by Cara E Holt
Chapter Twenty Eight.
My last week of school. Most teenagers would love to be able to say that, but I just love the normality of school life. I’m stood fighting with my dark thoughts when my brother appears beside me. He leans against the next locker.
“Brother.”
“Sister.” He answers back smiling.
I stop what I am doing and cock my head in question. “Well go on what are you after?”
He tuts. “Why would I be after something? Can I not just say hi to my sis?”
I scoff. “You’re after something I can tell. So, come on out with it.” I fold my arms and wait for him.
He laughs and holds up his hands. “Okay you got me.” He leans a bit closer and talks quietly. “So, it’s Taylor’s eighteenth next week and I could do with some help. I haven’t a clue what to get her.”
I pause and scratch at my chin. “Mmm, you’re telling me that she hasn’t dropped any hints? I find that pretty hard to believe.” If I knew my friend she would have been dropping mayor hints at every opportunity she could.
He shrugs. “Not that I have noticed no.”
I shake my head at him. “Trust me she will have been. Look leave it with me okay, I’ll do some investigating.”
Scott grins and gives me a playful punch on the arm. “You’re the best sis.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I tell him rolling my eyes. “Quit creeping and let me get to class.”
He leans in and quickly ruffles up my hair and laughing takes off down the corridor.
Idiot. I smooth down my hair and close up my locker and I’m about to start off for class when my vision goes blurry. Knowing what is coming I grasp hold of the lockers and try to steady myself. Now in the middle of school was not the time to be having visions.
The vision is of the school car park and of Taylor sat in her car applying some lip gloss whilst singing along to Taylor Swift. My vision then moves to outside the car to the trees behind the car park. I hear a groaning sound and the tree directly behind Taylor’s car appears to wobble and then it starts to fall forward. No! I scream out as I see Taylor oblivious to what is happening and then that is when I see her my sister – Leora. Her face holds a wicked grin on it as she watches the tree fall and crash on to my friend’s car.
My vision clears and somehow, I have managed to stay stood against the locker. In panic I pull my phone out of my locker and ring Taylor. She answers after two rings.
“Where are you?!” I ask her panicked.
“Hi Ebs. I’m just in my car outside. You okay?”
“Taylor get out of your car now please.” I beg her.
“Okay, okay I am, relax. I’ll be inside in a sec.”
She hangs up on me and I decide I have no choice, so taking a quick look around me I sift out of school and to in front of Taylors car. I see Taylor jump and curse as she sees me suddenly before her and then I hear it the groan of the tree and it starts to fall. I hold out my hands and using every ounce of my air magic I push wind at the tree. It falters mid-air above Taylors car and Taylor turns her head around and sees it hovering there and screams and scrambles out of the car. I push more power into my magic but I can feel a force pushing against me. I see her then stood within the trees, her red eyes glowing.
“Stop this.” I shout to her. “What are you doing?”
“Hello dear sister.” She greets, I can feel the hate in her voice.
“What the fuck is going on?” Taylor whispers frantically into my ear.
I use one hand to push her behind me. “Stay behind me okay. I’ll protect you.”
I push everything I have into my magic and the tree groans again and falls over to the left and lands on the empty truck parked besides Taylors car. Glass shatters and metal groan as it lands.
“We are sisters.” I tell her. “It doesn’t have to be this way Leora. Devlon is not a good person. Whatever he has told you he is lying.”
She laughs at me. “He said you would say that. That you would try to paint him as the bad one.”
She stalks forward, her black feathered wings spread out behind her. “Where is the sword?”
“Sword. What sword?” I ask her perplexed.
She scowls at me and clenches her fists. “The Tuatha sword of course. Where is it?”
I shake my head at her continuing to look puzzled. “I have no clue Leora.”
“Taylor! Ebs!”
I freeze as I hear my brothers voice coming up behind us and I hold out a hand behind me to tell him to stop.
“I mean it Leora. I don’t know where it is, just like I had no clue where the cauldron was.”
“He says you know.” Her brows are furrowed and a scowl mars her tanned face.
“Fucking hell.” I hear Scott exclaim from behind me.
“I do not know Leora. Our other sister Alana is here. We both want you here with us.”
“Ha.” She laughs. “You two have conspired against me, to try and steal my magic and keep it for yourselves.” She slowly walks backwards back into the cover of the trees. “I’ll be seeing you soon, sister.” She spits out the last word like it is distasteful to her and then she vanishes.
I release a shaky breath that I had been holding in and pause for a second to prepare myself before turning around.
‘Lorcen, I need you outside on the car park now, we have a problem.’
“I’m on my way.” He answers straight away in my mind. I turn slowly and face my brother andmy best friend.
Taylor is stood in Scott’s arms and they are both stood there with their mouths open. Taylor holds up a hand and points behind me, confusion and shock written clearly across her face.
“I…, what was… oh lord.” She struggles to put a coherent sentence together. My brother stands there silent looking at me like he is seeing me for the first time.
Lorcen comes into view behind them, with Noah and Blaine closely following behind. His face searches mine to check I am okay and I give him a ‘rabbit in headlights’ kind of look.
“Hey guys what’s up? Woah that trucks a mess.” Noah states as he nears us and takes in the wreckage behind me.
Lorcen strides straight past my brother and Taylor and comes to me. “You okay? What’s happened?”
I grasp for his hand, needing his physical comfort. “Leora happened, without glamour.”
“Shit.” Lorcen mumbles into my hair. “She did this?”
I nod and look over his shoulder at where Taylor stands. “That tree was meant for Taylor’s car.”
“You’re fae.” My brother states. “How can you be fae?” He looks at me bewildered and confused and rubs an anxious hand on the back of his neck.
Lorcen ignores my brother and looks to Blaine. “Can you deal with the security cameras?”
Blaine nods. “Is Alana okay? She could have gone after her next?”
I shake my head. “I don’t think so, but could you check.”
Blaine pulls his phone out as he stalks off across the car park back into school.
“She had wings.” I hear Taylor mumbling quietly into Scott’s ear and he nods and rubs her arm reassuringly.
“Why don’t we get out of here. Go somewhere we can all talk privately.” Lorcen suggests looking at my brother.
Scott nods. “Our house?”
“Yeah, we’ll uh meet you there.” I give him a weak smile.
Scott pulls an unusually quiet Taylor across the car park with him towards his car.
I wrap myself around Lorcen. “This is a cluster fuck. What are we going to tell them?”
“We could give them memory feeds. Make them forget what they saw.” Noah suggest kicking at some stones at his feet.
“Or we could tell them the truth.” I say and look at them both for a response.
“It’s your call love but we should get over there.” Lorcen suggests.
I hold out my hand for Noah and he takes it giving me a reassuring wink and I sift us all back to my parent’s house.
The hou
se is empty when we arrive as mum and dad are both at work. We all sit down in the living room, but I am too anxious to sit and start pacing up and down, chewing my poor lip off.
The front door opens and we all look at each other, all knowing this is not going to be an easy conversation. Scott holding Taylor’s hand and stops still when he sees us all here. He looks outside presumably looking for a car but of course there is none. He shakes his head and looks at each of us and I can see his mind working overtime and coming up with the answer.
“All of you?” He asks no one in particular and I look at him nervously and simply nod. His response is to scoff and pull at his chin. He moves to sit down and brings a wide - eyed Taylor with him. I think the girl may be still in shock. I have never known Taylor this quiet. I stay stood up, too anxious to sit still.
“So.” Scott says breaking the silence. “Will someone explain to me why a fae who looks exactly like my sister was trying to drop a tree on my girlfriend’s car?”
“Fae!” Taylor exclaims her voice pitched higher than usual. “As in like fairies?”
I twist the hem of my jumper with my hands and release a big sigh. Here goes nothing.
“That was my sister Leora and that was the first time I have met her. She thinks I know where a fae sword is and used the tree incident to lure me outside.”
Scott’s eyes burrow intently into mine. “Sister.”
“Sister. Well one of them. I have two. My other sister is at our, I mean Lorcen’s house.” I peep up at him to see his reaction. Scott sits brows knitted, rubbing his forehead.
“So Mum and Dad know.” He states rather than asks me and I bob my head in response. “So, we aren’t blood related?”
There’s no going back from this and it makes my heart ache. Would things be the same with us after this?
“You will always be my brother blood related or not.” I tell him in a firm but sad voice. I walk tentatively towards him and crouch down before him. I hold out my hands palm up. “Give me your hands please? It will be easier this way.”
He hesitates for a second, studying my face with very little expression on his and then places his hands in mine. I show him everything, from my first day at school and shift quickly through my memories. Like a slide show I show him my time in the fae realm, to meeting my father, the horror of the reality of the school dance through to my vision from this morning. A good few minutes later I pull the memories away and release his hands. He sits there and stares at me, possibly still processing everything I have just shown him.
It is at this point that Taylor finds her voice. “What did you just do?”
She looks at me like I am a stranger and it brings a tear to my eye. I reach out and take her hands in mine.
“I just showed Scott my memories and if it’s okay I’ll show you them now.”
She snatches her hands from mine. “You’ll show me your memories? How is that even possible?!” She looks at Scott clearly baffled and he nods to her and gestures with his head at my open hands.
Taylor looks uncertainly at my hands but then blows out a big breath and places them in mine. I give her a thankful smile and allow her to see what I have just shown my brother.
“Wow.” She states as I open my eyes. “You aren’t human? Any of you?” She looks from me, to Lorcen and lastly Noah.
“Not one bit.” Noah says smiling awkwardly at her.
She looks back at Scott and frowns at him. “And you!” She punches him on the arm. “You’re some sort of portal watcher?!”
Scott holds up his hands in surrender. “Wait a minute. She’s kept all that from us and you are having a go at me for my one secret?”
Taylor wrinkles her forehead at him. “Well I guess you have a point.” She turns to me and prods me in the chest. “You kept all this from me? And you got married without me there?”
Noah laughs shaking his head. “Out of all that, that, is what you are annoyed about?”
She pouts at him. “What? I should have been her maid of honour!”
I can’t help but smile and my eyes meet Scott’s and he smiles at me. That had to be a good sign right? He smiled.
Scott continues to look deep in thought. “So there really is a war coming?”
I nod my head my eyes expressing the sadness I feel. “My sister is going to activate the cauldron and when she does it will release an undead army that will be at the control of Devlon.”
He reaches for my hand. “You should have told me sooner. I could have helped you.”
My eyes fill with tears. “I didn’t want you to know we weren’t biological siblings. I didn’t want things to change between us.”
He surprises me by yanking on my hand and pulling me into his embrace. “You’re my sister Ebs, we did everything together as kids. I love you, you goon and always will. Family is more than just blood.”
I smile against his chest. My tears flow silently down my face and I feel such relief to hear him say this to me. “I love you too big brother.”
I pull back and smile at him and then at Taylor who is sat dabbing at her eyes with her sleeves.
“You guys.” She gushes smiling. She grabs hold of me and pulls me into her arms.
“I love you too Ebs whether your human, fae or demon.” She squeezes me tightly.
I breathe a sigh of relief. “I can’t tell you how good it feels to have it all out in the open.” I stand and move over to Lorcen who holds his hand out to me and pulls me into him.
Scott stands and comes over to us and offers Lorcen his hand. “Welcome to the family.”
Lorcen smiling takes his hand and I beam with happiness. Things were falling into place finally.
Chapter Twenty Nine.
A couple of hours later after many, many, questions from my brother and my best friend, we sift home. I collapse on to the sofa beside my sister who has been awaiting my return with Blaine.
She puts a hand on my arm, her blue eyes full of worry. “Are you okay? How did it go?”
I grin at her. “It went great. They know everything and don’t hate me.”
My sister frowns at me briefly. “As if they would hate you. I still can’t believe Leora did that today. It breaks my heart that he has turned her against us.”
I pull her in for a hug. I have been doing a lot of hugging today. “I know, it hurts doesn’t it. Like we aren’t complete without her.”
Alana nods her head where it rests on my shoulder. “We have each other now and one way or another we will get our sister back.”
She pulls gently out of my embrace and Blaine who is sat on the arm of the sofa besides her squeezes her shoulder. They have become close in the last week and I can see that the bond between them is almost as strong as the one I have with my mate.
The rest of the week passes too quickly. I want to press pause on my life. I need more time. Time with my brother and my best friend and time with my sister who I have just found. Time however was not on my side. I had to remember that I would still see them all thanks to my agreement with Lucifer.
Friday comes around and I had suggested to Lorcen earlier that week that we have a small party to celebrate my sister’s arrival. It would just be our close group, my parents and Scott and Taylor. It would be a chance for me to have everyone I loved and cared about together. Mum was still recovering so she wasn’t able to help, but Megan and Taylor helped me with the food shop and prepare a pretty good buffet. I could have used my demon magic, as I had recently discovered I could do cool shit like that. Two nights ago, I had been sat snuggled up with Lorcen watching a movie when I had a craving for a Wispa chocolate bar from home and no sooner had I thought it one had appeared on my lap. I didn’t however use my magic, I wanted to do it the human way. After prepping the buffet and ensure the house was clean I quickly showered and changed. I dressed in black jeans and a red off the shoulder gypsy top and wedges.
The party is a great success everyone is here and is drinking, eating and enjoying themselves.
Taylor seeks me out and pulls me in the living room for a dance and Megan joins us. It is times like this that I feel the absence of Melantha the most. I miss her vibrant personality and her sarcastic humour. Noah Joins us and twirls Megan round, dipping her dramatically and I laugh out loud watching them. Noah could always be trusted to lighten my mood and bring a smile to my face. I had known these people only a few months, but they had all taken up a place in my heart. I would have never got through the events of late without the support of them all. My Sister comes up beside me and places an arm around my waist.
“You look deep in thought.” She states giving me side an affectionate squeeze.
“I’m just thinking about how much the people in this room mean to me.” She nods looking out at the people around us.
“I hope I will soon feel the same.” She takes my hand in hers. “Can we talk somewhere quiet?”
I nod puzzled and she pulls me from the living room and out through the kitchen to the back yard.
We sit down on a wooden swing seat and she turns to face me, tucking her flame red hair behind her ears.
“What is going on Ebony?” She holds a finger up before I can answer her. “Please don’t tell me nothing because we may not have known each other long but I can feel your emotions.”
Her eyes plead with me to be honest, I sigh and scratch my head trying to decide if telling her was wise.
“Okay. First you have to promise me that no matter what you won’t share this with anyone.”
Her forehead creases but she gives me an affirmative nod.
“I’m leaving tonight. I am going with Lucifer.”
I look up at her to find her eyes wide with fear. “Ebony, you can’t, I mean he is the devil.”
I squeeze her hands in mine. “I have no choice. If I don’t go, he will kill Lorcen. He is more powerful than all of us put together. No one can beat him. I won’t lose anyone else.”
