Page 12 of Of Pixies and Promises (Fae Guardians)

Chapter

Twelve

S id floated in the lake, staring at the sky as the sun dipped beyond the horizon, and it turned from blue to teal to orange and navy. He tried to come to terms with what had just happened. Was he yet to wake from a dream or reality or a nightmare?

The lake no longer called to him.

When Moss had portaled him here, Sid had waded into the water without hesitation. Only a prayer existed in his heart.

Help me belong. Help me protect.

He’d waded into the deep, his legs treading water, and he’d waited. Nothing. No answer to his prayer. No worms rising from the deep. Nothing.

Now the gloaming was starting to fall like a smothering blanket with little fiery holes poked through it. All he could think was that Nyra’s tribe was right. He was human. He was empty. He wasn’t even worth judgment. The divine ignored him.

This cold indifference from their revered Well was Sid’s reward for his selfishness.

He wasn’t even afforded the shame-saving ending of not being alive to face his rejection.

That cowardly end hadn’t entered his mind before now.

He’d just wanted to be with Nyra, to finally give in to that guilty notion that he could belong here in Elphyne.

That he’d been wrong.

That he wanted to make up for it.

He might have floated there, staring at the twilight for hours, minutes, days, thinking about his options.

In the end, he came to the conclusion that if the Well wasn’t going to help him gain absolution, then he had to take a page out of Nyra’s book and do it himself.

He would swim back to shore, find Silver, and join in her fight.

He knew how Reapers worked. He knew how they fought.

He didn’t need mana to protect this world.

He didn’t need permission.

All he needed was— something brushed his ankle.

Sid’s wet skin prickled with alarm. He tried to silence his movements and hear the danger coming. But the sound didn’t come from beneath. It came from across the water, from where Nyra flew toward him, screaming for him to get out.

He tried to wave and say that he was okay, that the worms didn’t want him anyway, but that slither hit his foot again.

Then his hand. Then it wrapped around his neck like a noose and dragged him down.

The last thing he saw before going under was the flare of Nyra’s pink hair and wings moonlit like an angel.

Slick, oily darkness consumed Sid as he was pulled down, down into the deep. Down so far that the light of the moon extinguished. Down so far that there was no hope for him to rise and find air again.

Something like fear ripped through him—not because of the burn in his lungs, or the twisting, slithering lengths squirming around his body—but because Nyra had seen him go under, and he’d caught the tragedy in her eyes. She didn’t think he would survive.

Maybe that was why he resisted the slithering things trying to gain access to his mouth.

Maybe that was why he panicked when he felt them everywhere, inside his clothes—trying to violate him in horrific ways without his consent.

His instinct to survive kicked his legs, made him buck and thrash and mindlessly beg.

But he gave permission, didn’t he?

That’s why he was there. To submit to being judged. To answer the call. To belong.

He stopped struggling. The burn, the suffocation of the worms, became so intense that he suddenly stopped feeling at all.

There was no emotion, no sensation. He floated in a dark weightless space, wondering if this was the calm before death often spoken about.

That moment where they saw a light at the end of the tunnel… or the darkest pits of hell.

No.

This moment of floating peacefully wasn’t hell.

When the worms breached him, searching him inside and out, hunting for whatever it was they hungered for, he thought— this is hell. Not because he deserved the agony, but because he never got the chance to tell Nyra he loved her.

Sid’s eyes fluttered open to darkness. But air. Sweet, glorious air dragged in and out of his abused lungs. He was wet. Water somewhere lapped against the shore. But he was not in the water.

And it whispered. You’re here. You belong. You are ours.

With a ragged, choking gasp, he jackknifed up.

“Sid!” Nyra’s strangled voice came from his right.

His head swiveled in the dark to find her crawling toward him on the shore, her golden skin luminous, her prismatic wings like diamonds sparkling in the night. He flinched at the brightness.

He was at the lake. No longer in it, but spit out on the shore. Deep night had fallen and now his eyes adjusted to see remarkably well. How long had he been out? How much time had passed?

And why the fuck did everything seem so vibrant? It was night. He knew it. But he felt like he could see almost as if it were day. The air tasted sweet. The ground sparked a sensation against his skin. Nyra scrambled toward him, shouting over her shoulder as she crawled, “Colt! Colt, come quickly!”

She threw herself at him, bowling into him until they fell against the sand. God, even her warm skin was hard to describe. It was like she’d been standing by the fire… no—he ran his hands over her smooth body—it was like the fire was now in him.

She clutched his jaw between her hand and peppered his face with kisses. “You stupid, dumb, amazing, dumb and…” Anger and fury contorted her pretty features. “You lied to me! You broke your promise.”

“I’m so sorry. I—” He shook his head as shame threatened to overwhelm him. “I fucked up and I was too much of a coward to tell you. An apology wasn’t good enough. I had to prove it.”

She pulled back, her eyes narrowing on his face.

He lifted his thumb to smear a glob of blue bioluminescence from her cheek, but it wouldn’t move. He blinked, trying to focus. It wasn’t on her tear-stained cheek. It was a reflection… of light cast from his.

“Sid,” she breathed, gaping at him in awe, touching a spot beneath his left eye with reverence. “You have the Guardian mark.”

Did it work? His hand flew to his face to see if he could feel it. His gaze darted to the lake, searching for evidence of what had happened. Of his acceptance. But those whispers were silent again.

Sand exploded as another pixie landed next to Nyra. She held out her hand, and a glow illuminated above her palm as if she held a firefly or manabee… but it was magic… and Sid could sense it as though he and it were made of the same stardust.

“Colt,” Nyra said, reluctantly scrambling off Sid. “Look.”

Colt’s eyes focused on Sid’s cheek, and she smiled. He glanced at her lower lip, where the same blue teardrop twinkled. A Mage of the Order of the Well. That made him…

“Congratulations, D’arn. You are the first human in the history of Elphyne to survive the Guardian initiation.”

“What did you call me?”

“D’arn. It is the official title of a Guardian,” she explained, glancing around the sand as she continued. “It precedes your new Guardian name. But I don’t see a name in the sand. Most of the time, the Well Worms spit you out with a new name.”

“My name is Sid,” he said, his throat still raw from the invading worms. “Sidney.”

She smiled. “Well, I guess you’ll remain as Sid unless you choose a new name—a rarity but not unheard of. There have been a few other Guardians who claimed their new identities. But there will be more time for deciding that later during your training.”

“Training?”

She cocked her head. “As a Guardian, of course. You will now be amongst the select few who can hold forbidden items and still access your mana.” When he continued to look dumbly at her, she explained.

“You have mana, Sid. You will have to learn how to harness that gift and how to fight to uphold the integrity of the Well.”

“Of course,” he mumbled. But his eyes shifted to Nyra. He didn’t want to leave her side. She reached for him.

Telling Colt that he refused to go to the Order was on the tip of his tongue when she said, “You won’t be the first mated Guardian.

But you will have to train before you can return to your mate.

The council will decide the rest of your fate, and I can put in a good word.

Nyra is family, but there are five other Councillors in addition to the Prime who will decide your fate.

Oh, look. Here’s another Councillor now.

I believe you may have met him already—D’arn Shade. ”

Two bodies emerged from a cloud of shadow further down the shore.

That Sid could even see the shadow amongst the impossible night again proved that he was different inside. With this new clarity, he noticed shadows gather like a storm cloud and then release its inhabitants—one male, one female.

“Silver,” he rasped, getting to his feet, his heart lurching.

This was the moment. He could make amends for hurting her.

But would she let him atone? Would her dangerous vampire mate allow it?

Sid kept his wary eyes on the dark-haired, obscenely handsome vampire as he stalked closer.

The shadows followed him and folded around his black leather Guardian battle uniform.

Vampiric wings unfurled behind him and Silver as they approached, almost languidly, almost like a sleepy cat stretching when sensing a rival amble by, plucking at the ground in a veiled warning— See my claws.

See my wing span. See, I am an apex predator.

Silver was named for her long silver braid.

He used to think it was because of the silver vambrace she always wore around her forearm, but now he could see it was more.

No silver or metal clung to her as far as he could see.

She was in complete control of her fearsome power, and the color in her bronzed cheeks brought a beauty he’d never seen.

Sid’s eyes slid to Shade. He was the reason for Silver’s happiness, just as Nyra was the reason for Sid’s.

Nyra hissed and bared her fangs. She stepped between him and the approaching couple.

Sid sensed her possessive defenses slam up.

Nyra’s mating mark on his chest burned, and he felt the need to protect her as if that fae bargain still jolted his body into action.

He placed a palm on her shoulder and tugged her back to him, silently folding her wings and keeping them dormant between them.

She shivered, and goosebumps erupted on her skin, but she settled against him.

“My my,” Shade drawled, his voice smooth like whiskey. He looked Sid up and down. “How the tables have turned.”

“Sid?” Silver gaped.

She stepped forward, but Nyra gnashed her fangs, and Shade halted his mate. “Careful, darling. You’re about to walk toward a newly mated pixie.”

“Mated?” Silver’s eyes darted between Nyra and Sid, then to his left eye. “Fuck, Sid. You have a lot to catch me up on.” But then she grinned widely and breathed, “You fucker. You’re here.”

“I’m here,” he returned, his lip twitching in amusement, and he wasn’t sure why, but he nodded to the pixie at his front and proudly announced, “This is Nyra, my mate.”

“ Princess Nyra of Athyrium Gully,” she corrected, never removing her glare from Silver.

With a smug look, Silver hit Shade’s chest with the back of her hand. “See? You wanted a reason not to kill him. Ask, and the Well shall provide.”

“Hmm.” Shade turned his shrewd gaze to the pixie still baring her fangs at his mate. “Fuck with her, pix, and you will have me to deal with.”

“Fuck with him again , vampire, and I will bite your dick off before feeding it to the worms.”

Shade roared in laughter. Silver’s smile stretched, and she met Sid’s gaze. “I like her.”

“I…” Sid’s voice died in his throat as Nyra’s hand wrapped possessively around his. He glimpsed the scars still running over his knuckles. This was why Nyra was defensive. He met Silver’s gaze, to apologize for almost hitting her, but Silver stopped him with a shake of her head.

“It’s in the past,” she said. “You’re in Elphyne now.”

“And we have more pressing issues to deal with,” Shade said as more Guardians and representatives from the Order arrived.

Some came by wings, some by portal, and some by foot.

Shade glanced over his shoulder, his eyes locked on a regal, white-winged and haired woman with dark skin as she strode across the sand.

Then he met Sid’s eyes. “If you want to defend your mate’s gully, we must go before the Prime arrives and demands you stay. ”

“He’s right,” Colt confirmed. “She will insist you stay and leave the fighting to others.”

Shade held Sid and Nyra while Silver grabbed him, and then he muttered, “Let’s hope this works.”

His shadows threw ribbons of darkness around them and turned everything black.