Recovery

by Layla Heart

  “I can make this work. I promise.” Phoenix bounces up and down on the suitcase, trying to catch the latches in exactly the right time, and the suitcase lets out a very worrying creak.

  “Phoenix.” This time his voice is sharper.

  “Yeah?” She sighs as she looks back at him, finally. ”What?”

  “You don’t have to pack all of that.” He comes into the room, slightly limping, and I worry that we’re asking too much of him today. He hasn’t tried to stand this much all week, and he’s been doing nothing but standing and walking all day. He must be so sore right now.

  “Because?” She raises an eyebrow at him, challenging him, her eyes flashing.

  “Open the suitcase.” His voice is calm as he takes out his phone.

  With a loud sigh, Phoenix opens it and Rune takes a couple of quick shots of the things she’s packed.

  Then Rune taps on the screen a couple of times, and puts his phone away. “Now, we’re going to check that you actually have clothes and other things you need packed, before we get back to those.”

  “And my books?” She doesn’t move, crossing her arms in front of her instead, and it pushes her boobs up in a way that’s hard to look away from, especially with her top being almost see-through...

  “Bane and Kit are checking your stack against what they’re already packing, and then Bane will send the rest of the list off to his mum, to check if maybe they already have the books you need in their library at the house. Anything not covered by their counts, you can take with you.” He leans against the bed, wincing as he rubs his leg for a moment. “What else did you pack?” He looks to the other suitcase and then to me. “And are you going to wear that?”

  I look down, only now realising I’m still wearing my annoying dress. The dress Phoenix promised to take off me before taking a hot shower together later today, but I guess that that’s not going to happen, not now anyway. “I guess I should change into something more practical.” I go over to our closet, looking through it, trying to find something to wear. What are you supposed to wear when you’re on the run? It’s not something I’ve ever considered. In the end, I grab a pair of jeans and a simple shirt. I guess this is as good as any, I just need clothes, that’s it.

  “We packed everything that was important.” Phoenix doesn’t sound very impressed with Rune.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Rune hums, almost laughing. “I do not believe you need that many bottles of hair products. You don’t need two backups of everything. We’re not going to some deserted place for ten years.”

  “You never know.” Phoenix sounds like she’s pouting and I can’t help my smile.

  Rune lets out a laugh. “We do know. It’s not some weird place, it’s just one of their houses. There’s a town nearby where we can pick up things we need, or we can have them delivered. We’re not going three-hundred years back in time.”

  “Still.” Phoenix sighs deeply and I look back at them. It’s funny how Phoenix is sitting on top of her suitcase, which still isn’t closed, and Rune is looking at her like she’s the most difficult person in the world. But they don’t look out of the ordinary together like this, they look like this is normal, like this is exactly the way things are supposed to be. And they look like they’ve been having these arguments for decades already. Then Phoenix’ face falls. “What if we’re not just staying there for a short time? What if this turns into something that takes weeks or months?”

  “Then we go shopping for the things we need.” Bane’s voice comes from the door and when I look up, he’s also wearing jeans and a shirt, though his jeans definitely make me appreciate his body, the way it hugs his ass... He steps inside, looking at Phoenix’ suitcase. “I guess you’ve never been to the house we’re staying at?”

  Phoenix shakes her head, frowning. “It’s not like your parents are there very often either. When I visit them with my parents, it’s usually at the places they stay at more often.”

  “Yeah, makes sense. They rarely stay at that house, they feel it’s too far from the civilised world.” Bane shrugs. “But they used to stay there a lot, when they were our age. That house is full of books, most of them about subjects we can’t even imagine. The family on my mum’s side has been on the cutting edge of a lot of cool stuff for a long time. That house is more like a library than you can imagine.” He smirks. “Even Kit would be surprised by the things he can find there. The books we found in the tower are nothing in comparison. Which is probably why my parents don’t take me there anymore...”

  “What about me?” Kit appears at his side, smiling, his arm around Bane’s shoulder.

  “Nothing much.” Bane pushes him softly, grinning. “Are you done packing?”

  Kit nods, then his eyes go wide, and he picks a book from Phoenix’ suitcase. “Gonna steal this for a bit, though. The rest of the books I don’t care about.”

  “Hey!” Phoenix jumps up. “Give that back!”

  “Nope.” He grins and dashes out of the room, Phoenix rushing after him.

  “And that book was?” I stare after them, grinning.

  Rune takes his phone, his eyes scanning over the picture, then he lets out a laugh. “Just some spicy book, apparently. Really old though, like... You could almost call it vintage, spicy ‘literature’, from a famous succubus author who was known for her love of the female form.”

  Right... Something new to learn about Phoenix, I guess, and Kit too.

  I sit on my bed, looking over the guys. “And what now?”

  Bane sits down next to me, his hand on mine. “Now we wait for Finn to wake up. Once he’s awake, we’ll meet up with my parents and they’ll get us to the house. It seems to involve magic of some sort, I don’t know exactly, I’ve never been to it from here.”

  Magic to go places, it’s still something that feels weird to me. Like, I’ve done it once when I came here, and I’ve seen other people arrive through those magical doors, but I’ve not really been anywhere else but this campus and the town next to it, so I didn’t really have to consider how it actually works on a larger scale.

  Going away from this place for the first time, just when it started to feel a bit like home... Not looking forward to it.

  3

  I grab a couple more of Finn’s clothes from his drawers, stashing them in a suitcase. It’s not like he has many clothes anyway, he tends to wear pretty much the same things all the time, but it feels a little strange going through his underwear without his explicit consent. He’s still on the couch in the living room, out of it. It’s been four hours since he got stabbed and Phoenix says that he’s doing okay, other than the obvious not-actually-awake thing, but that doesn’t mean I’m not worried about him...

  It all happened so fast. One moment we were rushing to protect my uncle and then the next moment, Finn got stabbed. He just... He was there, and then he was dropping to the floor. I suspect that if Phoenix hadn’t told Litha that she wasn’t allowed to fry the assassin that she would have done exactly that, her first deliberate kill...

  I sigh, leaning against the dresser, closing my eyes. It felt so strange, one moment it was all high-speed adrenaline, and then everything went still, like the whole room stopped breathing at the same time.

  “Bane?” Litha’s voice is nearby and then her hand is on my back. “Are you okay?”

  I nod, slowly turning to her and taking her in my arms. “I’ll be okay once we’re somewhere safe.” She smells so good, she smells so familiar, like I want to wrap myself up in her and hide from the world forever...

  Her hands move over my back, and then holds onto my shirt. “Will we ever be safe, anywhere?”

  “No.” I wish I had another answer for her, but I don’t. It’s no use lying.

  “I thought so.” She slowly steps back and gives me a kiss on my cheek. “Your mum is here, said she wanted to talk to you. She’s in the living room.”

  I nod, taking a deep breath. “Thank you.” I have no idea why Mum may be here, but it’s no use making her wait.<
br />
  Litha nods too, giving me a soft smile and then she takes my hand.

  I squeeze her hand as we go to the living room, my heart heavy. What else could go wrong today? It feels like today has been almost a week of problems, instead of just a couple of hours... I quickly check the time on my phone. It’s five in the afternoon, and I’m already done with this week, which has only been ten hours long.

  Mum is sitting on the couch, her eyes on Finn filled with worry, but when she spots me she tries to give me a smile. “Hey.”

  “Hey.” I go over to her, sitting down and pulling Litha in my lap, wrapping my arms around her, needing her with me. “You wanted to see me?”

  “Yeah. Just a couple of small things, really.” She takes some papers from her pocket. “You’re going to need these, they’re for the internet at the house, and some codes and spells to protect the house and all sorts of stuff.”

  I take the papers, putting them on the couch between us. “Thanks.” I don’t really know what else to say. “I guess, thanks, for offering the place...”

  She shakes her head, taking my hand. “Don’t thank me yet. It’s the only way we can be sure you’re staying safe, all of you. And that’s why I’m here...” She eyes Finn again. “I have... bad news. The assassin shared a few things...”

  “No.” Litha shakes her head and I feel a flush of heat go over her skin. “I don’t want to hear it.” There are tears in her voice already and I tighten my arms around her, wanting to comfort her.

  “You need to know. This is important, for all of you.” Mum looks at her, and her eyes are filled with tears too.

  “I already figured it out.” Litha stands up, going over to Finn. She kneels next to the couch, taking his hand, and she wipes the tears from her face with the other hand.

  I blink, lost, again... “Know what?” I look between them. “What is it? What did she say?”

  Litha lets out a low growl, her eyes on Finn’s face. “The assassin wasn’t for your uncle, or Kit’s mum, it was for Finn.” My stomach lurches, not wanting to believe what she’s saying. She looks at Mum. “Right? That’s what you were going to say, right?”

  Mum nods, closing her eyes for a moment. “Yes. The assassin was his aunt. She was sent here to kill him. Any other damage she could do, was just extra, Finn was the target of this attack.”

  “Fuck.” I jump up, fury rushing through me and I want to punch something. I turn to the wall, anything is better than nothing, but right then, Finn lets out a groan, moving slightly.

  He’s waking up! Finally!

  “There should be some food in the house, and there’s a garden that you can pick fruit and vegetables from.” Mum pushes a crate with even more food forward, to the magical door. “This should also help you a couple more days.” Her voice is low, sad.

  I understand that she doesn’t like the danger we’re in, and sending us to the house is all about protecting us, and the campus, but somehow, it seems very convenient that everything is already ready for us to just move in, even at a moment’s notice. Like they knew this could happen.

  She looks up, meeting my eyes, like she can hear my thoughts, or maybe she’s just being a Mum... “The house is always ready for people to move in. It’s been a hideout for my family for generations. You’ll find a lot of things are set up in a particular way because it makes the house easy to defend when under attack.” She sighs as she stands up. “It was built for situations like this...”

  We’re in one of the buildings on the campus that are normally off-limits to students, for various reasons, mostly to do with the safety and security of the school and the students. This room has one single use. It houses a door which can transport you all over the world, and other worlds, like the human world, but normally it’s not ‘turned on’. It’s only in desperate situations that it’s turned on, like now.

  Behind me, Litha and Phoenix are carrying suitcases inside the room, while Kit and Rune are trying to get Finn in as carefully as they can. Finn is in pain, but he seems lucid, and he was insistent that we didn’t wait too long with getting out of here. Litha, Phoenix and Kit all said goodbye to their parents before we came to the building.

  My dad is the last one to come into the room, carrying another crate with food and other things, putting it to the side before he closes the door behind him, finishing the circle that protects this room, and locks us inside it. This way, nobody should be able to trace where we’re going, if anyone would try that. Desperate measures, indeed.

  “I’ll make the connection. Step back, please.” Mum takes a deep breath as she turns to the door in the middle of the room.

  I step back, taking Litha’s hand, loving the feel of touching her. At least we’ll all be going there together, we’re not leaving anyone behind, at least not one of us. Somewhere, deep inside, I wish I could get my parents to come with us, or Litha’s parents, but I understand that we can’t do that. Plus, I guess it’s better that we do our own thing, not involving our parents or anyone who could be held responsible for our actions. As long as they don’t know what we’re up to, they can’t be blamed when we mess something up... At least, that’s kind of what I understood from the things Dad said when he took me aside before we left. If we’re doing something on our own, especially things that go against certain treaties that have been signed, nobody can be held responsible for what we do...

  The door glows gold for a moment, and then the glow turns a light blue, before the door automatically opens. I can’t see anything through it, just a light blue doorway into somewhere.

  Mum steps through it, disappearing for a moment, and then appearing again. “It works. You arrive in a side room of the house. The room can be locked from the inside and the outside with a simple spell. This is to keep people out while you’re in the house, so they can’t appear like this, randomly, when you don’t expect anyone.” She grabs one of the crates. “Follow me.” And then disappears through the door again.

  I follow her, Litha’s hand still in mine as I take a bag with supplies in my other hand, the movement still a little awkward, but it’s slowly getting easier to use the fingers which were harmed by the venom and to remember that I can’t move it as easily as before.

  Stepping through the door gives that ‘tugging’ feeling I get when I’m transported by the magic, but it doesn’t take even a second before we step out into a simple and plain room, with wooden walls and floors. There are no other objects in the room apart from this door and the single door leading to the rest of the house. Mum is undoing the magic circle and unlocking the other door as we arrive.

  She looks back, smiling. “Welcome to our ‘humble’ abode.” Then she opens the door and holds it so we can get through. “Bane knows where everything is. He’s been here before. And those bags go in the kitchen.” She points at the bag I’m holding.

  We walk into the hallway and Litha stares around, her eyes wide, sparkling. “This is pretty! Wow! Such a pretty house!”

  I look around. I guess it’s nice. It’s very old, and the style definitely shows that. The walls are a combination of lighter stone and dark wood, the floors and the ceilings both a dark wood too. I guess I’m used to places that are old and such, but for someone who’s used to living in the city, this could look very ‘pretty’, as Litha put it, in a quirky cottage kind of way... Just a really big cottage.

  4

  I shiver as I step through the door. The academy is in a much warmer area of the world, and this place is obviously in a much colder area. I don’t like the cold much, but neither do the fae, which could be an advantage to us.

  Finn groans as Rune helps him through the door, and I immediately reach for him too, trying to steady him. “I’m fine.” Finn tries to glare at me, but that doesn’t really work, not when he looks this pale.

  “And we’re getting you to a place where you can lie down again.” Rune doesn’t even give Finn time to disagree as he starts walking.

  “Living room is down the hall, on the left, has a
lot of couches and looks out over the garden.” Bane’s mum smiles, but not enough to hide the worry in her eyes.

  It’s different this time. How worried people are. Not just about Finn, but about all of us. Even my mum was worried. She didn’t like the idea of me going somewhere she didn’t know and wouldn’t be able to reach me easily, but she also understood that I had to go with the others, that being with them was the only way to keep us all safe... And to her, that was more important than her own comfort. My biological dad was standing next to her, holding her hand, as he nodded, his eyes dark with worry too. It made me realise how fucking serious this situation actually is.

  As we walk down the hallway, Litha steps out of a room, and a quick glance inside tells me it’s the kitchen, a very sizable kitchen.

  How many people was this place designed for? I count about eight doors going off this single hallway, but there’s a bend in the hallway to the front of the house, so there may be more rooms there, and glancing up the stairs, I can see at least four doors just from the bottom of the stairs. This isn’t just a normal family house… This almost looks to be designed as a fallout location, or a place to house a whole group of soldiers to protect the surrounding towns or something. What kind of places to Bane’s parents, or his family own? What the?!

  “I’ll open the door for you.” Litha walks ahead of us and I quickly hide my smile as love floods through Finn when he follows her with his eyes.

  “Kit...” Rune warns and he pokes me in my side.

  “I didn’t do anything.” I poke him back. “I was being nice.”

  “Nice would be putting me down somewhere comfortable. You can do whatever you two are up to, once you’ve let go of me. Do not involve me in your weirdness, not today.” Finn grunts and we quickly keep moving. I wasn’t going to do anything, I was just enjoying how even our most stoic prince went all fluttery when he saw our girl.