Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 1, After the Fall (31 page)

"Ridikalus?" asked Aidan, laughing softly.

"You know what I meant," I growled, scowling at him.

Jared's voice made its way into my consciousness.  "Based on what I just explained, I ask that you allow me to answer your question in due time, Red.  I'd like to share some things we have learned first."

Red nodded once, now deliberately not looking at me.

I kept staring at him, hoping I could catch his eye so I could stick my tongue out at him or something.  I'm not sure why I felt this was my best course of action, but I focused on it with everything I had, most of Jared's words getting lost in the haze of absinthe afterglow.

A few seconds or a few minutes later, I didn't know which, Céline said, "What did you hear, Jayne?" Her voice had drawn me out of my plans for revenge against Red, making me once again the center of attention.  Only now I had no idea what anyone was talking about.

"Huh?  About what?"

Aidan leaned in and whispered in my ear.  "Are you okay, Jayne?  You seem ... a little out of it."

I shoved him away from me.  "Shut up, werewolf hairy beast man.  You dunno what you're talkin' 'bout."  He was making everyone look at me while I was trying to be all incognito, and it was pissing me off. 
How am I going to get out of this place without giving away my secret, if everyone keeps talking to me? 
I'd decided that drinking swamp juice in the middle of the day was probably a bad thing to do no matter where you came from, so it quickly became my deep dark secret that I didn't want to share with anyone.  Not even Tony or Tim.

"Jayne?  Are you alright?" asked Céline, concern lacing her voice.  If it had been anyone else asking, I probably would have gone right ahead with my plan to insult anyone who accused me of being drunk.  But I couldn't do that with her.  I was afraid I'd hurt her feelings and make her cry or something.  She'd always been so nice to me.

"I'm just feeling a little woozy is all."  I gave her a weak smile, all I was capable of at the moment.  "I think I might have had something that didn't agree with me."

Red stood suddenly, followed by Celeste.  "Come here, changeling," he demanded.  Celeste motioned for me to come too.

I looked at both of them, pushed out my pursed lips, and shook my head.  No way in hell was I going over to the crusties and letting them get a whiff of my breath.  I'd be outed as an absinthe-a-holic for sure.

"Jayne, I believe they are concerned you've been spelled.  Please let them check you," said Céline.

"I don't think it's a spell," said Aidan.

I whipped my head sideways to tell him to shut up, but his big smile threw me off.

"She's been drinking," he explained.  "I can smell it on her breath."

My jaw dropped open.  I recovered quickly and yelled, "I have
not!"
probably a little too loudly.  A few council members flinched.

Ben pulled me by my cape towards him and got right in my face, his nose nearly touching my lips.  "Yes, you have," he accused.  "What did you drink?  Who gave it to you?"

I karate-chopped his hand to get it off me.  "None of your cotton-pickin-beeswax, buttwad, so hands off the merchandise."  I looked up at Jared and gestured graciously, using my most mature voice.  "Please, Jared.  Continue.  What were you saying?"

He cleared his throat, erasing whatever expression he might have had on his face to appear unaffected by the craziness around us.  "As I said, it is clear to us now that something must be done to keep the Gray from collapsing, and that you might have ideas, based on some things you've heard, about some possible solutions."

Since I had no choice but to answer now, lest the conversation turn again to my little issue, I responded.  Unfortunately, I couldn't quite get my brain around the words before they were already leaving my lips.  "Yeah.  The angel dragon slayer and the vampire guy both said the Gray is falling.  Tony agreed.  And then the dragons said the time draws thighs, so we're, you know, up shit's creek and all that."

The looks on the faces around me ranged from confused to shocked.  I slapped my palms to my cheeks, trying to keep the heat away from them or at least from showing my embarrassment to the rest of the world. 
"Gah
, this place is friggin
hot
.  Can someone open a window or something?"  I started snickering.  "That's a joke.  Get it?  We don't have any stupid windows in this place."  I turned my head to look at Ben, my hands still on my face, making my lips go somewhat sideways.  "Can you whip up a little wind in here, elemental guy?  I'm hot."

"Dragon's mead!" shouted Red from across the table.  He was still standing, but now he was pointing an accusing finger in my direction.

I looked first at Ben and then Aidan.  "Yo, Aidan.  I think you're in trouble, dude.  He's pointing at you."

Aidan was smiling like a loon.  "Nope.  I'm preeettty sure it's you he's pointing at.  Not me."

"Pfft.
  Yeah, right."  I refused to look back at the old geezer, instead focusing on Céline's face.  She looked so sweet and nice and confused.  I much preferred that to angry right now.

"Present yourself, changeling!" demanded Red.  Several of the other fae were grumbling now, and it sounded like they agreed with him.

"She does not answer to you!" yelled Ben, standing next to me, holding his arm out in front of my face.

I shoved it way from me, sick of him thinking he could answer for me.  But before I could protest to any of it, Maléna stood.

"Yes, she does.  As do you!  Present yourself to the council, elemental."

Aidan leaned over, looking concerned.  "I think you'd better do it, Jayne."

I smiled at him serenely.  I was feeling much better now.  The queasiness had left and been replaced by a soaring sense of confidence.  I felt like I could practically fly if I wanted to.  "Don't worry, Aidan.  I got this."  I turned to face Maléna, smiling devilishly at her. 
So you want a challenge?  I'll give you a challenge you nasty demon ho.

"First of all, you can suck it, Maléna.  You don't tell me what to do
ever
.  And second of all, I seem to remember you wanting to throw down today.  Why don't we just start now?"  I rubbed my hands together, reveling in the energy pulsing through me.  It ramped up several notches without me even thinking about it, making my cloak go mad with color.

"How dare you!" she hissed.

I giggled, leaning in towards Ben.  "She sounds like a dragon when she does that."

He looked at me with his eyebrows all scrunched together.  "What did you just say?"

I stood back up straight.  "Yeah, I dare.  Come on, then.  Give me your best shot, ho-bag."  I tapped myself on the chest with both hands.  "Need me to draw a target for you?  Right here, babe.  Hit me."  I drew an imaginary circle around my chest.

"You are lucky one of us has self control," she growled at me.

"Pfft. 
Scared.  Just like I thought."

She lifted her arm and drew it back behind her ear, like she was ready to pitch a fastball at me.  I readied myself to throw up a shield, praying it would act like rubber and bounce her nasty shit right back at her, but Ben beat me to it.

I felt the heat of his element before I had time to even look at him.  A wall of fire suddenly surrounded us, blocking the others from my view.

I put my hands on my hips and glared at him.  "What'd you do that for?!  I was getting ready to let her have it!"

"What's gotten into you, Jayne?" he asked, searching my eyes.  "I'm seriously worried about you."

"Worried?  Huh."  I didn't see the anger I'd expected, which threw me off and calmed me down about five notches.  "You're not mad at me for killing you."

"You didn't kill me, obviously."

"Well, I did, actually; and then I un-killed you.  And if you'd done that to me, I'd be super pissed at you.  Like never-to-be-forgiven pissed."

"If I responded that way every time you did something to anger me, we never would have gotten to the binding ceremony."

I raised an eyebrow.  "And that was such a fabulous idea, wasn't it?"

"The reasons for it have not changed.  In fact, they have only grown stronger.  I would have liked for it to be more than in name, but what's done is done." He shrugged.  "We need to move on and do what is best for the fae."

I couldn't lie to myself; his rejection stung.  He'd come out and acknowledged we weren't going to be boyfriend and girlfriend, and it pissed me off that I wasn't feeling relieved so much as dissed.

"It's my hair isn't it?  It's ugly, I know.  Tim's always telling me to do something with it."  I reached up to tug at my ponytail.

"What?  What are you talking about?  No, it's not your hair."  He shook his head at me.

"The face, then?  Yeah, it's the face, isn't it?  Samantha's prettier than me.  I'm woman enough to admit that."

"Samantha is pretty, but I really don't know what that has to do with anything."

I shrugged.  "I don't blame you for wanting to be with her and not me.  If I were a guy, I might feel that way too."  Saying it out loud, I broke my own heart a little.  I couldn't believe I was being so stupid.  "Jesus, I am never drinking any more of that friggin buggane martini ever again.  You should flush that shit right down the drain."

Ben grabbed my upper arm.  "What'd you just say?"

His grip was uncomfortably tight, so I reached up with my other hand to pry his fingers off.  They were warm and strong.  When I touched them, he took my hand and refused to let it go.

"Tell me," he said.

"I'd rather not," I said, not pulling my hand away.  His grip felt steady and sure.  My whole world was spinning out of control, so it was nice to have this anchor.

"Jayne, seriously.  Just tell me.  I'm not going to be mad."

"Probably you will be."

"Okay, maybe I will.  But I'll get over it.  I got over you murdering me, didn't I?"

"Hey!  You said I didn't kill you!  You can't go calling it murder now.  That's not fair."

"What's not fair is you keeping secrets from me.  We're bound.  We live together.  You can't keep secrets."

"Why not?" I asked, my chin jutting out in defiance.

"Because it makes it too difficult for me to protect you," he said simply.

My head dropped down a couple inches, the guilt soaking into my brain.  "Oh."  I could detect no guile or deceit in his words.  He really meant what he was saying.  I sighed heavily, ready to cast off the secrets and be done with getting the humiliation over with.  "Okay, fine.  I'll tell you."  I lifted up my head and said, "Hello, my name is Jayne Sparks, and I am an absinthe-a-holic."

Ben laughed once and then looked confused.  "Uhhh... what?"

"You heard me," I said, jerking my hand out of his grasp.  "I drank some of that green shit in your room, I got wasted, and had some hallucinations, and then came in here and made a fool out of myself."  The sobering effect of the truth was making me feel sick all over again - only this time it wasn't the drink in my stomach but the thoughts of having to face all these really smart and nice fae who'd witnessed my being an idiot. 
Again.

"You drank the dragon's mead in my room?" he asked, his tone clearly saying he didn't believe I could be that stupid.

"Yeah.  But it wasn't my fault.  They made me do it."  When in doubt, blame the nearest scary creature.  That was my motto now.

"Who made you do it?"

"The dragons."

"What dragons?" he demanded, sounding angry now, like he didn't believe me.

"The dragons in your room, dummy.  What other dragons would I be talking about?"

"Jayne, stop being daft.  There are no dragons in my room."

"You're the one being daft.  What a stupid word, by the way.  There are exactly four dragons in your room and they told me to drink it, so it's mostly not my fault.  I mean, when a dragon tells you to do something, I'm pretty sure it's a rule that you just have to do it."

"Holy shit.  You're being serious."

"Holy shit, Ben.  You just cussed!"  I was pointing at him, my mouth hanging open in a half smile.  "Ha!  That's awesome!"

He grabbed my finger and held onto it, staring at me intently.  "Forget that and back up a second.  You're telling me you talked to dragons in my room. 
Real
dragons."

"What other kinds of dragons are there?" I asked, unsuccessfully trying to get my hand back.

"Where are they now?  What did they look like?"  He sounded like a little kid at Christmas, guessing what his presents might be.

I couldn't figure out what kind of game he was playing.  He looked at that stupid wall-hanging every day.  Surely he knew there were dragons on it.

"I know you know there are dragons in there.  Stop playing with my head.  I'm not drunk anymore, so it's not going to work."

He grabbed me by the upper arms and shook me twice, snapping my head back and forth.  "Jayne.  Tell me about the dragons."

I flapped my arms a few times to get him off me.  When he wouldn't let go I glared at him.  "Get your dick-beaters off me or I'm gonna blast you to kingdom come again."

He dropped his hands and waited expectantly for my answer.

"Fine.  You want to play dumb?  Go ahead.  The dragons told me some stuff and I'm pretty sure it's important, so you'd better drop this fire wall so we can talk to those other fae out there."

"You said they talked about your thighs.  How can that possibly be important?"

"I did not."

"Did too."

"Did not!  I said that they said the time draws nigh!"

"That's not what you said."

"Whatever!" I yelled.  "The time is coming, so drop the wall already!"

"Tell me first.  Maybe we shouldn't tell them at all."

I took a step away from him.  "Be careful, Ben.  You're starting to sound like one of the bad guys again."

"Listen," he said, running his hands through his hair in frustration, "I don't really know what the hell is going on.  After hearing what Jared said and getting knocked out for several hours by my partner ... everything's kind of ... confusing.  I just want to figure things out for you and me, first, before we involve everyone else.  We have to stick together."