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TEAGAN DIDN’T SLEEP well that night. She was exhausted but her mind just kept replaying the day’s occurrences. She decided to keep the light on with the hopes that it would keep her from falling asleep. She was afraid to face the prospect of a night without Colin. She wanted him in her dreams. Unfortunately, Teagan’s plan didn’t work out quite the way she expected it to. She could feel her eyelids drooping and the last thing she remembered was looking at the alarm clock at 3:30 am.
Teagan wasn’t sure which way to turn. She could tell she was in a thickly wooded area, but the fog was making it nearly impossible for her to see. The ground beneath her feet was thick with leaves, still heavy from the last rain. The leaves stuck to Teagan’s bare feet and tickled her ankles. Her feet were cold, but she ignored the numbing sensation and continued forward. “The field has to be here somewhere,” she thought, “why can’t I find it? Am I lost?”
Teagan paused in her laborious journey to listen to her surroundings. At first, she heard nothing and then suddenly Teagan could hear the faint laughter of a small creek as the water in it tickled its way along rocks and danced merrily around curves. Breathing deeply in relief, she followed the faint sounds of the creek and stumbled along the forest floor. As Teagan neared the cool waters, the fog began to dissipate, and she slowed her pace. The bridge had to be there somewhere. Teagan followed the edge of the creek for what seemed like hours. Thorns tore at her arms and face and sticks and stones bruised her tender feet.
The briars and the trees seemed to thin out suddenly and Teagan skipped in delight as she saw the little wooden bridge through the break in the foliage. Teagan hastily climbed the incline to the bridge and stepped onto it. As her bared foot touched the wooden surface of the bridge, a strange chill washed over her, and she squirmed nervously. As Teagan’s gaze darted back and forth along the sides of the stream, something felt wrong to her.
“If I can just cross the bridge into our field everything will be fine,” Teagan thought, “and Colin will protect me.”
She took a few more tentative steps across the bridge. On her third step, it felt as if she had been hit by some type of invisible force field. Teagan pushed out with her hands trying to get around it and screamed in frustration. Suddenly the shield gave way and she burst out into the open field.
There, in the center of the field was Teagan’s tree. She breathed a sigh of relief. A movement to her left caught her attention and Teagan’s head jerked in that direction. A horse stood in the center of the field casually chewing on some grass. His ears pricked back as he became alert, but he did not move. A gust of wind whipped Teagan’s long, copper hair back from her face and shoulders and the unnatural warmth of the air that caressed her neck made her shiver. Teagan turned rapidly, suddenly aware of a presence behind her. A black caped man, standing no more than five feet away from Teagan, grinned at her wickedly and she screamed on impulse. He looked amused and he cocked a brow at Teagan in response.
“Teagan?”
Teagan turned around at the sound of her name and almost cried out in relief as she saw Aidan standing there. Her gaze returned to the field and she realized the horse was gone and looked behind her once more to see that the man in the black cape was gone also. Teagan felt warm now and the chill that had made the hairs on her arms stand up was gone. She turned as Aidan walked towards her.
“Why are you here?” Teagan asked him.
“I heard you scream, are you okay?” Aidan responded instantly.
“Colin’s not here.” Teagan explained pathetically and lowered her head in defeat.
Aidan bent down and randomly plucked at a wildflower. As he straightened, he handed her the wild, star-shaped purple blossom. Teagan took it from him looking deeply into his eyes.
“Everything will work out Teagan, you’ll see.” He said and turned back to cross the field, vanishing as he did so.
After he had gone, Teagan looked down at the purple flower in her hand and watched as a teardrop hit a petal squarely and the impact knocked the petal off the flower.
Would anything ever be okay again? Teagan wondered helplessly. She gazed back at the empty field and towards the empty bridge and sighed dejectedly.
She woke with a start and sat up quickly, looking around the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but she had a strange, tense feeling. Teagan was still trying to brush it off as she noticed a bunch of bags sitting in the corner of the room. She stretched lazily and got out of bed. Not bothering to accessorize, Teagan grabbed a pair of jeans and a light blue shirt and got dressed hurriedly. A knock on the frosted glass door startled her and made her jump. She slipped on a pair of flip-flops and opened the sliding door.
“How are you?” Katie’s pleasant voice greeted Teagan, “I was hoping you were already up. I didn’t want to wake you. Aidan said you didn’t sleep well last night. He thought he heard you talking in your sleep. I brought you some things; I didn’t see any luggage.”
“Well that’s embarrassing,” Teagan said as she ran a hand through her sleep mussed hair.
“You can come in. I still have to find a brush and it may take me awhile.” Teagan told Katie a little grumpily and opened the door wider for her to come in.
Katie laughed at Teagan’s irritated mood and waltzed into the room dramatically throwing herself onto the bed. Bouncing up and down on the high bed like a kid, Katie smiled encouragingly at her until Teagan gave in briefly and gave Katie a small smile in return.
“Is that it?” Katie asked and Teagan turned trying to follow the direction of her bouncing finger.
“Yes, thank God.” Teagan said dramatically and retrieved her brush from where it was protruding out of her old bag.
“I don’t have many girlfriends. I’m glad you’re here,” Katie said.
“Thank you.”
“Do you have close friends?”
“I have one. Cali. She disappeared the day I left. She was actually researching you guys, so I thought you might know her, or about her?”
“Hm, I’ve never met a Cali. Maybe you should bring her up to Aidan. He knows way more guardians than I do. I’m just the healer.”
“Just the healer, she says.” Teagan laughed at her. She knew what it was like briefly when she’d borrowed Aoife’s powers to heal the girl. She shook her head. Wait. Was that a memory? Had she really done it, or had it been a possible future?
“What’s it like?” Katie asked.
“What’s what like?” She pulled the brush through her long auburn hair.
“Having a Fae Princess, you know, in there,” Katie whispered.
Teagan laughed outright. “You don’t have to whisper; she can hear you.”
“Really?”
Teagan nodded. “It’s kind of like having a big sister permanently stapled inside your brain, and she thinks she’s knows everything, and she always has to be right.”
“Hey,” Aoife complained.
Katie’s laughter was contagious, and soon Teagan had joined in.
“I’m glad you’re here too, Katie,” she said, hoping that the presence of a new friend would help ease the absence of her old one.