Page 72 of Escape from the Green

"Me too," she agreed. "But I think standing here thinking about it is only going to make it harder," she added, thinking more clearly than I was in the moment.

"Take a deep breath," I instructed her, taking one when she did so herself.

And then we stepped through.

I don't know what I had been expecting.

A crowd of my kind just so happening to be standing around in a distant part of our realm.

But all there was was more forest, covered twenty-some-odd inches in snow.

There were tracks, someone had been this way since the snow stopped early that morning.

But no one was around.

"That was a bit, um, anti-climactic," Amy voiced exactly what I was thinking, making an odd, nervous chuckle escape me.

"Yeah," I agreed, squeezing her hand harder. "It's not too far to the village," I reassured her.

And then we walked.

For about forty minutes before I started to see the smoke, hear the far-off noises of life.

Amy swallowed hard when we rounded a corner and finally found ourselves in the middle of the common square, rows of buildings on either side of a giant courtyard that featured stone benches around a giant fire pit where we would often sit and tell stories, talk, just spend time together.

The snow had been removed, leaving only a small layer on the ground to prevent too much mud from being dragged everywhere. A fire was going in the pit, dancing happily, warming the group of men and women around it, happy, carefree, not thinking anything was unusual at all about this day.

No one noticed us for a long few moments before a head turned mid-laugh, the sound disappearing, the face freezing for a moment before it went serious.

"Who is that?" he blurted out, making all eyes in the area turn since, I imagined, not recognizing someone was very unlikely.

Beside me, Amy moved closer until her entire side was plastered to mine. Her small hand crushed into mine, reminding me to give hers a small squeeze, trying to reassure her even as I tried to scan for a familiar face, feeling oddly out of place among my own kind, a sensation I hadn't exactly anticipated.

"Drake?" a voice hissed, making a small crowd part to reveal a man clearly well into his middle age, his hair graying and thinning, his face starting to crinkle.

Not a family member.

Not even a friend.

An elder.

A leader in our tribe.

Taking a steadying breath, I moved forward, pulling Amy with me. Physically pulling since her legs had forgotten how to work.

"Yeah," I agreed, putting some strength in my voice. "It's me," I told him.

He was Drayven, one of the five elders. Or, at least, there had been five when I had last been around.

"How is this possible?" he asked, shaking his head as he moved closer, his strong body straightening to full height as he stepped in front of us. "It's been... so long," he added, eyes boring into me, little specks of green in the otherwise brown depths.

"I was captured," I told him, watching as a few mouths fell open behind Drayven, likely being able to guess exactly what that meant. "Enslaved," I added because it was true, because it would come out eventually, because I just wanted to get that part over with.

"How, after all this time, did you find your way back to us?"

Giving her hand a squeeze, knowing how it was going to feel when everyone's attention fell to her because I had just been the recipient of that unsettling treatment. "This is Amethyst. She freed me. And she needs sanctuary," I added, voice fierce.

"Of course. Anyone who brought you back to us is welcome," Drayven said, but carefully, in a way that put me on-edge. "Someone go fetch Drake's family. They will want to know he is here," he added, voice somewhat exasperated that no one had chosen to take it upon themselves to do the errand already. "While they do that, Drake, I am going to need you to come and speak to the rest of the elders with me." There was no room for negotiation in his tone. And, when it came to orders from the council of elders, you simply didn't object. It wasn't done. Banishment was an ugly punishment for the kind of fae who others would use to enslave. Our safety was in our seclusion. No one wanted that taken away. "Don't worry," he went on, nodding his chin at Amy. "Your friend will be safe. She can warm by the fire while we talk."