Part 1: Wolf Pack

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Vida

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I didn’t know that I wasn’t alone until I was about eighteen years old.

It began at one of the festivals. The first night of the spring equinox festival, I think. Lanterns were lit all over the village, light chasing out the last of winter’s darkness. Safe within their light, children played, couples danced, and friends strolled about chatting.

I was alone.

Tradition dictated that couples exchange flowers at the spring and fall equinoxes. Different flowers signified different things, different hopes for the relationship. Usually, young couples would exchange only one flower, but couples engaged to be married would trade whole bouquets.

In eighteen years, no one had yet given me a flower. There’d been a few I thought of giving flowers to in the past four or five years, but I'd never tried.

Lonely and suddenly very tired, I slipped away from the festivities.

Not far inside the woods there was an old wall, broken down and crumbling, with roses climbing over it. I didn't know what I planned to do there. Maybe I could pick a rose and pretend my sweetheart had given it to me. Roses meant faith, so my imaginary sweetheart would have sworn to always be true.

Darkness closed in around me. I'd not thought to bring a lantern. Hesitantly, I reached inside for my magic– the power that I couldn't help but touch, but that felt like it might overwhelm me every time.

Then the moon broke through the clouds and I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't need to struggle against my magic tonight.

The roses were there, scrawny, sparse, and beautiful. I broke into a run to get to the wall faster, and promptly tripped on a loose brick. I dropped with a sharp cry, clutching my ankle.

Not broken. Sprained?

Biting back tears, I braced myself and tried to stand. This was a bad idea, coming out here alone in the dark! I managed to limp to the wall and leaned against it, avoiding the thorns. The fire was still visible in the direction I'd come from, so if I screamed someone would hear. Probably. That was good.

I adjusted my balance and lifted my foot to see how bad it was.

Actually, not that bad at all. Not even sprained, only twisted, I'd be able to walk without limping soon. I set my foot down again and tested it– nope, definitely not yet.

Well, I wouldn't leave without a prize. I turned, and after a moment of searching, found the biggest rose, crimson in the moonlight. I twisted the stem until it broke off in my hand, scratching me in the process. I grinned, triumphant.

When I looked up again, two spots of light shone in the trees.

I stared at them for far too long before realizing they were light reflected off something's eyes. “If you’re a bear, please go away, I don't want to be eaten today.”

“I’m not a bear.” The voice, silky smooth and as enticing as a flame, held a hint of a laugh. “Take a couple steps back, I’ll move into the light so you can see me.”

I did.

The speaker stepped forward, directly into the moonlight falling through the trees, and my breath caught.

She was beautiful. Tanned skin glowed under the golden moon, several shades lighter than mine. Long, pointed ears– an elf?– pierced with silver emerged from waves of coppery curls, the tips twitching as she tilted her head curiously. White teeth flashed in a crimson smirk when her gaze caught mine. Her eyes were the loveliest I’d ever seen, deep brown and glittering under the moonlight. In the darkness they seemed almost too large for her face.

Then I looked a little farther. She wore a sleeveless brown shirt, revealing huge, delicate wings. They rose from her back, not gossamer and see-through like I’d always imagined faerie wings to be, but solid and richly colored like a butterfly’s. The side I could see was patterned with iridescent green segments framed by golden copper almost the exact shade of her hair.

“You’re a sprite,” I managed.

“And you’re a human.” Suddenly so much closer to me, her hand reached forward, touched my cheek. Her fingers were warm in the cool evening air, like lines of fire against my skin. Heat flooded my cheeks, sparks dancing across my skin from her touch.

I pressed against the wall, ducking my head to avoid her gaze. Could she hear the frantic beating of my heart? I could hardly hear my own thoughts over it– was the air getting warmer? “I– why are you here? This is a human village.”

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She shrugged and dropped her hand back to her side. “I was traveling with some friends, got a bit lost. And you, why are you off in the shadows instead of basking in the light with your friends or a lover?” Liquid brown eyes studied me, and I got the feeling she expected to read her answer there rather than hear it spoken.

“I… wanted to come,” I mumbled. “For a rose.”

“Won’t anyone miss you?” Her gaze sharpened, almost hungry.

I knew I should have said yes. I’d be missed, that I had to return to my family, my friends. Say the rose was for a boy who'd miss me soon.

I didn't say any of that.

The stories I knew said the gaze of a fae was hypnotic. That some, both sprites and vampires, could enchant people of the opposite sex, make them fall in love at a glance. Not many ever saw faeries, but I’d been cautioned that if I ever did meet one I should avoid looking into their eyes, and I should never, ever give one my name, because I'd be under their control forever. I didn't know if my magic would protect me. Looking at her, I doubted if being a girl would either.

All that ran through my mind in an instant. I tilted my head up and met the sprite’s gaze again.

Never give a stranger your name, I’d been warned time and again. For the sprites and vampires can take your name and use it to bend you to their will. You’ll be their thrall, they’ll take what they want and leave you a shell.

“My name is–” I started.

The sprite put a finger to my lips. I crossed my eyes staring at it, then looked back at her.

“Shh,” she murmured. “I want you knowing you’re in your right mind for this.”

I tilted my head. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, pretty girl, that I’d very much like to kiss you, but I won’t kiss someone who thinks she’s enthralled.”

The heat in my cheeks returned. People in my village occasionally gossiped, always stopping when someone younger drew near, of people like this. Wicked, evil, they called it. Unnatural.

For years, I’d thought I was too, that I had evil inside me, no matter how hard I tried to fight it back. I’d thought perhaps that was why my father left, why I always felt alone. Why no one, except my mother, had ever loved me.

“I won’t unless you say you want it too.” Her hand pulled back.

Something told me it wasn’t any magic that pulled me to her, that made me long to know how her lips would feel on mine. I could have told myself it was only because I was long overdue for my first kiss and I wasn’t attracted to anyone I knew, and this sprite would soon be gone from my life forever. I knew it would all be a lie.

So I pressed my fingers into the thorns of the rose until I felt the stinging clarity of pain calm my heartbeat, and I said, “Please. Please.”

Was I asking her to kiss me? Asking her to make me feel like I wasn’t alone?

“Please… kiss me,” I whispered, hoping that was what I really wanted. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Her mouth ghosted over my ear. “My name is Vida.”

“Vid–”

And then her lips touched mine, and I forgot how to speak. My world narrowed to that one moment, to the softness of her lips, the warmth of her touch, the scent of roses all around, carried on the breeze. My back pressed against the bricks as I reached up with shaking hands to touch her ears, her hair. Her fingers caressed my cheeks and shoulders, then one of her hands found mine while the other stroked my hair and tucked it back behind my ear as she broke the kiss.

The rose had fallen from my hand, I didn't know when, and I couldn't bring myself to care much at all. Not when my heart might have been trying to escape my chest and I wasn't sure if I was still standing on the ground. Maybe I'd hit my head when I fell and this was only a dream– but oh, Light, what a dream!

Vida cupped my cheek and brushed her nose against mine. “I’m so glad I could meet you. It’s always nice to know there’s someone else like me.”

“Like you?” I echoed. She wasn’t evil, she couldn’t be. She was so beautiful, so gentle.

She kissed my forehead. “If you know, you know. I’ve only ever liked girls.”

“That’s… but you’re not…”

“I know. People fear what they don’t understand.” She looked towards the fire, then off into the night. “Most people. But once you begin to understand, once you understand what it is to be different in one way, it’s easier to accept other differences even without experiencing them.” She looked back at me.

“Is it really?” I asked softly.

Vida nodded, her gaze still holding mine. “Sometimes.”

“Will you steal me away now?” My voice was barely a breath. I shouldn’t want that, I knew– but I'd imagined it a thousand times. None of my fantasies contained a sprite as beautiful as Vida, though.

She barked a short laugh. “Steal you– Darling, I’m not that sort of faerie. I’ve no interest in thralls.”

A strange sense of disappointment mixed with my relief. “No?”

“No. But–” She took my hand, pressed it to her cheek. “I’d like to see you again, if you’ll allow me. Two days, and I’ll be back, will I see you then?”

A thrill raced through my body at her touch, the whisper of her breath on my palm. “Yes,” I promised. “I’ll see you then.” On impulse, I pulled away, dropped to the ground to find the fallen rose. There, it wasn't even squished. I offered it to her with my best attempt at a charming look, extending my arm like a storybook prince. “Til then, take this.”

She took it with an odd little smile and a flutter of her wings, keeping her hand on mine. “Thank you, little shadow. I look forward to our next meeting.”

“Don’t call me that,” I said, without the bite I intended. “I’m not a shadow, shadows are evil and horrible and ugly.”

“I’m a shadow.” Vida’s thumb drew slow circles on my hand.

“No, you’re not.” I frowned. She couldn’t be. She was beautiful. The most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. “You can’t be wicked.”

She shrugged. “It’s a word I was called time and again, a weapon thrown at me by those who’d see me dead. So I took it from them. It’s my word now, they can’t hurt me with it anymore.” The rose I'd given her brushed over my cheek.

“I… I don’t know,” I whispered. My stomach churned, I needed space to figure out what I was feeling, to put names to the lurching and soaring and fluttering inside. “Vida, I’m sorry, I have to go.” I turned back towards the lanternlight.

“Goodbye, rose girl,” Vida called, her voice lilting almost into a song. “I hope to see you again soon!”

I hoped so too, more than I knew what to do with.