Page 21 of The Wind and the Wild (The Keepers of Faerie #1)

I snort. “ Careful saying such things. She’s not so certain I should be visiting you.” His lip quirks, and I change the topic before he can decide to agree. “ How are the kittens?”

“ Quite well enough. They like the honey, though I’ll need to begin finding them fruit soon—I am well and truly irritating the bees with my theft.”

I manage not to smirk. The jar of honey we used most of the other day is now much fuller, and the kittens are licking his fingers.

Sitting, I take one and pet its soft fur, feeling the bones beneath the fragile skin.

They are no larger, but he mentioned they will not be for a time.

As long as they are awake and eating, I am satisfied.

When a moment of silence passes, Aidyn sits up taller. “ Come with me.”

Before I can ask, he rises, returns the kittens back to his room, and is maneuvering out before I can even catch up. Even with a walking cane, he is faster and more graceful than I am.

It’s a little endearing.

“ What are we doing?” I ask, ignoring the jump in my heart when he hooks his fingers against my palm once again and leads me into the center of the library.

“ I would like to show you something.”

“ That’s a little unspecific, Aidyn .”

He gives an odd laugh, like a bird’s warble. “ I was exploring the library further. I found something I believe you’ll like.”

Down through the rows and rows of bookshelves we go, until we are far beneath the level where I first stepped onto a shelf and was caught by this strange faerie.

From the small building, I still cannot imagine how so many shelves fit in such a small space, but it seems to go on and on forever.

Running a finger across the nearest row of spines, I find many more falling to dust, only a spare few that jostle when I touch them, still in one piece.

“ There are so many of them,” I mumble.

“ Yes. I still have not gathered the purpose of this place. Some things are unknown even to us. I don’t suppose anything or anyone would remember the reasons behind this place—not anymore. It has too many oddities to be a simple library.”

“ I wonder if humans did not even exist then, when it was made.”

From behind, I watch him cock his head. “ Perhaps not. We are an ancient race. If this place has fallen into such disrepair, you may be correct. Ah, here.”

Finally, he seems to have found the nearest wall.

Gazing back over my shoulder and above my head, I am met with a dizzying combination of shadows and bookshelves; it is possible I would never find my way back to the main hall on my own.

Without meaning to, I squeeze Aidyn’s hand a little and am startled when he squeezes back.

The door is small and perhaps was once blue, though it’s difficult to tell beyond the age and the dim light of this cobweb-strewn section of the library.

The handle appears silver. Twisted into a rope of fine intricate flowers and vines, it looks to fit perfectly in the hand.

Without thinking through the gesture, I touch my fingertips to it.

Nothing other than a chill smooth surface greets me, but I don’t quite wish to step away.

“ Fascinating, isn’t it?” Aidyn’s eyes sparkle when he glances down at me. “ I went through three times. Let me show you.”

His hand replaces mine over the handle, and he twists it and leans in to jog it properly loose from the ancient wall. Dust shimmers down in the scant light, and I step out of the way of a small sprite that goes leaping to the floor and dancing into the bookshelves.

“ What do they eat in here?” I ask, watching its pale body disappear.

“ Likely it has found a passageway outside. Those specific ones dine on the bark of trees.”

I turn to ask how he knows so much about every little creature of these lands, but he has cracked open the old blue door, and the underside of a tree greets us.

No, not quite. A long, thin passageway of a tunnel goes downward only to slope up again.

Daylight filters in. The tunnel is of no handmade creation but of countless roots wrapped round and round and bound together until a passageway has formed.

A few more small creatures hanging from the ceiling like dusty cobwebs go scattering out into the light.

Leaves rustle down onto the root-bound floor.

“ Another back door?” I ask softly, though as I say it, I know it does not seem correct. “ There wasn’t one before.”

“ Yes and no,” he says, stepping down in. “ Each time I go through, it puts me in a different place, each where I needed to be.”

I blink at him.

He waves his hand in a loose circle down the passageway.

“ I tested it. The passageway remains open so you can return. The first time, it put me right back beside the honey hive, as I was looking for something to feed the kittens. The second time, I thought it was simply a passageway just outside beside the hive, but I was thinking of finding another water source, and it put me out beside one. I’m not precisely sure how it functions, but it put me there again when I wanted to return. ”

Blinking a few more times, I crouch and look deeper into the tunnel, nervous of venturing in, even if it is only daylight a few paces away.

“ Come along,” he says with a chuckle. “ I shan’t let you get lost.”

I know not why it makes me any more nervous than the rest of this place—I am already in Faerie, already in close quarters with a creature who could sing me away forever should he wish it. A dozen steps through a tunnel of roots and out into the daylight is no different.

Taking his offered hand, I drop into the tunnel, noting no difference in temperature, just a stronger scent of earth and roots.

He is forced to duck his head to make his way through, but I can stand straight and only need to avoid one lower-hanging root.

Bright daylight shimmers in through a smaller hole with enough space for us to fit one at a time, and Aidyn boosts himself out carefully, sitting just on the edge.

“ Come along,” he says again, and I hear something else over the sound of his voice: a few bees and running water. Poking my head out into the strange sunlight this side of the border, I squint at a thicket of berry hedges among the familiar trees. My heart squeezes a little.

“ You can see the library just there.” He points behind me into the trees. “ It’s a ways and mostly hidden, but it’s there.”

Getting to his feet, he brushes off his trousers and gazes down at me happily, offering his hand.

I don’t think he should be pulling me out when he already leans on his walking stick, but I’m more concerned with truly stepping into the trees, even if the library is just there.

Another sprite bumbles past, knocking into Aidyn’s leg before climbing up the nearest tree. My lips pull up at the corners.

At my stillness, Aidyn points the other way, into the deeper forest. “ There is what I believe you’ll like. Come along.”

The smile falls from my face. “ How far in?”

“ Not a few dozen steps into those trees there.” He gestures again through the hedge of berry bushes. “ We are perfectly safe in the daylight.”

I glance up as he gazes down expectantly. His eyes are earnest, curious. He appears no more than a child who wants to show something they’ ve made.

It’s not particularly the daylight I’m worried about.

I would like to go with him , I realize.

“ I... don’t want to go into the woods.”

“ The monsters are not here. Anything else in Faerie will not bother you with my presence.”

I wonder just how frightening he is that others dwelling here will not harm me so long as he stands by my side.

And how much more frightening the hunt hounds are that even he grows paler when they are mentioned.

I shiver. “ I know. I still do not wish to.”

He squints, gazing at me as if he is trying to decide if a lie is sitting on my human features. With a slight smile, he asks, “ Why not?”

Most people wouldn’t have a reason to ask—not when living in a village on the edge of Faerie means going into the woods could leave you forever lost within its depths. This is no danger to Aidyn, and of course no danger to me, and so of course he is going to ask.

“ I just don’t wish to.”

Glancing at the library, then into the woods, he says once more, “ There are no monsters at this time.”

He’s trying to reassure me. “ I know—”

“ And if I wanted to enchant you, I wouldn’t need to lure you into the trees.” He says this with a gentle laugh, and I believe him for more reasons than simply because fae do not lie.

I try to match his smile. “ I just... don’t wish to.”

He squints again. After regarding me for a long moment with that confused smirk, he shrugs a shoulder and turns on his heel, heading into the trees by himself. “ Very well. I shall go.”

I open my mouth at his retreating figure but don’t know what to say.

Was that supposed to convince me? Or has he simply given up on my company and is going to whatever place he’s found on his own? Am I meant to wait here until he returns? Frowning, I fold my arms and watch him disappear into the brambles with a friendly wave.

I snort.

And I am left alone. Squinting after him and leaning my arms against the top of the tunnel, I consider that I am no longer going into the woods with anyone at my back, and suddenly I feel silly.

I could sneak after him.

But no, that is likely exactly what he was trying to get me to do.

I do, however, wish to know what he’s excited about.

Simply climbing out will do me no harm.

Glancing at where the library should be but unable to find it from my height, then into the surrounding woods, I pick up my skirts and scramble fully out into the sunlight.