Prologue

Perdita follows her father to a celebration in Crossgate's fey realms. Little does she know that there are prices to be paid for such access to the Fey High Society if you wish to ever leave.

May 1st, 1998
"Come on Perdita, we're late." Her Daddy waited for her to come. He was a tall man, so thick around she couldn't wrap her arms all the way around when she gave him a hug.  His shoulders were wide enough that she could sit on his shoulders and not even cover them with her legs. His red beard just barely covered his chin. Most people wouldn't notice him at home, he wasn't really handsome like the people on the magazines at the store and if he wasn't so big, wouldn't get much attention for how he looked. But here with the fairies...something happened to her daddy. He looked handsome and seemed to almost glow. But her daddy wasn't nearly was pretty as the fairies, anyway. She tried to draw them a few times, but even with her special sparkly crayons, they wouldn't come out right. She tried to tell mommy about it, but then when she got sad, daddy told her mommy couldn't come here anymore and please stop mentioning it, because it made her sad. He said she shouldn't tell anyone about this place, that it was their secret. He made her promise. All she wanted to do was tell Anna, her best friend, but she had kept her promise.
She walked slowly toward the Big House, which daddy called The Manor, her black shoes kicking up a little bit of the white dust the road was made of. Daddy had taken her here for as long as she could remember, she knew the room in the back would take her to the castle where all the fey who didn't leave here were. Daddy had said tonight would be special.

Johnathan walked beside his daughter, his shoulders sagged in defeat. Perdita was five years old. Why did these things from hell want kids anyway? Had it not been for Nantiana, their b***h of an ice queen, threatening to take his wife back along with Perdita if he didn't bring her, he would never have brought her here. He would never have come back at all.  Not only that, but they promised him enough Ethereal Dust for the rest of his life so he would forget he ever even had a daughter. He kept trying to tell himself they'd have another child. That what would happen to Perdita or why they wanted her wasn't his problem.

That what he tried to tell himself, anyway.

Author's Note

Not quite done with this chapter.

The word 'faeries' is intentionally spelled 'fairies' because as a child that was how I had always seen it spelled and it was in Perdita's (who is five) point of view.