I might be mad, but I stand by what I said. Look at them. Even their flat stomachs are corded with ridges of muscle. They remind me of the bulls I’ve seen, alone in their pens. Not a pinch of fat on any of them.

“Why are there no women?” I whisper.

“Because they’re born not of flesh and bone, but of darkness and shadows.”

Nonsense. They look flesh and bone to me.

The longer I stare, the louder my heart sings inside my breast until Nia pushes away from the wall and tugs at my skirt. “Come on. You’ve had your gander. Let’s get out of here before they eat us for dinner.”

She’s right, there is no logical reason for us to linger. Still, I find myself looking back one last time…

And finding a pair of black eyes trained on me.

Time stands still, the final grains of sand in an hourglass falling to their doom. My thundering pulse floods my ears as if I’ve been sprinting instead of standing frozen, staring back at the darkest eyes I’ve ever seen.

The Unseelie moves not a muscle, and neither do I, caught in a silent exchange where only the two of us exist.

Nia’s tug of my skirt drags me back to this world. I duck out of sight, but the strange sensation of being watched follows me all the way to Nia’s cottage. We burst through the gates, falling onto the soft grass next to a forsythia bush riddled with bulbous bees.

Saints above… I don’t think I’ve ever run as fast.

“That was the most exhilarating moment of my entire life,” Nia pants up at the downy clouds, the heel of her hand massaging her heaving chest.

Exhilarating, indeed. Although not nearly as exhilarating at locking eyes with that Unseelie fae. “I think he saw me.”

Nia lifts to her elbows and peers down at me with her brow crushed up. “Who? One of the Unseelie?”

I nod.

“Heaven help us. If that’s true, we’re lucky to be alive.”

Are we though? I felt no malice from the man, only the same curiosity that hums in my veins.

That night, when I finally manage to drift into sleep, I dream of shadows, black eyes, and blood-drenched blades.

8

Everett

“Leaving home without one’s blade is a death wish.”

Surviving the Unseelie Lands, Author Unknown

The day started out the same as any other, with the young, able-bodied males in our clan preparing to make the mile-long trek from the camp to the well, and yet an uneasy feeling in the pit of my gut followed me the entire way. I remained on high alert, scanning the fog for signs of danger that never materialized.