PROLOGUE
The present. Feliz's pov.
“So this Beyr,” May said, smiling bright as usual. “Tell me more about him.”
I paused my perusal of her shelf of tiny little animal artifacts. Humans were so strange. Not only did they live with these animals like offspiring, they kept idols of them.
May offered me tea and insisted I sit with her. After a minute of her staring expectantly at me, I remembered what she was on about.
“Beyr!” I felt a glow inside me. “Oh, he’s wonderful and sweet.”
“You say he… stalks you?”
“At the beginning, yes. Back home when we first met." I couldn't help a little laugh of fondness. "He would follow me everywhere. And sneak into my room at night.” I smiled and poured myself more tea. “He’s a little crazy but most people from his, uh, his clan, are like that.”
“You have to know how this sounds, Feliz,” May said slowly.
No. She was not speaking slowly. Her voice was getting fainter. Quieter. Like she was whispering and yet at odd moments it would get louder.
“We have to get you away from him. But experience tells me that victims like you would never leave willingly.”
I stared at her lips. Had I misread that? “Victims?” I asked, my voice coming out slurred to my ears. My body was getting heavy. And then I was falling. Falling. “Did you poison me?” Why would she kill me? We were friends.
My world went black.
“Felix? Felix? Wake up, sweetie. Eat something.”
I blinked my eyes open. Everything was fuzzy and slow for a second before it all came rushing to the forefront of my brain.
“May! What the fuck?” How much time had I lost passed out in this woman's apartment?
“Eat something,” she insisted.
“You poisoned me.”
She looked down at me, her eyes cold and serious. “There are networks. We can protect you.”
“From Beyr?” I asked, incredulously.
She placed the tray down on the floor, and knelt beside it at my feet. Then she grabbed my shoulders and shook. That’s when I noticed that my hands were tied behind my back on the small chair I was sitting on. “Listen to me, Very carefully. Men like this, they manipulate you into thinking that you need them. They condition you to make excuses for what they do to you.” I was already shaking my head before she finished. “Felix!”
I let out a shaky breath and tried to reorganize my thoughts. A human. A crazy one, but still human. What would she want to hear?
“You’re right. He hurts me. And sometimes….he scares me. A lot.” It wasn’t exactly hard to say. Beyr scared anyone who knew him. But also, I’d say anything to get out of here.
She got to her feet and smiled at me gently. “You sweet child,” she said. May walked to a small table off to the side. She calmly pulled out its drawer and from within it, picked something small enough to fit in her enclosed fist. Still she smiled at me. I tried to smile back. I failed.
I was starting to tremble.
She opened her fist with flourish. From her fingertips dangled my charm necklace. A small black stone attached to a thin thread.
“That’s mine,” I croaked.
She walked up me, still smiling. And before I could even think twice about it, she struck me across the face.
“I am not stupid, Fleix. Nor am I a child to placate with your little fallacies” She looked carefully at the necklace in her hand. No doubt she saw how it sparkled. “This is valuable. A gift from Beyr, I assume.”
I was getting pissed off. I couldn’t fly without that, or do any of my more powerful spells. It also helped me maintain my strength in the harsh conditions of the human world. With her poison still in my blood, despite how durable Pixies were, I was a kitten at her mercy.
I swallowed, trying not to sneer at her. “May, my life is no one’s business. It is you that is treating me like a child. You poison me, and try to twist my arm into joining soem network to flee Beyr and then you hit me? You’ve abused me more in this period of time than Beyr ever has or will. How do you expect to just pick up and walk away from this with us still being friends?”
“I’m not your friend, Felix. I’m your therapist. I’m trying to save you. I know you think you're a fairy.”
I groaned and let my head fall back.
