by Abra Ebner
“Let me guess, this is just for show?”
Max laughed. “Smart girl.” He was looking at the gate with an inquisitive glimmer in his eye. “I used to have a trick for this, but I doubt it still works. They change those things periodically.”
“A trick?” I gawked. “Your world’s excuse for a remote? Yeah, right.”
Max looked sideways at me, then got out of the car. I hungered over the movement of his body. Every day he denied me only made my desire to be with him exceedingly unbearable. I wanted to feel his skin against mine; I wanted to feel everything. I couldn’t help but let the trivial thought consume me. It was my challenge, and I craved a good challenge.
I watched him walk up to the gate and rattle it. Nothing happened.
I sighed, growing impatient with so many things. How could I get him to cave in and open up to me? Aside from his chastity, I also still felt like he was hiding things beyond that, especially things about his past that I should know. My own past was extensive, and yet I’d lived but a fraction of the time he had. Who was Max Gordon? And not the Max I saw now, but the Max that had breathed air into human lungs, felt emotion for him alone, and thought of nothing but life, simple and predictable. What was he like before he died? Who was he really?
I began to wonder about old relationships, thinking of the way they define us—Wes and I, Max and… whomever. He was a good kisser because he’d had plenty of practice—at least that’s what he’d said. There was the ex-girlfriend factor somewhere along the way, but the downside was that I didn’t know who any of them where, or what they were, or if they were even alive.
Maybe he’d only dated while he was human. If that was so, then they were likely gone from here, but it also meant that there was eighty-one years of solidarity he’d endured in this angel life. As much as I tried, I had a hard time believing that was the case. He was too attractive to squeak by without the occasional female onlooker, especially given his apparently prestigious role in the government. There was baggage, all right, and I wanted to know about it.
Max finally found what looked like a lever on the side of the gate and pulled it. The gate began to lift and my laughter filled the car. It was like a gated community, an exclusive club, and the best part was that it was mine now, too.
Max sauntered back and hopped in. “There. I got it.” He sounded winded, though I knew better than to believe that—breathing was habit, nothing but show.
“So we just go in?”
Max nodded, shifting his car out of park. “Yep.” Apprehension threaded its way through me like a stitch. I knew it wasn’t my trepidation because in all reality, I was more excited than anything else.
“You’re scared,” I stated, forcing my brows together.
A look of alarm struck his face. “No. I’m not.”
Max’s reply wasn’t very convincing as he squirmed. I placed my hand on his arm, feeling the electric pull as our skin grafted together as one. “Wait a minute.”
He jerked away, annoyed that I’d been able to do that. “What?” He protested defensively. “I’m not scared.” His eyes darted about the car, looking everywhere but at me.
“What’s here that’s so frightening to you?” I asked, my voice calm, low… inviting.
Max pressed himself against the back of the seat, visibly discomfited by my accusations. I was confused. This was his idea, so why was I feeling guilty as though it had been mine, as though I were forcing him into this?
“If this is so horrible for you, then why did you suggest it?” I pressed harder, testing my boundaries.
Max ignored my question, clearly avoiding the subject. “I want to come here.”
I snorted, another pull of emotion slithering through me. This time, it was dread. “No, you don’t.” I grasped his arm more firmly this time, pinching the skin where half his tattoo was blazoned. “Come on, Max. Tell me.”
His blue eyes locked with mine. “It’s not that I don’t want to come here…”
A new emotion snaked in behind the last, and I finally got it. I sat up, gripping his arm with both hands and allowing our connection to become pure. I could feel his slow, cold pulse of blood speed up ever so gently. “You’re nervous.” It was such a simple emotion, disguised behind so many unnecessary ones. “How long has it been since you’ve been here?” I knew the answer because I’d asked the question before, but the situation had changed. I hoped he’d tell me something more.
“Long enough. You know that.” He was like a fortress.
I pressed a feeling of calm from my head down my arm and into my hand, hoping he’d take the emotion for himself. He did, sighing as his body melted more comfortably into the seat. I was controlling him, and I was amazed. “Why did you leave, for real?”
Max’s sudden feeling of lucidity felt like an opening door. “I left for you. I told you that. I saw you in the Truth and I knew you were my destiny. The Priory was no longer my primary concern.”
I nodded. “I get that, but why did you have to leave? That doesn’t justify abandoning the life you led outside the government. Whatever role you played for them shouldn’t have driven you away from your home.” I gave him a warning squeeze. “And don’t say it was because of me again. You know how that makes me feel.” My eyes narrowed as I held his gaze.
Max licked his lips nervously. “I was a head member, as I said.” He was growing frustrated again, and I knew by that reaction that I’d hit on the root of the problem. “I didn’t like being a head member, but leaving was more than just what I wanted, but what they wanted as well. Even if it wasn’t said out loud, actions were enough. Winter Wood was no longer home to me.”
“They rejected you from everything?”
He shrugged. “In a way.”
I grew speculative. “What did you do? Tell me.”
His shoulders sank and the small lines around his eyes relaxed. I could tell he didn’t want to tell me, but knew he had no choice.
“Please, Max.”
He placed his other hand over mine, squeezing it. “I’d broken promises in order to pursue the Truth. That’s all you need to know. I’d made a vow to the Crown to protect certain, important things, a vow I swore to uphold, but didn’t. The Crown didn’t force me out at knife point or anything like that, though he may as well have. I left on my own accord, but it’s not like I had a choice. What I did was shameful, and no one treated me the same way after that. Their judgments made me recede into loneliness. That was my cage, and I had to get out.”
I could tell by the tone of his voice that that was all he was going to tell me. I felt a burn rise in my chest, a jealous burn about the fact that he knew almost every inch of my life, every secret and feeling, yet I knew almost nothing of his. I tried once again to control him and open him up, letting the feeling of jealousy overwhelm me.
He didn’t budge.
Max:
I felt so helpless, but I couldn’t let her know about Avery. Not now. Not ever. Avery was different than any relationship Jane had ever had with another man. She would not understand the true nature of our engagement, but rather linger on the term itself. Avery had been my fiancé, my betrothed, and my future. I’d promised Avery’s father to care for her always, but then I broke that promise. The Crown hadn’t cared about the breakup in the business realm, but I could see the disappointment he offered me in the personal sphere. Telling Jane I had been forced out was true. I couldn’t handle the whole town’s judgment.
I felt my walls wavering, and I could feel what Jane was trying to do to me. Her strength was surprising. I reached across the center console, pulling her into me. I brushed my hand across her cheek, tucking her hair behind her ear until her power over me faded. “There are some things about my past I am ashamed of, things that lend no importance to our relationship or our current situation. I want to bury the things that hurt me and try to be happy.”
“But I want to know who you are,” Jane whispered, sounding exhausted.
I pressed my lips against
her forehead, surrounding her with the only emotion I could offer—security. “And you will. You are. Coming here with me will show you a lot. I promise.”
She relaxed within the circle of my arms, but still, her hands gripped my shoulders. She clung to me with desperation, weakness and longing. I wanted to let go of my apprehensions; I wanted to be with her, but the punishment was not worth the crime. I needed to find a way around this last obstacle and prove to Jane that life is about more than just what she’s focused on now. I am an old soul and have seen that the worries she faces are not real worries, but distractions from life. I need to remember that it’s also not my place to teach her. She has to find it out on her own. This was something The Priory could help me to understand again, as I have forgotten what it means to be young in the world.
I released her as she still held tight. Wedging my hands between us, I urged her to sit back. “Are you ready?”
Jane looked up at me, her grip releasing. “Are you?”
I smiled. She was trying to be strong for me. “With you, Jane, I’m always ready.”
She giggled and winked. “Sort of,” she teased.
Avery:
I leaned against the trunk of a tree, thirty feet above their car. The wind was moderate, leaving me swinging in the air, grasping to what bits of conversation it carried. Max loved his pet, this I already knew, but what I’d just learned added to the already smoldering anger I harbored. She’d been the reason for our end.
I ripped the bark off the tree, grinding it in my hands until there was nothing left. How could such a weak being destroy the strength of our once-great connection? We had power, nobility, and respect. This little leech only offered him love, the simplest of emotions.
My plans suddenly changed. This Seoul was no longer just an obstacle in my way, but what I was here to destroy. She was the reason my heart had grown lightless, a Shadow Pixie amongst the glow of others. Max had taken my radiance, my pride, the one thing we pixie’s hold dear, and the one thing my kind kept to give only to our truest of partners. Unfortunately my truest of partners had been a ruse. I should have known better than to trust an angel or my father. I should have known better than to believe in love.
I dug my nails into the now exposed meat of the evergreen tree, smelling sap as it bled across my fingers. The tree moaned softly, a moan only my ears could hear, and a moan I dreamed to hear from the girl called Jane.
She would die. She had to.
Emily:
Walking down the street, I kept an eye on Jake. He was practically glowing in the dim of the evening, his skin holding the daylight inside. I held tight to Wes, his arm around me, anchoring me to his side. I was thankful for that, because if he hadn’t been there to do so, I’d already be lost in the blue, veiled light, dancing wildly and basking in the heat it offered. Jake’s glow made me want to be near him in a way I’d never wanted to be near anything, and it frightened me. It wasn’t attraction, not quite. It was something else, something that sat right at the tip of my tongue. It took all my strength to resist the feeling, hide the feeling, but the darker the sky grew, the more it tested my strength.
There was a group of girls up ahead, and as they approached, Wes and I stared shamelessly. I pressed my fingers firmly against his arm, afraid of what they could be. The notion felt awkward and uncontrollable. Humans were just human, but not here—never before had it been a thing to think of. The girls giggled and whispered amongst themselves as they passed Jake, a flirtatious sight I would have never previously associated with the Jake from class.
“Hi, Jake.” Their voices chimed in perfect unison, their laughter intoxicatingly sweet.
They swooned in the same manner when their eyes fell on Wes.
I all but growled at them, no longer concerned with what they were, but what I wanted to do to them. They looked at me with narrowed eyes, and I was shocked by the bright blue of them. The glittering hue of their lashes and the shine of their pearlescent hair and skin made me wither in comparison.
They brushed past, leaving Wes and I in a fog of perfumed air—smelling of cinnamon. Jake’s gaze never broke away from their many assets, his neck craned with a smirk on his face. “Too bad they’re not vampires,” he murmured, shaking his head lightly and clicking his tongue.
Squeezing Wes’s arm, I moved closer to Jake, dangerously testing the pull of his blue veiled emotion. “What are they?” I whispered, feeling in a fog at this proximity.
He sighed longingly. “Element Pixies.”
“Element Pixies?”
Jake nodded, his vision finally breaking away from their swaying hips. “Yep. We have a lot here. This is a dominantly pixie community because the Crown here is an Element Pixie as well—not that I mind. They’re the most gorgeous creatures in the world. You see, they can convey the seasons. Winter, summer, fall, and spring. They’re the prettiest in the spring. Right now they’re transitioning from fall to winter, so it’s a bit awkward.”
“But still gorgeous,” Wes snorted.
I clenched my jaw, ignoring him, not finding it hard to do when surrounded by my own spring of blue light. “Why don’t you live in a dominantly vampire community?”
Jake laughed as though the answer was obvious. “Much too savage for my taste. You get enough of my kind together and they lose touch with humanity, manners, social order, and basic community. It’s good to live in a pixie community. They’re organized, calculated, and best of all, they make the best warriors. This is one of the safest communities on Earth. Black Angels won’t bother to come here unless it’s the last standing fortress.”
Wes snorted. “Yeah, or unless you’re Greg.”
Jake laughed. “Yeah, exactly. I guess he thinks he’s got some power over us because of Max. The Crown has a special friendship with Max, practically family, so I know he won’t attack Greg unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
The way he’d explained the Crown and Max pulled me away from the desire to spread my arms and gather up the blue light dancing around me. I gathered myself back to reality. “What do you mean family?”
Jake halted on the street, car’s I’d been used to seeing around town now driving past us, their magickal secret revealed.
Jake lifted one brow. “The Crown was Max’s father-in-law to-be until Max called it off, out of the blue. That was the rumor, at least.”
I no longer cared about the magickal people in their cars, or even the blue light. “What?”
Jake shook his head as he told the unfortunate tale. “Max was betrothed to the Crown’s daughter, Avery. It was a big deal a few decades back. It was the closest thing to a royal wedding our kind had ever seen. The whole town was planning it, even my mother. She’d baked the cake for cryin’ out loud. That’s who Sierra learned to bake from. I wasn’t alive then, obviously. It’s just a family story.”
Wes exchanged a glance with me.
Jake looked perplexed. “What?” he asked. “Max didn’t tell you?”
Wes chuckled sarcastically. “Why would he? He loves Jane. I doubt he’d come out and tell us about his failed engagement to an Element Pixie.”
I was horrified. “Do you know why the engagement failed?” A blue wisp tickled my nose.
Jake gloated. “All I know is that Max called it off and then left. When he showed up on school grounds at the beginning of this year, it was the first time I’d ever seen the face behind the legend. You see, no one, and I mean no one, breaks up with an Element Pixie. When one falls in love with you, they become a part of you. If you break the heart of an Element Pixie, they succumb to shadow. That’s no place anyone wants to be. Forget Black Angels; a Shadow Pixie is far worse. Luckily, she disappeared without much to-do over the situation, but that’s why the story is legend.” He glanced up over my head and squinted. “Max was lucky in that respect.” His eyes widened then. “And speaking of the devil.”
I spun on my heel, expecting to see this Avery girl, but seeing Max’s Defender instead. It was rolling down the street, c
hromed rims catching under the street lights. Not to my surprise, Jane was in the passenger seat.
“I’m amazed he’d show his face,” Jake murmured.
“What are they doing here?” I hissed, turning to Wes and searching his eyes. I was a little jealous, hoping this could be my town, not hers.
Wes just shook his head slowly, struggling to say much of anything.
Max:
“What are they doing here?” Jane’s excited expression faded.
I looked in the direction she was, surprised to see Emily and Wes standing on the curb up ahead; that is, until I recognized Jake beside them. He was just as I saw him under all the disguises in class, but it still took a moment to register.
I slowed the car and rolled down Jane’s window. Wes strolled up, resting his arm on the frame. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Jane scowled. “How did you find it?”
I could tell she was jealous. She’d wanted this to be her discovery.
Wes hooked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at Jake.
Jane leaned closer, looking past Wes. “And you are?”
“Jake Santé.”
Jane sat up straighter. “Jake Santé, as in Jake Santé from Glenwood High?”
Jake nodded.
Jane looked at me. “What?” Her mouth formed the words, her voice nothing but a squeak.
I simply nodded.
Jane sat back, looking again at Jake. “No way.”
Jake grinned then, and Jane gasped.
I grabbed her arm, stopping her before the questions began. “He’s a vampire, Jane. I’ll fill you in later.”
She gawked at my lips and the words they’d formed. Her eyes were horrified and her beautiful mouth gaping. “But…”
“He won’t hurt anyone, Jane. Just trust me—later.” I tried to say it under my breath so that Jake wouldn’t hear, though I doubt it worked very well.
