Page 20 of Hunted By Fae
I roll the hose around in a circle, winding, winding, winding. The same hose I used to wash off the girls—for good measure—when we first got to camp a half-hour ago.
Now, in nothing but their underwear, they don’t waste any time.
Tess blinks, then turns her gaze around. “Did you hear me? In the time it took for us to walk back here, that dark cloud… theblackoutreached mainland Europe.”
What she’s really saying is Ruby shouldn’t have gotten on a moral high horse, that Ruby wasted time.
I toss the hose onto a pile of clothes in a laundry basket for Ruby to cart into the camper, then I move for Tesni.
She turns to look at me, sickly pallor washing out her freckled face.
“It’s alright,” I tell her, but it’s a lie.
If that darkness is what I think it is…
It’s more than a cloud.
And it will go much farther than Europe.
And it’s really as far from ‘alright’ as possible.
“We’re going to be ok.” The lies come too smoothly. “Do you hear me? You and I will be fine. I promise.”
Her icy eyes lift—and her gaze pierces into me.
Hollow.
“Should we get firewood?” Ruby calls out, hauling a crate into her grip. “While we’re here?”
Ramona shoots her a withered look. “Do you have time to cut down a tree?”
Louise snaps, “Just put everything you can grab into the van. If it’s broken, leave it.”
Ruby nods, a faint sickly sheen to her brow, then she staggers under the weight of the crate pulling down on her arms.
‘Northern areas of Portugal are also affected, and of Italy—reports confirmed just now, Germany is in total blackout.’
“Come on,” Tess tugs away from me, but not before I notice the glossy sheen pasted over her pale face. She looks on the verge of passing out. “Help me pack this.”
She drops to her knees and folds the chairs.
The tension in her stiff arms works against her. She draws for patience, scraps of it, to delicately fold over the chairs one by one until they are flat on the ground, when she looks to be on the verge of ripping them apart in frustration.
I crouch down at her side and help.
‘The East Coast of the North Americas is now in blackout, I repeat—’
Tesni stills.
Her hollow stare slides to the radio.
‘The blackout has reached the coastlines of New York and Montreal, and is currently moving over land. We have lost communication—’
I touch my fingertips to her shoulder.
Tesni flinches.
Ramona abandons the foldable table. “Did that say it’s here?”
