Page 20 of Fortune Fae Academy
Then I’d dumbly volunteered when the professor had displayed a Fortune Card that most definitely had Gina’s signature on it.
Remembering the last few moments before I blacked out, I patted down my pants, finding something in my pocket.
When I drew out the card, I stared at it.
The waterfall on its front was no longer magical or moving. In the classroom, it had been alive and the card had practically bled with energy.
Now it seemed cold and dead with nothing special about it.
Turning it over, I raised a brow to find the back completely blank.
Atop my perch on the waterfall’s cliff, there wasn’t anyone to question me as I delved into the Web.
For some reason, it was more difficult to access it here. The dewy strands didn’t like the water clinging to every surface.
Closing my eyes, I focused on the card in my hand. My inadvertent Tunneling had something to do with this card’s origin. The Web connected everyone and everything, including the card I held in my hands.
Which meant I should be able to read its past.
Attempting to restore its fried connection was another matter, though. One probably far out of my realm of control. Zeke had always been more skilled than me in the Web, but he wasn’t here. And even if he were, he was Blind.
It was up to me now to carry the both of us through the Web when it came down to helping Gina. Something I’d better start working on sooner rather than later.
Concentrating, the air around me seemed to thicken as I willed the strands of the Web to appear. Sluggishly, they slowly obeyed until apopreverberated through the air, making me gasp as I slipped into the silvery fog.
My physical body remained on the cliff, but the Dust behaved differently here. The strands of the Web weren’t stiff membranes but instead behaved like magical particles dancing on the edge of the water. Every time I tried to reach out and grab one, it slipped through my fingers.
Damn it,I cursed.
The Web had never behaved like this, but then again, I’d never tried to access the Web while in one of the Elemental Kingdoms.
It seemed that fae magic had an impact on the structure of time and space that knit reality together. It changed it and the Web adapted, taking form in a way that helped it acclimate to its surroundings.
It made me question what I had learned so far at the Academy. My professors had taught me that the Web decided all things. Just like an Alpha ruled his mate-circle and the council guided the Fortune Fae down the correct path. The Web formed the spaces around it.
What I was seeing didn’t support those teachings.
The Web wasn’t controlling the Water Fae Kingdom. It had built a kinship with it. Merged and conformed to its surroundings until it was nearly unrecognizable from any part of the Web I had seen before.
Frowning, I tried to grab at the threads again, but my fingers sank through the watery strands and wet Dust hissed in a puff of steam.
The ground rumbled and the waterfall shifted as if a massive creature writhed beneath it.
And I’d just angered it.
A feeling of dread washed over me as I stood atop the cliff. My arm burned as steam continued to waft off of my naked chest. I rubbed the triquetra tattoo, finding it hot.
Every now and then, I felt some residual connection with the Elements from my mother’s side. It lingered like a phantom sensation of a lost limb.
I hadn’t grown up in the Fire Fae Kingdom. I’d never even seen it. My mother didn’t talk of her family and I had learned not to ask. I didn’t even know where my tattoo had come from. I’d always simply had it.
My mother had only told me it symbolized her regret, whatever that meant.
Regret because her family didn’t approve of her abandoning the Fire Source?
It wasn’t uncommon for Elemental Fae to shun those who chose the way of the Web.
But was it supposed to feel like this, as her son born by Dust? Like I was missing something?
