A Healer's Destiny

by Katherine J. Sinclair

  Chapter 23

  Elah sighed with relief as Asriel closed the door behind himself, leaving her alone in the garden. Dropping to her knees, she let her head fall into her hands and started crying. Her heart ached because she had always thought of Lavi with fondness but now he had taken her from her home and she had no idea why.

  She could understand why he lied about who he was, she probably would have done the same thing if she was in his shoes. The light fae would have at least used him as a porn in one of their fights with the dark fae but she hadn't seen or heard from him in so long she couldn't figure out what he wanted and why now?

  Once she dried her eyes, she looked around and wondered why no one was around to stop her from running off but she was still in a state of shocked, so she stood up on the grass and stared at the tree line.

  What was it about the tree line that would keep her from going anywhere? She watched a couple of birds fly in and out of the garden and wondered if he was just tricking her. She then slowly walked closer and picked up a rock. Rolling the rock in her hand, wondering if there was some type of invisible wall and threw the rock as hard as she could, she watched as it sailed past several trees and out of site.

  Shrugging her shoulders, she walked toward the tree line stopping just in front of the first line of trees. She kicked her foot forward and nothing happened, so she took a step forward. As she tried to pass the first tree, she suddenly keeled over in pain, screaming.

  She slowly managed to craw back toward to garden and curled up on the grass. The pain had gone but her heart continued to race and tears rolled down her cheeks.

  She rolled over to look at the tree line, there was nothing there. She looked up and watched the birds disappear into the trees again and wondered why they were not affected by what ever it was that had stopped her.

  Pushing herself up, she stood and opened out her wings, more than ever she was determined to break free from her invisible cage. Flying up above the trees, she slowly moved forward but when she got to the tree line, she was over come with the same overwhelming pain and fell to the grass, hitting it hard.

  Regaining the breath that was taken from her when she hit the ground, she looked at the blades of grass in front of her. They looked strange up close, with tiny hairs covering the top surface but yet there was a beauty to them.

  She then rolled over and punched the ground in frustration, and immediately wished she hadn’t, she didn’t need any more pain. She looked up to see the two birds were back and noticed they were collecting nesting material. She got up and started collecting material for them and offered them what she had collected. The male landed on her hand and started taking the materials and left.

  Upon the birds return it sat happily on her hand and looked at her. The bird asked if she was okay and Elah told it she was stuck here and wanted to get out. She then asked if the bird knew Leif but it didn’t, it was a small bird and most likely didn’t travel far. She knew it wasn't likely that the bird knew him but she knew it was worth her asking.

  She then asked if the bird could talk to the trees to send a message to him. The bird told her it would pass a message to a parrot that could talk to the trees, giving her a small piece of hope. Elah smiled and gave the bird the message before watching it fly off.

  After sitting in the garden for hours helping to collect nesting materials, a guard came out and took her up to her room. She looked out the window and wondered if her message made it to Leif. As she looked out the window, it started to rain and she didn’t hear Asriel come in over the loud sound of the heavy water drops hitting the building.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, startling her.

  She turned around to see him standing at the end of the bed. He was keeping his distance and she wondered if she could find something to throw at him but there was nothing nearby. With a sigh she turned around to look out the window again, not interested in anything he had to say.

  “Leave me alone” she hissed, mad that she was trapped and that he still hadn't left.

  "I know your upset but you still need to eat" he said softly. 

  "I rather die of starvation than look at you" she said, knowing she was captivated by his golden eyes every time she looked at them, another reason not to look at him. 

  "Well, I'll arrange a blindfold for you" he said, without any emotion in his voice. 

  "How did I get here? What did you do to me?" she asked, staring at mountains, which looked amazing as the rained cooled them, causing steam to rise up from the trees. 

  He sighed and sat on the end of the bed. "You were drugged" he admitted. 

  "How?" 

  "It was in your food"

  "That means you drugged Leif too"

  "A small price to pay, he would be fine by now"

  "Why did you bring me here?"

  Asriel ran his hand through his hair and got up. "In good time Elah."

  "Why can't you just answer me?" she yelled, turning to face him. "What do you want from me?"

  "Come on, let's go" he said, heading toward the door.

  She folded her arms and rolled her eyes at him. He shrugged his shoulders and walked out. About a minute later, two guards walked in and grabbed an arm each and dragged her through the door kicking and screaming. 

  They dragged her through the halls and pushed into the dinning room she had been in earlier. She looked around the room to see Asriel calmly sitting at the head of the table.

  She snarled at him before she turned to walk away but the door was closed and she could see the shadows of the guards on the other side through the gap at the bottom. So she decided to sit at the other end of the table. 

  Asriel glanced at her and then started eating. "There's food here if you want to come and get some" he said, not looking up. 

  She got up and stood next to Asriel. When he didn't look at her she leaned down on the table and looked at his down turned face and bitterly asked "What do you want from me?"

  “Sit down, Elah” Asriel said, in such a commanding tone that she inadvertently did as she was told.

  She frowned, annoyed at herself for being so obedient. She watched as he put some food on her plate and went back to eating his own meal.

  “How is River?” he asked casually.

  “Fine” she whispered.

  “And what about Talib?”

  “I don’t know”

  “Why don’t you know?”

  “Because he is busy working”

  “So long as he is happy. What about your mother, how is she?”

  “I don’t know. Why the sudden interest in my family?”

  “What, they don’t let you go and see your family?”

  “It's not as though you are giving me that opportunity either”

  “How is your father these days?” he asked, taking a drink.

  Elah stood up, throwing the chair back with the backs of her legs, the sound of it hitting the floor filled the room for a few seconds. “How dare you” she yelled, feeling he had crossed the line.

  He looked at her confused. “What’s wrong Elah?” he asked.

  “Your men killed him, that’s what’s wrong” she shouted, as tears started rolling down her cheeks.

  She could feel the wetness of her own tears and turned her back on him, hoping he hadn’t seen her weakness. As she tried to discreetly wipe away her tears, without much success, as they just kept coming, she felt a soft hand on her shoulder. She wished it was Leif and not Asriel but reality hit her when he spoke.

  “I’m sorry Elah, I didn’t know” he whispered.

  “Please don’t pretend you care” she said softly, her words cutting him deeply.

  “I do care and whether you want to believe it or not, I care about your whole family, including you” he told her, fighting the hurt building in his heart.

  “How can you say you care about me when you have drugged me and brought me here against my will. You only care about yourself and if you want my gift so bad
, then take it but leave me alone” she said bitterly.

  He removed his hand from her shoulder and sighed deeply. “My men didn’t kill your father, your king sent him to do a job he was not willing to do himself. Your father was strong and kind, qualities your king does not possess” he bit back.

  “Well if you put it that way, then your father killed mine by starting a war, he, himself is not willing to fight in” she growled, narrowing her eyes as she turned to look at him through the blur of her tears.

  “My father did not start this war, your king did” he shot back.

  “Well, if your king didn’t try to kill my king then there would be no war”

  “My father did not try to kill your king”

  “Then why did I have to heal him from the brink of death on the side of a road after an assassination attempt by your fathers guards?”

  “Did you see this assassination attempt?” he asked defensively.

  “No, I didn’t have to.”

  “So, are you sure it was dark fae who did this?”

  “Well he wouldn’t do it to himself.”

  “Elah, not everything is as black and white as you think. Your king has hated my father ever since my father won the heart of my mother. Your king also tried to pursue her without success” he said, trying to help her understand that not everything is, as it seems.

  “Well, sorry to rain on your parade but I’m pretty sure he has moved on. Besides isn’t your mother dead?” she said, trying to be smart.

  “Oh, my mother is very much alive” was all he got out before, Elah slapped him across the face.

  He stood in front of her and stared into her raging eyes. He had no idea what to say, he hadn't remembered he had told her of his mothers death until she slapped him and knew she had remembered a lie. He held his ground as she started pushing him.

  “You told me you watched her die, how could you, she’s your mother” she cried, as she kept pushing.

  He let her push until he noticed her start to tire and he reached up and grabbed both her wrists in his hands. She looked up at him and dropped to the floor, he let go and kneeled in front of her as she put her face in her hands and cried, she had so blindly believed all the lies she had been told.

  "I didn't get to see him and now all I have is memories" she cried. 

  He put his hands on her arms and drew her to his chest. He held her until she couldn't cry anymore and waited while she calmed her breathing. She pulled away and sat on the floor with her head dropped, ashamed she even let him comfort her.

  He sat with her until she finally looked up at him. "What do you want from me?" she whispered, staring into his eyes. 

  He studied her face before saying, "I want to give you a life you deserve."

  “Don’t I deserve the freedom to chose for myself?” she asked softly. “If it wasn’t for my gift, no one would care what I do.”

  “Before I knew about your gift, I wanted to give you everything” he whispered.

  “Why?”

  “Because you captivated me from the moment I meet you and the day your mother took you from your grandparents home, I was heart broken. I planned on bring you home with me” he admitted.

  “At that time I would have gone with you but things have changed and I don’t even know you” she said, trying to avoid eye contact.

  “I am who I’ve always been, just with a different name and title. I’m sorry I had you brought here the way you were but no one could get anywhere near you while you were living in the light fae castle” he said sincerely. “Trust me I tried.”

  Elah looked away confused, her head started to fill with questions and the one that broke her heart the most was the fact that maybe her mother did try and visit her but couldn’t. Were the light fae keeping her from her family or was Asriel making this up to get her on side?

  “I think I should go and lay down” she said, feeling like a bomb went off in her head.

  He nodded at her and helped her up. They walked silently through the halls, Elah’s mind going one hundred miles per hour but she didn't dare ask him any of her questions because she didn't think he would answer them anyway.

  He opened the door for her but took her hand in his and stared into her eyes as he gently kissed the back of her hand. Shocked at the way it made her feel, she slowly pulled away and closed the door.

  She paced the room a few times thinking. Was he telling the truth and could she even trust him? He had lied to her about who he was but so did Leif. What about her family, was her king prevented them from seeing her and if so why?

  She laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling. How could she find the truth? She sat up straight in bed when the answer came to her, she could ask the birds to ask the trees. The trees were wise and would know the answers to her questions. She would have to wait until she was able to go into the garden again, so she let slept take her into a world of sweet dreams.