“I can’t believe it. I thought I would…” her voice broke as she spoke, and she had to clear her throat before she could continue. “I was afraid we would never see you again.”
As if he had no words to explain his actions, or maybe because he didn’t want to say anything in front of me, he only shook his head in apology.
“It matters not. You are here. It is a day for celebration. Please come in, son.”
Son? What the hell? Now, thoroughly confused, I tried to remember everything Alec had told me. He specifically told me that he was a Sylph, not a Nymph. But Kerr had called him brother, and this lady, who was clearly Kerr’s mother, called him son.
At some point in the near future I would have to ask him about this.
“Nona, this is my protégé, Lily.” And then to me he said, “Lily, this is Kerr’s grandmother. You may call her Anna.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Lily. Any friend of Alec’s is welcome in my home. But please, you may call me Nona.” As she said it, she took a few steps closer to me and reached her hand out. I took it and shook once, just as Kerr had done.
And then mentally corrected myself. Grandmother, not mother. Which meant she must have been crazy old.
“The pleasure is mine. I thank you for welcoming me.”
Nona smiled back at me and nodded.
They welcomed me to their dinner table, which was spectacular, because I was so tired of eating cheslins. We ate what appeared to be a salad, with steamed vegetables on the side, most of which I could name and recognized. And it was delicious.
Afterward I was even offered a shower. And it was glorious. I stepped into the shower, which looked exactly like a shower in the Mortal Realm, and stood still as the warm water pounded down on me. I let it wash away the dirt and filth that had clung to my hair and skin after being in the woods for so long. I scrubbed my skin and beneath my nails, and my scalp until I felt raw all over. My skin screamed at me as it turned a bright shade of pink.
And when I felt sufficiently clean, I sat down on the floor and just let the water run over me, pacifying me. It’s funny how you don’t appreciate something until you don’t have it anymore. Who would have thought I would miss a shower so much.
That night I had an actual bed to sleep in, while Alec was going to sleep on the couch in the living room. It was such a nice gesture of him to allow me the bed; I thanked him before he left my room.
He had been in there, just to make sure that I was all settled in and had everything I needed.
“Thank you. I mean…Thank you for everything, not just the bed. But for helping me.” I said it just as he was about to walk out of the door, so he had to turn around to look at me.
He walked closer to the bed where I was sitting and sat down beside me.
“I should apologize to you. I haven’t been the nicest person to be around lately. And it’s not your fault, it’s just been very hard for me to be back here. Especially around…” he took a deep breath, and once again didn’t finish his sentence.
“You seem to be close to these people,” I said, as a way of encouraging him to open up a little. But he didn’t, he stood up and started walking back to the door without another word.
“Why do you do this?” I shouted at him, much louder than I meant to. “Why do you never talk to me?” And again he didn’t answer me. At least he stopped and turned around to look at me. I tried to search his face, to find some clue as to what was going on his mind, but I didn’t find anything. If only he could see that I had no one else, that I needed someone.
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” I said finally, and my tears, the ones that I had been trying to hold back for the last couple of weeks, broke free. “I just want to go back to a few weeks ago. To a time when my parents were still here, and I had a home and I wasn’t alone.” My voice continued to crack worse with each word, every word was interrupted by either a sharp intake of breath or a sob.
“I can’t do this anymore,” I said finally, and then I started to really cry. I wasn’t even embarrassed by it this time, because I really didn’t care if Alec saw me cry. I didn’t care what he thought. I just wanted the pain to go away, some way, somehow.
He walked back to my bed and surprised me more than ever by wrapping me in his arms. He hugged me. And after the initial shock, I fell into his arms and let it out.
He treated me the same as he had Nona just earlier. He rubbed my back and, whispered, “Shh…” into my ear trying to soothe me. Everything was just overwhelming.
“I’m sorry I’m crying so much, I just don’t think I can do this anymore. I feel like I’ve been fooling myself. I’m deluded to think I can somehow avenge my parents. It’s just…” I had to take another deep breath. “It’s just I don’t have anything else. I don’t know what else to do. If I don’t do something, I think I might just sit in a corner and wither away.”
He didn’t say anything, he just held me in his arms, and really that may have been the best thing he could have done for me. I needed that. Human touch and comfort. Acknowledgment that I wasn’t crazy, and that it was okay to be hurting.
Finally, when I regained some control, I pulled back and looked up at him. He wiped my hair out of my face, and gently removed the drying tears from my cheeks as he looked into my eyes. His eyes were a softer green right then. Not bright and shining, and not dark and scary.
“It will get easier, Lily. I promise. I know it’s hard right now, but it will get easier. This I swear to you.” Though I didn’t doubt he meant it, it was still hard to believe as truth. “And what you are doing now is the right thing. The people who took your parents from you, who would do something so cruel to good Fae, should be punished.” I nodded fervently at this.
He stood up and motioned for me to lay down, which I did. He pulled the covers over me, tucking me in and then kissed the top of my head.
“Sleep. Tomorrow we start something new.”
Chapter Seventeen
Spinach: An edible green leaf. When cooked, it will turn mostly blue and will appear jiggly and shiny. Usually it is frozen after being cooked and served as a breakfast or snack food. It is known for its mixture of spicy and sweet flavors.
When I woke to the suns warmth across my face and its bright light piercing my eyes, I again remembered my dream. I had dreamt of the time a girl from school had bullied me. I was always being bullied, ever since I could remember, but when I got to middle school things got worse.
I was short and kinda weird looking, so that was enough motivation for the other kids to hate me. It was only a month into starting eighth grade and I was swapping out my books in my locker. The day was actually pretty good up to that point. I was wearing a new pink ribbon in my hair, and I had my new earrings in, dangling down. They were unicorns, bright blue ones that sparkled.
But Allison, the most popular girl in the school, had walked into me. It was definitely not my fault, but she made it known that she felt it was my fault, due to the fact that I dared to be alive.
She said, “Why are you even here? What are you? Are you even real?” And though, now looking back at it, those words aren’t necessarily mean, at the time it was exactly what I feared. That I was strange, different.
“Like, who has orange eyes? You’re just a freak!” She had shouted the last sentence, spitting out the last word like it was a disease.
The blond girl next to her, I don’t even remember her name now, added her two cents as well. “Seriously. A freak. You should go live in the Fairy tales, because the only place you would fit in is with the Seven Dwarfs. You could be Freaky.” And then they all laughed hysterically.
I didn’t laugh. But I didn’t cry in front of them either. I didn’t say one word. I turned away and walked to the nurses’ station, feinting a stomach bug. She sent me home, thankfully, and it wasn’t until I saw my mother’s face that I cried.
I told her the whole thing, and she held me and told me everything was going to get better. She said, “I know it
’s hard right now, but it will get easier. This I swear to you.”
I guess it was Alec’s words the night before that brought that memory to life in my dreams. But seeing my mother again like that made it real again in my mind. That was the first time that I realized it didn’t matter what other people thought of me. It didn’t matter that I was different, or that I had bleach white hair, orange eyes, and was super short. None of it mattered because my parents still loved me.
But I didn’t have them anymore.
My resolve at finding the murderers was reinforced. I’d like to say it was for justice, but I would only be kidding myself. I wanted them to pay for hurting my parents and leaving me alone. I got up and dressed quickly before leaving to search for Alec.
When I left the room and went into the kitchen I saw only Nona. She was wearing brown shorts that went right to her knees, and a dark green blouse. Her hair was pulled into a tight braid that hung below her shoulder blades.
“Do you know where Alec is?” I asked her. She turned and smiled at me before turning back around and working on whatever it was she was working on.
With her back to me she said, “Good morning, Lily. I hope you slept well.”
Though I couldn’t see myself, I would bet my face turned at least two shades of red. “Umm. Yes ma’am I did. Thank you again for your accommodations and hospitality. I hope you also had a nice night and feel well this morning.” I’m pretty sure nicer is better when it comes to the person feeding you and allowing you to sleep in their home.
“Yes I did. I slept better last night than I have in many years.” Then she turned back around to face me and motioned for me to sit at the table. She brought over a bowl of something that was green and blue. It looked kinda like Jell-O.
She dipped herself a bowl, and then one for me, and then sat directly in front of me. She just looked at me. She didn’t touch her food, so I didn’t touch mine. Plus I had no idea what it was.
“How did you convince him to come back to us?” she asked me after a good four minutes of totally awkward silence.
“I’m sorry?”
“Alec. I was fairly certain he would never come back to us. How did you change his mind?” She looked sincere. Truly curious and not at all angry or malicious. But it was more than that. She looked…thankful. Happy.
“Alec is helping me to find someone,” I told her. I didn’t know what all I should share with her. I didn’t want to tell her too much and then put her in danger. Plus, I didn’t know what all was going on between Alec and these people.
Her eyebrows crinkled together just slightly in confusion before she said, “Oh.” Then she picked up her spoon and started eating.
I dipped my spoon into the green and blue blob. It slipped through easily; easier than if it had been Jell-O. I only kept a little bit on the spoon, so that if it tasted gross I wouldn’t have a huge amount in my mouth. When I tasted it, it felt like my tongue was both on fire and icy at the same time. The flavor was lost in the many sensations I felt. I swallowed it because I didn’t want to be rude and spit it out, even though that’s what I really wanted to do.
Even after it was no longer in my mouth, the tingling sensation remained. I touched the tip of my finger to my tongue and it was cold to the touch. So then I placed my finger in the bowl, and the blue and green stuff was also cold, as cold as ice cream and just as smooth.
It was like spicy ice cream. I took another bite, but this time much smaller and better prepared. The flavor was similar to a sweet chipotle. The spice wasn’t overpowering once I expected it. It was actually, really good.
“What is this?” I asked her.
“Have you never tasted spinach before?”
“Spinach?” I asked her. “Like the stuff that makes Popeye strong?” I laughed at the absurdity of it, because there was no way she would’ve ever heard of Popeye. Just as she had never tasted spinach from my home.
“Excuse me?” she asked thoroughly confused at my statement. That’s when I had to remind myself that she doesn’t know that I grew up in the Mortal Realm.
“Never mind. I’m sorry. No, I haven’t tasted spinach before. What is it?”
“It is a leaf, of course.” Her face still showed her confusion, but even more so now. As if to say, what else would it be?
“Oh yes. Of course,” I told her. “It’s very good.” Which was true. It was just not at all what I expected. A blue and green leaf, that looked like Jell-O and tasted like honey chipotle ice cream. Who would have ever thought?
Deciding I needed to change the subject and put her mind at ease, I thought now was the best time to ask some questions. She obviously didn’t want to tell me where Alec was, that or she never even heard my original question. I mean, since she is old, I guess her hearing could be bad or something. Before I could ask her anything, her face changed to one of determination, as if she had just mentally decided something
“Where did you meet Alec?” Her steely gaze made me think twice before answering. I realized that this old, fragile looking Nymph, was probably pretty magical, and I didn’t want to say something wrong.
“He is my mentor,” I told her, as I had been instructed to.
“Yes. He introduced you as his protégé. But how did you meet?”
“We met under…tragic circumstances. He agreed to help me find someone.”
She nodded, but still kept her unyielding and determined eyes set on mine. “Right now he is in the village searching for answers to questions he wouldn’t speak to me.” Answer to question number one, check. “You do not have to tell me all of your secrets, but know that Alec is important to me and mine.” I only nodded, because I didn’t want to upset her with my voice. “So, I will ask you this only once. Are you trustworthy?”
“I thought f…” But then I caught myself. If I said, I thought fairies couldn’t lie, that would give everything away. She would know I’m not a fairy. Well, actually I guess I am. Man, this whole thing was so confusing. My hesitation made her eyebrows shoot up and her lips go flat. She looked positively wicked.
“Yes, I am.” I tried very hard to make my voice sound as sure as I felt. That was something I knew without a doubt about myself. I was trustworthy. I always stood up for what I believed in and fought for it too. And I would never, under any circumstances, ever betray someone.
I don’t know if it was the tightness in my eyes, or the strength of my voice, but her face relaxed after I said it.
“Now, please tell me, how does Alec know you?” I tried to sound casual in my question, but I think I might have failed at it, because she looked up from her bowl and smiled at me.
“You don’t know Alec well do you?” But then she looked down and her smile faded into a frown, “Or maybe he doesn’t speak of us anymore.”
I just sat back and kept eating. Even though it was definitely not what I would call breakfast food, I was hungry and it did taste good.
Finally, she told me about the real Alec.
Chapter Eighteen
Spoiled: A Fae is considered spoiled if they do not inherit magic on their seventeenth birthday. They are then outcasts and not allowed to pledge with any Fae other than another Spoiled one.
“Alec spent many years here in Ardennes when he was younger. All Realm Guard are required to spend a certain amount of years in each Province. But after he visited them all, he always wanted to come back here.
“He and Kerr grew very close, along with a few other Nymph. They were all training together and so they shared many things in common.”
“Kerr is a Realm Guard?” I asked, not intentionally interrupting her.
As she answered, she shook her head. “No. He left the Guard many years ago. After what happened to Lix, he no longer wanted to serve our honorable King and Queen.” Her sarcasm was apparent, and I remembered how Alec had said there are rebels who fought against the King and Queen.
All of a sudden I wondered why Alec would have brought us to stay with them, if there was a risk of gettin
g in trouble. I mean, there’s some kind of war going on, and I didn’t want to be found on the wrong side.
“So, they trained together, and fought together and laughed together. They were very close. Alec spent many nights here with us, and I grew to love him as my own. Though, this was not fully acceptable. He is Sylph, while we are Nymph. The breeds do not mix.” Then she closed her eyes, as if remembering something, or maybe mourning something.
“That was the problem. Lix created a whole mess of things.” Though the words sounded harsh, she said them with affection and a smile.
“She was everything to this family, the only female in a group of seven children. The smartest, the fastest. And she was beautiful. Her hair was long and smooth, and blacker than a raven’s feathers. Her eyes were greener than the clearest oak leaves in the middle of summer. She was the kindest, and gentlest of us, and yet could be the fiercest as well. And everyone loved her. She had many suitors vying for her hand in pledge.
“But she did not want just any suitor. She wanted only one. The only one she couldn’t have.” She shook her head and then took a deep breath before continuing.
“They loved each other, you know. At first we all thought it would pass. That it was just an infatuation born from a novice lust. But it did not pass, or even fade. And as the time went on, it became apparent that they wouldn’t be able to leave each other’s side.
“Still, as I said, the breeds don’t mix. A Nymph cannot pledge to a Pixie, just as a Sylph cannot pledge to a Sprite.”
“Why?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“The magic is often extinguished between them. If they bear any young, they will probably be spoiled, magicless. That’s even worse than being human,” she said, and looked right at me, as if she knew my secret. She had to. Any Fae would already know these things.
“I am not human,” I assured her. But she only smiled and continued with her story.
“It is mandated that you cannot pledge to another breed. It wasn’t always like that, you know. Many years ago Fae could choose to pledge whomever they wanted. They just ran the risk of having magicless children, but even Fae who procreate with their own kind can bear a spoiled child. Still, when King Mastikh took the throne after the tribulation and our rightful King and Queen went missing, he made it law.
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