Page 62 of The Wind and the Wild (The Keepers of Faerie #1)

On the other side of the mortal trees, honeysuckle and the heavy storm-laden scent of the fae I have come to know settles across us.

Tynan has already found his way inside the one accessible door, and Una and Niall do not have much chance to gaze about the dark trees of this other world before I am hauling them across the short space and inside the sanctuary of the ancient walls, faint yipping barks of hounds following after.

Dauna pulls the door shut tight and sniffs about the dusty books as she follows.

“ Upstairs!” I call to Tynan. “ The first room there, he has a fire in the hearth.”

Una makes a breathy noise, gazing up at the maple trees sprouting through the ancient roof, but I hurry them along after Dauna, anxious to have them in the safety of Aidyn’s room, even if we’re already sealed within the library.

Tynan has laid Aidyn partially out upon the pillows and blankets, his hand beneath his head as if he cannot quite release him.

Even still, he glances about the tiny room full of odds and ends Aidyn has collected, touching the side of the basket where the kittens have begun mewling at the sound of footsteps.

Una, despite her fear, shuffles to them and pulls back the blanket.

“ The hounds?” I ask softly, still hearing their barks across the night.

“ When did they arrive?” Tynan asks, voice matching his faraway gaze.

“ Um, ” I say, glancing at the moonlight out the window. “ I’m not sure. Not long. Less than an hour?”

“ Hmm,” he hums in the same tone as his son, then settles Aidyn’s sleeping form into Dauna’s arms before drifting to the window and glancing out. “ Your human who has been skinning fae—”

“ He is not my human.”

His eyes flick to me in annoyance, and I remember I shouldn’t be interrupting such a creature.

“ Either way,” he continues. “’Tis not an easy feat. Do you know how he is accomplishing it?”

I shake my head. “ No. But we left fairly quickly. It... scared me.”

Having seen Aidyn’s reaction, I’m certain it scared him as well, but he would hate if I gave his father such an impression .

“ Can you remember that place as well?”

“ Yes. ”

Una elbows me.

“ What?” I whisper, though Tynan looks at us as if he hears quite clearly.

“ You’re not going back out there with those things. You can’t fight them.”

“ Well, Aidyn is in no position to show him, is he?” I whisper back, though I’m convinced it does no good to the two sets of faerie ears still awake enough to listen. “ They need to get rid of them.”

Una sets her jaw, sending a glance toward Tynan only to shrink as she realizes he is staring directly at her. I’m surprised he doesn’t intervene.

“ I could go with you,” Niall begins to offer.

“ I don’t think having two humans to watch over is going to help,” I point out, my stomach turning. “ We can take the passageway through the library. It will put me right where I want to go; we don’t have to go back out through Faerie. It’s all right.”

Tynan’s eyes flicker to Niall. “ I have no need of you.”

Niall sets his jaw, looking as if he wishes to say more.

As much as I appreciate the offer and wish him there, an extra layer of familiar comfort and protection, it would bring more danger.

Niall is of no use against hounds, just as I am not.

Tynan would have to protect both of us as well as deal with the caged monster.

“ There are more of us in the trees,” Tynan says, rising off the windowsill. “ We are not alone.”

Passing by Aidyn’s makeshift bed, he touches his son’s temple once more. “ Dauna, stay with him. We shall only be a moment. Little human, come with me.”

Una ’s nails dig into my hand. Whispering, she says, “ Please do not take my sister away. She already bears scars from you folk.”

I grab her in my arms and hug her. She is smaller than me, and I end up crushing her to my chest. In her ear, I say, “ This is all I can do to protect us. You’d do it in my place. Let me go with him. He already protected me from one—I do not believe he will let anything happen to me.”

My words are much braver than my heart currently breaking free against my ribs.

Through blurred eyes, I see Aidyn still limp and wounded in his sister’s arms, her matching hair falling partially over his face, her whole body, nearly as tall as his, seeming to form a gentle nest about him.

Her darker eyes have found mine. For all Aidyn’s claims that he bears his mother’s countenance, his eyes match his father’s, where his sister has those of a faerie I’ve never met.

“ It’ll be all right,” I tell Una again.

Tynan takes me under the arm, but it does not require much strength to move me.

I can go with him and help. Unlatching the door, he lets the cool of the library air wash over us.

Glancing back, I find Aidyn’s eyes flickering open.

He gazes up at Dauna’s face, a finger touching her chin as she leans down to brush her nose against his.

He does not speak, and Tynan does not turn to see as I lead him down the steps, past the books, and through the strange door with its heavy handle, out into the night.