After several daysof going from region to region without a single trace of either fae or human, Finley suggested we split up to cover more ground. Using the map Ximena had found, I sent Finley and Brenton to the northwest regions of Texas with the plan to search through New Mexico and Arizona, while Ximena and Hayden headed to the states outside the northeast borders of Texas. Alastor and I started in North Carolina.
The idea was to scour the southernmost areas of what the humans named the United States. Alastor and I would travel through the eastern states, while Brenton and Finley searched the western region, and Hayden and Ximena explored the middle. I didn’t like the idea of us separating for long periods, but I couldn’t deny the wisdom behind it.
Ten days after we went our separate ways, I was to bend space to get Brenton and Finley at our meeting spot to take them to the tear I’d created deep in the woods outside of Colina Verde, where we’d meet Hayden and Ximena.Unfortunately, we still had four days until we were to meet up and I could go home to Teddy and the kids for a short reprieve.
Going back home to rest and regroup didn’t make much sense when I knew we could continue for much longer, but my soul longed for Teddy. A ball of tension settled in my stomach, and I couldn’t wait to go back to her. We’d been spending too much time apart.
As night fell, Alastor and I made a camp in the woods outside the region we’d inspected. The four lirio with us stood guard, encircling us as they kept watch. They blended among the trees in their eerie way until I couldn’t make them out anymore.
After clearing the snow beneath us, I built a small fire to cook the three hares I’d found, half dead and lean from starvation and cold. Pulling out the jug of water from my pack, I took a long pull from it, letting the cool liquid sit on my tongue before swallowing it.
It’d been a long, disappointing day. But while we hadn’t found anything, we’d been able to cross off the regions we’d explored. I told myself there was victory in that failure. It had to mean we were getting closer to where the humans and fae were.
So many times, I’d tried to sniff out their location, but even with my senses heightened when I slipped into my primal instincts, it was as if the humans and fae of this realm had been stamped out without a single trace. That couldn’t be the case, though.
When the hares finished cooking, I divided the meat between Alastor, the lirio, and myself. It wasn’t much, and my stomach rumbled in protest, so I grabbed the last fruit I’d packed and gave half to Alastor after cutting it. He took itquietly, cutting the apple into smaller pieces that he handed out to the lirio without keeping any for himself.
Alastor leaned forward and rubbed the bridge of his nose. It was the third time I’d seen him do that since we settled in for the night.
“Is your head hurting?” I asked, breaking the comfortable silence between us.
He dropped his hand. “A little but it’s fine.”
I reached into the inner pocket of my magic to pull out the two flowers I’d stored from our herbal plants. I ground it into a powder using my mortar and pestle.
Alastor eyed me curiously.
After pouring water into the mortar, I held it over the open flame. It didn’t take long for the water to start to boil although the small bowl remained cool. I handed it to Alastor.
“Let it cool down a little before you drink it,” I said. “It’ll help with your headache.”
He dipped his head in acknowledgment and, after a few beats, took tentative sips. I considered lying back and using my bag as a headrest. As exhausted as I was, I didn’t need much more to fall asleep.
But then the sound of snow crunching came from my left. I held myself still, listening and smelling for whatever crept in the thick woods. While whoever was out there didn’t move again, I heard his rapid heartbeat and heavy breathing.
After setting the small, empty bowl down, Alastor stood with elegance, quietly directing two lirio to investigate. Even with my fae eyesight, I barely made out the lirio as they ran so quickly, they were nothing more than a blur. Within a few beats, a man shouted in a stricken, high-pitched shriek that reminded me too much of my mother’s wails when my father had died.
The memories that followed threatened to undo me. The way her sobs had somehow seemed to keep me together. The way she’d lunged for my dropped dagger that she’d plunged into her chest.
I shook my head, trying to rattle the memory loose. But despite my greatest efforts, those memories were always there, taunting me for my greatest failure. Of all the deaths that tainted my soul, my father’s was the most piercing.
One of the lirio broke from the surrounding trees to our small camp with a uniformed man struggling in his grasp. While his clothes were meant to blend in with greener surroundings, they now stood out against the white landscape.
I stood to face the man and his head tipped up to look at me. My nostrils flared, and I licked my lips at the slight scent of his fear infiltrating my senses. Not because I enjoyed that particular smell but because it always made me a little nauseous. Made my skin feel too tight around bones that suddenly felt too large.
“I suggest you start speaking before my friend here starts tearing through you.” I kept my voice nonchalant, as if ripping someone apart was a common occurrence.
The man’s face paled, almost comparable to a fae’s natural complexion.
“I saw you earlier,” the man rushed out, his eyes wide and pulse throbbing quickly in his neck. His body trembled, either out of fear or cold. “While you were looking around the city. I was going to stop you to talk to you, but I had to speak to my wife first. See what she thought.”
The lirio trailed a long finger across the man’s neck, making him gulp loudly. It wouldn’t take much for the creature to snap it, which was why I asked the lirio to let him go. Before the lirio edged away from him, he grabbed a thin chain that hung around the man’s neck. After ripping it off him, he held it in my direction.
Vith,they were using iron.
I growled. With the iron no longer around his neck, the human’s smell hit me. I wanted to rip through him, tear through every human who used iron to mask their scent.
It had to be why this man was the first human I’d sensed despite slipping into my primal instincts to search for both them and my fae. While the iron had masked his scent from a distance, I could better sense him when he drew closer. How well could I scent them if everyone hid behind iron? Fear gripped me as I wondered if they were also forcing iron on my fae. The iron wouldn’t just hide their scent but would also deplete their energy and magic. Worse, it would kill them if it pierced their skin.
