Skylar Rose's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Skylar Rose had asked three people a careful question that morning, and all three had lied to her. She was sure of it. For twenty-one years she had lived in Wolf Pine not knowing who left her on Elara Thornwood's doorstep as a baby. Last week, an old woman near the well had muttered that someone was awake that night. So Skylar went looking. But she could not ask plainly. Her fae ears hid under her black hair, and the whole village shunned fae. If she pulled her hair back and asked the wrong question, she would lose the only home she knew. She tried a softer way. She mentioned the night she arrived, watching faces for a flinch. The baker shrugged. The miller changed the subject. By noon, Skylar understood the problem. People answered gossip freely, but her true question stayed locked behind her hidden ears. She could not dig without showing what she was. That evening she walked the path toward the trees, past the cottages tucked under thick foliage. A small orange fox sat in the ferns, watching her with purple eyes. It did not run. It trotted ahead, stopping each time she stopped, until it led her to the edge of her widowed neighbor's yard. Erik Thornwood knelt by a carved wooden post, pressing a hand to its runes. He kept to himself since his wife died. Skylar had never spoken more than a greeting to him. His brown eyes rose to her, then dropped to her hair. "You walk like her," he said. "Like the woman who carried you here." Skylar's breath caught. "You saw her." "I was awake. I couldn't sleep that spring." Erik stood. He did not look afraid of the fox, or of her. "A woman came in the dark with a bundle. She had ears like yours." His gaze held steady on the place her hair covered. "I know what you are, Skylar. I've known a long time." Her hand flew up to shield her ear. The old fear told her to run. "I won't tell," Erik said quietly. "My wife lost a child to people like this village. Taken and hidden. I don't blame the hidden ones." Skylar's legs felt loose. For the first time, she did not have to pretend. "Who was she? The woman who left me?" Erik looked at the dark trees beyond his yard. "She was going somewhere the trees are thicker. A place off the maps. She said a name before she left." He paused. "The Hidden Glen." The fox turned and slipped into the ferns. Skylar watched it go. She had spent her whole life hiding her ears so no one would learn her secret. Now one man knew, and he had handed her a direction instead of a door shut in her face. Her mother had come from a village the maps did not show. That was where the truth lived. And that was where Skylar would have to go.