Blue Ridge: Vol. 3 - Escape

by Sophia Gray

  Nadia nodded and walked to the front door. She said a silent prayer that she could keep her composure until they were out of sight. Foster took her bags and helped her into the truck, before trotting back to the front steps to tell her parents goodbye. Frank gave him a firm handshake and told him to take care of his baby. Crystal seemed worried but happy too. Their strange little girl seemed to finally be having a normal life. Foster was glad that was what Crystal thought.

  As they pulled away Nadia let the tears roll down her cheeks. Foster grabbed her hand and pulled it to his lips to kiss her knuckles.

  “I don’t know when or if I will ever see them again!” she sobbed.

  “You will see them again, Nadia, I promise.”

  “What if they hunt for me here? Who will protect my parents?”

  Foster had already considered it, but knew it wasn’t likely that they would be harmed. It was Nadia they were after. Once they realized she wasn’t there, it wasn’t likely her parents would be bothered. No one from the Realm ever suspected a human of knowing what went on the other side of the veil. Frank James was a perceptive man however. It was a shock for Foster.

  “It’s not likely, Nadia. Really it isn’t.”

  She had no choice but to trust him.

  *****

  When they pulled back in to yard at Foster’s house, Derrick was sitting on the front steps. He stood and asked Foster how everything went.

  “Better than I thought. Her parents think we are going to take her with us on vacation.”

  “And the police?”

  “It’s settled.”

  Derrick nodded and looked at Nadia. “Well, Nadia, welcome officially to our home.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Did Stefan and Garth go after Diana?”

  “Yes, and your fool brother Warren went with them. They left about an hour ago.”

  Foster didn’t like the idea that Warren had gone, but what was done was done. He took Nadia’s things up to his room and came back down the stairs yawning. Julia met him at the bottom of the stairs and smiled thinly.

  “You look tired, son.”

  “Mother, I have never been this tired.”

  “I think Nadia must be too.” She motioned towards the fireplace and he saw Nadia curled up on the rug in front of the tall candles Julia liked to have lit. He smiled lightly and looked at his mother.

  “Why would Lily want to drink her blood?”

  Julia put a hand to her forehead and rubbed near her temple. “Rest, now Foster. When you awaken, we will try to explain a few things.”

  Foster yawned again and started towards Nadia’s already sleeping form. He turned back and asked, “What of Dain. Where is he?”

  Julia frowned and motioned a tired hand towards the front door. “The guests are questioning him.”

  “What will happen?”

  “So many broken rules are before us. I really cannot say.”

  Foster turned and walked quietly over to Nadia kicking his shoes off. He pulled her body into his and kissed her neck before closing his eyes to a fitful slumber.

  *****

  When Foster awoke it was fully dark, and he could her Nadia’s voice in the dining room. She was seated with Julia and Zuzana, and she held a baby in her arms.

  “Where is everyone?”

  Julia had to tear her eyes from the child in Nadia’s arms. “They are sleeping upstairs. I will wake them soon to eat. Please, Foster, fix a plate for yourself. I made stew and cornbread.”

  He had to smile. His mother had fixed a very human meal for Nadia. It made him feel good to know that at least his mother was ready to fully accept her. His eyes rested on the older woman and his smile faded. He walked to the stove and began fixing a plate of food. The presence of Zuzana made him nervous. Why had his grandparents been kept from him his whole life?

  “Because we were temporarily sent to another place after your Grandfather lost his throne.” Zuzana said right behind him.

  Foster jumped, but kept dipping stew onto his plate. “So, you are powerful enough to read minds.”

  “Yes, but I don’t always indulge in it.”

  Foster turned and smiled at her. She wasn’t to blame for being absent. Perhaps no one was. “Stew, Grandmother?”

  “Why, yes, thank you!” she smiled. “There will be time for explanations, Foster.”

  He nodded and headed for the table. The baby was cooing in Julia’s arms, and she looked like any other grandmother: proud and possessive.

  He nuzzled Nadia’s neck. “Did you eat?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. The baby is really beautiful.”

  “Has Dain seen it?”

  She shook her head. “They just got back about thirty minutes ago. His mother, Diana, insisted she go to the barn, but your Dad stopped her.”

  Foster looked around. “Where is she?”

  “Well, she went up a tree.”

  Foster stopped spooning stew into his mouth and asked through a full mouth, “Why?”

  “To think.”

  He looked at his mother and she just shrugged. “She’s been through a lot, Foster, give her time.”

  Time was one thing Foster knew they didn’t have. “How long will it take with Dain?”

  “As long as necessary.” His mother said quietly. Foster silently hoped they tortured him a little.

  An abrupt sound came from the large glass doors, and they looked at one another. It was a thunk thunk sound, like something was thrown against the wood of the house. Derrick bounded through the front door and ran to the glass doors throwing them open. Whatever had made the noises, Derrick already knew about it. Foster followed and saw his father pull something from the small strip of wood that framed one door from the other. It was two arrows, with a piece of parchment hanging from each one. Derrick read them and handed them to Foster. Foster looked back at Nadia’s troubled face before reading.

  Blood for blood

  Tooth for tooth

  Return her

  Or die where you roost.

  The second one simply said:

  You have until the final full moon.

  Foster held the papers in his shaking hands. “We only have two days.”

  ~ Volume Four: Last Chance ~

  The barn was not a normal barn. Nadia was sure she would walk into something decrepit that smelled of moldy hay and animal dung, but to her surprise, it was neat as could be, and far larger than it looked from the outside. Foster led her up some stairs to an elaborate area that half circled the entire barn. Each side had a traditional loft, and in between were several bedrooms for guests, all connected by a narrow hallway. Holding to the rustic design of their house, Nadia was delighted with it.

  “Everything about you and your family is magical.” She breathed, touching the smooth dark wood of the railing and looking down into the meeting hall.

  “It only seems that way because you are from the outside. It’s just everyday, normal stuff for us.” He smiled wistfully. “I wish I could see it with new eyes.”

  “What do you think about all of this talk of me being a full or half dark elf? Personally, I’m offended. I mean just because I’m olive skinned, I may be a ‘dark elf’?”

  Foster smirked and tried to discern if she was joking or just indulging in her own innocence. “Sweetheart, it has little to do with your skin tone. Some dark elves are in fact darker skinned, but some are as white as the Queen. It has to do with aura.”

  Nadia didn’t understand any of it. All she knew was that her life was in danger, as well as the lives of Foster’s entire family. “What about my blood? Why does she want it?”

  Foster paused and tried to think of the simplest way of explaining it to her. “Lily is obviously sick, Nadia. A dark elf is generally not very nice. They tend to be thieves or assassins, and they have a penchant for the dark arts. Many of them are very powerful witches.”

  Nadia let the thought sink in as she watched Foster’s mother glide into the meeting hall below. “So,
she thinks that if she drinks my blood, she will gain some of those attributes?”

  Foster slowly nodded his head.

  “It’s rumored she has already drank the blood of several creatures in an attempt to become more powerful.” Julia said, as she walked up the stairs towards them. “In truth she is weak, and drinking of the life blood is an abomination.” She smiled at them both. “Come, I would like time to speak with you both before the meeting begins. She led the way back down the stairs and out into the night air.

  Nadia knew the situation was dire, but in the face of such beauty, she felt her nerves ebb a little bit. The night air was crisp, as only autumn can produce. A few of the first changed leaves were beginning to fall. They appeared black in the silvery light of the full moon.

  Julia led them to a cleared area behind the barn where tree trunks had been arranged around a small campfire. The fire was currently unlit, but two tall torches were burning nearby. Julia indicated for the two to be seated, and she gracefully took her seat next to Nadia.

  “Tell me, Nadia, what do you know of your birth parents?”

  “Nothing at all.” She recited the same story she had told Foster when they first met, of how she was found in a rest area badly injured, and had ended up with her adoptive parents.

  “Do you know what type of injuries you had?”

  Nadia frowned. “Not exactly; my father only told me they were very bad and life threatening. I have a small scar on my side that he says was one of the injuries.”

  “Like a cut?”

  Nadia nodded. “Yes, but it is very thin. Something extremely sharp must have made it.”

  Julia nodded. “Tell me, do you understand what it means for Foster to say you are his chosen?”

  “I assumed it meant he has chosen me as his life partner. Maybe his wife?”

  Julia smiled faintly. “Yes, that is exactly what it means.” She paused as Foster took Nadia’s hand in his. “Are you prepared for such a commitment to my son?”

  “Yes.” Nadia said without hesitation. “I know we are young, and I’m pretty sure all young people have the idea that they know it all, but this feels right.” She looked into Julia’s eyes and saw compassion there. “Before Foster, my life was miserable. I only have one friend. I mean, my boss is nice to me, but only one real friend. I never felt any real hope. I always thought I would finish college and maybe do a little better than my parents had, but that’s it. I always thought I would be alone.”

  Julia’s face never changed. She wore the same serene look, with a faint smile, but her words were not easy to take. “To be with a member of the Fae or Sidhe, you would have to give up virtually every part of your previous life. It would be for the protection of Foster and his people. Do you understand?”

  “Isn’t Foster also something else?”

  She nodded. “His father is Nephilim. Do you know what that is?”

  Nadia shook her head. “He’s powerful though, like Garth.”

  “Yes, he is powerful. A Nephilim is a child of the fallen. Originally it started as fallen angels mating with human women. Eventually, a rule was created for the safety of humans that Nephilim could only breed with each other.”

  Nadia turned her head and looked at Foster. He was a complicated bag of races. Races that were supposed to be for make believe storybooks. It was hard to comprehend, but it was also the most wonderful thing she had ever heard. “Well, I think it is all pretty cool.” She said and squeezed Foster’s hand.

  “Now, Nadia, the game is more complicated. You may or may not be of the Fae blood. I sense it when I touch you, but it’s faint, so I know you are not full blooded. It will however give you a certain privileges.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Foster and access to the Realm. Once we reclaim it, that is.” She said with a wiry smile. “Unfortunately the Queen thinks you are something that you are not. Perhaps you are dark elfin, but I doubt it. Your skin tone has nothing to do with it.”

  Nadia chewed on her lower lip and tried to decide if she should ask the question that plagued her mind. “Garth said I did something in the dungeon that humans can’t do.”

  “What was it?”

  “He said I used Glamour.” Julia and Foster exchanged a quick glance.

  “Glamour is used to make a Fae or Sidhe blend into their surroundings, so that no one can tell what they really are. It is occasionally used on buildings, like our barn for example. Please tell me what Garth thought you did.”

  “He had killed one of the guards, but more were coming. We ran to the end of the dungeon hall, but it was a dead end, so we flattened ourselves against the wall, hoping to remain in shadow. A guard was approaching us with a torch, and I kept repeating in my mind, ‘let us be stone, don’t let him see us’, or something like that. Anyway, he walked right past us with the torch and he never saw us.”

  “Were you touching Garth?” Nadia nodded her head. Julia smiled and touched her forehead lightly. “That is a powerful trick for one completely inexperienced.”

  Foster cleared his throat and pulled Nadia to her feet. “Go ahead and shower. The meeting will start soon.”

  She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and walked back to the house. Foster watched her go, and felt confusion within him. Glamour was not an easy trick for sure. It was unsettling how much more she might be able to do without even knowing it, but right now there was something more he wanted to know from his mother.

  “Sit, Foster, I sense a troubled mind within your head.”

  He snorted and took his seat back on the log tiredly. “Isn’t there enough trouble all around us for my mind to feel it?”

  “Yes, but you wish to ask me something?”

  Foster looked at her steadily for a moment. His mother was poised and beautiful; a true princess. The question would not be easy. “How did you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Give all that up for father? How did you two even meet?”

  Julia looked beyond Foster’s head at the shadow of the mountain. Her past was a bittersweet tumult of passions, which she should have shared with her children long ago. “Your grandparents raised me similar to how I have raised the three of you. When I was at a certain age, they let me have a little while to be amongst the humans. Your grandfather, Kheelan, took a great risk to allow me to do that.”

  “Because he was on the throne?” Foster interrupted.

  “Yes. He had ideas about the realm that he still holds to. He felt that all ancient races should be able to access it. He felt it was wrong to judge based on who was Fae, Sidhe, Nephilim, or even some of the darker races. He was the one who started the council. It began when I was but a babe in my mother’s arms. He was also the one who proposed permanent meeting halls on this side of the veil near to Realm doors. It was part of his plan to make the Realm a little more accessible.” She paused and leaned her weight onto on arm behind her. “I didn’t stay amongst the humans for very long. I thought bright lights and a flashy city were the answer, but I was disappointed. Humans can be cruel in a way that is hard to explain. I met your father by accident. I had been robbed in a dirty alley way, and he came to my rescue, before my virtue could be stolen as easily as my wallet.” She sighed and gave him a sad smile. “I had never seen anyone quite like your father. He literally tore the man responsible to pieces. He knew me right away for what I was, and offered to bring me back to the Realm. His family was furious, of course, but he did it anyway. By the time we came back I was head over heels in love.”

  “What about him?”

  Julia winked and held her hand out to him as she stood. “Oh, I think you know the answer to that already.”

  Foster enjoyed walking hand in hand with his mother just like he did when he was a little boy. His mother had always been there with him and his brothers. He felt a pang of regret when he considered that he had taken her for granted.

  Zuzana stepped off the side of the porch and walked quickly to them. “Julia,” she said slightly out o
f breath, “you must come and do something about Derrick.”

  “What is he doing?”

  Zuzana’s face was sober, and it was obvious to Foster that she had not had much exposure to his father.

  “He’s going to kill Dain, I fear.”

  “Why do you think that, Mother?”

  “That little Diana tried to talk to Dain while he was on the porch, and tried to show him the baby, but he acted like a complete heathen to her! He screamed at her to get that ‘bastard’ away from him. Well, the poor little thing took to wailing, Diana kicked him in the shin, and Derrick jumped on the porch and jerked Dain off the porch by his pony tail.”