I was so close, I could have leaned in and touched his chin with my lips, but he did not see me…
And then… he did. After I bumped into him?
Why?
I have all these questions swirling around in my head, but I have no one to talk to who can help me find the answers.
If anyone was to find out I was seen by one of them— a human— and that I willingly got in his vehicle… I’d never be allowed to leave the colony again.
Not that I’m supposed to leave it now…
Oh, hells…
Fae are going about their everyday lives all around me, oblivious to the fact that I’ve had my entire world flipped upside down in a few short hours. I spot my brother working within his garden, but I can’t face him right now. Not while my head is swirling from everything that has transpired. I quickly make my way into the cottage, praying he doesn’t notice me. I need time to wrap my head around everything and try to find answers to what exactly happened with Callum today.
In our colony, children to elder Fae live at home until they Zing with their Kindred. Since myself and my brother have yet to Zing, we both still live with our mother and father.
Thankfully, neither of my parents are home when I enter the house. Surely, they’d know something was wrong the minute they saw me. I can’t lie… and with the emotions swirling around inside of me like a tornado, wreaking havoc in my chest and my mind, there is absolutely no way I’d be able to cleverly talk my way out of this one. I need to find answers and wrap my head around all of this before any of them come home.
I can’t believe I agreed to see him again. To explain to him what I am. I think it’s safe to say when he hit me with his vehicle, he knocked any sense I had straight out of me.
There’s something about him, though.
It needs to make sense.
Rushing into my room, I begin frantically shuffling through my bookshelf. Throughout my years of education, I’ve collected many books on our people. I like to know my own history. There has to be something in one of these books that’ll help me make sense of what occurred today.
Gently sliding my index finger along the spines of each book, I scan the titles, hoping and praying that one will stand out to me.
If there isn’t something here, I don’t know what I’ll do. If a human saw me that means other humans could possibly see me, or others of our kind, too.
It puts all of us at risk.
I know I shouldn’t keep this a secret.
The right thing would be to tell someone what happened. I just can’t risk the ramifications that’ll come from confessing this just yet. Once the Elders know there are humans who can see us without removing our Glamor, they’ll forbideveryonefromeverleaving Laric.
I can’t let that happen.
I feel I need to see Callum again. I believe deep inside my heart that he is safe. He won’t hurt me. I don’t know what it is, but I know I have to go to him.
I’ve spent all this time reading love stories about chance encounters, romance, and love at first sight. In those novels, the heroine always talks about feeling this pull to the handsome man and having her belly flutter with excitement.
I felt that today.
For the first time in my life, I felt this unfamiliar feeling of wingsinsideof my stomach and this unexplainable pull to Callum. It was almost magnetic. There was a tangible energy. I cannot fight being drawn to him even if I want to.Which I don’t.
I don’t know why, but I just can’t shake this feeling that I’ll regret it if I don’t see him again.
If Cyrus heard me saying these things, he’d say the novels I’m reading are rotting my brain and filling my head with foolish ideas. Humans are human and Fae are Fae. We are not supposed to mix.
He absolutely cannot know about any of this.
“Ah ha!” I shriek as my finger lands on a large, worn, leather-bound book near the bottom of my bookshelf. The spine readsThe Encyclopedia of Fae: The Ultimate Guide to Origins, Spells, and Biology.
Quickly retrieving the book from my shelf, I hug it to my chest before glancing out the window that overlooks the lush garden behind our home. I spot Cyrus still across the field, within his garden. He’s hard at work tending to his abundance of plants, oblivious to the fact that I have returned.I watch as he encourages them to grow by waving and gesturing with his hands. In mere seconds, what was just a tiny sprout becomes a beautiful, lush rose bush, filled with multi-colored roses.
Sighing in appreciation for the beauty he’s created, I pad across the hardwood floor toward my bed and climb up onto it. Plopping down onto the soft moss covering it, I cross my legs, let my wings spread to their full glory, and comfortably rest against the pile of moss-filled pillows behind me.
