Allegiance (5 page)

‘Jack’s my boyfriend,’ I told her.

‘Like a human betrothed?’ she asked.

I felt heat creep into my face. ‘Something like that,’ I mumbled.

‘But your Prince Leif!’ Melody said, a hand flying to her mouth.

Leander reached out and touched Melody’s arm. She turned to look at him.

‘Leif and I broke up.’

‘Of course,’ she said quietly. I wondered what silent exchange had passed between my grandparents.

‘Our prince has bid us search for Lysander while we are here,’ Leander said. ‘He is making arrangements to assist us.’

I straightened, hope at the idea of finding my brother rising up. ‘Oh, what are they?’

‘Something about… a net? I do not understand. He told us your friend Jack is to assist. We have only to await his Highness’ instruction.’

At that moment the bell rang and, resisting the urge to skip the rest of my classes, I left my grandparents in the sun to recover and went to maths.

The next morning I flew to the beach with my grandparents. Jack came too, slung between my grandfathers and shouting ‘Woohoo!’ all the way. The day was mild and warm, the air filled with refreshing salt mist. After choosing a patch of sand close to the water, we threw our towels down and relaxed.

‘Ah, this is wonderful, Marla. I can see why you love it so,’ Leander said as he looked out to sea. ‘Observe the power of the ocean.’

‘And it never ceases,’ Asher added. ‘I have been paying attention and the motion hasn’t stilled for a moment. What could possibly create such a force?’

‘It’s the moon isn’t it?’ I said, looking at Jack.

‘Among other things,’ he replied. He was leaning back on his elbows, watching the surfers ride the white-tipped waves.

‘What other things?’

‘The weather, earthquakes, stuff like that.’

‘We have neither moon nor earthquakes in Faera,’ Asher said.

I hadn’t noticed the lack of a moon in Faera. But now that I thought about it I couldn’t remember seeing one—just a sky blazing with stars. I smiled as I recalled how captivated I’d been by the dazzling colours as I’d flown through the night in Leif’s arms.
Leif’s arms
. My smile fell away as I recalled my first night in Faera. The memory of looking up to Leif’s face was vivid, but I couldn’t remember a single detail of what I saw there. I couldn’t even recall the colour of his eyes. I was pulled from the
uncomfortable thought when Melody said, ‘I wonder where our grandson is.’

‘He could be anywhere,’ I said with a sigh. I scooped up a handful of sand and watched it trickle through my fingers. With next to nothing to go on, finding my brother would be like trying to locate a particular grain of sand on this entire beach. A heavy feeling nestled into my chest.

Jack sat up and caught my hand in his, dusting what remained of the sand away. ‘Lysander has fair skin, right?’ He trailed his fingers across the rash on the underside of my arm, unintentionally igniting the itch.

‘He does,’ Asher agreed.

‘Then he’ll be somewhere he can blend in,’ Jack said, folding my fingers into his to put a stop to my scratching. He reached into his pocket and took out the ointment I’d stashed there this morning, applying a thin layer to my inflamed skin.

‘And he will be somewhere safe,’ Faun said. ‘His parents would have made sure it was so.’

‘Somewhere similar to here,’ Asher added. ‘They wouldn’t have left Lysander in a poor country. If he’s anything like his sister, he wouldn’t have survived it.’

‘Indeed, they would have chosen a warm, safe place where he wouldn’t have stood out,’ Leander agreed.

‘That actually rules out several continents,’ Jack said, then added, ‘I wonder if they would have left him here.’

‘They would have
wanted
to leave the infants close to each other,’ Asher said. ‘But I know my son and if he was concerned about the safety of his children, he would have insisted they be separated. Lysander will not be in this country.’

‘We shall mention it to our prince when he comes,’ Melody said.

We left soon after that. The mention of Leif had made
my grandparents anxious they might miss his arrival. I’d also promised to introduce them to my parents today.

We arrived back to find that Leif had already been and gone, leaving an envelope marked with Jack’s name under the front door.

‘Why you?’ I asked after we’d made the discovery.

Jack stared at his name and scratched his head. ‘I have no idea.’ He opened the envelope and read the note inside. ‘Leif’s created a Facebook page. Apparently anyone who sees it will be compelled to read and share it.’

I frowned. ‘How would Leif even know
how
to make a Facebook page?’

Jack smiled. ‘One of the many things I taught him while he was here.’ He handed the note to me, took out his phone and logged into Facebook. My grandparents, who’d been looking from me to Jack and back again with blank expressions, huddled around him, eyes glued to the phone.

Leif’s page spoke of a missing boy who would be celebrating his eighteenth birthday around February. The boy suffered allergies and possessed unusual skin with a faint gleam to it. Also, his ears were pointed, not unlike a pixie’s. Anyone with information should immediately forward details to the email address provided.

After reading the page, Jack hit ‘share’, giving all 552 of his Facebook friends access to Leif’s page. ‘Well the compulsion part works,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t have stopped myself from sharing that page even if I’d wanted to.’

‘But it won’t do any good,’ I said.

‘Why not?’

‘There’ll be heaps of people sending fake information.’

‘Try,’ he said.

I logged into my account and typed in Leif’s address, then added a phony message. I went to hit ‘send’. My finger hovered
over the icon, refusing to comply. I turned to Jack and smiled as I said, ‘More Leif magic?’

‘Unless you have genuine information, it’s impossible to send an email to that address,’ Jack replied. ‘And if you have genuine information it’s impossible to resist.’

‘Has he given you access to the account?’

He pointed to the note in my hand. I scanned through till I found the password. Glancing back up, I said, ‘He’s thought of everything.’

‘He is Prince,’ Asher said, looking proud on behalf of the youngest member of the Fae royal family. ‘Naturally he has thought of everything.’

The next day there were murmurs at school: who was this missing boy and where could he be? A couple of days later I was stunned to hear the same questions being asked on morning television. A few days more and the mystery had spread around the world, transforming the likelihood of finding Lysander from remote at best to definitely possible. Excitement fizzed inside of me and I was barely able to think about anything else. What was my brother like? Would he look like me? Would we have some kind of special twin bond—feel each other’s emotions? Finish each other’s sentences? The connection I felt to my Fae grandparents was strangely intense considering how long I’d known them. Would it be even more so with my brother? A week after Jack had shared the Facebook page, the subject of Lysander had, as usual, consumed most of our dinner conversation. But as we began clearing up, the subject changed to one my parents considered just as important.

‘All prepared for the exams, Jack?’ Dad asked as he deposited the last of the dishes on the sink.

‘Getting there,’ Jack replied, shooting me a wink.

‘Made any decisions about afterwards?’

I frowned and bumped Dad away with my hip. ‘Do you really expect us to know what we want to do with the rest of our lives at our age?’

Dad smiled and rinsed his hands before drying them on the tea towel Jack was holding. Then he turned and fixed his attention on me. ‘Well, to be giving it some thought at least.’ A kind of mild reproach shone in his eyes and given the fact the end of school was fast approaching, I could understand his concern. I swallowed my guilt and made a silent vow to get on with deciding on some kind of plan for my life.

Jack grinned in my direction. He knew my father’s subtle ways almost as well as I did. ‘I know what
I
want,’ he said, answering Dad’s question, ‘but convincing my father’s another thing.’

Dad leaned against the bench and crossed his arms. ‘He’s still insisting you pursue commerce?’

‘Boring!’ Ashleigh called from the table. I knew Jack couldn’t agree more.

‘I’ve been looking at double degrees. I’m hoping I can keep him happy and do what I want at the same time.’

Jack and I had already had this conversation. He wasn’t happy about the huge commitment he’d be taking on, but couldn’t see any way around it. I felt sorry for him with the pressure he was under. But Jack’s father was a man of strong opinions and as CEO of a prestigious company, accustomed to being agreed with. Luckily for me, Brett Connelly had insisted his boys attend public school just as he had. ‘None of that silver spoon crap,’ he was fond of saying.

‘Your dad thinks you should follow in his footsteps,’ Mum said, entering the kitchen. ‘I can understand that.’

‘Yeah, but he should have figured out by now I’m nothing like him. Besides, it’s not like he hasn’t got a mini him with Harry—his idea of fun is keeping tabs on the stock exchange.’

Mum chuckled. ‘So it’s still performing arts for you then?’

A faint smile touched Jack’s lips. ‘Only if I get my way.’

‘I have no doubt you’ll succeed in whatever you do. Now if we could only get Amy motivated…’

Here we go
. I still had a headache from the last time Mum tried to organise my life. I was saved from defending myself by a knock at the door. Ashleigh jumped up to answer it. All four of my grandparents followed her inside. We abandoned the washing up to join them.

‘We have news,’ Leander announced, smiling.

‘And champagne to celebrate with,’ Melody added, pronouncing the word as it was spelt. She grinned as she held up two bottles—one in each hand.

Dad’s eyebrows popped up at the sight of the labels. ‘You have good taste, Melody.’

‘Oh but it is your neighbour’s taste, Lewis. These come from a shelf of many. Some are filled with ruby red, others pale yellow, but
this
is my favourite.’ Melody waved the bottles around as she added, ‘It fizzes all the way across one’s tongue.’

‘You’re drinking your way through Janet and Dave’s wine collection?’ I laughed. ‘Don’t think they’ll be very happy.’

‘But they have so many,’ Melody exclaimed, eyes wide and innocent.

‘Not so many now, my love,’ Leander smiled.

‘But still, too many for two,’ Melody insisted. ‘I am
certain
they meant to share.’

Mum chuckled her way to the kitchen in search of glasses while Dad took the bottles from Melody, assuring her that of course Janet and Dave wouldn’t mind sharing.

Mum and Dad had bonded well with my grandparents once they’d come to terms with them looking so young. Sharing a bottle of wine after dinner had become a regular thing, but until tonight no one had mentioned where it was coming from.

When the champagne was poured, Asher said, ‘Tonight we have exciting news. We received an email from a girl named Mona. She says she has a friend whom she believes might be our grandson.’

‘Wonderful!’ my father said as I let out a squeal. Jack hugged me and Dad raised his glass. ‘Here’s to Lysander!’

After we all drank to my twin, Faun declared, ‘Tomorrow we will go to America to meet with this girl.’

Mum’s eyes opened wide. ‘Tomorrow? But how will you organise everything so quickly?’

‘There is little to organise,’ Asher said and then, glancing between my parents, added, ‘But, as we have only days remaining in your world, we would like our granddaughter to accompany us—with your consent, of course.’

‘Oh my God,’ I cried, clapping my hands together as joy surged through me. My head began to whirl and I knew I was grinning like a lunatic.

Asher smiled as Mum went pale and dropped into the nearest seat. Dad drew his handkerchief from his pocket and began to dab at his mouth while Ashleigh started jumping up and down, begging to be allowed to go too.

My mother ignored her completely and said, ‘What about school, Amy?’

‘It’s the holidays, Mum!’

Dad put his hanky back into his pocket. ‘I’m sorry, Asher, I don’t think we can allow it.’

Asher inclined his head and Mum let out a sigh of relief.

I stared at my father, clinging fast to what was left of my happiness. After all, he couldn’t possibly mean it. Dad was king
of diplomacy and never responded with such a hasty no. Taking a deep breath, I said, ‘You’re joking, right, Dad?’

Dad shook his head. ‘It’s not safe.’

Frustration replaced my excitement in a blink. This was my chance to find my brother and it was slipping away from me. ‘But I’d be with my grandparents!’

‘They’re not used to looking after you, Amy. They don’t know your issues.’ He turned to Asher and apologised again, told him I was just too fragile. My grandfather assured him it was of no consequence.

‘Wait, what?’ I said, heat rushing to my face as I glared at my grandfather. ‘That might be my brother over there!’ I whipped my attention back to my father. ‘And by the way, I don’t need anyone to look after me, I’m perfectly capable of doing
that
myself!’