Chapter 19 #3
Back before the magical creature, I began to question everything.
For all I know, he could be a species that eats humans for lunch.
What if they aren’t the people my brother used to tell hero stories about?
The mysterious, colorful creatures fighting for souls who have lost all hope, oppressed by their own kind.
What right did they have to fight for us?
What worth did we possess? Yet the fae stood ground against Halo for decades, perhaps a century.
Red cheeks and clenched jaw must display my every doubt. Adam reaches out for me, taking my shoulders before I can blink. “I will only ask you this once, human. Do you want to stay or leave?”
Radiant hazel eyes linger, waiting. I suck down air like it’ll be my last. “I want to leave, but—” He waits, surprisingly patient for my response. “I don’t trust you.”
Placing his calloused palm in mine, he says, “Good. Don’t trust anyone.”
Adam tugs me towards the stairs, and I don’t put up any fight.
I latch onto Sunny’s hand as we head down the steps, the creak of the stair singing our farewell.
This is it. The one dream I’ve possessed since I was a child is finally coming true, and everything in me is screaming to stop. Don’t leave him.
And I ignore it all.
Halo is destruction. Death.
The Fairy Lands are our rebirth. I’m sure of it. I have to be. Nix would’ve never led me astray.
Leaving the confines of our residence, Adam has us piling into the back of his black four-wheel drive. “Crouch down and put this over your heads.”
He says it like it’s a piece of cake, not realising he’s talking to a heavily pregnant woman and a five-year-old.
I let Sunny know we are surprising his papa and we need to hide, sitting down in the well between the seats.
“Listen to your stories, baby. It’s going to be a while before we arrive.
” I hand him the small listening device so he stays occupied.
Adventures outside of the house are not our norm, so he’s eager to leave, placing the headphones over his head.
Under the blanket, I give him some homemade oat cookies and pray this is the beginning I have always dreamed it would be.
Adam doesn’t make conversation. I hear his phone ring a couple of times, connecting through the car’s intercom, but he never answers it.
Ball in my throat, my stomach swirls. Bump after bump rocks us as the tires hit the asphalt of the road.
It’s surreal. Not how I imagined this going at all.
Staring at the black outline of my son, I grip the edge of the seat beside us, Sunny none the wiser that his life is about to change forever.
The car comes to a crunching halt. Adam’s voice comes from beyond the blanket. “We are at the checkpoint. I have to deal with something. Don’t move.”
My hearing on high alert, the car door opens and closes with a vibrating thud.
Once my ears are clear, all I catch is munching coming from Sunny, the outside world is void.
I made sure the new maid, Mia, put chocolate chips in the cookies, and I’m letting him have his fill for the first time ever.
Chocolate is his favourite treat, so I knew it would keep him quiet.
Adrenaline fading, twinges of discomfort begin to make themselves known, being in this tight, cramped position.
Shuffling myself around with one nearly slipped swear word, I find myself on my knees facing the window.
One peek won’t hurt. Raising my head from under the blanket, I make sure only my forehead, and eyes are visible from the road.
The windows are tinted. I don’t think anyone will be able to see me regardless.
Skimming the small ledge of no return where the glass meets rubber, I blanch at the sight before me. I should’ve stayed under the blanket.
Death surrounds us. It is Halo, and death is usually their main form of sustenance. This time, that death is Halo keepers, not fae or swine. I never taught myself to become accustomed to slaughter. They may have taken my body, but they will never have my humanity.
At least six bodies bleed out on the ground, all in black uniforms. Adam pulls a dagger out of the chest of one of them. Silver steel-toed boots shove at the limp body, pushing the keeper towards the ground. Shit. Who is this fae? Did he kill all those Halo soldiers?
He wipes the red solence from his dagger on his thigh, looking up, unmoved. Before he can spot me, I duck back down to my original position. A whooshing ricochets from ear to ear.
Looking was a bad idea. Just like when I would accidentally look down the rods.
Bad. Bad. Bad.
The car suddenly jolts, the door opening and closing harshly. “It seems things are progressing faster than anticipated, human. The rest of this journey will be neither easy nor kind. Do you still want to leave Halo?”
He’s giving me an out? The small gesture fills me with a sense of relief.
As much as his actions alarm me, I’m not scared of him.
I have to see this through to finally know if the Fairy Lands are everything my brother said they were: a haven.
“We’re leaving with you.” If this is the only way I get my children out of the clutches of Halo, so be it.
I will fight for them until my last breath.