by Nika Gray
“Hello there,” I said. I’d found my pixie. She had large oval eyes on a pale pinched face. She stood in a small doorway in the trunk of a large oak tree.
“Come in here. I can keep you safe,” she said and motioned to me to go inside her little home.
The battalion was getting closer. I could hear them crashing through the trees. They were not attempting to be stealthy in any way.
“I’m too big,” I said and gesturing to my size.
“Oh, silly. I can fix that,” she said with a giggle and waved her webbed fingers towards me.
A cool sensation swept through my body. Before I knew it, I was standing face-to-face with her. She had large blue eyes and a long pointy nose.
“You’ll be safe in here,” she said.
I followed her inside her tiny wooden home. Her furniture was made of sticks and leaves. A small bed sat to the side, covered in a soft woolen blanket. The entire room smelled of freshly baked bread.
“Thank you so much for helping me. I have been looking for a creature like you for hours. My name is Sadie. What's yours?” I asked.
“My name is Abby. I'm so happy to meet you. I haven't seen a Fae around these parts in ages,” she said.
“How did you know I was a Fae?” I asked.
“Your aura, silly. Although I have to say, it's an aura I've never seen from any of the four kingdoms. You have a unique color. I like it though. It's kind of wild,” she said.
“What do you mean by aura?” I asked.
“A color emanates from you. What is your favorite fire color?” she asked. I opened up my palm and let my ruby red fire swirl around in my hand.
“That’s so fascinating. Your Fae fire is brilliant red, but your aura is shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow put together. I have never seen anything like it.”
“Fascinating,” I said although I wasn’t sure how that information could help me. “Do you know these woods well?”
“I've lived here all my life,” Abby said.
“Have you ever been in a clearing with a rock in a grove of trees that feels somehow different? Like more powerful and alive?” I asked.
Abby clicked at me. “You know the forest is alive all the time. The trees talk to each other through their roots and living creatures live above and in the ground. It's a whole world out here, you know,” she said, sounding offended.
“Oh no, I didn't mean it that way. My dream shows me looking at a large rock in a grove of trees. I’m only half. The other half attached itself to something in this forest.”
“How did you get split in half?” Abby asked as she went over to her small fire, a black cauldron hanging above it.
“When the veil closed. I was moving through the veil when the magic spell hit. It tore me in two.”
“That must have hurt,” she said and ladled out some soup for me. She placed it on the wooden dining room table along with a piece of bread.
“It did. I think,” I said.
“I know of the place you speak about. Lots of mages sleep there every night. They seem to like it. It will be heavily guarded though,” she said and sat down.
“Come. Eat. Share my food,” she said. I knew the stories of pixies offering food to humans and putting spells on them. I wasn’t human though, and the soup smelled delicious.
“Thank you,” I said and dug in. “How many mages are in that clearing any particular day?”
“Five groups. So maybe twenty in total? They camp out there all the time. A strange magic constantly opens small rips in the veil, and they are there to patch them up.”
“Little rips?” I asked, surprised.
“That’s what I heard them say, at least,” Abby said.
“That must be the place. Can you get me there?” I asked.
“Do you want to leave so soon?” Abby said, pouting. “I rarely get to see any friends and it's so nice to have somebody over to my house. Eat first. Then we go.”
“This soup is so good. Walnut?” I asked and took a bite of the bread. I sipped the soup.
“I’m so glad you like it?” she said.
“That was delicious,” I said as a deep warmth came over me. Oh no, I thought. She’d poisoned me, after all. My head fell onto my chest.
I must have only been asleep for mere minutes. When I came too, I was still sitting at the small table. When the pixie saw me, she screwed up her face and howled. My hands flew to my ears, worried she’d damage my eardrums.
“How could it not have worked? How could it not have worked?” she screamed as she threw things around her little house. She had broken furniture everywhere and looked demented.
“You were going to be my friend,” I chided her. My tone was sharp and irritated. She didn’t like that one bit.
“What are you?” she asked and spat at me.
“You tried to poison me?” I retorted back.
“It wasn't poison. It was a spell to keep you here. As my friend. I like you,” she said. She’d calmed down enough to speak normally. She waved her finger around again and all the broken pieces magically became whole again.
“I’m on a mission. If I find my other half, then I can come back here with my friends and crack the spell around the veil open. That’s what I’m here for,” I said.
“Do you mean it? Do you mean you're going to break that awful spell?” she asked. “My whole family is on the other side of the veil. I got stuck on the wrong side for all these years.”
“How?” I asked.
“It was so stupid. I had gone off to get berries and when I came back the magic spell had closed the veil. I couldn’t get back home.”
“That's what I'm here for. If I can find my other half, I can bring back the other members of my team and fulfill the prophecy. You've heard of the prophecy, haven't you?” I asked.
The little pixie shook her head.
“I promise you. If you take me to that clearing, I will do everything in my power to break that spell. Including my own death. I swear to you,” I said. I wasn't sure about the whole death part, but whatever it took for this little pixie to help me and try not to poison me again.
“Okay, Sadie. I will take you there. Are you ready now?” Abby asked, wearing a serene look with a small smile tickling the corners of her mouth.
“I'm glad you were able to fix all your broken pieces,” I said.
“I've been so lonely. I really miss my family. It’s been so long since I last saw them,” she said.
“Let me help you then,” I said.
I grabbed the knapsack Jessica had packed for me and placed it on my shoulders.
“I'm ready.”
The pixie muttered a spell under her breath and waved her fingers again. The magic spell grabbed me and sucked me out of her door. As I grew to my normal size, the spell propelled me through a portal and dumped me into a wild rose thorn bush. I was in a completely different part of the forest now.
A deep throbbing reverberated in my body as I attempted to catch my breath in the bushes. The pull to whatever was on the other side of the clearing was intense. I was ready to sprint towards what was out there. Warmth spread towards me, beckoning me to emerge from my thorny nest and embrace it fully. I tasted sweet nectar on my tongue and euphoria made me giggle involuntarily. I’d never been this happy in my life.
Abby sure had been right about the strange magic. To me though, it wasn’t strange. The magic was home. It was my soul calling out to me. A string attached to my soul around the area of my belly button was drawn taut. Whatever was on the other end tugged endlessly at me through this invisible connection. Begging me to come closer.
I finally remembered my nightmare fully and recognized it for what it was: a memory of the rending of my soul in two.
The sky was filled with red. Dark clouds rolled in and I sprinted forward, my labored breathing the only sound I could hear. I was going to be too late. I knew it. I could feel the power surging on the other side.
I burst out of the forest and sprinted tow
ards the thin membrane of light. A thousand whispers erupted around me as I pushed through the sticky membrane.
A deep shudder ran through the veil. It was starting and I was too late. Crackling light exploded all around me and a magical fire hit me square in the chest.
I screamed as my body was pulled apart. I was dying. After all the millennia I’d survived, this was finally how I would die in this strange realm, fighting an enemy that wasn’t mine.
A brilliant white light blinded me. A gentle breeze lifted me and pushed me forward.
A peace settled over me, as I drifted into a clearing surrounded by white-trunked birch trees and a large rock outcropping pointing due north. A particular tree beckoned to me, its blood red leaves shimmering against the foreboding red sky.
An invisible pull dragged me towards it. I didn’t resist. Darkness overtook my sight.
I stayed blind as I listened to the endless whispers. The power surges kept coming, but we withstood them all. The whispers would panic at the particularly strong surges. Then everything would settle down again.
The breeze tickled by us and the whispers kept me company.
This was the place where my other half lived for the last twenty-five years. As if in a trance, I untangled myself from the thorns and stumbled into the clearing.
From where I stood, I could see the open fires of the battalions that were spread around the circular clearing. Abby had been right about the number of mages sitting guard. I counted five separate encampments, meaning there should be around twenty-five mages, at least, in this small clearing.
I kept to the edge of the clearing in the darkness of the surrounding trees. The smell of food cooking wafted by me as I edged nearer to them.
One of the groups of men to the right of me burst out into raucous laughter. The scent of booze mingled with body odor and the acrid smell of magic assaulted my nose as I drew closer. I did not want to be caught by these battalions. I needed to find the tree. My other soul was in the tree.
I didn’t know how this whole process was supposed to go. Did I touch the tree and my soul would pop back into me?
Or would I need to use my Fae fire to draw it out? If I did that, I’d draw attention to myself. The Mages would see me for sure. I hoped I’d only need to touch it. This was another one of my unthought out plans. I didn’t know enough and hoped that my instinct would get me through.
A flash of the sturdy birch, its white papery trunk glowing in the moonlight and its blood-red leaves flickering in the breeze, filled my mind. This was the tree I was searching for.
I inched along the border of the clearing, making sure to keep out of the firelight. I was halfway around the clearing when I saw it. The invisible string at my bellybutton yanked me closer.
The pain was excruciating. I needed to get to that tree. When I was within twenty feet of its pale white trunk, something in my mind snapped. The fear of the mages was no longer there. The clearing itself faded before me. I only saw the white shape. I thrashed through the remaining thicket and slammed my body into the tree.
The whispering grew louder until I was shrieking and screaming. I heard voices somewhere behind me, shouting out orders. Spells hit my back, but they bounced off me.
I was whole.
My life flashed behind my eyes. Of different worlds, of the Cosmos and space and a wormhole speeding down towards me and the beautiful glittering veil and the kingdoms of the Fae underneath me.
My name was ancient and long forgotten. It was from a different world that no longer existed, in a language no one spoke but me.
Someone jabbed me in the shoulder.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” a gruff voice asked.
A picture of my dorm room at the Academy popped into my mind. Before I could say a word to the mage, my body was sucked back.
I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped I wouldn’t puke. I fell back on something soft. The smell was familiar.
I opened my eyes and I was back in my dorm room at the Academy. I had made it. It was still night. How long had I been gone for? I
I had to go and cure my boys.
My eyes closed. Every ounce of strength I had, I used to drag myself to a sitting position. I had to stay awake. I needed to find my boys.
My eyes drifted closed again and I felt my soft comfortable mattress underneath me.
19
Sadie
I startled awake to the sun streaming through my windows and rubbed my eyes. How long had I been asleep for? My eyes ran over my meager belongings. I really needed to get a clock in here.
I shouldn’t have been surprised I passed out like I had. Time didn’t flow linearly in the Borderlands and if someone asked how long I’d been gone for; I would have said days. Abby the pixie had drugged me. Had I been out for minutes, hours, a day? Her expression told me minutes, but how did pixies see time.
Never mind that. I needed to find Declan, Cole and Fergus.
I slid off the bed and pain shot up my legs the moment they hit the ground. I groaned as I straightened up. There was no part of my body that didn’t hurt like hell. I shuffled to my desk and grabbed my small basket of toiletries. A shower would refresh me, I thought. As I made my way towards the showers, I checked in with my body. It was creaky and my legs throbbed. My head was fuzzy, and I felt discombobulated, as if I’d gotten too much sleep. I shook my head to clear it and hoped the shower would do its magic.
The shower made me feel slightly more like myself, and I’d managed to get myself dressed and prepared for class. I didn’t see many students in my dorm and assumed I’d most likely missed breakfast. My stomach grumbled with hunger and I hoped I’d at least be able to grab a bagel on my way to class once I figured out what day and time it was.
When I entered the main quad, a voice I recognized called after me. It was Kelly Hotchkiss. I turned to see my friend rushing over to me.
“Are you late for breakfast too?” I asked. Kelly gave me a warm hug and laughed at me.
“What naughty things have you been doing?” she teased.
“Why? What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.
“It’s closer to dinner time, silly,” she exclaimed. “You look like you just woke up. Have you been sleeping all day?”
“Yes, it's a very long story and not at all naughty. I need to find Cole, Fergus, and Declan. Have you seen them recently?” I asked.
“Last time I saw them was this morning. They were with Leonora Trahern.”
“Where?”
“Walking towards the professor’s cottages,” Kelly said. I smoothed down my hair and glanced around the quad. I didn’t like the fact they were with Leonora again. Had she created minions out of them?
“What’s the day today?”
Kelly looked at me funny.
“It’s Wednesday.”
“When was the last time you saw me?” I asked.
“What is this about?” Kelly asked again, her brows furrowed. I could see she was concerned.
“The guys had a curse placed on them and I’ve been searching for how I can reverse it. I ended up in the Borderlands and don’t know how long I was gone for.”
“I saw you yesterday morning. With Marcus. Remember?” Kelly asked. My heart gave a small jump at that.
“I’ve been gone only a night then?”
“Looks like it,” Kelly said. “You look really tired.”
“I’m exhausted. And time in the borderlands was confusing. I don’t know how the protectors can stand being out there for such long periods of time. It really messes with your mind. Think I’ll be able to grab some food at the dining hall still? I’m starving.”
“I’m sure we can dig up something,” Kelly said.
“I’m worried how the spell will affect them over time. Is it eating at their brains or something,” I asked as we headed for the dining hall.
“What’s the spell called?”
“The Extraction spell. Supposedly it was used on half-Fae to get rid of their magic.�
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“I’ve never heard of that spell or what the magic council did to the half-Fae. That is truly horrible though,” Kelly said. “And the council used this spell on the guys? But they are all sons of the most powerful council families?”
“I know. That’s what so evil about it all,” I said. “I’m worried the spell might damage their brains in some way. That’s why I’m so desperate to find them.”
We had arrived at the steps of the dining hall and I was about to go up them when Kelly grabbed my arm.
“What’s wrong?” She gestured behind me.
“Gregory Mathonwy is coming towards us with two of the guards from the magic council,” she said.
My heart sank. They were going to take me in. Should I let them or fight them off? They might take me to where the boys are. Or make me disappear like the last time around. I wasn’t sure what would be the better option for me. Damn.
I turned towards the three men marching across the quad at me. Gregory Mathonwy was flanked by two large men I’d never seen before, their fists glowing with magic. They were ready to fight me if I resisted arrest.
Time stood still. The beat of my heart pounded in my ears as I weighed my options. Out of my periphery, I saw the other students stare at me. The magic council was getting what they wanted. A spectacle of bringing me in, under the authority of the magic council.
“Sadie Bishop, I am taking you in for questioning about the disappearance of Alexis Schoenberg and your use of unauthorized magic on a fellow mage under the Council statute 3224k.” His voice rang out over the quad. Any students that were in the quad had heard him, no doubt about it.
The two unnamed magic council guards flanked me on either side as the students whispered amongst themselves. I hope wherever they take me, the guys will be there.
“We hope you come with us peacefully,” Gregory Mathonwy said.
I nodded. This wasn’t the place where I would make my stand.
“I will not resist,” I said.
Gregory Mathonwy used his conduit ring to open a portal. I grimaced when I recognized the pale white walls and the narrow bed beyond the portal. It was the damn secret lab again. I thought I had blown that place up. At least that’s the little bits of memory I had left of the place.