I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. After growing up thinking my mother and I were the only fae left alive, there was another standing in front of me. The girl that unslung her bow and aimed an arrow at the four of us was fae. I couldn't decide if I wanted to gawk at her for the rest of eternity or pull her into a hug. Though with the threat she was clearly trying to make, neither of those would have been the best thing to do.

"We don't mean any harm." Sabre raised her hands in surrender. "We got chased here by a forest spirit."

The fae girl hummed in thought. "So that's why it came so close to the encampment. That still doesn't explain what you're doing so deep in the forest though."

"We were only passing through the main path to get to our destination," Auron explained. "Nothing more than that."

She sounded a low whistle. "You're a long way from the main path now."

"You're fae," I pointed out before anyone could continue. How had nobody else made a remark about that yet? Perhaps the fact that we were getting aimed at with a bow and arrow took priority in their minds.

"So I am." The girl squinted to get a closer look at my face. "And given that I haven't seen your face before, I'll assume you're a part of the royal fae." A bitter loathing filled her voice as she spoke those last few words.

I chose to ignore the tone, curiosity overtaking me. "How have you survived for so long? I thought there were only two left alive, including myself."

She raised a brow while she replied. "Good. It's best that everyone doesn't know about our existence. We don't want to be associated with the royal High Fae or even be known to the world. It's difficult enough with the hunters patrolling the area."

"You mentioned something about an encampment?" Lorella asked. "Are there more fae?"

The girl gritted her teeth. "I should kill you here and now so you don't spread the knowledge of our existence. You're a liability, we can't risk you getting away."

Did Mace know about the fae hiding out in the forest? He couldn't, otherwise they would be in a lot more danger. Unless he had sent the hunters that she mentioned.

"I can send you protection against these hunters to help you. We're not a threat." I raised my hands in surrender too, noticing I was the only one out of the group that hadn't done so already.

"Did you not hear me threaten to kill you?" She scoffed. "We don't want this protection of yours anyway. Why would we when it couldn't even stop you from nearly going extinct?"

"I hate to break up this conversation," Lorella started fearfully, "but there's something else up in the trees." She pointed up towards where the fae girl had jumped down from moments ago.

The girl's eyes darted to the canopy for a brief second before keeping her glare trained on us. "There's nothing up there." I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard a hint of uncertainty in her words. "You're either seeing things or you're lying to distract me." She tightened her grip on her bow, her knuckles going white.

Sabre moved closer to the tree that Lorella hadn't torn her gaze from, trying to get a glimpse at what the lady thought she saw. I wanted to warn her to stay back in case the forest spirit hadn't wandered too far away, but anything forming on my tongue was cut off by the girl.

"Stay back!" She shouted.

Just as she moved her arrow to aim at Sabre specifically, the thing that Lorella had spotted fell and landed on the ground with a pain-filled gasp. It was another fae, an even younger child this time of around five or six. She landed on her rear, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Ceerel!" The girl yelled, rushing over to her side, letting her bow fall to the ground. "Are you alright?"

"Ceerel is fine." The child stood, reaching up to hold the girl's hand. "Who are these people?" She looked around at us, taking each one of us in with wide eyes and an expression of awe. "Fae!" She cried as she spotted my pointed ears, running over to me with her arms open. Ignoring the furious look that the girl gave her, the fae child hugged my legs tightly as if I'd run away from her.

Crouching down as far as I could without losing my balance, I returned her embrace with as much gentleness as I could muster. The girl glared daggers at me, her eye twitching as she watched me touch her, but she did nothing.

I couldn't believe there was an actual fae holding onto me. Another fae. When I had seen the older girl, I had thought she might have been a figment of my imagination or the forest causing me to see things. Now, I couldn't deny that my mother and I truly weren't alone in this world.

"Hello there," I greeted, trying to conjure something else to say in my mind. "My name is Kayne. What might yours be?"

"Ceerel's name is Ceerel!" She looked up and beamed at me. "The girl over there is Ceerel's sister Griffin." Ceerel pointed to the other girl who looked as if she was about to charge me down and end my life.

"I think you better go back to your sister," I whispered, chuckling nervously. "She looks quite angry."

"Okay." Ceerel walked away, with her head down, disappointment in her voice. "But Griffin is almost always angry."

Griffin's mouth was pressed into a thin line. She was at a loss as to what she was going to do now that her sister was involved in this chaos. For us, Ceerel had been a blessing. Griffin wouldn't dare harm us in front of her. Despite my desire to find out more about them and discover just how many more fae lived with them, we now needed to find a way to leave and get back to the main path.

"Ceerel wants to know what you're doing out this far into the forest. Are you lost?" Panic passed through her as she tugged on her sister's arm. "If they're lost we need to help them!"

Griffin sighed deeply, reaching down to pick up her bow and slinging it back over her shoulder. "You need to come with us. The Elders can decide whether or not you can be set free with the information you have."

"I'm sorry," Sabre began, "but we can't stay with you. We need to get back on the road so we can stop a war from breaking out."

After the attack and meeting more fae, I had almost entirely forgotten the reason we had left the castle in the first place. If we didn't return with the Idaphite we needed to give Mace, I didn't want to think about what he'd do. It was still uncertain how much power he held over the Icrodeian armies. Was he just a spy? Or was he something more valuable to the Icrodeian crown?

"A war?" Griffin raised a brow. "Between who?"

"Racaea and Icrodeia," Auron confirmed.

Ceerel frowned, looking up at her sister. "But forest protect?" It sounded like both a statement and a question.

Griffin smiled. "That's right." She was soft with Ceerel, but when she turned back to us, her face was built of a harsh, impenetrable stone. "The forest will know if the people entering it mean any harm. It will deal with any enemy that heads our way. War is no concern for us."

"People will come looking for us eventually," Lorella warned, adjusting her posture to stand tall. "And those people won't be deemed a threat to the forest."

The girl only shrugged, beginning to walk away. "Come with us if you want. If not, I wish you the best of luck trying to find your way back to the main path. You're quite a way from it now. Though, if you're allowed to live with the knowledge of our existence, one of us will help you find your way back."

"So you're saying we don't actually have to come with you?" Auron questioned, an incredulous look on his face.

"It would be difficult trying to force four people to our camp when there's only one of me. So, head back if you want." She turned her head to the tops of the trees and breathed in deeply. "I can still sense the presence of the forest spirit that attacked you earlier lurking around here. The only way to stop it is with this." Griffin motioned to the horn secured to her hip.

We all looked around at each other, undecided on what to do.

I didn't know what thoughts were running through everyone else's minds, but I didn't want to risk another run in with the forest spirit. We had already come so close to meeting our demise and we still didn't know why it had attacked us. There was also the fact that I wanted to see what their encampment was like, to see how many fae had existed without us knowing this whole time.

"Alright," I spoke up for the group, "we'll go with you."