Page 28 of Taken By the Fae

“Roar!” Elijah’s voice reaches me, and his nickname for me makes my chest swell with warmth. He’s been calling me that since he was old enough to talk. In the beginning, he couldn’t say my entire name but learned part of it, and it stuck. I grin when his footsteps pound the floor as he races into the kitchen. I slide off the stool at the breakfast bar seconds before he wraps his arms around me.

“Hey, you,” I say, hugging him tightly.

“What are you doing home?” Dad asks when he walks into the room. He’s dressed in his normal teaching attire: a suit and tie, and his salt and pepper hair is neatly combed to one side. Our eyes meet, and I’m reminded of how much I wish I had inherited his bright blue ones like Elijah had instead of Mom’s hazel ones.

“Nice to see you, too, Dad,” I joke.

“You know that’s not what your father meant, honey. We weren’t expecting you, is all,” Mom says with a smile, wrapping her arm around my shoulders. My mom and I share many features. I have her long, wavy blond hair. We’re both a little over five feet and curvy in the hip area. If she were a few years younger, we would look more like sisters than mother and daughter.

“Yeah, I just… It’s looking like this semester is going to be pretty heavy, and I probably won’t be able to come home again for a while, so I thought I’d spend the weekend.” I glance between her and Dad. “I was going to make something for dinner, but there’s not much besides lemonade and eggs in the fridge.”

Mom smiles. “Start of the semester is always busy. And groceries are on tomorrow’s to-do list.”

“Why don’t we order pizza?” Dad suggests.

Elijah and I exchange a grin; pizza is our favorite food group.

An hour later, we’re sitting around the dining room table. Elijah tries to steal the slice of pizza I’m going for, and I smack his hand away, snatching it up. He sticks his tongue out at me, grabbing another slice and shoving it into his mouth.

“You had your internship interview this week, right?” Dad asks.

The slice of pizza I have in my hand stops halfway to my mouth. “Uh, yeah.”

“How’d it go? Did you get the company you wanted?”

“I didn’t get to choose. They matched students with mentors from local businesses,” I explain.

“Where did you get placed?” Mom asks.

“A hotel downtown.”

“That’s wonderful,” she praises. “Congratulations, honey.”

I grit my teeth for a second, then force a smile. “Thank you.”

“When do you start?” Dad asks.

“Monday,” I say, “nine o’clock sharp.” Using Tristan’s words makes it difficult not to cringe.

After dinner, Elijah and I tidy up the kitchen. I should probably use this opportunity to do some digging and find out what Mom and Dad know about our lineage, but I’m still not sure how to bring it up in a way that won’t make them worry something’s going on. The last thing I need is for them to get suspicious and ask questions I can’t answer. That, or worry about my sanity if they know nothing about fae, which is very possible.

We finish the dishes and meet Mom and Dad in the living room to watch a movie. I’m struggling to keep my eyes open for the first half, and by the second half, I’m dozing in and out before I fall asleep.

When I open my eyes again, everything feels foreign.

“I’d tell you not to freak out, but I suppose that’s unlikely?”

I gasp at the deep voice and sit up in a flash. My eyes scan the dark bedroom, quickly landing on where Tristan leans in the doorway, wearing casual black slacks and a gray T-shirt. He steps inside, closing the door behind him, and I scramble off the massive bed, nearly slipping off the black silk sheets. “What the hell is going on?” I demand, my heart beating against my rib cage as my eyes flit around the unfamiliar room.

“Nothing,” he answers calmly.

I gesture around the room. “What isthis?”

“My bedroom,” he says, moving closer.

I glance back at the bed from where I’m standing at the end, and my cheeks fill with heat.Oh god.“Your bedroom… Did you kidnap meagain? I swear to—”

He chuckles, cutting me off. “You’re asleep, Aurora. This is a dream.”

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