by A E M
She snorted. “It looks like two men live here.”
David laughed until he cried. He kissed her head over and over and rocked her until his tears dried and he was able to speak without laughing. “I suppose Vincent might let you redecorate.”
“Do you think he will let me?”
“Let you do what?” Vincent came down the stairs rubbing his hair with a towel.
“Your apprentice seems to think the cabin looks like a couple of men live here.”
Vincent chuckled and looked around. “So it does.” He winked at Charlotte. “You can decorate as soon as you are tall enough.”
“Are you just saying that to be nice?”
“Nope.” He tossed the towel on a kitchen chair. “I’m saying that because I’m not a fool. We’re going to have three men and one woman living here. While you, little miss, are my apprentice and will do as I ask, I’m not stupid enough to think that a woman is going to live here and not change this house into a home.”
“I won’t be your maid.”
He laughed. “You will if you don’t mind me.”
David rubbed her back. “Once I didn’t have to do laundry for a year.”
She laughed. “What did he do?”
Vincent shook his head and hid his red face in the grocery bags.
“You aren’t old enough to know what he did.” David laughed. He caught the apple Vincent threw at his chest.
Charlotte giggled. “When will I be old enough?”
“Protégé, come help me unpack the groceries, please.” Vincent called out firmly. “I’m going to teach you how to cook.”
David told her stories of Susan and his childhood. He took her on a walk through the snow around the cabin and showed her the tree house he had built for Vincent. He showed her the stream and the cave nearby and he told her of his apprenticeship with their father. He made sure she ate again, and then he tucked her back into his bed after lunch for a nap.
“She’ll talk when she’s ready.” He sat down by Vincent later on the bench outside. “Until then and afterwards, give her good memories to build a new foundation with.”
“What happened at the stronghold?”
David sat back against the cabin. “I don’t want to talk about what I saw.” He pressed a small, rectangular moonstone disk into Vincent’s hand. “I’ll listen for her. You catch up on what’s happened.”
Vincent stood. “Last time a stronghold was defeated, they tried to kill all the fauns.”
“The Maguard is ready for that and most Magani have been instructed to stay within their homelands and keep security tight. The magical world is on alert.”
“Where’s Beau?”
“I’ll go tomorrow and try to find him. I wanted to see if you two were fine first. I knew you would need food.”
“I appreciate it, but I need you to go find him now. She hasn’t asked because she’s still in shock. She needs him. She needs somebody other than you or I.”
“Vincent.” David stood and crossed his arms. “Beau’s uncle passed away. Bliss has taken the throne.”
“That’s what we expected to happen.”
David shook his head. “Wynn and Wilder were supposed to live at the castle as liaisons. Beau was supposed to take his over his other uncle’s job. None of them has been seen.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out a long feather with a ring attached to it with a ribbon. “Ebby delivered this to me.”
“An engagement ring.”
“Here, you can give it to her when we change her back.”
“No.” Vincent shoved his hands into his pockets. “This news should come from her brother.”
“Okay. I’ve got you.” David stood.
“No, it’s not about you having my back.” Vincent yelled. “It’s about you having her back!”
David took a step back. “I tried to find her, Vincent. We all did.”
“Not hard enough!” He yelled. “And now what do I do? There’s not magic to heal her heart! Am I supposed to do what you did to me and erase her memories?”
“Hey! Did you want to turn out like that guy?” David yelled back. “Because that’s what I was trying to prevent!” He shoved Vincent. “Look at the disc, man. See what she was up against.”
Vincent shoved him back. “I can feel what she went through! It’s all still there!”
“But you haven’t seen it. You don’t have all the dots connected. That man was an apprentice of Lennox’s! Why do you think I took you to see Lennox, huh? I needed to know if you were the same kind of kid. I needed to know if you—”
Vincent stepped back. “I—” He gripped the disc in his hands. “You thought I was a monster? No, apparently I was some kind of monster.”
“No, wait, Vincent.”
Vincent snapped his fingers and disappeared.
David paced outside of the cabin until Charlotte screamed. He ran in and found her sitting in the bed screaming and crying and rubbing her arms.
“Shhh. It’s okay.” He sat down behind her and rubbed her back until she calmed down.
“I need Vincent.” She said once she had dried her tears.
“He had to run out for a bit.” David sat back against the bedframe and pulled Charlotte up against his side. He pulled the covers over both of them. “Do you want to hear a story?”
“No. My head has too many stories in it right now.” She pulled the blanket up higher. “When can I be myself again? I want Beau. Is Vincent looking for him?”
“He keeps sending me to look for him.” David smoothed her hair. “And Lennox can be here now. Why don’t you go clean up a bit and get ready to be yourself again. I’ll get the portal ready and tell him we are ready for him.”
“What about Vincent?”
“I know where to find him.”
Lennox arrived soon after Charlotte got out of the bathroom where she had stashed a bra and washed her eyes and brushed her hair. He squatted in front of her and patted her hand. His kind eyes slowly looked her over. “I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through. You have no idea.”
“Just change me back.” She snapped.
“Someday, when you are ready, we can talk.”
Lennox kneeled in front of Charlotte and clapped his hands. Charlotte felt a tug and a snap and she felt herself again. She hurried to the bathroom to put on her bra, but she couldn’t look in the mirror. She didn’t want to see the person she had become. She lay down on the cold bathroom floor and stared at the ceiling for several minutes. The memories of death and torture were still there. She stood and stared into the mirror. Her eyes were completely golden now, though her hair was still red with white streaks. She wondered where the pictures of Susan were in the cabin. She would ask David soon. When she stepped out of the bathroom, Lennox was gone. David stared out of the front windows. Vincent, back in his former body, stood on the staircase. The air was tense between them.
“Who did what?” She placed her hands on her hips.
“It’s good to have you back.” Vincent headed up the stairs. “Come get me if you need anything.”
Charlotte turned to David. “What did you do?”
David slammed the wall with his fist. “You know, maybe I’ll tell you two once you both shut up and listen to the entire story before you burn me at the stake!” He pulled a feather out of his pocket and threw it on Vincent’s recliner. “Beau is missing. He’s probably dead. Vincent can fill you in on the rest.”
Charlotte fell to her knees.
“I’m sorry, sister. He left that for you. He loved you, you know.” He rubbed the back of his head with his hand. “I’ve got to get out of here. I’ll be at the castle. Starting this evening, travel will be restricted.” He laughed. “Which is probably fine for all of us. You two are supposed to be dead and I’m not likely to be welcome here for a while anyway.”
“What?”
“Talk to Vincent. Listen, I’ll look for Beau a little more. I’ll see what I can find out about both him and our parents.” He threw his cl
oak around his shoulders. “But I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.” He slammed the door behind him.
Charlotte ran up the stairs and threw open the first door she came to. Vincent sat on a window seat across from her. He was staring out the window, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
“He just left!” Charlotte crossed over to him. “We’re supposed to be dead? Beau might be dead? He is going to the castle and meanwhile there might be a traitor there and I didn’t warn him in time. What is going on between you two?” She hit him in the arm when he didn’t respond.
“Later.” He waved her off.
She grabbed his ear and pressed.
He grabbed her ear and pressed.
“Let go this instant!” He yelled.
“Not until you promise to tell me everything right now!” She yelled back.
“Fine!”’
“Fine!”
They both let go. Charlotte sat on the floor underneath him. The wind rushed against the window and she shivered from two different feelings of cold. “I watched her die, you know.”
He stood and offered his hand. “Let’s go sit downstairs and talk. I’ll make tea and you put some more wood on the fire.”
“I don’t know how to do the fire stuff.” She said. “Do I just throw the wood in?”
He shook his head at her. “Fine, I’ll do the tea and the fire, and you pay attention to both.”
They sat on the couch. Charlotte held the tea in her hands and the feather with the ring attached to it sat in her lap. She tried not to look down at it. Vincent had already put a box of Kleenex and a trashcan on the floor in front of her.
“Who was it who died for me?” She set down her tea on the end table and buried her hands in the blanket.
“Kaitlind. Robina was me. She died as well.”
“He told it to get her to the den alive.” Charlotte whispered and shuddered.
“She wasn’t alive for long.” He cleared his throat. “I can feel a lot of what you went through, and David gave me a disc of what was in the stronghold. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” His voice broke and he looked away from her.
“You were dying.” She said. “Or I thought you were. I pushed my magic through the bond. I sent you memories. Do you remember?”
“Thank you, but no. I was unconscious up until the day I came for you.”
“Oh.” She gently tugged at the bond. “Are you okay?”
He tugged back and smiled. He told her of his fight with David. “I need to find out what happened to me when I was a kid. I need to know if I’m not who I think I am.”
“That’s not you.” She sat forward and took his hand. “It never was. I would remember something like that.”
“You don’t know that. He got me so young. Who knows when he started?” He sighed and tapped the feather. “Are you okay?”
She looked down at the ring. A pink diamond that looked like a rose sat in the middle of interweaving black gold pieces that looked like leaves with tiny diamonds on them. It wasn’t what she would have asked for, but it was exactly what she loved. “I need to find out what happened to Beau. I need to find out what happened to my parents.”
“David is going to ask around.”
“David is hurt and angry. He says neither of us is giving him a chance to talk.”
“We aren’t.” Vincent shuffled his feet. “But we will.”
“The man burned the necklace you gave me. It was right before I—” She played absently with the thick socks on her feet. “I need to tell you a story about a little girl trapped in a cell. It’s not a story with a happy ending.”
He moved to the middle of the couch and waved her over. “Come here.”
She scooted next to him. “Once upon time there was a girl with magic trapped in a body that wasn’t hers.” She let him take her hand. “Why is that always my story?”
“I don’t know.” He put his arm around her.
She told him the beginning when the man blasted him into the bookshelf and then carried her into the hallway and hurt her and threatened her. She told him the long middle of the story where she saw things she wished she had never seen. She told him of the ending when the man had tried to light her toes on fire for not burning a creature, and she had finally lost it and burned him to a crisp like she had seen the other fairies do. She told him how the man’s beasts had howled and stumbled around in a stupor and how she felt stupid inside, too. She explained how she had walked through the hallways lost in the madman’s lair until she found the door to freedom and she walked out free, but empty.
“When I was a girl, I knew I was really a woman; but when I turned back into a woman, I knew I was really a girl.” She shook with silent sobs.
“Do you want me to take the memories from you? David could do it, or I could ask him to teach me.”
“What do you think is best?”
He stared at the fire for several minutes before he spoke. “I think memories, even bad ones, shouldn’t be taken away. They are part of who we are.”
“I think you are right.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I need Beau.” She cried into his shoulder. “I killed somebody on purpose. It wasn’t during battle this time. I had planned it nights before. Beau always knows what to do. He knows what to say.” She twirled the feather. “I know he’s alive. I can feel it.”
Vincent stared down at the ring. “Then put that on and let’s go find him.”
She twirled the feather again. “I can’t do this anymore.” She looked into his eyes. “I’m done with you. With the apprenticeship.”
He frowned. “We will work things out. I know I haven’t been that supportive, but I didn’t plan on having to fit a marriage in with an apprenticeship. It’s new territory.”
She shook her head and stood. “Can I stay here for a day or two and rest before I leave?” She fixed him with a steady look. “I know how to control myself now. I learned the hard way, the wrong way.”
There was much he wanted to say, but now wasn’t the time. “Stay as long as you need. Come back anytime you need.”
Epilogue
Bird Released
Raven stretched her wing over him and snored.
Philip traced her feathers, her head, and her back.
“How did I end up with a treasure like you?”
She opened an eye and smiled.
“Fortunate timing.”
“How do I keep you?”
She propped herself up and kissed him.
“I don’t keep.”
She kissed his frown.
“But I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”
Dark clouds covered the sky. A cool wind rushed across her skin. Raven relaxed her wings and let the current carry her body weight. She opened her parched lips and received the drops of rain that trickled down. They splashed against her hot skin and washed the blood off of her ankles. She smiled. It had all happened before. It could all happen again. But this time she would change her choice. This time she would accept the peace offering. She stopped straining against the magical leash that tied her to the ground near the Zimmon camp. She descended slowly, her eyes never once looked to the tree where he was tied. It was, after all, a lesson for him as well.
The Zimmon were waiting for her. Eminente was there this time, too. Raven landed in front of him and dropped to her knees. She bowed her head and closed her eyes. She waited; her gasping breaths of air filled the silence. Then his pristine shoes stood before her, and he placed a hand on her shoulder. She gripped her hands together and waited as the rain fell harder and the Zimmon stared at her.
She shuddered. They hung her from a cage in the middle of their camp most of the time, but every day they would put her on a leash for hours so she could fly for exercise, as Eminente had demanded. But the sun scorched her skin and the wind would exhaust her. At the end of each exercise period, Eminente would send the rain and she would be allowed to return.
If she tried to return before her
time was up, they would hurt him. On one of the earliest days she had landed early and they had made her watch as they tortured him for hours. She never landed early again. He was still there, broken in more than one way. She wondered what he thought about Eminente now, but she dared not try to talk to him. She dared not even look in his direction.
Eminente put a hand on her shoulder. “I believe that you two have learned a lesson, and I have a new job for you.”
She stared at his shoes and trembled. Did she dare have hope?
“You may look up at me.”
“What would you have me do?” She looked up, but she kept her eyes and her face soft.
“Word has reached me that another stronghold has fallen. The magical world expects retaliation like before, but I have another plan in mind. I have need for another undercover operation.”
“I will be recognized.”
He slapped her. “Not if you are wearing a glamour.” He shook his hand and rubbed it with his other hand. “Honestly, this is why I’m in charge. How anybody else expects to get anything done with attitudes like that is beyond me.”
“Forgive me.”
He offered her his hand. “Of course, my dear. Let’s get you home, cleaned up, and rested. Then perhaps you will think with a level head.”
She took his hand and rose. “Thank you, Eminente.”
He led her to a waiting carriage and helped her inside. She sat down and stared at the seat in front of her.
“My darling bird.” Eminente purred. “I do believe you have gotten over him.”
“Who?” She shrugged.
He shut the door and smacked the carriage. The driver set off. Raven closed her eyes and sat back against the bench. Of course she hadn’t gotten over him. But one or both of them would have died if he thought they still loved each other. One of both of them might still die. She looked out the window. Eminente was walking toward the tree where Philip sat tied up. There were two other carriages at the Zimmon campground. She pulled the shade of the window down. Would Philip be returning alive or dead in a carriage? She wiped away a single tear. Even if he was brought back alive, how much of him was still left? She laughed. How much of herself was left? She looked down at the scars on her legs and arms. She thought of the scars she couldn’t see.