Dust (Of Dust and Darkness) (34 page)

             
My head shakes vehemently as he tucks a stray wisp of hair off my face. His hand returns to the small of my back and shivers run down my spine, but there’s still panic in my heart. He’s leaving me. He can’t leave me! Not now. Not ever. I want to shout these words out, but my mouth has gone numb, my voice completely useless.

             
He grabs my face with both hands, immobilizing my head, and I desperately latch onto his forearms. “I have to. They’ve picked up our trail. If I don’t… I won’t let them take you again.” His eyes are literally trembling, and I feel the tears swell up behind mine, stinging so much I gasp. “Roll in the mud. Hide beneath the leaves. Don’t forget your face. I’ll lead them away from you.” The tears burst through, and my head shakes roughly as he tries to keep me still and our eyes aligned.

             
“Don’t leave me,” I whisper. “I need you.”

             
The corner of his mouth rises. If he weren’t holding me back, I’d already be assaulting his lips because they’re finally within reach. “Rosalie, you’re the strongest fae I’ve ever met. You can do this.” His thumbs sweep the tears from under my eyes, but they’re quickly replaced with fresh ones. “Get back to your Hollow as fast as you can. Find the path and follow along side it.
Don’t ever get on the actual path,”
he reminds me.

             
When he releases me, I almost fall forward. The bag sloughs off my shoulder and tumbles to the ground. I suddenly feel exhausted, and heavy. And there’s a pain in my chest practically suffocating me. He edges around the tree and takes another peek. My chest constricts and expands briskly, and I’m overcome with so many emotions, I don’t know what to make of them. I’m never going to see him again. He’s going to give himself up to the spriggans, possibly be blamed for my escape. They could lock him up and throw him into a hole like they did me, and I
’ll never know it. I’ll
be living a free life, while the faerie that saved me starved away in a pit.

             
I hear another flock of birds. Whatever’s coming is getting closer. Jack rocks on his feet, preparing to disappear forever.
             

             
“I love you!” I blurt.
Oh. My. Mother. Nature! Did I just shout that?
Those words were meant to be beautiful. The way I just
blurted
them out, tears rolling down my face, mucous making my voice sound distorted, this was anything but beautiful.

             
A wave starts at the hips and travels up his body, making his head snap to attention. His eyes widen in…surprise? Shock? Disbelief? Thinks I’m crazy for loving someone outside my species? I really can’t read him. Or I’m afraid to.

             
I shake to the core when I first spot movement. With three large steps he’s grasping my face and smothering his heavenly lips on mine. Explosions erupt throughout my insides that I can’t believe don’t burst right through the skin. My lungs scream for air, because I refuse to use this precious moment for anything but kissing. I reach my arms around and grasp the back of his shoulders snuggly. Jack wraps one hand behind my neck and the other on my tail bone, and pulls our bodies closer than I ever thought possible. The spastic fluttering in my abdomen extends upward into my chest, and deeper into my tummy. There’s something desperate about our kiss, hungry – aggressive even – yet beautiful at the same time. He pulls away, and we stare each other down with fire and desire, our lungs out of breath.

             
“They’re close. I have to go.”

             
“No!” I
argue
, pulling him back for one more kiss.

             
He grasps my face and levels his eyes with mine
, the orbs of green see
mingly alive, hypnotizing me, bending my
will
. “I’ll come when it’s safe. Just get home. I promise I’ll find you. I love you, Rosalie.”
He gingerly kisses my lips one last time, then dips around the tree before I can protest further.

             
I stand there like a dazed doe until I hear Jack call, “Hey! What do you think you’re doing following me? Have you ever heard of this thing we call privacy?”

             
My body snaps into motion. I quickly cover the bag with loose leaves, then brush as many aside as I can, leaving the wet earth exposed beneath.
Ten points to Jack for thinking to give me a dress the color of Mother Earth.
I slather my skin until it’s brown all over. Strong earthy smells pierce my senses
,
and my already stressed-out insides become a little nauseous. Of course my sense of smell is going to start coming back
now
.

             
A gruff voice bellows close by. Too close. “Where is she?”

             
“Where’s who?” Jack asks
candidly
.

             
“The pixie,” another husky voice says, coming from the opposite side of where I heard Jack. They’ve sandwiched him. I pray there aren’t more than two spriggans giving chase.

             
Making sure my damaged wings are folded down as best they go, I gently lay on my back, cringing with anticipation that the additional pressure will make them sting in protest, but thanks to Jack’s phenomenal ointment, I don’t feel whatever pain I’m causing. I sweep the pile of leaves over my body, paying particular attention to covering my wings.

             
“If you need a pixie, go snatch one up from their Hollow. They don’t just roam aimlessly in the wild.”

             
Annoyed, the first spriggan yells, “The pixie in the hole is gone. Where is she? We tracked her here from the cave.”

             
“Sorry guys. You tracked
me
here from the cave. And there’s no way that pitiful pixie could get out of there. She’d have to climb up the wall in the dark, jump through the waterfall protecting the cave, run to the prison’s boundary, sneak through
your
campsite undetected when you’re all there, then make a break for it in the woods. All on what? A few morsels a day? Have you seen what she looks like? She’s on Father Time’s doorstep. Even if she’s managed to climb the hole, there’s no way she’s made it out of the prison yet. It’s not physically possible.”

             
“She ain’t there! We looked!”

             
One of the spriggans is flying above me!
I stop myself from gasping, fear pulsating through my body, completely incapacitating my motility. I hold my breath as he flits in and around the trees surrounding me, obviously not believing a word Jack is saying.

             
Even with mud in my ears and buried under a ton of leaves, I can hear Jack’s sigh. “Did you try going the other way in the cave?”

             
“Huh?”

             
“For the love of Mother Nature,” he whines, exasperated. “Did you go the other way in the cave first? You’re assuming she went the way that leads out, but she doesn’t know which way to go. She could have easily gone deeper into the cave, not out. Did you even check before getting your posse together for this search party?”

             
The spriggan hovering above me pauses to look at the second spriggan, wherever he is. This one shrugs.

             
“You have to return with us,” the gruff voice out of sight says. The spriggan above me disappears around the tree, heading toward Jack. “Finley wants you.”

             
I moan quietly. I was hoping they’d leave Jack behind with me. And now he has to go face Finley’s wrath? No way Finley won’t blame him for this, nor cease to exact punishment for it.

             
“Oh, whatever,” Jack spits.

             
No, no, no, no! Don’t go with them!

             
“It’s not like she won’t be in the freakin’ cave.” Jack’s voice fades away, obviously taking flight.

             
Nooo…don’t leave. Please don’t leave me, Jack.
The back of my eyes are stinging
again.
Don’t those dang things
ever
run dry?
I
try desperately to fight off the tears, not wanting to ruin my cover by making the mud run off my
face
. My chest gets away with a few deep gasps, but I force it back to shallow breaths again, not truly trusting that I’m alone in the woods just yet.

I lay there for hours hidden amongst the mud and leaves, too terrified to move. It’s not until an hour past dawn that I find the courage to rise and stand my ground. I promised Jack I would make my way home, and after everything he’s risked, I will not fail him. I dig out my bag
and
sling it over my shoulder,
flaking off some of the dried mud encapsulating my skin,
and continue the route we were already taking toward the first trail. From there I’ll travel until the road bends, but I’ll continue on. I’ll travel downstream until I reach the waterfall, and then make my way to the trail that will lead me home. But my journey will not end there, for I made a promise to Willow. And I will not fail her or the others wrongfully wasting away in that hellhole.

             
My name is Rosalie. I
may be smaller, I may be weaker, b
ut I was born free, should die free. You will not take this from me.

Devon Ashley resides in Texas with her
husband and
son. She has a Master of Science degree in Biological Sciences with an emphasis in Microbiology. In her
(not so)
free time she loves
to write, design, knit and read
.
(Super exciting, right?)

Also Available by Devon Ashley

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(
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Urban Fantasy)

Ordained
,
One

Metamorphosis
, Two

Catacombs,
Three
(
Coming
201
3
)

Falling Novels
(New Adult
Contemporary
Romance)

Falling In Between
, One

Falling Away
, Two (Coming 2013)

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