Page 24 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

Chapter

Ten

TEDDY

I’m not afraid.

In my head, I repeated those words until the smallest part of me believed it.

I didn’t have the luxury of being afraid.

Not with a small child who looked at me as if I held answers to the growing problems we lived through every day.

Not with the town depending on me to supply them with enough food to keep them from starving.

Not with more and more fae showing up every day that we were forced to feed despite them being unwelcome strangers in our town.

It’d taken weeks for many of us to take the food Elias supplied at the food bank.

Weeks of watching what we had in our pantry and fridge dwindling before the ache in our stomachs outgrew the worry of the food Elias grew being poisoned.

Weeks of the fae eating more than their share while we were too afraid to try it.

With Victoria sleeping in my arms, I yawned, shifting uncomfortably on the chair as I sat in the waiting room for our only doctor in town.

It wasn’t the first time I’d been to one of the secret meetings Dr. Daniels held in his office, but it was the first time it’d happened late at night.

Despite the cushioning of the seat, I couldn’t get comfortable.

Regardless of the late hour and the long day, no one else seemed to be as tired as I was—except for Victoria, who rested atop me with her head on my shoulder.

From across the room, a woman said something I didn’t quite hear, and when I shifted again, I hit my elbow on the steel armrest. Biting back a hiss, I watched Victoria move her head to the side, and I let out a relieved sigh when she didn’t stir awake.

At least the office was warm with the space heaters he’d positioned around the room.

The body heat from so many people in attendance probably didn’t hurt either.

I didn’t think it was luck that Dr. Daniels’s pipes hadn’t broken, and he still had running water when so many in town hadn’t fared as well.

No, whoever or whatever kept my house warm was not only responsible for my pipes and running water but also for the doctor’s.

It made me wonder what made me special, why my house was kept safe from the environment while so many others had to fight the cold.

I sighed, knowing I still had a long night ahead of me and had to leave soon if I was to make it to where Dr. Daniels said Javier lived. It’d be a long hike, especially carrying Victoria, but I wanted to check on him. Make sure that no one had harmed him after he left with Elias’s friends.

When a man shuffled in front of me, I moved the bag of food I’d gotten for Javier with my feet so the man wouldn’t step on it.

Carefully, I took out my phone to see it was a quarter to midnight.

If I left now, I could still get a few good hours of sleep.

But I wasn’t ready to go when the last hour of this meeting hadn’t accomplished anything but make all of us more wary of the fae.

I wanted to see one good thing come from today.

One, that was it. I didn’t think that was too much to ask for.

Beside me, the pretty young stranger with long silver hair dug the jagged ends of her fingernails into the skin of her arm. She trembled with every word the others spoke.

Moving slowly so I didn’t wake Victoria, I rested a hand over hers. Her attention snapped to me so quickly, I jerked my hand back.

“It’s okay,” I mouthed.

With a sad expression on her face, Everly shook her head. “Elias isn’t bad,” she said.

It wasn’t the first time she’d made this claim. Each time she spoke those words to me, she said it more vehemently as if she were desperate for me to believe her.

I wanted to believe her. I was close to believing her until the commander, his uncle, had blamed Elias for our downfall. He’d said we would’ve all been fine if Elias had left us alone.

I wasn’t sure what he’d meant, but his words rang true in my chest. Elias was at fault, which was probably why he’d taken Javier’s punishment. It had to be why, or else my failure to help Elias with his wounds made me as cruel as his uncle.

Still, the guilt of walking away from the pained expression on his face twisted in my gut like a knife.

“How can you say that?” a man next to Everly asked, tapping his fingers on his lap in agitation.

The way Everly held her head high made her look almost regal but lethal. “Name one thing he has done to harm anyone in his region,” she answered, her voice loud enough to carry over to those closest to us.

One by one, people stopped talking to look at her.

Although she’d come here about a week or so after the endless winter began, she was still a stranger to this town and its people.

I liked her, though, and appreciated the time she spent helping me at the food bank.

But more, I enjoyed having someone to talk to during the long work hours.

Someone who wasn’t all doomsday and had a more positive outlook than most. Me included.

Donnie was the first to speak. “Did you say something?”

I pressed my lips together to keep from snickering, but I’d seen how he watched her. The way his cheeks flushed when she spoke to him.

Even now, in a room full of upset people, his green eyes twinkled. Actually twinkled.

When she gave him a small smile, he dropped his gaze to his fingers to hide his blush. But I saw the hint of pink that rose to his cheeks.

She brushed her long fingers through her hair, tugging at the ends before she spoke. “I was telling Teddy that Elias isn’t bad.”

Around us, people scoffed. Some went as far as shouting, reminding her that she was as much an outsider as the filthy fae.

She stiffened at their words, and I swore I could feel the tension that vibrated off her, but when Donnie nodded at her, she continued.

“I am an outsider,” she agreed, the pretty lilt of her voice making me want to listen.

“Which means I’ve seen more than Colina or this region.

I’ve encountered other fae.” She paused and turned to look at me as if her words were meant only for me.

It made me uncomfortable, and while my knees involuntarily turned away from her, I nodded, wanting her to continue. When she turned her dark blue eyes away from me and back to Donnie before she looked at the rest of her audience, the knot in my stomach loosened.

“Elias is respected among his people,” she told us. “He has done more for his region than any other region leader. Surely, you see that.”

Of course, I saw what he did. Saw the reports of other regions from Commander Hudson as well as the news stations, who relied on social media to get their information out.

While Everly was right, and I was grateful for everything he provided for us, I couldn’t help but run the commander’s words through my head.

I couldn’t let go of how he said Elias was at fault. I’d be pretty stupid if I did.

“What right do the fae have in taking over our world and appointing themselves leaders?” someone else asked.

“They’re trying to help,” Everly said, her tone growing frustrated.

When she shot up from her chair, I cupped Victoria’s head and pressed her closer to me. A growl tore from Everly’s lips, and she ran her fingers through her hair once again.

“We have food, thanks to Elias,” she said with a shake of her head. “Do you not see that?”

“Who’s to say the fae aren’t the cause of all this?” someone shouted from the other side of the small medical office.

Many, including myself, nodded.

Resigned, Everly sighed and dropped her head. All that silver hair cascaded down her shoulders, fanning around her face.

“You can’t see what he’s done for us because you don’t want to.

” Still, she stared at the linoleum floor as she let out a humorless laugh.

“You’d rather live with your prejudices.

Where would any of you be if he weren’t here?

” She shrugged a single shoulder before she dropped back onto the chair.

“Before his arrival, what was your life like? Did you worry about food and the never-ending snowfall? Did you wonder how you’d survive it?

” She leaned forward to grip her knee. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore, do you?

But still, you hate him. What would happen if he left tomorrow?

If all the fae left tomorrow with their magic? How would you fare then?”

They weren’t fair questions. None of us had asked for this endless winter. None of us had asked for mythical creatures to come and rule us. And yes, also save us.

Even after a month, it was all new to us.

I wasn’t sure if we would’ve figured out how to survive had the fae not come, but we also weren’t given the chance to find out. They’d simply taken over.

“I agree with Everly,” Donnie said, surprising me.

I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to figure out what he wasn’t saying out loud. He was the practical one. The one who’d repeatedly warned Ryenne and me away from the fae.

“Elias and his two men have helped our community,” he continued, his attention bouncing between everyone in the office.

“I don’t trust Elias’s magic, but because of him, our farmers are able to grow food while he continues to grow his own.

Every day, we see him on his dragon looking for more livestock.

I don’t have to trust him, his magic, or any other fae to know that we would all be dead if it weren’t for him. ”

Yet Donnie hadn’t offered to help Elias. Neither had Everly or anyone else.

Only me, but then I’d taken it back. Fled so quickly he couldn’t follow. Or wouldn’t follow. Time and time again, he’d shown respect to any boundary I’d laid before him. I doubted this was any different .

“So what?” a woman I went to high school with asked. She rocked her bundled-up infant daughter, whose blanket looked much like mine, close to her chest. “We should just sit back and let him punish us as he sees fit?”

“He doesn’t want to punish us,” I said.