by Bonnie Lamer
“Xandra, we discussed this before,” Isla begins.
“Yes, we did. That was before I found all of the bad guys and put them to sleep. Now, there is no reason for me not to go to the village and check on Kallen, Dagda and Kegan.”
Tana also rises from her chair. “I think she should go.”
That’s all the encouragement I need. Without waiting for Isla’s response, I teleport out of her office directly to the middle of the village. I should have picked a side street. I land in the middle of a crowd, jostling several and knocking one Fairy to the ground. “Sorry,” I mumble, helping her up.
“The Princess is here!” is shouted by a Fairy to my left. All eyes turn to me.
It only takes a second for Naja to push through the crowd until she is standing directly in front of me. “Princess, what a relief. The Palace must be secure.”
There is fear in her eyes. Naja is never scared. “What happened?” I had to force the words through my throat because I’m pretty sure asking the question is going to guarantee a bad response.
“You have not heard?” Naja asks hesitantly. “I thought it was why you came.” Turning back to the crowd, she says, “Let the Princess pass!” She begins walking and the Fairies part. I follow in her wake.
We don’t go far before she stops. On the ground in front of us is my biological father. Unconscious with a heck of a shiner. I kneel down next to him and make certain he still has a pulse. I sigh in relief when I feel it. Looking up at Naja, I ask, “What happened?” Glancing around, I ask, “Where are Kallen and Kegan?”
“Kegan followed them,” Naja says, still not wanting to tell me everything.
I stand up and face the guard leader. “Naja, if you don’t tell me what is going on right this minute, I will drag the words from your throat with magic.” I don’t know if I can do that, but I am more than willing to try.
Squaring her broad shoulders, she says, “They came to attack the village. There were thousands of them.” She pauses and I draw magic, ready to make good on my threat if she doesn’t keep going. After a second, she says, “We were grossly outnumbered. We could have prevailed, but there would have been much bloodshed.”
“I understand how war works,” I snark.
“Kallen bravely chose another path.”
My eyes narrow and my magic grows. “How, exactly, did he do that?” I am becoming less angry with Naja and more so with my husband. I know he did something stupid. Why now? Out of all the situations we have been through together, why did he pick this situation to do something stupid? Doesn’t he know it’s my job to do that, not his?
“He gave himself to them.”
Naja spoke so softly, I’m not certain I heard her correctly. “He gave himself to whom?” I know the answer, but my lips form the words anyway.
“He willingly agreed to go with the Sirens. He is now under their spell.”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Princess, I am so sorry,” Naja whispers.
“No,” I say again. “That’s impossible.” He loves me too much to be under their spell. They can’t take his heart from me. It is written in the cosmos that he is mine and I am his. My mind can’t even comprehend it. Therefore, I will focus on something else. “What happened to Dagda?”
Startled by the change in conversation, it takes a minute for Naja to respond. Finally, she says, “Kallen rendered him unconscious when he tried to stop him.”
None of this is making sense. “How? Kallen is strong with magic but Dagda is stronger.” Surely, Dagda wouldn’t succumb to a magical attack like this.
“Not with magic. He hit him.”
She must be making all of this up. There is no way any of it could have happened. “You are telling me that Kallen chose to go off with the Sirens and he punched Dagda so hard he knocked him out when he tried to stop him.” She had better say no.
“Yes.”
She said yes. She believes my husband, the one who swore to love me forever, the one who believed to the bottom of his soul merely hours ago that the Sirens would never be able to convince him to leave me, the one who owns my heart completely, has dumped me to run off with the Sirens. For nights of endless pleasure. Where he’ll be a King instead of a Prince. Where I will never be able to find him.
“Princess?” Naja says but her voice is a million miles away from where I am. I am at the edge of the world, ready to fall off into the void. My vision is darkening. My heart is pounding. My breathing is ragged. I can barely hear her through the storm raging in my brain. My world is tearing apart and with it, my heart.
“Princess!” Naja calls.
Can’t she see I’m falling apart? Does she believe I can focus on her when I’m trying to hold myself together? My mind is not capable of processing anything else at the moment. My vision is black around the edges and my ears are filled with the sound of betrayal. Loud, soul wrenching, mind blowing betrayal. He left me. He chose to leave me.
“Damn it, Xandra! Freakin snap out of it! You are hurting people!” Taz’s voice seeps slowly into my brain. It takes time to process his words as I am consumed by pain. Every cell in my body is bursting with agony. He has it wrong. I’m the one who is hurt.
Teeth ripping into my flesh shocks me back to reality. I open my mouth to scream when I realize I already am. Surrounded by white light, I am screaming into the night as magic pours out of me. The magic borne of the mixing of Witch, Fairy and Angel. Magic strong enough to make the ground tremble and crack beneath our feet. Magic powerful enough to light the oxygen around me on fire. All around, Fairies are littered over the ground. I look down at my bleeding ankle. Taz bit me hard enough to tear tendons and ligaments. Blood is gushing from the wound. What bothers me, though, is the fear. Taz has fear in his eyes as he gazes up at me. He is afraid of me. He is afraid of me like Felix was afraid of my doppelganger.
This is not who I am. I need to pull it together. I will pull it together. Closing my eyes, I calm my breathing. The pain in my chest remains, but I force myself to take deep breaths. Slowly, I pull my magic back. Falling to my knees, I take in the carnage of my temper. Tears that couldn’t penetrate my rage before begin to fall as I take in the scene. I have torn the village square apart. Glass litters the ground. Some of the shards have burrowed into the unconscious Fairies. Roofs have blown off buildings. Shops have been laid to waste. “Taz,” I whisper. “What have I done?”
It is not Taz who answers me. “You have allowed your pain to control you. You have used your power against the innocent.”
“I have,” I admit to the Angel standing behind me.
A hand rests upon my shoulder. “You are correct, this is not who you are,” a new voice says.
“I am so sorry.”
“It is not us who need your apology,” yet another voice tells me. “But know this, you do not stand alone.”
I turn to the trio who has answered my wings’ call for help. Before me are Urim, Lailah, and Valoel. They are the Angels of illumination, love and peace. They have come to calm my spirit, to help me through the bitterness of betrayal. For the first time, I feel connected to the Angels as one of them. That they would come to me when I need guidance the most is proof enough that I am part of their family.
“How do I make this right?” I ask.
Lailah, my grandmother, helps me to my feet and wraps her arms around me. “Oh, my darling, your grief is so raw. Only a perfect love can cause such perfect pain.”
“Grandma, that doesn’t make me feel better,” I cry against her shoulder.
Arms wrap around the two of us and a calm I thought was beyond me descends upon us. “Your husband sought peace for this realm and others. His sacrifice is woven through with the love he has for you and his kind,” Valoel adds. Still not feeling any better about it.
“Your path was always going to be difficult,” Urim assures me. Wow, these guys suck as spirit lifters. “But you have experienced enough to know there are many paths to choose. Perhaps fate has not steered y
ou quite in the direction you believe it has.”
I stiffen in the arms of the two Angels holding me. “What did you say?” My eyes find the beautiful, mocha skinned Angel. He is not smiling, but there is something in his eyes. A truth he wants me to find. Urim determines fates in a way I will never understand. He is not allowed to share what he knows just as Raziel is not. But, his words and his expression hold a promise.
“I can say no more, Xandra. I can only confirm what you already know.”
Angels can be the most frustrating races in the universe to communicate with. Their meanings are almost always veiled and their adherence to the rules of free will borders on fanatical. I often can’t take their words at face value. Which is why I feel hope at the moment. Urim is telling me something, something I want desperately to believe. It’s pointless to ask him if I’m getting his meaning right, though. So, I keep the question locked up in my brain, not letting it escape uselessly into the universe.
I glance around us. “How do I fix this?” I ask.
Lailah smiles at me. “Lucky for you there is one among us who revels in restoring peace and tranquility.”
My eyes shoot to Valoel. “You can fix this?”
Smiling, she nods. “I can fix this. You are not the first Angel to go supernova. Because you did not know what you were doing, there is no malice here. There is no intent to cause pain. For you, this one time, I will restore balance.” In other words, don’t mess up again because she won’t offer this service again.
I hug the Angel tighter. “Thank you.”
“We will leave you now to these mortal affairs,” Urim says in his deep, soothing voice.
Lailah pushes a loose strand of hair from my cheek. “Believe.” I don’t need to ask her what she means.
I nod. “I’ll try.”
With a smile, she gives me one last, tight hug. “That is all we can ask. Good bye, my beautiful granddaughter.” As quickly as they came, they are gone.
The world around me snaps back into action. I glance around in amazement. Windows and roofs are where they should be. The Fairies are awake and unscathed. The only evidence of what happened is the blood still oozing from my ankle. I guess they figured I could heal that myself.
“Princess, are you alright?” Naja asks for what I assume is not the first time.
Taking a deep breath, I nod. “Yes. You said Kegan followed Kallen and the Sirens?”
Naja’s turn to nod. “Yes. He has not yet returned with information regarding their whereabouts.”
I suspect Kegan has run into trouble. I doubt the Sirens would let him follow them for long. “Did the entire army leave?” I ask, searching the crowd for signs of warriors.
“I believe so.”
Are the Sirens truly keeping their word? That doesn’t mesh with the plan for complete annihilation. Then again, they don’t seem to give their warriors much information regarding their true plans. “Have you searched the area?”
Naja nods. “I sent scouts who have reported back. There is no sign of the Sirens or their warriors. I have remained here with the King.” So, if her scouts missed something, it’s not her fault. Okay, that was petty.
I stare down at my biological father. Every bit of DNA in every single cell in my body is programmed to seek out Kallen. But, my DNA wouldn’t exist without the Fairy lying on the ground. He needs to be my first priority. Kneeling next to him again, I pull enough magic to heal what I assume is a nasty concussion. A part of me can’t help but be impressed by Kallen’s physical strength. He must have caught Dagda completely off guard, though. Dagda is pretty tough himself.
After a moment, Dagda’s eyes flutter open. He takes in his surroundings trying to figure out where he is. As soon as he does, he shoots to his feet nearly knocking me down in the process. “Where is he?” he demands.
“Gone.”
After a few choice words that have many of the Fairies around us covering their children’s ears, my father puts his hands on my shoulders and searches my face. “How are you?”
“I’ve been better,” I admit. At this point, I’m going to keep destroying half the village to myself. The crowd doesn’t seem to remember it happening. I assume Valoel took care of that when she put everything to rights.
Turning to Naja, Dagda asks, “Is the village secure?”
“Yes, sire.”
His attention focuses on me again. “Take me to the palace.” I reach out and place a hand on his arm. As soon as I make contact, I teleport.
Chapter 20
As soon as we appear in Isla’s office, Tana is out of her chair and flinging herself into Dagda’s arms. He pulls her tight against him and whispers calming words into her ear. I hate to interrupt their moment, but my husband is still missing. “Kallen has given himself to the Sirens.”
Why isn’t Isla’s face showing surprise? Her eyes lock onto mine. “I am sorry.”
I point an accusing finger at her. “You knew! You knew and you let it happen!”
“Whoa, reel it in. Even you can’t survive a palace falling on you,” Taz reminds me as I unconsciously begin drawing magic.
I close my eyes and concentrate on not going supernova again. My wings have appeared, but I’m not flashing any blinding Angel light. Progress. When I’m fairly certain I can keep myself from exploding, I open my eyes again. The guilt on Isla’s face is almost enough to push me back over the psychotic break line that now exists in my brain. She starts to speak but I put a hand up. “You do not want to say a word to me at the moment.” I am trying to rationalize her actions in my head. She obviously had a vision. One that showed Kallen leaving with the Sirens. Visions are subject to change because of free will. Nothing is set in stone. Her vision could have just as easily been wrong. But it wasn’t. Now, we’re all blindsided when we could have planned for the possibility. We could have prevented it. Isla opens her mouth to speak again. To my surprise, Taz leaps onto her desk and starts growling at her. First, I had no idea he could jump that high. Second, Isla takes his warning and holds back whatever words she was going to speak. Taz really is afraid I’ll go supernova again if I get any more upset.
“How are doing, Xandra?” Felix asks. He is by my side staring up at me, his eyes and body posture radiating concern. “I felt what happened in the village.”
I look down at him in surprise. “You did?”
“Of course he did, dimwit. We’re linked to you,” Taz snarks. Yeah, that’s going to help my mood. His eyes and teeth are still pointed in Isla’s direction, though. “Now, pull it together before you accidently kill someone.”
I hate it when he’s right. I do the calming breaths thing again. After a moment, I throw my voice out into the soundless void in the room. I’m not even sure everyone has been breathing the last few minutes for fear of angering me more. Am I that scary when I’m mad? Well, unfortunately for them, I don’t see an end in sight for my temper. “You kept vital information from me. Information which could have been used to formulate a plan. I have always trusted you to do right by Kallen and me, but you failed us this time. I understand that visions are not always true. Regardless, I would have been better prepared and probably wouldn’t have destroyed a good part of the village when I found out about it.” Tana gasps behind me and I know Dagda is itching to ask for details. “It has been fixed,” I assure them without turning around.
“Xandra, I do not see how warning you of this possible outcome would have made you less upset,” Isla tries.
Dagda disentangles himself from Tana and stalks toward his High Chancellor. “Damn it, Isla! I am with Xandra on this. You had no right to withhold such information.”
Isla rises from her chair, her expression as menacing now as Dagda’s. “Do not tell me what rights I have with my grandson.”
“Hey!” I interrupt. “He may be your grandson, but he’s my husband.” I throw my hands up in the air. “This is pointless. You are never going to admit we’re right. I’m done. You do whatever the hell you want to do, but I’m go
ing to find Kallen. And Kegan. I don’t know if your vision showed you Kegan following after the Sirens and their warriors, but he’s missing, too. Have fun explaining to Alita how it was better for us all if you didn’t share your vision.”
“Xandra!” Dagda calls but I am already gone.
I wasn’t lying when I said I was going to try to find Kegan. I have no idea how to find Kallen at the moment, but I can at least make sure his cousin is alive and well for Alita’s sake. I come out of my teleport a street away from where I found Naja last time. I want to avoid the crowded entrance this time. Both Taz and Felix have joined me and the three of us jog toward the middle of the village. For once, Taz doesn’t complain about the pace.
We find Naja easily. She is busy organizing the female Fairies in the village into groups for guard duties regardless of the fact the Sirens supposedly have what they came for. Dagda really did choose wisely when he appointed her. “Naja,” I call over the many conversations around us.
She turns in surprise. “Princess, I did not expect you to return.”
I can’t help a frown. What did she expect me to do? Wipe my hands of the situation and stay home? Maybe she’s not as good as I thought she was. Okay, I’m probably a tad sensitive at the moment. “Which way did Kegan go?”
Naja joins me and my Familiars. “Are you planning to search for him?”
“She’s a quick one,” Taz snarks. “I believe the Siren magic has pickled her brain.”
“Yes, I am going to search for him.” The words come out sharper than I intended, but Taz is right. Why else would I ask which direction he went. I might want to take a moment to consider how often I am in agreement with Taz in my current state of mind, but I’m not going to.
I don’t like the concern crawling over Naja’s face. The Fairy is about to tell me something else I do not want to hear. Taz and Felix move into flanking positions and honestly, I’m not sure if they are getting ready to attack Naja or rescue her if I decide to attack her. “If you do not tell me everything in the next thirty seconds, I will make sure you are not only fired, I will insist you get the job of bacon distributor for my Familiar.”