Tales of the Fairy Anthology

by Catherine Stovall

  “I don’t know why you’re laughing at me. You said you missed nature. All I wanted to do was pick up a duck for a pigeon for you.”

  She wiped at the tears sliding down her cheeks. “Yes, well, shouting at them every time they walked away, and then slipping on a pile of bird poop was certainly not the way to do it.”

  He playfully shoved her away and crossed his arms over his chest, a pout on his lips.

  “Like that, you look just like a youngling who has been told they can’t play with their magic outside of lessons.”

  “Great, now I’m a young fairy. Earlier today I was an uncoordinated oaf, and now I’m a baby. Keep ‘em coming, Bella.” Laughter played in his eyes as he burst into laughter again.

  “Well, when you act like one….”she smiled and let her voice trail off. “Is there any more of that pizza for dinner, Scott?”

  He laughed and stood from the couch. “I think it’s time to introduce you to other foods. Why don’t you go sit out on the porch? Grab that coat hanging on the door, and I’ll whip us up something special.”

  Without a word, she stood up and headed out. The big coat slipped over her shoulders and wrapped her in his scent. The air blew her hair loose behind her and she shivered. Being bigger hadn’t made her body any more suited for the winter chill apparently. She sat down on the metal chair and jolted up as the cold seeped past the cloth pants she still wore. She wanted to ask Scott about shopping for clothes. The fairies made everything they wore; she had no experience with money of any sort and had proved it today when she tried to take flowers out of a store without paying.

  Thank the forest spirits for Scott.

  Her eyes adjusted quickly to the night coloring. She looked out over Scott’s yard, unable to suppress the slight longing she felt. The two, tall oak trees in the yard of the rented homemade her homesick for flying above the tall branches and looking out over her small world. But there was no forest for her to play in. Rather the opposite as Scott lived in an area with many other houses and the only trees had been planted by man. He had promised they would go to the forest as often as possible, but she had turned down the idea. As many rules as she had broken, she wouldn’t break another by returning home after forsaking her kind.

  She watched as the breeze blew through the blades of grass and a sparkle in the distance caused her to squint. The only thing that caused a reflection such as that was fairy wings. Jumping off the chair, the coat fell off of her as she ran towards the wings. Perhaps Amara or Michael had wished to come to see her. She wouldn’t be able to hear them of course, but seeing them would be wonderful. Bella shouted Scott’s name behind her as she ran, so he would realize she had left the property.

  Closing the distance between the sparkle of wings and herself was by far easier with human legs. But when she realized there were not one, but two fairies, moving swiftly towards her—one on the ground and one in the air—her breath caught in her throat and she froze in place, not knowing which direction would be the safest to move.

  Elerin almost forgot to breathe as Bella came into view. It sickened him a little that he found her just as beautiful as a human as he had as a fairy. Her eyes still sparkled silver, and her hair was still white. Nothing had changed, excerpt her size and lack of magic. As she ran towards them,he couldn’t resist letting his magic slide out.

  He’d grown used to seeing the purple trail wrap itself from his body onto his target. He had made Amara conjure an animal to carry them the majority of the distance, as he could not fly, and he’d had time to practice on them both. But as it laced around Bella’s leg, he was distressed to see that it didn’t slow her pace at all. She was still a few hundred feet and coming. His growl was low and he glared at Amara as if it were her fault. With a mental tug on his magic, she stopped flying and landed next to him.

  “You lied, old woman. I asked if my powers would work on a human.” He struck out, and the sound of Amara’s head snapping back wasn’t the only thing to fill the air.

  Bella’s gasp and cry was loud. She’d seen it all. It took everything he had not to shout up to her and start his reign of terror. But she couldn’t hear him, and if he didn’t hurry this along, he thought she just may step on him. His Bella was obedient to a fault, but this wasn’t his Bella.

  Amara’s hand was on her cheek, her eyes fixed on her granddaughter who stood frozen a few feet away. They were too small for Bella to see details, so he assumed she’d only seen his change in appearance when she gasped. “Time to make sure she sees what she’s done.”

  He pulled the daggers from his waistband once more, and without thought or conscious, slammed them both into Amara’s midsection and twisted. He felt the skin wrap around the blade as he moved. Amara not being able to scream under his control was delicious, and he jerked the daggers out, placing them back on the belt as her body dropped lifelessly to the ground.

  He couldn’t focus on Bella’s reaction. He needed to force the change so he could do what needed to be done. He closed his eyes and focused on his body growing and changing. He stood that way for a few moments, hearing Bella’s screams, but did didn’t feel a change. At least not until he felt something slam into his side, and he hit the ground, the air pushing from his lungs. He opened his eyes, and Bella was straddling him, smacking him rather ineffectively. Her body weight pressing on top of his set a hunger off in him that he’d always felt with her.

  Tears streamed down her face, and she screamed the idiot human’s name over and over.

  “He will be able to do nothing, Bella.” Elerin’s hand pulled free from under her body and wrapped in her hair, so he could jerk her head down to his. His lips captured hers and he fought with her for her submission. Pulling back, he jerked her head backwards. “Don’t like kissing me anymore, Bella? Don’t like what you see?”

  She tried to pull away, and only succeeded into grinding into him more. “Scott!” her voice was deeper than it had been as a fairy, but still musical and a sound to be heard.

  He released her hair and threw her off of him as she called for the human.

  “Magic runs soul deep, Bella. What do you think happens when you darken someone’s soul?” Elerin pushed off the ground and grabbed his quiver and an arrow from his back. “Don’t worry, this will be slow for you but Amara didn’t suffer. Michael, Michael may have as I choked the life from his body when he defended your betrayal of me and our people.

  “No. No,” she was stuttering, chanting the useless word over and over.

  He took aim and released one of the poison arrows at her. With a thump, it impaled her lower leg and her cry echoed in the night. He heard a door open and momentarily worried how many people’s attention she would draw From the houses that lined the area of the street.

  “Who are you?”

  The voice interrupted his thoughts, and Bella cut in before he could answer.

  “Scott, please go back. Please Scott.”

  Elerin leaned down and slapped her for interrupting. Scott launched at him merely thumped into his chest, a weakling compared to his hardened warrior’s body.

  “Oh no! Scott please stay.” He grinned wickedly as he pulled out a dagger and twirled it in his hands. “I clearly failed at killing you two days ago. A mistake I won’t make again.” He turned to Bella who had just pulled the arrow from her leg and was trying to rise. “Say goodbye to everything, Bella.” He let the dagger sail through the air and smiled as it embedded into Scott’s stomach.

  Again, Bella screamed into the night. She tried to rise and run to Scott, but Elerin stepped in the way and wrapped his hands around her shoulders, digging his finger tips in. “I don’t think so, Bella. You belong to me. You’ve always belonged to me, and even if I have to stay a human to own you, you will not get away from me this time.” He kissed her forehead and she punched into his chest.

  He laughed, a robots chuckle. “That didn’t work when we were fairies, and it certainly won’t work now. Time to leave the streets, though.” He picked her up and s
lung her over his shoulder, walking in the direction of Scott’s home, not even bothering to step over the body of the dying human as he went.”

  Chapter 5

  Bella’s head was pounding. Not from the tingle of poison that traveled up her leg, not from when Elerin slammed it into the wall. It pounded from the self loathing coiling within her. Everything was her fault. She had watched Scott when she shouldn’t have, and it had almost got him killed. She had chosen to be human, which had turned Elerin dark. Amara, Michael, and Scott’s death were on her soul, the blood wasn’t on her hands literally, but it stained her very being and sickened her.

  She felt the trail of a blade down her arm, slicing the top she was wearing, but not completely. Flinching away,she heard Elerin growl. She wanted to look at him, to see how the darkness had changed him, but the purple of his eyes was already burned into her brain.

  “Now, Bella, why so afraid? You never used to flinch when I touched you. In fact, you craved it some days,” he whispered into her ear and placed a kiss below it.

  The heat from his mouth brought a wave of bile up her throat. “You were never dark before. I am sorry, Elerin. Had I known—” He sliced the blade into her arm, and she bit her lip to stop from cry in out.

  “Had you known, you wouldn’t have left me for a human? Wouldn’t have torn my heart out of my chest and stomped on it?” He took a step back from her and squatted on the floor, so she was forced to look at him. The grin that twisted his lips was cruel, the glint in his eyes menacing, and she wanted nothing more than to leave. But she couldn’t. She had no training in war and he overpowered her by far. She could only hope, at some point before he killed her, he would walk out of the room and she could try and run. Her leg didn’t feel awful, but she assumed it was only a matter of time since the poison tipped arrow was larger as well.

  She dropped her eyes to look at the floor. “I’m sorry, Elerin. Nothing will change that. You were a good man, and you didn’t deserve what I did.” As she spoke an anger coiled in her stomach and she realized something neither of them had thought of. Bella took a deep breath and pushed off from the couch, Elerin rising to meet her but not pushing her down.

  She held her head as high as she could and hoped her fear wasn’t rolling off her in waves. “But it’s not just my fault. You chose darkness, Elerin. It didn’t choose you. You welcomed it into your heart, your soul. I may have opened the door for it to latch onto you, but you were too weak to fight it.”

  The sting of the punch that landed on her face was instant. The trickle of blood that ran down her nose touched her lips and she gagged at the taste. His hands were on her then, wrapped around her neck and holding tight. She regretted what she’d said the minute the words were out. She was a not a defiant fairy, why had she thought she could be as a human?

  Anger lighted his body on fire with her words. For a moment, he was intrigued by the spirited Bella who had risen against him, but her words had doomed her far quicker than her silence would have. He didn’t feel the powerful darkness of magic rushing through his muscles as his hand wrapped around her neck. His weight pushed into her and he heard a small cracking sound in the wall. Her eyes weren’t pleading with his. The silver of them was unfocused though, clearly loosing oxygen much faster than her brother had.

  He loosened his grip for a moment, and she sucked a deep breath in. “That’s it, Bella. It’s time for you to die, but I’m not quite finished with you yet.” His grip on her throat tightened again, and this time she yelped as she tried to gasp in air to breathe. He may not feel the rush of his magic, but he still felt a rush. Fairy or human, the dark was a part of him now. “You interrupted me, Bella. I was just getting to the part where I thanked you.” He loosened his grip again to ensure she didn’t die before she heard him. “I like the darkness. It suits me. And the wings? They’re hard and cool to the touch, but they’re more stunning than any pale glitter from a light fairy’s wings. Because of you, I will no longer just be a warrior.” His grip tightened again. “I plan to take over the dark fairies, and I will rule the forest.”

  Bella’s eyes widened, whether in fear or shock, he couldn’t tell. He felt her try to shake her head no, watched as her lips puffed a little and strained to move. Would she beg for her life or curse him? It didn’t matter now. She had heard him. He brought his other hand up to wrap around her neck when something dug into the back of his neck. The pain seared him from inside out, and he couldn’t control his hands as they let go of Bella’s neck.

  “Scott!”

  Her voice was gravely from the pressure on her throat, but Elerin heard the human’s name and turned to see him, clutching his stomach but standing anyway. His hand flew to the back of his neck, and he felt his own dagger there. He yanked it out and cursed as his vision laced with white from the pain.

  He felt Bella shoulder past him and run to the human.

  “It’s over. I assume you’re Elerin. It’s done. I won’t let Bella watch this. But it is what it is.” The male leaned towards Scott as if to leap, but his eyes were trained on Bella.

  Anger shined in her eyes, brighter than anything he had ever seen before. “I’m not going anywhere, Scott. Elerin, you brought this upon yourself. No one makes you embrace the darkness, you embrace it yourself.”

  He hadn’t known what she’d done when she bumped into him. Not until he felt the sharp pierce of the dagger in his stomach.

  “You! How could you!”

  She’d somehow taken his final dagger when she’d shouldered past him. Tears streamed down her face and he could see her lips trembling from her actions.

  “I will not make the mistake you made with Scott,” her voice cracked and her cheeks quivered as she twisted the dagger impaled in his stomach.

  His vision blurred even as roaring pain took over. He could feel the blood from his neck and stomach dropping down, but he couldn’t focus enough to force the change to fairy. The room began to spin even in its blurriness, and his knees collapsed under him. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. There was nothing left he could do, and when the blackness took him over, Elerin, the only warrior dark fairy, felt his life slip away.

  Epilogue

  Three days had passed since she’d been forced to murder her ex-betrothed. Three days since she had learned her entire family had been taken from her. Three days since they had called in Elerin as nothing more than a murdered intruder, and she had met human law enforcement for the first time.

  The sun streaming in the room didn’t brighten her spirits. She’d been barely going through the motions of living since she’d woken up in the hospital. The combination of the poison and her situation had caused her to black out. Scott had barely managed to call for help before he had joined her.

  He smiled over at her from his hospital bed. He hadn’t been released yet, and she was too afraid to leave his side. She’d met his mother, and while she was curious, she’d seemed very kind. Bella had hoped to get to know her well, hoped that she and Scott truly were the stuff of dreams and she hadn’t caused so many deaths for no reason.

  “You’re thinking about it again aren’t you?” Scott sat up and patted the small bed next to him.

  She nodded her head, unwilling to lie and let anymore potential darkness into her life. She sat next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

  “Don’t, Bella. None of it was your fault. Circumstances dropped us together, and you made a choice to be crazy, giving us a shot because it was what you wanted. No one let you have anything you really wanted your whole life. Was it a little selfish? Sure, but I’m not going to complain.” He grinned and kissed her forehead.

  “I’m scared of the darkness, Scott.” The admission was the first time she’d mentioned anything more than being upset at the deaths. But that hadn’t been the whole truth. She’d been more afraid at how easily she’d killed Elerin. Killed someone she’d known from the day she was old enough to remember anything. She’d felt nothing when she’d done it, and it scared h
er.

  “Bella, you aren’t a fairy anymore. Darkness isn’t the same in humans. It’s here. Of course it’s here. It’s not any less dangerous, either. But it won’t change who you’ve always been. I won’t pretend to know who that is. But the girl that captured me with one brush of her lips, the one I’ve been with this past week, she’s not dark. Maybe a little defiant, but not dark.”

  His words touched her, and she leaned up and kissed him softly. “Thank you, Scott. I’m sorry to have made your world so crazy. Being a fairy was never a walk in the park, even with our magic we had enemies. But I hadn’t meant to bring any to your door.”

  “If you hadn’t come, then I’d still be seeking out that special creature I caught sight of a few times with my camera. I don’t regret any of it, Bella, and I think we have plenty of time to get to know each other so I can prove it.”

  She smiled, and somehow knew his words felt right. She was young, so young, even though it was only six years younger than him. Her world had changed completely because of him, and she was more than ready to start finding out just how great her choice was going to turn out to be.

  Contributors

  Shannon Eckrich ~ Born and raised in Delaware, Shannon Eckrich lives with her husband, two children, and chocolate lab, Chewy, along with her newest addition, Taylor, a spunky little kitty who loves to terrorize her while she’s writing. Shannon’s second love is the paranormal. Ghosts, angels, vampires, aliens, immortals, it doesn't matter, she’s obsessed with it all, which is why she’s compelled to write stories in the paranormal genre.

  Cecilia Clark ~ Cecilia Clark has had a number of short stories and flash fiction published over the last year along with numerous art works. She writes everything from mild horror to children's tales and is especially fond of fractured fairy tales. Her recent works can be found on her Goodreads and Amazon author profiles and her daily ramblings can be seen on her blog http://ceciliaaclark.blogspot.com.au Cecilia has previously had one story and one piece of art published with Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly.