Warrior's Rise

by Brieanna Robertson

  They blinked up at him, sniffling and shivering.

  “We’re not warriors!” Colt exclaimed. “We’re kids!”

  Logan snorted. “Come on! You’re the one who insisted that you weren’t children! Suck it up!” He turned to Lucy. “You know more about the Avari and the fairies than anyone. Do the Supporo have any enemies other than the Avari? Any other race, or species, or whatever, that don’t like them?”

  Lucy looked confused for a second. “U-Um, I’m not sure. My book might say, but it’s back at the camp.”

  Logan gave a decisive nod. “Then we’re going back to camp. Come on, guys. I need you to be with me on this. Get your brains working. We’re the only chance they have.”

  Doug shook his head adamantly. “I didn’t sign on for this!” he cried. “I just wanted to come to camp and have some fun for the summer! Now, if we don’t stop a crazed fairy our friends are gonna die! I don’t like this! I like reading about fantasy! I like watching it on the big screen! I don’t wanna live it anymore!”

  Logan put his hand on Doug’s shoulder. “Look, you guys, I know this is rough. I know this is stressful, but I need you. Do you understand me? I need you. I may have acted big and bad when we first met, but the truth of the matter is, I’m nothing without you guys. I need your help. Darien and Willow need your help…” He drew in a deep breath. “Are you with me?”

  The four of them exchanged glances before giving small, simultaneous nods.

  “We’re with you, Logan,” Lucy said meekly. “We trust you.”

  In that moment, he felt more pride than he ever had. Having those four kids place their trust in him left every other accomplishment he’d ever achieved in the dust. He nodded. “All right, come on. We need to get back to camp and we need to do it in a hurry.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “You find anything yet?” Colt persisted.

  Lucy looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. “Not yet.”

  Logan sighed and continued to clean his gun. He’d left his favorite rifle back in the Avari village, but he still had a handgun he could use. Lucy had been combing through her mythology book for the past five hours, but she couldn’t seem to find anything on enemies of the Supporo. There had to be something. Queens like Cyrcinus had to have enemies.

  “This is getting us nowhere!” Aki cried, taking a puff on her inhaler.

  “I’m trying, all right?” Lucy shouted. “I’m doing the best I can! At least I’m doing something instead of just sitting on my butt!”

  “Hey!” Aki exclaimed.

  “All right, guys, come on,” Logan interrupted. “Now isn’t the time to turn on one another.” He set his gun aside. Everyone was on edge, and rightly so. As of right now, they had no plan to speak of and had wasted the past five hours. His stomach was in knots. What was Cyrcinus doing to Darien and Willow? He didn’t even want to think about it.

  He closed his eyes as he remembered Willow’s kiss. Her soft skin and beautiful green eyes. He’d promised to protect her. He’d promised to protect her people. He’d botched that one, hadn’t he? Waste of sperm. Useless boy. Maybe his father had been right all this time…

  “Oh!”

  Lucy’s exclamation brought Logan out of his troubled thoughts.

  “I think I found something!” She stabbed her finger down onto a page. “It’s not much, but…”

  “What is it?” Colt prodded.

  “It’s only a couple lines. All it says is, ‘The Supporo were the strongest of all the fairy races. No fairies were superior to them. The only race they feared was the Kaleydia.”

  Logan’s eyes widened and he turned to face Lucy. “Kaleydia…” he whispered.

  “What the heck are the Kaleydia?” Colt questioned. “Isn’t that an STD?”

  “No,” Aki said, rolling her eyes. “That’s Chlamydia.”

  “They’re wolves,” Logan replied. “Wolf shape-shifters. Willow told me about them a few days ago.”

  Lucy blinked. “Do you think they would help us?”

  “I don’t know. Does your book say anything about the Kaleydia?”

  She flipped through the thick volume and skimmed her finger down a few pages. “It says that the Kaleydia were very fierce and primitive. They traveled in packs and were very untrusting of outsiders. ‘More willing to kill first and ask questions later, the Kaleydia only dealt with those not of their kind when there was some sort of bargain to be had and a prize to be gained.’”

  Logan snorted. “Great. Like Pirates of the Caribbean only in wolf form. Next thing I know I’m going to be handing my heart over to Davey Jones’ locker,” he grumbled.

  Doug gave a very loud laugh.

  Logan chuckled in spite of himself and shook his head with a sigh. “All right, is that all we have to go on?”

  “That’s all I can find,” Lucy said.

  “They may be our only chance then. Maybe we can convince them to help us somehow. Does it say where to find them? Where they live?”

  Lucy looked back down at her book. “Um…says they would make encampments at the base of the mountains.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “What mountains? Any mountains?”

  She looked up helplessly. “It doesn’t say.”

  Logan let out a frustrated snarl. “All right, we can’t sit here wondering and waiting and wasting time. There is a mountain range about a day’s journey from the Avari village. We have to make the trek in a half a day and pray that we find some wolves.” He stood.

  “This is suicide!” Colt grumbled. “All this is going to be is a wild goose chase!”

  “We don’t have much of a choice, Colt!” Aki shouted. “This is all we have to go on!”

  “We need somehow to make the journey shorter,” Doug said. “Like horses or something. We can’t do the whole thing on foot and make it back in time. We need something that’s going to cut it in half.”

  “Even then we don’t know if we’ll even find any wolves!” Colt cried. “We can’t just barrel into this! Don’t we know anyone who knows about this world other than us?”

  Nausea swept through Logan, blind repulsion at the idea that suddenly took hold of his mind. He closed his eyes, knowing it was his only choice and abhorring the very thought of it. “Does Darien have a cell phone?” he blurted.

  Colt blinked up at him. “Yeah, I think in his bag.” He went over to Darien’s stuff and rifled through it until he pulled out a black phone and tossed it to Logan.

  Logan sighed, flipped the phone open and scrolled down the list of contacts until he came to the entry labeled, “Dad.” He tried to will the awful fluttery feeling in his chest away and pressed the call button. One, two, three rings… May as well have been three lifetimes.

  “What do you want, boy?”

  Logan bristled at the voice that had haunted his nightmares. “Sorry, Pops, this isn’t Darien,” he snarled. “It’s your other son. The bastard one.”

  All of the kids exchanged shocked looks with one another.

  The phone was quiet for so long that Logan thought he’d hung up.

  “Logan…” his voice finally came. He sounded bewildered.

  Logan snorted. “Oh, so you do remember me? Thought maybe you’d forgotten after all of these years.”

  “Why do you have Darien’s phone?” The surprise faded and the harshness came back to his tone. “How do you even know Darien?”

  “It’s amazing what you find out when you’re sent to work at a summer camp run by an Avari fairy, isn’t it, Dad? I found out all sorts of things. Like that I have a brother. And portals exist to other dimensions. Oh, and that I’m a mythical creature!”

  More silence. “Who told you? How did you find out?”

  “Well, when a psychotic fairy queen tried to kill me and then Darien’s back started to glow I figured something might be up. Never would have guessed that we shared the same sack of crap father who ran out on his own people like a coward!” Years of venom and hate poured out of Logan like magma.


  “I didn’t run!” he shouted. “I was the last of my race! I went into the human realm so that I could pass on my lineage! Too bad it was all wasted on two useless sons—”

  “These useless sons of yours have fought when you hid, you lousy excuse for a man!” he roared. “And now one of your useless sons is going to be executed in forty-eight hours if you don’t give me the information I want! I didn’t call here to play family reunion with you! I just want an answer to something so that I can go save my brother’s life and do what you never had enough balls to do—protect the Avari people! So shut up and listen to what I have to say! The sooner you give me what I need the sooner I can hang up and go back to pretending like you don’t exist!” He was shaking with the force of his own rage and it must have come across to his father because the man was silent for a very long moment.

  “Cyrcinus has Darien?”

  Logan rolled his eyes. “Try to follow along here. Yes! And you’re wasting my time by asking me stupid questions!”

  “What do you need to know?”

  He scowled and his fingers gripped the phone so hard they were beginning to hurt. “Tell me where to find the Kaleydia people.”

  “Kaleydia…” His father’s voice trailed off. “Why do you want to find them? They’re dangerous and unpredictable.”

  “And our only shot at beating Cyrcinus at the moment since my army is made up of four human teenagers!”

  “All creatures fear the Kaleydia. They’re the masters of the domain and are avoided by all races. The Kaleydia have no friends or allies. They are laws unto themselves.”

  “And from what I hear the only people who can beat the Supporo.”

  “One of the only races other than the Alveda d’Kai.”

  “Right,” Logan spat, “which there are only two of now.”

  “You are not full blooded Alveda d’Kai!” he roared suddenly. “I am the last living—”

  “Yellow bellied coward. Yes, I know. Shut up.”

  Lucy sniggered.

  “I am not—“

  Logan heard himself growling again and it immediately made his father stop speaking. It also caused all of the kids to stare at him in shock. “You know something?” he snarled. “For all of the horrid crap you put Darien and me through, it makes me sick to know what a complete weenie man you are. ‘The Kaleydia are dangerous and unpredictable.’”

  The kids stifled laughter as Logan mocked his father in a high-pitched voice.

  “’I’m the last living full blooded Alveda d’Kai and I beat my sons to make them strong, but I’ll hide in the human realm to avoid doing my real duty and fighting for the people I swore to protect.’ Well guess what, Daddio? You’re nothing. You’re worse than nothing. After this is over and Darien is safe, I’m bringing him home to live with me. I refuse to have him be subjected to you any longer than necessary.”

  “You can’t do that!”

  “He’s eighteen. He can do whatever he wants. Now shut up and tell me what I need to know or I’ll be sending your son home to you in a body bag!” His voice all but shook the rafters of the cabin.

  “The Kaleydia hate the Supporo worse than the other races,” he finally relinquished. “When Cyrcinus started her campaign to be the most powerful ruler in the realm, she not only did away with the Alveda d’Kai. She tried to do away with the Kaleydia as well. It didn’t work so well. She ended up killing the daughter of the chief of one of the packs and wore her fur pelt into battle. All of her soldiers were clad in slain wolf pelts as well. As you can imagine, that did not go over well with the Kaleydia. They almost annihilated all of Cyrcinus’ forces. After that, she planted wolfsbane all around her castle to keep the Kaleydia from attacking… That was years ago.”

  “A dead daughter is still a dead daughter. Doesn’t matter how much time passes. Where can I find the Kaleydia?”

  “They make summer hunting encampments along the river that runs two miles north of the Avari village.”

  Logan nodded. “Fine. That’s what I needed to know.”

  “Logan! What are you going to do?”

  Logan scowled. “What you never did. Stick around.” He stabbed his finger down onto the End Call button and let out an enormous sigh. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Lucy standing next to him, offering a comforting smile. Her care twisted his heart and he slipped his arm around her waist. “Come on,” he murmured, “let’s go free Darien, okay?”

  She nodded, tears in her eyes.

  He stood and faced the others. “Grab what weapons you can.” He stuffed his gun into the back of his pants. “We’re going wolf hunting.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Her mind kept remembering random events, things that didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but meant a great deal to her now. Like the time Logan had seen her sitting in the meadow the day he’d been shot in the arm. He’d looked over the flowers Lucy had given him, the ones she’d told him would enable him to see fairies, and he had. He’d looked over the flowers in such a way that it had dispelled the invisible cloak Willow had placed around herself. It had shocked her.

  The Avari fairies had next to no special abilities, but they could hide their presence from humans if they wanted to. She’d sat in the meadow, just wanting some peace and quiet, wanting to think… She’d thought it was odd that Logan had showed up there anyway, but she‘d remained. After all, he couldn’t see her. She’d studied him while he’d been out there, him and the entire situation. She’d reacted so badly when she’d found him playing with the weapons stored for her people. Freaked out, yelled at him, told him she’d rather send him to jail than have him there… And then the poor man had taken an arrow in the arm. His luck hadn’t much improved.

  When Logan had first waltzed into her office like he owned the world, she thought he would be the one to mess up her existence. Look what she had done to his. She’d obliterated his entire world. He’d almost been killed twice and everything he’d known had been turned inside out. And still he sought to protect the Avari. After the shock of what he was had worn off, he’d embraced her people as his. He’d picked up where the Alveda d’Kai of her childhood had left off.

  Her people were not warriors. They were gentle, nature-loving, family oriented pacifists. He’d tried to teach them to fight… A lot of good it had done them. Cyrcinus had wandered right in and conquered their village while half of the men had been inebriated. Still, he had tried. He had made an effort. He had sought Cyrcinus out and stood toe to toe with her, had taken a knife in the stomach, just to keep her from finding the Avari.

  Darien was a great warrior and a kind person. He had the physical abilities of the greatest Alveda d’Kai, but Logan… He had more heart underneath his prickly exterior than any man she had ever known. For someone who had been so self-absorbed, he’d risked so much for her, for her people, and the kids.

  She’d been so adamantly against being attracted to him. She’d been so stubborn and so prideful… She’d been so afraid. Afraid he would only use her for what he could get out of her. Afraid it would all be a game to him. Afraid she would just be another conquest. Why would I want to return to lukewarm mediocrity when I could have fire? His words… He really thought that of her. He’d told her he wasn’t going to try and seduce her so that she would know he meant what he said, so that she would trust him. He was everything she’d ever wanted in a man and she’d been so against him that she hadn’t even realized it until it was too late. She was a stupid woman. A stupid woman with far too much pride.

  “Miss Willow?”

  She opened her eyes and turned her head. She and Darien had been tied back to back to a stake in the ground in the courtyard, next to the gutted and burnt structure that had once been her home. They were surrounded by a circle of armed guards to make sure that none of them tried anything funny. They hadn’t been fed, hadn’t been given any water, and just because she felt like making a statement, Cyrcinus had made the guards hold Darien down while she flogged him merc
ilessly.

  “What is it, Darien?” she asked quietly.

  “Do you think he’s alive?”

  Alveda d’Kai could only heal one another. Their healing abilities did not work on themselves, so Darien’s voice sounded weak and laced with the pain his wounds inflicted. It stabbed at Willow’s heart. “Logan?” she murmured.

  “Yeah… And Lucy…”

  She closed her eyes, tears threatening at the choked note in Darien’s voice. “They didn’t find their bodies, Darien. They have to be.” Cyrcinus’ men had checked the outlying forest to make sure that her ambush hadn’t managed to kill her prize on accident. No one but a few unfortunate Avari had been found.

  Suddenly, a comforting breeze brushed across Willow’s face and she drew in a breath. Tingles broke out all over her skin and her heart skipped a beat. A smile touched her lips and hope surged to life inside of her. “He’s alive,” she stated.

  “How do you know?”

  “I can feel it.” She didn’t know how, and she didn’t know why, but she could. She knew he was alive. She knew he was all right, and she knew he was coming. She closed her eyes again, and did what she should have done for him all along. She put some faith in him.

  * * * *

  Logan remained stoic, even though his emotions were in turmoil. He stood atop the hill where Lucy and he had watched Cyrcinus the night before. Willow and Darien were tied to a stake in the middle of a ring of armed guards. He couldn’t see clearly from his position, but Darien looked worn and fatigued. He thought of Willow and her beautiful soul. His brother… His woman… His people. It was up to him to save them. Him and the five courageous kids who stood behind him, waiting. They had all dressed in clothing of green or brown shades to blend in with their surroundings. Lucy carried a bow and arrow. Colt carried a sword. Aki actually had a mace and Doug had a can of pepper spray. Learning how to handle medieval weapons had proved hopeless for him. His gift was with brains, not with brawn. Logan carried his gun and a small dagger. It was the closest he could get to a hunting knife and he was more comfortable with those than with a cumbersome sword or a bow and arrow.