Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series

by Rebecca Bosevski

  “Where is she?” Jax yelled.

  “This way,” Tai called back to us as we continued through the trees.

  “Tai, slow down, wait for us,” I yelled as he zipped far too quickly than should have been possible, through the scattering of trees.

  “Des, is this Ava? How could she be doing this?”

  “I don’t know,” I said as we sprinted harder trying to catch up.

  The ground groaned like a beast then a deep crack opened up beside us. I stopped as it ran back to where we had come from. Sarah and Mark were running through the trees after us. “Look out!” I yelled just in time for Mark to see the crevice forming, and grab Sarah out of the way before she fell in.

  “Thanks,” Mark called out. “Where are they?”

  “Tai jogged this way,” I replied, waving my hand towards the thickening of trees.

  A brilliant orange and blue light shone from somewhere past the trees, then an enormous boom sent a wave of dirt and debris towards us. We ducked behind a thick tree trunk as the gust flew past us. Mark and Sarah did the same.

  As soon as it passed we rushed towards where the light had flashed.

  “It has to be Ava,” Jax called as we neared the tree line.

  I cleared the trees and my feet slowed to a stop. I frowned as what I saw before me crept in and out of focus. A figure. On the ground. Pinned under a tree. It hit me all at once.

  “Tai!” Jax screamed as he ran past me to his little brother.

  I looked for Ava. I scanned the area but couldn’t see her. I could feel her, though. I felt her power. The ground shook again, and Sarah and Mark’s footsteps quickened behind me.

  I pushed my magic out to try to find hers. It wasn’t an easy cast, and I didn’t know if I had enough energy to pull it off. But a mist appeared, sort of hovering past Jax and Tai, past where the border of the Landown property sat. I didn’t stop to check on Tai, I needed to find Ava.

  The ground shook more the further I went and when it became too violent to follow quickly on foot, I phased into my fairy form and soared above the trees. I kept looking for the energy ahead and found when the next pulse of ground trebling occurred, the energy was in the centre of it. Descending closer to the mist of light I found what stood in the centre.

  Ava.

  I lowered slowly, but when I neared the ground my form phased back and I fell the last half a meter, steadying myself with my hands. Not exactly a stealthy entrance. Man, I must be tired.

  “Ava, what happened, what’s wrong?” I asked, brushing the dirt from my fingers onto the front of my jeans. Maylea is going to kill me.

  “Maybe I am what they said.”

  “Ava, you are not!”

  “You should have listened to them. He should have listened to them. I don’t know what I did. Tai. Tai was supposed to be like me.”

  “What happened to Tai, Ava?”

  She looked up at me, her hands shaking like the ground beneath her. The small stones at her feet bounced and rolled in circles around her.

  “He tried to help me make a portal, so I could find all the things to seal the gateway. I wanted to show them I am good. That I could save them, not hurt them. But I hurt him. His magic was wrong, I gave him too much. I could see the magic fighting him but I couldn’t help him. And then it exploded, and it was bright, and then he was there, under the tree.”

  “Ava.”

  “No. Stop. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You won’t hurt me, I am your mum.”

  She tilted her head and frowned. “Who are you?” she whispered to herself. “Where is the other one? The one who laughs?”

  “Ava, who are you talking to?”

  She didn’t look at me, she furrowed her brow then widened her eyes in horror. “No. I killed him?” Her eyes welled.

  “Ava, you didn’t kill anyone! What are they saying?”

  She took three steps back and nearly tripped over a fallen branch. Her head still sat at its odd angle.

  “I can do it, I can be good.”

  “Ava, what are they saying to you?”

  “I can,” she screamed.

  “Ava,” I called again, stepping closer to her. She righted her head and we locked eyes. Tears streamed from hers, staining her cheeks. Then she threw her left arm out to the side and a blue light illuminated a circle in the air beside her. I started towards her, but a red swirling vortex opened in the centre of the circle of light. A portal. It quivered as her magic struggled to maintain it.

  I leapt forwards as Ava jumped through, and landed on my hands in the dirt. My stomach dropped. I suddenly couldn’t breathe. My chest sucked inward but no air would come. I clawed my way forwards to where she had been only a breath before. I stood and turned frantically around again and again in the middle of an out-swept circle of leaves. My eyes lost all focus, the trees spinning by. I was a second too late. Less than a second. A breath. Bile rose in my throat and I struggled to push it back down.

  “Des!” Jax called. “Where is she? Did you find Ava?” He cleared the tree line, a blur in the spinning trees. Firm warm hands gripped my shoulders and the trees slowed, but my head still spun. My stomach churned. The ache I barely noticed in the back of my head now puled behind my eyes.

  “Des, where is she?”

  It took me too long to find the words.

  “She’s gone.”

  “What do you mean she’s gone? Where did she go?”

  “She ran away, Jax. Something happened with Tai. She thinks she killed him. Jax, is he—”

  “He’s unconscious.”

  “What?”

  “Mum and Dad have taken Tai to your father’s house, hopefully they can help him there. My grandmother has heaps of remedies that might help.”

  I was so torn. Tai was injured, Ava was gone. I looked back in the direction of Landown, before turning back to Jax. “I am sure Tai will be fine he’s with the others, but we have to go after Ava. She’s alone, and was trying to find a way to get the items I need to seal the portal. She wants to prove to your parents that she isn’t evil.”

  “Des, they don’t—”

  “Just leave it alright. I feel sick without knowing Ava is okay and we don’t have time to waste. I just need to get my bag from home and then we can to go. It will be quicker if we fly.”

  “Des.” Jax raised his eyebrows. He loved my fairy form, but wasn’t so keen on holding on for dear life as I flew us across the skies at five hundred meters up.

  “Jax, just hold on tight.”

  “Do you know where she is?”

  “Sort of. She opened a portal—I don’t know how—but before she stepped through I saw something.”

  Jax stepped in close and wrapped his hands around my waist. His grip tightened at my back just below where my wings came out.

  “Well? What did you see?”

  “Home.”

  We flew across the sky, all the while I was picturing how close I came to leaping through that portal with Ava. When we reached my father’s house, I dropped Jax a few feet from the grass just outside the back entry, and phased back to my regular form before we snuck to our room. Jax didn’t say a word the entire way back from the woods. His energy was off too, darker somehow.

  When I opened my bedroom door, we both stopped in the doorway. Someone had been there, someone had been looking for something. It wasn’t that the room was overturned, but the bedside on the left had its drawer slightly open and the pillows on the bed were in the wrong order.

  Maylea always put the silver two behind the blue ones, if I ever dared make it another way she would come in behind me and fix it.

  “Who do you—”

  Jax took my arm. “It was my parents.”

  “What were they looking for?”

  “I don’t know, but they are not still here looking, so whatever it was, they probably found it. What did you need to get before we go after Ava?”

  “I need my bag.”

  “A bag, we came here for a bag?”<
br />
  “It isn’t just any bag,”

  “Okay,” he said, raising his hands in defence before going over to the window sill where the new blossoms had begun to open. “Des, are you alright?”

  “No. I mean I don’t know,” I said, frowning. I scanned his energy, and mine. They reached out, but his was still darker than normal, and mine didn’t seem to want to connect with it. It was like the energies were opposite ends of a magnet, trying to connect by unable to fully click together.

  “Des, what is it? You are scaring me with that look on your face.”

  Jax moved closer and took my hands in his and I watched as his energy changed before me. He ran his thumbs across the back of my hands and I watched his energy brighten. After but a few moments it was back to its brilliant glimmer and my energy was intertwined with it. No longer pushing against each other, the colours danced around us in a waltz of light.

  I took a breath, relaxed my shoulders and let my focus wane.

  “Do you feel better now?” Jax asked, squeezing my hands a little in his.

  “I do, actually. What did you do?”

  Jax let go of my hands and turned them over. In each was a pale blue petal.

  “Traf—,” he began, but thought better of it. “I read a lot of his books. These perry blossom petals can relax the mind.” He reached for my hands again but I snatched them away. “Des?”

  “Sorry, just… don’t trust everything he wrote in those books is telling you the truth. He kept a lot of secrets. You can’t know what he says it does is really what it does, or what price there might be to pay for using it.”

  “Price? Des, it’s a flower.”

  “Yes, and how do you think it gets its energy? Where did its power come from? How does it do what you say it does?”

  He scrunched up his nose as he thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I will have to look some stuff up in the older records when we get Ava back. But I have been helping my father and grandmother make remedies for years. Oh my Fey! What if I have hurt someone because of what he showed me?”

  “Something to look into later, first we have to find our daughter and bring her home.”

  “Yes, so where is this bag?”

  I smiled as I waved my hand across the floor boards at my feet. A small section opened up and inside lay the bag of goodies from my journey to the outer reaches. I held onto it, adding to it occasionally.

  I tossed a few of the larger items back into the hiding place and threw the bag over my shoulder.

  “Can you phase with that? Jax asked.

  I gave it a try. I could still feel the bag at my side, but in my fairy form, I couldn’t see it. I reached into where I could feel the bag to be and felt around for something. Anything. My fingers brushed past something long and thin. Several smooth edges ran down to a fine point. A pen I thought as I brought my hand out, but once free from the bag I saw the familiar sunny yellow of a HB pencil. Bugga, so close.

  “That’s pretty cool,” Jax said, trying to feel for the bag amongst the folds of my skit. “I can’t even feel it. Do you think it will be big enough?”

  I phased back and took the bag off, resting it in my hands I held it out in front of me.

  “All I need, you will carry. Havers magni furtive.” The bag shimmered, the cast done. Now it would hold anything I needed. Just like the girl had in that magic movie that one time. I always wanted to do that spell since reading it in my first week in Sayeesies.

  I bounced on the balls of my feet, grinning widely at my own accomplishment. Pulling the book from my back I placed it inside, along with a few scraps of paper and a pencil.

  “I’ll grab us a change of clothes too, just in case we are gone a while.” I marched to the wardrobe and pulled off my jeans, they clung to my legs and I wished I had time for a shower. I slid on a new pair and a white singlet before shoving a pair of pants and a few tops for each of us into the bag as well. It still felt light as a feather.

  Pretty nifty cast.

  “So how are we getting back to…you know, your old home.” He stumbled through the remark obviously unsure of what to call it. After all, it wasn’t his home. It was mine. He shrugged and continued his question. “If we use the Sayeesies entrance, someone will see us, so what’s the plan?”

  He was right, using the gateway would reveal our departure, but making my own portal would be dangerous. Sure, my one day old daughter just did it, but even with her power it barely stayed open long enough for her to make it through.

  “We will have to take the chance.”

  I phased and flew us to the border of Sayeesies.

  To get to the portal we would have to go through the main area of town. I lowered Jax to the ground just as my form faltered again and phased back . Jax caught me before I fell.

  “What was that?”

  “I’m just tired,” I said, stretching out my arms at the sides. Maybe it’s something else. This is happening way too often.

  I couldn’t dwell on it now, I needed to get to the portal and to Ava. The creatures I needed to find were not all friendly or easy to get to. She could be hurt or worse.

  We walked through the back corridors of town, the streets usually filled with fey echoed our footsteps on the stone floor. A chill ran up my spine and the streets became dark, as my thoughts rushed to Traflier and his past possession of the fey of Sayeesies. I fell to my knees, my mind returning to the quiet that haunted my dreams. The streets lost all colour and then the screams of those I failed exploded in my mind.

  I threw my hands over my ears but the piercing cries couldn’t be silenced.

  “Des,” Jax whispered, a beacon in the dark. I focused on his voice through the cries of pain that enveloped me. He called again, louder this time and then a warmth on my shoulders ran down my body, silencing the nightmare as it went.

  I eased my eyes open, not realising I had squeezed them shut, and gleaming green whirlpools greeted me, the final antidote to my collapse into my nightmare.

  His eyes twinkled and the world became bright again, but the streets were still empty. Sayeesies had become a ghost town.

  “Jax where is everyone?”

  “I don’t know. Wait, are those voices?” he asked, pointing in the direction of the square.

  It pained my heart to be here. To see the streets I walked with Moyeth. To pass the place Phoneas and I had breakfast and laughed as we shared stories of our lives. Jax took my hand.

  “Everyone will be okay, Des, we will find Ava and bring her home. Tai will be fine. Then we will find all the things on that list and seal the gateway.”

  I loved his confidence. I nodded and we continued towards the growing voices. As we reached the main hall I could hear the roar of those arguing inside. I looked at Jax, then threw open the hall doors.

  Silence.

  Every one of them stopped yelling and stared at Jax and me. I looked up to the front of the room where my father stood along with three others, Grace, another women, and a man. They were all flushed in the face, clearly they had been some of the ones yelling only moments ago.

  My father motioned for me to come up to the front and I headed through the crowd, weirded out by the creepiness of the group staring at me. It was too similar to the horde of them that had been Traflier’s puppets only a few weeks ago. I looked around for any children but there were none in the room.

  At least they saved them from having to hear their parents all yell and scream at one another.

  “Dad, what’s going on?” I asked as Jax and I stepped up onto the stage.

  “They sent a herald to collect you, there were matters they wanted adjudicated.”

  “I don’t want to adjudicate, I don’t even want to lead.”

  Jax stepped up. “We can lead?”

  I shot him a glare. “Don’t be ridiculous. Why do they even need anyone to lead? They can lead them-bloody-selves.”

  Whispers broke out behind me.

  “If you don’t want to, Des, I can—” I cut Jax
off, raising my hand.

  My father shook his head at Jax, a smirk on his lips. “It isn’t that simple, Des. They need to be held accountable to someone. We have no law enforcement here as you had in the human world. They only had Traflier.”

  When he said his name the whispers grew to yelling again. Mostly cursing his name. I glanced over my shoulder and they silenced.

  “You see, Desmoree, they respect you. They will listen to you.”

  “Dad, I don’t want to lead them. I gave their oath just to get back to Ava. I don’t have time for this crap!”

  “Why, what’s going on?”

  “I’ll tell you about it more later, but for now…” I said, turning to face the crowd. “You can’t go on like this.” I reached out my arms and swept my hands across them. “You want a leader, fine. Elect one. Take seven days to put forward your proposals, show the people how you would lead them, how you would treat them, and help them. Then on the eighth day hold a vote. But you won’t be voting for one leader. Having one person control your lives is not the way you should live.”

  Most of the crowd were listening intently, but there were a few faces of distaste, obviously those who wanted a single ruler and probably the ones who didn’t want me anywhere near that position. It was fine, I didn’t want the job. Who would want to be responsible for an entire species? Been there, done that.

  “You will be electing a council. The feys who hold the most votes will sit on the council.” I looked back to my father.

  “Dad, you know how councils work in my world, you can fill them in on the rest.”

  He nodded and I leaned in to hug him.

  “I’ll be back soon, I love you.”

  He kissed my cheek but didn’t question where I was going. Not that I would tell him in front of this bunch of crazies.

  We headed out of the main hall and as the doors closed behind us I heard them begin arguing again. I stopped, covered my face with my hands and groaned my frustration into them.

  “Des.” Jax tapped my shoulder.

  “I am not going back in there.”

  “No, Des, look.”

  I removed my hands. “What?”

  “There is someone who wants to speak to you.”