“What? You texted my mom?”
“Well, actually, I called her. It felt kinda weird to be honest. Ever noticed how little you actually call people these days?”
“What the hell, Fae?”
“I told her about the fight…”
I pressed my palms against my face.
“And I told her you could come to my house and I’d look after you.”
I slid my hands down my face. “So she knows about the fight.” I sighed. “Did she sound mad?” I couldn’t take seeing my mother any more disappointed in me than she was last night.
“Mad? No way Bee, she’s worried about you.”
“She is?”
Fae sighed. “Yes, Bee. Look, I’ll explain it all at my place. Come on.”
We pulled up into Fae’s cobblestone driveway and parked Terence next to Fae’s car—a bright pink convertible she got through a sponsorship deal; she filmed a whole video on “Using the car’s natural lighting to your advantage” and “How to make the most of traffic jams.” Not that she ever drives it. I always hassle her for leaving it parked in the driveway as a garden feature.
We wandered through the front garden and walked the steps to the large front porch. Fae’s house was over a hundred years old but it still stood strong and proud. Intricate cornices decorated the wooden pillars framing the patio and an elaborate stained-glass window shone in the midday sun.
In front of the red front door was a tall stack of FedEx packages.
“Ooh, more make-up!” Fae said. “I hope it’s the new Jeffree Star collection!”
I picked up as many packages as I could.
Fae did the same.
As the door swung open, the welcoming smell of fresh baking wafted towards us. Sweet and salty tones tickled my nose.
I padded down the dim hallway behind Fae, floating a gaze upon the many paintings that hung from the walls. Sprites, nymphs, and pixies peered out from the canvases.
Fae’s mom Cendrine knew all of her subjects by name; they weren’t just paintings to her, they were real creatures, alive in her mind. When Fae and I were young she’d tell us stories about her imaginary artist models at bedtime. She’d finish every tale with a soft, longing sigh.
As we entered the kitchen, we were greeted by a batch of hot muffins cooling on a wire rack. A small note lay on the wooden counter.
“Cendrine had to pop into the gallery,” Fae said, reading the note. “She’ll be back a bit later.”
Fae had always called her parents by their first names. When I was little I thought it was weird, but now I was used to it. I went through a stage of calling my mom Veronica, but it didn’t stick.
“When’s your dad coming back again?”
“Um, not sure.” She flicked on the kettle. “The film’s done, but there’s another one. He Skypes us every night so it doesn’t really feel like he lives on the other side of the world.”
A few years back, Piers was offered a job in New Zealand, working for the company who made all of the Hobbit films; a dream job for a sculptor of intricate mythical creatures. But for some reason, Cendrine refused to leave. She had her gallery here and Fae had school. They decided to try to make it work long distance. Somehow it did.
“Maybe you could go visit him. Doesn’t Lorde live there? You might see her.”
Fae shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.”
Fae arranged some muffins on a plate and poured hot water into a large teapot. I sat down at the table as Fae set a cup and saucer in front of me.
“So, Bee.” She sat down. “What happened to Sheena?” Her soft eyes gently probed me. “In that video it looked like you…I don’t know, did something.” She poured tea into my cup. “With your mind.”
I reached for a muffin and took a bite. The sweet, tart raspberries hit the back of my tongue as I swallowed. I took a sip of tea to clear my throat.
“I don’t know what happened.” I looked down at the table. “First I saw things. Her father. He beats her mother. Probably her too.”
“Oh my god. That’s awful,” Fae said. “Kind of explains why she’s always been such an asshole.”
I smiled flatly. “It sure does.” I took a sip of tea and went on. “I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t her fault and that in a weird way I understood why she was so mean to me. But it just made her crazy.”
“And then?”
“I don’t know how it happened. I just felt so mad!”
“She punched you in the face, Bee. That would make anyone mad.”
“Not just that though. Everything. My God! I’m being harassed by a centaur who thinks I’m some kind of werewolf or something, I’m supposedly in danger, and my mom thinks she caught me having sex in the backyard last night! AND I AM STILL GETTING PICKED ON BY JERKS!”
Fae looked aghast for a moment, then reached out and placed a comforting hand on my arm.
My anger faded. “Sorry.” I took a sip of tea. “Anyway, I just got mad. Really mad. Until it burned white-hot in my mind and then I pushed it.”
“Pushed it?”
“I pushed all of her sadness, hate, fear, pain, back at her. Like a mirror.”
“Wow.”
“Wow is right.” I groaned. “Why can’t I just be a normal teenager?”
“Oh Bee, there’s no such thing as a normal teenager.”
“Probably not. But there’s gotta be something more normal than all of this.” I gestured to myself.
Fae laughed. “Drink your tea, eat your muffin. It will make you feel better.”
I took another bite. “So, aren’t you going to ask me?”
“Ask you what?”
“What I meant before about the centaur and the sex in the yard?”
“Oh.” Fae, thought for a moment. “No.”
I was puzzled. Fae and I had always told each other everything. She knew all about me. Like how I once got my foot stuck in a toilet bowl and how the smell of corned beef made me gag. I knew all about her too. Like the weird pyromaniac phase she went through in kindergarten; everywhere we went, Fae would somehow manage to start a fire. Thankfully she grew out of it.
I swallowed. My chest felt tight with pain. Didn’t she want to know who I’d supposedly had sex with? “Why don’t you want to know?”
“Because I already do.”
“You do?”
“Yep.” Fae glanced at the large clock that hung in the kitchen. “In fact, Sunder should be here soon.”
Chapter Thirteen
A strange feeling settled in my stomach. “Sunder? How do you know his name, Fae?”
“Bee...” Fae’s aura hung nervously around her, like a naughty dog who’d peed on the living room rug. “There’s something I need to tell you. Well, a few things actually.”
“Fae.” I felt like I was breathing cement. “What’s going on?”
Fae took a breath. “Did Sunder tell you? What you are?”
I couldn’t speak. Fae knew. How long had she known? And why hadn’t she told me? My head started to throb with unanswered questions.
There was a small knock on the front door.
“That must be him.” Fae rose from the table and padded down the hall to answer the door.
I stood up too. An odd feeling came over me but I couldn’t decipher the emotion.
Anger?
Betrayal?
Jealousy?
Perhaps all of the above.
Fae appeared in the kitchen with Sunder, still disheveled, though wearing new clothes. He seemed even taller inside. Excitement stirred in my stomach as I set eyes on him.
“Bianca.”
I didn’t respond.
He turned to Fae. “Have you told her?”
She shook her head no.
“And Cendrine? Is she bringing him?”
She nodded
. “She’s on her way back now, then they’ll put up the fortifications.”
My feet grew roots of rage into the earth. They were talking amongst themselves like I wasn’t even there. They knew each other? I thought Fae and I told each other everything, and there she was chatting away to Sunder like they were… My jaw tightened. Could he and Fae be…together? Is that how they knew each other? Shame burned my face.
“We must keep her safe at all costs,” Sunder said firmly. “That video has caused a lot of trouble.”
Oh great, so Sunder had seen the video too. Just awesome.
“Yes,” Fae said. “She can stay here. It’s probably the safest place. Then Cendrine and I can protect her and Hyssop can use his enchantments.”
She? I was she now. And enchantments? What the hell was going on? I’d had enough of being left in the dark. “Okay!” I spat. “I am standing right here!” I took a breath and went on. “Somebody tell me what the hell I am and what’s going on or I AM WALKING OUT THAT DOOR!” I aimed a rigid finger down the hallway.
Sunder and Fae stared back at me.
“I’m so sorry, Bee.” Fae came to my side and put an arm around me.
I let out a long, tense breath.
“Come sit.” She led me over to the living room where two big, soft gray couches lay in wait. The kind of couches that’ll eat you up if you let them. Sunder perched on the arm of the couch.
Fae took my hands in hers. “Bee,” she began. “You are different.”
“Um, yeah, I kinda figured that part out,” I said, looking down my milk-white arms.
“I don’t just mean you look different and that you have your gift, but you are quite different from everyone else.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Am I a werewolf? If I’m a werewolf, I am going to be very pissed off!”
Sunder broke into a chuckle behind Fae, the cute dimple appearing on his cheek. “You couldn’t be any further from a werewolf, Bianca!” he said with a grin.
“Well?” I snapped, my eyes back on Fae. “Sunder said I shift. What do I shift into?”
Fae shot Sunder a look.
“I thought you’d have told her,” he said. “They said she should know on her sixteenth birthday.”
“Know what?” I barked. “Can you just tell me?”
“Bianca, you are a Re’em,” Sunder said finally. “Or where I grew up, an Eenhoorn.”
“A what?”
“A unicorn,” added Fae.
“I’m a…”
“Yes,” Sunder said, suddenly animated. “You are a unicorn. And you are magnificent!” He got to his feet. “When I saw you in the forest running wild in your true form, I couldn’t believe it. I’d heard so much about you, about how truly magical your kind are, but I never, not for a moment could have imagined just how amazing you are.”
Understanding washed over me. “So every time I sleepwalk…?”
“You shift,” added Fae.
“Right,” I said, nodding. So that’s why I’d been running naked through the forest. I was relieved to know that Sunder hadn’t actually seen me naked. “So,” I went on, “that’s why I’m... pale?”
“Yes,” said Sunder. “And that is why you sense so much.” He motioned to the top of his head. “It’s your horn.”
“My horn?”
“It makes you hyper intuitive. All humans have a third eye, the pineal gland; a small pinecone-shaped part of the brain that connects them to a higher spiritual plane. But unlike humans’, yours has not calcified and atrophied. Your pineal gland is a fully functioning third eye that extends from your forehead. It’s like an antenna, picking up emotions and aura. It’s your gift.”
My eyes drifted upwards. “Well, I don’t have a horn now. So why can I still sense things?”
“Well technically you do,” Sunder added. “It’s not an actual horn of course. In fact, you may have mistaken it for your own aura; it could very well be the same color. It’s a white light above your head. Humans can’t see it. But it’s there. I can see it, as can Fae.”
I turned to Fae. “You can?”
She nodded.
I looked back at Sunder. “Didn’t you just say humans can’t see it?”
Fae shot Sunder a warning glance.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“Wait. What? Fae, you are human right?”
Fae shook her head.
“What?” I felt dizzy. “Fae, what are you?”
Sunder chuckled.
“What are you laughing at?” I spat, infuriated by how casually he was treating all of this.
“I’m sorry,” Sunder managed, “it’s just…I mean look around! It’s staring you right in the face. For someone as highly perceptive as you, I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out sooner.”
Staring me right in the face? I looked up at the walls, lined with paintings. The faeries peeking down at me from their canvas homes, proudly flaunting flowy wings.
Faeries?
Fae?
I turned and stared at my best friend of just over sixteen years. “You’re a faerie?”
Fae nodded.
“Wow.”
“Didn’t you wonder why she always attracted so many people to her side?” Sunder said. “Why she always managed to put you at ease and tame your fears?”
“Well yeah, I did. But it didn’t occur to me that my best friend was secretly a faerie in disguise.” I shot a glance at Fae.
Her face fell. “Bee, I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you, so many times.”
“You don’t have wings,” I added coolly.
“Well, actually I do. Like your horn, they’re invisible to all but other people of the realm.”
“How convenient,” I muttered under my breath. “Why can’t I see them?”
“You will learn to,” Sunder said. “Over time.”
“Bee,” Fae said with a sigh. “I’m so glad you know now. And I want to tell you, I’m so happy I was selected to be your Tamer.”
“Wait. What’s a…Tamer?”
Now it was Sunder’s turn to cast a warning gaze at Fae. Careful. It said. Don’t overwhelm her.
Fae looked at me cautiously. “A Tamer is someone who cares for a Re’em. Tamer is an old-fashioned name I guess, but since the beginning, every unicorn child is given a Tamer to, well tame them, protect them, keep them safe. Traditionally Tamers have always been a maiden, a virgin maiden, to be specific.” Fae looked down, her cheeks reddening slightly.
Well, at least she and Sunder weren’t sleeping together.
The room spun and a twinge of nausea tickled my throat. “This is crazy.” I put my head in my hands and took a breath.
“It is a lot to take in at once,” Sunder said.
Fae placed a hand on my back and offered me a soothing smile.
I shook my head. “All these years I thought you were the one person who liked me for me and you’re not. You’re just, what? Paid to protect me?”
“No, Bee!” her eyes grew wide. “It is a privilege! Becoming a Tamer is the highest honor in the faerie realm!”
“Well good for you!” I said, thick with sarcasm. “You must be quite the celebrity back home! The Taylor Swift of the realm!” Tears stung my eyes. “And you!” I shot at Sunder. “How long have you known each other?
“I have known Cendrine for many years,” Sunder said.
“You have?” He looked to be about twenty-one, but his aura felt older. Much older. There was an ancient energy about him and it wasn’t just the way he spoke.
“She was a student of mine when she was young. I recall the day she left the realm, and the day she returned, explaining to her family that she had fallen in love with a mortal.”
I remembered the dream Sunder had shown me. His teacher Sophós died at over seven hundred years old but appeared to be no old
er than forty-five. How old was Sunder exactly?
“Once we learned,” Sunder went on, “that you were to be born a Re’em, I was sent to ask Cendrine if she would bear a child. A child that would become your Tamer.”
“Don’t you see, Bee?” Fae said, tears shining in her eyes. “I may not have had a choice as such, but if it weren’t for you, I may not have been born at all.”
My head ached with all the new information. I still had so many questions. Like why these creatures were after me and how on earth I was expected to fight them if even Sunder and his people could not.
Chapter Fourteen
A rattling sound came from the front door as a key turned in the lock.
Sunder looked up alertly.
“That’ll be Cendrine and Hyssop,” Fae said.
Sunder relaxed again.
Footsteps clomped down the hall. Cendrine entered, her long red hair windblown and wild, her scarlet aura the same shade as her lipstick.
A man in his early fifties followed her. He had a dark-orange aura and the complexion of someone who spends a lot of time in the garden.
“Bee! My love!” Cendrine sang in her soft French lilt. “Here you are! Safe and sound!” She moved to the couch and scooped me into a hug. Cendrine’s hugs were like magic; now I knew why. Cendrine had always been like a second mother to me, and like Fae, she had been lying to me for years. She released me, eyeing me cautiously. She turned to Fae. “You’ve told her?”
Fae nodded.
“Oh Bee! I am so glad you know now!” She took my face in her hands and kissed both of my cheeks. “It has been so hard keeping secrets from you! All your life I’ve wanted to tell you how amazing you are!” She hugged me again, then placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. “This is Hyssop, Bianca. He is here to help. Hyssop, this is Bianca. You know Fae, and this is Sunder.”
Hyssop chuckled. “Ah yes, the unicorn, the faerie and the centaur! Sounds like the start of a bad joke doesn’t it?” His chuckle erupted into a hearty laugh.
Even this guy knew all about me? I narrowed my eyes. I wasn’t quite ready to be the butt of his joke.
Bianca De Lumière : High Suspense Urban Fantasy Romance (The Re'em Prophecy Book 1) Page 7