Chapter 24 #2
I took off running down the main thoroughfare through the fae quarter.
Sterling’s cutting words and laughter stoked a fire within me that raged and burned.
That combined with the heightened alarm of escaping meant I ran faster than I have ever been capable of running in my entire life.
Along the way through the fae quarter, shouts, gasps, and calls for guardians could be heard as I barrelled through the quaint and quiet town.
It was obvious by their reactions that it was not often a human was seen running through their streets.
Just up ahead, the jagged crystalline gates that separated the fae quarter from the human quarter loomed.
Once I passed them, I could stop to catch my breath.
To my surprise, as I approached the gate, there were no guardians to be seen.
Thinking about it, I supposed it wasn’t often someone from the fae quarter would go into the human quarter willingly.
I reached the gate and twisted the handle, opening the wicket gate with zero resistance.
I looked over my shoulder to see a small gathering of fae a few blocks away, gossiping among themselves.
I was sure word of where I was would have reached King Julian by now.
All I could do was my best to blend in and hide, giving myself some time to figure out where I went from here.
A smile crept up my lips as I closed the gate and made my way into the human quarter.
By this point, Everett should have found me and dragged me back, but when I looked back at the fae crowd, I couldn’t see him.
Maybe he had also grown tired of having to watch over me and thought facing King Julian’s wrath was preferable to chasing me down and keeping me around.
I doubt babysitting a grown human woman was the most illustrious station a royal guardian could have.
I pulled the hood of my cloak over my head, blending into the crowded streets of the human quarter.
A putrid mixture of urine, stool, and body odour permeated the air.
It was clear that those who lived here did not benefit from the luxuries the fae did, with their indoor plumbing.
Large wooden lantern poles lined the streets; each one was covered in numerous sheets of paper.
I made my way over to the nearest pole to investigate.
The pieces of paper were all missing posters, each one depicting a different human woman, all of varying ages.
I slowly made my way over to the next lantern post and found that the sheets of paper attached to it were all missing posters.
What in the Eternal Night was going on here?
I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the town and reading every cry for help from desperate families.
Some of the women on the posters had been missing for years, while others had disappeared more recently.
My stomach churned as I thought about what Everett had said about Sterling.
I hadn’t believed him, because I didn’t think the man I knew was capable of such heinous acts.
Now, seeing all these posters made me second-guess how well I knew his character.
I had to talk to someone about this, someone local.
Whatever was happening had been going on for a long time and was still continuing.
I knew I couldn’t go back to the human realm, but maybe my time in the fae realm didn’t have to be spent locked up in someone’s palace.
Perhaps I could make a difference here. Determination settled within me as I made my next plan of attack.
I would seek out the town healer and talk to them.
I could explain who I was and offer them my assistance.
As I wandered the streets of the human quarter, it was more complicated than I’d thought to get anyone to talk to me.
It was clear that I was not from around here, and understandably, the people seemed to be very distrusting of anyone associated with the fae.
As I walked deeper into town, something stood out to me as peculiar.
In the short time I had wandered through the human quarter, I had already seen several pregnant women.
It wasn’t the mere sight of the women that caught my attention; it was the sheer number of them, and they all seemed to be concentrated in certain parts of the quarter.
A sense of unease filled me as I thought about the missing posters and the pregnant women.
Something was very off, and this became more apparent the deeper I ventured into this town.
It was like peeling back the layers of a rotten onion.
I slowly approached one woman, removing my hood so she could see that I was also human. “Excuse me. May I please ask you a question?”
The woman nodded in response, and I proceeded with my questioning.
“Have you lived in this town for some time?”
The woman stared at me with a look that indicated her thoughts were elsewhere. Seconds later she appeared coherent and smiled at me. “Why, yes, I’ve lived here my entire life.”
I gestured to a nearby lantern pole. “Are all these women actually missing?”
She nodded in response, a saddened look falling upon her face.
Clutching her swollen belly, she began to speak.
“The goddesses have stolen our women and girls. For years, they have preyed upon us, hoping we would be too naive to notice, but we have noticed.” The woman pulled at her thin floral dress.
“They tell us we are important and that they need us, but then they throw us away.”