Chapter Two

At the moment my eyes flutter open I am sure I am still dreaming, that everything that happened was a dream. Perhaps it was only a mixture of high hopes and a head injury. Will is still there when I wake up. He's snoring lightly in the corner of the room, his whole body relaxed into the chair. Though I doubt he was very comfortable.

I get up, careful of where I step because of the creaks in the floorboards. I have to get a better look at Will just to be sure that I saw what I did last night. When I get close enough I touch the brim of his hood and raise it up. It lightly falls behind him, revealing his ruby red locks. At the roots I could see the dark blonde he'd likely been born with, but the tips were red. Dark red. Not so much ruby as it was blood. And I notice suddenly that he is not all that unpleasing to look at. Sure, he was handsome. But it was a pretty sort of handsome, his features strong yet delicate, sharp yet young.

This did not distract me from the fact that he was holding me against my will until the next full moon. Though he had a point about me last night.

I should have listened to the trees.

But trees couldn't talk now, could they? It made no sense.

Yet I did hear them.

Will stirs, making me jerk up and away. I scurry backward until I reach the bed. At that point I almost trip and fall, but I manage to sit up and curl my knees to my chest, almost to protect myself if he tried anything. Then again, that thought was just me flattering myself because he had kissed me. Surely he didn't actually like me. If anything, I was a nuisance.

“Isobel!” He wakes with a sudden jolt and sits up, hands gripping the arms of the chair. He blinks, realizing where he is and who he is with. “Sorry. Did I wake you, Beth?”

I shake my head. “I was already awake.”

He leans forward, resting his face in his hands. He rubs his face of sleep, elbows on his knees, then he looks up. “Good then.” He looks over me and shakes his head. “Here.” Quite tiredly, he stands and pulls his cape off, handing it to me. “Wrap yourself up. We'll get you some proper clothes next village we pass through.”

I take it and wrap it around me, letting Will clip it in the front with a twisted pin. A crest of some sort. A rose sat center of a crown of thorns with a long blade coming through it. It was beautiful and intricate, like the crown hooked to his belt.

“Who is Isobel?” I wonder, not being able to stop myself.

Will stands up straight, rubbing the back of his neck. “Someone you need not ask questions about, eh? Don't ever speak that name here. You've no right.”

I nod, slightly scared by who this person is or why her name is forbidden to me. “Right.”

“Sorry.” he apologizes, head low now as he heads for the door. “You just don't understand things here, Beth. And you can't.”

“I know.” I agree with him. “I'm still hoping I'll wake up.”

“Not gonna happen, kid. This is not a dream, stop trying to tell yourself it is because you're just going to end up dead trying to prove it.” Will tells me, then he opens the door and looks out both ways. When he comes back in he pulls me to my feet. “Right. Now, keep this wrapped around you, we've got to head out. My men are surely waiting for us.”

“Why wouldn't they just wake you?”

Will smiles crookedly. “As far as they know, you're mine. If they remember that I was here with you last night then they probably think we're still . . .”

I scoff. “Pig.”

“Actually, I am a faerie. But if that helps you sleep better-”

“You're impossible.”

“I'm quite real.”

Will leads me from the room and through a now empty tavern. Except for a lone bartender and maybe two customers. One of which was not even drinking. Upon stepping outside I am hit with fresh air, it's warm and smelling of flowers. Like the perfect spring day everyone hopes for back home in London but never actually gets.

“It's about time you rolled out of bed to join us, William!” a man dressed in green and black says to Will. He's got hair down to his shoulders with some of it pulled back. And I can see by the ends of his hair that he is just like Will, except this man has forest green tips instead of red. He looks at me without interest. “Where did you find the girl?”

“Found her on my way back from retrieving this,” Will unhooks the crown and tosses it to the green haired man.

He catches it with one hand, not even flinching as it is flung toward his face. “You found it? You're pulling my leg, boy.” he says as he examines it. Then his eyes widen. “What of the princess? Any sign of her?”

I want to ask what Will this man means, but I can see his tilt his head slightly back and forth so that only I can see it. He's warning me not to, then Will answers. “No sign of her. Not that I could see. As for the girl,” Will looks at me. “I think I'll keep her for myself, Robin.”

This green haired man nods, though he seems upset and perplexed. “Very well. And Will, we will find her. She's out there somewhere.”

“I know,” Will says, untying a gray horse from the front of the tavern. “I can feel it. Come, Beth.” Suddenly Will grabs me by the waist and places me on the horse. Next he swings up and pulls me tight to his body so that we're wedged onto the saddle.

Robin, who I have to guess is the same person as written in the legends, swings onto a black horse. They steer in sync down a dirt road, taking the left road toward a town marked on a sign. Though I can hardly make out the letters. They almost seem to move and form into a word that looked English enough.

Rosewood.

“Have John and Tuck left already?” Will asks Robin.

I feel the horse moving quick enough that my back and Will's front bounce against one another. The only way to make it stop is to lean into his, but I don't want to get comfortable with touching him. Having to ride his horse with him is bad enough.

“As soon as they were sober.” Robin smiles. “Several hours ago, too. There's not much daylight left for travel but we should make it to Rosewood before sunset.”

I feel Will nod behind me. “I'll need to find something for the human to wear. Might you also know where I could find some enchanted chains? Wouldn't want this one to get too far.”

Out of habit, my elbow digs into Will's ribs. He makes a sound, causing Robin to turn his head. “Sorry, sir. The horse-”

“You may be inclined to bind her hands.”

“And you may be inclined to mind yourself, Hood.”

Robin bucks his heels into his horse, causing it to speed up and stop in front of Will. “Possessive, are we? I suppose I understand why. She looks just like her . . .” Robin pauses. “If she were a human, that is.”

I want to lunge forward but I keep myself still and bite my tongue.

Then Will suddenly takes off, the horse speeding forward past Robin. I can feel the tension in him at the mention of this woman Robin has referred to twice now. I couldn't help but wonder to myself if this woman was Isobel. Clearly she was of significance not only to this world, but to Will specifically.

“He's right, you know.” I say once we are a good enough distance from Robin.

“Excuse me?”

“You are a bit possessive. Haven't you ever had a human slave before?” I wonder, then I reel back, my brow furrows. “That is the weirdest thing I've ever said.”

Will chuckles, his chest vibrating with the sound so that I feel it at my back. “I have. But they were more connected to this world than you. Some of them were even born here. To be honest I'm surprised you didn't know this place existed. Your parents lived for the things in this world, I would have thought they'd like to recruit you.”

I shrug. “I suppose when I was a child that's exactly what they were trying to do. But I never believed in things like this no matter what they told me. I always thought Robin Hood was a myth, I never would have thought he were a faerie, either.”

“The stories got a lot of it wrong where you come from.”

“Tell me the real one.” I say, leaning back as I admire the beauty of the world around me.

The road may have been made of dirt but the dirt shined against the sunlight and the shadows of the trees. Trees that were overgrown and wild and blooming. The weather was perfect, and I couldn't help but appreciate it even if I were not here under the best circumstances.

Will sighs gently. “Well, one thing they got right was Robin's theft. For a long time he gave back to those who deserved what they had. He did so even in your world, but very long ago. But he was not the son of a Lord. His bloodline is much higher than that. All of ours are. Even John and Tuck. We're cousins, all heirs to the throne in Avalon.”

“Then why waste your time out here?”

He is silent. So silent I can't help but turn the conversation.

“Are you really going to put me in chains?”

“Yes.” Will takes a long pause, then he answers my earlier question, not minding my fear of being put in chains. “That crown your parents took, it belongs to someone we lost here. Without her no one else can step up as a true ruler, her betrothed cannot become king without her. So when the doorway between worlds opens up we go looking for her.”

I feel odd having him tell me this, like I've invaded his privacy. “How old was she when she was taken away?”

“Only a baby. I was about seven.”

My heart speeds up and I turn to look at him. “You're her betrothed, aren't you? The name you said earlier, was that her name?”

“Beth-”

“You love her. But you were only a child, and she was only a-”

“Bethany!” Will yells, making me pause and turn away. He'd been opening up to me, letting me know things I don't need to know, and I took advantage all too quickly. A tear falls down my cheek without warning. Then he sighs. “Look, Fae are taught to love from the day we are born, to love who we are supposed to love.”

I take a shaky breath. “That must be awful.”

The horse stops abruptly. Will makes me turn my head. “Why would that be awful?”

I look at him, at his eyes. They're beautiful and brown and red at the edge of the iris. It's captivating and irritating how beautiful he is. “Because you're never given a chance to love someone for who they are. You love out of obligation, not the heart.”

He looks at me intently, as if he's processing what I've said and it makes no sense. Because people like him, people who are born into royalty, rarely ever share their lives with those they truly care for. Instead they are betrothed and learn to love who they are with. Lovers by obligation to their status and bloodline but never lovers of their own hearts and minds.

Suddenly the sound of Robin's horse approaches. He stops and looks at us before he head on. Will then says nothing to me for the remainder of the night. Even when we arrive in Rosewood he speaks no words to me. He explains who I am to the other merry men, who look exactly as I pictured them to. They are faeries and they are beautiful.

Will finds the enchanted chains. They're thin like the chain of a necklace, but they cannot be broken, not even nudged, except by Will. He ties and end of it to my wrist, continuing his silence through the night. The other end he keeps to himself, extending it when he must but always retracting it back. It fascinated me, sure. I'd never seen anything like it. It was like magic. But it didn't matter how it made me feel. How any of it made me feel. It was all so much I was surprised I could still speak at all, or that I could function properly with screaming my head off.

There was no more denying it.

This world was utterly and entirely

Real.