by Lainy Lane
Calandra just nodded in agreement.
“And he explained what he does on them?”
She had been less than thrilled when she had discovered that Drake was able to use dreams to travel to the mortal world as well. He had played it off well in their conversation about Jarreth’s ability as if he was jealous of the talent when in turn, he had the same talent. Her emotions had turned to disgust when he explained what he did on those dream walks. While Jarreth was able to feed off of any human emotions, Drake's emotion feeding was slightly more twisted as it turned out. He didn’t take just any emotions. As an Incubi, Drake was only interested in feeding on carnal feelings, and he usually took them unwillingly. Calandra had only let him go so far in explaining exactly what that meant. Her imagination had, disturbingly, filled in the blanks for her. She was still struggling to look at him the same since. Not that she had ever seen Drake to be a good guy, but she hadn’t realized the extent of his evils prior to learning of his dream walks.
"Fine," Jarreth said simply.
Calandra smiled and allowed herself revel in the small victory. It somehow seemed to have a slight healing effect on her. Something about the accomplishment allowed her to feel as if the uncomfortable conversation hadn’t been a complete waste of time.
Jarreth began to walk off without another word.
"One more thing," Drake said suddenly, and Jarreth stopped and turned to face them again. "Why don't you tell Calandra what really happened to her mother?"
Jarreth's eyes widened, and they flashed a dark purple momentarily. Calandra looked at Drake, who simply glared at Jarreth with a look of accomplishment clearly written on his face.
"No..." she whispered.
Calandra looked to Jarreth and waited for him to say something...anything. The look on his face gave him away, and she knew she didn’t need to hear his response, the guilt was evident in his eyes. She felt her heart still completely, it wasn’t beating, at least for several long moments. Her head was pounding against her skull, and she felt unsure of her ability to speak.
"There was one other time when Jarreth's emotion feeding got out of control," Drake explained in Jarreth’s silence, "he drained one innocent soul completely dry."
Calandra hoped Jarreth was going to say something, but he did nothing more than stare blankly at her. Anger boiled inside of Calandra and morphed into something she had never felt before. Her entire body heated up in response. She glared at Jarreth in an attempt to melt him on the spot. The emotions coursing through her took over her body, and she was no longer in control of herself. The rage inside of her had taken over.
She could feel herself morphing into someone else entirely. Someone who had endured far too much drama and deceit for one lifetime. Someone who was sick and tired of everyone using and abusing her and bringing her down. She resolved in that instant to never again let anyone have that much power over her. She would be the only one allowed to control her own destiny. She was taking control of her life and her fate, she was rising again as a new being, one that refused to ever be taken advantage of again.
Her arms outstretched and she felt her power set them on fire. The heat brought a sense of energy to her. Flames spanned on the top side of her arms from her wrists up to her elbows. Her hands tilted up slightly, and she looked as if she was about to take flight. She gracefully walked to Jarreth and brought them face to face. Her tenacity was at a level she had never experienced before, and she planned to use it to her full advantage before it vanished again.
"Cross me," Calandra's voice didn’t sound like her own, and the flames ignited from her finger with the words, "and there will be consequences." Calandra laughed wickedly. "Try with all your might, but you can't break me. I'll simply rise again. I, however, will break you down if it takes the last breath out of me to do so." With her arms still ignited in beautiful flames she placed them down at her side and walked away with a confidence, she had never felt before, and Drake followed after her with a smug smile.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Deception
"Neither of them have any idea...that's the beauty of it." His voice was pleasing and cunning as it spoke quietly.
"It's truly working out just perfectly," the female voice crackled slightly with pleasure.
The voices sounded somewhat hollow, and there was a slight echo surrounding them. There was nothing but a sea of darkness blanketing over them. Calandra couldn’t see anything. All she could make out, even after straining, was the shadows of two people of very different heights standing in front of her.
"How shocked was he when you gave away his little secret?" the woman asked, her voice laced with delight.
"He held it together pretty well overall, but the look on his face was pretty priceless." There was conflict laced in the male’s voice.
The woman laughed again. It was a cold-hearted noise that sent chills right through every bone in Calandra's body. She attempted taking a few steps forward, in hopes of being able to see who the voices belonged to, but it was of no use.
"I'm not so sure we should be resting easy just yet though," the male voice began again, "you didn't see her reaction. She's stronger than you take her for and she's not playing games anymore. I think she's preparing to go on a vengeance spree, and I highly doubt it’s going to be pretty." The man cleared his throat as if uneasy discussing the subject further.
Calandra's mind flashed back to her reaction to Jarreth at the field. To be honest, she was more than proud of herself for that. It was something she would never have imagined she could do, but it had felt so good to do so. She had felt powerful, on top of the world, and in control for the first time since being tossed into a sea of crushing destiny. Calandra’s brain finally caught up to her and she pieced together from the conversation who the male was, but who Drake was talking to was still beyond her.
"I welcome a vengeance spree!" the woman cackled, "and I'm sure Kailen would be rather amused by it too." The woman sounded as if she was pacing or possibly making circles around Drake, her heels clicked on the ground and the noise echoed around them.
"And what about when she finds out that Kailen is the reason Jarreth did all of this? Now that his secret is out what's going to stop him from telling her the truth about everything?" Drake’s voice seemed to be growing more unsure with each word.
“That’s the truly beautiful part of this plan!” The woman began to pace a small circle as she spoke. “That’s exactly what we want to happen. Let Jarreth tell her the truth. Let her think she’s got everything all figured out. Let her be led back into Jarreth’s arms again, give her a false sense of hope.”
Calandra saw the woman’s shadow stop right in front of Drake’s.
"Seriously, Drake, quit worrying so much. For Sprite’s sake, it's almost like you actually have feelings now."
"No," Drake sighed, wounded by the accusation. "I just think Kailen is underestimating what she's capable of. There's something about her we haven't discovered just yet. She's not just part Fae and part human, she's something else entirely."
"Like what?" Her voice seemed to be growing nervous.
"I don't know exactly."
"Well, when you figure it out," the woman replied, "let us know. But until then, take a chill pill and trust Kailen's judgment. He's been planning this for a very long time now."
"Well, once Jarreth finds out that he didn't actually kill Hollyn he's gonna be screwed," Drake said simply.
Calandra's heart dropped to the floor and didn’t show any signs of returning to its rightful place. Jarreth hadn’t killed her mother, yet somehow, they had convinced him for all these years that he had. Calandra had just gone totally psycho on him for something he hadn’t even done. The man had been living with the guilt of Hollyn's death for almost two decades now and he shouldn’t have been. Suddenly Calandra felt sorry for Jarreth and everything he must have gone through. Her hate for Kailen grew further in the absence of her hate of Jarreth. Heartless or not, to allow someone to live with that kind of guilt fo
r no reason was a brand new level of scum. One Calandra couldn’t even begin to understand.
"Which is why he isn't going to find out," the woman yelled, "unless you plan on telling him, no one knows that little fact but you, me, and Kailen! Now I must go, I'm bored and need to return to Kailen anyways."
Heels clicked against the hard floor as the female walked away. Calandra looked around, still trying to figure out where she was exactly, but it was too dark for her to decipher anything. Drake's figure remained still, his face looking down at the ground for several minutes before he finally sighed and walked away.
Calandra sat up in bed and looked around. The room was empty and dark. "What the hell?" She felt groggy as she tried to pull herself out of the vision completely.
Mind games again. Not that being deceived by Drake or Kailen should really surprise her, yet somehow it still seemed to every single time. Maybe one day she would actually learn who to trust when it came to these Faeries. She rolled her eyes and climbed out of bed. It was still pitch black outside which meant it was too early to be up, but she knew she wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep now. Disappointed in the lack of sleep, Calandra headed downstairs to the kitchen for some coffee. She had the desire for something much stronger than coffee, but didn’t think starting this early in the day would lead to anywhere good, so coffee would have to do. The house was too dark to be able to make out much of anything, and she tripped going down the stairs and stubbed her toe on the landing.
"Son of a—" she exclaimed and hopped the rest of the way into the kitchen. "There's a reason you're not supposed to get up before the sun! Maybe I should just move the coffee maker into the bedroom!" The idea intrigued her and she toyed with the benefits for a moment before continuing to the task at hand.
As she turned to go to the sink to fill the coffee pot with water a shadow at the bar scared her and she dropped it. The glass shattered into a million pieces on the wood floor. Her heart was in her throat preventing any breath from escaping as she stared at the figure, wondering who was in her house and what they would be after.
"I'm sorry," Jarreth's voice filled the room and he began to walk around the bar.
"Holy crap, Jarreth! What in Faerie are you thinking?" She stared at him, bewildered, as she attempted to tell her brain to allow her heart and breathing to slow to a reasonable pace again. It wasn’t working, her brain needed coffee to jump start it before it would obey any orders.
"I just needed to talk to you." He flicked on the kitchen light and grabbed a towel. "Don't move. I have shoes on, you don't." He wet the towel under the sink and used it to clean up the glass from the floor. He rinsed it off in the sink and the tiny shards of glass rinsed down the drain. She watched him, still unsure of how to respond to him. He had come over, uninvited, and allowed himself to enter into her cabin during the night. She wanted to still be mad at him, he deserved for her to still be mad at him. Yet, after her vision, she felt pity for him, which only made her angry at herself.
"Now how am I supposed to have coffee?" She returned to the more important task at hand. She could figure out how to respond to Jarreth once she was properly caffeinated.
"That's your first question?" he asked surprised.
"I need caffeine to function to even attempt to put together why in the world you would be here in the first place." She figured the dark of the room was masking the sarcastic look she shot at him, but she felt it was still necessary.
"Can we just talk?" Jarreth asked, "I know I don't deserve it, but I'd still like the chance to explain." Jarreth's expression was sincere and his eyes, which had returned to their normal baby blue color, smoldered into her intensely.
"I already know," she sighed, "more than you actually."
Jarreth looked at her, confused. He wasn’t sure what to say to proceed further.
"Vision," she responded simply. "I really need some coffee to sort through it all, it was more than complicated." Her head pounded against her skull as it attempted to piece together any fragment of information that had just been gathered from her vision. Nothing seemed to make any sense in her clouded grogginess of nowhere near enough sleep.
"There's nothing in town open yet, Calandra, what would you like me to do exactly?"
"I'm in freakin Faerie, and you're telling me there's no way to get a dang cup of coffee just because it's the middle of the night? What's the point of magic if you can't do anything useful with it?" Her frustration had hit a dangerous level and she wasn’t sure how to stop it.
"My house?" Jarreth chuckled.
"Fine, let's go!" She began walking out of the house without bothering to wait for him to follow after her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Reasoning
"You don't know who the woman was?"
Calandra had explained the vision to Jarreth who was now pacing back and forth through the living room. His nerves were on edge and even the coffee he had prepared, though good, wasn’t calming her own.
"No..." Calandra sighed, "but Drake is working with Kailen now."
"I don't think he ever stopped," Jarreth said. He sat on the couch next to Calandra and took one of her hands in his. "You have no idea how much it killed me to do those things. I just couldn't bear for you to know the truth about what happened—" he broke off, his eyes were pained and his mouth tilted up in an effort to offer a sympathetic smile.
"Were you two together?" The thought that had really been bothering Calandra finally came out. She couldn’t stop it and wasn’t sure she would have wanted to. Deep down, she knew she needed to know the answer, even if it was one she didn’t want to hear.
"No," Jarreth replied, and Calandra's relief was vocal. "I didn't know her for long. She was here only for a few short months, I don't know what she was doing exactly, said she had some business to handle, and it had to be done before spring. I was in a dark place at that point, and I took advantage of there being a human around. In reality, your mother saved me."
Calandra looked at him inquisitively.
Jarreth looked away for a moment and then turned back to Calandra. "Thinking that I had— well, you know— it's what brought me out of the evil I was, brought me back over that blurred line I told you about. I never wanted to hurt you, Calandra, you have to believe that even if you never believe another word that I say again." His eyes were the gorgeous baby blue that she loved so much and they conveyed his sincerity clearly.
"Why did you do it exactly? Why work so hard to make me hate you instead of just telling me the truth?" Calandra asked. She didn’t understand, what he thought he had done was terrible, but participating in even more horrific acts to hide the first never ended well for anyone.
"Because, Calandra," Jarreth looked at her and rubbed her hand softly with his fingertips, "I decided I would much rather you think I was just a complete jerk versus knowing what I'd really done. I just couldn't bear to see the look on your face when you found out I was the reason she was gone." He looked like he was fighting back tears, though Calandra was unsure of whether Faeries could cry or not.
"Well, you're not the reason." Calandra sighed. He had lived with the guilt of an act he hadn’t committed for far too long, despite the drama of the previous day, she was glad to take that blame off his shoulders.
"I'm sorry about the field, I know how much it meant to you. If I'd let Kailen be the one to destroy it, it would've been even worse. Believe it or not, I was trying to spare at least a small piece of pain from you there."
Calandra shrugged. "What's done is done."
"I was quite taken by your reaction, I must admit." He was unable to keep his grin in.
"What? Didn't think I could be a vindictive vixen?" She gleamed a smile.
"Oh, that was more than vindictive vixen, Calandra, that was hottie badass!" His eyes flashed with desire that Calandra pretended to not see.
"Well I can't take total credit, I wasn't really in control of myself at the time. I doubt I could do it again!" She shrugged the complimen
t off.
"I told you once before you'd be like a Phoenix if you let life break you down and you'd rise from the ashes and become something quite phenomenal, remember?" He smiled knowingly at her, reassuring that he was proud of what she had done, even if it had been at his expense.
Calandra smiled slightly thinking back to their first night together and how he had comforted her when the guilt of betraying Tristan took over. The morning when he had compared her to a Phoenix, something that had come true after all, and he had been the cause of it.
"I wish there had been a way for me to be so phenomenal without having to break down first." She frowned.
"So, what's our next move?" Jarreth asked, changing the subject.
"First of all, I think we need to figure out who the woman working with them is. She seemed to be pretty close to Kailen the way she was talking. I’m not sure how to go about doing that though." Calandra finished her cup of coffee as the sun began to peek through the windows.
"There's something I want you to try," Jarreth said as he stood up, "at the field, come with me."
***
The orange light of the sunrise gleamed down on the charred remains of the field and gave it the appearance of still being full of bright, burning embers. Jarreth took Calandra's hand in his softly and guided her to what was left of the tree she had always felt connected to. The only thing that had been left untouched by the destruction was the ring in front of the tree that was the gate between the two worlds.
"I really am sorry." Jarreth sighed. "Sit," he requested and pointed to the ground just to the right of the tree.
Calandra obeyed, though she was unsure of why, and crossed her legs in front of her. "Now what?" she asked.
Jarreth took a seat next to her. "I think you can fix it," he informed her.
"The field? Yeah right!" she scoffed. He really had lost his mind. The entire field had been burned to ash, what was she supposed to do about that?
"Not the field, Calandra, the tree."
