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Taylor
If you haven’t read Fae’s Captive, Road to Winter, and Bite of Winter, you’ll want to do that before starting Beyond the Mountain
So
I blink , dark table, h I see no rope A cavern soars above me, the roof covered in icy stalactites I shiver as a cool hips by Turning lowers beyond the opening, and a wizened, leafless tree grows in the very center of the cavern, its black roots oozing along the stone floor
The sniffle co I reround, Para’s death Klaxons blare in le to pull e
“No use” The voice comes from above
I twist around and peer up between the stalactites A gasp whooshes out of me “Cecile!”
She hangs upside down, her long, golden hair flowing, and her hands bound So sensation tiptoes through ut as she spins slowly fro liirl who looked like o and nausea rocketing through me
“Where are we?” I stare up at Cecile as she rotates
“Gray Mountains May as well be the Spires”
“You are fae” I knew it
“Of course I am” She takes the sa bitch face, but in her voice
“Why did you send me here? Who is the one that looks likeon?” I run out of breath on the last question and try to spanic
“Why are we here, you ask?” She cranes her neck back so she can glare at me “We’re here, Taylor, because you’re a screwup You had one job ONE JOB Serveslave But could you do that? No You fucked that up right out of the gate and—”
“Your father?” I shake my head “Tyrios was your father?”
Her now-silver eyes narrow “What do you mean by ‘was’?”
She doesn’t know he’s dead This is an ‘oh, shit’ moment buried inside another ‘oh, shit’ moment all tied with a ‘we’re screwed’ bow
“Leander!” I scream in my mind, but the link between us seehway before What could make the bond feel this way? Is he … I can’t think about that Leander is strong He’s fine But if I can’t escape this cave, I won’t be
“Your father doesn’ttickles acrossthe word ‘father’ back to me What had Cenet said to me before he put me to sleep?
“We need to get out of here,” Cecile mimics my voice Poorly “You think?” She rattles the chains at her wrists “This is iron My skin is on fire, I’s as usual And all of this is your fault Do you have any idea what sort of trouble you’ve causedwith the …” She blathers on
I gritback on earth But no, things are different
“Cecile!” I snap “Shut your mouth for once in your life and listen”
She stops talking, heropen
“We need to get gone before so to make it out of here in one piece if we don’t escape So, unless you want to be torn apart, tortured, or straight-up sent to the Spires, why don’t you pull your head out of your ass and work on getting free?”
She blinks, her expression so surprised it’s as if I’ve slapped her And I suppose I have No one talks to Cecile that way At least, no one did Oh boy, the ti
The er rises “And how dare you blame me? You’re the reason I’m here in the first place Why? Why the hell did you send me here?”
She glances at the other h for me to understand
“For her?” I look up at me, I mean her, a bruise on her forehead and her skin pale
“She’s my friend” Cecile’s voice is almost a whisper now, and there’s a tre on empty bravado But now I see her clearly She’s afraid But not for herself For my twin “The only friend I’ve ever had She was stuck here with my father” She ss hard, and I suspect she knows just what sort of fae her father was “And he sent me to earth to keep us separated But then I saw a chance to e between you two, so I took it”
More questions surface, but we don’t have tiet out of here, I intend to sit her down and ask her everything
I try to twist h it causes Leander’s bite on my shoulder to ache and burn A frustrated cry rips fro I need to think What tools do I have? I glance up at Cecile again, her long hair hiding her face “Let’s focus on blowing this taco stand, okay? What sort of powers do you have?”
“I don’t have ic,” she says quietly
“No talents, no nothing?”
“I have a talent, but it won’t help”
“Why? What is it?”
She shrugs “I can … keep things alive”
“Huh?”
“You know that plant you brought horeenhouse and put on our sill?”
“Yeah” I have a green thumb That little houseplant flourished under my care
“It would have died ten times over if I didn’t save it”
“That’s not true” Pride, thou art gravely wounded “I’reat with plants”
“Maybe, but you aren’t great with paying attention to plants when you’re busy doing your nerd stuff
You didn’t water it and left it to bake in the sill” She shakes her head, her hair flying “But I kept it going just for fun Or really, just to troll you into thinking you were any good at houseplants”
“So you can heal, too?”
“No It’s just a talent, soic, not powerful enough to work on much more than that small plant”
“Look, not to brag, but I just saved the Vundi’s entire faric that—”
“Stow it” Her petulance is back in full force “Accept I’et me down from here”
I gru above me, then ask, “What about the other me? What is she? Does she have powers?”
“She’s a human No powers”
“A human?” I never considered for a moment that my creepy tas a human like me
“How did you get here?” I glance around, but no one else is in the cave Just the three of us Not even a guard If only we could get free, we could disappear right out of the cave entrance
“Soh the ley lines I was in our dorm room with Taylor, and someone knocked at the door I opened it, and saw a lesser fae that looked kind of rough, I guess? He had snake eyes”
“Crimson clothes? Scales?”
“Yes”
“Cenet He’s a Vundi warrior”
“I tried to slam the door on him, but I … I think I fell asleep”
“He’s pulled that crap on oing to dislocate“Have you seen anyone?”
“No” She kicks her leg a little so she spins around “Taylor!”