Fated Loss (Red Rose & Black Ash Book 1)

by Claudia Caren

  “Just remember, Rose,” Gramma said, “it's your choice.”

  Gramma's tone was warm and neutral. No matter what I choose, I knew she wouldn't be disappointed in me.

  I went back to my room. My head was swimming with all that Gramma and Gramp said. I could save Astella or be a normal girl. My parents could still be alive, and I would have a chance to save them. But I would have to do this without Skylar. As annoying as she can be sometimes, I still count on her for moral support. And that line from the prophecy, More than just a friend's life shall end, what does it mean? But I will figure that out later. First I have to decide whether to go or not.

  I flopped on my bed and stared at the white popcorn ceiling. Sixteen-year-olds aren't supposed to save the world. It only happened in those fantasy novels I like. But I am living in a real fantasy, so what should I do? Should I learn magic or not, see if my parents are still alive or not, save a kingdom and the lives of thousands of faeries or not? Should I be daring and give it a try like the heroes in stories, or should I attempt to live a normal life?

  

  After I got tired of pacing for two hours, I sat against the wall, drew my knees to my chest, and buried my face in my arms. I might not be strong enough to defeat someone who had already defeated me. I might not even succeed or survive. I might have to do this without any help to avoid endangering anybody. And I might never see my family again.

  I lifted my head. But I had to try.

  This decision won't affect just me. It will affect the lives of thousands of other faeries as well. Plus, if I have a chance to save my parents all the better. I was the only one Astella had left, and I couldn't let them down.

  But I didn't feel obliged to do it. I was doing myself a favor as well as others. I couldn't let her get away with this injustice. She can't treat people like this, and she can't just mess up my life and toss me out. (Not that my life was bad living with Gramma and Gramp, but I need to have a chance to know my parents.)

  I unzipped my suitcase and started packing my warmest clothes. Tomorrow I will be leaving for Ether on a mission to learn my powers, overthrow a faery with never-before-seen abilities, and save a kingdom.

  ROSE

  Chapter 9

  The next morning.

  “Love you, and thank you for raising us.” I embraced my grandparents.

  “Be careful, Rose.” Gramma released me from a long hug. Her eyes were red, and her cheeks were wet.

  “I'll be fine,” I said, trying to sound confident. But I wasn't sure I could keep my word.

  The sight of Gramma crying was almost enough to bring me to tears. I can't bear the thought of not seeing them again, but I made my decision. I have to try to save my kingdom. Though I wondered if this was a brave move or a stupid one.

  I grabbed my suitcase and walked out the door with Skylar before I could change my mind. Yes, Skylar was with me. She confronted me in my room last night while I was packing and asked me where I was going. I tried to tell her I was taking a month-long school field trip, but she was so good at reading people she could tell I was lying. One thing led to another, and I got busted. Skylar found out she was a magical creature from the legends and absolutely refused not to go with me even after I told her I would have to overthrow a dangerous faery.

  More reasons for me to come with you, she had said.

  Skylar can be so stubborn it's amazing and also the fact that she took in everything so calmly (unlike me).

  I risked a look back and saw Gramma and Gramp waving from the doorway. Hopefully, this isn't going to be the last time I see them.

  “So where is this portal, and how did you find it?” Skylar asked as we were walking to the park.

  Astonishingly, she wasn't weeping…much. I guess she was the adventure kind of person.

  Even though I already told her the story, I was glad for a distraction. I ran my finger across my cheek to wipe away a tear, and I retold the tale about getting lost in the forest and finding a magical portal.

  “Hmmm. Cold, snowy, and with a stench like tar. Sounds like a nice kingdom,” Skylar said.

  “You didn't have to come,” I reminded her.

  “I can't let you have all the fun.”

  We entered the forest and followed the trail. Once the woods got thick, we stepped off the path and dragged our heavy suitcases over the bumpy roots and rocks. It wasn't as dim as my last trip, but the weather was gray as always, and the trees were dense making it hard to see. The suitcase's wheels kept snagging on brambles and getting stuck. Pulling our luggage through the rough terrain was already hard enough without trying to figure out where we were and if I could even find that tree again.

  After blundering through the forest for two hours, when I was deciding we were really lost the Crystal Tree appeared a few feet in front of me.

  “So I have to get lost before you appear, huh?” I clenched my hand into a fist. My nails dug into my palm. “Can't find you when I want to?”

  The tree didn't respond. I felt silly for getting mad at a piece of wood, but who can blame me? I was trying to find this tree for two hours, and when I was about to give up, go home, crawl back into bed, and assume Astella doesn't need me after all then it showed itself like a cruel joke.

  “Is that it?” Skylar asked. “It's just very expensive looking timber.” (Does anything impress her?)

  “Watch this.” I stepped to the trunk. The golden circle of light flooded through the dense forest canopy and illuminated the massive oak's gold and silver leaves.

  “Oh,” Skylar said in a small voice. (I guess some things do dazzle her.)

  I reached out and touched the flower-shaped diamond. This time I acted on my own. The tree rumbled like before, and multicolored light started swirling around in a giant whirlpool. I already saw it, but it was still a beautiful light show. I could tell Skylar was stunned. She stared in awe at the huge rainbow portal that had appeared in front of us.

  Skylar and I dragged our suitcases up the gnarly roots of the tree and stepped into the portal. I savored the warm sensation, knowing I wouldn't feel cozy and snug again for a long time.

  The portal opened and dropped us on top of a skyscraper. I got up and brushed the snow off my pants. Even that slight movement made the building creak.

  Astella looked the same as before with its run-down streets and icy cold wind. The whole place was so depressing that it made me feel hopeless. I am only one little faery. What can I do to save a kingdom that is beyond repair? But first things first. I had to get off the high-rise.

  We scoured the rooftop for a door or a way into the building, but we found nothing except broken glass, plastic bags, and gray, smelly snow. I guess if everybody had wings here, who needs stairs?

  “How are we going to get down?” I asked after searching every inch of the square roof.

  I knew there was one other way out of this situation, but I was too afraid to even attempt it.

  “Let's try flying,” Skylar said, voicing exactly what I dreaded.

  “If we fall—” I sighed. “We don't have a choice do we?”

  I took a deep breath and peered over the edge of the roof. Usually, I don't fear heights, but the thought of jumping off a three hundred feet tall building and relying on only a pair of flimsy wings to keep me aloft made me dizzy. On the other hand, Skylar was acting so calm.

  “Aren't you even a little bit scared?” I asked.

  “Nope,” she replied.

  Her sapphire blue wings were already out, and she looked ready to plummet to her death.

  I summoned my damaged wings. Just looking at them reminded me of the fight with that Faery. Ever since Gramma and Gramp's story, I started recovering my memories. Now I can clearly remember the day of my fourteenth birthday, but sometimes I wish I could forget it again. It would make facing her once more less frightening…or maybe not.

  Skylar tossed our suitcases over the edge, and it hit the pavement with a loud crunch. I hope I
don't end up like that.

  “Ready?” Skylar asked.

  Please let these wings work, I prayed silently then I closed my eyes and jumped.

  Chilly wind rushed against my face and numbed my cheeks. As I plunged through the air, buildings and streets tumbled in and out of view so much that it made me nauseous. If something doesn't happen quick, I would be falling to my death. What kind of hero am I? I will only succeed in getting myself killed.

  You have to believe, Rose, Gramp's voice said in my head.

  “I can do this,” I muttered. “I can fly.”

  For a scary second, nothing happened. But then the whistling of the wind in my ears died down, and I felt myself slowly stop falling. I opened my eyes and saw the rooftops pass by below. I was actually flying—shakily but still.

  “Great job, Rose,” Skylar called from a few feet away.

  She swooped through the air steadily and even did a small loop just to show off. Why does everything seem easy for her?

  “Not bad yourself,” I said.

  We touched down in the streets and picked up our damaged luggage. I was right. The city did look ten times worse down here than from the cliff. Trash bags blew across our paths like tumbleweeds, the walls of houses were decaying and caving in, broken glass from shattered windows littered the ground, and the roads were unplowed, so Skylar and I had to wade through a half-foot of gray snow while dragging our luggage.

  As we walked around, we saw faeries huddling in abandoned alleys and trying to get shelter from the wind. They only had thin, worn-out clothes to cover themselves with, and some wore no shoes. Once I saw a family with four kids digging through the trash cans searching for something to eat. While looking into their eyes, I noticed a blank, hopeless quality. Even the children had no glimmer of life left.

  We got to the heart of the city where there were more skyscrapers and shops and less residential areas.

  I felt a weak tug on the back of my jacket. I turned around and saw a little boy that was about six years old. He wrapped himself with a ragged blanket, but it didn't do much good as he was shivering violently from head to toe. He held out his tiny blue fingers and said something, but his voice was barely audible.

  I leaned down to hear him better. “What did you say?”

  “Do you have any food you can spare?” he replied in a hoarse whisper.

  I regretted not bringing at least bread with me to give to people, but I hadn't expected the situation to be so horrible. When Gramma said the faeries were starving, I thought food prices were so high that no one could afford anything. I didn't know there really was nothing at all.

  “I am so sorry. I don't have any, but take this.” I took off my gloves and slipped them onto his cold hands.

  I dug out the smallest coat I could find from my suitcase and gave it to him. It was still big on his skeletal frame, but I hoped it would keep him warmer.

  His eyes lit up like a kid receiving a toy on Christmas. “Thank you!” He gave me a quick, sweet hug.

  “I wish I could do more for you.”

  “You already done a lot. Thank you,” he said again. Then he limped away to a crumbling shack that must be his home.

  I wondered where his parents were or if he even had parents.

  Everything I saw made my heart ache. How can whoever she is be so cruel and let these people freeze and starve to death? Doesn't she have an ounce of sympathy?

  Another blast of bone-chilling wind slammed into me, and I dug my hands deeper into my coat pocket. There was another pair of gloves in my pack, but these faeries had much less clothes on their backs than me. I think I can stand being gloveless for a few minutes.

  “I-it is so c-cold,” Skylar said through chattering teeth. “How do faeries even survive a day in this weather?”

  “They must be strong,” I replied. “But everyone has their limits.”

  Finally, we found the school Gramma mentioned. At the end of a street with a knocked down telephone pole in front of it, there was a modern school building that looked better than the other structures, but it was still in pretty bad shape. Bricks were peeling away from the walls, the main door was on its last hinge, and a torn banner was fluttering in the breeze. Between pauses in the wind, I could read Ether Academy.

  ROSE

  Chapter 10

  Sadly, inside the school wasn't much warmer. It was only about ten degrees hotter bringing the total temp to twenty-five instead of fifteen.

  We walked around the empty hallways, not sure what to do. Everything looked quiet and abandoned. Maybe Gramma was mistaken. This school probably closed down years ago, judging from the thick cobwebs in the corner of the walls.

  As we circled around campus looking for any signs of life, we stumbled upon a massive metal wall. In Ether the hallways weren't lined with lockers. Instead, they had one large two-story wall with lockers stacked on top of each other.

  After a few minutes, we found a door that was labeled Principal Office. Inside there was a soft yellow glow. We knocked a few times. The sound pierced through the silence and was the most noise I heard since being here.

  “I already told you that I am not going to shut down the school!” a voice from inside yelled.

  A moment later a scowling thirty-five-year-old faery with graying dark brown hair opened the door. When she saw us or who we weren't, her stony eyes turned warm and her frown into a smile.

  “Hello, my apologies. I was expecting someone else,” she said. “How can I help you?”

  “We would like to attend your school,” I replied.

  She wrapped her patched coat tighter around herself. “Wonderful,” she said. Though it sounded a little forced.

  I cringed inside. I could imagine her pain. Two more students equal two more mouths to feed with the little they had.

  “Come in.” She ushered us into a bare office.

  There were only two chairs on one side of a desk and a larger one on the other.

  The principal sat in her seat behind the desk. “Please sit.”

  Skylar and I settled in the two chairs. I shifted uncomfortably partly because the chair was cold, but mostly because I associate principal offices with trouble. (Not that I been in a principal office for anything other than enrollment.) I felt like I was committing a crime since that Faery definitely won't want me to be here.

  Now that I got a closer look at the principal, she wasn't as old as I thought. She was about twenty-five, but her face was filled with worry lines making her seem ten years older.

  “Welcome to Ether, the magic training academy for faeries. I am Ms. Miranda, your principal. What are your names, and where are you from?” she asked.

  “Uh…” I paused trying to think of a fake name, but my mind was blank. “I am Roselyn Diaz, and we are from the outskirts of the kingdom,” I said finally.

  I hope the hesitation wasn't too long to raise suspicion.

  “Sky Diaz,” Skylar said.

  “Correct me if I am mistaken, but you are not fourteen yet,” Ms. Miranda said to Skylar.

  “No, not yet, but I would love to start early if I could,” Skylar replied.

  Ms. Miranda tapped her fingers on the desk. “Faeries usually start training at fourteen, but I could make an exception for you.”

  She dug through a rusty file cabinet and got out two enrollment forms. “Please fill this out. Of course you don't have parents, so ignore the guardian's signature.”

  I wanted to ask her what she meant by us not having parents. But there must be something I don't know, and I can't look clueless. We filled out the papers and handed them back.

  “Do you girls know what your powers are yet?” she asked.

  Skylar and I glanced at each other. I already told Skylar I was the Savior, and Skylar didn't have the slightest clue of what her powers might be. I can't say that I have all the powers, so I decided to play it safe.

  “We don't know yet,” I said.

  Ms. M
iranda narrowed her eyes slightly. “You are sixteen, aren't you? You should have some signs of powers by now.”

  “Well, I guess I am a late bloomer.” I forced an innocent smile onto my face.

  “Ok then. Both of you will be enrolled in all the magic classes to find out your type of power. Here is your class schedule.”

  She handed us two small scrolls. As soon as we took one, our fake names emblazoned themselves on the outside of the scroll in golden light.

  “Ether is also a boarding school.” Ms. Miranda handed us keys as well. “Roselyn, you are on the second floor in dorm room 204. Sky, you have a room on the third floor, and your number is 307. Today we are just getting students settled in, but we have a school assembly at three. Tomorrow the real classes begin.”

  ROSE

  Chapter 11

  After Ms. Miranda welcomed us, Skylar and I went to find our rooms. We climbed a flight of stairs that led to a single plain door.

  “This is my stop, but where is the third floor?” I looked around, but we had come to a dead end.

  “Maybe this leads to another set of stairs,” Skylar replied.

  I pushed open the door then froze, causing Skylar to bump into me. There weren't any stairs or elevators. Instead, there was a large square room.

  Skylar tapped me on the shoulder. “Rose, what's going on?”

  I moved aside so she can see.

  “Oh, that's new,” she said.

  Almost like the lockers, the square room was lined with doors all the way up to the ceiling. The doorways were two feet apart from each other. Between every row of doors, there was a thick, dark line that separated the rows into four floors. Except three of the floors don't have actual floors.

  I walked to the middle of the room and tried to find my dorm, but all the identical doors gave me vertigo. But after a few minutes, Skylar and I found our room number.

  “See you at orientation,” Skylar said. Then she flew up to her room on the third floor.