Still, I wasn’t ready to rise. I lay back down, curled up into a tiny ball and cried. I cried for the loss of my parents, my best friends that I would never see again. I cried because I was alone. I cried because this place freaked me out so bad. I cried because Alec was being a jerk, but I couldn’t do anything about it because without him I was really and truly alone. Because without him I would not be able to find my way from one place to another in here and I definitely wouldn’t be able to find the murderers.
And I cried because even when we find them, I won’t be able to do much anyway. My tears fell down my cheeks, sliding noiselessly into puddles at the side of my face. The tightness in my chest grew as did the lump in my throat. My heart physically hurt. I could imagine that it looked literally broken inside my chest. That the different chambers and arteries were mismatched and separated, blood seeping out through all the tiny fissures.
When Alec stirred, I willed my tears to stop. They didn’t listen right away, but at least I was quiet about it. I was pretty certain that he didn’t hear me crying.
What I really wanted in that moment, more than real food or a nice bed, was a freaking shower. I said a silent prayer that Fae believed in the power of cleanliness and hoped that when we got to the Central Village I would be able to finally take a shower.
I probably stank something fierce.
We didn’t speak to each other that morning. And I was okay with it. This time I wasn’t in the mood to talk either. My questions could remain unanswered. It didn’t matter to me anymore. As long as he continued to teach me how to fight, and helped me find the murderers, I didn’t care if he ever said another word to me. As soon as we found them, and they were killed, we would go our separate ways. And I was okay with that.
At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.
In reality, this Sylph Fairy-Realm Guard-cocky, impatient man was the only person I had any connection to left in the world. And without him I would truly be abandoned.
Chapter Twelve
Rain: Green liquid that nourishes the land in Ardennes. It falls from the clouds and collects in ponds, lakes, and rivers. While it can be ingested, there are some adverse side-effects when too much is ingested including, but not limited to psychedelic hallucinations, slight dehydration, and feelings of giddiness and irresponsibility, affecting Fae other than Nymph strongest.
The next morning, after we’d been hiking for a while, I stopped for just a second to sip some water while Alec scouted ahead. He said he smelled something off, and while everything was so strong here, smell especially, I hadn’t smelt anything different. I could smell the grass, even the smell of upturned dirt. I could smell the wind blowing through the trees. Flowers somewhere. And even this dusky, moist smell. But it was all very normal- as normal as this place could be.
I took the reprieve and rested my feet while he ventured a little more, further and further, until I couldn’t see him anymore.
I curled my legs under me, and leaned back against a huge tree trunk, allowing the bark to scratch through my shirt before I found a good spot that was nearly comfortable. My hair drifted down my shoulders, and I closed my eyes. I couldn’t see the sun, or really feel its warmth, but the air was warm around me, and I was drained and exhausted. Always.
When I could no longer hear his footsteps, I listened harder.
I wasn’t as scared as I probably should’ve been. The abada hadn’t been particularly scary, but it could’ve been anything. I hadn’t seen any other fae yet, but it was only a matter of time before I did. And I didn’t really want to be alone when it happened.
“Alec?” I called. I didn’t shout it, and my voice was steady, but underneath, I was worried.
I held my breath and listened harder.
“Come on,” he said, just as he emerged from between some trees, in the opposite direction than he had left.
“Didn’t find anything?” I asked casually.
“Actually, I found exactly what I’d been looking for.”
I waited, expecting elaboration, but instead I followed behind his silence.
“And…?” I encouraged.
“We’re almost there,” was his only answer.
I sighed, but he didn’t seem to notice. Either that, or he heard it and didn’t care.
The terrain grew steep, and my legs burned to keep up with Alec’s fast pace. I wouldn’t hold him back. We had a mission, and the faster we got there- wherever there was- the faster we would find them. The faster I could avenge my parents.
Trees thinned out a little around us, and I thought, at first, we were coming to another village. But when we crested the hill, instead of an abandoned village, I saw the sky.
The sun!
Rays, yellow and warm, shined down on a pond, the top of the cool wetness shining like a diamond.
“Water…” I breathed, as sweat poured down the back of my neck and pooled between my breasts and at the base of my back.
Trees surrounded the water on all sides, making an almost perfectly symmetrical circle. With the glorious sun and sky blazing down in the background, and the green emerald trees, and the bright blue water, it was a shot worthy of a screensaver or postcard. Better than that, it was perfect. A perfect view of the beauty within the Empyrean.
“A lake. I knew I could smell the rain.” He smiled as he said it, like he was just as excited as I was to see it.
“Rain?” I pointed to the sky. “There’s not a cloud in the sky,” I said, even though there was, just not a lot. Definitely no thick gray rain clouds.
“The water, it’s called rain in Ardennes.”
“So what do they call actual rain, like the kind that falls from the sky?”
“It’s still rain. This is just gathered rain. Or sometimes they call it rainwater. But it’s the same thing.”
I shook my head, “Whatever.”
“It should be safe to drink,” he said, as we moved down the hill.
The closer we got, the fewer trees there were around us. The hill down wasn’t as steep as the other side of it, but gravity still pulled at me and I soon was jogging down it, racing toward the water, excitement pounding through my veins.
“Drink?” I scoffed. “I want to swim,” I swooned.
I turned to him and saw him watching me, like I was a riddle he was trying to decipher. I smiled as my legs moved faster. I ran in front of him, flying down the hill as wind tore through my hair.
“I’m gonna win…” I teased.
His laugh nearly tripped me up. I glanced behind me. He was running, like seriously running hard, arms pumping at his sides and everything. But his eyes were sparkling, and his smile lit up the darker angles of his normally grumpy face.
The water was closer, closer. It was so close I had to stop because it wasn’t actually blue at all. It was green. Completely green. Like moss lined the entire underneath of it. Algae must’ve covered every inch of it. It wasn’t green like murky, mold green. But almost the exact same color as the brilliant green leaves hanging from all the trees.
And then I was at the bottom of the hill, stopping at a cliff. The water rippled maybe five or ten feet down as the breeze tickled it.
Alec whooshed right by me and jumped.
His, “Whoop! Yeah…” rang out, echoing through the trees before the green water swallowed him whole.
I stood at the edge, my heart thumping and trying to calm after the run, but not quite able to, due to the pure excitement and general freaked-out-ness that comes with the weirdness of this place. My breathing was hard and fast. My hair was slick to my forehead and clung to the back of my neck.
It was so hot and sticky I wanted to jump in after him. I really did. But it was green. I would get sick, and there were probably a number of diseases growing in the stagnant water. Leeches. Snakes. Maybe even alligators or something.
His head popped up and his loose hair flung water all around his head framing his giant smile.
“Scared…?” he teased. “Is the big bad,
badass Lily, the one who has this master plan to kill admittedly evil people, too afraid to swim in a lake?”
I flinched at the backhanded insult, and glared down at him.
“Not scared,” I answered. “Smart. I’m not gonna help pull the leeches off your butt when you get out, you know.”
He laughed again, a deep, real laugh that pulled the corners of my lips up.
“Don’t lie. You’d love the chance to touch my butt.”
I rolled my eyes. “Hope a snake doesn’t take a bite outta your snake.” My smile had grown, almost to the size of his.
“If one did, it would be one happy creature, right before I killed it.”
“Ugh, whatever.”
He laughed again. “Bwok, bwok… Chicken,” he sang at me.
“I’m not scared, you idiot. I don’t wanna get eaten alive by the animals and disease in there. That water is freaking green.”
He laughed again.
“Ahhh,” he sighed as he splashed his face. “Oh. My. Gosh. It feels so good,” he sang to himself, just barely loud enough for me to hear.
He dipped under the water again, and popped his head back up, again sighing.
“Stop rubbing it in, Alec. You can enjoy the wonderful, cool water all you want, but you’re gonna be sad when a snake tries to eat you. Or better yet, there’s probably a Loch Ness Monster in there, just waiting to sink its teeth into you.”
He laughed again, before going back under the water.
From where I was, up on the cliff, I could see his lithe body move through the water. He was a strong swimmer, which surprised me for some reason. I mean, it makes sense that he could swim. I can, so why couldn’t he? I guess I just thought maybe he wouldn’t be able to or something because he was Sylph.
He swam to the very edge of the cliff and just as his head emerged, so did the tips of his wings. He went back down, his almost transparent wings sliding through the water behind him, before coming up again. He jumped, and surfaced in a gust of air and water and beauty.
His wings didn’t appear to flap at all as he flew up from the water and above my head. They fluttered a tiny bit before his feet landed just beside mine.
“Holy Crap!” I shouted at him, and scooted far away. “You have… you have a leech on your face.”
He didn’t, of course. Not like a bug of any kind wouldn’t want to suck on him a little, but I was playing it up. My face probably looked super disgusted and terrified, as I skittered away from him like he had leprosy.
One of his eyebrows shot up in awesome Dwayne Johnson style. “No leeches in the Empyrean, sorry.”
“Then what is that on your face?!” I demanded, not willing to give in yet.
He rolled his eyes, but I saw his lips quirk. He was gonna laugh at me. My eyebrows came down as I gave up on my endeavor to somehow terrify him. He better not laugh at me. Laughing is good. I love laughing, and I want to. I love his laugh. But laugh with me, not at me.
In the blink of an eye, he crossed the yard between us, and wrapped his arms around me. I barely got a chance to feel the cool wetness dripping off his arms and soaking into mine, the water that drenched his entire torso and adhered to mine as he pressed his body against me, the feel of all of him against all of me…
Before my feet left the ground and somehow the ground wasn’t under me anymore. Nothing was. Except- there it was- water.
I quickly sucked in a deep breath.
Cool water surrounded me. From my kicking feet, up to the sweat behind my knees, to my butt, stomach… all of me. My head went under. Immediate relief.
I came back up and gulped in the air. Water splashed my face as he jumped in beside me.
“I can’t believe you threw me in.”
He laughed. “You’re welcome.”
“Really no leeches?”
“Really.”
“Alligators? Snakes or monsters?”
He shook his head, “Nope.”
“Why is it green?” I said, my anger completely replaced by a complete sense of awesome contentment and a general feeling of ease and relief as the sweat was removed from my skin, and I stopped emanating heat like an oven.
“All the rain in Ardennes is green.”
I laid back and let my arms drift up above my head, as I floated on my back.
“It really does feel wonderful.”
“Yeah,” he answered from somewhere off to my right.
“This place is so weird. But…” I took a deep breath, inhaling the beauty and lively air around me, “I think I like it.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I do too.”
Several hours later we climbed out and switched clothes while our wet ones dried. I really did feel better. My skin wasn’t so nasty, and I almost felt clean. Which was sad, considering I just swam in green water, and that made me feel clean. Lack of a good shower was some serious stuff and was totally messing with my definition of the word: clean.
“We should just rest here. We can swim again tomorrow morning before we leave. I doubt we’ll find another lake before we reach the Central Village.”
“Okay.”
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
I shook my head, “Nothing.” But I still looked down, trying to figure out what exactly I was feeling. I knew, of course. But I didn’t really feel like sharing. Alec was finally not angry and I didn’t want to ruin it.
“You lie,” he accused.
“No I don’t, nothing is wrong, so just drop it.” Guilt gnawed at me. I laughed and played today, splashing and jumping and swimming. And not at all looking for my parents killers. Not moving forward.
“Fine.”
I watched him as his smile faded and his ignore-Lily-face appeared.
Sighing I laid back and watched the wind blow the clouds from one side of the sky to the other.
Chapter Thirteen
Nemophilist: A haunter and protector of the woods; one who loves the forest and its beauty and solitude; that doesn’t discriminate in how it protects the land. One is created when a being loses all familiar connections and wants only to live for the forest, usually after a great tragedy has befallen him.
It has been eleven days. Eleven days of walking together through the forested woods. Eleven days of staying mostly quiet. Eleven days of him giving me weak and not-quite-there answers. Eleven days of torture to my angry feet and inflamed legs.
And it had been eleven nights. Eleven nights of training to try and stand. Yeah. To stand the right way. Lame.
Eleven nights of sleeping on the cold ground. Eleven nights of staring at the fire until I was so mesmerized I didn’t even realize I fell asleep. Eleven nights of dreaming of my parents. Eleven nights of crying myself to sleep.
But it had also been eleven days and nights of seeing new things and learning new things. It had been almost two weeks of getting closer to them. Of getting closer to my goal.
And even though Alec was arrogant, and often impatient and annoyed with me, and all the time focused and determined, he was also kind.
After a few days, we had come across a bird that looked very similar to a cardinal. It wasn’t one though, cardinals in the Mortal Realm only had two wings, not four. The two wings on its right side were twisted and broken. They had pieces of bark sticking out of them, and the bird couldn’t fly.
So Alec picked it up, cleaned the wings, whispered some magic words-or maybe just something like, “I hope you feel better.” I wasn’t sure, since I couldn’t hear what he said. Then the wings straightened out. Alec carried the bird with us for two days, and on the third day he released him.
To see that bird take flight again, after being grounded for who knew how long, was more than extraordinary.
It was almost lunch time, which was great because my stomach was growling at me, begging for sustenance. Though the cheslins were great, he was right when he told me they would get so blah. I would kill for a cheeseburger right now. Even though he says the animals are connected to us, I loved me some juicy meat.
I slowed down and turned in a circle, looking for something. I examined the branches and leaves and tried to find something out of the ordinary.
I searched for anything other than green or brown, but I didn’t see anything. I saw the trees, I saw the bark and the leaves and the grass beneath my feet. But nothing that shouldn’t be there. I didn’t even see any animals scurrying around.
I listened, trying to make out something, anything, that hadn’t been there the whole time. It almost felt like there were ghosts or something around. Something watching us that I couldn’t see or hear.
Dude, where are the freaking Winchester Brothers when you need them?
“It’s nothing we have to worry about.” Alec had turned around, noticing that I had stopped and was spinning like a maniac trying to find something that apparently wasn’t there.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s been following us since this morning. We are strangers in this land and he watches us to make sure we don’t do anything he doesn’t want.”
“You know, I really hate it when you talk in code.” More than that, I hated not knowing what he was saying, feeling so ignorant and incompetent.
He shook his head, as if he was just as frustrated as I was.
“Fenris. He is one of the oldest Nemophilist. He is the leader of the wolves in Ardennes,” he explained. When he noticed that I still didn’t fully understand, he continued on. “Let’s keep walking. Stopping here like this will unnerve him, plus it will only cost us precious time. I’ll explain as we go.”
I nodded. I didn’t want to waste any time.
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