AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The dagger hit just outside of the bullseye.
“Again. You can do better than that.” Kaz went and got my dagger for me. They made me practice until I was begging to be done. They were perfectionists if nothing else.
“Your throwing has definitely improved.” Kaz chuckled as he clamped his hand on my shoulder. “You just need to be confident like you are with your bow.”
“Well, I can still take both of you down in hand-to-hand combat,” I muttered before laughing softly.
“Honestly, Thea, I think you might be able to fight both of us at the same time and kick our asses.” Kai laughed. “Actually, that might be a great lesson for next time.”
“Great,” I spoke sarcastically. I was thankful for their willingness to teach me fighting and weaponry skills.
The twins and I walked in silence toward mine and Sybil’s home. My eyes glanced to where the woman had held her dead husband in the street. My footsteps faltered as she lay still across his chest, gripping onto him. The knife she had used on herself lay in her bloodied hand. Another one I couldn’t save in time, but at least they were together.
When I walked in, baked bread sat everywhere on the counters. Sybil smiled and handed us each a loaf. I took mine and wrapped it in the baby blanket I had found last night before grabbing a thing of milk.
“I’ll be right back.”
I headed out the door and down the side trail next to our small house. The woman with the child lived in the house next to ours. Hopefully, she was still there and hadn’t been run off by others. I peeked in the window and saw her cradling her young child inside. I set the food and milk in front of the door and knocked before ducking behind a wall.
The woman answered the door, looking down at the gift I left for her. The sobs that escaped her made my hardened heart crack just a little. She hurried inside and I crept back to the window. She already had a cup of milk and bread in front of her child. She wrapped the new blanket around him and smiled. I would continue to share our food with them. I would save them, too.
I hurried back to our house. Fae was scarce on the streets today. Either they were all dead or it was too hot to be out. The constant fighting and yelling got old. I would take the eerie silence over the blood-curdling screams.
As I walked in, Sybil, Kai, and Kaz were in a heated discussion that abruptly ended when I walked in.
“What?” I asked, instantly suspicious.
“You can’t save them all, Thea.” Kaz frowned.
“Well, I got the food so I will share it how I please. Besides, I will not let a child and his mother die because we are being greedy.”
They all fell silent. I grabbed a piece of bread and ate it in silence. The small boy was born with elite magic, but his mother was not. I had never seen the mark of the elite on her which meant she had sacrificed a much easier life in order to come with her son.
It was more than any other family member had done for any of us. She deserved to live, too. Who was I to decide that she was unworthy? If anything, she was more worthy than all of us because she chose to come. She had not abandoned her small child like so many others did.
Was it a decision that other family members were offered, and no one took?
I kept to myself for the rest of the afternoon while Sybil taught Kai and Kaz how to make medicines. While their presence in the house made it feel alive and I would have loved it any other day, today I wished I lived alone. It was getting harder to hold my anger in. I worried constantly that I would snap at them or Sybil. Guilt would consume me if I hurt them, or they turned on me.
A bell rang out through the town, signaling the start of the meeting, and we all walked in silence to the small town center. I took mental note of the fae that were in attendance. Less than half of what we started with were here. Most fae attended the meetings, even though not a lot of information came from them. We had nothing else to do or look forward to in this hell, so at least it was something to do.
Standing in the town center brought the stark realization that our town was falling apart as quickly as we were. Homes that were once in decent shape would all crumble within the year because we didn’t have the ability to provide upkeep. There were no roadways for carriages, but wide dirt paths carved by heavy foot traffic. Even the forest and meadows on the outskirts were filled with dead decaying plants. It wasn’t long ago that the grass and trees were colorful and full of life. Not even they could survive the harsh elements that the king had cursed us with. The change to Exile had been sudden and unexpected. I wondered if he thought we were all dead by now. It was hard to gauge how much time had passed, but it was likely several years.
Fallon, the oldest fae in Exile, took the center of a makeshift stage. He had assumed the role of organizing town meetings and deciding rulings of fae here. He was desperate to keep rules and laws here to provide some safety and normalcy. It worked most of the time. Things had been uncertain when he first took over, but when he executed those found guilty of high crimes like murder, fae quickly realized that we needed some stability. He had made a spectacle about it, and the murder rates dropped significantly after that.
I admired his willingness to step into the role. No one else wanted to, and there was a high chance that we would have killed each other by now.
“Thank you all for attending.” His voice carried through our silence. “I’m afraid I don’t have much to say tonight. We are dwindling, our food sources are suddenly almost nonexistent, and we still have no plan on how to save ourselves.” His shoulders slumped with exhaustion and defeat. “Our creek is drying up and once that does, our main food and water source will be gone.”
“Maybe a food cart will appear again?” Someone yelled from the crowd.
This caused a murmur of hope to erupt, but my chest tightened with dread. I would bring another cart, but what if they killed and beat each other again? Guilt crept in. I vowed to never do that again.
“We still don’t understand where that came from.” Fallon sighed. “It caused so much havoc the last time. I feel you all would kill one another for a slice of bread.”
The fae fell silent. It was true that they would likely kill one another again. Sybil's hand squeezed mine.
“Do we have any idea why all of our resources have suddenly dried up or died in the past months? We never had an issue in the seven years we’ve been here, then suddenly this year it’s all going to hell? Why?” Someone called out to Fallon. Whispers sounded through the small crowd.
