Enchanted Revenge (11 page)

Alec didn’t get back until after dinner that night. I was sitting on the bed, in the bedroom I had been using when he knocked.

“How are you?” he asked me after walking in.

“Fine.” Though I understood him better, I had been getting angry with him as the time went by today. He didn’t tell me where he was going or when he would be back. He just left. Several times throughout the day I had wondered if he would come back at all. Maybe it was my own insecurities or just my general anger issues…but I had been freaking out most of the day wondering where he was and if he was okay.

“I wanted to apologize for leaving without speaking to you. I was going to tell you, but I didn’t want to wake you. Plus, it was easier for me to ask around without you being there.”

My eyes shot up to him. “What do you mean? I could have helped you.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “No, you couldn’t have. You don’t know the customs of the Nymph. You don’t know who to ask, or what to ask or where to go. You have no offensive skills and nothing that could have been any use.”

My face warmed as the color shifted. Blushing was dumb. Especially when it was because I was angry. He was right, and there wasn’t anything I could say to refute him. So I crossed my arms in front of my chest and sulked.

“I found a lead that I had to follow. I had to…talk to him.” Though when he said it, I had a feeling he didn’t mean just talking. “I plan on going back tomorrow. There is someone else I need to talk to.”

“Okay,” I said, hoping to encourage him to continue. Because though I was angry at him for not telling me anything, I was dying to know what had happened during the day and if he found anything out.

He came and sat down on the bed next to me. “I am sorry that I didn’t tell you I was leaving, I wasn’t expecting to be gone all day.” He sounded so sincere.

He was looking right at me, and I realized that he was the first person who didn’t look confused when he looked into my eyes, other than my parents of course. He didn’t flinch away, or look at me like a freak. He didn’t act like I was something other, even though I didn’t really fit in his world either. He just looked right at me. He looked at me like I was someone…a real person. Someone important.

“Okay. It’s fine. Just don’t let it happen again,” I teased him. Because really I had nothing over him. He smiled back at me and nodded.  “So, who did you talk to? Did you find anything out? Were they here?”

“I found someone who I believe knows of these Fae. What we’re looking for is a group of four or five, most Nymph, maybe one Pixie. That’s all I really have to go off of, and of course their scent.” I nodded. “So, when I questioned him, he directed me to another Nymph, one called Samael. I will go see him tomorrow.”

This was good. A lead. Something. A tendril of hope. Something that I would clasp onto, hold onto with all my might and not let go of. Maybe, hopefully, this Samael guy would know where we can find them. My next obstacle would be getting Alec to take me along. After his little, you-don’t-know-anything speech, I wouldn’t even ask him. I would just follow along behind him if I had to.

“Anyways, I was thinking that if you aren’t too tired, maybe I could make it up to you.”

“What? What do you mean?” I asked, thoroughly confused at the change in conversation. My own train of thought was far away focusing on how I was going to follow a fairy without him knowing.

“I thought we could practice defensive moves, if you’re up for it.”

I nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, I would like that a lot.”

He turned and walked outside, stopping between two giant Oaks. Thankfully, it was late enough that I didn’t see anyone else around. I so didn’t want to look like a fool in front of anyone, especially not a breed I wasn’t familiar with. Then Alec lit up his hovering light thing, the same thing he had done before, so that we could see in the dark. 

“Hey, why have you been keeping your wings in lately?” I was starting to think I had made them up in my mind.

“I would keep them out if I were to fight, but it makes less of a statement when surrounded by Nymph, especially here in their Central Village.” I guess that made sense. No Nymph had wings. I wondered if they felt cheated, since Sylph were the only Fae to get wings? Or maybe they didn’t question it at all. Who knew?

When he got into his battle stance, I went to mimic him, but before I got into it, I stopped. There was something I needed to know. Something I had been thinking about all day, since the talk with Nona this morning.

“What do you think of the King and Queen?”

“What?” he asked, his face was confused and he stood up rigid, his spine straight. “What do you mean?”

“Are you a rebel?” I asked finally.

“Why would you ask me that?” He looked defensive.

Maybe it was just the battle stance turned rigid that freaked me out. But then I regretted that Nona had told me anything. Though I appreciated knowing it, and understanding why Alec is the way he is, it wasn’t her story to tell me. Now it felt weird knowing everything without him ever saying anything about it.

Still, I pressed on. “I think I should know if you are a rebel. Know what I’m getting myself into. I have no urge to fight against a high-taxing, brutal king. I really don’t care about it.” Though he didn’t know that I knew, I still felt bad for sounding as harsh as I did. I just needed him to know where I stood on this.

“I am not part of any rebellion. I do not conspire to bring down the king and queen. I am a Realm Guard, so I follow their commands.” Then he crouched a little lower and motioned for me to follow his lead. I did. And then he continued, “Though, that doesn’t mean I give a damn about him. I have no loyalty to the king.”

He moved to his left, and I moved to my right, so we still faced each other, and got back into the battle stance. Then we moved the opposite direction. And then back again. In a weird way, it almost felt like we were dancing.

“I still hope for the day that the rightful King and Queen return. They were good Fae, honorable, courageous and fair.”

“How long have they been gone?” I asked in between breaths. Alec was moving at a faster speed, moving forward and backward and still expecting me to get back into the same defensive position.

“King Mastikh and the Pixies took over about 200 years ago. Though King Coenraad was still in the fight at that time. The followers that were loyal to him followed him and fought against Mastikh.”

Now we were moving in a circle, still facing each other. He would go twice to the right, then once to the left, then twice to the right, so that we were turning all the way around. I was almost running to keep up with him. And as he started leaping instead of just stepping to the side, I had to jump hard to maintain the same distance between us.

“But finally, after twenty years of battles, King Mastikh had something to use against Coenraad,” he was starting to breathe harder now too, so it was getting more difficult for him to talk. “He had captured Queen Norleen.”

“Copy me,” he said suddenly, leaving behind the story. Then, as we moved right, to right, to left he started spinning himself between each move. I stopped to watch him. It looked like a dance he was performing, and it was beautiful. He was graceful, but still scary fierce. I knew that in any position he landed in, he would be able to defend himself. So I quickly copied him.

“Mastikh kept Queen Norleen captive for at least 160 years. Those years are known as The Tribulation. King Mastikh grew harder and meaner. He instilled new laws and began taxing our magic more. He started taking more food, to serve to his army, and killed anyone who refused. It was at the end of those 160 years that King Coenraad left us.”

By this point we were both breathing pretty hard, spinning and crouching. Turning then crouching. Walking then crouching. And running then crouching. Then he stopped and stood up straight. I hunched over in an attempt to steady my beating heart and lungs that were screaming for more air.

“Not everyone believes he is dead as Mastikh claims. Some, especially some of those in the rebellion, believe he saved his queen and they escaped into hiding.”

“Wow,” I said, not really caring about all the king and queen stuff. Mostly I was focusing on watching the way Alec moved, and trying to make my body move like his did. Which was super hard, by the way. Still, the whole queen-getting-stolen thing was sad.

“Okay, so I think you got that part down. I want to try and move you now.”

“Okay,” I said again, because even though I didn’t know what he meant, I was up for anything. I was so tired of this try to stand right thing.

“So, you try to maintain your hold, while I try to push you down.”

I nodded my head, understanding.

I was still breathing hard, but better than I was before. I went back down into my almost crouch, where my knees were shoulder width apart and bent a little. I kept my hands up and open, as he told me. First he came at me from the front, and pushed just a little, but still my feet shuffled back as I tried to right myself.

“No, you have to shift your weight. Hold yourself up.”

I sighed, but got back into my stance.

Then he went to my side and pushed my shoulder. This time I did a little better, but still I had to move my feet. Then he started moving faster. My right side, then my left, then from behind, then my left again. There was no rhyme or reason to where he went. He just circled me, going back and forth and pushing me.

“Geez, give me a break,” I said finally. I was exhausted, and it was apparent, since I was getting worse rather than better at staying up. He sighed, but nodded.

“We can be done for the night, if you want.”

“No. Just let me catch my breath,” I told him. I squatted down, and tried to breathe easier, then finally laid back down on the grass, trying to get more air into my lungs. He walked up and looked down at me, smiling.

“You’re doing well. We don’t have to continue.” Instead of answering him, I only shook my head and then pushed myself up to my feet.

And we did it again and again and again.

I started noticing something. If I pushed into his shove a little, I could stop myself from moving. I started focusing on anticipating where he would shove me, so that I could push a little in that direction. And it made a significant difference. I started staying up, even with push after push from him.

I also noticed that he started pushing harder. Not just a little brush, like he had been. It turned into a full on shove. So I had to try even harder to stay upright.

At one point, he was coming up to my right, so I put all my weight on my right foot, readying myself for impact, but at the last second he switched sides before I could react, and he pushed me from the left. With all my weight on my right side, I went down hard, landing on my right hip.

“Are you okay?” he asked, pretending to care, even though his mocking smile was laughing at me.

“You did that on purpose, you jerk,” I accused. And to my complete shock, he started laughing. Like a for real, deep belly laugh.

“Yeah I did. I wanted to see how fast you could react. You were doing great, so I thought I would switch it up.”

I rolled my eyes at him and pulled myself up. He came and offered his hand, but I ignored it.

“For the record, you aren’t supposed to laugh at a girl when she falls down.” But his smile grew as I teased him.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t be so…you.” Then he laughed at himself.

“That doesn’t even make sense.” I finally started laughing too.

“Who cares? I don’t have to make sense all the time. And I’m not the best at come-backs when there’s a silly girl distracting me.”

“No kidding. You could have fooled me.”

“Whatever. I can’t be the best at everything
all
the time.”

I rolled my eyes at him, as he chuckled at himself.

“Come on,” he said before leading me back inside.

That night I slept hard. No dreams. Just much needed rest for my head and sore body.

The next morning I woke up to Alec standing over me. I almost jumped out of my skin seeing his green eyes looking down at me while I was vulnerable in bed.

“You coming with me today, or what?” he asked. The same smile from last night was still on his face, and his eyes were a pretty, bright green today dazzling with hidden mischief and excitement. I only nodded at him and he said, “Great, you have five minutes to get ready.”

I looked at the window, and noticed the sun wasn’t even up yet. Dang, today would suck. My hip hurt like hell, my arms and legs were sore too, as well as other various parts of my body that had been shoved. Not to mention my sore, blistered feet.

Still I got up, dressed quickly and then ran out of the room to find him.

As we were leaving, Kerr came up behind us and whispered something in Alec’s ear. Alec only nodded and then clapped him on the shoulder. I wish I could’ve heard what they said, but I couldn’t hear any of it. Hopefully I would have better hearing after my birthday when I got all magical and stuff.

We walked through some trees, weaving through them as if Alec knew exactly where to go. And I guess he did. He knew this area. I tried to reconcile the two Alecs. The one that I had known for the last two and a half weeks, who was short with speech, short tempered, constantly sighing and was cocky and impatient, with the Alec that Nona had talked about. The one who would defy all rules and fall in love with a Nymph.

I was so focused on trying to better understand this Fae who was helping me, that I hardly noticed the change of scenery.

I don’t know exactly what I was expecting to walk into, when walking into the middle of Central Village. But once I got there, I realized it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. Yet, at the same time it felt almost like Déjà vu, like it was a place I had seen before. The mixture of thoughts was very confusing.

The ground was all wooden, but it wasn’t like plank boards. It was like tree limbs that you might see coming up through the grass. There were ridges in the streets, as if the street was made of forty or fifty tree limbs all lying next to each other. Yet they were sanded down to be smooth.

All of the buildings were trees. And yet there was still an industrial feel in that they were tall buildings, like skyscrapers. Like tree skyscrapers. You couldn’t see the sky at all because there were so many leaves and branches above the buildings covering everything overhead. And every time you thought you might be able to see through the branches and leaves, up to the sky, even for just a minute, you only got to see more green.

There was no clearing that I had seen yet, not like in the little village. And yet there were alleyways and streets, just not paved in cement. Only paved in trees and leaves. It almost felt like I was walking through a giant tree, walking through the tree limbs, inside of the branches. Everything was wood and weeds and leaves.

There were no flowers in this part of Ardennes. No birds or animals scurrying around. It was all just wooden and brown. Brown everywhere. I thought, probably naively, that there would be an actual building somewhere, but there wasn’t. There wasn’t any cement anywhere.

After walking down an alleyway of sorts, we came to the back of another wooden building. Alec knocked twice on the door, paused, and knocked once more.

A Nymph opened the door. He was tall, as they all are, especially compared to me and Alec, and he was built. He had broad shoulders and muscles everywhere. He reminded me of a bouncer at a club or something.

“Name?”

Alec didn’t say his name though. He said, “Samael.”

“Samael?” The bouncer asked, as if he was surprised someone would come to this place asking for that man. He looked at Alec, as if sizing him up, and then he looked at me, but just briefly. I guess I didn’t look like anyone special.

“Yes,” Alec said. His voice sounded strong, so sure of himself.

“Hold on,” the bouncer said, and then shut the door in our faces.

“So, do you know anything about this Samael guy?” I asked Alec, while we were waiting. My hands had started to sweat as soon as the bouncer opened the door, and my heart beat picked up a few notches.

“Only that he has connections and is supposed to know things.” Then he turned and looked me right in my eyes, no longer facing the door. “Now, I need to tell you Lily, some things may go down here that you may not want to see. I don’t know if you have been around violence, but I sometimes need to find alternative ways of being persuasive.”

The implications were clear, and I didn’t hesitate in my response.

“That’s okay. If he can lead us to who we are looking for, then I can deal with it.” I cleared my throat and then said, “I will do whatever it takes.”

“Good,” he said simply, and nodded his head once.

The bouncer opened the door again and motioned for us to follow him. As soon as we entered, the bouncer pulled Alec to the side.

“No weapons in the presence of the Dux.” The bouncer’s voice was as deep as you would imagine, considering his massive size. They removed the blade from his side, but that was the only weapon they could find. I could tell Alec hesitated in letting it go, but what choice did he have? If he demanded to keep it, they would wonder why.

Then we turned and started walking. I followed behind Alec, who was one step behind the bouncer. I noticed while walking behind the tall Nymph, that his hair was long, like most of the others, and was braided down his back. At the very tip, it was green as if he had dyed the last four inches of it. Kinda gave me the urge to dye my hair some funky color.

When I walked inside the building, my eyes were assaulted with colors that I hadn’t seen in what felt like ages. Everything was blue and red. Blue carpet, red ceiling. Blue lamps, red couches. Blue paintings, red walls. There were no browns and greens like outside.

I freaking
loved
it.

We went down a hallway, past several doors, and then down some stairs. I just kept following them, and stayed quiet, just as Alec was, because I didn’t want to mess anything up by saying the wrong thing. And despite my sweating hands, and my heartbeat which was increasing in speed with every step we took down, I kept my mouth shut.

At the end of the stairs was a door, and the bouncer turned around to face us.

“Stay here.” Again, Alec only nodded, so I did too, not like they were looking at me anyway.

After about five minutes, the door opened and the bouncer motioned for us to come in. Inside was what resembled a lobby. There was a single desk at the back, where a receptionist might sit. Two chairs in front of that desk, and a couch on the side. We sat on the couch and waited. Again I had to bite my tongue.

After another five minutes, that felt more like an hour, the lone door behind the desk opened. A Nymph walked out, that looked very similar to the bouncer. He was tall, tan and strong. Very strong. He even had the same facial features as the bouncer, which made me think they might be brothers. But his hair was short. Shorter than any of the Nymph I had seen so far. It was cropped, like how the men in the military wore theirs back in the Mortal Realm.

“Y’all lookin’ for me?” His accent was very thick, not like any of the other Nymph I had heard speak. He sounded almost like the cowboys from the southern United States.

“Yes sir. I have some questions I would like to ask you, if there is someplace private we can speak.”

“Well, it ain’t every day I have a Sylph Realm Guard show up at ma door.” Then he turned and walked through the door he had just come out of. Alec stood to follow him, so I did too.

The next room was like another office type room. There was another single desk in the back, with two chairs in front of it. There were no couches in this room though, but there were bookshelves on the walls, and several file cabinets. Also, the room was much darker than the lobby before it.

Samael went behind the desk and sat down, then motioned for us to sit at the chairs.

“What can I do for ya?” he asked Alec.

“We are looking for a group of Fae. Maybe four or five of them. They are mostly Nymph. With maybe one Pixie.”

Samael chuckled before saying, “There are many group of Fae. What do you know about ‘em? Anything specific?”

“They are skilled assassins. Very strong. Their magic is very deep. They have recently been to the Mortal Realm and back.  They should have passed through here a few days ago. We followed their trail here.”

Recognition flared on the Nymph’s face.  But then it turned to curiosity and suspicion. His left eyebrow rose and he pursed his lips. “And what are you looking for this group of Fae for?”

“We would like to speak with them.” Alec sounded so sure, so confident in his words. If he was afraid, he didn’t show it. But the guy behind the desk got scarier with each moment I was sitting in front of him.

As they talked, I studied him. His eyes were dark brown, so dark they were almost black. He had a scar above his left eye that curved and touched the corner of his nose. His shoulder, which was bare since he was wearing a tank, showed another scar, one that I couldn’t identify. It was jagged and circular and looked crazy painful.

“I know of one group of assassins that came through here. There are five of ‘em. Three Nymph, one Pixie, one Sprite. They’re very deadly. They are called Mortem. I know that they came here from the Mortal Realm after a job.” Then he paused, as if he was considering what else to say. “Do you wish to hire them?”

I’m pretty sure my face was aghast at the thought. So much for a poker face. Thankfully, Samael was only looking at Alec, I was invisible to him. Still a baby, not even a novice. No threat.

I looked over at Alec, his face didn’t betray any of his thoughts or emotions, but I could see something simmering just below the surface of his eyes. I just didn’t know what exactly was causing the super crazy, evil-eye thing he had going on.

“I only wish to know where they went after leaving here.”

“What makes you think that they left?”

“You said they ‘passed through,’ so I would assume they are no longer here. Do you know where they went?”

“Maybe. But that don’t mean ima tell you where they went.”

“Though you are Dux in this town, as a Realm Guard I have authority over you. You need to tell me what you know or face the wrath the King himself.” Alec’s voice was steel. I couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of pride at standing next to him.

Samael’s laugh was wicked. There was no humor in it. It was maniacal and shot my fear through the roof.

“You think you can come into my place of business and threaten me?” He got up from his desk, just as the door behind us opened and the bouncer came through. He shut the door behind him and stood in front of it.

Alec stood from his chair. He didn’t crouch into our battle stance; instead he stood up tall and nodded only once. In an instant he pushed me back into the chair, and put his hand in front of him and made the chair scoot back. It was like he was telekinetically controlling the chair, just as he had frozen me back at my home.

“I never threaten,” Alec promised.