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“Not at all. But if you look outside, you’ll see we’re no longer on Earth.”
“What the fucking waves? Is that a joke?” In two steps, she was by the window, ripping open the curtains. A wall of mist blocked the view. This house could be anywhere. She looked around the room. It was simple, generic, boring. A small bed, a wardrobe, a chair - currently occupied by Camdan - and a sink. Nothing special. And definitely not something that was going to tell her anything about where the heck she was.
“I wish it was,” Cam said sadly. “I’m sorry I took you, I don’t know what came over me.”
She whirled around. If only looks could kill.
“So why did you kidnap me? What did you do to my brothers?”
He looked at her, his forehead scrunched in confusion. “Your brothers? I didn’t do anything to your brothers. Didn’t even know you had any.”
“But they were lying on the ground... Unconscious...” Her voice faltered as she realised what that meant. If he was telling the truth, Cam wasn’t the only one who’d been out in the mist.
“I didn’t see anyone. I saw you collapsing so I caught you and brought you here,” he explained, looking down on the ground, evading her eyes.
“You still haven’t explained why you did that,” she snapped, her voice harsher than she had intended.
“Did you hear me talking to Flint?” he asked and she nodded. “It felt like the right thing to do. I was travelling on the Staran, the hidden path, and felt a weird kind of tug, so I left the path and found myself in your village. I planned to hide in the mists but the fàth-fiata were already there. Then I heard shouts and found you. End of story.”
“That doesn’t explain anything,” Macey huffed. “What’s the Staran? Why were you going to hide?”
“Sorry, I’m not used to talking to humans,” he apologised but stopped when she growled.
“I’m not human,” she said through clenched teeth. “Don’t insult me.”
He held up his hands. “Sorry, I didn’t know. You were in a human village, so I assumed... What are you?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” She shook her head. “Answer my questions first.”
“Sorry - I seem to be saying that a lot today.” He grimaced. “The Staran are the paths between worlds, a quick way to travel through the mists. I think humans call them ley lines, but that’s a simplistic term. They’re not set routes, they change all the time, and sometimes, they bring you where you need to be, not where you want to be. Like today, I guess.”
“What the actual fuck? You expect me to believe that?” her voice rose higher at the end as her outrage seeped in. He’d brought her here, without checking if it was okay first, and now he was expecting her to believe he’d travelled along these Staran to some place that didn’t seem to really exist. Next, he’d be telling her that the gods existed and actually controlled stuff, and she knew that was a lie.
“Look out of the window, it’s a little hard to deny then.”
“Not true, it could just be really crap weather.”
Camdan started laughing. “I know you’re from Scotland, but you have to admit that this would still be a little extreme for just bad weather.” Damn, he had a point.
“How do you know I’m Scottish?” she demanded instead, going as far as stomping her foot on the ground. Maybe not as mature as she should be, especially with the weird pull she was feeling towards Camdan. At the same time, he couldn’t exactly say anything about it, not after kidnapping her.
“Your accent is a bit of a giveaway.” He gave her a self-satisfied smirk and her hand flew to cover her mouth. She hadn’t even realised that she had an accent. “Do you have a name?”
“No, my Mum decided she wanted to be different and gave me a number instead,” she snapped and he stood there in stunned silence, confusion written over his face for a moment.
“Which number?” he asked once he’d regained his composure.
“What?”
“Which number did your Mum give you?” He smiled at the end, his soft grey eyes boring into her and distracting her from her train of thought.
“Two,” she replied dryly. When he stared at her, she sighed. “She called me Macey.”
“So why did you say Two?” he asked her in confusion.
“Ever heard of sarcasm?”
“It’s a very human concept,” he said slowly and she shook her head in frustration.
