Enchanted Revenge

by Theresa M. Jones

  I glanced up at him, not sure what he meant. He motioned to my hand, and then offered his. I wanted to touch him. Not like I hadn’t touched him before, but this was different. I ached to touch him and it was dark and intimate outside, and things felt electrified. So when I placed my hand in his, so he could see the scar I strangely held close to my heart, I felt all kinds of happy and thrilled, and…nervous excitement.

  “What happened? I’ve seen you messing with your hand a lot, but I thought it was just an itch or something. This looks fairly new.” I listened to him speak. I really did. I mean, I really tried to. But I hardly understood him as his fingers traced along my scar sending warm trails of tingles all over my body.

  “Hmm?” I murmured to him, not sure what he asked. I saw his lips moving though. Those full pink lips above his strong jaw.

  “How did you get this scar?” His voice continued to dip deeper and slower, covering me like a caress. I got lost in his eyes. In the way his hands felt against mine. In him.

  “My scar?” I breathed. I stared down at it. Sadness formed in my heart, growing and rising until it stopped up my throat. “I got it that day my parents died.”

  Bringing my eyes back up to his, we could really see each other. He knew me. He knew what I had been through. And he had just shared his worst moments with me. We were both lonely and broken in ways that may never heal. We would always be scarred, just like my hand.

  His fingers continued to trail along the edge of my palm and close to my wrist, my broken tear. My heart raced. He was so close. So close to my heart if he whispered the right way he could breathe life back into it. And then he changed. He scooted closer. Closer. Closer. His eyes darkened. My stomach dropped, and then flipped around. Butterflies tickled my insides. I had never felt a sensation like it before, but it was similar to being at the top of a rollercoaster, right as it started to go down. You knew it was going to drop, you expected it, but when it happened, you still weren’t prepared for it.

  He placed his hand on my cheek, but didn’t release my hand. Warmth spread over me, leaving me warm all over and yet I felt like shivering at the same time. It was like a tingling right where his skin met mine.

  When I saw his eyes flick down to my lips, even though it was less than a second they stayed there before coming back up to my eyes, the trembling in my stomach grew by 100 times and my heart fluttered. It actually fluttered. The rollercoaster idea was no longer applicable. It was an indescribable sensation. I was falling and flying at the same time. I was happy but sad. I was scarred but healing.

  His face moved closer, so slowly I thought perhaps time had stopped. I could feel him, warmth emanating off his body as he inched closer. I sucked in a breath, holding it in sweet, cruel anticipation. Then his lips touched mine. I was just like every other girl who dreamed about her first kiss, wondering what it would be like, feel like, taste like.

  Those dreams faded in comparison to the real thing. For a minute, I thought there might actually be fireworks going off behind my eyelids that had dropped involuntarily.

  My heart beat faster, faster even then when I was helpless in Samael’s office. It pounded excitedly within my chest. My brain shut down, and all I thought of was Alec’s warm, soft lips on mine.

  Then it was over. It was so brief. Short and sweet. But it meant so much more than that to me. It was my first kiss. And it was the cutest guy I had ever seen. A Fae who was strong, dependable, and wonderful.

  When he pulled back, it was like all the masks he wore were gone. The mask to hide the pain from his past was gone. The mask he wore to hide his anger at the King and the Mortem was gone. The mask that hid his hope for the rebellion to succeed was gone. And the mask he wore to hide his feelings for me, feelings that were growing, was gone.

  In that moment I could see all the sides of him. The good, the bad, the broken and the beautiful.

  And it was wonderful.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Nectar: Tree juice in Ardennes. Similar to water from the Mortal Realm. It is used to hydrate Nymph, and any Fae other than Sprites.

  When he pulled away, I realized I was staring at him. Stunned and dazed. I wondered if all kisses were like that. He stood up and picked up the now empty bowl. His hand still wrapped around mine helped hoist me up.

  “We should go to bed. We’ll leave early in the morning,” he said.

  As we walked back to the tree, he placed his hand at the small of my back, guiding me forward. It was the first time I really walked beside him, not behind him. And it made me feel great and giddy. Hopeful.

  That night I slept soundly. Maybe it was all the scariness of the day, or the excitement of the kiss. Maybe it was just the exhaustion my heart felt after beating so wildly so much of the day. But it didn’t really matter why. I was just thankful for it.

  The next morning, I got up and dressed quickly before going to the kitchen. Kerr and Nona were at the table when I walked in.

  “I saved you some,” she said to me, and then set a bowl down for me.

  “Yeah, and she really had to save it or Alec would’ve eaten it all,” Kerr added with a smile on his face. I sat down next to him, and started to eat the spinach. It was just as weird, and just as delicious as the last time I ate it.

  “Thank you,” I told them both.

  “Alec is packing a few things for you to take along,” she explained to me. “I want you to know, that you are both welcome back at any time. Even if he isn’t with you, you are still welcome here.” Her sincerity surprised me.

  “Thank you. That means a lot to me. I don’t have many friends,” I said, and then had to clear my throat, because it was a little embarrassing to admit. “So, it means a lot to me.”

  Alec came in and said to me, “Eat quickly. I’d like us to be out before the sun rises.”

  “Okay.”

  “Nona,” Alec said, walking toward her. He said it in almost a sing-song voice. It was apparent how much he cared for her. She placed her hand on his face, caressing him as if she would never see him again. “I will miss you.”

  “I already miss you, son,” she told him. And then they embraced.

  I shoveled the food into my mouth, swallowing it quickly. Eating it so fast made my tongue burn, and gave me the beginnings of brain freeze. I reached for the nectar and drank it quickly hoping to fend off the effects. Alec was messing with my abscondita and then he tied it and set it on the table in front of me.

  “I put your sword back. Thank you for that, by the way. Brilliant move.”

  I smiled up at him.

  “No problem.”

  “You ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  I went over to Nona, wanting to at least shake her hand, but she pulled me into an embrace as well. I hugged her back, because for a moment it felt like I was hugging my mother. Nona was taller and thicker than my mom, but it was the closest I could get, and I would greedily take every single second it was offered to me.

  Kerr followed us out, and hugged Alec goodbye just outside the door. Together, we walked away, leaving them behind.

  “We’ll go the Commons and refill our canteens with nectar before we leave. Then we can take the tripudio to the edge of Muircadia, since we’re close enough now.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Suddenly it was quiet again. Even though I normally felt the urge to talk when we walked, that time I didn’t. I just kept thinking about the kiss and what it meant. He was super old compared to me, even though he definitely didn’t look it, and didn’t really act like it, I felt I should constantly remind myself of that. Plus, he had just told me about how in love he had been with another woman, and then about how she had been killed.

  Probably, he only kissed me because he was thinking of Lix, and how much he missed her. Ugh.

  We had only been walking for about ten minutes when Alec stopped and tensed. He stood tall and rigid, and then shifted down into the battle stance I had seen too many times. He started scanning the trees, right
and left and then in a circle. A million thoughts ran through my mind. But only one was important, it had to be Samael coming back to take vengeance on Alec.

  It wasn’t Samael who came out of the trees, though. Instead it was a group of about ten Nymph. They were all around us, in a circle. We were surrounded, and even though they hadn’t attacked us, I still sensed they were bad news.

  They all looked alike. Long black hair pulled back into a ponytail just behind their necks. They all wore dark green pants, and a tan shirt. And they all had a medal on their right breasts. It wasn’t the same medal that Alec wore, but it was similar.

  “Sylph Realm Guard called Alec?” The one in front of Alec said. I immediately pegged him as the leader. Though he didn’t have any differential characteristics, he held himself to a higher esteem than the others.

  “I am he.”

  “Your presence has been requested by the high Lord and Lady Nettle. Please come with us at once.”

  Alec didn’t shift out of his battle stance, so I decided to get into mine too. Even if I had to gouge out a few eyeballs, or scratch and pull hair, I would do what I had to in order to help Alec in any way I could. We wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  At my shift, all eyes came to me. It was like they were seeing me for the first time. I ignored them, and kept my eyes on Alec, waiting for his move. He took a deep breath, bowed his head slightly, and then stood up again. He took two steps back, so that he was standing right next to me.

  Time stopped. It was if everyone was waiting for something. But Alec was concentrating and I still couldn’t tell if we would fight or not.

  He placed his hand on my back, and then, clear as day, I heard his voice in my head. I would ask them to leave you behind, and they probably would. But you would have nowhere to go and would be unprotected. I don’t know why Lord Nettle would want to see me, but it can’t be good. And I’m sorry, but I think you would still be safer with me. Even though I may be putting you in danger.

  “Of course, High Guard. We shall go with you.” Alec said to him, and bowed his head again. I mimicked him, because I didn’t want to get us in more trouble than we were already in.

  As soon as the leader turned away, Alec pulled his wings in again. We followed him, a few feet back, but remained surrounded as they all walked with us. I made a mental note to ask him about the telepathy thing as soon as I could because that was both freaky scary and completely awesome at the same time.

  When we turned onto a wide street, I realized that it was the same one as the day before. After only five or so minutes, I could see the giant tree up ahead of us. Even though it may be dangerous, I was super excited to see the inside of that tree.

  I always wanted a tree house, and the kid in me was seriously jumping for joy.

  The closer we got to the tree, the larger it appeared. It was obvious now that at its base, there were five tree trunks, several yards wide each. And then, about thirty feet up, they started to twist together, forming one huge tree from there on up. The branches went on forever, and I imagined that they would easily cover the entire village.

  We walked up a series of stairs before even entering the tree. The stairs were wooden, and looked like they were just part of it, like they were the roots, and were meant to be shaped like that.

  The doors to enter the tree were like huge French, double doors that were carved right out of the bark. Alec and I walked side by side into the giant landmark, right through those doors, into the unknown.

  What I found really odd was that no matter how many Nymph walked the streets, none of them came up here. And none of them looked at us as we passed. You would think that an entourage of guards escorting two Sylph fairies to the Lords house would draw some attention, but as soon as someone noticed us, they swiftly turned away.

  Weird.

  The room we walked into was not wooden. The walls looked almost like marble, just as the floor and ceiling did. It was a gray or silver marble, with hints of green. It was beautiful. The room was huge, the size of the gymnasium back at my high school. Probably larger.

  In the very back there was a desk, with three chairs in front of it. And then off to the right side, there was an area with five couches, all facing each other, with a wooden table in the center of them.

  Above our heads was the grandest chandelier I had ever seen, not that I had seen many. Still it was probably longer than me, and even wider. The candles flickered, and the diamonds reflected the light, causing the walls to look like they were shimmering. It was the brightest room I had been in since being in The Empyrean.

  Alec pushed a little on my back to make me go forward, which made me realize that I had stopped to gape at the view. I made my feet move beneath me as the guard led us toward the couches. We didn’t stop at them, we walked right past them and on to a hallway that I hadn’t even noticed before.

  The leader waved his hand in front of the door we stopped in front of, and the door opened to reveal a tiny room that looked like an elevator. I didn’t see how it could be one without electricity, but I was always surprised by things in this world. We walked inside, and stood shoulder to shoulder, with all of the guards that had been following us since the woods.

  Then we moved. Nobody pushed any buttons, as there weren’t any to push, and yet we still ascended. I guess that’s what I got for assuming you needed electricity to make something work when you’re surrounded by magic.

  When the doors opened, I had to catch myself from fainting at the sight.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Lord: The highest level of authority in a Province. The Lord and Lady answer only to the King and Queen. There is one Lord and Lady in each Province in The Empyrean. The position is not voted upon. You must either be born or pledged into the role. Only in rare circumstances can the King or Queen appoint someone to the role, assuming there are no other close relatives in the line of succession.

  Everything was marble again, the walls, the floors and the ceiling. The chandelier above us was even bigger than the one on the first floor, at least double the size. The room was large and open, and you could see out into the tree. It was as if we were on a gloriously rich balcony. Where there should have been a wall in front of me, there wasn’t. It was just open. Not even any glass.

  You could see out for miles and miles, and all of it was green. Different, varying shades of green. Some bright, some dark. Some yellowish and some bluish. Within the branches flew birds that dipped below the branches, and then swooped up high zigzagging around the limbs. It made me also want to fly. To jump out of this gorgeous room and soar into the sky above the stunning trees. We weren’t far enough up to see the sky yet, and that was such a bummer, because I seriously craved it.

  That wasn’t even all of it. Right in the center of the room was a circle pool, maybe twenty feet in diameter, with a waterfall pouring from the ceiling into it. I don’t know where the water came from, or even if it was water at all, but it was beautiful and bright blue. I decided it was probably nectar, instead of actual water.

  The light reflected from all the candles in the chandelier, and all the candles on the walls, off of the nectarfall, making the walls ripple and giving the room the appearance that we were actually underwater.

  I started to walk forward, to get a closer look at the pool in the center, but Alec grabbed my hand and stopped me before I could even go one full step. He shook his head, just once, as if to tell me not to move at all. It was that head shake that brought me back to reality. This wasn’t just a pretty room I was standing in.

  “You may sit,” the leader said, and pointed to seats at the side of the room.

  Alec walked forward, but didn’t release my hand. So I walked beside him. The seats were green marble also, but when we sat down, it felt like we were sitting in the most comfortable cushion ever. Almost like a foam material that shifted to our weight.

  Five of the Guard stepped back and waited at the elevator door. Four went to stand in each of the corners of the roo
m, and the last one, the leader, stayed standing right beside us. And we waited. And then waited some more.

  I cleared my throat, aching to ask some questions, but held my tongue. I didn’t want them to know I wasn’t from around here if I could help it.

  “Stand for High Lord Celonius Nettle,” the leader said to us, after what felt like an eternity of waiting.

  Alec and I both stood.

  A door on the opposite side of the room opened, and an older Nymph walked through it. He looked like he might be the same age as Nona. His hair was turning gray, and he had wrinkles all over his face. He was still tall, and I could see muscles bunching forth from beneath his white shirt. Behind him were two other Nymph, who looked just like the other guards already in the room.

  Talk about security. I wondered if they were acting this way because of Alec, or if they were always this protective of the Lord.

  He walked toward us, and stopped just past the pool in the center of the room, about five yards away. When he stopped walking, Alec bowed, much lower than when he bowed to the guard, but not all the way in half. I tried my best to bow just like he did. But then wondered if I should have curtsied instead. Were women supposed to curtsy around here? I seriously needed a refresher training in the art of being a fairy.

  “Sylph Realm Guard, may I call you Alec?” Lord Nettle asked.

  Alec straightened back up, so I tried to also, but he placed a hand on my back holding me down, indicating that I shouldn’t. Then he answered, “Yes, my Lord.”

  “And who is your companion?”

  “She is my protégé.”

  “What may I call you?” After he asked me, Alec released his hold on my back so that I could stand up straight. I looked over at the Nymph, and answered him.

  “You may call me Lily,” I answered, trying desperately to speak the way I was supposed to.

  “Please explain to me what you are doing here in Ardennes when you should be in the Mortal Realm.” He spoke to Alec again, ignoring my presence. No need for beating around the bush, I guess.