Page 95 of Storm

“So what is that little rat bag in there going to be called?” The question is in jest. However, I’ve secretly been dying on the inside to share this with my brother. We sit under a fruiting apple tree overlooking the large grassy field next to the outdoor dining area. Melek is playing tag with Sunny and some other fae children, and I can’t keep the wide grin off my face at watching his happiness unfold before me. This is everything I wanted. A happy family… A safe, happy family. There’s that pesky word—safe. We have to be secure within the dome of the Willow. Their magic is strong. It will hold against whatever Halo has in store.

Melek is wrong. My only regret, the factory farmers. What will be their fate in all of this?

Moving to take my brother’s hand, I find scars, much like my own, etched into his skin, his more prominent than mine. After he allows me to trace a particular ragged mark he got when he slipped while welding, I place his palm on my stomach, where his namesake is becoming more active by the day. “Phoenix.” I peek up at him. He stares, unblinking, at our connection.

“Yeah? What is it?” Nix asks, as if I didn’t just give him his answer.

“Oh, god. You dumb idiot. That’s her name. The baby. We’re calling her Phoenix.”

Soulful brown eyes flare with understanding. The breeze around us picks up the doughy scent of fresh bread on our horizon. My mouth waters. Everything about this land is better. The air. The food. The people.

My brother pats my stomach. “You’re calling her Phoenix? My name?” He seems to be having a real hard time swallowing the news, so I make it easier for him to comprehend.

“Yes. I’m naming this baby after you.”

Eyes wander over my face, searching for something. Once he finds his answer, he bobs his head, blinking furiously.

“Save me, Mama.” Sunny runs at full speed into me, all the air leaving my lungs. I hold him tightly.

A shadow forms over us. Imposing. Protector-shaped. “You can’t run to your mama when you don’t want to be tagged, son.”

Sunny’s head peeps out from my shoulder, poking his tongue out at his father.

Phoenix jumps to his feet, a glorious smile on his face. “Good luck.” He pats my husband’s shoulder before walking to where a certain pink fae has appeared across the way, waving at him.

Giving Sunny one last crushing squeeze, I release him. “How about we go explore?” One of our favourite games in the limited warmer months, before the air got stifling, was pretending we were adventurers, exploring the wild wood behind our house. Sunny’s treehouse was our ship, taking us to far-flung, uncharted lands. Not that I was ever allowed to enter said ship; the ladder was as far as he’d let me go.

Gleaming with joy, the grey of his hollow irises brings a whole new meaning to his innocent face. “Can we, Mama? Ren said they have a shop where you can see a man bend steel with his mind.” Jumping to his feet, the boy is now in front of me, no longer playing at being scared.

Melek stands behind Sunny, taking us in, arms relaxed by his sides, face devoid of lines that would show his usual commander weariness. Surely, he feels it too. This place. There’s an understanding here, one our souls naturally gravitate to. This land is home. Here, there are powerful goddesses looking after us, providing for us, and keeping us safe.

Unlike Halo.

What winged god would let his people condemn others to such a harrowing existence? One where you dreamed of death. Halo isn’t a place built on community. It was built on lies. A his-story of censorship. My soul never sang in that land. It was hanging on by a thread.

In the Fairy Lands, my soul flies.

We aren’t meant to leave this land.

This is where we belong… Under the trees, witnessing the beauty of nature, wrapped in the kindness of strangers. Where happiness is a given, not earned.

I can’t go back to Halo. It’s resounding. This is not a place you leave.

“Storm?” Melek questions. I shake my head, realising I’ve been staring at him, his hand outstretched for me, Sunny grasping his other.

“Come on, Mama, let’s go.”

Taking Melek’s palm, I watch how it swallows mine whole.

CHAPTER 29

IT’S ALL FUN AND FAIRY WINE UNTIL A HUMAN RUINS IT ALL

Idon’t know how we got here, inside the trunk of a centuries-old, skyscraper-sized tree, music joyfully in tune with the people spinning around us. Ren somehow convinced Melek and me to join him and Seraphina at the local tavern, Fern Bell. The idea of attending a place filled with people of different ranks, cohabiting in one giant space, dancing, eating, and drinking without the need for exchanging credit or services is unknown to us.

A whole new world.

Halo relies on systems of power. If one held positions of governance in the chosen people’s city, they held more disposable credits than others. Those were the people who created and attended parties. They did not mingle with the lower-ranking keepers or shop attendants. Even among the hollows, they had a ranking, but at least all of the Haloians had new clothing yearly, unlimited water and food, and a sense of protection in their eye colour.