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“I’m on the right. Skeeter lives next door. He’s eighty-five, grizzled as fuck, deaf as a post, and never bothers me. He’s great. I’d introduce you, but we don’t do that.” Ruby hops out, swinging her keys around her finger.
I exit the cart with shaking legs, taking the first deep breath since I got in the thing. Just when my heart slows down to a normal pace, something black comes racing toward me in the darkness. I don’t make a sound. That habit got beaten out of me long ago, but I give it my back, curling down to protect myself from whatever is sprinting toward me.
“Axil, sit. You’re scaring Zara. Calm your tits.”
Axil? I peek through my fingers and turn my head just enough to see a beautiful black dog sitting by Ruby’s feet. His tail is thumping wildly against the ground and his tongue hangs out the side of his mouth.
“Oh. He’s beautiful.” I slowly stand up, not wanting to startle the dog.
Ruby covers his ears with her hands. “Shhh. He’s already a diva. He doesn’t need anyone else to tell him how pretty he is.”
I smile and then freeze. I can’t remember the last time I smiled. The last time I felt happy about anything. It’s such a foreign sensation that I find my hand drifting to my cheek to feel the rarely used expression there. Axil stands and trots over to me, nudging my hand. Dropping to my knee, I pet him, scratching behind his ears and running a hand down his back. He nudges his nose against my jaw and then licks me. I laugh and hug the dog, almost near tears. I know it’s foolish, but he’s so sweet, so trusting.
Axil ducks out of my arm and barks two short woofs. Rhys and Ezra pull up in their death cart and if the dog’s tail is any sign, he’s happy to see them. The dog practically hops around Ezra as he gets out and Ezra rubs Axil’s ears until he’s making happy little sounds.
“Alright, Axil’s given his approval. Let’s get inside,” Ezra says as he straightens up.
Ezra and Axil follow behind Ruby, and I go in after them. Rhys is behind me, his arm brushing against my shoulder when he holds the door open for me. Warmth soaks through my clothing and into my skin. I hurry into the house before I do something foolish like throw myself into his arms.
Ruby moves around the main room, turning on lights. Seeing lights without flames for the first time, that turned on with the flip of a knob, was a revelation. So much of this world is similar to Fairy, but there are tiny differences that are just enough to leave me scratching my head. I’ve already figured out a lot of those things during the time I’ve been here, but I have a lot of questions.
“Sit. I’m going to get you something to eat and drink. You obviously need some food. You look like me if I’d been on a starvation diet,” Ruby commands as she turns on more lights and disappears through a doorway. Axil sticks with me, following me as I sit on a couch, and then lays his head in my lap.
Ezra stays near the door where Ruby just went, his arms crossed over his chest. He doesn’t look mean or threatening, but I can sense the power in him. Rhys takes a seat in a comfortable-looking chair that sits near the end of the couch.
Now that we’re in the light, I can actually see their faces. I understand why Ruby warned me away from Ezra. He’s a handsome man. With close-cropped dark hair, light brown skin, and amber-colored eyes that look like they could burn through your secrets. But he’s not Rhys. I’ve never seen anyone as attractive as him. There’s not even a word to do him justice. He’s not beautiful because he’s too masculine, but handsome doesn’t begin to cover it.
His hair is dark as the night sky, and despite having gotten into a fight earlier, there’s a devilish twinkle in his blue eyes. They’re such a unique color I can’t help but stare as I try to make out all the jeweled tones. I drop my chin, looking away as soon as Rhys catches me gawking.
Both men are tall and fit, and I should be more concerned that I’ve willingly come to an unfamiliar place with them, but I’m surprisingly relaxed. Or maybe I’m too tired to worry right now. Even before I came through the veil, my life was not a peaceful one. I can’t remember the last time I slept without waking in the night, listening for the monsters I knew lurked in the shadows. That hasn’t disappeared since I’ve been here, only now my worries include more than the Duke finding me.
Ruby comes out of the kitchen with her arms full of bags of food and a few bottled drinks. When I first arrived on the island, I quickly learned that the noisy bags held food after a few days of struggling to find anything to eat beyond fruit.
Ezra takes the load of stuff from Ruby’s arms and sets it down on the low table in front of where I’m sitting. He holds out one of the bottles, which I can see now is water, and I take it from him with a quiet thank you. Ruby takes a seat on the couch next to me but sits sideways so that she’s facing me. I can feel her perusal and do my best to stay still as her eyes take in every nuance of my face.
My blonde hair is lank and tangled. I haven’t been able to wash it as often as I’d like. There were bathrooms in some of the public buildings that I could use to wash, but I didn’t want to get caught. Her eyes pause on the scar that’s almost obscured by my hairline, near my temple, but not quite. Ruby doesn’t strike me as one to hold in her questions, so it surprises me when she doesn’t ask about it.
I take a drink of water and then give Axil another scratch behind his ears.
“Can you tell us…” Rhys starts off but struggles to form a question. I get it. There’s a lot going on that I don’t understand, and I know parts of it.
“You said you were in Fairy. How’d you get here?” Ezra picks up where Rhys left off.
Maybe I should hold back, wait to see if I should really trust these people. But that voice in my head, the one that never steers me wrong, practically shouts at me. Trust.
“The night of Ostara, the veil was thin. I was able to come through before it closed.”
“You’ve been here that long?”
I’ve been focusing on the dog, but I turn to Ruby at that question. “Yes, I’ve been… figuring out how things are different here. And what’s the same.” I don’t mention that I’ve been stealing clothing and food to survive.
The weight of Ezra’s stare makes me glance up at him. “Were you hiding out in a room at the end of a tunnel?”
My eyes go wide in surprise and fear quickly chases it. I’d thought the place was abandoned the way it was boarded up. When I got inside, it was obvious someone had been using the place to do magic at one time, but the power felt old and stagnant.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” I swallow thickly. “I wasn’t trying to…”
“Jesus, Ezra, turn the thousand-yard stare down a bit. Ignore him, Zara. It’s fine. It was just an unsolved mystery.” Rhys smiles at me and my insides melt and then combust, making my cheeks heat.
