FIVE #2
His shoulders shrugged a bit at that. "I have nothing to do but observe, Amy.
And I've seen how your mother has protected you.
Kept men away from you. I understand," he said, voice dropping low with knowledge, "how things are.
And that this was not the way you'd have wanted it.
And that I am not the man you wanted it with either.
I'm sorry for that. But I'm not sorry about saving you.
" My heart stuttered a bit at that, making my gaze fall, feeling very exposed around him suddenly.
"It was the least I could do. You saved me first."
I felt my lips curl up slightly, a bit frustrated with myself for taking it so seriously when all he was trying to do was help. "So what you're saying is... we're even," I said, meeting his gaze.
To that, he did chuckle, but with the humor this time. "Something like that," he agreed, nodding. "So we can move on?" he asked. I was about to agree when he cut me off. "I mean, after all, you got a feel too. Granted, you were sleeping, but we're even on all fronts right now."
I was sure my entire face went beet red with how hot it felt.
"Come on," he invited, standing, reaching down to take my hand, pulling me to my feet. "I'm thinking we may be able to get into the human realm before dark. Can you feel it?" he asked, holding his arms out wide at his sides.
"Feel what?" Aside from the arctic cold.
"The buzz," he declared, reaching for my wrists to drag them up and widen my arms like his.
"Just close your eyes and feel for a second," he demanded, seeming to pick up on my ignorance.
I never had cause to really feel the veil before.
I was usually hurtling through it at a dead run or in a carriage.
I knew what The Green felt like from the other side.
Like a pulling, like it was trying to drag me back.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, trying to clear my mind, trying only to feel.
And there was the cold, sure, but under that, a low, tingling sensation.
It felt weak to me, just a hint of something.
"It's far off still. But that is it. If you are looking for the veil, that is what you should be looking for.
That feeling. It gets stronger as you get closer.
It gets more uncomfortable too. Maybe not as much to you since you have spent so much time there, but for fae who have never left The Green, it is an uncomfortable thing that makes your skin feel like it is buzzing. "
"Like electrocution," I suggested, only remembering after I had said so that the concept was likely lost on him. "Hey, Drake?" I asked, watching his back as he turned, seeming to try to feel for the right direction.
"Yeah?"
"Are you going to cross over too?" I asked, unsure why I wanted to know.
"Bring you over?" he clarified, turning back to me, brows low. "Of course I will bring you over." Something in my face must have given me away, because his head ducked to the side slightly. "You want me to stay with you for a night there? Just to make sure they didn't follow?"
That was a very small part of it, sure. And another part was simply liking his company.
The third was this odd urge I had. To show him the human realm, to expose him to all the things I myself was so fascinated with.
Maybe it was because he had been so trapped for so long, had missed out on so much.
But there was a quiet little voice in the back of my head that suggested that I maybe just wanted to show him a little bit of what made me me.
Silly?
Yes.
Girlish, even?
Absolutely.
But true nonetheless.
"I understand if you want to get toward your homeland as soon as possible..."
"I'll stay, Amy. I've been away for so long. One more day won't make a difference."
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure," he agreed, giving me a nod before holding an arm out in the direction he had chosen, leading to an area where the snow seemed lighter, like it had somehow melted even with the frigid temperatures.
"When it is winter in The Green," Drake started a while later, "is it winter in the human realm?"
"No," I supplied with some authority, a little pleased to know something he didn't know.
"That's why the trees are dripping," he surmised, looking up at the half-thawed limbs, icy water dripping steadily down on top of us.
The buzzing feeling was becoming stronger as we walked into a muddy mess of the woods.
I wondered where we would surface in the human realm.
It was always on the property my parents maintained when I was brought there, but I understood that most of the time, you ended up in unknown places - The Green and the human realm both being so vast.
Inwardly, I hoped it was somewhere we wouldn't look like outsiders. Winter clothing aside. I hoped they spoke the same language. I hoped we wouldn't have to slip back into The Green, walk a bit, and reemerge.
Once I was out, I hoped not to have to come back.
I hated even thinking that, knowing Jasper and Jade were still there, knowing how much I yearned to know the sensation of family, the kind that came with love and kindness instead of coldness and ambition.
But maybe they could visit me.
Someday.
Maybe I could send word somehow.
I could even give Drake a note to send off before he visited his homeland.
I knew where I was going to go.
The place humans nicknamed after an autumnal fruit.
I knew it would be busy there, that I may be hard to find, but they knew the human realm well. If anyone could do it, they could.
On a grumble as a bead of sweat trickled down between my shoulder blades, I dropped my bag, stopped, and stripped out of my heavy winter jacket and a few layers of shirts. "Aren't you hot?" I asked, watching as he stood there watching me roll up the long sleeves of my shirt.
"Yes."
"Why don't you take off your jacket?"
There was a guard over his eyes for a long second before he turned away from me, shrugging so that his jacket fell off his shoulders, revealing his horrendously scarred back, a sight that made my stomach drop.
But there was something else.
Something reddish and jagged sticking out of his skin.
Unable to stop myself, I moved closer, hand raising, reaching out, brushing my fingertips over one of the plates that were evidence of his lineage.
Drake's head turned over his shoulder as a shudder racked his system.
"Sorry," I rushed to say, going to snatch my hand back.
"No. It's okay," he rushed to say. "Go ahead," he urged.
My curious fingers didn't need any more encouragement.
My fingers moved over the plate again, the roughness feeling like it snagged at my much softer skin.
"It's just been a long time since I felt anything other than violence," he admitted, making my heart squeeze in my chest as my hand drifted away from the plate that seemed like it was damaged around the sides, maybe making it hard for it to slip back inside his skin.
My fingertip found the edges of the scars on his flesh, wide and nearly skin-tone with age.
Images flashed before my eyes of the guards - or even my very father - brandishing whips, canes, tree branches, slamming them relentlessly into Drake's bare back as the man fell to the ground, hunching, face contorted in pain, body tight as he tried to fight the Change.
"I'm sorry for what they did to you," I told him, fighting back a sting in my eyes.
"It wasn't your fault."
"I'm still sorry you had to endure it."
There was a strange, almost overwhelming urge to lean forward, to press my lips into the scars much the way I had seen humans do to their children when they were hurt.
Let me kiss the pain away.
That was what they would say before they did it.
What a sweet concept.
I wished I could do that.
But I knew that no chaste kisses could take away untold years of torture, of enslavement, of imprisonment.
"My clothes won't fit you," I said oddly, pulling my hand away. "I have changes of clothes, but you're too big." He nestled back into his jacket, shrugging. "I could rush ahead to buy you something while you hung back by the tree line," I suggested.
If we end up somewhere near a town, I added silently, wanting to at least keep up the appearances of optimism, not wanting to ruin the idea of the human realm for him before he even got to experience it.
"Sounds like a plan," he agreed, nodding. We walked for another hour before he stopped suddenly, turning to me. "Tell me what direction," he demanded, eyes encouraging.
The buzzing was strong, strong enough that it was uncomfortable, that I wanted it to stop.
"It's... everywhere."
"Walk around a little," he suggested. "Tell me which way feels the worst."
I did, feeling little prickles move over me toward the right. "There," I declared, waving an arm out.
"Good," he told me, smiling a little. "You ready?" he asked, nodding toward the thick line of trees. "It should be right at the edge of those."
My hand moved outward, drawing his attention, his brows drawing down. "It's better to go through while touching. Or, at least, that was what the guards and attendants always claimed."
"Alright," he agreed, clamping his huge hand to mine, fingers slipping between my fingers, this time free of gloves, curling in, holding tight.
And like that, we braced ourselves against the shocks to our system, the way The Green tried desperately to hold us in.
Going through the veil felt a lot like suction, like we were working against a vacuum.
Beside me, Drake gasped, unused to it.
Me, I smiled, everything about this feeling like coming home to me.
"That was..."
"Weird?" I suggested, smiling at the somewhat green look to his face.
"That sounds about right," he agreed, taking a deep breath.
I moved to do the same, looking forward at what appeared to be a car dealership.
To me, it looked magnificent, all those marvelous metal beasts.
Drake, I decided after a glance, did not share in my wonder. "This is what the human realm looks like?"