Beyond the Iron Gate (The Faery Meadow Book 1)
Chapter 3-Taken

The moonlight shone at the faery’s man back. A stream of the luminating source shifted through his bright red hair as he watched the sleeping girl from outside the house. With the quick thrust of his arm, he pushed the old window and heard the crank inside snap off its hinges. He had broken it, and as result, the window flapped open and closed in the windy night.

Suddenly, he flew forward entering the warm bedroom and engulfed by the smell of dust and old perfume. The girl moved in her sleep and the faery, Lorcan, took his time investigating the contents of her room with his back turned to Elaine.

The tip of the faery’s wings accidentally one of the girl’s hanging flower pots. It swung violently against the wall of her room and Elaine sat up in her bed. She trembled and curled her fingers around the thick material of her blanket letting out a startled yelp as she eyed his otherworldly features.

His bright red hair looked too perfect too be dyed and his red wings had some traces of black in them she noticed. He wore a brown earthy looking shirt and his pants were threaded in some sort of black woolen thread. She stood up ready to defend herself and realized him to be the same height as her. The faery man turned around though.

Naturally, she felt inclined to scream seeing his striking red eyes blink at her, “Get out!”

Her voice came out in a shriek. No longer did she view him as some dreamy way of escape to her parents, but a sinister being who looked like he was up to no good. His frown curved into a wicked smile and his wings fluttered behind him rapidly in excitement knocking more hanging plants out of place. Some of the potted plants even crashed to the ground waking up the other members of this.

“Time to go,” Lorcan’s deep voice rumbled.

Elaine laughed in his face. “No!”

“Shut up,” Lorcan warned while at the same time realizing his mistake.

He should have stolen her away the moment he entered. He could have gotten away with her sleeping in his arms, but now she was awake and terrified.

Elaine glared at him and tried to make it to the door. Unfortunately, the faery man’s grip was like iron and brought a halt to her planned escape. She shivered in only a flimsy blue nightgown and crossed her arms covering her chest as the wind blew against her from the opened window.

“Let me go!”

“Okay,” Lorcan replied flatly.

He would let her go, with him that is. Before the young woman could react, the faery blew red glitter onto her face. She guessed it to be faery dust and wrinkled her nose as the puff of red sparkling liquidity goop landed on her face. She took a shaky breath feeling rattled as the faery dust felt like cold paint. She cried out in fear, “What do you want with me?”

Her question went unanswered though because Lorcan’s patience with her timed out and he proceeded to yank her along with him. Elaine kicked and screamed, clawing in a last attempt at the edge of her window sill before Lorcan could force her away from her home. He was already floating outside the two-story home and with one rough tug, Elaine’s body flew backward landing against his hard chest.

Lorcan’s voice lowered into a gentle coaxing tone, “Quiet down now, human. I will take you to your parents.”

Bitter tears still dripped down her face along with the strange faery dust that made her gag. It smelled like spices of some sort and made her nauseous. So did the feel of the strong faery’s arms circled around her.

She whimpered feeling powerless and wanted to scream again seeing herself hovering near the roof of her house in the arms of her crazy captor. The faery laughed behind her amused at her fear. Hadn’t her parents told her of his kind? He was beginning to wish they would have come and got her themselves. She clearly had no idea what was going on.

“My parents are dead to me,” Elaine whispered in a shaky voice.

She was trying her best not hyperventilate as the faery man accelerated forward with her to the dark woods beyond the rusting iron gate of their backyard.

She knew her words to be a lie, but in some aspects, they felt dead to her. Although a small part of her always hoped they were indeed alive, but after the many years that passed she really couldn’t say if they were. Neither her father or mother bothered to contact her in any form and it had been over a decade.

Lorcan chuckled as she went rigid and then quickly took a downward spiral into a dark place. She screamed and thrashed in his arms as the trees of the woods closed around them, but her world was quickly getting left behind as the faery man picked up speed flying further away from her childhood home.

She wasn’t just angry at her kidnapper, but something else too. His voice didn’t match the one she predicted it would.

Fly, fly away little faery boy, the voice was mocking her kidnapper. Elaine went cold for it sounded like the voice was agitated more than normal.

Oddly, this time, it wasn’t directing its words at her, but the faery man behind her. Elaine still shivered hearing it again. There was something about the voice that chilled her to the bone. It was deep and matter of fact, but there was also something about it that comforted her like a light caress. That is, when it wasn’t angry for the other times it contacted her felt more personal, but she didn’t know what to make of it now. She knew it was mad.

She so badly wanted to believe it belonged to a faery, but she wasn’t sure if she’d ever find out. Unfortunately, Lorcan heard the voice too, and in shock, he accidentally released his hold on the woman and she fell with a scream.

However, her fall was cut short as she landed on one of the many tree limbs they maneuvered around as Lorcan carried her away. Lorcan sighed in relief. He helped her stand up and balance herself on the dark branch of the old evergreen. They had finally found the ancient being that would take them from this world.

“Did you hear that?” Lorcan asked Elaine.

His eyes sharpened on the baby faced girl whose dark blue eyes darted around the woods as if looking for the source of the person he believed her to hear as well. Her eyes met his and she straightened up eyeing him with not an ounce of trust. Lorcan was beginning to believe he was really going to have to work hard to build any if he were to deliver her safely home.

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Elaine feared if she told him she heard it too he may do something unpleasant. For all she knew, he could know who the voice belonged and perhaps even planned on using her as bait to lure it out.

“Please, don’t be afraid of me,” Lorcan cooed while petting her arm, but Elaine recoiled with a fearful gasp.

His skin was cold and those haunting red eyes kept her on edge. Another pair of eyes blinked to life behind her aloof captor though. Elaine was frozen in terror as a face in the tree formed directly in front of them.

Its eyes were a blend of orange and yellow that formed in thin beady splits in the bark of the tree. A huge knob in the tree formed its mouth and when it began to move Elaine felt lightheaded. The branch they stood on and the surrounding ones too rustled as the greenman woke from his deep slumber.

Lorcan quickly grabbed Elaine’s arms just in time to catch her as her body went limp.

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