His eyes lightened as if he understood, and he went ahead of me. At least he hadn’t forced me through like Rian. I peeked around the corner. Seeing that it was clear, if a bit dark, I trailed after him. The narrow hallway twisted to the left and then to the right before it exposed the windowed wall facing the… town?
The pounding rain had slowed, allowing me to see everything from this vantage point. It looked like a legitimate town. Not the bustling towns from current times, but more like the old-fashioned English countryside town.
“This is where the Queen liked to watch everyone work as one to keep our way of life working without magic. It was how she reminded herself what she needed to fight for and what she caused. It was a punishment she inflicted upon herself.”
The apartment-like buildings were lined up in rows. They may have looked like something you could find in the human world if it weren’t for the green roofs and the vine-like growths stretching up the sides of the attached apartments. I squinted as I remembered where I’d seen it before. It was similar to the tree trunks in this world. The green roofing looked tough and resilient. It stretched over many condo-size homes built in rows and attached to one another. I looked off to the further side of the protective wall spanning a hundred miles around the little town and noticed single cottages lined at the edges. They had space around them, but the growth of foliage had overtaken the doorway and hidden the structures.
It was very beautiful in a Faerie land kind of way. Green and lush with foliage. I could almost imagine little finger-size Faeries flittering about, not these large battle-hardened beautiful people.
“The cottages… they’re so pretty. Why do they look abandoned?” My fingers reached out and touched the window.
“Our population has dramatically fallen. Only half of these buildings have Fae in them.” He waved a hand at the apartments. “It is also safer to keep people closer to the castle.”
“Why?”
“Those that didn’t leave are recruited by betrayer camps or picked off.”
From afar, I could see a flurry of movements. I focused on it with my super sight and made out the bodies of Fae men as they worked near a section of the wall. Some held up a large slab of rock while others mixed a large vat with something grey and grainy-looking under the cover of an awning. It took me a second to realize what it was.
“Is that concrete?”
“Yes, without magic, we had to resort to searching your world for solutions.”
I looked to the side, where a group of Fae worked feverishly as they tried to rebuild.
“Our people are divided. There are even some that have gone crazy. Many have come because this is the only safe location for them.”
I tried not to let the sad dip of his lips affect me. I looked down and had a clear view of two women shielded from the rain under a sprawling tree. My eyesight focused in on them, and when I squinted, I could see everything in startling detail. This was way more than twenty-twenty vision.
They were wringing wet clothes and folding them into baskets. Trees closed off the area behind them. The shorter, mousy, brown-haired woman went up on tiptoes to yank another article of clothing from the line, wringing it out with meticulous care before turning back to her friend. She said something, and it made the red-haired one leaning against a tree laugh.
I tensed as I watched a male approach. Both women turned. The dark-dressed male had thick arms and a sturdy look about him. He said something, and the redhead threw her head back, flicking her hair over her shoulder. The other one just gave him a half-smile as she drank him in. The man looked at the redhead with a wicked grin curving his mouth.
The one he wasn’t looking at wilted as if catching her breath and stared at him with her heart in her eyes. Her whole body seemed to droop. She pressed her lips together and bent to pick up the heavy-looking basket. The man only spared her a glance before the other woman tossed herself into his arms, and he hefted her up, mouth already at her neck.
My heart hurt for the mousy woman. Unrequited love sucked ass.
They had lives and drama, not so different from humans. I saw it with Cora and Conan. Hell, even Rian stoicism hinted at a deep sense of honor and care.
So much ran through my head, and I didn’t know what to do with it. What I did know was I had a mission I’d pledged myself to, regardless of my personal feelings.
I rolled my shoulders and let out a sigh that came from my gut. “What’s the first step of getting magic back?”
7
Tyran’s dark eyebrows flew up.
“Wasn’t that your goal? To make me see you guys as worth fighting for?” I was expressionless as the bitter words left my mouth.
He shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot. Rolling my eyes, I waved my hand in a circle, prompting him to spit out the answer. “I would imagine magic would be the first step.”
My eye twitched. No shit.
“So, you have nothing?” I took his silence as an answer. How the hell was I supposed to figure this out if they didn’t even know where to start? “Why magic? Shouldn’t we be researching or talking to someone that might know how to do this?”
“We’ve had the seer Fae search for the answer.” Fae could be seers, too? Neat. “But he has not been able to see anything other than darkness. Left with little choice, we’ve also sent Fae into your human world.” Tyran rubbed his neck. “But other Unnatural species were less than welcoming. We sent word to the Elvin leader who resides in the northern lands of Faerie to notify us if his seer is able to decipher a vision, but he
