Blue Blood (Series of Blood Book 3) by Emma Hamm (books to read this summer .txt) 📕

dream world of its own creating. The Dragon would have its hoard once more.

But neither would ever be safe. Neither would ever escape this prison.

The clanking beneath Jasper’s feet faded. He could breathe easier with the golden mounds behind them. Before his eyes, the forest turned bright green again. Everything in his view was alive and vibrantly green. He and the Wisp sped up, rushing away from the nightmarish clearing filled with compelling riches.

He could no longer hear the Dragon, and silence fell like a heavy blanket. He watched the shadows of the forest with a critical eye. There were shadows of things that weren’t there. Men with weapons. Beasts with horns.

The Wisp passed through a tree, and he lost sight of her for a few moments. Strange how it made his heart jump. At least if they were together, they were less likely to fall prey to another trap.

That was his hope, anyway.

“You never answered my question,” he called out. “What weakness do you have that we need to look out for?”

Her voice materialized from in front of him, though he could not quite see the outline of her body. “What makes you think it will try and trap me first?”

“Well, you did bring me to the forest to retrieve this thing. It stands to reason that there was logic behind that.”

“You think highly of yourself, Fairy.”

Jasper shrugged. “You can’t say I’m wrong though.”

Though he was loathe to trust anyone who worked for Malachi, this woman seemed different from the others. She wasn’t a thug. She was calculating and detached, a person who saw things the way they were. She didn’t appear to worship Malachi or follow his orders to the letter. And he got the sense she wouldn’t lie to him if she actually answered any of his questions.

Her outline flickered for a few seconds near a tree, and Jasper changed the direction he was walking. She was leading him somewhere, and he would guess she knew where this maze was. At the very least, she had an idea where it was.

“I’m not sure what you want from me.” Her words were eerily quiet. “We’re trying to find a maze. Pay attention to what is around you, and stop asking questions.”

“It’s hard to pay attention when I don’t know what I’m looking for.”

“You’re insufferable. It’s no wonder you ended up in a cage.”

He bristled at that. “Excuse me?”

“You Fae always get yourselves in trouble, and think a pretty face will get you out of any situation. If you stopped relying on your looks, you would understand that the world cares very little for you.”

Bluebell stuttered in his head. “What did she just say to us?”

“Easy there,” Jasper told the little Fairy before addressing the Wisp. “It sounds like you think you know a lot about my kind.”

“Wisps know about Fae.”

She spoke the truth. Though they were technically cousins, Wisps and Fae were never fast friends. They were the same size, though Wisps rarely had any kind of solid form when they weren’t inside their human hosts. Fae were everything the Wisps were not. Solid, pretty, loveable, and oh so charming.

Wisps weren’t like that. They were the colder version of their cousins. Their magic relied entirely upon souls and the dead. Fae magic was that of life and emotions. It made sense that the two species held no love between them.

Still, he always hoped for better when he met one.

He gently moved aside a branch as he followed the Wisp. “How about we both ignore prejudices and help each other out? Tell me what we’re looking for. I promise my eyes are just as good as yours.”

The Wisp didn’t respond, though he was certain he heard the very faint sound of a snort. She was almost entirely invisible at this point. Jasper kept losing sight of her and had to search for the dim white glow she emitted.

“You’ll know the maze when you see it,” she finally admitted.

“That’s not very clear.”

“You don’t need me to be any clearer than that.”

He hated riddles. Jasper wanted people to be honest and direct when speaking. Dancing around the real answer was just a waste of both their times.

“Bluebell?” he asked.

“Yes?”

“Do you know what we’re looking for?”

He imagined her tapping a tiny finger against her chin as she thought about his question. “Not really. I’ve never heard of a prison inside a forest.”

“Helpful,” he grunted as he clambered over a fallen log. “Anything similar?”

“In the old dimension there was a way to create something like this. But they were only used to hold the strongest of creatures.”

“Why?”

She giggled. “Only nature can hold back the most powerful of our kind. The last known prison was created to hold the king of the Unseelie. And we all know how terrible that man was.”

“Massacred thousands for land and then for pleasure. Fitting that he ended up in a prison like this.”

“I’m glad you were listening in school.”

Jasper let out a bark of laughter. “Let’s not go that far, Bluebell. So what do you think we should be looking out for?”

She was silent for a few long moments before he heard her tentative voice again “Something very terrifying.”

That didn’t sound good, but then again, what did lately? He sighed and ducked beneath a spiderweb he didn’t want to disturb. Jasper’s life had taken a very odd turn lately, and he wasn’t certain he appreciated it.

As he rounded a large tree, he came to an abrupt halt. Before him stretched an expanse of tangled ivy thicker than he had ever seen. This was no plant. This was a wall.

He furrowed his brow as a brown bird tunneled out of the vegetation, chirped loudly, and flew away as fast as its little wings could carry it.

“Strange,” he muttered. “Wisp!”

He heard her crashing through the undergrowth until she burst out beside him. She had taken physical form again. Her black hair settled over her shoulders as she caught her breath.

She stared wide-eyed at his discovery. The wall before them was