I made out with Skylar James.
A possibility that yesterday seemed even more remote than the existence of a winged race of people.
“About time, Sleeping Beauty.”
“Huh?” He turned to find his brother hovering over him. “What are you doing here, Lan? What time is it?”
“Seven in the morning. When you didn’t come home last night, I thought I’d come looking for you.”
“Is Mom mad?”
“Nah.”
He grunted. “Probably doesn’t even know I’m gone.”
“She knows.” Landon threw his coat at him. “Found this in the trees a ways back. Put it on.”
Cal reached for the coat and a sharp pain exploded inside his head. “Ugh. I feel like crap.”
“You look like crap, too.”
“Love you, too, bud.” Cal stood and shoved his arms into the coat.
“Why would you stay out in the cold all night? I was worried about you.”
“Sorry,” Cal said and meant it. He never wanted to disappoint his brother. Not when Lan’s life was already chock-full of them.
“Come on, let’s just go home.”
Cal shook his head. “Not going to happen.”
“Why? What did Dad do now?”
Cal decided not to say anything about the death threat. “He kicked me out.”
“Kicked you out?” Landon yelled. “Where are you supposed to go?”
“I don’t think he cares much.”
Landon flew into Cal’s arms and hugged him around the waist. “You can’t leave! Please, Cal! You’re all I have!”
Cal pressed Landon’s face into his chest. “Hey, now, come on. It’ll be all right. We both just need time to cool off is all.” Cal looked down. “Hey, what’s this?”
Landon twisted his neck around. “What?”
Cal pulled the large white feather from his back pocket. “This.”
“Oh, I found it in our room. Can I have it?”
A sudden thought hit Cal and he froze as he mulled it over. Is it possible? It might be a crazy idea, but he had been carrying the feather the last time he found the Faedin, so he had to wonder. Could it lead him to them again? Something in his gut told him it could and his heart raced at the prospect of seeing Stassi again.
“Go on back, Lan. I just need a few days and then I’ll be home. I promise.”
Landon wiped the tears from his eyes. “Do you have somewhere to go?”
Cal studied the feather. “Yeah. I think I do.”
It took some time, but he finally convinced Landon to leave. After seeing him off, Cal strode back into the woods, holding the feather out before him as if it were a magical talisman. If he ever needed a little magic in his life, it was now.
And he got it.
With instinct guiding his steps, new paths opened before him. Cold air turned warm. Bare limbs sprouted new growth. Birds began to sing. So focused was he on his task that he stumbled to a stop when he finally saw her.
My God, she’s real.
Stassi stood with her wings folded behind her back and her hands curled into fists. Her mouth was closed, hiding the fangs behind her lips and in this moment, she looked like any other girl. Healthy, young and beautiful. No… wait. Not quite a girl. She looked different since he last saw her. Taller. More womanly. Yesterday, she did not have those curves. The appendages were not that full, the hips not that curvy. In contrast, her arms and thighs were more muscular, giving her a fierce look.
She crouched and hissed when she saw him, eyes inflamed with anger.
He held his hands out to her. “Whoa! Stassi, it’s me, Cal.”
“I know very well who I look at, Rupa.”
“Well, if I’m to be honest, your eyes look a little more murderous than I remember.”
Her chin lifted. “You were supposed to return yesterday.”
“I tried! I really tried! But I didn’t have the feather with me. I finally figured it out, Stassi. This feather,” he said, waving it at her, “is what leads me to you.”
She moved close and yanked it out of his hand. “This?”
“Yes,” he admitted nervously, not quite convinced that she wasn’t about to kill him.
Her eyes flicked to his stomach. “What is that writing?”
He pulled his coat closed and zipped it. “Just the prank of some not-so-nice people.”
“That makes me sad since we live to protect these not-so-nice people.”
He shrugged. “Not all people are bad. Just the ones I know.”
A full moment passed under her disapproving glare.
He tilted his head at her. “So, are we good?”
If she forgave him, she didn’t say. She simply handed the feather back to him and started away at a dead run. “Come! We are late for the trials.”
He stuffed the feather into his pocket and raced after her. “Wait! Trials?”
“Do you think you can become a warrior overnight, Rupa?” she asked over her shoulder. “You must prove yourself before you can participate in the Faedin raids.”
Cal looked down at his weakling body. “I’m no warrior, Stassi!”
“You are what you believe yourself to be.”
Panic settled in his chest. “No! Stop! I just came back to…”
She stopped and turned. “To what, Cal?”
“I don’t know. I had to see you again to see if…”
“I grow tired of your games. Are you here to stay, Cal? I must know.”
He swallowed. Am I? There was that overwhelming drive that led him here to consider. And, he had to admit, it felt right. He was tired of being alone. Tired of being a victim. As much as he loved his family, his stepfather made the life they shared unbearable.
He would stay. For a little while, anyway.
“Yeah.”
She nodded as though she had expected no other answer and started away at a fast trot. Cal took off after her. This time, he felt safe enough to look around at his dreamlike surroundings.
How can it be that this world or realm or dimension — I’m not sure what to call it — can remain so hidden?
The word paradise couldn’t even begin to adequately describe the landscape around him. Every color vibrated with a life of its own. Every sound tickled his ears with pure joy. To a kid who lived in hell, this was heaven on earth.
Stassi must have sensed his steps falter. “Hurry!” she hissed. “You will not ruin my chances today. Do you understand?”
He nodded and urged her forward once again, wishing he had time to ask more about these trials.
Stassi skirted the village and took a path that brought them to the large lake Cal had seen at the top of the valley when he first entered Faedin. To the west of the lake stood the ruins of an ancient arena with a stone archway and tall pillars. Some of the posts had toppled, their rubble scattered in heaps at their bases. Tiers of time-worn benches led down to a circular dirt field.
Stassi stopped to point at the arena. “That is where the second trial will take place.”
“And today’s trial?”
“A hunt.”
A hunt? Good. Something I’m good at.
Although, he had to admit that his confidence wavered slightly at sight of the Faedin warriors standing outside of the arena. There were at least twenty of them — all male — and they made an impressive sight. Tall and muscular with shirtless, bare chests glistening in the sunlight. White wings spread wide and undulating in the gentle breeze.
And every single unwelcoming eye directed his way.
It took all of Cal’s willpower to keep moving forward when his whole body urged him to do what he did best — run the other way.
“I see Perstassia has finally decided to join us,” Gilad announced with contempt.
Cal decided he would have to keep an eye on that one. The jilted Faedin seemed to have a score to settle.
Julius and Caliphy strode through the center of the warriors. “You are late,” he chastised his daughter.
“My apologies, Sire,” Stassi said. “My mate has returned and I met him at the boundary to show him the way.”
The chieftain lifted his chin to peer down his nose at Cal. “A word, please, daughter.”
Stassi followed Julius away from the others.
“I cannot help but notice that you do not have your wings, Perstassia. Is there a problem?”
She felt heat rise up through her neck and face. “No! I… humans just have a different way than ours. Do not worry. I will have them soon.”
“Make it so, daughter.”
“Of course.”
“Have you discovered anything more about this human?”
She nodded. “Cal figured out that he is able to penetrate the veil by carrying a Faedin feather in his hands.”
Worry creased Julius’s features. “Such a simple happenstance that could have ended the world as we know it. I suppose we are fortunate that this human will take up our cause. We may even learn from his ways. You’re sure about him, Perstassia?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Then I must trust your instincts. Now, let us return to the others. For some reason, Gilad seems in a very foul mood,” he said with a pointed look her way.
Stassi did not offer an explanation and kept her eyes straight ahead as she walked alongside him.
“Please gather around, everyone,” Julius said loudly when they rejoined the group.
Stassi went to stand next to Cal, who looked a shade paler than before. She couldn’t blame him really. He looked so small standing next to the male warriors who towered over him. Perhaps she should have taken the time to put him more at ease. Her eyes softened as she stared at him.
“Will the four novice warriors taking part in the trials please come forward!”
Two Faedin, a brother and sister, both with fiery red hair, stepped into the ring of warriors. Stassi followed. When she realized Cal had not moved, she reached back to drag him next to her and he almost fell. He lifted an awkward hand in the air, drawing grim looks from all around.
Stassi moaned in embarrassment.
“Before we begin the first trial, I would like to introduce our four novices. Abram! Leeah! Perstassia!” Julius hesitated, his mouth twisting in distaste as though he had just eaten a sour grape. “And Cal!”
“How odd,” said one of the warriors. “One of our novices still has her fledgling wings. I cannot say that I have ever seen the like.”
“And another has no wings at all!”
“At this point, we will take any warrior we can,” Julius admitted solemnly. “As you know, the Fallen do not die. If we don’t start to reduce their numbers more rapidly, I am fearful that we could be overrun.”
“But they already outnumber us three to one,” the redheaded Abram pointed out.
“And that number is growing. For reasons we do not understand, we have lost an unacceptable number of warriors to the Fallen over the past year. It’s as if…”
“As if what, Sire?” Stassi asked.
“As if they’re fighting back.”
“That’s impossible!” Gilad scoffed. “We all know the Fallen have no free will. They’re mindless cravens, helpless under the evil influence of Gai’tan!”
“I hope you’re right, Gilad,” was all Julius said.
“So what do we do? How do we kill more of them?” Leeah asked.
“Hunt smarter,” Julius replied. “Put your tracking skills to use. Listen for their cries. Watch for signs of passage. Find them and destroy them.”
“I wish we really were hunting the Fallen today,” Leeah lamented, a warrior’s gleam in her eyes.
“You haven’t earned that right yet, novice,” Julius told her. “And that brings us to the first of three warrior training trials. For this exercise, the warriors with us today will serve as the Fallen. They will spread out into the woods and each novice must locate and disable at least one warrior.”
“Disable them?” Cal asked Stassi out of the side of his mouth.
“Yes, disable them. If you do not, they will disable you.”
“What does disable mean?”
“In a real raid, it means kill. In the trials, it means… anything short of kill.”
CHAPTER 8
A Challenge
Cal blanched, and Stassi must have read the horror on his face.
“You can do this, Rupa. You are a good hunter and fast for your size.”
“Rupa?” Gilad questioned aloud after overhearing Stassi’s comment. “Did you hear that? She calls her little pet Rupa!”
“Quiet, Gilad!” Stassi growled at him.
Cal’s ears burned. Humiliation was no stranger to him, but boy, was he sick of it. The feelings of worthlessness that crept insidiously through his body until it made him want to peel out of his own skin just to get rid of it. The shame that made him want to run from the world and hide somewhere safe. But, like the shadow of his nightmares, it continued to find him. Time and time again.
“It is now time!” Julius shouted. “Warriors! Go!”
Gilad snapped his fanged teeth in Cal’s direction and took off into the woods along with the others.
Cal took a deep breath and slid into place next to Stassi, Leeah and Abram. Fear flooded through his body. Not about the track. Having spent most of his life in the woods, he felt confident he could find one of the warriors easily. But what to do when he found him? He wasn’t capable of disabling anyone, much less a Faedin. Yet he had to do this. For the first time in his life, another person had put faith in him and he wasn’t about to throw it away.
He had to admit, there was also a big part of him that wanted to put these taunting birds in their place. Something that would be much easier if the birds weren’t eight inches taller than him.
As though reading his thoughts, Stassi leaned over to whisper to him. “According to the rules, you just need to put a warrior on the ground. If you do that, you win.”
“Piece of cake,” he muttered, drawing a scowl from her. A sudden thought occurred to him. “Wait! What if I run into a real Fallen?”
“They will not show themselves. They hide in fear from us. That is why we must hunt them.”
Julius raised his hands, cutting off all further questions Cal had, and he had a lot of them. “Novices! Go!”
The three Faedin took off at a fast run, all going in different directions. Cal stood there for a dumbstruck moment before finally following after Stassi.
She turned back with wide eyes at the sound of his footsteps behind her. “What are you doing? Go find your Fallen!”
“But I thought we could work together.”
“No! Faedin work alone.”
She sprinted away, leaving him no other choice but to strike out on his own. He took the first path he came to and slowed to a smooth jog, not wanting to give his position away.
He studied the ground. The warriors were making no effort to conceal their tracks and he found several footprints right away. He started to pursue slowly, his mind spinning with strategies on how to defeat his much larger opponents.
Suddenly, the sounds of the forest fell still.
Cal froze, his heart thudding in his chest. He cautiously slipped off the path and slid behind a large tree. His instincts screamed at him that someone was nearby. He waited silently for several minutes, but heard nothing. Finally, he placed a hand on the bark of the tree to slowly peek around the other side.
A dull thud sounded and Cal cried out in terrible pain. He looked in shock at the black-handled knife pinning his hand to the tree. He yanked the blade out with a curse and spun around.
Gilad stood on the path, his jaw rock hard.
“What are you doing?” Cal demanded.
The blond warrior took a step toward him. “You are not wanted here, son of Adam. You are inferior and dangerous and a thief.”
“Thief?”
“You stole what was mine.”
“If you’re referring to Stassi, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t belon
g to anyone. Including me.” Cal stripped out of his coat and wrapped the sleeve around his bleeding hand.
“No matter what they say, you are not one of us. And you never will be. I challenge you.”
“Challenge me?”
“Fight me, son of Adam. If I win, you go back to your world and never return. If you win, I will leave you and Stassi be.”
“No.”
Blue eyes narrowed dangerously. “No?”
“I will fight when there is purpose, Gilad, not just to inflate your ego. Especially, when your prize wouldn’t have you even if you won.”
Gilad’s nostrils flared angrily. “Oh, I will win.”
“From all that I just heard, our enemy is the Fallen, not each other.”
“Fight me!” he bellowed.
“No.”
“You are a coward,” the warrior spat, his face dark with rage.
Cal readied himself for another attack, but after a long, tense moment, Gilad turned on his heel and walked away.
Stassi ran through the woods, reveling in her newly acquired strength. Ever since the Shahda, she had felt her muscles expanding, her vision sharpening, her resolve growing. It made her wonder if Cal, too, was experiencing these changes. It was quite possible that it wouldn’t work on a son of Adam like it did the Faedin, but she refused to believe it. If Cal was to be her mate, he had to show strength and courage like the others.
Especially Gilad.
At one time Stassi thought she might choose the handsome Faedin she had known all her life as her mate, but that was before.
Before she saw the boy outside the veil. There would be no other now.
Yet she felt certain that Gilad would challenge Cal at some point. She just hoped it happened after the change and not before. If Gilad challenged Cal now, she would lose him.
A Faedin warrior dropped down in the path in front of her from a tree branch overhead, and she stumbled back. She recognized him as Bannon, a particularly large and bearded Faedin with dark, hawk-like features and an infuriating smirk.
If only I had my wings! Damn you, Cal!
Bannon took a casual swipe at her head and she ducked beneath his swing.
Eden's Creatures Page 5