It was kind of unnerving, because that’s when it started to get quieter. The leaves stopped rustling because the wind stopped blowing. I didn’t hear the birds tweet to me anymore, or see any squirrels or deer. It got so quiet my own footsteps started to give me the creeps. That’s when I finally decided to talk again, even though Alec looked so serious and focused.
“It’s really quiet.”
“Yes. This area of Ardennes is not nearly as inhabited as it once was.” He didn’t turn to look at me as he said it. He just kept on walking in front of me, on guard like he was expecting some crazy monster to jump out at us at any moment.
Before I could ask him to elaborate, he did so on his own. “We Fae like to stick together, usually anyway. We live in villages, much like your towns in the Mortal Realm. But many Nymph have moved to the Central Village, leaving these outer regions on their own.”
“Why? And what is the Central Village? Is it like the capital or something?”
“Sure, I guess you could say that. In each of the Provinces, there is one Central Village. There are other villages too, but the Central Village is the largest and where the Lord and Lady of that Province preside.”
“Okay. So why did everyone go there?”
“We are almost at a village now,” he said. “You’ll understand better when we get there.”
Whatever that was supposed to mean. Ever since I met this guy, the words that came out of his mouth frustrated me more than they relieved me. They brought up more questions than answers.
But I didn’t argue, because I was getting tired of walking and would so like to find a village with a place to stop and rest.
The trees thinned out the further we walked. I could see for several feet before another tree showed and then even more feet between that one and the next. The grass was still thick, with weeds and flowers blooming abundantly, but the trees weren’t as constant anymore.
And then, at the end of our trail, there was an opening of sorts in the trees. Something more obvious than the trees just thinning out.
When we walked out of the trail, my jaw fell so low it almost hit me in the chest. In a way, it was the most beautiful sight I had seen. But in a way it was also the saddest.
The trail opened up into a wide circle clearing. In the very center of the circle was what appeared to be a large fire pit. It was a circle of green marble with the inside sunken in around the edges and a pile of wood in the middle. There was even a ring of marble benches around it to match. It was something I could imagine a group of people sitting around and telling stories, like me and my parents did when we went camping and roasted marshmallows. Only much larger than the campfires we made. The circle was so large, I imagined at least thirty or forty people could easily sit around it.
Maybe it was just a place for them to congregate or something. But the pretty fire pit wasn’t the most astonishing thing.
All along the edge of the clearing were huge trees. Not so much tall, as they were wide. The base of each tree around the clearing was at least ten feet wide, and in the center was a door. No kidding. A freakin door in the middle of each tree. Like the cover of a children’s fairy tale book.
It was so beautiful, but so empty. It was obvious there was no human…or rather fairy life. It was abandoned. A ghost town.
Hollow. Vacant.
Dead.
Like me.
“Are you coming?” he asked, rather impatiently. I hadn’t realized that I had stopped walking, but how could I not stop and stare?
“Yeah. Sorry,” I mumbled, as I tried to make my feet move me toward him. Unfortunately my eyes didn’t get the memo, as they continued to gawk at the amazing trees. They appeared to be real, actual trees. But still so perfectly made, with those doors on the front of them. The shapes were not uniform, but the doors were always in the center, right in the front.
He sighed and shook his head slightly, but then kept walking. At least he was finally walking at a slower pace. My eyes drifted back to the center fire pit, the one we were getting closer to, and then to the benches that beckoned to me, or at least to my feet.
Alec walked right passed them. But I couldn’t. I stopped and reached my fingers out to them. The stone benches looked so smooth, so pristine. Even in the waning sunlight, they sparkled.
“There is a residence here we can use for the night,” he said, after he stopped and looked back at me to find me staring longingly at the beautiful benches. “I know you’re tired. We’re nearly there.”
I only nodded. But before I turned away, I did place my hand on that bench. The green and brown and white woven throughout it was the most beautiful marble I had ever seen. The smoothness caressed my hand, its warmth filled me from my fingertips all the way up. It was almost silky smooth, like a silk shirt that had just been worn and then discarded. Soft, still warm, and no longer in use.
Finally I withdrew my hand, after another sigh came from Alec’s direction. I followed behind him, trudging across the fresh grass. He finally stopped about ten trees, or houses, or whatever they were, down. He took a deep breath and then went to the left.
The tree house thing he went up to wasn’t very different from the other hundred or so. It was wide and smooth, but still strong and pretty.
“We can stay here.”
I nodded again, no longer wanting to say anything. Now that I was so close to the tree, I could see that the door didn’t actually have a handle on it. It was the same texture and color as the rest of the house, with the same bark patterns and everything, like it had been carved right from this very tree. Right in the center was a strange looking window. I couldn’t see through it, but for some reason I felt as though you could see out of it from the other side. It was diamond shaped and grayish-blue in color. Alec reached up and placed a hand right on the diamond, and the door opened.
I could tell that no one had been here in a while. The scent of fresh dirt, stale air and dust immediately penetrated my nose. After walking through the doorway, I took two steps down into a living room that was impossibly too big for the tree it was within. Logically there was no way that a room that size could fit into the tree that I had just walked into.
The ceiling was high, and the room wide, and off in the back I could see a hallway that led to more rooms.
Who needed logic anyways? I mean, I walked through the sky to get from Kansas to Texas, and the dude walking beside had wings. Wings! So whatever… a tree house isn’t that strange, considering. Still, I didn’t understand it. I had to know how this could be possible.
“How?”
He turned and looked at me, the wary look gone from his face and replaced with a look of confusion, eyebrows scrunched together. “How what?”
“How is this possible? We just walked into a tree, and now I’m in the middle of a large house. It even looks like a normal house, minus the dirt floor and leafy roof.”
He chuckled and shook his head once. “Sometimes I forget that you haven’t been here before, or that you don’t remember when you were. It’s magic, of course. All homes in The Empyrean are like this. Small on the outside, and much larger on the inside. The more powerful the Fae that owns the residence, the larger and more grandeur the home inside is.”
“Then whoever lived here must have been very powerful,” I guessed. The room was huge. The chandelier in the center was sparkling from the last bit of sunlight through the windows. Which was weird, because on the outside there were no windows, except that diamond in the door.
“They were very average as far as magic was concerned, though they were strong, loyal Fae.” The somberness in his tone made me realize that he must have known who lived here. I wondered if they had been friends, or if he had a girlfriend or wife.
One thing I did know, whoever had lived here before, wasn’t here anymore. They were gone. Just like my parents.
“You knew them?”
“Yes,” he said, but did not elaborate, and I got the feeling even if I asked him to, he wouldn’t. I u
nderstood. If someone asked me about my parents right then, I wouldn’t wanna talk about them. But at least I could relate.
“I’m sorry.” And I meant it. I don’t know who he lost, but whoever it was, he had been close to them. He closed his eyes and nodded, as if saying thank you.
“Come. I’m sure there is still something to eat here.” And then he turned away from me and headed down the hallway. Before he turned away completely, I was almost positive I saw a tear slip down past his eye. And it made me even more curious about this impatient, handsome fairy boy that had vowed to help me. Maybe he was so willing to help me in my vengeance, because he too was seeking vengeance of his own.
Chapter Eight
Cheslin: A sweet, black, squishy fruit that is highly nutritious. They can be eaten up to a decade after being picked and are plentiful in Ardennes.
The hallway we walked down was fairly normal. Wooden walls. Wall sconces in the shape of flowers that held candles. A carpet of grass and leaves above my head.
Okay, so maybe not so normal.
We passed a closed door on the right, and then one on the left, before making it to the opening that led to the kitchen. The kitchen was much like the rest of the tree house. Green and brown. Alec opened a drawer in the cabinet and pulled out a box of matches. He must have been here often to know exactly where to go for them. He struck one, and lit several of the candles around the room.
“We don’t have electricity here.” Makes sense to have candles everywhere- except that we stood in the center of a freaking wooden tree.
His square jaw was tight, his high cheekbones looked sharper, and his eyebrows drawn down into an almost-frown. His eyes focused, the happiness gone from them.
I walked up to the table and pulled out a chair, thankful for the chance to finally rest my feet. Though the chair was all wooden, it was comfortable, as if there was a thick cushion atop the wood. So weird. But so nice. My feet sang halleluiah.
As I sat, I watched him finish lighting the candles. Then he went to a door, opened it and pulled out some bags. He placed the bags in the center of the table, and then went to a different cabinet and pulled out a jug of something liquid. At another cabinet he pulled out some cups, and then came and sat at the table directly in front of me.
“Drink this,” he said, after pouring some of the blue liquid into a cup and handing it to me.
I looked at the strange cup. It was beautiful, of course, just like everything else here, but it was weird. It almost looked like a large drop of water. It must have been glass, but it wasn’t exactly see through. Still, the shape was unlike any cup I had seen before.
I pulled the gorgeous glass to my lips and drank greedily. I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was until I saw him pouring it out. The taste was sweet and tart at the same time, but not too much. Almost like lemonade, but without the lemon flavor. It was to die for.
To. Die. For…
I took the cup from my mouth and looked at him accusingly. My fingers went to cover my mouth as I realized what I just did. I drank in the fairy world. All the tales say you can’t do that or something bad would happen. You could die. Or be stuck here forever. Or fall under the control of another. Or… anything.
“Oh my gosh,” I breathed.
“What?” he asked, clearly confused and upset by my reaction. He tasted the liquid and shook his head and looked deeper into my eyes. “What happened? Are you okay? It tastes fine to me.”
“I drank it,” I said. My stomach grew furious with me, rumbling around and threatening to expel what I had just put in it. “How could you?”
“Aren’t you thirsty?” he asked, still confused.
“Yeah, but…I just drank a fairy drink in the fairy world. Doesn’t that mean something?”
He paused. Blinked once. Then the corners of his lips lifted up before he bellowed out a hearty laugh. The laugh continued. At first I was angry at him, not only for tricking me and probably poisoning me, but also for laughing at me.
Except he just kept laughing, and then, for a reason I could never explain, I laughed too. Maybe his laugh was too funny I had to laugh at it. Or maybe I was so exhausted I was delirious. We just laughed together until my eyes watered. I even kept laughing when my tears turned to sobs.
But when the tears began to flow even more freely, he stopped laughing, got up and left me alone to my grief. I pictured my parents. They were from this strange place. Had seen these woods before. They may have even lived in a tree like this. Probably not, since they were air fairies. Why did they never tell me? Why didn’t they explain that there was danger? Why didn’t they explain to me who I was, and where I was from? Maybe then I wouldn’t have felt so out of place. Maybe I would’ve understood.
Oh geez, who was I kidding? What was I even doing? Alec was right, I had no way to avenge my parents. I just had nothing else to live for. Nowhere to go. No home. No family. Not even any friends. I just wanted the last two days to go away. Man, to think that only two days had past. Two days ago they were alive and I was complaining about a stupid broken phone. Two days ago I wasn’t alone. Two days ago I had a home and family.
I miss you, Mom. I miss you so much, Daddy.
I wasn’t sure if I was saying it out loud between sobs, or merely in my head. And really, it didn’t matter. Even if I was poisoned, who cared? And if I was stuck here forever, it would be okay, as long as the bastards who took my parents from me were here and I could still get to them.
Alec came back in once the tears ebbed, and I was zoned out, just staring at a random spot on the wall. He didn’t speak, and I was thankful for that. No questions. No accusations. And even more than that, I was thankful that it wasn’t an awkward silence. It was just a normal, regular silence.
He refilled my drink and took out lumps of stuff from the bags, placing them in front of me on the table. No plate or napkin.
I drank, because it tasted good and I really was thirsty. And whatever harm it would cause was already done. Then I picked up the four inch lump of blackish stuff in front of me. It was soft to the touch, softer than it looked, considering it looked like a glob of tar. I lifted it to my mouth, and before I could even take a bite, I smelled the strong, sweet aroma that oozed from it.
I placed some of it in my mouth and bit down, the juice from inside it spilled over the corners of my lips and down to my chin.
“Cheslins are very juicy,” he said, finally breaking the silence. “But they can last many years after being picked. They are plentiful here in Ardennes.” I nodded, wiping the juice away with the back of my hand. I guess the black tar glob I was eating was a cheslin.
I ate four more before I felt full.
Later we sat on the couch, which wasn’t green or brown. Probably the only thing in the whole tree that wasn’t. It was a deep burgundy, almost purple. And it was thick, soft and comfortable. Heaven. My feet loved this couch and the reprieve it offered.
Alec had lit a fire in the fireplace, and who knew how the smoke got out or where it went, or how the entire tree didn’t catch fire. But I was thankful for it. As the sun set, it grew colder outside, and without electricity and heating, the rooms grew colder as well. Anyway, fires were just comforting altogether. They offered warmth and security, like a false blanket of safety.
“It’s only a myth,” he said, after we had been sitting in silence for quite a while. His statement caught me off guard, since I had been deep in thought. I was thinking about my parents and about this place. About how everything had changed so quickly. About how strange it was that I was sitting in a tree that looked like a house. So, when he said it, I had no idea what he was talking about.
“What?”
“About eating or drinking. It took me a while to figure out what you were thinking and why you were acting like I had poisoned you. You should have seen your face. It was like a betrayal, like you couldn’t believe I would do something so terrible. And I couldn’t figure out why.” He chuckled, and shook his head slightly, which caused his hai
r to whoosh around and drift over his eyes. “We need to eat too.”
I looked over at him and didn’t really know what to say. No wonder he had looked so confused.
“I mean, if you were a human, you might have to be more careful. There are foods and drinks that could cause issues with a human metabolism, but you are not human. You are Fae. So you have nothing to worry about.”
“Oh,” was the only thing I could think to say. I wasn’t human, was I? How strange to think. I mean, I guess I knew that now. But it still didn’t feel right. I’d always been human. And until a few days ago, I didn’t believe in anything other than humans. I didn’t even believe in aliens, even though I loved me some juicy Luxen aliens and my fav book boyfriend, Daemon.
Then it grew quiet again between us. Only the crackling of the fire and the flickering of the flames remained.
“It still seems so unreal to me,” I began, mostly just because I wanted to think out loud. “All of this. I mean, I’m sitting in a tree right now, with a freaking fairy.” It sounded harsher than I meant it to, but he didn’t seem to take offense. He just listened to me.
“My parents are dead,” I said finally. I took a deep breath, trying to loosen the tightness in my chest and the lump in my throat. He only nodded but continued to look into my eyes.
In that moment we shared a togetherness. A mutual feeling of loss. Whatever had happened in this place or to the people who lived here had left a lasting grief with him. I could see it clearly in his eyes, in that moment. We both had felt loss. We both still felt loss.
“But you’re doing something about it. We cannot bring them back, they have moved on to the Outer Realm. But here, now, you are doing something.”
This time I nodded. Until I thought better of it. What was I doing? Nothing. Traipsing around this fairy world trying to find the bad guys. But then what? What could I really do? I had no skills. I had no weapons. I didn’t even have magic, and I was pretty sure those murderers had magic.
“How do you kill a fairy?”
He turned toward me so fast I thought it might break his neck. His eyes had grown wide with shock and his mouth had opened just slightly. Before he questioned me, I decided to continue. “I need to know. I have to know what to do when we find them.”
Enchanted Revenge Page 5