Page 4 of Oleander
A week ago, I was worried about starting my freshman year at the local community college, and now I’m not even in the same world.
“I forgot how painful the crossing can be for humans. And since you are indeed half-human, I suppose you might experience some ill-effects until your body adjusts,” Onyx says evenly.
“Ya think?” I deadpan.
I get to my feet and hold my wrists out, asking a pathetic, unspoken question. But I won’t beg. Even though the iron cuffs are really starting to irritate my skin.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot. Your magic is unpredictable and uncontrollable. It isn’t safe for you or others until the headmaster has time to review your case and enroll you in the academy. You’ll be on scholarship, so you must obey the rules, little Fae.”
“Don’t call me that,” I mumble, irrationally annoyed by the endearment he seems to have bestowed upon me.
“You cannot go back to the Mortal Realm, and Faerie can be a dangerous place for someone like you, someoneunfamiliar. You must stay at the academy. Please, Skyler,” Onyx pleads, his eyes glowing and so fucking earnest I almost believe him.
Onyx is referring to the handful of times I tried to escape from the extended stay motel we were living at on the outskirtsof town back in Oklahoma. We were waiting for the headmaster to approve my admission to his school as well as find me an open dorm room to live in.
I know they aren’t the bad guys, or I’d be dead by now, but this is insanity to learn about and live in another realm. An entirely new dimension that I can’t wrap my head around.
I don’t belong here, but I refuse to roll over and give up. My mom needs me whether she realizes it or not, and I’m determined to find a way back, even if I’m forced to go to some strange academy and bide my time.
I ignore Onyx’s concern. “Do you have electricity in Faerie? Phones? I need to call my mom soon in order to keep up with this ridiculous charade. Even with the magic mind voodoo you guys put on her, she’ll need to hear from me soon, or she’ll worry.” I shake my head in disbelief. “I don’t know how she couldn’t see those big-ass ears,” I say, mumbling the last part.
My mom has been out of town, working at an understaffed hospital as an emergency room nurse in St. Louis for the last month. She gets paid extra while there, and she never seems to say no to these types of opportunities. I don’t mind, and I never did—it allowed for some epic parties in high school.
We rented our house in Oklahoma, along with all of the furniture, so she isn’t placing any sort of insurance claim. We hardly had any personal belongings, tending to move wherever mom’s job or newest love interest took her. For now, she’s staying in St. Louis, having accepted a full-time position at the hospital. And, instead of staying in Oklahoma and going to community college, she thinks I was awarded some kind of natural disaster relief scholarship to a private university in France.
Humans don’t know about the supernatural, so when she flew home to check on me and met theneighborsI was staying with after the not-so-natural disaster, I hid myshacklesunder along-sleeved flannel shirt. I didn’t miss the way she eyed both of my captors with unveiled attraction. Especially after Onyx made a nice dinner to help convince her of everything and settle any lingering worries. She fell right into his charm.
Gross.
Onyx explained that it’s natural for humans to feel an unexplainable pull toward the beauty and otherworldliness of the Fae, which must have inevitably led to my conception.
Double gross.
Onyx opens his mouth to answer, but Birch beats him to it. “First of all, it was a mild glamour and compulsion tonic, very common with Fae who travel to the Mortal Realm.Notmind magic. We do not possess mind magic. Only the witches and vampires do, and trust me, you don’t want to get mixed up with them. They’re banned from entering Faerie, so as long as you don’t go portal hopping through the Otherworld, you should be fine?—”
“Witches and vampires are real?!” I shout loudly, adding to my building headache.
Birch’s mouth flattens into a straight line, and his expression shuts down, probably realizing he said more than he should have. I glance at Onyx, who’s glaring at Birch in annoyance.
“Holy shit. Theyarereal. Wow. What else is real? Bigfoot? Elves? Demons?—”
“And second,” Birch interrupts, cutting me off mid-question and ignoring my curiosity, “of course we have electricity. Faerie is another realm, not the past. We aren’t time-traveling here, Skyler.”
“You never know,” I mumble because I’m starting to wonder if everything I’ve ever read about is true. “Mermaids? Kraken? Oh! Werewolves? You gotta give me something here, Nyx,” I say, trying to tease my way into some answers from the nicer of the two by giving him a badass nickname.
“Let’s get going. We need to make it to the academy before sundown,” Onyx replies seriously instead of spilling more secrets.
My kidnappers take off toward the forest, expecting me to follow. I glance up at the sun high in the sky. It’s not even mid-afternoon.
Did he say before sundown?
Shit.
“Hey! Wait up!” I shout as they slip into the trees, instantly disappearing. I take off, running after them and most likely being annoying. “Why isn’t there a road? Or even a trail. Do we seriously have to hike through the woods all day?”
“You, little Fae, cannot go through the main gateway. It’s too heavily monitored. We received special permission from the queen herself to use one of the ancient forest portals for discretion.”
“It’s not every day that a changeling is brought into the realm,” Birch says. It feels like an insult, even though I have no idea what the word means.
