Destiny: A Story of the Fey Read Online Free PDF

tomorrow.
    “Then blow out the lamp. Good night.”
    “Good night.” Esmerelda pushed the door closed. Then she went over to the window and opened it.
    A strong breeze came in, and on it, Solanda smelled rain. Maybe, after she spoke to Esmerelda, she would go outside. By then it would be raining, and she would be able to cool down.
    Esmerelda put her hand over the lamp’s chimney and blew. The flame inside the glass went out. Solanda blinked in the darkness, letting her eyes adjust. It only took a moment. There were clouds over the moon this night, and it was very dark.
    Esmerelda went back to her chair. “I wish you knew how to sew, Goldie.”
    “I don’t,” Solanda said. “But I know someone who does.”
    Esmerelda let out a small yelp, and put her hands over her mouth. She peered around the room as if looking for the source of the voice.
    Solanda had to go slowly with this. The child wasn’t used to magic, not like Fey children were.
    “I could take the dress to her tonight,” Solanda said, “and by morning, you wouldn’t even know there had been a rip in it.”
    Esmerelda’s eyes were wide. She finally turned in Solanda’s direction. “You can talk, Goldie?”
    “As well as I can listen.” Solanda jumped from the windowsill to the bed. The room had cooled down. The fresh air felt marvelous. “What would you think, Esmerelda, if I took you to a place where you could wear comfortable clothes, play with children your own age, run and jump and swim to your heart’s content? What if I told you that you would never have to sew another stitch, have another music lesson, or sit in a corner when you’ve done something that your mother didn’t like.”
    Esmerelda looked for her, but clearly didn’t see her. Cat’s eyes were far superior in the dark. Solanda watched the child lick her lips, rub her hand over her knees, and then sigh.
    “How long would I stay?” Esmerelda asked.
    “Forever,” Solanda said.
    “Would I have to be a cat?”
    Solanda laughed. For all her verbal sophistication, Esmerelda was still a child at heart. “No,” Solanda said. “You’ll stay just as you are.”
    “Would Mommy come?”
    “No.”
    “Daddy?”
    “No.”
    Esmerelda’s shoulders stiffened. Her little body looked rigid. “Who would love me then?”
    Solanda started. She hadn’t expected that question. “I would be with you,” she said.
    Esmerelda was silent, as if she were thinking this over. “Where would you take me?”
    “To my people,” Solanda said.
    “I’d live with cats?”
    “No,” she said gently. “With the Fey.”
    Esmerelda gasped. She held onto her chair as if she expected to be dragged from it.
    Solanda wondered if she should have said that, but she had never taken a child before. Certainly she knew of no one who had ever taken a child of this age.
    But Chadn had said she had had to speak with the child, and the choice to come had to be the child’s. There was sense in that. Esmerelda, at age five, would always have a memory of living with her parents. She needed a memory of her choice to leave them.
    “Esmerelda,” Solanda said. “I—”
    “No!” Esmerelda screamed. “No!”
    She launched herself out of her chair as if her voice had given the ability to move again.
    “Help! Mommy! Help!”
    Solanda’s ears went back. She hadn’t expected this from Esmerelda, not her sane, different child.
    “Esmerelda, I only want to give you a better life—”
    “Mommy! Daddy! Help!”
    Finally Esmerelda pulled the door open and blundered into the hallway. Solanda followed, tail between her legs, ears still back. The little girl’s screams echoed down the stairs. Her parents had reached her, and they both put their arms around her. Esmerelda was too terrified to be coherent.
    Then the mother looked up the stairs. She saw Solanda, her gaze flat.
    And Solanda realized she had no choice.
    She Shifted, her body lengthening, her tail disappearing, her fur becoming skin.
    Then she walked,