Jay awoke enveloped in darkness. She breathed in sharply, her mind racing as she tried to remember where she was. Moonlight always streamed through sheer curtains in her bedroom but this room was dark as a moonless sky. She rolled over, rubbing her hand against a warm but empty pillow and remembered. She was with Edmund: in his apartment and in his bed. She sighed and rolled back onto her own pillow, relishing the silky feeling of it against her cheek and smiling to herself.
The week since her horrible fight with Harvey was the happiest she could remember. Edmund had not only let her stay, he acted as if this was her home now too. Edmund hadn't abandoned her the way Harvey had claimed he would. He had cared for her and made her feel safe. They had spent the past week talking and getting to know each other. She had told Edmund things she hadn't told anyone and he hadn't called her crazy once. Jay felt happy for the first time she could remember, simply whiling away the days with Edmund at her side. Best of all, there were no nightmares and so she no longer needed to seek solace in the dreamscape. Edmund had told her that he would help her control the nightmares within her and so far his mere presence provided exactly what he promised.
As Jay wallowed around in the decadent, ridiculously high thread-count sheets, allowing herself to relax for once in the warm softness of the pillows, she heard Edmund's voice outside the bedroom door. At first she thought Edmund was on the phone but as she closed her eyes to try to fall back asleep she heard a woman's voice. An angry voice.
Jay pushed the covers down her legs and rose from the bed, adjusting the tee shirt she had borrowed from Edmund to sleep in. She crept slowly toward the door, feeling her way around the bed in the darkness. When she made it to the other side of the bed a small crack of light appeared, showing her where the door was hidden. The voices grew louder as she crept towards it. Edmund sounded angry now too. Jay was tempted to open the door, to interrupt the fight, but chose to kneel beside the door instead, her ear pressed anxiously against the cold wood.
"I don't understand, Edmund. What is she still doing here? I thought you were going to get rid of her once you found out why Harvey wanted her, not invite her into your bed," the woman said, her voice strained with rage.
Jay pressed herself closer to the door as Edmund replied softly. "I told you not to come, Isabella. You shouldn't be here. It's not time for you yet."
"Not time for me yet? What the hell does that mean? You're supposed to be my consort, remember? Not dallying with some halfling while others lie in wait to take my throne."
"I've told you, Isabella. There aren't any others. Harvey was the only internal threat to your succession, little threat that he was. The Queen's Guard made sure of it. And once we have you securely on the throne, the other courts looking to further their territory will lose interest. Jay's presence doesn't change any of that."
Jay covered her mouth to hold in the gasp that threatened to escape. He was supposed to be this woman's consort? What did that mean? And who the hell was this woman anyway?
"It's not your power hungry brother I'm worried about. It's the girl. If she's the queen's daughter, others at court could support her claim to the throne." The woman huffed as she stamped the hard wood floor of the hallway.
Jay did not expect and was not prepared for the sound she heard next. It was laughter. Edmund's laughter. Wild, mocking laughter. Laughter she had never expected to hear from Edmund's throat. Jay started to feel nauseous as a combination of rage and grief twisted in her gut. She leaned further into the door, feeling like a dark weight had been placed in the middle of her chest.
"What's so funny?" Jay could barely hear the woman's question over the continued laughter.
It took Edmund several moments to calm himself enough to respond, harsh laughter tapering of into a mean snickering. "You, and your fearful nature. It's most unbecoming of a future leader. Jay's just a girl. Some little girl who's been locked up for most of her life and until a few weeks ago had no idea what she was. Excuse me if I find it amusing that you would perceive this trifle of a girl who can't even control her own powers, as a valid leadership threat. It's rather sad, my dear."
Jay closed her eyes, imagined the sneer on his face. A broken feeling filled her chest and she felt tears well up in her eyes as she trembled with unexpressed emotion. She couldn't believe it. Part of her knew that she should open the door, let him know that she had heard everything, but she was overwhelmed by the dark heaviness that kept her frozen to her spot against the door.
"If she's no threat," Isabella replied, "then what is this game you are playing?"
"The game? The only game is my own amusement," Edmund replied as if the answer was obvious.
"Your amusement?"
"Of course. I find my brother's heartbreak very amusing. What better revenge is there than fucking his girl? Besides, who knows what information she has that may be of use to us. Who knows what interesting tidbits my brother might have filled her head with."
"What else could she possibly be hiding? If she's as unstable as you think she is, Harvey wouldn't have trusted her with anything important." She was clearly tired of this argument. Jay, her body thrumming with rage, disgust, and despair, was also tired of this argument.
Edmund grunted with exasperation. "Harvey knows that simply presenting an heir to the throne wouldn't be enough. He would need help and he would need a plan. If Jay knows about said plan then I will also know the plan. Then I will destroy our enemy and you will take your rightful place as queen."
The tone of victory in his voice finally triggered Jay to action. She burst through the door and into the hall. If all he wanted from her was information she was happy to give it.
Both of their sneaking, lying, conspirator's heads snapped towards her as the bedroom door slammed open. Jay burst into the hall black hair streaming over her rigid shoulders, mismatched eyes blazing with fury. Her cheeks burned red as she turned toward the man she thought loved her and the well-coiffed woman beside him. "You lying son of a bitch! So this is why you brought me here? To try to get any information about Harvey that my deluded mind might have to offer?"
Edmund flinched at her outburst, but quickly regained his composure and approached her rapidly. She cringed and pulled away as he tried to place a hand on her shoulder. She couldn't handle his touch. The thought of his hands on her bare skin made her sick.
He leaned forward and whispered to her. "I'm just trying to get rid of Isabella. She thinks I'm in love with her and that we have some sort of sordid plan to make her queen of the mara." Her emotions swirled in confusion as his words trailed off. Could everything she had just heard been a lie?
"Sordid plan? Are you kidding me, Edmund?" Isabella raged, walking swiftly toward them, the flippy skirt of the black suit she wore moving with her steps. She stepped in between Edmund and Jay, pushing Jay back against the wall with both hands. "Listen here, half-breed. The queen of the mara, the woman you claim is your mother, named me as her successor. Me! Edmund, my consort, is helping me gain the crown by eliminating anyone in my way. When he found out that Harvey had rescued some pathetic weirdo from the loony bin, he figured his brother was up to something. And hating him like you know he does, well, he concocted this little ruse to see what Harvey was up to."
Jay felt her back tense against the wall. Could it be true? She had accused Harvey of doing whatever he could to get power. Was it possible that Edmund was truly the ruthless one? That he had pretended to love her in order to ascend the throne with Isabella?
She looked past Isabella's red face to find Edmund leaning against the opposite wall, his jaw clenched. He wouldn't look at either of them. "Edmund?" she asked quietly. The look of hesitation on his face wasn't answer enough. She needed to hear the truth.
"Come now, Edmund. The girl deserves to hear the truth about her great love," Isabella encouraged.
Jay cringed at the satisfaction in Isabella's voice as she watched the hateful bitch take a step toward Edmund.
Edmund glanced up at them then, his face a mask of anger and, surprisingly, relief. "Well, since you had to let the cat out of the bag, Isabella," he began, throwing a look of irritation in her direction. He glared at her for several moments before turning back to Jay. "She's right. Everything you heard is true. This has all been a game, Jay. One you were clearly too dense to detect." He stepped forward so his face was only inches from hers. "I'm not in love with you, silly girl. I can obviously do better than a mental patient. For instance, the next Queen of the Mara?" He glanced back at Isabella. "Although she will need to learn to hold her tongue for the next game we play."
Jay's hatred flashed back tenfold. She had been betrayed before, by her father, by her doctors, by Harvey, but never like this. Edmund had filled her heart with lies and was now tossing her aside like so much putrid garbage. She knew she should want to cry but all she could feel was the rage that ran through her veins, suffusing her very being.
Jay's hands squeezed into fists. "So it's all true," she said, more to herself than to Edmund. "Everything Harvey said about you was true."
Edmund cocked his head to the side and smiled triumphantly. "It seems like the little halfling is getting the picture, Isabella. Tell me, dear, what did my dear brother tell you about me?"
The sound of Harvey's accusations about Edmund came roaring back into Jay's mind and she felt her body tighten with anxiety. She already felt betrayed enough. Did she really want to know the answer to this as well?
"He said that you were just using me for your own ends," Jay stammered.
"An accusation we have just verified. Anything else?"
Jay could barely force the words from her throat but she had to know. "He also said that you're a murderer."
Jay had been so focused on Edmund that she almost jumped when she heard a girlish chuckle erupt from Isabella. Edmund didn't join her but was rubbing his chin in amusement.
"I suppose that's how my brother would put it, calling membership in the venerable Order of Dragur murder. I would hardly call taking power from my victims murder, but then again my brother and I have very different perspectives on the use of humans." He waved one hand towards Jay. "No matter. Now the question is, little halfling, what do we do with you? I would say you should run on back to Harvey, but you burned that bridge with so little persuasion I'm not sure even he would have you now. I suppose you're back at square one, Jay. Alone and crazy with no place to call home but a state lockup."
He was right. She had destroyed the one connection that had really mattered and all for the love of someone who had never even cared for her in the first place. Someone who treated humans like dirt trapped under his fingernails. She was back to having nothing and no one. Except for one thing.
She looked back up at Edmund, forcing back tears, shaking. "Not exactly square one," she replied.
Not caring that she was dressed only in a one of Edmund's old shirts, Jay headed towards the front door. As she approached, Edmund stepped in front of Jay to block her path. "What do you mean by that?" he demanded.
"I don't believe you and I have anything to say to each other anymore." Jay tried to keep her voice steady and mostly succeeded. She wouldn't cry in front of him. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction. There would be time for tears later.
Edmund smiled cruelly and crossed his arms over his chest. "No, we don't, but now that you've become useless to me I think it would be best if we send you back where you belong." He reached into the front pocket of his jeans where he kept his phone.
Lakewood. He had used her, dumped her, and now that she had outlived her usefulness he was going to send her back to Lakewood. Jay shook her head. No. That wasn't going to happen.
"Isabella, if you could grab your handcuffs out of the bedroom and tie her up until the police arrive...."
"No," Jay interrupted, taking a step toward Edmund, a dark look in her eyes. The rage that had been building within her was threatening to spill out and Jay wasn't sure what would happen when it did.
Edmund snickered. "No? And what are you planning to do to stop me?"
"Edmund," Isabella said warningly from behind Jay.
"Shut up, Isabella," he snapped.
"But Edmund...."
"I said, shut up!"
It was then that Edmund finally noticed the black mist that was curling up the walls, obscuring the photos that usually hung there. His gaze snapped to Isabella who Jay imagined was quickly becoming lost in the mist, and then back to Jay. The ever expanding cloud of mist started at Jay's feet and was slowly taking over the entirety of the hallway, creeping over everything in its path.
"What is this?" Edmund asked, trying to hide the tremble in his voice as he looked back at Jay.
Jay cocked her head to one side, twirling the mist in between her fingertips. "This is my power. You know, that one I don't have any control over?"
"How?"
Jay shrugged. "I'm not sure." She took a step closer to Edmund so their noses were mere inches apart. "But what I do know is that's not just mist back there." As the last word rolled off her tongue Isabella's terrified scream filled her ears. "Better go help her, consort," Jay spat.
"You bitch," was his only reply before he took off down the hallway towards Isabella's desperate screams.
Not knowing how long she could keep what she had conjured in this reality, Jay made her way to the door, grabbed a coat off the hook near the door, ran down the hall, and out of the building.
Harvey stared at the screen of his laptop in irritation. He had been sitting there for over two hours and had only been able to add one sentence to his dissertation. He was never going to finish at this rate. Groaning, he glanced over at his notes and the cell phone that lay on top of them. Its screen was dark, just as it had been for days now. Jay hadn't called and Harvey was starting to fear that she never would. It hurt too much to concentrate on this fear for too long, but the thought never went away entirely.
He looked at the computer and then back to his phone. Back and forth. He kept thinking he could try to call her but that would mean calling Edmund and there wasn't a person he wanted to speak to less. Harvey knew how it would go: he would call, Edmund would answer, and Edmund would mock his pain before, possibly, letting him speak to Jay, who probably wouldn't want to speak to him. He almost certainly couldn't deal with that rejection with any kind of dignity.
However, not calling meant not knowing. Not knowing whether she was okay. Calling could mean finding out that she was perfectly happy with Edmund, but what if that wasn't the case? What is Edmund had revealed himself, what then? Jay would be in trouble. What if she needed him?
"Crap," Harvey mumbled under his breath. He reached for the phone and, drawing in a sharp breath, dialed his brother's number.
The phone rang an excruciating six times before Edmund's voice finally came on the line. "Well, brother, to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?" he answered. Edmund's voice was predictably dripping with sarcasm.
Harvey frowned. Edmund sounded smug as ever, but he knew his brother well enough to sense that something was off. Something had happened and Edmund was not happy about it.
Shrugging off the haughty tone of Edmund's comment, Harvey replied. "I was hoping to speak to Jay. Is she there?"
An irritated groan came from the other end of the line. "Sadly, no, our dear Ms. Atkinson is not here. She overheard some comments she didn't care for very much and ran out of here in a huff."
Harvey's jaw clenched. "What did you do?" He felt the urge to do some serious damage to his brother rise up inside of him.
The irritation in his voice became outright anger. "What did I do?! What you should be asking is what that little bitch of yours did."
Somehow Edmund's perfectly planned seduction of Jay had spun out of control. "What happened?"
"Well, dear Isabella was over and we were discussing some political matters, including how Isabella thought Jay was getting in the way of said matters. Then that half breed of yours did something. Suddenly my apartment was filled with this dark mist and Isabella was screaming and there were these things...."
Edmund continued on in a torrent of angry words but Harvey had stopped listening. Jay had brought nightmares into the waking world in Edmund and Isabella's presence. This was a huge problem. Or was it? Maybe now that Edmund had an idea of what Jay was capable of he would back of. Or he would redouble his efforts. Fuck.
Unsure of how to proceed, Harvey decided the only sure course of action was to ignore Edmund's ramblings about Jay's living nightmare altogether. "Enough of your bullshit, Edmund. Just tell me what you said to her."
"Who cares what I said? Aren't you listening to me? There was a living nightmare in my hallway!"
"Save your nonsense for someone who cares, Edmund. Tell me what you said to Jay that made her run away."
"She overheard some things she shouldn't have and I admitted that I was never in love with her. I may have also have mentioned something along the lines of her being too dumb to realize it."
Edmund's usual self-satisfied tone had begun to bleed back into his voice. It made Harvey sick to his stomach. He stood and squeezed his phone so hard that he heard the plastic start to crack. Harvey had continuously warned Jay that this would come to pass, had known it all along. However, now that it had, he wished Edmund really had been in love with Jay. It would have been easier on Jay. Edmund, on the other hand, well.
"I'll kill you for this."
Harvey could almost hear Edmund's smile through the phone. "Sure you will, brother. It worked so well last time." He laughed softly, having regained some of his composure. "Now tell me what the hell that half breed did...."
Harvey cut the call mid-rant. There was no point. Besides the advantage was now his. Edmund did not fear his brother and thought, now that he knew of Jayashree's heritage, that he had won. He was wrong. Edmund no longer had Jay, and Harvey at least understood that her love and loyalty were going to be the most important pieces in this game they were playing. Edmund had given up the only advantage he ever had, and only after he began to understand what Jay had done would he even begin to realize it.
Without further thought, Harvey grabbed his coat from its place on the bed and headed out in search of Jay.
Jay wandered into a large wooded park behind Edmund's apartment building after storming out. It was a late fall night, and she didn't encounter anyone on the network of trails that led through the forested hillside. No one had tried to stop and help the lost girl wearing just a long tee shirt and a coat. She knew she must look a fright: barely clothed, hair bedraggled, eyes red from crying. It was a look she knew well considering she had seen it in a mirror during her stay at Lakewood. Jay thought she had finally escaped the hell that was her life in the institution, but now she felt as if she was back in the same pathetic place she had started out in. She wasn't locked up but without anywhere to go she was lost and unloved as ever. She hadn't agreed with much of what Edmund said but he hadn't been wrong about how she had burned the bridge with Harvey, the only real friend she had.
"That's because you never really left at all, Jay," a voice said from behind her.
Jay turned so sharply she almost fell over from the effort. This time she recognized the voice. Dr. Bloom stood there, arms crossed over her chest, smiling in that irritating, arrogant way of hers. Jay hated that look and it was just about the last thing she wanted to see at this moment. "You're not here. You're not real," Jay said, shaking her head sharply.
Dr. Bloom cocked her head to one side. "Oh, poor Jay. I'm the only real thing in any of this. Edmund, Harvey, all the mara: they're the ones who aren't real."
Jay started to back away, still shaking her head as if it would help somehow. "No, you're lying!" she screamed. She glanced around at the trees, trying to focus on the reality of the towering firs and fragrant cedars, trying to ground herself in the physical world around her. However, the more she stared at the woods, the more certain she became that they were starting to resemble Dr. Bloom's office. The violet and black autumn sky became a clinical white ceiling. The firs and cedars became windows through which Jay could glimpse the grounds surrounding Lakewood State Hospital. Even the clump of ferns next to her started to vaguely resemble the ugly modern end table next to the uncomfortable couch in Dr. Bloom's office. Jay wrapped her arms tightly across her chest and closed her eyes. "No, no, no, no."
"You can't escape it, Jay. You're sick. This isn't some fairy tale where a dashing young man saves you and eventually you become a queen. You're a sick young woman and I can help make all of this go away, if you'll let me." Jay opened her eyes to see Dr. Bloom smiling reassuringly at her. "If you only try, I can fix everything."
"But, Harvey." Harvey had to be real. He had taught her so much. He had shown her what she really was. He had cared. He might never forgive her but she refused to believe that he was simply a figment of her imagination.
"Harvey isn't real, Jay."
Jay's arms dropped to her sides, her fists clenched. "He is real. Everything else may not be but I know he is!" It took all of her will to not lash out physically at Dr. Bloom. "And as for helping me, what is it exactly that you'll think you'll be able to do that you haven't done in the past five years?"
Dr. Bloom's face fell and she shook her head softly. "Oh, Jay. There's no point in arguing about this. Let me help you and hopefully soon you will see."
Jay raised a hand and pointed at Dr. Bloom. "No. I will not let you take him away from me. He's all I have left. I need him." What looked like Dr. Bloom's office at Lakewood wavered behind her, branches of fir trees breaking through the glass of the windows.
The doctor glared back at her. "Well if that's the way you feel, I suppose we will have to try something else." She raised her right hand and gestured at something behind her, where the office had reverted back to the woods.
Jay's eyes widened as she glimpsed the figures that appeared behind Dr. Bloom. At first, with their images eclipsed by the shadows of the forest, she thought they were hospital orderlies. She was wrong.
Harvey headed directly for the Marquam Nature Park behind Edmund's home, correctly assuming that Jay would run toward where the fewest people were. The terrain here was steep and heavily forested, yet you could still glimpse the lights of the city through the trees. He had only been wandering among the trees, carefully looking for any sign of Jay, for a few minutes when he heard a scream from deep in the park. The scream, far too familiar by now, sent a jolt of adrenaline through him and he started running.
He dashed through the evergreens, weaving through the dense underbrush, willing himself to not trip on rocks, branches, or other forest debris. Blood pounded in his ears as he vaulted over a small boulder that sat in between two pine trees. Harvey landed in a small meadow, and tried to ignore his rough breathing as he tried to remember where the scream had originated from. He turned slowly, eyes wide in the dim, moonlit clearing, waiting for some indication of where Jay might be. When the scream came again, it was followed by a loud roar, out of place in the middle of the city. Close. Harvey took off again.
Harvey was still running full speed as Jay tore through a copse of trees directly in front of him. He came to a halt, nearly crashing full tilt into her, breathing so hard he could barely hear her cry out to him.
"You're here!" she cried, throwing herself into Harvey's startled arms. This was followed immediately by a loud crash of something barreling through the trees and another bellowing roar. As the inhuman shriek echoed through the woods, Jay shoved herself back, grabbed his hand and yelled "Run!" The fear in her eyes and another crash behind them sent Harvey into a sprint once more.
As they ran back through the small meadow, he tried to look back to see if he could make out what was pursuing them. Before he could, but his attention was pulled back to Jay, who was trying to yell while she ran.
"I knew you would come! They tried to tell me you weren't real but I knew they were lying."
"Who told you that?"
"No one, it doesn't matter."
"Is the thing that told you that chasing us?" Harvey had to yell his question as the roar behind them grew louder.
Jay didn't respond but continued to look straight ahead as they pelted through the ferns and fallen leaves. Had she heard him? Or was she so caught up in the panic that came with bringing her nightmares into the waking world that she couldn't concentrate on anything else?
Harvey stopped abruptly then, digging the heels of his boots into the soft dirt floor of the forest. The cessation of movement caught Jay off guard and she fell back, tumbling into Harvey. He caught her and spun her around so they were face to face. It was the first time he had been able to get a good look at her since he had entered the forest. Her hair was wild, tangled, and was littered with foliage and debris. Her wide, terrified eyes caught the reflection of the moonlight.
"Jay, you have to tell me what is chasing us," he said, grasping her shoulders. "I can't help if you won't tell me what's going on."
Jay closed her eyes and shook her head. He noticed a tear sliding down her face. "I'm not sure...," she said so softly he could barely make out the words. "The doctor was telling me that none of this is real and then there was this shrieking." She looked over her shoulder, back the way they came, towards the inhuman noises emanating from the shadows. "And then they came."
Harvey followed Jay's gaze, staring at the dark mist that had formed on the edge of the clearing. At first it looked like smoke, a dark gray cloud fanning out and up from the forest floor. However, as the smoke met the edge of the circle of moonlight that lit the clearing, he realized he had been wrong. Very, very wrong.
Beside him, Jay gasped as creatures appeared out of the bank of fog that clung to the edge of the clearing. In that gasp, Harvey heard more than fear. He heard recognition.
He shook her, pulling her attention back to him. "Jay," he demanded gruffly. "What are those things?"
Jay paled, unable to tear her eyes away from the horde of creatures appearing at the edge of the clearing. It took her several tries before she could form the words. "They're... at least I think... they're Huldrefolk."
Harvey glanced at the small creatures walking out of the fog and then back at Jay. "They're what?" The name sounded vaguely familiar but he couldn't place it.
She looked down at her feet as she spoke. "I saw them in one of my father's books. I think they're a kind of fairy." She sounded almost ashamed.
Harvey sighed. None of the fairies in Dr. Atkinson's books were cute pixies out of child's storybook. They were dark things, frightening things. Things you didn't want chasing you around the woods in the middle of the night.
As the creatures came into view Harvey sharply drew in a breath. They were diminutive in size, standing about two feet tall. Their skin was wrinkly and gray in color and they had small tufted ears that stuck out on either side of a small patch of dark hair running down the middle of their skulls. Onyx eyes stared at them, sitting over a slight ridge in the middle of their faces that in no way resembled any nose that Harvey had ever seen. The creatures grinned maniacally across the clearing at him and Jay, sharply pointed teeth appearing over the edges of their lip-less mouths.
Harvey tore his eyes away from the creatures and reached out to grab Jay's hand, pulling her frightened eyes to his. "Jay, listen to me. You created these things. Only you can make them go away."
Jay shook her head ever so slightly within his grasp. "I can't, Harvey. I don't know how."
"You do know how," Harvey replied reassuringly. "I've seen you do it. You destroyed those knights in the dreamscape and they were much bigger than these Hurdlefolk."
"Huldrefolk," Jay corrected automatically. She sighed and glanced back at the advancing Huldrefolk, numbering in the dozens now, her eyes wide in fear, before looking back up at Harvey. "Are you sure?"
"Jay, you have power. The same power that brought the Huldrefolk here can also destroy them. You just have to concentrate and, you know, believe in yourself." He looked down at her, pleading with his eyes for her to try something, anything. Harvey was powerful, but this wasn't the dreamscape and he didn't know how to deal with the ever increasing number of Huldrefolk that were amassing themselves across the clearing.
She looked up at him, her expression half unsure, half something that closely resembled grim determination. "I can do this," she said softly, more to herself than to him.
"Yes, you can."
He let go of her and she turned towards the gathering Huldrefolk. She stared them down, standing tall in just her nightshirt and Harvey felt pride swell up in his chest. It was silent for a moment, with the lost girl and the horde of dark fairies staring at each other across what was about to become their small battlefield. Then they attacked.
Harvey kicked away the Huldrefolk that swarmed around his feet. They were everywhere and more seemed to be appearing out of the fog that lingered at the edge of the clearing. As he stomped on another one that had attempted to claw up his ankle, Harvey heard a new noise in the clearing. It was the sound of something slicing through the air. It was the sound of a weapon.
He kicked at several more of the creatures as he turned his gaze back toward Jay. A scythe had appeared in her hands, the silver blades at both ends gleaming in the moonlight. She was swiping at the Huldrefolk with the end that was an ax, laying waste to the creatures with a precision that awed him. Harvey could only wish he possessed the ability to will a weapon into being in the waking world. He turned back to the tiny creatures that were once again swarming his ankles, glad that he had worn boots appropriate for stomping. Each Huldrefolk they destroyed faded back into the mist on the opposite side of the clearing.
Despite Jay's precision with her scythe, it was quickly becoming apparent that the horde would not be stopped by just the two of them, especially since only one of them was armed. The fog that hovered on the edge of the clearing seemed to perpetually spawn more Huldrefolk.
"Jay, this isn't working" he yelled as he continued to kick and bat at the creatures with a stick he'd found at the edge of the clearing. "Can't you send them back into the dreamscape?"
He glanced at her in time to see her shake her head in the midst of her attack. "No, there's too many of them."
"Well, we need to try something else. This isn't working," he replied, slapping away another of the dark fairy.
Jay's head snapped up as the pointy end of her scythe went slicing through one of the Huldrefolk. "I have an idea," she yelled back over the sound of the horde.
"Glad to hear it," Harvey said, and then fell silent as he watched the mist at the edge of the clearing burst into flame. The remaining creatures ran from the fire as their screeches filled the air and were quickly dispatched by Jay and her scythe.
Harvey looked back and forth between Jay and the wall of flame, at a loss for words. When the last of the Huldrefolk lay at her feet, she dropped the scythe and smiled at Harvey. However, the smile didn't last long as the fire started to advance toward them.
"Shit," Harvey muttered, reaching for Jay's hand. "Run!"
She grabbed his hand and they ran as quickly as they could away from the flames that had begun to consume the patch of woods surrounding the clearing.
The ride back to the house was a quiet one. The adrenaline from the fight had quickly faded and Jay ignored all of Harvey's attempts at conversation. She only stared out the window, looking utterly bereft.
Harvey didn't know what to do. Her silence and the expression on her face sent his emotions flying in several radically different directions. He wanted to strangle his brother for what he had done to Jay. He wanted to yell at Jay for being so rash with her powers and causing a small forest fire in the process. But mostly, he wanted to know whether she was still mad at him. He had tried to ask several times now, but each time the words stuck in his throat. He supposed she couldn't be too angry since she had been excited to see him in the woods but her silence made him believe her brief joy at his presence had run out, that she was only with him now because she had nowhere else to go. He didn't want to be her last resort, but it was better than leaving her with Edmund or, worse yet, sending her back to Lakewood.
He opened his mouth once more to speak, to ask what she was feeling, to offer any aide he could. Nothing came. He gripped the steering wheel harder and slowed as they progressed up the rutted gravel drive and the lights of the house appeared. Perhaps the words would come more easily in the place where he had almost destroyed everything, Harvey thought, appreciating the irony of the proposition.
Jay was out of the car as soon as he stopped. Groaning softly, he followed her. She left the front door open as she entered and Harvey had barely been able to shut it when he saw that she was already heading down the hall.
"Jay...," he started.
"It's been a long night, Harvey." She had stopped in front of the door to her bedroom and he could already see the tears in her eyes. "I know we need to talk but right now I would really like to just cry myself to sleep." She reached up and brushed softly at the side of her nose.
Harvey placed his hands uncomfortably in his pockets. "I understand. It's just...."
"Yeah?"
"Let me know if you need anything."
Jay didn't reply. Her only response was a nod. She moved to open her door.
"And Jay?"
"Huh?" Her voice was so choked with tears it took everything he had to not run down the hallway and take her in his arms.
"That fire was real close to Edmund's house. It may be that he's getting what he deserves right now." Harvey smiled softly.
Jay laughed through her tears and it gladdened his heart to hear it. "Maybe. Good night, Harvey."
"'Night, Jay."