Shadow Play

27

I was going to kill him. Unaware of my internal revelations, she continued. “Most books say there's a Seelie Court and an Unseelie Court, but sometimes they call them Day Court and Night Court or Summer and Winter Courts—it seems like each book has the courts set up differently so I'm not sure on that one. The Unseelie are nasty but essentially the Seelie aren't much better because they all like to screw with humans. One book that I read had some kind of water horse that dragged people into lakes and ate them, but I'm not sure if that was Seelie or Unseelie. Let’s see … they usually can’t use technology because of their Fae energy, or something like that.” “I think that one must not be true because when I got to Lochlan’s office he was working on a laptop.” “Okay, we can take that off the list. Across the board though, every book has some variation that the Fae cannot tolerate iron, that has to be true.” “How on earth do remember all this?” My head was starting to spin at all the information and the rate at which she was throwing it at me. “You know fantasy is my thing—most books follow the same general principals, depending on the creatures involved. Read enough of them and these fantasy worlds become familiar.” “I guess I've mostly stuck to classics or mysteries,” I said with a bit of a frown, wishing I had branched out more in my reading selections. “No worries, that's what I'm here for. What else can I drudge up ... some of them can trace or fade or sift—whatever you want to call it when they teleport from one place to another. Oh! And time spent in Faery is almost never the same as earth time.” “What is Faery? Like a whole other planet?” “That's another one of those things that changes with everything you read, so I'm not sure. Sometimes it's a whole other planet, sometimes just a different realm or dimension.” She paused, casting unseeing eyes at the ceiling. “Most of the Fae use glamour to hide what they are—I'm sure that's what that vampire girl was using but I'm not sure how you were able to see past it. My understanding is that us normal humans shouldn't be able to see past a glamour.” “I'm telling you, it's the necklace. I think it's magical and it's the reason I can see these things.” “I just think we need to hold off judgment on that until we get more information.” “Ok, Fae-guru, moving on. What do you know about the Wild Hunt?” Ash didn't answer immediately but her eyes grew round and her jaw fell open. “Oh my God. The Huntsman.” I nodded in confirmation as the realization hit her that Ronan and Lochlan were Fae and they were part of the Wild Hunt. “Becca,” her voice dropped to a whisper, “you're in danger. The Fae of the Wild Hunt, they're almost never good. They're hunters, they take humans and Fae and kill them, for fun.” “I know, honey. Neither Lochlan nor Ronan has indicated they have any intentions of hurting me, but I'm definitely staying on my guard. I'm not telling them anything that I don't feel is absolutely necessary.” What I didn’t say was that I wasn't going to tell her everything either. “Well, maybe this whole thing will blow over. Yes, there are Fae here, but that doesn't have to change anything. If they've been here forever, then everything is normal, it's just a different normal than before.” I was pretty sure that she was trying to convince herself that when she left, I wouldn't be in danger here by myself. I was all for that line of thinking so I encouraged her. “Absolutely, I haven't seen any Fae since the other night and if I watch where I'm going, make sure I have my phone on me, it's no different than living in New York City. We survived having Angry Arnold living outside our apartment building for two years, this is not all that different.” We both snickered at the reminder of the man we knew from our daily commutes, but we quickly sobered, and Ash turned to me with a grave expression. “Becca, the Fae are immortal, I don’t even know if they can be killed. Please be careful.” I nodded and the back of my throat tightened as I gave her a shaky smile. “Let's watch our movie. The Fae will still be there tomorrow and I could use a break.” We curled up on the couch and put on one of my all-time favorite movies, Night and Day. It was funny and light hearted, and exactly what I needed to escape the questions running through my mind. OceanofPDF.com 11 Not long after I dozed off, lost somewhere in the early stages of sleep, I recognized the feeling of being watched. Sensing his familiar presence, I rolled over in bed and took in the ominous shadow man looming over me in the darkness. Instead of screaming like I wanted to, this time I lay still and studied his presence. I analyzed the absence of facial features and the swirling of dense smoke-like particles that made up his shape. But just as I started to relax in my observations, his gaseous arms slowly lifted toward me and the edges of his form began to blur until I could no longer recognize the shape of a man. My heartrate skyrocketed as the inky mass in front of me seemed to vibrate with energy and in a sudden rush, the thick cloud shot toward my face and funneled into my mouth and nose. The parasite filtered into my paralyzed body, lungs screaming for air while I helplessly watched in horror as the darkness filled me. A fullness grew in my chest, like a balloon filled just shy of bursting. Before the blackness swallowed me whole, I bolted upright in bed. I attempted to inhale ragged breaths in a futile struggle for more oxygen. My lungs were frozen tight in a painful contraction and not until I sat on the edge of the bed, dropping my head between my knees, was I able to get a taste of air. I did my best to exhale slowly and entice my lungs into relaxing back into normal breathing. My hands began to shake, and my body broke out in a fine sweat as the adrenaline drained from my system. I had been asleep the whole time. I wrapped a blanket around me and took stock of my surroundings. Ash had fallen asleep on the couch during the movie and I had covered her in blankets before I had gone to bed. A glance at my clock told me it was just after midnight and everything else seemed to be in order. The dream had been so disorienting that I felt as if there should be signs of the shadow man's presence lingering in the room, but everything looked as it should be. In the past, the dream had always been exactly the same, each time it occurred. Not once had there been a single variation.