A Fae in Fort Worth by Amy Armstrong

last time they’d checked in with the Council, they’d been heading into the forest with two other hunters. None of them had made it out alive. All four bodies had been discovered by a guide three days later. The newspaper report said their throats had been ripped out by wild animals, likely jaguars, but of course, we knew differently.
    I’d been just six years old when my parents had been killed. They’d left me with my godparents in Austin, who had been hunters once too, but had retired when they’d had their daughter—my sister Mia. My godparents had raised me as if I was their own child and they’d been wonderful parents. They’d showered me with the same love and affection that they’d lavished on Mia, but they’d never forgiven my parents for choosing the job over me.
    I’d forgiven them a long time ago. Probably because I could relate. I had the same drive, the same burning desire to wipe out vampires and other supernatural species who preyed on those weaker than them.
    A team had been sent into the rainforest on a search-and-destroy mission and they’d killed every last shifter, avenging my parents’ deaths. I’d made peace with what had happened, but being in this place brought back the memory of my loss. It was as if it had only been yesterday when I’d been given the news that I would never see my parents again.
    Even though the temperature was high and sweat beaded on my forehead, cold shivers rolled over my body and I had to rub my hands up and down my arms to rid myself of the goose bumps which had formed there. The longer I stared out into the rainforest, the more oppressive it became. I had to find Mitch and get the meeting over with so that we could get the hell out of the sanctuary.
    A set of stairs wound their way through the trees and I followed them cautiously as I made my way down to the forest bed, dread settling into the pit of my stomach. I didn’t know if the rainforest was an elaborate illusion or if the entrance to the sanctuary was a portal to another realm or dimension. With the Fae, it could be either. Whatever it was, I desperately wanted out.
    It was dark at the base of the tree trunk—dark and depressing. The trees loomed over me, casting ominous shadows all around. A narrow path led through the forest. It only went in one direction so I followed it until it widened and a clearing appeared in the distance. When I arrived at it, I was relieved to see several small lumber buildings on stilts. The door of the first building was ajar so I climbed the steps to the porch and knocked lightly before pushing it wider.
    The room inside was larger than I’d expected it to be. A wooden table with eight chairs arranged around it was positioned in the very centre of the room. A wrinkly-faced, black-haired dwarf was seated at the head of the table. Durin, the dwarf who had helped us the previous evening, sat on his right and Mitch was in the chair on his left. They all looked up as I entered the room.
    “Ah, Miss Monroe.” Durin slid out of his chair and walked around the table. He was so short that only the very top of his head was visible until he’d cleared the last chair and approached me. The dwarf bowed low, keeping his beady eyes on me as he croaked, “You made it. We were about to send out a search party.”
    I shrugged my backpack off my shoulder and placed it near the door. I nodded my greeting. “The forest path was quite easy to follow.”
    “Forest,” Mitch said, drawing my attention. His brow knitted. “There’s nothing out there but desert.”
    The dwarf who was still seated at the head of the table chuckled, but there was no humour in the sound. “The sanctuaries are all safe havens for Fae in the human world,” he explained. “They were designed to be unwelcoming to humans and they are different things to different people. For some, they appear as vast, turbulent oceans as far as the eye can see. For others, they are nothing but wastelands. Whatever they are to