JOURNEY INTO THE REALM: The Spell Master (Journey into the Realm Series) (37 page)

***

I couldn’t see much when I opened my eyes. At first, my vision was blurry and I couldn’t identify my location. As my dizziness subsided, I recognized my environment. The vision had come true. I was in the dark room.

I remembered the girl from my vision and listened for any sign of life nearby. Sure enough, I could hear slow and shallow breaths. I wanted to get up to search for her, but a sudden pain in my head kept me seated against the wall. Counting slowly to ten, trying to regain my bearings, I wondered if I had some kind of concussion. I maneuvered my hand across the back of my head until my fingers rested over a distinct bump. When I took my hand away, I could smell blood. I moaned and closed my eyes. If I couldn’t stand, I would sleep instead.

I woke up sometime later – I was in terrible pain and too weak to tell the time – so I returned to the depths of my slumber. There was nothing else to do. I couldn’t move and didn’t wish to speak.

I repeated this process multiple times. I had no sense of what was going on, furthering my belief that I had a concussion. My head throbbed and I continued to experience weakness and dizzy spells. Pain had also spread violently to my back, sometimes causing me to pant heavily or jerk from the sudden sharpness. My whole body was tingling with a mixture of agony and exhilaration. I dared not move much, afraid that I wouldn’t be able to handle more pain than I was already experiencing.

The hours flew by, but eventually I woke to a voice murmuring faintly not far away. My eyes flickered open, and I clenched my hands into fists. I sat paralyzed with fear. Had Ellie come back to finish the job?

“Hey you, Odd Girl, wake up,” a voice called to me.

I turned my head to see a frail, slender elfen only a few feet away, surveying me fixedly. Her long black hair hung down to her waist, looking like it hadn’t been brushed recently, although I could tell it was beautiful nonetheless.

She had a pretty face, but it was also gaunt, and she had a scar on her lower lip that in a certain light made her look like she had a permanent smirk on her face. The elfen wore tattered brown pants and a shirt of the same color and condition. Her body looked fragile, as if she might break if I touched her. Other than that, she was the average elfen beauty, not that elves could ever be considered average. She had vivid dark green eyes that showed strength and passion, so dark they were almost black. But they gleamed, even in the dim light.

Despite her weak state, she looked like a warrior. Her slightly pointed nose and slender face reminded me of the shape-shifters in Queen Taryn’s guard.

“Odd Girl, can you speak?” she asked, a hint of annoyance in her tone.

“Stop calling me that,” I croaked. My throat was dry and hoarse. I desperately yearned for water.

“Then talk to me,” she suggested.

“Okay,” I said, giving in to her request.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“What’s yours?” I replied.

“I asked first, Odd Girl.”

“If you don’t stop calling me that, I won’t speak at all,” I told her bitterly, in no mood to converse with someone so inconsiderate. Couldn’t she see the state I was in?

“Then give me a real name to call you,” she retorted.

My, she is a feisty one
, I thought. I wondered if I would start behaving that rudely after spending as much time in this dark room as she apparently had. I sighed. “Fine, have it your way. My name is Ramsey.”

“I’m Emera,” she replied. “But you can call me Em.”

I sighed. “I would say that it’s nice to meet you, but under the circumstances….”

“I understand completely,” she said.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“Fire Prison, the largest and worst of the Element Fairy Realm. There are four prisons in this Realm. Earth is the smallest, then Air, then Water, and then Fire Prison, where the most dangerous criminals and most important hostages are incarcerated.”

“This is the Element Fairy Realm?”

“Yes, the very heart of the Element Fairy Realm to be exact,” Em explained pointedly.

“Great…,” I groaned.

“Hey, it could be worse. You could be dead.”

“Yeah, that’s a lot worse,” I said sarcastically. “So are you a dangerous criminal or an important hostage?”

“Hostage,” she replied curtly. “Same as you.”

Silence grew between us. I was grateful. I didn’t feel much like talking.

“Why are you so strange?” she asked suddenly.

Taken aback by her comment, I had to hesitate before replying to her question. “What do you mean, strange?”

She scanned me entirely from top to bottom; her scrutinizing glances immediately made me feel meager and uncomfortable. “You haven’t noticed how you look?” she asked.

“What’s wrong with how I look?” I asked, offended by her statement.

“You are some kind of unusual creature. You’re an elfen…but you’re not,” she pointed out.

I narrowed my eyes and put all of my frustration into my expression. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked bitterly.

“You have golden streaks in your hair.”

I bit my lip. Why had Nathan’s spell vanished? Was it something to do with my concussion?

“And you have
wings
.”

I gasped. “
Wings
?”

“Yes, golden wings…on your back,” Em informed me. “They are absolutely gorgeous, by the way, but still strange.”

I turned my head. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the sparkling gossamer wings on my back. They shimmered with golden light and sparkled like millions of tiny fireflies. No wonder I could see Em so clearly in the dark room. I stood up, stunned by this realization. I closed my eyes to chase away dizziness brought on by moving so quickly. When my blurry vision cleared, I turned to inspect my new features.

My wings were sort of…peculiar, not what I expected. I had gazed only upon the wings of other types of fairies: Elvina’s lovely diaphanous gossamer wings, shaped like round, shimmering flower petals; Lura’s sky-colored spears, like the slender wings of butterflies; Finn’s monstrous appendages, flickering with the steady pulse of scorching flames, reaching out to caress whatever prey was lurking nearby with a veil of disastrous fire. His were like a dragon’s, both enthralling and ominous. Ellie’s, I realized in that very moment, were the same.

During those brief moments with my mother, I hadn’t taken time to truly notice the wings spanning out behind her, framing her golden body like a comforting embrace. I guess I was too awestruck by what I had learned just moments before – that I, too, was fae – and adding my mother to the mix hadn’t exactly made the scene easier to absorb.

I knew right away that my wings were different, that Golden fairies were unique compared to other fae. Of course I had been told so numerous times – that Golden fairies were the most fascinating creatures. But I hadn’t exactly believed this until the proof was right in front of me. Or, rather, right
behind
me, a part of me.

My wings didn’t remind me of dragons or butterflies or flower petals. And for a reason I couldn’t explain, I didn’t have to see them to know their every shape, color, and contour. I just
knew
.

The design resembled the wings of a dragonfly, slender but rounded, the frames and branching veins swathed in gold. Two wings on each side, the top two extending sideways just short of each arm, the bottom two, positioned diagonally, ending only a foot or so from the ground. Thin tendrils of what I could only describe as pure light curled over my shoulders, lacing themselves within my golden-streaked hair; others emerged between my top wings and my bottom wings, snaking outward and curling at the edges like looping cursive writing.

I reached around and gently felt the thin gossamer with my fingertips, marveling at the physical change my body had undergone in such a short time. So many months had led up to this, and now, to have them firmly situated on my back, I could barely comprehend the addition. “How did I get wings?” I asked, still astonished.

“How should I know?” Em rebuked.

“The question was more to myself than to you,” I explained.

“There you go being so odd again!” she cried, gesturing her hands toward me in an emotion I couldn’t place. Annoyance? Confusion? Astonishment? I couldn’t peg one in particular.

“Cut it out. This isn’t easy for me,” I told her honestly. I wanted to feel blessed about my wings, but I found it extremely difficult to feel anything but misery while stuck in this dreary, horrible place.

“You mean you weren’t like this before you were taken here?” she asked, gesturing to my golden appendages.

“No. I’m sure of it,” I assured her.

“What’s wrong with you?” Em asked.

I sighed.
This girl sure knows how to be subtle
, I thought sarcastically to myself.

“I guess you can know,” I decided. “It’s not like telling you will prevent me from getting out of here. I’m half-elfen and half-Golden fairy. My mother is Rosina, Queen Titania’s younger sibling. My father was an elf.”

“Incredible,” she said.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“So that’s why you are here. You can end the war!” she exclaimed almost joyfully, jostling my shoulder with her hand. I winced from the waves of pain it sent to my already killer headache. Em needed to calm down, or I was going to get upset and whip an attack spell at her.

I groaned. “Why does
everyone
keep saying that?”

“Because it’s true! You can make Queen Titania end the turmoil once and for all, especially since she is your aunt,” Em added.

“I don’t believe one elfen can do that,” I retorted ruefully.

“You’re not just one elfen, Ramsey. You’re also a royal Golden fairy,” she reminded me. “Your influence could save both the Elf Realm and the Element Fairy Realm.”

“That’s not important right now. I can’t save anyone if I’m stuck here. Why didn’t they just kill me?” I wondered aloud.

“The Element fairies probably want to use you as leverage. My guess is that they will use you to convince Queen Taryn to end the war; you know, give up.”

“I’m leverage…
great
.”

“I know how you feel. I’ve been leverage for seventeen years,” Em mentioned.

“You’ve been here for seventeen years? That’s horrible,” I sympathized.

“You’re telling me,” she muttered.

“Why?” I asked.

“Why what?”

“Why have you been leverage for so long?” I knew I was probably speaking out of turn, but my generally polite attitude had faded the first time she called me Odd Girl.

“I’m important to the Elf Realm,” she stated.

“How so?” I prompted, realizing she wasn’t going to elaborate without persuasion.

“My mother was Lady Luisia, younger sister of King Lore,” she told me.

“So Queen Taryn is your aunt.”

Em nodded. “Yes. Technically, I’m a royal.”

I looked at Em for a moment, wondering if I could notice any resemblance between her and Queen Taryn, or her and Brielle, her cousin. But Emera had her own kind of exotic looks. I could barely detect any form of similarities, except maybe the shape of her chin and that fierce, determined look in her eyes.

I sighed. “I have to admit, I did
not
see that one coming.”

“Not your everyday occurrence, huh?” she speculated.

“No,” I told her. “What happened to you?”

“The attack happened seventeen years ago. My father was a casualty of war, so my mother and I lived close to the palace under my uncle’s protection, on the outskirts of Tarlore in a beautiful cabin. Lord Dolan, have you heard of him?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Queen Taryn’s brother. He disappeared years ago.”

Em smiled ruefully. “Seventeen years ago, actually.” Before I could interrupt, she continued. “Lord Dolan often accompanied King Lore on his visits to our home. The King wanted to make sure my mother was comfortable, and Lord Dolan was like a father to us. The two sympathized with our plight. Losing my father had changed my mother. She couldn’t raise me properly on her own. During one of these visits, Element fairies suddenly broke into our house and took us by surprise. The King tried to stop them, but he was killed in the fray.”

“Wait, that’s how the King died? I knew he was killed during the war, but no one ever gave me specifics.”

“Yes. I remember Queen Taryn being with child at the time. Do you know if the baby was healthy?” Em wondered.

I smiled. “Yeah, healthy and sixteen now. Her name is Brielle.”

Em sighed. “I would have liked to meet her,” she said wistfully. Then she remembered her story was unfinished. “The fairies took us – my mother, Lord Dolan, and I – into the Element Fairy Realm. I shared a cell with my mother, and Lord Dolan had his own. We were so grief-stricken and terrified that we barely ate what little food they gave us.

“After one month, the guards informed my mother and me that Lord Dolan was being taken to King Vortigern. He would be used as leverage to stop the war. We were frightened. We knew that after they were done with him, they would kill him. We would surely be next. My mother died the very next day. I wasn’t sure if it was because of her fear or lack of nourishment. After that, I had to endure on my own. The fairies were cruel; they would beat me and starve me, trying to see if I had any information for them.

“Another month went by and the guards came with more news. Lord Dolan had escaped into the Elf Realm, and no one could find him. I was happy that he was alive, but I knew he would never come for me. It would be too dangerous.

“After he escaped, they moved me into this cell and claimed me as their
new
and only remaining leverage. Since then I have been used as a bargaining tool for the Element fairies. When they want soldiers taken hostage by the elves returned, they threaten to kill me. When they want elves off their land, they make more threats against me. The only thing they can’t use me for is to win the war. I’m not valuable enough. Queen Taryn won’t give up. Over the years I’ve tried ending my life more times than I dare admit. But they refuse to let me die.”

“How have you survived all this?” I asked, completely baffled by the strength this young elfen possessed.

“I suppose after so many failed attempts, I’ve realized that I’m not meant to die here. Deep down, I still have hope that one day I will leave this place,” she admitted.

“I’m so sorry, Em. What you’ve gone through…I can’t imagine how horrible it has been.”

Em nodded, and even though she wasn’t showing much emotion on the outside, I knew she was reliving all the pain she had carried throughout her life on the inside. I looked down, not able to gaze into her forlorn eyes any longer.

So many lives tainted by this horrible war…and only I could end the suffering. I couldn’t afford to be leverage like Em. I had to assume the role as the Chosen Daughter and end this thirty-year struggle.

First I needed to get out of this cell. The situation was bleak, my surroundings horrid, but I wasn’t about to give up. Looking once more at Em, seeing the determination in her gaze – I felt a strong sensation stir within me, one I thought I might never feel again.

Hope.