“You okay?” Malachi asked Serefin.
“Yeah, I’m good. But we need to get out of here. Where there’s two deadlings, there are more.”
“Agreed,” Malachi said. He walked back over to me and knelt next to where I was still lying on the forest floor. “Sorry, but I didn’t want you caught in the crossfire,” he said.
I pushed myself to my feet and brushed the twigs off my pants. “That might be the first time you’ve ever apologized to me,” I said.
I couldn’t see Malachi’s smile, but I knew it was there. “Then maybe we should run into more deadlings. It brings out my chivalrous side.”
My breath caught in my throat. Was he flirting with me?
Serefin coughed behind us, and we both began walking.
It wasn’t the first time I had been nearly attacked by creatures in the darkness, but as I stepped over the mangled bodies, I had to remind myself to stay calm.
“Saints,” I mumbled. “What are those things?”
Dark, skinny figures that almost resembled human children were lying on the forest floor. In the darkness I even thought I saw fangs.
“Deadlings,” Malachi answered. “They’re savage creatures that want nothing more than to dig their dirty little teeth into flesh. They’ve been in these parts for centuries, but they’re almost impossible to eradicate.”
He said it so casually, like seeing these things was a daily occurrence. It was disturbing, to say the least.
“How many more of these are out there?” I asked.
“Are you referring to the deadlings or to mythical creatures that humans have no clue exist?” Serefin answered.
“Um, both.”
Malachi jumped over a massive log, then reached back to help me over it. I nodded my thanks and turned my attention back to Serefin.
He took a deep breath before saying, “There are many creatures in the woods. More than you could likely every fathom.”
“Great,” I mumbled. “That makes me feel much better.”
“It’s better if you just don’t think about it. The wall isn’t just to keep the fae out of the human lands, you know.”
“Well, that’s probably good considering it doesn't stop you at all.”
Serefin laughed.
“Let’s keep moving,” Malachi interrupted in a voice that made me shiver. “We have a lot of ground to cover before we cross the wall.”
CHAPTER 21
Malachi
I had no idea how Serefin and Jade were being so calm.
They were talking and laughing as we walked in the darkness. I couldn’t even breathe too loudly. I didn’t want to hear the sound of an approaching predator or another creature that lurked in the fae forests.
If we came all this way just for a damned deadling to murder Jade, I was going to be pissed.
“We’re approaching the vines,” Serefin called back to me.
“The vines?” Jade questioned.
“You’ll see,” I said to her. Serefin and I now led the way, and I kept my eyes open for the beginning of the massive greenery that would soon make it nearly impossible to walk.
“Are we getting close to the wall?” Jade asked.
“Closer,” I replied. “But the wall is covered for its own protection. The forest blocks almost any creature from even being able to lay eyes on it. We’ll get as close as we can before we have to fly.”
Jade cursed under her breath.
“What?” I teased. “Afraid of heights?”
“Nope,” Jade replied. I heard the attitude in her voice. “Just afraid of falling to my death. There’s a difference.”
Serefin laughed ahead of us.
“Trust me princess, I didn’t come all this way for you to fall to your death. You have nothing to worry about.”
She grunted next to me.
It took us no more than ten minutes before we were jumping over giant vines and weaving through the impossibly thick greenery.
“Alright,” Serefin announced. “This is where we begin to climb.”
“Climb?” Jade asked. Her breathing was heavy, and she propped her hands on her hips while she caught her breath. “You mean we have to climb up these things?”
She looked toward the sky, where the vines crawled and ducked around each other at an incline for as far as we could see.
Although I knew Jade couldn’t even see that much in the darkness.
“Yep,” I added. “But if you’d like to turn back instead, just let us know.”
Jade cocked her head sideways. “I’m ready to climb!” she chirped. Serefin gave me a sideways look as Jade moved forward and jumped on top of a large vine.