A Broken Seelie Christmas

by Daniella Clark

  Someone else yells for me to take something off. I reach up to my head and tentatively take off my crown.

  “Get off the stage if you’re not taking your tits out,” someone yells. I jump down and flee through the crowd. Dancing in palace is nothing like this place. This is too hard and I don’t like this place anymore. Ky, of course, runs after me and I hear the bartender yelling that he didn’t pay for his drinks.

  “Why do people think we have human money?” I yell as we run down the street. I hear both the bartender and the bouncer yelling at us to stop.

  “Because, Sen, they think we’re human. Humans have an actual currency. From the sounds of it they don’t barter often.”

  “How do you know?” I yell back at him as we go around the corner.

  “I was researching it while you were doing whatever you were doing on stage.” He’s trying not to laugh and I’m trying not to punch him.

  “We need to blend in Sen,” Ky says as the two men get closer. We’ve ducked behind a store a block behind the strip club, but it’s no way to hide.

  “Okay come here.” I reach out and grab Ky. Invisibility is the least developed of my powers and I usually don’t try it because I don’t like failing. I concentrate really hard on fading into the background and we disappear.

  “Good job my Queen!” Ky squeezes me to him.

  “Just stand still, it’s hard for me to hold,” I whisper.

  “Where the hell did they go?” I hear the bartender ask. I hope and pray to the stars my power holds.

  “Maybe they broke in one of the buildings,” the bouncer says.

  I hear a low growling noise to my right and look to see a black cat. Its eyes glow green and its back is arched with all the fur standing up. It can see us. If it can see us that means it’s not from the human realm. I have a whole new set of questions.

  Before I can decide what to do the cat launches from its place on the ground and flies at my face. I let go of Ky to keep my eyes from getting scratched out. I push the cat down as it heads towards my face and it grabs my chest, digging its claws in. I look down to see black lines in my skins spreading out from the claws.

  The pain and shock causes me to lose my hold on being invisible. I pop into view just as the bartender comes around the corner. I can’t see Ky so he either stayed invisible or ran away to hide.

  “Stay there, girl,” the bartender yells. He rushes at me and slows down when he sees the cat. I hold it away from me when I finally get the claws out of my skin. The cat floats in front of me struggling as it rolls on its back and kicks at something I can’t see.

  “Ky!” I exclaim. He’s stayed invisible. Now the guy has stopped completely and is staring at the cat that appears to be fighting the air while floating in it.

  “I’m fucking hallucinating over here Charlie,” he yells to the bouncer and holds up his hands as he backs up. Ky runs away still fighting the cat and I turn to pop out of sight again. Thankfully it works.

  “What are you talking about John? Hallucinating how?” The bouncer runs towards him and I wait to see if they’re going to keep pursuing us.

  “I just saw a cat floating in the air then that chick in the red just disappeared. It’s two gins, we’ll just write them off as complimentary for some high roller.”

  “Charlie you need a break. In a shitty strip club, you don’t call them high rollers.” The two men turn and head back to the Jugs place.

  I let out a sigh of relief. At something has gone right. The happiness at escaping them almost makes up for what happened back there. Invisibility level up achieved. I give myself a high five and then am glad no one is able to see it. I won’t be able to use this power again until it’s recharged. We are going to have to lay low.

  Now, to find where Ky and the cat went. I find him standing beside the body of the cat near some running water.

  “You killed it?” I ask walking up to inspect the creature.

  “No, goblins’ trackers can’t be killed. I knocked it out.”

  “A goblin tracker. I thought they were large like tigers and jaguars?” I look down at the small cat.

  “Not when they send them into human territory,” Ky says shaking his head. “Good job with the invisibility, my Queen.”

  “Thanks. I just hope I didn’t waste it.” I glance down at the painful marks on my chest.

  “It seems that someone has figured out we are here and has sent the goblins to do what they could not.” He looks around as if he can see the culprit.

  It made sense now why the cat left black lines in my chest; he was marking me for the goblins.

  “Come on we need new clothes,” I say, pulling him away from the sleeping cat. I don’t know how to get rid of a goblin mark, but if I’m going to escape dying, I need to blend in with the humans.

  Chapter Three

  Ky looked up something about places to stay when you’re not home and found somewhere that checks people in all night.

  The sign says Red Wing Hotel. When we walk in there is a single human sitting behind the desk. The small woman does a double take when we walk in and I wonder how terrible we look.

  I look down at my dress and see there is still some blood around the bottom of it. There are little rips in it where I tore off my mermaid tail. I curse the stupid stumbling man for stabbing me all over again.

  “Do you wanna rent for the hour or a few days? My money is on the hour from the looks of what you’re in here for.”

  I don’t understand what she means but the tone doesn’t sound friendly. I briefly think about snapping her neck but refrain.

  “Tell me does it require money to stay here?” Ky asks.

  “Um yeah.” The girl rolls her eyes. “You have to pay.”

  “Ok thank you,” Ky says. “We’ll be back. We have to go to the money machine.”

  “You mean the ATM?” She is getting more annoyed for some reason.

  “Yes, thank you. That’s definitely what it’s called,” he says. He guides me by the arm out the door.

  When we get outside, I turn toward him. “What was that?”

  “We don’t have any money Sen. I don’t think we can get away with staying here without money. We’ll have to find another option.”

  “It’s four o’clock and we both should rest. Let me just glamour her.” I don’t know why he forgets I could do that.

  “I don’t want to risk it wearing off. We don’t know how long magic works here. I’m surprised it does.

  I sigh knowing he’s probably right.

  “The body of water you put the cat beside seemed to have some nice trees,” I say. “Do you think the cat is still there?”

  “No, he probably went back to tell the goblins where we are. I’ll do a cloaking spell when we get to the park. At least we can sleep and not feel like we are going to burn.”

  The desert is hot even at night. That’s what he means by burning.

  “Maybe we sleep there until daylight and then figure out how are location might have been outed so quickly to the enemy.” We make our way back it to where the little river flowed and found a sign that says Red Wing Park.

  “It’s named like the hotel. Maybe all these things are part of each other. Will the humans make us pay to stay in the park?” I ask slightly horrified that the pests seem to have so much control over my actions in this world. It was a situation I did not like.

  “I don’t think so,” Ky says shaking his head.

  “All right. Well like you said we need some rest, and then we need to figure out how to get these goblin marks off of me,” I say feeling tired. “Then I think we should go back to the desert. We aren’t safe here like I thought.”

  “My Queen, we’ve only been here for two hours. We still haven’t experienced anything Christmassy yet. Surely you don’t want to waste our trip here.”

  “So, we went from sleeping in the desert outside, to sleeping in the woods outside. So far this has been an amazing trip, Ky,” I say sarcastically.

  He
is walking around me in a circle. “Shh. I’m trying to cast this spell, my Queen.”

  I watch as he moves, muscles all tense, and the look of concentration on his face. He’s really a good-looking specimen. When he finishes, he comes over and leans against a tree stretching out his legs.

  I use illumination to spark some of the leaves nearby and almost set the whole forest on fire. He jumps up and puts it out as he glares at me. I watch as he gathers sticks and things and builds a place for me to light a controlled fire.

  We lean against each other and fall asleep with the crackling branches and the peace of the cloaking spell. I wake up a little later shivering. The fire has gone out and Ky’s arms are wrapped around me. Somehow, in the middle of sleeping, I crawled into his lap. He’s warm, but not warm enough. I have to find something else to wear – and soon. I look out and think I see someone staring through the trees.

  “Hello,” I say causing Ky to jump up and throwing me off of him onto the ground.

  “Ow, what the hell,” I say as I jump up beside him.

  “What’s wrong, my Queen?” he says.

  “There’s someone out there looking at us.” I use the illumination to spread light towards where I saw the figure. Sure enough a man stands at the edge of the woods looking at me. He tilts his head and then suddenly he’s in front of me.

  “Nimble!” I screech and he leans in and then darts away as Ky goes to grab him.

  “He had nimble power,” I say more to myself than anything. “So he was a wisp, or another high fae. But why would he be here?”

  “Possibly with the goblins?” Ky isn’t being helpful. “I don’t know, Sen. My only knowledge of the whole plan was that I was to take you to the Drop Zone and kill you.”

  “Okay, so you didn’t do that and I’m grateful, but I’m just not sure the human realm is the best place for us right now. In the desert we can see anything coming from miles away. Here we are sitting ducks.”

  “If Gia sent them herem or the desert, you aren’t safe anywhere. Let’s just fight while we can, and figure out who that weird guy was flitting about.”

  “I’m hungry,” I say as I suddenly realize I don’t know the last time I ate anything.

  “Well, it’s almost eight o’clock and that means there will be places opening up for human breakfast,” Ky says clapping his hands. He is very excited to try out every human thing possible. If it wasn’t so annoying, it would be cute. He’s like the biggest tourist and I’m surprised he hasn’t bought a map and started taking pictures with his quick screen.

  “The good thing is goblins don’t like daylight, so we will have until tonight to get ready for them,” I say. We make our way out of the park and back onto the street. There are cars on the road now, and people walking the sidewalks. It’s strange to see how different it is in the daytime. Most of Fae is similar to this world with stores and cars. I guess really the only difference is there isn’t any magic.

  “There,” Ky says and points to a store that says Hank’s Costumes. “We can get new clothes in there.”

  We walk in and I’m overwhelmed by the choices. There are masks, capes, gowns, and anything else you could think of.

  “Let me know if I can help you find anything,” a shopkeeper says.

  We browse for a while before I find something perfect for me. It says it was worn by a royal named Cleopatra. The material is a gorgeous gold and it fits me perfectly. The dress is split with a short skirt on the front with delicate black lace and the long pieces of fabric hanging down in the back. It has a sash beneath the bodice which plunges between my breasts in an appealing way. There is a set of gold bracelets and a necklace that matches my crown. There are sandals that wind up my legs.

  “What do you think?” I ask Ky who has put on blue tights and a red cape. He looks ridiculous.

  “You’re going to freeze in that,” he says.

  “It’s okay, I’ll get this too,” I pull a huge fur coat down that says is so you can dress up like Ginger Rogers. “It’s funny because Ginger is what that lady from the strip club called me.”

  “Okay let’s hurry up, I’m really hungry now,” he says.

  “You can’t wear that,” I say pointing to his tights. “You’re my guardian and you look ridiculous.” He turns around in a huff the cape billowing out and giving me a good look at his ass. He’s got a nice one. I flush all over and scold myself for thinking such a thing.

  A little while later Ky comes back to me wearing a black suit that looks really good on him. “This is Ginger Rogers boyfriend or something according to the owner. Fred Astaire.”

  “That would have looked way better with my other dress!” I exclaim. “Can we wear these out?”

  “If you pay for them, you can do whatever you want,” the shop owner says.

  “Oh no,” Ky says. “I’m so dumb.”

  “No money,” I huff. Of course, we couldn’t wear them out of the store. You’d think we wouldn’t keep forgetting we needed money.

  “My Queen,” Ky says, “how attached are you to your tiara?”

  “Very. This is my favorite one,” I say clutching my crown. It is the only thing I have left of being a royal.

  “Then I’ll get it back for you later,” he says pulling it from my hair and rushing out of the store.

  I stare after him in shock that he would dare take a royal’s crown and the shopkeeper just looks confused. He better get it back to me, because if he doesn’t I will pull off his nuts.

  When Ky returns, he has the money to pay for what we need but not my tiara. I glare as we leave the store and head to another building that says Pancake Barn. I don’t know what kind of cake they would serve in a barn.

  “I pawned the crown, majesty. It will be there safely until I can buy it back out again. Humans do this often, according to the screen, when they need money for their baby mama.”

  “What, no never mind, I don’t care. Why would you do that?”

  “We need money to survive here and to get things. It’s almost time for something called a Christmas parade. I think you’ll enjoy it. They throw candy and there’s lots of people dressed up.”

  He turns the screen around to show me an announcement for the parade. Get in the Holiday Spirit, Red Wing!

  “So, we must be in a town called Red Wing,” I say. “Everything is named that.”

  A lady sets a large stack of pastry in front of me and hands me a little pitcher of tree sap. At least that’s what it looks like. There’s white cream and strawberries on top of the stack. I see Ky pouring his tiny pitcher over the stack, so I do the same.

  The first bite of the pancake is heavenly. I’ve never tasted such a combination. The sap is sweet, the pastry is light, and the strawberries are juicy. I eat fast and then pout when the stack is gone.

  “You like this human breakfast,” Ky says pointing at my empty plate.

  “I do. It was unexpected,” I admit.

  “I’ll go pay,” he says smiling and walks up to the front of the place to give a young lady money. When he comes back, he hands me a small red and white mint. I take it and then his extended hand.

  “Let’s go see a parade, my Queen,” he says.

  Chapter Four

  The parade starts at ten o’clock and we are two of the first people to get there. There are ropes lining the side of the streets. I assume is to keep the crowd from attacking the parade-goers. That’s why we set up barriers in Fae.

  “We have such a good spot, and we only have to sit here for an hour and it will start!” Ky grabs me and spins me around. His enthusiasm is almost contagious, but I spot the nimble creature from the park.

  He’s standing on the opposite side of the street staring at us. So far, he hasn’t really acted like he’s here to hurt me, but there’s really no way to know why he’s here. It’s too much of a coincidence.

  I decide to chase after him and break into a run before Ky even knows what I’m doing. He yells at me but I am determined to catch the intruder. I can�
��t turn invisible so I have to be fast. Since he’s nimble, me taking a run at him does no good. He just flits back to behind Ky and taps him on the shoulder. I start running their way while Ky growls loudly and turns around to grab him, and he’s back across the road again.

  “Just tell me why you’re here,” I yell. I don’t want to play this ridiculous game.

  “Are you Queen Sentina?” he yells across the road.

  “What do I do Ky?” I tun to him for guidance. If this man does mean me harm, then I don’t want him to know who I am. It doesn’t seem he’s connected with the goblins. I need the truth.

  “I don’t know my Queen. Use your judgment. He doesn’t seem to be with the goblins, but it could be a trick.”

  “Tell me why the goblins came after me here?” I yell back across the road. A passing human looks at me strangely. I glare at her. This is clearly not her business.

  I watch him closely even though it’s hard to see his expression across the street.

  “There are goblins here, in the human world after you?”

  “He sounds unsure,” Ky says in my ear. “Maybe tell him they are?”

  “You’re not a very good adviser,” I snap back at him. “Yes, they sent a tracker to mark me, see.” I pull my top down to show him the black claw marks, jumping back as his head appears right in front of my chest. I didn’t see a hint of movement and that makes me really question how safe I am if there are goblins and nimble fae sprinting around.

  “Then you are the queen. Huzzah, you aren’t dead.” He throws his arms around me. Ky grabs his wrist and starts to pull him off, but I hold up a hand.

  “It’s okay, Ky,” I say, “he’s just excited for some reason.”

  “I’m sorry, it just means,” he lowers his voice, “the rebellion is right. There was a conspiracy. The current monarchy lied to the people.”

  “There’s a rebellion for me,” I say, smiling, and look at Ky. His expression is like a bucket of ice water to my mood.

  “No, it’s better if you remain dead. It’s safer that way.” Ky is still staring down our new friend. But I’ve become starry eyed thinking of driving a dagger through Gia’s heart in front of her bastard father.