“At least we have them,” Stella grumbles. “Why are you waking me up at such an early hour?”
I glance at my crystal powered watch. “It’s eight in the morning, dearest.”
“That’s horrible. Wake me up at ten.” She does her best to burrow into the mattress and becomes motionless.
“Are you hungry?”
Stella exhales a defeated sigh. “Yes.”
“Excellent. Why don’t you come make breakfast? I don’t know how.”
“You’re useless,” she says. She sits up, her hair wild about her face.
I yawn and go back to my room, rolling my shoulders. I open my travel case and, rifling through it, pull out a fresh change of clothes. I quickly don these and reach for my boots, pulling those on. Lastly, I reach for my belt and buckle it on.
The crystal comm is missing.
I frown. Dropping to my knees, I look under my bed, thinking it must have fallen off and gotten pushed under there at some point.
It’s not not there, either.
“What in raeg?” I stand, look around my room, search through the suitcase.
Nothing.
“Stella, mine,” I call, sticking my head out of the door, “have you seen my crystal communicator device?”
“No.” Stella walks out of her room, pulling her hair back in a ponytail. “Don’t you keep it on your belt?”
“Yes, always,” I reply. I search my room again, irritation bubbling up inside of me. “Where in stars could I have put it?”
The answer, of course, was nowhere, because I do not misplace things.
“You must have put it somewhere,” I say, going back into Stella’s room. “It couldn’t have been me.”
Stella blinks at me, a faint crease between her brows. “Uh . . . no. No, I’m pretty sure I didn’t put it anywhere.”
I arch an eyebrow. “You’re ‘pretty sure’ you haven’t put it anywhere, whereas I’m completely certain I didn’t misplace it. You had to. It’s the only logical explanation.”
Stella scowls at me, though why she’s getting so upset over a handful of words is beyond me. “I didn’t misplace your stupid crystal,” she growls. “I gave it back to you after talking to Quinn.”
“I’m going to check my room again,” I say, “though I can already tell you it’s not there.”
And it isn’t, after another thorough search.
Stella leans on the doorframe, watching me. “Feel free to search my room,” she says. “Bet you twenty bucks it’s not there.”
“Do you even have twenty ‘bucks,’ as you say?” I mutter, but I search her room.
The comm is under her bed.
I pull it out and show it to her, feeling satisfied at the look of open shock on her face.
“No way,” she says. “I didn’t put it there.”
“Well, I didn’t put it there,” I say mildly, clipping it onto my belt.
“I didn’t either!” she says heatedly.
A retort is on the tip of my tongue when a thought crosses my mind. Pulling the smaller scrying crystal out of my pocket, I scan her room.
“Fairies,” I say grimly. Their magic is thickest under Stella’s bed. “The little fiends must have hidden it there.”
“Wow.” All of Stella’s irritation melts away as she looks around her room. “Betcha it’s because they heard you insult them last night. Remember?”
“I do,” I reply shortly. Meddlesome little blighters.
“Why would they take it from you, just to stick it under my bed?” Stella asks.
“Like I said earlier, they’re not known for their intelli—”
“Don’t cross them again!” Stella places her fingertip on my lips, effectively silencing me and causing my heart to race wildly. “They’re listening.”
I shut my mouth and glower at the floor. The only good thing about this is that if fairies are about, it’s a sure sign that the dimension between our world and theirs is thinner here. Perhaps I can tear a rift and enter. That has been a plan of mine for a long time. No space elf that I know of has ever succeeded, though unseen dimensions typically exist on most of the planets we’ve helped.
Stella gets ready for the day, and we step outside.
I need to explore the path I’d tried to go down yesterday. If that boy is still there, I’ll be very suspicious indeed. Is he trying to hide something? What is his purpose here on the island? And why does he not sense the danger that I am? Most humans seem to have an instinctive wariness when it comes to elves. Like somehow, they’re aware that we could crush their skulls with one hand. We wouldn’t, of course—not without reason, anyway—but we are physically strong enough to do so, and the humans seem to know it. Even Stella, despite her rashness, seems to know.
However, this boy, Bren, doesn’t seem to have that instinct. He’s impulsive and bold, flinging insults and threats with wild abandon. The question is, why? Bren seems to think that he owns, or at the very least, protects this place.
He’s also fast, uncommonly swift for a human. There is a drug humans can take called shunsped. It gives them unnatural speed, rivaling that of elves and vampires, and I wonder if this individual has gotten ahold of some. But, no. Humans have very visible signs of being under the influence of shunsped, some of which are uncontrollable jerky movements and shaking. Bren doesn’t have that.
The only conclusion I can come to is that he isn’t human.
And if he’s not a human, vampire or elf . . .
He’s fae.
I mull over this idea. Fae come in different sizes, but most appear more or less human to some degree. There’s no other explanation I can think of.
So for now, I will have to assume he’s fae and wields magic.
I peer at the sky. “The day is young. I have some energy pellets in the trunk of the car. We can eat those as we walk rather than take the time to have a proper breakfast.”
“‘Pellets,’” Stella says with a laugh. “Sounds like rabbit food.”
“These are made for elves,” I correct, “and they are highly nutritious.”
Retrieving a couple of packets, I pass one to Stella, and we begin our hike into the forest.
“Tastes
