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“You know. A storm? Rain. Clouds. Lightning?” Kellen waited for her response.
“From above? No. I’ve never flown before. In fact, my first ever flight was…with you.”
For some reason, it pleased Kellen immensely that he had given her a first.
“I can smell it. On the wind. There’s a storm brewing. Because we live above the clouds, we can watch it from above.”
“And we won’t get wet?” Raven scrunched her nose up as she thought about it.
“No. It’s like flying in one of your airplanes. We live above the clouds.”
“Wait…why can I breathe here?” Raven grabbed his arm as he took off to wander down the path that led past the stables. “I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before. Shouldn’t I be, like, gasping for air or something?”
“Magick.” Kellen waved a finger in the air. “We’re mostly adapted, but we have added protections in place. Particularly once our king fell in love with a human. Lily needs to be able to travel safely in any realm. We make it possible.”
“Huh. That’s considerate of you.”
“It’s just what you do. When you care.” Kellen shrugged. “Come on. We’ll take watch on the cliffs past the stables. It’s one of the best spots to watch the storms.”
Kellen looped his arm through hers, noticing that even though she stiffened at his touch, she didn’t pull away. Progress, at least. Then, because he knew the path by heart, he led her along in the darkness, past the stables where some of the Alicorns played in the pasture, softly glowing in the moonlight.
“Well, shite. They glow,” Raven whispered.
“Would you expect anything less?” Kellen asked, happy that she saw the Alicorns in the same way that he did. Yes, in the daylight, they were majestic beasts. But at night? When starlight danced across their coats? They shimmered and shone with a universal energy that transcended all space and time.
“I have no idea what to expect. I don’t have much frame of reference for the magickal,” Raven admitted.
“Come on then, you’ll love this. We’re almost there.”
Kellen dragged her to the edge of the cliffs, scanning the night for any signs of a threat.
“Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. That’s too close.” Raven dug in her heels when they neared the edge of the cliffs. He’d forgotten that she couldn’t fly, so she wouldn’t want to sit directly on the edge like he was used to doing. More than once, a stiff breeze had toppled him off the side, and he’d ride the wind for a moment before popping back to the castle. Without the magick of the Air Fae though, Raven would plummet to the earth.
“Come this way.” Kellen led her up a path where a cluster of boulders nestled together and sat, pulling her down next to him. She automatically shifted so that she didn’t lean into his side, and they settled quietly with their backs against the rocks.
From here, the world seemed to just…drop away. Living above the clouds meant they had a front-row seat to the stars, and the sky stretched above them, inky velvet scattered with ice-chip diamonds. Below, the lights of earth were shrouded by a thick blanket of clouds that were barely distinguishable in the darkness. Until…
“Oh!” Raven gasped and surprised him by gripping his hand. “Oh, Kellen. Just look!”
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Kellen said.
Below them, the dark clouds illuminated with lightning, an extraordinary show. Thick streaks of light bounced between puffy cotton clouds, illuminating various corners of the sky in an elaborate display of nature’s glory.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Raven breathed. Turning, he studied her face, child-like in its awe, as the dim light rippled across her skin. She was impossibly lovely, here in this moment, with all of her walls dropped.
“I would come here. Every night after my mother died. Hoping to hear from her one more time,” Kellen admitted. “This was where she used to find me, when I was a child, and I’d run off after an argument with my father. If I couldn’t be out racing the wind, then I’d be here, clinging to the edge of the world while I tried to make sense of my emotions.”
“Not a bad spot to have a think on life, I suppose.” Raven shrugged, her eyes still on the storm that raged below them.
“What about you? Did you ever have a spot? A safe place to run to? I confess, I don’t really understand what you mean when you say you grew up on the streets. Maybe it’s getting lost in translation between our worlds.” Kellen hoped she’d open up to him, as he dearly wanted to know more, and he waited in silence while she considered his question.
“I did have this one spot. It was on the river. Nobody knew about it because you had to be just small enough to slip through a fence to get down the banks. But then, when I tucked myself under the bridge, I’d be sheltered from the rain, and nobody could see me. That was my place. My spot. I would sit there for hours. Singing softly to myself. Or to the ravens. They’d come by to listen. Or I’d just watch the water drift by. Even catching some sleep. Otherwise, the library was the closest thing I had to a safe spot, I guess.” Raven’s words struck a chord in him, filling him with sadness, but he sensed she wasn’t interested in his sympathy.
“No home then? Is that what that means? To grow up on the streets? No shelter?”
“That’s right.” Raven laughed, shaking her head. “I mean, I was in and out of foster homes for a bit. It wasn’t a life totally lived on the streets. But I left the last foster home and never looked back.”
“What’s a foster home?”
