Beyond the Roselands

Chapter 3

After we'd discussed small matters with our friends, I took Sprite back home, eager to show her my grandmother's gift. As we landed on the porch, she lingered in my arms for a moment before grabbing my cheeks gently and kissing my lips. I closed my eyes and kissed her back until she slowly pulled away. We looked at each other and she gave me a mischievous smile before backing up and going inside.

"What was that about?" I asked.

She giggled softly and went over to our cooking space, picking up a cookie from the plate she'd made earlier. "Just a little taste of what I really want."

I laughed and tucked my wings in, ducking them under the door. "I suppose tonight you're gonna want some more?"

"Of course."

I laughed and then went over to the couch. "Grandma gave us a gift. It's a cradle made for Zytrey children. It hangs from the ceiling so that they have their own hammock to lay in."

Sprite gasped when she saw it and she clasped her hands over her mouth.

I shrugged. "What?"

Tears sprouted on her eyelashes she rushed into my arms. "I'm sorry. Just the thought of having a baby gets me emotional. I'm already excited to get married, but having a child is so exciting."

I nodded and kissed her forehead. "I know. It gets me excited too, but we need to wait just a little longer. As soon as we're married, well have as many babies as you want, but for right now, we need to hold off."

She nodded, backing away and going to the kitchen. "Oh, I almost forgot. Dad asked me to send you to him when you got back so you may want to go see him."

Fear trickled through my veins. I despised speaking to that Faery. He had the pompous attitude of a fat cat and his voice slid over a person's ears like oil. And like I had mentioned, his magic was eerily strange and foreign and left a weird feeling in someone's head, like a minor headache that wouldn't go away.

Reluctantly, I left the house and flew down to the lowest rooms of the valley. I landed outside of his cave and looked in, but he wasn't within sight. Slowly, I stepped forward and I immediately had trouble breathing. Right before I stepped any further, I felt a wind sort of pushing me further. I paused and started stepping back when a hand suddenly reached out from nothing and grabbed my neck. I was dragged forward, not into the cave, but somewhere else. It was as if I was...nowhere.

I was surrounded by white, but every few seconds a flash of color would radiate from some unknown source. The hand that had grabbed me let go of me and I gasped for air, feeling the thrum of magic on my skin. I looked up and my breath escaped me again. Surrounding me were seven men, each one tall and slim with pointed ears. In the center was Sprite's father, Avery. He held a golden spear in his hand which he suddenly pointed at my face.

I leapt up quickly and my wings subconsciously flared. "Where am I?!"

He spoke softly, but even so quietly his voice echoed everywhere. "You are somewhere where you can not return to Kilhar without our assistance. And to gain our assistance you have to gain our trust."

"How do I gain your trust?"

"You can't."

"Then how can I go home?"

"For right now you won't."

I snarled and leapt forward, going for whichever man I could grab, but before I could get my hand in any of their throats, they all disappeared and I slammed into the ground. Or what I thought was the ground. It just looked like the rest of my surroundings. I got up and looked around. Every man had transported directly behind me. I snarled, but stayed where I was. "What do you want from me?"

It wasn't Avery who spoke this time. Instead, one of the tallest men from the edge stepped forward. "You have desecrated the sacred body of a Faery with your hybrid seed. Faery men are the only ones entitled for hybrid breeding because it does not disgrace the Faery body itself. If anything I improves the females body. You have insulted us and our blood!"

Avery stepped forward and held up a hand. "Calm yourself Robyn. He doesn't know yet. He has not been informed and neither has she."

I stared up at them and my mind began to wander. "Wait. What's this about?"

Avery looked closely at me with emotionless eyes. "Sprite is pregnant and this baby corrupts everything we Faerys truly live for. Pure blood."

Despite the shock and excitement of knowing Sprite was pregnant with my baby, I still was stuck here with no way out. "Hypocrite! It was you who fucked a human and brought Sprite into this world!"

Robyn, the outspoken one, stepped forward. "Were you not listening to me? Male Faerys can cross breed with only humans because it doesn't change the pure Faery's body. But for a female Faery to be abused in such a way is highly against everything we stand for."

Avery nodded and suddenly reached a hand out to the side. A sort of portal or window appeared and an image of Sprite illuminated the center. She was cooking at the stove and humming a tune. Suddenly she swayed and clasped her stomach. I'd seen mother have nausea episodes like that and I recognized pregnancy sickness.

Avery sighed. "You have a choice boy. You can stay here in the realm of eternal nothing or you can go back and kill the child once it's born. Before you speak, just remember, if you stay here in this place, we will go and personally kill the baby ourselves."

Shock held me still for a moment. I was stuck and had a big decision. I decided to go with the more pleasant. "I'll kill it myself. Just let me go back to my own world. If I kill the baby will you let me stay with Sprite. I promise never to conceive with her again."

Avery nodded. "I'll agree with those terms. Now before you go back, I must inform you not to worry about Sprite. A Faery pregnancy only lasts three weeks. It is highly accelerated compared to a human's gestation. Now, be gone."

With a flip of his wrist, I was back in his cave, laying just as I had been in the realm of eternal nothing.