Darkness & Light (War of the Fae: Book 3) (12 page)

“Maybe you’ll do some training with me, Tony,” said Becky brightly.
 
“I’m a water sprite.
 
Maybe you are too.”

“How will I know what kind of fae I am?” he asked all of us.

“Well, I can pretty much guarantee you’re not an incubus,” said Spike.

“Yeah, maybe we can figure out whatcha are by process of elimination,” said Finn.

“How can you tell he’s not an incubus, Spike?” I asked.

“Because, he’s eating all that regular food and I don’t see any glow in his eyes.”

I pulled Tony’s shoulder so he was facing me, looking into his eyes and seeing that Spike was right; no hot-blooded red stuff going on there.
 
His eyes looked gray to me.
 
I looked at Spike’s plate, noticing that he didn’t have much food there.
 
I guess I’d never paid much attention to his diet before.
 
I wondered what he ate instead, and then quickly decided I didn’t want to know.

“Tony, what color are your eyes normally?” I asked.
 
I didn’t remember them being gray.
 
I was pretty sure they were normally brown.
 
It’s what made him look like such a sad puppy sometimes.

“Brown.”

“Huh.
 
That’s what I thought,” I said, thinking about what this might mean.
 
I was going to have to ask Céline when I saw her again.

“Why?”

“‘Cuz they’re gray now.”

“Really?”
 
Tony looked at us, his head swiveling back and forth.
 
“Does anyone have a mirror?”

“You have one in your room,” said Becky, straining her neck to see his eyes better.
 
“Yeah, you do have gray eyes now.
 
Cute.”

“Oh, Tony,” said Finn in a high falsetto voice, “your eyes are
sooooo
cute now.”

“Shut up, Finn.
 
You’re just jealous,” said Becky, trying not to smile.

“Jealous of who?
 
Tony?
 
No way, lady.
 
He’s got Jayne attached to him at the hip.
 
I ain’t jealous ‘a that, no siree bob.”

I smacked him on the arm.
 
“Watch it green elf, or I might forget we’re friends.”

“Ain’t no chance ‘a that.
 
You’re stuck with me, Mother.”

I grabbed a fistful of his tunic.
 
“Call me that one more time and see what happens.”

He held up his hands in surrender, laughing.
 
“Okay, okay, mercy!
 
I give up.
 
You’re the boss.
 
I’ll shut up now.”

Tony smiled.
 
I was glad to see that their teasing amused him and made him happy, even though it made me want to smack somebody.
 
Those green elves calling me Mother made me a little
nuts
.
 
The whole idea was too stupid to consider; I wasn’t sure I was ready for that kind of responsibility or if I even wanted it.
 
When I’d gone through the interview process to qualify for the fae test and they’d asked me what superhero I wanted to be, I’d picked Mother Nature.
 
I really hadn’t thought too hard about what my life would mean if it were actually true.
 
Now every time the subject came up, I’d think of a million other things I’d rather worry about – like the Dark Fae that were trying to steal my best friend Tony, for instance.
 
Now that it wasn’t so much of a problem anymore, though, I was probably going to have to start dealing with this Mother issue.
 
Ugh
.

Just then Scrum showed up at our table, covered in food stains and smiling like an idiot.
 

“Hey guys.
 
What’s up?”

Spike got up to leave.
 
“Well, I’m gonna leave you kids to ... uh ... whatever this is.”

Finn joined him.
 
“Yeah.
 
Later.
 
See
ya’ll
at breakfast.”
 
He held out his hand to Becky.
 
“Come on, girl.
 
Let’s blow this joint.
 
I need some help with somethin’.”

Becky eyed him suspiciously, taking his hand and standing.
 
“If this is another one of your teleporting experiments, I’m not interested.”

As they walked away I could hear him trying to convince her.
 
“No, no, it’s nothin’ like that.
 
This time I need you to show me ... ”

I couldn’t hear the rest of it, and I probably didn’t want to either.
 
Finn and Spike were always trying to figure out how to develop different powers they thought they might have.
 
Neither of them was content with the amazing stuff they could already do, especially Finn.
 
Becky could do things none of us could, and that drove him crazy.
 
I think Finn and Spike had made some sort of pact to become Super Fae or something stupid like that.
 
Guys
.
 
They’re all the same.
 
Little boys in bigger bodies.

Scrum stood there looking nervous, waiting for someone to acknowledge him.
 

I sighed.
 
“Hey.
 
So, I hear you’re the new daemon on the block.”

He shifted from one foot to the other, back and forth.
 
“Yeah.
 
I guess so.
 
I’m with Chase.”

Chase’s eyebrows lifted, but he kept on eating.

“How do you like it?
 
I mean, so far?” asked Tony, smiling at him.

“Oh, it’s cool.
 
Being a daemon is ... pretty awesome.”
 
He looked at Tony’s shirt, his eyebrows screwing up in confusion.
 
“Hey, what kind of fae are you?
 
Your clothes look ... well ... not fae.”

Wow
.
 
And it only took him half the dinner hour to notice that.
 
I guess ‘observant’ isn’t on the list of this daemon’s qualifications.
 
He must be pretty low on the totem pole to not have been a part of the assembly from hell.
 
I had thought everyone was there.

“I was just made a changeling.
 
Less than an hour ago.
 
No one knows what kind of fae I am yet.”

“Huh.
 
Is that normal?
 
All the guys who changed with me, Dardennes and them kinda knew what we all were, even before the change.”

Tony shrugged.
 
“Don’t know.
 
It’s all new to me.”

“What kinda stuff can you do?”

I interrupted.
 
“Hey.
 
He said he didn’t know.”

“Oh, bonkers, I’m so totally sorry.
 
I talk too much.
 
People say that all the time.
 
I mean, now fae say it all the time.”

“Bonkers?” Did my ears fool me or did he really just say that?

He looked sheepish.
 
“Yeah.
 
I’m not allowed to swear.”

“Says who?”
 
As far as I knew, there were no cuss-word police around here.
 
Otherwise I’d be doing hard time by now.

“My grandma.
 
She died just a little while ago, may her soul rest in peace for all of eternity.
 
She was a stickler for the rules.
 
No swear words and no elbows on the table.”
 
He looked embarrassed, “ ... And a few other things I hate to tell you, but also no farting except in the bathroom ... ”

“Holy shit, dude, too much information!”
 
Damn
, what was this guy’s problem?
 
Was he mental?
 
Now I was really starting to worry about Tony again.
 

Chase was trying to keep a straight face but was failing badly.
 
I nudged him.
 
This guy was
full-on
annoying and Chase’s smile just pissed me off.
 
Now I was good and cranky and this kid was
gonna
have to suffer the consequences.

“Listen, if you’re going to be hanging around, you need to get one thing straight: if you give me a headache, I’m gonna kick your ass.
 
And vomiting your personal stuff all over us is giving me a headache.”

Tony’s eyes bugged out of his head.
 
“Jayne, chill.
 
He’s just nervous.”

I looked at the daemon kid and he did look like he didn’t know whether to run, cry,
piss
his pants or all three.

I instantly felt bad.
 
“Listen, Scrub, I’m just tired and stressed and hungry.
 
I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.
 
Just ... sit down and shut up for a few minutes, okay?”

His smile was right back on his face like it had never left.
 
“Okay! It’s Scrum by the way, not Scrub, but don’t worry, I get that all the time.
 
 
I’ll sit right here with you guys.
 
That’s cool.
 
I can be quiet.
 
That’s
noooot
a problem at all.
 
I totally understand the headache thing.
 
My grandma used to get them all the time.
 
She’d send me to my room for hours and hours.
 
That was the only thing that seemed to make her feel better.
 
I think she liked the quiet, like you.”

Chase kept eating, but placed his other hand over the one of mine that had balled up into a fist on the table.

“Breathe, Jayne,” said Tony, a smile in his voice.

I looked at him.
 
“Don’t fucking start with me, Baloney head.”

“What?” he laughed.
 
“I didn’t say anything.”

I think even if I slapped him right now, he wouldn’t stop smiling.
 

“I’m happy that my misery makes you happy, Tony.”

“Good.
 
Now eat your dinner so you can show me my new room.”

“Don’t be so excited,” I said as I shoveled a fork full of I don’t know what into my mouth.
 
“It’s a windowless cell.”

I smiled at the look of horror on his face.

“But they’re not bad, really,” jumped in Scrub or Scabs or whatever the hell the kid’s name is.
 
“They’re warm enough that you don’t get cold, you get a nice quilt for your bed, ... ”

I tuned out the rest of the shit that he was barfing out all over the table.
 
I had a feeling I was going to have to do that a lot in the future with this
doofus
.
 
My thoughts turned to my windowless room and my little friend Tim who I hoped was still sleeping through his pain.
 

“I’m gonna get some fruit for Tim.”

“Who’s Tim?” I heard the kid ask as I walked to the buffet.
 

Minutes later we were all walking down the hall to my room, Chase leading the way.
 
The Scabs kid kept talking and talking and talking.
 
I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t hoarse, if he talked like this all the time.
 
And how the hell had he made it through the Green Forest and the changeling test?
 
His talking would have alerted every single fae in the whole damn place, which meant he would have had a lot of fights on his hands.
 
I made a mental note to ask Céline about his performance.
 
Or maybe I could find one of the changelings that went through it with him who would tell me.

We got to my room, and I put my index finger in front of my lips.
 
“Scabs, you need to shut the hell up now.
 
I’m not
playin
’.
 
I have a very sick pixie in here, and if you piss him off, he’ll pixie-zap your ass.”

His eyes got big and round and he whispered, “Is that bad?”

“Yeah,” I said, deadly serious.
 
“It’s
real
bad.
 
It’s worse than being killed and eaten by an
orc
.”

He looked like he was going to have a stroke.
 
I put my finger up to my lips again and raised my eyebrows, mouthing the words,
“Be quiet.”

While I was busy reprimanding and warning the new idiot daemon, Chase opened the door to the room and began to step inside.
 
He
was
two steps in
before I realized my mistake; but by then, it was too late.

“Now you’ll pay!” I heard the tiny voice yell, right before I heard Chase choking and gasping for air.