by Bonnie Lamer
Dad expels a long breath and puts his hand on my arm. “I’m sorry to be so hard on you about him; he just isn’t good for you.”
I lift my hand out from under the covers and put it on his. “I know.” He smiles, so I guess that was the right thing to say.
He stands up and grimaces at Mom. “Sorry, I got carried away.” Mom nods curtly. She has her arms tight across her chest. What did I miss? I’ve never seen them this tense around each other before.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
Mom smiles down at me. “Of course, everything’s fine now that you’re home.”
“We should let her get some rest,” Dad says.
Mom nods and smooths my hair from my forehead again. “Go back to sleep, Xandra. You really do need your rest.”
I nod and close my eyes. I think it’s going to be hard to go back to sleep, considering how painful my whole body is, but it’s not. The next time I open my eyes, the sun is streaming through my bedroom window. I’m careful not to move my leg, but I do feel the back of my head. That’s still quite a lump I have. I really want to sit up, but I don’t think I should. Since I don’t have a television in my room, and I can’t reach my computer, I’m stuck staring at the walls of the bedroom I’ve had since I was born. Boring.
Look, there’s the lamp that Mom got me for my twelfth birthday. And there’s the ugly faux Faberge egg Grandma sent me for Christmas last year. I don’t know why, I hate gaudy things like that. As I look at it, I feel my brain hiccup. Yes, hiccup. Well, maybe burp. Because something came out of the hiccup/burp. The word no. Actually, it was more like NO. I close my eyes, open them and look at the egg again. It truly is hideous. NO. I put my hand to my head. It was louder that time, and now my head is hurting even worse. I wish Mom would float in here so I can ask for some ibuprofen.
Mom. Float. That’s ringing some loud bells in my ears. And my head. I close my eyes tightly, trying to clear the muck. I open them back up. That’s strange. The color of the walls is off. They’re more like a teal than the warm blue I picked out last year. And my comforter. It’s not the right shade of dark blue. Ignoring my hurt leg, I push myself up against the headboard so I can get a better look around. It’s the little things that are off. It’s almost an exact replica, though. Whoever did this is good. Scary good.
How did they know what my room in my realm looks like? It’s like they took the image from my mind, but they couldn’t quite match the colors or the tiny details. Like the carpeting, it’s too flat. The computer is the wrong size.
Okay, I’m convinced. This isn’t my room. So, where am I? I shift a little again and pain shoots up my leg. It takes a lot not to cry out, but I don’t want to alert whoever those people are pretending to be my parents that I’m awake. I feel my head and there’s definitely a bump there. I guess my injuries are real. Yeah, how fun. I’m stuck in some weird, scary place with a broken leg and a head injury. What do I do now?
Figure out how I got here, I guess. I put my head gently back against the headboard, careful not to touch the bump against it, and close my eyes. It sure would be a lot easier if I didn’t have these injuries.
My brain does that hiccup/burp thing again. Healing. I can do that. And with a whoosh, images and thoughts flood into my mind as if someone’s holding a funnel and pouring them into my brain. I can heal because I have magic. I have a broken leg and a head injury because I fell into a big hole. The images keep coming, but I have to focus and prioritize. First things first, I need fix myself. Then I can worry about the rest.
Concentrating on my leg first, I start to imagine it healing. The bone molding back together. The ligaments, tendons and muscle sewing back together. My fake dad was right, there is an infection. My magic can taste it as it searches my veins, looking for the bacteria cells. After several long, painful minutes, the skin is closed and my leg is healed. Now, I have to do the same thing with my head. The way it’s pounding right now, I probably should have done it first. As soon as the pressure from the goose egg goes away, the pounding stops. I feel like myself again.
Looking around the room, I see what I missed earlier. The colors aren’t off because whoever did this got them wrong. They’re off because I am looking at them through a haze of the magic the being used to hold this imagery in place. Most people, even magical ones, can’t see that. Concentrating on it, I pull my magic, feeling it dissolve the illusion around me.
“Finally!” I hear Nixie scream. She’s dancing on the wall in front of me like a flashlight. I put my hand to my lips to shush her. “Sorry,” she whispers. “I was starting to worry you weren’t ever going to wake up. You’ve been out of it for two days. I’ve been calling out and trying to break through the enchantment, but I couldn’t.”
Two days? No freaking way. “What happened?” I ask her, as I look around. She does make a good flashlight.
Okay, no wonder my leg was getting infected. I’m pretty sure I’m in a mining shaft. A very old, poorly built mining shaft. I’m leaning against the wall and sitting on the disgusting floor, which is covered with what I’m going to call confetti, because I don’t want to know what it really is or what animal made it. Huh, I’m not as happy as I thought I’d be to see reality.
I think I came out of the illusion just in time, though, because it looks like reality is literally going to cave in any minute now. My guess, fake Mom and Dad know I’m awake and aware. So now, they’ve jumped from holding me hostage to trying to kill me. I sure wish I could understand the fascination with that. Personally, I like me. I’m nice and friendly and I’m far from stupid. I think I’m pretty witty sometimes, too, when I’m not being sarcastic. So, I have no idea why ‘kill Xandra’ jumps to the minds of so many people, or things, that I meet. Maybe I need to do a little more soul searching, try to see me as others do.
The creaking of a wooden beam reminds me that this is definitely not the time for soul searching. Dirt is starting to rain down on me as the walls of the mine shaft start to shake. Nixie is dancing around frantically.
“Xandra, snap out of it. You have to get out of here. These walls were safe before the shaking started.”
“How did you know I was here?” I ask, getting to my feet, steadying myself with a hand against the rumbling wall”
“I was following you. I was able to get into the hole with you before it closed. Kallen wasn’t able to. Then, this whole enchantment thing started and somehow, I was blocked out of it. All I could do was wait. I couldn’t get back out of the hole to go for help, and I couldn’t get through the enchantment to you.” Her voice sounds sad and embarrassed now.
“It’s okay, Nixie. I appreciate that you tried. And that you’re here now. You’re a good friend.”
“Thank you,” she says, sounding a little cheerier. Until a beam in the ceiling cracks loudly. “Um, Xandra, I can probably survive a cave in, but I’m pretty sure your body can’t.”
She’s right, of course. Closing my eyes, I let the memories flood my mind. It’s like I was given a sedative that’s starting to wear off, and the images are coming faster and faster. Quickly, I latch on to two. One, I can teleport. Two, I know where Kallen is. So, I teleport to Kallen.
Chapter 15
I hit the bed with a thump. Not my most graceful landing. But, the landing isn’t nearly as bad as the screaming. For a middle aged woman, Giant, whatever, Breena does a really good imitation of a little girl when she screams. You know, that high pitched, I have fingernails on a chalkboard beat by a mile, screeching that makes you wish your ears would bleed to help block out some of the sound. Even putting my hands over my ears, it’s still like scream talons latching on to my psyche, trying to rip it apart. My broken leg wasn’t this bad.
So, I do the most logical thing. I pull magic and take away her voice. Of course, that freaks her out even more. Her eyes get huge; she puts a hand to her throat. If she had a cross and a torch, I think she’d be thrusting them towards me right about now.
“Calm down,” Nixie tells her
. Nixie had latched on to me so I could teleport her out of the mine shaft as well.
Maybe Nixie didn’t get the memo on Giants fearing spirits. Knowing her, though, it’s more likely she doesn’t care that she just made Breena faint. At least I can give her her voice back. I’m about to say something to Nixie for scaring her, but pounding footsteps in the hall pull my attention away from her.
The door is thrown open and Dagda, with Radella hot on his trail, runs into the room, magic ready to be used against whomever made Breena scream bloody murder. He stops when he sees me. For a second, I think he’s going to faint, too. He doesn’t. He does something worse. He snatches me off the bed and pulls me into a bear hug of mammoth proportions. Not only do I not think our relationship has progressed to hugging of any kind, I also can’t breathe. He seems to realize at least one of those things, because he lets me go.
With his hand on my shoulders, he steps back and looks me over. “Are you okay? Are you injured?”
I shake my head. “Not anymore. Where’s Kallen?”
Relief floods his face as he drops his hands. “He is trying to find you. He hasn’t slept in two days. He’s practically started his own war against the Giants, for he believes they were responsible for your disappearance. It has taken all of my power to keep him in check, so he doesn’t tear the entire outback apart looking for you.”
Huh, it really has been two days. I’d be freaking out if I was Kallen, too. “Where is he now?”
“He is searching where you disappeared again with Kegan.”
“Did the Giants have anything to do with my disappearance?” I ask, dying to get to Kallen and relieve his worry, but wanting to be a little better armed with information before leaving the house.
Dagda grimaces as he starts to pace the room. “Quinn believes so. He is sure that Ellu somehow arranged for your abduction.”
“Do you think he’s right?”
He sighs. “It is looking that way. Ellu is a raving lunatic. He refused to see me at first, so I had to show him that he had no choice whether he received me or not.” Not sure I want him to explain that. “I questioned him thoroughly, and he claimed not to have any knowledge of you, let alone where you were, but there is something not right about him. I am not ruling out the possibility he is responsible. Now, I think it’s time for you to answer some questions. Where have you been?”
“I’ll explain everything after I find Kallen. Hopefully, I’ll be right back,” I say, right before teleporting back out of the room. I’m really going to like this whole instantly moving from place to place thing. It also could make me very, very lazy. The next time no one’s trying to kill me, I should think about an exercise routine.
I imagine the spot around where I fell into the hole. I don’t want to get too close, though. Falling into the hole again wouldn’t help matters. So, I reappear about twenty feet back from there. I see Kallen and Kegan just ahead of me, staring into a giant hole where the mine shaft caved in. Ouch, glad I wasn’t still in there. Kegan grabs Kallen as he tries to make a dash for the hole, which is bringing dirt and sand down into it at an alarming rate as the cave in moves down the shaft. In about thirty seconds, both of them are going to fall if they don’t get out of there.
Not sure I can actually teleport two people, I make a snap decision to try. I run towards them and grab both of their arms. The shock in Kallen’s eyes for the split second I see them before teleporting would have made me laugh in any other situation.
Once again, I make a not so graceful landing on my bed in Dagda’s home. Kallen and Kegan go tumbling off the bed head first, and end up in a confused, and probably sore, heap on the floor. Now, I guess it’s only fair that if I make a repeat performance of materializing into thin air, that Breena gets to make her own repeat performance, as well. Crap, I was hoping she’d still be unconscious. Well, if we’re doing encores, might as well go all the way. I take her voice again.
“Thank you,” Dagda says, his hands coming down from his ears. “I was just about to gag her myself.” Breena glares at him from the corner of the room she’s backed herself into. Why do people back themselves into corners? Backing themselves to the door seems like a much more logical choice.
Kallen disentangles himself from Kegan and is over to me in a flash. I don’t mind when he pulls me into a bear hug. I hug him back just as tightly. “If I was not so happy to see you, I would kill you for making me worry so much,” he murmurs in my ear.
I hug him tighter. “I know. I’m sorry.” No, it’s not my fault, but I understand how worried he was.
Pulling back, he puts his hands on my cheeks. “Are you okay?” he asks.
I look at the dark circles under his eyes and the worry lines trying to take up permanent residence on his brow. “Yes, but how about you?” I ask, smoothing back some of his unusually tangled hair from his forehead. “You look exhausted.”
“That is because he has spent the last two days trying to tear the realm apart looking for you,” Kegan says, putting his hand on Kallen’s shoulder. I can tell he was worried, too. “We are all happy to see you back in one piece.” A quick glance at Breena proves that statement incorrect, but I think he was talking about my family and friends, not the Giants. “Where have you been?”
I pull back from Kallen’s arms, but he grasps my hand tightly. I don’t think he’s going to want to let me out of his sight for a while. That’s okay; I don’t want him too, either. I sit in the middle of the bed so I can see everyone.
Radella is still lurking in the corner. She looks mad, but oddly, I don’t think she’s mad at me. “Yes, that is a question we would all like answered.”
“She was in a mine shaft,” Nixie says, bouncing up and down on the wall and I think Radella was barely able to keep from screaming. She does jump, though.
“Who is speaking?” Radella asks the wall.
“It’s just Nixie,” I say. When she looks at me, it’s clear she doesn’t have a clue what I’m talking about. Strange that Dagda didn’t tell Radella about her.
“She’s a tiny lost soul,” Dagda says impatiently. “Enough about Nixie. Where. Have. You. Been.” He says each word as if he’s tightening a noose for someone’s neck. Glad it’s not mine.
“Nixie’s right. I fell into a mine shaft. She followed me in, and then the hole closed on top of us.”
Kallen nods. “It did appear as if you sunk into the ground, but there was no indication of a hole after you disappeared.”
“Yeah, she said it closed magically and she couldn’t get out to go for help, just like you couldn’t get in.”
“She broke her leg when she fell,” Nixie blurts out.
I glare at where she’s lurking on the wall. “Tattle tale.” Kallen’s eyes are almost to his hairline, and I don’t think he’s going to let me skim over the injury part. I sigh. “It’s true. When I fell, I broke my femur. And I got a concussion.” My hand goes to the spot on my head that used to have a goose egg.
“But, you were able to heal yourself?” Radella asks. She sounds almost impressed.
“When I finally woke up enough, yeah. I was unconscious for most of the last couple of days.”
“You haven’t told them about the illusion, yet,” Nixie says impatiently. I think she wants to tell the story. And, she does. “Two magical creatures created images from her mind. They created her childhood bedroom and pretended to be her mom and dad. I couldn’t get past the illusion so I could help her. I kept trying until she finally woke up.” She says the last part firmly, in case anyone dare question her about her dedication.
“I remember waking up once, and it was like I was in my old bedroom and Mom and Dad were there. Or, at least, whoever was imitating them were there. They were trying to convince me that I was injured by hikers and that I had a no good boyfriend who was leading me into trouble.” Ow. It hurts when a muscular Fairy squeezes your hand. I scowl up at him and he loosens his grip with a sheepish smile. I don’t think he even realized he had tightened it.
> “How did you finally escape,” Kegan asks.
“Once I woke up enough, I started noticing little things. The colors were slightly off. There were gifts from my grandparents.” Most everyone here knows that I didn’t even know I had grandparents until my seventeenth birthday. “I knew something was wrong, and little by little, my memories started coming back to me. As soon as I realized it was just an illusion, I was able to dissolve the magic. Turns out, I was really just lying on the ground of the mine shaft.”
“And her leg was infected. It was almost green.”
I glare at Nixie again. “But, I healed it,” I say firmly.
Turning to Nixie’s light, Dagda asks, “Did you see the ones impersonating her parents in their true forms?”
“No,” she says, a touch of anger and frustration in her voice. “They never appeared in any other form while they were with her, and they didn’t come back after Xandra woke up.”
“Did they say anything that would give you a clue as to who they really are?”
