Chapter One
The corners of Nola’s vision blurred. No longer able to focus on the words of the whiteboard or her teacher’s droning voice, she closed her eyes and struggled to remain conscious.
No. Not here, she begged silently.
The dizzy spells happened more often lately. Nola could almost feel the faerie essence in her system warring with her humanity. It was an uncomfortable feeling, like she wanted to crawl out of her own skin, like she didn’t belong there.
A human faerie, Briar called her. It was his fault she was this way. In an attempt to keep her away from a conflict, he had frozen her limbs in a way only a faerie with a water affinity could, given that humans are mostly water. However, he did leave her a bag containing the remaining vials of faerie essence that would give her the power to break free of his magic. Fearful for the lives of her friends, Nola drank the contents of the vials, changing her body forever.
On Nola’s next few breaths, the dizziness slowly subsided—only to be replaced by a shiver across her neck.
She turned her head slightly to see the new guy staring at her. Their homeroom teacher introduced him that morning as Mark. New to the town, but no other information. Nola had only been half paying attention when she caught the glow out of the corner of her vision. It was faint, concentrated at the center of his chest.
Like a faerie.
Nola sat straight up in her chair, studying the newcomer for anything else out of place. He was a senior, but his expression looked wise beyond his years. Other than that, he was thin and tall with a head of gorgeous blond hair, and golden eyes that might have looked out of place on anyone else but only made him look exotic. As the other girls in the class sighed over him, Nola’s heart started to race for a different reason.
A human that glows like a faerie… She couldn’t decide whether she should be excited that someone like her showed up at her school, or if she should be very wary.
Mark continued to gaze intently at her with his golden eyes.
Crap! Nola broke eye contact and quickly turned back to the front. Did he know what just happened? Does he know what I am? Who on earth is this guy?
Nola’s head swam with lingering fuzziness and unanswered questions, but one thing became clear: she couldn’t talk to him, especially not in her current state. If he had some faerie magic, he could probably take her down easily. As far as faerie magic went, she was incredibly weak. She took a steadying breath and tried to focus on the lecture, but her eyes kept wandering to the clock on the wall.
I’ll practice my magic more with Kelty. When I have a better handle on it—well, whenever we figure out what it actually is—then maybe I can confront him.
At the sound of the final bell, she jumped out of her seat and rushed out into the hall. She retrieved her bag from her locker in record time and managed to make it out the front doors without seeing any of her friends. Still feeling a little shaky, she breathed a sigh of relief as she headed toward the wood.
A feeling of peace washed over Nola as she entered the canopy of trees. Here, she was accepted and safe. Here, she would practice magic until she grew strong enough to belong with the faeries and gain control over her own body again, or so she told herself.
Nola focused on the energy she could now see flowing through the wood from the ground and into the trees, twisting and connecting, until she found the trail of purple energy that meant Kelty had been there recently. She followed the trail to where her favorite faerie—and chosen sister—waited, sitting on the ground cross-legged in front of the purple wooden door adorned with a silver moon that was set into a large tree that Kelty called her home.
Kelty’s purple skin, silver hair, and shimmery wings—with membranous sections outlined in a darker gray—no longer looked out of place to Nola. The faerie had become the guardian of the wood after being unfairly banished from the neighboring world of Faerie. Normally wary of humans, Kelty had taken a liking to Nola for some reason. They joined forces to stop a group of teens, who got their hands on dark magic, from destroying the wood—and possibly beyond—and had been meeting daily since then in an effort to figure out Nola’s human-faerie magic.
“We will try spirit again,” Kelty said without introduction. Her silver eyes looked unfocused, giving Nola the impression she had already struggled with that part of her magic today.
Nola sighed as she swung her pack to the ground. So far, she could influence plants, and coax them to grow. Given she wasn’t actually a faerie, she could only do this on a small scale. Kelty was pleased she showed promise with what the faeries called the land affinity, but still urged her to test the boundaries of her magic. They still were not sure if Nola would display any of the other affinities that faeries did—air, water, light, beast, or spirit—but Nola found it unlikely, given that faeries only specialized in one. Kelty was special in her ability to wield all of them.
Nola was also apprehensive about trying spirit. It was disconcerting to think about trying to influence another being’s energy.
But I have to keep trying.
Nola eyed Kelty as she sat down across from the faerie. Kelty did not yet know of the dizzy spells. And Nola planned to keep it that way, until she mastered her magic, anyway.
But should I tell her about the new guy? Nola debated internally, but came to a quick conclusion. No. She has so much more to worry about. Besides, it might be nothing. He might just be a normal guy who tangled with a faerie once, or something.
There were other faerie outcasts living in the human world, though Briar was the only one they knew, besides the mysterious one from the Court of Outcasts who marked Kelty’s palm with some sort of magical symbol—much like the crescent moon-shaped one on Kelty’s temple that marked her as one of the Night Court. Kelty explained the symbol on her palm, a sun and a moon connected by a jagged slash, meant she had to appear before the Court of Outcasts when summoned. Nola thought also of Kelty’s quest to end her banishment and be welcomed back home to Faerie, and the strange absence of Briar since the events that ended the humans’ dark magic.
Nola could sense the tension in Kelty, and she hoped their magic lessons were a welcome distraction from the future events looming over them.
“I thought spirit was the affinity I am least likely to have,” Nola prodded, still unsure about this element. They had not yet tried it, for Kelty admitted it was her weakest power.
“You’ve done something like it once.”
Nola sighed. “That was directly after I drank the…dead faerie. And I was driving iron out of you. That’s different, right?”
Kelty ignored her. “Tap into your energy and direct it at me. Start with sensing my energy—like you do with the trees—then go deeper.”
Fine. Okay. I can do this. Nola relaxed her shoulders and took a breath in, focusing on the spot in the middle of Kelty’s chest, beneath the brown wrapped cloth the faerie wore, to the core, the center of a faerie’s power.
She saw the glowing ball of energy resting there. It took a little longer for her to feel it as well. And even then she just barely caught a hint of earthiness and raw power before it slipped away.
Frustration threatened to overwhelm Nola as she blinked and shook her head.
“It took me years to master even that,” Kelty said kindly. She relaxed her shoulders, letting Nola know their practice session was over. “My parents never let me give up, though.”
I might not have years, Nola thought. She opened her mouth to ask Kelty for more guidance, but the faerie stiffened, a look of urgency coming over her face.
Nola’s heart jumped into her throat as Kelty looked down at her hand.
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