“Oh thank goodness!” I yelled as we hugged. “I was so worried that you were hurt.”
“Me too,” she admitted and smiled at me.
“Stay in line,” A man next to Treyce ordered us angrily.
Mara stuck her tongue out at him, but where he couldn’t see, and huddled close to me. “This is so crazy,” she whispered.
I nodded. “I keep feeling like I’m going to wake up any minute.”
“I wish,” she grumbled.
The lines were moving slowly, but I couldn’t hear what was going on up there. “What do you think this test is?” I asked her.
“Blood test I’m assuming,” she replied and stood on tiptoe to try to see over the heads of the people in front of us.
We moved up to the front and I looked around for Treyce, but I could not see him anywhere. I shouldn’t have been disappointed since I did not know him, but I felt like he would at least try to protect me if the crap hit the fan.
“Next,” a burly male centaur ordered.
Mara took a breath and stepped forward. The centaur grabbed her arm and cut her arm with a knife that I had not seen. We both gasped and then her blood dripped down on to a silver bowl with black rocks in it that was on the ground. I hadn’t seen it until they all looked down at it expectantly. Nothing happened.
“Human,” the centaur said loudly.
A very thin man with pale white skin walked over to her with a smile that made him look like a total creeper and said, “Follow me please.”
She looked back at me, but there was nothing I could do. I didn’t know what was going on or what was happening.
“Next,” the centaur ordered me.
I held out my arm and looked away while he cut me. My blood dripped down and as soon as it hit the rocks in the bowl a huge burst of blue smoke surged up into the air followed by a green puff.
The centaur looked at the smoke in confusion and then looked up at Queen Pella. “Verdict?” he asked her.
She tapped her finger against her chin while she stared at me. “It’s been two hundred years since we had someone like her and there are no clans for her to go to.”
“She can join mine,” the winged man from before offered as he landed on the ground on the right of me.
“No, thank you,” I whispered nervously and gripped my arm to try to stop the bleeding.
“She has shifter blood as well,” Treyce said from my left, “So she should join my clan.”
I liked that idea better.
“She only had a drop of shifter blood,” the winged man argued.
“She didn’t have any vampire blood,” Treyce argued back.
Vampire! I looked at him and now it made sense. Except that I hadn’t thought vampires would have wings. Not that I had ever thought vampires would be real to begin with. Shifter? Wait, did that mean that Treyce was a werewolf or something?
“We would be able to teach her more about her magic,” a woman in a long flowing dress said as she approached us. “She may not be able to shift or have a second form while with a response like that, she clearly has magic.”
“Magic? Like a witch?” I asked.
“You are a mage since your magic comes from your own powers and needs no spell or staff,” the woman explained.
“You were responsible for killing the mages,” Treyce said angrily. “How do we know that you aren’t going to take her and kill her?”
“You don’t,” the woman replied with a smirk.
“She will not be killed,” Queen Pella ordered them.
Thank you, Queen Pella!
“We will discuss this in my chambers once the others are finished. Whoever is interested in this girl may head their now to await me and my decision,” Queen Pella said.
Treyce glared at the vampire and turned to me. “Follow me.”
I nodded and followed behind him, very aware of the fact that a vampire was walking behind me as well as someone who had killed off all of the other mages. He led us around the left side of the building, away from where Mara had been taken, and into a side door that led inside the castle. The walls were thick stone blocks and the door looked like it was made of a thick metal, but Treyce opened it easily.
“How do we find out if I can shift or not?” I asked Treyce.
“First, we would have to find out what animal you possess,” he began explaining.
“And then he would rip your animal out of you, forcing you to change at his command,” the vampire said.
I didn’t turn to look at him and neither did Treyce.
“Is it painful?”
“Yes,” Treyce replied instantly. “But you learn to manage it.”
“What if I don’t have an animal?”
“Then you aren’t shifter enough to belong to them,” the woman said behind us.
“What are you?” I asked her softly.
“A witch,” she said bluntly.
“What’s the difference between a witch and mage?” I asked.
She smiled and it wasn’t altogether nice and said, “I don’t want to scare you off just yet, dear. We’ll wait until the Queen makes her decision.”
The hallways were cold and the only light was provided by torches and candles in holders along the walls. There were a few people walking down the hallways, but they all looked human and none of them would even look up at us, focused on their feet as they walked instead.
Two men with spears stood outside a set of double doors and Treyce nodded at them. They pushed open the doors and I gaped at the opulent and beautiful room which was decorated in a deep burgundy. There was one large table with several chairs around it, but the head of the table had a throne and burgundy curtains hung over every window and beside the throne. The curtains were like the blackout ones movie theaters used, which kept all of the sun out and the only light came from candles in ornate chandeliers hanging over head.
Treyce sat in one chair and the other two with us sat as well. I wasn’t certain where I was supposed to sit so I just stood and leaned against the wall. A mage? I was certain that I didn’t have magic back in my normal dimension. We had tried a lot as young children to have magic. It was something that you did when you were bored and wanted to be extraordinary. Could I make a fire? I held my hand palm up and focused on it. I pictured a ball of flame in my hand and squinted as I focused.
Nothing.
“That’s not how it works,” the witch said with a smile.
I put my hand down and looked at my feet without a reply.
“Alright,” Queen Pella said as she glided into the room. It didn’t look like she walked, it seemed like she floated without moving her feet. How could a woman move so smoothly?
“Why is he even here?” Treyce asked the Queen of the vampire.
“I’ve been wondering that myself,” the witch said.
Queen Pella sat in her throne, draping her dress around her legs comfortably. “Why are you here?”
The vampire said, “I’m the one who found her. As such I feel an obligation to keep her safe.”
Treyce scoffed, but said nothing.
“You’re not known for wanting outsiders in your clan,” the witch commented to Treyce.
“She’s part shifter,” he said in justification.
“You protected her when that human behind her was apprehended and you did not know of her blood type then,” the vampire countered.
“I could smell her,” Treyce said quietly and looked at Queen Pella. “She’s got enough shifter that I can scent it.”
“You sure that wasn’t just your hormones overacting?” the witch asked with an amused smirk.
“Enough. We aren’t children,” Queen Pella reminded them.
“If you give her to the witches, they’ll kill her. If you give her to the vampires, they’ll turn her into a blood bag. Even if she cannot shift, she won’t be harmed in my clan. That’s the best offer on the table yet,” Treyce pleaded to Queen Pella.
A warm wet object touched my hand and without
screaming, luckily, I looked down to find the lynx looking up at me from a hidden doorway that had opened behind me.
I looked over at the table where everyone was growing angrier by the second. Treyce and the vampire were out of their seats, yelling across the table at each other while the witch scowled at them from her seat. Queen Pella watched them with growing curiosity and a smile at one corner of his mouth.
The lynx nudged my hand again and then backed up into the small doorway. Did he want me to follow him?
I looked up at the group and they weren’t looking at me still. The lynx grabbed my shirt in its teeth and tugged.
Alright! I’m coming.
I looked one more time at the group who were all standing and shouting now and then squatted down and backed into the secret doorway. As soon as I backed into it, a door slid across and closed me off from the room and sealed off all sound.
I blinked in the darkness and whispered, “Now what?”
The lynx’s nose touched my forehead and shocked me. I blinked and then gasped as my eyes changed and I could see in the dim passageway. “How? What?”
The lynx exhaled loudly and started walking. I didn’t have much choice, but to follow him, so I did. I felt bad about leaving Treyce when he was trying so hard to get me into his clan, but part of me, a part that I didn’t understand, was certain that I needed to follow the lynx.
I crawled behind the lynx as we made several turns down side paths, until I wouldn’t have been able to return to the room and Treyce even if I had wanted to.
“Where are you leading me?” I asked the lynx quietly. I had no idea if anyone might be able to see us or not or hear us in here. The thought of getting caught after running away from Queen Pella was a scary one.
The lynx didn’t acknowledge me, but after another ten minutes or so he stopped and moved to the side so that I could see a gate in front of us. I crawled around him and pushed, but it wouldn’t open. I leaned my whole body into it, grunted as I strained and then fell through the opening as the gate swung open and out onto dirt. I wiped dirt out of my eyes and looked around at my unfamiliar surroundings. The forest was in front of us and the wall we had come out of was part of the external wall that surrounded the castle.
The lynx nudged his head under my arm and then lifted, using his body to help me get up. I stood up and he trotted towards the forest, but paused and looked back at me.
“Find her!” Queen Pella bellowed from within the castle walls so loud that the trees shook.
I didn’t need any more coaxing. I jogged after the lynx and followed him into the forest and hopefully not towards my early death.
THREE
THE LYNX WAS in a hurry and I supposed that it made sense because I was being hunted by whoever Queen Pella had sent after me and I really did not want the vampire or witch to find me. The lynx paused at a stream and bent forward to drink from it. I dropped to my knees, pulled my empty water bottle from my backpack and filled it up with the cold water. The lynx looked around our surroundings while I drank and then refilled my bottle again and then leapt over the stream and waited for me to walk carefully over slippery stones in the water to the other side.
“Do you have a name?” I asked him. He was a male that was a fact I had confirmed while running behind him.
“What should I call you?” I asked.
The lynx didn’t respond except to twitch his ear towards me and start walking deeper into the forest again.
“Tom?”
The lynx sneezed.
“No, I supposed Tom isn’t a great name for a lynx.” I tapped my chin while I thought and walked. I’d never seen a lynx except for in books before.
“Kip?”
Another sneeze.
“Karl?”
Sneeze.
“Steve?”
Sneeze.
“Randy?
Sneeze.
“Rudolph?”
Sneeze.
“You sure seem to have a bad cold,” I said with a smirk.
The lynx turned and looked at me and then he rolled his eyes.
“You can understand me!” I gasped in shock.
He nodded his head.
“Can you speak?”
He shook his head.
“This is pretty awesome,” I murmured.
He pushed my legs, making me resume our walk forward.
“Brandon?”
Sneeze.
“Kai?”
He groaned and shook his head as he walked.
I laughed at him and said, “I’m running out of names.”
We walked in silence while I tried to figure out a name for him and I realized how absolutely ridiculous this was. I was following a wild animal away from people who could have helped me and fed me and had no idea where we were going.
“Are you going to eat me?” I asked him softly.
He stopped, looked over his shoulder with wide eyes and then shook his head hard from side to side.
“Why am I following you? Where are you taking me? If you aren’t going to hurt me then what are you going to do? Where are we going?”
He stamped his paw and growled. He shook his head and paced a few steps back and forth. I felt like he was upset because he couldn’t communicate with me.
“Bill?”
He stopped his pacing and snorted.
I squatted down in front of him and asked, “Are you trying to protect me?”
He nodded and sat down, his head level with mine now. I stared into his eyes and saw something in them that reminded me of Treyce. I felt safe with the lynx. It made no sense, but I did.
“Okay, I’ll follow you.”
He exhaled and dropped his head in obvious relief.
Maybe he didn’t have a normal American name?
“Gustaf?”
He pretended to gag.
“Aedan?”
He paused and looked at me and then shook his head.
Maybe that meant I was closer with the Irish. I thought about the Irish names I knew and then asked, “Fergus?”
He shook his head.
“Liam?”
Another head shake.
“Eoghan?”
He jumped around me and nodded at the same time.
“Eoghan, huh? You’re lucky that the only book I had access to for the first few years of my life was a baby names book.”
He rubbed his body along my legs with a loud purr and then resumed walking.
“Eoghan, are we going to find somewhere to camp soon? It’s getting dark and I’m hungry.”
He nodded and we moved faster. A few times I thought I heard flapping wings, but Eoghan paused and looked up in the sky and then continued on. I had to hope that his eyes and ears were better than mine. The forest seemed to go on forever and I wondered where we would camp.
After another long period of walking we came to an even denser part of the forest where I could see some spots that would be perfect for us to take shelter in. Eoghan jogged around the area with his nose to the ground and then returned and walked into a spot where some trees had fallen on to others and made a great shelter. I followed him in and plopped to the ground with a groan.
“My poor sore feet,” I complained and took my shoes off to rub them.
Eoghan sat by the entrance with his ears twitching various ways while he listened to the forest. I had been too focused on Eoghan to notice the beautiful bird calls, but now as I rubbed my feet I listened and closed my eyes. It was so much better than the city. The scent of wood, dirt, and everything else that made up the forest that I couldn’t even name, was relaxing and incredibly peaceful. I shouldn’t have been so relaxed since Queen Pella had sent people out after me, but we hadn’t seen or heard them for quite some time now. Plus, Eoghan made me feel extraordinarily safe.
“Eoghan, was Treyce right about the witches wanting to kill me?” I asked softly while putting my socks back on.
He turned to look at me and stared at me for a long breath before he dipped his he
ad in a nod.
“Am I dangerous? Should I be killed? I was only violent when I needed to be back in my dimension, but with powers am I too dangerous to be allowed to live? What if the vampires get me and…” The more questions I asked out loud, the more I realized that I was scared. I was terrified of the unknown before me and what could happen.
He walked over on silent paws and rubbed his head against the sides of my face, wiping away the tears that had started to fall with his fur and then leaned his head over my shoulder in an animal version of a hug.
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and whispered, “I’m so confused and scared.”
He continued to stand with his body warming mine and I felt myself calm down and relax again. Was it because I had shifter blood in me that he made me feel safe and calm?
He licked my face, his cat-like tongue rough as it rubbed against my skin, and then went back to his spot at the edge of our shelter and resumed his watch. My stomach reminded me that we needed to eat so I chewed on some jerky and drank some water as I studied Eoghan.
The sun set and the cold blew in to surround me. I pulled out my blanket and wrapped it around myself and then lay on the ground to try to sleep. Lying on the ground only let the ground steal my warmth, but there was no other option at the moment. Eoghan left his post and lay on the ground in front of me, shielding me from the wind with his body and provided me more warmth.
I buried my face in his fur and whispered, “Thank you, for rescuing me and helping me escape.”
I fell asleep to the sound of my new friend purring while he protected me.
“Where are we going? You seem to have a specific place in mind,” I asked as I followed Eoghan the following day. We’d been walking since the sun came up and he had only given me enough time to stop to relieve myself, something I was not a fan of doing without toilet paper, and get a rock out of my shoe once.
He didn’t reply, but then again, I hadn’t really expected him to since he couldn’t talk. We hadn’t seen anyone else on our journey, something I was immensely grateful for, but I could tell that he was worried because he was more cautious as we moved and looked around more before moving forward.
I didn’t ask him anymore questions since there would be no replies. Plus, if he was being so cautious, I probably shouldn’t be talking loudly anyway. My feet were sore from the previous day, but I didn’t complain. I was alive and Eoghan didn’t deserve for me to complain about sore feet when he was helping me. No matter how hard I tried, I could not walk without crunching on something. Eoghan made no sound as he walked and I crunched and crackled through the forest.
Shadows and Stars Page 101
