Enchanted Revenge (16 page)

We waited for six hours after dinner, hoping that Rita would show up. I could tell that Alec was concentrating on something, probably trying to find a way out of here. Or maybe he was trying to pull his magic again. Who knew? He wasn’t talking to me, and every time I tried to bring up conversation, he quickly shut me down.

I tried with all my might to not think about that kiss. Our second kiss. I hadn’t been planning on kissing him, like he had suggested. It just happened. And really, I think he might have kissed me.

After we changed clothes, I tried to get him to practice fighting with me again to pass the time, but he wouldn’t. So I just stayed there on the bed, waiting and waiting.  I went through my memories, remembering everything great about my parents, strengthening my urge to find the Mortem.

I remembered the way they were together, so in love. I remembered the way they were with me, stern but kind. They were both so full of love. Love of each other, love of me and love of life in general. They always wanted us to ‘seize the day’ because you never knew how many days you had left. It made sense now. They knew what they had left behind.

I still didn’t know why they left. I mean, I guess I wouldn’t want my magic sucked away either, but still to leave everything you know to stay in a world you don’t belong was harsh. It explained why I always felt out of place, and why I looked so different. I mean, there are short girls, and pale girls, and even girls with bleach white hair. But never all in the same girl. And never one with orange eyes.

When the door opened, I shot up in the bed, wondering immediately why the guard hadn’t knocked like before. Maybe the Lord had changed his mind about letting us stay the night, and wanted to lock us up in a dungeon or something.

But it wasn’t the guard who came in. Rita stepped through the door, and shut it quietly behind her. Alec was up in front of the door, standing between the door and me, before she was even all the way through.

“The High Guard?” Alec asked.

“I used a screen,” she explained. “Listen, I don’t have much time. I have an amicus that is willing to assist you.”

“That’s wonderful news.” Hope flared in Alec’s emerald eyes.

“I overheard the dux and my father discussing the Mortem. As far as I can tell, they have ventured to Muircadia.” She paused, as if to ask if we had any information to offer.

“We are under the same impression. When the guard came for us, we had been heading there already.”

“Perfect. A Sprite called Lynn will be waiting for you. I can get you outside this hallway where magics are blocked to you, and then you must leave right away. Do you have means of transport, or do you plan on flying?”

“My protégé is not yet mature.” Yeah, I just loved it when he said that. “We will be using a tripudio.”

She nodded, picked up a bag that looked similar to my abscondita, and thrust it into Alec’s hands. “Here are some supplies. We’ll need to move quickly, my nursemaid will be looking for me soon.”

Alec nodded and took out the tripudio so that we could leave as soon as he had his magic. She waved her hands, and a mist covered us, starting a foot above her head and drifting down around us like a sparkling curtain.

“It is time,” she said.

“Thank you for this. I know you risk much in helping us and I appreciate it. We will not forget,” Alec promised her.

She only nodded, and then went to the door. She inhaled deeply before turning the handle and opening it. I couldn’t help the nervous flutters in my belly. It wasn’t the same feeling that I had just moments ago, when Alec kissed me. This was a scary feeling, one that was hard to shake or ignore. I ignored my sweaty palms, wiping them furiously on my pants. I took a deep breath too, hoping it would help calm my nerves, steady my heart, and make me ready for whatever was ahead.

In the hallway, the guard still stood, but didn’t appear to see us. I
so
couldn’t wait until I had magic of my own and could do anything I wanted.

She placed her finger on her lips, as if to say
be quiet
, and motioned for us to follow her. We tiptoed past the guard, and rounded a corner. We followed the hallway to the elevator that wasn’t quite an elevator, and as soon as the doors closed the mist disappeared.

“You should be able to call on your magics now,” Rita said to Alec.

He wiggled his fingers, and a small shimmering appeared above his hand. His smile reassured me. We could do this.

“Great. I’m taking you to a room that will be empty at this time of night. You should leave immediately.”

“Thank you, Lady Minor.”

When the door opened, we walked into a hallway. I could see the doors just ahead, the doors that would lead to our freedom. We rushed toward it, escape in sight.

“Halt!” a man bellowed from behind us.

But we didn’t stop. Alec pushed me ahead and shouted, “Run!”

I barely noticed that Rita has disappeared. All I could do was try to make my tiny legs move as fast as possible. I was so frustratingly short.

Suddenly, I felt a strong hand grasp my shoulder and push me to the wall, as I felt the air beside my head whoosh. In the door ahead of me I noticed a dagger protruding out.

My heart beat furiously as I realized Alec just saved me from having a knife go through my freakin skull.

“Shit.”

Alec ignored my outburst. “Faster, Lily.”

I tried, I really did. But my legs could only go so fast. The muscles in my thighs and calves heat up, bunching and stretching as I pushed my legs to their limits. I could hear the guy behind us murmuring something. Was he talking to himself? Or was he calling others to his aide, to stop us?

Again I tried to push faster. Harder. My breath was coming out in deep gasps. My arms pumped at my sides.

Alec finally left my side, rushing forward to open the door ahead of us. I breezed past him, and he slammed the door shut just as fast. Whispering something incoherent and waving his hands around in front.

“That won’t hold them off long,” he told me.

He placed the tripudio on the floor, and started to open it. But as soon as he did, I noticed a door on the other side of the room open and spit out several guards like a hissing cobra ready to attack. The guard behind the door we had just come through began banging on it; the thumping matched my frenzied heart.

Alec swore under his breath, but continued to focus on the device.

That’s when I saw the sword. It was huge, as big as the one I carried with me from my father. The guard was charging for Alec. I didn’t know if he could see him, since he was concentrating so hard, so I did the only thing I could think of.

I picked up the closest object and threw it at the guards head. The lamp smashed against his shoulder, knocking him slightly off balance, but didn’t stop him. I looked around for something else to grab, but there wasn’t anything. A couch. A few chairs. A wall of books lined the three sides of the room, but nothing that could do any damage. And the fourth wall was just open, like the other rooms I had been in. I could see the branches and the leaves beyond this prison, but still nothing I could use.

There was another guard who looked to be loading an arrow into a crossbow. A freaking crossbow! Like,
what the hell
?

The guard furthest away was the scariest of all, though. He wasn’t running for us, or even moving at all. He merely stood still and focused, just as Alec was doing. Behind him, through the opening in the walls, tree limbs started moving in.

They slashed the air, as if they were whips, and flew right for us. When the first one was coming right at me, Alec withdrew his own sword and cut the limb off. With a thump to the ground, it lay lifeless, withering right before my eyes. But the others didn’t stop.

The tree branches were coming for us, like the claws of an eight legged dragon. My eyes sought the trees and leaves I once thought beautiful. They terrified me now.

I wondered if we jumped, if I would survive. At least Alec could fly.

But not me. I would surely die.

Four guards in front that would reach us in less than a minute, a guard behind us ready to stick a knife in my head, and a drop out the window that would surely lead to my death.

There was no escape.

Alec picked the tripudio off the floor, grabbed me around the waist, and whispered in my ear, so close his warm breath snaked across my neck and down my spine. “I’m sorry, but I have no choice.”

My feet left the floor. Air caressed me from all sides, lifting me up. Alec’s warm chest was pressed firmly against my back, and his arms buckled around me. I felt my hair flying back behind me; it would so be a pain to brush out later. And all I could do was hold onto his hands, hoping and praying he wouldn’t let me go.

He whisked me out of that room, and between limbs and branches. Leaves slapped my face and scratched my arms, but I didn’t make a sound. I don’t think I could’ve even if I tried. Speechless held a new meaning for me after that.

Instead of going down, towards the ground, he took us up. Up and up and up.

When we burst through the canopy of green, I finally saw the sky for the first time in almost three weeks. The moon was bright, casting a pale glow across the tops of the trees, giving us a way to see. Beautiful.

I missed it more than I realized. The moon, the stars twinkling in the background that reminded me of the porta, the wind.

I craved it. All of it!

I heard Alec let out a deep breath, and could only imagine it was the same sigh of relief I felt.

The wind…the wind was
amazing
.

I turned my head to look up at him. His hair whipped around his head, just as mine did, and his emerald eyes were watching everything. He didn’t look at me, but at everything else all around us.

So I did too.

Everywhere that I looked it was green. It was like a plush carpet of green below me. As far as the eye could see, in every direction. I could see different types of trees, some wide, like a huge awning covering many smaller trees below it. And others were sharp, almost pointed, like the tops of Christmas trees that were 100 miles high.

We just kept flying. I didn’t know how he could hold onto me. I didn’t know how he could fly, even with me pulling him down.

When Rita had asked him about flying, he immediately told her no, no hesitation whatsoever. He told her I wasn’t mature yet, so obviously he couldn’t fly with me. But yet, he could. He was.

And I couldn’t help but question why he had apologized to me? Why would he ever apologize for giving me a gift as grand as this? It was the most amazing experience I could ever have, something I never even hoped to wish for. Something I always craved, when I didn’t even know I was craving it.

I always loved the wind. The feel of it across my skin, just as it was then. The feel across my entire body, blowing on my face, and blowing my hair back behind me, it was an all-encompassing gratification.

It was everything! Everything I ever wanted.

The only problem that I could see was that there didn’t appear to be any place to land? I could see no deviation. Everywhere that I looked, it was just trees. Would we fly back through the miles of branches, scratching the exposed parts of our bodies again? Would he have some way to get us out of here?

Was he going to just fly over the entire Ardennes until we reached an area that was no longer wooded? I didn’t know. I don’t think I could have formed coherent sentences if I tried, so I couldn’t even ask him.

Instead, I just held his hands, those strong, capable hands that were holding onto me. And I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment. Because in that exact moment, nobody was chasing us. There were no flying daggers, no crossbows, and no crazy tree limbs reaching for us. No crazy lords trying kill us, and no evil dux wanting to fight Alec. No giant wolf invading my brain, or pulsing briars hunting for blood. Nothing.

It was just me, the wind, and my strong protector behind me carrying me to safety.

Flying was indescribable, and I wanted the feeling to last forever.  I tried to imprint on my brain every single sensation, so that I could hold onto it forever.

When I opened my eyes again, I didn’t know how long we had been flying, but I could only imagine that Alec would be getting tired. He wasn’t only flying himself, but he was carrying me too.

The sun was just beginning to appear over the horizon, bruising the sky with shades of deep purple, dark crimson, and shadowed orange. He cast his magnificent glory all across the tops of the trees. Glorious.

I turned my head again, to look up at Alec and said, “What are we going to do? You’ve been flying for hours already.”

That’s when he finally looked down at me. His wings continued to beat furiously behind him, lifting us and pushing us through the currents in the air. His face was silhouetted with the light shining behind him. His eyes were so dark, the deepest, darkest green I had ever seen. Darker than any of the trees in the shadows of Ardennes or any of the trees below me. And he smiled at me, a genuine smile that reached up to his eyes and released his hidden dimples.

“We’re going to Muircadia, of course.” And then he looked away from me again, watching where to go.

Well, I guess that’s all the answer I was going to get. Obviously that’s where we were headed…but I wanted to know
how
we were going to get there.

Not like I could do anything about it though. He was carrying me, who knew how many miles off the ground above enemy territory.

When the sun finally emerged shining his full brilliance across the sky and land, I was more than ecstatic. I was finally able to see it for the first time in almost three weeks. It’s warmth spread across my face, down my head, over my body, and all the way down to my fingertips and tippy toes. I relished it, wanted more of it.

I cherished it.

I just closed my eyes, savoring the feelings, and I let him fly me away.

I must’ve fallen asleep, probably due to the easy swaying and the overall sense of serenity that came with flying. It was semi-understandable considering the fact that we hadn’t slept the night before while waiting for Rita.

When I was suddenly jolted awake by a feeling of falling, I startled, shaken and afraid by the feeling, before I realized he was still holding me and we were just descending.

Don’t worry, were just starting to land,
he told me telepathically.

I still loved it when he did that, because it meant that he felt a strong enough connection to me to be able to. And I loved the idea of him having any kind of strong feelings for me. Especially considering how light headed and giddy I felt, flying through the air. I welcomed all my butterflies back into my belly, and my skin was tingling all over, and all I could think about was that kiss, that mind blowing kiss.

The sun was directly above us, beating its warmth into me with each shining ray. When I looked down, there were still trees everywhere, the tips glittering in the sunlight, but I noticed the leaves below weren’t as dense, they were more sporadic, with spaces between the trees.

As we dived down, I noticed he was aiming for a specific spot. It was a little area, almost a diamond shaped field without any trees. It was strange though, because from up here, it looked like the grass was a dark pink color.

And I mean…yeah, that may sound weird. But I was in The Empyrean, and I had already seen an abada, and fairies with wings, and a crazy huge giant red wolf that talked to my brain, and tree limbs that moved to try and capture me. Pink grass wouldn’t be so bad.

Except, what if it wasn’t just blush colored grass. The only time I had seen grass like that was when I had cut myself after falling, and my blood tainted it.

Blood.

What if we were flying right into a fight?