Page 55 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
My uncle was right, and now she knew.
Chapter
Ten
TEDDY
I’m not afraid.
In my head, I repeated those words until the smallest part of me believed it.
I didn’t have the luxury of being afraid. Not with a small child who looked at me as if I held answers to the growing problems we lived through every day. Not with the town depending on me to supply them with enough food to keep them from starving. Not with more and more fae showing up every day that we were forced to feed despite them being unwelcome strangers in our town.
It’d taken weeks for many of us to take the food Elias supplied at the food bank. Weeks of watching what we had in our pantry and fridge dwindling before the ache in our stomachs outgrew the worry of the food Elias grew being poisoned. Weeks of the fae eating more than their share while we were too afraid to try it.
With Victoria sleeping in my arms, I yawned, shifting uncomfortably on the chair as I sat in the waiting room for our only doctor in town. It wasn’t the first time I’d been to one ofthe secret meetings Dr. Daniels held in his office, but it was the first time it’d happened late at night. Despite the cushioning of the seat, I couldn’t get comfortable. Regardless of the late hour and the long day, no one else seemed to be as tired as I was—except for Victoria, who rested atop me with her head on my shoulder.
From across the room, a woman said something I didn’t quite hear, and when I shifted again, I hit my elbow on the steel armrest. Biting back a hiss, I watched Victoria move her head to the side, and I let out a relieved sigh when she didn’t stir awake.
At least the office was warm with the space heaters he’d positioned around the room. The body heat from so many people in attendance probably didn’t hurt either. I didn’t think it was luck that Dr. Daniels’s pipes hadn’t broken, and he still had running water when so many in town hadn’t fared as well. No, whoever or whatever kept my house warm was not only responsible for my pipes and running water but also for the doctor’s. It made me wonder what made me special, why my house was kept safe from the environment while so many others had to fight the cold.
I sighed, knowing I still had a long night ahead of me and had to leave soon if I was to make it to where Dr. Daniels said Javier lived. It’d be a long hike, especially carrying Victoria, but I wanted to check on him. Make sure that no one had harmed him after he left with Elias’s friends.
When a man shuffled in front of me, I moved the bag of food I’d gotten for Javier with my feet so the man wouldn’t step on it. Carefully, I took out my phone to see it was a quarter to midnight. If I left now, I could still get a few good hours of sleep. But I wasn’t ready to go when the last hour of this meeting hadn’t accomplished anything but make all of usmore wary of the fae. I wanted to see one good thing come from today. One, that was it. I didn’t think that was too much to ask for.
Beside me, the pretty young stranger with long silver hair dug the jagged ends of her fingernails into the skin of her arm. She trembled with every word the others spoke.
Moving slowly so I didn’t wake Victoria, I rested a hand over hers. Her attention snapped to me so quickly, I jerked my hand back.
“It’s okay,” I mouthed.
With a sad expression on her face, Everly shook her head. “Elias isn’t bad,” she said.
It wasn’t the first time she’d made this claim. Each time she spoke those words to me, she said it more vehemently as if she were desperate for me to believe her.
I wanted to believe her. I was close to believing her until the commander, his uncle, had blamed Elias for our downfall. He’d said we would’ve all been fine if Elias had left us alone.
I wasn’t sure what he’d meant, but his words rang true in my chest. Elias was at fault, which was probably why he’d taken Javier’s punishment. It had to be why, or else my failure to help Elias with his wounds made me as cruel as his uncle.
Still, the guilt of walking away from the pained expression on his face twisted in my gut like a knife.
“How can you say that?” a man next to Everly asked, tapping his fingers on his lap in agitation.
The way Everly held her head high made her look almost regal but lethal. “Name one thing he has done to harm anyone in his region,” she answered, her voice loud enough to carry over to those closest to us.
One by one, people stopped talking to look at her. Although she’d come here about a week or so after the endlesswinter began, she was still a stranger to this town and its people. I liked her, though, and appreciated the time she spent helping me at the food bank. But more, I enjoyed having someone to talk to during the long work hours. Someone who wasn’t all doomsday and had a more positive outlook than most. Me included.
Donnie was the first to speak. “Did you say something?”
I pressed my lips together to keep from snickering, but I’d seen how he watched her. The way his cheeks flushed when she spoke to him.
Even now, in a room full of upset people, his green eyes twinkled. Actually twinkled.
When she gave him a small smile, he dropped his gaze to his fingers to hide his blush. But I saw the hint of pink that rose to his cheeks.
She brushed her long fingers through her hair, tugging at the ends before she spoke. “I was telling Teddy that Elias isn’t bad.”
Around us, people scoffed. Some went as far as shouting, reminding her that she was as much an outsider as the filthy fae.
