Page 79 of Fake Dating a Human 101

As soon as the guards left the basement, Dranian leaned against the bars and whispered the girl’s temporary name into the dim space, “Mycra!”

He wasn’t great at yelling, but when the girl with no name didn’t reply, he cleared his throat and tried again. “Mycra!” he shouted.

The sound boomed through the basement, making a nearby bug spring off a ledge.

Still, nothing responded. And so, he waited through the night until the toe-curling sounds of celebration and partying died down upstairs. He passed the time by counting the stones in the walls and eyeing a few weapons on hangers as his eyes adjusted. Doing pretty much anything to keep himself from thinking about the white-haired fairy upstairs.

Only when peace fell upon the House did he draw the key from his pocket, slick with Shayne’s blood. It must have been the early morning hours, though in the depths of the House, it was hard to tell. But if his history in the House of Lyro told him anything, it was that the fairies here rarely went to bed at a reasonable hour.

Dranian reached through the bars of his cage and shoved the key into the mouth of the bloodlock. It clicked, and his door swung open. He pushed out and looked around once more before marching through the basement, whispering for the girl, searching high and low through empty cages, closets, and rooms full of weaponry—where he took a few handy things for himself.

It wasn’t easy to stay out of sight of the lesser fairies as they milled about and carried things from one place to another, but Dranian kept tight around corners when he ascended from the basement and braved the maze. He slipped right and left, checking bedrooms silently as Lyro allies slept, snoring and talking in their sleep. All the while, Dranian wondered what dreams the girl with no name was being forced to infiltrate, and what sorts of other things the Lyro household had been making her do since she was captured.

It took him until mid-morning before he finally found her, and the sight made his breath catch in his throat.

The ballroom. Of all places. The wide open, gaping ballroom.

The girl with no name rested in a golden cage, high in the air above the largest room in the whole House. She slept soundly in a white nightdress atop a glorious red velvet bed, a grand exhibition for all who visited the House of Lyro to marvel at. It was enraging and intimidating all at once. There was no easy way to fetch a fairy in the sky, not unless he could fly like Cress or airslip like Mor. And he realized just how foolish he was to come here on his own with only one good arm and no way to climb. It was the first moment he was tempted to turn back, to send someone else in his stead. He turned away to leave when he spotted a thick rope tied to a curtain rod over a tall window. He followed the rope with his eyes and, realizing the rope was what held the girl’s cage in the air, he filled his chest with air and courage. He might have only seconds before the nobles heard his ruckus and awoke. Seconds to set her free once he started.

Dranian raced for a plush couch in the corner. He used the brute strength of his good arm to shove it from the wall and push it into the centre of the room. The screeching noise sang like a dying bird, echoing in every direction and flooding the House with clamour, but as soon as the couch was below the girl’s cage, he turned, drew a dagger, and hurled it—aiming for the rope.

He missed. Terribly.

He tried again with a second dagger, and he missed that time, too. So, he drew out the handle of his spear, fired it to life, and he threw it toward the ceiling. The blade cut clean through the rope—he almost didn’t spring out of the way in time as the entire cage came crashing down onto the sofa. Dranian scrambled to the cage door as the girl startled awake, looking around in a panic. He drew out the key, swiped a thumb-full of Shayne’s blood off it, and jammed his thumb against the bloodlock. An alarm sang through the House as the cage door swung open.

The girl was already scrambling from the bed and out the door, pulling Dranian along with her before he could speak to announce what his plan was.

“Hurry,” she said, reaching for him—at least, he thought she was until she grabbed his last dagger from his belt. “Huntsmen will be here in seconds… too late. They’re here.”

Dranian spun to find a dozen fairies in red Lyro lamellar armour rushing into the ballroom. His stomach dropped just as a loud smash tore his attention to the shattered window. The girl no longer had the dagger in her hands when she grabbed Dranian’s good arm and jerked him toward the windy opening. As soon as they reached the window, the girl wound her arms around Dranian’s middle, and sheleapt.

Dranian released a shriek as his body was torn from the House, out into the open air with nothing below to catch him. The girl reached upward toward the sky, her white dress rippling around his body, her hair fluttering over her face. He didn’t know what she was reaching for until a pale hand stretched out and clasped around hers.

Dranian was sucked sideways into an air current in the girl’s embrace. He held on tight, his hands clasping around her back, his shrieking stifled behind his teeth. His surroundings appeared as he hit the ground, rolling through a bright wheat field, and he landed on his shoulder. He winced as pain seared down his arm, and he lifted his head to see the girl who’d landed a foot away.

Her chest rose and fell, wheat sticking out from a variety of places in her black hair. She opened her bright eyes and looked over at him.

“What just happened?” Dranian asked her.

“I was infiltrating someone’s dream when you woke me,” she said through heavy breaths.

“Who’s dream?” Dranian sat up and looked around, but the voice came from behind him.

“Mine.”

Luc walked into view, swatting at wheat bits and shaking out his scarlet hair. An enormous, swelling purple ring surrounded his left eye. He stopped his fussing and scowled at the girl. “If you ever invade my slumber again, I will torture you far worse in your waking hours than you can with me in my sleeping ones!” he promised. “Dreamslippers have no business being in my powerful mind.”

Mycra lifted herself on shaking arms. She stood to her full height when she faced Luc. “Shadow Fairies are the most useful,” she said to him even though he hadn’t asked for an explanation.

Luc finished swatting wheat off his coat. “Will one of you tell me what in the name of the sky deities happened to you all after I left?” he demanded, looking at Dranian in particular. “It’s driving me crazy not knowing!” Before Dranian could answer, he added, “And where’s dear Lily? I have a lot on the line to lose if she’s really vanished into the Ever Corners.”

Dranian looked back in the direction of the House of Lyro. He couldn’t see the House; the great field and at least one forest separated them from its tiered pagodas and tall dragon statues. But one last time, he thought about the forever friend he’d left there. The one he already missed with every fairy fiber of his being even though he’d seen him the night before.

“It seems only Shayne can find her now,” he said in a quiet voice.

30

Lily Baker Spinning Around and Around and Around…

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