Page 10

10

WELL, HE DIDN’T QUITE LIE

Rachel

I can't stop brushing her hair with my finger. It's so bright, and soft, and gorgeous. It was red, almost pink when the tall, hot, dangerous-looking dude brought her back, but now it's dark blue, like a night sky before the sun has completely disappeared, or the depths of the ocean.

And then, there's the ears—pointy.

Her other features have changed, somehow hardening, becoming sharper, slightly younger too, but I still recognize my sister, despite those changes. I think I would have recognized her even if she'd been purple- or pink-skinned, like some of the strange creatures I've seen.

She's just…Darina. If anything, she's never been more herself than she seems now, like I'd known all along that she used to wear a disguise.

It makes sense. How many people wondered at the fact that a random child found in the woods ended up looking so much like my parents, like me? This—this is logical, somehow.

Though I certainly didn't expect that she'd be a bloody fairy-tale princess, it's just so much like her that I'd see some humor in it, if I could.

But the memory of those horrors back in my apartment is too close for me to find humor in anything.

The man and his cub, crushing Ben's head like it was nothing, just an egg. It all happened so fast, I don't think it's quite hit yet.

Remembering the real world—my world—I check my phone in my pocket. I still have fifty percent battery. There's no signal bar, predictably. I don't think the fairy people have satellites in orbit around their planet. Still, I can see new texts, received moments after I sentRain that message.

Rain:??

Rain: what the fuck, Rachel! Answer me.

Rain: fucking fairies??

“Yep, fucking fairies,” I murmur in agreement.

She’s likely freaking out back home.

The nasty part of me I can’t—or don’t try to—restrain where Rain is concerned thinks let her. But that’s unfair. I’d hate to be left in the dark after that.

“We’re not all so bad,” comes a voice, though I didn’t hear anyone approach.

I flinch.

It’s the blond man who they tell me is my sister’s brother. What does that make him to me?

Nothing, I think a little stiffly.

It’s not his fault I disliked him from the moment I first heard of him. My sister killed herself to save him, and he didn’t stop her.

I realize I’m not being fair. From what Valdred described, he didn’t have a chance to do much.

“How is she?”

“Asleep, still. She was always a light sleeper,” I find myself saying nervously. “Us being so close should have been enough to wake her up.”

“Eversleep does that—even a drop of it could send her on a hundred-year nap.”

My eyes widen. “What?”

He shrugs, walking to the other side of the humongous bed.

It’s so large it could comfortably fit a dozen people, plus their cats.

“Ryther was taking a risk. Surely, you’ve heard the tales. It takes true love’s kiss to break the curse.” Loch smiles wickedly.

I blink several times. “Darina doesn’t love anyone.”

Except that’s not exactly true, is it? I think bitterly.

Again, I’m not fair. She loves me. She loves my parents. And yes, she clearly loves her brother too.

“Was he banking on you kissing her?”

Loch sits on the bed, by her side. “He’s her mate. See? They wear each other’s mark.” He points to yet another new feature on my sister’s skin: a tattoo I spot through the slit in her fancy gown. Except it’s not a tattoo, because it’s moving. Crawling up her leg, disappearing through her clothes, then reappearing around her arms.

Oh, wow. Honestly, I can’t picture it. Rina hasn’t so much as ever had a steady boyfriend in her entire life. She scorns the very thought of monogamy, of commitment. And all of a sudden she has someone able to break a curse with his true love?

“At least she chose someone pretty.”

“Right?” Loch laughs. “I certainly would have loved a piece of that cake, before he was spoken for by my sister, that is. A little gross to think that way about him now, sadly.”

I’m surprised again. “You sound normal. Modern.”

Everyone else seems to speak like they’re from another era altogether.

“I travel to your world a fair bit for business.”

“Business,” I repeat, wondering what manner of business a fairy could have on Earth.

He shrugs. “Deals. Supplies. We folk are terrible at making practical things. If you want a sword capable of cutting clean through titanium, come to us. If you’re after toilet paper, Walmart is a better bet.”

“You shop at Walmart?”

He grimaces. “Not really. America is too expensive. My business shops at the Walmart equivalent in more affordable countries, and resells the goods here at a premium. It’s rather lucrative. I imported plumbing and many useful amenities centuries ago.”

I admit I’m impressed. “How enterprising.” I clear my throat. “Did you know? What Darina was. Did you?—”

“I went to see her while she was cursed. Not often. That wouldn’t have been healthy. My last visit was almost twenty-five years ago. I didn’t even realize she was awake.”

I nod, because that makes sense. Then there’s an awkward silence and I feel compelled to fill it. “So, when are my parents getting here?”

For the first time, Loch’s eyes cut to me, while they were fixed on her sleeping form.

“I mean, if Rina sent Valdred to get me, she sent him—or someone else—for them too, right? I figured that’s why they weren’t home when I went to see them.”

“Ah,” is all he says.

There’s something in his tone. Something that makes me fix him with a steady stare.

“What?”

He sighs. “No one told you. I suppose they were leaving such a distinguished privilege to family.” He seems resentful to realize that means him, given that he’s as close to family as anyone conscious in this room could be. “They were indeed brought here—but not by us. I understand you have a little insight on what it’s like to be prey to the folk.”

My heart’s galloping in my chest.

So that’s what Valdred was avoiding saying. My parents were captured.

“What happened? Who has them? Where are they?”

Those shifting eyes, so like my sister’s in both shape and in the way they don’t truly seem to set on a specific color, search mine. I don’t know what he finds there, but after a moment, he replies simply, his words unadorned.

“Dead.”

No.

No.

He can’t mean that.

My mother.

Dad.

We were hiking just three weeks ago.

Laughing at Sunday dinner.

I feel sick to my stomach, bile rising up my throat.

“They were tortured first,” he continues, his tone even. “The only reason they did not suffer is that I didn’t allow them to feel what was done to their bodies. But it would have been oh so excruciating.”

I stand, ready to launch myself at this monster. Except my legs can’t hold me up, so I fall to the ground helplessly, a sob caught in my chest.

I wish he could lie, so then I could delude myself into believing he was lying.

“I do not take pleasure in your pain, child. But you need to know what this world is like. You need to understand it, or you will also suffer such a fate. You demanded to be brought here. Now all the courts know there’s another mortal to take and torture in order to reach the queen. It’ll be your future, unless you guard yourself against it.”

I want to hate him. I want to shout insults at him. But I’m too busy sobbing.

Mom. Dad. Ben.

All of them dead.

This is the reality of this brutal world. I’ve been thinking about it like it’s just a pretty, make-believe universe, despite getting a taste of their violence in my apartment.

He’s right. I demanded to be brought here, though Valdred wanted to take me elsewhere, to safety. I didn’t understand. Not until now. I thought this was a fairy tale with a pretty princess.

And in my ignorance, I’ve made myself the next target.

“You’re her one weakness.”

“I’m not the one who got her killed the first time,” I snap, if only to hurt him too.

Loch pins me with a stare. “I do not dislike you yet, mortal child. Do attempt to keep it that way. You can’t afford enemies of my caliber.”