AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t be bouncing off walls now,” Bianca teased. “We have enough of that.”
Oh, she was going to miss them.
Daria was back in her room in no time, hefting the bag on her shoulder before she sprinted to one of the exit points as fast as she could. She opened a portal and threw the bag out first. She paused, unseeingly absorbing every detail of her cave home to store in her memory—just in case she needed a feeling to hold on to when it got extra hard to continue.
“Stop lingering,” she scolded herself.
Daria inhaled deeply and stepped into the portal, landing inside another warehouse where the rodents slept. She froze at the footsteps that approached…at the clean scent of soap that feathered in her nostrils.
“It felt like a goodbye, and I couldn’t sleep because of it. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, either, wondering if you were keeping secrets from me. I was right.”
“Charlie…”
“Where are you going, Daria?”
Chapter 3
Daria’s unusual silence solidified Charlie’s suspicion—not that she would have gotten away with it even if she had made up all the excuses in the world. The backpack was a dead giveaway, heavier than it looked and sealed tight, but it was the look on her face that made it all the more prominent: chin out, defensive stance in place, a struggle in her eyes that swirled the cloudiness there. His hands itched to soothe that struggle away, but he stayed rooted in place and waited her out.
She opened her mouth, then closed it. She let the frustration show, then called it back. Then she slumped in defeat, a reaction that jarred his body and had him stepping forward before he could stop himself.
“What’s wrong? What happened—”
An object was tossed his way before he could finish his queries. He ducked and caught it, then ogled the small book that could fit right in the palm of his hand. With a flick of her fingers, it grew large enough to resemble a regular book, the pages turning by themselves and stopping where a key was pressed on paper. She snatched the key and pointed.
“Your answers, but I need to go.”
She marched away and he had no choice but to follow, eyes flying between the book and her. When she stayed on the streets, he relaxed and allowed his focus to return to the book, reading the page and many other pages…and then he was no longer relaxed.
“Daria?”
“You need to hurry. I’m in a hurry.”
“Now just wait a damn minute—”
His phone buzzed, interrupting him. He frowned at Hayley’s short message.
I can’t talk. I’m out on vacation. I think we should extend this break. It’s just not working out anymore.
He wanted to call her and insist that they talk this out. But the want was overpowered by the need to take care of something else, so he tucked his phone back in his pocket and ran to catch up to the Fae who was already making her way out of the streets and into the forest. She used the public park’s crowds to blend in, then snuck away to be alone. When he jumped in her path to block her way, she sidestepped and kept going.
“Daria, we need to talk.”
“Then talk.”
When she didn’t slow down, he had no choice but to catch up again. “You have to be kidding about this.”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
“But this is ridiculous.”
“What did you read?”
He closed the book. “That there’s a man who lives in the highest mountain who can grant all wishes. That only those who are deserving of finding him will find him. That he’s impossible to get to unless one opens their eyes to see the real path.”
“Yes. You read that right.”
They passed by their usual pathway before she diverged to the right and into grassy fields they hadn’t walked on before. He stayed on alert, senses tapping his surroundings and finding no threat yet. But one never knew when it came to this city with its loners and passersby, so he kept his voice low.
