Inked (The Ink Keepers Book 1)

by N. I. Rojas

  Kyra considered Incantatrix’s suggestion. It had its advantages, but she knew her father would never forgive her if Kyra erase his memories. Her father’s rage would be ruthless. It would bring her more disadvantages than rewards.

  “He’s a grownup man. He’ll overcome all this.” -Kyra assured her mother after carefully considering the plan. - “Besides, I think is better to let him take his own decisions at the right time. Maybe it is for good that he can remember everything he’d gone through.”

  Incantatrix looked at Kyra in astonishment.

  “You are different. These things have changed in you.” -Her mother noticed despite never have shared a single day before all this mess of fantasy.

  “Something changed in my absence?” -Kyra asked, changing the topic of conversation. She wasn’t happy being studied as if she was a dissected frog laying sprawled in a stainless-steel tray. Her mother’s piercing gaze was the sharp blade opening her from outside to the inside. - “Is my world just as I left it?”

  “You’ll be surprised with how intact it all is. Everything is right where you left it. You’ll see in minutes.” -Her mother answered without elaborating, but her eyes opened wider as she said those words. Kyra couldn’t wait to go back but things would never be the same.

  They walked back to Incantatrix’s house. Kyra was in no real hurry to go back home now that her father was recovering and she had defeated the Wizard mysteriously.

  “What you think that happened with the Wizard?” - Kyra asked, fearing that one day he could return.

  “I’m not sure. He’s gone, for now, at least.” -Incantatrix answered back. - “But I fear he’ll find a way to return as there’s powerful magic keeping him here, coming and going. We must never forget he wasn’t created by ink, but a real human sent here, preserved for thousands of years with magic.”

  Kyra didn’t want to think about it now, but just imagining the Wizard threatening their safety again, made her wish to vomit.

  “What about Mackenzie?” -Trying to thing on happier times, Kyra dared to ask about him, remembering when Mackenzie appeared in her school, telling her about her sweet smell. - “I haven’t seen him and the last thing I recall is he was wounded.”

  Incantatrix dither before giving an answer. Perhaps she was searching deep inside for the right way to tell Kyra about him.

  “You like him, do you?” -Incantatrix asked.

  “Something like that.” -Kyra answered ashamed. It was a lot uncomfortable to be talking this boy talk with her ever absent mother.

  “In that case, you need to know he’s different now. See, before today’s events he was already growing. Since…”- Incantatrix made a pause. Her face displayed concerned surprise. - “…you kissed him. For some strange reason I cannot explain, his curse left him and passed to you. So he started changing. He started growing again… his teeth started to fall and he, in general, is different. That’s the reason why your spell to let him voiceless didn’t work on him. He wasn’t an un-aging boy by then. You must comprehend; Mackenzie doesn’t belong here anymore, just like your father. He’s going to be sent to human world.”

  Those words were hard to digest. At least Mackenzie had what he wanted, to be a normal boy again. Now he’ll go back to start a normal life.

  “I want to see him.” -Kyra said before trying to run from her mother’s house.

  “Wait.” -Her mother stopped her. - “You just have a few minutes left before a portal is opened to send you home.” -For seconds, she vacillated. - “I know I wasn’t there to see you growing. I know you never needed me, and you don’t need me now. But I want to make it right. Now that you can come and go, we can share time together if you want. Since the moment I left you with your father I was forced to stay here, without going back to you. I lost so much. But now you’re here and we can have the chance to know each other. I know I cannot recover the time I lost, but I can compensate it to you. If you wish to stay or come to visit me, I can teach you everything. How to fulfill your destiny. How to wrap the autumn and preserve it perennial. You’ll learn to harvest snow in midsummer. How to rebuild a forbidden love. I can help you be the good witch you’re destined to be.”

  Kyra nodded absently, not giving too much attention to her mother’s passionate words of magic and choosing not to give an answer or maybe a bit of hope. She had just too many things unfinished already. Before sprinting back to the forest straight to Mackenzie’s tree trunk, Kyra hugged Incantatrix really quick.

  “Thanks for taking care of my father.” -Kyra said gratefully. Then she left. Her mother yelled at her back.

  “When you are ready to go, you better put on your birthday party dress.” -Kyra didn’t understand the warning, but she kept it in mind anyway. - “You just have minutes left.”

  As she ran across the Enchanted Forest, she noticed how green it all was. Compared to hours before, it was now paradise. She took her hands to wipe her eyes, just to make sure it wasn’t a blurred mirage, and she almost falls backwards when saw her hands clean as if she had never ever used them as paper. No ink tattoos or writings were evidence staining her. Not even a single dark stain in her skin, apart from her obvious freckles. Twisting her lips, Kyra assured herself she’d better settle for having freckles rather than poorly written strange tattoos blemishing her otherwise dull skin. Kyra checked and double checked her hands and forearms, feeling relieved that her father wasn’t going to see her tattooed and that he was almost delusional before to notice her inked hands.

  For just a second Kyra felt free, but the worry returned to her when she reminded she was yet to face a harder situation. Been face to face with Mackenzie… the different and changed Mackenzie. The human, aging Mackenzie.

  Alongside the narrow gravel path, every creature bowed when noticing her presence. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation but she tried to bury it deeper than her other worries. She didn’t feel comfortable being considered someone who everyone should pay tribute. Kyra never had been considered a celebrity... someone even slightly popular. Her excellent grades in school had created a reputation, but with the increasing number of students who were content with their poor performance at school… The reputation tends to change according to those losers around her. Hence the title of "nerd" that had been chasing her for the last few years. Fortunately, Kyra had friends like Ash who stood up for her at all times.

  The trees everywhere were lush green again, big and tall and strong, just as if she had rewound time to Alter Land’s very beginnings. Wind moved everything with gentleness, and the freshness carried away with the wind was something Kyra could easily smell.

  Every wind puff was visible as a ghost, like delicate lace dancing happily between leaves and animals. It was tender and warm, a hiss caressing Kyra’s ears, thanking her for freeing them all. Kyra tried not to give too much attention to what was around as she feared to end up captivated by beauties never known by men. Right then she was caught prisoner of her own fear. She was going to see Mackenzie again and that kept her knees trembling.

  His house was waiting right in front of her, but she found herself petrified, anchored to the ground as if she was an ancient tree. Looking around, she discovered that Mackenzie’s house was, in fact, a tree in which different fruits grow. Apples as well as grape vines, pears and red grapefruits, kiwis and cherries. All those fruits growing on the same plant, hanging from the same branches, feeding on the same roots, united by a common trunk.

  Remembering her mother’s warning of just minutes left, she tried to hurry up. Leaving the astonishment behind, Kyra entered Mackenzie’s house without even stopping to knock on the door. She looked everywhere, but Mackenzie wasn’t inside. As she had already thought, they lived in different worlds. He lived with and from nature. She had always lived in an accommodated place, where groceries came to her house, and just a trip to the closest supermarket could fix any alimentary need. It was evident that he had made every piece of furniture in his house while she bought everything in a furniture store. Kyra
kept walking, surprised with everything, until she found a door completely opened in the back of the small house. Through it she could see Mackenzie sitting between a death orchard. That was what by far surprised Kyra, as everything has been restored, but it was the only thing that continued dead. The wolf cub was nibbling the hem of his pants, but Mackenzie seemed oblivious to the situation.

  “Hey!” -She waved her hand at him. Instantly she felt silly. They had saved each other’s life a few couple of times and she just managed to say hey. How ridiculous it was?

  “Hey.” -Mackenzie answered back without taking his eyes from the orchard. A heavy silence felt upon them, so bad, just as dreadful as morning breath and Kyra started feeling impatient. Mackenzie, the one she knew, would have said at least a hundred words by then.

  “How you feel?” -She ventured to ask, feeling grateful she found words to break the ice.

  “Like a normal, unhappy man.” -He answered sourly. His bitter words surprised Kyra as she thought he would be happy of being normal again.

  “Why feeling that way? You are a normal boy again. You can go back, just as you always wanted to do. That’s the reason why you went looking for me in the first place.” -She remembered him. - “To break the spell that prevented you from aging!”

  “See, the problem is… I didn’t saw it before ‘cause I was deluged with childish dreams, but has been so long… I no longer have a place to go. What you think I’ll find when going after them? Just rotten corpses and crumbling bones?” -Mackenzie’s words were stained with a vinegary and pungent feeling. None of them said anything for long time, but somehow Kyra knew she had just a minute or two before the portal opened to take her back home.

  “We can be normal together.” -She offered. Mackenzie looked at her as if she had just cursed his own soul.

  “Thanks for the offer;” -He said. But Kyra noticed the sarcasm spilling from him as lava from an erupting volcano. - “But you are a witch and if that’s just not enough, my spell is on you now. Things won’t be the same.”

  “But why?” -Kyra asked, feeling her heart breaking into much more tiny shreds that what it already was.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” -He asked, just as Kyra would have done the first few days of knowing him. - “Because you are a witch! Because you are evil! Because we are completely different.”

  “We were different before and you didn’t care.” -Kyra disputed impulsively, pretending to ignore he had just called her evil.

  “I was childish and ignorant by then.”

  “And now? What are you now?” -She asked, offended.

  “I’m a man.” Surprised, Kyra chose to remain silent for a while. No thought capable of making him take back his words came to her mind.

  “I need my dress back, if you still have it.” -She said, keeping her eyes locked to the ground. - “You hid it in your backpack.”

  How silly she felt. Silly and humiliated. How many times was she going to allow this child-man to hurt her? As Mackenzie stood up and walked to the inside of his house, Kyra kept insulting herself. Stupid. Idiot. I told you thousand times this was going to happen the day you dared to fall in love. You wanted to experiment a heartbreak, didn’t you? You wanted to know how it feels like to be smashed into chunks just by denying you the love you want so bad?

  Without hesitation, Mackenzie gave her the green garment back. It was wrinkled, but Kyra was sure she would need it just to cross the portal and it would be hiding again where her father had kept it for fifteen years.

  Kyra tried to fix her hair, but she surrendered to wear it wind-combed. She slid the dress from her head and down, accommodating it to her body. Hiding behind a tree, she took off the green blouse Mackenzie had given her, and then came back to where she was standing before. Close to Mackenzie, but not too close.

  “You still smell like flowers, though.” -Mackenzie said from behind her. Kyra was still trying to fix the wrinkles in the dress, but it was useless. - “Green suits you better now. It makes you shine.” -She turned around just to discover he was standing a foot or two from her. She couldn’t resist, couldn’t fight back, she wanted him to kiss her and he was so close, getting closer, and she just closed her eyes. - “You have dirt in your hair. Here, now you’re ready to leave.”

  Grabbing Mackenzie’s neck with loving strength, Kyra jumped into his arms. Looking into his eyes, Kyra didn’t know what he had inside or what the reflection and shine in his eyes meant. She just wanted a kiss.

  He just wanted one thing. To be left alone. For him, a girl like this meant trouble.

  “Then you are a man?” -She asked with a nervousness that could only be explained by the butterflies fluttering inside.

  “I’m a man now.” -He answered with unhidden pride, while trying to push her away softly, but she was glued to him, like a snail.

  “A man would kiss a desperate girl like me.” -She tested, almost begging him. Mackenzie stood there motionless, doubting her every word, contemplating her face just as he always used to watch the sky, searching for a clue, looking for an answer to what was happening now.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t.” -He answered back, holding her firmly by the waist.

  “Why?” -Kyra asked, offended.

  “I don’t know, but I can’t.” -He snapped, releasing her from his soft grip and managing to be released from her strong hold. A glint shone right before her eyes. She would be home in seconds. This nightmare, including Mackenzie’s rejection, would stay in this world, forgotten in time, while Kyra could manage to repair her broken heart and soul. - “This would never work.”

  Night started fading away, just as Kyra’s hopes. Her dreams and wishes would stay in Alter Land as her priorities were so revolted, she couldn’t even recognize herself.

  “This isn’t going to work.” -Mackenzie grunted, roughly pushing Kyra away from him.

  “Why?” -She wanted to know, wishing to glue her arms to his neck, to kiss him forever, begging life to give her hope. To grant her a little more time.

  “Cause we are different now. And you are a despicable witch as the one…” -He answered, looking away. He never finished what he was going to say. Kyra didn’t give it much importance as her concern was to mend her broken heart, to shush away the pain in her soul.

  “I saved your life.” -Whispering, Kyra offered in her defense, but Mackenzie just turned around not to see her. In her insides, Kyra wanted to know if she could have it all now, but she wasn’t sure of it. Without looking back, she ran back to the portal, leaving Alter Land behind like a midnight nightmare.

  Epilogue

  It was pitch dark when Kyra opened her eyes. The soft songs of crickets were easily disguised by the hard beats making everything around tremble. For a moment Kyra considered if she was still alive. She remained there, inert, destroyed inside, thinking about the latest events. She thought how much time she spent lost in Alter Land, living what she once thought as impossible. By now she wasn’t sure of the elapsed time.

  Her heartbeats were calmer than the chaotic noises around and that was good. It meant she wasn’t having a heart attack after the first love’s rejection.

  She was comfortable now. Resting over a soft, silky blanket, a morbid thought came to her mind. She was really dead, her body resting in a beautiful coffin her father had carefully chosen just for her between tears. A coffin white as teeth, glossy and shiny as bathed in floss and enamel.

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  The beats were closer now as a hammer hitting right in her head. What a terrible moment. To be dead and be bothered anyway. Her eternal rest desecrated. Her coffin savagely smacked.

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  “Ky? Are you there?” -Kyra never thought she could hear his voice ever again. As sick as he was, her father was supposed to be resting in bed. - “Baby Ky… I’m coming in.”

  In a second, the door was opened. A bright light blinded Kyra forcing her to cover her eyes with both hands. She snarled as a vampire with a torch between eyes and
a garlic garland attached to the neck.

  “Kyra Sussanette Elizabeth Marin! Are you sleeping?” -Her father said in awe. Instantly, she ended up sitting. She noticed it wasn’t a coffin after all, but a daybed covered in soft silk. She wasn’t dead, but she wished it when discovering she had returned just to the night of her worst nightmare.

  “Father?” -Kyra managed to ask. Disbelief still connected to her weak voice. - “What are we doing here?”

  “It’s your birthday party! You forgot?” -Her father managed to say as if nothing had happened. Confused, Kyra thought Incantatrix had erased her father’s memory after she told her not to.

  “But… a few days had passed by already.” -She tested her father’s memory. - “I’m so tired. Exhausted describes me better. I’m dead.”

  “I know, Ky. You’ll rest as soon as the party is over. Just two or three more hours, I promise.”

  It was hard for Kyra to understand what was happening. Her father was acting as if nothing had ever happened, as if he hadn’t return to this world sick and almost dying of an overdose with some killer plant a mermaid had fed him with.