“Fuck off, human!” This time the Kin moved, shifting from vulnerable and wounded to vicious in the blink of an eye. She crouched on all fours and faced up to him like a wild dog, ready to leap and take a chunk out of him. The wound on her shoulder and upper arm was red-raw, still bleeding and horribly deep. Perhaps the wounds, old and new, had driven her mad.

Vince turned and ran away from the pond, into the woods and onto a path he had wandered before. Panting hard, running fast, he didn’t look back until he burst from the forest and out onto the grassland across the valley floor. With the river to his left he glanced back and slowed to a jog. The Kin was not following him. He suspected she was still at the pond, content to see him gone and now nursing her wounds once more, keening in pain and grief at what the great fairy had done.

He looked around at the stunning landscape as his heart settled and perspiration cooled on his skin. Grace had certainly ensured that her eternal home was a beautiful one. He wished the injured Kin had allowed him closer. Few of those lured here by Grace ever did, as if the only human here was in part responsible for their predicament. Trying everything he could to escape, gathering as much information as possible, he thought it was only through them that he would finally make his way back to the world.

Lonely, craving company, Vince found himself heading towards the only Kin that he knew for sure would talk to him.

* * *

“She doesn’t eat you because human flesh tastes like shit.” It sounded like Mallian knew what he was talking about, but Vince chose not to pursue that line of conversation. He had merely mentioned the wounded Kin, and the Nephilim’s comment made him suspect he could read his mind. After everything that had happened, something so mundane would not surprise him.

“Sometimes I’m not even sure she knows I’m here,” Vince said.

“Of course she knows. She just wouldn’t demean herself by acknowledging you.”

“You do.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers.”

“She hasn’t bitten chunks out of you, either.”

“She wouldn’t dare,” Mallian muttered.

“Really? You’re not saying that very loud. Afraid she might hear?”

“Huh.”

“Maybe she’s waiting for you to mature.”