Page 56 of The Wind and the Wild (The Keepers of Faerie #1)

“ He’s been staying in the library,” I tell her, in no position not to spill every fact I have.

I do not know what I am supposed to do about the hound stalking our woods.

I am just one woman, one human woman, and not a fighter at that.

I’ve never had to be brave enough to attempt such a thing.

“ He’s been hurt before, and I kept going back to visit him.

Em—um, we saw more hounds on the edge of the trees. ”

She stands, her back straight as a needle, no longer irritated with me and glancing at the nearest window.

“ Someone has caught one. I think they are skinning fae they find near the edge of the border.”

Her eyes darken.

“’Tis why they are here,” Aidyn mumbles, and Emma starts as if remembering he is slumped right before her. She looks at my hand, and I realize I’ve been curling my fingers into his hair, tucking it back soothingly without meaning to.

“ I don’t know what to do,” I admit.

Emma draws in a long breath. “ Neither do I. Let me think.” She begins to pace, lighting a second small lantern and setting it on the flat wooden arm of the couch. “ Girl, take cloth from my washroom and tend to his wounds.”

Nodding, I momentarily forget where her washroom is as I scurry to the back of her little cottage, head spinning and hands jittery.

Digging through her drawers, I find the rolls of clean cloths most everyone has saved up.

It’s always good to have plenty of bandages when you do not live near any city and cloth takes time to make.

A few jars of salves sit alongside them, and I grab what I can, even if Aidyn says it doesn’t have much effect on his kind.

Taking a washbasin, I fill it with water and return.

Aidyn appears quite fascinated with Emma, watching her every move as she shuffles about, glancing out the windows and probably considering, like I am, that standing on a wagon and shouting to everyone from three villages clustered together that there is a monster in the woods is a good way to cause so much panic it may just spook the creature.

If anyone would believe me.

The wild woman who runs into Faerie shouting about monsters during midsummer isn’t likely to convince anyone save for those who know me the best.

I’ll merely be laughed at and ignored, if not mocked.

Could Aidyn do it?

One look at him slumped along Emma’s cushions says no , not unless we think of no other options.

Are Una and Niall safe?

Are they safe? Are they safe? Are they safe?

Aidyn makes a disconcerted noise when I pull away the cloth I’ve been using on his shoulder but otherwise does not object.

Somehow, sitting here, in Emma’s house, with her reaction to him moments ago, I am much more aware of how dangerous a creature I have come to befriend, how much trust he is offering me to help him.

He could certainly fling me out the window with a toss of his hand.

In this normal little cottage, he appears ever more out of place, and it has my heartbeat picking up even as I find it easy to touch him.

“ I’ve never met an elder human before,” Aidyn murmurs, his voice far off, as if he doesn’t know he’s speaking. “ Your faces age differently than ours. You have lovely paths across your skin.”

Emma regards him for a moment before scoffing gently. “ Well, you’ve managed to befriend the gentlest faerie I’ve ever heard tales of.”

“ There are no tales of me.” Aidyn rolls his eyes, head resting back against the cushions. “ I am much too young.”

Another eyebrow quirk, but Emma nods softly and does not speak. I press my lips together, feeling both as if I should laugh but also weep. My heart is tapping an uneven pattern against my ribs, even now.

“ Should we tell B—I mean, our tax collector?” I ask. He is closest to the head of our village along with my parents, though he may be just as drunk as many of the other villagers by now.

“ I... do not know,” Emma admits. “ Where are your other two?”

“ Dancing, last I saw. I should—”

There’s a brief knock on the door, and Una scrambles in before I can finish the thought. “ Emma, have you—”

She halts, face flushed from dancing and hair disheveled with wildflowers but looking otherwise excited until she sees me and Aidyn, and her jaw falls open.

Emma stares at her, the overly loud sound of her name spoken seeming to hang in the air.

Aidyn, cocking his head at the next human he’s meeting up close, glances at Emma. “’Tis a beautiful name. I’ve no desire to use it.”

Emma heaves out a long frustrated breath while Una blinks more times than she should, eyes finally sliding up to mine. “ What— ”

Niall joins her, starts, and recovers quicker, pulling them both inside and shutting the door. He sets his axe against the wall.

“ There are more hounds,” I say before either of them can begin yelling, then repeat everything I said to Emma.

Niall, to his credit, seems to be keeping up and nodding. Una still hasn’t closed her mouth.

“ Are these the friends who were worried I’d enchant you?” Aidyn asks dryly, words more slurred than before.

Una closes her mouth.

“ Yes,” I say awkwardly, then apologize when he starts at the herbs I’m applying.

Una ’s eyebrows finally crinkle with concern, and she edges closer.

I’ve told her dozens of gentle stories about the creature, but that does not quite comfort her in the face of meeting one of the fae we’ve only heard stories of—the kind who come in the night, sing strange songs, and chase away the worst monsters of their lands.

Her eyes are wide when they stare into Aidyn’s soft curious gaze.

A short silence falls. Emma has taken back up her pacing. Niall sucks in a long determined breath. I can see him winding up to deciding he’s going to fix everything.

Still, he merely asks, “ What do we do?”

“ That’s what we were trying to figure out,” I say, then look to Una. “ Someone should get your sister and both your parents, at the very least. They’ll listen. We can’t go anywhere near the woods—”

“ I’ll get them,” Niall says. “ They were all near the pies only a few minutes ago.”

The pie contest , I think blandly, nearly amused at how unimportant it has become. I do not like the idea of him returning to the dancing, not when there are dangerous things creeping along the edges of the trees, but I like the idea of everyone else I love out there even less.

“ Careful,” I whisper, and Una frowns at him as well, kissing him before he grabs his ax and trots back out the door. I do not need to tell him not to speak of Aidyn—we all know.

Finally, Una whispers, “ What is happening?”

“ I don’t know,” I say all over again.

“ Who would be enough a fool?” Aidyn whispers.

There is a distinct furrow between his brows, and not of confusion.

He should be seeing a true healer. I smooth the bandages down, thinking of pulling off his shirt and looking at his back but wondering if he will fight against it with other eyes watching.

No, he should be helped by one of his own.

He lets his head roll against the cushions until he is looking at me. “ Do not all your people know not to anger Faerie?”

“ Yes, we know.” This is not an accident. This is no careless step on a mushroom. “ Anyone who lives anywhere near this area of the woods is much too frightened to—”

Aidyn blinks when I do not continue. Glancing at Una, I see understanding in her expression. I read the same thoughts in her eyes, and when Emma glances our way, I wonder if she can see the sudden realization or if she’s just come to it herself.

“ You know who,” Aidyn says, a little clearer, and I hear the hint of that unearthly noble faerie voice that is too often hidden beneath teasing and gentleness. “ Do you know, Flower?”

“ I—” Unsure how to continue, I glance at the door.

Something hot kindles behind my chest bone, a sudden and certain conviction, along with the knowledge I was being used. At least, I was trying to be used and would’ve been had I not been so convicted in my anger all these years later.

And what has begun from those actions—what could become of all of us should those hounds decide a large crowd is not something they want to avoid.

Even that wildcat Aidyn and I found near the path, with the smaller wounds along its fur—

Unsteadily, I rise, and Aidyn’s hand slides off my leg. I step out the front door.

“ Ni—um, don’t —” Una squeaks after me.

Stalking down the path, I weave through the dancers and people wandering with food and drink from the edges of the village spreading out into the field.

A few shoulders bump into mine, and some familiar voice calls out to ask if I’m well.

My heart thumps, and I barely hear the words atop the rush behind my ears.

He isn’t difficult to find, not standing beside his father and one of his overly bright stitched suits.

Someone has left their shoes on the ground.

Numbly, I pick up one of the heavier boots—they’re not going to find them again until morning, anyway—and keep walking.

Una’s voice trails after me, but she doesn’t go quite far enough to grab me.

“ You,” I say, ducking under someone’s arm as Blain hears me and glances in my direction, expression unbothered. “ Cowardly, spineless worm ! ”

The sole of the boot I’ve stolen collides solidly into his cheek.

I may be smaller than him, but not by much, and he’s in the middle of turning to me.

A moment later and he’s on his behind in the dirt, blinking.

A few people yelp. Someone in the crowd, probably someone who knows me , laughs so loudly it actually has me turning to search the sea of faces.

So many people are chuckling that I can’t pick them out.

Whatever they think is happening, that I am in my cups or this is some sort of lover’s quarrel, I don’t much care.

Everyone is going to think I’m the wild woman during midsummer anyway, so it doesn’t matter.