Falling Into Faerie After

by Mercedes Jade

  This was no laughing matter. “He has a cell?” I exclaimed. The Fae had all acted like my phone was a bomb or technology they had never seen before, although Falin did say something about Youtube. “That lying, lizard bastard.”

  “Dragon, Evie-baby,” Jackson teased me.

  “When were you going to tell me you were texting the dragon behind my back?” I asked, turning on him as I suddenly figured out how they knew Falin could text.

  “Is this one of those ‘he was my friend first’ things? You told dad he wasn’t your boyfriend,” Jackson reminded me.

  I rolled my eyes. Really, way to make this sound like sibling rivalry. I was capable of sharing stuff, just not monstrous dragons that could eat the twins up in one bite. This was a safety issue.

  “We’re not dating,” I said. “You have your own friends to text. Leave the few I have alone.”

  “You weren’t really talking to us, Evie-baby,” Matthew reminded me.

  “We knew something happened out there and you wouldn’t say anything,” Jackson added.

  “So that’s how it is?” I said, offended and not bothering to mask it. They were right about me deliberately ignoring them after we escaped Faerie, but I didn’t know they were going to replace me so quickly. “You chose a fire breathing dragon over your own sister? What did the other side have to say?”

  “Falin said it was between you and Dain,” Matthew admitted.

  So the lizard kept his mouth shut. I huffed in response, reluctantly pleased.

  “We broke up,” I said. “Dain is keeping the kids.”

  “Nobody was going to be coming after you?” Matthew said, catching on pretty quickly.

  “Who’s chasing after me doesn’t matter as long as we don’t get caught,” I pointed out.

  Jackson frowned at me. Normally, he was the one to take bigger risks but he looked unimpressed with my reckless suggestion. It was also obvious I was running away behind the backs of my Marks. I had nearly gotten away with it, too, until the twins jumped me.

  “We should talk to Dain,” Jackson insisted. “He’s worried about you.”

  Was this an intervention? I think my mouth did that jaw dropping thing again. I closed it and grabbed my luggage, hauling it back down the dark path I had chosen. The twins could decide if they were going to follow me, but I wasn’t going to waste another moment.

  “What’s the rush?” Matthew said, trying to take my bag from me. “Let me help,” he offered.

  Were they kidding me? I made it clear that I had to get out of here before the friendly neighborhood dragon my brothers had been texting and his pal the sweet, misunderstood dark angel that was just so darn worried about me showed up. The Fae were the bad guys! I never knew my brothers could be so stupid as to fall for such obvious deception. They had been at the same battle as me. Heck, they were armed for another fight already.

  “Don’t worry about me. I can drag my own weapons,” I told Matthew. “Hurry up if you don’t want to be left behind.”

  “I can still carry your big bag for you,” Matthew insisted.

  I leveled him with a look that told him I knew he was being a gentleman to thwart me. I was not going to let them continue to slow me down.

  “It’s a COW,” I said, deciding that distracting Matthew was an easier course. It was like flashing something shiny in front of a cat.

  “What?”

  “Case-on-wheels,” I defined.

  “You made that up,” Matthew said, giving up on trying to help or slow me down.

  Ha ha. I had made it up based on the computers on wheels I had seen used in the clinical studies. Matthew still seemed amused. He liked mystery acronym and word games. It was one of the few things we could play without me shoving anything up somebody’s nose or testing my throwing arm. Distraction accomplished.

  “Let her drag her COW on her own,” Jackson said, showing a bossy side again.

  “Thanks for your permission,” I muttered. “Remind me who is the oldest sibling here and in charge?”

  “Age is just a number,” Jackson retorted. “Don’t expect us to follow you if you’re going to act brainless.”

  “Then stop following me,” I said with an aggrieved tone. The careless dig about my brains hurt. They knew I was sensitive about school.

  “We’re just walking in the same direction as you are headed, and if we happen to be right behind you, then that is a coincidence and not following,” Matthew said.

  His logic was ludicrous. This was the same as deliberately heading towards your sibling with your arm chopping up and down and saying it was the sibling’s fault for getting hit since you were minding your own business walking with your hands doing karate chops. It was the kind of reasoning only siblings would understand.

  “Just like if I accidentally swing my COW back and smack you with it because you were in the way of me stretching my arms?” I said. “Do I understand that correctly, Mr. Senior High-schooler?”

  “Keep it above the belt and I’ll consider that fair warning,” Matthew answered.

  “I don’t think you’re stupid,” Jackson added, figuring out quickly what had really pissed me off. “You just act moronic sometimes trying to be so independent. What the heck is your family for, huh?”

  Now we were all fuming. Perfect timing to start a long journey together. Thankfully, we weren’t stuck in a car for hours. We could walk far enough apart from each other to get some much needed personal space once we crossed the portal.

  “Family shouldn’t go behind your back to text your ex-boyfriend,” I muttered.

  “You said he wasn’t your boyfriend,” Matthew reminded me.

  “I meant I wasn’t dating only him,” I retorted. They could chew on that and stop bugging me.

  Jackson made some sort of choking sound that turned into a smothered laugh.

  That turd. I stopped a few feet from the portal and pivoted.

  “Don’t make me turn this COW around or I swear I’ll give you both double wet willies,” I threatened.

  “Falin said you were trying them all out, like free samples at the store. How does that work? Did you go out on a date with a different guy each day of the week? Was the epic break up because Tuesday got mixed up with Thursday or Friday missed curfew?” Jackson said.

  I don’t know what he found amusing about polygamy. “Jealous?” I said.

  “Trying to please six girls at the same time? No thanks,” Matthew said.

  “Guys are lower maintenance. Kind of like dogs,” I disparaged. “And I had seven. Loren only got a single date. He was a terrible shot,” I lied.

  “You are kidding, right Evie-baby?” Matthew said.

  “Why don’t you text your dragon pal and ask him?” I replied, turning back around.

  “Dain never mentioned anything about dating,” Jackson said.

  “Oh, I’m sure Dain didn’t mention a lot of things,” I said.

  “We can just ask him. Let me call-”

  “I’m leaving now. Not sure about the cell reception in Faerie,” I said, cutting Jackson off. “What part of don’t tell Dain was so difficult to understand in my note? I underlined it!”

  “So... Dain is out,” Jackson agreed. Like I gave him a choice. “Is there something we have to pay him a visit for when we come back?”

  I stopped and tried to turn around again but Jackson ran into me. I made a growly, angry-frustrated noise that made my more aggressive brother take a step back and give me room. This time when I turned around, I stuck my finger in Jackson’s face menacingly.

  “No Dain! Stay away from Dain! What part of that is not clear?” I said, wagging the finger.

  “What makes Dain special?” Matthew asked. I rounded on him and he put his hands up in the air. “I’m just curious,” he explained.

  “He’s the prince of hell,” I told them, catching Jackson eye rolling. That got him another finger. “He is literally the prince of the Dark Fae and you both remember everything you told me about them, right?” />
  “Sweet Baby Jesus, Evie-baby, you don’t do anything by half-measures. You pissed off a Dark Fae prince by cheating on him and getting dumped? Not his underlings, or the general of the Dark Fae armies or even some random fucking bridge troll?” Jackson said.

  Great, now Jackson was swearing. Despite his temper, he never swore. A guy like him didn’t need foul words to get his point across. He also had totally misunderstood this dating thing and who did the dumping.

  “Prince of Darkness, if you please,” I muttered. No way I was telling them about Aeric yet.

  I grabbed my luggage again and started wheeling down the path. This conversation could be had while moving. Time was ticking. Urgency gave my steps a spring. I was not running from my brothers and their nosy questions.

  “Do the others know about Dain?” Matthew said, falling in beside me.

  “I was the only one not in the know,” I answered, bitter still.

  “Who told you?”

  I looked over my other side to Jackson’s clenched hands. I had to tread carefully here.

  “Orin explained everything.”

  Jackson nodded. “He’s a good guy.”

  They totally didn’t know about my new cherry-less status. I nodded back. Sometimes I agreed about Orin, remembering how he pushed me to use the magic of my bargain to find out more than everyone else was willing or able to tell me, which included the part where I had to sleep with one of my Marks to save Kheelan. Orin didn’t make that decision for me, he just made it easier. If Dain hadn’t made me feel so used literally moments after the climax, I may have felt differently about Orin. He got a bit unfairly marked with the same bastard red as I used to x-out the rest of the Fae.

  We almost reached the portal when a stick snapped somewhere in the woods. My mother was right, I hated the forest. I would have jumped a foot in the air if I wasn’t squashed up between two big, protective bodies.

  “I can’t fight if you sardine me,” I whined.

  “You can’t be stolen if you’re chained to us,” Jackson said.

  What? Where did that come from? There was nobody out here to kidnap me. Unless they knew that somebody was coming?

  I elbowed them both off of me like we were playing twister and one of them was trying to tickle me into falling. True story and the ending was bloody. Mom buried the twister game sheet in the basement graveyard of things we shall not speak and treated the swollen noses of both twins. I still hadn’t apologized.

  “Who did you tell?” I said.

  “Not Dain,” piped up Matthew.

  “It was a text,” Jackson admitted.

  They had known all along that Falin would stop me. This was a delay, just like I suspected. There was no hope of me escaping if my head start was stolen! I threw the first hissy fit of my life. I kicked rocks around, screamed and even tipped over the COW as I futilely looked at the sky for the dark monster come to claim me.

  A raindrop hit my face. The crack of thunder and strobe of lightning that followed was a literal gift from the heavens.

  “It’s raining,” I said gleefully. “A real nasty thunderstorm.”

  “Yeah,” Jackson agreed.

  “We brought an extra rain hoody for you,” Matthew offered, sounding so sweet and innocent.

  Little did Matthew know I was imagining the thwarted face of a certain dragon dodging lightning like it was some evil game to be played. That should slow even Falin down.

  “Don’t bother,” I told Matthew, patting him on the back. “It won’t be raining in a minute.”

  I righted the COW and stood in front of the portal, feeling magic wash over me like a thousand ants crawling over my body. It was unpleasant but as I spoke and waved my hands about the sensation eased.

  “Come on,” I said, hurrying the twins.

  “Should we be touching?” Matthew asked.

  I didn’t know but that sounded like a good idea. “Grab my bare wrists, but let go if there’s trouble. Remember, I’m the only qualified Fae to be entering here.”

  “Halfling,” Jackson reminded me just to be contrary.

  I didn’t care as long as we skedaddled. My luck with the storm timing may not last. Falin was actually the least of my worries. You know who else has wings and a temper? I might not fly but I did my best impression of a bat out of hell as I ran toward the portal with the twins and the COW in tow. No way was I sticking around to see if Dain could duck bolts of lightning.

  Going in the portal was not the opposite of getting out. The magic grabbed hold of my chest and tried to rip my icy heart out, pain clawing at me as I stopped breathing and started almost soundlessly saying my rhyme, thinking of my Faerie lagoon. Tap your shoes three times and say there’s no place like home, right?

  I heard both twins gasping in the cold in-between. I wanted to tell them to hold their breath to ease the agony, but that would require air, painful and precious air I didn’t want to waste. I needed every breath I had left inside me to keep speaking the rhyme for my magic. I closed frost tipped lashes and used my last words to beg instead.

  “Please, Dain,” I whispered to a dark god that wasn’t coming.

  Chapter 7:

  There was a bright light.

  I wasn’t ready to open my eyes to face it. Heaven wouldn’t take me and hell could wait.

  “She’s waking up,” Matthew’s familiar voice spoke.

  “Keep your eyes closed,” whispered Jackson.

  And I was alive. I sucked in a breath close to a sob. It was going to be okay. The twins sounded fine.

  “Keep pretending to sleep,” Jackson whispered, shifting closer.

  Oh shit, had my prayers actually been answered? The urge to open my eyes and check for Dain was fierce. I thought the next time I met him I would feel him coming, his powerful magic wrapping around me before he laid a hand on my body.

  “Stop moving your eyes around,” Matthew ordered.

  Like I could honestly control such a thing. I tried to pretend I was looking straight ahead through my eyelids at the bright red-orange light shining through to see if it would help. Didn’t people move their eyes during REM sleep anyway?

  I felt two bodies sandwich me familiarly, warmth and strength cradling my aching bones. I was lying on something hard and we were moving, so I suspected some sort of paddy-wagon like I remembered from my last imprisonment here, except this time it was attached to moving horses.

  There was a strong, unwashed smell that meant either our captors were pigs or we were locked in with other prisoners that had been here longer than myself and the twins. The quiet murmur of conversation around us and the clang of metal that sounded like the shackles I also remembered made me think the latter was more likely true.

  It also ruled out Dain. I doubted he had any reason to capture anyone other than myself.

  The Light Fae king, however, kept slaves and would have every reason to recapture me after my grand escape during the destruction of his army camp by my Marks. He had underestimated the power behind my claim, although not enough to stop him from seeking safety and abandoning his soldiers. The cost of their loyalty to Selvyth had been steep.

  “They think you’re human,” Matthew said.

  Who thinks I’m human? I guessed if I couldn’t open my eyes then talking would also be bad. The twins were oblivious to my confusion, perfectly able to see and aware of what was going on around them but blind to my impairment.

  “Can you use your magic to escape the bonds?”

  This time it was Jackson with a kind of weird question. Did he think my magic could sub for a lockpick? I discreetly wiggled my fingers and then tried to pull apart my wrists, finding them bound in front of me. It didn’t feel like cold, hard steel, but more like rope. A slight chill emanated from the twisted strands that tightened as I pulled, but the rope didn’t rub or abrade.

  I was bound with magic just like when Aeric tied me with his power to my bedpost like a sacrifice for Kheelan to bite and mark, telling me it was traditional. I’d threate
ned to bite Kheelan and really had done it once I was free. Back then, I didn’t know about my own magic. Could I break this?

  I reached for my snowflake.

  A heavy thigh dropped on top of my hands. “You’re making it glow more,” Matthew hissed.

  Well, glowing was something happening. I tried to focus on the magic binding me harder, pulling my wrists apart and mouthing my rhyme.

  Dry, warm lips brushed over my mouth in a butterfly kiss right at one corner of my lips. “You’re not doing a good job of looking asleep,” Jackson complained against my cheek.

  The twins must really be worried about discovery if they were risking public twincest with me in the middle to hide what I was doing with my magic. This episode would provide the material for years of teasing, as long as we survived it. Incentive, I figured, pausing a moment to return a blind kiss to Jackson’s nose or cheek, I think both by the feel against my lips.

  I wished I could hug both twins and never let them go. They were in danger and it was all my fault.

  Shouted Fae language drove us apart. I opened my eyes to the glare of full sunlight streaming through metal bars.

  “No touching the merchandise, slave,” said a heavily accented voice in English. It was a Light Fae by his greasy but platinum blonde hair, and he poked Jackson with a wooden stick, sending him into convulsions.

  Matthew grabbed that stick and ripped it out of the attacking Fae guard’s hands before he, too, fell onto the floor of our cage in convulsions. I gaped at both of the twins for a moment, so thankful that the shock didn’t last long or send them into unconsciousness. They were groaning and moving around feebly, alive. The rest of the prisoners stared in horror as well, some with knowing, fearful eyes and burn marks on their arms.

  The guard reached in quick to get the shocking stick Matthew had grabbed back.

  “Hey asshole, those are my brothers,” I shouted, letting my rage out. I ripped my wrists apart with a snap as the magic broke like an elastic. The Fae guard screamed, probably for backup. I just barely missed snagging his wrist, fingers slipping on the shocking stick as he whipped it out of our cage.