by SL Perrine
Chris wasn’t happy about her mother’s callousness. She promised her children’s lives to service for the queen without consulting them. Chris resented her for many years. However, she had changed her mind since.
Jamie was her older brother, and as a male from Pylira, he was not born with magia. He studied books and folklore in the new world since they had arrived. Annabel, the oldest sister under Chris’s age, had been training alongside Chris since their arrival. Cecilia and Esther were the youngest of the five and had not yet come into their power. Her mother kept them close to her at all times, so it was no surprise to Chris when she had learned they were in Pylira with their mother when the passage had closed.
As the day went on, Tabby and Chris kept their distance from their new traveling companion. Tabby had stopped complaining about walking and took up complaining about maga interference.
“Did you know about this?” she had asked Chris at one point.
“No. How would I?” Chris kicked stones out from in front of her as they walked.
“Your mother never mentioned a fairy prince escorting us to wherever it is we are headed?”
“No, don’t you think I’d have mentioned that before now?” She looked ahead at Farlow. He cut the lower hanging branches to the ground so the girls didn’t have to maneuver around them. “Besides, he’s making himself useful, and I sure am enjoying the view.” She gave Tabby a joyful grin.
Tabby’s retort had included the word "disgusting," and Chris vaguely remembered the word "redundant" being used as well, but she couldn’t be sure. She kept walking at an average pace as she studied the backside of the prince. She couldn’t help but wonder if he glowed blue or if he had blue glitter all over his back. He changed into a white short-sleeved button-up shirt and old tattered jeans, which meant he had paid attention to those around him while he was in disguise. The blue flecks were noticeable when the sun hit his back through the trees, especially in his black hair.
As the sun went down, the girls decided to find an appropriate place to rest for a while. Farlow had talked them into traveling for a while longer. He produced a flashlight, which had stopped their protests.
Tabby found she enjoyed traveling while it was dark, as long as she was able to maneuver around the uprooted trees.
“That’s a relaxing sound,” Chris interrupted Tabby’s thoughts.
Tabby saw Chris with the light of the moon overhead. “What sound would that be?”
“The crickets and the frogs. They sound like they are singing to the moon.” Chris sounded as if she were in a state of euphoria.
“What’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing, I just never noticed it before.” Chris had to admit having Farlow around made her feel like she could drop her guard a bit. It was nice being able to let someone else handle the heavy lifting for a change. The woods rustled around them and Chris put her back up.
“So much for enjoying nature,” Tabby shot back.
Farlow stopped walking ahead of them and flicked off his light. It wasn’t until then he noticed the flashlight was useless with the moon out. “Was that you two?” he whispered to the girls.
“No… it’s probably an animal,” Tabby shot back at him.
“Tabby,” Chris yelled at her in a whisper, “keep your voice down.”
Tabby looked at Farlow and back to Chris. “If someone is out here… one, they are following us, and therefore, know we are here, so whispering is redundant–”
“You really like that word, don’t you?” Chris asked with a smirk.
Tabby ignored her friend and continued. “B, I can see you, so the dark isn’t hiding us, and … three, if they’re going to attack, don’t you think they would have by now?” she asked, spinning around. “Like I said, it’s probably an ani–” Tabby stopped talking as three figures stepped out from behind a tree to her left. She looked at Chris, who stood to her right, and Farlow, who was roughly twenty feet ahead of them.
Chris waved her hand and sent one of them flying. “There’s more where that came from…walk away now.” She received no response, nor did they move. The one who had been flown to the side struggled to free himself from a tree vine.
“Chris…” Farlow said as five more figures stepped into view behind the girls.
“What?” she bellowed, shooting him a look.
“Behind you.” Farlow pointed.
Chris turned to look behind her. Tabby looked to their right and saw two more figures.
“This is not happening!” Chris bellowed as she held out her arms, palms facing up. As her arms went higher and higher, Farlow could see the vines spring from deep within the ground and rise into the air. The figures still loomed. None came forward and none moved to dodge the vines, which wrapped around and tied each of them to where they stood.
Tabby looked at the figures and whispered to her friend, who held them in place. “Why aren’t they fighting back?”
“I don’t know.” Chris looked back at Farlow, who was cautiously walking toward one of the figures.
“Chris,” Farlow yelled, “they’re bestie di ombra.” He swatted at one of them and the vines fell to the ground as the shadow dissipated.
Chris dropped her hands and the vines fell, taking with them the shadows of the beasts.
“How is that possible?” Tabby asked as she walked to where the first of the figures appeared. The vines were in a heap, but the ground showed no signs of the figures.
Farlow walked to Chris and put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. “The veil between the worlds is thinning. Someone is trying to open the passage.”
Chapter -17-
“Are you going out tonight?” My father poked his head in the doorway of my room, startling me. I looked up from the English paper I’d been perpetually ignoring all afternoon as it sat in front of me.
“No dad, I don’t think so,” I answered after a beat. I hadn’t spent more than an hour at a time in the same room with Xander or my father in the last two weeks. Keeping up pretenses of their altered reality frustrated me. I really wanted to discuss everything with my father and maybe get some of his insight, but that was not in the cards. Instead, I kept to myself. That hadn’t been hard at all. Xander had taken to working more than before his personality was swapped. My father, as weird as it seemed, was the same. Maybe the alteration was to meld everyone into the perfect citizen; a way to weed out those of us who were directly tied to the passage and the world beyond it. The more I thought of it that way, the more I was forced to realize the man checking in on me may not have been my father at all, so I stopped thinking about it.
“Okay, then don’t stay up too late. We’re headed to the lake with the guys for the weekend.” He took a long look at the paper sitting on my desk.
“Okay, have fun,” I called back as he turned to leave the room.
Fishing was my father’s only hobby. He and Xander had spent the last three weekends at the cabin fishing with the guys from work. As an English lit professor at the local college, he said fishing released his work stress. As the lowest level mailroom clerk, Xander had more stress than the average twenty-year-old, it seemed. Before everything happened, Xander had been training with dad and planned on attending college, not working at one. He was outgoing and had friends he hung out with. Since all that had happened, he spent most of his days off lying around and playing video games. The rest of his time was used to fish with dad and his co-workers.
Yes, things were very frustrating. As I sat and stared at my blank paper, I realized I had to stop avoiding. The paper could wait. It wasn’t due for another two weeks. I wanted to go see the elders and practice magia. I’d been avoiding Ty all week, since Monday’s confrontation. That subject was frustrating as well. Suppose I married him to end a curse. It was too much to think about. Falling in love with someone who kept so much from me to save his world. Then it occurred to me, nobody ever mentioned love before. Just marriage.
I’d asked Chase to help with the magic lessons. Be
ing with Ty came with many more unanswered questions, and I needed to focus, but I soon realized Chase was not a suitable replacement. Since Ty was the son of Ourobus, he had been born with magia. The rest of the male population had not. I'd have to ask for that story at some point as well.
So, I decided against staying in. I looked at the clock. It was only a little past five. I closed the paper in my binder and went to search for my shoes. Dad and Xander most definitely took the car, so I would walk the four blocks to Ty’s house. That week, so many new faces had appeared in town, but they never seemed to be staying in town. Chances were a four-block walk would be alright.
I found my shoes right where I’d taken them off when I got home from school, by the front door. I put them on and grabbed my bag. As I grabbed the door handle to open it, I felt him. I pulled the door open and there he was. Ty was my loosely tied yet invisible rubber band. I was getting used to it, so sometimes, I wouldn’t notice how much it hurt to be far away from him, like all week while I was avoiding. I couldn’t avoid him then if I wanted to. His blond hair seemed to glow white as the sun set behind him. He raked his fingers through it to push it from his face and put his hands in his front pockets. He reminded me of pony boy after he’d dyed his hair, wearing torn jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. At that moment, love wasn’t even an afterthought, but lust was real close to the surface. I always had a thing for bad-boy types.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as I threw my bag straps over my shoulders.
“I haven’t heard from you all week. Thought I’d check on you,” he said as he ran a hand through his untamed hair again. I noticed for the first time it was wet in only a few spots, as if he had run all the way to my house.
“You’re all sweaty." The beads of sweat ran from his temples down to his jawline. I almost reached a hand out to wipe it away. "You know, you could have checked up on me over the phone. Besides, I’m heading out,” I said and stepped down, out of the doorway, ridding myself of the unwanted impulse to touch him.
“You’re going to walk around town by yourself?” He looked around at the quiet cul-de-sac. During this time of year, the neighborhood would have been buzzing with kids riding bikes, cars coming and going, and dogs barking. For the last few weeks, the cul-de-sac was quiet as a cemetery.
“I was just going to your house, to speak with your uncles,” I said as I closed and locked the door behind me.
“Okay, I’ll walk you.” He motioned, waving his hand behind him. “Ladies first.”
“Fine,” I said, not because I was alright with it, but because I didn’t want to have an argument. I still got tired thinking about the last one. I headed down the walk ahead of him and kept going, not waiting for him to catch up.
“Why are you not talking to me?” I thought I could hear the hurt in his voice, but when I looked back at him, no emotion showed on his face.
I turned. “I don’t know.”
I barely mumbled, but I supposed he heard me when he retorted, “That sounds like a diplomatic answer.”
I sucked my teeth at him. “Diplomatic?”
“Never mind, I’ve been watching too much TV,” he said as he sidled up next to me.
“You haven’t been in school all week.” I chanced a look at him. He stared down each cross street as we passed them; always scouting.
“I didn’t think I needed to be. With everyone’s minds altered, there are no pretenses to keep up.” He scratched his head, running his fingers through his hair. He didn’t need to push his hair from his eyes as he had before. The haircut he’d gotten kept it from falling far. I suspected it’d become a gesture of habit.
“Did it ever occur to you I may have wanted to see you?” I have no idea why I asked. Maybe that was why I wasn’t talking to him. “Besides, Chase and Nolan have been keeping up pretenses.”
“They’ve been looking after you. I just thought I’d give you some space.” He shrugged.
“Oh.” No, I never thought he would have wanted to give me space. I thought he was avoiding too. We arrived at his house and I saw the yard was back to its unruly state.
“What happened?” I asked, motioning to the plants and trees.
He shrugged and walked past me, up the stairs, to open the door. He waited for me to go inside before coming in and closing the door behind him.
I was hit with the smells of spaghetti sauce and garlic. My stomach rumbled and I realized I hadn’t had a home-cooked meal in over a year. Dad tried once in a while, but we usually ended up having take-out anyway. They still wouldn’t let me cook, even though I knew it was good most of the time.
“Hungry?” He smiled at me as if he could hear my insides begging for food.
“Actually, yes.” I tried to hide my excitement, but his smile and the smell was intoxicating.
“Come.” He grabbed my hand and led me to the kitchen. The spark returned, and for a minute, all felt right with the two of us. Then I was drawn into the bright lights of the kitchen, where Gareth was busy at the stove.
“Well, hello dear. What a surprise,” Gareth said as we entered what appeared to be a war zone.
The range and counters nearby were covered in splattered sauce. Leftover remnants of tomato were scattered on the island with what looked like a lot of spilled bread crumbs. There were three large pots on the range, busily boiling and frying. The sauce popped up from the middle of the pan and landed on Gareth’s arm.
“You have to turn the flame down and put a lid on it or it’s just going to keep popping out at you,” I told Gareth as I dropped my bag in a chair and rushed over to the range. I grabbed a wooden spoon from the cradle and stirred the sauce. “It doesn’t boil while you’re stirring.” I turned the knob, which lowered the flame under the pot while I stirred the sauce so it stopped bubbling and splattering. I could feel Ty’s eyes watching my every move and I became uneasy.
“Thank you,” Gareth said as he grabbed a wet rag and wiped at the sauce droplets on his arm. Once he was clear of any red, he started on the countertops. “Do you cook, Renee?” Gareth asked.
“No, I just remember helping my mother. Sunday night was always pasta night,” I said, staring into the pot of sauce. “There, it should be good to cover now.” I replaced the spoon and added the lid to the pot.
“Ah,” he said, and understood I didn’t want to talk about my mother. Instead of probing, he went back to cleaning. “Well, it’s Friday, not Sunday, but you’re welcome to join us for pasta tonight,” he added as he rinsed the rag and cleaned off the hood of the range.
I played with the hem of my shirt nervously. “Thank you. I was actually wondering if I could speak with you and your brother.”
“Well, of course you can. Ty, could you go fetch Hogarth from the study?” he asked. “He enjoys the warmth. Not a fan of your autumn air.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, as I remembered the first visit to their house. The study was so warm, I almost couldn’t breathe. “Is Pylira very warm?” I asked, honestly curious about it. They all had been speaking about it, but no one had actually told me anything about the place.
“Oh yes, it is warm during the right seasons in Pylira. However, we are from Ormshire. In Ormshire, it is as warm as your southern states here. The water nearby gives us a cool breeze occasionally, but usually, it is very warm. Here, you would call it desert heat.” Gareth seemed oddly excited about his home, yet sadness hit his eyes as he talked about it. His thoughts were soon interrupted by Hogarth and Ty, who entered the kitchen.
“Hello, Renee. I hear you would like to speak with us,” Hogarth said as Ty led him through the kitchen, getting straight to business as usual.
“Well, yes. I have some questions. I was hoping you could help me with them.” I looked to Hogarth and Gareth, wondering if I should try to have them sit closer together, as I remembered our last conversation. My neck cramped up just thinking about it.
“What kind of questions?” he asked.
“I was kind of hoping to
speak to you alone.” I looked in Ty’s direction, knowing he wasn’t going to be happy about my not wanting to share with him. He knew what our connection was, but I needed to find out for myself. Maybe deep down he realized that, because he excused himself from the room without complaint. I could see the hint of irritation on his face.
“Okay, now what is this about?” They both looked at me, questioning expressions on their faces.
“Ty told me he’s the prince. So, now I understand what you were telling me the first time we spoke.” I laughed a little; more to myself than to them. They exchanged glances and looked back to me. “The fact that your prince was … what you said... quite taken with me.” I reminded them of the conversation.
“Ahhh,” they said in unison.
“He also told me about the women of the buio clan. I think I need to ask if your anger with my family will keep you from answering my questions honestly.” I noticed I’d been twisting my hands nervously.
“No, we have no anger for your family.” Hogarth regarded me and offered for me to sit, where they joined me.
“Maybe one hundred years ago, we may have, but we now know of the prophecy, which means our family will be reunited again,” Gareth stated. “So, go ahead with your questions,” he added with a quick glance to the range.
“So, Ty was engaged or betrothed before the curse, ” I started.
“Yes,” they both answered.
“What was her name?” A feeling of dread crept over me. I had been lying in bed at night, thinking about that very question. Did she have his fair complexion or his light blonde curls? Was she from a neighboring clan or did she get picked from within his own? I did want to know all of those things. However, now that the question was asked, my stomach churned.
“Why do you ask?” Hogarth questioned as Gareth got up to tend to his pots.
“I have to know. No.” I thought on it. “I need to know. Who was she?” The feeling in my stomach, which I hardly paid attention to anymore, started to pull. So, Ty hadn’t gone far. He wanted to know what I would ask them about. He must have heard my question and decided to let me get my answers, because I heard the front door open and close. I could feel he was still moving away from me.