"So what do you say, Love?" Teague grinned at Mina and twirled a pen in his hands. "Are we gonna invite people to this party, or just you and me?"
Mina put her chin in her hand and pursed her lips. "Do you think anyone would come if we told them that we were celebrating a human event?"
Mina and Teague shook their heads simultaneously and laughed. "Maybe we could just... light them off into the sky and make it so everyone can see them from where they are?" Mina shrugged and twirled around in the light of the setting sun from the magnificent far sky. It was a perfect mixture of pinks and oranges, making the water shimmer and glow.
"I don't think that's such a good idea. Fae might worry we're doing something dangerous. Maybe something equivalent to human nuclear testing." Teague watched Mina twirl in awe. Her face showing absolute content, her hair shining and bouncing. Much more different than how she acted the first time he saw her in his plane.
"Maybe we could invite people, but not say it's a human custom. That way they wouldn't be angry, or scared," Teague said, beaming. Mina stopped twirling and frowned at him.
"What's wrong with it being human custom? It's not like there's anything wrong with it! You said yourself it was fascinating!" Mina was sick of all the controversy about her being half human and her human ways. It was all anyone could ever talk about, and it was an especially sore spot for Mina.
"We'll I'm sorry, Mina, but not everyone is as okay with humans as I am. Most fae here loathe humans, as in 'if I see a human, I'm going to chop their head off!'" Teague imitated chopping an axe and Mina shuddered.
"I'm just sick and tired of being treated like a freak. I've had to deal with that most of my life, but when I came here..." Mina gave a frustrated sigh. "I thought it would be done, and some one,some one, would respect me for being special!" Mina felt her nose tingle and knew she was about to cry.
"Respect you? Mina, these are fae we're talking about! They don't respect anything remotely close to being related to humans!" Teague gave a sharp laugh and gestured out to the plane through the large window. "It's not like this -you - is easy for me. After a long and terrifying reign of terror by me, that was mainly caused by your carelessness, my people already hated and feared me. Now, because you're a fate, everyone blames me of treason to my own kingdom! I've been under huge amounts of stress and criticism, and you still can't get it through your head that this won't change. You'll always be the odd fate that is half human, a freak, a misfortune. There will always be someone that thinks that." Teague had finished ranting just before he started yelling. His face was flushed and he was squeezing his knuckles so tight, they turned white. Mina' s brown eyes were wide in shock and her lower lip trembled.
"So, that's what everyone thinks of me, then?" Mina stood up straighter and tried to calm herself down. Teague rubbed his face in fatigue.
"Not everyone, no. But most fae at the moment, yes." He said slowly, trying to get her to understand. Mina sniffed and walked to the door quietly.
As she opened it she said, "That's too bad. I really thought you loved me for awhile there." As Teague looked up in surprise, the door slammed shut, and Mina ran out.
She ran past guards who looked at her quizzically, and she ran past servants who bowed to her. Mina could barely see through her tears as they fell down her face, but she continued to sprint as fast as her dress would let her.
He doesn't care. He doesn't care. He doesn't care.
Terrible, awful things raved through Mina' s mind and she thought she was going to be sick. Teague, her only companion in this lonely world, openly admitted that practically everyone viewed her as a screw up, an accident, a freak. Teague, her true love, her soul mate, didn't even respect her because she was half human.
"None of this would've happened if I hadn't gone back to the fae plane!" Mina fell onto a patch of grass and sobbed.
"None of this would've happened if I hadn't gone back in time, it would've been better that way! Teague could've been happy, and I would never have had to meet him. Then I wouldn't have fallen in love with him, and maybe Brody and I could've been happy..." Mina choked on her sobs and she covered her fave with her hands.
"But I love him, and that's the problem. I love this place, and if I stayed with Brody, he and Nan wouldn't be happy. Ever and Nix wouldn't be happy, I would've been stuck with faery tales the rest of my life." Mina cried for what felt like hours and soon, her face was wet, as was her hair and her dress. The moon illuminated the sea and the quickly darkening sky.
Teague...
Clouds were forming and the distant rumble of thunder could be heard. A light fog swirled around Mina and made her shiver. After catching her breath, Mina slowly stood up and began her long walk back to her fate.
