Page 67 of Finding Her (Lore of the Fields #1)

I couldn’t see the school through the cast of gray, but I recognized the staircase at the top of the hill.

I stumbled down the steps. My boots slipped in slick mud once I finally reached the grass, the handrail within grasping distance sparing me the fall.

I corrected myself and slowed down just enough to watch my footing as I continued towards the school.

The edge of the pond passed me to the right, clouds of mist concealing its mirrored surface.

“Faeryn?” The male voice zapped my already fried nerves, and I held in a yelp.

I froze in my tracks, my head snapping in the direction of the voice. There stood Cassius, hands buried in his pockets.

“What are you doing here?” He stepped closer and his eyes scanned me from head to foot. “Are you hurt?”

I’d nearly forgotten I was injured.

“I’m not safe, Cassius.” I braced my hands on my knees as I hyperventilated to catch my breath. My lungs burned. “Can you please hide me at your place? I’ll explain later.” I paused every other word to swallow more air. Everything hurt. Not just my body. Was my heart breaking?

“Of course.” He was standing in front of me, a hand resting on my hunched shoulder. “You look awful. Let’s get you somewhere safe.” He grabbed my arm and tugged gently to incite movement.

I watched the back of his head as we cut through the fog, using it to ground myself to some environmental context.

Thankfully, he walked this path every day and would know the quickest way home, even with low visibility.

The streetlamps of town had been there to help me before, but out here in the uninhabited faint light of dawn, I felt like I was in a void.

It reminded me of my nightmares—endless nothingness.

I saw a wide, dark silhouette in the distance, it wasn’t a house or a person. Was it…? It had been so long since I’d seen one that it took me a moment to recognize the curve of a car’s hood and roof. It sat in a dewy patch of grass, completely out of place in the environment.

I froze in my steps. “You have a car?” Cassius hadn’t mentioned being particularly wealthy. He was a construction worker with aspirations of teaching, neither were famously lucrative professions.

He seemed surprised by my halt, examining the new wave of uncertainty coating my face. “It was a gift. I can tell you while we drive. We need to get you safe.”

I chewed the inside of my lip, my eyes flicking between the approachable face of my friend and the machine that stuck out like a red flag amid an energy crisis.

It occurred to me that the flag color didn’t matter; at least there wasn’t an actual dead body at its base, unlike Graysen’s.

I had no other options, and the car was a familiar comfort from life on Earth.

“Right,” I agreed, following him to the passenger side door.

He pulled the handle and moved to the side so I could take a seat. The caramel leather was luxurious, but in a world where cars themselves are a luxury, that wasn’t particularly surprising. I buckled into the seat and waited nervously while he closed the door and made his way to the driver’s side.

The engine’s purr was startling after being so unaccustomed to motors at this point.

I’d never thought about the subtle vibrating of the seat, or the way a vehicle rocked once the emergency brake was released before, but I was hypersensitive to every sensation I’d since forgotten.

The car doors locked automatically as he shifted into drive, and I closed my eyes to fight the impending anxiety.

Somehow, the moderate acceleration felt more daunting than riding a dragon.

“You first,” Cassius prompted. “What happened?”

It felt wrong tarnishing Graysen’s name, but having my story out there might prove valuable should anything go wrong. “I think Graysen is dangerous. He’s been violent and has strange secrets, and I just don’t think I can trust him right now.”

“He hurt you?” Cassius asked. It was an emotionally loaded question, but his eyes were neutral.

“No, of course not,” I blurted instinctively. “Somebody else hurt me. But Graysen has hurt other people.” Well, at least one other person. My attacker. The other two were speculation based on the evidence I’d discovered this morning. Granted, it was significant evidence.

We turned onto a wide cement road and the car picked up speed. My stomach lurched. “Does he know you went to the school?”

“No.” Familiar teal crops tinted the heavy fog blue. It felt odd that we were leaving town. What direction had he told me he lived in again?

“Does he know about me? Would he be able to find you at my place?”

“No.” My eyes panned to his expression which grew calmer once I answered.

“What did you say to him when you left?”

“He wasn’t home,” I said quietly, an unconscious part of me screaming " stop talking". Something was wrong. My instincts swirled, trying to reassess the new feeling in the air.

“He was with Mykie this morning?” he asked. An innocent enough question. But…

“I-I never told you about Mykie.” The words escaped my lips without consent.

Before I could panic, before I could fight, before I could ask Cassius what the fuck was going on, a white cloth slapped over my mouth from behind the headrest. The smell was chemical—familiar.

My vision began to blur as my muscles relaxed.

I tried to stay alert, wanting nothing more than to feel the urgency appropriate for the situation, but the drugs soaking the fabric made me so…

incredibly… calm. Staying awake wasn’t an option.