I know this is kinda dorky, but this might just be my new favorite chapter.

So I really want to dedicate it to all of those people who have been sticking with me this entire time. Who have commented on darn near every chapter and encouraged me to keep going with this little project of mine.

Thank you to you all. I think you know who you are. Much love!

"Ugh…"

I made my first sound, and feeling came back to my body. What had happened? Rubbing the back of my head, I sat up and shivered violently. I was soaking wet and wearing bizarre clothes that dragged me down with their weight.

Slowly, I stood in the pool of water, and looked around me.

Where I now stood was a pond of sorts – a pond which had apparently missed the memo that it was winter and it should be frozen over and cold. Quite to the contrary, it didn't have a drop of ice in it, and was a quite comfortable temperature. Then there was that other little detail – it was winter outside.

I didn't know why this was odd. I just knew that it should have been different. Because I had gone away… but for the life of me I couldn't remember where. I was supposed to be elsewhere. For some reason I was here now. My brow furrowed. The last thing I could very clearly remember was getting to the cabin with Mom. That would place my last memory in October. What was up with the missing time?

A sharp cold breeze cut through my soaking clothes – which appeared to be black pirate clothing. The moment it hit my wet skin, I felt as though small splinters of cold were being shoved into my arms. Gasping from the cold, I dunked back down into the water where I was at least passably warm.

The pond appeared to be fed by a waterfall – which was also extremely strange. You'd think a massive lake would be near a waterfall like that. Well, I wasn't going to complain. The pond was keeping me warm.

However I needed to move. I knew that. I needed to get back to the cabin and back to Mom. Why I felt a tiny bit of dread when I thought of those things, I didn't know. But I needed to get going. The unfortunate thing about that was I had no clue where I was, and I knew that wet plus cold generally equaled hypothermia and subsequent death. Not my idea of a positive experience.

I thought about it for a few seconds, and knew I couldn't very well stay here. Who knew what might find in these woods?

Quickly I stood and shuddered immediately as I did so. It was freezing out. Looking apprehensively at the snow the bordered the pond, I figured that at least one positive thing about my clothing was that it came with boots. Hesitantly, I took one step out of the pond and felt myself starting to feel even colder. I gritted my teeth against it, and began to run.

There was really no point in walking. Not only could I get places faster by running, but running would at the very least keep me warmer than I would be walking. Unfortunately the fact that I suck as a runner caught up with me about five minutes in. Maybe not even.

I stopped to take a few deep gasping breaths. The cold air bit into my lungs, and I felt ill. My tiny respite allowed me to hear singing. I tilted my head towards it, and my heart lifted a little. Another human being. They could help me out!

Beaming, I followed the sound, moving as quickly as I possibly could. I was starting to get too cold. I could tell by the way my fingers were turning red and how my toes were getting number and number.

Finally, the voice was near and I jumped around a few trees only to find a chestnut colored horse. This horse was gaunt, and propped halfway out of the water of the stream that ran through the forest. I blinked for a few moments, and watched this horse sing. It sounded like a woman, and that voice was achingly familiar. I was fascinated for a few moments, but then a tail came whipping out of the water.

My jaw dropped. From the horse's torso on was a fin. Blinking, I began to run away.

"Grace?" I heard a voice ask. Mom! I knew that voice, it was my mothers. I looked around for her, and found her nowhere. "Gracie… look at the horse." I looked at the creature. "I'm sorry Gracie," the horse said, its jaw moving incongruously with the words, like a poorly dubbed movie. My throat tightened. 'No. This isn't real. That isn't my mother,' I thought wildly.

"Mom?" I stepped closer, fearfully. Maybe this creature was just messing with my head. "This isn't possible, Mom. You can't be…" I gestured towards her form.

The horse seemed to frown. "You've forgotten?" Mom the horse-thing seemed to think for a few moments. "Well, of course. She couldn't have just escaped from them. They would have had to let her go…"

What she was saying was bringing back tiny memories. Escape. Escape from whom? Them… the royal family. With that thought, it all slid back into place, and the memories showed on my face. The horse-thing was Mom – she'd said she was a faerie of sorts, a kelpie. Dad was a magician. I had been captured and given the task of marrying one of the three faerie princes. But I had escaped, and was back with my mom. All would be fine, right?

"They didn't let me go. I left with a faerie named Rowan. She got me out… but I was hit on the back of the head and tossed through a waterfall," I explained to Mom slowly. She rose an eyebrow.

"Rowan? As in Lady Rowan?" She shook her head in a disturbed manner. "You didn't make any bargains with her?" I nodded.

"That shouldn't be a problem." I replied, shrugging. "I kept my end of the bargain – I left. She will just have to protect Heart – a human girl I saved – in return."

Mom shook her head. "No. Bargaining with fae is a bad idea at all times. We twist promises into knots like you couldn't imagine. Why do you think I made such a good lawyer? The key thing is to never make any definite promises. Or tell any full lies." She stopped, and then smiled. "But you're here, now. Safe." I shuddered then, and she looked at me speculatively. I'm not going to lie – seeing vague impressions of my mother's expressions on a horse was freaky. "You're wet. How long have you been wandering like this?"

"Since I got out of the pond," I stated matter-of-factly. I was so cold! I stood there shaking like a leaf, and I watched the horse shake its head and whicker before its hindquarters shifted from scaly tail to the proper horse shape.

"Get on my back." Mom said urgently. "You're cold and wet and you need to be warmed." I looked at her like she was crazy.

"Mom, you know how awkward a statement that is, right?"

She chuckled. "Yes. But the point is you need warming. So it's a little strange, but there's no point in you escaping only to freeze to death." The horse-Mom knelt in the snow. "Now get on my back." I nodded, and got on obediently. The horse stood, and I clung for dear life to her neck. I was no horsewoman. Mom had tried to get me interested in riding in the past, but horses didn't like me and I didn't feel so warm and fuzzy towards them either.

At first the riding was awkward. I couldn't think of her as my mother, or I wanted to burst out laughing or crying and that weird combination of emotion was a bit much for me right now. So I focused on how much it bothered me that I had forgotten about the faerie world. It was something other than how dreadfully cold I was to think about.

The only reasonable explanation was either the passage between worlds made you forgetful, or Rowan had made me forget. Perhaps the whack on the back of my head had done it, but I severely doubted it. The next question was why Rowan – because, honestly, it couldn't have been anyone else – had hit me on the back of the head. I was leaving anyway. Unless she had hoped the water would have a higher chance of killing me on the way out. It would make sense that an overly jealous faerie would try and kill the competition.

But why think about Rowan anymore? While I was riding away, she was going to be staying in her castle. We wouldn't run into each other ever again, knock on wood.

We soon arrived at the cabin. It looked horrendous – the front door was wide open and undoubtedly some creatures had taken residence inside by now. Why hadn't Mom bothered to fix it up? I looked at her current form, and wondered why she kept her shape as a kelpie if she could just make herself look human again?

Although these were all good questions, the current issue was getting my cold stiffened joints to want to move. The clothes on my back had begun to freeze, and I could barely pull myself off my mother's back. Standing up was even more exciting. I couldn't feel my toes at all, and stumbled painfully inside the house.

I watched Mom enter, and shove me towards the bathroom on this floor. She shoved me hurriedly inside, and stamped a little to convince some of the squirrels living in the tub that they really wanted to leave.

Stiffly, I turned the water on, and moved to strip.

"Get in the tub. Now. You're too cold. Go." I stared at her for a few moments, but didn't question the orders. The moment the semi-warm water hit my chilled body, it scalded. It was painful. At least there was still warm water running in the house. But I was on fire. It hurt, and I watched as my hands reddened from the sudden exposure to heat.

I just hoped that I wouldn't lose any limbs from this adventure.

"Mom could you grab me some clothes?" She was already gone, and had somehow managed to close the door without my noticing. Frowning, I sunk deeper into the painfully warm water. After a few minutes, though, my body adjusted and I was in bliss. Warm water and I was home. Smiling to myself, I pulled off the clothes. It was like I was shedding all of those bad faerie memories.

Feeling thoroughly thawed, I pulled myself out of the tub and wrapped a towel around myself. Peeking outside, cold air greeted me in a draft from the front door. I yelped, and then hurriedly ran upstairs.

I was pleased to find that my room had been left untouched by animals. That door was shut. Thank goodness for small favors. I pulled out my suit case, and dressed myself in jeans and a baggy sweatshirt that had my high school logo emblazoned across the back. I even slipped on slippers.

Heading downstairs was surreal. It felt like it belonged in a dream – the horse who was my mother stood by the cabin door which was destroyed. This would be only something that my tweaked subconscious would come up with.

But my thoughts soon were focused upon the incredible sadness in Mom's deep, black horsey eyes. There was real pain there, and I had a feeling that I was about to get bad news. "Honey, you need to go. Take the car and get to the nearest city. Tell them who you are, and hide for as long as you can. I suggest the city, because of the amount of iron there. They – we – don't like going there. The air itself feels like poison."

I shook my head. "Why would we go to a city if it would be bad for you? Mom, why don't you just use your magic and look human again?" It sounded naïve and weak when I spoke those words, but I wasn't about to abandon my mom, faerie or not.

She looked to the side. "I..." she choked off and then continued, "I cannot change any longer. Perhaps one more shift into my most natural form, but not a human shape. The agreement with Mama Thistle said that I would no longer have my magic after becoming human. After changing shape, I had a limited amount of power. I'm sorry, Grace."

"No. I won't leave you." This wasn't happening. I wasn't going to run away without her. Hell, I'd fought my way back to the human world and now here I was listening to my mother telling me that she couldn't run with me. I crossed my arms, and looked as stubborn as possible.

"Grace! You are being irrational. The fae courts don't care about me. Yes, they might tear me apart to get to you. Lord knows, that's what they did to Markus! But we swore that you would grow up to have a good and normal life. We swore to die to protect you if we had to." My mother's voice rang with emotion. "Run, Grace. They'll come quickly once they know you've escaped. As of right now we've wasted too much time. There's money in my purse – in the kitchen. Take that, the keys, and run. Don't look back. Don't stop. I'll be fine."

It was a lie. I don't know how I knew, but she was lying to my face. The little girl in me wanted to kick and scream and cry. The world wasn't being fair to me. To us.

But Mom was counting on me to be able to handle this. I hugged her quickly around her neck. "Love you, Mom. Always will," I said. I think I saw her smile.

With that, I ran into the kitchen, grabbed the purse and keys, rushed out to the car and stuck the keys into the ignition. I paused to look back for a few moments, and then looked at the car. "Work, please," I willed it softly, and smiled when it came to life slowly. As soon as I had oriented myself, I was driving away from the cabin.