Have No Mercy (17 page)

The urgency for which I was being
shaken continued until I popped my eyes open. Blue eyes that were too gray
peered above me while the other hand stilled on my shoulder.

"We have to get out of
here," he whispered which didn't hide the alarm in his tone.

His eyes danced around the room
as if he expected the Fey to pop from the walls as they had done in my room the
other day.

When I didn't move, he hauled me
up with a firm grip on my arm. "There isn't time."

Once again, I got the rag doll
treatment as he dragged me out the room. He'd saved me before so I didn't
protest. However, I was surprised when we didn't continue to flee from the
entire area. He seemed content just to be out of the room as we stood by the
closed door.

"What is the problem? Is
that someone's room we are not allowed in?"

He slowly shook his head.  He was
back to managing his words.

The fog began to lift, and I
remembered my dream. Was it a dream? Cleary, I was back, and the room looked
the same in the fleeting glance I got before being dragged out. I'd been lying
on the bed like I'd been sleeping. And there was that saying about the simplest
explanation was generally the answer.

So I just got straight to the
point. "What's wrong about that room?" I pointed a finger like one
would do when in a horror movie, and you think something's behind you, a little
timid and a lot scared.

Again, Tristrom, the boy of few
words stared at me as if I should be able to read his mind.

To urge him to answer me, I asked
slowly making each word count, "What happens in that room?"

Just when I was ready to shout,
Answer
me
, he said, "All your dreams come true."

That phrase shouldn't be ominous,
but it was. Morgana had said the same but with a bright, cheery smile that
chilled me upon reflection.

Had she set me up and for what?
The dream hadn't been all that bad. I glanced up into his gray-blue eyes to ask
the question of what was so wrong about dreams coming true. I knew here in
Fairy things could be twisted, but nothing bad happened to me.

"Brother." The word
also seemed like a curse coming from those lips. I didn't have to see Larrison
to know it was him.

Tristrom went rigid. His face
pinched, and he held himself very still.

"I see you've found
her."

Tristrom said nothing, did
nothing.

"You can run along brother.
Run back to the creature you had in your bed." Larrison's words dripped
with innuendo.

I'm not sure what I'd hoped for
considering Tristrom's past behavior, but I watched him give a slow nod and
turn his back on me. He gave me a long look that I couldn't interpret then he
was gone.

Tin soldiers began to encircle
me. Tin wasn't the best way to describe them. They looked bejeweled with skin
that was faceted in many colors. They appeared ice like, almost like the
sculptures in the maze garden. Two of them clasp each of my arms just above the
elbow.

Larrison stood in front of me
with a vicious grin. Roughly he grabbed my chin, forcing me to staring straight
at him.

"Now you're mine."

Pulling at the restraint my
captures had on me was to no avail. Larrison just laughed enjoying my futile attempts.
He led the way ahead and turned a corner with his troops trailing behind him. I
was surrounded by four guards one each in front and back of me plus my two
other jailers on either side of me.

When they began to follow the
rest of the pack, I made my move. I might not have been all powerful with my
succubus to save me, but I had learned a thing or two. When the two on either
side of me moved a step ahead, I moved a step back, catching them off guard. I
pulled back with all my might and the exertion paid off. Their forward progress
and my backward motion along with the element of surprise, splintered their
icicle arms at the socket. I didn't have much time. So I barreled back,
swinging my arms wide. The tinkling of shards of ice filled the space, while I
made my final move. I kick my leg forward towards the front line of guards who
hadn't yet turned the corner. I hit their midsections one my one, and they
crumbled to the ground as I swung my leg in 360 degrees hoping to bowl down
anyone left.

They were all lying on the ground
broken. I wasn't sure if they could put themselves together or how long before
Larrison noticed. So I took off heading anywhere but there.

Around the first corner, I ran
head first into Tristrom's chest. Had he watched the whole thing? He didn't
bother with words, such his style. He took off leaving me to follow. He
continued to be an enigma, but he was certainly the better option. A few more
turns down halls that looked exactly like the last and we ducked into a dimly
lit room.

I took a moment to catch my
breath as Tristrom surveyed our surrounding. I couldn't read his facial
expressions because there was barely any light to see. As far as I could tell,
we were in a large bathroom much like the one I'd been taken to on our first day
in Fairy. I could feel his eyes burn into me but when I faced him, I could only
make out dark orbs.

"Trust me." His words
were said like an exhale of breath. I couldn't be sure if he were making a
statement or asking a question.

Then in the faint light I saw him
raise his hand. Light burst forth and formed an arc that then became a doorway
of light I was familiar with.

The light lit up his features,
and he indicated with his other hand that I should go through. There was always
a choice. And even with the appearance of Tristrom's cowardliness on several
occasions, there was also his heroism as well. I chose to trust him and stepped
through the portal he created, hoping I’d done the right thing.

I stepped into a forest of color
and trees. For a second, I thought he'd brought me to the Elven mountain as I'd
come to think of it. But then I recognized the structures out past the
clearing. I stood at a different vantage point than the last time I'd been
here, but I recognized it all the same.

There was movement behind me, and
I glanced back to see Tristrom hadn't left me to my own fate, he'd followed me.

"Hungry?" he asked
stepping closer.

Of course, my stomach growled at
that moment. I wasn't sure how long I'd been in the Fey realm as compared to
human days, but a bite of food sounded excellent.

He held a stretched hand palm up
suggesting I go forward.

"Is it safe?"

Although he'd taken me out of
Fairy, we were still in the thick of it. The little Fey town that had easily
invited Flynn and me when we first got to Scotland had also betrayed us in a
way as well. Part of me wanted to step out the bubble and find somewhere to eat
among humans, and then the other remembered the danger that had lurked on the
other side. Sebastian.

He nodded once. I stepped forward
and past the cover of trees and into the town. I followed Tristrom into
different building than the one we had before. A quick check of my wrist showed
an hourglass filled approximately a quarter of the way. There was still plenty
of time.

I stepped into what felt like a
Tavern. Everything was made of dark wood and lighting wasn't the focus. The
smells however had me nearly panting with need. He found an empty table in the
back. The place was packed, and the noise was loud much like the other tavern.
The patrons barely glanced at Tristrom, but me they found interesting. So I
quickened my steps and took the seat that faced away from the majority of
people as Tristrom stood gentlemanly allowing me to sit first.

He sat opposite and leaned across
the table to speak so he could be heard without yelling. I waited a moment
while he gathered his words.

"They know your human, but
they'll think you're my catch. Go with it."

I nodded. A fairy waitress with
bright green hair and equally as green eyes came over and studied Tristrom for
a second before surveying me. I glanced away. I couldn't be sure of her Fey
power and didn't want to give her a reason to suspect us of anything.

"We'll have two
cheeseburgers with chips."

There was such a long pause; I
finally glanced up to see Tristrom asking me without words if I was okay with
his choice. I nodded, and he nodded at the waitress.

"Why here?" I asked
once the waitress was far enough away.

He sighed heavily. The only way I
knew he’d done so was by the deep rise and fall of his shoulders, not by the
sound that was swallowed up in the noisy pub.

Resting forearms on the table,
and he leaned in again. "We needed an escape and I wasn't sure how far you
would go without your companion."

Tristrom was certainly a thinker
and probably a planner. He was right. I couldn’t just abandon Flynn no matter
what the state of our friendship or his choice. At the very least, I owed him
the knowledge that I was leaving and the opportunity for him to change his mind
and join me.

"I don't get it," I
said. I didn't rush my words because I knew he wouldn't jump in and say
something before I had a chance to. "You left me in Larrison's
hands."

His head dropped slightly after
he closed his eyes. We weren't in imminent danger. So I tried to hold my
impatience while he decided what he wanted to say.

He lifted his head and spoke.
"If Larrison were to know that I was in any way helping you, he would make
sure to prevent that I ever had the opportunity to do it again."

It made sense. But so did several
other possible reasons.

"Which brings me back to why
you are helping me?"

I'd asked this question before
but with what felt like more time, I hoped he'd give me a better answer.

Time ticked on as he
contemplated.

"You don't deserve to be a
pawn in their game. You should have the right to choose your own destiny."

He didn't wave off my questions
as piled up in my head like MineCraft building blocks. I pondered what to ask
next. Some questions however seemed more important than others at the moment.

I leaned in and asked, "What
scares you about that room?" Because there was fear in his eyes when he'd
woken me up and rushed me out.

His eyes went distant as he
looked at me but through me, he probably saw a reflection of his thoughts in
the space I occupied. While waiting for him, I ended up doing my own soul
searching. We had a finite amount of time. We couldn't linger there forever. If
that were in fact an outside post to lure unsuspecting humans into Fairy, they
would expect Tristrom to act at some point leading me down the path and into
the tunnel.

Because I was in my own head, I
was startled when he finally spoke.

"The room is meant for
punishment just as much as it is for pleasure."

I couldn't imagine the
punishment. While I didn't think consciously I'd wanted to see Flynn with my
best friend, I did want them both happy. And otherwise, all my wishes and even
those of my friends until the end, seemed to be filled in that room.

"So it's not an alternative
realm or anything. It was only a dream, all in my head?"

Again, he surprised me. His words
came on the heels of mine as if he anticipated any follow up questions I might
have had.

"Something like that."

"I don't think I
understand."

This time there was a beat before
his careful words escaped his lips. "That room does create all your
dreams. It transforms into whatever your heart desires. It's more than a dream;
it's a reality where you can touch and feel. The punishment is that you won't
want to leave. You can lose yourself there and wither away if no one were to
come for you. You can get lost and never be found."

There was more I wanted to ask on
the subject, but there were more important topics to cover while I still had
time.

"You don't feel like one of
them."

He shook his head in response.

"So why are you there?"

He leveled his eyes on me,
measuring the risk in telling me the truth, I imagined.

"I." He cleared his
throat and began again. "I spent most of my life in the human realm having
no idea that I was any different than my friends."

Wasn't this my line? But I didn't
cut in. He didn't know my origins, and I didn't think it was time to mention
them.

"On my seventeenth birthday,
a woman who claimed to be my mother introduced herself to me." He looked
over my shoulder, but I knew the only thing behind me was the high back of the
bench that nearly reach the ceiling giving the booth a sense of privacy.

"She said it was time for me
to come home. Her father was dead, and it was safe for me, her son and heir to
the throne to be back in the bosom of my kind." He glanced at me.
"Her words not mine." He glanced away again.

Shifting emotions played over his
face. He was still at war with himself on how much to reveal to me.

"What happened?" I
urged.

After a lengthy pause he said,
"I told her I was happy with my life as it was. I told her I was in love
with a girl, and I didn't want to leave. She told me she'd give me a week to
think about it. But a few days later..." His face closed in on anguish
that I could tell branded his soul deeply. His voice broke into a thousand
shards. "And my girl was just... gone." He scrubbed his face with his
hands and then peered right into my eyes. "When my mother showed her face
again, her only words in regards to my news, was it's for the best."

He pounded his fist like a gavel
on the table. "So I told her she could keep her offer that I had better
one. Staying with my adoptive parents wasn't an option. I was implicated my
girlfriend's disappearance for I have been the last one see her. So when my
father showed up and offered me another solution, I went with him."

Everything made sense to me. But
how could I explain it to a boy with a broken heart. It was clear to me that
he’d been used by the Fey. Their timing had been stellar. And the Elven Queen
and her stoic and cold demeanor at played into the hands of his father and
Queen Madeline. Her response and phrasing to the loss of his love had been born
of logic not emotion. And Tristrom having been sheltered smelled what he
thought was truth from a lie. That was going to make my convincing him to go
back to his mother a lot harder.

Our food arrived moments after
the finale of this statement. We were presented with silver discs topped with
burgers with all the trimming and steak cut fried potatoes. Apparently chips
were fries and not Doritos or Lay’s.

On impulse, before our waitress
left, I asked, "Can I have another to go?"

Her eyes rolled and landed on
Tristrom. He nodded his approval, and she left without a word.

He gave me a raised eyebrow, and
I clued him in on my thoughts. "For Flynn."

“Is this okay to eat?’ I asked.
“Because I heard humans shouldn’t eat Fey food.

The wait for him to answer was
harder that time. My stomach practically roared its frustration that I hadn’t
fed it. Up until then, the hungry was at bay. Not anymore.

“They serve human food here. It
would be against the rules otherwise. Humans must go into Fairy of their own
free will with no influence. The human creator or God, as he's called, wouldn’t
allow passage between realms otherwise.”

It was logical. We didn't talk
for a while afterward because I was busy inhaling my food. My stomach filled
quickly, and when my plate was almost cleared, I attempted some damage control.

"Have you ever thought that
maybe it wasn't your mother, but the Fey that may have taken your girlfriend
from you."

I could see the gears turning his
head quickly went on with my thought.

"Based on my experience so
far, although the Fey can't lie they do a damn good job of manipulation. How do
you know that they didn't use your mother is a scapegoat to get you to come
here for some purpose?"

He put down his half-eaten
sandwich while I stared at the few fries left on my plate.

"I’ve done nothing but think
about that for the last two years?”

So that’s how long he’d been in
Fairy, at least in Fey time.

“But why? They detest me."
He didn't look convinced. "You didn't see her and hear how she spoke as if
humans were beneath her."

"Lacking human emotions
doesn't make one a killer.” Frustrated, I added, “I don’t even understand why
they want Flynn and me? What are the real reasons behind Madeline’s bargain
with Flynn? It’s not like there are not enough attractive Fey males. Why do
they need him to make babies with?”

The idea that he could be with
Morgana right now working on that made me want to hurl.

When Tristrom answered, I could
see the dark knowledge he held. “I know why.”

I didn’t need to yell tell me; he
spoke all on his own. “Fairy is dying.”

My back straightened. I leaned
back in the bench seat feeling like for once, I was going to find out the whole
truth to a question I had.

“Winter used to be more than the
castle the Fey reside in. The lands were filled with Fey for hundreds of miles.
But now, they die off and return to the fields.”

“The fields?”

“Yes, when they die, they become
part of nature again. Most go to the fields so they can commiserate with others
that have been lost. The blue fields of Winter and the red fields of Summer
only used to be small parcels of lands. They say now it has grown beyond the
vantage point of the eye.”

“I think I saw them when we
entered Fairy.”

He nodded. I thought about the
anguished cries of the little guys as we stepped our way across them.

“The Fey get power from human’s
belief in magic. As technology takes hold, more and more humans rely on science
as a basis for truth. This lack of reinforced power is being blamed for why the
Fey no longer reproduce with one another. Even with humans, it can be hard. The
royal Fey have a better chance as magic fills them more than the rest. Because
you and your companion believe, the chance that you can procreate with them is
higher. They not only need the young to repopulate and help continue the power
that keeps the realm alive, they need them to cross over to Earth to find ways
of getting this human generation and the next to believe.”

His eyes held mine as if he
wanted to say more.

“Say it,” I stated.

“The first to produce a child in
the Winter court will be crowned heir to the Winter.”

“Larrison is determined to have
you bear his child despite Queen Mab’s bargain with your companion.”

It all made sense. Of course,
that’s why Larrison hadn’t given up on me despite my repeated disdain for him.
And Morgana helping me also was so she could try to get Flynn to ensure she was
the heir. Getting rid of me killed two birds, Larrison would have me and Flynn
wouldn’t be distracted by me.

“Maybe that is why they wanted
you in Fairy too?” I questioned.

He shook his head and was quick
with a response. “No Fey wanted me. And I had no desire for any of them. My
heart belongs to only one.”

“They had no idea how you would
react when you got there.” I didn’t mention how the Fey females would take him
because I thought it was a load of crap their snobbery. “They needed a warm
body and you have royal blood.”

So did Flynn as Madeline
mentioned. Maybe that’s why she wanted Flynn to get her daughter with child and
not me.

 He sat pensively before nodding.
I was getting somewhere. So I continued on, “You have the power to leave, yet
you stay. You must believe her to be dead if you haven’t gone looking for her.”

He didn’t deny anything, he just
held very still.

“And if she is,” I began as if
treading on water. “I can’t imagine she’d want you to pine for her forever. If
she loved you too, she would want you to be happy. And I’ve seen you around
Molly. You like her.”

My words were like an echo in my
head. They came back to me, and my advice pointed back at myself. Luke wouldn’t
have liked the choices that I'd made. He would've wanted me to live life to the
fullest and Flynn too. He had martyred himself for us both. And selfishly I
wanted that honor for me as much as Flynn wanted the same whether I knew it or
not. A tear wormed its way through my defenses and made a splash on the table's
edge.

Alarm that filled most boys faces
faced with a crying girl. "Why are you crying?"

So I told him some basic truths.
A gave him the skinny on Luke’s death omitting the supernatural aspects. I told
him Luke was murdered by some really bad people and how I hadn’t gotten the
chance to say goodbye. I even schooled him on my feelings for Flynn, his best
friend and how conflicted I was. I’d given him the truth that Flynn and I
weren’t married. It was a risk, but wasn’t everything. He’d proven himself a
friend. And it probably wasn't fair to dump on him. But I needed to unburden
myself and at the same time gain his trust and get him on my side.

"So you understand some of
what I'm going through?"

I nodded. I caught sight of the
waitress headed in our direction so I buttoned up until she tossed a bag that
smelled wonderfully like the burger I'd just eaten unceremoniously on our
table.

After she departed, I said while
beginning to get up, "I think it's time to go back."

He appeared taken aback. I
guessed he hadn't expected those words from me. He didn't move, just glanced up
at me. "Why? Why would you want to go back?"

"I can't just leave him
there." I didn't define him. He knew exactly to whom I was speaking of.

"What if he doesn't want to
leave?" I shouldn't have been surprised by his words. Flynn had already
shared his views on the subject of his departure. He wanted to stay. But how
did Tristrom know that. I was about to asked until he dropped a bomb.
"He's already begun eating the food."

That stopped me cold. I lowered
myself back into the seat afraid of the words he'd already used. "How do
you know?"

"I saw him with an
apple." That was hardly definitive proof, but he added, "I saw him
bite into it and swallow."

I went through the cycle of
emotions very quickly. First, I denied all of it in my head. Flynn knew better
than to eat food in Fairy. He wouldn't do that. I didn't have time to give
voice to those thoughts when anger bubbled up. I couldn't believe him. Why was
he doing this for a girl he barely knew? The answer to that question was my own
guilt. If I'd never come here, he wouldn't be in this mess. That only gave way
to a flash flood of hurt and sorrow that I might actually lose him too. And
just as I was slipping into despair, I gave myself a pep talk. If you truly
love someone, sometimes you had to let them go.

"Still," I began.
"I can't leave without saying goodbye."

I couldn't lose any person I
cared about without at least that much. There were things I needed to say,
least of which was an apology. Plus, there was another thing I had to do before
I left.