Children ran down the streets, laughing and shouting and darting between people who carried basket at their h.i.p.s.
"What are they? They look lika human." Kace sniffed the air, but found it strange because he couldn't smell anything from them. They were scentless.
"Human," Lana replied grimly.
Despite the happy atmosphere that surrounded them, Lana's expression was the contrary. She looked upset about something.
"No way, they don't smell like one." Kace scrunched his nose. "Actually, they don't have any scent on them."
"They are humans who are abducted by fairies when they were only babies. Some fairies have a habit to swap their children with human children."
"For what purpose?" Kace felt he had not yet seen this world enough, there were many things that he didn't know.
"So, they could use human children as their slaves," Lana walked among the people with Kace next to her. "Not all fairies do that, but they who did it had a close tied with the witches."
"But they don't have scent." Kace still bothered by this fact.
"Yes, they don't. They had being fed by fairies potion for years. I guess that's the reason why we couldn't smell them." Lana stepped aside when a small boy was about to bump onto her. "This is how they got the candlemaiden. Human with strong spirit power."
"You know about a lot of things about this world," Kace stated in awe.
"You will eventually learn, even if you don't want to, if you spent the last seventeen years roaming around this world and had many task about their kind." Lana shrugged. Serefina made sure she learned about her origin, about her fae's mother.
"And what about the fairies' children in human world?" Kace walked along the street to the spot where were less people.
"Those children will realize if they are different, whether it's the way their thinking or their body, and in the age of fifteen or so, their parents would come to explain the situation. If they accept it well, they will live, if not, those fairies' parent will kill their own child. After all, supernatural creatures like us couldn't reveal our existence to the human world."
With Lana's explanation they walked toward a different alley. The street before was filled with brilliant colors and colorful people. Those variant color was overwhelming, until sudden alley revealed the city sprawled beneath them, nothing but dark and gloomy rooftops and the endless of shrubbery.
Kace started to get used with this frequent change of environment.
Colorful houses turning into these gloomy shops and the streets were almost empty. This side was totally different from the place before.
Snow was no longer falling, but the air was still cold.
Finally, when the sunny afternoon had given way to an evening fog, Lana stopped in front of an inn. It was a long day and Kace could feel tiredness started to take a toll on him.
Not minding its worn plain exterior or the pungent smell of fish that clung to the warehouses around it, all Kace wanted to do was to soak his feet in warm water. He hoped there was one here.
Kace watched several people in dark cloak that covered almost their entire faces brought a lantern on their hand with a few children no older than ten years old, scampering around those strange people with cloak that Kace assumed was the witch.
A strange man, who was standing behind the reception desk, with his ghostly pale skin and white blonde hair, was talking to Lana about reservation.
Lana asked for two room, but unfortunately they only had one room available.
"The festival is around the corner and we have so many visitors here," the man spoke in boring tone.
Lana wanted to argue, but Kace cut her. "It's fine, give the room." Kace didn't see what the point of arguing when he said there was no more room in this inn. If what that man said was true, then most of the inn would be fully booked as well and Kace was not in the mood to walk on that eerie street again.
The man looked pleased with Kace's decision and gave the key room to him.
"Third floor," he said to inform Kace, who already walked away and waved his hand to acknowledge him.
"Kace, do you know what this means?" Lana hissed, she jogged beside Kace. "We will stay in one room." she couldn't mask the panic in her voice.
"He said there is no more room here." Kace climbed the stars, trying as much as possible to avoid the other people.
"They must have an extra room." Lana couldn't hide that she was nervous and Kace couldn't ignore the tiredness.
These wounds surely had weakened him.
"Look." Kace suddenly stopped and stared at Lana. "I am very tired and all I want is only a good night sleep and saving as much as energy for tomorrow, so we could roam around this place to find that candlemaiden. If you are very nervous because we will be in the same room…" of course Kace was able to sense that from Lana. "Just think of me as a wooden log. I will sleep on the couch, definitely we will not share the bed, and we don't have to talk with each other. Alright?"
"Alright," Lana said meekly as she lowered her head to avoid those beautiful ocean blue eyes.
"Good," Kace nodded, his body was aching all over.
If he remembered correctly, they had been through a desert, a feral beast, a forest, a mountain, a city and now they were in this creepy inn. Kace really exhausted and he could see Lana felt the same.
"Hope will kill me if she knows about this," Lana mumbled, but her face turned crimson red, she still couldn't get rid the fact she would sleep in the same room with Kace.
"My sweet mate will not kill anyone," he said softly. "She is an angel."
"An angel who has been raised by a witch like Serefina."