Fae

by Jennifer Bene

  “Because, Fae… this is me in a good mood.” Marik turned and left the room, and Butler started to follow him. He was practically glowing when he looked at her.

  “Hills, take her to the girls’ quarters. Marik will get her from there later.” Butler grinned and slapped the guard on the shoulder before he followed after Marik.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ráj Manor, Caledon, Ontario

  Neala was holding her hand against her side as hard as she could, but the blood was leaking through her fingers, and she was really only succeeding in smearing it over her skin. A good mood? He was insane. Andrew had been right about the explosive combination of Butler and Marik. Butler was straightforward with his violence, but Marik obviously craved it too. It was just hidden under the surface with him. Together they would only feed off each other until every girl in the house was dead.

  He’d actually stabbed her.

  She was shaking with the shock of it. Gods, what had she walked in to? What on earth could she do against someone who could stay so calm while being so violent? There was no end to what he might do with her, every morning when she healed -

  “Fae?” There was a light touch on her shoulder, but it made her jump and turn quickly, which caused blood to pour through her fingers, and she hissed from the pain of it. Hills was staring at her side with an open mouth. “Holy shit - he, he stabbed you? He’s never… what the -” the guard cut himself off with his hand over his mouth and he suddenly ran into the bathroom and came back with a towel.

  He held it out to her and Neala sighed and took it from him so she could press it to her side.

  “I can’t believe he actually stabbed you. You’re really bleeding. Are you okay?”

  “Did you seriously just ask me that?” Neala choked out the words as she slid off the bed, holding the towel to her side.

  “You’ll heal, right? That’s what you do, isn’t it?” The guy seemed sincerely worried.

  “Yes. That’s what I do.” She said it bitterly, and Hills snapped back to himself.

  “Can you walk to the girls’ quarters? I can carry you if you need me to.” The guard looked like he was trying to be helpful, but she wanted away from him. She wanted away from this room more, so she started walking to the door and he followed. They walked in silence up the north stairs to the girls’ quarters and the guard there gaped at the blood as he opened the door. Hills stayed outside as she walked in, clutching the towel to her side.

  When the door clicked shut there were gasps and screams and yells as a few of the girls saw her. Neala took a few steps forward, but they surrounded her. Sobeska and Annika and Mei-Li and Irena and Zofie and Ebere and all of them. Their faces swam in front of her, and she felt claustrophobic until Ebere raised her voice.

  “Get back! You’re freaking her out.” Ebere clapped her hands and Sobeska helped to pull Irena and a few girls away. Ebere grabbed a big pillow for Neala and she helped her sit. When she bent to sit down she felt blood run down her side, and the sensation made her nauseous. Once she was sitting her other hand came up to brush across the silver disc which still rested against her skin, and she bit her lip against the urge to cry again. When would Kiernan discover she was missing? If he stuck with his original plan it would be at least a day before he was even going to come home. The pit of anxiety in her stomach opened further. What if she never saw him again?

  Everyone was talking at once asking too many questions. Where had she been, if she was okay, why was she bleeding, what had happened – and Neala couldn’t bring herself to answer any of them.

  “Are you kidding me?!” Caridee’s voice was shrill, and everyone stopped talking as she pushed one of the girls out of her way. “You’re all asking if she’s okay? Have you all forgotten that she left us here? She is the one that caused all of this and she just left. She left Butler in charge, and now Marik is here and in control of us?” She was hysterical, her breathing was ragged and her eyes were so wide that Neala could see the white all the way around her brown eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Caridee, I am. I know it’s worse. I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting Marik.” Neala peeled the towel back and Irena pushed forward with a sob, her hands gently touching the edge of the wound. Irena was murmuring about how she’d help Neala get better, how she missed her, and Neala touched Irena’s hand and forced a smile for her. It only made things worse as Caridee started yelling again.

  “You’re sorry? Sorry?! You’ve spent, what, an hour with Marik? You don’t know! You don’t know anything! Where have you been all this time? Where have you been while we’ve been here, while we’ve been suffering?” Caridee was throwing her arms out, moving closer to Neala while others stepped back to give her room.

  Neala smiled bitterly, trying to adjust the towel to staunch the bleeding as much as possible as she pictured Kiernan’s apartment, his cozy couch, the beautiful view of the bay.

  “I was somewhere good, Cari, somewhere really good, but it doesn’t matter now. When Nikola died I couldn’t get back inside to help you, and I didn’t have a way to get back here to help you.” Neala talked calmly, and she glanced over at Ebere before she was caught by a stinging blow across her cheek. She turned and lifted her arm on instinct, blocking Cari’s second slap. Cari tried to pull her arm back to try again but Neala grabbed her wrist. “You got one, Caridee. Now, stop.”

  “You don’t know - you don’t know what you did - what he did. He whipped me, he hurt me, they hurt us. They hurt us, and this whole time you’ve been somewhere good?” Caridee wasn’t stable, that was clear, and Neala let go of her because she was screaming and starting to pull at her hair. The other girls were trying to get Caridee under control, but based on their expressions most of them had just grown used to the outbursts.

  “Butler whipped Fae too, Cari, or did you forget that?” Mei-Li spoke softly, reaching out to try and calm her down.

  “She heals! She heals, dammit! You’re all freaking out about the blood? She’s fine, she’ll be fine. It’ll be gone tomorrow! Everything goes away for her!” Caridee was sobbing, tears were streaming down her face, and Neala felt sick. This was not the strong willed, fiery woman she had known when she left. Cari was broken.

  “And we all know that when the marks fade, even if they take us longer, we feel perfectly fine about it. Right, Cari?” Ebere asked the question pointedly and stepped between the two of them. Caridee started crying harder and turned around, and Mei-Li put an arm around her waist and guided her to the little nook where Caridee slept. When Ebere turned back around, Neala looked down and realized she was trickling blood onto the cushion beneath her so she redoubled the pressure against her side.

  “I’m sorry about that, Fae. Cari hasn’t been right since Butler interviewed her about you.” Ebere said it softly, but it struck home in Neala’s chest as if Ebere had pointed at her and said it was her fault. She had caused this, and as she looked around the room she could tell the small happiness they had been able to create with each other when Nikola was in charge was gone. Even in their space there was no relief from the darkness that loomed over the house.

  “What do you mean interviewed?” Neala asked, knowing she didn’t want the answers, but she had to listen to them. She owed it to them to hear what had happened while she was sleeping peacefully in Kiernan’s apartment, while she was eating clean food, and living in safety with someone who apparently loved her.

  It took hours for Ebere, Mei-Li, Irena, and a few others to fill her in. It had been worse than she had imagined. Sometimes, in the middle of the night when she had woken up at Kiernan’s she had wondered if they were okay, and falsely convinced herself it wouldn’t be so bad for them. That they were better off without her there.

  She had been wrong.

  The entire time they talked to her Neala was waiting for the door to open for Marik to take her back, but he never did. Late in the night Ebere convinced her to change out of her bloodied underclothes and into a dress.

  She hated being bac
k in that dress, almost as much as she hated listening to the name Fae again when she’d just started to hear her true name again. Neala just didn’t have the energy to explain it all to the girls. Together Ebera and Neala wiped the blood away, and she formed a new towel into a bandage before curling up to sleep in an empty nook.

  The familiar tingle of Eltera’s power knitting the skin of her side back together woke her up. Neala sat up and removed the towel that was soaked through and she noticed she had bled onto the dress too. Standing up so she could shower and change, she heard a voice across the main space. A male voice.

  “Get up. Now.” It was a quiet whisper, but it sounded angry.

  “No, please.” One of the girls was responding quietly, and she sounded like she was crying. Neala walked towards the noise and even though it was dark she could see the crouching figure of a guard. The guard moved suddenly and she heard a quiet yelp from the girl on the cot. Neala lunged forward and grabbed his arm pulling it back and away from the girl. The guard turned on her and tried to grab for her but she jumped back, quickly moving backwards into the main room.

  “You’re going to regret getting in the middle of this, girl.” He growled, but as he stalked towards her Neala reared her leg back and kicked him in the stomach sending him falling backwards. When he tried to get up she delivered a downward punch that knocked his head against the floor.

  His groans woke someone up because the light clicked on at one end of the room. Pushing himself off the floor he tried to grab Neala but she side-stepped him and slammed her forearm into his neck, which sent him to the floor choking. Once the light hit his face she remembered him from before, but he’d never been so brave as to come into the girls’ quarters and try and take one of them. He was the guard you did your best to avoid being alone around or he’d drag you into a corner – but the female quarters? Guards never came in here.

  “I know I’ve been gone for a while, Evans, but I figured after our fight in the snow you’d at least remember not to try and hit me.” Behind him Neala saw Blithe leaning against the wall, her nose and eyes red from crying. Blithe was quiet and sweet and it made Neala even more angry that he’d tried to hurt her, not to mention what he’d probably gotten away with while Neala was gone.

  “I’m going to tell Butler and Marik that you interfered, whore. The rules have changed, I can do what I want and you can’t stop me.” Evans wasn’t even trying to be quiet anymore. He was almost yelling and several of the girls were awake now and standing at the entrances to their nooks wide-eyed.

  “Go for Blithe again and see what I can and can’t do.” Neala spoke with the kind of confidence only raw anger can give someone. Evans turned around to look at Blithe, and then he turned back to Neala.

  “You’re suicidal if you think Butler and Marik will let this slide.” He was furious, and she could see he wanted to hurt her, but he didn’t make another move for Blithe, or her.

  “Marik actually missed our last appointment, you should mention that when you tattle on me.” Neala said it loudly and someone behind her gasped. Evans laughed at her and stomped towards the door.

  “I’ll be back soon, you can count on it.” He ripped the door open and slammed it back. The sound of a key turning in the lock was the only noise for a moment in the silent room. When Neala turned back all the girls were standing around staring at her. She was still so angry that he’d come for Blithe in the early hours of the morning, whether Marik was okay with it or not.

  That wasn’t going to happen with her here.

  “Fae?” Irena walked forward, and Neala noticed what she had missed last night. She looked thinner than she had when Neala had left, and her wings weren’t fluttering in their normal energetic way. Irena was keeping them close to her body and Neala hated that. That had been how Irena had acted for months when they’d first arrived until she’d finally started to break out of her shell. “He’s going to hurt you, Fae. The guards are allowed in here now, Marik doesn’t stop it and Butler doesn’t care.”

  “Well, they’re not allowed in here now.” Neala’s heart was racing after the confrontation with Evans. She pushed her hand through her hair and looked around at them. “I’m back. I’m sorry I left, but I’ll do whatever I can to protect you.”

  The lock turned in the door again and Neala groaned, sure that Evans couldn’t be back already. The door opened a crack and a woman slipped in. When she turned around, Neala’s anger ratcheted up another notch.

  Lena.

  “You.” When Lena saw her she spit out the word like venom and walked swiftly towards Neala screaming at her the whole way. “You ruined everything! You took him from me!”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” When Lena got close Neala grabbed her arm and twisted her wrist sharply and Lena cried out. Neala just stared down at Lena who was bent to the side trying to ease the pressure on her arm. “You don’t get to yell at me. Ever.” Neala pointed behind her, “Caridee can yell at me, any of these girls can yell at me, be mad at me, even hate me for leaving them. But you don’t get to, not after everything you did for Nikola.”

  “Don’t say his name! Don’t you dare say his name!” Lena tried to reach up and claw at Neala’s face with her other arm, but she just twisted her arm a little more until she cried out and stopped.

  “Nikola did not care about you, Lena. He used you to spy on us, to keep the girls in line, and no matter how much you loved him you were never more than property to him.” Neala’s voice was raised, but she was talking slowly and clearly.

  It was a last ditch effort to reason with the woman; because Neala had never understood why Lena sacrificed the girls she was supposed to watch over just to make Nikola happy. Lena was shaking her head and starting to cry, and for a moment Neala pitied her. Thinking the tears were because her arm hurt, Neala released her wrist.

  “You should have died! Not him!” Lena’s hands were quick and around Neala’s neck in an instant, but Lena was no fighter. Neala just brought her arm down across Lena’s to break her hold and then kneed her in the stomach. Lena hit the floor gasping and choking, and Neala’s momentary pity disappeared.

  “You know what, Lena? Shut up.” Neala was furious, remembering every horrible thing Lena had ever done to her or the other girls. “You made this place hell long before Marik arrived. You turned girls in to Nikola any chance you got. Anything to make him smile at you, anything to make him say thank you!” Neala’s rage had her on a rant, and when Lena tried to get back up Neala pushed her back down with a foot. “No, you stay down. You should be the one suffering right now, not these girls. You have betrayed them more times than I can count, and you say I should have died?”

  “Yes,” Lena hissed bitterly, glaring up at her.

  “Do the girls even know everything you’ve done to them? Or have they all been too afraid to tell each other because Nikola protected you? Did you ever admit that you were the one that turned in Mei-Li for breaking that dish two months ago?” Neala was leaning over Lena as she listed her crimes. She had never been able to call Lena out on all her actions, but nothing was stopping her now.

  “You know, Fae actually took credit for that, Lena, when the dish broke? And she took the punishment meant for me.” Mei-Li spoke up from a few steps behind her.

  “Lena was the one who told Butler that Annika was keeping bread in here, I think she spent two days with the guards for that.” Ebere said it from against the wall, her own rage leaking into her voice. Then she spoke again. “What about when she told Nikola that I hadn’t finished two loads of laundry? Or when Caridee didn’t mop the back hall? I think Fae tried to protect us for those too.”

  “But she -” Lena sputtered, but another of the girls spoke up and Neala pinned Lena back to the floor, holding her there with a foot on her chest.

  “Fae was the only one here who tried to save Juliet. She volunteered to go in Juliet’s place when Nikola ordered it, she even tried to get sent to the guards at the party when I asked her to help – and that’s wh
y she got whipped. And then, the morning Juliet died, Neala was the one who went to ask for a doctor, not you, Lena, you ran away.” Irena was crying again, but she was shouting at the matron from across the room. Other girls started muttering.

  There were so many times when Lena had betrayed them.

  “You aren’t protected anymore, Lena. Marik doesn’t care about you at all, and he won’t save you.” Neala stepped back from her and continued, “I will do everything in my power to protect these girls from Butler, and from Marik, and the other guards, but I won’t lift a finger to help you.”

  Lena looked terrified for a moment before she pushed herself up. She looked around at the girls, starting to cry, her perfect façade cracking in a hundred places. As soon as she realized no one was going to stand up for her she ran back out the door, leaving it open behind her.

  The girls were all looking at Neala now, but she didn’t say anything as she tried to calm her breathing and slow her pulse. She was fighting her urge to go after Lena, and the guards, who had done so much damage in this house. But she wouldn’t get far if she went after them and she knew it. Her mind was racing. It was pointless to try and fight the regime of the house, but those little individual fights? Like with Evans and Blithe? She could win those. She may not win the war of control in this house, but she could make it miserable for them to fight it – no matter what it cost her. Lifting her hands to her neck she untied the leather string and held the beautiful silvery disc in her hand as she walked over to Ebere and handed it to her.

  “Will you look after this for me? I know I’m going to have to pay for this morning and I don’t want to lose it.” Ebere was stoic as she took it from her and just nodded. When Neala looked around the room a few of the girls gave her weak smiles, but Neala really just wanted to shower off the blood and to get into a clean dress.