“You seem to have a staring problem,” Tarian said with a strange tone she couldn’t identify. Jealousy? Frustration?
“I met one of them, after meeting you on the ledge outside of that apartment. They are…” She couldn’t put words to the impression the male had made. To the impression these were making. “Their kind and what they can do is scary, but they’re just so…”
The horse stopped, and Tarian pulled his leg from its back, hopping down. He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her. She twisted and braced her arms on his shoulders, her gaze still skyward.
“Why don’t they come down to check us out?” she asked.
“So you can flag them down?”
“That…or maybe drool while staring, yeah.”
His expression was unreadable as he gently nudged her out of the way. “The fringe is technically in the fae realm. It’s at the very edge, hence the name. We are technically in the human realm, as I explained.” He began to take off the horse’s bridle. “We won’t become visible until we step within the enshrouding magic of the wylds. Then we will have to run because they’ll— They are supposed to descend upon us with their wrath. By the time they come close enough to read your mind, you’ll be dead.”
“What about the humans seeking admittance?”
“They aren’t stamped with wyld magic. Not like you are from the crystal chalice”—he glanced back at her, his eyes flashing—“and my magic. I wasn’t lying when I told you they’ll kill you. I can’t lie to you at all, actually. Not anymore. Not after I claimed your kiss. You give up some of your freedoms, and so do I. Luckily, I have a way with words.” He winked.
“Why are we the only ones here? I thought you said more people come through the Faegate now?”
He made a kissy sound at his horse and began walking toward a spot where the hazy purple air darkened, as if preparing to go fully solid. “This is the waypoint, the place where you return your portal items. Horses, packs, yourself—whatever you either won’t need when moving on or that can’t survive in the wylds. Because of that, it’s magically designed for privacy. There might be someone right next to us and we wouldn’t know it. We’d never feel them, or them us. Once we step out of the haze, everything becomes visible again. That’s when we’ll know if we aren’t alone.”
A jolt of surprise made her look harder at that hazy, shimmering air. She could run into that, and it would grant her passage out of here. She could find a phone and call her family to come and collect her.
But then what?
She’d put her family in danger, because Tarian would almost certainly return to take her and likely harm anyone in the way. Not to mention he could just follow her through and grab her on the other side.
She put her hands on her hips as Tarian stepped out of the way and let the horse continue walking through. It vanished, as if through a door. He looked at her as he turned, smirking.
“No?” he asked as he passed. “You’re not going tomake a run for it? You’ve talked yourself out of it again?”
She didn’t respond as he collected the next horse. This one he led, first past her and then to the hazy purple area. Nearly to the almost solid mass, he stepped to the right and somehow went around, still pulling at the rope. As the horse walked through, he flung the rope up and over an invisible line, and it dragged on the ground behind the animal, pulled along through the portal.
“If not”—he passed her for the next animal—“you could always help me. It would make this go a lot faster, and we’d have more time to relax at the first resting place in the wylds. Assuming I can get you across the fringe.”
She sighed and turned to help him. There was nothing for it. She was stuck in this venture for the time being.
“True,” he said, and it was still as annoying as all hell that he could read her mind. “Because yes, I would just follow you. And reclaim you. And put your family in harm’s way if you made it that far, which is doubtful. I will accomplish my plans. You will help me with that whether you like it or not. Running would just delay the inevitable.”
“Yes, I realize all that, thank you. Which you know, because you eavesdrop on my mind.” She trudged back for one of the next horses.
“Don’t you like to be told you’re right?”
She ignored him, eyed the knife at his side, then ignored that, too. It was a great shame it wouldn’t work on him. “What happens if we aren’t alone when we step out of the haze?” she asked instead.
“Some would say it depends.”
“On what?”
“On if the person you’re meeting is more dangerous than you. If they are, you’d typically run. If not, you’d usually try to kill them.”
“And so we assess and be ready to attack or flee?”
His smile was arrogant. “I always attack.”
In other words, he was always the most dangerous.
They startedtoward the Faegate with nothing but a pack each, cinched tightly to their backs. If they had to run for any reason, it wouldn’t bounce too much. While he might always be the most dangerous of the fae he met sneaking through the Faegate, he wasn’t more dangerous than the swooping Celestials, something he hadn’t enjoyed her pointing out.
