by Lainy Lane
“What is it?” she asks, unable to take her eyes off of it.
Not only does it look like a tattoo that has been there forever, but also it seems as if it belongs on her shoulder. How had she randomly received a tattoo without knowing it? Without pain? Without healing? Was this somehow the effects of the trip here? The questions cloud her mind, making it hard to focus on the task at hand.
“That, I am not willing to answer for you,” he says and his smile turns quite wicked. “However, I am sure once Jarreth arrives he will fill you in on a few things, though not as many as he should I’m sure.”
“Jarreth? Where am I? And who are you?” Calandra’s head spins from all the questions that surge through her.
“You, dear, are in Faerie of course. That’s what happens when someone of your … stature steps into the ring. I, you will do well to remember, am Drake.”
The memory of stepping into the ring flashes through her mind and reminds her once again what she was here for. Tristan is here somewhere, he has to be. She had accidentally sent him through to Faerie after he’d stepped into the ring.
“Where is Tristan?” she asks again. “And why did he come here?” She knows it wasn’t of his own will. Something was controlling him, something made him come here. He couldn’t have even possibly known where the ring was on his own, let alone known to use it to enter the world of Faerie. He had looked so frightened for the split second between him stepping into the ring and being taken to Faerie, the split second when he was actually there.
“He came here because I asked him to, and he is safe for now, that much you have my word on. I don’t give my word to many, just so you know.” Drake’s eyes remain on her shoulder as he speaks.
Was that supposed to be comforting? “Why would you ask him to come to Faerie? Better yet, why would he listen?” The fear is clear in her voice though she tries to keep it at bay, but everything is just a bit too much for her to be able to control it.
“Drake.” Jarreth’s voice comes from somewhere behind her.
Calandra turns around and sees that Jarreth looks identical to the way he had before, in the meeting that started all of this drama. Suddenly her fear and all of the emotions that have been welling up inside her disappear.
“Jare,” Drake says with a laughing undertone. “I had just finished explaining to the girl that you would explain some things to her. She does seem to be a bit confused.” He still stares at her shoulder.
Jarreth’s hand touches her shoulder where the new mark is, sending the oddest sensation through her body. His fingers trace along the body of the dragonfly before he traces down her arm and drops his arm back to his side. His face is twisted into a mix of emotion; his eyes are somewhat sad, but there is also a trace of a smile.
“I told you,” Drake says. He finally takes his gaze from Calandra’s shoulder and looks up at Jarreth.
Jarreth simply nods. “I’ll take it from here, Drake. You’ve done enough damage I’m sure,” he says coldly.
Drake nods back. “As will you, I’m sure.” He says before he turns on his heels and walks away from them.
Calandra still has no idea where Tristan is, but Drake apparently does. Her questions are still somewhere inside of her, but she can’t seem to make herself ask them again. Sadness threatens to overtake her, and with less effort than usual, she’s able to fight it down.
Jarreth places his arm around her back and hooks his hand against her right hip. He looks down at her shoulder once more.
“Come, Calandra, I will take you to my house. We will talk about everything I know you are dying to ask.”
She doesn’t ask questions, doesn’t wonder what she should do, she simply sighs and lets him lead her.
Chapter Eight
Questions
It strikes Calandra as slightly odd that the buildings of Faerie don’t look much different from those of the mortal world. They walk through a town that is full of strips of different businesses: restaurants, bars, and stores. It’s much more normal than Calandra had expected it to be. Although, as she looks around, she realizes that the people and the landscape tell a very different story.
For one, the people of Faerie still appreciate nature. Even though they use the land to build the things they need to live a civilized life, they don’t cut down every single bush, tree, and speck of grass to do so, like most of the mortal world seems to. A few of the buildings even have trees and plants that grow along the sides of them. Vines drape over the buildings like a blanket and cover the sides with intricate green labyrinths. The road is cobblestone and appears much more antique than the buildings that surround it. Beyond the buildings, the grass, trees, and flowers are absolutely stunning.
The people are intriguing. Some seem normal, like Jarreth and Drake do, though none of them really dress normal if you’re judging by the mortal world, and none of them have normal eyes. All of their eyes are opaque and colors you would never see on a human. It’s the one Fae trait that Calandra suddenly wishes she had inherited; beautiful Fae eyes. People have always told her that she had an amazing and unique eye color, tawny with random orange streaks throughout. Her eyes especially stand out against her pale white skin. Calandra swears some of their eyes flash different colors when they look at her as they pass. She can’t quite decide how this should make her feel. She hasn’t really felt much of anything since Jarreth’s arrival, come to think of it.
Jarreth quietly walks beside her, his arm still around her waist as he gently guides her along. They haven’t said anything since they left the field where Calandra entered into Faerie. Jarreth occasionally gives a greeting nod to people that pass, but he never says a word. Calandra bites her bottom lip and tries to work up the nerve to ask questions, or at least to say something.
Suddenly, she becomes aware that the few Fae that walk past her without staring, quickly turn around to stare after they have walked past her. Calandra swears that their eyes flash different colors as they watch her as well. “Why are they all staring at me?” she finally asks.
Pulling his other arm up, Jarreth places his hand over the dragonfly on her shoulder and speeds up a bit.
“What does it mean?” she pries again.
Jarreth looks at her and turns his mouth up slightly into somewhat of a smile, and without a word, turns right back to looking at where they’re going. Calandra sighs in aggravation. Nonetheless, as soon as the sound leaves her mouth, the emotion is gone. With some force, she finally stops walking and plants her feet firmly into the ground. Jarreth turns to face her, but his arms don’t move from her.
“What are you doing to me? Why don’t I feel anything? I know that I should!” She tries to force frustration into her voice, but of course she can’t make herself actually feel it.
Jarreth sighs and looks down at the ground in front of her. “I’m just trying to help. I’m not using them for myself, simply trying to make you more comfortable.” He looks back at her once he finishes the far too unclear explanation.
“Is that supposed to tell me what you’re doing? I need answers or something, Jarreth, not riddles!” She removes his hand from her left shoulder, where the dragonfly mark now is. She steps away from him a bit so he’s no longer touching her in any way, and she is far enough that she can’t feel the spark radiating from him. She puts her hand on her hips, determined to at least attempt to look like she’s feeling some sort of emotion even though Jarreth obviously knows she isn’t and is the reason behind it.
Her attempt makes him laugh slightly. Calandra glares at him and becomes suddenly aware that everyone around them has stopped walking and is staring. Jarreth takes her left hand into his and brushes his thumb across her knuckles.
“Just let me take you somewhere we can be alone. I promise I’ll tell you everything.” His eyes plead with her as he says it.
The stares burn through her and she knows her self-conscious should be in overdrive. Defeated, she surrenders to his request. Not that she has a leg to stand on to fight agai
nst him really. She’s in another world where she knows no one, her boyfriend has apparently been kidnapped, she has a random tattoo, and everyone is staring at her. What was she supposed to do exactly? The only thing she has that is familiar at all is Jarreth, and somehow she doesn’t think she can say no to him, even if she wanted to. She has come to the reasoning that she really has no other option but to do whatever he asks.
They finish the walk through town in silence. Calandra tries to ignore the stares and look like she belongs, though she is more than sure that her eyes and the mark on her shoulder are a dead giveaway that she doesn’t. They veer away from the town, down a small dirt road that turns into a small dirt path that winds through the most breathtaking woods Calandra has ever seen.
Birds, dragonflies, and small faeries fly all around. It should all be very peaceful and relaxing, and it is, until the thought crosses her mind that this could be very similar, if not identical, to how girls get kidnapped. For all practical purposes, walking with strange men though woods, in a world you know nothing about and where no one can save you, is probably not one of the brightest ideas Calandra’s ever had. The fear, of course, isn’t felt. Somehow Jarreth is making sure of that. Calandra stops dead in her tracks, and instantaneously Jarreth stops and turns to look at her.
“We’re out of town and alone now so stop whatever you’re doing! I want to feel it,” she demands. Jarreth opens his mouth to protest, but his eyes look drained, and he gives in.
In an instant Calandra is overwhelmed. She begins to fall backwards, and Jarreth reaches behind her to steady her. Fear, anxiety, confusion, longing, temptation, helplessness, they all turn into a black cloud that buries itself deep into her chest and stretches out to the pit of her stomach. She swallows hard and tries to regain herself again.
“Take it back!” she says breathlessly and shakes her head.
With a small smile, everything washes away from her instantly. She audibly lets out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding in, and focuses on trying to steady her breathing. Jarreth’s hand pushes into her back harder, as if he is preparing to keep her from falling back again.
“I’m okay,” she assures him.
Jarreth pulls her toward him and leaves their bodies only a few centimeters apart. There is a strange heat radiating from him that she is ultimately aware of as it seeps into her. He stares directly into her eyes and doesn’t blink. Calandra is totally unsure of what it means or how to make it stop. He looks like he wants to say something, but is unable to do so.
Jarreth finally breaks the moment with words. “We’re almost to my place, I’ll explain everything when we get there,” he says.
Calandra realizes that his eyes no longer look drained like they had earlier. They are back to the normal dazzling state that she remembers from her dream, and he looks refreshed somehow.
“Though if you wish to start the questioning now, you may,” he finishes and pulls his gaze from hers. He takes a sideways glance at her shoulder before he starts to walk again.
Unable to bring herself to question it, Calandra follows suit. Something about him pulls her in and she isn’t sure how it makes any sense. She has never been the stupid fall right into a trap kind of person, but she suddenly wonders if she is crossing into that territory now. Despite what fears she knows should be coursing through her given the situation, she can’t seem to fight Jarreth. There is a current that seems to pass between their bodies as they walk. It is an icy heat that makes her feel more alive than she ever has before. So she walks with him, even if it means she is walking straight to her death.
“What exactly is it you’re doing to me?” she asks, and the heat immediately rises into her cheeks. “My feelings, I mean, the emotions … how is it you can take them away exactly?”
“It’s part of the type of Fae that I am. Different types of Fae have different … cultures, so to speak. We do different things, act different ways, have different morals.” He leaves the rest of the explanation off and it hangs in the air.
“So, like a good and evil sort of thing or something?” Calandra realizes how stupid and immature the question is as soon as it spills off her lips, but she can’t take it back now.
Jarreth stops at the question and turns to face her with a look of pain across his face. “It’s not quite that simple when it comes to Fae, Calandra, please remember that. There’s not necessarily an easily defined line between good and evil. It’s very blurred for anyone, and even more so when it comes to Fae. We are creatures of desire, of temptation, and of pure emotions. What may be considered evil to mortals could just be run of the mill for our kind. Not even the good Fae, as you may like to think of them, are purely good. It isn’t possible for a Fae to exist without some kind of evil in them, it’s just who we are.”
Calandra stares up at him and wonders if he is trying to give her some sort of warning about himself in a roundabout way. Either way, she decides to ignore it for the time being. “So, what are you doing with them then? You said earlier you weren’t using them for yourself, just trying to help me. What does that mean exactly?”
Jarreth sighs and begins to walk again. “It means that normally I feed off of emotions. I don’t allow myself to use emotions directly from humans anymore, though. There are other ways to do it. I took your emotions from you, but I didn’t use them to feed on. I simply took them to calm you down in an effort to help you out. I figured it was a lot to take in at once, and it might be a bit too much for you.”
Calandra remembers the stare off and how he suddenly looked less drained after it. Had he really not fed off of her emotions then? She pushes the thought away as a small house comes into view. It’s more of a cottage really, a small brown wooden picket fence surrounds it. The house is made of a mixture of stone and wood with a brick walkway that leads to the glass front door. A pink tree, which holds small flowers that look like firework explosions, sits directly in front of the house. The grass is filled with blue and purple flowers that look like the flowers from the ring.
“Echo picked out that tree,” he says as they walk along the little brick path.
The comment seems innocent enough, but it suddenly makes Calandra wonder how old Jarreth is exactly. She doesn’t know what the morality rate of faeries is. It’s just who we are, the statement from his explanation resonates through her mind suddenly. Was he including her in that statement as well?
“You said we.” The thought doesn’t make any sense as it escapes her lips.
He doesn’t miss a single beat; Jarreth somehow knows what she means. “Yes, Calandra, we. I told you before you are part Fae, it’s how you were able to come here.”
They walk into the house as Calandra tries to process what all of this means. She is a faerie, at least partially. Maybe the warning he gave wasn’t about him at all, maybe it was about her. However, he can’t possibly know anything about her, right? She sits down on the couch in the living room that the front door walks directly into.
“I’ll be right back,” Jarreth says as he walks into an entry way just off to the right.
Calandra looks around at the small but very open room. There is a large stone fireplace right in front of her and ivy wraps around it. The couch she sits on is blue and appears to be from another century, judging by the intricate wooden pieces along the arms and the back frame. There’s a small wooden table in front of her and another off to the left side of the room that sits just under the only window. There’s a very homey feel about the place. It comforts her, probably more than it should, and smells of cedar and eucalyptus.
Jarreth returns with a silver tray that holds a blue teapot with a gold dragonfly, two matching teacups without handles, and a tall glass bottle with a bright pink liquid in it. He sets the tray on the table in front of her before he takes the seat next to her. He pours a glass of tea into the cup and sets it in front of her.
“Drink, it will make you feel better,” he says. “I have sugar and milk as well if you’d like.”
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nbsp; Calandra still stares at the glass bottle holding the pink liquid. It is thick and there are darker shades of pink swirling through it.
“What is that?” she asks without looking at Jarreth as she says it.
“Like I said, there are other ways.” He pours some of the substance into his tea and drinks it down immediately. “Now drink, please.”
Calandra takes a small sip of the tea he poured for her. It’s bittersweet; something floral mixes with a slightly sour flavor that she can’t quite place. It warms her as she swallows it, and surprisingly she does feel a little better. She takes another sip before she places the cup back on the table in front of her.