Page 53 of The Cursed Fae

I pressed my lips together and nodded. “I hope so.”

The old man smiled. “Wait right here, I'll get those for you.”

When he returned, the librarian didn't have just two books. He had four. Wars of the Fae was so long that it was bound in three separate tomes. At least it was in typeface and not handwritten, which a small part of me found disappointing. Coven of Eternals was a much slimmer, single volume, bound in leather and tied shut with string.

“Thanks. Can I take them with me?”

“Of course. You have them for one week, Ms. Sable.”

“Oh, you know my name. I'm sorry, I don't know yours.” I shifted the books in my arms and held out my hand.

“You can call me Martin. It is nice to meet you, Ms. Sable.”

Taking my reading material to a second-floor lounge, I settled into a back corner. I opened the first book and started at the first page.

In the beginning, all fae lived in the Valley of Elements. Just like modern fae, our ancestors specialized in one of four elements: fire, water, air, or earth. They performed mostly passive magic to help crops grow and heal minor injuries.

There were a few mentions of notable feats of magic that didn't fit squarely within the elements, like compulsion and mind reading. Nothing about portals or pocket dimensions, though. The author noted that during a terrible drought, a group of fae traveled beyond the valley and across the ocean in search of water and food for the villages, returning after only three days with plentiful bounty.

Back then, no one crossed an ocean once in three days, let alone twice, without some form of magic that allowed teleportation. It was the book's first hint of dimensional abilities.

This trip also marked the fae's first encounter with humans, but definitely not the last. Humans eventually discovered the valley, launching raiding parties to steal fae resources. Thievery was bad and all, but not the fae's biggest concern. Once the humans saw the fae perform magic, they labeled my ancestors as witches and, as humans so often did, went on a killing spree.

The fae decided they needed protection and created warriors to defend the valley. These warriors were immortal, with a thirst for blood. Scholars disagreed whether the blood drinking was a byproduct of the spell used to create them or a taste developed when the warriors began killing human invaders.

During peacetime, the warriors had little to do and grew bored. They started hunting humans for sport. The rising death tolls didn't go unnoticed. Rumors of monsters that ripped women from their beds and children from their cribs began swirling. Terrified for their lives and those of their families, the humans blamed the fae and demanded they turn over the monsters. When they didn't, humans captured any fae who wandered too far from home and burned them at the stake.

The Salem Witch Trials had nothing on the fae murders of my ancestors' days.

“Vampires before breakfast? That seems ill-advised.”

I jumped in my chair. Laz grinned down at me and hitched his backpack straps tighter.

“I have a lot to catch up on,” I replied, snapping the book shut and shoving it in my bag. “I didn't grow up around this stuff, remember?”

He chuckled softly. “No one grows up around vampires, Winter. Friday was a first for many people.”

The other three books wouldn't fit in my backpack along with all my other stuff, but that didn't stop me from trying. “How did you find me?”

Laz took the books from my hands and tucked them under his arm. “You weren't in the dining hall or your room. The library was my third guess. Come on, let's drop these off in your dorm. Unless you want to carry them around all day?”

While I didn't want to be alone with Laz, I also didn't want to lug around the library books. So, against my better judgement, I followed him from the library.

“Where did you go last night? I stopped by again, but Tina said you'd left.”

“Oh. Yeah. Your sister was asking a lot of questions about you, so I went somewhere else to do homework,” I said.

Honestly, with everything that happened after I left my room, I'd nearly forgotten about the exchange with Tina.

Laz cringed. “That's embarrassing. Twin-vision sucks sometimes.”

“You mean she can, like, see inside your head?” That sounded awful. For so many reasons.

“No. It's more like she just knows when certain emotions happen, and vice-versa.”

“Weird,” I muttered.

“You must not know a lot of twins,” he teased. “It's pretty common. Ask your girl Morgan. She and Chance have the strongest twin-vision I've ever seen. I'm sorry about Tina. My sister has a tendency to meddle in my love life when hers is on a downswing.”

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