JOURNEY INTO THE REALM: The Spell Master (Journey into the Realm Series) (38 page)

“I think I know why your wings didn’t come until now,” Em remarked, not-so-subtly trying to change the subject from leverage, war, and all things evil.

“Yeah, why?” I asked.

“Maybe your wings couldn’t grow until you entered a Fairy Realm,” she said.

“That does make sense. My fairy side started showing after my recent sixteenth birthday. I think it’s because it takes sixteen years for elves to mature. Once I matured as an elfen, I began to mature as a Golden fairy too.”

“That’s so bizarre.”

“I guess I
am
an Odd Girl,” I acquiesced.

“I’m sorry this happened to you,” Em said. “Your being kidnapped and the whole fairy thing.”

“It’s okay. It was bound to happen sometime,” I said wistfully.

“What do you mean?” she wondered.

“The Element fairies have been chasing me for a while. It’s been pretty rough, and deep down, I’m a little relieved that the chase is finally over,” I admitted sadly.

“Tell me about it,” Em asked.

“Seeing as we are both stuck here, I guess I could.”

Em had shared her story. Now it was my turn.

I took a deep breath and began. I told her everything. I told her about my human past and my almost-drowning; the strange elf guard, Eder, and his letters; my sister and her rescue from the dangerous Finn; Janie and Daran’s deaths; even Stellan and Nathan. I shared my ability and the spells I could perform.

Finally, I told her about Ellie. It was a relief to talk about my life from the beginning, not just in bits and pieces.

“She’s a witch, that one,” Em said about Ellie after I was finished. “Nasty little creature. Just like Finn.”

“You’ve seen them?”

“Finn runs the place. They both come by once in a while to find out the latest on their prisoners,” she explained.

“I can’t believe that I thought she was my friend,” I remarked bitterly.

“Fairies are known for their trickery.”

“I will never be like that,” I vowed.

“You aren’t just a fairy.”

“I know,” I agreed. “So what’s your ability? You didn’t mention it in your story.”

Em winced, recoiling as if I had physically struck her.

“What’s wrong?” I wondered, unsettled by her reaction to what I thought was a simple question.

“My ability isn’t a very pleasant topic for me,” she admitted.

“Why? Tell me,” I urged.

“I can shape-shift into a Saker Falcon, a large and ferocious bird of prey, or stay in my elfen form and grow falcon wings.”

“Why is that bad? It sounds amazing,” I remarked. “Most shape-shifters can’t stay in their elfin forms when they are able to fly. You have a remarkable gift.”

“Yes, but most elves don’t have their wings clipped every few months,” she said somberly.

“What?” I cried.

“Hush,” she expressed hurriedly. “You don’t want the guards coming here. They aren’t very kind. They clip my wings so that if I am ever able to escape, I won’t be able to use my ability to fly away from the prison.”

“That’s horrible…and disturbing,” I exclaimed.

She frowned. “It hurts too.”

“We have to get out of here,” I decided.

“How?”

“I’ll get back to you on that one,” I decreed.

“Good luck with that. I’ve been thinking of an escape plan for seventeen years. I haven’t ever come up with anything good. The prison is heavily guarded by Element fairies, mostly fire, and our cell is quadruple-locked. We are the most valuable prisoners. They can’t afford an escape.”

“I
will
find a way,” I assured her.

“All right, you do that.”

“Don’t underestimate me, Em,” I warned her.

She held up her hands in submission. “I never said I did.”

“Uh huh,” I muttered.

She sighed. “I’m tired now, so I’m going to sleep, okay?”

I finally could notice the time. It was near midnight. “How long was I out?” I asked.

“A few days,” she told me. “I don’t often keep track of the time here, but I think it may be the twenty-fifth of December.”

I nodded and watched her settle back against the wall. She closed her eyes and spoke no more.

“Merry Christmas,” I said quietly. Then I too turned away, trying to fight back the tears clouding my eyes.

***

I couldn’t sleep, and since Emera was deep in her own slumber, I was left to my own thoughts, alone in a prison cell in the Element Fairy Realm. My life had taken a dramatic turn for the worse. I had been abducted from my home and the ones I loved, who were probably searching for me at this exact moment, wondering where I had gone.

My thoughts drifted to Mac. Was he all right, or had Ellie killed him with her blasts of fire? Would he be able to tell anyone what had happened to me? I knew Nathan had to be searching for me whether or not any clues of my abduction were left behind. He probably started looking the moment he stepped into my house to find me gone. I wondered if he would try contacting Zora despite their differences. And what would Queen Taryn do when she learned of my capture? Would she deploy a band of soldiers to rescue me, or was I not important enough like Emera, her niece? I blinked back tears as these questions passed through my mind. Then I just let them come. I didn’t have to stop myself from crying. Who was going to watch me? Who would care?

Absolutely no one.

***

A cacophony of clanging keys woke me abruptly. I didn’t remember falling asleep. I searched the room for Em and found that she hadn’t moved from my side since we both fell asleep, so she couldn’t be the source. Soon she, too, was wide awake.

“Oh no…,” she groaned.

“What? What is it?” I asked.

She cast a disapproving glance toward the door. “Meal time.”

“And that’s bad because…?” I asked, my insides aching from lack of food.

“Haven’t you heard about fairy food? It’s enchanted. A favorite trick of the fae. One bite and you’ll turn into an Element fairy before you can even swallow. Whatever you do, do not eat what looks good. It’s the hardest temptation of your life, but you have to resist it. They want to test your strength, see how well you’ll hold up here. Their intention isn’t for you to turn, but if you accept the enchanted food they won’t exactly be disappointed. When you refuse, they’ll give you the safe food they haven’t tampered with. It’s only a few pieces of bread and a glass of water, but it will tide you over and keep you alive.”

“What if I can’t refuse?” I wondered.

“Do you want to stop this war?” she asked seriously.

“Yes,” I said quickly.

Her eyes narrowed. “Then don’t even think about it. Just say no.”

“Okay…,” I agreed hesitantly.

“Ramsey,” Em said sternly.

“Okay, I get it,” I replied anxiously, butterflies invading my stomach. What if I wasn’t able to resist the temptation of fairy food?

A slender fairy flittered into the room. She didn’t resemble my image of a prison guard in the least. She wore a diaphanous white dress that went down to her calves, and her straight, thin blonde hair was twisted into a long braid that ended at her waist. Her gleaming white wings were edged with sparkling silver, blinding my eyes when I stared too long. Tiny white slippers clothed her feet, reminding me of a ballerina. Her heart-shaped face appeared warm and inviting. No, this was definitely not how prison guards were supposed to look. I shivered from the effects of her extreme beauty. I had to clamp my hands together to avoid reaching out to her exquisite form.

“They use her to further tempt us. The Element fae believe her grace and warmth will cause our guard to fall, leaving us with an inability to resist the allure of fairy food. Don’t be fooled,” Em whispered into my ear.

I hardly listened, although I got the gist of what she was saying. I was too focused on the heavenly aroma the air fairy carried in her hands. I could see roasted chicken, grapes, and cake. The small feast was accompanied by two large glasses filled with wine. I could barely remain seated. It was so tempting. I knew that just one taste would change me into one of the creatures I detested, but it was extremely difficult to resist. I wanted the food
so
badly it pained me to look away.

“Hello,” the air fairy greeted in a silky sweet voice.

I couldn’t speak. At that moment, I wanted the food more than anything else in the world, even more than escaping this terrible place. My hands began to reach up for the tray, but Em stopped me.

“No,” she commanded, like a master to its pet.

I nodded faintly, my eyes still locked on the tray of food.

“My name is Pyra. What is yours?” she asked me.

“Ramsey,” I said quietly, not caring what I said to her because my entire focus was trained on the tray she held in front of me.

“Would you like something to eat, Ramsey?” she wondered, her eyes sparkling with both mischief and seduction.

I looked from her, to Em, and then to the food. I wanted to say yes, stuff my face, and then ask for more. This felt like the hardest decision I ever had to make. I was under a spell. I had never wanted something so much. I could picture myself eating the food, reveling in the pleasure and satisfaction every taste would bring me, savoring each bite. My hands shook with desire.

Then I remembered Em’s words. If I ate just one piece of what Pyra carried, I would transform into an Element fairy. Then no one in any other Realm would accept me. Element fairies were the most ostracized of the fae. A dark worry embedded itself deep within me. If I made the change, I didn’t think even Nathan would accept me, and that was saying something.

I had read fairy books about this sort of torture. Humans who were taken by fairies could not eat or drink anything or they would be trapped for eternity, spending countless years wrapped up in their enchanting dance. I had always thought of the humans as weak for not denying sustenance; it was only food. Now I understood. I knew how near impossible it was to resist.

And yet…I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I accepted Pyra’s offer.

I gathered my courage and drew a steady breath.

“No,” I said boldly.

I was surprised by my tone of voice. I sounded so sure of myself, even though I still yearned to taste the fairy food.

“Are you sure?’ she asked.

I winced. Why couldn’t she just accept my answer and go?

I took another deep breath. “Yes, I am sure.”

“Then I will be right back,” Pyra replied quietly, although there was a hint of scorn in her voice.

She left the room, the smell of the heavenly food leaving with her. I moaned. I felt the ache of loss as the fairy food was taken away, as if a loved one had died. It was a scary thing to realize how badly the experience had affected me.

Em put her arms around me in a tight embrace. “You did it! You passed the test!
You won
,” she said, a little breathlessly.

I shrugged her off and held my arms to my chest. “It feels like I have lost…
everything
.”

“You
will
get over the fairy food. I did. Just keep saying no to them and everything will be fine.”

“Nothing is fine, Em,” I argued. “Nothing is going to be fine until we get out of this horrid prison.”

Emera nodded silently. She knew I was right.

Moments later, Pyra floated in with another tray. This time, the offering was not appetizing in the least. I felt the urge to plead for the fairy food, but I held my ground.

“Here is your food, then,” she said curtly.

She placed the tray in front of us. On it were four slices of bread and two small cups of water. The bread looked and smelled stale and the cups of water appeared dirty with grime, as if they hadn’t been washed in a millennium.

“Let me know if you change your mind,” she said with a patronizing smile.

Pyra waited for a reply but didn’t receive one, so she turned and flew out of the room. Looking at her wings, I remembered mine. They were so beautiful. I wished that I could fly with them, but I couldn’t in this dreary and cramped cell. Suddenly, I wanted to cry. I felt like I did in the Human Realm, like I didn’t belong anywhere. I wasn’t a human, an elfen, or a Golden fairy. In this place, I was an Odd Girl, just as Em said.

While Em ate her food at a normal pace, I picked at mine slowly. I was hungry, but I didn’t feel like eating. After smelling the fairy food, simple slices of bread and a cup of water were no longer appetizing. I would try to eat more later.

I buried my face in my hands and leaned back against the wall. My heart ached for Nathan, along with all the others important in my life. I wished they were here with me, or even better, I with them. I desperately wanted to be rescued, but I knew it was near impossible. The Element fairies were too smart, too strong, and too difficult to overcome. Zora’s rescue was a mere fluke to them, a minor setback. They wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

I would have to figure this out on my own, devise some kind of plan. It was my only chance at survival. The idea both frightened and thrilled me. Determination coursed through me, a steady stream of willpower flooding my veins. I would fight until the end. I would either get out of here alive or die trying to escape.

Either way, I would not stay here.

“Ramsey. Ramsey.
Ramsey
, wake up.”

I felt Em nudging me and heard her say my name, but I didn’t want to open my eyes. I didn’t want to see the dark room again. I didn’t want to see Em’s gaunt face. I didn’t want to see anything.

Four days of confinement had passed since I learned of my surroundings. The fairy food was still difficult to resist, and I hadn’t figured out a way of escape.

“Ramsey, come on. Wake up!”

This time she pushed me over completely, and I was forced to open my eyes before she could inflict any more damage. Rubbing my shoulder, I groaned and looked up at her. She was standing over me, her dark eyes clouded with worry. The annoyance I felt toward her for disrupting my sleep evaporated immediately, replaced with increasing concern. The fear she openly displayed was unsettling. She was usually so guarded.

She stepped back, giving me enough room to stand up against the wall. “We have one week,” she said hauntingly.

“One week until what?” I asked, rubbing sleep from my eyes.

“We have one week to escape until they clip my wings. I can’t bear it, Ramsey, I just can’t. Then we would have to wait more than a month to try again because I wouldn’t be able to fly out of here with you. Unless you want to leave me behind….”

“No. Of course I won’t leave you, Em. We’ll do it together. We’ll escape within the week,” I told her.

“But how?” she challenged.

“I don’t know yet, but I’ll think of something. I promise,” I assured her, taking her hands and gripping them tightly.

“You need to think fast. We don’t have much time,” she reminded me.

“I know.” I released a frustrating sigh. “I’m trying though, okay?”

“All right,” she replied, although her voice was shaky.

She was terrified of being tortured again. I couldn’t let that happen. We had to get out of here. Once a flicker, now a flame, the fiery determination inside my chest wouldn’t allow me to rest until we were both safely beyond the doors of Fire Prison.

I rose from the cold ground and brushed dirt and dust off my clothes, which were now slightly torn and dirty. I ran my hands through my tangled hair and wiped my eyes. Then I forced myself to eat the bread from the previous night. I had to be half-starved to eat the disgusting, stale food, nothing like the tempting morsels Pyra offered every time she entered the cell.

While eating, I closely scanned my dreary surroundings. I felt like the very life had been sucked out of me during these last few days, but the dire situation concerning Em’s forthcoming torture had returned some of my misplaced energy. This dark, drab cell and its locked doors weren’t exactly inspiring, however. With a pang, I remembered Brielle’s colorful abode in Tarlore and realized then that color and light weren’t the only things lacking in this desolate place. I missed Nathan. I missed my friends. I even missed Zora.

I missed the Elf Realm.

I buried my despair and the sense of hopelessness that kept trying to surface deep inside of me, focusing on one subject only: escape. I wasn’t the only one trapped in this horrid place, missing her family and her old life. Em had been imprisoned here for seventeen years. I
was
going to change that.

Finished with my less than satisfactory meal, I sat next to Emera and gave her hand a light squeeze. “We
will
get through this, Em.”

Her eyes were moist and her face somber. “I hope so. I don’t think I can hold on much longer. To have you here, giving me hope, and then have it all taken away.…”

“You only need to hold on a little longer. This time…having hope won’t be in vain,” I said, trying to instill faith in her wounded heart.

“But you don’t understand. All this time I have been wishing and praying for a miracle. If we don’t succeed…there will not be another chance.”

I took a deep breath. “Em, when we try to escape…if we don’t make it, they will probably kill us,” I said candidly.

“That’s what I mean. I don’t want to die after all this,” she told me.

“I know. But if we don’t try to escape now, we’ll probably never get a better chance. No matter the outcome, we have to try.”

“You really are a strange elfen-fairy creature,” Em said.

“Thanks,” I snapped, her negative comments bothering me more than usual. I liked Em, but she could be insufferable at times. I always admired Brielle’s tendency to be straightforward, but Em could reach a level of bluntness I just couldn’t handle.

“No, I mean, you see things so differently than others,” she compensated.

“So I’ve been told,” I said, sitting back against the cold wall and crossing my arms against my chest.

“You understand how the world works and never try to bend your way around the truth,” she said. I could tell that she was grasping for the right phrases to express her feelings. “What I’m trying to say is…you’re nothing like the fae.”

“Thank you,” I said slowly because I didn’t really know how I felt about that particular insight.

“If anyone can get me out of here, it’s you,” she said, her gaze unfaltering.

“Okay, enough with the praise. I haven’t done much yet.”

“Oh, but you will,” Em said confidently.

“How can you be so sure?” I asked.

“Because if you don’t get me out of here, I’ll kill you before the fairies even get the chance.” She smiled and winked.

“
You
are the Odd Girl, Em,” I insisted. “No matter what you say about me, you are the one with issues….”

“All right, if that makes you feel better about yourself. I’m not the elfen with wings who lived in the Human Realm for almost fifteen years.”

I gave her a mock scowl. “Watch it, Em. You don’t want to push a fairy.”

“I’ll take my chances.” She grinned again and started whistling to herself.

I rolled my eyes and stared up at the ceiling. I knew our light mood wouldn’t last. I had to think of a plan.

But what plan could be good enough to get us out of a fairy prison?

“Speaking of wings,” I said, a new problem making its way to the front of my consciousness, “if we
do
manage to make it out of here, we’ll have to fly to the nearest body of water to make a portal.”

“So?”

“I don’t know how to fly,” I said.

“Oh,” Em replied, her earlier expression of hope fading as she realized our dilemma. “Well, then, I guess I’ll have to teach you.”

“How?” I asked. “I doubt the fairy guards will give us outside playtime, and this room is far too cramped to even think of flying around.”

“You have a valid point, but I can teach you in a way that won’t require any actual flying,” she remarked.

“Huh?” I hadn’t understood one word of that last phrase. How could I learn to fly by not flying? It didn’t make sense.

“Controlling your wings is the first step in the flying process. If you can’t control them, they won’t beat in rhythm, and you’ll end up face first on the ground.” Em stood and began rolling her shoulders, as if stretching before a big race. Reaching out and flexing her fingers, she added, “I can teach you how to control your wings so they can truly become a part of you, working simultaneously with your every thought and movement.”

I had to admit I was feeling a little intimidated. “This sounds intense,” I confessed nervously.

“It is…and you probably won’t enjoy it very much,” she mentioned with an impish smile.

I rolled my eyes. “Glad to see how concerned you are over my possible discomfort.”

“Oh, you’ll be fine.” Em pulled her hair back, exposing her pointy ears. “All right, first we must decide whether you will be controlling your wings magically or physically.”

I bit my lip. “What’s the difference?”

“Well, since you’re fae, you can work a Glamour, which is basically a magical second skin you can use to alter your appearance. For example, you can use that magic to make your wings disappear when you don’t want them to be noticeable.”

“Ellie mentioned something about a Glamour,” I said, “but she didn’t elaborate.”

“Fairies only need their wings for flying or when they want to appear menacing and enchanting to other creatures. Most of the time, the fae keep their wings hidden because they can get in the way of everyday tasks, like sleeping and even sitting,” Em explained. “A Glamour provides the perfect opportunity for disguise, but I’ve heard the process is rather difficult and energy consuming.”

Sighing, I looked over my shoulder. Sparkling brilliantly behind me, the golden veins twinkling like a belt of shining stars, my wings were every bit as breathtaking now as the moment I discovered them. “I see.” I paused, mulling over my options. Knowing how to hide my wings could be beneficial, especially back in Birchwood. But Em said we needed to leave soon, before they clipped
her
wings. We didn’t have much time for me to learn the necessary control before sneaking our way out of here.

Turning back to Em, I made up my mind: “Well, I have only a rudimentary understanding of spells and fairy magic. I don’t think working a Glamour is the best idea for our situation. From what you’re saying, magic like this takes practice, and we don’t have a lot of time.”

“Then we’ll have to do this the difficult way, the way shape-shifters like me unfurl our wings. But be warned – the action, the
feeling
, isn’t pleasant.”

“Whatever it takes to leave this place,” I said. “Whatever pain is necessary – I don’t care. I just want to get out of here.”

She smiled softly. “Me too.”