by Bonnie Lamer
Wow. This is like a cheesy soap opera. Only, I suspect there will be more death in this one than a typical soap opera. And no one will magically come back to life. It’s no wonder Bayard wants peace so badly. He has enough to worry about with Pholos and keeping the younger Centaur from killing either his father or his older brother. I drop Bayard’s hand.
“What did you see?” the old King asks me.
“Pardon?”
Bayard is not fooled. “Remember, I have read your fate in the stars. You see more than you let on with those glowing eyes. You see possible futures. Which do you believe will come true?”
Possible futures? I think he has the wrong idea about my new power. I’m not having visions like Isla does sometimes. I’m seeing secrets, desires. Ones that are buried so deep, the person I am reading doesn’t necessarily understand them. Hence the sometimes flexible tunnel walls I must travel through. But, I am not getting into this. I have enough on my plate without getting dragged into a debate over what I am seeing with Bayard. “I have no idea what you are talking about,” I say. Dammit! I get the bug crawly feeling when I lie, too. Why is my power so judgmental?
“Only you would try to lie about your eyes glowing,” Taz comments. “You might want to invest in some sunglasses.” I ignore him.
Before Bayard can say anything else, I move on to Yerwen. Suspicion runs deep in his gaze but he doesn’t hesitate. He holds his furry hand out to me. It’s weird to shake the hand of someone with six inches of hair growing from his fingers and along the back of his hand where it reaches his even longer arm hair.
Yerwen’s secret is not quite as complicated. Solid black walls. Predictable secret at the end of the tunnel. He wishes he was a few centuries younger so he could take Kono as his bride. He can’t do it now because it would appear she was only with him to take over the thrown upon his death. That, and she hasn’t shown any interest in him in that way whatsoever.
This is such a stupid power I have. Who cares if he’s in love with his Supreme Commander? I don’t. She doesn’t. Frustrated, I return to Kallen and Dagda. From my expression, they can tell I didn’t learn anything useful.
Eyeing both Kings, who I have not released from my magic, Dagda says, “I will have troops here within an hour. In the meantime, I suggest you take care of the medical needs of the troops who attacked us.” He ignores the surprised and confused expressions on the Centaurs’ and Sasquatch’s faces and turns to the door. Kallen and I follow and almost as an afterthought, I release my magic holding the others to the wall.
13
The Fauns are still huddled in the corner and our reentrance makes them cower in fear. I release the magic surrounding them. “Things will be calm again for the time being,” I tell them. “You are safe.” Relief dances back and forth on their faces. There’s a healthy amount of doubt, as well, but they begin to set the room to rights as we exit the building.
Despite the fact that no one outside the Hall of Justice knows we struck a deal with their leaders, not one single Centaur or Sasquatch attacks us. Instead, the few who are still in the road scramble out of the way dragging the wounded with them. I could stop and heal them all. I probably should. I hesitate, debating what I should do.
My dilemma is solved when Kallen gets my attention and points in the direction of the barn we are staying in. The fully visible barn, meaning it’s no longer in a circle, with flames shooting through the roof. This is why there are fewer warriors in the street. Both Centaur and Sasquatch alike are trying to douse the flames. A chain has been set up to bring water from the well to the barn. I do not even stop to consider why they are doing this if they are responsible for the flames in the first place. There is time to wonder about that later.
My heart is in my mouth as I touch both Kallen and Dagda and teleport us the rest of the way. Not expecting this, both Fairies stumble when we arrive. I barely notice. My eyes are searching for my brother. Taz doesn’t stumble at all. He is already searching for his brother, Felix.
“There!” Kallen shouts over the sound of hooves and water. He’s pointing a small distance away where Garren is sitting on the ground with his arm around Zac. My little brother’s eyes are shell shocked as he watches the flames shoot toward the sky.
“Where is Tana?!” Dagda yells to them. The abject terror on Garren’s face makes my heart stop beating for an instant.
She can’t be dead. Not when we were so close. Just down the road. Someone could have come for us. Someone fast, like a Centaur, so we could save her. My eyes move frantically, searching the crowded area for her body.
Reading my mind, Garren says when we are close enough, “She is not dead. She is…” he glances toward his King. “She is gone.”
The sheer magnitude of Dagda’s anger cannot be contained within his body. It radiates from him, leaking magic into the air. Magic that desperately wants a target. Magic that is already beginning to spiral out of control. This makes his simple words spoken in a calm voice even scarier. “Explain before I make you wish you had died at the hands of the Dragons.”
Kallen and I both edge a little closer to Garren. He may not be my husband’s favorite person, but we both know how much Isla cares about him. She wouldn’t appreciate us letting Dagda disembowel him. Probably not something Zac should witness, either.
“Where is Felix?” Taz demands. “If the bloody wanker left him in there to die, I’ll rip out his jugular before Dagda even moves in his direction.” Considering the fear already on Garren’s mouth, I don’t relay Taz’s message. I do ask where the other Tasmanian devil is, though.
Standing, Garren moves Zac behind him. This further infuriates both Dagda and Taz, neither of whom would ever harm a child. I know this about Dagda now despite our rocky beginning. ‘
Unfortunately, Dagda is where I got my impatience and temper. Magic flies forward and Garren is raised several feet from the ground by an invisible hand wrapped around his neck. “Where. Is. My. Wife?” Dagda says in that same eerie, calm voice.
“Uncle, he cannot respond if he cannot breathe,” Kallen points out. Garren is beginning to turn a little blue from lack of oxygen.
“It’s my fault,” Zac says, moving out from behind Garren.
Dagda pulls his magic back so fast, Garren slumps to the ground in a heap. Visibly restraining himself, Dagda asks, “What do you mean?”
Zac takes a deep breath. “I…” he looks to me for encouragement and I urge him on with my eyes and a nod. “I made her and Felix disappear.”
A breath I didn’t realize I was holding slips from my lungs. She’s not dead. Tana is not dead. She is simply missing. And so is Felix. “Zac,” I say, walking to my brother and kneeling in front of him, taking his small hands in mine. “How did you make them disappear?”
Red faced, Zac shrugs. “I don’t know. Tana was there when the fire started and she was giving me and Garren orders. She was using magic to put the fire out but there were so many flames she was struggling to get them all. She told Garren to take me outside and she was supposed to follow us. Felix stayed with her. But she didn’t come out. She stayed inside and kept trying to put the flames out. I was scared and I didn’t want her to get hurt, so I wished for her to be safe. When Garren ran back in to drag her out, she was gone.”
I study my brother. Does he really have the power to make someone disappear? He is part Angel. But even I can’t make people simply disappear. I can teleport myself and others, but I can’t just randomly send people away as much as I would like to sometimes. There must be another answer.
Glancing up, I ask Kallen, “Maybe she put up a circle?”
He shakes his head. “No, the circle would not keep the barn from being consumed by fire.” Makes sense. Then what happened?
Dagda has managed to put his anger on hold. Bending down on one knee next to me, he asks, “Zac, did you imagine sending Tana somewhere?” He doesn’t really believe Zac did this any more than I do, but neither of us can completely rule out the possibility.
&
nbsp; Zac shakes his head again. “No. I just wanted her to be safe.” Tears fill his eyes and Dagda reaches out to him before I can even lift my arms. He engulfs my brother in a hug so tight, I’m surprised his eyes don’t bulge.
“It is alright,” Dagda murmurs. “We will find her.”
A flash of what kind of father Dagda could have been goes through my mind. I never thought about what life would have been like if he had raised me. A feeling of loss tugs at my heart. Both for me and my biological father.
Swiping at my own eyes that want to fill with tears, I get to my feet. “I’m going to look for her inside,” I say.
“No,” Kallen says. “I will go.”
“Neither of you will go,” Dagda says in his best royal voice.
Before I can argue, he is running toward the barn. Kallen starts after him. I feel his magic cloak him, ready to shield him from the flames. My heart has been on a roller coaster ride the past few minutes, first dropping to the pit of my stomach and then rising to my throat only to drop again when the next news hits. Right now, it’s firmly in my throat and preventing me from swallowing the fear I have of losing Kallen the same way he lost his parents. To fire.
No conscious thought makes me teleport into the barn. No conscious thought cloaks me in magic to keep the flames and crumbling barn from killing me. I am simply here. With no consideration to safety whatsoever, I teleport to each stall. I stumble once, my foot falling between two wooden slats in the floor. I hardly notice the pain as I frantically search through the smoke filled areas of the barn. Thankfully, there is no sign of Tana or Felix.
“Xandra!” Kallen’s angry shout roars over the flames. “Get out! Now!”
He and Dagda are in the doorway, having just made it the few hundred yards from where we were standing. I turn to look at Kallen, afraid something is going to happen to him being so close to the flames. So afraid, I don’t notice the flaming piece of the ceiling that falls on me. My magic holds, thank god. But what my magic cannot do is create oxygen. My lungs are quickly filling with smoke and if I don’t leave now as Kallen suggested, I may not be able to leave at all.
Kallen is running toward me, jumping over smaller flames and weaving between the others. He can’t see me through the smoke, but he knows where I am. Before I know it, I am wrapped in his arms and heading for the door. I didn’t even realize I let my magic down for him to take hold of me. But we’re not going to make it out like this. The area where the door used to be has just caved in, forcing Dagda back outside.
Kallen stops and curses so loudly everyone outside could probably hear it. “Xandra, can you get us out of here?” Coughing, I nod and find the necessary energy to teleport us out.
“What the hell were you two thinking?!” Dagda shouts as soon as we materialize in front of him. He grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me. “Do not ever again do something so stupid and reckless.” He glares at Kallen. “You are supposed to keep my daughter safe. You cannot do that if you are dead.” Taken aback, Kallen has no words to respond.
“She’s not in there,” I say softly. “I looked everywhere. She must have gotten out somehow. Both her and Felix.”
Dagda’s eyes find me again. The anger and fear leak from them in the form of tears. He pulls me close and hugs me as he had Zac earlier.
“Can’t…breathe,” I manage against his shoulder.
He frees me from his grasp and turns to his nephew. “I am sorry. I was worried.” His words are stilted but they are sincere.
Kallen nods once. “I know.” All is well in their relationship once again.
“Where could she be?” Garren asks, having joined us. He eyes Zac before looking at the rest of us again. “Do you really believe…?” his voice trails off.
“No,” Dagda says gruffly. “But she would not have left his side voluntarily.” Of course he means Zac, but she probably wouldn’t have left Felix in danger, either.
We need to be able to focus. Turning to the older Fairy, I say, “Garren, I need you to take Zac home.”
Confused, Garren blinks several times before saying, “Home? What do you mean?”
Instead of responding aloud, I reach out and tear the fabric of the realms. I don’t care who’s watching. By now, all the Centaurs and Sasquatch must know I can do this. In front of me is Isla’s mansion on the beach. “Take him home,” I tell Garren.
“No!” Zac cries. “I have to find Tana!”
Kallen puts his hands on my brother’s shoulders. “I promise you, we will find her.”
“But this is my fault!”
My heart is breaking. “Zac, no, this isn’t your fault. Tana disappeared and we have to find her, but you didn’t make her disappear. You simply don’t have that kind of magic right now.”
Eyes as round as saucers, my little brother stares at me. “I don’t?” He desperately wants to believe this.
I force a small smile to my lips. “No, you don’t. Even I don’t have that kind of magic.”
He’s still not convinced. “Really?”
I nod. “Really. Now, you need to go home so we can figure out what happened. I won’t be able to focus if I’m worried about you.”
Zac glances toward the mansion with longing on his face. It will be a long time before he wants to leave the Fairy realm again. “Okay,” he says quietly.
“Back so soon?” Kegan calls from the terrace.
“No, but we can use your help,” Kallen says.
Kegan takes a look at our faces and what is going on behind us and turns toward the terrace doors. “Alita, I will be back soon.”
She must have been following him outside. She, too, looks in our direction and needs no further explanation. With fear in her eyes, she kisses Kegan long and hard before stepping back. “Be careful,” she says quietly. Kegan doesn’t hesitate any longer. He is in the Centaur realm before Garren and Zac step through the passage to leave it.
“Garren,” Dagda says, stopping the Fairy. “Go to Isla. Tell her to have the soldiers readied for battle. Xandra will open another passageway for them in half an hour. They are to assemble here.” On Isla’s beach? Why?
The question must be written on my face. “So the location of our army’s headquarters is not revealed when you open the passageway,” Kallen says quietly. I nod in understanding.
“So, things are going well then?” Kegan teases, earning him glares from every direction. He holds his hands up in mock defense. “Sorry, just trying to break the tension.”
Kallen punches him hard in the arm while I put the realm walls back together.
14
“Tana is gone and we are at war?” Kegan asks incredulously. “You have not been here that long.”
“We are not technically at war,” I point out. “We will simply have the Fairy army here to keep the peace.” It hits me how often the United States back home has done something like this. I try hard not to think of how those situations worked out.
Kegan isn’t buying it but he moves on. “Where do we look for Tana?”
“Good question,” Kallen says. He and Dagda have been brooding over this for the last ten minutes while I caught Kegan up on what has been happening.
“It is not likely she left by her own will,” Dagda says, putting to words what we are all thinking. “She would have gone straight to Zac upon leaving the barn. His safety would have been her number one concern.”
Kegan glances toward the barn that is almost completely crumbled under the flames. No one is bothering to try to put them out anymore. The structure is a lost cause. The focus now is to contain the fire to the barn and not letting anything in the area burn. “Was there a back door?” he asks.
Kallen, Dagda and I exchange glances. Finally, Kallen says, “No.”
Kegan frowns. “But you are certain Zac did not use his magic to make her disappear?”
“Correct,” Dagda says. Kegan’s confusion is not lost on him. “Nor did Garren or Zac see her leave by the front door.”
“There was no trace
of her in the barn,” I say again. “I looked everywhere.”
After a worried glance in Dagda’s direction, Kegan finds the courage to say, “Tana delved deep into ancient magic. Perhaps she knew a spell that could get her to safety?” He used the word ancient but we all know he meant black. No one practicing white magic can disappear into thin air without Angel blood running in their veins like me. This would also imply she got herself to safety and simply left Zac, Felix and Garren behind.
Kallen shakes his head. “I felt no trace of her magic inside the barn.”
Surprised, I ask, “You could tell with all the fire and smoke?”
Kallen’s mouth turns up in a half smile. “Yes.” Wow. He is really good at sensing other people’s magic.
“So, no magic used and no other exits,” I reiterate unhelpfully. “What’s left?”
“We discover who was around the barn when she disappeared,” Kallen says. There’s a determined gleam in both his and Dagda’s eyes that makes me almost feel sorry for the Centaurs and Sasquatch that happened to be in the area at the time. I suspect the questioning process will not be pleasant for them if they don’t have the right answers. Kallen is angry, but Dagda is at the intersection of homicidal tendencies and psychotic acts of torture. No one wants to get on his bad side at the moment. Though, I suppose, he doesn’t really have a good side to find right now. He is going to leave carcasses in his wake if Kallen, Kegan and I can’t rein him in when necessary.