Beyond the Fairy Gate

Chapter 22

Nyline

Numbness filtered through Nyline making it hard for her to think and care about anything in this moment. Her uncle had just up and left. Then, how everyone had acted when she had used her shadow skill. Damien's scouts seem to think that she just magically got them. Not worked her butt off for years to get to her level. She just had an overwhelming feeling that she was constantly being judged. Why did it mean so much when someone could do different things with their aether than everyone else? In truth though, she wasn't any different from her mother. Her mother had been strong mentally and aether wise. So, was she, then why, was it such a big problem when it came to her?

She pulled her mind from the judgement of the people on board the air ship and towards what her uncle had told her. That she attracts daemons and that was what happened when she was born. She had known that it was partly her fault, but her fault entirely? She never even fathomed.

"I had mentioned this before, but I don't believe that account is completely correct. There are no records in our royal or public library that says that there was any flux of any types of daemons during our birth." She let out a long breath before taking another deep one in and letting it out slowly.

"You're back..." was all she could muster at Gabriel's sudden words.

"Would you prefer if I wasn't in your mind?" She shook her head.

"What's the point in fighting it now?" The inner voice was so soft, so much of a mummer, that she wasn't sure if it was an actual thought or not.

"Fighting being mated?" She hummed. There was a mixture of emotions coming from the other side of the bond but she just, couldn't deal with it, so she turned her attention away from him. "Is there anything I can do for you right now?" His voice was sad, and she could tell that all he wanted to do was to go over and wrap her in his arms, but everything was just so heavy in this moment that she wasn't sure if she wanted the contact.

"Give. It. To. Her." Adrenell's very angry voice spoke each word sounding as if she were about to kill Dashiner. Her attention was pulled into the conversation.

"You give it to her!" Dashiner shouted back.

"You almost DIED getting that for her. Now you walk your little butt over there and give it to her, yourself!" A very small smile cracked on Nyline's face as Adrenell continued to rail into Dashiner. There was a long pause.

"Fine..." Dashiner finally caved sounding resigned and tired.

"Well, maybe this will cheer you up." Gabriel muttered. Nyline could only shake her head. What in the aether world could really cheer her up in this moment? She had nothing, everything she owned was on the other side of the fairy gate.

Footsteps approached, slowly, then as if he were trying to get his confidence back the steps became steadier. Then, with a soft grunt a body landed next to her. There was silence as she heard Dashiner take a long breath in then out slowly.

"Lady Nyline... I know that it's not a lot... and I'm not sure how much this will mean to you... but, I thought that having this would be important to you... so, I wanted to make sure that, if you decided to start your life here with us, that you had it with you..." There was a long pause and Nyline couldn't help but look to the side. She had never heard such a disjointed, awkward sentence before in her life. "So yeah... I went back and got this for you..." Nyline placed her temple on her knees as she focused on him. He was sitting next to her, crossed legged, looking down at her patchwork teddy. Her breath caught in her chest before she let it out in a rush.