HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 63

Chapter Sixty Three

You know how some people can't really wrap their heads around something even when they've seen it a thousand times? How, even when the proof is right there before their eyes, they seem to have doubts and keep questioning everything and can't seem to, I dunno, accept reality?

Yeah. I'm sorry, but I'm one of those people.

Even though I was aware that Satyrs were woodland spirits, which was a type of earth faery, I couldn't really wrap my head around the concept of magic in the modern world. We were in the age of holograms, virtual reality, transforming vehicles, and hyper advanced robotic technology, and in some places the world resembled what would have looked like sci-fi only fifty years ago.

However, because the earth was allowed to grow and thrive and flourish without being cut down or trampled on, because there was no littering to pollute the grass or the oceans, because there were no fossil fuels to burn away the atmosphere, and because humanity had finally resorted to all things green-friendly to preserve and save the planet... in forests like these, with trees so tall they made me feel insignificant, I truly felt like a creature of the wild.

Only now, I wasn't alone with that feeling.

I couldn't tear my eyes away from Yuma's rugged hand, the way it held my own as he skipped ahead of me, swinging his head to and fro with his tail wagging, leading me deeper and deeper into the woods. His hand felt cool but calloused, and every now and again he squeezed my palm and glanced back at me with a merry expression, dark eyes twinkling behind his glasses.

"You have never used glamour," he chuckled, suddenly spinning around and walking backwards; my ears twitched under the wig when he added his other hand to mine, holding me very tight and smiling with a shockingly youthful expression of delight. "I am excited to teach you the wonders of our kind! It is very easy to cast! Come, come! Away with me!"

"To where?" I asked, and he chuckled again, patting my hand as he pulled me deeper into the darkening canopies. "Isn't it dangerous to go too far from your camp?"

"No, we've finished erecting the fairy rings," he told me, but when I stared blankly he paused and reiterated, "a fairy ring is a physical conduit for permanent glamour casting. Stonehenge, for example, is one such conduit. It was crafted thousands of years ago in an effort to hide all faeries in the United Kingdom in pockets that can't be seen or touched by humans along the plains and under the hills."

"Wait, what?" I scoffed, since I'd actually read about Stonehenge and had never really understood its purpose, like the rest of humanity. "You're saying that big weird tourist attraction is a magic conduit for fairies?"

"All supernaturals, actually, and of course," Yuma laughed, and the way his face lit up gave me an eerie sensation in the pit of my stomach even though I didn't know why. This guy had been nothing but friendly... in all of his interactions with me, from the long-winded to the mundane. He was a good guy... so, why did I keep getting this bad feeling now and again?

I shook myself off. I was being paranoid. Maybe subconsciously I was simply waiting for him to try and do to me what had been done to my dad.

That wasn't fair to him at all.

"So," I said, shoving my feelings down, "you guys built mini stonehenges all over the place?"

"Yes, we did," he warmly told me, "and I will teach you how at some point in the future. It is a delicate process, however, as fairy rings can only be made with certain types of stone. Glamour, you see, can be stored in objects, but with fairy rings its a constant circuit of energy that keeps the power going even after we've disconnected from it! Incredible, isn't it?"