The setting sun refracting

  through the leaves of the tree we were under seared my eyes until I

  begrudgingly woke up and stretched, trying to find a position that

  didn't leave my eyes in the direct path of the light. It was bad

  enough that a queen was being forced to sleep upon the ground in the

  open air like some kind of wandering commoner, but the demonic

  foliage further added to the injustice with their strange,

  transparent nature, catching and amplifying the sunlight that spilled

  over it. It was no wonder the ground beneath the trees was largely

  barren with only scratchy grass to bed down on.

  I had absolutely hated Feros'

  plan to retreat to the forested area near the fields during the day

  to rest. With so many trees in a single area, the land was scorched

  and blighted from the focused sunlight and it made sleeping

  miserable. Though, for those very same reasons people tended to avoid

  spending too much time in or near the trees during the day, making it

  a great place to lay low.

  "Waking up for the day,

  my queen?"

  With a great effort I cracked

  my eyes open once more against the blinding rays and found the fiend

  leaning against a tree, staring into the distance towards the

  direction we were traveling in. His face was rigid and neutral,

  giving no hint of anything he may be thinking about. In a different

  setting, it would have been incredibly easy to mistake him for some

  kind of realistic statue rather than a living creature.

  Having a moment to ponder him

  while he was occupied, I began to wonder if he had changed his

  appearance in some way. He appeared to look as he always had, but

  something about him felt different. There was nothing I could put my

  finger on, but something shifted uneasily in my stomach as my eyes

  ran over his features. His sandy hair seemed to be the appropriate

  length and golden hue and his skin was still the same muted chestnut

  shade, and I would think that if his height or weight had varied much

  that I would have caught on immediately. No there was something

  different, but it was just subtle enough for my instincts to notice.

  "My eyes," he said

  suddenly, his face coming back to life and animating with a look of

  amusement on his sharp features.

  "Your eyes?" I

  replied.

  "I think they were more

  blue when you first met me, I got a bit lazy with the details this

  time and they're a bit more hazel now. That is probably why you think

  I look different."

  My stomach sank at how

  accurate his assumption about what I had been thinking was,

  especially since he had seemed to be so zoned out and distracted. He

  was far too clever and quick to pick up on things around him for my

  tastes. Unfortunately for my own sense of safety and security, he was

  also immensely useful when he felt like it. Still, I sometimes

  wondered if I was making a huge mistake and if he was knowingly

  dangling one incentive after another in front of me to blind me from

  the downsides to keeping him around.

  "It is really hard

  sometimes to keep track of things like that,” he continued, “they

  just do not mean the same to me like they do to most other people.

  Caring about something like eye color... well that seems to be the

  most inane thing I could think of." He turned his gaze fully to

  me and tilted his head slightly to the side, mimicking the human

  expression for curiosity. "Things like eye color are important

  to humans, correct?"

  "They can be," I

  answered, wondering where he was going with this. "Some people

  do not care much, but generally people have a preference."

  "Do you?"

  It was not a question I could

  not recall considering before. I generally cared little about how

  others perceived my appearance as long as they respected my

  authority. Plus, I was never really inclined to do so, but I could

  alter physical features with a glamour if I really felt like it for a

  time. In contrast, Mari and Evonia certainly did care about their

  appearances enough to practice wearing a glamour enough to where they

  could keep it up all the time and look exactly as they pleased.

  Though, I could not deny that I felt a great sense of relief that I

  had been born looking like the rest of the Yser line and not like my

  traitorous mother. I could not imagine that it was due necessarily to

  thinking I would not have made a striking red head, but rather a

  sense of familial belonging and a desire not to look like someone I

  despised every time I looked in a mirror.

  "I prefer the way my

  consort looks, I suppose," I said with a shrug. “Given a

  choice, I guess I would like to look more like her. Maybe not exactly

  like her, I would still like to be recognizable as a Yser, but I do

  sometimes envy her rich complexion and her strong, refined features."

  "You can't be serious,"

  Mistra said sleepily, rising up onto her elbows next to me. A few

  transparent leaves had managed to find their way into her braid,

  sticking out like she had intentionally decorated her hair to look

  like some kind of forest sprite. "I am a weird mix of human and

  demon and benefiting from neither."

  I turned my head to face her

  with a look of confusion, looking over her face for any sign that she

  was just joking. There was no way that someone who looked like Mistra

  could not be anything but content with their appearance. Everything

  about her demonic features only enhanced the loveliness of her human

  ones, her soft skin was all the more enticing highlighted with copper

  and in the sun or fresh from the bath in candlelight she looked to

  almost be made of twinkling copper.

  "You are perfect mix of

  the two," I argued. "I have never seen anyone so lovely.

  Certainly no human I have ever met could even begin to compare

  themselves to you."

  She looked at me with a

  befuddled expression, raising one eyebrow up. "I look like what

  I am, a strange mix of what many would consider a monster. I am much

  too tall, stocky, and slightly the wrong hue to be considered a

  beautiful human and I am laughably nothing like what a demon would

  consider beautiful. I am even unable to really hold a glamour for

  very long to even blend in with either side, I stick out no matter

  where I consider home."

  "That is exactly what

  makes you so beautiful," I continued arguing. The heat was

  rising to my cheeks for the indignancy I felt about how she could

  possibly see herself as not an exotic and alluring creature. "Your

  differences make you stand out perhaps, but they only add to your

  allure. You are tall and strong, yet soft and sinuous in your

  movements. You defy what people may think about you on first glance."

  "I see I may have

  accidentally started something here," Feros said with a wide

  smile, "for once I did not intend to amuse myself by doing so.

  It was a sincere question about human expectations, before Mistra

  asked me to train her in the human realm I had not spent over much

  time there and was never very interested in learning about their

  culture and expectations. No offense my queen, but generally I have

  always seen humans as a bit useless to try to come to understand.

  They will never come together as a species to interact meaningfully

  with the rest of the magical realms. It is through no fault of their

  own, they just simply lack magical ability to an extent that limits

  what they are capable of, it would be like expecting a dog to meow

  and stalk prey like a cat."

  "You say 'no offense'

  like it should absolve you from going on to say offensive things,"

  I said with an indignant sniff. "Just because you do not

  understand humans and our capabilities that does not mean you should

  just cast aside our potential and assume that we will never know

  glory."

  Mistra and Feros exchanged a

  glance that perhaps if I had blinked at the wrong time I may have

  missed. The look said that they both believed that I was not

  understanding something that they both thought to be true. With an

  audible huff, I stood and shook the dirt, twigs, and nature debris

  from my clothing and swung my head around to look for the horses.

  They were tied not far away, almost comically wedged between trees

  with just enough space for them to move if they needed to, the beasts

  were simply too big and cumbersome and I could not wait to find

  myself on a real horse soon.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "Let's get going," I

  said tersely, marching towards where the beasts were tethered, "by

  the time we get ourselves situated and a bite of food in our mouths

  it will be dark enough to travel."

  We had been riding for nearly

  an hour before Feros broke the silence. The both of them seemed to

  have understood it was best to stay silent while I was stewing over

  their beliefs. I wondered why either of them was encouraging my

  ambitions if they thought so low of what a human could achieve,

  surely they thought what I valued and held dear was so infinitesimal

  compared to what a demon, fae, or other creature wrought in magic

  could achieve. Worse, I expected something like this from Feros, his

  views were always very divisive and inclined towards making others

  around him feel inferior, but I certainly did not expect the same of

  Mistra. As a half human I had assumed she could at least understand a

  bit about the potential humanity held.

  "We will arrive at the

  portal stone soon," Feros said, gesturing towards the darkness

  in front of us.

  The fields we had been

  skirting the whole journey so far had finally ended and we were

  instead heading towards a more rocky, mountainous area with notably

  less civilized presence. The magical aura of the area had also

  changed. The air felt like something slightly different from what I

  had come to expect in the demon realm. The magic swirled from the

  depths of the earth in a more chaotic nature, snaking up against my

  own magical aura as if it was attempting to inspect and measure

  exactly what I was. I could easily tell that it was demonic in

  origin, but it felt more wild and unpredictable than anything I had

  experienced in the realm thus far.

  "It is a rather

  unassuming chunk of the landscape," he continued, "however

  that does not mean you should approach it without caution. The

  strange magical properties of the stone can attract some interesting

  and rather unique creatures from all over, drawn to the magical aura

  exuded in this area. It would be foolish to not take caution now that

  we are so close, pay special attention to your horse's demeanor."

  "The horse?" I

  asked.

  "Human horses have the

  ability to pick up on things that are a bit off from what they should

  be, but the demonic variety have very fine tuned sense and are quick

  to alert each other if danger is lurking nearby." Mistra pulled

  her horse next to mine in a protective manner. "They will likely

  know before we do that something is amiss. If that happens, just

  trust what your beast does and do your best to stay on its back, you

  will certainly be safer there than anywhere else."

  I had a sudden feeling that I

  had not been properly briefed on the possible dangers of our journey.

  I had assumed that there might be uncomfortable portions of our

  journey, particularly since we would need to keep unseen so little

  ended up funneling back to Rafe before we had completed our

  objective, but otherwise it seemed little more than a couple long

  horse rides and then easily snuffing out something I should have done

  long ago. There had been no talk of anything dangerous or any peril

  we might encounter along the way, it really irked me that both of

  them seemed to know that I would not know the dangers ahead yet had

  waited to say anything until this moment.

  "And just now you are

  both finding it relevant to tell me?" I snapped. "For being

  a monarch and someone both of you have claimed to be close to, you

  both seem to have neglected to tell me all the important information

  that I would need to know. Is there anything else either of you are

  withholding from me or is this journey going to be one unpleasant

  surprise after another?

  Before either could answer, my

  horse sniffed hard at the air and swiveled its head around in a state

  of high alert, scanning the darkness around us.

  "Oh no," Mistra

  whispered and snapped her head around into the darkness to her right

  like she could sense something I could not.

  My instinct was to expand out

  my aura to try to feel for what the horse had sensed, but I felt a

  clamping feeling around my magic, like a tensioned surface

  restricting it from expanding.

  "Bad idea," Feros

  muttered lowly, "great way to make yourself a meal. Do the

  opposite, try to make yourself as small and unseen as possible."

  A low, wet growl rumbled from

  the direction Mistra was focused on, sending a shiver of terror along

  my spine and raising goosebumps all along my skin. Whatever had made

  the sound was definitely a predator and a hungry one if I had to

  venture to guess. All three of the horses stopped moving, their heads

  on a swivel and bunching together for protection. Feros' stallion,

  the biggest of the trio was snuffling like mad through its nose,

  preparing itself for a fight, its muscles rippling as it prepared to

  launch itself into an attack at the first sign of trouble.

  "No movement, no more

  talking, just wait for the horses to feel comfortable to move again."

  Feros' voice was so quiet that I had no idea how i had actually heard

  it over the sound of heavy horse breathing.

  Time seemed to drag on as we

  stood in our huddled pile, waiting with apprehension for whatever was

  in the dark to go away. Slowly, the horses began to relax and the

  stallion began to calm, its eyes less crazed and muscles slowing

  their twitching. Just before I was about to let out a sigh of relief

  there was a shrill, gurgling roar and a dark mass leapt from the

  darkness, latching itself to the neck of Feros' stallion. The horse

  made an ear shattering cry of pain, throwing the other horses into

  chaos, my own mare bucking wildly and tossing me to the ground where

  I landed hard, driving the wind from my lungs and swirling the world

  around me. Feros' stallion was bucking and kicking as it screamed,

  each scream becoming more strangled and wet sounding and eventually

  despite being an experienced rider, Feros was tossed from the saddle,

  landing on his knees next to me.

  "Dammit," he

  grumbled, rising back to his feet and pulling me to my own as well,

  "are you alright?"

  "I think," I

  answered, still dazed.

  "Mistra!" he called

  over the sound of the dying horse. "Abandon your horse, they are

  lost!"

  Mistra swung herself to the

  side of her saddle and jumped down, then quickly ran towards us. "We

  have to get to the stone," she said with panic in her voice.

  "It should not be far,

  those things tend to stay close to it, waiting for prey to be drawn

  to the aura," Feros said quickly.

  Feros produced a ball of light

  on the tip of his finger and sent it off into the darkness, just

  bright enough to light up everything in a small radius around it. As

  it passed by the horses the horrific scene was lit up, the stallion

  on it's knees, headless as a dark, rusty brown creature about as big

  as one of the mares snapped at the fleshly stump of the neck with

  teeth nearly as big as my own head. The closest animal I could

  compare it to would be some sort of wild cat but blown up radically

  in size with long, spiky fur. I was both relieved and horrified as

  the light continued on down the path we had been taking, swirling

  around from side to side, looking for our destination. After a

  moment, Feros let out a small sigh of relief and extended his finger

  forward, pointing to where the light had stalled.

  "There, that stone there,

  it doesn't look like much, but it works much like the travel stone at

  the castle Yser. We just need to get to it and one of us press our

  hand to it to open it up. There will be more of those beasts in the

  darkness, so run as fast as you can, do not hesitate for anything,

  and if you trip get to your feet as fast as possible. We have no time

  to wait, go - now!"

  Going against what he just

  said, I had to force myself to start running after he and Mistra had

  already bolted off into the darkness. Terror pounded in my heart as I

  ran blindly towards the light in the distance, skin prickling with

  horror as I ran past where I knew the ghastly scene with the horses

  was unfolding, I could smell the fetid air of the breath of the

  predator and the terrified pheromones of the poor horses. Another

  growl behind me dropped my stomach into my feet and it took a heroic

  amount of willpower not to stop to vomit up what I had eaten before

  starting the ride for the evening.

  It felt like a bad dream where

  no matter how hard I tried to run faster it was all in slow motion

  and my legs refused to respond to my panicked urgency. The light

  flickered in the distance as I assumed Feros had stepped in front of

  it momentarily as he reached it, giving me hope that maybe we would

  be able to make it in time. It flickered again shortly after with

  Mistra's arrival, but I was worryingly still a distance away.

  Apparently I was much slower than either of them had been.

  "Toria!" Mistra

  screamed in terror.

  I felt a rush of air buffet my

  back like something had just missed pouncing upon me. Against what

  Feros had told me, I quickly expanded my aura around me. My blood ran

  cold as I immediately sensed two of the creatures coming up behind me

  quickly, coming in for another attempt for the kill. My magical

  presence seemed to enrage them as their pace quickened and there

  became no hope for me to make it to the stone before they caught up.

  Gathering my magical might, I

  beseeched the ground beneath my feet for strength, sending a plea

  down to the very depths of what lay below the soil, begging for the

  aid of the elemental fire pools that swirled, hidden from the world

  above their layers. Ana had instructed me on their existence, but had

  forewarned that they were something much beyond what my abilities

  probably were, but in a pinch it wouldn't hurt to try. Now was

  definitely what I would qualify as being in a 'pinch' and I

  desperately pleaded, my magical conduit searched for any sign that

  the fire would heed my call.

  The cat creatures were a team

  now, their silent paws in sync as they advanced on me, shoulder

  muscles rippling as they prepared to pounce. My legs burned with how

  hard I was pushing them to speed up, but I was obviously at the edge

  of my abilities and there was nothing else that could be done, tears

  both frustrated and terrified exploded from the corners of my eyes.

  "LET ME GO!" Mistra

  screeched as her silhouette struggled to reach out towards me against

  the light.

  "You will not be able to

  help her!" Feros yelled back. "You will just kill us all!"

  "TORIA!" she

  screamed in agony, sobs interrupting the syllables of my name.

  The ground up heaved behind me

  and the creatures yowled in disdain as their opportunity to pounce

  was interrupted by the unexpected appearance of the pile of rubble.

  "You will just draw more

  to her!" Feros yelled angrily. "Think with your head not

  your heart!"

  "I can't just do

  nothing!" Mistra cried desperately.

  The ground shifted again,

  leaving another pile of rubble behind me to slow the beasts. The

  light was much closer now, though I could sense that at least two

  more of the creatures had been drawn to the scene and were closing in

  fast from either side of me. If I made it to the stone in time, they

  might fall on us all before we had enough time to activate the stone.

  In fact, that outcome seemed likely and hope began to fade from my

  heart as quickly as it had blossomed.

  Just a few feet from joining

  them, I felt the hot breath of one of the creatures on my neck and in

  a split second the elemental fire from the bowels of the ground rose

  up to accept my plea for assistance. I did not hesitate and allowed

  the primal fire to course through my magical conduit, enveloping my

  senses with its heat and letting it spill out of me as fireball that

  seared everything around me. The cat creature let out an angry,

  agonizing yowl and I heard it thump heavily to the ground behind me.

  The flame had given me just enough time to make it to the pair and

  Feros slammed his hand down on the rock, causing the world around us

  to swirl and change, transporting us to another place, away from the

  danger.

  I collapsed heavily onto the

  ground, gasping in air and shivering from exertion and adrenaline.

  Mistra was on me in a second, enveloping me in her protective arms,

  her tears dripping onto my neck and cooling my overheated skin. I

  weakly returned her embrace and lay trying to collect myself and

  still my thumping heart beat.

  "That

  could not have gone worse if we had tried," Feros muttered.

  "Emotions are going to get us all killed."