by Jen Pretty
“What does that mean? From the ground?” Now that I had felt magic, I knew magic was real. I didn’t doubt he was telling me the truth.
“I have no idea. That’s how you explained it to everyone when you taught the werewolves to use magic. You just had them sit on the grass, and when they felt something, they were to pull on it. You described feeling an earthquake, and then you pulled a rope.” He laughed at my confused expression. “That’s the same expression the king had when you taught him.”
“Alright, well I guess it won’t hurt to try it. I’ll just…go sit in the grass, I guess.”
Roman smiled, and my heart did a flip. Something about him smiling made butterflies flutter in my stomach, but I still wasn’t ready to examine that feeling. So, I pushed it down and found a quiet spot of grass and sat on it.
CHAPTER FOUR
I sat on the grass. It was cool and slightly damp. The ground was kind of lumpy. And uncomfortable. I shifted a bit trying to find a better place to sit. I wondered if I could stop time for myself. Like freeze myself. That would be unpleasant. How would I unstop time if I was stopped? Could I still think about things while time was stopped? Huh. Let’s hope I never find out what would happen if I accidentally stopped myself.
I did need to stop though. I was sure this internal dialogue was going to prevent whatever super magic was trying to come to me, from coming…to me. Whatever.
Daisy waddled over and sat down. He nibbled on some grass, not eating it, just mouthing it really. I smiled down at him. His beak moved so fast sometimes when he ate or drank like it had a little motor in it.
Remembering that Armond said he was also a dragon, I thought about that for a while. If I had ever seen him as a dragon, I couldn’t remember, but he was cute as a duck. I understood why he preferred it. I wouldn’t want to be a giant dragon either.
The day was wasting away with my random thoughts and wonderings. Some of the hunters came and went, some giant wolves showed up to talk to Armond and Roman, and then they went too.
By midafternoon, Luke came over with a plate of food for me and another for himself.
“How’s it going?” he asked, nibbling on his lunch.
“I’m not very good at this,” I replied. “Did you visit me while I was sleeping? Like in my dream?”
“I’m a dream walker. It’s what I do,” he said looking bashfully at the grass he was pulling apart with his long fingers. “I used to take away your nightmares.”
I couldn’t remember that but felt like I could trust Luke. His presence was so solid in my mind. An image of him, in a tree, flittered through my mind. Stuck in a tree.
“You were stuck in a tree?” I asked, not sure that was truth or imagination.
He spat the water he had just sipped back out onto the ground then continued laughing and coughing. “I was trying to help you, Lex. Help you find your magic.”
I laughed too. It was fragmented. But I remember the feeling of peace I felt in that place, with him. Just the two of us running through the forest and being silly.
“We have to go back there, Luke. I remember the trees. I remember you in the tree. We need to go back to that place so that I can remember.” I had a memory, and my excitement was making my heart rate soar and the thought that I had to go back there was so strong I was going to have a panic attack, right there.
“Ok, Lex. I’ll talk to Armond and see how long it would take to get everyone packed up. We should be able to leave in the morning. Just, take some deep breaths. We will go.”
I smiled. “I remember that tree, Luke.” I was nearly bouncing. The more I thought about that tree he had climbed and hadn’t been able to get out of, the clearer the vision was in my mind.
By the time darkness fell, I was no closer to my special fancy magic than I had been when I first sat down. I got up and grabbed some quick dinner and went back to my tent.
Puck was sitting in the grass by my tent, waiting.
“Didn’t find your magic?” he asked, looking honestly interested.
“No, maybe I don’t have it anymore. I remember Luke, though. Well, I remember him in a tree.”
Puck just smiled and said, “That’s something. You'll find your magic, Lex. I feel it.” I watched as he stood and wandered off towards the blazing bonfire. He was odd.
I climbed into my tent and curled up in my sleeping bag. I was just getting comfortable when a soft quack at the door let me know my duck was ready for bed too. I opened the flap and let his royal duckiness in, then settled back down and drifted off to sleep.
The sound of people talking and moving about outside my tent woke me. I rubbed my face into Daisy’s soft back, and he quacked quietly. “Good morning, fierce ducky,” I whispered.
He nibbled on my nose, and I laughed, which alerted my guard unicorn to the fact I was no longer asleep, and that meant he could open my door flap and stick his head in.
“What are you doing?” I shouted, throwing a pillow at him.
He ducked the pillow but didn't leave. “We are packing up to go back to Earth.” His smile said it all, but his weird giddy mood said just a bit more. It seemed the unicorn liked Earth.
Puck ducked back out when I just stared at him, so I got up, got dressed, and stumbled out.
I was surprised to find Roman standing in front of me with a travel mug, some toast and a smile.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Luke says you remembered.”
“Just him stuck in a tree, nothing major.”
“Good enough, let’s go,” he said, handing the travel mug and toast to me.
I started to tell him we had to pack up my stuff first, but I turned and saw that my tent and bag were both packed and ready to go already.
“Hunters have been setting up and taking down the tents a lot in the last four days. Plus, we do have frequent training exercises. They are a good group of guys.”
I grabbed my backpack with the tent attached and went to swing it on my back, but a hunter stopped me.
“It would be my honour to carry your things for you, Your Highness.”
“My name is Lex,” I said scowling at him. “And I’m quite capable of carrying my own pack.”
I heard Armond laughing. He stood by the last of the dying flames of the bonfire, kicking dirt on the fire, but laughing at the exchange between the hunter and me.
“What’s so funny?” I yelled.
“You have always been a bit sensitive about your name Lex. This queen stuff is only going to get worse as we travel to homeland.”
Ugh. “Great. Thanks for the heads up.”
After a couple of hours of walking through the forest and open fields, we took a break by a creek. The water was cool and clear, but after we all had a little drink, Daisy waddled in and splashed about, stirring up mud from the bottom. He was such a happy duck. I envied his carefree attitude.
Finally, we came to a door. It looked like the door to a house. Except there was no house.
The hunters pushed forward to go through ahead of me, so I let them have at it. Puck and Daisy walked along behind Roman who walked beside me until we got to the door and then he held out his hand and ushered me through. It was a bit strange to walk through a door in a forest and end up on a rocky mountain, but the déjà vu was getting stronger.
We stopped for lunch, but the guys decided we would walk halfway out before camping. The hunters had a bunch of SUVs parked somewhere a day away and that was where we were heading.
Armond filled me in on the details of the long trip to get home before we would cross to homeland. The fae elders wanted to talk before we left Italy.
We walked a long time after that and I was nearly exhausted before we finally stopped for the night. It was getting dark enough that I was tripping on roots and things when Armond called everyone to a stop. He said there was a big descent down a rock wall coming up and he didn’t want us trying to scale it at night. So, we all set up our tents while Armond started a fire and cooked up some food. I was
almost too tired to eat, but Roman dragged me out of my tent and over to the fireside. I did manage to eat some of the stew type stuff that Armond had cooked up before crawling back to my bed.
The next morning was a repeat of the last. I dragged myself out; some hunter cleaned up after me and set my bag beside me after I insisted I could carry it.
It was only about ten minutes into our walk when we came to the rock we had to repel down. It was a tall, sheer drop and a memory of smashing my face on a rock while climbing sprung into my mind. Roman almost did a happy dance when I told him that. Then he scooped me up in his arms and jumped off the fucking cliff.
I screamed so loud it hurt my ears as we fell towards the ground at speed faster than I had ever gone. My stomach jumped up into my throat and I clung to him for my life, sure we were going to die. When he landed at the bottom, much more gently than I had expected, with no broken bones or smashed skulls, he set my feet on the ground and before he could even blink I spun and punched him right in the throat.
I watched while he coughed and sputtered trying to breathe through his collapsed airway. He deserved it. You don’t just grab someone and jump off a cliff with them. He was trying to say “I’m sorry” but it came out like “hi hoary” from his ruined vocal cords. I hope he remembered that.
I stomped away from the bottom of the cliff and sat to wait for the hunters. They were quick at repelling and it was evident by their well-defined muscles and fit physiques that they trained hard. Even the few women hunters were buff and lean and giant.
Of course, they all came down the normal way. Instead of being flung off the cliff, it looked much safer, but the flash of a memory of bouncing my face off the rock suggested, maybe, the way we'd come down was the safer route. I doubted my hand would have been able to hold on tight enough to the ropes. Still, a warning would have helped. Daisy just fluttered down and landed beside me. Much more controlled than my descent.
Stupid Roman was still smiling. I hoped, for his sake, that his magic made him invincible because if he did that again, I would kill him.
We finally made it to a small gravel road. The SUV’s parked there were all black and exactly the same. There were eight of them. I was escorted to one around the middle of the group and ushered into the back seat. Luke hopped in beside me on one side, Puck on the other, Armond behind the wheel and Roman in the passenger seat. Daisy had been in my arms for a while, so continued his nap on my lap.
I kept wishing for a memory with Puck or Armond or Roman. The memory of Luke felt so good and real and nearly brought tears to my eyes every time I replayed it in my mind. I would look at him and smile. I remembered the way he clung to the branch and whispered at me to help him down before Evan saw him.
I napped in the vehicle as we drove and, before I knew it, Luke was nudging me awake. We pulled up to a castle that the guys said was the fae elders’ home and everyone started getting out.
A group of people were already gathered out front to welcome us. There must have been hundreds of fae. Impeccably dressed, they bowed as I passed them.
I felt like a fraud. I wasn’t some queen, I had no memory of anything or anywhere and I started to panic. The crowd just kept growing. The people stared at me with adoration, like I was something I wasn’t. I didn’t want to be there anymore. I started looking around for a way to escape. My hands were sweaty, and my feet were itching to run. My heartbeat was pounding in my ears, and the edges of my vision started to turn grey, and I dropped my head into my hands to try and make it all go away.
Then there was absolute silence. When I looked up, everyone was frozen. I had used my magic without thinking. I glanced around, still needing to get out of there.
“Take a breath, Lex,” Roman said beside me. He was moving slowly, but not frozen like everyone else.
“Why don’t you stop completely?” I asked, still breathing heavy and glancing around for an escape route. They surrounded me.
“I’m pretty powerful,” he replied. I focused on his face to try and tell if he was joking or something, but he looked serious. “Slow your breathing.”
“A powerful fae? Or something different? You look like a demon,” I said, trying to do as he said. I slowed down my breathing.
“Now isn’t the best time to talk about me. Let’s talk about what’s happening right now. Why are you freaking out?”
“Shouldn’t I be releasing all these people? It can’t be healthy to keep them all stuck like this.”
“Don’t worry about them.”
I looked behind me. The hunters had gotten out of their vehicles but stayed back.
“The hunters seem to be immune to my magic, are you a hunter too? I asked.
“No, Lex.” He sighed and rubbed his face before training his eyes on me again. “I’m exactly what you think I am.”
I stood stunned for a second. He couldn’t be what I thought he was because every time I saw his pointed teeth flash I thought he was a vampire. My face must have given me away because he nodded encouragingly. I took a step back, and he shattered. His shoulders slumped, and his face fell, and the air whooshed out of his lungs like I had just kicked him in the stomach. It was like that small step had broken the monster.
“Please, Lex,” he begged unhappily.
I thought I should be panicking, but the feeling never came. I wasn’t sure why I trusted him, maybe it was because he acted so human, or perhaps it was because Luke trusted him, and I knew Luke. I remembered him.
I took a deep breath and the half step back towards him. “Ok, um, I don’t know how to do this. I mean, I don’t remember, but I’m going to believe that I knew you and that you aren’t evil. I need to remember, Roman.”
“I promise you can count on me, Lex. I’m on your side, and I’ll do whatever it takes to help you. We already had this conversation, and I hope someday soon you will remember it, but I would never hurt you. It’s not possible. I’ll prove it to you again.”
I had already felt like Roman and I had been more than friends, but when he spoke like that, I felt it in my bones. Vampire or not, he was a big part of my life, the life I couldn’t remember.
“Ok,” I said a bit dumbfounded.
A group of four very finely dressed fae came out the door of the mansion. They had an air about them of wisdom and eternity. They moved like a gentle breeze, and I figured they must be the elders we had come to see.
“Good afternoon, Queen. We welcome you back to our home,” a man dressed all in blue said from the steps of the building. He held his hand out towards the open door like I should walk through it.
Roman leaned into me and whispered, “The elders know that you don’t remember them, so feel free to ask questions. The rest of these people have come to see the Fae Queen, and they need to see you, Lex. Let’s go inside, ok?”
I let go of the little coil inside me that was tugging the people to a stop, and they all began clapping and welcoming me again in an overload of sound and movement.
I hustled up the steps, Roman and the hunters trailing behind me. Daisy flew over all the people and landed in front of me, waddling through the doors first like a bodyguard. I smiled at his silly little duck butt, wagging back and forth with each step.
We were ushered into a large room, set up like a banquet hall. There was space for several hundred people to sit at long tables. One table was on a raised platform and in the center was an enormous, ornate throne. As we followed the elders through the room, I realized we were heading for that table and things started to click into place. I was not sitting on that throne. My panic escalated again. This was all too much. Luckily, Daisy took flight and plopped himself down on the cushioned seat. He peeked up over the table and quacked loudly, breaking all the panic that was rising inside me, his antics making me laugh instead.
I felt a kinship with my duck. He didn’t want to be a dragon, and I sure as hell didn’t want to be a queen. Sometimes fate had a hand in things. If the story of our meeting was true, maybe Daisy was sent to he
lp me through this. His funny little beak opened and closed as he did a very vocal, duck impersonation of a king commanding his people.
When we all arrived on the platform and began taking seats, I sat beside Daisy on the big stupid chair as I knew was expected of me. Daisy made it seem less intimidating, and if all these people expected me to be their queen, then I could pretend to be a queen for a little while.
The food was amazing, and Roman asked them to bring me coffee. This was much better coffee than the coffee in the other world. This was the black elixir of the gods. Thank god for coffee and Roman.
I tried to keep Daisy off the table, but he bit me when I tried to keep him down, and no one seemed to mind his antics as he marched around, swiping baked goods, so eventually, I stopped worrying about him and focused on my plate of food.
When we finished dinner, the servers cleared the plates and served drinks. The alcohol burned down my throat, but soon I was feeling less anxious. Roman suggested I stick to one glass, but when I finished my second drink, I was feeling better about everything. Including the vampire.
He was handsome and caring. I may not remember him, but when I reached under the table and took his hand in mine, it felt right. He smiled at me and squeezed my hand.
The hundreds of people who had dined with us made a procession past our table wishing me well and thanking me. I wasn’t sure what for, but I accepted their praise awkwardly. When they had all come past the head table, I rose and waved them all a goodnight before following unsteadily behind Roman out of the room and up a set of stairs. A maid opened the door to a suite of rooms with a terrific view. I wanted to go out and admire the countryside, but the bed looked glorious and soft.
I flopped down on it and was nearly asleep when the idea of a hot shower flooded my mind. My eyes sprung open, and I zipped into the sizeable luxurious bathroom attached to the bedroom. The hot water was perfect, and I stayed under it until there was a knock on the door.