Witch Fairy book 3 (11 page)

“Oh, good lord, enough of this,” I say, my voice laden with disgust.  “Rhiannon, let your magic go.  I’m not in the mood for this.”

She puts her hand on her hips and says childishly, “Make me.”

I smile sweetly even though I’m about to burst with anger.  “Really?”

Kallen’s starting to look worried now.  “Xandra, remember what I told you about magic here.”

I give him a sour look.  “Weren’t you just leaving?”

He crosses his arms over his chest.  “No, I was not.”

Since we are caught up in our private little staring contest, Rhiannon seems to think it’s a good time to strike.  I feel her magic rushing towards us, and somehow, I know it’s meant to maim, not just injure me.  And her target is my face.  Hmm, interesting.  Maybe because the magic is purer here, I can ‘taste’ its intent.  I’ll ask about that later.  Right now, I need to protect Alita, who is standing right in the path of Rhiannon’s magic. 

Pulling my own magic, I thrust it forward.  I tried to pull only enough to warn her, but I think I may have misjudged.  My magic meets hers and pushes it back in a blinding light that sparks in the air between us, and then hers folds, rushing back towards her like a bullet from a Winchester super short magnum.  (I read somewhere that that’s one of the fastest bullets in the world.)  A visible line in the air between us lets the rest of us know when the magic hits her, a millisecond before she screams.

My magic is literally burning her from the inside out.  It’s like she swallowed a bunch of iron and it’s eating away at her insides.  I try to pull it back, but it won’t go.  If this keeps up much longer, I will kill her.  “Kallen,” I say as I close my eyes and focus on getting my magic under control.  “Help me.”

Kallen knows what I need from him.  A second later, I feel his magic pushing against mine.  “You have to try harder, Xandra,” he says over Rhiannon’s screams.  “If you can’t pull it back, shift it to me.”

I give him my best ‘I’m sorry’ face.  I hate to do it, but Kallen is the only one I know for sure can take the brunt of my magic and survive.  With great effort, I’m able to pull my magic from Rhiannon, but it’s not going back to the earth.  It wants new targets.  I open my eyes and watch as Rhiannon’s friend falls to the sand and Kallen staggers from the force of the magic flowing into them both.  Kallen’s trying to be stoic, but he can’t hide the pain burning behind his eyes.  I feel so badly.  I hate hurting him. 

I taste the tears before I realize I’m crying.  I’m hurting the guy I love.  I don’t care how many secrets he has, I don’t care if he was hand-fasted – okay, that’s a lie, I do care about that.  But, I don’t think this should be his punishment.

A door in my mind bursts open, and another blinding light, a pure, perfect, blinding light, surrounds us.  The pinches on my back are my first clue as to what’s happening.  My Angel wings have come to help me.  I’m next to Kallen in a flash.  I wrap my wings around him in a loving embrace and the magic seeps out of him, back through me, and down through the ground.  He gasps for breath as the last of it goes.

“Kallen, I am so sorry,” I murmur against his chest, my wings still tightly around him.

Finally, as he gets his breathing under control, he wraps his arms around me and holds me as tightly as I’m holding him.  “I know,” he says.

“Who the hell
are
you?”  Kegan’s stunned voice asks from behind us.

Stepping back from Kallen, I fold my white Angel wings behind me and look at the faces around us.  Rhiannon and her friend are both still unconscious.  At least, I’m pretty sure they’re just unconscious.  Okay, Rhiannon’s chest rises and falls as she takes a breath, so yup, not dead.  Alita’s not unconscious.  She’s staring at me like I’m a freak of nature or something.  Which I am, so I guess that’s okay.  Kegan looks the same way. 

“I admit,” Alita says, “I am as curious as Kegan.  Who are you?”

“Um, would you believe my animal body is an eagle and I just haven’t changed all the way?”  An eagle is the first bird with a wide wing span that I can think of, even if their wing feathers aren’t white.  I guess I could have gone with pelican.  They’re white.

Alita shakes her head.  “No, I would not.”

Kallen interrupts before I can say anything.  “Perhaps now is not the best time for explanations.  Xandra, you need to get back to the house before anyone else sees those wings.”  Turning to Kegan, he says, “I need your assistance in getting Rhiannon and her friend home.  We do not need to aggravate the situation by leaving her here.”

Kegan nods, but he’s still staring at me.  It’s starting to make me uncomfortable.  “Kegan, snap out of it,” I say with just a trace of annoyance in my voice.

Kegan shakes his head, as if to rouse himself from sleep.  I half expect him to pinch himself to see if he’s dreaming.  “Right, of course.”  He moves towards the two unconscious bodies on the shore.

“Alita, you should accompany Xandra.  We do not want you to get caught in the middle of this, but I do not think it wise for you to return home at present,” Kallen tells her.  “When Kegan and I return, Xandra and I will explain everything.”  Looking at me, he says pointedly, “Everything.”

I nod in agreement.  Although I would like to demand explanations right this minute, that can’t be my first priority.  I need to make sure that Alita is safe, and that I get out of sight before Rhiannon wakes up.  I really don’t want her telling this Xeniaa person about my Angel wings.  I’m pretty sure my magic and the white light knocked her unconscious before she saw them.  I hope so, anyway.

Chapter 9

I turn to go when Kallen catches my arm.  I look up at him with questioning eyes and he plants a quick kiss on my lips.  “I promise, I
will
tell you everything as soon as I return.”  And then he kisses me thoroughly and I have to admit, I don’t mind at all, though, I probably should since he has a
lot
of explaining to do.  But at the moment, I’m just glad he’s okay.

Ending the kiss, he leans his forehead against mine.  “I am sorry I made you angry.  I promise, you will know everything.”  I can see in his eyes that he means it.

“I believe they’re coming around,” Kegan says from where he’s standing over Rhiannon. 

He’s right; Rhiannon is starting to move around.  It’ll probably only be a moment before she opens her eyes.  Not enough time to make it around the bend of the shoreline by foot.  I can fly, though.  Turning to Alita, I say, “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to meet you at the house, okay?”

She nods her head.  I think she’s still in a daze from all of this.  With what I hope is a reassuring smile on my face, I imagine being back at Isla’s house and that’s where my wings take me. 

I haven’t really had a chance to try them out before.  I did a quick hop with them when I was battling the Witches, but this is the first time that I’ve really flown with them.  It’s fabulous.  I can’t believe Kallen doesn’t spend more time as a bird.  The wind in my face is refreshing, and the view is incredible. 

I arrive at the house all too soon; I wish I could keep going.  The illogical side of my brain says to keep flying.  But, the logical side of my brain, it’s telling me I need to float on down and get inside the house before someone sees what a freak of nature I really am.  Funny, I’m kind of growing fond of that term.  Being a freak isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Not when I can do cool stuff like this.

“Mercy, child, you gave me a fright,” Tabitha says, holding her hand to her chest as I float down next to her.  Her other hand is carrying a basket of fruit.  “Give a Fairy some warning before you just drop out of the sky like that.”

“Sorry, I was in a hurry.”

She sets the fruit down on the marble table and then shakes her head as she looks at me.  “I admit, I thought Isla might be a little off her rocker when she told me about you. But it has all turned out to be true. You are every bit the wonder she promised you would be.” 

Coming closer, she holds a hand out to one of my wings but stops just short of touching it.  “May I?” she asks.

“Sure.  They’re pretty durable, touching won’t hurt them.”

“They are lovely,” she says.  Her hand slides down my right wing and it kind of tickles.  “Amazing, they are as soft as they look.  More like silk than bird feathers.”

Stepping back, her face loses the wonder and becomes stern.  “Now, according to Isla, your wings are only supposed to appear if you are in dire need of help.  So, you need to hurry up and tell me what trouble you and those boys got into down that stretch of the beach.”  Wow.  Isla did tell her everything.

I can feel my cheeks burning red.  “I used my magic on Xeniaa’s sister, Rhiannon, and I couldn’t stop.  Kallen tried to help me, but it wasn’t enough.  So, my wings came.”

Tabitha sighs and shakes her head.  “If you are going to get yourself in trouble, you seem to go all the way.  Isla and I were hoping to keep your presence a secret, but now, everyone in the Fae realm will know you are here.”

I hadn’t thought about that.  Blushing harder, I ask, “Does it help to know that she was going to attack me first?”  She raises her brows in a way that tells me that that doesn’t matter one little bit. 

After a good, long stare at my red face, she says, “Did anyone else see you?”

I wish I knew how to go back in time so I could avoid this whole mess.  “Yes, Rhiannon had a friend with her, and a Fairy named Alita.”

Tabitha smiles when she hears Alita’s name.  “Alita is a sweet girl.  Smart as a whip, as well.  Caught up in all that pure blood nonsense, poor thing.  Is that her coming this way?”

I turn to look down the beach.  “Yeah.”  Turning back to Tabitha, I ask, “What do you mean by ‘pure blood nonsense?’”

“Oh, everyone is so worried about how much Fairy blood someone else has, that they cannot see the beauty right under their noses.”  She’s not looking at me anymore.  She’s looking down the beach at Alita.  Tabitha gives her a quick wave before saying, “I was going to lay out fruit for you on the terrace, but we had better move this inside.  Come along now, those wings of yours are impossible to miss.  Alita will come in when she gets over here.”  Picking up the fruit bowl, she strides towards the house.  I follow her with a last look at the sky that I wish I could explore while I have my wings.  They’ll be gone shortly, just as quickly as they came. 

The kitchen is not far off the main room on this level.  It’s at the back corner of the house, but it’s still brightly lit with sunlight streaming in through several large windows.  Wherever you look outside, trees are swaying in the breeze.  The walls are a light blue and it has an open, friendly feel about it.  In the center of the kitchen is a large gray, marble topped island with several stools placed on either side of it.

“Have a seat while I make some tea,” Tabitha says as she bustles around the kitchen.  To my amazement, the kitchen is not much different than the one back home.  There’s a stove with four burners and an oven, a double basin sink with a faucet, and a refrigerator.  I’m suspecting these things are somehow run by magic, not electricity.

Tabitha is just putting the tea kettle on the stove when Alita comes in.  “Hello, Tabitha.  I hope it is not a bother for me to be here.”

Tabitha clucks her tongue.  “Nonsense, you know you are always welcome here.  Have a seat.  I made enough tea for the three of us.”

“Thank you,” Alita says as she sits on the stool across from me.

“I imagine you didn’t think talking to a lone person on the beach would lead to so much trouble, huh?” I ask as I pop a grape in my mouth from the large bowl of fruit now in the middle of the marble island.

Alita laughs and it’s a pretty little laugh.  It suits her.  “No, I certainly did not.  I hope I have at least made a friend, though.”

I chuckle.  “You still want to be friends with me after I almost kill someone and then sprout wings?  What is wrong with you?”

“Why, those are things I like best about you, so far,” she says with a grin, making me laugh.

“See, I told you she was an intelligent young lady,” Tabitha says as she pours out the tea.  Setting a cup before each of us, she sits down on the stool next to Alita.

“How long do you think it’ll take Kallen and Kegan to get back?” I ask, bringing my cup to my lips to take a small sip.  It’s amazing.  “Wow, this is really good tea.”

Tabitha beams with pride.  “I grow the leaves myself.”

“And she keeps the recipe for her mixture all to herself,” Alita complains.

Tabitha pats her hand.  “Perhaps, someday I will share my recipe with you.  As to your question,” she says to me, “it should only take about twenty minutes for them to get Rhiannon to her home.  After that, I am sure they will fly back.”

“Kegan turns into a bird, as well?”  It must run in the family.

Alita nods.  “His animal form is a sparrow.”

Hmm, that’s a little bird compared to a raven.  If the two are as competitive as I’ve been told, that must bother Kegan a lot.  “Will this Xeniaa person start trouble with them?”  I hadn’t thought about that possibility before.  Maybe I should have gone with them.

Tabitha shakes her head.  “No, Xeniaa rarely spends time at her parents’ home.  They do not get on well.  She has a home of her own that she inherited when her aunt died childless.”  Kallen has told me that it can be hard for full-blooded Fairies to have children together.  I don’t know why, but that’s why many of them turned to humans to pass along their blood line.  Unfortunately, that diluted the magic within the children so they aren’t as powerful.  When the realms were closed, the Fairies brought these children with them to the Fae realm.  But, not the human parents.  Apparently, these weren’t love matches.  And now, these children are considered lesser than full-blooded Fairies.

“Now, tell me the whole story.  Start from the beginning,” Tabitha says before taking a sip of her tea.

I start with what happened in the water and then the beach.  I leave out the part about me and Kallen arguing, but I think she suspects that there’s more to the story.  She doesn’t push, though.  “Do a lot of Fairies turn into sea creatures?”

Alita shakes her head.  “No, not many.  Rhiannon is a spotted eagle stingray, but she is the only one of her family that is not a land creature.”  She can’t seem to help a smug smile when she says, “It is actually considered to be a genetic flaw.”

“Is it too personal to ask what you become?” I ask.  I’m not sure if it’s a polite question or not.

“I do not mind telling you.  I am a sparrow, like Kegan.”

Hmm, they seem perfect for each other.  “Do you live around here?”

She nods but there’s something in her eyes that I can’t place and a touch of pink flows over her cheeks.  “Yes, my family has a modest home down the beach a ways.”

Tabitha gives her a nudge with her elbow.  “It is a home that would make anyone proud to have.”  Looking at me, she says, “Alita’s mother has a natural talent for growing beautiful flowers wherever she digs a hole.  I envy her ability, and she has created the prettiest home in a hundred mile radius.”

“Are all Fairies good with plants?” I ask.

Alita’s cheeks are growing redder by the second.  Looking down at her tea, she says, “My mother is not a Fairy.”

My brows furrow in confusion.  “If she’s not a Fairy, what is she?”

“A Cowan,” she says as if it’s something to be ashamed of.

“And your dad brought her here when the realms were sealed?  That’s great.”  It’s nice to hear that there were at least some love matches between humans and Fairies.

“As I tell her often,” Tabitha says as she stands up to get more honey for her tea.

“You know, I’m not really half Cowan, but I am half Witch.  And I’m proud of it.”  I didn’t expect her mouth to drop open and her eyes to look like saucers.  I forget that I’m supposed to be a creature of legend – one who wasn’t supposed to be born.

When her jaw can work again, she says, “You cannot be.  That is impossible.”

I shrug. “Apparently not.” 

“
You
are the Witch Fairy?”  I’m not sure like I the complete and utter shock on her face.  Okay, I guess on the outside I don’t look like the big bad monster I’m supposed to be.  But, still.  “Does Kallen know?” she asks.

That makes me chuckle.  “Yes, he knows.”