Page 57 of Sidhe
He hated being envied.
He had just about reached the top when Solrin offered him a hand to help him climb over onto the landing. Normally, Nathan would be all, ‘hey, I got this,’ but he was sort of thankful for the support since the ladder was wobbling. When Solrin pulled him in, Nathan clutched the guy’s arms for a minute as that brief fear of falling passed through him.
“Sorry.” He pulled away with a grunt. “Height, flying problem. So, uhh…” he tried to speak on quickly to keep Solrin’s attention since the guy had already started to turn away, “no…family? Like at all?”
If it was possible for a frown to turn in on itself, Solrin managed it.
“Damn it. Sorry. Last question you should ever ask someone who’s part of fae business,” Nathan scolded himself.
“They are not…dead,” Solrin spoke to appease Nathan, though it clearly troubled him to speak of it at all. “Actually, I do not know where they are. My parents. No siblings. I imagine they are back at the same home I grew up in, wasting away in their boring lives, happy to be rid of me. The feeling is mutual,” he said venomously, maybe even more pronounced than when he had spoken with venom about fae.
“So…”
“I spent most of my childhood in an asylum,” Solrin said suddenly, loudly and without shame as if he was daring Nathan to make a joke aboutthat. “Do you think differently of me to know that?”
Nathan figured honesty was the best way to go. “Not really. Already thought you were nuts. Must be why you fit in so well with us.” He grinned, smacking Solrin’s arm playfully.
Solrin gaped, at an absolute loss for words. Nathan thought he even caught some color rising in Solrin’s cheeks, embarrassment flooding him at being so whole-heartedlyincluded.
And why not, Nathan thought. Freaks should stick together.
“Who’d have thought?” Nathan let his grin go a little crooked. “The asexual guy canblush.” It was sort of Nathan’s motto to push beyond the point normal people would stop. And for good reason—it usually worked.
Solrin gave him a look, not a glare, alook, like he was trying so hard not to smile. “I amhardly…asexual,” he said, and it was playful, honestly playful.
“Oh really? Getting some on the side, are ya?” Nathan winked.
There was definitely the shadow of a smile now. “No lover, remember, but…occasionally,” Solrin said. “I’m afraid you are not my type.”
Nathan laughed good and loud at that. “Well thank god, coz otherwise this could get awkward.” Then, finally, for at least a couple moments, Nathan shared asmilewith Solrin. He knew the guy wasn’t hopeless. No one was hopeless.
He took a deep breath as his laughter stilled, but instead of it bolstering him, Nathan nearly choked. There was something rank in the air. “You smell that?” he said, turning to look over the loft that they hadn’t actually inspected yet. He couldn’t see much other than old hay, a couple bushels of it, and cracked boards from where the barn was falling apart.
Solrin moved slowly in the direction of those old bundles, the only thing really obscuring them from seeing the whole loft. His smile vanished. “It’s not here,” he said with certainty, “but something…” With swift steps Solrin moved over to the hay bales. Nathan followed. The closer they got, the more Nathan could smell that awful stench. He had a good idea of what they were about to find.
Of course he wasn’t exactly prepared to findpieces.
“Shit.” Nathan turned his head away, covering his mouth and nose with his arm as they peered behind the bales. There wasn’t a dead body, more like several, but all with only a few parts left. It was obvious that some of the parts were from older corpses, but they were all corpses, Nathan was certain.
“The nachzehrer was staying here, but has left,” Solrin said. “Strange, as you said, Nathan, for him to be up here at all and notcloser to the earth. He must have been with the other creature. But why did they leave…?”
Something glinted on the ground from the sunlight streaming in through the cracks of the barn. Nathan bent down to investigate.
“What is it?” Solrin asked him.
Carefully, Nathan picked the item up between his pointer finger and thumb. “A safety pin,” he said with a frown. “Doesn’t tell us much about where our creature orcreatureswent. Maybe they just got sick of being in one place. Maybe it wasn’t private enough. Hell, maybe some people were poking around like we are now and they just high-tailed it.”
Solrin nodded in agreement. Nathan decided to pocket the safety pin since you never knew what might be important later on. Then Solrin was moving, looking out of the upper doors just off the loft where the hay bales would have been brought up by pulley to be stored. He looked out at the land beyond, the towns nearby, the scattering of so many other shacks and run-down buildings. The sun was already setting.
Nathan walked up next to him, wondering if Solrin could see something.
“We’re heading in the right direction,” he said after a while, “I’m sure of it. Somewhere close by our prey is waiting for us.” His tone was chilling and dark again like Nathan remembered from that morning.
Thatmorning. Sometimes Nathan could hardly believe everything that could happen to them in a single day.
He preferred the more relaxed and sane version of Solrin though, so he smacked the guy on the back again and tossed him a grin. “Then let’s get going. Lots more ground to cover, right?”
To Nathan’s pleased surprise, Solrin’s mouth twitched once more into that shadow of a smile. “Are you going to need help getting down?” he asked as he moved past Nathan to the ladder.
