Regen

by Cassie Greutman

  Starren slowed down a little, but otherwise didn’t acknowledge Cray. I moved in closer to Wade, not liking it but liking the thought of losing a limb even less. Starren stopped us.

  “Okay, Trisha, go ahead.”

  “Me?” I squeaked, craning my neck and trying to see around her.

  She glared at me for a second. “Isn’t that why you’re here?” Well, yeah, but still. “Just tell him you are here on the authority of the Council and king and he needs to go with you without a fight. It works on all high fae. Or, it should.”

  It should? Great. Just wonderful. My heart thundered in my chest. If nothing else, the trolls had taught me to be more cautious. “Don’t I at least get a sword or something?”

  “One sec.” Wade reached into his pocket. The hilt of a sword came out, the blade wrapped in some type of cloth following as he tugged. “I got this for you last night.”

  What in the world? I needed pockets like that. “How did you do that?”

  “It was a lot of work on such short notice but I-”

  “Not how did you get the sword, how did you fit it in there?”

  “Oh.” He sounded disappointed. “My pocket has a small portal. I can reach in and grab anything I left in Faerie near the opening.” He pulled off the material and shoved it back in his pocket, then held the sword out to me. It gleamed in the dim light, made of the same type of crystal I’d stolen from the dead troll. “I saw how much you liked the stones the troll had, so I got you one made out of the same stuff. I hope it’s okay.”

  It was more than okay. This was something the old Wade would do. The Wade I’d loved. You will not cry, you will not cry. Not here. “It’s beautiful.” He held it out to me by the blade. I grabbed the hilt and swung it around, leaving little streaks of light through the dark.

  Wade grinned at me. “I hope you like it.”

  Like it? I more than liked it. And it was so sweet that he had remembered me wanting to keep the stones. I gave him a small smile. “It’s amazing.”

  “If you two are done staring into each other’s eyes, we have business to attend to,” Starren interrupted the moment, bringing me back to reality. This Wade is not my Wade, not my Wade, I chanted internally. Getting distracted down here was dumb anyway.

  I pushed past Starren without a word, letting the light gleam off the sword in front of me. Better to see, not so good with trying not to be a target. But I was just supposed to talk with him. It was going to be okay. Supposedly he hadn’t turned eighteen yet, he shouldn’t have his power, we were fine. Just needed to find him, get him out of here and then live happily ever after, never to be bothered by the fae again. Even the good-looking male variety.

  One step forward. Two. I didn’t hear anything behind me. I looked back at Starren. She shooed me forward.

  The sword was light in my hand, the crystal weighing practically nothing. Much better than the wooden swords Mom and I used when she played with me, growing up. Now my body automatically went into one of the stances she’d taught me as a game. Had everything we’d done together been more than a game, just like this? What about our trip across California? Had it meant something more? We’d been to Yosemite, been here, and now here I was at both places again. That didn’t seem like a coincidence.

  Focus. I needed to focus. Those thoughts could wait for later. I had three people behind me that needed me to do my job. I inched forward another step.

  “Who’s there?” a windy voice asked me from somewhere ahead. Wait. That was a female voice. Cray had better not gotten this wrong again. I looked back at Starren. She shrugged.

  I didn’t answer, moving forward slowly. No decapitation, no removal of limbs and I would be fine. No problem, I would be fine.

  “I said, who’s there?” The voice was much louder this time, and sounded angrier too.

  “I’m here on behalf of the Faerie Council. They, along with the king, request you to give yourself up for questioning.” Hopefully that’s what Starren had wanted me to say, something about this voice gave me the creeps. It felt worse than even the trolls.

  “Your king and Council have no authority here,” she whispered, her voice bending around the room and coming at me from all sides. Definitely getting less and less friendly.

  “Please show yourself so we can talk this through.” Amazing. My voice sounded completely in control. I was going to be good at this by the time we caught Jaden, if things continued the way they had so far. And I still had all my limbs.

  A strange scratching noise drifted up from the hall in front of me. A fresh batch of fog floated in front of the sound. Lift my sword or not? What if she, whatever she was, was doing what I’d asked? Then it would just come across as an act of aggression. So many things public school hadn’t taught me.

  About six and a half feet from the floor, the fog drifted away in a small circle, revealing a pale corpse-like face, long black hair surrounding the white, white skin and golden eyes that burned.

  “Don’t you love it down here?” The voice was going sing-songy. I found myself enjoying the cool dark. Why would I want to go back upstairs into the heat and light? “Why would you want to leave?” the voice drifted past me. She was right. Someone else could find Jaden, why should it be me doing all the work? Just so I could stay with boring humans.

  “Trisha.” Who was that? “Trisha, stop.” I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw Cray creeping toward me. “It’s controlling you. Don’t let it.”

  I looked past him to Starren and Wade. Starren looked nearly dead, and Wade not much better. What was she whispering to them? I could hardly bring myself to care. Why should I care about anything they wanted? They didn’t really care about me. The only one that cared about me was… who? I couldn’t remember. Someone I was staying with.

  “Trisha, snap out of it,” Cray’s voice was getting desperate. He grabbed my shoulder and shook me.

  “Bother Wade and Starren.” I shrugged him off.

  “No.” He turned toward my new friend. “Let them go.”

  She laughed. “Why?”

  “We’re here for a reason. Let them go. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of the Council.”

  She laughed again. The creatures face was vaguely human, but its teeth sure weren’t. I stared at the thing for a full thirty seconds after it closed its mouth. “Whatever you say.”

  Suddenly the fog in my mind lifted, taking the air out of my lungs with it. I coughed and then sucked in new air. The others. Were they okay? Cray backed away, hopefully to check on Starren and Wade. I counted to five, taking deep breaths in through my nose, forcing the urge to vomit down.

  “What questions do you have for me, little fae?”

  “Um,” I looked back at Starren. She still looked nearly asleep. A lot of help this team leader was. “Do you know where Jaden Martan is?”

  The creature raised itself higher on its tail. “Why should I care where this thing is? Is it human or fae?”

  “Fae.”

  “Then leave it be. Whatever the Council wants, ignore it. They have become far too controlling. We are supposed to be a free people.”

  That was it? Seriously? “Okay, thank you.” I backed away slowly, afraid this thing would change its mind. Then something occurred to me. “You aren’t eating any people here, are you?”

  An angry mutter of some kind came from behind me. Starren had told me to handle it, she was just going to have to deal with how I did. The creature snorted. “No, unless you include basking in the energy left behind here.” She was fae. She had to be telling the truth.

  “No, that doesn’t count. Thanks again.”

  The thing laughed louder this time, a hissing, choking sound, showing its long sharp spikes that were where teeth were supposed to be. “So polite. Refreshing from a high fae. You’re welcome, child. Return if you have any other questions. I will answer them best I can.” She nodded toward Starren and Wade. “Just don’t bring those with you. I don’t
answer to the Council here.” The fog rippled in across her face. I could hear the scratching again, this time moving away. A breath of relief left me. No human eating, no me eating, this was turning out much better than I’d thought it would a few moments ago.

  Something conked me on the back of the head. I swung around and looked up into Starren’s angry face. “Hey! What was that for?”

  “You let her leave.”

  “Yeah, so? It doesn’t seem like she’s causing any problems here. The park service would have closed down the island if something was happening to people.”

  “She’s here without the authority of the Council. We need to take her in.” Oh sure, willing to leave a troll in the forest but not to leave this thing here. Did we always have to be on opposite sides? If she wasn’t hurting anyone, why force her to go back to Faerie? Innocent until proven guilty and all that.

  Wade looked at Starren, then looked at me. I set my jaw and crossed my arms. He should know by now that I was not going to budge on this.

  “It’s not what we are assigned to do, Starren,” Wade said. “We’ll report it when we get back. For now we just need to get Cray working again.”

  Starren groaned. “You know what this could have done for me? A nest of trolls one day, a hyran the next?”

  “Yeah, yeah, we all know about your ego. You’ll be fine. Let’s just get out of here.”

  Starren whacked him with the side of her sword and put it back in her sheath.

  “What exactly is a hyran?”

  “That,” Wade said, vaguely gesturing in the direction the thing had slithered away.

  “Very helpful,” I muttered.

  “Do you two always have to fight?” Cray asked. “Can’t we just get out of here?” I squinted his way. His white face stood out in the dark since the fog had faded. I couldn’t say I blamed him, being the only one who knew what was going on had to have been terrifying. Why hadn’t he been under the hyran’s spell? And he was right. It was probably better not to linger.

  “Wade, do you have a sheath for me?”

  “Just a sec.” He rummaged around in his pocket for a moment and pulled out a beautiful rainbow scaled sheath, which looked about the perfect size for my sword. “I didn’t have the sword in the sheath in my pocket, just in case I needed to grab for it quick.” He handed the sheath to me. “That thing is made out of mermaid scales. Humans won’t be able to see your sword while it’s put away. It even has a cloth to wrap over the hilt.”

  “Thank you,” I said quietly. I threw the strap over my shoulder and slid the sword in. Why would he do this for me? Another thoughtful gesture. Nothing made sense any more. Wait, mermaids?

  “Let’s get Cray back. It will probably be tomorrow before he finds us another target as it is,” Starren said.

  I followed them up the dark halls of Alcatraz, the sound of scales escorting from behind us causing me to re-draw my new sword, just in case. Things were much brighter by the time we reached the outside world.

  When we got back to the boat, Wade held it while the rest of us jumped in. The sea lions were nowhere in sight. I sighed when Starren looked at me, automatically knowing what that meant. Time to get rowing.

  “So, anyone want to explain to me what that was?” I asked after the island was a little ways behind us.

  “A hyran,” Wade said. “They feed off the energy left by pain, emotional or physical. They love places that have both.”

  “But they can’t cause the pain themselves, or the energy is ruined,” Cray added.

  “So that thing wasn’t really any danger to us?”

  Cray blinked at me like I was crazy. “Just because she couldn’t feed off of it doesn’t mean she won’t create it. If she had thought we were a threat, we would all be dead right now. There is no stopping a hyran.”

  Starren lifted an eyebrow. “Don’t be so sure.” The rest of us looked at each other, but she didn’t elaborate.

  “How’s come whatever she was doing to us didn’t work on you, Cray?”

  “My ability prevents energy from affecting me.” He shuddered. “I’ve never had to use that part of it until today.”

  So that thing could have slaughtered us if it had wanted to. I wasn’t going to think about that, even if Starren seemed to think she could have gotten us out of it. She’d been under that thing’s sway just as much as Wade and I had been. No one had much to say after that.

  Wade let me row halfway, then took the oars from me without asking or giving me a chance to complain. Starren was already watching us enough, I wasn’t going to give her any more ammo. Wade didn’t need to act all chivalrous now. He rowed until the people on shore were starting to turn into clear shapes instead of distant blobs, then handed the oars off to me silently.

  Within fifteen minutes we were bumping into the dock. I grabbed the chain and hopped out. Wade jumped out behind me and hovered. “I got this,” I said, shoving him out of the way. Just as I bent over, a splash hit me in the face. “Hey!” A head popped out of the water and laughed, before diving under the surface again.

  “Thanks a lot for your help getting back,” I said. “Traitor.” I turned around to lock the boat to the dock and noticed an older guy staring at me. Just me. Of course, he probably couldn’t see the others. I really needed to get the hang of that invisible thing.

  “Hey, that’s my missing boat,” the guy finally said. Oops. Time for me to get out of here. I started walking toward shore. “What were you doing with it?” he called after me.

  “Um, sorry about that. I just needed to borrow it,” I turned to him when I spoke, but backpedaled the whole time, putting as much distance between us as possible.

  The guy didn’t seem to be buying it. “You stupid kids and your pranks. We’re all tired of it here. You better sit and wait kid, I’m calling the police.” He whipped out his cell phone and started dialing.

  “Trish, run,” Wade whispered loudly.

  I took off, running up the dock, practically bouncing off everything in my way. I had the small advantage of not getting tired, but several other men from the dock joined the first guy, all of them trying to grab me as I ran past.

  Dodging another man, I barely caught sight of Cray tripping one of my pursuers. I almost laughed, then thought better of it. Go Cray, I cheered silently. Starren ran ahead of me, waited until I got past and knocked a trashcan into another guy. Only three left. I laid on another burst of speed and a few blocks later started to lose them. And Cray too, but he could catch up.

  “Whew, that could have been bad,” I said after the last pursuer had been left behind and the team was gathered around.

  Starren sent me a withering look. “Wade,” Starren said. “You’ll be spending the rest of the day teaching her anything a normal fae would know. Like how not to be seen, so we don’t go through all that again.”

  “I’m not working with Wade.” Starren had a point, but that didn’t mean I had to learn from Wade. “Cray can teach me.”

  Cray had just caught up. His eyes widened at my statement.

  “He can’t. He’s going to be busy finding us our next target. It’ll have to be me,” Wade said.

  Did I dare ask Starren? Could it be any worse than being forced to spend time with Wade? Maybe if I appealed to that ego Wade had mentioned. “You would be a great teacher, Starren. Could you give me some pointers?”

  “No.” She turned and walked away. Okay then, who did that leave?

  Cray looked at me for a second, then hurried after Starren, whispering to her. I took off after him, not wanting to be left behind with Wade. Things were awkward between us again, now that I wasn’t quite as sure that I could hate his guts.

  “Are we headed for a portal?” I asked.

  No one answered. I guess that meant duh. We walked several blocks before heading down an alley. Starren didn’t even look around before stepping into a wall. She didn’t really need to, no one could see her. I checked behind us before jump
ing through after Cray. Home again. My watch read eleven. Strange with the time change.

  “Cumat,” Starren called.

  “Yes, ma’am.” The dwarf was already there.

  “Take Trisha somewhere and teach her how to be fae, starting with invisibility. Cray, you’re with me. We need to find Jaden.” She headed for her desk, totally dismissing us. Something Cray had said to her must have changed her mind about who was going to teach me.

  Cumat sighed, crooked a finger at me and headed for the hallway without even questioning Starren. I followed him two doors down and into a room similar in size and décor to Starren’s. Were all the rooms the same here? Except for the empty portal room. After closing the door behind me, Cumat walked forward and sat down on the other side of the large desk. He gestured for me to sit across from him.

  “What do you already know?”

  I shrugged.

  “I don’t understand this human body expression, Miss Penchant, does this mean you don’t know anything?”

  “Well…” I broke eye contact and looked at the floor. Close enough. “Yes.”

  Cumat threw up his hands. “Whoever heard of a fae that didn’t know how to use her powers? Fine then, first we are to start with remaining out of human sight.” Like I hadn’t been in the room when Starren gave the order. “All it takes is concentration.”

  That’s what they’d told me back in San Francisco, but it hadn’t worked. “You sure there aren’t any magic words or whatever?”

  The poor dwarf sighed and pinched the bridge of his thick nose between his thumb and forefinger. “No. No words. Just thoughts.”

  I tried to do what he’d said and concentrated. Really, really concentrated. Harder than I’d ever done in my life. “How’s that? How do I know if it worked?”

  “You’ll look strange, even to yourself. Try again, just one part of your body at a time.”

  We worked like this forever, me struggling, him giving me tips. I finally went from trying my whole body, to my upper body, to my arm and finally my hand. My eyes closed, I begged my hand to listen so I could leave this stupid place. It was starting to feel like a jail. When I opened my eyes I wasn’t expecting anything to change, but my hand had a strange pearl cast to it. My gaze flew to Cumat. He was blinking hard, like he didn’t believe what he was seeing. He probably wasn’t, after hours of failure.