Page 14

14

“Research suggests the first Unseelie fae were born of shadows and darkness.”

Unseelie Fae: A Scientific Study

I ’m about to break my promise to Nia.

I feel terrible about breaching her trust, but not terrible enough to turn back. Nia left for drinks with Nolan over an hour ago. She offered to let me tag along, but I declined. They deserved time alone together, and I needed her out of the house so she didn’t realize that I had no intention of staying in my room.

Getting around the city without being noticed wasn’t difficult. All I had to do was keep the hood on the cloak I borrowed from Nia’s closet pulled over my hair and not trip over my skirts again. The dress Madame Ella sent yesterday was far too long. I would’ve thought she sent it to the wrong address if my name hadn’t been written on the box.

Nia suggested bringing it back, but I don’t want to be a bother. Madame Ella is already doing me a favor by altering my mother’s dresses, so I did my own hemming this morning.

The handful of people I came across were too drunk to even notice me skirting the shadows in my borrowed cloak. The downside is that, by the time I reach The Divide, I’m a ball of sweat underneath the thick wool.

The bridge waits like a silent sentinel, guarding the unknown.

There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’ve already met the people who live on the other side, and the bridge can handle the weight of not only horses and riders, but also carts of water . These old planks won’t have an issue with my weight.

It’s going to be fine.

Everything is fine.

With cool air filling my lungs, I take the first step.

Beyond the quiet groan of the board beneath my slipper, nothing happens. I don’t burst into flames or keel over dead. It’s just a bridge. I cross bridges all the time. Couldn’t reach the well in Gravale without crossing one.

Everything is fine.

I take another step. And another. Each one feels like a victory, a testament to my perseverance.

When I return to Rosehill, I’ll be able to tell everyone with certainty that there is nothing to fear. That our neighbors aren’t monsters out to dine on our flesh for supper. They have no intention of using our bones to pick their teeth clean.

Those are the sorts of nonsensical lies printed in the first few chapters of that ridiculous book Trevor gave me. I got so irritated by the falsehoods, I couldn’t even finish.

No wonder everyone in Rosehill is terrified.

When I can no longer see any lamplight at my back, the bridge starts to sway of its own volition. I wait for shadows to emerge from the gloom, but nothing appears. Mist falls around me like a shroud, so thick I can hardly see the steps in front of me.

Despite the roughness cutting into my palms, my hands remain steady on the ropes holding the swaying planks. This isn’t so bad. A little eerie, sure, but the more I walk, the easier it is to take the next step.

I swipe my hands down my skirts, thankful for the cool silk against the soreness. Surely, I must be almost to the other side by now. This must be the longest bridge in the?—

My foot meets nothing but air.

I’m too far gone to pull back, and my body tips forward. My arms cartwheel, missing the rope on my way down. No! No! “ No !” I flail for something to keep me from plummeting to my death, somehow managing to catch the brace where the board should have been attached. The rusted metal bites into my hands as I dangle, nothing but air and terror beneath me.

A scream rips from my throat as I beg for help. If I cannot pull myself up, I’m going to plummet to my death, my bones broken and entrails splattered over whatever waits at the bottom of the abyss.

Stupid, bloomin’ weak arms.

My life flashes before my eyes.

My mother’s laugh.

My father’s smile.

My brother’s teasing .

My fingers cramp, and I screw my eyes closed, praying to whatever deity is listening.

Nia will be devastated. My poor father and brother will never know the truth of my demise. My sudden disappearance will break their hearts.

Why didn’t I stay home? Why didn’t I listen to Nia when she told me to put the Unseelie out of my head? Why did I venture into this terrible place of darkness and shadows and death and?—

Something clamps around my hand. My eyes flash open, meeting a pair of dark eyes set in a face I recognize.

The Unseelie leader, the one who took my biscuits.

I wait for him to peel away my fingers and let me fall to nothing, to be the monster everyone says he is.

Instead, he offers me a second hand. I cling to him like a lifeline while he lifts me as if I weigh nothing, right over the missing planks to where he stands. I collapse against his damp chest, gasping for breath, willing my thundering pulse to slow.

My palms and fingers ache and burn, but I don’t even care because I’m alive .

I screw my eyes closed to stem my tears, but still they find their way through my lashes.

If he hadn’t been nearby?—

Brilliant. Now I’m sobbing.

Peering through watery lashes, I find myself face-to-face with a very bare gray-green chest.

I jump away to give him space and would’ve fallen back into that damn canyon if he didn’t catch me again. This time, he spins me around and places me so that he’s the one with his back to the hole.

What a bloomin’ disaster. “Th-thank you for saving me.”

The man’s expression is as stony as ever, his eyes so solemn beneath the thick curtain of his lashes. “You should not be here.” His deep voice rumbles with the slightest hint of a lilting accent.

Wait . He just spoke to me. He speaks our language!

I knew his voice would be deep and rough. I bloody well knew it?—

Hold on . If he can speak our language, does that mean he understood everything I said Wednesday and chose not to respond?

How rude—not that I say that aloud considering he saved me from certain death.

Twice.

He blows out what sounds like a frustrated breath and props his hands on his hips. Suddenly, I’m very aware of every single hard line of his bare torso. His flat nipples, darker than the rest of him. His belly button amidst the ridges of his abdomen.

Stop staring at him, you loon!

You should not be here…

I force my gaze to meet his. “Is it illegal?”

His brow furrows as he shakes his head. “There is no law, but there are rules. And it is not safe for someone like you on this side of the canyon.”

Irritation flares in my chest, heating me all the way through. “Someone like me? And what, pray, do you mean by that?”

“Someone so…soft.”

“I am not soft .” I mean, compared to him maybe, but I’m stronger than I look.

He arches a dark brow.

I liked him better when he didn’t speak. “If it’s so unsafe, then what are you doing out here?”

“Hunting.”

“Without a shirt?” That doesn’t seem very safe or smart. “Don’t you get cold?”

He glances down at himself, as if he’s forgotten that his chest is bare. When he looks back at me, his eyes have narrowed. “No.”

“Not even in the winter?” I’d die without the heavy coat of furs that used to belong to my mother.

He shakes his head slowly.

Fascinating. Perhaps his skin is thicker than mine. If it wasn’t wildly inappropriate, I’d ask if I could touch him again. Purely for research purposes, not because I want to, because that would be foolish.

Nearly falling to my death aside, I am not a fool.

A fool would want to run her hands down the planes of his chest or drag her fingertips over the ripples of his stomach or trace the deep cut of his hips?—

But not me. Not at all.

The man stares at me as if I said all of that that aloud.

What I need right now is a distraction. Let’s see… Wait! I know. “I brought you more biscuits.” I slip my pack from my shoulders and withdraw the box. “My mother always said that you shouldn’t arrive to anyone’s house empty-handed.” This might not be his house, but it is his territory, so I figured the rule applies.

He takes the box quicker than he did on Wednesday, reminding me of the cat I adopted back home. The thing hated me at first, clawing and scratching any time I got near. But after bringing it a bowl of milk every day for a month, the little ginger menace eventually allowed me to pet its matted fur.

Speaking of fur, this man has none. If the book Trevor gave me was wrong about that, were they wrong about everything else? My gaze drops to the man’s dark green trousers for a split second before I realize what I’m doing and focus once more on his face.

A face that is still fixed in a scowl.

“This is a Seelie custom, then?” he says slowly. “To give a gift of sustenance to everyone you meet?”

I’d hardly call a few biscuits sustenance, but that is neither here nor there. “I suppose it is, especially when you’re trying to make new friends.”

For some reason, that makes his eyes widen. “You wish to be my friend?”

“Of course. But in order for that to happen, you should probably tell me your name.” It feels strange to have met him twice now and still not know.

The Unseelie’s chest expands as a heavy breath passes through his lips. He glances over his shoulder toward Rosehill like he can’t wait for me to be gone. “My name is Everett.”

Everett .

Everett.

Everett.

“That’s a nice name.” A nice name? Really? Did I honestly come all the way over here to tell this man that he has a nice name and give him biscuits?

Nia is right. I have gone mad.

I look away, my cheeks blazing. That’s when I notice two planks stacked behind me.

The planks weren’t missing at all. They were removed.

Did he take them out because of Ronan trying to cross the bridge, or have they always been gone? If it’s the latter, Ronan could’ve met the same fate I almost did. He’s lucky to be alive.

I bunch my skirts in my hands and wince when I remember the soreness there.

Everett sets the box on the bridge and holds out his hand. “May I see your palm?”

For the first time since I arrived, I realize exactly how alone we are. He could push me through that hole in the bridge, and no one would ever know.

“I will not harm you,” he says gently.

I know that, don’t I? Otherwise, I wouldn’t have snuck out to meet him.

With a deep breath, I set my hand in his.

The only change in his expression is a slight flutter of the muscles in his jaw. From his pocket, he withdraws a flask. He thumbs-open the lid and pours cool water over my sore skin. Not just any water—water that instantly heals the wound, erasing all redness and pain.

“Thank you.” Cupping my fingers, I splash my other hand.

He returns the top to his flask and stuffs it back into his pocket.

Are those cuts on his shoulder? It looks like he might have been grazed by some pesky thorns. I hate it when that happens. Back home, they used to snag my skirts something awful.

Hesitantly, I raise my damp fingers to the small scratches.

Everett stiffens beneath my touch, and his nostrils flare. In hindsight, I probably should’ve asked his permission the way he asked mine. Oh, well. It’s too late now.

Muttering an apology, I dry my hands on my skirts.

Everett drives a hand through his hair, sweeping the dark strands from one side of his forehead to the other. “Why have you come, Kerris Dawn?”

For some reason, knowing he remembers my name makes me feel as if I could fly all the way back to the cottage.

“It’s just Kerris. We’re friends so you don’t have to use my surname. And to answer your question?—”

A sudden wind whips across my cheeks, and Everett hisses out a breath, cutting off my explanation. He stalks past me to collect the missing panels, replacing them one by one, muttering, “You must return home.”

“But—” I haven’t even gotten to ask my questions.

Everett’s dark brows slam down over narrowed eyes. “ Go . Now .”

The urgency in his tone leaves me whirling for my side of The Divide. Even though I know all the planks are there, I still hold tight to the ropes, just in case.

When I’m safely standing on Seelie dirt, I turn to find Everett only a step behind. The man moves like a shadow, not even the boards creaking under his feet. He comes to a halt on the final plank, his dark eyes trained on the ground.

His fingers flex and stretch at his sides, the muscles along his chiseled jaw jumping.

“Do it,” I say.

His head lifts and our gazes lock. Something deep and knowing stirs in my chest the same way it did the first day at the well.

“Go on. I dare you. Don’t let me be the only one breaking the rules tonight.”

With his gaze still on me, he takes the final step.

I don’t know why, but this seems like a small victory after the monumental failure of my visit to the Unseelie fae.

To my delight, Everett doesn’t stop there. He escorts me along the outskirts of the city, all the way to my aunt and uncle’s back gate.

Once I close and lock the latch, he turns and disappears into the night, leaving me to sneak back to my bed, my heart filled with so much excitement it’s bound to burst.

It isn’t until I’m drifting off to sleep that I realize: Everett led me back home…

But I never told him where I live.