Crossing Boundaries

Chapter 4

Arrowan

The only dreams I seemed to be capable of anymore were nightmares.

Usually it was the same one: I finally escape to be with my soul mate, only to find I'm too late. I'm frozen in place, sometimes by magic and sometimes by fear, and forced to watch as he's slaughtered in front of me. Sometimes I can move and I sprint to him, but my movements are impossibly slow. I move millimeters at a time and I can't reach him. I scream, but no sound comes out.

I'd had that dream enough times now that sometimes I honestly thought myself incapable of screaming – that if I opened my mouth and tried, I would feel that same overwhelming helplessness. In the mornings, I would go running just to remind myself I could. In reality, my body cooperated. I was fast, faster than almost anyone else. Those dreams, though... they messed with my mind. They made me feel inadequate and like I could never hope to protect my soul mate from those I knew would be after us the moment I went to him. Over the years, it had been hard to keep planning and maneuvering, to keep hoping that someday we could be together. That hope was the only thing keeping me sane, so even on the hardest days, I never let it go.

Someday, I would find him. I would lie, evade, and kill to keep him safe. Whatever it took.

An opportunity was coming up, one I could never have fabricated for myself. The stars were finally aligning and if I played my cards right, I would be gone before my people ever realized I meant to leave.

See, I was born Unseelie. We were known as creatures of darkness and looked down upon as evil, soulless, and wicked. It was true, some members of my kind were as bad as the stories; but isn't that true of every species and culture? It didn't help our case that we looked wrong in the sunlight. Shadows clung to us, shading us even in the harshest of lighting.

Sunlight made Seelie fae look divine. They would glow and almost shine. They were radiant. That same sunlight forsook the Unseelie. We were truly creatures of the night, even though most of us preferred not to live nocturnally. In starlight, we glimmered and glowed gently – none of that blinding Seelie nonsense. It was beautiful, but the Seelie looked down on us all the same. They didn't understand that thriving in physical darkness was not the same as thriving in metaphysical darkness. It didn't mean we were corrupt or less than them.

But so it goes.

Maybe our cultures would have warred even if we looked the same and if our magic wasn't so different. Maybe this was just the excuse that started it all. It didn't matter now. What mattered was that my mate was Seelie, that I was Unseelie, and that we would never be allowed to be together in our home realm of Alterra. In fact, we weren't even allowed to meet. Ever since the Great Truce almost two hundred years ago, there had been no contact between our kind except for the ruling class. I had never laid eyes on him, on my soul mate, but I could feel the connection that bound us. It was tugging me toward Earth, toward the human realm. It had been for a long time.

How long would he wait for me?

It was a thought I tried to avoid, but I couldn't help wondering at least a few times each day. Had he already moved on, found someone else? Even if he was still waiting for me, would he resent me for making him wait so long? It was impossible not to worry, but none of that was my biggest concern. If I could just reach him and keep him safe, I could handle the rest.

Five more months, I reminded myself as I sharpened another arrowhead. There was going to be a solar eclipse on the day of the winter solstice. Our magic was already stronger that day, and it would be magnified further by the eclipse. I should be able to shatter the mithril tracking bracelet that had been snugly wrapped around my wrist since the hour a seer proclaimed my soul mate to be Seelie. I would have to dodge or fight more guards than usual to get through the portal to Earth – security was always higher on holidays – but it was a chance I was willing to take.