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“I want you to be happy Conner, but you won’t be happy here. Even if you stay, her father will eventually marry her off to another man. Do you really want to stay and watch that?”
He shook his head. I saw the anger wash over him.
He turned to me, trying to hold himself together. “Come on, let’s get back to the others. You look like you were just trampled by a horse.” He pulled me to my feet.
“How about I dose you with drugs and let’s see how you recover.”
He laughed, holding onto me as we made our way back to the church.
The streets were quieter than yesterday. The decorations hung in disarray as remnants of food and wine littered the streets. I quickly remembered the warning bells for the dark alfar that went off in the middle of our celebration. Sadistic bastards. They couldn’t let us be during the solstice? They just had to use the celebration to gather slaves for their disgusting court.
As children, we were told stories about what they would do to the humans that ended up in their court. The alfar would rape and torture those they found to be less ugly than the others. They would use humans to conduct experiments. Crossbreeding them with fairies, nymphs, and incubi, just to name a few. If a child was conceived, they would do experiments on it to see which magical traits passed from each parent. After they concluded their testing, the child would be disposed of to keep every race’s line pure. I shuddered at the thought as approaching hooves drew me out of my thoughts.
A well-maintained wagon drawn by two white horses pulled up along the curb of the street across from our church. Out of a wagon sprang three young girls, all dressed in white. Their hair was freshly washed and braided away from their faces. They smiled and giggled as an older man exited behind them. Disgusting, I thought.
The light alfar were scheduled to come through the town this morning. The girls were going to be offered to the alfar by the man for a few silver shillings. The young idiots were surely told of the grandeur of the light court. How they would never go hungry again, and how honorable it would be to serve the elegant light alfar. Maybe one would even be taken as a lover of a noble alfar male and have a happy ending of their own. Ha, pathetic. The only thing that awaited anyone beyond the border was indentured servitude.
Conner and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes as we made our way to the stairs of the church. My body felt heavy and weak. I fought to drag my feet along the long halls toward the commons area. Before we even reached the door, I could hear yelling and crying coming from our room. I pushed open the door to find Jordan and Evan standing in front of one another, yelling their heads off.
“Do you realize what you’ve done? How selfish are you?” yelled Jordan. The others were scattered around the edge of the room, huddled together, crying.
“She wouldn’t listen to me. She insisted on finding Gen,” said Evan.
I scanned the room, taking note of the familiar faces. One was missing. I felt my heart begin to race as my breaths became uneven and strained. I stepped towards the two boys as they turned their attention to me.
“Jordan, what’s going on?” I asked, still searching for Lilian. My hands began to shake uncontrollably.
Jordan stood tall and firm and looked towards Evan with anger. “Go on. You tell her,” Jordan said.
Evan looked like he was going to be sick, unable to even bring his eyes up to meet mine.
“Evan, where is Lilian?” I asked.
He took a step back.
“Where is Lilian?” I screamed, grabbing the collar of his jacket with both of my hands.
“Genevieve, I’m sorry. She wouldn’t come back without you. She was out in the crowds looking for you when the bells rang. I tried dragging her with me, but she refused to leave,” Evan said softly.
“So, you just left her out there all by herself?” I screamed, holding back the need to break his jaw with my fist.
“I had no choice. She wouldn’t listen. I tried, but she was so worried about you. About what would happen if you got caught, being what you are.”
I let go of his jacket, pushing him away from me. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself.
“Have you gone out and looked for her since last night?” I asked Jordan.
“Yes, but—,” Jordan stopped and shook his head.
“But what? What did you find?” I demanded.
“She was taken, Gen,” said Jordan.
My heart fell into my stomach. “No, no she couldn’t have been. How do you know for sure?” I asked.
“The Ranger family saw from the window in their attic. The dark alfar appeared out of nowhere and took her.”
“Did…did they hurt her?” I forced myself to ask.