by Stella Snow
“Do you like it?”
Joy raised an eyebrow. “I’m reading it, aren’t I?”
“You could be reading it for school.”
Joy rolled her eyes and plopped back down as if the suggestion that she would do her homework was terribly insulting.
Melodie sat down on the end of the couch and watched Ethan cook while Joy went back to her reading. She’d gotten used to being the new kid with how much they moved, but sitting in a stranger’s house while they cooked you dinner was a new level of awkward.
Ethan rushed out of the kitchen to take care of some other task.
Joy looked up from her book as soon as he left the room. “Ethan said you’re a full blood elf, but that you didn’t even know any of that existed until you got here.”
“I think I’m half-elf and half-fairy, but yeah, that’s right,” Melodie said.
Joy looked at her appraisingly. “He also said someone is trying to kill you.”
“Also right.”
“Did you really almost get eaten by a barghest?”
“I guess. Its teeth did get alarmingly close to my face.”
“That’s so awesome.” Joy sat up and tossed her book to the side. “What did it look like? Are its teeth super huge?” She leaned forward and stared into Melodie’s eyes like she could pull the answers from her.
“It was pretty big, and it smelled awful.” Melodie remembered the sulfurous stench of its breath. She had to bite down a smile at Joy’s enthusiasm, she didn’t want to encourage that line of questioning too much.
“What happened to your face?” Joy asked, a little more quietly.
Melodie’s hand went to the large, blistered spots that trailed across her cheek and jawline. They still ached this morning, and she was sure they were going to scar at this point. The ointment Ethan had given her didn’t seem to be doing anything to help.
“The barghest’s saliva burned me,” she said finally.
Ethan walked back into the room and looked between the two of them suspiciously.
“She said she definitely almost died and that the barghest had huge teeth and that it smelled awful.” Joy pulled up onto her knees and leaned over the back of the couch.
“I thought you agreed not to pester Melodie with questions about the terrible thing that just happened to her?” Ethan asked said as he poured water into a pot.
“Oh, come on! This is so awesome. How come a barghest can’t come and try to kill us? I wouldn’t think it was terrible.”
“Until it tries to eat you,” Ethan scoffed.
Or until you realize your entire life is a lie and you have no idea who you are, Melodie thought. Joy’s enthusiasm was infectious though, and perhaps one day she’d be able to look back on it all as a cool story instead of just the end of everything she knew. Perhaps if she had been raised like Joy, knowing the truth, it wouldn’t have been such a hurtful discovery.
“Melodie, Ethan, please come with me now.” John appeared at the end of the hall and startled her. He immediately headed back to the study, leaving them to follow.
Ethan turned off the fire on the stove and promptly started toward the study, beckoning to Melodie when she didn’t immediately get off the couch. Joy was left pouting behind them.
“Look, from what I overheard, they are discussing what to do about your magic coming unbound like it is. Mom is super paranoid about magic use, okay?” Ethan whispered to her as she caught up to him. Melodie nodded, but she wasn’t completely sure what he was getting at. “She’s going to be even more weird about it since the gates are closed. I cannot emphasize enough how much everyone is freaking out about that.”
“Alright, freaking out. Paranoid. Got it.”
They reached the door to the study and she patted at her hair, which was still rumpled from sleep. Ethan raised a skeptical brow, but stopped delaying and pushed the door open, letting her walk inside first.
The curtains on the far wall were open now and the late morning sunlight brightened the room. She was shocked to see how full the room was. Esther and John were standing behind the desk, along with Dale from the cabinet shop and a man and woman that she didn’t recognize. Salathia was on the right, leaning against a bookshelf, and Gavriel stood to the left. Salathia was not wearing her glamour and the man standing behind the desk was eyeing her with a scowl as if offended by her appearance.
Gavriel was taller than Melodie remembered, and she noticed that he had pointed ears similar to her own, something she had missed the prior evening. She almost reached up to touch her own, just to see if they were still pointed, but she resisted since everyone was looking at her.
“Melodie,” the woman from behind the desk began. “I apologize that we didn’t have much time to explain things to you when you arrived yesterday.”
“It’s alright, everything was pretty crazy,” she said quietly.
Esther smiled gently, which softened her face considerably, and nodded in agreement. “There are some things we have to decide on over the next few days, and one of those things concerns you directly. You have never had to control your magic before, which is completely unheard of.” Esther glanced at Salathia as she said this, clearly something she was still skeptical about. “After the display last night, I am concerned about your ability to control it. We have strict rules in order to keep our abilities a secret and preserve our place in the human world. I cannot let you leave the property until I know that you have perfect control and can maintain a glamour to hide your new physical changes. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Melodie said, pushing down the disappointment that she wouldn’t get to start her new job after all. She had known it would most likely be impossible, but hearing it said out loud made it real. “How am I supposed to learn control?”
“I could help her,” Gavriel said.
Esther opened her mouth to reply.
“No, I’ll teach her. I’m her guardian,” Salathia interrupted.
Gavriel stiffened, his lips tightening in irritation. Neither of them seemed inclined to back down.
Salathia looked away first and jerked her head toward the door. “We should be done here within the next thirty minutes, Melodie. I’ll come find you.”
“Thank you for offering to help,” Melodie said to Gavriel, feeling awkward with everyone’s eyes on her.
Gavriel looked back at her and nodded carefully. “Of course.”
The man that Melodie didn’t recognize scoffed. “She should be taught control by one of us if she stays at all, which I still think should be put to a vote. Half our problems would be solved if we weren’t trying to protect elves that think they’re better than everyone else while trying to figure out how these things are getting through.” He crossed his arms and puffed up his chest.
Melodie’s heart dropped into her stomach. She had no idea some of the Forgotten didn’t want her here.
Esther shot him a quelling look. “They are helping, not just expecting us to protect them––”
“She’s a liability, not even Salathia could deny that,” the man interrupted, pointing at Melodie.
“Mark, we have already had this discussion. We are not going to have it every half hour,” Esther snapped. “I’ll see you both at dinner. Ethan, if you can just make plates for us for lunch, I’d appreciate it.”
Ethan tapped Melodie’s elbow to lead her back out of the room. She hesitated, looking at Salathia, hoping to hear a denial that she thought Melodie was a liability. Salathia was staring straight ahead as though she had heard nothing. Ethan tapped her again and Esther turned back to John in a clear dismissal.
She let Ethan lead her from the room even though what she really wanted was to sit down in a chair and refuse to leave. She wanted to know everything that was happening, but she was being pushed out like a child. The door shut heavily behind them, muting the conversation that started again as soon as she was out of the room.
“How many people don’t want us here?” she asked.
; “It doesn’t matter,” Ethan said. “Mom is going to protect you. They might complain, but they don’t have the authority to kick you out or anything. You don’t have to worry.”
“They could talk her into it. Or start some kind of rebellion. I don’t want to make things worse for your family just by existing.”
“That won’t happen. The Forgotten are more honorable than that.”
“Not all of them, apparently.”
Ethan had the courtesy to look uncomfortable about that.
Joy was watching them from the couch, shamelessly listening to their conversation. Melodie sighed, she shouldn’t have criticized his community to his face, but she was frustrated. Her fingertips were tingling, and her chest was tight.
“I’m going to just—” she began, trying to think of somewhere she could be away from everyone. She was a liability after all. “Just outside.”
Ethan started to say something, probably object based on the look on his face, but Melodie held up her hand to stop him.
“I’m not leaving the property, and I won’t go into the super-secret-walled-off place,” she said through gritted teeth. “I just need to be alone for a little bit, if that’s okay?”
“Joy, want to help me make the pies?” Ethan asked, though his tone made it clear it wasn’t actually a question.
Melodie slipped through the back door and walked quickly across the backyard. The pressure was building in her chest so fast she wanted to scream.
Chapter 8
Melodie hurried toward the shed, trying to get as far away from the house as she could without leaving the backyard. Her skin crawled with the now-familiar feeling of restless magic. Slipping behind the shed, she dropped down in the grass, letting her head rest against her knees. The pressure in her chest grew tighter. Every breath became a struggle and her entire body trembled as she fought against it.
With a white-knuckled grip on her necklace, she tried counting to a hundred and taking deep breaths, but the pressure was still building. If she lost control, that might be enough of a reason for Esther to stop protecting her and let the others kick her out.
She startled when Gavriel sat down next to her. She hadn’t even heard him walk up. “What are you doing out here?” Her voice trembled. Having him this close already eased the panic a little. He’d kept her from completely losing it last time––though the driveway had been a lost cause.
“I wanted to talk to you before you started your training with Salathia.” He put his hand on her shoulder, rubbing soothing circles with his thumb. “Why are you panicking?”
She wanted to lean into his touch but was afraid to move. “This has all happened really fast. Someone is trying to kill me and the people protecting me don’t even want me here.”
Gavriel didn’t respond for a moment, then scooted a little closer to her. He smelled subtly of leather and Earl Grey tea. “Your magic won’t calm down unless you relax a bit. Deep breaths. Even if you lose control, I can contain it for you.”
“Right, because that went so well last time.” She pressed her palms against her eyes, trying to force back the pressure building inside her.
“It won’t be as bad this time, but if you can get through this, you are more likely to do better when you start training,” Gavriel insisted.
She didn’t think she could handle Esther or anyone else being angry with her right now but fixating on that wasn’t helping anything. Taking a shaky breath, she stopped trying to hold everything back quite so intently. Gavriel’s presence was calming and his hand on her back was a distraction from everything else she had been feeling.
Melodie breathed in and out with the subtle pressure of his fingers, her heartbeat slowing to a reasonable rate. After a moment, she looked up and giggled. None of this should be real. It was all ridiculous.
“Are you okay?” Gavriel’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Can you show me some magic?” she asked, ignoring his question. She needed to see it, needed some proof that she wasn’t going crazy.
“Of course.” He leaned in a little closer to her while brushing his free hand across the ground in front of them.
The magic swirled through the grass, leaving silvery flowers in its wake. Even though it wasn’t touching her, she could feel it in the air. It fluttered against her skin like a breeze.
She reached out with a shaky hand to touch the nearest flower. The strange flower wasn’t real. It was translucent and didn’t seem to have any texture, but it was beautiful. She plucked it and twirled it slowly between her fingertips. The delicate petals wilted.
“I didn’t put any particular will into their creation and that sort of magic never lasts long.”
“Are there…spells you cast or something?” Melodie asked.
“No, some people will use a ritual or a chant to focus their magic, but it is all about intent, focus, and emotion. Some sorts of magic do require something physical to channel the magic through, but not most. The dryads and fairies rely the most on ritual. Elves like us are taught to tap into our emotions in order to use our magic more quickly,” Gavriel said with a shrug. “Telagrad is the exception to all of that of course. The country is a mix of many races and the people there use magic in many different ways.
“And Pareth is the king of Telagrad?”
“Yes.” Gavriel nodded. “After the Great Unsettling, when the kingdom was established, many people who no longer wanted to be a part of the original kingdoms fled to Telagrad.”
“What exactly was the Great Unsettling?”
“A war that lasted years. Every kingdom in the Sidhe fought in it. It’s a dark period in our history.”
“How many kingdoms are there?”
“There are five. Telagrad which you already know about. Arsadia, the kingdom we are from, and Lynvas, the other Elven kingdom. The fairies are from Ylliona and Sil Varrin. The dryads live all throughout the kingdoms in various places. Arsadia has agreements with them that allow them to govern themselves for the most part.”
Melodie found it odd to be sitting so comfortably with someone she could barely call an acquaintance. She lay her cheek on her knees. Gavriel was staring straight ahead, so she took a moment to really look at him.
He was handsome. The shape of his eyes suggested an ancestry similar to hers, though his aquiline nose was the opposite of her own. His skin, while not dull by any means, didn’t have the same sheen she’d seen in the mirror. The usually tense line of his mouth was relaxed.
“Your skin doesn’t have that shininess mine does. Are you using a glamour?” she asked, breaking the silence.
He looked down at her, his eyes traveling slowly over her face. “No, that comes from your fairy heritage.” He smiled gently. “It suits you.”
“Ah.” She looked away to try to hide the flush that crept up her neck at his compliment. The flowers he’d created wilted. She was sad to see them dying already. “Why did you offer to help me?”
Teaching someone how to use their magic couldn’t be easy, and hers was out of control.
“Anyone Esther might have assigned to the task would have just taught you how not to use it. The Forgotten don’t appreciate the gift that magic is.”
“Do they hate magic? Or just elves?” she asked, remembering the anger flashing in Mark’s eyes.
“They can never be a part of our world again. Some of them deal with that by becoming bitter and lashing out at those of us that haven’t lost our heritage.”
“Why do you care that they wouldn’t really teach me?”
“You are a daughter of Arsadia,” he said touching the tip of her ear. “And you are from a noble family. I hope that you can come to the Sidhe where you belong, and where you should have been all your life. You deserve the chance to claim your place there. To do that, you will need to know how to use magic.”
Melodie looked back at the flowers as one of them disappeared in a pop of silvery light. Another one disappeared, and then another. She shook her head in disbelief.
/> “This is so weird.”
“Magic can be playful like this sometimes,” Gavriel said with a grin. His smile changed his whole face. There was a hint of youth in his features when he wasn’t being so serious.
“What is the Sidhe like?”
Gavriel tilted his head in thought. “You can feel the magic much more keenly there. It feels pure. Everything feels more alive; sometimes the air here feels stale to me.”
“Is that why everyone but the Forgotten choose to live in the Sidhe and not the human world?”
“One of many reasons.”
“So, you know who I am, and you said that I’m from a ‘noble’ family,” she said, using finger quotes since it seemed ridiculous to claim to be part of something she knew nothing about.
Gavriel nodded, waiting for her to ask her actual question.
“Do I have any family left in Arsadia?”
“Yes, your father’s older brother still lives at the palace, though he has yet to marry. And your aunt is our Queen. She has two children,” he said. “I’m sure your mother’s family is still alive, but I do not know anything about them.”
Melodie tried to take it in. Family. The fact that her aunt was a Queen was surreal.
“Your uncle was very close to your father. He never stopped looking for you. Your uncle has preserved your inheritance for you since we were positive you were still alive. The king of Telagrad would have publicized your death if he had been able to kill you, just like he did when—” Gavriel bit off what he was going to say, but she understood what he was referring to. Her parents. “Every noble family knows who you are and would be honored to bring you back to the Court to receive what should have been yours all along. The Queen will give you the welcome you deserve.”
“It’s all so hard to believe,” she murmured.
“It’s hard to believe Salathia had not told you about the family you still have left.” Gavriel shook his head.
She pulled some grass out with the tips of her fingers, then let it fall. She wanted to meet her family. She wanted more than whatever Salathia was willing to give her. Curling her hand into a fist, she decided she was going to get to the Arsadia, no matter what.