by Lainy Lane
Calandra breaks out of her trance, looks at his reflection standing behind her in the mirror, and smiles.
Jarreth is wearing an all white suit with a light blue tie. There are eloquently placed sequins throughout the suit that catch the light just right and in all the right places to magnify his beauty. He uses his arm around her to spin her around and make her face him. “There is one thing that I think I failed to mention about the ball that I should probably warn you of.”
Her face turns grim and fear courses through her. The last couple of weeks had been going great, more than great. Her and Jarreth had been getting to know each other and she began feeling even more connected to the world as well. She was finally starting to feel confident in her ability to be able to fulfill her destiny. Could what he was about to tell her possibly ruin all of that? Jarreth pulls her over to the bed and sits down next to her. His hand remains on her shoulder which sends the comforting sparks through her, it is a sensation that she is beginning to think she will never get totally used to.
“I told you humans were banned from our world at the fallout,” Jarreth begins his explanation and sends Calandra’s heart into overdrive. She nods, remembering the story he had told her weeks ago. “There was one little piece of information that I left out.”
Her heart drops. “Wait just a minute,” she tells him. Her breath slows to an almost dormant pace. She ponders to herself if she really wants this revelation or not. “Is this something I absolutely have to know beforehand?” she asks finally.
Jarreth nods.
Calandra takes a deep breath. “Okay, then do something for me first, just in case.” She smiles slightly and holds her hand out toward him, not bothering to explain her request or wait for a response.
He eyes her cautiously and gives her an odd look before he gives into her request. He closes his eyes and instantly her anxiety and fear about what he is about to say melts away completely. Calandra sighs in the relief of their absence.
“Better?”
She smiles innocently. “I just want to be on an open emotional field in case things get totally discombobulated after whatever it is you have to say.”
Jarreth sighs. “Basically, with no human interaction at all to feed certain … needs,” Jarreth stumbles to find the word to use, “most Fae would die out completely. So, after the fallout, we had to find a way to control things. There had to be a balance, so that there wouldn’t be enough interaction for things to get out of hand as they once had. But we still needed enough to keep things intact here as well.” Jarreth picks up her hand and brushes his fingers against her knuckles, washing away the spikes of nerves that shoot through her as he speaks. “Which is why Drake decided to host a Masquerade Ball every year. It’s the one night that we’re allowed to have humans come in. It may sound cruel, but it’s really the only way for us to survive.”
A statement that Calandra had heard said in a sermon once runs through her mind, “Don’t hate the person, hate the sin in the person.” Calandra knows somewhere deep down she should probably be completely disturbed by this. After the last several weeks that she’s been here and given the things she’s seen and learned, this doesn’t really seem too bad in retrospect. She must be softening up to the things that would have disturbed her at one point.
She wonders when that change began as she can’t recall consciously deciding to allow that to happen. She still hasn’t learned about all of the hungers and needs of the different Fae here, but she knows they are there and that they differ for each type of faerie. She has learned some of the different needs. Others, much like a lot of things, Jarreth doesn’t want to explain to her. Faeries are very emotional creatures, so the thought of what she may see tonight does send chills through her, but she knows she must accept all aspects of this world and it’s people. As she sees to be the way of life, she has to give this world a chance before she is able to come up with any sort of opinion for it.
“Okay,” she replies simply.
“Okay?” Jarreth seems to be taken aback by the simplicity of her response.
She nods.
“Okay,” he seems reluctant still, but decides not to question her decision any further, “ready to go then?”
She nods. Jarreth stands and holds out a bended elbow to escort her. She loops her arm into his, smiles, and lets him lead her into the mysterious night. A night that she no longer knows what to expect from, in the body of a remarkably beautiful and confidant woman that she isn’t sure she knows.
****
What Calandra wasn’t at all prepared for was where the ball was going to be. Why Jarreth hadn’t mentioned that the field is the venue of choice was beyond her. It is a more than breathtaking scene. The tree that she has connected with several times is surrounded in gleaming lights and it looks simply magnificent. There are lines of lights forming a sort of canopy ceiling above the entire field, though they are not laced together on a string, instead each individual light is suspended in the air all on its own. Just to the right of the large tree that Calandra favors are three large fabric panels that are running through an assortment of colors. To the left of the tree are several large tables holding an assortment of foods and drinks. Calandra notices one table holds nothing but small glasses containing liquid like what Jarreth always drinks, but there is a large variety of colors.
Throughout the field new flowers have popped up. Some look like tulips, some like roses, and others like lilies. However every flower is a rainbow of colors. Despite the elegance of the transformation, the field has made from a wonderment of nature to an equally amazing masquerade, the dresses and masks are what really stand out. Everyone looks amazing, humans and Fae alike are all dressed in intricate ballroom dresses and suits with masks to accompany in the mystery of the event. Most of the Fae women, however, have chosen not to wear masks. Instead, they have done fantastical things with their makeup to hide their faces. Makeup not only covers their eyelids, but makes beautiful patterns across their entire faces accompanied with artfully placed gems, jewels, and glittered pieces of art. Suddenly, the breathtaking and confident creature that Calandra felt when she looked at herself in the mirror before she arrived, seems much more ordinary in comparison.
Jarreth stands behind her and takes her mask out of her hand. He holds it up to his face and breathes on the inside of it before placing it over Calandra’s face. She is completely lost as to what the purpose of his gesture was until she realizes that it is staying on without any sort of strings to keep it in place. He does the same to his own mask. Calandra hadn’t paid any attention to his mask until now. It is white just as his suit is, but it doesn’t cover both of his eyes like most of the masks do. It goes straight across his forehead and on the right side comes down to just above his mouth. But from there it cuts upwards to cover only part of his nose and arches just over his left eye, leaving it fully exposed. It is framed in sequins that are cobalt blue and around the right eye is a swirled pattern of baby blue. It compliments his suit and the beauty that his eyes hold perfectly.
Calandra’s stomach does a few catapults when she feels him sweep her from the edge of the field and into the center where everyone is dancing. He spins her around and the beauty of the people and the masks spin in and out of her view. The entire experience is intoxicating. Her body rages with the electric current that comes from his touch. Her eyes are filled with the mystification of the people swirling around her, and to her surprise, they all look equally influenced.
After several euphoric moments of twirling in the breathtaking scene, Jarreth escorts her off of the dance floor and over to the table containing the refreshments for the night. He grabs his go-to pink drink and holds his hand in front of the tables, signaling for Calandra to help herself to something. Her attention remains on the table he has just chosen from. She looks from one side of the shots of liquid to the other, the entire rainbow spectrum is represented. She has only ever had Jarreth’s pink concoction. As she has no clue what any of them are, she figures t
here is no harm in trying out a new color to see what happens. Her conscious immediately flashes to the night a while back when she had convinced him, or rather tricked him, into letting her have some of the drink and how that action had ended. She quickly shakes her head free of the memory and goes back to her game of eenie meeney miney moe to pick one out. She subconsciously lands on a purple shot and she takes it down quickly. It is bitter and sends her throat into odd spasms.
Jarreth arches an eyebrow at her response and smiles.
“You’re still not going to tell me what they are?”
“Obviously not knowing isn’t stopping you from consuming.”
She shrugs and walks over to the next table that has tall glasses filled with different colored smoothies. She grabs one with strawberries on top and begins sipping on it instead of getting another shot of the mystery liquid.
“You never read anything on Faerie folklore, did you?” His question takes her off guard.
She shakes her head and shrugs. “I guess not. Would I have learned anything useful?”
Jarreth shrugs. “Probably not too much, though you might think a bit harder before trying drinks and food while you’re here. Especially when no one wants to tell you what they are,” he chuckles.
His statement sends her back to her first day here. During the awkward walk through the woods to Jarreth’s cabin, he had explained to her what he fed on; emotions. He had taken hers away from her but said he didn’t use them, that he had simply taken them from her in an effort to help her feel more comfortable. He said on that first day that he had other ways of satisfying his needs. She had been so caught up in too many things at the time to even think to question it. Her eyes grow wide and she turns back to the table filled with the shots. Scenes flash before her eyes of every time she’s seen Jarreth’s eyes flash different colors. She has seen them turn every single one of the colors that are represented on the table at some point.
“Jarreth,” she turns to face him, “why do your eyes change colors sometimes?”
“It’s a Fae trait. It’s kind of like a mood ring, it shows our emotions. Young faeries eyes will stay whatever color their mood is. As we get older, we learn to control it and to be able to change them back to our actual color. But we can never keep them from showing it, at least momentarily.” He is watching the crowd dance across the dance floor, completely oblivious to the road Calandra is on and where her mind is taking her.
Her heart shatters as the realization hits her and takes her breath along with it. The colors are emotions. The shots are his way of feeding in the absence of humans. She gulps the rest of her drink down and slams the empty glass back on the table. She quickly grabs another and begins to walk away from the table, unable to be around Jarreth at the moment.
After two steps, Jarreth grabs her arm and spins her around and brings her back to him. “What?” he asks, his voice sincerely confused.
“You let me take that … whatever emotion it is and didn’t even tell me!” Her voice is louder than she’d meant for it to be and a few people stop dancing and turn to stare at them.
Jarreth clears his throat and walks them further away from the crowd. “I told you that drinking stuff when you didn’t know what it was wasn’t the brightest of ideas, but you still drank it. And need I remind you that both times you’ve drank them, you did it all on your own? Don’t act like I forced it down your throat!” he informs her.
“Don’t give me that, Jarreth! You know that had you told me I never would’ve drank it!” She tries to pull free of him and head back into the crowd, but his grip tightens around her arm. “Let go of me! I don’t even want to look at you right now!” She spits the words out and laces them with more hate than is probably necessary.
It gets her point across as his eyes flash light purple and his face goes blank. His mouth opens to say something and immediately closes again. He drops his arm from her and she storms off into the crowd. She has no clue where she’s going, especially since she is already in her favorite place to go when she needs comfort, but getting away from Jarreth is her top priority. Faces keep turning toward her as she makes her way through the dancing bodies surrounding her. Everyone is twisting, turning, swirling, and Calandra is no longer sure if she is walking across the crowd or going in circles along with them.
Her mind is clouding over in confusion when she feels a hand on her back and a familiar chill goes through her body. She doesn’t have to turn to know it is Drake touching her. He is wearing all black, as usual, though some of the sequins on his coat seem to be giving off a midnight blue shine. His mask is all black and it has a long nose that slopes down and comes to a point just below his mouth. She can see the corners of his mouth curl up into a smile as he pulls her into him.
“Dance,” he says simply. It is a statement, not a question, and his voice is laced with temptation.
She doesn’t respond, but she also decides not to fight him either. She’s away from Jarreth, and if he by chance decides to come after her and sees her dancing with Drake, it will be a nice bonus thrown in to increase his irritation. She goes along with the twirling movement Drake takes her into, feeling the music pulsing through her harder now that the odd chill from Drake’s touch pulses through her with it.
He breaks their silence. “Where have you been hiding the past couple of weeks?”
“I haven’t been hiding.”
“Well, I haven’t seen you around, not even here. I looked for you a few times. I wanted to be sure you were coming tonight.” He winks as he says it.
“You know where you could have found me if you had really wanted to.”
“Eh,” he scoffs, “I did want to find you, but had no desire to see Jarreth. I have to pick my battles.”
Calandra rolls her eyes.
Something seems different about Drake tonight. He’s not quite as snide as he usually is, he seems to actually be somewhat sincere for once. He is giving off a vibe of something that Calandra has never felt from him before, but she’s having trouble placing it. She looks at him, watching his eyes for any sign of changes, but is left with nothing. Desire … Is that what it is? Maybe, but desire for what exactly?
“You know,” Drake leans in and whispers in her ear, “if your little argument hasn’t ended before the party is over, my invitation is still out there.”
And there’s Drake, the one Calandra is used to, he’s come full circle for her.
“No thanks!”
Luckily the song ends and she turns away from him without another word. She is hoping for an escape to the other side of the crowd like she had originally set out for, but she instead ends up face to face with Tristan.
Chapter Nineteen
Mystery
“So, do you wanna talk about what happened in the field a couple of weeks ago?” Tristan asks as he takes her in his arms and begins circling her through the crowd again.
Calandra hasn’t seen him since the day in the field when she had taken his anger for her away from him. If she was to be totally honest, she had been avoiding him, but she hadn’t fully admitted that to herself yet. Tristan is wearing a normal black and white suit. It is not very Masquerade looking, especially compared to everyone else. His mask is a plain black mask on a stick. He certainly doesn’t look like he had much time to prepare for the night. Nonetheless, he still looks like Tristan, which is oddly comforting for her.
Calandra looks at him confused; he isn’t supposed to remember what happened at the field. She had taken his emotions, and in turn, his memory of the events away. Jarreth said he wouldn’t remember it and he certainly seemed to lack the memory when he left the field that day.
Tristan frowns at her lack of response, “Drake told me.”
Of course he did, she thinks and rolls her eyes to herself. She should have known better than to think Drake would keep quiet about what happened. Knowing him, he has probably told the entire world about it. She knew better, technically, but somehow at that particular moment all sense had fa
iled her.
“I just … I wanted you to …” Words fail to come to her, at least any that can explain away what she did.
“Don’t, Cal, just don’t!” Oddly enough, he doesn’t look mad. He is calm and collected, more so than she’s seen him since their arrival here.
“I’m sorry.” She settles for a simple apology, it’s really the only thing that seems even slightly appropriate.
“Tell me something, Cali.”
“What?” Her nerves peak as she wonders what he may want to know. She pulls from her powers to calm herself.
“Do you even know who you are anymore?”
Calandra is entirely offended. After what she did to him, she probably doesn’t have the right to be, but that’s exactly what she finds herself feeling. “I will not respond to that!” she scoffs.
“Really?”
“Really. Look, I’m sorry for what I did, I regret it greatly, but that doesn’t give you the right to act like this, Tristan.”
