The Faerie Guardian

Bonus Chapter - Nate

Bonus Chapter - Nate

“You’ll come back, Nathaniel!” Angelica’s scream echoed down the tunnel. “When you’re all alone and you realize you don’t fully belong in the human world, you’ll come crawling back to your mother!”

Nate pressed his hands over his ears as he ran, trying to block out his mother’s voice. He didn’t want to hear her desperate screams. He didn’t want to feel sorry for her. She’d attacked Violet! She was probably psycho, so how could he believe anything she said? But that look on her face when she’d begged him not to leave her . . . It tore at his heart.

He could see Violet just ahead of him, her dark hair streaming behind her as she zigzagged through the tunnel. He tried to keep up, but he felt sick and dizzy. Disoriented. He stumbled and threw out a hand against the tunnel wall to keep himself from falling. He staggered forward—and then there was darkness.

The darkness became light, and he lurched toward it, gasping for air. His chest felt tight, as though his body had been squeezed through a narrow opening. His arms hurt. His head hurt. Everything hurt, actually. And then . . . the pain faded. Something felt different, like a weird kind of humming deep inside him. He’d felt it in Angelica’s chamber, and he might have felt it on other occasions, but he couldn’t remember now. It seemed a strangely familiar feeling.

Breathing heavily, he looked around. He was in a circular room, its floor covered in stone paving and its walls concealed by hundreds of pieces of paper. A fancy chandelier with candles blazing in its holders hung from the high ceiling.

“I did it!”

Nate flinched at the sound of a girl’s voice. His eyes darted about and found her on his left. She had been leaning against the wall, but now she clapped her gloved hands together and jumped up and down in delight. Then she stopped and took another look at him. “Ooh, he’s cute. Can we keep him?”

“I certainly hope so.”

Nate recognized that voice. With an involuntary shudder, he looked across the large round table that occupied the center of the room—and found Zell. The faerie stalked toward him, crimson eyes glittering in the candlelight. When he was several feet away, he stopped. He blinked in surprise, then turned his gaze to the girl. “Can you feel that?”

She stared at Nate, and her brow crinkled. “Yes. But I thought you said he had no magic?”

Zell’s eyes were on him again. “I did indeed.”

The girl inclined her head, as though listening to something. “Well, that’s a heck of a lot of power that just came out of nowhere, then.”

Power? Nate’s gaze bounced back and forth between Zell and the girl. What power were they talking about? Was that the weird feeling coming from the depths of his being?

Zell’s lips turned up slightly. “Looks like this meeting just got a whole lot more interesting.”

Nate clenched his shaking fingers into fists. Interesting? Interesting? This meeting was messed up! Where the hell was he? How did he get here? He took a step back, searching the room for a way out.

“Please don’t think about running anywhere, Nathaniel,” said Zell. “There is nowhere for you to go down here.” He gestured toward the table. “Why don’t you sit down and listen to what I have to say? You may find my proposition somewhat appealing.”

Figuring he didn’t really have a choice, Nate walked slowly toward the table. He couldn’t see any chairs, but by the time he got there, three had materialized. He sat in the middle, with Zell and the girl on either side of him.