Page 19 of Fortune Fae Academy
It didn’t do me any good to listen. I wouldn’t be able to tell her anyway.
As I squeezed my eyes shut, I knew the path my future had to take.
I had to stay far away from Gina until I learned how to undo Amell’s tangles around my heart.
I had to abandon her to two Alphas and a web of lies with no one to tell her the truth.
The irony was that I had once vowed to be the shadow on the tail of her soul.
Now, I would be a shadow in her memory, because no matter my conviction, there was no way I could thwart the power of the Elders twice.
This was my hell, and I would burn in it forever.
Forgive me, dreamcatcher.
Forgive me for what I must do.
Forgive me… for leaving you.
Where in theWeb am I?I wondered as I stared at the landscape that most definitely wasn’t the silvery Fortune Fae Realm that dwelled in silence.
Life roared all around me as waterfalls crashed into glassy surfaces. Bright greens provided shade in the form of massive trees glowing with life offered by the liquid essence.
The humidity swept over me with a fine mist. It wasn’t sweltering or unpleasant. More like the kiss of a lover leaving a fine imprint on my skin.
Even though I’d never been here in person, I knew where I’d wound up.
This was the Water Fae Kingdom.
Fae with pointed ears ignored me as they hurried on their way through the crowded street. My vantage point at the top of one of the waterfalls gave me a bird’s-eye view of the busy city center.
In the distance, a palace nested in a series of waterfalls gleamed with the same life and energy of the land and people around it.
It was nothing like the dark, dreary towers of the Collegium and Fortune Fae Academy.
While beautiful, it was the people that drew my attention back to the streets.
Every now and then, one would vanish in a puff of diamond sprinkles, only for another to appear a few steps away.
Water Fae could manipulate their element in a number of ways. One of them was the envied ability to mist. Tunneling, while achieving the same result, was a very different and dangerous skill. Misting was supposed to be effortless. Like a gift from the Water Fae Source.
These fae reflected the ease that so many coveted in the way they interacted. They seemed to enjoy the bustle and the chatter. It was all so different from Fortune Fae life. One of quiet, seriousness, and an underlying layer of fear.
I’d never realized how much fear had impacted our society until I saw one without it.
While I’d been to the Human Realm plenty of times, they shared anxieties that made me feel more of a kinship with them.
Water Fae seemed entirely too joyful. Almost childish as they pranced about, their jewelry jingling with magical ice crystals frozen in place, or dewy droplets forming petite crowns in long, braided hair.
I swept my fingers through my hair and frowned when my hand came back with steam.
In fact, my whole body burned with heat, as if rejecting the fine mist all around me.
Perhaps it was just a side effect of whatever Professor Findlay had done to me.
I thought back to the last thing I could remember.
I had been in class. Beta Channeling Tactics, right.
