She furrowed her brows. It was clear she felt like sheshouldhave known, and she was beating herself up about it.
“Things happen sometimes that we can’t explain,” I tried. “Maybe it was nothing.”
Nylah shook her head. “It wasn’t nothing. This doesn’t happen—not even to Fae. And, you’re a human.”
She was right. It didn’t happen to humans, either. Definitely not.
Everything had been so different since the day I’d arrived here. I perpetually felt like I was in over my head. Not only the Fae customs, the rituals, and all the magic they were used to seeing around them every day, but the history that I read, too. The stories that they grew up with as fact that seemed almost like a fantasy to me.
“Why don’t I brew us some tea?” I asked.
Nylah nodded, staring into the flames. I stood and walked to the kitchenette that was next to her living room, where I put on a kettle to boil. I waited for the water, prepared two cups, and chose from one of the many pots of spiced tea.
When the hot cups of tea were ready, I carried them out to the living room on a tray and set them down on the low coffee table.
“Thank you,” Nylah said when I handed her a cup.
I sat down, not touching mine yet.
Nylah sipped her tea, her eyes closed. When she opened them, she had a strange, otherworldly air to her.
“She won’t tell me,” she said in a soft voice.
“Who?”
“Terra. I asked her. I called on her when you were in the kitchen, asking her to give me answers that would explain what was going on. But…I got little. She wouldn’t talk to me. No visions.”
While she’d talked, I’d reached for my teacup. My hand was outstretched, but far from the cup, when it fell over, as if I’d touched it.
“Oh, no!” I cried out.
I felt it against my fingertips, felt the hot porcelain and felt my hand push it over. How was this possible? I was more than a foot away from it.
The hot tea spilled across the coffee table. I reached out with both hands, standing to pick up the cup. I held out my hands, and as I watched, the tea dried up. No, that wasn’t it.
It flowed back into the cup that lay on its side. And then the cup righted itself.
Nylah and I both stared at the teacup, which looked like nothing had happened. The coffee table was dry. The tea looked untouched.
“What was that?” I asked, panicked.
“Magic,” Nylah breathed.
“Was it you?”
She shook her head and looked at me with wide eyes. “No, Ellie. That was you.”
“That’s not possible,” I said. I rubbed my hands on my thighs like I could get rid of whatever I’d just experienced. “I can’t do magic.”
“I don’t agree with you,” Nylah said. Her shock was turning into surprise, and a smile danced around her lips, tugging at the corners of her mouth. “This is what I asked for.”
“What?” I was freaking out.
Too much was happening. Too much was unknown—all at once.
“I asked the Goddess to show me what was going on, and she wouldn’t talk to me. But she’sshowingus, Ellie. Here.”
She held out her hands. Without hesitation, I grabbed them. If she could fix whatever was going on, I wouldn’t waste another minute.