Page 61 of The Wind and the Wild (The Keepers of Faerie #1)

Blessedly, Emma did not lock the door, and I find myself face-to-face with Una.

She opens her mouth, looks as if she might strike me, then backs immediately into the room, hand over her mouth.

Niall is sitting near a still-sleeping Aidyn, frowning in the dark.

Emma is in the kitchen and likely has seen the entire interaction.

Before I can even attempt an explanation, Emma is saying, “ Let them in.”

Feeling oddly bold, I reach back to snag the cuff of Tynan’s long tunic and tug him inside.

Like his son, he must duck his head to enter, much more of a sweeping movement than poor Aidyn’s stumble while he leaned against me.

Dauna has paused outside, not near the door, and is frowning at the field of dancers.

Niall scrambles away from the couch, looking to me for reassurance before relaxing, still bowing his head. I take Una’s hand, and she squeezes me tight.

Before I can speak, Tynan drifts around me, stepping toward his son.

I mean to say something, to explain more of what has happened, but cannot bring forth the words.

One faerie was an odd thing in Emma’s little homey cottage—this feels something other entirely.

I suddenly do not know if I have done the right thing, not when Aidyn has decided to hide himself away. But if it saves him, I cannot be sorry.

Momentarily, Tynan does nothing but stand over him, gazing down. Aidyn looks remarkably small in comparison, curled against the pillows and under a few more quilts, and I force myself not to go and stand beside him as some sort of defense.

Tynan’s hand drifts out, the tips of his fingers brushing Aidyn’s hair. Bending, he cradles his son’s face between his hands so softly it does not rouse him, brushing his thumbs over his closed eyelids and temples.

“ Aidyn,” he whispers, then kisses his forehead as Aidyn shifts, called by whatever magic is settled in his name. “ Aidyn...”

Una cocks her head at the two, and my throat grows tight. Glancing at Emma, I find a matching expression of concern and softness touched with mild confusion.

I am not sure how to react, or what to do, before Tynan’s soft voice interrupts my worrying. “ What has happened to him?”

Giving Una’s hand a squeeze, I shuffle closer. “ We were attacked by a hound tonight... He had an injury from before... I tried to help. I think maybe we helped a little, but I’m not sure what I’m doing.”

“ Tonight?” he murmurs, moving aside the quilts and touching the new bandage on Aidyn’s shoulder but not disturbing it. Instead, his palm presses to Aidyn’s chest as if he can fix his painful breaths with merely a touch.

“ We were... just inside the trees near the dancing,” I provide, not wishing to say that we were distracted because our hands were tangled in each other’s hair. “ It was too fast for us to get away... I think Aidyn got in front of me before he made us disappear.”

Guilt nudges me into saying that last part, because if I had not been there, certainly he would’ve been faster to escape.

Tynan glances my way but only nods as if he understands perfectly why his son would do such a thing.

Once more, Aidyn stirs but does not wake, even when I place my hand on his shoulder.

“ Can you help?” I ask, trying not to consider the implication of him taking Aidyn away where he will not return.

Blinking as if remembering I am here, he nods ever so slightly. “ This is not a fine place for him to remain.”

I knew already but chew the inside of my cheek so hard I taste iron. Feet brush the doorway, and I find Dauna stepping inside, likewise ducking her head.

“ Who are you?” she asks, dark eyes on me. Her voice is much the same as that low wail she enchanted the hounds with, a whispering song of words that both makes me wish to shrink away and stand and watch her singing. “ Why have you called us—”

Her eyes fall on Aidyn hidden behind Tynan and me, and she turns silent. With a soft cry, she flies across the room to drape herself around him, nearly toppling him off his pillows. He stirs slightly more, his hand brushing against her arm, still not waking in full.

Three more barks, and Una, Niall and I start, turning toward the door Emma shuts.

“ How many of them are there?” Una whispers, then shrinks when Tynan merely glances in her direction. I give her hand another squeeze. If he did not harm me after I chased him into the Faerie woods, I doubt he will fly into a rage simply for her asking a question.

In fact, he answers, “ A few dozen.”

My stomach drops. “ Dozen? ”

“ Most likely,” he says, as if someone has inquired about the weather.

I saw him frightened of that hound that confronted us, saw the way he tensed and heard the strange, uncanny hiss of warning that came from his throat, and Aidyn himself said they are consistently fighting with these creatures—I know he cannot be unafraid.

Perhaps this is where Aidyn learned to put on a fine show of being unbothered.

“ They’re not attacking anyone,” I say. “ Why aren’t they attacking anyone?”

He is not so ancient and otherworldly that I cannot see the thoughts swirling behind his eyes, the ever so slight furrow of his brow.

Leaning his chin against Aidyn’s temple, he stares at the wall, thoughtful.

At his silence, I glance at Emma, but though she’s moved closer, arms folded, she looks likewise confused.

“ Where has he been sleeping?” Tynan asks, fingers absently unwinding a knot in Aidyn’s hair.

“ There’s a library right on the inside of Faerie,” I tell him. “ It’s ancient, but it’s safe.”

Tynan cocks his head, his lips parting in slight confusion.

“ It seems to find people,” Emma supplies, and we all turn to her. She shrugs, something in her expression I cannot read, her eyes soft and faraway as she gazes at the creatures who’ve taken over her cottage. “ I was lost once as well. It tends to find those who seem to need it.”

She glances at me, and I wonder if she is correct—Aidyn believed so as well. I wonder what I needed there so desperately that Faerie would rearrange its landscape for me. My eyes drift to Aidyn.

“ I know precisely where to find it,” I murmur. “ He’ll be safe.”

Tynan nods, accepting Emma’s explanation, extracting Aidyn from his sister’s grasp with the utmost care and taking notice where he holds him as he eases him up into his arms.

Una grasps my hand once more. “ I’m going with you.”

Despite everything, I raise my eyebrows.

Before I can remind her of her fear of those Faerie woods, her mouth sets stubbornly. “ I’m going .”

“ As am I, ” Niall says lowly, retrieving his axe and looking particularly unhappy, if determined.

“ Careful,” Emma murmurs, and I am both glad she is staying here where it is safe and longing for her to accompany us.

Her eyes catch mine, and she nods gently.

Perhaps she cannot step into Faerie again, cannot bring herself to travel back into those lands where unknown and untold things happened.

She has only ever spoken with a strange fondness, if not warning, of those other lands.

Perhaps that is what makes it too much. I try to smile, try to give her all the understanding I can, and she gives my chin a gentle squeeze.

Tynan’s mouth pinches , but he does not object to my friends. “ Where do we need to go?”

“ There is a hawthorn tree just there.” I point in the correct direction. “ Will the hounds—”

“ Dauna,” he says. “ They must close their eyes. Take them.”

Una and Niall are both already gripping my hand and arm, so when Dauna rises in a long fluid movement, approaching us, both flinch but do not step away. I look up into her dark eyes, which are upset and glassy with tears, but not unkind. Perhaps a little grateful.

“ Close your eyes,” she whispers, and her hand takes mine, the other covering my eyes.

With a sudden step forward, the comforting smell of Emma’s cottage turns to the trees and night air.

Both Una and Niall make shocked noises, but I’m accustomed to it enough I merely suck in a sharp breath.

I did not know such magic was possible inside the walls of a cottage.

Perhaps hers is that much stronger than her brother’s at the moment.

“ Where is your path in?” she asks, gazing about the trees.

Over her shoulder, I catch the lantern and bonfire lights of the village, many still dancing and eating.

It is almost impossible to believe they have not heard the hounds, or perhaps their minds are too drunk on midsummer air.

Even past my pounding heart, I’m drawn to the light and magic drifting through the air, and I shake myself, trying to throw the enchantment from my shoulders.

“ Here,” I say, dragging Una behind me as Niall walks on his own, watching Dauna with some mixture of alarm and fascination. It’s difficult not to. I want to stop and stare at such an otherworldly creature about as much as I wish to run back to Aidyn.

As if called by the thought, I turn and find Tynan stepping out from behind the nearest tree, his son bundled in his arms. He gazes at the hawthorn where I first lost myself into finding the library.

“ Ah,” he says, as if it all makes sense with the sighting of this one tree, then steps around it, disappearing.

“ It’s all right,” I tell my humans as Dauna offers her hand to take us across. “ Close your eyes, I’ve done it hundreds of times.”

Niall grits his jaw and nods, gazing up at the dark trees and back at the welcoming lights of midsummer, his hand finding Una’s as she’s already clinging to me.

Her eyes have never left my face. I wish I could tell her how much I love them for coming with me, even if they are no protection against creatures of Faerie.

Instead, I kiss her on the cheek and say, “ Close your eyes.”