Tabby looked across the room at her brother and wondered what the last hundred years had been like for him, alone with their father.
“A hundred years, huh?” She broke the silence that had consumed the house for hours.
“What?” He looked at Farlow and then her.
“It’s been a hundred years?”
“Here, it has. At home, it’s been about a year. Time runs differently.”
With the lights off inside the house, it was easy for them to see through the sheer curtains to the circle street the houses lined. The street lamps were bright, but Tabby couldn’t see beyond the cul-de-sac to the other end of the street.
“What was a year like with him... you know…after?”
Ty looked down, fidgeting with the blanket he grabbed from the chair, and then back out the window. “About the same.”
He spoke to her without taking his eyes off the street. Tabby knew he would sit there all night if he thought there was a threat to them in town. Without Farlow awake to tell them what happened, he would put nothing to chance.
“Was he hard on you?”
Ty turned to her, just briefly. “He’s a monster. You have no idea what that curse did to him. You have no idea what it did to me.”
“I’m sorry.” She resigned to sit in the dark and quiet.
“I’m not mad,” he quickly said. “He’s not human…literally. He has scales, and he’s so big he can’t fit through doors.” He closed his eyes as he remembered. “The horns surprised me, but not more than the smoke that filled the castle when he spoke, or the flames that burst out the windows of the throne room, which is where he is confined. He’s a beast…a giant beast.” He opened his eyes to look at her, and she realized there were tears at the corners of them.
“He’s our father, and for a time, I loved him. To see him that way…” He wiped the tears before they could fall. “I don’t feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for the man he was…before power and greed overtook him. He was kind to me…until…”
“Until he knew you fell in love and saw him for what he really was.
Until Renee came along, he could manipulate you into thinking what he was doing was okay.”
Tabby crawled to where he sat and put her arms around her brother. She hugged him and then let her arms fall back to her sides.
“That Milita…” he looked at her. “If she was the one who told father about the curse, then she is the reason why we have been apart for so long.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was a miniature of him. Every time I stepped into tra monde, I would become a lesser version of what he is.” He turned to scan the street again.
“A lesser version?”
“You don’t know, do you? The mietitore; they were not made and sent after Renee. We were turned into them when we left our world to come here.”
“He did that to you?” Suddenly, things made sense. Tabby shuddered to think that what they had thought were creations of her father’s, used to find Renee, were actually the men and boys of Ormshire.
“Yes, and each time I changed; each time I came here to find her, something in me changed. I felt… dark. I can’t explain it, but I think it was what he planned on all along. To change me.”
“No, Tyson. You’re luce. You are not dark because of a spell cast on you. You turn dark when you do dark things. There is no such thing as light magia and dark magia. It’s all about how a Maga uses their power… for light or for dark.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Ty continued to stare into the streets, and Tabby moved closer to Farlow. His breaths had become steadier and he started to make noises as he slept. Tabby could see his eyes moving underneath the lids and thought he might be reliving what happened to him in a dream.
She turned with her back against the sofa and pulled her knees to her chest. She rested her hand between her head and knees and closed her eyes as sleep took over her consciousness. Just as she drifted off, she felt one of Farlow’s hands slide from where it rested by his side to her back.
Tabby opened her eyes to see she was no longer safe inside the house in Cherry Valley. The stone walls meant she was back in Ormshire, or at the very least, one of the four realms of Pylira.
“Tabby? What are you doing here?”
She spun around so quickly, she almost tripped over Farlow, who stood directly behind her. His height made her take a step back to see his face.
“Where am I?” She looked around again and noticed the walls were not merely stone, but a smooth white marble, staggered with square blocks.
The doorway behind Farlow did not have a door in it, but a dark blue velvet curtain hung where the door should have been.
“You are in my home, but how?”
“Aurora?” She twisted and turned, taking in her surroundings.
Farlow put his hands on her shoulders to stop her, pulling her by the hand to the window, away from the doorway. “You shouldn’t be here. How did this happen?” He ran a hand through his hair and searched the room for a way out, but there was none; only wall.
The room was bare. Light shone through the large windows and nothing hung over them to keep the light out, so the entire space could be seen. It wasn’t a large room, she noted, but it was not very small either. It was just empty.
“I don’t know how this is happening, but we will have to deal with it now, won’t we?” He let the frustration fall with his hands as he dropped them to his sides. He turned and stepped into the middle of the room and looked at the curtain in the doorway.
“Do you mean to say we are really here…in Aurora?” she asked him again.
He spun around at her. “Yes, we are really here in Aurora.”
“How? I was just sitting on the floor next to you as you slept…in Renee’s house, in Cherry Valley. Not in Pylira!” she spoke so loudly, Farlow hushed her but was cut off.
“Well, then I’d say you fell victim to Fairy Magia,” said a voice from beyond the curtain.
As the curtain was pulled aside, a young woman—much younger than Farlow—joined them in the empty room. Her hair was as jet black as Farlow’s, and her eyes glowed amber, but her face told the whole story of who she was.
Queen Calipee had inherited her role as Queen of the Fae when her mother, Queen Renal, was killed at the hands of Ourobus. Now, standing before her, Tabby felt further saddened by the loss.
“Your Majesty.” Tabby regained the composure of a lady and dipped into a proper curtsy.
“Tabitha Cole, it seems my brother unknowingly brought you here for a visit.” She smiled at Farlow. “Of course, my brother should know there are no mistakes when it comes to magia. I may have intervened a bit from here.” Calipee laughed as Farlow looked confused.
“You wanted Tabby here? Why?”
“I thought it was obvious, Brother.” She circled the room in front of them.
Tabby suddenly felt her knees weaken and her heart raced. Small beads of perspiration formed on her forehead.
“You wanted me here… to what end?” Tabitha feared the fairies most of her life. Until she met Farlow, she had decided he was more of a nuisance, rather than someone who should be feared.
Calipee moved through the air like silk billowing in the wind. Tabby hadn’t even noticed she had been circling the room in flight until she got closer to her and dropped to the floor. Her wings were a magnificent color purple—as her mother’s wings were before her—the color of the queen. Tabby wondered briefly what color she had been before her mother’s inheritances were passed to her.
Tabby watched as Calipee walked closer to her and let her wings tuck neatly out of sight. Her hair was a straight bob to her jawline; her skin was clear like porcelain and held a purple shimmer around her eyes. As Calipee drew closer, Tabby noticed she smelled sweet, like honey-suckle.
“I didn’t mean to alarm you,” Calipee whispered so only Tabby could hear. “I have no intention of harming you, little one.” She drew back into the middle of
the room to continue her pacing.
“What is said here, will stay here,” she started. “My brother, being the prince, is already aware of the turmoil I have been in.”
“Turmoil?” Tabby questioned as she watched the fluid motion of the fairy queen, even as she walked on two feet.
“Yes, turmoil. Since my mother’s death, she has been with me…guiding me.” She stopped suddenly next to Farlow. “She hurts. I don’t know how, but she is hurting…more and more as each day passes.”
Farlow’s expression changed, and Tabby could tell he knew what his sister spoke of.
“I’m sorry, Sister. Do you feel her pain?” he asked her.
“No, but I hear it in her.” She turned to Tabby once again. “The fight that needs to be fought will have to be done soon. The lands are dying, and my mother is trapped. She cannot move on until the fight between luce and buio is done. I do not know why…she’s not very forthcoming with information. She only tells me what she believes is important for me to know.” She moved through the room again. Tabby thought the fairy queen may have been going a bit mad.
“I understand, but what does that have to do with me?” Tabby forgot herself for a moment and the agitation of being pulled to Aurora—and frightened—resonated in her words.
The fairy queen stood still and regarded Tabby for a moment before resuming her movements. “Queen Karen will surely die soon. I have asked to aid her in escape, but mother begged me not to intervene. Instead, she said that I should bequeath you a gift, or rather, give to you what was taken from you at birth.” Calipee turned to Tabby and blew into her cupped hands.
A silver mist flew from the wells of Calipee’s hands and into Tabby, and she was consumed by an overwhelming warmth that spread through her from head to toe.
“What did you do?” Tabby insisted.
“I returned what was taken. All you need to know is this: This battle between luce and buio was foreseen at the inception of the new lands. Certain precautions were taken; measures to ensure your safety to this point. We do not know the outcome.” She swayed back and forth as if music played. “The old woman spoke of you.”
“Oma?”
The two conversed as if Farlow had not even been in the room. He looked astonished that his sister would so candidly give Tabby the information she had been denied her entire life.
“Yes.” Calipee stopped swaying and looked at Farlow. “She needs to know,” she told him as though she could sense his apprehension.
Calipee walked to Tabby and held her hands in her own. She looked into her eyes and spoke, “Oma said you would help your father at a time when your friends would need you the most, but ultimately, you will ensure his demise.”
“Then the great power?” she asked.
“You are not the great power…no. The great power is building even as we speak, and both buio and luce are becoming stronger within it. He or she will suffer a great loss and lose their way. There will be an unspeakable torment that nobody will see, which will define who they become.” She looked back to Farlow. “We must not intervene. “
“So, the great power is Renee. The loss of her mother, it’s going to tear her apart.” Tabby hurt for her friend and was eager to get back to her.
“Yes… it will tear her apart, but she is not the only one who will be affected by the loss of the mother. There will be another.” She looked at Tabby, waiting for her to put the connections together.
“Tyson… together they feel everything. How did you know that?” Tabby looked to Farlow. “Have you known all along too?”
“Yes, of course, we fae are responsible for all life. We are the creators of this whole world. Of course, we would know about each match.”
“Each match. I don’t think there is a match for everyone.”
“Tabitha, you think your match is gone to you,” Calipee said with a laugh. “You will find your match, at the appropriate time, as all others do.”
“I’m not interested in that. I need to know more about the link between Ty and Renee.”
“That is for them to figure out when the time comes. For now, you must go back. And remember, all that was said here stays here.”
Calipee waved her hand over Tabby. Sleep came quickly as her body fell to the floor. Her head jerked up, and she was again sitting on the floor in the living room of the small house in Cherry Valley. Farlow lay sleeping behind her. His hand, which had slipped to her shoulder, was beside him on the sofa.
She looked around the room to see her brother slumped to the floor; fast asleep. She dismissed her dream and scanned the street outside.
A shadow leaped across the circle to the front yard. She only had the light from one street lamp to show her what was out there. She thought she saw red eyes glaring at her through the curtain, and she lifted her hand to move it away from the window.
The animal jumped towards the house just as she moved her hand, and it went flying sideways to the neighboring yard.
“What was that?” she asked herself in a whisper.
“That would be your magia returned to you.”
Tabby looked up in time to see Farlow sitting on the sofa. She swung around and blinked to make sure she hadn’t fallen back to sleep.
“Did that really happen? Calipee?” she asked him.
“Yes. She gave you back the magia you were born with, but you mustn’t tell anyone,” he spoke heavily, looking drained of much of his energy. “Until the time is right. You will know when.”
She got up and sat next to him. “Are you feeling okay?” She watched as sweat beaded his forehead.
“It’s happening.” He looked at her and then to the hall as a scream filled the house.
Chapter Sixteen
Ormshire Past
Renella lay silent on the settee as she slept; her wispy tendrils sprawling around her. Tyson held her hand and watched as her eyes moved back and forth behind closed lids. It had been a week since the attack on Ormshire, which meant it had been an agonizing week since Renella lost her sister. Tyson had never seen her smile so wide as the day her sister arrived at the castle. It was hard to think he would never again see her smile like that.
A noise in the hallway broke through his thoughts. As he let go of Renella’s hand, Tabitha cornered the entrance to the library. It had been the only room Renella felt at peace.
“How long has she been asleep?” she asked, taking a seat at the desk in the far corner.
“About an hour.” He turned his attention back to his sleeping princess.
“You’ve been sitting there this whole time?”
“I guess I have.” He took note of his position on the floor next to the settee. His back was starting to bother him, and his legs had fallen asleep, but he refused to leave her side.
“So, Prince Tyson, how does it feel to be crowned the enemy of all the realm?” Tyson looked at his sister. He noticed Tabitha taking stock in his appearance. He was only older than her by four minutes, but the weight of what transpired the last few weeks had aged him considerably. His blond hair—usually well-groomed—was unruly, and the shadows under his heavy eyes were evidence that he had not slept in days.
“Don’t call me that. I am not his prince.” He turned his attention back to Renella. She stirred but didn’t wake.
“Sorry, I only meant to tease. I know you very well may despise him far more than I… at the moment.” She nodded at Renella. “How is she handling everything?”
“As well as can be expected, I’d wager.” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair and stood. “I don’t know what to do to help her through this. I keep going over everything in my mind. Had I been here with her, instead of investigating his madness, would I have been able to help?” Frustration had him pacing the room. With each pass, he glared out the window, which gave a perfect view to his father’s study. Tyson did not point that out to Renella.
“Don’t think like that.” She followed his movements with her gaze. “It is not your fault our father is a br
ute. He has spent my entire life ostracizing me, and your whole life building you up for some greater purpose only he knows of. That’s as bad as it’s been. How could you have known he was turning into some power-hungry buio who could be capable of committing murder?”
“I saw it.” He looked at her.
“No, Tyson. You didn’t know he’d be as evil as to have your future wife killed before the nuptials were even spoken, after insisting upon the union himself; only then to have her sister killed in his own home.” She stood, angry with his perception of the events.
“No, Tabitha. I knew he was gaining followers from the old lands. I knew his most trusted advisors were buio maga. I did nothing to keep her safe,” he said, looking at Renella’s still frame. “I could have stopped him before it was too late.” He threw his hands in the air and sat back at Renella’s side. “I was strong enough and I did nothing. I fell in love. All of my time and focus was on her and I forgot he was a danger to her!” he bellowed in an angry whisper.
“That was as it should be. You shouldn’t have to worry about protecting those you love from your own father.” Tabitha was frustrated. She knew her brother felt as if he needed to protect everyone around him from anything that would harm them. She cornered the desk to sit next to him.
“We could just leave,” she whispered to him. “Just go. He wouldn’t realize we have left until it was too late. We could go to Hearthstone. We could take Renella home, and then she would be safe.”
“I wish that were true, but we cannot.” He cradled his head in the palms of his hands.
“Why not?” Tabitha gave a look of confusion to her brother.
“Father… He’s bound us to him. We cannot leave Ormshire.”
“What do you mean us?”
“I mean every being in Ormshire is bound to him, save for Renella. If we were to leave, we would die.” He gave her a solemn look.
The Curse of Ormshire (The Beast Within Book 2) Page 14
