Free Make Willing the Prey (Dreams by Streetlight) by Luna Lindsey Page A

searching for you for months. 
Your mom hasn’t given up.  We’re going to get out of here, and we’ll take you
with us.”
    His eyes shifted, like he was
trying to remember something.  “I’m majoring in Law.  Like my dad.”  He spoke casually,
as if they’d just met at in a dorm and were hanging out with friends.  Jina
squeezed his hand.
    Meanwhile Sandy had spotted a
rust colored book with a picture of a fairy on the binding.  She pulled it down
and began flipping through it.  She read the title page aloud, “A compendium of
fairy lore throughout Europe and the English Isles by WD Graves. 1894.”
    “Cool, fairytales by firelight. 
You sure we have time to relax here, Sand?”
    She flipped through a few more
pages.  “Not fairy tales.  It’s an academic account of fairy lore in Europe. 
It’s full of stories, firsthand accounts or actual folktales.  Like a
mythography.”
    “Mythography?”
    “Yes.  An account of what people
believe, without any weight given to whether it’s true or not.  Like a textbook
on Greek mythology.  But this is about the fairy faith.  I think I’ve seen a
copy of this at the University History Library.  It was written in the late
19th century.  It’s of historical value to help us understand what people used
to think.  Get this...  It says the sidhe, otherwise known as fairies, can lure
a human into... Oh my god.”
    “Sandy?  You’re looking pale.”
    “It’s no accident I found this
book.  It—it says there are countless tales of... fairies luring humans into
their world by offering them gifts, especially... food.”
    “You’re saying S.A. is a fucking
fairy?” Jina spat.
    “Jina,” Lewis whispered, “you
shouldn’t say his name too loudly.”  His confidence seemed to wane and he
shrunk in on himself a little.
    Sandy ignored him and replied to
Jina’s question.  “Something like that.  Fairy folk enjoy abducting humans to a
place some call Tir Na Nog, the land of eternal youth.  While there they see a
lot of weird things that can’t be explained.  They’re forced to do things they
don’t want to, including... oh god.”  Sandy’s hand wavered in front of her
mouth.  “Including taking them in marriage.  Especially women.”
    “You’ve convinced me,” Jina
said.  “Sandy, I’m so sorry.  There’s got to be a way out.  Someone had to tell
the tale, right?  Does it say how those humans escaped?”
    “No.  Once there, they are
trapped for any length of time, overnight or even hundreds of years, until the
fairies send them back for no apparent reason.”
    “What?  That can’t be right.  In
all the fairytales I’ve read, there’s some way out of every curse.  Like
kissing a princess or cutting through the brambles into the castle.  Even
Rumplestilskin let people go if they guessed his true name, remember?”
    “Like I said, this is an account
of fairy lore, not of modern fairy tales.  Most of these stories don’t have
happy endings.  But let me keep reading.”  Sandy sat on the corner of the couch
and turned the pages.
    “Thank god you read fast.”
    “Shh... let me concentrate.  Ok,
here’s a story about a farmer whose wife was kidnapped by fairies.  He followed
her into Tir Na Nog.  He found her, and held tightly to her.  The fairies made
all kinds of scary faces and forms trying to scare him into letting go.  But he
knew if he let go, they’d both be lost forever.  So in spite of his fear, he
held on.  But it was too late.  She had eaten fairy food at a banquet, so he
lost her.”
    “Fuck.  We ate the fairy food.”
    “Yeah... but... remember.  This
is lore, right?  Maybe there’s something to this.  Remember how I made the spiders
disappear by convincing myself they weren’t real?”
    “Yeah.”
    “That’s the same thing this
farmer did, in a way.  He had to hold on in spite of the illusions.  He had to
believe they couldn’t hurt him.  That’s a common thread in many of