by Al K. Line
"Reade. Reade Littlejohn. You have lovely ears."
Yes, result! Giants have a real thing for fae, even worse than I do.
"What, these little things?" said Fabianne, tucking her hair behind them and turning side to side so he could get a better look. No fair, I wanted to see them properly, too.
She caught sight of Rikka and finally turned to me. "Faz Pound, I know you. You saved me from that elf. How's it hanging?"
"Small and shriveled at the moment, actually. I was just about to get squished by this giant."
"Oh, he wouldn't do a thing like that, now would you?" She turned to Reade and flew high in the air, puffed out her chest and sprinkled faery dust all over his head. Lucky bugger, that stuff is ace.
"I, er, um, I was going to, yes. But seeing as you asked nicely."
"Hello? It was me that summoned you, you know? To save me." My neck was going crazy. At least I'd go out with a final glimpse of faery ears. I felt a twitch at my palm, a reminder of the other faery and the perfect bottom that had wriggled there.
I thought of Kate, and Grandma, and Rikka. I thought of Plum and her cousin, Persimmon. And I even thought of Dancer and of Charlie. Guess he was gonna be stuck in the courtroom a while longer.
Digits screamed in my head.
Damn!
Sneaky Damn Fae
"What happened here, then?" asked Fabianne, darting over to me and nodding at Rikka. "I wanted to kill him, for what he did. Damn swine used magic on me! Me! Put me in a box and trapped me."
My mind whirled. Rikka had trapped her fifty years ago? Had he been planning this since then? A backup, there if he needed it? Was nothing in my life as it seemed?
I could be anyone, I could have been doing things that weren't my true nature ever since I was a child if he had the power to manipulate actions and memories. Rikka might have planted seeds inside of me that warped the person I became—nothing but a puppet for him to use. Who was I?
"Oi, I'm talking to you."
"Sorry, it's a shock. I found out Rikka had set me up to get killed, used you as the excuse. He convinced the Council I killed you. You have to help me. Whoa!" I jumped aside just as Reade's arm came crashing down where my head would have been.
"Reade Littlejohn you stop that nonsense right this minute," lectured Fabianne. "I won't like you if you keep being naughty." Fabianne darted around the gym manically. "Whee. Oh, it's so nice to stretch my wings again. Reade, you be good."
"Sorry." Reade was a mess of confusion. On the one hand he had a mission to complete, but fae are impossible to ignore, and he may be magic but she was too, and she could take him out as easily as he could squish me. This was my only hope, that she would save me by my summoning. I just couldn't believe it was Rikka. He had disgraced himself and he was unrepentant to the end.
"Now, you were saying?" she turned to me, clearly still somewhat shocked by the change in circumstances.
"The Council, they are going to kill me. I need you to get me off. Tell them I didn't murder you. Your friend, Florenta, she had her memories altered by Rikka and she told the Council I killed you. Help. You just have to go back and tell them what actually happened."
Reade shifted. He was going to try to come after me again, I could tell. He couldn't accept it was over, even if it meant disobeying a direct order from a faery.
"I can't go back, and you can't make me," said Fabianne, shaking her golden locks angrily, still utterly mesmerizing, faery dust sprinkling everywhere.
It took all my willpower to not stick out my tongue to catch it, and while it was out I wouldn't mind licking her earlobes. Oh my god they were the best I had ever seen and my insides were feeling all funny and I couldn't focus. What was wrong with me? Damn these fae and their utter gorgeousness.
"If you don't tell them you're alive then I'll be dead in..." How long now? Maybe it was for the best after all, at least if I was dead I wouldn't be so damn tired. So fed up with the hurt, the betrayal. I wouldn't have to think about Rikka and what he had become. "What does it say on my neck? The numbers?"
She flew closer, and I got to peek down her figure-hugging green dress so it was worth risking having my face ripped to shreds by her wings. "Pull your collar down, I can't see," she said moodily. What a voice, so husky and inviting. Damn, I hate faeries. I did as she asked and she said, "Seven. It says seven."
"What!? No other numbers? Nothing?"
"Nope, just seven. You deaf, or just stupid?"
I admit it, I panicked. I had seven minutes of life remaining. It kind of sends your mind into overdrive, like an adrenaline rush but infinitely more stressful. Seven minutes until I was history, not even that. Wiped out of the collective consciousness because I had been found guilty of killing a faery. Except, I was talking to her right now and so I did what I swore I wouldn't, I freaked out.
Up until then it hadn't seemed quite real, as if I was convinced I would be freed somehow, get off easily and swagger about as though it was nothing and I was all cool with it. But I wasn't. I panicked. I was about to die, and nobody would ever remember me.
Grandma would have a hole in her heart where her love had been for me. Kate would be down one love and would feel like something was missing from her life as she grew cold, dark, and heartless over the millennia as vampire poison corrupted her entirely, and none of them would ever even remember I had existed.
That is the worst punishment of all, worse than being killed. Being entirely forgotten by those you love.
"Fabianne, I'm sorry for what Rikka did, he betrayed us all. He hired Reade here to kill him, and me, but he's dead now, and I freed you. Just return the favor, show yourself to the Council."
"I'm not sure. I'll have to think about it. I know," she said, brightening, "how about Reade stops trying to kill you and I will try to come up with something that works for us all?"
"Yes, anything, but don't take too long."
She darted up to Reade's head and whispered in his ear.
I stood, waiting, staring at Rikka's body on the floor as it cooled. I wondered why he hadn't taken me out with magic once I confronted him. Was it that he had regretted what he'd done in the end? Or was he just so tired of it all that he welcomed the excuse to move on to the next plane of existence?
The man I loved the most in the whole world, and he turned out to have been responsible for everything wrong in my life. Could I trust myself? I wondered how many things I'd done over the years I had no memory of, manipulated by him. Were there others? Other people he'd used and abused?
Dancer came to mind, Rikka's right-hand man. I knew little about him, was that for a reason? Did Rikka warp Dancer's mind and life so he knew he could rely on him to help run his business?
There was no time to think about it now, I wondered if there ever would be, however long I lived.
Chances are it was a moot point. Pain stabbed into my flesh as my tattoo continued its countdown.
I turned as the air crackled with the sound of razor sharp wings close to my face.
"Sorry," said Fabianne brightly, "but Reade still wants to squish you."
Great, just great.
A Giant Problem
"Pretty please, for me?" pleaded Fabianne as she tried to convince Reade once more. "Rikka's dead, isn't it time to stop?"
"It doesn't matter, I still have to kill him," mumbled Reade. "I took a job." He looked scarier than normal with his body bent at an angle to avoid the ceiling, his face so large it was like looking through a microscope. I could see the pores on his nose, the wrinkles on skin as thick as leather.
And the damn fist that shot out from nowhere, angling between me and the faery and smacking into my stomach at its full extent.
I went flying across the room, landing next to a rack of dumbbells and wondered if his fist had gone right through my middle. Looking down, I was kind of surprised to find myself still intact. Luckily, I hadn't had the full impact of the punch but it still hurt like hell. Magic welled up, strong and hard, healing battered a
nd bruised flesh as best it could with my attention focused merely on survival.
I picked up a dumbbell and regretted my move instantly. The damn thing was heavy. How did people use these to exercise with? I dumped it and grabbed one from higher on the rack and threw it at Reade.
It bounced off his head and even before it hit the ground the dent it made popped back and he was healed. How the hell was I supposed to fight him?
Out of ideas, I ran outside. No way was I going out like Rikka—in a damn gym. If I was to die it would be under the open sky. The landscaped grounds at the rear of the gym were beautiful as always as I dashed across grass soaked with morning dew and up the slope. Reade came out right behind me, dislodging more of the wall as he grabbed handfuls of bricks and threw them at me.
He had a bloody good aim and if it wasn't for the magic shield I would have been history right then and there.
Fabianne flew out of the opening in a blur of color and sparkling dust, wings like gossamer, hair streaming like golden silk and I shouted at her, "Why won't you tell them I'm innocent?"
"Because I had plenty of time to think and I don't want to be bothered doing all the dirty work and clearing up the mess you humans make. I want my freedom."
Hell, what a time to have an epiphany. "You have your freedom now because of me. You owe me. You have to, it's the Law."
Reade ran through manicured bushes, stomping them as flat as I would soon be. I blasted him hard with magic as strong as I could muster but it splatted and fizzled to nothing, scorching the grass black but leaving him intact. He chased me across the top of the rise of the land and I slid down the bank, grass staining my trousers, bum soaked through.
He jumped down beside me and I knew he'd have me soon.
What could I do? What would stop him? I had it! I stood tall, turned and faced Reade. "She won't want you if you do this. You know that, right?"
Reade paused, emotions fighting. He turned and looked at Fabianne and I knew I was right. He had fallen in love. I don't just mean lust over the ears and the tiny perfect body, I mean genuine love. I'd seen it the moment they set eyes on each other, had hoped it would happen and would save me from him.
But it had backfired. That was why she didn't want to go to the Council and be put back on active duty, she had a thing for Reade, too. She'd felt something maybe she had never felt before. True attraction to another being.
Fae have fallen for humans before, and other creatures, I knew, but the size difference had made me question what I knew to be true.
"You love each other," I shouted, as Reade shook his head angrily, trying to clear away emotions and finish his mission. "Look at each other. You have a chance at happiness."
Fabianne darted across the gap and came right up to Reade. She held her position at eye level and I saw how they looked at each other. There was a bond. The air practically shone between them, a magical connection of two very different beings but they were tied to each other, they were the missing part of the other.
"It's true, my love," said Fabianne. "We can be together."
"Always," agreed Reade. "And him?" He pointed at me.
"Stomp him, my love. Then no-one will know I am alive and we can be free to do as we choose."
"What!? Wait, that's not fair." What the hell? So much for gratitude. "At least just let my sentence run its course. Let me have another few minutes." My neck hurt so much now it felt like the numbers were pushing through my skin. Thick and hard and counting down what little life remained.
"Too risky," said Fabianne, the damn evil faery. "If nobody remembers you then it could make things a little difficult for me."
"How? Hell, can you please just leave me be? You have to tell the Council. I saved you." Pointless words, and I finally accepted my fate. I'd tried, I really had. So close, so damn close to being free and going back to my life. It would have been different, sure, without Rikka, but I had Kate and Grandma and that was more than enough. Some would say more than I deserved.
"With your existence forgotten, the fae and the Council will come looking for me. They'll wonder where I am without them thinking you killed me, and they always find what they look for. No, if you are killed now by Reade then everyone will think like they do now, that you killed me and you went mad and killed Rikka too. Perfect. Get him, Reade. Stomp him good, my love, then we can be together." I went right off faeries at that point.
This was it. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. I stood, resigned. I brushed at my clothes, frowning at the stains, the damp and the creases. I adjusted my jacket, did up the buttons, straightened my tie and put my hands through my hair.
"Okay, I'm ready."
Reade stepped up to me, nodded with admiration that at least I was taking it like a man, and clasped his hands together to form a club. He raised them over his head, ready to bring them down hard and bash my brains in.
The numbers snapped their warning and my body felt lighter. This was it. Already I was fading, becoming less of who I was. I watched with interest as my own memories began to drift away like little fluffy clouds, taking my identity with them. Soon I wouldn't know myself and neither would anyone else unless Reade was quick.
I winced as the number one stained my body with its magical ink.
One minute left of life at the most, less if I allowed Reade to mush my head.
It was the strangest thing, but I felt at peace. It was a nice day to die.
Or maybe not.
Love is Blind
Right on cue, my prayers were answered. See, I'm not just a pretty face. I'd assumed they would make an appearance, just to be sure, but was losing my confidence as my end grew ever closer.
I smiled, as if all my troubles were over, but the joy didn't last long.
The Head of the Hidden Council, along with the Faery Queen, appeared at the top of the rise. Reade was startled at the change to the air and the new arrivals but it didn't stop him. He roared and his arms came down hard and fast, but I wasn't there, I was already moving, what he thought of as a still target bursting into action now I had a fighting chance.
I grew manic as the seconds counted down, a ticking time bomb ready to go off at any moment.
"Do something," shouted Grandma. Grandma! What was she doing here? I paused for a moment, distracted by the sight of her and Kate right next to the Council members. My family come to see me off? Some things are best not witnessed by those you love.
"What's going on?" I screamed. Yes, I lost my composure a little.
"Faz, we couldn't get hold of you so have been looking everywhere. Where's Rikka?" shouted Kate, running down the hill toward me.
"Stay away, Kate, don't come near me. Look out!" Reade charged, face red and angry, intent on my death now his blood lust was up, the berserker taking over. His muscles were pumped, eyes focused on only one thing.
Kate did the vampire shimmer and was gone, away and back up by Grandma as I dodged Reade and shouted to Grandma, "Look after Kate. I love you both. Sorry if I was ever any trouble."
"You were nothing but trouble, but we love you anyway," said Grandma, smiling wide like we were just having a chat. She was taking the whole thing remarkably well. Maybe because I was fading away? I felt the memories slipping, not gone but more distant, almost as though my life was a short story and I'd read it years ago, forgotten the details.
The Faery Queen gasped and the Head muttered something I couldn't hear as they caught sight of Fabianne who had been hiding behind Reade until he moved after me. "What's the meaning of this?" she shouted, angrier than I have ever seen a faery. "Fabianne?" She turned away and flew to Reade, kissed him on his forehead.
"It was Rikka," I said, surprising myself with my calm. "He set the whole thing up. Ask Florenta. Call her, call her now. She knows the truth. She had her memories altered. And Fabianne, she was locked away by Rikka. Ask her. Ask them both. Be quick!" Why was everyone so relaxed? It was like nobody knew what the time was.
The Faery Queen spoke quietly to the Head an
d he nodded. His stupid mustache wobbled. In a flash there was Florenta and she and the Queen danced high in the air, sunlight sparkling off their wings. They talked fast and animated as I smiled at Kate and Grandma while I ran around like a damn fool dodging a confused but determined giant as my neck pulsed violently and I became less and less of myself.
I glanced to see the Faery Queen back down beside the Head, speaking to him, nodding at me now and then, pointing at Fabianne. She summoned her with a bend of her finger and Fabianne was dragged by powerful magic she couldn't resist.
There was an angry conversation, everyone seemingly happy to let me be chased by the giant. Reade was out of control, manic and consumed by the need to finish what he'd started. Sweat beaded his brow as he lunged for me, coming so close I truly believed it was over. A finger snagged on my suit jacket, the material tore, and I went down. In a flash I was up, but I knew it was too late now. At least I fought to the very end.
And then it just stopped.
There was no pain at my neck, the countdown had halted. Reade was immobile, the only movement his face contorting as he fought against the magic the Faery Queen had used to pause him mid-stride.
"All charges have now been dropped, sentence revoked," said the Head by way of apology. Charming, right?
"Good. Oh, I promised Charlie I'd put in a good word for him with Rikka. Can't do that now. Will you find someone to break his bind to the courtroom?" I had to keep my word.
The Head nodded in irritation, then he whispered to the Faery Queen. And with that they were gone. The Queen, the Head, both faeries.
Reade burst into motion with the spell broken.
I was a free man.
Now I was about to get stomped.
Some days a guy just can't catch a break.
You know what? I don't think either the Queen or Severi were happy with the outcome. Maybe they wanted the whole thing forgotten now they knew Rikka had gone rogue and duped everyone. If I was dead nobody else would ever know.
