The Key of F: a young adult fantasy romance (Freedom Fight Trilogy Book 1)

by Jennifer Haskin

Fale waited until he settled in comfortably on the couch before she knocked the coffee table out of the way. She proceeded to perform one of her more intricate combative dances, expecting to get caught up in the material; but as she sliced and swung, her dress clung to her every move. She imagined the battle she would have with the machines to rescue Nelson. Anger stirred her blood.

  They can’t take everything from me. These wizards have taken enough.

  First her mother, and her father, now her freedom and Nelson. She would find him. She would find him and destroy the barbarity of Gasten’s regime. Nelson would know her. Even if he was a machine, he would know her, and he would come with her. She hoped. She fought and swung and spun. Then Fale kicked high, exposing her dagger sheath, and planted her foot in front of him, bare to the thigh.

  “See,” she panted, “I cannot fight... in a dress... I’m exposed.”

  “You most certainly can. You would distract your enemy, too. You probably should. It would make you an easier target and people would underestimate you.”

  “But, but… it didn’t work,” she cried.

  “Sure did. I win,” he said smugly.

  “Fine,” Fale pouted, warning him, “but I hate losing.”

  “I see that,” Keron chuckled.

  “Turn around. I owe you a massage.”

  “Let’s worry about it later,” he said.

  Fale put her swords away and they decided to play a few hands of cards before bed. “You wanna bet on cards, too?" Keron teased.

  “Shut up,” Fale said, smiling.

  “Just checking.” He grinned.

  After a while Fale yawned deeply. “Looks like I’d better get you to bed,” Keron said. “We still have a bet to settle.”

  Fale groaned. Keron smothered a laugh. He put out the lanterns while Fale went into the bedroom to change into her pajamas. She smoothed down the material. Why did she feel so awkward? It was just Keron. She was safe with him.

  He waited until he heard her getting into the bed before he went in and knew Fale would close her eyes while he stripped and put on cotton pants. But when he looked down at the bed, she was laying on her side, watching him. He was going to joke with her, but the look of innocent need on her face made his mouth go dry.

  He knew that look, but he doubted she knew how she felt. How many girls had he seen in his bed, and yet he felt like this was the first time he’d ever been so exposed? He stood next to the bed bathed in moonlight from the window.

  “Your body is so beautiful,” she said. His jaw flexed, like he was going to say something, but instead he got into the bed and pulled her close to him.

  “Thank you,” he said, suddenly profoundly serious, and met her gaze with an intensity that surprised her.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “You make me feel whole. Like a real man and not a machine. Not a possession.”

  “You are a real man,” she insisted.

  “Ah, Fale. You don’t know how that makes me feel.”

  “I think I do,” she said with sincerity. “Should we settle our bet?"

  I want to touch you.

  “Sure. Roll over.”

  “But I’m supposed to massage you,” she said. “I lost.”

  “Nope,” he said. “It was going to be you, either way.”

  She laughed. “How about me tonight, you tomorrow?”

  “I agree,” he said.

  Fale rolled over and Keron’s hands began to knead her shoulders. After all her tension and magic, she hadn’t realized how much she needed this. His fingertips dug into her shoulder blades and circled. She moaned. He walked his hands down her spine and up to her neck where he gripped each side and rubbed in more circles.

  Fale, needing more, reached down, and pulled off her shirt to give him better access to her skin. She held her shirt across her chest and crossed her arms. Keron stopped. “Fale. I need to ask you something.”

  “Mmm hmm,” she said. “Just keep going.”

  He tentatively touched the soft skin of her bare back, feeling her ribs, and running his hands up to her shoulders to knead the flesh there. “Do you think I need you to go farther, um, sexually to stay interested?”

  “No,” she said, then it occurred to her that he might. She panicked. “Wait. Do you?”

  “No,” he assured her. “I’m fine with waiting for you, I just want you to know what you’re doing.”

  “I do. I want to feel everything I’ve missed,” she said.

  “Missed?”

  “Yeah, what I’ve been denied. No man has ever touched me, and my skin needs to be next to someone else’s. I’ve missed a lot of years, training to be a warrior and forgetting I’m a girl,” she explained.

  “Where do you want to be touched?” he whispered next to her ear, causing her arms to have goosebumps. She rolled to face him, pressing her stomach against his.

  “Anywhere,” she whispered back. “Everywhere. I don’t pretend to know what I’m doing, Keron. I am blind. I’m feeling my way through this." She ran her hands along his chest and kissed his jaw.

  “You. Are. Killing me, Fale,” he said, sighing. “Lay back on the pillows and I’ll touch your skin, but then you’re going to sleep.”

  She lay back, nervous and yet excited. Keron’s fingers stroked every exposed piece of her flesh and followed with a few kisses in delightful places. Fale moaned with contentment. “She’s killing me,” Keron repeated to himself, making Fale laugh.

  Satisfied that he had flustered her almost to the point of himself, Keron stopped and gathered Fale into his arms. “Okay, sleep now.”

  “But I’m not tired,” she complained.

  “I have to stop, Fale,” he said sternly.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have to be sorry, Sprout. It was good. Right? You’re not ready for more.”

  “It was good. And I think I do want more,” she breathed. “I mean, what if Lisle offers me to Gasten and they turn me into a machine and I never have skin again?”

  “Good grief, Fale. Really? Do you know what you do to me? I won’t let them take you. I will never let you lose to him, understand me?”

  “Okay, but will you show me everything I haven’t felt yet?”

  “Fale. Nelson will kill me. You are young still and can choose anyone to do this with. I’m a bondsman, you’re a princess. There’s probably a rule…” he said.

  “I don’t care. I chose you. Lucien knew it. Why do you think he set us up this way, making you my husband?”

  Keron groaned. “Okay, wife, if it’s what you want, but not tonight. Shut your eyes and go to sleep now."

  Fale smiled in triumph and rounded herself into the curve of his body.

  The next day Fale woke up in only her boxers, with Keron’s arm thrown across her ribs, under her breasts. Her face lit up with fire. Fale, you’re too brazen. No, she told herself. She wouldn’t be afraid of what she desired with Keron anymore. They could never get married to anyone else or even each other, because legally, they were already wed. She was going to know what it felt like to be a wife, and it made her insanely happy. She moved and woke him. “Good morning,” She said. “We have all day together. Wanna make flatcakes and sneak into the gym? We must keep you in fighting shape. Besides, I feel invincible today.”

  Keron looked at Fale and his eyes opened wider when she didn’t move to cover herself. “Um, sure.” He began to pull his arm back across her body, stopping to fan his hand out on her chest. She breathed deeply. Regretfully, he dragged his hand away. Fale got up to use the bathroom.

  “Please, please, please put your shirt back on,” Keron called after her. Fale laughed.

  They made a big breakfast of artificial eggs and flatcakes. “Do you think they’d recognize me at the TacTrac?”

  “Are there many strangers coming and going?”

  “Not really. Most people are in classes of some kind. They come regularly and get to know each other. We’re like a family,” she said.

 
; “Then I’d say, don’t go. They’ll see a beautiful white-haired stranger standing out, then realize it’s you.”

  “Maybe they wouldn’t tell on me.”

  “Maybe they’d have to,” he said.

  “True,” she said sadly. “They loved Nelson, too. They’d hate me for killing him.”

  “Hey. He’s not gone forever. We’ll get him back," Keron assured. “Come with me to the downtown gym. We can work out together.”

  “Okay.” She smiled.

  They finished eating and changed. Keron took a backpack and they trekked into the city. At the edge of the reeds, they found a board Keron had left for them and changed from boots to tennis shoes, leaving their boots to dry.

  Fale and Keron jogged lightly to the gym as a warmup, her white pony tail reflecting the sun. Keron wore a tight white t-shirt with long sleeves to disguise his valezsan alloy arm and low-slung black shorts, while Fale had on a body hugging tank top with leggings cut off at her knee.

  The gym door was propped open with a ten-pound hand weight. Fale could tell why, the moment she entered. It was dim and stale. It stank of the human body and the air was humid with the sweat of so many hard-working men and women. The mirrors, put up on brick walls, were covered on the edges with condensation. There was a cool breeze at Fale’s feet and fans were on, but the air at her nose was hot. The contradiction was disconcerting.

  There was a desk right inside the door where they scanned their fake wristbands, and the rest of the giant room was split into sections by weights and machines. Keron grabbed a white towel from a big tub and handed one to Fale. “To wipe down your seat, before and after you use it,” he explained. She nodded. This is definitely not the TacTrac. The TacTrac had light and life and incense and air. No mirrors, no machines, and no feeling of being of being stared at. Which Fale was certainly feeling right now. She lowered her head.

  Keron showed her where the machines were. She followed him to the free weights. “Do you ever do the machines?” she asked.

  “No,” he said. “Machines are for girls. Besides, I max them all out.”

  Fale huffed. “For girls, huh?”

  “Um, yeah,” he said in a snarky tone. “Free weights are for men.”

  “Wanna bet?” she asked.

  “This again? You ready to lose?”

  “This one I’m confident about.” She smiled.

  “What’s the bet?” he asked.

  “I can lift at least half of whatever you can do today on free weights.”

  “Okay. What’s the wager?”

  “Hmm. Loser cooks dinner and does the dishes while the winner takes a nice hot bath,” she said.

  “I don’t want a bath, but I’ll take it." They shook hands.

  For everything Keron lifted, pressed, or squatted, Fale kept up with at least half or more of his weight all morning. They pulled down, pushed up, rowed back, and did flys. Keron tried to tire her out, but she kept up with him to his utter surprise.

  Finally, he was done. They got bottles of water and Keron drained his in one gulp. “I’m through,” he said.

  “Oh, thank the stars.” Fale let her head roll back on her shoulders.

  “What? I thought you could go another mile,” he accused.

  “I would have, if you had.” She shook out her arms.

  “You are one competitive girl,” Keron said, pulling his left arm across his body to stretch it.

  A man walked up to Fale and offered his hand, “You are pretty impressive for such a little girl. I’m Quinn.”

  “Hi.” Fale shook his hand. “Thank you.”

  “Would you like to go out for a drink sometime?” he asked confidently, flexing some very impressive muscle himself.

  “Hey buddy,” Keron interjected. “She’s with someone.”

  “I don’t see a ring on her finger, buddy,” he retorted, turning toward Fale. Keron steamed.

  “Actually, I am with him,” Fale said to Quinn and pointing to Keron behind him.

  “If you want a real man, all over, give me a call." Quinn pressed a piece of paper into her hand.

  “Get your hands off my wife,” Keron said.

  “Wife?” Quinn asked Fale. “With a fantocci?”

  Fale nodded. “I took my ring off to lift weights,” she said. “Sorry, Quinn.”

  He walked off mumbling something about how no one in their right mind marries one of them. Fale understood, though. Either he hadn’t believed her lie or he was just another fanto-phobic jerk. She felt guilty, then she saw Keron’s face, and she felt even worse. Like she’d done it on purpose. “I’m sorry, Keron.”

  He heard her guilt and defused instantly.

  “Sprout, you don’t have to be sorry." He put his arm around her shoulders. “You didn’t do anything wrong. People want to be with you. Let’s get going, if you’re done?”

  “Oh, hell yes,” she said. “My body is going to hurt tomorrow.”

  “I have to go by the store.”

  “No problem.”

  Keron stopped by the drug store and told Fale he would only be a few minutes, so she stayed out front and stretched her limbs. People going in and coming out gave her second looks, but no one seemed to recognize her, even though there were papers everywhere describing her and Keron with their pictures. She took down her ponytail and let her hair hang next to her face like a shield. When no one was looking, she made a small flame in her palm to check out the situation. It was blue, not black and evil, so she wasn’t worried.

  “Is there anything else you want to do while we’re in the city?” Keron asked.

  “Yes. Since we’re disguised, I want to go into some buildings that Nelson frequented, to see if my flame turns black. I can ask the shopkeepers if they-”

  “If they have a machine hidden in their shops?” Keron teased.

  “No, but maybe someone has seen it and didn’t know what it was.”

  “Asking questions to the wrong person could get Control involved. Please be careful.” He sighed. “And let’s be quick, I’m getting nervous being out in the open like this.”

  They walked quickly to the plaza shops, avoiding Control officers, and visited a handful of stores. Her flame made every color except black. Feeling defeated, she gave up and went into a store of undergarments to purchase some real pajamas. She found a pair in lavender cotton with a small daisy print, and a nightgown in a red filmy, soft fabric. Maybe he’ll see this and realize I’m serious. She met Keron outside the shop and showed him the lavender set only, keeping the red nightgown as a surprise.

  It was nearing late afternoon when they began their trek home. Home. Fale thought how funny it was that she was beginning to feel so at home in the little house after so short a time. All their purchases were shoved into Keron’s bulging backpack. They held hands walking back and Fale said, “I wanted to ask you something.” She looked down with a blush.

  “Ask away.” He held their hands under her chin and lifted her face up to his. He smiled gently into her eyes.

  “Lisle asked if we were together.”

  “That’s not a question,” he chuckled. “What did you tell him?”

  “I said we hadn’t talked about it.”

  “So, is this us talking about it?” he baited her.

  Fale was getting flustered. “I guess. I mean, what do you? Oh, shoot. Stop. I lost my boot.”

  Keron stopped while Fale fixed her shoe, stuck in the mud, grinning dimples. She was oblivious to his teasing mood. “Keron, I know technically you’re my husband, but what are you to me?” she asked, finally getting it out.

  “What do you want me to be?”

  “I don’t know. What is there? Are we together? I don’t know what to call you.”

  “I kind of like lover extraordinaire, but I guess ‘boyfriend’ to our friends should be fine.”

  Fale smiled. “I’ve never had a boyfriend before.”

  “Well now you do,” he said. She laughed out of awkwardness. It was everything she’d wanted to h
ear, but she still felt out of place. She smiled to herself and let the feeling of being part of something bigger than herself take over and was comforted by it. Her heart was already sewing itself to his, one stitch at a time. She was in over her head and she knew it, but the way he made her heart race when he pulled her close and whispered against her mouth, spoke to her soul. Her spirit flew, like crispy leaves on an autumn wind.

  The house was still light when they returned, so Keron showered and changed into his new clothes. He looked masculine, yet comfortable in the kitchen with his bare feet. He began to look for what he would cook for dinner, since he lost the bet, while Fale read from Lisle’s book of mages on the couch. As the sun set, Fale lit the lanterns in the living room and Keron stayed in the kitchen. “You’d better get in the tub, if you wanna soak,” Keron called to her.

  Fale put down her book and went into the bathroom to start the water. She found her package from the store and placed it on a chair in the bathroom. Keron came in to hand Fale a small vial. “I bought this for you,” he said. It was rose oil. “Pour it in the bath,” he instructed, and kissed her on his way to the kitchen.

  Fale closed the door and soaked in the heady scent of roses. The hot water washed away the stiffness of her muscles. The oil made her skin feel like silk and steam curled the hairs slipped out of her bun. When Keron called her for dinner thirty minutes later, she let the water out, dried off and put on her new nightgown.

  Fale stepped into the kitchen while Keron’s back was turned. He was setting a hot pizza on the table. Supreme, Fale’s favorite, with salad and a bottle of wine. A lantern sat on the table casting shadows around the kitchen. Keron threw the hot pad on the counter and turned around. He froze and stared at Fale. She wore a red nightgown with spaghetti straps that was sheer enough to see the outline of her waist through the fabric reaching her knees. She could almost see his heartbeat speed.

  Keron held out a chair for Fale and she said, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he choked.

  “You like it,” she observed happily. “It was a surprise.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see if I can eat now,” he said, and Fale laughed.

  True to his word, Keron was hardly able to eat his meal. His gaze was on Fale the whole time. Her bare shoulders shone in the dancing light of the lantern, and the warm scent of roses permeated their little space. Keron poured Fale a glass of wine. She looked down at the nightie and reached for her wine, emptying it without stopping.