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couldn’t hide it from him. He had to know. Then maybe he could protect himself, instead of letting the magical myth of the fae to brainwash him into believing that they just wanted to play. The games these fae played had lethal consequences. “You were attacked by a pixie.”
    He frowned. “What? Surely not. Pixies are friendly.”
    Standing, I helped him to his feet. He wobbled once and I had to put my arm around him so he wouldn’t fall. Once he was stable, I grabbed his hand and turned it so he could see the cuts and scratches. “Does this look friendly?”
    Eyes wide, he turned his hand back and forth, studying his wounds. “I must’ve fallen in the rose bushes.”
    “The rose bushes are on the other side of the yard.” Anger clipped my words, but I was beyond tired of his ignorance to believe that those from Nightfall were not our friends. Including my mother.
    It was then that his gaze fell upon the dead pixie in the garden. “Oh my God, Nina. What have you done?”
    “That vicious little bugger nearly killed you. He even attacked me.” I turned my face so he could see my ruined cheek.
    Tears welled in his eyes. “Oh, Nina. You don’t know what you have done.”
    “I saved your life is what I did.” Tired of standing out in the garden, I started for the house, half carrying, half dragging Da with me.
    By the time we reached the deck, he was sobbing. “You have brought ruin onto us, Nina. Those in Nightfall will avenge the pixie’s death.”
    I dragged him through the glass doors and into the kitchen. He wasn’t resisting me, but he definitely wasn’t helping either. By the time we reached the bottom of the stairs, I was breathing hard
    “To kill one of the fae is to bring death upon your head,” he ranted, his voice now shrill with hysteria.
    “Let them come, then. I’m not afraid.”
    Turning, he grasped my shoulders, a wild look in his eyes. “You should be.” Then he promptly passed out.
    I managed to catch him as he fell, cradling his head before it hit one of the steps, but I knew now I’d never get him up the stairs to his bedroom. Inching him down gently to the floor, I pondered his last words.
    I was never one for fear. My mother had cured me of that emotion by abandoning me to an alien world I would never be a part of. After something like that, a child doesn’t really have much to fear.
    But I had to admit as I considered the consequences of my actions in killing the pixie, a small thread of fear wound its way around my body. Who or what would they send to avenge the pixie’s death? Maybe my mother would be the one to come. Deep down inside the place where I was still just a child, where the pain of her abandonment still lingered and the anger for what she’d done to my father simmered, I hoped that it would be her who the fae lords sent.
    I’d be ready. Then finally I could get my retribution.
    ***

Chapter 5
    After getting my father onto the hide-a-bed in the den and cleaning his wounds, I went into my bathroom and stitched up my cheek. Three painful stitches later, I crashed for a few hours before returning to work.
    Two days passed without incident. My cheek was healing, probably a little too fast than was normal, but so far no one had commented.
    Thankfully over the course of that time, I didn’t have any unexpected visitors from Nightfall screaming for revenge for the pixie’s death. My father returned to his blissful ignorance and acted as if nothing had happened in the garden. As if an assassin from Nightfall hadn’t tried to kill him, and I hadn’t slain the assassin instead. Sometimes I wished I could forget things like that so easily. Then maybe I wouldn’t be having trouble sleeping.
    Every night before I retired, I looked out my bedroom window and stared into the garden, especially toward the moon flowers and the small pond that had magically appeared all those years ago after I planted the bracelet my mother had given