So eager am I to get help and move forward that I dash toward the front door, bypassing the bathroom and the mirror that hangs on the wall outside of it. A glimpse at the mirror has me drawing up short. Twin streaks from tears stain my dirt-covered cheeks. My hair is a tangled mess, and I look like the wreck I feel inside.
Gritting my teeth, I force myself to slow down and take a shower. The hot water pounds at my body relentlessly, and the steam helps to open my tight chest a little. I don't feel more like myself as I get dressed, but I do feel clean, so there's that.
I change into dark pants, a purple buttoned-down top, and a dark leather duster jacket. I don't know where my journey will take me as I try to free my sister, but I think it'll be best to wear layers in case it becomes too hot or too cold.
Layers. Sophie’s normally the one to think of wearing layers. She never complains about being too hot or too cold because of them. Always prepared.
By now, my tablet is just about fully charged. I grab it and the charger, murmur to Sophie that I won’t lose it, and head out of the treehouse.
To my shock, there's already a crowd of fairies there. Not one of their faces contains a smile, and my stomach twists. They don't look very happy, and that they've been waiting for me isn't a good sign.
“Hello, everyone,” I start.
“What did you do?” someone shouts.
“You’ve brought chaos to our land!”
“Roseshield Grove was better off when you weren’t here!”
“Your parents kicked up trouble too, and look what happened to them!”
I narrow my eyes, glaring at them all. “How can you stand here and—”
“She’s blind as well as stupid. Not one of us is standing!”
I scowl. All of them are barely hovering. Is it that important to have a distinction between standing and flying?
“I—”
But they won’t let me get a word in edgewise as they continue to shout at me, over each other, their insults merging together so that I can’t pick out what any one person is saying.
“Please!” I shout, waving my arms above my head and flying higher than them so they have to look up at me. “I’m glad you’re all here—”
“We aren’t glad to see you,” someone shouts from the back.
My nostrils flare. “Why? Because someone came into my house and ransacked it, is that why? Are you afraid your house will be next?”
“Why was your treehouse ransacked in the first place?” a man calls out.
“What did you do?” the same person who asked this makes the same inquiry.
I grit my teeth. “Someone attacks me, and you act as if that is my fault?”
“Your house was attacked, not you,” a woman calls out.
I huff out a breath. “All I want is for you to help me. Sophie—”
“Is in prison!” someone else shouts.
I swallow hard. How do they know?
“Yes, she’s in prison, but Sophie is innocent,” I start to say.
But the crowd won’t hear it. They’re back to shouting, jostling each other, and I’m afraid they’re going to work themselves into a frenzy and come after me. That’s the last thing I need.
“Why?” I blurt out, screaming back at them. “Why are you blaming me?”
"You and your kind have always acted out, and look where it got you! Your parents are dead, and your twin is in jail! Which fate awaits you?"
I glower at the man who made that hateful speech. “My kind? What are you talking about? I’m a fairy, same as you!”
“No, no.” The man pushes his way forward. His name is Finch Frost, and he’s never had an issue with me before now. “You and yours have always been too concerned with others. You worry about everyone instead of just the fairies. You and your twin both thought about attending that wicked academy.” He spits, his saliva barely missing a huge black dragon hibiscus.
“What makes that academy so wicked?” I ask even though I might think along the same lines. The students are puppets for an organization that has far too much power.
"Who decides who lives and who dies? That should be up to nature alone! Your parents were slayers, girl. They slew people, and they were slain in return! They got what was coming to them! They lived a life of violence, and violence was all they sowed! Violence took them in the end, and it'll take you too!"
“Maybe violence has already come for me, and I waved as it marched on by,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Do you hear that? She admits that she’s just like her parents! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, now, does it?” Finch gives me a wide, crazed smile.
Crazed. They’re all looking at me as if I’m the insane one, but they all have that same tint in their eyes as if they’re being manipulated.
Or is that just paranoia? It’s impossible to think that so many fairies have been affected in some way, shape, or form. There are almost two dozen fairies here who are arguing with me.
“My parents weren’t crazy. They did what they believed to be noble and just. They wanted to make the world a safer place.”
“Did they make Roseshield Grove safer? No! They were worried about the rest of the world! Who cares about outsiders?” Finch flies up almost as high as I am, turns around, his arms raised, and the rest of the fairies cheer.
“Do you hear yourselves?” I demand, zooming around to hover in front of Finch, blocking him from the crowd. “Outsiders? We are all paranormal beings—”
“We aren’t the same as the others. The werewolves live all over, the shifters too. The vampires are scattered about as well. The mermaids live separate from the sea dragons and the selkies and all the other marine creatures. Separate, that’s how we should all be.”
I can’t help it. A laugh escapes even as a tear trickles down my face. “You want to be separate from all of the others, just ignore what’s going on in the rest of the world. Isn’t that hilarious?”
I laugh and laugh, and they stare at me, confused and possibly even frightened of my reaction.
Shaking my head, I try to pull myself together as best as I can. "You don't see what's going on. There are some who don't want us to be separate. They want us to be all together, and I don't mean just the paranormal beings and creatures. No, they want us to be with the humans, but not because of peace, oh, no. They don't want peace at all. They want war and chaos and anarchy. Those who think like this want to take control of the Earth, all of it. They long to be the leaders of the entire world. I don't know if they just want the humans all dead or to serve as slaves, but—"
“Do you even hear what you’re saying?” Finch spits out, shoving me to the side.
“Don’t you dare lay your hands on me!” I shout.
“You think that you can go on and on about nonsense—”
“I am not going on and on about nonsense! It’s the truth! I saw a premonition and—”
Finch laughs, and so do most of the fairies.
My heart sinks. “You don’t believe me,” I say. “I can talk until I’m blue in the face, but you won’t hear what I’m saying.”
“Your mother used to have premonitions too,” a woman says. “A fat lot of good they did for her. She ended up killed just the same. Murdered by the paranormal being she was ta murder. Ain’t that fitting?”
I blink back tears and realize that the supposed glint I saw in their eyes isn’t really there. They aren’t acting out against me because they’re being controlled or manipulated somehow. I’m seeing things that aren’t really there because it fits my agenda.
I’m going crazy.
No. I know what I saw as far as Jaidos. The glint, that I was wrong about, but not the larger picture.
“You can believe me or not, but—”
“What we know is this much,” Darwin flies up to me. He’s a few years older than I am. I wouldn’t consider us friends, but whether or not we become enemies hinges on the next words out of his mouth.
“What do you know?” I spit out.
“We know that your treehouse was broken into and that your sister is in jail. The two events are probably related, and we don’t want to risk anyone else.”
“So what are you saying?” I ask.
He says nothing. Even Finch and the crowd are silent for once.
I nod slowly. “You want me gone, is that it? Since you think I don’t care for the fairies, the fairies reject me. And they reject Sophie too, of course, even though they won’t even bother to learn what her supposed crime is. Even though Sophie’s innocent. Anyone who has half a brain—”
“We have more than half a brain,” Finch says quietly, sounding almost sad.
I stare the older fairy down. He holds out his hands defensively, as if he expects an attack. His palms and fingers are calloused from hard work. He’s one of the builders, a fairy who creates not only our treehouses but a lot of our furniture, and he’s a strong man.
He also has a larger family than most fairies. He and his wife have six fairies, most of them younger than I am. Actually, the eldest might be younger than I am too.
He just wants to protect his family. They all do. I can’t blame them for being frightened and worried, but they don’t have the full story. If they would just listen to me…
Then what? They would know the truth, but they’re right. Fairies do tend to self-isolate from the other paranormal creatures. Our king and queen don’t demand it, but they do have to grant permission for fairies to attend Magical Hunters Academy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that hasn’t happened after my parents.
They think they can stay safe here in Roseshield Grove if I leave. That the darkness will follow me, and they can enjoy peace.
But they don’t realize that our enemies want war for the entire world. The fairies will be dragged into it.
Unless I can finish what I started.
I left the treehouse because I wanted to find allies. These fairies here won’t help me. If I want an ally, I’m going to have to look elsewhere.
“If you want peace, I can’t give you that,” I say sadly. “Not even if I leave.”
Finch bites his lower lip and moves back slightly as I slowly approach him. He’s terrified, and I understand that. When is the last time there’s been any kind of crime here in the land of the fairies? I can’t even remember when. Possibly before I was born.
And from their point of view, I’m the one who is bringing danger to them. Is it any wonder they want me gone?
No.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed all the same.