by Renee Greene
Griff suddenly became very sheepish and backed away. Never had he heard Dylan so threatening.
“Are you all right?” Vanessa asked Dylan.
“I’m worried,” he admitted. “I have no idea how to fight a man who can go through walls and who I can’t even punch. My job is to hit anyone who tries to hurt you, and I can’t hit that man. It was the oddest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“What are eccentrics?” Vanessa asked.
“People with mutations,” Dylan answered. “Some are born with them. Some have their genes altered by medications. There are always side effects to medicines, and some people have severe ones. None of them fell in a vat of toxic waste.”
Vanessa smiled at his joke. “This situation is getting more bizarre. A few weeks ago, I had no idea there were fairies. Now, not only do I know they exist, but I know I am one. Now, we are finding out that there are mutants who can pass through objects. What’s next, aliens?”
“I doubt we’ll run into aliens,” Dylan explained. “FAE has three departments: Fairies, Aliens, and Eccentrics. Obviously fairies exist. You now see that eccentrics do too. I definitely believe in aliens. Why wouldn’t there be life on other planets? Yet, that department has never met any. It looks for signs and tries to communicate intergalactically, but they have had no success. You don’t need to worry about aliens coming into this situation and complicating it more. There is no current threat of aliens.”
“I guess that’s good,” Vanessa replied with a joking smile. She stopped near the door of the classroom and asked, “We’re dating? That wasn’t just a date because you were stressed and wanted to relax?”
He shook his head and pointed out, “Vanessa, I couldn’t have crossed through the arch if that is all I felt.”
“I’m flattered,” she admitted. Her eyebrows furrowed curiously and she asked, “Does this make us girlfriend and boyfriend?”
“No,” he answered. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for that. I just know that you have Prince Rayne, and probably a few other admirers in Elliad, and I don’t want to force a choice because I fear I will lose.”
She looked into his eyes. He was so heroic and so amazing. Yet, Prince Rayne could fly through the air with her, and they could shrink down and go into the pixie land together. Dylan was clearly the braver guy, but they were from different worlds.
“We need to get to class,” Dylan suggested, not wanting to hear that he couldn’t compare to a fairy prince.
They went through all their morning classes. Honestly, school was incredibly boring compared to the adventure they had just had. Of course, Vanessa could use some boring. Unfortunately, she couldn’t even focus on her classes. Her father was still captured. He was alive. She’d seen him, but when they left, he was captured and blindfolded so he couldn’t teleport away. Agent White was trying to work on strategy to save her father, and they were all talking to King Giles through the dragon orbs. Yet, none of them were sure exactly where her father was being kept or how to get through Evander’s forces to get to him. She was eager to save her father, but they couldn’t charge in without a good plan, so she would have to be patient.
The morning passed slowly. It was odd to have school as normal. Everyone else at school was going about as if nothing had happened, entirely unaware that fairies existed, that there were people trying to combine technology and magic to control people, and that there were people who had abilities like walking through walls.
Vanessa looked over at Dylan. He was answering a question about limits that the teacher had asked. Everyone else at school was just looking at him the same way they always did, entirely unaware of how he’d fought for her so many times, been wounded protecting her, and even gone into a fight to the death to save her. If only they knew the true hero he was. Yet, likely, instead Sydney would be mad at him. Who knows how many other girls would turn against him when they found out he was dating her? Dating her… did he really like her that much?
Her thoughts were broken because the teacher asked her a question. What had she even asked?
“What is the limit of one over x as x approaches zero from the right?” the teacher repeated.
Vanessa shook her head. The problem wasn’t that hard, but how could she think math with everything that was going on? Her brain instantly froze.
Dylan wrote the answer on his notes in front of him and showed it to her.
“Infinity,” she answered. Of course that was the answer. She should have seen it, but she couldn’t think.
“Correct,” the teacher said. “Now, let’s look at limits of quotients of polynomials.”
Vanessa really didn’t want to have to think deeply, but she tried to focus.
She was really glad when lunch came around and she didn’t have to try to think. Many girls were swarming around Dylan, asking about the fight they had seen where he stopped the men from pulling Bryan into the car. They had many questions for him, and he had become even more of a celebrity than he already was.
He evaded the questions, telling them that he had a job that was something like working with the police, so he wasn’t at liberty to talk about anything. That made the girls all the more interested in him.
He was happy when he was able to just sit down and eat without interruptions. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.
“We’re being watched,” he warned Vanessa.
“What makes you think that?” she asked.
Dylan motioned over toward the wall. A man was standing there staring at them. He wore a black hat and sunglasses, so they couldn’t recognize him.
“Is that the same man?” Vanessa asked, clutching his arm. Dylan stood up protectively in front of her and stared at the man.
The man went through the wall, and right after he did, they heard a girl scream.
“Come!” Dylan called to Vanessa and Bryan as he ran out of the cafeteria and around the corner.
The man was standing there holding a girl who was struggling.
Dylan ran over, pulled the girl away, and then punched the man, but again, his hand went through him. How was that possible? A moment later, the man hit him. How could the man hit him with a solid fist when Dylan’s fist had just passed through him? He again tried to strike the man, but it did no good.
The man swung at him again. As he did, Dylan grabbed his wrist. It was solid while he was striking, so he counter-punched the man in the face. The man staggered backward and disappeared through the wall.
Dylan thought of pursuing the man, but the girl was crying on the floor. She didn’t seem shocked about the immaterial man, so perhaps she didn’t see him go through the wall.
There was a large crowd gathered watching, but Dylan didn’t pay attention to them. Instead he told Vanessa and Bryan to help and knelt beside the girl.
The girl looked up at him. Her eyes were pink. That was unusual.
“Are you all right?” Dylan asked.
The girl said nothing, but looked into his eyes, reached up, and put her hand on his face. As she touched her hand to his temple, a strange sensation overcame him, something between a shock and a sedative. He suddenly had a glassy-eyed stare.
The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground with Vanessa on top of him. She had tackled him to break him away. He shook his head to clear it and saw the girl reaching for him again.
He grabbed her wrist and demanded, “Who are you?”
“You’re my hero,” she replied. “You saved me.”
“What were you trying to do to me?” he demanded. “Who are you?”
“Please, help me,” the girl begged. “I am Wilona. Who was that man?” As she spoke, she reached her other hand up to touch his other temple, but he grabbed that wrist too.
He pushed her back and called out, “Run!” to Vanessa and Bryan. He ran too, and Wilona ran after them. “Wait!” she called. “I only want to ask you questions. You want to come to me. Come back!”
Dylan suddenly stopped, turned around, and fell to his knees. Wilona
again came over and reached for him, but several of the guys from the football team pulled her back.
As she tried to pull away, Vanessa ran over to Dylan and tried to get him to come, but he seemed to be in a sort of trance. She wasn’t sure how to break him out of it because it wasn’t a spell, but she hoped that she could heal him. She knew the quickest way to heal him, so she gave him a kiss.
There were mixed reactions from the crowd, as they had no idea that she could heal with a kiss. Many people were calling warnings for them to leave.
It took a few seconds of a kiss to bring Dylan out of the trance, but once it broke, he saw the situation, grabbed Vanessa’s hand, and ran down the hall, calling to Bryan to come.
As they ran, the mysterious immaterial man popped through the wall and kicked Dylan into the other wall. It hurt, but Dylan got up.
As he did, the man grabbed Vanessa, but she shrunk to six inches, popped her wings out, and flew up to the ceiling.
Bryan called out, “Sguir,” expecting the man to stop suddenly in his tracks while they got away. After all, it had worked before, but the man was unaffected. He headed toward Bryan, but Dylan tackled him. When he hit the ground, he turned immaterial and got up and ran through the wall.
“Let’s go!” Dylan ordered. “He’ll be back, and Wilona may get loose.”
They ran out the door. Well, Vanessa flew. They could hear their classmates’ confusion as they ran, but they didn’t answer questions. They ran to Dylan’s car, hopped in, and he drove them home.
As he drove, Vanessa asked, “What are we going to do now? We aren’t safe at FAE headquarters. We aren’t safe at school. We won’t be safe in our house either.”
“The library is safe,” Bryan suggested.
“But we can’t live in the library,” Vanessa pointed out.
“We can’t,” Dylan agreed. “For all of our protection, and the protection of your mother and sister, we cannot stay here. The only safe place for us right now is Elliad.”
Vanessa took a deep breath to try to calm down and added, “Elliad is not safe either.”
“I know,” Dylan agreed, “but right now, it’s our best chance.”
Chapter 3: Vanessa Learns Why People in Movies Oppose Arranged Marriages
Bryan, Vanessa, and Dylan once again found themselves standing in front of the arch in the library. Bryan had a book in his hand.
Gail ran over and hugged Bryan then Vanessa. “Do be careful,” she warned.
“We will be,” Bryan replied with a hint of exasperation in his voice. “I keep telling you we will be.”
“I’m your mother. I worry,” she pointed out.
“We’ll be careful,” Vanessa assured her. “I love you.”
Trina ran over and hugged them too.
Agent White also said good-bye to his son, with Dylan assuring him he would be careful.
“There will be an ambush waiting through the arch,” Dylan warned. “Stay behind me.” That was a reasonable assumption, since the arch was being watched by Evander and Fardoragh’s men. Fortunately, they had been able to talk to King Giles and tell him they were coming, and he had assured them that he would have men there to help.
Dylan took Vanessa’s hand. “I’ll protect you,” he assured her.
Bryan then said the magic words they were all familiar with, “Elliad, entrare biblu ridd faeir ali iobiart.”
They had gone through the arch enough times that they were used to the blue light that swirled around them and whisked them through.
Dylan had his sword drawn as he went through, expecting to immediately go into a fight, but when they came through, there was not one.
Oden was standing there, and over a dozen of King Giles’s soldiers were with him, but there were no enemies.
“There weren’t but a half dozen,” Oden explained, knowing they were expecting a fight. “They fled when the king’s men showed up.”
“Only a half dozen,” Dylan muttered curiously. He looked at Oden and noted, “I would have expected more.”
“Evander has been very quiet since our your last trip,” Oden explained.
Dylan tensed, remembering the last trip. It had been very eventful, as he’d been in a fight to the death against one of Evander’s ogres. “I’m guessing Evander isn’t giving up,” he concluded. “What’s he planning? Any idea?”
“No,” Oden admitted, “but we are betting it’s big.” He motioned toward some horses and suggested, “Let’s get going. It’s best to get to the castle quickly. You are safest there.”
“I don’t know how to ride a horse,” Vanessa pointed out.
The horse neighed several times, and Bryan told Vanessa, “The horses will make sure that you stay on.”
“Did that horse just talk to you?” Vanessa asked.
“Yes,” Bryan answered. “Think about this. Dryads can talk to animals. Could they if animals couldn’t talk? They just don’t speak English.”
“The fairies don’t either,” Vanessa pointed out. “Why doesn’t the land translate the horses’ speech as it does all the others?”
“Different roots for the language,” Bryan explained. “Animal languages are too different for the land’s translation spell to work on. Think of it like it uses a different alphabet. English, French, and Spanish all use the same letters, but Russian doesn’t. Animal is more like speaking Russian.”
“But you understood it?” Vanessa asked. “How do you happen to know it?”
“Yes. Does it matter?” he answered. “Now, let’s get to the castle.”
Dylan and Bryan mounted the horses. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds because the horses didn’t have saddles. Bryan looked around as he mounted the horse.
“Looking for Nea?” Vanessa asked. She wasn’t mounting a horse, but shrunk to six inches to fly.
“She was here last time,” Bryan explained. “We are expected now.”
“Crush?” Vanessa asked.
“Guilty,” Bryan answered. “I’m not used to having girls notice me.”
Oden changed into a bird a flew over them as they headed to the castle. It didn’t take long to get there, and the trip was entirely uneventful. That was good, but it made Dylan very nervous. Evander was likely planning something big.
King Giles was happy to see them and wanted to hear what had happened with the eccentrics. He too issued the warning that although everything was quiet, that it was too quiet, and that likely something big was being planned by Evander.
“Have your spies been able to locate their father?” Dylan asked. “Do they know what is being planned?”
“No,” King Giles answered. “We know where they are living. They are at the ruins of Parval. That was a large castle in the mountains, and there are many caves around it, so Alex is likely being kept in one. We have no idea where.”
“You need a good spy,” Dylan pointed out. “Have you had someone infiltrate their organization for information.”
“We have tried before,” King Giles admitted, “but even races who cannot lie know how to get around the truth. We do have plans to send Nea. She is leaving tomorrow.”
“Does she know we are here?” Bryan asked.
“No,” King Giles answered. “She’s been doing fight training. I want to make sure she isn’t hurt.” He looked over at Dylan and suggested, “It would be good for you to train with a sword. I can get guards to teach you.”
“I’d appreciate that,” Dylan agreed.
“Can we give Nea some magic resistance before she goes?” Bryan asked. “I am going to go see her.”
“If I loan her my ring then it will be obvious she is a spy,” King Giles pointed out. “Perhaps we could get a protection spell against charm, or a strength spell, or something; but I know of nothing that will defend against all magic.” He eyed Bryan curiously for a moment and asked, “Can you do that?”
“I don’t know,” Bryan answered. “I don’t know what word I would use, nor do I know it would work if I did. My magic did not work
against the eccentric girl, Wilona. I am not sure what her power was, but she was messing with Dylan’s mind.”
“I felt like she was taking part of it when she touched me,” Dylan explained. “Perhaps she was trying to read from it. I don’t know. There was some connection, and when she told me to turn around, it was like it was my own thought. It was odd.”
“I don’t know any fairy who can do that,” King Giles noted, rubbing his chin curiously. “I would like to see this magic.”
“It’s not magic. It’s genetics,” Bryan corrected.
“Call it what you want,” King Giles responded, “but it is called magic in our world.”
Bryan accepted his answer, nodded to him, and informed him, “I will go see Nea now. After that, we can plan.”
King Giles was fine with that, and suggested that Dylan get training in sword fighting immediately, as surely something big was about to happen. He also suggested that Vanessa learn some about the pixies in their land.
“Is it wise to split us all up?” Vanessa asked. “I always feel safest with Bryan and Dylan around.”
“They cannot go into the pixie’s land,” King Giles pointed out. “Dylan needs to train so he can protect you. It would not be bad for Bryan to spend some time studying and learning to use his magic too.”
“Nea first,” Bryan stated. “Where is she?”
King Giles chuckled. “I’ll get you all where you need to go.” He called his guards to take the teens where they needed to go.
As the guards came over, Dylan took Vanessa’s hand. They were about to be split up, and he couldn’t even go where she was going to protect her.
*****
Vanessa was taken to Pixieland. Prince Rayne was waiting at the gate. He told her that King Giles had sent a message that she was there and he would send her over to learn of her kind. She immediately shrunk down and went with him.
She had seen Pixieland before when she first met Prince Rayne. He lived in the castle which was very near the gate, very near being a relative term due to the fact that the entire city was set up for people who were six inches tall and they all flew.
