When I looked behind us, the soldiers hadn’t yet turned the corner, but when I looked again, they appeared and were gaining on us. We turned down Main Street, weaving through people and cars and passing shop after shop.
Suddenly, Daylan pulled me into a narrow passage between two buildings. You wouldn’t have thought the space was big enough for the both of us, but we managed to shuffle along the dark crevasse until we couldn’t go any further. He put his index finger to his lips. “Shhhh.”
With my body squished between him and the brick building, I focused on catching my breath, but my anxiety was at an all-time high. His broad shoulders shielded me from the street, and his hands rested on my hips, my hands touching his own pumping chest. With the insane electric current passing between us, and his body touching almost every part of mine, it seemed impossible to still my heart. I was terrified, genuinely afraid for my life, but I had also never felt so alive.
In a way, I didn’t want the moment to end, but before I knew it, he slowly turned and led me back toward the street. I followed, my hand in his. When he deemed it safe, he pulled me out onto the sidewalk.
We blended in with the rest of crowd, my eyes searching for danger.
“Keys?” he asked when we entered the crowded grocery store parking lot once again.
I tossed him the keys, and he caught them with ease. At first, I thought he wasn’t going fast enough, that we needed to be barreling down the streets of the city like an action movie. Good thing he was driving and not me. He was calm and cool and barely needed to catch his breath while he drove inconspicuously with the traffic.
“Who are those guys?” I asked frantically when I had finally caught my breath.
Daylan remained silent, keeping his eyes on the road.
For a brief moment, I thought he might be the danger, but the thought was fleeting. I knew I had no choice but to trust him.
“Where are we going?” I asked, hoping he would have an answer this time.
“My siblings and I are holed up in a safe place not far from here,” he said.
“Your siblings?” I asked, checking my side mirror for anyone following us.
“Yes, Fay and Ezra—they are twins.”
Snow almost completely covered the mountains ahead as we left Rowan behind us. Daylan drove cautiously, checking and rechecking the rearview mirror with his arms locked at ten and two, like a student taking a driver’s test.
He knew I was staring at him, but his eyes never left the road. His simple, black long-sleeve shirt was rolled up to his elbows, revealing the tension in his forearms as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. His pale skin, though, showed no flushed signs of panic, and his blush lips remained slack when he took steady breaths, his chest expanding only slightly.
He slowed the Wagoneer and turned up the narrow road to Coast Mountain Rainforest State Park. “This is where you’ve been staying?” I asked as we passed a large “CLOSED FOR THE SEASON” sign, but Daylan ignored my question and continued to drive.
I had been to the park a few times for school field trips and once for one of Tyler’s sister’s wedding. It was a popular tourist destination, featuring paved paths throughout the rainforest with a magnificent view of the ocean from the summit of the hike. Normally the flowers popped vibrantly against the backdrop of the lush and overgrown green of the rainforest, but that day the forest had welcomed fall with open arms. The leaves on the trees were starting to fall, and the flowers were muted and heavy from the recent storm.
“Why here?” I asked.
“Someone once told me that if I was ever in trouble, this is where I should go.”
“Who?”
Without answering, Daylan parked the Wagoneer in the deserted parking lot. I smiled when I watched him walk around the car to open the passenger door for me. He was oddly graceful. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something foreign in his precise, almost delicate, movements.
“My mom will be looking for me,” I thought out loud. “And Tyler, he will wonder where I am,” I added emphatically. I needed Daylan to know I had people who would notice if I went missing. I should have at least hesitated before allowing myself to be in the middle of nowhere with a complete stranger, but truthfully, I felt safe with him.
“Tyler, he is your boyfriend?” Daylan asked, walking towards the locked gate.
“He’s my best friend,” I corrected him.
The stunning beauty of the red Reception Barn had a picturesque view of the Pacific Ocean in the distance. Daylan produced a key, and I thought about asking how he came by it, but I was silenced when he turned and held the heavy wooden door open to the barn.
A waft of hot humid air hit me when we walked into the cavernous room. It was in the midst of being dismantled for winter with boxes scattered throughout. The gold chairs wrapped with ribbons of lace and huge round tables normally used for weddings were stacked along the walls.
Chandeliers adorned the vaulted ceiling amidst a series of white lace canopies. Among the chandeliers, bird cages containing flower baskets hung with low hanging flowers planted in them. The once blooming flowers were beginning to wither in the approaching cold, but still, their myriad of color contrasted exquisitely with the brilliant lights of the chandeliers.
“Daylan?” a woman’s voice echoed.
“Fay?” Daylan called.
I looked around, wondering where the voice came from, and saw who I assumed to be Daylan’s sister step around a wooden fence followed by who had to be her twin brother, Ezra.
Daylan took my hand, and again, a zap of electricity surged through me. His eyes locked on mine, almost like he felt the same zap I did. He guided me toward his siblings, ducking under the hanging flowers as we went. It felt like we walked the length of a football field to get to them, the looks on their faces said much more than words ever could. They appeared surprised at the sight of me and almost slightly agitated?
“Daylan, what were you thinking bringing her here?” Fay scolded him.
“Bro, she may look all innocent,” Ezra looked me up and down, “and maybe a bit… weak. But—”
I interrupted him with a quiet, “I’m right here.”
When I spoke, both Ezra and Fay twitched in surprised.
“Fay, Ezra, I would like you to meet Swayzi,” Daylan introduced me.
“Hi, nice to meet you Fay,” I said, trying not to be intimidated by her severe blue eyes. She had long, thick, auburn hair, and her angular face was sharp but distinctly feminine. Her eyes were like that of a Disney Princess, slightly larger than normal. She wore simple clothes: jeans, a black tee-shirt and an oversized black jacket. I assumed she was trying to blend in, but that would be impossible. She was stunning.
“You too, Ezra.” I gave an awkward wave with my free hand to Fay’s twin brother. Not sure why I continued to hold Daylan’s hand, but there was something reassuring about our contact that kept me from letting go.
Though his features were more masculine and his hair much darker, Ezra’s resemblance to his sister was striking. His hair had the same auburn undertones, but its dark brown color was almost black—like Daylan’s. It was long enough to be pulled away from his face into a bun. Like Fay, his eyes glowed from the lights adorning the room, while tattoos peaked out above the collar of his simple, v-neck, blue shirt.
Seeing the three of them standing in front of me, if I didn’t know better, I would have thought they were triplets. The only distinct difference between the twins and Daylan was that his eyes looked like they had seen more, that his life had been harder somehow.
“She can see us,” Fay said, returning her brother’s look of confusion.
I turned to Daylan. “Why wouldn’t I be able to see them? They’re standing right in front of me.”
“Did the Slayers find you?” Ezra asked.
“Slayers? You mean those soldiers who chased us?” I looked at Daylan for answers.
“They followed you?” Fay asked anxiously.
&
nbsp; “We lost them, don’t worry,” Daylan answered.
“I’m sorry, but can you tell me what—?” I pleaded before Daylan interrupted me.
“We should have left,” he said in a rush, looking only at me, “after what happened on the dock, but we didn’t. I wanted to make sure you were safe. After all, you did save our lives. You don’t know this but…” He stopped and looked at Fay.
“But what?” I asked.
“We’ve been following you,” he continued.
I looked from Daylan to the twins and let go of Daylan’s hand. I knew it. He had been standing outside my house the night of the thunderstorm.
“You’re going to want to sit down for this,” Daylan said, pulling a gold chair toward me. My heart was thumping, but I sat down.
“Do you know who your father was, Swayzi?” Daylan asked.
I was stunned by his question and began stuttering, “Oh, uh, I don’t know. Linda met him when she was eighteen. He was a deck hand or something on one of the ships that came through here. She never saw him again… why?”
I didn’t know much about my father, only that it was teenage summer fling. Linda didn’t talk about it much, and I rarely pressed her for information. I knew there had to be a reason Linda kept him from me, but Daylan immediately had me second guessing my decision to respect Linda’s choice to not have him in my life.
Daylan paused. “There’s really no time to inform you of this gently. Stop me if you need a moment, okay?”
I nodded, absolutely terrified of what he was about to say.
“We believe you are the daughter of someone we once knew,” Daylan began.
“The spitting image, actually,” Ezra interrupted. I suddenly recognized his voice from the beach the day Daylan rescued me from the ocean.
“He was sentenced to death eighteen years ago.” Daylan paused. “This man and his Slayers took over our world, torturing or executing those who opposed his new leadership. This town is one of the few weak spots that linger between our world and yours.” He paused again waiting for my okay to continue.
“Your world? What do you mean?” I shifted uncomfortably in the wooden chair.
My eyes swept over his face once more, my thoughts suddenly racing. “What are you?”
There was a long pause. The tension in the room was making me claustrophobic. I got the feeling there had been more than a few arguments in this exact spot about whether or not Daylan should tell me any of this.
Fay remained silent, like a statue of a Greek goddess who had lost a grand argument. Ezra looked more torn, his mouth tense with worry.
Daylan sighed. “We are Faeries.”
“Faeries?” I stifled a nervous laugh. “As in Tinker Bell?” I glanced down at my tattoo, then looked from Daylan to the twins.
“Tinker Bell?” Fay was confused.
“Thousands of years ago, there was a war in Heaven. This war forced all the angels to choose sides. The ones who stayed in Heaven remained angels, those who chose Hell became demons, and the ones who couldn’t choose were left somewhere in between—they became faeries.
“Some say we are fallen angels. Others call us Devil’s children. I like to think we lean more on the angel side,” Daylan explained—a little smile forming on his lips.
I wanted to laugh. He couldn’t be serious. But deep down, I knew I needed to listen.
“Go on,” I said.
“We are from a place called Empress. We’re immortal there. Earth makes us weak, almost human, which is why the executions must happen here.”
My nerves boiled to the surface, and my first thought was of my favorite tree in my back yard. I always prided myself on having a good imagination, but fallen angels, demons, heaven, hell, immortality, a completely different world?
“You think my father is a faerie?”
“Was,” Fay corrected.
I looked at Daylan. His smile faded, and he put his head down.
“A faerie can’t live very long here on Earth,” Ezra explained, “let alone eighteen years.”
“The fact that you can see us…” Daylan paused. “Ordinarily, humans can only see faeries if we make ourselves visible.”
He wasn’t making sense. “But, Penelope, she could see you,” I responded.
“You showed yourself?” Fay frantically questioned Daylan.
“No, I didn’t,” he snapped back.
I grew more confused. Was Daylan lying to his siblings?
“So, I can see you, what does that mean?”
“Swayzi.” Daylan kneeled beside me, his hand gently calming the shaking in mine. “I believe you have faerie blood in you. This could make you very special, possibly the first mixed faerie/human to ever live. It could also explain why you’ve been sick your entire life. Faeries cannot survive on Earth because the air isn’t pure enough. Magic doesn’t live in the trees or run in the water like in Empress. Seeing as you are half human, you have survived—but you won’t continue to survive unless you breathe,” he added with a smile.
I let out a long sigh. This was crazy. I had always been searching for answers when it came to my mysterious illness, but never could I have dreamt up something like this.
“If Medallion knows about you,” he continued, “we have to assume he will order to have you taken, or even killed, so we need to leave at first light.” Daylan’s eyes looked into mine as he spoke. It was hard not to get lost in them, to forget for a moment about all this new madness.
Wait. Did he say leave?
“We aren’t leaving,” Ezra said.
“We can only hold off the Slayers for so long. It’s not safe here,” Daylan argued.
“We can’t leave, Daylan. We need to get back to Empress. She is a game changer.” Ezra spoke like I wasn’t in the room anymore.
“Me? What… why?” I asked but they were too busy arguing to hear me.
“Think about it. If she is who we think she is, she could be the uprising.”
Uprising? What? My brain was in overdrive trying to keep up with them.
“She’s half human; we don’t even know what that means for her status, or if she would even survive in Empress. We would need help from the other side, but we have no way of contacting anyone.”
“We need to find a witch,” Ezra said.
“Stop!” I shouted.
They all froze and stared at me. Daylan moved to speak again but I shushed him.
“You said to tell you to stop if I needed a moment. I need a moment!” I snapped. My fingers massaged my temples, and I stood up, pacing back and forth in the hall. I couldn’t even begin to understand all of what was happening.
Faeries, Slayers, my father, and now witches? No.
“I can’t do this; I need to go home. Keys, please,” I ordered Daylan.
“It’s not safe.”
“I don’t care. I’m going home even if I have to walk.” I started for the exit, tuning out their mumbled arguments behind me and heaved open the wooden door.
The cold breeze outside warned me of coming snow, and I hugged myself to fight off the drastic change in temperature. Overhead, moss covered spruce trees dangled ornate flower baskets, while other flowers, planted in fallen tree stumps and drift wood, lined the paved paths of the lush green rainforest.
A small waterfall trickled down the mountain, pooling only a few meters away from me. With the small lights lining it, the pooling water glowed in the twilight. I remembered standing in front of that waterfall next to Tyler for his sister’s wedding photos. I remembered thinking how beautiful the rainforest was, that it seemed unnaturally so, as if from the pages of a child’s storybook.
Snow began to fall for the first time; I lifted my chin welcoming the cold and let it tickle my flushed cheeks.
“Swayzi?” Daylan called from behind me.
“I can’t be around you right now,” I said, ready to argue until I was halted by his blue eyes. They were brighter at dusk. Who was this boy?
I couldn’t deny the connection we ha
d, the overwhelming urge I felt to reach out and touch his hand, to feel that electricity pulse through my body again.
Was it careless to allow this boy to completely consume me like that? I knew I should walk away from him, but I craved his touch.
Daylan inched toward me, waiting for my disapproval, but I couldn’t give it.
“I can take you home. It’s not safe for you to be out here alone.” His voice was soft but unwavering.
His chin lifted up to the darkening sky, snowflakes fell on his face as he looked in wonderment. His hand reached out, catching the snow, then watched it melt on his warm skin.
“What is it?” he asked quietly.
“You’ve never seen snow before?” I held my own hands out, watching the snow fall into my waiting palm.
“It’s beautiful.” His eyes were locked on mine, and I couldn’t tell if he was speaking of the snow, or of me.
Snow dusted the tips of my eyelashes, and I blinked them away nervously. His hand reached for mine, cupping it gently. “Do you feel that?” he said when a charge soared through me.
“Yes, I feel it.” I shivered. “When you touch me, I—” I stuttered trying to find the right words, “I feel alive.”
It was true. Since the first time he touched me outside of the café, my kidneys had gone from failing to my body feeling healthier than it had in years. When he held my hand running away from the Slayers, I was surprised I could keep up with him.
“Are you healing me?” I asked, shocked at my own revelation.
“I don’t think healing is the right word.” He wavered. “To be honest, I wish I had a more definitive answer for you. All I have is this.” He paused waiting for my okay. I nodded for him to continue. “I lived for many years in Empress. My aura, the energy, the magic I pass from me to you when we touch each other could be giving you enough energy to live, but…” He broke eye contact.
“But what?”
“I don’t know how long that will last. My health has already started to decline. Each day I spend away from Empress, I am closer to death.”
“For weeks, I’ve been torn between needing to see you again and wondering if I was crazy,” I said. “How do I know that any of this is real?”
Empress Unveiled Page 8
