Enchanted Revenge (3 page)

I sat at the table. The very table I had sat at mere hours before with my parents. The two people I loved most in this world, and yet two people I would never, ever see again.

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat.

“Where are my parents?” I asked him once he sat down next to me. His eyes flicked up to me, confusion spread across his face.

“You don’t remember?”

I looked down at the bowl of cereal he had made for me, no longer wanting to look at him. “I remember that they died. But they aren’t in the living room anymore.” My fingers trailed along the gash in my left hand from that piece of glass. It was wider than I expected it to be. The blood is now almost black, scabbing over and ugly. I didn’t even wince as I touched it, though the pain was there. It was nothing compared to the gash in my heart, which was blacker and uglier even though it couldn’t be seen.

“Oh. I have performed the Dansa de la Mort.” When I looked at him like he was speaking German, he elaborated for me. “It’s a ritual performed for all Fae once they pass on to the Outer Realm.”

“What is the Outer Realm? And what did you do to the…” I struggled to get it out, “the bodies?”

“The Outer Realm is the place for souls. It’s where your soul goes once it leaves your body. You may think of it as Heaven. That’s what mortals believe, anyway.”

“What do you mean, ‘mortals’? Are you saying that you are immortal?”

“No, Fae do die.” He cleared his throat. “We just live much longer than human beings. We call them mortals because they die so quickly. They age so fast. A normal Fae may live into her 800
th
year without any issues. Some live for over a few thousand years. So the human life-span is very short to us.”

“Okay. So where are their bodies? You said you performed some ritual… what did you do?”

“Yes. I performed the Dansa de la Mort. I suppose it would translate as the Dance of Death. It’s a ritual where we use magic to help guide the soul of the Fae to the Outer Realm. In reality, I suppose a soul would find its way to the Outer Realm on its own, but it is out of respect and honor that we perform the ritual, to make the transition that much easier for the fallen Fae. Afterward, the bodies are gone from this Realm.”

“So you’re saying my parents were fairies?” I decided I would go along with this for the time being, to see what lunacy he could spew. It wasn’t so much that I believed him-because I didn’t, but I had no other explanation for anything that had happened.

“Yes. Your parents were Fae. They were heavily cloaked. They must have been very powerful. I sensed Sylph magic around them, just as I do with you, though it is still cloaked.”

“What do you mean, ‘cloaked?’”

“A cloak is magic. It can hide your abilities and lineage. To any normal observer, you would appear mortal, that is, human. I have been doing this for a long time. I know a human when I see one, and even I didn’t know right away that you were more than human.”

“So why are you here anyway?” Like seriously, what the heck was this delusional dude doing
here
? “Who are you?”

“As a Realm Guard, my duty is to secure this Realm. There are many of us here, all across the Mortal Realm. When I sense a large amount of Magic in an area, I go to investigate it, as we Fae are not supposed to use a lot of Magic in this Realm. I came here because I sensed a huge amount of Magic.” Then he looked down at his own food before continuing. “I only wish I could have gotten here sooner. I don’t know if I could have saved your parents, but I would have died trying.”

“Why? Why would you sacrifice yourself for someone else? Unless…Did you know them?” I didn’t realize how hopeful those words would make me.

“No, unfortunately I did not. And even during the ritual I could not sense who they truly were. But I could sense bonum, true goodness in them. And so I would have fought to protect them. The clothes they left this Realm in reaffirmed my belief in their goodness. They left in white, the color of purity.”

“I can tell you who they were. They were good people. The best, actually. The best parents anyone could ever want. Almost perfect, ya know? My dad’s name was Conner and my mother was Leena.” A single tear slid down my cheek before I could wipe it away. “They were just…” I couldn’t finish the sentence though.

“I am truly sorry for your loss. Less than two decades with your parents… it’s almost blasphemy. A relationship with ones parents should never be stripped from them in this way.” He spoke with such conviction that I wondered if something had happened to his own parents.

“Thanks.” I looked down at my hands again, as I thought through everything that happened. At least he was offering me answers, no matter how off the wall they sounded.

“And I guess I’m glad you’re here, because some crazy stuff happened and I kinda feel like I’m losing my mind.” I told him. And I meant it. “When I got home they were both dead. There was blood everywhere. Their bones were broken, and…” I shivered. “My mom’s head was cut off.”

He gasped. “No!” When he shouted that single word, I could feel the entire house shake with his very tangible anger. A vein was protruding from his forehead and neck, and his muscles bulged beneath his shirt.

His weird reaction confused me even further. “Yeah. But that wasn’t even all. It looked like they had been tortured. It was disgusting.” Another tear escaped. I wiped it away.

“Decapitation is the highest form of punishment, reserved for traitors,” he explained. “But I could sense the bonum in them. They couldn’t have been betrayers.”

I shook my head, then pushed my food away, my appetite officially gone. He didn’t know them. Obviously they didn’t betray anyone. Obviously they were good people. What was done to them was the most horrible thing that could have ever happened to anyone.

I didn’t care that he didn’t understand why something like this would happen to people that were so good. Because
I
couldn’t understand it, and
I
knew them. I
loved
them.

“I kept some of their things for you” he said as he placed a small velvet purse thing on the table in front of me.

I grabbed the bag, wondering what he could have fit into it, considering the size. The bag felt light, lighter than a piece of paper. It was smooth and soft, the purple velvet felt comforting to my hands. I pulled the gold cording to open it and tipped it over, so as to release its contents on the table, but nothing came out.

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s an abscondita. It can hold much more than it looks, and will still feel virtually empty. But nothing will just fall out of it. You must reach inside it and pull out what you want. I also packed some clothes and food in it, so make sure to pull out only what you want.”

I ignored his confusing words, trying to remember that apparently magic exists and crap. Apparently fairies are real, and when they die their bodies heal.

Apparently there was a glitch in the Matrix.

Apparently all my screws were loose…

I reached into the bag and thought of my dad, something that would be his. My hand grasped something heavy and cylindrical. I pulled, and as it started to come through the opening in the bag, I realized what it was and released it back into the bag.

“You put his sword in here?”

“Yes. It’s a very powerful weapon. It has been infused with all four Magics, which is very rare.” When I only looked at him like he was a little crazier than I had originally thought, he added, “It is a great honor to wield your parent’s weapon.” 

“I can’t even lift the thing up,” I admitted, feeling weak and foolish.

“How old are you?”

“Why? What does that even matter?” I said, instantly defensive.

“At seventeen years of age, a Fae comes into his or her Magic. If you are not yet seventeen, it would be very difficult, nearly impossible, for you to wield a Fae Blade.”

“Oh. I’ll be seventeen in a few weeks.” I finally answered. So, maybe once my birthday came I would be magical too. “Will I have magic?”

“Yes. All Fae do. Well, most. Each has a different form of Magic. You are a Sylph, best as I can tell anyway. And so, you will also have the gift of air. Sylph are the only Fae who have wings. We are also the smallest of the Fae.”

Finally an explanation for my height. No matter how ridiculous it sounded, I would take it. Being teased about how I should’ve stayed with Snow White was even more relevant now. I was in a real life fairy tale.

“What other kinds of Fairies are there?” I asked as I reached into the bag again, hoping to pull out something of my mother’s this time.

“There are four breed of Fae. Sylph are the Air Fairies. We have wings and control over the air. Pixies are Fire Fairies and can wield fire. Sprites are Water Fairies. And Nymph are the Land Fairies.”

“Oh,” I murmured as my hand gripped ahold of something firm finally and I pulled it out. It was the book that had appeared when my mother’s clothes had changed. It was bound in a deep brown leather, and was tied together with a golden cording that was woven through the binding and back together at the front. It was beautiful, though I had never seen it before she died.

“Why would this have appeared in her hands when she died?” I asked him, without even looking at him. I couldn’t make myself look away from the book at all.

“It must have been very important to her,” he answered. “It looks like an Ephemeris.”

“It looks like a
book
to me,” I said, tired of him saying things that I didn’t understand.

He ignored my sarcasm. “An Ephemeris is like a journal or diary. Most Fae don’t keep them, the written word can be damning. It makes things more real if it is written down. It becomes permanent. Usually only royals, lords and ladies, or record-takers keep an Ephemeris, though they keep them hidden under lock and key. It is very difficult for any Fae to lie, especially in the written word.”

I tried to open the book, but the cording wouldn’t come undone. Every time I pulled on it to untie it, the cords would fasten themselves back together. I guess I needed magic for that too. I sighed.

“So what do we do now?” I finally tore my eyes from the book. “You said you would help me find the people who killed my parents. Did you mean that?”

“Absolutely. A Realm Guard is very good at tracking Magics. It may not be fast, but I can help you find them. The Fae who did this were not amateurs though. As soon as I entered your home, I sensed several strong Fae, but they cloaked their magic. It may not be easy to find them.”

“Fae? You think Fairies did this to my parents?”

“Without a doubt.”

“So, how do we find evil Fairies?”

“We must go home,” he answered. And finally, I understood what he meant by
home
. He meant the home of the fairies. A conviction filled me from my toes to the tips of my hairs. I would find my parent’s killers, and I would kill them. I would enact justice. I would avenge my parents.

I would not cry again for them, not until I’ve killed their killers. I would be strong. I would do what was needed. I would
be
what was needed.

Screw school. Screw college. Screw everything and everyone.

“Let’s go then,” I said as I stood up.

He smiled and nodded before leading me to the front door.

“What may I call you?” he asked me as we walked out of the kitchen.

“My name is…” I started, but he interrupted me.

“You do
not
need to tell me your name. A name is sacred to the Fae. You only tell your name to those you trust with your life. Tell me what I can call you,” he explained.

“What? Is it like
Rumplestilskin
? If you know my name, then you have power over me?” The sarcasm tasted more acidic than I thought it would.

“No. Not necessarily power over you. It’s just… the custom.” Vaguest-answer-in-the-world award goes to random green-eyed fairy. “It’s always better to be safe than sorry. I will tell you, okay? You can call me Alec.”

“Okay, Alec. You can call me Lily.” Which technically wasn’t really my name. My real name was Lilkalena, but no one called me that anyway.

“Okay then, Lily. It’s a pleasure to meet you, though I honestly wish we had met under different circumstances,” he said as he bowed his head to me.

“Yeah, me too.” Then I bowed my head slightly, because he made me feel like I should, even though it felt pretty freakin’ weird.

In that moment, that I was glad for this distraction called Alec, the one who could help me. Because I didn’t care about school anymore. Or any stupid homework assignments. Or those silly books, with their exciting adventures. I didn’t care about any of that anymore. My old life was over. I would forget it. I would move on.

My only purpose would be to find
them
.

And kill them.

As we left my house, I couldn’t help but feel like I would never see it again. Like I was saying goodbye. Goodbye to my old home. Goodbye to Kansas, and this little town I’ve always lived in. Goodbye to my parents. Goodbye to everything. I walked away with my hands shoved into my jacket pockets and my beanie pulled down over my ears, and didn’t look back.

Not one tear escaped…

“So, Alec, how do we go the fairy world?” I asked as I walked beside him down the street.

“There are portas throughout the realms. Doorways from one realm to another. There is at least one porta in every continent, however some have more than one. There are three in the United States, two in Canada and one in Mexico. The closest porta to us in northern Texas.”

I stopped and pulled his arm to make him stop also. “In Texas? You do know that we are in Kansas right now, right?”

“Yes. Of course I know where we are.” Then he started walking again, expecting me to follow him. “We will use a Tripudio.”

“Oh, of course. A trip thingie. Just what I was thinking.” The sarcasm dripped off my tongue. “I probably could use a good trip right now.”

He ignored my snide remark and continued walking. We had just passed by the library and I made myself keep my eyes on the road. I didn’t want to look at my one place of refuge. I didn’t want to look back at the past anymore. I was headed for the future. To a place with retribution and justice.

“A tripudio is a device that allows Fae to travel from one place to another, within a certain distance, within one Realm. We can travel from Dodge City, Kansas, to Amarillo, Texas easily. What would take us ten hours to drive, or several hours to fly, will only take us a few minutes to walk there.” He said, then cleared his throat. “But it is limited. We couldn’t travel from here to like…England or anything. That distance would be too far. Just like, back home, we could travel anywhere in Ardennes, but not from one end of Ardennes to the far end of Muircadia.”

“You know, can you just imagine that you are talking to someone who has no idea what you’re talking about, for just a minute?” I said, exasperated at my lack of knowledge and his idiotic assumptions that I would just understand.

He looked over at me, and nodded. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to pretend that you’re a mortal.”

“Thanks.”
I guess…

“While in the Mortal Realm, in order for a tripudio to work, we must be on sacred ground, meaning we must be near or inside a church.”

Up ahead I saw the red bricks of the First Baptist Church and finally understood where we were walking. Just a few more blocks and we would be there.

“So, then what? We go to the church and then do what?”

“Then we walk through the tripudio,” he stated matter-of-factly.

We walked up to the huge brick building, and headed up the stairs. The building was shaped strangely, almost like three rectangles connecting. We walked in between two of the sides, past the flagpole toward the back, where we would be hidden in the shadow of the building. It was still night time, so no one would see us anyway

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a device about four inches wide, but less than a half an inch in height. It was four circles connected to one circle in the middle. In each of the four circles was a different design.

“Can I see it?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

“Sure.” He placed it into my open hands. It was heavier than I had imagined, probably weighed over five pounds. It was either dirty, old gold, or brass. The middle circle had nothing, and was smaller than the other four. The top left circle had what looked like a flame. The top right had what appeared to be a water drop. The bottom left had a crooked diamond, and the bottom right had a swirling line, like a spiral.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Thank you. They all look very similar. Some are engraved differently, or made of different materials. Mine was passed down from my father, and his father before him.”

He took it back from me and set it down on the grass, laying it flat. He stepped back from it and placed his hands in front of him, palms down toward the device.

For a minute nothing happened, until it started to get warmer and the wind picked up slightly. I felt that same weird mist then, and I was almost certain it came from his hands and went toward that little tripudio thing.

“What is that?” I demanded. “I felt that back at my home, when my parents…”

“It is magic. Only Fae can feel it.” He reached out a hand for me. “You must hold my hand. Without magic you cannot enter.”

I grabbed hold of his hand and looked up at him, waiting for him to explain more to me. Like how the hell that tiny device would take us from Kansas to Texas. But once I touched his hand, I saw it. The Tripudio was spinning, and the tiny hole in the middle had grown much larger. So large that perhaps a person could fit through it.

Then I got scared. Did he expect me to jump into a hole in the ground?

“What now? I’m not jumping down the rabbit hole. You can call me Lily, not Alice,” I told him.

He laughed, like an actual laugh. And it was so strange, because I never made people laugh. I felt like a lifetime has gone by without me making anyone else laugh, and yet this stranger thought I was funny. I couldn’t help but be thankful again for him and his methods of keeping my mind off my parents.

“Don’t worry, it’s not Wonderland we are going to.” Then, without any warning, he pulled me toward him in an almost-embrace, and jumped with me in his arms.

I felt my feet leave the ground, and I felt the mist circle around me, and for a single moment I really did feel like Alice jumping down a rabbit hole. When he started to let me go, I pulled myself closer to him, wrapping my arms around his neck for fear of falling into oblivion.

“You don’t have to hold on so tight. All you need to do is hold my hand as we walk through it. I only needed to hold onto you while we jumped in, and then again when we jump out.”

“But I’ll fall,” I argued. I felt like I was already falling.

“Open your eyes.” So I did. His eyes were the first thing I saw. They were so green. No longer dark green, like before. Now they were bright, like a light was shining through them. And then I realized how close we were, with my arms wrapped around his neck, holding on for dear life.

I looked down at my feet and noticed, though I couldn’t feel anything, I could see something beneath us. I was walking on the stars. At least that’s what it looked like. Below us everything was dark blue, almost black, with tiny lights flickering in and out in various locations.

I released my hold on his neck and stood in front of him, only holding onto one of his hands. Everything around us was the same. Everything was so dark. Dark blues, dark purples, dark reds and greens. But it was all so dark it was almost black, with only the tiny lights all over illuminating everything. It was like a tunnel, a tunnel you could only see but not feel.

“Are we in the sky? Because, Toto, we are
so
not in Kansas anymore.”

He smiled at my
Wizard of O
z reference. “It looks like it, doesn’t it? This is the inside of the tripudio.”

“How does it know where we want to go?” It was all so mind-boggling.

“I’m telling it where I want to go. I opened it with my magic, and so it obeys my command. It’s like…like I pushed a button, just as you program a microwave to do something with a button.”

“Oh,” was all I could think to say. “Wow.” Then we walked hand-in-hand toward our destination.

“So, where we are going, what is it like?” I asked after a few minutes, trying to fill the silence that was so unnerving to me.

“It is home.” He said those three words with such passion it caught me off guard. It was obvious he loved his home. I almost envied him that. I would never go home again. I was homeless.

“You said something before about some woods?” I asked, urging him to continue as we walked.

“Ardennes is where the Nymph live. Muircadia is where the Sprites live. Vesuvius is home to the Pixies. And Kamalani is my home.”

“Wow,” I said again.

“So are we going to Kamalani?” I asked.

“No, we are going to Texas right now, but then we will go home. Anyway, you cannot portal to Kamalani, you have to fly to it. Or be flown if you don’t have wings. We will arrive in Ardennes. The Fae at your home were Nymphs, at least the majority of them were. I might have sensed a Pixie as well, but I feel we should start our search in Ardennes.”

The darkness changed. At the end of the tunnel, there was a light that was much larger than the other pinpricks of light. That light continued to grow as we got closer to it.

Alec stopped and turned toward me then. “We should hug again.”

I nodded and lifted my arms up around his neck, as his arms circled my waist and pulled me closer to him. My chest hit his, his muscles were hard beneath my softness. It made me feel weaker, again. Incapable. I took a deep breath, ignoring my insecurities, and jumped when he did.

I looked around, and at first I thought we were in a state park or a garden or something. But then I saw headstones everywhere and realized we were in a cemetery.

I sneezed, my nose tickled and ran angrily.

“This is Llano Cemetery, one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in Texas. And in case you hadn’t noticed, Texas is full of pollen” He bent down and picked up his little tripudio thing and tucked it back in pocket before walking forward. I followed behind him as we walked toward a large, white pavilion, and I sneezed again.

“Yeah,” I said, as I pinched my nose to stop another sneeze from coming. “Pollen…No wonder I never wanted to live in Texas.”

He chuckled, and then explained, “The porta we will travel through is here, in this gazebo.”

“Will it be like the tripudio?” I asked, thinking I would be okay with it if it was, because honestly it was pretty amazing.

“No.” Then he walked up the steps of the gazebo and stopped in the center before turning to look at me. “A porta is not like the tripudio. A tripudio is a device that I can take with me. The portas are connected through energy. Some call it energy, others may call it the fifth element, or aether. We call it magic. It is how we are all connected to everything, through space and time. You are connected to me, and to the ground. To the air, and the water. You are connected to this Realm, and to the Outer Realm, and to our home.”

I nodded to show that I was following him, finally understanding what he was saying. Even though, in that moment I didn’t feel connected to anything. Not to him, or to this place, or to any other place. I was devoid of anything other than my sadness and hatred and anger.

“This porta has been here long before it was a cemetery. It has and always will be here. It is a center for energy and magic. Until you have your own magic, you will need another Fae to be with you at all time when going through a porta, just as with the tripudio.”

“Okay. So how do we make it work?”

“With magic of course,” he said as his lips turned up, revealing a set of dimples I hadn’t seen on him before. It was clear to me then, how excited he was to be able to go back to his home.

He turned away from me again, and I walked up the stairs to be near him. He spread his arms, leaving them downward toward his sides, and then slowly lifted them up. Again he was concentrating, with his eyes closed tightly.

The mist he called magic pooled around us. Though it felt like a mist, it wasn’t wet. It didn’t make my hair or clothes damp at all. It was just a thickness of air. I took a step closer to him, not wanting to be left behind. I found my conviction again. I would avenge my parents. I wasn’t sure how. But I knew, without a doubt I would do it, somehow.

Some way.

Then, right in front of him, I saw a sparking. It was like someone had flicked a lighter and then let it go out again, before flicking it back on. This happened a few times, before the light stayed on. It wasn’t like a flame, but just a bright, white light. In the center of the light a triangle was formed.

It started out as a dark triangle, but as it grew, I saw other colors in the center of it. Along the outside edges of the triangle, the bright light remained, which only made the inside of the triangle look darker.

As the triangle grew, Alec remained focused. He didn’t move anymore, now that his arms were about the same level as his head, spread open wide. Finally, when the triangle had grown so large that the tip of it was touching the ceiling and the two edges were pushed beyond the railings surrounding the gazebo, it stopped growing.

Alec turned to me and asked, “Ready?”

When he spoke, his voice sounded different than before. Deeper. Almost husky, as if he had been screaming and his throat was parched. I didn’t know if it was because opening the porta had caused him pain, or if perhaps using that amount of magic weakened him, but I wasn’t about to ask him now. He looked almost scary, though I knew he was ready and excited to be going through.