by Lumtrexa
"It would take forever to find what power you have by testing every single theory. It will surface when the time is right, that you can be sure of. You should know your powers soon." He says in a serious tone.
"I guess I can try to get my wings out again while we wait for that time then." I say.
"Alright." He says.
I shut my eyes and try to remember what they looked like the last time I saw them, dark pink with shades of black.
"Open your eyes." Colt says impatiently.
I look over my shoulder, surprised to see how quickly it worked. I find myself relieved that they're not gone forever. My wings sway slightly, I look closely at them. It has been awhile since I've seen them last. It might just be my imagination, but the dark edges of my wings seem to have seeped into the shades of pink. My wings look darker than they were before.
"Do they look okay to you? There isn't anything wrong with them is there? They should still work after the unmating thing right?" I say nervously.
"Only one way to find out." Colt says standing up.
I quickly follow Colt out the door and down the stairs. We exit the inn quickly, the strong smell of the market reminds me of how hungry I am.
"Colt can we get something to eat please?" I ask, while trying to keep up with his fast walking pace.
"I guess we might as well since we're here." He says in a deep voice.
We walk up to a vendor and Colt hands me some kind of half cooked looking meat in a brown bag.
"Hold this while I pay." He commands. Then he turns to the fae behind the counter.
"Colt we don't have any money left, do we?" I whisper to him. He gives me a brief glance, then turns back to the angry looking fae who is now holding his hand out demanding payment for the food.
"We don't have any money." Colt says casually to the fae.
"Pay up, food isn't free around here." the fae vents.
"I don't care." Colt growls. Seeing that the owner of the vendor isn't going to change his mind any time soon, I walk over to a small table and sit down.
I scan the ground briefly for any lost coins, seeing nothing I rest my head in my arms.
A brown bag is dropped in front of my face and I sit up.
"He gave it to you for free?" I ask suspiciously.
"Yep." Colt says munching down on the meat.
I look over at the vendor owner, he doesn't seem hurt, but he seems almost...disturbed.
"How?" I ask curious.
"Let's just say he had a change of heart for the poor people of Banexul." Colt says darkly. Then Colt throws a brown bag at me. I quickly catch it and open it up.
"Eat up." He says with a mouth full of meat.
"Thanks." I say with a smile. The vegetables don't look too bad, despite their strange shapes, at least they're green. I definitely prefer to eat them over the "meat" Colt is gobbling down.
After a few minutes, Colt and I finish eating. Colt then navigates down several streets and we end up back on the outskirts of town, close enough to see the wall of the town.
The streets are wider, but covered in more trash. There are less buildings, I can see why he wanted to take me here. There's more room to fly and less fae around too.
"Ready to try them out?" Colt asks.
"Yes." I say ready. I unfurl my wings.
Suddenly, I hear a loud shout. Colt looks down at me bothered by the noise.
"Move it!" An enraged male voice says rushing right by me. However, I am too slow to get out of his way. Instead of me jumping out of the way, I stare dumbfounded at him. The fae shoves me out of the way, then yanks a long knife out of his pocket and thrusts it toward my back. The knife lands in the center of my right wing. Then the fae rips the knife out and continues running down the street. Upon the knife's impact, I feel like fire is burning the spot on my wing. I fall to my knees and try to keep my wings as still as possible. Every time my right wing moves it creates an unbearable pain. I start shivering and try to hold back my urge to cry.
Colt quickly lifts me up off the ground.
"We're going to have to fix this before you fly. We'll have to go back to the inn." Colt says. His voice seems hazy.
Then Colt jumps up and I realize we aren't walking back.
I'm surprised Colt didn't chase after the fae that attacked me, but I'm glad he didn't.
Secretly, I'm glad he didn't leave me alone.
Chapter 37-Warm
When we reached the inn Colt rushed upstairs and then dropped me down so I could sit. Now we sit in our room, well I'm actually the one sitting. Colt is rushing around the small room, looking through drawers.
"Thanks for the lift." I say with a smile.
Colt ignores me and busy's himself in tearing up part of his bed sheet. I watch him speed walk to the bathroom, then he comes back out with a grim look on his face.
"I can wait for this to heal on its on. Its fine." I say to him.
"Sorry, but that's not how fae work. Your wing is going to have to properly heal, if you let the wound heal by itself, it will leave an ugly mark and will always have a dull pain." He says with a smirk.
"Of course." I say sarcastically. Of course this is going to be more painful than I imagined. Now he is going to tamper with my wing. How is he going to help me, I thought only mates could touch each others wings.
"Won't we both die if you touch me?" I ask cautiously.
"Let me guess, Lorcan told you that." He shoots back, almost as if he's irritated by the idea.
"No, actually it was someone else." I reply.
"Well, whoever told you that was probably talking about weak fae, like their self. There are strong fae and there are weak fae in this world Elaine. Truthfully, I think you are not as weak as you think. Well, and as for I, I am not exactly a powerless fae myself." Colt says vaguely.
"I do not think I'm weak! You-" I start to say, anger rising in my voice.
Before I can finish, he shoves the wet ripped strip of cloth he was holding, onto my wing. Gritting my teeth I glare at him, he was trying to distract me!
"Prove you are not weak." Colt says in a calm voice.
"Is this supposed to heal my wound?" I ask. I have a feeling a wet piece of cloth isn't going to heal it.
A tight smile forms on his face as he watches me grimace, while he holds the cloth against my wing. The pressure he forces on my wing's wound is just enough that it lets my wing soak up the water from the cloth. After a minute, Colt removes the cloth and tosses it onto the floor.
"No, it is a precaution." He replies. I force myself not to roll my eyes at his simple response. I should be glad he's even trying to help me.
"Now, I must clean it out. Your not going to agree with me on how, but we have no other choice." He says carefully, while avoiding eye contact.
"Alright tell me." I reply quickly. I just want to get this over with.
"Fae have glitter, you've probably seen it before. It can have healing qualities too." Colt says in a serious voice.
"Let me guess, we can't use my glitter." I say dryly.
"Right now your body is fighting off infection, glitter will help speed up the process. The more stress you put on your body, the weaker you'll get. It is best if you don't do anything. If you use your glitter, you will only make yourself more weak and the wound won't heal right." He says.
"This is ridiculous. I don't care if I have a dull pain or it leaves a scar or whatever. I will just wait for it to heal on its own." I say stubbornly.
"Do you remember what you were stabbed by?" He says knowingly.
"A knife." I answer.
"An iron knife to be exact. Now you see, it will start to poison you and eventually you'll lose your wings." Colt says watching for my reaction.
"Fine. What whatever you have to do, just do it." I huff crossing my arms. He raises an eyebrow at my defeat.
"We will use mine." He says bluntly. I nod my head stiffly. What kind of glitter does he have? I bet it’s going to sting my wings. I close my eyes preparin
g for the impact.
I open my eyes after nothing happens, then I turn around to glance back at my wing.
"Did you use your glitter?" I ask surprised at my now healed wound.
"Yes, look closer." He grunts.
I squint at my wing, then in the area of my wing where the wound was, I spot a few flecks of shimmering black particles. For a brief moment, I wonder if this will have any side effects on me.
Colt seems to understand my state of mind and he speaks up.
"Do you not have worse things to worry about other than my glitter touching you?" He says gruffly. Colt's right, I really do have other things to be worrying about.
Colt told me tomorrow my wound should be completely healed, then we can try flying. He headed out to grab something for us to eat. So now as I'm sitting by myself, I decide to get some info about this peculiar town on my own since I have nothing else to do.
I stretch out my wings, they still feel irritated, but the irritation is slowly going away. I swiftly step out of the room and head downstairs to the main floor.
Immediately, I spot the same fae I saw the other day. The woman with the orange tail. I walk over to her and sit down on a chair next to her.
I take a deep breath and steady my voice.
"Hi. I just moved here, I was wondering if you could tell me anything that would be helpful to a newcomer here." I say forcing a friendly laugh.
The woman turns toward me, blinks once, then she starts speaking rapidly.
"Oh! Sure, poor you though...I am sorry to say this town has a history rather, intense. I'm sure anyone if not myself alone, can testify how much the people are mistreated around here. I don't want to startle you or anything, but..." She looks down then meets my gaze.
"It’s okay, you can tell me." I say nodding my head slowly.
"I've heard that he's back." She says in a whisper.
"Who? Who is back?" I ask her confused.
"T-t-the...commander." She manages to say.
I sit back in my seat, remembering Colt had mentioned something about a commander coming back and all would then be better in the town. Its probably best if Colt and I don't run into the commander from what this fae woman has told me though, just to be safe.
"Thank you for informing me. It was nice to meet you." I say.
"It was nice to meet you, I'm Linda Mickin." she says with a smile.
"Oh you must be the owner! Thank you again, I'm going to head back to my room, bye." I reply forcing myself to smile.
"Bye dear!" She replies and turns back to reading her newspaper. I take that as my leave and quickly go back to my room locking the door behind.
Suddenly, after I sit down on my bed, someone knocks on the door. I open up the door to find Colt with two brown bags.
"How did you pay?" I ask him. He tosses me a brown bag and shuts the door behind him locking it with a click.
"I convinced him to give food to the poor again and no I did not hurt him." He says shortly. I decide to leave it at that and open my bag to find the same strange vegetables I had before. I devour them quickly and Colt finishes off his meat just as quick.
"Thanks for dinner. I'm actually full." I say gratefully. I stretch back onto my bed with a yawn.
"It is best if we both get some sleep. Tomorrow you're going to need all your energy so you can try to fly successfully." He adds.
Then, Colt flops onto his back and his bed makes a loud squealing noise. I turn over on my bed and pull the covers over me.
"Goodnight." I say into the now dark room.
"...night." Colt grumbles lowly. A slow smile forms on my face and my drowsy eyelids easily shut.
I fall effortlessly into a deep slumber.
Run, run, run! I scream mentally to myself. I look back to see the pixies are right behind me.
"Get her!" The one right behind me screeches in a raspy voice.
Huge trees get in my way, I quickly turn to avoid running into them. The weeds on the ground catch and grab onto my ankles, slowing me down. I kick my feet trying to escape them. When my feet are free I continue running for my life.
I continue running, but suddenly, the floor underneath me gives and I fall. I let out a yelp as I helplessly fall down into a dark pit. It reminds me of the awful pixie pit. Then I remember my wings, yes I can use my wings! I try to think of opening them and extending them out.
To my dismay they don't come out, I feel like I've been falling too long, but its probably been only seconds.
When I think I'm about to hit the ground, something snakes around my body, freezing me in mid air. I look around me, but the darkness of the pit makes me blind to whatever is wrapped around me. Relieved, I let a breath.
Whatever is wrapped around me is making me really sleepy. Its extreme warmth is almost too overwhelming. I feel myself start to relax though.
Abruptly, I open my eyes. The room is enclosed in complete darkness. I should go back to sleep my drowsy mind tells me. I cuddle my head deeper into my pillow. Blindly, I reach my arm behind me to find the edge of the bed right behind my back. So I scoot closer to the center of the bed to prevent myself from falling off. However, my head bumps against the wall. Funny, I remember my bed being close to the wall of the room, but not that close to it. I just leave my head against the wall. I know for sure now I won't fall off the bed.
I cradle my arms against me. My head starts to get really warm, why is the wall so warm? Oh there's probably a heater on the wall of my side of the room that I didn't see earlier. I don't care if I wake up and am smashed against a wall. Warm is warm, and this room is a little colder than I prefer. So I clutch my covers closer to me and press my entire body against the wall. Finally, I feel completely warm.
My heart thuds heavily and I easily fall back to sleep.
Chapter 38-The Commander
With my head tucked under the covers, I blink away the sleepiness. I feel unusually well rested for once, despite waking up in the middle of the night. Feeling the warm wall against my head through the sheet, I decide to figure out where the heater is. I should probably keep it on during the day if I can find where it is. I peep from under my covers up into the room. Then, my face turns an embarrassing shade of red. I'm flush against Colt's chest. He, however, is sound asleep, with a scowl on his face.
"Hey. Wake up." I say pushing his shoulder. He doesn't move.
"Get out of my bed." I add, while giving him a frustrated look.
Abruptly, his eyes burst open, a flash of mischief crosses over his face. Then he practically strangles me when he snakes his arms around me in an iron grasp.
"Get out of my bed Colt!" I shout sleepily. His eyes are slightly red, probably from not getting good sleep.
A smirk grows on his face as he watches me helplessly struggle to get away from him.
"Elaine, are you sure this is your bed?" He asks staring down at me with an evil glint in his eyes.
I crane my neck to see over my shoulder, to my horror, my bed is indeed on the other side of the room closest to the bathroom. How did...
Suddenly, he releases me and I jump up away from him.
He seems to be enjoying my reaction.
"You did this didn't you? Of all the things you've done, this is..." I huff crossing my arms and wiping a stray piece of hair out of my eyes.
"Oh believe me, this wasn't my doing. You are the one who came into my bed." Colt says with a dark laugh.
"I don't believe you." I say quickly. I turn away from him angry at my flaming face. Why am I embarrassed?
I attempt to change the subject and bring up something I previously put on the back burner.
"So...yesterday I heard that the commander is back in town. I've been told by someone that he is bad news. We should probably stay in crowded areas to blend in. What if he finds us, what will he do?" I ask with fear.
"Well from what I've heard, he won't hesitate to slit the throat of a stranger. He's said to be quick on his feet and never thinks before he acts." He says while walking
towards me with a serious face.
I turn my back to him, in contemplation.
"I thought you said the commander was good, that all would be better when he returned." I say.
"He can have a temper." He says dismissively.
"Well I should know what he looks like so I can avoid him, right? What does he look like?" I reply.
"Rumor has it, he isn't a pure fae. That he's tainted by...demon blood." Colt says gravely.
"Stop trying to scare me Colt. Tell me what he really looks like." I say slightly irritated, rolling my eyes.
"If you want to know so bad, I guess I will have to tell you." He says walking up behind me. I feel him stop right behind my back, if I were to turn around and face him, I'd run into him.
"No one has ever seen him, seen his real form, and until recently, lived to tell about it." he says shortly.
"Oh." I say, while running a hand through my hair nervously.
"Except you." Colt breathes in my ear.
"W-what?" I stutter, turning to face him.
"Why would I have seen him? I thought you would have seen him...not me. How did you know I saw him before?" I rant.
All the while, he stares at me quietly.
"No way...you're kidding...right?" I mumble looking up into his pale eyes.
"When have I ever lied to you?" He says in a deep voice.
"Well this is...interesting news. At least you told me now. Now that I think about it, it makes sense-" I say, but he cuts me off. He walks around me and leans his head down so he's eye level with me.
"Why aren't you afraid?" He says with a curious look, searching my eyes.
"Why would I be? You've given me no reason to. I do want you to explain yourself though." I say.
"The people of this town don't know me by this form, this is my true form." He says indicating himself.
"So...what is your other form then?" I ask him.
"This..." He says. He disappears from my sight, I look around the room to see where he went. Then he reappears, in his shadow form.
"Well I've seen scarier fae than that. Sorry but, that doesn't beat an angry pixie." I say with a light laugh.
