Page 1 of Fae Trials

Chapter 1

Every so often, I would stand at the edge of Saltbay port and squint across the Irish Sea to catch a glimpse of England. That was on days when the army planes weren’t trailing clouds of iron salt through the air. Back in the days before Dad had disappeared and when Mom was still alive, I used to wonder if the other humans in England could see us waving at them from the Isle of Fae.

Now, I want to know why those English bastards would keep their own kind confined here like lepers in a colony with all these faeries.

I sprinted down Knockout Hill, peering out into the sea where the United Nations cargo ship moored next to the off-shore iron rig. It was the first Monday of the month when the outside world delivered something other than food. We were just in time, as the ship lowered floating containers into the water.

A gust of salty wind blew a lock of mousy-brown hair into my eyes, making me slow down to tuck it behind my ear.

Sicily let out an uncharacteristic squeal. “Keep up, Unity!”

At this time of the morning, while the sun peeked above the horizon, dark fae still roamed the streets in the few minutes before their curfew. All the dangerous ones now festered in the Dark Fae Prison. The rest were mostly harmless unless a human was stupid enough to approach them for a bargain. But that didn’t mean it was a good idea to attract their attention.

The human governments explained that they didn’t approach the ports to avoid contaminating the fae with their iron. My sister and I knew the truth. The ships kept their distance to stop us humans from scrambling to our freedom.

“Hurry up,” Sicily shouted between panting breaths. “We’ll miss the iPads.”

Rolling my eyes, I hiked up my skirt and continued running. “They’d never risk the fae getting a method to communicate with the outside world.”

We split apart to run around a stocky figure in black, who was pushing a cart of tools toward the port. From the width of its shoulders, it was probably a troll.

Sicily lowered her voice. “I heard Apple was—”

“You know what rumors are like,” I said. “They’re probably delivering a new kind of fruit, and some mischief-maker told everyone it was computers.”

“Nope.” Sicily made a few jumping jacks. “In a few hours, we’ll be back at home watching O-tube on our new pads.”

“Youtube.” I chuckled. We didn’t get TV signals over here, let alone internet connections, but my sister lived on hope. Hope that Dad had smuggled his way onto a ship and now lived somewhere amazing like London, Paris, or New York. Hope that he would one day find a way for us to join him.

We turned into the Saltwater Wharf, and our footsteps faltered. Instead of the usual dockworkers, it looked like half of Doolish had woken early to gather at the waterfront.

“You see?” Sicily picked up her pace and sprinted toward the crowd. “Everyone knows what’s coming today.”

“Bloody hell.” I stared at her back, my eyes flickering from my sister to the mass of beings gathered around the water’s edge. If it wasn’t iPads arriving today, it had to be something else of value. I rushed toward my sister, grabbed her hand, and we shoved our way through nearly a hundred humans, satyrs, and other lesser fae.

“Excuse me.” I ducked beneath the arm of an ogre.

“Oi,” he bellowed. “There’s a line, you know!”

“Sorry!” I dodged right into his blind spot, letting his fist land on the flank of a centaur who let out an ear-piercing screech.

Sicily turned around, her blue eyes wide. “What the—”

“Keep going.” I edged around a pair of hags standing in the middle of the throng, not wanting to attract the attention of either the ogre or the centaur, whose shouts colored the air blue.

A row of iron peacekeepers stood at the edge of the wharf, their presence and the spray of saltwater keeping the lesser fae at a distance. Each wore black body armor and helmets with magic resistant visors. They were also humans, but worked for the UN and thought they were better than us because they came from faraway places like Europe and Asia and Africa where no one had ever seen a faerie.

As we broke through the crowd, the sergeant raised his iron baton. “Stay back and place your hands where we can see them!”

Sicily and I stopped running and exchanged exasperated glances. Wasn’t it obvious from our shabby clothes, mousy hair, and five-foot-nothing frames that we were human? These guys were such dicks.

“Fine,” I growled. “It’s not like we’re going to get anything but fruit.”

Sicily hopped from foot to foot. “It’s something special, I know!”

Cheers rang across the wharf as the floating container approached the dock. The peacekeepers stood aside to let the workers load it onto a metal docking platform six feet beneath where we stood.

My throat dried. What if the rumors were true? From what I had learned on DVDs, people needed WIFI to connect their laptops to the internet. But what if iPads came with internet of their own? I wished I’d spent more time analyzing this instead of getting caught up in the exciting shade-throwing and the drama.