Sapphires and Desires (The Gem Fairy Series Book 1) (15 page)

Over the top confused, angry and wanting to be alone I stomp away by myself into the forest crying like a little baby. No one follows me. At least I don’t think so until I hear a rustle behind me. “Hello?” I ask through sniffles.

“Hello, I’m Idah.” A woman about the size of Annabelle says from up in a tree.

“My name is Laytah.” I say through sniffles just wanting to go home and be alone.

“I know, everyone knows who you are.” She says with a smile.

“You mustn’t be tromping around here without any glamour up. You’ll attract attention.” She says and I realize that Damon must’ve released the glamour he had on me. Does that mean that Blahyne’s stories are true? That Damon thinks I believe Blahyne so he’s given up on me? Left me for the wolves?

“I can’t use it,” I admit and sit on a rock. “I don’t care anyways, they can kill me.”

“Don’t talk like that and you know that nothing in this forest can kill you. Surely my King Blahyne will help you if you are too weak to use your glamour. He’s travelled all this way to find you after all. He even killed the man that took your memories. He came to save you.” She chirps.

“You’re from the Opal Court?” I ask her wiping my eyes.

“Yes, I work for the King. I’ve come with him on his trip to find you so that I could visit my sister, Annabelle. She lives here. I became part of the Opal Court after my parents were murdered. Annabelle found this woman in the forest and decided to live with her instead of becoming a rebel and coming with me. Do you know if she’s in there?” The little Brownie asks hopeful.

“She is.” I confirm and the little woman smiles as if I made her world.

“Bring her out to me, will you? I cannot cross the wards.” She says sadly.

I can’t go back there. I left to get away from there. But then I see the plea in the small woman’s face and I cave. Annabelle was nothing but kind to me while I stayed there. I owed her that much. I remember the back door and decide that’s the way I’ll go in.

“I probably can’t cross the wards either.” I conclude.

“You haven’t even crossed over it to leave yet. You are nearly standing on the border. Turn around will you?” She chimes and jumps down from the tree.

I almost laugh at myself. I guess I’d assumed that border had surrounded the yard. I hadn’t thought that maybe it extended a ways into the woods. I turn around and quietly make it to the back door, opening it.

“Princess? Is it true? Has Damon lied to us all?” Annabelle asks.

“I uh don’t know,” I stutter. Are these two not in on the whole thing with Damon? Has he lied to them as well? Obviously he’s probably not spreading his evil plans around I tell myself. “Your sister, uh Idah, is outside the border. She came with the Opal Prince to see you.”

Her face lights up and then falls.

“I can’t see her. It’s against the rules to associate with the Dark Court.” She sighs.

“Oh go see your sister!” Lenaya calls. “You should not be punished because she chose to rebel. I won’t tell a soul.”

“I mustn’t” She says sadly.

I get an idea. “Go see your sister, Annabelle. No one will tell, that’s an order.” I say.

“If you insist, princess.” The Brownie giggles and dashes from the room.

“See, dumb. As dull as a boulder!” Lenaya laughs mocking the Brownie. She doesn’t ask me about what happened outside with me and Damon and Blahyne. Instead, she sits down at the table and sips her tea while reading a piece of paper.

Then the front door opens and Damon walks in.

“Laytah, we must leave now.” He says grabbing a cup of water from the counter. ”

“Before that evil Dark King returns with more men.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” I say bluntly and begin opening the back door.

“So you
do
believe him then? A man you just met. You believe him?” He asks.

“I just met you too. So I really don’t know who to believe. If it isn’t true and you expect me to believe you, why did you remove my glamour so everyone can know I’m alive?” I ask and when he doesn’t reply I leave through the back door, slamming it behind me. He follows.

“You believe him over me?!” He scolds. I wince.

“I don’t know who to believe.” I admit again. “I want to be alone.”

“Dear, your heart will tell you what’s right. Listen to your heart. Although your mind doesn’t remember, your heart never forgets.” A voice says in my head and I nearly jump. Another fae trick, I guess. Lenaya?

As soon as I’m past the tree line, the tears return stronger than ever before as I race into the woods, past the ward, and to my looming death. Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic but really.

I try and understand what Lenaya has said. I try to feel with my heart, follow my heart. But let’s be real, what does that even mean? Is she trying to help me? Or just the opposite?

I bring a picture of Damon up in my mind and poke at my heart to see how it feels. Truthfully, the picture brings pain. Is it because he has brought pain in my last life? Because he’s truly betrayed me and deep down I know that?

I then bring up a picture of Blahyne. What do I feel? I don’t know and not knowing scares me. The feelings I have for Damon are so strong, the feeling of pain. But for Blahyne, I feel…
calm? Nothing?

I look behind me and don’t see anyone following me. Though I didn’t think I was being followed days earlier in the Amber Evers either.

Chapter 8

After running through the forest away from my problems, which I don’t suggest, for only about ten minutes I am exhausted. I stop to catch my breath on a fallen moss covered tree. I’m still crying and my dress is soaked from my tears, well that, and my sweat as it’s far too hot to be running through the scorching forest.

I grab my cellphone which I shoved in my bra before putting on my dress earlier and turn the screen on. It’s a long shot but I hope that Andaglon has cell towers. It doesn’t. I sigh. It’s getting dark and I’m not sure that I want to find out what lurks out here in the darkness. I debate whether or not I sure turn around but my stubbornness kicks in and I remain seated on the rock. My head still aches slightly from the small Opal that Blahyne gave me and the ache doesn’t help my anxiety.

Will Damon come for me? Blahyne? I don’t know. I’m torn. Had he been faking his love all along? Did he not even really love me…ever? How could I have been married to him for so long and not noticed sooner? Had I really left him for Blahyne? I stand up and continue through the forest, walking this time. Maybe walking will help sort out my thoughts. Doubt it. But it’s worth a try.

As the sun goes down I begin to grow tired. I wonder why I haven’t
awoken
the forest with my unguarded power. Damon made it sound like it was the end of the world if people knew I was alive. Could it be true that he only wanted to keep my existence hidden for his own selfish self? So that his plan wouldn’t fall through? Was my uncle even a bad person? How much of
anything
could I believe that Damon had told me?

Does he even need sex to survive or was that just a big old huck of looey? Had he just wanted to sleep with me? There’s so many questions bombarding my brain that I just want to silence them. I want to go home to see Geoff and take my exams, graduate and move on with my life. Now, I’m stuck in a strange world with not one person that I can trust, at least not for sure.

“Oh my god, where am I even going?!” I ask myself after hours of walking, it’s dark now and I haven’t even come across a house or single animal. If these woods are so dangerous how have I not been attacked or even run into anyone yet? The only light I have to help me through the dense forest is the flashlight on my phone which is nearing dead.

“I’ve been wondering that same thing for four hours, love,” The familiar deep voice of Blahyne mutters from somewhere behind me. I jump and nearly scream. How did I not hear him following me? Should I run? There’s no way I can get away from him, I can’t even see five feet in front of me, and I’ll just trip and break all my bones.

I turn to face him. “You’ve been following me?” I ask unsurprised. “Is Damon…” I start but he finishes my sentence for me.

“No…he’s run off. Of course I’ve been following you, I couldn’t let you run off with your power shining for the whole world to see, into the wilderness. Do you know how dangerous it is out here?” He scolds and suddenly there is light above us.

“Are those
fireflies
?” I ask in wonder, ignoring his question.

“In Andaglon we call them ‘flayza’, pretty aren’t they?” He asks.

I nod. The most positive thing that’s happened to me today. I look over to him. He’s standing only six or seven feet away staring at me intensely, as if in wonder. Unlike when I first met Damon, I don’t feel like running from him, or shooting him, or anything like that. Again, I feel
calm.
I wonder if Blahyne is using glamour stronger than that Damon had used but now that I am familiar with the feeling of glamour I realize that I don’t feel any around me. Is this what Lenaya was trying to tell me?

I look up at him, he’s far taller than me unlike Damon. I am now able to truly take in his beauty. Unlike Damon he’s not super short. He’s what I would depict as average height for a male. His face is covered with a fine shadow where he hasn’t shaved in a couple days. He looks older than Damon maybe by a couple years, physically of course. I wonder what kind of fae he is. I remember what the vampires looked like in Michigan and can confirm that he’s not one of them, at least I don’t think so.

“Would you be willing to take my help in finding shelter for the night?” He asks me earnestly.

I don’t know what to say. My gut screams to me to follow him but head screams to run. I’m exhausted and know that if I don’t take his help then I’m just going to sit out here all night trying not trip over branches in the pitch blackness. And it’s not like he can kill me right? He doesn’t have the sword and he isn’t my uncle.

“Yes.” I answer softly, almost silently.

He grins and nods to his right. “This way.”

The fireflies fly in front of us as we walk to shed some light on the branches so that I don’t trip. Apparently like Damon, he can see in the dark.

After walking in silence for a few minutes he laughs.

“What’s so funny?” I ask him.

“Oh just thinking of my daughter, that’s all.” He snickers. “Before I left today she informed me that she’s going to marry Bruhdle, one of my Brownies.”

It shocks me to hear that he has a daughter. I’m not sure why.

“Why is that funny?” I ask him confused. If she wants to marry a Brownie. Why can’t she? Is there rules against it?

“She’s five,” He laughs. “Last week she was going to marry Edward, my cat.”

“Oh.” I giggle, how cute. I try to imagine the little girl, does she look much like her father?

“I sometimes wonder what she’d be like as a grown woman. I can’t imagine being stuck as a child for eternity.” He whispers.

“What do you mean?” I ask him dumbfounded.

“I was born human. As was she….a long time ago. When you are made fae you immediately stop aging. Unlike when you are born fae and age until you finish going through puberty.” He informs me. Did I already know that? I couldn’t remember being told that before.

“How were you made?” I ask him curiously.

“Well, my daughter was dying from the plague. We’d already lost her mother to it and I was also quite ill. We did not live near any hospitals or care centers and couldn’t get there anyways. I took my daughter, Mary, outside to…” He goes silent for a minute. “To end it for her. To take the pain away. I planned on burying her in the pasture and then ending it for me as well. There was no hope for either of us. But as I carried her, weak and tired, a woman found us walking along the road and stopped. She asked if we needed assistance but I told her to stay back as we were ill with the plague. She didn’t listen. She told me that she could help if I wanted. That she was a healer of sorts. She said that Mary would never grow up and I would stop aging as well, but we would be alive and well. Back then, things like this were far more believed than they are now in the human world. But people who promised things like this were thought to be witches and were often killed. I didn’t think much about her words of not aging only saw that it was a chance for us to be well again. For Mary to live. I wouldn’t have to put my only daughter to rest. I didn’t have much faith in what the woman said but what did I have to lose? We woke up the next day in this land.” He tells while tossing a rock up into the air and catching it while we walk.

“You did the right thing.” I tell him trying to comfort him.

“Did I though? She’s cursed to spend life as a toddler. Her intelligence is high for a five year old, she’s lived many years, seen many things, but she will never grow old, get married, become queen, and have children of her own, grandchildren. I can’t imagine it.” He says and finally drops the rock he’s been playing with.