Enchanted Revenge (13 page)

He chuckled, while I only smiled at how in sync our thoughts were.

“You can go first,” he offered, and then dropped a few seeds into his mouth.

It was so late, and the trees were so full of leaves, that it stole the light from this place. Maybe there were stars out, and maybe the moon was out, but I couldn’t see them, and for a minute, I truly longed for the sky. Alec produced another ball of light, and had it hover near the ground between us. Almost like a tiny, magical campfire, except it wasn’t fire at all.

“I want to learn offensive moves. I want to be able to defend myself, not just stay standing if someone pushes me.”

He nodded his head as if he understood what I meant. But he didn’t say anything, he just ate a few more seeds, allowing me to continue.

“Today I felt so helpless. Even if you hadn’t held me to the chair, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything. And I don’t want to feel like that anymore. I don’t want to be helpless. I don’t want to be lacking in everything anymore. I want to do something. I want to do more.” I explained further, hoping I could convince him. “I want to fight like you.” Even though I realized how stupid it sounded. He just looked so strong, so smooth and brave, when he fought. I wanted to be like that. He chuckled at me.

“You can, after a few hundred years…maybe. I mean, I’m pretty amazing. You know that, right?”  When he said it, he smiled at me again, and I accepted the fact that I loved to see him smile, even when he was being sarcastic and arrogant. “But to be serious, I agree. While we were there, I kept thinking that if something did happen to me, you would have been killed easily. It was distracting. I shouldn’t have brought you with me. And I’m sorry I put you in that situation. I didn’t expect for them to attack me.” He still sounded surprised by that. Then added, “Though I knew it was a possibility and I’m sorry I put you in that position.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s over now. I was just so scared. I’ve never seen people fight before,” I whispered, again embarrassed at my lack of knowledge and experience. “And what the hell happened to you? Why didn’t you come out right after me like you said?”

“So, let me start at the beginning. The Dux is the main law enforcement in each village. Here in the Central Village he answers to Lord Nettle, the Lord of the Nymph. But in the smaller villages the Dux is the leader. Fighting with him could have serious consequences.

“I was serious when I told him that he was at risk for attacking me, that a Realm Guard is a higher position and thus I am his superior. But, I didn’t want to have to go through the channels to make it mean anything because I would have to answer to why I’m in Ardennes instead of back in the Mortal Realm. Realm Guard aren’t allowed to just leave their post whenever they want.”

“Yeah. That makes sense. So, why do you think he did fight you if he knew he could get in trouble for it?”

He inhaled deeply before answering. “It could be a number of things. He may have some alliance with the Mortem. He may be under orders from Lord Nettle to not say anything, though that would mean that the Lord has an alliance with them. Or he may just be a dick and didn’t want to share any information.” I tried to think about all he said and how easily he talked about it all.

“The Mortem,” I murmured, more to myself than him. The murderers. The people I hated most in the world. The people I would kill. “Have you heard of them before?”

Alec looked down for a minute, and I wondered if he didn’t want to talk about them. Or maybe he just didn’t want to tell me. But then he looked up and nodded to me.

“They used to be only three and there wasn’t a Sprite, and at the time they only acted on the wills of the King, like an elite guard. Shortly after her death, they went AWOL and made it known to all that they were for-hire killers. At your parent’s home, I thought it might be them, but it was too much to hope for that they would come across my region in the Mortal Realm.”

“To hope for? Why would you hope for that?”

“I was in love once, a long time ago. She was killed merely for loving me.” As he spoke, his voice grew softer, as if it was hard for him to say the words. “Fae are not allowed to pledge, to get married, to a Fae of a different breed. So, when we were caught, she was ordered to be executed, as the law demands.

“I came home one night, and found her head on my pillow in the bed we shared.” Surprisingly his voice didn’t crack or waver. Maybe after forty years of mourning, you get over it. Hopefully, forty years from now I would be able to speak about my parent’s death with such peace.

“I’m so sorry,” I told him, finally able to say the words I’d been wanting to say since Nona told me everything.

When he looked up at me, it was like he saw me, really saw me for the first time. He knew that I didn’t pity him, but that I ached for his pain. He knew that I felt the agony of loss.

“Thank you.” Then he placed his hand on mine. I covered his hand with my other one, wrapping it in a cocoon of comfort, trying to send compassion and empathy into his skin. “So you see, I had multiple reasons for helping you with this. Not only do I understand what it feels like to have the person you love most ripped out of your life unfairly, but it was done by the same people who did it to me.”

This time I nodded. I guess I was spending too much time with them that I was picking up their head bobbing thing.

“Over the years, I have had time to mourn. And to accept the loss. I will never forget her. She was strong and brave and beautiful. And I continued on with my life. I mean, I wasn’t really living. I was just going through the motions, living in a fog. I had no conviction for anything, not enough anger to do anything about the loss, not enough depression to kill myself. Not enough love to enjoy anything. Not really enough of anything. Until…” Then he looked up at me.

His eyes were dark, though the light reflected in a tiny area of them creating a shimmering star. They were mesmerizing. His blond hair looked almost brown in the darkness. But all his angry lines were gone. There was no frown, no bulging veins, but no smile either. His eyes were opened wide and he just looked at me.

“I thought you were going to die today,” I whispered as I played with the scar on my hand. It was turning out to look pretty cool now that the scab was gone. Even though part of me just wanted to sit there and stare into his eyes forever, when I was nervous I talked. “I don’t know what I would have done. Not just because I would be lost in this world without you, but because…I don’t want to lose you.”

The reality of what I said sunk in, falling deep into my stomach which fluttered in response. He scooted closer to me, so that our knees were touching.

“Don’t worry, you can’t get rid of me that easily.” He was whispering too, which made the fluttering in my tummy increase. “What’s wrong with your hand?”

I glanced up at him, not sure what he meant. He motioned to my hand, and then offered his. I wanted to touch him. Not like I hadn’t touched him before, but this was different. I ached to touch him and it was dark and intimate outside, and things felt electrified. So when I placed my hand in his, so he could see the scar I strangely held close to my heart, I felt all kinds of happy and thrilled, and…nervous excitement.

“What happened? I’ve seen you messing with your hand a lot, but I thought it was just an itch or something. This looks fairly new.” I listened to him speak. I
really
did. I mean, I really tried to. But I hardly understood him as his fingers traced along my scar sending warm trails of tingles all over my body.

“Hmm?” I murmured to him, not sure what he asked. I saw his lips moving though. Those full pink lips above his strong jaw.

“How did you get this scar?” His voice continued to dip deeper and slower, covering me like a caress. I got lost in his eyes. In the way his hands felt against mine. In him.

“My scar?” I breathed. I stared down at it. Sadness formed in my heart, growing and rising until it stopped up my throat. “I got it that day my parents died.”

Bringing my eyes back up to his, we could really see each other. He knew me. He knew what I had been through. And he had just shared his worst moments with me. We were both lonely and broken in ways that may never heal. We would always be scarred, just like my hand.

His fingers continued to trail along the edge of my palm and close to my wrist, my broken tear. My heart raced. He was so close. So close to my heart if he whispered the right way he could breathe life back into it. And then he changed. He scooted closer. Closer. Closer. His eyes darkened. My stomach dropped, and then flipped around. Butterflies tickled my insides. I had never felt a sensation like it before, but it was similar to being at the top of a rollercoaster, right as it started to go down. You knew it was going to drop, you expected it, but when it happened, you still weren’t prepared for it.

He placed his hand on my cheek, but didn’t release my hand. Warmth spread over me, leaving me warm all over and yet I felt like shivering at the same time. It was like a tingling right where his skin met mine.

When I saw his eyes flick down to my lips, even though it was less than a second they stayed there before coming back up to my eyes, the trembling in my stomach grew by 100 times and my heart fluttered. It actually fluttered. The rollercoaster idea was no longer applicable. It was an indescribable sensation. I was falling and flying at the same time. I was happy but sad. I was scarred but healing.

His face moved closer, so slowly I thought perhaps time had stopped. I could feel him, warmth emanating off his body as he inched closer. I sucked in a breath, holding it in sweet, cruel anticipation. Then his lips touched mine. I was just like every other girl who dreamed about her first kiss, wondering what it would be like, feel like, taste like.

Those dreams faded in comparison to the real thing. For a minute, I thought there might actually be fireworks going off behind my eyelids that had dropped involuntarily.

My heart beat faster, faster even then when I was helpless in Samael’s office. It pounded excitedly within my chest. My brain shut down, and all I thought of was Alec’s warm, soft lips on mine.

Then it was over. It was so brief. Short and sweet. But it meant so much more than that to me. It was my first kiss. And it was the cutest guy I had ever seen. A Fae who was strong, dependable, and wonderful.

When he pulled back, it was like all the masks he wore were gone. The mask to hide the pain from his past was gone. The mask he wore to hide his anger at the King and the Mortem was gone. The mask that hid his hope for the rebellion to succeed was gone. And the mask he wore to hide his feelings for me, feelings that were growing, was gone.

In that moment I could see all the sides of him. The good, the bad, the broken and the beautiful.

And it was wonderful.

When he pulled away, I realized I was staring at him. Stunned and dazed. I wondered if all kisses were like that. He stood up and picked up the now empty bowl. His hand still wrapped around mine helped hoist me up.

“We should go to bed. We’ll leave early in the morning,” he said.

As we walked back to the tree, he placed his hand at the small of my back, guiding me forward. It was the first time I really walked beside him, not behind him. And it made me feel great and giddy. Hopeful.

That night I slept soundly. Maybe it was all the scariness of the day, or the excitement of the kiss. Maybe it was just the exhaustion my heart felt after beating so wildly so much of the day. But it didn’t really matter why. I was just thankful for it.

The next morning, I got up and dressed quickly before going to the kitchen. Kerr and Nona were at the table when I walked in.

“I saved you some,” she said to me, and then set a bowl down for me.

“Yeah, and she really had to save it or Alec would’ve eaten it all,” Kerr added with a smile on his face. I sat down next to him, and started to eat the spinach. It was just as weird, and just as delicious as the last time I ate it.

“Thank you,” I told them both.

“Alec is packing a few things for you to take along,” she explained to me. “I want you to know, that you are both welcome back at any time. Even if he isn’t with you, you are still welcome here.” Her sincerity surprised me.

“Thank you. That means a lot to me. I don’t have many friends,” I said, and then had to clear my throat, because it was a little embarrassing to admit. “So, it means a lot to me.”

Alec came in and said to me, “Eat quickly. I’d like us to be out before the sun rises.”

“Okay.”

“Nona,” Alec said, walking toward her. He said it in almost a sing-song voice. It was apparent how much he cared for her. She placed her hand on his face, caressing him as if she would never see him again. “I will miss you.”

“I already miss you, son,” she told him. And then they embraced.

I shoveled the food into my mouth, swallowing it quickly. Eating it so fast made my tongue burn, and gave me the beginnings of brain freeze. I reached for the nectar and drank it quickly hoping to fend off the effects. Alec was messing with my abscondita and then he tied it and set it on the table in front of me.

“I put your sword back. Thank you for that, by the way. Brilliant move.”

I smiled up at him.

“No problem.”

“You ready?”

“Yeah.”

I went over to Nona, wanting to at least shake her hand, but she pulled me into an embrace as well. I hugged her back, because for a moment it felt like I was hugging my mother. Nona was taller and thicker than my mom, but it was the closest I could get, and I would greedily take every single second it was offered to me.

Kerr followed us out, and hugged Alec goodbye just outside the door. Together, we walked away, leaving them behind.

“We’ll go the Commons and refill our canteens with nectar before we leave. Then we can take the tripudio to the edge of Muircadia, since we’re close enough now.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Suddenly it was quiet again. Even though I normally felt the urge to talk when we walked, that time I didn’t. I just kept thinking about the kiss and what it meant. He was super old compared to me, even though he definitely didn’t look it, and didn’t really act like it, I felt I should constantly remind myself of that. Plus, he had just told me about how in love he had been with another woman, and then about how she had been killed.

Probably, he only kissed me because he was thinking of Lix, and how much he missed her. Ugh.

We had only been walking for about ten minutes when Alec stopped and tensed. He stood tall and rigid, and then shifted down into the battle stance I had seen too many times. He started scanning the trees, right and left and then in a circle. A million thoughts ran through my mind. But only one was important, it had to be Samael coming back to take vengeance on Alec.

It wasn’t Samael who came out of the trees, though. Instead it was a group of about ten Nymph. They were all around us, in a circle. We were surrounded, and even though they hadn’t attacked us, I still sensed they were bad news.

They all looked alike. Long black hair pulled back into a ponytail just behind their necks. They all wore dark green pants, and a tan shirt. And they all had a medal on their right breasts. It wasn’t the same medal that Alec wore, but it was similar.

“Sylph Realm Guard called Alec?” The one in front of Alec said. I immediately pegged him as the leader. Though he didn’t have any differential characteristics, he held himself to a higher esteem than the others.

“I am he.”

“Your presence has been requested by the high Lord and Lady Nettle. Please come with us at once.”

Alec didn’t shift out of his battle stance, so I decided to get into mine too. Even if I had to gouge out a few eyeballs, or scratch and pull hair, I would do what I had to in order to help Alec in any way I could. We wouldn’t go down without a fight.

At my shift, all eyes came to me. It was like they were seeing me for the first time. I ignored them, and kept my eyes on Alec, waiting for his move. He took a deep breath, bowed his head slightly, and then stood up again. He took two steps back, so that he was standing right next to me.

Time stopped. It was if everyone was waiting for something. But Alec was concentrating and I still couldn’t tell if we would fight or not.

He placed his hand on my back, and then, clear as day, I heard his voice in my head.
I would ask them to leave you behind, and they probably would. But you would have nowhere to go and would be unprotected. I don’t know why Lord Nettle would want to see me, but it can’t be good. And I’m sorry, but I think you would still be safer with me. Even though I may be putting you in danger.

“Of course, High Guard. We shall go with you.” Alec said to him, and bowed his head again. I mimicked him, because I didn’t want to get us in more trouble than we were already in.

As soon as the leader turned away, Alec pulled his wings in again. We followed him, a few feet back, but remained surrounded as they all walked with us. I made a mental note to ask him about the telepathy thing as soon as I could because that was both freaky scary and completely awesome at the same time.

When we turned onto a wide street, I realized that it was the same one as the day before. After only five or so minutes, I could see the giant tree up ahead of us. Even though it may be dangerous, I was super excited to see the inside of that tree.

I always wanted a tree house, and the kid in me was seriously jumping for joy.

The closer we got to the tree, the larger it appeared. It was obvious now that at its base, there were five tree trunks, several yards wide each. And then, about thirty feet up, they started to twist together, forming one huge tree from there on up. The branches went on forever, and I imagined that they would easily cover the entire village.

We walked up a series of stairs before even entering the tree. The stairs were wooden, and looked like they were just part of it, like they were the roots, and were meant to be shaped like that.

The doors to enter the tree were like huge French, double doors that were carved right out of the bark. Alec and I walked side by side into the giant landmark, right through those doors, into the unknown.

What I found really odd was that no matter how many Nymph walked the streets, none of them came up here. And none of them looked at us as we passed. You would think that an entourage of guards escorting two Sylph fairies to the Lords house would draw some attention, but as soon as someone noticed us, they swiftly turned away.

Weird.

The room we walked into was not wooden. The walls looked almost like marble, just as the floor and ceiling did. It was a gray or silver marble, with hints of green. It was beautiful. The room was huge, the size of the gymnasium back at my high school. Probably larger.

In the very back there was a desk, with three chairs in front of it. And then off to the right side, there was an area with five couches, all facing each other, with a wooden table in the center of them.

Above our heads was the grandest chandelier I had ever seen, not that I had seen many. Still it was probably longer than me, and even wider. The candles flickered, and the diamonds reflected the light, causing the walls to look like they were shimmering. It was the brightest room I had been in since being in The Empyrean.

Alec pushed a little on my back to make me go forward, which made me realize that I had stopped to gape at the view. I made my feet move beneath me as the guard led us toward the couches. We didn’t stop at them, we walked right past them and on to a hallway that I hadn’t even noticed before.

The leader waved his hand in front of the door we stopped in front of, and the door opened to reveal a tiny room that looked like an elevator. I didn’t see how it could be one without electricity, but I was always surprised by things in this world. We walked inside, and stood shoulder to shoulder, with all of the guards that had been following us since the woods.

Then we moved. Nobody pushed any buttons, as there weren’t any to push, and yet we still ascended. I guess that’s what I got for assuming you needed electricity to make something work when you’re surrounded by magic.

When the doors opened, I had to catch myself from fainting at the sight.