“So, by tainted you mean they’re weaker.” Look at me stating the obvious.
Kallen inclines his head. “No, by tainted I mean they are lesser.”
I shake my head in disgust. “You are so full of yourself. I haven’t seen anything about you that would make you such a superior being. A jerk Fairy is still just a jerk.”
Kallen ignores me and says to Mom, “Will you ignore the truth and leave her here damning all the Cowan to a world of servitude and pain?”
I roll my eyes. “Really? Dramatic much?” I turn to Mom. “Mom, less than an hour ago, you didn’t trust Kallen enough to let him in the house and now you’re going to believe every word he says?” Turning to Kallen, I add, “I seriously regret talking Mom into letting you in. We should have left you out there with the hole in your side. You haven’t even said thank you for being healed by us lesser beings.”
If I didn’t know better, I would almost say he looked a little contrite. “You are correct, my apologies. I thank you both for the kindness of healing me and your hospitality for allowing me into your home.” Wow, was that a glimmer of humility shining out of his dark soul? Nah, couldn’t be.
A thought hits me. “If Fairies are so much more powerful than Witches, then how did a Witch better your king and banish him back to your world?”
“He had the help of a powerful Sheehogue. We choose to honor all life forms, even lesser ones. The Pooka treatment of humans was unacceptable.”
“Gee, your compassion and sensitivity overwhelms me.”
Ignoring me, he continues, “A powerful Sheehogue obtained hair from the tail of King Dagda when he was in his animal form. She used this hair and hair from the Witch king to create a binding spell so neither king could use their magic. They were reduced to using their physical strength and endurance. The Witch king was the stronger of the two and King Dagda was forced to return to Fae embarrassed and angry. You can understand, I am sure, why his return to this realm would be accompanied by death and destruction after being humiliated as he was.”
“You know what you haven’t explained?” I ask hating to admit that it’s taken me this long to think of this. “If this King Dagda was supposed to be the only one who could come to this realm, how are the three of you here?”
A shadow falls across Kallen’s face but is gone before I can even be sure it was there. “When your mother lay with the Fairy King,” he begins and I am icked out about the thought of Mom ‘laying’ someone. Oblivious to my discomfort, he continues. “The exact terms of the blood oath became murky. It became possible for someone in possession of a physical aspect of King Dagda to enter this world. But each time he does this, it weakens his own magic.”
“You mean like his hair?” Okay, I think I’m finally catching on to how this stuff works.
Kallen inclines his head in acknowledgement of my statement.
If that’s the case, then I think maybe we did make a huge mistake by letting Kallen into the house. “Okay, then that explains how Maurelle and Olwyn got here. I’m assuming the king gave him some of his hair or something. But how did you get here? It doesn’t seem likely that he would have given you anything to come here and try to protect me from those two.” My voice is accusing and angry and I take an unconscious step to put myself between him and my mom.
“The same Sheehogue who created the binding spell was able to send me through to this realm without the knowledge of the King.”
“How convenient. So this Sheehogue just happened to still have a piece of the king just laying around? It seems that the king would have been pretty careful about keeping all of his physical aspects to himself. And wasn’t he pissed at that Fairy after it bound him like that?”
“He was not pleased but he had agreed to the binding spell.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because he was confident that he would better the Witch king. It was a great blow to his ego that he was not able to do so.”
“And even though you hate humans and Witches, you took it upon yourself to come here and save us all?” Right, like I believe that.
“As I said, Maurelle and Olwyn are strong even with their tainted blood. It had to be a true blooded Fairy who followed them to this realm. I took the burden upon myself.”
I roll my eyes. “You are such a liar.”
Mom finds her voice again finally. “Xandra, we can’t discount what he’s saying just because we don’t like it.” She turns to Kallen. “Would you be willing to take a blood oath?”
“That would, of course, depend on the oath.”
“Would you be willing to protect Xandra as you would your own life?” Mom asks him.
Without hesitation, Kallen says, “Yes.”
I am so not liking where this conversation is going. “Uh, Mom, what are you thinking?”
She turns to me with sad eyes. “I am thinking that the best way to protect you may be to let someone stronger, someone who knows the ways of the Fae, protect you.”
“Mom, no! I’ve known him for what, a day? I’ve known you my whole life. I would rather take my chances with you than with someone who so obviously hates me like he does!”
Kallen lifts his brows. “I do not recall telling you that I hated you.”
I give him a dirty look. “Maybe not in those words but it comes through loud and clear in everything else you say.” Turning back to Mom, I plead with her. “Please, send him back outside and let’s do what you were always planning to do. You protect me.”
Mom looks torn and she’s having trouble meeting my eyes with hers. “I think his plan may be better. I need to discuss all of this with your father.” And then she disappears through the living room wall leaving me standing there with my mouth hanging open in shock.
I don’t know whose life I’ve fallen into but this can’t possibly be mine.
Chapter 7
Whirling around to Kallen, I stomp towards him. The closer I get, the more he eyes my amulet. Good, I should touch him again just for the satisfaction of removing the smug expression from his face. I’m just inches from him when I stop and stand akimbo. Through gritted teeth, I practically growl at him. “Why are you really here? I don’t believe for a second that you care that much about the fate of humans or me.”
“On the contrary, I am quite concerned about your fate.”
“Right. What’s in this for you?”
“The knowledge that I have prevented the destruction of a lesser civilization.” He actually says this with a straight face but the gleam in his eyes tells me that that is far from the real reason.
I’m about to say something else when Mom and Dad float through the living room wall. Mom has a determined look on her face and Dad has a worried one. He floats to my side and places his cold hand on my shoulder in a show of support. “Julienne, there has to be another way. We can’t put our daughter’s life in the hands of a complete stranger.” Finally, someone is taking my side.
“Jim, I don’t see that we have any other choice. I just don’t know enough about the ways of the Fae. That knowledge was not passed down to me. I don’t know if that is because it is lost or if my parents were planning to include that in my education but I left before that time.” I can see some lingering guilt in her eyes about how she left her parents.
Dad looks long and hard at Kallen. Finally, he asks, “What would you do to protect my daughter?”
What? He’s seriously considering this, too? “Dad, no! What is wrong with you guys? You were the ones who told me not to talk to strangers let alone go off with one and here you two are saying I should do both.”
Kallen once again ignores my complaints. “I believe it would be best to keep her in the mountains where she could practice her magic without drawing attention to herself. I would be able to shield our path from detection by Maurelle and Olwyn.”
“You mean live outside? In the snow?” Yeah, like that’s going to happen!
Kallen has that disdainful look on his face again. “You are half Fairy. Living in
the open air should come naturally to you.”
“Yeah, well, apparently I didn’t get that gene. What’s your plan – to live in caves and eat berries from trees?”
“If we are lucky enough to find a cave that would provide adequate shelter from precipitation, then yes.”
Seriously, this is not my life. I cannot really be standing here discussing living in caves with a Fairy. And my parents are on his side. Definitely an alternate reality.
Mom still has that determined look on her face. “Xandra, if he takes a blood oath to protect you and he fails, he will die.”
Well, there is that I guess. But that’s still not enough for me. “How can you seriously be floating there telling me I’d be safer with Kallen when you can’t even say his name?”
Mom looks confused. “What?”
“Not once since we brought him inside have you called him by name. If you trust him so much then how come you barely look at him or talk to him and you don’t use his name?”
“Xandra, I am not doing that. I have no problem calling him by his name.”
“See, you did it again! You said him instead of Kallen.”
“She will not speak my name because it will lessen the affect of her magic on me,” Kallen says from the couch.
I think Mom is just as dumbfounded as I am. “What do you mean?” I ask him.
Kallen looks at me evenly as he explains. “It was probably taught to her when she was very young, as it always was with Witches, that calling a Fairy by name lessens the effect of her magic on that Fairy. She may not even realize she is doing it as it was probably repeated so often to her when she was young that it became etched into her mind as a natural response. Apparently some of the old teachings have held true.”
Turning back to Mom, I ask, “Is that true?”
Mom gives me a half shrug. “I do seem to have trouble letting his name pass through my lips.”
I whirl angrily back around to Kallen. “So what you’re saying is that every time I have said your name it has lessened my ability to use whatever magic I may have against you?”
I don’t miss how he has to keep his lips from curling up on the sides. “Your Witch magic may not have such a strong effect upon me now.”
“But since my mom hasn’t said your name, her magic is still pretty powerful against you, right?”
He inclines his head. “That is correct. For the time being, anyway.”
“Good.” I march over to the couch and before he understands what I’m going to do, I touch his bare chest with my hand and my amulet flares into a blinding light. He flings himself back so hard that he knocks the couch over and does a somersault as he hits the floor. Scrambling to his feet he backs away a few more steps and glares at me. “You do realize that is tremendously painful?”
I smile sweetly. “Yup.”
“Xandra, that wasn’t nice,” Mom admonishes but there isn’t any real chastisement in her words. Looking at the way she’s now trying to keep a smile off her face, I think she may have even found it as funny as I did.
Trying to look as innocent as possible, I say to Kallen, “I was just trying to determine if your theory was correct.” He doesn’t say anything; he just picks up the couch as he watches me warily, his anger seething from his pores.
“How long before the other two will have recovered from their injuries?” Mom asks him.
Swinging his eyes to her, he says, “Assuming they brought powerful healing herbs with them from our realm, I would say no more than two or three days at the most. That would give us a decent head start.”
“What do you mean, head start? I thought you were powerful enough to keep them from finding us?” I knew it was all lies.
“I can keep them from finding us magically but they are not stupid. They will assume that I will keep you in these mountains.”
“If that’s true, then why stay here?” Is he stupid or what?
Once again, he looks at me with condescension. “Where else do you propose you should learn to control your magic? Perhaps in the very large city down the mountain filled with Cowan? What do you think would happen to them if they were caught in your uncontrolled magic?”
“There are other places in the world besides these mountains that don’t have very many people around,” I huff.
“And travelling to those places would take up valuable time that could be spent on your training,” Kallen countered.
I’m really getting tired of the way he has an answer for everything I say. “I don’t want to go with you.”
He crosses his arms over his chest covering the red mark that is still there from when I touched him. “And I am not overjoyed by having the task of training a headstrong and ignorant young girl but it seems that fate has ignored both of our desires.”
“Xandra,” Mom says softly. “I think it’s for the best.” The look on her face tells me that she’s made her decision and there won’t be any talking her out of it. Arguing more would be pointless.
“Fine, I guess I’ll go pack,” I say sullenly as I stomp out of the room. Immature yes, but it makes me feel better regardless.
In my room, I stop and look around at my things. What do you take when you’re going off into the mountains in the middle of winter to learn magic from a jerkwad Fairy? One more failing in my education thus far, I guess.
Going to my closet, I open the sliding doors and dig around on the floor until I find my camping backpack way at the back that I was hoping to never have to use again since Dad didn’t think it was safe to make us go camping with him if he wasn’t corporeal. I set it on my bed and start pulling things out of my drawers. I throw in several pairs of heavy wool socks and a couple of pairs of gray long underwear. Yet again a time in my life where climate wins out over fashion. I am able to fit in three pairs of jeans, three turtle necks and three heavy sweaters and several pairs of underwear. It’s hard getting the zipper closed but I finally manage.
Just as I finish zipping it, Mom and Dad come in my room. “I’m busy packing,” I tell them. I’m still not done sulking yet.
“Xandra, you understand we’re doing this because we honestly think it’s the best thing for you, right?” Mom asks. I look at her and I can tell she really believes that. Dad is trying to look supportive next to her but it’s obvious he’s still not a hundred percent sure about this plan.
I pick up my backpack that already has my sleeping bag rolled up and attached to the bottom of it and walk past them. Over my shoulder, I say, “Dad, what should I pack besides my clothes?”
“Xandra, can we please talk about this?” Mom asks.
I shake my head. “You’ve already made the decision so there’s nothing to talk about. If you think you’re going to get me to believe that this is the right thing to do, you might as well not even try. I think this plan stinks. You’re basically giving me to a stranger who for all you know could be a homicidal maniac who’s going to kill me as soon as we’re out of sight.” I open my bedroom door and walk out without glancing back.
I carry my back pack to the kitchen pantry. Using the step ladder, I collect some of the camping gear I had moved aside earlier to get Mom’s box of plants. I bring down two sets of metal dishes, a lantern, a flashlight, and a small kerosene cook stove and I put them all in the appropriate side and front pockets of my back pack. When I come out of the pantry, Mom and Dad are standing there looking shell-shocked. They don’t say anything and neither do I.
“For what it’s worth, I’m not a homicidal maniac.” Kallen is standing in the doorway of the kitchen leaning on the frame with his arms crossed over his bare chest. His head almost reaches the top of the doorway.
I tilt my head and give him a dirty look. “Like you’d admit it if you were.”
He ponders that for a moment and then smiles. “I concede that point to you.”
“Great,” I mumble. I walk around Mom and Dad to bring my backpack into the living room. Kallen is still in the doorway so I glower at him until he moves which he
finally does and I don’t miss the humor in his eye. Glad he thinks this is so funny.
Once in the living room, I drop my back pack on the floor and drop into the recliner to wait for whatever horrible thing is going to happen next. Maybe we could round up some poisonous spiders and snakes to put in my sleeping bag just for the fun of it. Okay, I’m not handling this well at all, but who would?
True of Blood (Witch Fairy Series) Page 8