Dranian Evelry and the Homecoming
Everything in the Ever Corners was bad. Not fit for humans. The forests were dark, the paths were hard on the feet, the pines were prickly, the food was sour, the stories in the wind were grumbling about the latest rise in North Corner taxes—
Dranian looked up when Lily sighed. He found the human standing with her hands on her hips, waiting for him on the path ahead. The golden sun was just beginning to dip toward the hoarfrost-covered mountains in the distance, and soon ice would prism the light into all sorts of wretched corners, threatening to expose anyone hiding in the shadows or walking out on a wide-open path like Lily had insisted they do—
“I’ve cross examined guilty criminals less nervous than you,” she said.
Dranian frowned. “I’ve escorted frivolous royals less daft in the face of danger than you.”
Lily opened her mouth but paused as if she were trying to sort through his complex usage of words. “Did you just call me stupid?” she asked plainly.
Dranian stared. Blinked. He shook his head.
Lily made a doubtful face. “Liar.” She turned to continue down the path, tightening the straps of her satchel of belongings that would be utterly useless in just about every situation in the North Corner of Ever. Dranian exhaled. He continued to follow as she looked in amazement at every detail in sight; the velvety starbud bushes that stared right back at the strange human strutting by, the streams of colour on the horizon, and the golden honey bulbs dangling from the most generous trees along the path, tempting every passerby with the promise of their sweet taste and a raging army of silver hornets that would stab any fool dumb enough to try and actually taste it.
This was going to be a long day.
Yesterday had been a long day.
The day before that had been a long day, too, and the one before that.
Dranian had no trouble remembering the way to the House of Lyro, but the House was on the furthest cusp of the North Corner, practically on the border of the East, and in the exact furthest possible spot from the gate to the human realm. He exhaled again. With every step deeper into Ever that Lily took, he regretted bringing her more. He could already feel the wrath Cress would exercise upon him for doing such a foolish thing. He could practically taste the rocks. Mor wouldn’t even defend him this time, and neither would Kate.
He ran his tongue along his teeth like he expected to find grains of rock salt there already as he studied Lily’s back. Her useless satchel. Her parted mouth and tiny gasps at each new fairy thing she observed. He made a grunty sound. Lily missed all the most important things; the creeping vines following a short distance behind them, the threat of Jackson Frost’s fingers reaching through the air, the distant fae parties her weensy little human ears couldn’t observe the horrors of. And for that, he found he was in a mood.
“This place is unreal,” Lily breathed.
“It’s totally real. Real enough to drag you into a pit to be chewed up by cossbeasts and spit back out again,” Dranian muttered.
Lily turned and shot him a look. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to scare me into going back home.” She folded her arms.
Dranian blinked. That was exactly what he was doing. He was beyond astounded it took her this long to figure that out.
“Stop being so grumpy. What were you going to do if I stayed home? Come here by yourself ?” Her gaze flicked to his one bad arm, and he bristled.
“Luc said he was coming after he does his other thing,” Dranian returned.
Lily huffed and tilted her head. “You really still think he’s coming? Are you crazy, Dranian? He ditched us for good—that’s why we’ve been walking for days instead of airslipping to Shayne’s house in a matter of minutes.” She pointed to the forest. “That jerk is probably spying on us from a tree, happily waiting to watch us get eaten by something.”
Dranian opened his mouth to protest but found he hadn’t a thing to say. He closed it again when Lily turned and continued walking. He stole a wary glance up at the trees as he hopped after her.
“I had no idea you even talked this much. Do the others know you can run your mouth?” Lily raised a brow when he caught up. “Or is that a trait you saved especially for me?” She flashed a cute, yet painfully sarcastic, scrunched-nose smile at him this time.
Dranian grumbled a few indecipherable fairy curses and flicked an emerald leaf on his way past. He bumped Lily with his shoulder when she stopped walking. He thought to ask her why she halted, but he’d already been accused of talking too much and he figured she’d tell him without being prompted if he waited long enough.
As expected, she asked, “Do you hear that?”
Dranian followed her gaze to the forest. Cracks of darkness wedged around the trees beneath a roof of tangled branches blocking the light. Modest whispers leaked from the wood trunks, slipping around the grasses, crawling out of the flowers. Dranian felt a nudge to take a step toward it all, but he broke his stare and looked at the sun meeting the frosted mountain tops instead. He knew the things hiding in those woods. He knew better than to stare.
He also knew Lily couldn’t hear any of that whispery mumbo jumbo. She was probably obsessing over a singing cricket.
“We should get to a safe forest before sundown,” he mumbled. He decided to lead the way this time, rolling his shoulder and wincing at the shooting pain as he headed down the path. He heard Lily’s footsteps following him, but their rhythm was random like she kept turning to look over her shoulder as she walked.
They said nothing else for a while.
It took Dranian thirty-seven minutes to find a forest safe enough for sleep. He waited for Lily to fall asleep first. And he meant to stay up and keep watch, but after days of walking, it only took him sixteen more minutes to achieve slumber.
Dranian found himself on a vast ship. Restlessness bewitched a dark sky, and waves crashed up the boat’s sides onto the deck. The ship was sinking. How had he gotten here?
“Dranian!”
His faeborn heart tumbled off course, chasing hope without navigation.
“Are you here?” he shouted into the gloom. He did a full spin, but he did not see the girl with no name anywhere. “Where are you?!”
It had been well over a week since he’d met the girl in his dreams. She hadn’t sent word about Shayne. She hadn’t told him she was okay. She’d disappeared from him entirely.
“I’m here!”
He turned, and there she was; haunting green irises, shiny black hair, smooth red lips… Only, her eyelids drooped, dark crescents cradled her eyes, her fair lips were parched, and her black hair was tossed. Her chest pumped like she might faint. Dranian barely reached for her before she lurched to the side like she’d been thrown. She tumbled into the ship’s rail, cracking the wood with her back. Dranian sprang after her, grabbed her hand, and pulled her to her feet in one strong tug.
Thunder crackled overhead, followed by streaks of electric light burning through the clouds. Dranian’s brows pulled together. “Are you doing this?” he asked. Frosty air blew over his shoulders and down his spine. He got the strangest sense he was in trouble.
“I didn’t mean to—I’m sorry.” She fought to catch her breath.
“Did you give me a nightmare?” Dranian looked warily at the sky, at the sinking boat.
But she shook her head. “I gave you mine.”
Dranian’s grip tightened on her hands. Her nightmare. This was…
He looked around again, something dropping into the pit of his stomach. “Queensbane,” he muttered. If he was a bolder fairy, he might have pulled her in and held her tight as she lived through it. But he didn’t know if that was the sort of thing she would have liked.
The fresh scent of grapes brushed by, mixing with the eerie musk of angry clouds and hungry waters. Dranian’s nose wrinkled as it all bled together strangely. “Were there grapes on your ship?” he asked.
The girl looked at him oddly. “No. That scent is coming from outside your dream.” But her eyes narrowed, and her lips peeled apart. “Wait… are you in the North Corner?” And then, “Are you by a vineyard?”
There was no time to answer as a mouth of darkness opened above them and inhaled debris from the ship, water, and cloud. The girl with no name was sucked backward, her hands sliding out of Dranian’s, her body blowing up toward the abyss.
Dranian leapt forward to try and grab her back, his hand raised and empty. But she was swallowed by darkness, vanishing right before his eyes, leaving his dream, leaving him trapped in her nightmare.
He shouted.
Dranian was slapped, and he startled awake.
He gasped, flinging up to a sitting position. Lily knelt there, surrounded by a quiet forest and the blue threat of early morning. She was staring at him like he was a lunatic. “Are you alright?” she asked in a voice higher than normal. “You were shouting in your sleep!”
So she’d slapped him.
Dranian swallowed, finding his mouth parched. His whole body shook. He was dizzy, too, his mind going blank— no . He could not panic at a time like this. Not alone out here with Lily who needed him.
He inhaled deeply. Exhaled. Repeated it three times over.
When clear thoughts returned, he looked down at his hands, imagining someone else’s holding them. Imagining someone’s fingers sliding out of his grip. Imagining her being torn away.
Seconds. He’d barely seen the girl for seconds , and she’d been in distress. Dranian dropped his head into his palms and gripped the hair above his pointed ears.
“What’s gotten into you?” Lily put a hand on his shoulder. “You never yell.”
There weren’t exactly proper words to explain his situation to a human. He hadn’t told Lily about his nightmares, even when they were trading secrets about Luc, and her secret fairy-destroying police division, and all the other things. So, all he said was, “I had a bad dream.”
Lily nodded. She slumped to sit beside him in the cool grass. After a moment, she said, “I get that. I could never sleep well when I was younger because there was no one looking out for me while I slept. So I always had these crazy dreams where I was alone and someone was hurting me, or chasing me, or whatever else.” She plucked a stalk of grass and rubbed it between her fingers. “The worst part of having no family was being too afraid to fall asleep in strange places.”
Dranian glanced over at Lily, thinking of when he first became haunted by a dreamslipper and how hard he’d fought to stay awake. He tried to picture a small human girl doing the same thing.
He wasn’t sure he had any sort of comfort to provide, so he cleared his throat instead and offered, “Sometimes ‘family’ is something you find when you’re a little older.”
Lily’s face broke into a smile. “That’s super deep, Dranian.” She patted him on the shoulder. “Nice job.”
He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or if she meant it, but she did look grateful as she rose to stand and extended a hand to help him up. Dranian climbed to his feet on his own though, using both his good legs to do it.
“Do you feel like jogging?” Lily asked.
Dranian scowled. “Jogging?”
“Yeah. We’ll get there faster if we run.” She pulled her satchel onto her shoulders and headed back toward the path. She broke into an easy jog without warning or waiting for him to agree to it.
Dranian scrambled after her, making sure to keep up—no, making sure to pass her once he reached the road. Fairies were far superior to humans in strength and speed. He imagined this exercise might be rather humiliating for Lily, though when she sped up to match his pace—no, to pass him …
Dranian’s eyes widened at Lily’s back. Her face was relaxed, her strides appeared easy; she looked as though she could run for the next several hours.
Of all his traits, competitiveness was the one Dranian cared about the least. Being good at things often brought unwanted attention, often demanded speeches to be made, questions to be asked, all of which were best avoided. So, that wasn’t what this was. This wasn’t a competition. This was by no means an actual race.
But he couldn’t exactly be outgalloped by a human.
Dranian lifted his nose into the air, tilting his head back as he put his greatest effort forth to sprint past Lily, leaving no room for her victory whatsoever. He raced and raced and raced, breaking out of the forest into the morning sunlight, past the glistening gold vineyards, until he came to the end of the path where an abandoned stick hut rested in the shadow of a stalky pine. Beyond the hut’s broken door, Dranian spotted a chair. He huffed with an almost-smile and headed toward the hut, wondering if it would be considered gloating if he were to pull out a chair and sit to wait for Lily until she caught up.