by brett hicks
Even with what I have been able to glean today, I still couldn’t say with any certainty who is on what side. Faerey politics are freakishly confusing!
Twenty-One:
My father was having us work on creating glamoured objects today. Basic constructs of illusion with some slight physical interaction.
While I was still quite mad with the man, it was hard not to keep tracking his movement around the classroom. My father stood out like a sore thumb even with the dozen or so Moch Sidhe youths in the room. Heck, he was more notable than the young frost-giant perched in the back corner eating up the entire back of the classroom.
Winter faereys seemed to dominate the majority of the UK population of Imperium faereys. Some spring faereys were mixed in and a few summers, then me and the lupines. Basically, this school seemed to tilt drastically in the direction of Imperium loyalists. Most of the students were already sworn to some house or another inside the Imperium. Houses still existed, even though clans were abolished.
With all of this said, I couldn’t help but wonder why vampires were so poorly treated. They were winter creatures, creatures of the night—humans really had gotten that bit right!
Casey was frowning next to me as she spun blue mist into a fragile glamour. I could see all the seams of light-blue weaves in her design. I frowned and studied the small hand mirror she was crafting. It had a proper reflection and everything, but the image seemed splintered to me.
My father caught me studying the mirror and his mischievous knowing gaze twinkled in amusement. He knew what I was seeing and this only seemed to make him want to laugh. Not for the first time, I was contemplating throttling the man who sired me!
“Class, a bit of advice from an expert, please spin your mist tighter. Some faereys and creatures will be able to see flaws in your illusion.”
His eyes were trained on me as he said this. I frowned deeply at him, willing some sort of proper explanation from his lips.
Francesca raised her pristine right hand with frosty glittering nail polish. She smiled like a siren of myth at my father and flicked her lashes seductively. Her tone was so thick with her surliness that I wanted to vomit!
“Professor, can you come show me how a proper man weaves his glamour?”
Casey groaned beside me and muttered, “Bitch is begging for a knife to the throat, now.”
I sniffed in agreement and I began to focus on my own glamour. I lost all of my focus from the previous project, but the red mists in my hand began to take on the shape of the image of the object I wanted most desperately to unsheathe and thrust into Francesca’s back!
I felt the surge of the tides in my left palm and I looked down in shock. A perfect five-inch dagger with the exact same pale markings rested in my hand. The rushing waters raged inside the dagger and the blade extended with the heat of my emotions.
“What the hell…”
Casey said, as she touched the blade with her finger and she sucked in a breath as a bead of blood dropped free from her index finger and rolled down the elemental dagger. My father noticed and he threw out his hands and shaped a full-scale blizzard around the classroom. The chill was biting and the white flakes of snow began to cover every inch of each desk. The students sucked in collective breaths of awe. This was not elemental magic; this was all glamour and mist magic. This was not real snow, so it crumpled under the touch of the students, but the effect had achieved what I assumed his goal was, he had diverted their attention from my short-sword. I hid the blade under my desk while everyone was looking at the snow with open awe.
Casey’s brow rose into a deep arch into her hairline. She had not only seen the blade but how quickly my father had worked to keep its existence a secret. She had also felt the bite of the metal alloy.
I felt my hands tremble slightly at the realization of the bizarre fact that my glamour had not only shaped an intricate blade, but the blade had pricked Casey’s finger! I could still feel the cool rushing tidal surge of the pen-sized water-element blade in my right pouch pocket. This second blade was without any doubts made of glamour.
How in the holy hell did it feel so real?!
Casey’s eyes told me she was wondering the same thing as me. She noted my father’s reaction and she kept her lips shut in a thin line. She was a smart and perceptive vampire, so she knew that this was not something either of us wished to make public knowledge.
I looked around and thankfully, neither of the watch-wolves had noticed my little glamour display. In fact, they were just as awed by the illusionary snow as the rest of the class.
Thank God that we opted to sit in one of the back rows!
My thoughts were erratic and my heart was pounding in my chest. I looked around regularly, paranoid about being caught. Whatever I had done, I knew for a fact that it was yet another thing that made me weird!
***
After class let out I was still seated and once our neighboring frost-giant ducked out the class, my father slammed the door and I saw a yellow glowing rush along the walls. I was relatively sure this was rune-wards of summer faerey magic.
“We are safe from prying eyes and ears now. To the outside world, it will look as if I am discussing some basic glamour theory to you two.”
My father said this matter-of-fact and he strode over and held out his hand expectantly. I was hesitant and he sighed a long and haggard breath.
“For the love of sprites child, I am still your father! Now, let me see the bloody blade!”
I reached under my desk and produced the short-sword version of the blue tidal blade gifted to me by Gentry. My father’s fingers stroked the surface and he expelled a long breath and beheld the blade in wonder.
“By all the clans and all the fallen kings! This is not just an illusion my girl, you have manifest your glamour to full reality! By the moon and the stars, you are truly remarkable!”
I frowned at him and studied him intently.
“So, you’ve done it regularly.”
His lips twitched into a slight smirk.
“The highest level illusionists can will our glamour to have some physical form and some reality. What you have done is altogether different.”
He flicked his gaze to Casey and then back to me. I furrowed deeper at the look of inquisition that had crossed his features at my new bestie. I stepped in front of her.
“I know where her allegiance lies.”
My eyes narrowed and my father picked up the thread of my statement without missing a beat.
“It is very dangerous for anyone to know what you can do or what that might make you.”
His gaze slid back to Casey, who was squirming beside me.
“I’m not going to tell a soul about this power. I am not stupid; I know how faereys treat anyone with unusual abilities.”
Something in her wording causes my father’s eyes to show great relief for just a moment, and then it was gone.
“At the risk of my daughter’s wrath, let me press upon you the finality of mentioning this power of hers.”
I scowled deeply at my father and pointed a finger in accusation.
“You’ve been treating me like shit since I came here, dad! You basically implied I was some common human whore’s child.”
Maris looked hurt for just a moment and then it was gone. He shrugged and he sighed in exasperation.
“I shall not tell you anything that can be twisted against you, daughter. Trust me, trust the man who raised you and loved you. I will promise that I have never once regretted having you. That is more than I should tell you now! You have so many eyes on you at all times! Watch yourself and whom you confide in. And stop tumbling the muck with that damn wolf! He is going to make a trophy of your virtue and then shame you. Their kind cannot be trusted, not with the safety of a Moch Sidhe.”
I snapped at him, “I’m not rolling in anything with Jace! He is just helping me learn more self-defense! Besides, I’m fifteen now, that is like the age of adulthood in Faerey, right?”
Maris gritted his teeth and nodded very stiffly.
“That does not make one a wise or worldly woman, my child. Tread very carefully with these mortal thoughts of rebellion brewing in your mind! You are not what you think yourself to be, nor can your wolf ever love you for more than your body.”
“I think I just vomited in my mouth!”
I proclaimed loudly and Casey snickered nervously.
“Amy Edwards, please be careful!”
My father’s use of two of my names halted me for a second. I noted he had never once used all three of them since we came to this school. It’s almost like he didn’t want to use my middle name now. When you grow up an only child of a single parent, you notice all their quirks and habits a lot more quickly. While not common of him, my father did use my middle name when angry with me back home. This was just one more riddle to stack on top of the pile accumulating at my feet.
“You’re about this close to driving me nuts, dad!”
I pinched my fingers together showing an almost imperceptible space between them. Maris sighed and scrubbed his hand over his lightly whiskered face. He was about the only faerey man I had seen with stubble building up since I entered the school. All the others were so perfectly shaved and groomed that one might think they have baby-faces.
Beneath his glamour, I noted the purple shadowy bags under his eyes. Maris looked haggard and veins of red were running through his green-golden eyes. No one else would see it, but the faerey outlaw and former Knight Captain was exhausted.
I pitched my voice to a pleading whisper.
“Daddy, please tell me what’s going on…”
Maris looked at me sadly and he shook his head slowly twice.
“I swore to your mum that I would not, please stop asking me!”
His voice was pitched lowly and he flicked his gaze to Casey and the daggers of death he stared at her made me step further in-between them on instinct.
“Your life is forfeit if this conversation ever finds its way back to any Imperium spy. You seem good enough girl, but I do not know you yet. Now you hold my daughter’s very life on a razor’s edge. I pray that she has not chosen unwisely in whom she trusts.”
I growled at him menacingly, “Daddy…”
It was a threat that was pitched so low, but so effective, that Maris sighed and stepped out of our path and he flicked his fingers and the yellow rune-wards fell.
“Good day, ladies.”
He bowed theatrically and his cold expression was plastered in place once more.
Twenty-Two:
“Your dad is sexy, in an if-looks-could-kill sort of way.”
I smacked her on the head as we downed our lunch. Casey chuckled and her eyes danced with vibrant laughter. She had been silent for more than thirty minutes after our meeting with my father, but she was back to her animated self, now.
“Dude! I’m trying to eat before practice!”
Casey sniggered at my abject horror and shrill tone. She seemed to be taking my father’s death threats in stride and honestly, part of me was flattered to know he cared enough to issue them in the first place. That might sound raving mad to a normal human, but I totally lost all rights to act or think like I was anything other than extraordinary.
I couldn’t see the whole puzzle that was my life yet, but I could see some of the dots connecting together. I am autumn-aligned and I am a Moch Sidhe without a doubt, but after what my glamour did in class, I knew no human blood flowed through my veins. I also knew how to find out once and for all.
“So, do vampires like any sports?”
I asked conversationally, trying to distract myself from the swirling mass of my thoughts. Casey nodded quickly and said, “Sure, like them, but not often participate in them, unless they are indoors or nighttime only. I played hockey growing up. I was one of the only girls in my little-league.”
My eyes bulged in surprise and I turned to face Casey.
“Shut up! You did not!”
She chortled and nodded in confirmation.
“Yep, we had a sweet junior league up in the northern US. My dad used to look ridiculous with all the other hockey fathers, him in his expensive Italian suits and them in their jerseys. But, he came to every one of my games and most of my practices. I might not look it, but I can be a real daddy’s girl just like you. Hell, that’s probably why we get along so well.”
I bit my lip and shrugged. I was still angry with my dad and Casey knew it, but she seemed to be relentless to get me to ease back on the old man. I personally blamed the Moch Sidhe pheromones he kicked off, like any other of our kind.
“You seem to forget that conversation you just had with me.”
Casey shrugged and said, “He could have done much worse if he wanted to and we both know it. You just don’t want to believe that right now, because part of you still thinks like a human. Your dad is choosing to trust me and believe me, I am not stupid enough to cross him! Heck, you could be freakin’ Francesca Dory and I would have kept that secret if the alternative was facing down Maris Edwards! Your dad is frightening and legendary.”
I snorted and Casey nudged my shoulder.
“Finish your damn sandwich, woman!”
I shot her a mock-baleful look and she grinned at me like a little devil. I did end up finishing my damn sandwich shortly thereafter. Casey was relatively quiet while I finished my food. Her eyes seemed to be trained off into the distance. I followed her gaze and my eyes landed on a pair of yellow feral eyes. I felt a shiver run down my spine at the look of his savage expression.
“His eyes should be illegal!”
I proclaimed lowly but ardently to Casey, who just grinned and dipped her head slightly in agreement.
“What’s that old saying, ‘Milk did his body good.’?”
I snorted and shook my head.
“Milk had nothing to do with that body!”
His eyes flickered to a brighter shade and they seemed to glow slightly.
“Shit, forgot that alphas have better hearing than betas and gammas. I think Jace just heard every freaking word we just said.”
I felt my stomach turn in knots and my jaw dropped.
“Please be joking…”
She shook her head and sighed.
“Nope, it was the sudden glow to his eyes that gave him away to me. He has been listening to us since we sat down.”
“That’s not creepy at all!”
Casey hissed, “He can still hear you!”
I shrugged and I looked right into his eyes, which were glowing again.
“He can bite me, that’s what he gets for being a creepy wolf!”
Casey looked at me and her eyes and lips were torn between shock and humor. She didn’t know if she wanted to scream or laugh.
“You are probably the most confounding faerey I have ever met!”
I shrugged and quipped, “A girl has to have her talents in life.”
Casey hummed in a non-committal noise, but her eyes danced with mischief. After a moment of lingering off to the side of an autumn tree with steady falling leaves, Jace strutted forward. He moved with all the predatory grace of his species. Casey flicked her eyes to me and seemed to communicate with a widened gaze. Girls can say a lot to one another with just a look. Her’s read, “God, he’s coming over here!”
I licked my lips and twitched my shoulders just enough to catch her attention. She seemed very worried about his approach; then again, she is a vampire. Casey has made clear her very real paranoia where certain alpha lupine males are concerned.
Jace looked like he was ready to chew through someone’s neck.
Darn it! Maybe I poked the angry wolf a little too much! Why the heck do I always have to snark in the face of danger?! I am totally blaming my dad for these crazy genes of mine!
“Ladies.”
The single word sent a fresh wave of chills down my spine and I was trying very hard not to smell at all like I did after practice this morning!
Darn it man,
can’t you tone back the power and alpha-ness!
Casey squeaked out a greeting and eyed his teeth like they were going to change into fangs within seconds and latch onto her throat.
“Hello Alpha Prince of England, I’m pleased to formally meet you.”
Casey sounded like she was just this side of fainting where she sat. Jace eyed her with his feral gaze and for the second time in as many hours, I pushed myself between Casey and something dangerous.
“Jace, please behave yourself. If you’re coming over to snarl at me for being a smart-ass, please direct your fury this way.”
Yep, I am officially capital-K crazy!
I mused darkly to myself and Jace seemed to take several deep breaths and he looked at my protective stance and he finally sat down beside me filling my space with his body heat. That was not at all unpleasant and now my hormones were waging a new campaign on my ever-slipping sanity.
“Little Faerey, I did not come for violence. Your vampire friend can relax now.”
As if his command were holding the oxygen in the air captive, Casey suddenly sucked down a nice deep breath of air. Jace’s magic aura spun around us and yellow mists flooded him, then nothing at all. He was just a normal if grumpy-looking seventeen-year-old.
I couldn’t feel a single thread of his spicy lupine magic. I squinted and I noted the nearly imperceptible film of glamour covering his skin and clothing.
“Wow, did you just use glamour to camouflage your power? That’s freaky and awesome! You are totally teaching me how to do that wolf-boy!”
Yep, provoking the alpha, again. I really have zero common sense where Jace is concerned.
Jace smirked at me with a cocksure grin.
“Those eyes of yours are impressive, little faerey.”
He leaned in close and I shivered as he breathed against my ear.
“I would love to see them without the glamour.”
My heart seemed to clench up and my body went still, dangerously still. I boomed a command through my body and willed my eyes to stay normal. I focused on not showing the depth of my shock. Jace made a little sniffing sound of amusement and after a breath of hot air tickled my cheek and ear one more time, he withdrew. His yellow eyes looked darker than I had ever seen them and my body was barely listening to my commands now. He was like a drug, a very sexy masculine drug and I was about one step from the ledge of utter addiction.