not perfect, but it was close enough to not matter. After the fourth or fifth song, he started to smile more, his eyes never once leaving my face. It was then that I understood the term dancing the night away, I’d never understood it before, but for whatever reason, I felt safe, happy, content, and other emotions I couldn’t really put a name to right then, but I knew I never wanted it to end. I’d always had a bit of a crush on him, but I knew it could never be. I liked his friendship too much to ruin that but now… Not that it really mattered, I would be leaving soon for gods’ knew how long.

  When we eventually broke away from all the dancing, we wandered into town, cooling off in the night air. We let our hands drop and just walked, our shoulders brushing on occasion.

  “Oh, you left your bookmark in the tavern.” I said, pulling it out of my pocket and passed it to him.

  “Oh, I was wondering where that went. Thank you.” He said, looking at it. It was beautifully painted, the purple matching his eyes almost perfectly. I wasn’t sure why I was so drawn to them, maybe because they were so different, like my hair. The fae and witches all had various hair and eye colors like they were plucked straight from a rainbow, but for a human, it was uncommon, but not overly so. The only thing anyone could figure out was there was a possibility the colors were somehow tied to magic. His brothers all had unusual eye colors, but they weren’t as subtle as his.

  “It’s getting late, maybe we should head back, before they send out the search parties.” I laughed to myself, but not really wanting to go back just yet.

  “Before we do, there’s something I’d like to show you.” He said, gently tugging my elbow as he veered off to the left, down a back alley. I tried keeping up with where we were, but he took so many twists and turns, I couldn’t tell which way was which anymore. He came to an abrupt halt, just outside of a small house tucked into a corner of a dead end, five different flowers painted on the door, one green, one red, one blue, and one purple in a circle with a white one in the center.

  “What is this?” I asked, stepping forward and gently brushing my fingers across the purple flower.

  “This is our secret meeting place.” He said, brushing past me to open the door. “I wanted to invite you into it years ago, but we weren’t sure where your loyalties lie.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, ducking in the door after him as he flicked on the lights inside.

  Inside was just a circular table covered with maps, books, and various weapons.

  “Teodoric started all this.” James said, shutting the door behind me, referring to my former battle mentor and former Captain of the Guard. “The resistance we’ve been building in the shadows, it’s still small, smaller than we’d like, but with time, I think it’ll grow.” He walked forward and shifted a few books to the side and rested his hand on the map on the table. “We know the kingdom is suffering but the powers that be aren’t doing anything to stop it. He… that is, Teodoric, told me not to tell you about it, but Shalana said it was my decision. That if you betrayed us, I had to be the one to put an end to you.”

  “I see.” Understanding more than I wanted to, a dagger of ice lodged itself in my heart. Even after all these years, they still didn’t trust me. Though, I supposed it couldn’t be helped... I was best friends with the princess after all. “What exactly are you working on here?”

  He pulled out a chair and motioned for me to sit, so I did. He didn’t speak until after he’d pulled a chair out for himself and sat down beside me. “Right here’s a map of the kingdom.” He said, pointing to the one in front of us. “These marks are other towns that are far from sympathetic to the king’s cause,” he said, pointing to each one, most of them other outlier towns. “We’ve rallied several members in each town under our banner, in the event that the king allows the Astral Order to ban magic to all but their own and force all non-humans into the forest. The war to the south is picking up again, meaning that they’re going to start pulling people from their homes to fight. We’re losing the war, yet they still won’t end it.” He said, shaking his head.

  “What?” I snapped my head to face him. “What do you mean they’re planning on forcing everyone into the forest?”

  “Uh, yeah. You live in the capital most of the year and you don’t even know that much? What in the gods’ names are you doing while you’re in the capital?” He looked at me in disbelief.

  I looked away, embarassed by my lack of attention I’d been paying to, well, anything. I’d known there was a possibilty of them outlawing magic, but I’d tuned it out, too afraid to give in to the thoughts that usually followed thinking about something like that. I wasn’t a good offensive fighter, not by a long shot. Magic was where my talents lay, I’d been so focused on practicing magic to get a position in the King’s Army as a Mage Knight, mostly because…. Well, I really liked their uniforms and I wasn’t sure what else I wanted to do. I wasn’t good at building things like my brother, and my older sister would be taking over the family business after our father stepped down. I had the power to choose what to do for the rest of my life, but I would’ve preferred to be told what to do. To be given a purpose.

  My conversation with Shalana came flooding back to me. “I didn’t think you were this naive.” she’d said. Naive? Selfish? Caught up in trying to prove myself to my older sister? “You’ll never make anything yourself at this rate.” I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to drown out my sister’s voice.

  “Riv, are you okay?” James asked, his hand brushing gently across my shoulder, snapping me back to reality.

  “So I assume…” I started, opening my eyes to look at the map before me and blew out a laugh. “You want me to be a double agent?”

  “Well… That’s not… exactly it, we just-”

  “I’ll do it. I’ll join your cause. I have a semblance of a plan, and I don’t know if it’ll work, but I have to try.” I said, leaning forward, my mind made up. “We’ve got the resistance building out here, the entire forest itself might, no, will rise up to join you. I’ll build some sort of following within the army, get a high enough ranking to stage a coup, get the king and his council to stop the war and to fix their checks and balances.”

  “It sounds so simple when you put it like that.” He said, shaking his head.

  “It does, but it isn’t, you know that as well as I do. But!” I said, slapping the table, making him jump. “It’s better than nothing at all. I also can’t do it all on my own.”

  “You’re right.” He nodded. “As long as we keep our heads down. We just have to figure out how to get the Deepwood Council on our side.”

  “I think they already are, they just haven’t officially announced anything yet. But, it has to be political. They would never go for an all-out war, not after the last one. 70 some odd years later and they’re still recovering from the massacres.”

  “Y’know, it makes me wish I’d asked you sooner.” He said with a laugh, leaning back in his chair.

  “It wouldn’t have been a good idea.” I shook my head. “I was blind. Blinded to a lot and only in the last several days have I begun to realize just how corrupt our government is. I’m not sure what I would have done, but it wouldn’t have been to consider overthrowing it altogether.”

  “What gave you that idea, then?”

  “Talking to the dragons a few days ago, and then Shalana this morning, actually.” I shrugged, thinking back to the dragons’ angry rant that turned into a long history lesson.

  “You still meet with them?” He asked, gaping at me. “I thought they’d cut themselves off from the rest of us.”

  “They have, sort of, but they haven’t left. They still guard the forest like they always have.” I jumped as I heard the bell toll 11. I hadn’t realized it had gotten that late already.

  “Are you alright?” James asked, silently laughing at me.

  “Uh, yeah. I’m just not used to the bell being that loud.” I shrugged. “We should probably get back. We’ll have time later to talk more about all of… this.” I said, waving my hand at the table in front of us. “They’re probably wondering where we disappeared to.”

  He sighed and nodded as he stood up. “Hopefully they don’t ask too many questions.”

  “Hopefully not, but they’re all way too nosy to mind their own business.” I snorted, standing.

  He nodded in agreement, opening the door for me. I walked into the cool night air and shivered involuntarily.

  “I’d offer you a coat, but I don’t have one with me either.” He said, linking arms with me.

  “That’s alright.” I shrugged, leaning into his shoulder a little more. I smiled to myself, content to be near him again. It hurt to lose a friend like I did, but knowing we were still friends, even after all these years of having to stay away, I knew it was a genuine friendship. Maybe we could become more than just friends, but right now, I was happy just as we were. If only Elidyr could see me now, being near a guy like I was. I smirked to myself, imagining her face contorting in anger because I was with a guy. “Must you be so boy crazy?” she’d glared at me before running to our parents about it, worried I was going to become pregnant or something. Mom hadn’t said much, other than to tell me to be careful and not add to the population or take away from it, which I wasn’t planning on doing anyway. Besides, we were just friends who would run off and catch lightning bugs and tadpoles. There was never any talk of anything more than what we were doing at the time, we shared an occasional hug, but that was really only when one of us was upset about something, or to say goodbye. I shook my head, shaking her voice out of it. I wasn’t going to let her continue to control what I did. Talking to James about our plans for the future really helped steel my resolve. From now on, I would be my own person, making my own decisions. I wasn’t going to be a child forever, I had to learn to grow up, with or without my sister’s help. Preferably without.

  We were silent the whole way back to the square, minus my occasional humming, which he was used to. The band was announcing the last two songs of the night before the fireworks show when we got back. James went and got us some hot cider while I grabbed our coats. It was very warm by the bonfire, but being a water mage, fire and I never got along very well, so I moved away from it quickly before I started to burn too much more.

  “There you are!” Beth said, running up to me breathlessly, Rinko shortly behind her. “Where were you?”

  “James and I went for a walk.” I smiled, humming one of my favorite songs as I set our coats down on a chair nearby as they shared a knowing look.

  “Well, you’ll have to tell us all about it, but first!” Beth said, dramatically holding up her finger. “We must dance.”

  “My lady.” Rinko grinned, bowing low and dramatically holding her hand out to Beth.

  “My lady.” Beth repeated, doing the same to me.

  I giggled, unable to keep it together, as I bowed to Rinko, our hands now forming a circle with each other.

  “Oh come on, you didn’t say it.” Rinko huffed, laughing.

  I cleared my throat, trying to stop the laughter that was threatening to bubble over. “My lady.” I managed to say, just as the band started up with the next to last song. It was a very old, but lively song, one that had been performed last at every festival for hundreds of years. Composed by a brownie, an imp, a giant, and a faerie in celebration of the peace that was built between the non-human races. Nonplussed, the three of us looked at each other, wondering why they weren’t performing this one last like they always had.

  When people started bumping into us, we picked up the dance together in a circle, pausing to clap once on occasion, before twirling around each other like everyone else.

  The last song of the night was a lullaby that had been passed down through many families. There wasn’t a soul in the Deepwood Forest who didn’t know it. It was as much a part of us as the very air we breathed. A lullaby written by the gods themselves, long before they abandoned the world for their silver and gold palaces.

  I missed a step when I made eye contact with James, my face lighting up in pure joy. It felt good… no, amazing to feel like this, like everything would be okay. It would be okay. We would be okay.