Over 400,000 people lived here when I first arrived, Robert once said, leaning against the tall iron-link fence that separated the heart of the city from the decaying corpse the rest of it had become.  Now, well.  We’d be lucky to have 5,000 still living here now.

Kelly tried to imagine that world once and found herself struggling.  So many people in one place, it seems overwhelming.  She remembers asking her father if that many people lived where he came from.  He’d laughed at the question.  There were almost three million people where I came from.  She remembers the haunted look in his eyes, even though he hadn’t stopped smiling.  Wonder how many are there now.

Kelly doesn’t feel trapped in Halifax, but being complacent with one’s place doesn’t equal satisfaction.  It’s a thought that doesn’t occur to her until she thinks about things like the outer rings and the escort roads.  The world is so big and so different from everything those who came before her can remember.  Rumors and stories come rolling in with every caravan. 

The trees have taken on the shapes of people, and I swear some of them have moved since I was here last.  I think they’re going somewhere.

I heard Rochester saw a lubber fiend following us in the woods on our way here, but we lost it a mile out of the city.  I’m glad we didn’t have any milk with us.

You can always feel eyes on you out there… 

Kelly stares into the fire at the center of their little circle as Dalton chatters away about his own caravan stories, but none of them involve fae so she only half pays attention.  Cass and the others, however, are eating it up.  Cassandra had come knocking at her door that afternoon, inviting her out to the park with some of their school friends to spend time with the caravan and get the latest gossip.  The only thing more interesting than what is going on in your own city is what is happening somewhere else.

“Kelly?”  Cass nudges her shoulder with her own.

Kelly blinks and looks back to her.  “What?”

Dalton scoffs and leans forward to rest his elbow on his leg.  “Not impressed with what I’ve got to say?”

It would be a lie to say she was completely unimpressed, but she is not about to admit that to a braggart like Dalton.  Besides, it’s not what he has done that she envies or admires, but the fact that he gets to do it at all.  To walk those empty roads, to see the rolling hills and forests with her own eyes.  To touch the person-shaped trees…

Kelly shrugs.  “I mean, same shit, different city, right?”

Dalton chuckles at that.  “Okay, try this one on for size.”  He flexes his hands so his knuckles crack, then sits back.  “Few months ago, on my first run through the Wild, I saw a human and a faerie together, and the human wasn’t fae-touched.”

Cass and one of the other girls gasp at that, but Kelly only squints.

Dalton nods.  “A real bonafide tryst, kids.  A woman sneaking off in the dead of night to meet her faerie lover.”

“How do you know that?” Kelly asks, her tone sharp.

Dalton’s smile drops slightly at that.  “You can just tell when you see it.”

Dalton continues telling his story, but Kelly’s gaze drifts back to the fire, losing the thread in her own thoughts.  The warm orange glow entrances her for a moment before she begins to see images imprinted in the flames.  She imagines the kind of woman who would do such a thing, flee the safe world she knows for the dangers of a lover who could take her life, figuratively and literally, at any moment.  The trust she has to have for that faerie.  The woman in her mind’s eye runs through the embers and into the arms of a tall, beautiful man.  For all the disdain humans have for the fae, anyone who has seen one always waxes poetic about their beauty.  Then Kelly thinks of the world that woman and her paramour get to see, all the valleys, with their rainbow flowers, and rivers of churning waters, cut through with fish whose scales catch the light of the sun and create white shimmers in the currents.  The inky black of the northern sea.  All that came before them, all that would remain after.  All the fae have done with the world they worked so hard to take back.

Kelly feels her heartbeat quicken at the very notion and balls her hands into loose fists.  Her skin itches at the idea of dipping her hands into the ocean water and pressing her fingers to her lips.  She almost tastes the salt.

Kelly stands up abruptly, her actions cutting Dalton off in the middle of his sentence.  Cass looks up at her, her brows furrowing slightly.  “Kelly?  You okay?”

“I’m going to take a walk,” Kelly replies, already stepping away.

“Don’t you want to hear the end of my story?” Dalton asks.

“Raincheck,” Kelly says, then breaks into a jog.

She makes her way to the edge of the city, where fences have been built in any open space. Thick iron chain-link has been hammered and drilled into the walls of any buildings that help make the perimeter, encasing the core of the city in a protective barrier that few who live inside ever see, let alone pass through.

Kelly comes up to the chain-link fence and leans against it as she looks out at the abandoned landscape, not too unlike her father the first time he brought her here.  A few hearty weeds are growing between the cracks of unmanaged roads and sidewalks, flowers blooming here and there.  In the distance is a pile of wilted, crumpled petals, torn from the ground and left for dead.  Kelly recalls a superstition as her gaze settles on them.  When flowers bloom too much, the fae are drawing closer.

The city still looks largely like a place people could live.  Maybe not well, but still.  Kelly watches the empty space past the fence for a few moments before movement catches her eye.  Her head whips in its direction, but she only catches a glimpse of black before it’s completely gone.  She squints, staring into the emptiness where she swears she saw it.  “Dalton?”  A pause.  “Cass?”

A patrolman appears in the empty space, waving as she catches sight of Kelly.

“Hey there, Kelly,” the woman says, jogging the distance between them to catch up to her.  “Having a walk?  Little unusual for you to be out this far, isn’t it?”

Kelly nods, trying to will herself to relax.  She doesn’t remember this woman’s name, but her face is familiar.  Her father probably introduced them at one point.  “Yeah.”  She considers telling her about the glimpse.  “Just thinking, you know?”

She nods back.  “Well be careful, okay?  You heard about that enthralled we had the other day, right?”

Kelly shrugs.  “Yeah.  It’s okay, I was just leaving.”

The woman offers a small salute.  “Happy trails.”

Frustrated and slightly unnerved, Kelly walks off quickly, glancing back over her shoulder once she is a few feet away.  The soldier has moved on, walking down the length of the fence, checking it periodically.  Most of her attention remains on the swath of city beyond, though.  Kelly waits for her to disappear down a side street, following a building, then approaches the fence again.  She scans the length of the city she can see again, but all is still and quiet.  Not even the wind moves.

Shoes scrape against the asphalt as someone approaches, but Kelly doesn’t turn to see who it is.

“You walked out in the middle of my story,” Dalton says as he comes to stand beside her, following her gaze.  “Not a fan?”

“I’m not in the mood right now, Dalton,” Kelly says flatly, turning to leave.

Dalton’s hand shoots out and snatches her by the wrist, making her freeze.  “Wait.”

Kelly yanks her arm out of his grip and turns to glare at him.  “What?”

“What’s going on in that head of yours, girl?” Dalton asks, an odd softness to his voice.

“None of your business,” Kelly snaps, turning to leave again.  She makes it a few steps before stopping, sighing, and turning to face him.  “Maybe the world just feels too small lately.”

Dalton offers one soft chuckle at that.  “Yeah, I felt the same way.  That’s why I’m here now.”

Kelly watches him for a long moment, debating if she wants to ask the question lingering on her lips.  “Did it help?  Doing this?”

Dalton nods.  “It did, yeah,” he replies.  “I don’t talk about it around the old hats because they get a little weird about it, but—”  He turns his attention back out to the city, looking down the main road.  “It’s really beautiful out there.”

Kelly’s gaze follows his and her shoulder sink slightly as she relaxes.  “I want to see it,” she admits.

“You will,” Dalton says.  “Your friend said you want to be on an escort team.  You seem like a good fit for it.  You’ll do good.”

Kelly scoffs and tries to keep a grin from forming on her face, but fails.  She looks away, waving a hand as if to dismiss his words as she starts walking away.  “Flattery will get you nowhere, Dalton.”

The young man laughs at that and turns to follow her.