downhill at a group of riders heading towards a lake. All but one had fantastical characteristics, such as blue or green hair, massive yellow eyes, bird wings, or horns.
The odd one out was a smaller, slighter figure in hunting gear, wearing a red hooded cloak with a quiver of arrows slung across her back.
“She…she…” Robin trailed off into speechless shock.
Will found his own voice as he tore down towards the Wild Hunt, shouting, “MARIAN!”
The rider in the red hood stopped, whipping her head in our direction. That was all it took for Robin to regain his senses and follow Will, yelling her name, too.
“What’s going on? Why are they upset?” I asked Meira.
“We came here to rescue a kidnapped girl,” Meira said quietly. “And hopefully strong-arm her captor into marrying you. But she doesn’t look like his captive. She looks like his companion.”
“But this makes no sense.”
“We’re about to find out what it means.”
Meira led the way down as we galloped behind our friends. Marian and the blue-haired fairy man rode to meet us halfway.
When we came within feet of them, Robin dismounted mid-gallop and Marian did the same, running to each other.
They reunited in a hug, and I felt my heartstrings snap.
Chapter Thirty-Five
This was it.
This was the real reason I hadn’t wanted to leave that cave.
Because I hadn’t wanted to see this moment, and live its agony. This was why I hadn’t been able to tell him he was the one for me. After all my rationalizations, with all my longings, all my desperation, I couldn’t find the right words to ask him to save me. Because I couldn’t bear to rob him of his chance to follow his heart. Because, all along, I’d felt he’d been someone else’s. Someone who’d been lost to him.
But he’d found her. The girl he’d spent a year looking for, whom he’d known for years, and Leander had told me he’d been promised to. The girl who, by the looks of things, had more in common with him than I ever could.
And more than anything, he could hold her.
When I couldn’t bear witnessing their reunion anymore, Will mercifully came between them.
He pounced on Marian, gripping her by the shoulders, shaking her, spitting with fury. “What is going on? What are you doing here?”
Marian broke free, throwing off her hood, unveiling a mass of glorious brown curls that framed a heart-shaped face with large, almond-shaped dark eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you! We thought that this—thing had kidnapped you!” Will stabbed a finger at the blue-haired fairy.
The huge, handsome man gave a small bow of his head. “This thing is Prince Guidion, leader of the Wild Hunt, Heir of Spring. You must be Willoughby.”
“Nice to see you know of me,” Will spat. “Now I want to know why you took my sister.”
Prince Guidion shrugged elegantly. “Because she asked me to.”
“Asked you…?” Will became shrill in his anger. “Why?”
Before Guidion could answer, Robin touched his shoulder and pointed at me, whispering things I couldn’t make out. Nodding, Guidion walked away with him.
Will tried to storm after them, but Marian dragged him back. “You deserted your post because you thought I was carried off by the Wild Hunt? What do you think I am, Willoughby Scarlett? A lamb?”
“You disappeared when the Wild Hunt was riding through our part of the Folkshore! What else was I supposed to think?”
Marian rolled her eyes at him. “Next time I’ll leave a note.”
“Next time…!” Will went as red as their cloaks as he launched himself at her.
Robin came back in time to hold him back, but he looked almost as angry with her. “We thought they could be torturing you, or worse. So yes, a note would have been a good idea!”
Marian started looking bewildered. “I thought you both were at the frontline. I didn’t think of leaving word, because I would have been back in a couple of weeks, anyway.”
“A couple of weeks?” Robin gaped at her. “Marian, you’ve been gone for over a year.”
“A year?” Realization dawned on her blanching face, followed by guilt as she winced at her brother. “Time. Faerie. I forgot…”
“You forgot?” Will practically shrieked.
Marian retreated, holding her hands up. “I was in a hurry when I spotted Guidion and his people riding through our part of Arbore.”
I was too caught up in their reunion, and the fallout I was crumbling under, I didn’t notice Prince Guidion coming to stand by me.
“Your friend says my aunt is responsible for your condition,” Guidion said,