He took a step forward and Mia stumbled back. She glanced from him to the door, gauging the distance. Mia could make it with the element of surprise. “What… what are you?” she whispered, taking another step back, tears blurring her vision. Her gut told her he wasn’t human.
“Mia, please calm down and I will tell you.”
“No! Tell me now,” she shouted, grabbing the first thing nearest her. A silver lamp that glittered like it was made of moonlight. She brandished it at him.
Cillian had the audacity to smile, showing off those creepy feline teeth. “Now, that’s a bit drastic don’t you think? If I wanted to hurt you, I would have already. I’m a shifter Mia, and I only want to help. Rhett brought you here, so I could get the silven out of your system. Seemed I did… but couldn’t get around the unfortunate side effect.”
“What side effect? Hallucinations?” That, that Mia would believe.
Pity shown in Cillian’s eyes as he shook his head. “No, I’m afraid not. What you see is the real me behind my glamour. Silven has the ability to temporarily give humans the ability to see past any glamours to the true forms of those around them. And for you… the silven’s power may be more permanent.”
“Why? What did Lilac do to me?” Mia asked, her voice shrill. She glanced at the door. If she threw the shade at him, she would have enough time to run out of the store.
“Like I said, she blew silven into your system. It has the side effect of allowing you to see past glamours,” Cillian explained slowly. “Now why don’t we put down the shade and we can talk like civilized people.”
To hell with that. Mia threw the shade at him and didn’t bother to check if it had met its mark. She bolted for the door and threw it open just as Cillian let out an animalistic growl behind her. Mia ran down the sidewalk not really sure where she was going and not really caring just as long as she got as far away from Cillian as possible.
Whipping around a corner she knocked right into someone. “Oh, I’m so…” Mia’s mouth snapped shut as she looked up into the face of the woman she’d plowed into. Green tendrils of hair floated around her face defying the laws of gravity. Gills lined the sides of her neck like a fish and a dusting of bluish glistening scales decorated her face.
The woman frowned, concern edged in her forehead. “My dear, are you alright?”
Mia balked, drawing back as if the woman had bit her. “You… you’re face…”
The woman looked confused and Mia took the opportunity to barrel past her and continue running. Tears burned her eyes and this time she didn’t hold them back. What was happening to her? Was she on some kind of freaky drug trip? What had Lilac given her?
She glanced across the street at a couple, and her heart lurched into her throat when she saw the guy had bushy wolf ears and when he laughed fangs poked out of his mouth. The girl’s skin was creamy and the color of bark with matching hair and leaves poking out of her skin in different places like a tree. Mia squeezed her eyes shut and kept running. This couldn’t be happening.
Mia didn’t open her eyes or stop running until she could no longer hear the sound of the town around her. Only then did she peak her eyes open and found herself in the woods. Alone and silent.
She collapsed to the ground and buried her face in her hands, trying to settle her gasping breaths. What was happening? Cillian had looked like a monster. So had that woman. And the things he’d talked about? Glamours and veils and silven? None of it made any sense.
Mia’s whole body shook just as a twig snapped in front of her. Her head lurched up from her hands.
“Mia?” a tentative voice asked.
Rhett.
She didn’t even care if it was him. Mia jumped to her feet and ran toward the sound of his voice, needing someone to hug, someone to ground her and tell her she wasn’t crazy, that what she was seeing wasn’t real.
She came to a stop in front of him and drew back a step, fear curling inside her. He… he was one of them. Whatever they were. Rhett didn’t have cat eyes or fangs or fury ears or scales. But he was so obviously other that there was no doubt in Mia’s mind. His skin shown almost shimmered in the sunlight winking between the tree leaves, his green eyes seemed sharper, greener somehow and… pointed ears stuck out between strands of hair.
Chapter Twenty
Rhett frowned at her sudden stop. “Mia… are you OK?”
“Is this… is this some kind of elaborate joke?” she asked, her voice too high pitched.
“What are you talking about?”
Mia shook her head, taking another step back when he stepped forward. She pressed a hand to her forehead, her head spinning. “The scales… the eyes… the ears…” she whispered. “Is this some sick prank?”
Realization dawned on his face. Rhett shook his head, raising his hands. “No, no this isn’t a prank or a joke. This is real. I know it’s hard to believe, but if you just stop and let me explain it’ll all make sense.”
A humorless laugh escaped her. “Really? Because I don’t think it will.”
“Will you just stop backing up and looking like you’re going to run? Please, just sit still and listen to me for five seconds alright? I don’t want to have to stop you,” he said, his voice more pleading than threatening.
Mia drew back, hugging herself. “Stop me? Is that a threat?”
He blew out an irritated breath. “No, of course not. I would never threaten you Mia. But I will do what I have to to keep you safe from others and yourself. So, if you would just stop for five seconds and let me talk, things will make sense.”
“I doubt that very much.”
“If you doubt it so much then what’s the harm in hearing me out?”
He had a point… Mia glanced around at the trees surrounding them. No sound of cars on a road or any sort of civilization came to her ears. She didn’t even know where she was, let alone where she would run for help. As far as she knew, the entire town was full of freaks. What other choice did she have? Her eyes flashed back to Rhett where she saw apprehension but also determination in the line of his jaw. He would hold her here if he had to. So yeah, not much of a choice in the running away department.
“Fine,” Mia said at last, drawing back another step until she leaned up against a nearby tree. “I’ll hear you out.”
A relieved smile kicked up his lips. He nodded, walking forward with slow, deliberate steps. “Thank you. I know you saw some pretty crazy stuff when you woke up, but there’s a rational explanation for all that.”
Mia gave a bitter snort, folding her arms. “I doubt it.”
“Well, I guess it depends on your definition of rational. Alright, this is going to sound crazy but… I’m not human.”
Mia raised her eyebrows. “I figured from the pointed ears. If you’re not human, then… what are you?”
“You know that story I was telling you about the Falls at the party?” Rhett asked.
Mia nodded and took a deep breath, regaining some semblance of control over her emotions. Her thoughts grasped at the turn of conversation and she ran through the discussion in her head. The story of the Falls had been about the Fae… The Fae… Her eyes went wide. She drew in a sharp breath. The flicker of eyes turning strange shades of color, her attacker and the vines… the weird way people reacted to her… It all snapped into place. Everything made sense now.
“Fae,” she whispered.
Rhett grinned, taking a step forward. This time Mia didn’t move back. He brushed his hair behind his ears to show off the full extent of their points. “I knew you’d catch on quick. You’re clever,” he said.
Mia racked her brain for everything she knew about the Fae. The Seelie and Unseelie courts. One was good, and one was bad. There were other classifications too… like nixies and pixies and brownies and all that. Was Rhett one of the other kinds? “What are you exactly?” she asked.
Rhett cocked his head, a strand of hair falling over his forehead. “I think you just figured that out.”
“No, but
Fae is an umbrella term, isn’t it?” Mia’s statement tipped up into a question at the end when she saw Rhett’s eyes widen.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Then what kind of Fae are you? What is Cillian and that woman? I don’t… know all of them but I know some.”
“Cillian is a shifter. The cat eyes and fangs? That’s his natural state. What he looks like beneath his glamour. The woman you ran into, she sounds like a merfolk.”
Shifter… merfolk… Mia reminded herself to breathe. If she hadn’t seen the evidence for herself, she would have thought Rhett had lost his marbles. But she couldn’t exactly deny him when she’d seen it for herself. “And… and you?” she asked tentatively.
Rhett gave her a rueful smile and folded his arms. “I’m of a more… regal class of Fae.”
“Which is…?” Why was he being so cagey about it?
“I’m of the… Unseelie variety, like most of the Fae in this town.”
Mia didn’t move. She felt frozen by the realization. Rhett wasn’t one of the good ones. He was Unseelie. What else had she expected? He had the bad boy look and attitude to go with the classification.
Unseelies were known as malevolent Fae. The kind who killed without remorse, who didn’t value human life and enjoyed tormenting and tricking them. And yet, when Mia looked into his eyes, she didn’t feel any fear. She didn’t see any sort of hatred or violence or thirst for blood. All she saw was pain and concern for her, and maybe even a little shame at being considered Unseelie.
His expression pinched, he glanced away as if waiting for her to react poorly. Mia took a deep breath and let it out, her heart going out to him. Her first instinct had been to stumble back, to fear him, to doubt him. All because of what he was born as. If anyone should feel shame it was her. Sure, he could be a jerk from time to time, but he had also saved her life and been there when she needed him. Was here right now when she needed an ally. And despite Angie’s warnings about him, that was exactly what he had become.
Rhett’s expression remained guarded and unsure as he stared at her, still waiting for her to react in some way.
Mia wetted her lips and then stepped forward tentatively. She reached up on her tip toes and traced the curve of his ear, touching the point with her fingers. She felt a shiver run through him at the touch. Mia couldn’t help but smile as her finger trailed down the other side of his ear, down his neck and stopping at his shoulder.
“You’re right. That does sound crazy but…” Mia closed her eyes. “I trust you.” And she did. Mia trusted him despite knowing what he was. She couldn’t explain it, but she got this odd déjà vu moment like they had been here before, like she’d told him this before.
Mia opened her eyes to find him watching her. His eyes shuttered, and his hand reached out, cupping her cheek. Mia leaned into his warm touch. “Even now that you know I’m Unseelie?”
“I don’t care,” she murmured, putting every ounce of sincerity and conviction she could muster into her voice. “I trust you.”
A smile cracked his lips. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to hear anything more in my entire life,” he whispered. “So, you believe me now?”
Mia dragged out a sigh and gently stepped back. His hand slipped from her cheek and fell to his side. “I don’t want to. Fae… they shouldn’t be real. But unless I really am either dying or Lilac had given me one heck of a hallucinogen, I don’t see how I can’t,” Mia said. “Even then, though… My attacker using the vines to grab my legs and Angie’s friend dying? I saw his picture in the newspaper. It didn’t look… natural.”
Rhett frowned. “They still aren’t sure what caused that but… there have been some odd sightings in the woods over the past few days. Angie and some others have been checking it out. That’s part of the reason she was gone for so long when her friend died. Another reason to not go for a run by yourself right now.”
“Yeah… I guess I’ll be keeping my runs in more populated areas from now on.”
Rhett chuckled and he shook his head. “You never cease to amaze me.”
Mia grinned back. “Well I am pretty amazing.”
He tipped his head back and laughed even more. All Mia could do was stare at him. At his pointed ears, at the ethereal beauty of him. She should have known there was something up with him the moment she met him. No human could be that good looking.
“But, um,” Mia frowned trying to think of the best way to ask her question. “Seelies and Unseeslies are courts, aren’t they? Like, they aren’t a race of Fae. So besides what side you belong to, what kind of Fae are you?”
Rhett’s eyes lit up and he cocked his head. “You’re smart.”
Mia made a face, nudging his shoulder with her own. “Hey, is that an insult?”
“No. It’s a compliment. I’m a Sidhe. Like Angelica and Lilac and a few others in town.”
“What’s a Sidhe?”
Rhett shrugged. “Just another race like you said. Only… us Sidhe are a bit higher up on the social scale. The lords and ladies, kings and queens, knights and pretty much anyone who’s anyone in Faerie are Sidhe. We have different abilities than others… and can be more powerful than most other Fae.”
“What about the courts? Like… are you guys born to different courts? Like is it predestined or something?”
Rhett shook his head. “Most of us are born to a specific court, but it’s also a choice. We can choose which court to be a part of. Usually, we stay in the court we’re born to with our families but some defect. It’s rare but it does happen.”
“Huh…” Mia trailed off, unsure what to say to that. Sidhe. The Seelie and Unseelie courts. Different Fae all living in town. It was a lot to take in. She ran a hand through her hair, her mind running a million miles an hour.
He cocked his head, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes on his lips. “How are you processing all this?”
Mia blinked, realizing he had just asked her a question. It took her brain a minute to catch up. “Um… I’m not? I don’t really know. I should be freaking out more, shouldn’t I? I should be rocking in a corner or something. I shouldn’t be so calm right now and yet since the moment I got into town weird stuff has been happening. Random, unexplainable things so I’m almost glad to finally have an explanation. I almost feel like I’ve always known somehow. Deep down I knew you were different…”
Rhett reached out, tracing his hand down her arm, leaving goosebumps in its wake. “For the record, you did kind of freak out. Cillian said you threw a lamp at him. Is that true?”
Mia couldn’t help but crack a smile, her cheeks warming in embarrassment. Now she felt like she had overreacted. Of course Cillian wouldn’t have hurt her. But he had looked like a total monster. How else was she supposed to react? “Yes,” she groaned, burying her face in her hands.
“You are my hero,” he laughed. “I wish I could have been there to take pictures. I bet his face was priceless.”
Mia tried so hard to scowl but somehow a smile got out. Her hands slipped down her face so she could see the amusement in his eyes. “Hey, it is not funny! I thought he was going to eat me or something.”
Rhett smirked. “Yes, because Cillian loves yummy teenage girls for dinner.”
“I didn’t know. Don’t make fun of me. This has been a traumatic experience and you’re being a jerk,” Mia shouted, shoving him in the chest but unable to stop smiling.
Rhett’s face sobered. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Mia raised her eyebrows shocked at his sudden shift in attitude. “It’s OK… Really, I think… I think I’m going to be alright. I’m more freaked out that I’m not freaking out right now…”
Rhett shrugged, holding his hand out to her. “Come on. I’ll take you home. There are plenty of corners to rock in there.”
Mia scowled, but took his hand and let him lead her back out of the woods to his car. Turned out she’d run not too far away from a deserted woodsy road. He’d parked his car on the side of the road, the tires practi
cally in the grass. Rhett opened the passenger door for her. He waited for her to crawl in before going around to the other side and sliding in next to her.
He started the car but before he pressed the gas, he faced her. Mia’s heart jumped with fear when she saw the strikingly serious look on his face. “Before we go any further with this, you need to know something,” he said. “If I know Lilac, which I do, she’ll have told everyone about what she did. Which means everyone knows that you now know about us. It’s not going to win you any favors. You’re going to have to be careful. My people… they aren’t fans of yours, and they are going to make your life very difficult from here on out.”
Chapter Twenty-One
A shiver ran through Mia at his ominous words. She ran her hands up and down her arms to get rid of the goosebumps. “Why?” she whispered. “What did I ever do to them?”
A humorless smile touched Rhett’s lips and his fingers flexed against the steering wheel. “Let’s just say they aren’t big into change and… you’re a big change.”
Well that was vague and not the least bit helpful. Mia frowned but decided not to push it. Her brain had too many other things to process right now. “When you say your people… does that mean that everyone in town is Unseelie?”
“For the most part. Humans still live in this town. We mostly try to stay out of each other’s way and keep the peace,” Rhett said without hesitation. “Does that bother you?”
Mia shrugged. “I don’t know… Are they all as warm and snuggly as you?”
Rhett laughed. “’Fraid not. But some are nicer than others.”
“Like Angie… and Kai.”
Rhett’s expression soured. “That’s a matter of perspective.”
“Why? What are they?”
“What are they?”
“Yeah, are they Sidhe or something else?”
Rhett made a face. “Angie is a nymph, which means she’s one with nature and all that. We all are to a point. Sidhe have an affinity for nature, but Angie literally draws her life force from nature. Nymphs can’t survive without a connection to the Earth. She can also make plants grow in a blink of an eye and do all sorts of other nifty little tricks. Kai, on the other hand, is… a goblin.”
Wayward: St. Croix Falls Book 1 Page 14
