Dust (Of Dust and Darkness) - By Devon Ashley Page 0,56
isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when I meet new fae. Where I grew up, we don’t have families.”
His smile fades. “What?”
I shrug nonchalantly. “The eggs in our Hollow are collectively raised by the town, not individuals. I suppose some parents may be able to figure out which child is theirs, but anyone born within the same three months are given the same season as their birthday. I was given autumn. And our names come a little later, so no pixie can really be identified.”
“That’s…well, I’d say awful, since it’s so different than what we do here, but I guess to each his own. If it works, it works.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes. “Who says it works? I felt protected growing up, but never really loved. How can you when there’s no one that really takes an interest in your well-being? They just show you the ropes and send you on your way.”
He smiles sweetly. “I don’t know, Rosalie. You seem like you turned out okay to me. You’re strong. You care about the well-being of others. You seem to fear very little. And you refuse to roll over.”
“Exactly which one of those traits got my village to come look for me?” I ask dryly.
His gaze averts to the flame and for a moment he’s quiet. “I have a mother and a father, and my little sister, Starla.”
Good. He doesn’t want to continue that other conversation any more than I do.
“A mighty fine cook. How old is she?”
“Thirteen. So you can see why she’s a pain.”
I chuckle. “I really wouldn’t know. I never considered any of the younger pixlings a sibling, so I was never really bothered by them growing up.”
He nods in agreement. “She’s not really that bad. She’s just reaching that age where she questions everything you’re doing. Where are you going? Why? What are you going to do there? Who’s going to be there? Why do you hang out with them anyway? Does mother know you’re going? It’s like a freakin’ inquisition.”
“Sounds like she’s really interested in her big brother.”
“More like my parents baited her to do their dirty work. They don’t trust me to stay out of trouble these days.”
My mind immediately recalls the conversation Jack had with Finley right here in this hole, and why he was here to begin with. “So what exactly did you do to get stuck watching me? Something you and your friend did?”
“It was just a prank,” he tries to explain seriously, but fails, a smile creeping across his face. “More my friend’s doing than mine.”
Being a pixie, the fae best known for screwing with others, I don’t buy that. “Uh-huh. Sure. It’s always someone else’s idea.”
“No, really. I played a part but it was all his doing.” I cock my eyebrows, glaring until he decides to defend himself. “Look, I’ll tell you, but I probably don’t come off too good in this, even though I didn’t do it.”
“Uh-huh.”
“It was stupid, really. This faerie Aliza has been chasing down my best mate Bastian for awhile now. Literally. Everywhere we go, she’s right behind us, to the point we can’t shake her. And Bastian can’t stand her. He’s told her he’s not interested and to just flit off, but she won’t.”
“Sounds desperate.”
“It is. Sorry, but guys typically don’t like faeries that are that easy. We want to be the ones chasing. It’s instinctive. Don’t get me wrong, Aliza’s pretty enough, but she’s not something Bastian wants to bother with. She’s annoyed him too much at this point.”
“So what exactly did you do to her? ‘Cause I can tell this is the part that got you into trouble.”
“Well…” he drags out, “one day we came across this bee hive in the forest.”
“Oh, no.” I moan and bury my eyes behind my hands as if the shame were my own.
“Yeah. We smoked the bees out and took the hive. The next time Aliza chased us down, we took off to where we stashed it. I stood out in the open and Bastian hid up above. When Aliza stopped to talk to me, Bastian poured the honey all over her wings so she couldn’t take flight again. She had to walk home that day, and it wasn’t a short walk.”
“Mother Nature. Jack! That’s horrible!”
“It’s not like it did permanent damage,” he defends. “All she had to do was wash it off.” He points his finger at me, adding, “And it has kept her from following us again.”