looked over his shoulder.
“I don’t believe your father thought of using the pool. You might remind him.”
Luthan’s gray eyes clouded, chilled. He inclined his head. “My squire will send him a note,” he said stiffly, then left.
“The boy had a point about the Choosing and Pairing,” said the oldest Marshall, Albertus.
“Do we have to discuss this again?” Thealia asked.
There was silence around the table. Several Marshalls wouldn’t meet her eyes. She didn’t like a forced blood-bond any more than the rest.
It could be chancy: if the drug mixture or amount wasn’t right, or if the drugs affected the Exotique’s judgment so she made a bad choice. To be tied her entire life, mind, body and heart to the wrong man—Thealia cut off her thoughts. She couldn’t afford them. There were many others who had and would sacrifice themselves for Lladrana—Alexa was just one more cost.
It was unfortunate that she would be forced, but how they needed her Power! The Spring Song had prophesied that the Exotique was the solution to their failing boundaries—the melody rippling out in a hopeful trill.
Thealia hardened her heart and her expression. When she met each of the Marshall’s eyes again, she infused them with her own determination. This had to be done.
4
“Call me Sinafin,” the fairy had said in Alexa’s dream, twirling and tinkling like wind chimes. The little being was no more than three inches high and completely pink—lacy wings, pointed ears, hair, tiny gown—everything.
Sinafin had stared at Alexa as much as Alexa had stared at her, and for as long.
“I must be dreaming,” Alexa had said.
Sinafin had perched on the headboard and swung her feet. “You are. I’m not really a fairy. I just took this image from your mind.” She shrugged and considered her wings. “It’s not a bad form, but I don’t think I’ll wear it outside of your dreams.”
“Then what are you?”
“That doesn’t matter,” Sinafin had replied with music in her voice. “What does matter is that you understand what is happening.”
“What?”
Sinafin had sighed, studied her toes and flexed her feet. “You have been Summoned to Lladrana.”
Alexa’s heart had thumped. She’d licked her lips. “Heavy mojo. Chimes. Rainbows. Chant. Gong. Large silver pentacle. It doesn’t look like I can get home easily.” She didn’t even want to think about disappearing holes and big hairy monsters. With fangs.
The fairy avoided Alexa’s eyes.
She sat up straight. “What aren’t you telling me about getting back?”
“It would be a massive undertaking for a Ritual to return you to the Exotique Land.”
“But?” Alexa had spotted a hesitation in the little woman’s words.
A minute pink tongue dampened pink lips. “There’s a moment, a Snap, when your Land calls to you.” She took off from the headboard and zoomed a circuit around the underside of the canopy. “Like when sometimes before you fall asleep, your body jerks.”
This time Sinafin perched on Alexa’s upraised knee. The serious look on the little pointed face didn’t suit Sinafin. “You have a moment to go or stay. Wish to go, and you’re gone. Hang on to something here, and you stay.”
“When does this happen?”
Sinafin shrugged. “Who knows? Days. Months. Years. Different times for different people. Sometimes the Snap is easy, sometimes hard. Different for different people.” She frowned. “Or maybe sometimes it’s easier for people to stay or go.”
“Duh,” Alexa said, throat tight.
“But we really need you here.”
“Joan of Arc,” Alexa croaked.
Sinafin’s entire being flashed humor. “Yes. But you can do it. You are stronger than you think. Stronger than they think. They cannot coerce you in any way—remember that.”
“You’re not one of them?”
She gave a tiny fairy snort. “Do I look like one of them? No. I sensed you were here and came. I am here for you.” She launched herself into the air, dipping and whirling, wind chimes rippling with her movements. Alexa got the idea she was too impatient to sit still. Sinafin hovered before Alexa’s nose, just far enough away that Alexa didn’t have to look at her cross-eyed.
“Deep in your heart you need Lladrana. It can be a home for you. You can find your place here.”
“Argh,” was all that came out of Alexa’s mouth.
A teeny fairy finger wagged at her. “So don’t get scared, or depressed. Take it as a challenge.”
“That’s what they always call awful problems nowadays, ‘challenges,’” Alexa muttered.
The fairy beamed. “I’m here to help you.”
Alexa wasn’t sure how a little pink fairy in her dreams could be of use.
Sinafin flittered around the bed, grabbed the fringe on the hangings and swung from it. “Don’t think of going back. Accept your fate here and you’ll live a long life of great fulfillment.”
“You sound like a fortune cookie.”
A laugh rippled from Sinafin. “I am good fortune. Now, I know you aren’t good with languages. So listen!” A delicate wand with a star on top appeared in her hand. She waved it, and the whole evening rolled like a movie before Alexa’s eyes. Only this time, she could understand what the people were saying. At least the words, but some of the meanings and concepts were beyond her. When it ended, she had a million questions. She opened her mouth to ask Sinafin, but with fairy capriciousness, the little magical woman had disappeared. A feeling of dark destiny crept over Alexa.
Now she shivered from toes to head as she remembered the dream and the night before. She clutched a pillow almost as big as her. Her arms sank into it and she knew it was made of the finest down. Everything around her was the finest.
“Hard to go back,” she muttered to herself, and knew that there wasn’t much of a life to go back to. She’d have to start all over on Earth as well as here in…Lladrana? “Find my place here.” Tears welled in her eyes and she was helpless to stop them. All she’d ever wanted was to fit in, be normal, know she was the same as everyone else who had a family and friends and a good home.
In Sophie she’d found a good friend, as close as a sister. Sophie had been outgoing and charming, had expanded Alexa’s circle of friends. She and Sophie had graduated law school, passed the bar, and started their own firm specializing in domestic law. They’d had three clients.
Then Sophie died and the plans
