Page 78 of Omen of ice
There are ten people total, six men and four women.
One of the women in the group, a plump redhead with deep brown eyes and a freckle-dotted nose, climbs to her feet. “You’re an Aphelian?” I don’t miss the note of accusation.
Ander clears his throat. He crosses the small space and rests a hand against her shoulder. “Keltania is here as a guest of Delkin’s.” He looks around at the group. “I trust you’ll all make her feel welcome.”
A soft rumble goes through the group, and most of them nod. Several smile, while the majority watch me with careful stares. A few, though… A few glare outright. Who can blame them? They’ve obviously been living here, protected. I’m an outsider. An unknown. They’d be foolish to welcome me with open arms.
For so long, we’ve been praised as heroes, the saviors of the Fae. But my kind are the disease, the infection that started it all. We saved the Fae—but we let our own race flounder. And for what? A fantasy?
“My people are the reason humans were wiped from Derriga. When Aphelian gave Servis the edge to win the war, she started a chain of events that led to the downfall of humanity.” I drop to my knee and hold my hand across my heart. “My ancestor did not foresee the consequences of her actions.”
An elderly woman at the back struggles upright. Several people jump up to help her as she wobbles to the front of the crowd, stopping a few feet in front of me. “Poor child,” she says. She places a weathered hand over my heart. Too stunned to react, I simply kneel there as her lips tilt upward in a strange grin. “You are broken in two and lost, but that is good. It saves you. And us.”
I climb to my feet. “I’mbroken?”
“In two.”
Ander sighs and steps around me. He grabs the old woman gently around the shoulders and steers her back into the waiting arms of several of the others. “Forgive Eta. She’s the oldest of us and sometimes doesn’t make much sense.”
I nod, but there’s a chill in the air that wasn’t there before the old woman touched me. “Valen and I came with someone. A…man. Where is he?”
“You speak of the kelpie, Daroose?” Ander laughs. “He’s around somewhere, undoubtedly getting into trouble. From what I understand, he’s an old friend of Delkin’s. He’s fine—I promise you.”
I glance around the small group. “Do you all just stay up here? When was the last time you set foot on the ground?”
“Delkin doesn’t want the humans to leave. He knows what Derriga is like now, and for us, there’s no place there. He’ll let some of the Fae come and go. Every once in a while, someone will get restless and he’ll allow them to head back to the world below. Sometimes we’ll send a party out to fetch something we can’t get or create here. Other than that, we keep to ourselves and we stay put.”
“So, you’re not the group raiding villages in the Winter Lands?”
Ander tilts his head. “I can’t speak for all of us, but I doubt it. Delkin wouldn’t stand for it. And besides, we don’t go that far north. Years ago, we had a small group step out of line. They were punished harshly.”
“Delkin is a tyrant?”
Ander’s expression darkens as a collection of gasps erupt from the small crowd across the platform. “As Delkin would say, he is many things. A tyrantisn’tone of them.”
“But you all just obey him? Let him keep you stashed away up here?” If that isn’t the definition of a tyrant, then I don’t know what is. The more I learn about this place, the more I want to get back down to the ground, back to the world I know. It has its flaws, but it’s real. I would rather live in the pits of Lunal and look for a way to fix it than hide away in the treetops with my head in the clouds.
The red-haired woman shakes her head vigorously. “Delkin has his reasons, and we all trust him. You’re a newcomer and can’t possibly understand—”
I throw my hands up and back away several steps. “I’m not anewcomer. I was accosted and forced up your tree. I’ve got no intention of staying. As soon as I find Valen, I’m leaving.”
“Tania?”
I whirl to find Valen standing at the top of the stairs. Next to him is a tall, broad-shouldered Fae with white hair and violet eyes that match his. Obviously, my first question should be,Who is he?Aside from Valen, I’ve never come across a Fae with eyes like those. But instead of asking, I throw myself forward and wrap my arms around him.
“Thank the Goddess you’re okay.” I’m alive and uninjured, so he’s obviously fine. But in the back of my mind, something squirms. A thought so dark, so deep and impossible, that I can’t acknowledge it. A feeling that has no place being there.
Valen returns the embrace, maybe squeezing just a little too hard. He chuckles. “I told you you’d be unable to keep your hands off me one day.”
“Is sheyours?” the white-haired Fae beside him asks.
His?And just like that, the brief spell is broken. I dislodge myself from Valen, and the sudden move sends him off-balance. He stumbles back, catching himself before ending up on the floor.
“If bymine, you mean the eternal pain in my ass, then yes.” He runs a hand down the front of his leathers and gestures to me. “Delkin, allow me to introduce Keltania, my…friend.”
A look passes between Delkin and Ander.
“Tania, meet Delkin, my father.”
