Page 16 of Outcast Fae
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
She shrugged, her shoulder rubbing against me as she did so.
“What do you think he is?” I asked. I shouldn’t care, but I did.
She shrugged again, wrapped her arms tightly around her torso, and closed her eyes. After a moment, she said, “None of my business,” and drifted away to sleep.
I glanced up in Vaughn’s direction. His head was turned sideways, and I could see his angular profile bathed in moonlight. Something told me he’d heard our little exchange, but I was too tired to care.
Exhaustion fell on me like a boulder. My eyelids fluttered closed even as I fought to stay awake. Slowly, I slipped under, falling into a thick, heavy slumber.
Chapter Seven
Alanthylin all its glory spread out before me. The giant tree at the center. The swinging bridges up above like wooden garlands, dipping between the bows. Every color of green splashed out like a painter’s canvas. Little huts ran out in concentric circles, lit with cook fires and glowing lamps. The smell of roasted meat, cloudberry wine, and nettle tea roving around the happy families as they feasted.
Fae walked about. Young and old alike gathered for an evening meal, hunched over the fires or standing off to one side discussing the day’s events. There were winged fae like me and fae with the same features as beautiful birds, graceful felines, cunning reptiles. We were all so different, yet so alike in our love for each other and the land which sustained us and gave us life.
Home. My home. Yet, it had been destroyed months ago, so how was I here? I was longing for it, dreaming of it. Or maybe my time away had been a nightmare.
Children’s voices called one to another, playing a game of Find Me. A small voice called, “I’m here,” while another shouted, “Over here.”
I found myself walking through the tall tree trunks in search of them. But their voices kept eluding me.
“Over here.”
“This way.”
“You’ve gone too far.”
“No, help!”
Help? My joy turned to panic. Something was happening. The children, they were… in danger.
I whirled, eyes searching through the darkness, but it grew dimmer and dimmer, the trees closing in. The children’s voices were just as panicked, but now, they seemed further away.
“Where are you?” I called, clawing between rough tree trunks and hauling myself up over tall logs.
“Find us, Tally! Tally!”
I pushed a branch out of the way, but it swung back, cutting my face. The sting felt all too real, as did the panic constricting my chest.
Was this really a dream?
“Tally,” the voice insisted, though the timbre had changed. It was no longer the children calling. This voice was feminine and familiar.
“Who’s there?” I asked the blackness around me.
A light flared up, illuminating the gloom. I was no longer in the forest. Instead, I was standing in our little hut at the Supernatural Academy. The place I’d been stolen from. The place I wanted desperately to return to.
“The children!” I bolted around the house, flinging open doors, rifling through beds, but every room I searched was empty, every bed abandoned.
“Where are you?” I screamed.
“They’re gone,” the female voice said as a human shape appeared before me.
Dean McIntosh, leader of the Supernatural Academy and the human who’d taken us in, stood before me. Yet, her form was semi-transparent and wavered around the edges. Her gray hair was pulled into a bun and she wore a dark cloak and trousers. The worry lines on her worn face made my heart shudder.
“Dean?” I asked. “What’s happening? Is this a dream?”
