Aerisian Refrain (Beyond the Sunset Lands Book 1) by Sarah Ashwood

Author:Sarah Ashwood [Ashwood, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-12T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 35

Keeping Company

“I don’t think they believed me,” I said.

My companion didn’t answer, and the words drifted away into the peace of the night. That was okay. After the debacle in Hannah’s chambers, talking really wasn’t a requirement. I glanced over at the man beside me. When I’d stormed out of Hannah’s rooms, so had he, trailing me without a word back to my rooms. I’d been upset, so upset it was all I could do to hide it. I thought I’d managed pretty well until we were at my door and I was about to go inside. The Simathe warrior accompanying me had pointed down at my hand.

“Would you care for company?” he asked. “Or would you rather be alone?”

I was slightly bewildered until, glancing down, I saw what he’d seen. All of those pent-up, concealed nerves: my hands were shaking. The rest of me was outwardly calm, but I hadn’t been able to hide my shaking hands. I’d been so full of fear and fury that I left before I lost my composure altogether. Maybe I should have waited to hear more of what the fairies had to say, but what would I have heard? Real answers, or simply more accusations?

Accusations that were horrifying because of a certain ring of truth. Their story rang in my ears. Me, descended from fairies. Male fairies. What did a male fairy look like? In my head, I kept seeing a creature neither bird nor human. A creature with black-feathered wings. A creature who’d said so many things I didn’t understand at the time, but now were beginning to make sense. Terrible, terrible sense. Things like,

You called to us. Your blood called to us. Your voice summoned us. We have been observing you and waiting, waiting until the fullness of your strength was evident.

You do not know yet the extent of your powers, but you will. And when you do—remember us.

That night in Orlando. That brand new adrenaline spike I’d felt as I sang my closing number, and the crowd’s insane response. That same night, the presence first appeared in my dreams. Had that been the night we’d somehow linked?

No, I couldn’t think about that now. I couldn’t think about any of it. I had to calm down first.

“Maybe you could sit with me for a while,” I’d said, and he had nodded, following me into my rooms.

Not wanting to be cooped up, I’d passed outside, into the stillness of the night. I collapsed onto a chair on my balcony, and he seated himself on the matching footstool next to me. For a long time, we sat in silence. My comment about no one believing me finally broke the silence, but Lord Cole didn’t reply. Maybe because I was stating the obvious and there was no point in denying it. Instead, he pulled a small block of wood and then a knife from an inner pocket of his jerkin. The pieces looked tiny in his large, capable hands, hands I would’ve assumed were more used to wielding weapons than whittling wood.

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