To them, we were the monsters.
“They’re beautiful,” the second woman whispers.
The hair on my arms lifts at the wonder in the stranger’s soft, sweet voice. I should ignore the comment. Should finish filling these jugs and ride back across the bridge without looking back.
I should, but I do not.
Instead, I turn, finding a sweep of lilac hair and a pair of wide eyes the color of spring foliage.
You are mad, Kerris Dawn,the other Seelie says from where she leans around the wall, indignation rife in her tone.
Kerris Dawn.
The female’s surname is that of light and the birth of a new day. The sun rising, stretching across their world, rarely touching ours.
I force myself to look away, to focus on the matter at hand. We need to load the carts with the filled jugs and make the laborious trip back through the cobbled streets, across the bridge, and to the camp where the jugs will remain until next week.
Why are there no women?The one with the sweet voice, Kerris, asks.
Her friend’s response makes me chuckle.Because they’re born not of flesh and bone, but of darkness and shadows.
“I will give them a bone,” one of the younger men joining us for the first time sniggers to another.
Rage swells in my chest, a fiery inferno that paints everything in my vision the color of blood. “What did you say?”
He glances at his friend for help, but his friend steps back, leaving him alone.
“I-I was only talking about the Seelie fae.”
“I know who you were talking about. If I ever hear you make another crude joke like that, you will be on bridge duty for the next month.”
The pair have the good sense to bow their heads and walk away. They might be nearly as tall as me, but they only just earned their daggers and wear only ten bones around their necks between them.
Maddox stalks up behind me, nudging my shoulder with his as I continue to glower at the younger fae. Maybe I will stick them on bridge duty anyway.
“That was harsh.” he whispers.
I cannot help but roll my eyes. “You are only saying that because you were thinking the same thing.”
His grin sets me on edge. “True. But I had the good sense not to say it out loud within earshot of you.”
There are many things I will tolerate, but when it comes to the treatment of females there can be no leniency.
Come on. You’ve had your gander. Let’s get out of here before they eat us for dinner.
I glance over my shoulder to find the lilac-haired fae still watching, her plump lips fallen open as if in a gasp.
Maddox’s breath hisses through his teeth. “Fuck me, that one is pretty.”
Pretty does not begin to describe her. She has a face that would haunt a man. Made for poetry and sonnets. One that would break even the strongest fae warrior.
Although she slips away, her face has been burned into my memory.
If I were to close my eyes, I would see hers.
From this day forward, every time I come to this spot, I will be looking toward that alley, hoping for a glimpse of her.
Because a glimpse is all we can have. There is a reason our worlds are divided. Seelie fae have no natural defenses; they are soft in every sense of the word, and their chances of survival on our side of the bridge are non-existent.
