by Trisha Lynn
“What the hell really happened?” Marissa's voice drifted into Adeila's mind and pushed away her thoughts. Had Marissa known that Erik had just been playing with her? Was that the shared secret looks that she'd caught passing between them prior to this? She prayed within her heart that was not the case.
She found her voice through all the doubt and sadness that crept through her mind. “Apparently, Erik was only dating me for some bet. Like you heard.”
Marissa's shocked face was genuine. “I asked him what happened and he just said he didn't want to talk about it, and then he began asking if you were still here. I heard bits and pieces from Sadie Simms and her hag crew, and then Becky said something about how Erik had been drunk the night before my party over the summer and that was when the bet was made.”
Adeila's head whipped up at the news. So that was where and when it had happened. “Well, its fine I guess, anyway. I was planning on breaking things off with him by the weekend.”
Marissa took her eyes from the road and met Adeila's for a brief moment. “You were?”
“Yeah, I'm thinking of moving to live with my real parents. Staying with Erik wasn't an option. I just never... Well, I guess it would have been under-”
Tears came to Adeila's eyes at the sheer ferocity and cruelness of the entire situation.
“Oh, Adi. This is so insane. I can't even believe this of Erik. How could he stoop so low?”
Adeila just shrugged and tuned out the world, going within herself to her core and the magic that laid there. Withdrawing from everything but that drum of power. That concrete feeling within her. Knowing that she was something more. Something above all of this.
.~.
Adeila's emotions battled against her as she paced her bedroom. They waged a war between being sad, pissed, and betrayed. So what if she'd planned on breaking up with Erik anyway, this was not what she'd even considered happening.
So, he was really just with her because of a stupid bet. She felt so stupid. So foolish for believing someone like him could ever be truly interested in her. Then a small thought hit her. Someone like her? She shouldn't think that way; she was a freaking Faerie Princess after all. Just like she'd told Loki. She needed to stop forgetting that small, significant fact. She had a life outside of this world that very few others would ever wish in their wildest dreams to ever lead. It didn't make her above them, but it made her being different, for once in her life, fortunate. She was above all of this drama, as soon as she made her way back to that life that awaited her. How foolish was she to think that she owed this realm something. That she owed these people something.
Adeila suddenly had an overwhelming sense of being alone. Typically, she loved being alone, but right now she couldn't handle it. She lay down on her bed, drawing her knees up to her chest. Her eyes caught on something on her nightstand and she grabbed the feather that she'd found in the hood of her shirt after she'd come home from the state forest, where she'd run into Loki and he'd explained about her parents and her Fae bloodlines. She twirled it around, and ran her fingers down it's soft length. She knew most likely her Guardians were outside somewhere, watching over her. But she wanted them here, with her. At least one of them. One in particular. One that she wondered if this feather belonged to. She ran the feather down her face, and then her eyes caught on the silver on her finger. Her ring. She'd yet to need to use it, but now its lovely twined leaves of a lustrous silver, seemed to call to her. She looked around her room, wiped her eyes, and did it. She touched the ring to her wrist.
She remained laying on her side, her fingers caressing the softness of the feather. Within seconds she heard a tapping at her window, and her eyes flew to it. The blinds were open and Loki's falcon figure awaited her, hovering there. She almost made a small squeak as the sight of the too predator gleam of those golden eyes met hers. Like they were piercing her soul. They were so much like his true form's unwavering golden warrior gaze. She caught herself staring and quickly opened the window and allowed him to partially fly, partially shift inside. Once he settled, fully Fae, on her floor; she closed her mouth because it had been stuck completely open at the sight of him shifting.
When she finally met his eyes, the look he gave her was of simmering panic, and then switched completely to empathy, and she was shocked by it. He seemed to be doing that quite a bit lately, shocking her. He'd obviously been panicking that something had been wrong, when she'd called him to her. Now she felt a little badly about using it because she didn't want to be alone, not because she was in danger.
She was still trying to process the image of him shifting. It was odd, kind of like wavering of his form until the two blended into each other. It was a beautiful melding of bird form, human form and sheer energy that rippled along his body. It was mesmerizing. She swallowed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“We should train.” She said it softly, so softly she wasn't even sure he heard her, but of course he had. He was Fae.
“Adeila, the mind isn't always at its best when emotions are-”
“Loki, we should train. Please.”
He gazed at her, she couldn't even remotely begin to assess the look on his face or what passed within his eyes, but he did finally nod.
“Very well, who am I to detain a Princess on her birthday?”
She gave him a watery smile and excused herself to wash up a little and compose herself. When she returned he was standing quietly in her bedroom. It was odd having Loki in her room. It sent heat creeping up her neck, and she shifted her feet.
Luckily, he turned to the window and opened it. Letting a cool California winter breeze swirl inside, bringing along the crisp mountainous air. He straddled the ledge, and turned to her.
“I will return with my truck, be ready in a few moments. We do as you wish.”
With that he leapt into the sky, shifting seamlessly.