by Julia Crane
I shook my head. “No.”
“Lame. What’s the point in having wings if you can’t fly?”
“I’ve wondered the same thing myself,” I said with a shrug. “Come on. We’re almost there.”
When we got to what I had started calling the “border,” I sensed it by the weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. I stopped and held a hand out to Sierra. “Hold on tight.”
“What happens now?” she asked.
“This might feel a little funny.”
She giggled nervously. “Okay.”
Sierra’s grip strengthened as we passed the veil. The usual sensation of upside-down and spinning grabbed hold of me and I briefly closed my eyes to get my bearings. Beside me, Sierra’s breathing sped up.
On the other side, I dropped her hand and let her catch her breath for a minute. The panic on her face slowly faded, and I asked, “You okay? It’s kinda freaky at first.”
“Yeah. That was weird.”
“Don’t worry.” I squeezed her hand. “That was the only really weird thing you’ll go through. Well...besides the fact that you’ll be surrounded by faeries.”
She smiled and her shoulders relaxed. “Then I think I’m gonna be fine.”
The sun shone high and hot as we broke through the trees into the field behind Azura’s house. I glanced from the corner of my eye and watched Sierra’s face brighten. She looked like a kid on Christmas morning.
“This is amazing,” she whispered. “Beautiful. The sky is so vivid!”
I remembered my first few times in the faery world and how vibrant the colors had seemed at first. It was kind of ironic that I barely knew anything about this place, yet I couldn’t wait to give her a tour. I only knew my way around a small part of the fey world. I secretly hoped to one day know every inch of it.
Azura met us at the door as if she’d sensed us coming. She smiled sweetly at Sierra. “Welcome.”
I felt awkward for a moment. I’d shared everything with Sierra since I came clean about my heritage, but this was it. She was meeting my faery mom and, at the moment, staring stupidly up at the tree house.
“Sierra,” I said, chuckling.
She whipped her head down. “Yes, yes, sorry. It’s just...so cool.”
“This is Azura, my...mother.”
“Oh! Nice to meet you.” Sierra shook Azura’s hand. “Thank you for letting me come.”
“You’re welcome.” Azura clasped her hands in front of her silky white dress and gave Sierra a stern look. “As you know, you can never tell anyone about this.”
Sierra crossed her heart. “I would never do anything that could hurt Rylie.”
Azura inclined her head elegantly. “I believe you. Please, come in.”
I let Sierra go first, dying to see her face as she took in the tree house. She gasped, her hands cupping her face. “I can’t believe it’s all in a tree!”
“I know, right!” I laughed. “It’s like something out of a movie.”
“Or a dream,” Sierra said softly, touching the knotted walls.
“Oleander, why don’t you show your friend around the house?” Azura suggested. “I’m making a salad and fresh-baked bread for dinner.”
“That sounds great, Azura. Thanks.”
As she disappeared to the kitchen, Sierra looked at me and waggled her eyebrows. “Oleander?”
I shushed her, though I laughed, too. “It’s my faery name. Azura picked it. Don’t make fun.”
I led her up the spiral staircase, down the dark hallway that smelled of earth and growing things, and into my room.
“Wow!” Sierra said with an appreciative nod. “This is so you.”
“Azura put a lot of thought into decorating.”
“She cares about you.”
Sierra’s absent-minded words sent a pang through me. “I know.”
I led her back down the hall as she peeked into the extra bedroom and Azura’s, and then we sailed through the kitchen and out the back door. Sierra ooh’d over Azura’s gardens, stopping to smell and touch the flowers so many times it made me laugh.
“You act like we don’t have flowers back home,” I accused her.
“Well, sure, but look at this place, Ry.” She threw out her arms and spun in a circle. “It’s like paradise. Breathtaking!”
I could only nod. I’d thought the same thing myself.
We ventured out to the common area inside the circle of tree houses. I’d noticed before all the dirt roads leading away from the village, and I assumed there was much more to the light faery world than just this small neighborhood, but I’d yet to go exploring. I was almost too nervous to leave the safety of Azura’s company.
“It’s so hard to leave sometimes,” I spoke up as we passed a group of older chatting women. I made a beeline for an empty picnic table.
As we sat down, Sierra asked, “Then why do you leave? You have a room, and Azura obviously loves you and would take care of you.”
I made a “duh” face. “My parents, Adam, you.”
“You could still come visit, right?”
I burst out laughing. Here was my best friend in the whole world telling me I should stay in a completely separate dimension from her. “I mean, don’t you want me around?” I teased.
She shoved me gently. “Of course I do. But this place is beyond words. How could you not want to be here?” She sighed. “Maybe it’s just because my home life sucks so much. It’s not that I don’t love my family, but it’s so hard. You don’t have siblings or a nephew bugging you, parents nagging you to help out, and a horrible love life.”
She had a point. If I’d had her life, I would have probably wanted to stay with Azura.
Sierra pointed at the cloud of piskies dancing over my aunt’s vegetable garden. “What are those? Tiny faeries?”
“Piskies,” I corrected. “They’re another faery-type creature. Don’t watch them too long, and definitely don’t let them convince you to follow them into the trees.”
“Why?”
“They’ll make you feel wonderful, then they’ll make you dance until you forgot who you are and where you’re from.”
Sierra looked stricken. “But...everything here isn’t good?”
“It isn’t that they’re bad,” I said, my gaze shifting back to the piskies. They flitted well above the garden, chattering as the sun shone off their colorful backs. I laughed. “They just have a purpose that’s counterproductive to ours.”
When she didn’t respond, I looked back at her, puzzled to find she was staring at something. I followed her gaze to a crowd of faeries roughly our age, or at least appearing to be our age. I recognized several boys I’d met at the spring festival, one of whom was staring right back at Sierra.
“Earth to Sierra.” I waved my hand in front of her face.
“He’s gorgeous,” she responded without tearing her gaze from the now-smiling faery guy.
I smirked. “I didn’t ask.”
“Who is he?”
Squinting in his direction, I tried to recall his name. “I have no idea. I’ve met him before, but I can’t remember.”
Before I finished speaking, the guy started our way, shoving his hands into the pockets of his blue jeans.
“Oh my God,” Sierra breathed. “Oh my God, Ry, he’s coming over. Do I look okay?”
As she whipped towards me, she almost fell off the bench. She teetered on the edge, hands flailing, and I reached out and caught her arms. “Chill. You look fine. Deep breaths.”
My best friend attempted to play it cool, but I knew she was sweating by the time he drew up beside us.
“Hey, Oleander.” He was darkly good-looking with shaggy brown hair and tanned skin. He flashed a bright smile in Sierra’s direction. “Who’s this?”
“Please call me Rylie.” I sighed. I didn’t mind Azura and her family calling me that, but I really didn’t want it to stick. “This is Sierra.”
He stuck out a hand. “I’m Drake.”
“Hi, D
rake.”
If my best friend’s mouth hung open any more, she’d be drooling.
“You are positively enchanting,” Drake said. Neither of them had taken their eyes from each other.
I rolled my eyes. Seriously? I bring my friend to the faery world and she finds a guy. Not just any guy, a faery. Only Sierra.
“So, you’re O—” Drake glanced at me. “Rylie’s friend?”
“Best friend.” She blushed.
“Why don’t you have a seat?” I motioned to the bench next to Sierra.
He didn’t have to be told twice. Folding his long, lanky body down right beside her, he said, “So Sierra—you’re human.”
Sierra laughed. “And, Drake...you’re a faery.”
They fell into easy conversation, doing the usual rounds of getting to know one another. I tried to fade into the background so I wouldn’t intrude. Things had been so rough for Sierra this year. She needed some small measure of happiness, and in just five minutes of Drake’s presence, her face had brightened so much.
The clatter of cart wheels and the low murmur of people drifted to us from the small market across the village. The market consisted of wooden shacks built close together, protecting a wide variety of goods from vegetables to textiles to books. What made it lovely were the sparkling lights hanging from the eaves of the huts, and the way the browsing faeries weaved in and out. When Sierra was done flirting, we had to walk over there.
I’d never seen anything like that open-air market back in the human world. Living here would be pretty awesome. If only I could have the best of both worlds...but why couldn’t I? Could I make it work? Like a joint-custody arrangement. I only had one more year of school, and it was really important to my parents that I graduate. It was important to me, too. After that, what would keep me from spending my time between both worlds?
I noticed Violet and Nessa walking down the trail with canvas bags hanging off their arms, coming from the direction of the market. I figured Sierra was safe with Drake, so I hustled over to see my cousins.
“Oleander! You made it.” Violet grinned, switching her bag from one arm to the other. “We just finished shopping for dinner.”
“Mom’s making my favorite casserole,” Nessa said happily.
“Is that your human friend?” Violet squinted at Sierra and Drake still conversing as if I’d not even left. Her eyebrows furrowed. “She’s talking to Drake. What’s going on there?”
I shrugged. “Puppy love?”
“Love? Between a faery and a human?” My cousins exchanged glances.
“Why not?” I asked.
Violet shrugged. “It doesn’t happen.”
“Ever?” I knew that wasn’t true. After all, I’d fallen in love with Adam.
“Rarely.”
I didn’t like where this conversation was going. Crossing my arms over my chest, I asked, “Have a faery and a human ever married?”
“I’ve heard of it, but it never ends well.” Violet looked at Sierra and Drake and shook her head. “Faeries should be with faeries.”
“Why?” I pushed. “Why can’t faeries choose what they want?”
“My mom says it’s against nature,” Nessa spoke up. I’d almost forgotten she was there, she was so silent.
I bit back a sharp retort and settled for a subtle nudge. “So my relationship with my human boyfriend is against nature. Funny how right it feels.”
Both girls looked chagrined.
“Is it illegal?”
“No. It’s not against our laws,” Violet assured me. “It’s just... It’s not looked upon favorably.”
“Things in your world need to change.”
“Change isn’t easy.” Violet shifted on her feet.
“No, but it’s inevitable.” I pointed at Sierra and Drake. “Look at them. They have an instant connection. How can you tell them this isn’t right?”
“Look, I know this is about you and your human boyfriend,” Violet started.
“Adam. His name is Adam.”
“Adam,” she relented. “But Oleander, you’ve never even been with a faery. How do you know what you’re missing?”
Violet’s words haunted me long after they were gone.
I finally managed to drag my best friend away from her new beau—with a promise we would see him in the morning.
All the way back to Azura’s, she couldn’t stop talking about him. “Did you know he lives right next door to your cousins? And he’s in this progressive school where they learn outside and there’s only five people in his class. Oh, and he plays the harp, how cool is that? Who plays a harp anymore?”
I chuckled. She had it bad.
“Drake is perfect.”
“You hardly know him.”
“There’s just something about him. Haven’t you felt that way?”
I groaned. “Yeah. Twice.”
“I keep forgetting about Kallan. Ry, if you chose to be with him, you could be here. Forever.” Sierra motioned to our surroundings, to Azura’s tree house growing shadowed as the sun set, the windows warmly glowing. “Don’t you love it here?”
“I do.”
“And you love Kallan,” Sierra said gently.
“I don’t know how I feel about Kallan.”
“That usually means love.”
I punched her on the shoulder. “Come on. Azura is going to have dinner waiting.”
As we mounted the steps to the porch, Sierra spoke again. “Do you think it could work with him?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Me and Kallan?”
Rolling her eyes, Sierra shoved me. “No, you idiot, me and Drake.”
“I have no idea. I guess it could work if you really want it to.” I decided not to tell her about my conversation with Nessa and Violet earlier. People had a tendency to be obstacles to themselves. It wouldn’t help her any to feel like she’d failed before she even tried.
Sierra’s face smoothed into a dreamy look. “It would be so neat to be loved by a faery.”
“You already are. By me.”
She hit my shoulder. “I love you, too. Thanks for this.”
“It’s not over yet. Wait ’til you eat dinner!”
After a delicious dinner, during which conversation with Azura flowed easily, I showed Sierra to the extra bedroom.
It was smaller than mine, but cozy, with white bedcovers and a large window overlooking the backyard. I checked to make sure there were sheets on the bed and showed her where the bathroom was.
“I can see the garden in the faery lights,” Sierra breathed, looking outside.
“This place always seems to be full of twinkling lights.”
“Like a wonderland.”
I laughed. “Yeah. Every time I come, I feel like Alice down the rabbit hole.”
We stared at each other across the bedroom for a moment, sharing happy smiles.
“Ry, this has been...I don’t know. Amazing, spectacular, stupendous.” Sierra giggled. “All those adjectives and more. Thank you.”
I nodded. “I’m just across the hall if you need me.”
“Are you sure it’s okay to stay? I mean, shouldn’t I call my mom?”
I shook my head. “Remember, time is weird here. She won’t even know you were gone.”
In my room, I checked my phone—by habit; it wasn’t like I’d have any messages in another dimension—and then crawled into bed. With the way my emotions had been in turmoil from Oren’s appearance until now, I was asleep almost instantly.
When I awoke, it was pitch black outside and the house was quiet. I stared up at the shadows moving on my ceiling, wondering what it was that had jarred me from sleep.
Then it came again. A tap-tap-tap at the window.
I shoved the covers off and crossed to the window, pushing aside the curtains.
Kallan.
He was illuminated in the front yard by the moon. Silvery light shone off his satin hair as he threw another small pebble at the glass.
How in the world did he
know where my room was?
I didn’t bother with shoes. I made my silent way through the house, past Sierra’s closed door and Azura’s open one. I could see my faery mother’s form in bed, her platinum hair spread across her pillow.
The stairs were quiet, thankfully, and so was the front door as I pulled it open.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed, coming to a stop before Kallan.
He looked rumpled, his dark hair a mussed halo above his head and his T-shirt and jeans wrinkled as if he’d picked them up off the floor. I couldn’t remember ever seeing him so not put together.
“Checking on you,” he said softly. He cleared his throat. “You disappeared.”
“Like you don’t?” I retorted. “How did you know what room I was in?”
He smiled playfully. “A little piskie told me.”
I felt the tension leave my body and the corners of my mouth turned up just a bit. “Why are you here, Kallan?”
He shrugged. “I worry.”
“You don’t have to worry about me. It’s sweet, but I’m fine.”
“I couldn’t stop it if I tried.” He shook his head. “I have this overwhelming urge to protect you. I haven’t seen you too much since we got back from...vacation.”
“How did you even get here? I thought dark faeries had to be invited in.”
Kallan looked down at the ground. “There was a faery near the border. I used mind control on him to get him to invite me in.”
“Kallan!” I couldn’t help but laugh. Kallan took a step closer and my pulse raced. We weren’t even touching, but I could feel electricity between us. I bit down on my lip, wanting him to make a move and knowing how wrong I was for wanting it. I desperately wanted to feel his lips on mine.
Before he could say anything else, the steady pit-pat of feet on dirt interrupted us. I froze, suddenly realizing that I was standing in front of Azura’s house with the prince of the dark faery world, and we were about to be caught.
It was my aunt. Her long blonde hair, the same sheen as Azura’s, was pulled into a messy braid, and she had pillowcase creases on her cheek beneath sleepy eyes.
“Oleander!” she gasped, grabbing my arm.
“I’m fine! He’s safe, he isn’t going to hurt me!” I said quickly, angling to put myself in front of Kallan.