Page 25 of First Light
“You’re saying everyone has a twin here.” She frowned. “Everyone? Even me?”
Duncan turned his face to the fire. “Where were you born?”
“Wales. In a place called Caernarfon.”
He nodded slowly. “Then your twin would have been taken there.”
Carys tried to wrap her mind around that. “Shadowkin.” Another her, walking around in this place steeped in magic. A sister in a sense, like Duncan and Lachlan were brothers. “So everyone we know in our world has a twin here?” She’d always wanted a sibling. A wild thrill fluttered in her chest. Maybe….
“No.” Duncan’s voice was harsh. “I said everyone in our world had a twin when they were born. Not all children…” He lowered his voice even though they were alone. “You heard the voices crying in the forest.”
Carys felt a twisting in her stomach. “You mean…”
He nodded.
Duncan had said the dark fae lived here. And far from being bright, happy creatures of modern movies, real fae—those in the old stories—were tricky and conniving, immune to human morality, and they also hunted children. Sometimes for sport, sometimes to steal them for amusement, and sometimes to consume them as food.
Those stories didn’t usually make it into the animated kids’ movies.
But so much of this world… It felt familiar. Fae stealing children. Fairies granting gifts. Magic and the mundane living side by side. She’d read about this. She’d studied this.
She just never imagined she’d be living it.
“There are children who never make it out of the forest.” Carys had seen the blue lights. She’d heard the cries. The broken part of her heart knew what it had been hearing.
Duncan stared at the fire. “My nanny told me that will-o’-the-wisps are the souls of lost children who weren’t baptized. Maybe there’s some truth in that.”
It was a terrifying thought. “So Dru is fae?”
“Yes, but he left this place. He chooses to remain in the Brightlands.”
“Fairies can do that?”
Duncan shrugged. “They can if they can find passage, but they rarely do. What’s a fae without their magic? To live in the Brightlands, they have to be willing to give up most of their power and live surrounded by iron.” He shook his head. “Hardly any are willing to do that.”
“But you needed a fae to bring me here?”
“A fae. A wolf. A unicorn. Anything magic that’s not human. The first time you go through the gate, you need a guide. Something native from the land. Things that live here can’t enter our world unless they’re guided, and mundane humans like us can’t come here unless something from the Shadowlands brings them in. Once a gate knows you, it will usually let you pass—not always, they tend to have their own minds—but if you have no introduction, it will turn you out and turn you around.”
“What else is here?” She stood and walked to the window, wondering about the creatures in the forest and the ones in the garden outside. What had that sound been? The bird that wasn’t a bird.
“Dark and light fae obviously.” Duncan sighed. “I haven’t explored out of this area, but there are stories… You’ve seen the wisps. Nymphs in the water and sprites in the trees. Brownies take care of the houses.” He motioned to the bowl of milk on the hearth. “They’re quite easy to get along with as long as you respect them.”
“What else?” A flash of realization hit her. “Other creatures? Magical creatures?”
He frowned. “Selkies in the ocean. Be careful for kelpies in the rivers and lochs, of course. Then there’s?—”
“Dragons?” The images from her mother’s paintings filled her mind. “Are there dragons?”
“Aye.” Duncan slowly nodded. “In some places there are dragons.”
“Where?” Her heart began to race.
The corner of his mouth turned up. He knew exactly what she was asking. “There are dragons all over the world according to what I’ve heard.” Duncan rose and walked toward her. “But in this land—Briton as they call it here—the dragons live where you were born, Carys Morgan. The dragons live in Wales.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Dragons.” She stared out the window as she munched on an apple Duncan picked from the small orchard behind the house. “I might see a dragon.”