Foolish.
Maddox cups his hands around his mouth and lets out a blood-curdling howl. The figure freezes. Gryffin catches a handful of discarded bones by our boots and launches them toward the intruder. The Seelie lets out a shrill yelp, turns tail, and runs back across the bridge, his footsteps stomping until he hits the dirt on the other side.
We follow him to the edge of the curling mist, ensuring those who linger think twice before crossing the canyon again.
7
“When you find your heart’s true mate, you will never desire another.”
-A Seelie Guide to Matrimony
When we arrived home last night, Madame Ella had a white box bound in black ribbon waiting for me on the stoop. Inside, I found the most stunning gown—which was fortuitous considering the one I wore out already had a hole in the knee.
The buttery yellow skirts of the new gown slip like liquid over my stiff legs as I pace my uncle’s living room. Nia sits curled up on the sofa, her feet draped over the rolled pillow, tapping along to music only she can hear. Quiet conversation drifts from the kitchen where my aunt and uncle enjoy cups of peppermint tea. By the sounds of it, they’re discussing what to plant in the raised beds by the back fence.
With our bellies full of poached eggs and toast, Nia suggested we retire to the living room to relax. I’ve searched for a book that I haven’t already read, but it would seem my uncle’s small collection is the very same as my father’s.
After being cooped up in a carriage for so long yesterday, my poor legs tingle and ache from disuse. All I want is to go for a walk. Back home, I’d have at least two miles done by now. Unfortunately, today is Wednesday, and apparently Wednesdays are for hiding.
How is no one else going mad? Look at the golden light streaming through the break in the closed shutters. It’s ridiculous for everyone to remain inside simply because of a few fae using the well. We aren’t anywhere near the damn thing, yet the doors are locked, and the downstairs shutters have been pulled tight.
“You’re wearing a hole in the rug,” Nia drawls from behind her book, flipping to the next page.
That’s because I’m this close to losing my mind. “How can you stand being locked in here when the day is so fine?”
“Every day in Rosehill is fine.”
That may be so, but it doesn’t change the fact that no day should be wasted. Sitting in the dark with books we’ve both already read feels like a terrible waste. “I need to move.”
“Isn’t that what you’re doing?”
“Outside.”
She finally lifts her head, her eyes as wide as they were last night when we heard that haunting howl.
“We can bring Madame Ella my other dresses.” I’ll only get away with wearing this gown so many times before Ivee comments on the lack of variety in my wardrobe.
Not that I care what she thinks. If I had my way, she wouldn’t notice me at all. Since she has noticed me, I’d prefer not to give her more fodder for her viciousness.
“Madame Ella’s and every other business is closed today.”
I give Nia’s bouncing feet a nudge, waiting until she moves them to fall beside her with a groan. “It’s nonsense.”
“It’s safe.”
Safe fromwhat? If the Unseelie were truly monsters, they wouldn’t have let a dilapidated bridge keep them from punishing the prince for trespassing on their territory.
Unless that isn’t illegal. Are we allowed to enter the Unseelie city on Wednesdays as well? It seems only fair if they can venture into ours that we should be allowed to do the same.
I smooth my fingers down my overskirt, straightening the wrinkles as best I can. “How do you know they’re dangerous?”
Nia closes the book with a snap. “Did you not hear Ronan? There are bones scattered across their side of The Divide.”
When I was little and my mother would blow out the candle by my bed, I thought I saw monsters in the dark too. Turns out, they were only the piles of laundry I hadn’t put away. “They eat meat, correct?” Unlike Seelie fae, the Unseelie diet consists mostly of animals. “Perhaps that is just where they discarded them.”
If I wanted to keep people away, that would certainly do the trick.
Rolling her eyes, she shoves her chaotic hair back from her face. “I suppose the horns and fangs aren’t anything to fret over either.”