“What did you borrow?” I asked, trying to peer over Jax.
“Nothing you will miss,” she said, zipping up the top of the bag before I could see.
“I highly doubt that.”
Jax stood up and placed a hand over his neck.
“Does it still hurt?” I ask.
“A little, can you help me take this off?”
I peeled the edge of the bandage away, the mark on his neck wasn’t gone, but it was only a shade or two darker than his skin, like an almost healed bruise.
“Maybe we should leave it on,” I said, placing the sticky corner back down against his skin.
“I hate bandages. Come on, you know what they say, the air will heal it faster.”
“I don’t know if that applies to whatever the hell this is.”
“Can we go now?” Ava asked, slipping the bag over her shoulder and twisting left to right on the spot so it swung around her.
“Yes, come on. Let’s go find your grandfather and the king.”
Jax grabbed the bag from Ava’s shoulder and hung it over his own before taking her hand in his to walk out the door. I opened my mouth to stop him, but then I realized it was probably her contact with him that returned her fey magic. Surely she couldn’t absorb the same magic twice?
I stayed a step behind, happy to watch them walk in sync with each other. She was about as tall as him, but she leaned into him as they walked making her look shorter than she was.
“Ah, there you are,” I heard my father say, as Jax and Ava disappeared through the door to my study. “Where is your mother?”
“Here,” I answered, stepping into the room behind them. “Should we portal, or do you have another of those creepy folding orbs?” I asked with a shudder.
“A gateway will open shortly for my return, you will be able to come through with me. No folding necessary.” King Blake chuckled over the last words, and I shook my head.
“Seriously you elves come up with some weird stuff. That folding is in no way a preferred way to travel, right? It can’t be. It just feels... bleh.”
My father and Jax joined the king in laughter now.
The room began to glow with an orange light that emanated from nowhere.
“Do not be alarmed, the gateway is being opened from the Elf Kingdom,” King Blake said, moving to beside Ava
The light grew and surrounded us in its warm glow. Then a pin of blue light appeared in front of the king. It grew bigger, swirling like a wall of rough seas. When it was about the size of a door, it solidified then cracked down the middle. Blake reached forwards and placed his free hand on the cracked surface. He looked at me, smiling wide, and the crack glowed green.
Blake pushed the wall and it opened at the crack like the opening of double doors and through it, I could make out the throne room of the Elf Kingdom.
6
BLAKE STEPPED THROUGH first, still holding Ava’s hand. Jax and I followed behind. I turned to see the same wall of frozen whitewater in the throne room but my study visible through it. Max had already gone back to sifting through his new basket of goodies.
A female elf appeared from behind the gateway and dusted something over the wall. It went a bright red then collapsed in on itself until there was nothing left of it, except a small blue pebble. She picked it up and put it in her pocket before bowing to the king.
“This is Sien, she is my chief alchemist. Sien this is Desmoree, Jax, and Ava.”
When he said Ava’s name, Sien looked up from her bow. “Oh, lovely, she has decided to come. Would you like me to collect the cast ingredients your majesty?”
“Yes,” I answered for him, and she shot me a frown.
Blake took a step towards Sien, his hand still holding Ava’s. Righty-oh, time to let go now buddy.
“Desmoree is right,” King Blake said, releasing Ava’s hand.
Good.
“Could you please bring the box to the blue room, we shall perform the cast there.”
She bowed again. “As you wish, Your Highness.”
The king turned to me. “She is a stickler for the old ways. Please don’t take offence. She is actually exceedingly excited to have Ava here.”
“Why?” Jax asked, resulting in a raised brow from Ava. “No, sweetie, I mean why should she be excited, she doesn’t even know you.”
The King gestured towards the main pillars at the front of the throne room, before offering his hand to Ava yet again.
He is just being courteous, let it go Des.
The large doors were open, a pleasant change to the last time I was here. I shuddered as the memory of Jax, bound and beaten in this very room, flooded my mind.
“Why is Sien excited to have Ava here, and what is the blue room?” Jax asked, shaking my mind from its dark visions.
“Sien loves investigating magics, she has been looking into Emperfey for us...”
“Emperfey?” Ava asked.
Crap, I should have told her about that.
King Blake eyes landed on mine and his brows were raised causing a deep line to crease his forehead.
“Ava,” I began as she looked from me to her father. “An Emperfey absorbs magic, borrows it, but they release it. You hold it, keep it. If you are an Emperfey, you’re different too. I was going to tell you when we had more answers, but right now all we have is more questions. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I guess I can help Sien now I’m here too.”
“I guess you can,” I said as we continued along the corridor.
“And the blue room?” Jax asked again.
The king laughed. “The blue room is one of the guest rooms of the palace,” he said as he led us through the halls.
They seemed larger than before. Wider. Not at all like the narrow tunnels I remembered.
“Des, are you okay?” Jax asked and The King and Ava stopped to look at me.
“I’m okay, just... you know. Last time we were here...” I looked around the hall and turned to look back upon the throne room. The king’s throne stood enormous and shining bronze against the blood red drapery behind it.
“It was a dark rebirth of the synergy between the elves and the Fey,” The King began as he released Ava’s hand and stepped towards me. “It’s easier to remember what it brought about, rather than what it was.”
“Is that how you deal with it?”
The king bowed his head. “I’ll never forget what I did, nor what you did for me. The Elf Kingdom is on the path of returning to the great beings we once were known to be. That too is thanks to that day.”
I forced a smile. “Let’s see this blue room then. Ava loves blue.”
“I do,” Ava said, the joy returning to her face. “Is the whole room blue or just like, the bedding and stuff?”
The King chuckled. “You will see soon enough. Come, let’s get you settled.”
We followed King Blake down a few more turns, before he stopped in front of ornately carved stone doors.
“This, is the blue room,” he said, pushing the doors open to reveal a room glistening in a blue sheen. The floor was a deep blue marble, and the bed was fit for a queen. The huge blue upholstered bedhead was like the back of a wingback chair and it rose up to just below the cathedral ceiling.
“This is amazing,” Ava said, walking into the middle of the room and turning in place, her head leaning back as she gazed up at the crystal chandelier glowing with pale blue lights. “Mum, isn’t it just...”
“It’s incredible, Ava.”
“Your Highness,” Sien interjected, and Ava stopped mid spin, dropping her gaze to her feet.
Is she embarrassed?
“Sien, wonderful. Now Desmoree and I may perform the cast.”
“You, sire?” Sien asked, looking from me to the king and back to me again. “But sire, I thought... I mean... I’m the chief alchemist, I have the highest rank in magic, second only to you. Surely it would be safer...”
I phased.
“I’m sure we can handle it,
but you’re welcome to stay and watch if you like.”
The king took Sien’s hands. “Thank you for your help, but this is something I should do myself. The king’s magic will strengthen the cast, more than any other elf’s magic could.”
“As you wish, sire,” Sien said, pulling a tiny black cube from her pocket. She held it out in the palm of her hand and leaned in close to it. Her eyes flicking to me, she whispered something I couldn’t make out, and the box expanded to the size of a shoe box. She looked back to her king and presented it to him. “I’ll stay, if that is okay?”
He nodded and took the box form her.
“Come, Desmoree, we must do this cast as soon as we can. It will be the only way to seal Ava off from the magic of the elves she will meet here, but also from the magic of any others that could visit the kingdom.”
“Are you expecting visitors?” I asked
“Since we have reopened the training with the Fey, other fabled have too re-joined with the elves. The equillis and the hytersprites frequent the farlands, and as our own alchemists are few in number, the banshees have agreed to assist in training the new elves who have a born proficiency for the craft.”
“Okay then. Yep, let’s get this thing done.”
“Mum, what is the cast going to do?” Ava asked.
“Grandpa found it in the scrolls. It was created for the Emperfey. It will create a block around you. That way you won’t absorb any more magic—or at least that’s the plan. The added protection of the elf wards will strengthen the cast.”
She took a deep breath, then nodded. “Okay, where do you want me?”
The King bit his bottom lip before giving her a small smile. “You can stand or sit, whatever you wish.”
Ava looked around the room then took a seat on the low bench at the foot of the bed. “I guess here is as good a place as any.”
King Blake moved to stand beside me, and Jax moved to sit on the bed a little ways behind Ava.
Desmoree, you and I will need to combine our magic. This box contains the cast, already crafted, ready to unleash.”
“What do I need to do exactly?”
“Place your right hand under the box to help me hold it up.”
I reached out and slid my hand under the box as the king removed his left hand, leaving the box sitting on one of each our hands at about Ava’s head height.
“Now what?”
“Now I open the box, and when the cast creeps out, you need to take my other hand, do not let go. It will take us both to do this.” I nodded silently as he explained.
“The cast will take a sampling of our magic then it will grow to enclose our subject, Ava, in its power. When that happens, we need to be thinking of nothing else but shielding her, protecting her.”
Jax stood up. “Wait, this is a duel mind cast?”
“A what?” I asked, looking from Jax to the king.
“Yes, it’s a duel mind cast. It was the only thing Max could find that would have a hope of shielding her.”
“Jax, what’s the problem with a duel mind cast?” I asked as my hand began to shake under the weight of the cast box.
“To create a mind cast you have to be totally in sync with the other being, you open your mind up to them, they see your memories, hear your thoughts, and vice versa.”
“Okay, so the king will get a glimpse of what it is like to be this awesome, what’s the big deal?”
Ava giggled and I winked in her direction, easing the line that had appeared across her once perfectly smooth unafraid forehead. “Des, you will get his history too.”
I raised my brows still unsure what he was getting at. “Come on, Jax, spell it out?”
“He has the entire elf history inside him, that’s where their magic comes from, the power he claimed as king, it’s the existence of the elves.”
“That’s quite a bit I expect, does that matter? I mean, it’s only seeing right?”
King Blake turned his head to answer this time. “No, we will, for the duration of the cast, combine our power. You will feel it as if it’s your own as I will of yours.”
“I’ve had the power of the Oley inside me, I think I can handle...”
“Des, the elves are older than the fey, they were here before the angels came, before it all. Theirs was one of the first realms, I don’t know how it will affect you.”
“It doesn’t matter, look I have taken that power out of her twice now, I have no yowie fur left so this is it. I won’t be able to remove it again so we need this, we need...”
“Mum.” Ava reached out to touch my arm and I jostled the box a little, not wanting her to touch me, not until the cast was done. The crease reappeared across her forehead. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I wouldn’t allow that to happen,” King Blake replied. “But your mother is right, this is the only way we have found that might keep you safe.”
“Ava, everything will be okay.”
She smiled weakly and sat back down. I nodded to Jax and he moved back to sit again behind our daughter.
“Let’s do this,” I said, shrugging my shoulders and fanning my wings out a little behind me.
I held up my free hand between us so that once Blake had the box open he could take it. My magic stirred inside me, it whirled in anticipation of what was to come. Then, he opened the box.
Nothing happened. I half expected an explosion of light, a ball of mist, smoke, fairy dust, something. But there was nothing. Blake took my hand and I looked to him puzzled. “Isn’t something...”
He nodded to the box. I looked back and there it was. The cast. It popped up above the lip of the box as it grew, a green slimy looking bubble of goo. Yep, this cast that was supposed to encase me looked like a giant snot bubble.
Don’t think about boogers, think about Ava.
The bubble grew bigger and bigger, it encased the box and felt wet and slick against my hand as it moved up our arms.
“Don’t let go!” The king repeated as it reached our shoulders. I giggled as the slimy surface tickled at my neck as it rose up towards my head and down over my body and wings. As soon as it encased my eyes, I saw it. Well, flashes of it. The elf history, their lives, the king’s life. All of the kings, since there was a king of the elves. There had to be hundreds, thousands even.
The king clutched my hand tighter. A wave of electricity washed over me, sending a pang though my spine like hot knives digging into my flesh. I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to breathe through the pain, the power. I tried to focus on my magic, and on how I needed to do this to protect Ava, to shield her. Suddenly, the magic inside me was alight like a brilliant rainbow star. But not just the usual collection I was used to, there was a spot, a spec of something in the middle of my magic.
Oh crap, Ava was right.
The magic I took from her grew with my magic as they both burned brighter and swelled out to spin around the king and I within the casts bubble. The king’s nails dug into the top of my hand and I opened my eyes to see Ava. The goo had begun to encase her feet. The king didn’t look as confident now, his eyes were wide and looked me up and down puzzled by what he was seeing, or maybe what he was feeling.
Where the hell was Ava’s magic hiding? Ava, think of Ava, of shielding Ava.
I opened my mouth to speak, unsure if the words would come out or if I would scream on reflex.
“Shield!” I managed to spit out between grunts and the king clenched his jaw and turned to look at Ava. I followed. The magic, his and mine, started to work as one, it slowed its swarming around us and began to move like ink in water, soft, almost like a ballet.
I concentrated on our shared desire, to shield Ava, to protect her. The gooey bubble rose higher around her and she stiffened as it touched the bare skin of her arms. She stared, wide eyed, at me and I tried to make my face appear less pained. It must have worked as she gave me a half smile before closing her eyes to await her complete encasing within the cool slippery mass of magic.
I repeated over and over in my head, Shield Ava from magic, protect Ava, shield her, protect her.
The then bubble burst. Actually burst. It exploded into a thousand tiny glistening specks of light and fell around us. The king dropped the box and I fumbled to catch it.
“What the hell was that?” he asked, stumbling back a step to be caught by Sien and helped to remain upright as he shook off whatever had him so dazed.
“What do you mean?” I asked as I put the box down and knelt before Ava, she opened her eyes and the smile rose slowly to her lips. I wrapped her in my arms and hugged her as tight as I could. “My sweet girl, you were so brave. Can you feel it? Can you feel the shield?”
“Desmoree, there was more than your magic in you,” The king interrupted. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Ava’s eyes were still on mine and she nodded, smiling brightly.
She feels the shield, she feels the cast at work.
I craned my neck to look at the king, “Look, I thought you knew I had the Tanzieth magic, that’s why...”
“Not the Tanzieth, the fabled!”
“The what?”
“You had the magic of the fabled inside you. How?”
“I just took what Ava had in her.”
“Ava held all that? You hold all that? How? It shouldn’t be possible, you would be insane, dead even?”
“I’ve come to realize that nothing is impossible these days,” I said, smiling over Ava’s shoulder at Jax who looked like he was trying not to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“I was so worried about how you would handle his magic, I never thought he would be the one to struggle with yours.” Jax laughed, scooting down the bed to hug Ava himself.
“This is why you should have let me do it, sire. The fairy’s magic has overpowered you, you must rest, regain your strength,” Sien said as King Blake pushed off her arm to walk on his own towards us.
“I’m fine, Sien. Thank you for your help setting up the cast. It appears to have worked.”
A flash of disappointment crossed Sien’s face and I wondered how long she had a thing for the king and if he knew how she felt.
“Ava, do you feel okay?” King Blake asked, reaching down to take one of her hands.
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