Panting, Isabel finally collapsed in the field. She looked over on the ground to Amele who was laying there with a silly grin on her face. Her raven tresses were disheveled and her amber eyes were glowing brightly. “Well done, Princess. Your dad would be wicked proud of you if he could’ve seen that. You’ve definitely inherited his mad skills. Damn, girl…it took me years to do what you just did. I bet it felt natural, eh?”
It had felt natural; too natural. An energy had been buzzing through her that she’d never felt before. Well, sleeping with the football team hadn’t happened, but she felt like she had just been fought by the entire NFL, so at least she was getting some experience with something! Isabel thought about her dad for a moment, wondering what he looked like when he fought for his kingdom, and how alike they really were.
Amele was content for a moment to lay down in the grass next to her. Isabel watched her hands reach behind her head as she stared up at the beautiful, wispy clouds. The sky hadn’t changed from it’s deep blue since they’d been here. The corn on the other hand, had taken a beating.
“So, Amele, if you can still sift, then why can’t you sift to the future and see what is happening? Go peek at me a week from now and see what choice I made?” She looked over at her curiously.
“Because I can’t sift forward at the moment due to this curse and even though I could before, I wouldn’t have. The Elementals are involved in this I’m sure, so taking a peek was absolutely out of the question. Uglies, Isabel. Not going there. There’s only one Sidhe who could possibly sift forward at this moment and she’s sleeping right now. I can only sift laterally or backwards, which doesn’t help us really. I can’t even sift right now to the other realms—which all Sidhe can do, we just can’t all time sift—because I am bound here with you with the rest of the guards. We’re still in your world at the same time, just not at the same place. I believe we’re in Nebraska, at the moment. The backwards sifting doesn’t do anyone much good by the way, because we aren’t allowed to change the course of anything. Just being in the past can alter it, so that’s a big no-no. It’s a pointless damn gift really, to have such a power and not be able to use it.”
Isabel thought about this for a moment and laughed. “That’s a strange rule. Why would some of us be able to do something that we aren’t allowed to do? And you really don’t break these rules ever? Please, the day you do what you’re told is the day that hell freezes over.” A quick punch in the arm from Amele and they were both cracking up. “Really though, Nebraska? Couldn’t we have gone to Paris or Rome, instead? I’ve always wanted to see the world.” She glanced at her and thought over her words. “Oh yeah, I’ve seen three now. Never mind.”
Amele turned to her and smiled. “You do realize you said us for the first time, right?”
Isabel chewed on her inner cheek a moment. “I guess I did. I still don’t understand everything but there’s not much point in believing that this is all a dream anymore. My body is battered, my heart is flying in two worlds and I’ve seen the Demons and Uglies with my own eyes. Only an idiot would still be in denial. Naive maybe, but not an idiot.” Isabel got quiet for a moment, letting her acceptance marinate a bit. Had she really come to terms with everything? She still had no idea what to do about the torturous males but she had to have a little faith, like Amele told her to. There was still time to figure that out.
“And when we go back? Will the day have passed as it has for us? The sky doesn’t seem to have changed at all even though that’s impossible after all these hours.”
“Nope, isn’t that great? It will be like we just blinked out for a sec!” She laughed. “Nothing is impossible, Bel. Well, almost nothing. Me watching that gorgeous God dining between my thighs is pretty impossible…”
“Amele! Focus.” Isabel laughed and shook her head.
“Right, so I’ve been forbidden to blink with you like this except in the most dire circumstances, of course, but I think being surrounded by the Unseelie with our untrained, mostly mortal princess was more than justified. I feel much better about you fighting now, even if you’re not going anywhere near the front lines of anything yet. Not until after the blood moon rises and even then, only if your man will let you.” She looked over and winked at her as Isabel punched her arm, mumbling a ‘yeah right’.
“It’s really surprising how much of each of them you have in you. The battles we’ll fight someday will be amazing. You’re still a wee mortal right now, but you won’t be for long and I can’t wait to see what powers you’ll possess after you’ve fully transitioned.” She grinned.
“Wee mortal,” she growled, deciding to let it go this time. “Are you going to tell me about the whole ‘majesty’ thing?”
She watched as Amele hesitated for a second. “Not much to tell, really. I’m the unruly younger sister of the High King. I’m trouble with a capital ‘T,’ but you already knew that. It’s just so much more fun to be bad, and I can’t help myself. I’m many thousands of years old, Bel, I get so effing bored sometimes. They expect me to wear dresses, not fight, and act like some gracious ruler and host to the realm. Cleopatra? She got fashion advise from yours truly. I can do that, but don’t ask me to play nice, wear dresses, and put down my sword. Hell-to-the-no, I say to that! So, they’ve given up on me finding a partner among the Sidhe, since most of them are afraid to even speak to me.”
Isabel grinned at her. Yeah, she was trouble all right.
“Can you believe that they’ve actually started bringing in other immortals to see if the wild streak in me can be tamed? Pairing outside your own race is almost unheard of, but when it’s done, it’s usually a formidable match, like your parents were. So far though, I’ve only liked a few of the would be suitors enough to share my bed, but I kick them out of it by sunrise. They’ve all been far too…typical,” she said as she scrunched her nose. “That water Elemental, Nikolai, however…mmmmhmmm. He’s something else entirely. I’ve come close to summoning him before just to see him up close. I hear he’s a real beast of a God in bed by the offerings who have gone bat-shit crazy when they returned. Damn, just damn,” she said, then she groaned, closing her eyes.
She looked over at Amele and started cracking up. “You’re calling someone other than yourself bat-shit crazy? Oh my God,” she snorted in a fit of laughter. “So why haven’t you summoned this mighty Elemental? You’re a woman who gets what she wants and I doubt that even a God could refuse you. Don’t they have phones or something? Text his ass and say hello. And offerings? I don’t even think I can hear about that right now. I’ve got enough sex on the brain to last me years.”
“Ah, if it were that easy I would. Remember the Unseelie story, Isabel? That’s why I haven’t called that gorgeous God to do my bidding. I’m too vain.”
“Now that, I believe,” Isabel said, earning her another punch in an extremely sore arm. “Gods, you always say them as plural…why?”
“Because there are many, of course.”
“Of course, only I don’t know anything about that, and you haven’t explained. What’s a water God?”
Amele looked up and gazed at the sky as she answered. “Sidhe are direct descendants of the Old Gods—called the Ancients—and the Elemental Gods are different…almost maybe a cousin in terms you’d understand, only completely not related. The Elemental Gods were created when all of the realms were created, as part of the very element they govern. The Gods that we come from have been absent a very long time, but they were the creators of living essence that comes from magic, rather than from the elements. Without the Old Gods, the Elemental Gods would have no magic to work with in the magical realms, and without the Elementals, the magical races would have no realms to play in at all. They were at one time two parts of a completely different whole, dependent on each other in a sense, even though neither need the other to exist. Now that everything is made however, the Ancients have stepped away as they’re not needed. Creation loops now, and magic exists without them giving birth to it because we all e
xist. Make sense?”
Isabel blinked and tried to digest all of that. “Not really, no, but we can come back to that sometime. I think I need an aspirin for the vice grip my brain is now in trying to sort that out. I’ll get a pen and paper for you to draw a diagram next time for me with that question.” Amele looked at her perplexed as Isabel just shook her head and smiled. “So, do you live in Loveryn when you aren’t babysitting ‘wee mortals’ or killing things?”
“Of course I have quarters there, Bel, but mostly I stay at my own home at the Eastern Shore. Loveryn is the capital, if you will, of a massive realm. I oversee the outskirts of our lands to the East. It’s a lovely little cottage by the sea that you’ll find absolutely charming, I’m sure,” She said with a grin.
“Cottage, eh? I bet it’s huge.”
“Not compared to where my brother lives. It’s really not that big, I swear. It only sleeps about a hundred immortals comfortably.”
She gasped and looked at her friend. “Maine trust-baby, my ass!” she shrieked, and they both burst out into laughter. “Oh my God. That was your castle I saw from my larien Toressa…wasn’t it? The one that was beyond the fields and valleys, near the ocean?” Amele looked her in the eyes and her own glazed over a moment.
“That was it, Halfling. I had to take a look and see.”
She opened her mouth to say something sarcastic, but the dreamy look in Amele’s eyes stopped her. Yeah, she could see in her mind, and that wasn’t so terrible right now. Isabel smiled and then looked down at her bare arms and legs. Holy crap! They were covered in bruises and cuts everywhere. “Holy shit, Amele, look at me. How am I supposed to go to Bodhe like this? He’d run from me as if I’m a monster! I’d probably run from me if I saw this!”
“That’s a negative. First, you won’t look like that when you go to Bodhe, we have healers among us. And second, he would never run from you, Isabel. Curse and prophesy aside, you’re beautiful and you’re part of his people. It’s his duty to protect you. That one takes his duty seriously, unlike his auntie.”
She sighed. “I wonder if Morkain would run too? Since I’m half Elf and all,” she asked quietly, pulling some corn husk remnants from her hair.
“Well, Elves are pretty damn fast,” Amele said, laughing. “Besides, like I said, take the damn prophesy and curse away, and any male would be a fool not to choose you, even with the crazy hair you’ve got going on right now. It’s actually a little sexy. Come on, Corn Husk Queen, let’s get you back and have some real fun. You ready?”
She stood and reached out her hand. Isabel nodded and stood with her, spinning right back to the parlor where the unnatural thunderstorm, Demons, and Uglies were waiting outside.
“I think I liked Nebraska better,” she said with a sigh, as the guards looked at her strangely. She cast her eyes down, feeling the blush rise on her cheeks. Crap, I must look like a train wreck. I wonder what they think of the mortal princess now?
“I hope the sword served you well, Highness,” Loth said with a bow, and slightly upturned lips.
“Well, we can tell who won, obviously, but your sword is magnificent. Thank you,” she said, trying not to fidget with her hair.
“Your sword, Princess, the sword is yours now. You’ve certainly earned its keep.” He bowed to her and smiled fully then.
She thanked him sincerely and gazed out the window, the light falling from her eyes in a mere second. “Isn’t there any way for us to close that portal to Ugly hell?”
“I’m afraid not. All we can hope to do is dust the bastards that have come through and keep hunting until they retreat. Don’t worry, Halfling. This is child’s play.”
“But there are so many of them! We’re completely outnumbered.”
“And our re-enforcement's should be here any moment. Any one of our guards are ten-to-one, at least, against one of theirs. Being ugly isn’t their only weakness.”
She swallowed hard, knowing firsthand that underestimating Amele was a careless thing to do.
“If you’re not worried, than neither am I.” She squared her shoulders and stood as tall as she could. Amele looked at her and chuckled under her breath.
“Loth, go get a healer and bring them back here, now. We need to mend her if she’s going to be of any help. And I can assure you, she’ll be helping.”
He bowed and rushed off.
The dark skies and equally dark landscape that stretched out into the forest was bleak at best; as were her thoughts. More damned creatures kept coming through that little ripple every second and the more she saw walking out into her world, the more pissed off she became. The cuts and bruises didn’t hurt at all really. She just wanted to run out there with Amele and kick some Uglies’ asses.
Amele looked at her and gasped a little. “Check out your eyes, Isabel, that is so cool.”
Curious, she walked over to a mirror in the hall and looked at herself. Instead of the green and brown hazel that they usually were, they were glowing like liquid gold, only a few splashes of green in them at all.
“Wow,” she whispered to herself. Amele glided up behind her and grinned.
“Wicked neat, huh? I guess I could start calling you goldie instead of halfling?” When she got a jab in the stomach, Amele doubled over and feigned injury.
Just then Loth came back with the healer, rushing to her side at the mirror. He looked at her eyes and stopped abruptly. “Oh, Gods. You’re full of surprises, Princess.”
“What do you mean by that?” She looked at Loth, her head slightly cocked.
“Forgive me, Highness, I was just so shocked for a moment. Prince Norgelon’s eyes turned the same color when he was about to go into to battle,” he smiled. “He was the male you wanted next to you in the realm wars.”
She nodded to him and a wistful smile touched her lips. Isabel barely felt the healers hands touch her as she thought about his words, but she felt the surge of power going through her body as soon as it started. She watched the mirror; the gold in her eyes swirling like liquid lava. A steady glow emanated from the rest of her too, as all the fresh cuts and bruises disappeared. No way I am seeing this. A stranger looked back at her. One with a wicked grin and foreign eyes—eyes that she could definitely get used to.
“So, when do we hunt?” She turned to look at an equally wicked looking Amele, the amber swirling in her own.
“Right after you change, Halfling. You can’t go hunting in that.” She motioned to her clothes.
Isabel looked at her torn short and bloodied t-shirt. “Well, I don’t have much else with me. I wasn’t really prepared for an Ugly battle when I packed. T-shirts, shorts, and my hiking boots are it for my wardrobe at the moment.”
“C’mon Bel, lets fit you into some of my clothes. I can make them fit the same way the immortals dress you in your dreams. A little magic goes a long way. I could just put some on you, but I want all the power in reserves that I have.” She glided upstairs, a wonder-filled Isabel behind her.
*****
Wow. She wasn’t sure who she wanted to see her first. Morkain, Bodhe or her mom. Amele looked on approvingly and she did a little spin. She definitely felt the part of badass immortal warrior as far as looks were concerned. Amele had done her hair in the 3 braids as hers were, the little points on her ears lifting delicately from her locks. Brown leather pants and a matching top crossed over her shoulders and stomach. With the floor length cloak and the sword strapped on her back, she was complete. Too bad she was still wearing her hiking boots since Amele didn’t pack a spare pair, but even with those still on, yeah, she looked…amazing. But could she act the part as well?
“What do you think Amele, is a day fighting you going to be enough to prevent me from getting killed by the Uglies today?” She took a deep breath, still staring at her golden eyes with awe.
“A day fighting me is like a year fighting those things, so yeah, you’re ready. You’re going to do fine, I promise. Your true instincts won’t fail you out there, and you may even discover the o
nset of powers that you don’t know you have. Sometimes it takes real danger to bring them out in younger immortals,” Amele replied, gazing at her wistfully.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Oh nothing.” She waved her hand. “It’s just that you’re all grown up now. I knew it was coming, but I’d gotten used to our running around playing teenager and young adult.”
Isabel started laughing. “Amele, I actually was a teenager and young adult!”
“I know, I know, but it was fun for me to pretend too! You have no idea what thousands of years of monotony can do to a female.”
Isabel looked at her, “Of course I do, you’re my best friend,” she giggled. “At least all your crazy makes sense now.”
She caught the pillow flying for her head. Killer reflexes? Check.
“So, any last words of wisdom?” she asked, looking out the window at the nightmare below.
“Yes, actually. The only way to kill the Unseelie is by beheading them or stabbing them with your raka, twice, and the second time has to be a money shot. The nasty Shadow Demons are exactly the same. Only you have to do it while they’re formed.”
“Formed?”
“Well, we don’t call them Shadow Demons for nothing, Bel.”
Isabel scowled at her and returned the pillow at high speeds to her face. Of course she caught it.
“They can go from form to shadow and back again in the blink of an eye—they’re very tricky. The good news is they can’t hurt you when they’re shadow, but the bad news is that you can’t hurt them when they’re that way either.” Isabel just nodded and crossed her hands over her chest. “Oh, and one more thing, you’re going to feel a bit like bait,” she said as she turned sharply on her heels.
“And why is that?” she called after her.
“Because they’ll all be coming after you, of course.”
Immortal Dreams (Immortal Realms Book 1) Page 16
