Page 12 of Into The Green

I hadn't slept in two days. I was exhausted, hot, and in pain.

I'd held on as long as possible for Jade, but I just... needed a few. I needed to sit and rest and eat and cool down.

I heard Jasper stop and then move toward me, stopping behind my back just as I sucked in an embarrassing sniffle. "We're going to stop for the day. It's getting dark. We won't make much progress. But I need to get us more food. I don't think you should stay..."

"I can't walk anymore," I objected. "I promise if I hear more music, I'll stuff my fingers in my ears and hum until you get back."

Jasper paused like he was weighing the plan. "Alright. But stay the fuck away from the water."

With that, he moved away.

And I had a pleasantly fae-free couple of moments to wallow in my misery before I heard Jasper return with a supply of blackberries, nuts, and some other small berries.

"Juniper," Jasper answered the question in my eyes as I reached for one.

"And, um, dandelions?" I asked, picking up one of the useless weeds my mother had sprayed with poison my entire childhood.

"The leaves are good, and you can eat the roots if you boil them. They're high in vitamin A and C."

"You're like a walking, talking survival guide," I said as I threw some leaves into my mouth with a handful of blackberries in the hopes that they would cut the taste of the dandelion.

"I grew up in The Green," he said casually, not eating more than a few nuts. I wondered if he had gorged himself while he was foraging. There was no way he wasn't hungry.

"How much longer until we get to your family?"

Jasper paused in raising a rock to smash the nuts. "Another day if we keep the pace we kept today. But we'll be heading into a more... populated area tomorrow. Go ahead," he said as he watched me eye the last of the blackberries. "I'm not hungry."

"So we'll be seeing more... creatures?"

"Not all fae are half-animal. Many of us appear human. Or near-human."

"Like you and Jade."

"Exactly."

"So then... what makes you fae? Do you have some sort of... powers or something?"

"Some. Some turn into other creatures like the selkies and the kelpies. Most water fae transform," he said, and I turned to look at the stream a little suspiciously. "Others have senses or skills."

"What do you have?" I blurted out without thinking. And, judging by the way his eyes went guarded a little, asking that was at least mildly inappropriate.

"Some of us, like me and Jade, have the strengths of the gemstones we are named after. I sense things, emotions mostly. Sometimes I get images associated with strong emotions." His smile went a little bit wicked when he added, "Like bears mauling people in the woods."

So he could sense what I was feeling? That felt like a gross invasion of privacy. I was sure he couldn't help it, but that didn't help me feel any less exposed around him. Hell, he had probably been feeling my disdain for him all day. Not that it was my fault that he was so easy to dislike, but still. "Is that all?" I asked to try to hide my discomfort at his revelation.

"No," he said, standing up suddenly and I figured our conversation was over. "You're taking that patch of moss to sleep on?" he asked, gesturing toward me. When I nodded, he did too, sitting down against a tree. "I'll be sleeping here."

Then, with that, he did.

He slept sitting up... against a tree.

What a freak.

I mean, not that I had the right to judge. If anything, I was a little jealous. Sleep and me, we didn't get on all that well. We never did. Not because I didn't want a good nights' rest, but because I had been plagued with nightmares for as long as I could remember. And no matter how often I had them, nothing dulled the terror I woke up in. So in general, I didn't sleep too much, and when I did, it was broken. And I usually had to sleep with the light on.

But in the woods, that luxury wasn't an option.

I lowered myself down onto the soft moss and forced my eyes closed, trying to block out the incredibly shrill, haunting sound coming from a distance. It didn't beckon me like the music had, but it made me feel chilled even in the unyielding heat. I shivered hard as I tried like hell to ignore it. Finally, exhaustion pulling at my sore body, I drifted off to sleep.