The Seventh Kingdom by Odessa Sawyer

Author:Odessa Sawyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 978-1-4342-9186-8, Beth Bracken, Kay Fraser, Odessa Sawyer, Faerieground, stone arch books, faeries, fairies, fantasy, 978-1-4342-9190-5
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2014-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

The words on the paper turn blurry.

My hands begin to shake. I can’t sit still, so I stand. I’m allowed to leave my room these days, so I take advantage of it.

As I walk down the hallways, I hold my mother’s key in my hand, like every time I’m tense these days. The feeling of the cold metal digging into my skin makes me feel better.

I can’t stop thinking about the letter. I do not need rescuing; I do not need them to risk their lives. The lives of everyone in the kingdom. I chose to stay here to save them, not put them all in more danger. I have accepted my fate.

My fate is to become a Crow.

At the end of this hallway, there’s a little nook, tucked away beneath a staircase. I fold my body inside.

Tears roll down my cheeks. When I reach up to wipe them away, the key clatters to the ground.

There is a tile mosaic inlaid in the floor in this nook. It’s shaped like a bird—a crow, of course, mouth open in a caw. I trace it with my finger. The tiles are cold, smooth to the touch.

Then I see it. In the bird’s gaping mouth, a tiny keyhole.

I scramble to my knees, pick up the key, and slide it into the hole. Then I turn it. It clicks. And the wall in front of me begins to move.

Once the wall is gone, there’s a long, dark hallway. It’s deathly silent. But I’m not afraid. I want to see where my mother’s key leads me.

After I walk through, the wall slides up behind me again. I walk down the damp hallway. My boots slide across the cement floor.

The cracks around the hidden entrance let in enough light to see by for a while. But after I’ve walked for a minute, it becomes too dark. I have to reach out my hands and touch the walls so that I can guide myself down the hall.

I find myself in a room lit by tiny flames in glass bowls against the wall. It’s some kind of library. The room is lined with shelves of books.

The room is undeniably creepy, and I know I’m not supposed to be here. I know if Georg found out, he’d be furious.

If he even knows it’s here. Caro has never mentioned it. But then again, Caro doesn’t really like books.

Against one wall, there’s an old wooden desk covered with books. Some are open, some are closed. Next to the desk, there’s a pile of seven rolled-up papers. I pick one and unroll it. It’s a map of a kingdom; not the Crows’, and not my own.

I try another one. In fancy writing across the top: Roseland.

I’ve never seen the shape of my kingdom before. It isn’t shaped like a rose, of course. It’s more like a diamond. I think it must be the kingdom most central in the faerieground. It’s bordered by the Crows’ kingdom on one side, and the Ladybirds' on the other.

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