Exile by Caleb James

Author:Caleb James [James, Caleb]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
ISBN: 978-1-63533-261-2
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-01-24T05:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

THE RIDE back from the city, across the Brooklyn Bridge and then over the Verrazano Narrows, was the first real chance Charlie and Liam had to talk alone. It was awkward at first.

“So what was it like growing up in… fairyland?”

“Don’t be a snarkling. It’s called the Unsee or Fey. And now that I’m not there, I see my life in a different light.”

“Tell me,” Charlie said, his eyes on the road but wanting to look at Liam, afraid that at any minute, he’d again vanish.

“My life was spent in her court. As a child, it was clear that I was to be raised with a purpose. My parents knew this. It’s what led to their death… to their murder. They attempted to get me away from May. I can barely remember them.”

Charlie thought of his own parents, of how fiercely they loved their children. Of how more than ten years after the horror that killed Rory, they still grieved. “What happened?”

“They trusted a relative to hide me. Instead he took their money, and the night I was to vanish into the backlands, the soldiers came. They brought me and my mother and father before May.” Liam grew silent.

“I’m sorry, Liam.”

“No, Charlie. It’s just I don’t think about these things. I go through life with doors in my mind that I do not open. If you don’t look, maybe it never happened….”

“Then don’t.”

Liam braced against the leather seat. “She made me watch as she ripped them open. Father first… then…. She did not do it quickly.”

Charlie’s eyes misted. He could not find words. “I’m sorry.”

“You did not kill them, Charlie. You have nothing to be forgiven for. I, on the other hand….”

“Stop! You didn’t kill them either. You were a child. That was not your fault!”

“But it was. If not for me, if not for them loving me, they would be alive. So yes, it is my fault. I caused their death.”

“Hell no! Parents love their children. They tried to protect you, and some evil fuck killed them. It is not your fault.”

“As you will. The facts stand. To save me, they died… were murdered, and I was not saved. You asked me of the Unsee. It is beautiful, there is no doubt, but filled with fear and terror. That was my life. She killed my parents, and she would have killed me… at least, that’s what she said.” He stared out the window as they crossed a second great bridge. Like time had never passed, he was there, May lovely in a silver gown, her hair swept up with jewels, resplendent over the bodies of his mother and father, their bellies ripped open, blood and steam rising from their guts, the smell of fairy fire thick in the air. “She told me, ‘Liam Summer, you may follow your parents in death, or you will swear fealty to me, for now and forever.’”

Charlie waited.

“I was weak… and young. I did not want to die. I wanted to kill her, but I did not have the strength, and I knew it.

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