by Nicole Hall
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.
But the police had found Evie’s body outside her house on the front walk. Pretty close to where she and Ryan had been standing earlier. Sera’d been trying not to think about her grandmother dying alone in her front yard. They’d said it was an aneurysm, that she’d gone quickly and with no pain. Per Evie’s will, they’d cremated her body and scattered the ashes, all before Sera could make it out to Texas.
“Her doctor identified the body. The dead body. There was definitely someone dead who looked exactly like my grandmother.”
Zee’s face softened. “I’m sorry to bring you this news so abruptly, but your grandmother is alive.”
Jake wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and Sera leaned into him without thinking. “I’m living in her house. They gave me her house. I couldn’t find her coffee this morning, but her creamer was still in the fridge.” She shook her head. “Who died?”
“No one.”
“But—”
“It was a bit of Fae magic. Not a small bit, mind you. Golems have always been complicated, but we… I… felt it was necessary. Torix was trapped in a tree in this forest many generations ago by my ancestors. Our barriers prevent him or his magic from escaping, but we need to renew them periodically for them to maintain their strength. Once something passes those barriers, there’s no way to retrieve it.”
“What does that have to do with my grandmother?”
Zee winced. “The renewal was a little delayed, and Torix was able to get her to go through the barriers.”
“What was she even doing out here? How do you know her?”
“The same way we know Ryan and Jake. We needed something, so we asked nicely.” Ryan snorted and Zee glared at him before continuing. “As for why she was in the way? Only she can answer that in full, but I suspect she was attempting to curb Torix on her own.”
Sera’s anger surged to life. “You mean you guys screwed up, my grandmother tr
ied to fix it, and instead of helping her, you let her get trapped with a dangerous, magic-wielding dark fairy.”
Zee looked a little chagrined. “That’s mostly accurate, except also some of Torix’s magic escaped while the protections were weakened, and he’s infected someone.”
“Infected someone? What is wrong with you people?”
Zee ignored her interruption. “Someone, a human, is sharing his magic and doing his bidding. We thought we’d replenished the barriers in time at first, but it’s become increasingly obvious that it wasn’t fast enough.”
“The car accidents?” Jake asked.
“Yes, also the vandalism, and the thefts. We think it’s the beginning of something much darker. Torix feeds off of negative emotions. The more his minion can produce and capture for him, the stronger he becomes. We need you to find whomever it is and bring them here so we can break the bond.”
Jake nodded, but Sera didn’t get it, and Ryan was stubbornly silent.
“Why can’t you do it? Summon this person the way you summoned me?”
Zee gestured at the trees around her. “The Wood is an elemental forest, ancient and powerful in its own right. It protects us, but we’re forbidden from leaving. It was the pact we made for fleeing our homeland and creating the barriers here.”
Sera must have looked confused because Ryan chose that moment to jump in. “And they needed me to touch you to activate the summons.”
Sera glared at him. “I’m still not clear on how you’re involved.”
He shrugged. “It’s not relevant or your business.”
She pointed at him about to argue, but her hand was glowing. “What in the actual hell.” Sera shook her hand like she was trying to put out a match.
Zee sighed again. “I’ll teach you some basics before you go so you don’t injure others… or yourself. But remember that you’ll need Jake to help anchor your magic if you want to do anything beyond the basics.”
“How am I supposed to learn anything beyond the basics?”
“You’re welcome to ask for help, but it will require further payment. You are, of course, free to test your abilities at your own risk.”