Queen of the Fae (Book 1)

Two

"In truth we do not go to Faery, we become Fairy, and in the beating of a pulse we may live for a year or a thousand years."

-James Stephens, (Irish Fairy Tales)

No one ever talks about what you go through when you're in a fatal car accident. They never talk about how the firefighters and first responders work tirelessly to cut you out of your mangled car only to load you onto a stretcher and whisk you away. They never talk about the ringing in your ears and the agonizing press of bodies buzzing around you and the chill in the air as a female nurse cuts your bloody clothes from your shattered and mangled body. They never talk about the trauma of waking up in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by police officers because in addition to yourself, your alcoholic father killed six people and landed two others in the ICU.

They don't talk about what you're supposed to do after.

The car accident that killed my mother and landed my father in prison for the rest of his life was both the worst and best day of my life. I had been the light of my mother's life and he hated that, he blamed me for their failing marriage even though it was him doing all the failing. He never hit us where it was visible and never broke enough bones to draw attention to himself. But one look at my mother's thin frame and pale features and everyone knew. The night my mother died, she was going to leave him because he'd taken his abuse too far. He'd targeted me, and that was not something she could ever live with. In a moment of drunk madness, my father decided that if she didn't want him then he'd make sure she never wanted anything ever again. The night my mother died, my father slammed his foot onto the gas and rammed into a cement divider, flipping our car three times and landing us in the middle of incoming traffic.

The all too recent memory of pungent engine oil burned my nostrils as I groaned, wincing at the sharp pain radiating down my neck. My vision blurred and dipped dangerously as my body swung back and forth over her shoulder, the ground nearly rushing up to meet me. I was too nauseous to even consider checking out her ass before we suddenly stopped and I was unceremoniously dumped into the dirt.

"Ow." I sat up and touched my neck, my fingers coming away sticky with blood. I blinked to clear my vision, my mouth dropping open as I took in our surroundings. Night had fallen and now every tree, flower, and bush seemed to glow from within. There were greens, purples, blues, pinks, every color imaginable. It was like everything had turned radioactive.

"Good, you are awake. We will be entering the Unseelie kingdom soon."

Kaisa's melodic voice drew my attention to her lethal form as she strode away from me towards a cave that I'd just noticed was hidden in the brush, her wings unfurling from her back. Momentarily forgetting my pain, I stared in wonder at their high arches. Like butterfly wings, they extended high over her head, the underlying "petals" almost see through except for the delicate veins threaded throughout, glowing a soft violet. I watched in a near trance as she gathered bundles of sticks and with a snap of her fingers lit the wood on fire, grinning wolfishly at my wide-eyed expression. I glanced away at the sight of her sharp fangs and grimaced at the memory of them buried into my neck. I watched her work for a long moment, captivated by the muscles bunching and rolling beneath her tunic.

My trance was broken when she suddenly pivoted and strode over to me, a thick piece of rope materializing in her hands. I scrambled back as she neared and threw my arms up out of habit, but she brushed them aside easily, binding my wrists before I could comprehend what had happened. Her eyes were bright and intellegent as she tugged on the rope connecting my wrists, apparently pleased by my muffled sound of pain. Glowering and trying very hard not to panic at the constricted feeling of being tied up, I opened my mouth to complain when she snapped her fingers once more and a gag was tightly shoved in my mouth.