by Nicole Hall
Sera closed her eyes and took a deep breath. There was no panic anymore, just a deep-seated sadness. She knew the glimmers were tricks of the light, and not hallucinations, but years of being told she was imagining things were hard to forget. Being in Evie’s house brought back the memories of her mother and then Will insisting she wasn’t well. That the things she saw weren’t real. That she needed medication, silence, rest. Sera opened her eyes and looked around the bright kitchen, quiet and alone. Screw them and their pop psycho-babble. And screw their medication that made her fuzzy and compliant.
She’d take hallucinations over Will any day.
The coffee maker was one of those pod kinds, and Sera opened every cabinet and drawer looking for the pods, but no luck. She leaned against the counter, toying with her phone. Coffee was necessary to life on the best of days, and this was going to be a rough one. A paper next to her elbow fluttered to the ground. There in Jake’s loopy handwriting was Maddie’s number. Jake would probably have coffee, but Maddie was the safer choice. She’d call Maddie, who she hadn’t talked to in seven years, and ask her to come over with coffee. What could go wrong?
Maddie didn’t answer. Would Jake?
She shook her head. The situation wasn’t that desperate. She could drive into town and have her own coffee in less than five minutes. Loud brakes and a metallic noise squealed from the front of the house, so Sera tucked her phone into her back pocket and went to accept her moving container delivery. Coffee or no, it was time to do the things.
The driver was professional and quicker than Sera would have liked. Now that the time was nigh, she wasn’t sure she was ready to start all over in a new place. Like Jake had said last night, she could sell the house for a good amount, but then what? Start over in a different new place? She wasn’t willing to stay with her mom any longer, and she didn’t have any friends who had lasted through the divorce. At least here she had the good memories of Evie. And Jake. No, not Jake.
She shook her head to clear those thoughts and stood in the driveway with her hands on her hips. The white metal box that contained all her earthly belongings was smaller than she remembered. There was no point in opening it up yet. The house was full, and Sera hadn’t checked the attic last night like she’d planned. A lawnmower roared to life next door, and Sera shaded her eyes to see which neighbor it was.
Jake. Of course. And he was shirtless. Again. Sitting on a little riding mower in his front yard, he waved as he rode by in a wide turn, a big grin on his face. Sera sighed. It was too bad she’d sworn off relationships. There was not an ounce of fat on him. His cargo shorts were tattered and his sandy hair was covered by a grimy backward Cowboys hat. She was pretty sure it was the same hat he’d worn as a teenager. And that he’d never washed it. He looked earthy and she was surprised to find she liked it. He raised an eyebrow as he started his second rotation, and Sera realized with a start that she was still staring at him. She forced a nonchalant smile and waved as she turned back to her house, determined to squash down the tingles in her belly.
She’d barely gone a few steps when another car pulled up behind hers in the driveway. A dented blue Corolla that had seen better days. A lanky guy about her age with blue eyes and messy black hair stepped out of the car. There was a strong Superman vibe happening with his pretty face, all strong planes and full lips. Broad shoulders under a ratty superhero t-shirt only reinforced the look. He moved with careless grace, like maybe he was a nerd but swam competitively or something. Totally not her type, but she could see the appeal. He glared into the empty interior, and she thought he said something, but the mower was too loud for her to make it out. He rolled his eyes and slammed the door before focusing on Sera standing on the front walk with her arms crossed.
“Hi, I’m Ryan Nolan. I’m a friend of Jake’s.” He pointed vaguely in the direction of the mower, then wiped his palm on his jeans as he walked forward and extended his hand out.
Sera hesitated, but took a step and shook it. “Sera Allen. You look like you’re in the wrong driveway.”
He took a deep breath. “Yeah, umm… this is going to sound really weird, but I need you to come into the woods with me.”
“What? Why—You know what? I don’t care.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. No. Have a nice day.” She turned to walk away, but Ryan grabbed her forearm.
Sera jerked her arm away and was about to give him a piece of her mind when he spoke, “It’s important.” He grabbed her arm again, but gently.
Strangely, in that moment, Sera wasn’t annoyed or afraid. Ryan met her eyes, his pleading with her. The quiet entreaty reminded her of someone. A memory flitted through her mind, but was gone before she could grasp more than a few words and the sensation of a familiar voice.
“They need your help, Sera.” Ryan’s voice was gentle, mesmerizing.
They?
Sera’s eyelids felt heavy, and her arms wouldn’t listen to her. Help always comes at a price, but you’ve already paid, haven’t you? It was the same memory, but a different voice. This one brought with it a rising sense of panic. Her heartbeat quickened and echoed in her ears, but it didn’t block out her memory of that voice. What will you pay this time?
“Take your hands off the lady, Ryan.”
Sera blinked as if she was coming out of a trance and broke eye contact. Jake was walking across their yards toward them. His smile had disappeared, but he didn’t look particularly threatening.
She hadn’t even noticed the mower had stopped.
Ryan released her immediately, and Sera took a big step back out of his reach. He shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders.
“What the hell, man?” Jake asked when he reached them.
Ryan glared at his car again for a moment, then focused on Jake. “She’s been summoned.” The last word carried a strange emphasis, but Sera had already reached her limit on weird things for the day. Especially since she was facing said day sans coffee.
She threw her hands into the air. “Well, why didn’t you say so? Let’s go into the woods immediately because some dude I don’t know says I’ve been summoned.” She pointed a finger in Ryan’s face. “You, leave me alone.” Then in Jake’s. “And you? I don’t need your help.”
Both men stared at her, silent. Sera was breathing hard and about ready to go back to bed to start the day over. This time, preferably with coffee, but no one moved.
A bird chirped across the road, and Sera found herself focusing on the line of trees past the street. Evie’s house was on the edge of the neighborhood, facing a wild growth of forest. Somehow, she’d never noticed the light trail that curved into the thick underbrush. Under the shade of the trees, she could see fireflies blinking on and off, lighting the path. Something inside her pulled her forward. She walked between Ryan and Jake, ignoring their surprised glances at each other.
At the edge of the woods, she stopped and looked back. Neither man had followed her, but they were both watching. “Aren’t you supposed to escort me or something?”
The guys shared another look, and Ryan shrugged then headed her way. Jake hesitated then followed. Sera waited until Ryan passed her to keep walking. They formed a line with Sera in the middle, Ryan leading, and Jake behind her.
Sera glanced back. “Shouldn’t you be wearing more clothes to go tromping through the woods?”
“Am I distracting you? I could put my shirt on if you need me to.” Jake grinned.
“Do you even own a shirt?”
Jake yanked out a threadbare grey tee that had been tucked into the back of his cargo shorts and held it up before pulling it over his head.
Sera tried to forget that she was surrounded by males she didn’t know that well, walking to a secluded location, and all without telling anyone where she was going. Who would I even tell? It wasn’t that his chest was distracting her, more that she was using his chest as a distraction. And okay, his chest was distracting her a little. It was all smooth tanned muscle, and she was pretty sure
he could bench several small children at once.
The pull got stronger the further they went into the woods. After what Sera thought was probably fifteen minutes, she began to anticipate the turns before they got to them. It was a disconcerting feeling, but it was also freeing to trust her instincts for once. Her mom would have a heart attack if she knew. On the other hand, Sera was going to be super pissed if this came back to bite her in the ass.
They must have scared the birds off because Sera could only hear the shush of the wind through the trees and the occasional stick snapping under their feet. The flashes of light stayed with them on the path, but they disappeared every time she turned her head to look at them. She’d thought fireflies came out at twilight, but they didn’t have fireflies in California so what did she know? The smell of the pine straw rose from the forest floor, and she breathed in deep. It was a spicy scent she hadn’t realized she’d missed. That and fireflies and Jake and Evie’s muffins. No! Not Jake, muffins. How many other things had she missed out on because of fear?
Her thoughts turned dark, and she asked the first question that popped in her mind to change that direction. “Who summoned me?”
She almost wasn’t expecting an answer after all the reverent silence, but Ryan glanced back at her. “I’m not sure if it’s better to tell you or leave it as a surprise.”
“Well that was cryptic and unhelpful.”
“The Fae,” Jake answered quietly behind her.
Sera almost stopped, but the pull was filling her chest like a balloon and making it hard not to run. “The Fae? What the heck is that, a book club? A motorcycle gang? A band of merry men?”
Ryan snorted. “Actually, I’m pretty sure they’d love to be described as a motorcycle gang.”
Jake grinned. “That was an interesting choice.”
“Yeah.” Ryan stopped walking and moved to the side. Past him, was a clearing with a circle of waist-high stones set upright into the top of a wide, low mound.
Sera couldn’t stop. She moved right past him, up the mound, and stepped through, into the stones. As she reached the center, the pull drained from her, and she slumped down onto the grass. She glanced around. Ryan and Jake stayed at the edge of the clearing, once again silent and unhelpful.
“Took you long enough.”
Sera jerked her head back around. From her sitting position, she was now at face-level with a small creature hovering on little gossamer wings in front of her.
It was a fairy.
A. Real. Live. Fairy. There was no other word for it. Delicate, translucent wings, pointed features, and a light, gauzy gown that almost glowed against her rich copper skin. It was like she’d stepped out of a kid’s movie. The fairy perched on a shorter rock inside the circle and folded her wings behind her. Sera refused to believe this was a dream or some kind of shared hallucination. Looking around, she realized Ryan had joined her in the circle, but Jake had faded back into the trees a little.
The fairy inclined her head at Ryan. “You’ve served your summons.”
Ryan nodded back. “Why not send someone she knows? I thought Jake was going to deck me when I touched her.”
“I’m not here,” Jake yelled from the trees.
The fairy glared in his direction. “That’s good because you weren’t invited.”
Sera climbed to her knees. “What the—”
Ryan clapped a hand over her mouth. “Be careful what you say around them.”
The fairy moved her glare to Ryan. “Let her speak. I have no intention of twisting her words.”
“Bullshit.”
“Vulgarity is no substitute for wit,” she shot back.
Ryan rolled his eyes. “You stole that from Downton Abbey.”
She shrugged her tiny shoulders haughtily, and Sera ripped Ryan’s hand away as her brain caught up with the conversation. “You speak English… and watch Downton Abbey?”
The fairy smiled, but even with her small stature, it felt predatory. “First, we do as we please. Second, Downton Abbey is amusing, and third, Zee.”
Sera blinked a few times. “I’m sorry?”
“It’s my name. Zee. You keep calling me ‘the fairy’, but I much prefer my name.”
Panic started to rise up her throat, but Sera swallowed it down. “Stay out of my head.” She stumbled to her feet. “Actually, stay out of all of me. I don’t know what you did to get me here, but it sucked and I’m out.”
Sera made it as far as the surrounding stones before she hit an invisible wall and lost her balance. Her hand came down to steady herself on the closest rock and pain tore through her head at the touch. She snatched her hand back, but it was too late. The pain radiated and grew, making her gasp and squeeze her eyes shut. It felt like something inside her was tearing open.
A soft sigh of wings or breath, she wasn’t sure, brushed the side of her face. “Humans are so fragile.” Zee’s cool hand pressed against her temple. “The magic in the stone brought your own to the forefront. It broke the seal that’s been keeping it asleep.”
Sera cracked her eyes open. The dim light filtering through the trees made more pain shoot through her head, and the fireflies were back in force. “Magic isn’t real.”
Zee snorted. “Sure, and neither are fairies.”
“I don’t have magic.” Sera gritted through clenched teeth.
The small hand on her temple stroked again and the pain receded for a moment. “You do, and a vast reservoir of it, if the amount currently trying to break free is any indication.”
Another wave of stabbing pain made her whimper, and a strange glow drew her attention to her hands. Cracks appeared in her skin as she watched, beginning to panic, but instead of blood, it was something golden seeping out, like liquid fireflies. Her hands didn’t hurt nearly as much as her head, but they felt tingly as if they’d fallen asleep. The pins and needles sensation spread up her arms, and Sera’s heart stuttered into full-blown panic.
“Make it stop. Please,” she gasped.
Zee’s smile was there and gone in an instant, but she nodded. “I can forge a bond between you and an anchor for your magic. It will allow you to share the power when it begins to overwhelm you.”
“An anchor? Another person?” She’d thought the idea of being tied to someone again would be the worst hell, but the tingling had reached her shoulders, and in that moment, she could admit there were worse fates. “Would it be permanent?”
“No. It has to be a willing person, but eventually, you’ll learn control and the bond will no longer be necessary.”
“Do it,” she whispered.
Zee looked past her to Ryan on the edge of the circle, and a look of pain crossed her features so fast that Sera might have imagined it. But Ryan was shaking his head vehemently, and before he could say anything, Jake spoke up from right next to them. Sera hadn’t even known he’d moved to stand beside her.
“I’ll do it.” His hand slid into hers, and she felt the warmth but not the touch.
Zee nodded, then flew to touch their joined hands. A few seconds later a searing heat materialized in Sera’s belly. Jake gasped, but he held tight to her. The pain in her head receded, the cracks closed, and Sera could feel Jake’s thumb rubbing across the back of her hand. The tension left her shoulders, and she slumped to her knees. Sera was so exhausted and overwhelmed she almost gave into the temptation to lay down right there in the grass and give up for today.
So that just happened. With her eyes closed, she fervently wished that she’d slept in that morning. Jake rubbed her hand until she straightened and reluctantly opened her eyes.
Instead of Jake, she was face to face with Zee. “You owe us payment.”
Sera stood all the way up and glared at the fairy. “Payment?”
Zee’s wings fluttered and she flew up until she was still eye level with Sera. “Yes, payment. We’ve provided you aid, and you’ll return the favor. It’s our way.”
“You summoned me because you needed my help, and now you want me
to help you and pay you?”
“Don’t fight it. She’s going to win in the end,” said Jake from her other side, still holding her hand tightly.
Sera glared at him and tugged her hand away. “You and I are going to have a very serious discussion about keeping secrets when we get back.”
“It wasn’t my secret to tell.” Jake shrugged.
Sera shook her head. Mind-reading fairies with magical powers were not on her agenda for the day. She’d planned to unpack her stuff, pack up some of Evie’s things, cry for a bit, grapple with the big blank space where her future should be, and maybe call her mother back if she was feeling especially masochistic. Instead, magic was real, and now she was anchored in some Fae bond with Jake, her first, and possibly only, love slash hottie neighbor, whom she was trying - albeit thus far unsuccessfully - to avoid. She’d probably still fit the crying in later.
Sera squared her shoulders and focused on Zee again, still hovering in front of her. “What do you want?”
Zee looked a bit cagey. “We have a little problem.” She motioned for Ryan to join them looked like she was stalling, having trouble knowing where to start. Sera decided that she’d give the fairy one more minute, but then she was out of there. Sera needed to head back to reality, where she had her own problems to tackle. If Ryan or Jake wanted to stay and play errand boy, good for them. It was nice to have hobbies.
“Evie isn’t dead.”
Sera’s train of thought stopped mid-track. “What?”
“Evie isn’t dead,” Zee repeated. “She was tricked by a Dark Fae named Torix, who—no, there’s too much.” She hesitated. “Let’s say we’re the good guys keeping him trapped and powerless. Only… mistakes were made and now he’s significantly less trapped and powerless.”
Sera glanced at Jake, then Ryan. They looked as shocked as she felt. It was a lot of new information in a fairly short amount of time. She had no reason to believe Zee, though her own experiences that day tended to support the ‘magic is real’ part of the explanation.