Asylum (Touched by the Fae 1)

I think back to last night, the terrible dream with the golden fae. How he asked me if I knew what he was, then who he was. I didn’t.

I guess I do now.

“Rys… is that the name of the monster who killed my sister?”

Nine frowns. “He’s not a monster. Rys is a fae—”

Obviously. I already figured out that part. “Yeah? Tell me something I don’t know.”

“—like me.”

My jaw drops.

Okay, then.

I definitely didn’t know that.

9

Nine isn’t a fae. He can’t be.

If anything, he’s my Shadow Man: part bogeyman, part guardian angel. The one who spent my whole childhood warning me about the fae. Not once, in all those years, did he ever admit he was part of the race he was protecting me from.

“What? No… no. That’s not right.”

“Sorry to disappoint you. I thought you knew. I never hid what I was—”

“I would’ve remembered if you told me you were one of them!”

Nine doesn’t say anything. He just bows his head, shielding his strange silver eyes, letting his long, wavy black hair fall forward like a shield.

He’s gorgeous, no denying that. Just like the golden fae, Nine is absolute perfection. But they look nothing alike. They’re total opposites, even if they do have total disdain for humans in common.

That’s something I do remember. As my hands burned, my throat raw from screaming, I remember the puzzled look on the golden fae’s face—on Rys’s face—as he said, “She was just a human.”

As if that made her life worth less than his. As if that made my life worth less because I’m a human.

My whole childhood, Nine didn’t hide the fact that he was purposely looking past me being a human in order to help me. I thought it was because he was something totally different than what he was warning me about. A Shadow Man, a creature tied to Faerie who had his own motives, his own magic.

I never thought he was part of the ruling race. Or that he was teaching me to protect myself from his kind.

“How can you be a fae, too? You don’t look anything like the other one.”

“There’s no time for this—”

I need to understand. “Make time or get the hell out of my room. You’re the one who told me to stay away from the fae.”

“Except for me. Listen, I can explain in detail when I’ve gotten you somewhere safe.”

Bullshit. “I’m safe right here.”

“Riley—”

I can’t do this right now. I can’t. “Know what? Forget it. I don’t want to hear anything else from you. You abandoned me six years ago and I did just fine without you. I don’t know why you decided to come back now, but you wasted both of our time. Just go.”

“Riley—”

“I’ll scream,” I threaten.