Beyond the Iron Gate (The Faery Meadow Book 1)

Elaine was laying flat on her stomach with her head twisted sideways at an uncomfortable angle. She slightly tilted her neck, but it was rather stiff. She knew she wasn’t on a bed. She felt elevated off of the ground, but she didn’t know by what.

She pressed her hands against the sides of whatever it was she was laying on. Then she finally understood what it was she was laying on. She gently lifted herself up and away from him. She pulled her hair back behind her ears as she felt splotches of red form on her face from embarrassment as she stood up.

Colt was asleep flat on his back snoring quietly on the ground by the foot of the ladder. His arms and legs are both spread out ridiculously. His face was covered in black and blue marks. His face was cut up too and so was his neck and arms. She knew they had fallen downstairs and Colt must have broken her fall...

“Colt.”

His pale eyes opened as he looked up at her.

“How did I get down here?” he groaned in pain.

“I think you fell.”

He looked at her while sitting up and peering up into the attic. “What do you mean I fell? How are you down here too?”

“We fell asleep standing up and fell down the steps. I landed on you, but I think you took the brunt of the impact. ”

He started putting the ladder back up. “You think?” he huffed back while getting up.

“I’m so sorry! This is all my fault.”

“Oh don’t apologize, I’m fine.”

“You are not fine. This is all my fault.”

“A couple bruises will heal-” he started to say, but Elaine started to walk toward the fireplace room yanking him along with her

“Just let me try to help.”

“It is unnecessary,” he grumbled, but she ignored his comment and indicated for him to sit in his chair.

She was about to ask him if he had a towel and sink she could use to get a cool rag, but he ripped his shirt off in front of her -- literally. Her mind went blank and she crossed her arms averting her gaze.

He grunted, something Elaine was beginning to realize was a habit of his.

“I hate this shirt.” He tossed it into the fire’s burning flames.

“O-okay then. Where can I find a sink and a rag?”

“In the hall on your right,” he replied while sitting back into his chair.

She quickly found the door in the hall and entered into a small bathroom. Elaine grabbed a tiny hand towel and soaked it in cold water. Then she wrung out the rag and went back into the room with Colt.

Colt’s quietness made her uneasy.

Before she applied the rag to his skin, she checked for splinters on his back. She tried not to touch his skin as she plucked the irritatingly tiny splinters out one by one. She wiped away a bead of sweat dripping down from her forehead. When she removed the last splinter, she applied the rag and padded each bruise carefully with it.

“Done,” she chirped while setting the rag on the arm of the chair.

She stepped out in front of him expecting a cold stare, but he looked content.

A small formed on her own face. “The bruising might take a while to go away, but hey, I’m sure you’ve gotten worse injuries.”

“Thank you, Elaine.”

Something about the way he spoke her name was satisfying, but maybe it was just because she was so used to Lorcan never saying her name.

“You’re welcome.”

A few minutes passed and Colt opened up a box on the other side of his workroom. He put on a simple black tee shirt. The storm was over now and Elaine wondered if she should head back to the bar...or if Lorcan would still even be there. She walked over to his work table where Colt was putting huge tools on.

“Colt, can I use that locket again?”

He pulled the locket out of his pocket. “Yeah.”

She took it from him and quickly opened it. Colt wiped his hands off and stood next to her curious himself. Soon enough, a scene unfolded in the locked. Right away, she searched for Lorcan’s bright red hair.

Instead, she saw long brown hair. It had to be Silvia. She sat on a bar stool by the counter. Suddenly, Lorcan walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. Silvia jumped at first, but when she turned around she saw Lorcan and smiled brightly at him.

She played with her hair giving him a coy smile. “I was starting to wonder where you went off to.”

“I thought I...smelled something odd,” Lorcan replied with a confused look.

“You know mers are the only fae living here. Sure a traveler will wander through once in a while,” Silvia replied then gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, “Just relax.”

Elaine told herself it was just a friendly kiss. Her eye still twitched anyway.

Lorcan’s voice was bitter as he scanned the bar around them, “The smell was of no mere traveler. I have smelled many fae, but never have I smelled that smell before.”

“You’ve grown paranoid.”

“No, I have grown smarter,” Lorcan argued while holding his chin.

They stopped talking and Lorcan got up and walked toward one of the bar windows. Hope rose in Elaine when he reached the window and looked downward. His brow furrowed, but he quickly turned around when Silvia spoke from behind him.

Silvia smiled, “Forgotten something?”

“No.”

When Elaine saw Lorcan walk outside he heart raced. Mentally, she was yelling at him to keep going. However, Silvia was still close behind him. Before Lorcan could reach the first step leading down to the alley she wrapped her arms tightly around him.

“Don’t leave so soon,” she cooed in his ear.

“I’m not,” he replied.

Then he turned around and gives her a long kiss on the lips.

Elaine couldn’t tear her eyes away from them. Her heart twisted painfully. In the moment, she decided she did not want him as her mate either. Furthermore, she thought he had broken his promise to come to get her too. She did wait for him to come, but he wasn’t coming. She was tired of waiting.

She closed the locket and Colt took it when she handed him it. “Colt, I’m ready to learn what kind of faery I am.”

“Aren’t you going after him? He is your mate.”

She didn’t want anything to do with Lorcan. He had kidnapped her after all and she was beginning to think everything he told her was a lie.

“Then how do I get out of it?”

He grunted while putting the locket back in his pocket, “Don’t be rash. You need time to think it over.”

She clenched her fists, but her voice still wavered. “I’ve spent enough time already. Plus, h-he already rejected me first. He even mated me without my consent.”

“Are you sure about that? It will be no simple undoing. It will be painful for both of you.”

“I’m willing to endure it. Tell me how to unmate him or whatever you call it, please,” Elaine begged and Colt turned around walking back over to the fire thinking about the risks.

Elaine followed him and gently tapped his arm. His dark blue hair looked lighter as the glow of the fire shifted through it. He looked down at her and couldn’t bring himself to turn a blind eye to her desperation...and naivety. She truly was not from this world he knew because there were no faeries likes him. She was absolutely clueless, but he didn’t blame her.

He blamed her mate.

“Please. Please, help me Colt.”

“Alright, but you’re not going to like it.”

And neither is your mate, Colt thought to himself.