She could have gone home right after school today when the sun was still high and streaming through the tall evergreens, but she’d read her entire stack of books from the library and needed new ones. Without her books, she’d be bored to tears.
It was her own fault she had no friends. Instead of joining her classmates outside during breaks, she chose to read at her desk, preferring fictional worlds to the real one. It wasn’t that she didn’t want friends. She did more than anything, but their school wasn’t very big, which limited her options. Then the only two girls her age at the orphanage, Ana and Farrah, were awful.
She was well-liked, and she liked most of her classmates, but she had nothing in common with the other girls, and the boysmade her nervous. Amelia needed to learn to face her fears if she wanted to live like the characters in her books.
Lately, she’d been reading adventure books with epic romances, and while she’d always wanted to live in the fictional worlds she read about, she longed for a love like in her stories more than anything.
Thirteen was too young to worry about marriage and a family of her own, but Amelia could think of nothing else. She wanted to love someone who loved her back and often wondered what it would be like, since she hadn’t the slightest clue what any type of love felt like.
Almost thirteen years ago, someone left her on the front stoop of the orphanage with nothing but a blanket and a copy of her birth record with no parents listed. While the house mothers she had over the years treated the girls well, stepping into the matronly role they all needed, no one stayed forever.
She sighed and climbed the porch steps, ready to dive into another book.
A dream hovered just out of Amelia’s reach as she teetered on the edge of consciousness. A whisper that she couldn’t make out in her hazy dream state until it fizzled away all together, replaced by the sun’s bright rays assaulting her senses.
She and the other girls were fortunate to have their own rooms, but the spaces were small, leaving her no choice but to position the bed directly across from the window with no spare blankets to hang over the glass.
Rolling over, she grabbed her pillow and smashed it over her head to ward off the morning, but the crinkle of paper against her cheek made her jerk back.
She swiped her long blonde hair out of her face and, afterrubbing her eyes to ensure she wasn’t seeing things, stared at the crisp black envelope.
Where had it come from? Had it been there last night, she would have noticed when she fluffed her pillow.
Someone came in my room while I slept.
Tentatively, she reached for the envelope, inspected the fancy-looking paper, and pried it open without grace. A single piece of paper waited inside. With shaky hands, she unfolded it, furrowing her brow at the messy penmanship filling the page.
Hello,Human Mate
Have you ever had to tell someone something, but you didn’t know where to start? That’s how I feel right now. I figured meeting you in person for the first time would be awkward, but I think writing this letter is way worse. (words are hard)
I’m messing this up. You don’t know me, but what I’m going to say will change your life. (I’m fae, by the way)
You’re my fated mate, and that means a lot to fae.
It means you are mine, and I am yours (whether we like it or not) and as mates, we can sometimes feel each other’s emotions. Since you don’t have magic, I don’t know if you can feel mine, but I can feel yours.
A few days ago, I almost cried in front of my friends. I’m assuming that was because of you. It was embarrassing.
Either way, I hope you are okay now.
Happy (late) thirteenth birthday. I hope you like the gift.
Your Fae Mate
Nick
P.S. This might sound stupid, but when I’m upset, I sit outside and talk to my mother. My father says she can hear us in the heavens. You should try it. She’d probably like to hear from you, too.
Amelia read the letter again. And again. And again.
After her tenth read through, she deduced that Nick, whoever he was, had the wrong person. Why would a fae thinkshewas their mate? It wasn’t even addressed to her.
She’d read about soulmates in a few romance books, but she hadn’t thought they were real.Assuming that’s what he meant.Human schools didn’t teach much about the fae. Other than folklore, not much was known about the mysterious people with pointed ears because they rarely crossed the barrier.
A wall reinforced the magical barrier separating the Human Kingdom from the four fae kingdoms. Fae could pass through the barrier by themselves, but humans couldn’t get through the magic without a fae escort, but magic or not, everyone was required to have an official permit to pass through the gates. Amelia didn’t know what happened if they caught someone without a permit.
Jacob, a boy at school, claimed humans were never seen again if caught crossing illegally, but that couldn’t be true. There were norealhorror stories about the fae; they stayed on their side of the wall, and humans stayed on theirs.
