by Quinn Loftis
~
“Cassie?” Elora stepped into the storeroom cautiously. Cassie had finally pulled herself together enough to call her best friend. Though she was unable to get out anything coherent, Elora finally deciphered that she was at her mom’s store. It was after eleven o’clock when Elora arrived.
Cassie sat curled up in the far corner across from the mirror that she had emerged from. She eyed it wearily, expecting at any moment for Trik to come crashing through it.
“Cassie?”
She turned at the sound of her name being called a second time. When Elora saw the broken look in her friend’s eyes, she rushed forward. She pulled Cassie into her arms and held her close.
“I’ll kill him,” she growled. “I told him that if he hurt you that he was a dead dark elf.”
Cassie began to cry again as the pain continued to wrack her body. She wanted to go to him, to beg him to hold her and make the pain go away. She needed to hear the words that she didn’t let him finish and she needed him to tell her it was alright, that everything would be alright. But it wasn’t and it never would be. As long as Trik was out there, without her, it would never be alright. She cried for the loss, she cried for the hurt and the lies, she cried as her soul mourned its mate as if he had died. Her eyes burned and her throat felt dry as her sobs poured out. She knew that she was scaring Elora but she didn’t care. She was dying. She was dying and Trik didn’t care.
He had stood there and not denied her words. When she had slapped him he had looked like a whipped puppy, the confident, cocky Trik gone. Part of her had hoped he would have thrown himself at her feet and begged her forgiveness, part of her wished he had been the barbarian he had claimed and thrown her over his shoulder and hauled her off to be with him, and then part of her hoped that he would never contact her again. When that thought crossed her mind she wailed and shook.
“Cassie, please,” Elora patted her friend and rocked her. “Please tell me what happened. Are you hurt?”
Cassie nodded.
“Physically, Cass, are you hurt physically?” Elora clarified.
Cassie pulled back to look at her friend. Tears streaked her face. Her eyes, swollen and bloodshot, were devoid of any life.
“What did he do to you?” Elora snarled.
“He killed me,” Cassie whispered. “He ripped out my heart and threw it in my face.”
Elora watched as Cassie scooted back from her hold and looked up at her.
“He lied. He told me he was leaving Lorsan, but he never told Lorsan.”
Elora shook her head and bit her tongue. Now was not the time to point out that she had said this would probably happen.
Elora pulled her phone from her back pocket and dialed her mom’s number.
“Hey, you need to get the Queen and her man to your store a.s.a.p.,” she said when she heard her mom’s voice.
Elora hung up without waiting for a response.
“Where is he?” Elora asked.
Cassie let out a snort that was filled with indignation. “Who knows, who cares? I told him to stay away from me.”
“You think he will listen?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.”
Just then a leg followed by the rest of Tamsin’s body emerged from the mirror with Syndra hot on his heels. Cassie scampered back quickly, her eyes glazing over with pain.
Tamsin and Syndra stopped short as they looked down at the broken person before them.
Syndra looked over at Elora. “What has happened?”
Elora stood up and folded her arms across her chest. “Trik lied to her. He said he would leave the Dark King, but apparently the Dark King had no knowledge of it. And from what Cassie says Trik didn’t argue with her when she told him that he had lied to her.”
“Where is the assassin now?” Tamsin asked.
Elora shrugged. “Cassie doesn’t know. He didn’t follow her here.”
Syndra knelt down before Cassie and brushed her hair away from her face.
“Cassie,” Syndra’s voice was soft and melodic. “We need to keep you safe. We told Trik that we would protect you if he failed.”
Cassie looked up at the Light Queen. Her eyes were vacant. “What does it matter? He doesn’t care what happens to me.”
“That is not true,” Syndra told her. “Whatever his reasons for doing what he did, he cares for you.”
“It’s not enough,” Cassie whimpered as another tear fell.
“No, you are right, it isn’t. He needs to love you.”
Cassie’s eyes snapped up at Tamsin who had spoken.
“We have much to discuss. We need you to come with us.”
“What about my parents?” Cassie asked as she let Syndra pull her to her feet.
“Syndra will deal with your parents. You are vulnerable and if Lorsan’s entire court watched you run from Trik then they will not wait long to pursue you in order to get back at him for centuries of being the right arm of the Dark King.”
Cassie took Syndra’s hand and then reached for Elora.
“Please let her come with me.”
Elora rolled her eyes. “Like they could stop me.”
Cassie let Syndra pull her towards the mirror and Elora followed, her hand holding tight to her best friend.
When they emerged on the other side, Cassie’s eyes widened as she looked around. Elora openly gaped and shook her head. “We aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.”
Syndra laughed at the girls’ expressions.
“What did you expect? We are royalty, you know?”
Tamsin emerged behind them. He watched as Cassie and Elora took in everything around them.
Cassie had never seen such elegant beauty. The room looked as if it had been carved from ice. It shimmered as pillars rose high to the tall cathedral ceiling. Sitting all around, sculptures of animals and people, also looking as if carved from ice, stood proud watching over the great hall. Large, long windows lined the walls, allowing light to pour into the room creating a wonderland of crystals and rainbows. It was breathtaking.
Syndra motioned for them to follow her and Tamsin. They walked through the great hall and out of a large pair of silver double doors containing a beautiful crest carved into them. The crest was of a large tree surrounded by all manner of creatures, both foreign and familiar to Cassie.
They continued on down a long hall as light shined in through windows along the hall and lit their way. Finally Tamsin turned right into another room. As Cassie and Elora made their way in, they saw what they might call a den, or family room.
Large couches formed a circle around a table that held drinks and food. Shelves full of books and odd looking knickknacks lined the walls. The room was painted a light periwinkle blue and candle light white.
“Please have a seat,” Tamsin instructed.
Both girls took a seat on a large white couch and sunk into the softness. Cassie gasped as once again pain tore through her chest.
“Cass, what’s wrong?” Elora asked.
“She is feeling the pain of the separation from Trik,” Syndra explained.
“She’s going to go through what happened in her room?” Elora referred to the first time Trik had left Cassie and she had watched her friend writhe in pain on the floor.
“The pain will come and go because a part of Cassie truly does want to be away from him, but then her soul longs for him.”
Syndra whispered something to Tamsin and then left the room quickly.
Elora looked up at Tamsin waiting for an explanation.
“She is going to deal with Cassie’s parents.”
“Deal with them how?” Elora’s eyes narrowed.”
“Calm yourself, human. She isn’t going to kill them. She will simply suggest to them that Cassie is going to be staying with you for a while because you are going through a difficult time. Lisa will be informed so that she can corroberate the story if they call her.”
“At some point they are going to want to see her,” Elora poi
nted out.
“Once we have sufficient protection on her she can periodically go back to her realm.”
Cassie took slow deep breaths and then sat up, unfolding herself from the fetal position the pain had caused.
“Am I to stay here for the rest of my life?” She asked Tamsin.
Tamsin sat on the couch across from them and looked at her. His eyes softened as he saw the fear and worry that marred her young face.
“You will never be safe again in your world. I am sorry for that. You were supposed to be bound to Trik and he would protect you and you would…”
“Live happily ever after?” Cassie interrupted. Her words dripped with sarcasm. “I don’t believe in happily ever after, not anymore.”
“I understand your anger Cassie, but I think you need to learn some things about Trik before you judge him too harshly.”
“What things could lessen my anger? What could you possibly tell me that would shed light on why he lied to me?”
“Things that even I had forgotten. I am going to tell you about Triktapic, who he was, who he is, and who he is meant to be.”
“Queue the end is coming music,” Elora said dryly.
“You might want to get comfortable,” he told them. “This could take a while.”