Page 8 of Fae Games

Most people nodded, but I shook my head. “Could you explain?”

“There are three known realms. Only two of them are accessible by faeries.” Mr. Whittaker counted them off on his fingers. “That of the world in which we live, the gods, and the damned.”

“Which is the Otherworld?” I asked.

Mr. Whittaker brought his mug to his lips and took a long sip of tea. “It’s the realm of the damned. The Isle of Fae and all its surrounding landmasses exist in all three realms, so it’s not a question of traveling down to the Calf of Fae to find Helen.”

I rested both hands on the edge of the table and breathed hard. About two years ago, Elijah scored a bunch of Star Trek DVDs. They were about a bald guy who went on adventures in a flying ship and could talk into a machine that provided any food imaginable.

The series pissed me off because the only thing he bloody ordered was Earl Grey tea. Sorry, but if I had to tolerate warp speed and aliens, there needed to be more banquets, more fashions, and more throwing of shade.

“Are you saying she’s in another dimension?” I squeaked.

Mr. Whittaker paused. “I’ve heard the realms described as dimensions, yes.” He glanced around at a few blank faces. “Have you seen people play the radio on the DVDs?”

Everyone nodded.

“Somewhere out there in the human world, there are hundreds of people talking into microphones and playing music for others to hear. Humans turn their dials to tune into each station. You’ve seen this happen, yes?”

“Right,” I rasped.

“Think of the land as the radio and the pyre stones as the dial. Only you can’t twiddle it to jump from station to station.”

“We have to wait until the next new moon to reach the Otherworld?” I asked.

“Exactly.” Mr. Whittaker set his mug down. “Just as we have the Isle of Fae, the Calf of Fae and all the towns, in the Otherworld, the Calf of Fae is called Dubnos.”

I was only half listening because creatures like that one-eyed ogre probably lived there with those awful dark faeries who had taken Sicily.

Without meaning to, I shot to my feet.

Mr. Whittaker furrowed his brows. “Unity?”

“I…” A surge of emotion caught in the back of my throat, but I choked out the words. “I need to go to bed.”

Before anyone could stop me to ask questions, I hurried out of the common room, running so fast, the hallway windows formed a blur. I didn’t stop until I burst into the dorm and flung myself face-first onto the bed.

“Fuck,” I said between gasping breaths.

Sicily was lost to me and now Helen. Maybe my curse wasn’t to die in excruciating pain. Maybe the dead faerie had cursed me to feel the loss of people I cared for over and over, to feel the grief that his brothers would now be suffering because I had led the peacekeepers to their bargaining circle.

What did that mean? If I got close to the princes, would they also get taken away? If I hadn’t cheated in that last trial, Prince August wouldn’t have called the king and queen to sentence me to Dubnos, and Helen wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to make a public accusation of the Fated stealing her magic.

A sob tore from my throat. It was worse. I had told Helen to consult with a hag, and it was because of me and my need to find Sicily that she had been in the Mound.

“Bloody hell,” I said the words over and over again until they turned into a low moan. What the hell was Helen suffering?

“Unity.” A warm hand landed on my shoulder. “If you don’t pull yourself together, it will be you that gets banished to the Dark Fae Prison. Or killed.”

I raised my head to find Flora staring down at me, her eyes soft with compassion. The light streaming through the window on the far right made her black hair shine like a polished jet.

“Helen was a good person,” she said. “I didn’t appreciate that until now.”

“You think she’s dead.”

“I hope the journey killed her.” Flora shook her head. “Because being alive in a place like that is worse than anything I can imagine.”

A lump formed in my throat. That was a practical view of the situation, but I wanted Helen to survive so that we could rescue her at the next new moon.