Breath of Air (3 page)

“Yes. I witnessed her powers myself. It is her.”

The man called Sebastian seemed to light up, his handsome face radiant. “Dear love, could it be she has been alive all this time?” His voice was lyrical and smooth as honey. He touched the woman’s shoulder, his eyes on Capri.

“It appears it is so.” The woman called Thea replied. “Do you remember anything about this place?”

“No…not really, that is.” Capri stammered, blushing. The woman’s stern gaze was unnerving. “I think I’ve dreamt of this place before.”

“You think?”

“I mean, I know I have. I recognize the ivy on the walls, and the giant trees. There are jasmine bushes somewhere nearby, or at least I think there are…”

“Very well. Sebastian, get Clynn. He will determine if this girl is really his daughter.”

“Daughter?” Capri’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes, you’re obviously someone’s daughter, aren’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am.” She averted her eyes and stared at the ground, the nerves rioting in her stomach. Less than thirty minutes ago, she had just been a slightly less than normal girl sitting in a park in Virginia, reading a book. Now she was in the company of total strangers in a bizarre place with no idea how to get home. Oh, and they were claiming she was some Dryad thing. Panic tore through her in one clean swipe as her mind raced with questions and doubts. What was she doing here? How was she going to get back? What if this was some crazy cult and she’d walked right into it? Her boss had always told her that she was too trusting, too guileless. Maybe that was about to become her one fatal flaw.

A few moments later, Sebastian returned, a man racing beside him. Capri felt all of her doubts and fears fade to a kind of numb denial. It wasn’t possible.

She eyed the man carefully. He was nearly the same height as Sebastian, but older by fifteen, twenty years. His hair was the same pale blonde as her own, though it was neatly trimmed and receding slightly at his forehead. He had a thin face with worry lines around his eyes, and was slim and wiry looking, his legs covered in gray slacks paired with a matching gray sweater. As he approached, Capri saw that his eyes mirrored her own in both color and shape. She noticed awkwardly that they were already brimming with tears.

“Oh, Capri.” The man stuttered, stopping a few feet from her, his eyes drinking their fill. “You’re alive.”

Capri was speechless. She could see with her own eyes that this man greatly resembled her in a way that no one else ever had. Had she really just found her father?

When he reached out to her hesitantly, she felt a tear slide down her cheek at the very sight of it. Unable to do more, she simply stumbled to him, gasping as his arms enclosed around her, safe and warm. She gave in to the tears, the sobs shaking her as she held on. She didn’t care who witnessed her tears this time. She was home.

♦ ♦ ♦

It was by far the best birthday she had ever had.

The man named Clynn, who she was slowly beginning to accept was actually her long lost father, had decided it would be best to go for a walk around the courtyard with her, so they could get to know each other.

The others that she had met, including Liam, disappeared inside the castle to give them time alone.

“So you have been living in Virginia all this time?” Clynn asked politely as they walked, the dappled sunlight bringing out the silver in his pale hair. He had a soothing voice, soft and quiet, giving her the impression that he was a man long accustomed to solitude. Funny, she was that way, too.

“Yes. In an orphanage.” She replied quietly, biting her lip. It always embarrassed her to admit that she was an orphan.

Clynn tilted his head down to look at her, and the sadness he felt showed clearly on his face. “I’m so sorry.”

Capri shrugged. “I guess my only question is why you didn’t try to find me?”

“We did!” He exclaimed as he stopped, his hands reaching out to clutch her shoulders firmly. “We searched for nearly a year. But you have to understand, we had no idea where he had taken you.”

“I see.” Capri did, though it still hurt to think of how different her life would have been had she been found instead of lost.

“My darling.” Clynn bent his head to kiss her cheek softly, a gesture that had her eyes welling with tears again. “I didn’t just lose you that day. I lost your mother as well.”

“My…mother?”

“Yes. She was killed during the raid.” He watched her face closely, gauging her reaction. She simply looked dumbfounded. “I’m sorry.”

“I can’t even imagine what that must have been like for you. I’m sorry I don’t remember her.”

“She was an amazing woman. The most kind, gentle, compassionate person I had ever met. It took quite a bit of persuading to get Thea’s permission to allow her to live here with me.”

“Why did you need permission?”

“Because Heidi, your mother, was human. She had no powers.”

Her brows furrowed as she processed what he had just said.

“So because I have powers, does that mean that I’m not human?”

“You are partly human, but you are primarily an Air Dryad, just as I am.” Clynn said kindly, knowing how difficult it would be for her to understand. “We have the appearance of a human, and the lifespan of a human, but we are not really human. We serve a greater purpose.”

“Which is…?”

He sighed, weighing how best to explain it to her.

“We were created by Thea, Mother Earth, to aid her in taking care of the planet. Our purpose is to maintain balance with the elements. As an Air Dryad, it is my responsibility, and soon it will be yours too, to control wind and air. For example, every time there is a tornado, I am controlling it. Every time the wind shifts and a cold front sets in, I am controlling it. It is both our gift and our responsibility.”

She simply stared at him for a long minute. She could hear birds chattering around her, could feel the soft breeze on her skin and smell the honeysuckle just beyond them. But she couldn’t process any of it. She was completely and utterly baffled.

“I’m still not convinced that I’m not dreaming this all up.”

He smiled at her.

“It will get easier to accept with time, trust me. This is where you belong. On Euphora, with me.”

“But what about my job? And the apartment I had lined up to rent in Richmond?” Her practical side kicked in as she thought of all the ifs, ands and buts of her situation. “I can’t just abandon the life I had and come live in this strange wonderland.”

“We can arrange to have everything taken care of for you. Unless…do you want to go back to Richmond? If you do, I will understand.” Despite his words, Capri could see the anxiety in his patient eyes. How could she abandon her only family now that she had just found him?

“No, no I don’t want to go back. All of this just seems…strange to me.”

“You really don’t remember anything from before you were taken?”

Capri debated for a moment whether or not to explain her dream to him. She had been told so many times that it hadn’t been real, that it had been a figment of her imagination. But here she was, standing in the very courtyard she had been long convinced didn’t exist.

“I’ve been having this dream, always the same one, since I can remember.” She began, her eyes meeting his. What a shock it was to look into the same cool gray eyes that stared back at her out of the mirror every morning. “In my dream, I’m in a courtyard…this courtyard, actually, and I’m hiding beneath this huge jasmine bush. I remember it was jasmine because in the dream I play with the tiny flowers and think about how they look like little white stars. I think someone had told me that once.” She paused, brows creased, the vague memory just out of reach. “Anyway, I hear this scream, a woman’s scream, and then she falls to the ground. I never really see her, I just hear her fall. Then I feel hands grab me and lift me away, and someone, a man, I think, laughs. It’s such a cold, ruthless laugh. And then I wake up, with that horrible sound in my head.”

For a moment, Clynn said nothing. He just stared into the eyes of his daughter, his little girl all grown up, who had witnessed the death of her mother without even understanding it. It pained him to think of how terrified she must have been, and how his own helplessness over the whole situation had nearly driven him mad. But, miraculously, his daughter had somehow made her way home to him. He would do his best to protect her now, no matter what. “When you were here with me, I would walk with you around the gardens, and I would pick different flowers and give them to you. I was teaching you their names, and I would help you remember by comparing all of them to something else.”

He turned around suddenly and walked over to a nearby plant, plucking a flower from its branches. When he returned, she saw that it was tiny red blossom.

“What is this lovely red butterfly called, Capri?”

“Red butterflies are honeysuckle.” She answered immediately, then blushed when he smiled at her. “You were the one who told me that.”

“Yes, yes I was.” He pulled her into a hug, and she let her head rest comfortably against his shoulder. There was so much time that had been lost between them, and yet she had never felt more at ease with anyone before. She figured it was simply blood recognizing blood, something she had never felt before now. It was an incredibly beautiful feeling.

♦ ♦ ♦

CHAPTER TWO

She heard the footsteps of someone walking towards them, and pulled away from her father. Liam was approaching, his face alight with a smile.

“How are you?” He asked politely.

“Fine. Confused, and overwhelmed, I guess, but I’m fine.” She replied, still feeling foolish and out of place.

“Thea wants to have a party to welcome you home and introduce you to everyone.”

“What a lovely idea.” Clynn responded, nodding at Liam.

Capri froze, nervousness rising like dread in her stomach. “Everyone?” She didn’t like big crowds, and she certainly didn’t like being the center of attention. She instinctively crossed her arms over her chest.

Liam simply smiled in that easy way he had. “Don’t worry, there are only twenty five of us.”

“Twenty five?” Capri spluttered, feeling suddenly nauseous. “Do I have to?”

“It won’t be so bad, trust me. Most of them have technically met you before, anyways. They know who you are.”

“I’m not good with people, especially a lot of people. Everyone’s going to ask me questions and put me on the spot.”

“I’ll protect you.” Liam grinned, patting her shoulder companionably. “Serendipity has laid out a dress for you to wear in your room. I suggest you head on up and change, and then I’ll escort you to dinner.”

“I have a room?”

“Of course you do.” Clynn asserted with a sad smile. “Did you think that I would ever really give up hope that you would one day return to me?”

Capri wasn’t sure what to say to him. Had he really never lost hope in all these fifteen years? She herself had given up hope so easily that now she felt ashamed.

“Come on, I’ll show you to your room.” Clynn wound his arm around her shoulders and lead her towards the castle, Liam walking beside them.

She stared at the castle with wide eyes as they approached it, trying to take in every detail. The marvelous stone of the walls, covered almost entirely with spiraling, twisting ivy. The rows and rows of large, pebbled glass windows, glittering in the soft sunlight. Towers, four of them, rising up from the main castle, each circular with pointed roofs the color of slate. The doors to the castle, as she noticed now that she was closer, were huge as well, nearly twice as tall as a normal door and twice as wide. They were a deep mahogany, with wrought iron winding in similar patterns to the gate over its surface. Again, Liam began to place his hand over one of the doors, only to pause.

“Would you like to open it, Capri?” He asked encouragingly, motioning for her to touch the wood.

She bit her lip nervously, but stepped forward. As she laid her palm flat against the wood, she held her breath in anticipation. For a moment, nothing happened, and she felt mortification and embarrassment stab pitifully into her chest.

Then, like magic, the doors seemed to melt away beneath her hand, fading like the gate had before. Mystified, she stared at her palm for a moment, wondering how it was at all possible. Clynn had to press lightly into her back for her to look up and take in the magnificence of the castle atrium.

It’s like the garden has been brought inside, she thought as she simply stared for a long moment. The circular walls were covered in plants, some of them in pots, others seeming to grow out of the walls and floor. The echoing chirps of birds could be heard as they flew overhead, and as she looked up she realized that where there should have been a ceiling, there were instead fluffy white clouds glowing golden as though touched by the sun.

In front of her was a large corridor that branched off to the right and left, each side flanked by several doors with lovely open windows at each end. At the end of the main corridor stood a pair of larger, more impressive doors, the same mahogany as the entrance had been. The walls and the floor were gray stone, with lit iron torches lighting the way. When she looked up, she noticed that the entire ceiling was covered in glorious paintings, depicting what looked like the Garden of Eden, with circular skylights throughout, casting lovely morning light upon the walls and floor.

“This way.” Clynn said softly, leading her towards a door down the right corridor. When he opened it, she saw stone stairs winding up in a large spiral. “All of the living quarters are up here.”

They walked up two flights of stairs before stopping at a landing that led off down a smaller corridor. Clynn motioned towards the first door, which he opened for her.

“This is your room, just as you left it. Though we upgraded the bed a few years ago.” He smiled as he watched her mouth open in shock as she entered the room.

“Mine?” She stuttered, twirling around in a circle to take in the lovely room with its stone walls and white canopy bed. Pale blue rugs graced the floor by the bed and near the fireplace, and beautiful oil paintings depicting all kinds of birds hung on the walls. On the bed lay the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. “Oh.” She whispered as her mouth fell open.