Page 71 of Hunted By Fae

Crouched at a bottom cabinet, I chance a glance at her. My hands still around the stacked bowls.

Tess stares out the window now, at darkness, a faint frown working on her face. It eases, loosens, then tightens again.

I can almost hear the words churning through her mind, the confusion unspooling.

I put the bowls on the counter, then reach for the cutlery drawer—and I answer the questions on her frown. “The fae blood should be dominant in me,” I explain. “I should be more fae than human. I should look like the light ones with only one human feature. But I am like this—” I spread my arms out. “—and in the fae realm, that’s considered adefect, like being born without legs, only worse. And then there are some who think it’s an abomination.”

ThatIam an abomination.

The cigarette pinched between her fingers is burnt down to a balancing line of ash pinched between her fingers.

I lean my hip against the counter. “I left the light lands a long a time ago to be with those more like me. Kintas aren’t exactly welcomed with warmth in the fae realm.”

“You sayrealmandlands—” she huffs, then tosses the cigarette into the sink. It douses with a sizzle, but notbefore she’s already lighting the next. “What is that place?”

I fight the disapproving glare on the cigarette and force my stare to stick to her sock-clad feet on the edge of the sink. “I’m from a world, like this one. That world and this one touch in certain places, which createsbridges. In the fae world,” I say, “there are what you might call countries, but we call them lands.”

“The light lands,” she starts, her mind working overtime, “is the country of the light fae… and the dark land… is the country of the dark fae?”

I nod, and I tell her no more, because she doesn’t need more on her mind. I’ve dumped enough on her.

This is her lesson in the basics.

She simmers in that a while.

She smokes the cigarette, doesn’t let it burn down on its own, and I cook the pasta in silence, drain it in the sink, then stir in the sauce by the time she’s ready to speak more.

But all she says is—

“Well…” She flicks the cigarette into the sink. It sizzles in a mug of murky water. “Fuck.”

In answer, I give her a tight smile, probably more of a grimace than anything.

I feel the caution nipping in me, writhing like a pit of worms in my gut. “Do you hate me?”

Her hands slap to her thighs. “That depends.”

My mouth twists.

That stark look of hers turns on me. “Did you know it was coming?”

The blackout.

The plague.

The warriors.

I shake my head. “No. The dark ones have been trying to expand their darkness from their lands for longer than I’ve been alive. I didn’t… I knew they were still trying, but no, I wouldn’t have gone on this trip if I suspected there was even a chance that they would suddenly succeed and start invading this world.”

Tess nods, faint. “So what do we do? What about those wormhole things you mentioned—bridges, right? Can’t we go through those?”

I shake my head, teeth biting down on the flesh of my bottom lip.

“Why not?”

I backstep for the drawers and rummage through the second one for the little marble ball I spotted earlier. I scoop it into my hand, then a flat button in the other before I hold them both out for Tesni to see.

One marble, one button.