Run, I told myself. My legs carried me as far as they could.
A howl filled the air as my feet pounded the ground. The dogs. They had released the dogs. I ran faster, my heart thundering in my chest.
I rounded a tree; nobody gets away from them. Not alive. I focused my eyes on the horizon. The break in the boundary they ruled over. Once I crossed that line. I could stop running. My breath came in short pants as I threw myself past the boundary line. I made it.
I lay on the ground, my chest heaving. The dogs met me with growls, but they did not cross the boundary. Their snarls filled the air with a brutal sound.
I flinched, still expecting them to lunge. They didn’t. I scrambled to my feet and walked away, chest still heaving.
“We will find you.” Said a familiar voice, calm as if stating a simple fact.
I turned to see the owner of the voice: Micha, a towering man who made a habit of breaking rules. His long brown hair whipped across his face, his eyes piercing silver.
I raised my chin slightly, looking him right in the eyes. “I will be waiting,” I told him before I turned and walked away.
The boundary line was erected centuries ago by a wizard named Merlin to protect the natural world from the supernatural.
Tonight was the only night the boundary thins just enough to slip through. A blue moon that I had been counting down the days to since I was 13. Unable to think about anything but my escape.
My need to leave.
I walked up the path, not sure what I would face but knowing I wouldn’t turn back.
I looked down at my hands, the cold night biting into me. They were scarred and battered. I tucked them around my body tightly.
The trees in the natural world were cold and seemed too quiet to feel right. Something in the air told me that this place wasn’t meant to have me here. Though it didn’t seem to be the fact that I was Fae that made the air hesitate around me.
It was as if the whole forest was watching me take steps into a world that wasn’t meant to know the shape of my footsteps.
A light came ahead, and I breathed in the smell of fresh bread. A smell I haven’t had the pleasure of knowing since I was a child. Bread was reserved for the wealthy. Not for a servant like me. My stomach growled in response, begging for food, when I hadn’t eaten in days.
I walked up the path until the building came into sight, a large home with multiple people coming in and out. I followed my stomach to the front door.
A large purple sign sat out front. What looked like words was written on it, but I didn’t know the language.
I pushed open the door and walked in with my head low.
As soon as I walked in, I knew.
I shouldn’t be here.
All eyes turned to face me. The room was full of people who were standing around a table. What looked like maps was sprawled atop it. At the head of the table stood a man. His dark red hair was tied back, and his jaw was set in a frown that looked like it was always there.
He looked up at me with eyes of two different colors, blue and green; they looked like they were staring right into my soul.
He walked over. His shoulders were so wide that he could have carried a large dog on them.
He spoke. I didn’t understand him. I shook my head. My hands had already balled up the sides of my dress. Preparing to run.
When he spoke again, it was in the language of my people.
Fae.
“What are you doing here? How did you get past the boundary line?” His voice was rough, and his accent from the human realm was clear.
I gazed at the room around him. It was full of people, all talking in low voices. The room itself was clouded with smoke that burned my eyes.
The voice of a singer filled the room. Though I couldn’t understand the words, the sound was calming. The tall wooden beam stretched up into the ceiling. With what looked like different banners scattered along the walls. Blue, Green, Red—
“Hey! Do you not speak Fae? Tell me what you are doing here, or I will have no choice—” His voice was rising and clearly angry. I could smell the fear radiating off of him.
“I speak Fae,” I said, my voice hoarse from little use. “I…I crossed the boundary…because.” I shifted on my feet.
“Why?” He crossed his arms in front of him. The others muttered behind him.
“Because, if I didn’t, they were going to kill me,” I told him as tears began to form in my eyes. “I know that Fae aren’t supposed to cross, but I promise I won’t be here long. I will just move on to the next town. I just…I can’t let them kill me.”
His shoulders loosen slightly as he uncrosses his arms. “Why were they going to kill you?”
I looked down at my feet. “Well…If I tell you, you have to promise not to want to kill me, too.”
“I promise.” He said, but I could tell that it would depend on what I said next.
“The belief…I am a reincarnation of someone they don’t want to come back.”
“Who is that?”
“I don’t know, they wouldn’t tell me.” I looked down at my hands. “If you are going to kill me, please just do it. It will be better to die in the human realm than to die there.”
“I won’t kill you.” He said simply. “But I will put you to work. This is my tavern, you are welcome here as long as you mind yourself.”
I looked up, “Thank you, I just need—”
“You will stay here. I’ll provide you with a room and meals until we figure out why they wanted you dead. I would like to know what they are up to.” His voice was cold, calculating.
“What is your name?” He asked as if the words left him without permission.
“Aryis,” I responded, “Why do you speak Fae?” I asked my hands, wrapped around each other, to stop shaking.
He lifted his head a little higher. His jaw tightened. “My past is none of your concern.”
An old man spoke behind him. A word that sounded like “Charlie.” I shook my head, wishing I understood their language.
He turned and said something that made the man frown.
I drew in a deep breath. “Of course,” I looked down. “I didn’t mean to anger you.”
“You didn’t. You will know when I am angry.” He then walked behind a long counter and came out with a key.
“Your room is up the stairs to the right. You begin work tomorrow, if you survive the night.” He told me his eyes held no warmth.
I made my way up the stairs. Climbing them as quickly as I could, as shadows leapt up the walls. My heart was beating in my ears.
The room I was given was small, with a fireplace and small bed. This was better than any room I stayed in as a child.
I threw myself down on the bed. My back to the mattress.
As I stared at the wooden ceiling above me, I couldn’t help but smile.
For eighteen years, I have been treated simply for who they believe I was in a past life. For the first time, I got to determine who I would be for the rest of my life. Nobody was going to take that from me.
Not even the echo of the person I used to be.