Page 7 of Outcast Fae
At last, it was my turn. Everyone stared, even those who had been more interested in the floor than anything else. I was the only fae, an oddity, an alien, like a passing student at the Supernatural Academy had once called me. They didn’t like me, but they couldn’t stop their curiosity.
I could feel their eyes on me, mostly staring at my wings. I was half-tempted to glamour them, hide them from their prying eyes, but I resisted the urge. I’d been hiding them for too long, and I was not going to compromise who I was for any of these people.
“My name is Tallyndra Fyndarelle, but you can call me Tally,” I said. “I don’t know why I’m here, and I need you to tell me.”
“Please, not that again,” Vaughn said, finding no trouble in opening his mouth this time.
Silver Bear uncrossed his arms and straightened in his chair. He cocked his head to one side, watching me closely, his blue eyes piercing and intense like two beams of sunlight. I held his gaze, even as I remembered his body shifting and turning into that massive beast capable of ripping someone’s head off in a single bite.
“Tally, you know why you’re here.”
“We don’t have time for this shit,” Karen said from the door, her dark glasses perched atop her head like a diadem. “It’s getting dark out there. We need to go.”
Go? Where? Hadn’t they taken us far away enough already? Anger sparked in me.
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what I need to know.” I beat my wings as hard as I could and came off the chair. I hovered eight feet off the floor, my wings fluttering close to the ceiling.
Every adult pushed back on their chairs, their eyes intent on me as if they would attack at the least sign of aggression. Alonzo came away from the door, followed by Karen. Murder filled her eyes as if she just needed one excuse to shoot me down with her magic.
Silver Bear lifted a hand and moved it up and down in a pacifying motion, then nodded towards Meadow Song as if giving her permission to speak.
She gave a little sigh and nodded. I expected her to look in the folder with my name, but instead, she closed it and laid it neatly on her lap.
“You are here because you have a temper,” she paused, raising her eyebrows as if that explained everything.
Clearly, I had a temper. It had just gotten the best of me, and I was considering flying down and lifting the’ciallachadhby the hair, but a temper was not a crime—not even in this nonsensical land.
“You tend to lose your temper,” Meadow Song continued after her pause. “And two nights ago, you assaulted a member of the High Magical Council while he was visiting the Supernatural Academy where you have been a guest of Dean Lynnsa McIntosh. High Council member Roderick Grant is recovering in an Atlanta hospital. This is certainly fortunate for you because, if it had been more severe, other alternatives besides New Starts would have been considered. Does that refresh your memory?”
A gasp escaped my mouth.I shook my head, incredulity making my wings go limp. None of it was true. I had been framed, and, after hearing the High Council member’s name, I had no doubt about it.
I wanted to fight, to scream, to fly away, but what use was there? They would never believe me no matter how hard I tried to deny these charges.
Slowly, I descended toward my chair and collapsed on top of it, all the anger going out of me.
High Council member Roderick Grant was well known around fae circles. He seemed to be the human who hated us the most and constantly advocated to have our kind locked away in concentration camps, places I had learned were worse than rat holes. Why was I sent here and not to some camp or jail? Was this place a kindness granted to me from someone on the outside? My aunt perhaps?
Either way, I was here on false accusations. Someone had wanted me to take the blame for what happened to him, the question was who?
Chapter Four
“Your turn,”Meadow Song said to me, pointing toward the metal door through which all the others had disappeared.
I dug in my heels. I didn’t want to go in—not when the rest hadn’t come back out.
“It’s okay, Tally,” Meadow Song said with one of her syrupy smiles. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”
I rolled my shoulders, staring at the massive door as if it were my enemy. It had no handle and seemed reinforced to withstand any kind of physical attack, probably magical, too. Behind me, Silver Bear cleared his throat. He had forced Vaughn to go in when he’d refused. He was probably ready to force me as well if I didn’t do what Meadow Song said.
I didn’t believe that nothing bad was going to happen. Nothing about this place made me trust anyone in power.
They had kidnapped me from my home under a false accusation, and now they were keeping me against my will. Only the gods knew what waited on the other side of the door.
But what else could I do?
Silver Bear stepped closer. I shook my head and shot him a dirty look. I didn’t want his filthy hands on me. And I didn’t want him morphing back into that massive bear again. I wasoutstrengthedand outnumbered. For now, at least. But I would bide my time. I had to get back to the children. I would find a way out.
I glanced toward Meadow Song. “I’ll go in, but don’t touch me.”
