The Pain in My Heart [Completed]

Chapter Eighteen - Zaria

"I'm so sorry I lost you," Lucy says for the fifteenth time grasping her hands close to her chest.

"Lu-cy," I say drawing out the two syllables. "I already told you, it's fine. It was an accident."

"I just worry," she says squeezing her hands even tighter to the point her knuckles turn white. "Not all who come to the festival are good."

The way she says good gets the gears in my head turning. "That man. The one we saw in the tent. Was he good?"

She shakes her head. "I don't know," she says under her breath.

"What's going on?" I ask, seriously. "You know me. I know how to hold my own. I've done it my whole life, and now you're scared that some bad guy is going to come and get me like I'm some kitten in a box?"

Her eyes widen. "Um, yes, that's exactly what I'm afraid of. Zaria, your power is more prominent than it should be and there are some people here who..."

"Who?" I ask egging her on. She doesn't look down at me; instead, she looks at anything and everything around her. "Who?" I ask again. "You have to tell me these things—"

"The Fae," she lets slip.

"The Fae," I say unenthusiastically. "You mean the ones who were swinging off of the trapeze. I think they're all booked for tonight. No kidnapping."

"You know about them?" she says, her voice now guarded. "That man," she pieces together. "He talked to you about the Fae?" she inquires.

"Yes, and apparently it's something I should have known about, but nobody decided to tell me about the whole pointy ear thing."

"Yeah... about that. We don't really talk about the Fae," she says, her voice quivering a bit.

"Why not?"

"Well, there are some —not all," she says quickly. "But some that have turned... how should I say... savage."

"Savage? Like... cannibal?"

"Zaria! You can't just say those things out loud!" she whisper-yells, covering my mouth. "And no, not cannibals," she adds rolling her eyes and returning her hands to her side. "But they'll enslave and feed off of magic, especially powerful magic, and especially human magic. You are basically a walking all-you-can-eat-buffet for those Fae."

The memory of what the man in the circus tent said to me plays in my mind. Not man, I have to remind myself, Fae.

"The guy in the tent told me I reeked."

"You do, that's why we must be careful," she says.

"You can smell it too?" I whine. "How strong is it?"

Lucy's face turns a scary pale white. "Strong enough that anyone in this festival will be able to sniff out your presence here."

I don't know what to say. I'm left completely speechless.

"We must lay low until nightfall. Only then does the Crow's Point tent open."

"Why?"

Without skipping a beat, she replies, "The night brings out the ones who live in silence and can only be heard once the world has gone to sleep. Crow's Point is a haven for the people who are lost."

"Hmm," I laugh dryly under my breath. I look up at her and see that her face is tilted up towards the sky. "I thought you said it was just a trade shop?"

"Not everything is as it seems," she answers.

I nod my head and sigh. A pink and white tent catches my eye and I look back over to Lucy with a smug grin. "But... we can still get those milkshakes, right?"