Enchanted Revenge (7 page)

“Stand here in front of me,” Alec said as he stood up in front of the fire. The flames cast an eerie glow to his face. He was still in a bad mood, that much was obvious, but at least he wasn’t scary anymore. His eyebrows were constantly tugging downward between his eyes, and his lips never lifted a millimeter up into even an almost smile.

So without arguing, I stood up in front of him. My feet still hurt like crazy, but I was getting pretty good at ignoring them. This was something I not only wanted, but desperately needed.

“First we should work on your stance. Basically, how you stand. You are smaller and weaker than most opponents you will face. But that doesn’t mean you have to lose. With the right amount of knowledge, you should be able to at least fend off an opponent so that you can get away.”

“I don’t want to get away. I want to win.”

“Baby steps, Lily. I can’t teach you how to kill, not when you couldn’t even fend off an attack. We will work on defensive moves, before offensive moves.”

Though what he said made sense, I didn’t want to hear it. I wasn’t going to confront those murderers only to cower and run away. But I didn’t say that, because I really did need to learn at least basic self-defense moves.

He walked up closer to me and showed me how to stand.

“First, when faced with an attacker, you should be steady on your feet. Place your feet shoulder width apart, and bend your knees, but just slightly.”

I did as I was told, but then he shook his head and came to stand next to me so that we were both facing the fire now.

“Like this,” he said. He opened his feet about two feet apart and barely bent his knees, not at all like I had been standing. So, I tried to make my body mimic his.

“Yeah, that’s better. Next you should keep your arms up, like this.” He moved his hands up in front of him, just barely below his shoulders, and had his elbows bent. Again I tried to mimic him.

“No. Don’t keep your elbows so close to you. Your arms need to be out so that you can move them quickly. And don’t clench your fists. If you keep your hands open, you are more likely to be able to grab onto your attacker and deflect his attacks.” As he said it, he had walked around in front of me and faced me, so that I had to look down at his hands.

I could barely look at his hands though. He had placed them on my arms, to place them in the correct position. All I could do was look at his eyes. I knew they were green, but in the darkness of the night they looked almost black. Especially as he faced me and the flickering of the fire couldn’t reach them.

He smelled so good. Like fresh air. Clean. Pure. Strong.

“Good, that’s good,” he said, and then looked up into my eyes. They were so dark they reminded me of the Demons eyes on
Supernatural
. So freaky, and almost scary.

He took a step back and then mimicked the position I was in. It felt weird to stand like that. Awkward. Unnatural. But I tried to maintain the position. I wanted so badly to be good at it.

“One of the best things you can do, since you are so small, is to use your opponent’s weight against him. Standing as you are should give you an advantage. You can move quickly away, to the side, or you can pull your opponent down as they lunge for you.”

I nodded, because I didn’t know what to say. He kept standing in that position, and then moving to one side or the other before getting back in the same position.

“Try to find the position again on your own.”

So I did. I moved to my side, and immediately felt better. Standing like a puppet didn’t feel right to me. Nevertheless, I tried to find the same position again.

“Hands up and elbows out a little more. And your feet are too far apart.” I adjusted my stance, as he suggested. “Good. That’s good. Do it again.”

And I did. I did it again, and again, and again. Before too long my arms ached from holding them up at such a strange position and my thighs ached more than even my feet did.

“I think I got it, can we move on to something else?”

“Things take practice. Keep going.” I sighed, to show my own annoyance, but did as I was told. “Now when someone comes at you, you will want to incapacitate them as soon as possible. The best places to aim are the eyes, nose, neck, groin, and knee.” As he named the places, he also pointed to them.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” I said completely changing the subject. My parents had always lived by the rule that you never go to bed angry. And really, my anger was unjust. It shouldn’t have been directed at him. Especially not after everything he was doing to help me.

Bringing me here was something he didn’t have to do. Teaching me how to defend myself,
so
not something he had to do. All of this was something I needed and could never have done without him.

But he didn’t answer me, not even to make a snide comment about how out of place the comment was. He only nodded and motioned for me to continue through the moves.

“Have you been in a lot of fights?” I asked finally, after going to and from the position time and again.

“Yes.” He said the word simply. As if that was answer enough.

“How many?”

He sighed before answering, and then stopped standing in our battle stance and went over to the blanket he had laid down earlier.

“Just as I was not in the mood to talk earlier today, I am not in the mood for pillow talk.”
What a jerk.
He was always shutting me down. Even after I just apologized. “Go to sleep. You will need your rest for tomorrow. If we can keep up this pace we may be able to shave a few days off our journey to the Central Village.”

Finally I was able to lie down, curl into a ball, and sleep. I tried not to think about my parents. I tried not to be affected by Alec’s attitude. I desperately tried to mask the sobs that continued to escape me throughout the night.

The next morning when I woke, I remembered my dream clearly. I had been remembering the time my parents had bought me a new bike for my birthday. It was my favorite bike, blue with purple sparkles. And my first bike without training wheels.

In Kansas there aren’t many hills, and I had always been complaining about how I couldn’t ride fast enough. So my father had built me a ramp. It wasn’t a huge one, just a few feet off the ground. But it had been more than enough. And when I pushed as hard as my legs could push, and rode as hard as I could down the street, I’d gone fast enough that I’d felt like I was flying.

When I rode back to my parents, they were beaming at me. Both so happy to see me so happy. Their love was apparent on their bright faces.

When I told them that I felt like I had been flying, their smiles wavered. They immediately plastered smiles back on, though they were fake. At the time it wasn’t noticeable to me. But now, as I saw it again, it was apparent.

As I sat up from my pallet of blankets, looking up at the tiny bit of sky visible through the layers of leaves above my head, I couldn’t help but wonder what they had been thinking in that moment. Were they upset that I mentioned flying, because they knew I would be able to fly one day? Were they upset that they could no longer fly, since they were, for some reason, in the Mortal Realm? Did they miss it? Did it worry them that I loved it so much?

So many questions that would forever remain unanswered. So many things I wanted to ask them, but would never have the chance to. Since the sky was still dark above me, I knew it wasn’t too late in the morning. Alec was still sleeping, wrapped in his own blankets.

I could tell that the sun would soon rise. Oddly enough, I felt like it would come up soon because of the air. It was as if I could feel the change in temperature and moisture and for some reason that made me believe it was almost dawn. So strange…

Still, I wasn’t ready to rise. I lay back down, curled up into a tiny ball and cried. I cried for the loss of my parents, my best friends that I would never see again. I cried because I was alone. I cried because this place freaked me out so bad. I cried because Alec was being a jerk, but I couldn’t do anything about it because without him I was really and truly alone. Because without him I would not be able to find my way from one place to another in here and I definitely wouldn’t be able to find the murderers.

And I cried because even when we find them, I won’t be able to do much anyway. My tears fell down my cheeks, sliding noiselessly into puddles at the side of my face. The tightness in my chest grew as did the lump in my throat. My heart physically hurt. I could imagine that it looked literally broken inside my chest. That the different chambers and arteries were mismatched and separated, blood seeping out through all the tiny fissures.

When Alec stirred, I willed my tears to stop. They didn’t listen right away, but at least I was quiet about it. I was pretty certain that he didn’t hear me crying.

What I really wanted in that moment, more than real food or a nice bed, was a freaking shower. I said a silent prayer that Fae believed in the power of cleanliness and hoped that when we got to the Central Village I would be able to finally take a shower.

I probably stank something fierce.

We didn’t speak to each other that morning. And I was okay with it. This time I wasn’t in the mood to talk either. My questions could remain unanswered. It didn’t matter to me anymore. As long as he continued to teach me how to fight, and helped me find the murderers, I didn’t care if he ever said another word to me. As soon as we found them, and they were killed, we would go our separate ways. And I was okay with that.

At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

In reality, this Sylph Fairy-Realm Guard-cocky, impatient man was the only person I had any connection to left in the world. And without him I would truly be abandoned.

The next morning, after we’d been hiking for a while, I stopped for just a second to sip some water while Alec scouted ahead. He said he smelled something off, and while everything was so strong here, smell especially, I hadn’t smelt anything different. I could smell the grass, even the smell of upturned dirt. I could smell the wind blowing through the trees. Flowers somewhere. And even this dusky, moist smell. But it was all very normal- as normal as this place could be.

I took the reprieve and rested my feet while he ventured a little more, further and further, until I couldn’t see him anymore.

I curled my legs under me, and leaned back against a huge tree trunk, allowing the bark to scratch through my shirt before I found a good spot that was nearly comfortable. My hair drifted down my shoulders, and I closed my eyes. I couldn’t see the sun, or really feel its warmth, but the air was warm around me, and I was drained and exhausted. Always.

When I could no longer hear his footsteps, I listened harder.

I wasn’t as scared as I probably should’ve been. The abada hadn’t been particularly scary, but it could’ve been anything. I hadn’t seen any other fae yet, but it was only a matter of time before I did. And I didn’t really want to be alone when it happened.

“Alec?” I called. I didn’t shout it, and my voice was steady, but underneath, I was worried.

I held my breath and listened harder.

“Come on,” he said, just as he emerged from between some trees, in the opposite direction than he had left.

“Didn’t find anything?” I asked casually.

“Actually, I found exactly what I’d been looking for.”

I waited, expecting elaboration, but instead I followed behind his silence.

“And…?” I encouraged.

“We’re almost there,” was his only answer.

I sighed, but he didn’t seem to notice. Either that, or he heard it and didn’t care.

The terrain grew steep, and my legs burned to keep up with Alec’s fast pace. I wouldn’t hold him back. We had a mission, and the faster we got there- wherever there was- the faster we would find
them
. The faster I could avenge my parents.

Trees thinned out a little around us, and I thought, at first, we were coming to another village. But when we crested the hill, instead of an abandoned village, I saw the sky.

The sun!

Rays, yellow and warm, shined down on a pond, the top of the cool wetness shining like a diamond. 

“Water…” I breathed, as sweat poured down the back of my neck and pooled between my breasts and at the base of my back.

Trees surrounded the water on all sides, making an almost perfectly symmetrical circle. With the glorious sun and sky blazing down in the background, and the green emerald trees, and the bright blue water, it was a shot worthy of a screensaver or postcard. Better than that, it was perfect. A perfect view of the beauty within the Empyrean.

“A lake. I knew I could smell the rain.” He smiled as he said it, like he was just as excited as I was to see it.

“Rain?” I pointed to the sky. “There’s not a cloud in the sky,” I said, even though there was, just not a lot. Definitely no thick gray rain clouds.

“The water, it’s called rain in Ardennes.”

“So what do they call actual rain, like the kind that falls from the sky?”

“It’s still rain. This is just gathered rain. Or sometimes they call it rainwater. But it’s the same thing.”

I shook my head, “Whatever.”

“It should be safe to drink,” he said, as we moved down the hill.

The closer we got, the fewer trees there were around us. The hill down wasn’t as steep as the other side of it, but gravity still pulled at me and I soon was jogging down it, racing toward the water, excitement pounding through my veins.

“Drink?” I scoffed. “I want to swim,” I swooned.

I turned to him and saw him watching me, like I was a riddle he was trying to decipher. I smiled as my legs moved faster. I ran in front of him, flying down the hill as wind tore through my hair.

“I’m gonna win…” I teased.

His laugh nearly tripped me up. I glanced behind me. He was running, like seriously running hard, arms pumping at his sides and everything. But his eyes were sparkling, and his smile lit up the darker angles of his normally grumpy face.

The water was closer, closer. It was so close I had to stop because it wasn’t actually blue at all. It was green. Completely green. Like moss lined the entire underneath of it. Algae must’ve covered every inch of it. It wasn’t green like murky, mold green. But almost the exact same color as the brilliant green leaves hanging from all the trees.

And then I was at the bottom of the hill, stopping at a cliff. The water rippled maybe five or ten feet down as the breeze tickled it.

Alec whooshed right by me and jumped.

His, “Whoop! Yeah…” rang out, echoing through the trees before the green water swallowed him whole.

I stood at the edge, my heart thumping and trying to calm after the run, but not quite able to, due to the pure excitement and general freaked-out-ness that comes with the weirdness of this place. My breathing was hard and fast. My hair was slick to my forehead and clung to the back of my neck.

It was so hot and sticky I wanted to jump in after him. I really did. But it was green. I would get sick, and there were probably a number of diseases growing in the stagnant water. Leeches. Snakes. Maybe even alligators or something.

His head popped up and his loose hair flung water all around his head framing his giant smile.

“Scared…?” he teased. “Is the big bad, badass Lily, the one who has this master plan to kill admittedly evil people, too afraid to swim in a lake?”

I flinched at the backhanded insult, and glared down at him.

“Not scared,” I answered. “Smart. I’m not gonna help pull the leeches off your butt when you get out, you know.”

He laughed again, a deep, real laugh that pulled the corners of my lips up.

“Don’t lie. You’d love the chance to touch my butt.”

I rolled my eyes. “Hope a snake doesn’t take a bite outta
your
snake.” My smile had grown, almost to the size of his.

“If one did, it would be one happy creature, right before I killed it.”

“Ugh, whatever.”

He laughed again. “Bwok, bwok… Chicken,” he sang at me.

“I’m not scared, you idiot. I don’t wanna get eaten alive by the animals and disease in there. That water is freaking green.”

He laughed again.

“Ahhh,” he sighed as he splashed his face. “Oh. My. Gosh. It feels so good,” he sang to himself, just barely loud enough for me to hear.

He dipped under the water again, and popped his head back up, again sighing.

“Stop rubbing it in, Alec. You can enjoy the wonderful, cool water all you want, but you’re gonna be sad when a snake tries to eat you. Or better yet, there’s probably a Loch Ness Monster in there, just waiting to sink its teeth into you.”

He laughed again, before going back under the water.

From where I was, up on the cliff, I could see his lithe body move through the water. He was a strong swimmer, which surprised me for some reason. I mean, it makes sense that he could swim. I can, so why couldn’t he? I guess I just thought maybe he wouldn’t be able to or something because he was Sylph.

He swam to the very edge of the cliff and just as his head emerged, so did the tips of his wings. He went back down, his almost transparent wings sliding through the water behind him, before coming up again. He jumped, and surfaced in a gust of air and water and beauty.

His wings didn’t appear to flap at all as he flew up from the water and above my head. They fluttered a tiny bit before his feet landed just beside mine.

“Holy Crap!” I shouted at him, and scooted far away. “You have… you have a leech on your face.”

He didn’t, of course. Not like a bug of any kind wouldn’t want to suck on him a little, but I was playing it up. My face probably looked super disgusted and terrified, as I skittered away from him like he had leprosy.

One of his eyebrows shot up in awesome Dwayne Johnson style. “No leeches in the Empyrean, sorry.”

“Then what is
that
on your face?!” I demanded, not willing to give in yet.

He rolled his eyes, but I saw his lips quirk. He was gonna laugh at me. My eyebrows came down as I gave up on my endeavor to somehow terrify him. He better not laugh at me. Laughing is good. I love laughing, and I want to. I love his laugh. But laugh with me, not at me.

In the blink of an eye, he crossed the yard between us, and wrapped his arms around me. I barely got a chance to feel the cool wetness dripping off his arms and soaking into mine, the water that drenched his entire torso and adhered to mine as he pressed his body against me, the feel of all of him against all of me…

Before my feet left the ground and somehow the ground wasn’t under me anymore. Nothing was. Except- there it was- water.

I quickly sucked in a deep breath.

Cool water surrounded me. From my kicking feet, up to the sweat behind my knees, to my butt, stomach… all of me. My head went under. Immediate relief.

I came back up and gulped in the air. Water splashed my face as he jumped in beside me.

“I can’t believe you threw me in.”

He laughed. “You’re welcome.”

“Really no leeches?”

“Really.”

“Alligators? Snakes or monsters?”

He shook his head, “Nope.”

“Why is it green?” I said, my anger completely replaced by a complete sense of awesome contentment and a general feeling of ease and relief as the sweat was removed from my skin, and I stopped emanating heat like an oven.

“All the rain in Ardennes is green.”

I laid back and let my arms drift up above my head, as I floated on my back.

“It really does feel wonderful.”

“Yeah,” he answered from somewhere off to my right.

“This place is so weird. But…” I took a deep breath, inhaling the beauty and lively air around me, “I think I like it.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I do too.”

Several hours later we climbed out and switched clothes while our wet ones dried. I really did feel better. My skin wasn’t so nasty, and I almost felt clean. Which was sad, considering I just swam in green water, and that made me feel clean. Lack of a good shower was some serious stuff and was totally messing with my definition of the word: clean.

“We should just rest here. We can swim again tomorrow morning before we leave. I doubt we’ll find another lake before we reach the Central Village.”

“Okay.”

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

I shook my head, “Nothing.” But I still looked down, trying to figure out what exactly I was feeling. I knew, of course. But I didn’t really feel like sharing. Alec was finally not angry and I didn’t want to ruin it.

“You lie,” he accused.

“No I don’t, nothing is wrong, so just drop it.” Guilt gnawed at me. I laughed and played today, splashing and jumping and swimming. And not at all looking for my parents killers. Not moving forward.

“Fine.”

I watched him as his smile faded and his ignore-Lily-face appeared.

Sighing I laid back and watched the wind blow the clouds from one side of the sky to the other.