by Ivy Clyde
“Hey, stop!”
“Don’t run! Get back here!”
“Someone stop her!”
The strange voices rang out behind me but I kept running, determined to reach the main building in the distance. Hopefully, there would be security guards or some teachers on a late shift who could help me get away.
I was almost at the threshold when a pair of hands clutched onto my shoulders, pulling me back onto a hard chest. Someone removed the hood away from my face. I looked up into the dark, glistening eyes of a young man, recognizing him as someone who took the same Chemistry class as me.
“Connor,” I whispered.
“That’s me,” he said in a low, deep voice. This guy was one of the smartest kids in class but was extremely shy. He rarely looked at girls with a straight face but right now, he was staring at me with a violent snarl on his face.
I did this to him, a voice said in my mind. I made him a monster.
An arm wrapped around my slim waist. The other young men gathered around us. Hot breaths fell on my exposed neck, making me aware of the person holding me against his body.
“Please, let me go,” I said.
The arm around my waist tightened in response. I knew there was no point in pleading with them. Their minds were already wiped clean of anything but lust.
I’d already lost my chance to run, so the only thing left to do was fight my way through the wall of bodies caging me in. Taking a deep breath, I readied myself. Next moment, I kicked the shins of the person holding me against him. A loud gasp escaped him but his grip loosened, giving me the opportunity to push him away.
The commotion was enough to make the people jump away from me. I ran forward, pushing through the door of the school building. Shouts erupted from behind me but I sprinted without a backward glance.
“Help!” I shouted, hoping someone would hear me.
I’d barely made it halfway down the corridor when a hand caught the back of my hoodie and pulled me backward. My feet stumbled. Losing my balance, I ended up falling on the cold, hard floor. Immediately, one of the guys threw himself on me. Next moment, another pair of hands pinned my wrists to the ground.
“Hold her down,” one of them commanded. “Don’t let her get away again!”
“You’re not getting away,” said Connor, glaring down at me. His tall, lean body covered mine. I struggled underneath him but with someone holding onto my ankles as well as my wrists, it hardly made any difference.
My heart pounded in my chest. Had my luck finally come to an end? Would these young men who were just as shy and bullied as me tear me apart?
“Let me go, Connor,” I said, looking up into his dark eyes. “Don’t do this to me. You don’t want to do this to me.”
“Who said I didn’t?” he asked, his hand fisting onto my sweatshirt. More hands clutched onto my hoodie. They wanted to tear it off my body but the thick, strong material wasn’t too easy to rip.
Fear snaked around my throat, choking me as I felt their cold hands on my skin. They’d pushed up the sweatshirt and t-shirt I wore underneath to reveal my naked skin to them.
“Stop!” I screamed, writhing, and twisting my body to free myself.
My struggles increased but it didn’t make any difference. The bodies around me were too heavy and strong to get them off me. Fear and hatred throbbed in my veins, and in no time at all, they turned into rage. My screams turned into screeches that hurt my own ears.
A large hand clamped my mouth shut, cutting off my protests.
“Keep her quiet,” said one of the boys as he tried to pull my trousers off my legs. I tried to kick at him but the person holding my ankles tightened his grip painfully, grinding my bones together. I screamed but it came out as a muffled huff.
My helplessness intensified my rage to such a level it was making my vision go hazy. Strength suffused into my flailing limbs. I had no idea what was going on within me but the sudden burst of energy gave me the power to throw off the people holding me down.
My heart beat at twice its normal speed. The thundering in my ears drowned the surprised gasps coming from the young men scrambling to get to their feet.
“Stay away!” I shouted.
The young men paused for a moment but next second, they fell back on me, their hands gripping onto my shoulders, arms, and waist. My rage intensified, making my insides grow impossibly hot. The blood flowing through my veins seemed to have turned into bubbling lava. I screamed, but this time it was from the painful burning all over my body.
A single screech tore out of my throat as I reached my breaking point. “What’s happening to me?” I screamed. I was able to throw off the young men off me once more. I had no idea where I was getting this strength from. Was this adrenaline coursing through my veins or something else? I’d never heard of hormones burning you from the inside out but at that moment it felt exactly like that.
A white haze spread across my vision, startling me. A glance at the young men told me I wasn’t the only one seeing rays of intensely bright light pouring out of my body. Their faces morphed into expressions of terror as they stared at me.
“What’s happening to her?” asked Connor in a terrified whisper.
The boys around him shook their heads, stepping away from me.
Unable to bear the agony of being burned from the inside out, I doubled over.
“Who cares if the bitch is screaming?” said one of the boys. “I still want to fuck her tonight.” He approached me with a widening grin. The other young men seemed to get bolder with his move. They moved toward me as well.
The rage within me built up into an inferno. “Stay the hell away!” My shout was followed by a flash of blinding white light. My shriek was joined by the screams of the young men around me. My eyes were blinded by the heat and light pouring out of my skin. It felt like I’d exploded and the blast was burning up the monsters and everything around me.
The smell of burning flesh choked me. Even as my vision blackened and I felt my body slumping to the ground, I was glad I didn’t spare the monsters that came to hunt me tonight.
3
Moira
Soft moans escaped me as I tried to move. Even flexing my fingers shot tingles of pain throughout my arm. Slowly, my eyes opened up to a dark ceilinged room.
“You’re finally awake,” said a strange male voice.
A gasp escaped me as my body suddenly bolted upright. I glanced around me wildly as the old fear came back to me. My gaze fell on a stranger sitting right by the bed. Another heartbeat later, I realized we were in the nurse’s station at school.
“Calm down, Miss Nelson,” said the man. “I won’t hurt you.”
“Who are you?” I said in a hoarse voice. Even my throat felt scratchy from screaming for so long. The memory of the blinding, white-hot light streaming out of my body gave me pause. I looked down at myself. In the darkly-lit room, I saw nothing but my usual drab clothes.
“My name is Artemis and the Order of the Third Son contacted me to come speak to you,” said the stranger just as I was wondering whether I’d been slipped some kind of drug. The intense burning I’d felt in my body was probably one of the side-effects. “Are you listening to me, Miss Nelson?”
“I’m sorry,” I said, turning back to look at the man who seemed to be in his late twenties. Dressed in a dark suit, he gazed at me through clear round glasses. “Could you say that again, please?”
“I was called here by the Order of the Third Son.”
“Who?”
He gazed at me intently. I stared back at him, gauging his reaction toward me. His soft brown eyes were clear but full of curiosity. There was no lust hiding underneath his expression.
I relaxed, finally noticing the alluring beauty in the stranger. He was dressed in a regular black suit but it couldn’t hide his broad shoulders or thick forearms. Strands of ebony hair fell over his forehead, brushing over the edges of his black-rimmed glasses. Everything he wore was ordinary but an extraordinary aura
seemed to cling to him.
“You don’t know what you are, do you?” he asked.
It was a strange question. “What I am?”
He gave a grim nod. “Come with me. I wish to show you something.” He stood up and glanced down at me expectantly.
I got off the bed, a few moans escaping me as my joints and muscles ached from the movement. I followed the man out of the room and down the corridor. The place was teeming with activity. There were men in black suits everywhere.
“Who are these people?” I asked, staring at the men who wore large black sunglasses even when it was night time. Their measured movements and military-like communication with each other made me think of high profile FBI agents. “What are they doing here?”
“They are here to clean up the mess you made.”
“What are you talking about?”
The man led me back to the place where I’d last been with those boys. Only, it was more crowded than the hallway we’d just passed. Through the gaps between the bodies of the black suits, I glimpsed a number of blackened shapes lying on the floor.
Moving closer, I felt the sparse hair on my arms rise in alarm.
The blackened shapes looked terrifyingly humanoid. And there were six of them.
“See what you did?” said Artemis, gesturing toward the burned remains which were still slightly smoking.
The stench of burnt flesh and hair made me gag. I put up a hand over my nose and mouth. “What happened to them?”
Artemis placed an arm around my shoulder and turned me away from the scene. My body instantly stiffened at his touch but he ignored it, taking me back to the nurse’s station.
“What happened back there?” I asked as soon as the door closed behind us. “And who are those people?”
“Sit down first.”
I felt agitated but obeyed. My heart was already beating hard, knowing deep down that whatever had happened, I’d caused it. The blinding white-hot light had exploded out of me, drowning me in terrible pain. I should have been a charred piece of human kebab just like those boys but other than some minor muscle ache, I felt fine.
“You are a lumina fae, Miss Nelson,” said Artemis. “Somehow, your powers were unlocked tonight. Unable to contain it within yourself, you let it overpower you. The result was what you just saw. You killed those six humans.”
Even though what he said made no sense, I’d grasped one fact. Those boys who were hunting me tonight were dead and it was something inside me that killed them.
“I saw a white light before passing out,” I said slowly. “It was bursting out of me like there was a hidden high power bulb glowing inside me and my skin was a transparent film. What was it?”
Artemis smiled. “That’s your power,” he said. “I am guessing you received quite a shock to witness it for the first time.”
I knew there was something odd about me, something that made me different from my mother as well as the people around me. Even if I couldn’t name what it was, I knew it was always present, widening the gap between me and my mom.
“Could you please explain to me in a way I can understand?” I said.
“You are a fae, a magical being who belongs to a different realm,” said Artemis. “It’s not strange for stray children to end up in the human world but they are usually detected by the time they’re adults and taken back before they cause any major disasters. You, however…” His expression turned grim. Shaking his head, he continued. “You were born from a human woman, yet you are fully fae. I can sense it in you.”
I tried to wrap my head around what he was telling me. “I am not even human?” I asked in a slow, halting tone.
“No. You are a lumina fae, more particularly, you are a solar fae. Your powers come from the sun itself and manifest as light and intense heat.” His brows contracted together as he said, “The ones who died today…were they trying to hurt you?”
I felt my eyes widen at the question. “How would you know?”
“That’s the way a solar fae child reacts when it feels threatened,” he said with a grim look in his eyes. “He will use up every ounce of his energy to kill the predator even if it ends up draining and hurting him. Their innate magic takes control over them.”
“But I am not a child,” I said. “How could I not do this before? Why today?”
“I cannot answer that,” said Artemis with a shake of his head. “However, there are others who can solve this mystery for you. I’ve been tasked to take you to them. You’re lucky there is no proof of any wrongdoing on your part until now. The Order is allowing me to take you to the Court of Belenus so you can learn about your heritage and hone your powers.”
“What’s the Order of the Third Son and what wrongdoing are you talking about?”
He let out a long sigh. “The Order of the Third Son is a paranormal bureau that works with the administrations of both human and fae orders. They deal with situations like this and cover up the existence of the paranormal. They have already gone through your records. You haven’t committed any infractions in the human realm until your recent episode. As long as you agree to go to the Court of Belenus to rehabilitate, they will not charge with you with a harsher punishment.”
“How do I know you’re not completely shitting me?”
A chuckle escaped the man. “Come with me and I will show you our world.”
Our world. I stared at the strange man. Could everything he said really be true? “Can you explain something to me?”
“I will try my best.”
“There is something else inside me,” I said. My gaze stayed focused on Artemis to make sure I detected any changes in his expression. “Why do men get attracted to me? Even when I hide my face and my body, they come after me. Even today…the boys who died were hunting me. I don’t think it’s really their fault. It is something inside me that turns into monsters.”
To my surprise, Artemis’s expression morphed into pity. “I’m so sorry, Miss Nelson. It couldn’t have been easy for you to live without knowing your true origin. Other fae children in the same situation have died. I really can’t think of any who were able to survive among the humans as long as you.”
“You understand what I’ve been going through?” I asked, leaning toward him. “Why? What was making them go crazy? What is it about me?”
An embarrassed flush crept over the planes of Artemis’s cheeks. Clearing his throat, he said, “A kind of alluring scent is emitted by fae women during their moon cycle. Most ladies of our kind have been taught to suppress it until it is time for them to mate.” The color in his cheeks deepened as he looked away from me. “The fragrance of this scent is similar to those of flowers. Just like a blossom’s aroma attracts bees and other insects, your scent drew male partners toward you. It grew stronger as you matured. Humans are exceptionally susceptible to this invitation. That is why…it’s a wonder you’re still safe and alive and haven’t been devoured already.”
I let that information sink in. At that very moment, I was going through my period. Every incident that occurred in the past, I’d been on my period.
“I’m sorry what you had to go through,” said Artemis. There was a sincere expression on his face. “Come with me to the Court of Belenus. It is a haven for children like you. They will teach you everything you need to know about yourself. They will help you come to terms with your real heritage. You might even be able to find your way back to your family.”
“What about my mom?”
“She is not really your mother,” said Artemis. “You are a full-blooded fae. Henderson confirmed there are legitimate records of your birth in one of the state hospitals. This is another odd thing about you. The fae don’t use human surrogates to birth their children. There is a lot about you that’s not clear. You need a mage to pry out the secrets of your past. I’m afraid I’m only as good as negotiating on your behalf with the Order.”
“I understand but it still feels like I’m on drugs.”
He let out another c
huckle and got to his feet. “Clean yourself up and get dressed.” Moving away to a corner, he came back with a heap of neatly folded clothes. Placing them on the bed beside me, he said, “I will take you to the Court of Belenus right away before the Order changes its mind about you. The journey will show you the true reality of our existence.”
Our existence. Hope flickered in my chest. It would be truly life-changing if everything was really true. Artemis was even able to explain why I had that kind of effect on men. Nothing about me fazed him.
I thought of my mom. She’d suffered her entire life because of me. Surrogate or not, she did bring me up until now. My absence could give her another chance at life. Without me, she might be able to get back to her old self.
“Will someone explain my disappearance to her?” I asked.
“Not to worry on that front,” said Artemis. “One of the Order’s people will speak to her.”
“Could you do me a favor?”
“What is it?”
“Tell her that I forgive her,” I said.
Artemis’s face broke into an expression of pity. He gave a stiff nod. “I’ll let them know. For now, get dressed.” He gestured toward a pile of clothes on a nearby stool. “I will wait for you in the hallway.” He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
Looking down at the clothes, I saw a strange emblem stitched on the breast pocket of a white shirt that sat folded on the top. It was a golden sun, spreading its tendrils of light in all directions. There were words in a strange script underneath it.
My fingers brushed over the sigil, reminding me of the pure white light that had poured out from my skin earlier that evening. It can’t be a dream or hallucination, I told myself. There is no way my mind could make up such an elaborate lie to explain my pathetic life. Taking in a deep breath, I readied myself for the real truth.
4
Moira
I went into the bathroom in the corner to splash some water on my face.
