by Mindy Hayes
Chapter Eighteen
“How’s my favorite faery?” Cameron popped up next to me in the hallway on my way to Physics. After overhearing Declan and Kai’s conversation last night, I couldn’t fall back asleep for a couple of hours. The wheels in my head wouldn’t stop spinning. I couldn’t have gotten more than three hours of sleep.
“Can you not call me that in public?” I said, hushed.
“Oh, c’mon, Cal. It’ll only make people suspect something when you respond like that. Just be cool.” He nudged my shoulder to try and loosen me up. I guess it didn’t work. “Hey, are you okay?”
I let out an overwhelmed breath of air and rubbed my tired eyes. “I don’t know. I learned a couple new things last night that I’m trying to come to terms with. And with all the changes, I just don’t feel like myself anymore. I’m not Calliope anymore. I’m freak faery girl. That’s what they would call me if they knew what I was, isn’t it?”
“I’d come up with something much more clever than that.” Cameron winked.
I let myself chuckle a little and it made me yawn.
“You’ve done really well at hiding your wings,” he whispered to me. “I thought they’d be a lot more noticeable, but with the combination of those flowy shirts and your backpack, you’d never know unless you were looking for it.”
“The backpack kind of hurts sometimes. It rubs them raw.”
“So don’t wear the backpack. I honestly can’t see them,” he said reassuringly.
I shifted the backpack, “Where’s Isla?”
He shrugged. “Turns out she wasn’t cheating, just mad at me. We worked it out.”
I figured they’d made up when I saw them kissing in the hallway yesterday morning. I thought it would start hurting less with time to see them kiss, but as it turns out I was wrong. Coming to terms with the fact that I was never going to be the one in his arms was a lot harder to accept than I anticipated. I knew I needed to accept it. It was apparent I’d never be his, as I wanted him to be mine. But deep down I just couldn’t make myself.
“But then she got mad at me again this morning because she thought I should know the difference between what her hair looks like today and what it looked like yesterday.”
I laughed. “She went and got it highlighted yesterday, Cameron. And they took off a couple inches of her hair.”
“Is it really that big of a difference?” he asked incredulously. Boys.
I laughed again. “Only to the females. We notice things like that. I mean, with how much you stare at her, I would have thought you’d notice too, but boys will be boys.”
“Great.” He chuckled softly. “How do I get myself out of this one?”
“She’ll get over it,” I said encouragingly, swimming through the sea of people in the swarming hallway. Cameron latched onto my belt loop, trying to keep from losing me in the masses. He let go when he was at my side again.
“She seems to think I’ve been missing a lot of stuff lately,” he continued our conversation.
“Like what?”
“Well, the reason she was mad at me last week may or may not have been because I forgot it was our three month anniversary,” he said sheepishly.
I chuckled. “I’ve never understood why dating couples make anniversaries out of everything. It’s been two month since our first kiss,” I said dreamily. “It’s been five months since you told me you loved me.” I smirked at him and saw that he was laughing too. “Is it because it’s a triumph that it’s lasted for so long or…?”
He laughed. “You tell me.” When I didn’t reply he said, “No, seriously, please, tell me. I need to get out of the dog house.”
“Flowers. Chocolates. Mixed tape. Jewelry. Love notes. Stuffed animals,” I prattled off all the typical romantic gestures I could think of.
“You’d want all that stuff?” he sincerely asked.
“Me?” I thought about it for a moment. I’d never had a guy get me any of those things before. “Honestly, no. Those gifts are a cop out. All I’d want is just the affirmation that I meant something to you, that I mattered. A heartfelt apology. It’s easy to merely say things or make gestures. It’s another to actually mean them. Maybe tack on a bouquet of wild flowers or something. Not a dozen roses. Too cliché. Just be thoughtful.”
When I looked up at him, an unreadable mask covered his familiar face. His momentary gaze unsettled my insides, releasing the butterflies from their cages to fly wildly. I broke the staring contest first, unable to confidently look him in the eye when he watched me like that.
He cleared his throat. “Thanks, Callie.” The warning bell rang as I reached the door of my physics class. “Ah crap… I’m going to be late!” he said and lifted his hand, booking it down the hallway. I chuckled and found my seat.
When I got home from school I had one destination in mind. I wanted answers.
“Princess,” Kai crooned infuriatingly when I stepped into the forest. I had barely even passed the borderline when Kai stopped me.
“Where’s Declan?” I cut to the chase.
“Hello to you too.”
I didn’t respond to his sarcasm. I simply stared at him, waiting for an answer. Today he actually wore a light beige shirt, one of their billowy hand sewn tunics, the collar left untied. Sometimes I wondered if they didn’t wear shirts simply to see my face every time I saw them without one. Though I’d gotten a little used to it, it didn’t change the fact that they were still half naked and flawlessly built. I was able to keep my composure better when they were fully clothed.
“Probably moping up in some tree.” He shrugged. “And I thought we told you not to come searching for us on your own anymore.”
I ignored that last comment. I had actually kind of forgotten. “Isn’t that normally your post?”
“Didn’t you hear?” He cocked his head to the side. “Declan and I are trading places today. He mopes. I gallivant off into the sunset.” Kai circled around me, causing my head to spin by following his movements so I stopped. I stared straight ahead, crossing my arms in front of me, trying to suppress a smile at his joke.
“Maybe if you weren’t such a prick to him all the time he wouldn’t have to mope up in a tree.”
“A prick?” His indigo eyes nearly crossed in confusion as he twisted his face in front of mine, forcing me to look at him. “Like a rosebush thorn?”
“Forget it.”
He turned back to his task of balancing on some vine-covered rock and gracefully hopped to the next. A bow and a tube filled with arrows were strapped to his back.
“I heard what you said last night.”
Kai shifted his gaze back to me without losing his balance. “Eavesdropping, were you?”
“If the two of you were having such a private conversation maybe you should have taken it further into the forest,” I chided. “My hearing has sort of improved over the last couple months. You know, one of those fae abilities you two informed me about.”
“How much did you hear?” He sounded bored with our conversation already, but I knew he was uncomfortable with everything that I could have heard. He pulled the bow and an arrow from his back.
“Enough to know that Favner doesn’t exactly want me alive.”
Kai spun slowly around, his expression unchanging. He stared at me blankly.
“Would you like to expand upon that?” I prompted.
“You want every little frilly detail about how a faery king wants you dead?” he said brusquely. I shuddered. Did he have to put it so bluntly? He didn’t even try to soften the blow. “What would be the point in trying to hide the obvious? You should be scared. You deserve the warning. You shouldn’t take that threat lightly. Favner isn’t the faery to mess with. Even I know to stay out of his way.”
“Why didn’t you two ever mention it to me before if he’s such a threat? Shouldn’t I have been on my guard all this time?” I said accusingly.
“Declan didn’t want to frighten you,” Kai said and turned to shoot h
is arrow. “There’s nothing you can do. So, we’ve done our part out here and kept you safe.” It landed in the center of a trunk twenty feet away.
That sparked a thought. “What did you mean by Favner finding out that Declan didn’t get rid of me? Why would Declan need to get rid of me?”
“So you heard that part too, huh?” Kai seemed a little uneasy, but tried passing it off as indifference. He kept his back to me.
“You two don’t exactly quarrel quietly.”
“What would be the fun in that?” He spun his head back and flashed a crooked smile my way, fluttering my heartbeats. He wasn’t allowed to get me flustered right now. I didn’t need a distraction from the conversation. Couldn’t he be serious for one minute?
“Why was Declan supposed to get rid of me?” I repeated, determined to get a straight answer.
“As much as I love being the bearer of all bad news, I think Declan should get to explain that one to you.” Kai turned back to his target practice.
“Well, where is he?” I inquired. “You never answered my question.”
“Beats me.” He shrugged indifferently, his back to me. His next arrow landed in the same tree, right next to the first. “I’m not his Keeper. Just yours.”
“You don’t have to be my Keeper. I never asked you to stay.”
Kai paused before answering. “You didn’t have to.” He dropped his stance and turned back to me. His liquid iris eyes peered at me. They really looked at me. Not with sarcasm or malice. Not playful or mischievous. His eyes appeared solemn, gentle… meaningful.
I swallowed and cleared my throat, breaking away from his gaze. “What am I supposed to do?”
He sighed, breaking his trance. “Nothing.”
“I need to do something. I can’t just sit back and relax now. What do I need to know?” I persisted.
Kai sighed and gestured for me to take a seat. I situated myself beside the nearest tree. “Faeries tend to be particularly fond of the chase,” he said.
I swallowed back any fears. “And Favner is fond of chasing me.”
Kai nodded. “Most of us are, apparently,” he said under his breath, but I don’t think he expected me to comment.
My eyes shied away from him, looking to the fallen leaves scattered along the ground. I couldn’t find the confidence to look him in the eye. “Kai, I don’t want any part of your world. If Favner knew that, would he leave me alone?”
“Not if he knows that you didn’t die. I’m not sure how well Declan covered his tracks.”
I swallowed. “Declan was really supposed to kill me?”
He set his jaw. “Yes.”
“This is unfair. I didn’t do anything. My father left the faery world and had me. So I’m a rogue faery. Is that really worth killing over?”
“Calliope.” Kai exhaled. “Your father hasn’t been the most forthcoming about his life in Faylinn.”
I stopped before replying. It was only the third time he’d ever used my actual name. He said my name with care, as if it was something he wanted to hold on to, something that could mean something to him.
“Will you please tell me? I’m tired of the secrecy, Kai. It’s exhausting.”
Kai shook his head, still not looking smug or cocky. He peered at me earnestly. “Has your father told you anything about his life in Faylinn? The history he left behind there?”
“He told me he was a faery and that he met my mom and decided to join her in the human world. She was more important to him than that world,” I prattled off the Reader’s Digest version of my dad’s explanation.
Kai leaned into me, over his legs. “Well, he left out one minor detail.” He paused, causing me to shift in my skin. I could see the battle play out in his eyes as he struggled with an inner decision. Apparently one side won, whether it was the good or bad side I didn’t know until he spoke. “Declan is going to kill me,” he said under his breath. “She apparently was more important than his kingdom.”
I stopped breathing momentarily. “His kingdom.”
“Before your father met your mother, he was the next in line to become the King of Faylinn. He tossed away his birthright to be with her.” His words may have sounded callous, but his tone was gentle.
Kai’s words suspended in the air between us. He kept his position, his face mere inches from mine.
I sat back, the realization setting in. “Which makes me threatening to Favner because…” The pieces were falling into place.
“You are the one faery who can take away his throne. You are the last rightful heir to Faylinn. The last of the True Royal bloodline.”
I was the heir to Faylinn? No, I’d barely wrapped my head around the fact that I was a faery. I was not their faery freaking princess.
“When he finds out you lived, he’ll be obsessed with finding you,” Kai said. “To be rid of you for good.”
“Kai…” I broke off, not knowing what to say. “Why didn’t you two tell me before?”
“Umm… Do you have amnesia or does your initial freak out about actually being a faery come to your recollection?”
I didn’t answer him as the mere thought of being fae royalty still tried to find a place in my brain.
“I wanted to tell you, but Declan wanted to protect you,” he explained. “He figured telling you about your inheritance would really send you over the edge. He wanted to gradually introduce you into this world. The more comfortable you are with it, the easier it will be to transition into our world. We haven’t wanted to push you into doing anything against your will.”
My anger suddenly surfaced. “So, even though numerous times I said I didn’t want anything to do with Faylinn he still expected me to transition? What? Were you two going to gag and kidnap me—force me to go with you?”
“No!” Kai protested, offended. “It was nothing like that.”
“Then what?” I stood. “What makes you think I want to be a faery queen?”
“I don’t!” He jolted up beside me. “That’s why I never told you, Calliope. I don’t want to force you into anything you don’t want to do! You deserve more than that!”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing audible passed my lips, so I closed it. Since when did Kai care so much?
He took a step closer to me, but I moved away. I needed to walk off my shaking legs. “My dad. I have to talk to my dad.” I paced in front of him.
“Let me walk you back,” Kai offered, taking another step toward me.
“No,” I denied him. “I need space.”
He nodded and stood still, watching as I escaped for the borderline.
When I walked out from the trees, I instantly felt knots in the pit of my stomach. My mom stood with her arms folded across her chest in the open doorway, a probing look in her eyes.
Perfect timing.
