The Faceless Woman by Emma Hamm (i love reading .txt) 📕

Her lungs filled with ancient air. Only a few had breathed it before her, but she knew what they smelled like. Every person who walked these steps had left a perfume in their absence. Sandalwood, lavender, and the faintest scent of moss.

Her eyes adjusted to the dark and drank in the thick fog rolling through the sudden silence. She’d only experienced such stillness once in her life. Aisling had wandered deep into the belly of a crypt. Thirty feet of earth piled above her, and the silence was thicker than water. The same as before, all she could hear now was her own heartbeat.

For a witch who practiced black magic, Aisling hated the dark.

The portal tightened behind her, its drum-like surface emitting a faint thrum as the Unseelie stepped through. The raven eye wildly rotated to take in every detail in the dim lighting.

He froze for a moment, then lurched forward. His hand met her shoulder and forced her to her knees behind a boulder. The gentle touch on her shoulder burned.

Heat spread from her toes to her cheeks. He was touching her, and although he’d done it before, this time was voluntary, in an effort to keep her safe.

He swore, the colorful language breaking through her thoughts. Aisling curled her lip to the side. “Those aren’t ones I’ve heard before.”

“That’s because they aren’t in your language. Would you take this seriously?”

“I am.”

She wasn’t. How was she supposed to take anything seriously when he was so animated, his hand still pressed against her shoulder, and they were risking their lives? Taking it seriously only meant she would have to acknowledge the fear that traced cold fingertips down the back of her neck. She didn’t want to feel that.

“Look.” He reached out blindly, his fingers finding her chin even though he couldn’t see her face. She forced herself to freeze and allowed him to turn her head toward the center of the cave. “How did you not see them?”

“See who?” She peered through the darkness and mist, then shrugged. “I don’t see anything.”

He arched a brow. “Try again, witch.”

Huffing out a breath, she squinted her eyes. Her grandmother’s voice whispered in her ear, “Look harder, Aisling. You can see through the veil like I can. You have to want it, child. Desire to see through what the faeries hide.”

The mist swirled, parted, and revealed what had gotten the Unseelie so riled up.

Ten men stood at attention in the center of the cave, although she wasn’t certain she could call them men. They wore fabric draped around their hips, so golden it looked like liquid metal sliding down their bodies to the ground. Swords as tall as her were held loosely in their cupped hands, the pommels pressing against their bare chests.

Each of their faces was hidden by a golden mask. She could see the details from where her and the Unseelie crouched. Birds flew across the metal of one, another was covered in cobwebs that obscured an underwater scene. The masks seemed to depict elements, although she did not know of so many and couldn’t guess what some of them were.

“Oh!” she gasped. “Well that’s different.”

As one, the golden men turned their faces toward the sound. Aisling’s eyes widened and she ducked behind the rock.

The Unseelie met her gaze with a panicked one of his own. “That wasn’t very bright,” he scolded.

“Well, I never claimed to be. What do we do? I thought you said the god would be alone?”

“I thought he was!”

“He’s not. Figure something else out, Unseelie.”

He grunted. “Stop rushing me.”

“I’m rushing you. They looked right at me. They know we’re here.” Aisling flinched at the sound of fabric sliding across the floor. “And now they’re coming to see us, apparently.”

“Shut up, witch.”

“I’m thinking out loud.”

“You’re muttering and distracting me.” He crouched, plunging his fingers into the dirt. “Gods save me from meddlesome women who don’t have the ability to stay quiet. This was supposed to be a quick mission. Stealth was the key.”

“Well, if you had told me, we could have gone through with that plan.”

“Shut up, witch.”

“If you say that one more time, I’m going to cut off your ear.”

He glanced up and arched a brow. “That’s your best threat?”

“You try living without an ear. And you can bet you’ll remember me every time you look in a mirror. Hurry up, would you?”

The Unseelie lifted handfuls of dirt with a flourish, dark earth trickling to the ground. “Ah-hah!”

She pursed her lips. “You’re going to throw dirt at them? We’re a little old for that, don’t you think?”

The red blush of color on his cheeks was thoroughly satisfying. It didn’t matter that magical guards were bearing down on them. She’d managed to annoy him past the point of fear, and that had been her plan all along.

“Perfect,” Aisling said. She spontaneously reached up and patted his cheek. “Good luck, I’ll go get that blood.”

“What? Witch, don’t you move.”

“It’s cute how you think I can’t take care of myself.” She always had. From scraps with the village children to feeding herself at the early age of five, Aisling had always taken care of herself. If that meant stealing the blood from a god, then that was what she would do.

She darted around him and pressed the eyes of her palms together. Magic charged between them, heating her hands and spreading from her face down her body like a curtain drawn closed. Heavy magic pressed onto the top of her head, uncomfortable but not yet painful.

She’d have to see just how good the guards were at seeing through magic. Stepping around the stone, she took a deep breath and waved a hand.

They did not respond.

So they were some semblance of Fae, she mused. They couldn’t see her face, which might be why they had moved closer in the first place. She was an oddity, and even more out of place than anyone else. But they also wouldn’t be able to see her if