Never trust a fae.
Never give them your name.
Never fall for their tricks.
Three simple rules that Enid should have followed, three simple rules that she forgot.
In the remote Welsh mountain village of Aethelney, Faeries are real. But unlike trad...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Enveloped by darkness Enid succumbed to death peacefully. At least, what she thought was death.
But death had not come knocking for her today.
She was alive, but barely.
Blindly she sucked in a breath and her lungs cried out in protest. The vial's contents from the golden pool clung to her tongue and throat, shooting through her veins, burning as it went.
Then, the world fell away and she fell with it down a rabbit hole into the future.
Beneath her, she felt the familiar soft embrace of grass, and the heady sweet scent of wildflowers filled her nose. At last Enid's eyes opened.
She was no longer in Aneurin's chambers; instead, she was in a meadow. She pushed herself up slowly and glanced at her surroundings.
Where was she?
She stood and a strong breeze whipped through her hair and gown as she tried to gain her bearings.
The grass was lush and as tall as her waist, it danced in the wind in steady waves, akin to ripples of water on a lake.
Then she heard it, softly at first, a voice, a faint whisper on the wind.
She turned her head over her shoulder to face the nearby forest, dense and dark. It stared back at her as if daring her to enter. Not like any she had seen in the mortal realm, with sharp spikes emerging from the tree trunks threatening to stab should she get too close.
The voice grew louder until she recognised who it belonged to.
"Enid!" It cried. Female, panicked, desperate.
Her mother.
She took off towards it, forcing her way through the dense undergrowth as it snatched at her hair and tore at her flesh.
"Mother!" Enid shouted into the empty forest. Her voice echoed back at her mockingly.
Nothing moved inside the forest but her as she tried to decipher where the voice had come from.
In the cold air, Enid's breath floated before her in waves as it vanished up into the sky.
In the distance, she spotted an opening to a village. The forest was still and silent as it too drew a breath. Until the voice came again, louder this time.
"Enid!"
She made for it desperately, like her life depended on it. But as she ran towards the opening, it grew further and further away, always remaining just out of reach.
She pushed herself onwards until she could not anymore.
Her knees gave out and she crumpled to the forest floor, sinking into the leaves and panting hard.
