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Stop. He said without speaking. And I could not do anything else.
“She is an earth and fire elemental,” he said.
“Maybe her father hid her in the stone before he left,” the clean-shaven man said. “He was an earth elemental.”
“I am in her mind, Oisin,” the man with the crimson beard said. “She is tainted with dark blood.”
Dark. That was what my father always called himself, whenever he drank from the mom and dad pitcher. “I am a dark fae, Kenna, that means you are too.”
Remembering that was not good. It was a secret. And there was someone inside my mind. I could not let him hear my thoughts about my father’s secret.
“We will take her,” the crimson-bearded man said. “Her father is only Unseelie, but she is... Tainted.”
Oisin did not say anything to that. His grip on me was no longer tight, but as the other man turned away and started to walk, there was nothing I could do but follow him.
We walked to the middle of the town. Then, we stopped. The fae had gathered. Most of them gave me pitying looks, but some looked disgusted to see me. I wondered if it was because I wasn’t wearing any shoes and my feet were starting to get dirty from walking on the ground.
“Listen,” the man with the crimson beard raised his voice. “We are taking this one. Our records say she is the only tainted one in this town. Those of you who helped us find her will be rewarded by the queen. And those of you who did not move a finger to help, next time, you will be punished for it. Anyone who harbors a tainted one will be considered a traitor.”
He was in my mind still. I could not think, let alone act. So as he turned away from the crowd and kept walking, all I could do was follow.
The distant voice reached me again, the one that did not belong to this world...
Jasmine, someone said. I will not let you disappear into the memories of monsters. You will come back to me. Now.
Jasmine. That name was familiar. Others had called me that name before. It was a part of me and it carried the weight of years more than Kenna had lived until she had been captured by the soldiers of the queen.
The scene in front of me shifted. I left the little girl being taken away by the soldiers. And became someone else.
But I still wasn’t me.
“You are here,” a man, wearing an outfit that reminded me closely of Winter Castle stood before me. He cocked his head and offered me a compassionate smile. “I thought you wouldn’t come.”
“I need to tell you something, Tynan,” I replied. My voice was not mine. I did not believe this time that I was the one in the memory, but I was still seeing it through her eyes.
“At least you are not calling me ‘my lord' anymore, Amarra,” the man replied. “When you started to call me ‘my lord’ again, it was painful. It is a small comfort that we are past that, but I will take it.”
“I cannot stay here,” Amarra replied. I could feel everything she felt. The tightness of her girdle and the heaviness of the dress she was wearing. She was not used to wearing dresses. She did not like that her hair was heavy on top of her head. The makeup made her feel like she was soaked in mud. She loved him. And she pretended to be someone she was not.
“Why?” Tynan took a step forward to take Amarra’s hands in his. “You are leaving me?”
Amarra felt sad. She loved this man, but she could not stay with him.
You should not be here, the same voice rang inside my mind. I don’t want you to see this.
Who are you? I asked.
Amarra stepped away from Tynan and turned her back to him as a tear rolled down her cheek. It felt wet and wrong.
You need to wake up, Jasmine, the voice said. You cannot stay here either.
Why not? I asked.
“Why?” Tynan repeated.
“I do not belong here,” Amarra said. “I cannot stay.”
Come with me, the voice said. I will tell you everything.
