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A sob burst out of her, and she threw her arms around my neck. I returned the hug, surprised, but relief finally sparked inside. I’d missed her so much.
“Are you okay?”
My eyes stung at the question. “As good as I can be.”
She stepped back, her gaze falling to my arm. “Do you want me to take that disc on your arm off?”
I blinked and glanced down at my bicep. At the thing that had been there for so long, it felt like a part of me. “Oh my god, yes.”
Nellie’s fingers pressed the disc and the chords encircling my skin retracted, dropping to the front porch. I rubbed my arm.
“It's that easy?” I asked.
Nellie gave me an odd look. “You and Mina definitely need to talk more.”
I waited for the connection to my faerie guardian to come surging back.
Nothing.
Panic gathered in my chest. I glanced at the driveway and focused, trying to release my faerie guardian.
Nothing happened.
“It’s not working,” I said.
“What’s not?”
“My faerie guardian. I-I can’t feel it.” What if it had been too long? What if my guardian never showed up? A stone sank from my chest to my gut.
“Maybe it needs some time,” Nellie suggested.
Perhaps she was right. I swallowed the fear slithering within me and tried for another tremulous smile.
Concern flashed behind Nellie’s glasses. “Let’s go see Mom and Dad and everyone.”
“No. I need to talk to Mina. Now.”
“She’s gone camping with no cell service. She’s off the grid, and won’t be home until tomorrow night.”
“Then I need to find the mystical.” It was the glass ball that Mina owned that allowed her to get messages through to Illya in the Otherworld. I’d send a message through him to Dagda.
Nellie’s expression was grim. “She took it with her in case Illya needed to contact her.”
Shit. I put my hands in my hair. What was I going to do?
Nellie placed a hand on my shoulder. “Let's go visit Mom and Dad’s. They’ve been worried. We all have.”
I cried when I visited my family. They welcomed me with open arms, my parents fussing over me, worrying over the bruises on my neck, promising me they would get the broken gate fixed, and the guards back to work to protect me. I nodded, swiping at my tears, but seeing them didn’t calm my nerves. I kept thinking about Dagda in the Otherworld being stuck with Badb and Macha, and what might be going on there.
After returning to our home that night, I sat on the bench next to my bedroom window and stared out, unable to sleep. I drifted off out of sheer exhaustion sometime in the late morning. Nellie brought me food when I woke and we talked, avoiding the topic of the Otherworld. When a dark blue sedan pulled into the drive that evening, I rushed downstairs and out the door, intercepting Mina as she exited her car.
Shock registered on her face. “Chels?” Her brown eyes flashed with distrust, the faerie guardian on her arm, rippling. “How do I know it's you and not your sisters?”
“It’s just Chels,” Nellie said, coming up behind me, also noticing Mina’s battle ready stance.
Mina’s hands balled. “I want to hear her say it.”
I raised my hands as if in surrender. “It’s me, Chels. Only Chels. My sisters are… gone.”
