by Meg Bonney
“I just—does anyone else feel dizzy?” Jason put his hands on that back of his neck and dropped his head down a bit. His voice was higher than normal. “I smell toast. That’s bad, right?”
“Deep breath.” I rubbed his back. Jason nodded and took in a long deep breath. “Let’s just stick together, okay? This is a lot, but we have to stay calm, okay?”
Jason nodded. “Now you sound like me,” he said with a smile.
“Well, someone has to be the Jason of the group.” I smiled back as we reached a fork in the path. One path curved to the left and the other stayed mostly straight.
“This way will be the quickest to get to the Ember Isle.” Ren pointed to the straight path. We turned and walked with Ren.
“But we have to meet Lacy first, right?” Jason asked. He seemed a bit more relaxed now.
“Try to walk faster, if you can,” Ren said, not answering Jason.
“So Lacy gets to know about all of this. Why keep it from me?” I asked Jason quietly.
“It is of little importance what your family squabble entails,” Ren snapped.
“I wasn’t talking to you, dick.” I rolled my eyes, already exhausted by Ren. I stayed next to Jason as Ren walked ahead of us. Jason reached over and grabbed my hand just as a little light fluttered past my head. It buzzed right past my ear, and I swatted at it.
“Stop!” Ren spun around and raised his hand. We watched as the little twinkling light descended onto his palm, like a feather floating down from the sky.
Ren leaned closer to it. “I thank you kindly for this favor.”
The light grew brighter for a moment. And then a voice spoke from it: “Four more Magics were brought down the Temple Road. You must hurry. The moon is growing.”
The little light dimmed and flew up and off into the trees.
“Um, what the French was that?” Jason asked as I stood with my mouth open.
“A fairy. Cypher Fae deliver messages here in Everly, but only the intended person can retrieve them,” Ren said casually. “That message was from a friend. Ara in the Jade Village. She is Empress of the Fae and the keeper of the Cypher Fae.”
“Holy crap, that was a fairy?” Jason asked, excited, as the fairy flew up and out of sight into the heavy tree cover above us.
“You have a friend?” I snickered.
Ren looked to the ground quickly and looked embarrassed for a moment. “Ara was my mother’s friend. I do not have—I do not know her beyond that, really.”
“Ren, I—I didn’t mean—I was joking,” I stammered, feeling guilty now.
Ren cleared his throat and straightened himself, but he avoided my eyes now.
“We should hurry,” he said. He turned and kept walking.
It wasn’t the first time I had put my foot in my mouth and for sure wouldn’t be the last. Ren walked away from us. Jason elbowed me in the side, hitting my arm and shook his head.
“Ow.” I pulled my arm away, waiting for the pain to hit.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Jason lightly touched the bandage on my elbow. “I didn’t mean to hit your cut.”
“No, it’s fine.” I turned my arm to get a look at the bandage. “I actually forgot it was there.”
“Eww, you probably should have changed this. It’s pretty gross.”
“What’s wrong with it?” I tried to get a good look at my arm, but the angle was too awkward.
“It’s soaked through. I hope it didn’t reopen it or something,” Jason muttered as he peeked under the blood-soaked bandage.
Just then, Ren turned and stopped in front of me, grabbed the bandage on my arm, and ripped it off in one swift swipe. As if by instinct, I balled my fist and swung, making contact with his lower jaw. Ren stumbled back.
I rubbed the spot just above my elbow where the glass shard had cut me earlier. “What the hell was that?”
“You are not hurt, Madison. You are fine,” he said, holding his jaw with one hand and rubbing where I had hit him. “Look!” He gestured at my arm. “You do not believe me? Look!”
“Um, he’s right, Maddy. I mean, seriously. There’s no cut or anything. It’s like…it’s like you healed already.” Jason examined it again.
“Wait, what? There’s no way it’s already healed. I just did that this morning!”
Ren sighed. “You healed.”
I looked back up at Ren, who was standing in front of us, arms crossed over his muscular chest. He had a slight smile, seeming amused at my current fluster. So few people would find this much delight in being a knowledge hoarder, but Ren seemed to revel in knowing more about me than I did.
That was it. I couldn’t keep calm a second longer. I stepped forward. Jason slid his hands onto my shoulders as if he sensed my mounting anger.
“I healed. I healed, and you don’t feel the need to offer even the slightest of explanations, you smug jerk?” I blurted out.
“It is the sword,” Ren said, raising his eyebrow. “You are a Witch. Ruthana must have put your magic in the sword. The sooner you accept this, the better. Just be glad you have found your magic and let us keep walking, girl.”
“Don’t call me ‘girl,’” I shot back, annoyed.
“Very well.” He shifted his weight impatiently. “But I must point out that you are a girl.”
“Well, thanks. I guess that explains the boobs, then,” I mocked, pointing to my chest.
Ren looked up to the sky quickly, his cheeks red.
I smiled to myself, happy to have wiped the smug look off Ren’s face, but I was still as antsy as ever. My skin prickled. I needed to run or fight or scream. Something to get this energy out. I felt unruly.
“Maddy, try to stay calm,” Jason said quietly.
“I just, like, healed myself, so can everyone stop telling me to be calm? Me freaking out seems to be the only reasonable reaction. So, actually, it seems that I am the only rational person here right now.” I was squeaking, my voice was so high.
Jason rested a hand on the side of my head and dropped his chin. “Whoa. Relax! It’s crazy, but let’s just focus on the bigger crazy right now. I’m having a hard enough time with the rest of this.”
“You—you… I’m a Witch? Nobody thinks that’s crazy?” My exasperation at the situation turned my words into a mangled mess of high-pitched noises punctuated by hand gestures.
Jason smiled. “Yes, well…I didn’t get any of that, so let’s just put a pin in it for now, okay?”
Still baffled, I twisted my arm as much as I could to see my elbow, and this time, Jason assisted.
“See, no cut,” he said, smoothing my hair back as I dropped my arm.
“It was a deep cut, Jay.”
He shrugged. “Maybe it wasn’t as bad as you thought?”
I nodded. “Yeah, maybe.” Jason’s logic was easier to swallow because it was too hard to wrap my head around Ren’s reasoning.
Could I actually heal myself?
“We need to be quiet and move quickly. Do you understand? Am I not saying it right?” Ren paused, looking from me to Jason. “Is there another phrase that you use in your world to imply urgency?”
“No, we’re just processing, Ren,” Jason said. “Come on. We should go.”
“The sooner we meet Lacy, the better,” I agreed. “I have some new questions for my sweet little cousin.”
Ren didn’t say anything but gave me a nod.
We continued in silence. The path was lined with more large trees, making me feel tiny. It really was quite breathtaking. I tried to think about the trees in Greenrock, but I couldn’t really picture them in detail beyond their height. It was like everything was clearer to me here. Walking closer to the edge of the path, I reached out and ran my fingers over the bark. It wasn’t as rough as it looked. Like it had a little touch of fuzz on it. The lines of the bark swirled in a million different directions, and parts of it jutted out like it was ready to break right off.
Did all trees look
like this and I just never stopped to notice?
“Okay,” Ren started, making me jump.
I shifted my focus back to the path and to Ren.
Ren cleared his throat. “We need to get to the Temple of the Ember Isle before your father knows you are here. Surprise is our best approach, but if they have your aunt, then they might break her before they kill her.”
“Whoa, whoa. Back it up. My what?” I said, feeling like I had just been punched in the stomach.
“Your father. He will send a party out for you if he thinks you are here, so we need to stay hidden as best we can.”
I stumbled back into the trunk of tree and caught my balance.
Jason rushed over to my side. “Careful, Maddy.” His eyes were just as wide as mine felt.
I spoke the words out loud: “My father…is alive.”
CHAPTER 10
“Did you say her father?” Jason spoke softly. “Like her actual, real father?”
Ren looked at each of us, genuinely confused.
I felt sick. I was going to be sick. I covered my mouth with my hand.
“Yes. You need to pay attention,” Ren replied.
“Sense the tone, Ren!” Jason shot back, pointing at his own face.
I felt like I was free-falling from the top of a building, but in a good way. In a wonderful way. I tried to catch my breath to speak as the smile overtook my face.
“My…father?” I managed to mumble through my grin. “My father is alive. He is here, and he is alive?”
Jason and Ren stood in front of me.
“Maddy, are you okay?” Jason asked.
Ren’s usual grimace and smug demeanor were replaced with a more human look of concern now. “I am sorry,” he said meekly.
“Oh, no, don’t stop being a great big jerk on my account, buddy. I’m fine. I just…it’s not every day that the little orphan girl is told her parents are dead and then finds out that her father is actually alive!” I exhaled loudly and fanned my face with my hand.
Ren nodded. “I do not understand. What is happening?”
“And you’re sure he’s my father?” I asked softly, focusing on Ren’s slightly chapped lips. I watched them as he spoke, waiting for him to say that he was kidding or that he was mistaken.
Ren nodded. “Yes.”
“Right, so that makes me…”
“His daughter?” Ren answered quietly.
“Wooowww. Ha! Okay. I, um―I am going to just take a quick―I need to go for a run. Or―yeah. Can we just take a quick pause? I just―I need, like, a minute or ten.” I turned away from them as tears rolled down my cheeks.
“Maddy, why don’t you sit down?” Jason asked behind me.
“No, no. I’m—I’m okay. Just, wow.” I jumped up and down in place and shook my hand—the one that wasn’t holding a sword.
“I thought she knew that,” Ren said delicately.
“Don’t tell me, tell her!” Jason replied.
“Madison, I am sorry. I did not know,” I heard Ren say.
I didn’t turn around to face Jason or Ren. I couldn’t do anything but smile, but the joy quickly turned to anger. Anger that I didn’t know about this. Why didn’t I know this? Why was this kept from me? This couldn’t be real. None of this could be real. All the anger, fear, confusion, and sadness that I had buried so deep exploded within me.
And then a burst of uncontrollable energy surged through me. I dropped the sword and sprinted away from them, pushing my legs faster and faster. Running had always been my go-to when things got stressful, not because I wanted to run in races but because it was the only way I could feel normal again after I got this upset. Running was never fun. Running was therapy. It was what I did when I fought with Aunt Ruth and when Lacy annoyed me.
I ran.
I darted through the trees. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think…all I could do was run. All my emotions intensified, and I pushed my legs faster and faster, racing through the trees, running faster than I ever had.
Every reasonable, rational thread that had been holding me together suddenly seemed frayed and broken. I felt out of control, crazed, and panicked. Everything that Lacy had said replayed in my head. I felt betrayed by her. I felt betrayed by Aunt Ruth.
She lied.
She knew about this and she had lied.
I jumped over a fallen log and kept going.
Ruth had lied, and that bothered me, but Lacy—that made me ache. Did she know? I shook my head. It felt like my lungs were tearing open with each rapid breath as I pushed myself farther, running as fast as my legs would take me through this unfamiliar, endless forest. I felt open, raw, and exposed, like I was no longer in control of myself.
I clenched my teeth so hard that a molar might have cracked. My thoughts ran faster than I did.
I didn’t belong in Greenrock.
I am from another world.
My world.
Aunt Ruth lied.
My father was here and he never came for me.
He never came for me.
A father.
I have a father.
Suddenly, two firm arms wrapped around my shoulders and jolted me to a stop. My legs swung forward, like I had slammed the force of my body into a giant metal rod.
A hand clamped over my mouth, and I was pulled over to an enormous tree trunk. I struggled violently, swinging my legs and throwing my head back.
“Shh,” Ren whispered, his lip resting on my ear. “It is just me. It is Ren.”
My body relaxed with relief. I stopped fighting Ren’s grip on me and my protests came out as a few pathetic whimpers. He slowly lowered his hand from my mouth.
“I can’t, I can’t. It’s all been a lie.” My voice shook as I spoke. Beneath me, my knees buckled, and I felt the pain in my throat begging my eyes to cry, to let the emotion out. I leaned my head back against him, holding it in. His arm was still wrapped around me, just under my chin. We stood silently as I hung there against him like a grief-stricken child.
“You have to be quiet. We are not alone here. You have to be quiet if I am to keep you safe,” he urged softly.
Feeling dizzy, I grabbed his arm with both of my hands to steady myself. We were still and silent again. The only noise was the rustling of leaves in the trees around us.
“I thought you knew about your father. I am so sorry,” he said, even quieter.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “I think I always knew that I didn’t belong there. I always knew.” I shook my head and leaned it back on Ren.
“I am sorry, Madison,” Ren said softly, in a gentler tone than he had used in the entire time I had known him. Ren’s arms stayed firmly wrapped around me, and I could tell by his voice that he meant his apology. But it didn’t change the facts.
I then realized I was digging my nails into Ren’s arm, and I loosened my grip, which seemed to prompt him to hold onto me tighter. In any other capacity, I would have protested that he was holding me like this. But in that moment, I didn’t care. I felt like I needed him to hold on to me or I would explode into a million tiny bits.
My racing mind began to slow, and my heartbeat felt closer to normal again. Aunt Ruth. How could she keep this from me?
We need to find Aunt Ruth.
Of course, I wanted to find her to make sure she was safe, but I also needed answers. More desperately than I wanted anything, I wanted answers.
Ren shifted, his arm muscles trembling a bit. I realized that I was still putting all my weight on him.
I pulled away and stood on my own. “Where’s Jason?” I asked with urgency. I must have run farther than I realized, because as I looked back, he was nowhere in sight.
“Wher—”
“He is way back there. You are really a fast runner. You have a moment to get yourself together,” Ren said, looking around and not at me.
I turned sharply to him, studying his face. There was such a simple honesty to him, but hi
s blunt observations made me feel defensive, even if they were true. I wanted to mess up his stupidly perfect James Dean hair just to see the unruffled look on his face disappear. But I didn’t. I stood still, composing myself—for Jason, not Ren.
This wasn’t Ren’s fault, and it wouldn’t be fair to take it out on him. Fun, but not fair. It wasn’t his fault that I had been habitually lied to my whole life.
This was Aunt Ruth’s fault, and we needed to find her.
I wiped the remaining tears from my face, took a long breath in, and let it out with a whooshing noise. Now was not the time to fall to pieces.
Jason needs me to be strong.
“Ready?” Ren adjusted a pair of daggers in his boot.
“Yeah.” I wiped my shirt over my face, collecting the sweat and the tears.
“Your racket surely attracted someone, so we must get moving.” Ren’s eyes darted over the trees around us, studying our surroundings.
I shook my head. “My god, just when I start to think you are a semi-decent human being—”
“Quiet,” Ren said, cutting me off. There was a rustling sound and the crunch of sticks.
“Jay!” I called out as he came into view.
Jason stopped a few feet from us and put his hands on his knees, panting loudly. He was holding my sword.
“We will slow down so you can keep up, Jason.” Ren waved a hand at him.
“Yeah, okay…yeah, great,” Jason said breathlessly. “Or, you know, maybe a heads-up that we would be sprinting through the woods would have been nice.”
I chuckled.
“Hey, Mads. You good?” Jason asked, holding his side, sweat dripping down his temple.
“Yeah, I’m okay now.” I gave Jason a half smile. I glanced at Ren out of the corner of my eye before walking over to Jason.
“Here,” Jason said and handed me my sword. “It’s so heavy.”
“Let’s find you some water.” I took the sword and wiped his sweaty forehead with my other hand.
“Gross, Maddy.” Jason sneered.
“Oh, shut it.”
Ren cleared his throat. “Keep your footing and watch for movement. This is not a hostile area, but things are not always as predictable as one would like,” he said, starting ahead of us.