It was no longer about the potential reward for him. It was much deeper than that.
If his plan got him back into The Realm, it was icing on the cake. At least that’s what the humans would say.
After walking into the small grove of Mountain Ash trees, he dropped his backpack on the ground and prepared to make himself invisible to the other people and animals, in the park. He closed off his mind to everything around him but the sound of his own heart. Soon, the familiar trees faded into a blurry image, and he felt himself becoming invisible. It took so much energy that once he faded, he needed a solid eight hours of rest before he could fade back into the human world. It was getting harder each time. His severance from The Realm had weakened his powers and what used to be as easy as writing his name now took much longer.
If he couldn’t get home soon, all the magic that had been his birthright would fade into nothing.
He bedded down, using the moss as a bed and his tattered jacket as a pillow. The evening was fading into night and he watched as the first stars of the evening revealed themselves. If a person had to live outdoors, there wasn’t a better place, but Alvin wished things were different.
Young guys in The Realm were just as stupid, just as reckless as their human counterparts, and Alvin had been the king of bullshit stunts. From the moment he’d taken his first breath, he’d thought his father would be patient forever but he was wrong.
His patience had run out the night Alvin had turned his back on The Folk by refusing to settle a debt he owed.
It was the sacred law of The Realm and he’d broken it.
The Folk took a broken promise very seriously.
The memory came back to him in a rush. Crystal clear, so plain its edges were as sharp as glass.
He’d just turned ten years old and he’d gotten a slingshot for his birthday. In The Realm, the only hunting that was permitted was for the purpose of food. It was a sacred ritual, one that required meditation and mindfulness. But the slingshot had fit his hand perfectly and even though his family had plenty of food stores, he went into the woods with intent.
Aiming the slingshot wasn’t as easy as his father made it look, and he’d missed several squirrels and six or seven crows before he dialed in and got anywhere near his targets. Tired and thirsty, he was almost to the edge of the woods when he spied a large Barred Owl sitting on a low branch. Since he’d missed everything he’d aimed at all day, he decided to use the bird for target practice.
He pulled a glass marble from the pocket of his pants, secured it in the leather pouch, and held it tightly between his thumb and index finger. After getting in touch with his breathing, he lined up the shot, pulled back the elastic band and let go of the arrow.
The marble caught the filtered rays of the sun as it flew toward the owl, and then just as Alvin was certain it was going to miss high, the owl fell to the ground, lifeless. As soon as Alvin realized what he’d done, white-hot tears welled up in his eyes and he dropped to his knees beside the beautiful animal and brushed one finger along the bark-brown feathers of his wing.
“Killed him, did you?”
Alvin had looked up to see the wizened face of Old Brenna looking down at him. She was an old hag who annoyed everyone in The Realm with her constant complaining and nagging and she’d always reminded him of a troll. Even though she was an honored member of The Folk, she was grumpy and demanding, and he’d spent his childhood avoiding her. But now, in his worst moment, she’d been the one to catch him.
“I didn’t mean to kill him,” he said. His voice came out as a raspy whisper. It was nothing like the voice he used in the schoolyard or in the classroom.
“Then why did you aim at him? You know owls aren’t for eating.”
Not only were owls not for eating, they were the most sacred animal in the woods of The Realm. The Folk revered them as the oldest creatures on earth and had a festival to honor the wisdom of the owl every fall. Known as The Wisdom Keepers, The Folk believed they brought knowledge to them in their dreams.
“I missed every other time.”
If he’d killed a squirrel or a wren and been caught, he would’ve been in trouble but only bed-without-supper trouble. Killing an owl was big trouble.
“There’ll be some big consequences,” Brenna said. Her voice was high-pitched and scratchy. “If your father finds out what you did, he might banish you and he’d have the right.”
Worry, like a heavy stone, lay on his chest and he felt like he couldn’t breathe. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Unless…” Breanna smiled, revealing tobacco-stained teeth. “We agree to keep it between us.”
Every member of The Folk knew the value of a favor and Alvin was no exception but in this case, he had no choice. “Brenna.” He rose and brushed the dust off his pants. “May I ask you for a favor?”
She nodded and raised one eyebrow. “You may.”
“If you won’t tell anyone about this, I’ll be in your debt.”
A grin spread across her face. It wasn’t friendly, nothing like the smile of a kindly grandmother who baked cookies. It reminded him of a wolf. “You have my word.” She reached down and plucked two feathers from the owl and tucked them into the leather drawstring bag she always carried twined around her wrist. Tanned to the color of bark, he’d never seen her without it. “Insurance.”
After burying the owl deep in the forest, Alvin returned home and tried to forget. Over the years, he did forget. Slowly, the memory faded, and along with it, the importance of the debt.
Over a decade later, Brenna asked him to help her clean some branches from her yard after a severe thunderstorm. He’d refused, even laughed at her request. The weather had cleared, and it was a brilliantly blue summer day. He and his friends were heading to the swimming hole and he wasn’t going to spend the afternoon dragging branches and limbs to the burn pile. He owed her a favor, from way back, but he didn’t intend to settle it on that day. She was old and her power waned with every passing day. She’d need something else soon, and he’d repay the favor then, when he didn’t have plans.
The original favor was more than a decade old. It could wait a few more days.
Brenna had died that afternoon, the leather bag’s strap wrapped around her wrist. In it was a meticulous record of all the favors owed to her. Alvin’s debt had never been settled. A slip of paper with his name scrawled on it, along with the two owl feathers, were tucked into a small envelope and tucked into the pocket of the weathered journal.
His father was furious. Normally a calm man, his face turned red with rage. His son, his only child, his presumed heir had broken the most important rule of The Folk. The Prince wasted no time banishing Alvin to the human world.
But now that he’d met FayeLynn, he could kill two birds with one stone.
CHAPTER 5
The next morning, when FayeLynn looked into the full-length mirror, she saw how quickly her body was changing. She turned to the side and rubbed her hand across her belly. If her father and Alvin, were right, she’d be a mother before Labor Day.
Her father was already at the breakfast table when she walked downstairs. He was reading the newspaper on his tablet while he ate his usual breakfast of Cheerios. “Morning, kiddo.” His gaze lingered on her stomach.
She grunted in response. She was still pissed that he hadn’t told her about the trip she’d taken into The Realm.
“You okay?” he asked, his eyes refocused on his tablet.
Another grunt.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” she barked. She dumped some oatmeal and milk into a bowl and nuked it. She was going to have to start eating better. The kid in her stomach needed more than convenience foods. When she sat down at the table, her dad flipped the cover of the tablet closed and looked at her but she ignored him, keeping her eyes focused on the bowl.
“FayeLynn,” he sang to the tune of the old Dolly Parton song “Jolene”. It always made her smile and even though she fought it, this morning
was no different. “That’s more like it,” he said.
“Stop. I’m pissed at you.”
He narrowed his eyebrows. “Why?”
“You didn’t tell me about the trip we took to The Realm.”
“What trip?”
“The one where you and Mom took me back to Fairyland to get a blessing from the Prince?”
He shook his head. “We never did that.”
“Alvin says you must have. Otherwise I would’ve never grown my Wing Ridge.”
“Is that the thing on your back?”
FayeLynn nodded. “Alvin says the only way it develops is if the baby gets a blessing from the ruler of The Realm.”
“There’s nothing about that in the literature.” He knitted his brow. “Are you sure this Alvin person isn’t just a hustler?”
“I’m sure, Dad. He’s one of The Folk.” He had to be. He knew too much to be just another human, just another poser trying to be the weirdest in a town of the weird. “He’s telling me the truth.”
Her dad nodded. “We didn’t take you anywhere. I would remember a trip to The Realm. It would be a dream come true for me.”
He had a point there. Her father had spent his whole life wishing he could live in a fairy tale.
“Could mom have taken me?”
“It’s possible. I wasn’t with her twenty-four hours a day.”
“But wouldn’t she have told you? At least?”
“I like to think so.” He looked over FayeLynn’s shoulder into the backyard. The birds were returning to the feeders and he loved to watch them. “We weren’t just husband and wife; we were best friends. We told each other everything.”
“Is there some reason she’d have kept it from you? Would you have tried to stop her?”
“I could never say ‘no’ to your mother, and she knew that.”
FayeLynn believed her father. Unless The Folk had some magical way to erase the memories of human visitors, her father had never set foot in The Realm. If he had, he wouldn’t have talked of anything else. But if her parents didn’t take her, how did she get her blessing?
“Are you sure mom didn’t take me?”
His eyes met hers. “As far as I know she didn’t, but honestly, towards the end, she wasn’t herself.”
“I don’t even know how she died.” It was a big piece of the puzzle that had always been missing for her. “What happened?”
Tears welled in the corners of her father’s eyes. “She just wasted away. Little by little, she slipped away from us.”
His heartbreak was so real, FayeLynn could almost hear the cracking sound from across the kitchen.
“What did the doctor say?”
“Most of the time, she refused to go. The few times I made her go, they claimed it was post-partum depression but neither of us believed that. She adored you, and she transitioned into motherhood seamlessly.”
“What’s your theory?”
“I’ve spent the last twenty years trying to figure that out.” He pushed his bowl toward the center of the table. “Hundreds of books, web searches and conferences, and I’m still no closer to an answer.”
FayeLynn walked to the table and placed her hands on her father’s shoulders. “Maybe this is my chance to figure it out.”
He looked up at her. “The Folk aren’t the peaceful beings you think they are. It’s much more complicated than that. For your safety and the safety of the baby, don’t mess with them. Leave them alone.”
“But Pops, I have to figure out why—”
“No. I need your promise that you won’t try to solve the mystery of your mother’s death. You, and now this baby,” he said, placing his hand on her stomach, “are the only things in my life. I need you guys.”
“I can’t make that promise,” she said.
“You have no idea what dangers you could face.” He took his hand in hers. “Please be safe. I don’t know what I’d do…” His voice cracked into sobs, and he bent his head. “I can’t lose you, FayeLynn.”
***
FayeLynn stopped pulled over to the curb at the at the corner of Patton and College. Alvin threw his backpack into the rear seat and buckled his seatbelt. She was wearing a mint green summer dress, and her hair was down. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He had no idea how she could’ve looked in the mirror every day and not realized she was different. She was The Folk’s ideal of beauty.
“Thanks for picking me up,” he said.
“No problem. I might need a favor from you some day.” She was catching on quickly, trading a favor for a favor. “Want to grab some breakfast before we settle in?”
Alvin had been so busy concentrating on other things, he hadn’t worked in several days. He only had a couple of coins in his pocket. “I’m cool.” His stomach rumbled in protest.
“My treat,” she said. “Do you like pancakes?”
He’d owe her a favor but pancakes sounded delicious. His stomach growled again, reminding him that it had been a long time since he’d had a decent meal. “Love them.”
She pulled into the parking lot of a small diner. “The Folk make pancakes?”
“The best,” he said, remembering Cook’s. Always golden brown and as fluffy as a cloud, he could eat platters and platters of them.
After they both ordered, FayeLynn took a sip of her Earl Grey. “I talked to my dad this morning. He says they didn’t take me to get The Blessing.”
“Maybe your mother took you alone.”
“She would’ve been missed.”
Alvin added some cream to his coffee and watched the blossom of the milky whiteness. “When did your mom die?”
“Six months after I was born.”
It was a detail he should have thought about earlier. “What killed her?”
FayeLynn shrugged. “My dad doesn’t seem to know. He says she just seemed to fade away, little by little.”
He knew the reason, but he didn’t know the best way to break it to FayeLynn. Trying to explain The Realm to an outsider was kind of like trying to explain dogs to humans. While the species lived side by side for centuries, they weren’t the same. Each had different goals and motivations. Since being banished to the world of humans, he hadn’t gotten close to anyone, but FayeLynn was different. She needed to know as much as she could about The Realm and The Folk.
“If you didn’t get The Blessing, there’s only one other way you survived and developed your Wing Ridge: your mother withered in your place.”
“How is that possible?”
“Sometimes a mother chooses not to make the trip to the palace, or for some reason, she can’t make the trip. In that case, she must offer her life in exchange for her child’s health.”
The waitress brought the food and gave each of them a heaping platter of pancakes. FayeLynn immediately pushed hers toward the center of the table. Her face went pale and he was afraid they were about to have a repeat of the library. “I don’t think I can eat.”
Even without touching her, he could read her emotions. “Nausea?” Alvin asked, pouring syrup over his. “I can take mine to go.”
She shook her head. “I just wish I’d known her.”
“I’m so sorry,” he said and he meant it. “I can’t imagine growing up without my mother.” He missed her so much and she was one of the reasons he was so desperate to get home.
“She’s the one person who could really help me sort everything out and she’s not here.”
“I’m here and I’ll do everything I can to help.”
“Thank you,” she said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “I really appreciate it. I feel like I’m living in some sort of fantasy movie.”
“It’s okay. Trust me.” He knew quite a bit about being tossed into an alternate reality. “Transitioning to the human world was no cakewalk for me.”
“How did you get here?” FayeLynn asked.
“I didn’t repay a favor, and my father found out about it. He banished me from The Realm.”
&
nbsp; “Can you ever go home?”
“That’s where you come in,” he said, taking a huge bite. Literally and figuratively. “We need each other.”
Her eyes went wide. “What do you need me for?”
“Re-entry.”
“Oh, no.” FayeLynn was a quick study and she figured it out fast. “I’m not leaving Asheville where I have access to great pre-natal care to go on some Realm mission. No way.”
“You think human doctors aren’t going to ask questions? Ones that are going to be pretty difficult to answer?”
Judging by the expression on her face, she’d hadn’t thought of that. “You have a simple choice: you or the baby.”
***
FayeLynn never thought she’d have to make a decision like that. It was impossible. She placed her hand on her stomach and even though it was very early, she could’ve sworn she felt a tiny kick. “But I’m only half, a hybrid.”
“Doesn’t matter. The father is one of The Folk.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Yes, I do.” He said it with such certainty but, still, with everything she’d learned in the past few days, it was still hard to believe.
“Can’t we wait and see if he has the beginnings of his Wing Ridge?”
“No. Too big of a gamble.”
“And being a pregnant woman in The Realm with an exiled prince isn’t?”
“I can protect you. You have my word on that.”
“You want me to deliver this baby there?”
“He needs the blessing as soon as possible. We can’t take any chances.”
Alvin hadn’t thought beyond their two goals. Now he realized that having a baby in The Realm would be totally different from what one would expect in the human world. Instead of penicillin, The Folk used plants as antibiotics. Echinacea, garlic and thyme. No one called a doctor when they could visit a Wise Woman and trade a favor for her potent medicines. While Alvin believed in the power of natural medicines, he wasn’t sure he could convince FayeLynn. Even though her mother was from The Realm, FayeLynn had lived a strictly human lifestyle.
“If we wait until after he’s born, it might be more difficult to travel. Besides, if we’re there when you deliver him, we can get my father to bless him immediately and then neither you nor he will be in nearly the amount of danger you don’t realize you’re in.”
Paranormal Magic (Shades of Prey Book 1) Page 62