“Stop!” he shouted, and I made my decision.
Turning my back to the portal, I faced the guards coming for me. The victory written on their faces made my stomach flipflop wildly.
They had me.
The guards knew it. I knew it. If I wanted to live, I couldn’t go through this portal. My father’s most trusted guard was almost on me, his eyes glittering with triumph while his horse pawed at the forest floor, spraying leaves and soil like tiny clouds around his powerful legs. The grin on the guard’s face slipped when I smiled back at him like we were the best of friends.
Lifting my middle finger in the air and pointing it right at his stupid face, I threw myself backward, my body flying through the portal. My skin burned as soon as the pulsing colors enveloped me in their embrace, the old wards searing me everywhere.
The guard screamed in rage, and my hysterical laughter mixed with it.
I might die in this portal tonight, but seeing the look on his face was worth it.
Knowing the cruel male would be punished by my father for losing me was worth it.
The world went dark.
Chapter One
Echo
The bustle of people moving from stall to stall in the farmers market created a cacophony of sound, their excited chatter and occasional laughter soothing my frayed nerves. It had been years since I’d felt the anxiety clawing at me like it had been the last couple of days. Last time I felt this unsettled was the day I left my old life behind and stepped foot in this realm sixty years ago at the edges of this very market. This was the same stall I tried to steal food from when Pam caught me, but instead of alerting the authorities, the kind young woman had taken one look at me and decided to help me. With no family of her own, she became mine, just as I had become hers. The human saved me as much as I had saved her.
She took me under her wing, gave me a roof over my head, and taught me how to survive in this new world. She never asked questions, not even when she started aging and I did not. She hid me from everyone for fifteen long years so she could tell them her granddaughter came back from the city to stay with her because her daughter has died. She lied to her own kind to protect my identity—to protect me. I’d heard the stories about the Faerie realm—my realm—and all about the elves—as the humans liked to call us—but all Pam ever did at those times was look at me with adoration in her eyes. Not even the occasional visit from my familiar made her question my origin or made her waver in her devotion and love for me. To her last breath she made sure I would be okay to move on when she was gone. She left everything to me, including this stall at the farmers market where we’d been selling our produce, homemade jams, and candles ever since I could remember.
It took me a long time to accept her death.
To accept I would never hear her soft voice, feel her warm hugs, or be the recipient of her jokes every time I did something silly. Even then, all alone in this new world, I didn’t feel this anxious or jumpy at every new sound. Something deep inside me was warning me that my world was about to shatter, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I’d been checking the portal every day from the time I stepped foot in this realm, so I knew no one had come through it. I was still safe from my father, and from my own kind.
Absently rearranging the jars on the table, I couldn’t help but think how proud Pam would be if she could see them. If for nothing else, just so I could disperse the troubling thoughts that were forming beads of cold sweat along my hairline. Admiring the jars was safer at the moment. The red and white checkered cloth covering the lids was tied with a pretty red bow, and “made with love” was scribbled on the sticker in my swirly penmanship.
Pam was fascinated with my writing.
We made it a signature to our products.
“It’s too hot.” Proto’s drawl made me jump a foot off the ground before I whirled on him.
“What in the world do you think you are doing?” Hissing at the annoying creature, I looked around to make sure no one was close enough to see him. When the coast was clear, I flicked my wrist to cast a glamour, hiding him from prying eyes.
“My, my, aren’t we jumpy today,” he sassed, blinking his red eyes with vertical pupils innocently at me.
There was nothing innocent about Proto.
My familiar was a jerk.
“Go away before anyone sees you, you dumb creature.” Smiling tightly at the few passersby, I kept track of him from the corner of my eye. “Why are you even here?”
It wasn’t like him to pop up at the farmers market. Even his tiny head had enough brain power to know it was dangerous to both of us if he was seen by the humans. Whatever his reasoning, I hoped he would go away before I ended up having a heart attack. Or ended up on the news. I could only imagine the headlines: “A woman attacked a monstrous creature in the farmers market, strangling him with her bare hands in front of hundreds of witnesses.”
“Why are you smiling?” Proto asked warily, his blue fur prickling around his neck as he arched his back. It was disturbing to see a lizard covered in fur that acted like a cat. “I don’t like that look on your face. Stop this instant.”
“You forget that you are my familiar, not the other way around.” Glaring at him, I moved to my right to hide him better, just in case anyone was paying close enough attention to spot what was going on behind my stall and the glamour had failed. I didn’t use it often enough to be confident in the ability. “Now go away before anyone sees you.”
“I can’t.” He actually sounded put out when he spoke, which forced me to look at him over my shoulder.
“What do you mean ‘you can’t?’ Of course you can. Go away. Shoo!”
A young couple approached my stall, and my heart galloped against my ribs. The thin tank top I wore stuck to my back when cold sweat drenched my spine, and the strange looks they gave me no doubt had something to do with the constipated look I was sporting in my attempt to smile. I could feel my facial muscles spasming on their own accord, and a twitch developed under my right eye. Plastic bags crunched behind me, and a few containers topped over where Proto had been standing a second ago. Panic stabbed me through the center of my chest, and my head whipped around, while horror that they might see him racked me. But the spot was empty other than the apples rolling where they’d fallen from the tipped-over basket.
Blowing a long breath through pursed lips, I plastered a smile on my face and faced the couple. It took a few minutes for them to choose which jams they wanted, and they threw glances at me the entire time as if I was not all there. I couldn’t blame them; I would do the same if someone was acting as strange as I was right now. The second they were happily moving away from my booth with a bag full of jars, I rushed to pick up the fallen apples, searching for Proto among the pile of boxes. The tip of his tail was poking from between plastic containers piled on top of each other. Taking hold of the tip and avoiding the barbs at the end, I yanked on it as hard as I could.
A shrill screech made me wince.
“What do you mean you can’t?” I whisper-yelled at him after making sure no one would come to investigate the sound.
“I will scratch your eyes out while you sleep if you pull my tail again like that.” Proto hissed, his talon-like claws clicking threateningly on the plastic lids under his paws.