Chronicles of The Crescent Court

3 (Part 1)

An army of small, glimmering white lights was staring down at me.  Against the deep haze of black and fuchsia that surrounded them, they seemed even more brilliant. Almost burning to be noticed against the darkness.

I was looking into a twilight sky somewhere cold and unfamiliar.

My mind felt groggy and my body was unnaturally stiff. I strained to move an inch, to twitch a finger at least but, the more I tried the harder some sort of invisible pressure would force me down, restricting any movement. I inhaled slowly, already feeling the panic starting to build.

Why, God?

From the corner of me eye I could see I was crowded in this space. Wooden crates, metal boxes, jars with curious creatures I couldn't tell apart from living or dead were all lying atop a lumpy bed of hay and old-smelling fabrics.

A sudden jolt sent everything, including myself, flying into the air and back down with hard thud. A small yelp escaped my throat at the slight pain. I was in a wagon.

"Great, you're awake." a masculine voice chirped from behind the front folds of the canvas enclosing me. The pressure on my body lessened ever so slightly, enough that I could crane my neck and see through the thin space between.

"Should be able to speak now too." he voiced again, the sound oddly familiar to me.

Taking his word for it, I forced a small cough out of my body. It felt like someone had rubbed sandpaper against my throat and left it to burn but at least there was sound. 

Painful as it was, I managed to croak out, "Where are you taking me, sir?"

His hooded figure had been bouncing freely with each bump of the road, but I could swear I saw him tense at my question.

"Well Miss Edie, I'll be takin' ya to a family down near Duron's Lake. They'll be more than happy to have ya."

"Eden." I corrected, "Where is Duron's Lake?"

"Never been, I take it."

No, I hadn't. I had never traveled anywhere outside of the woods and human-friendly market places. Adeline and Almeda had always forbid me venturing without...without...

ADELINE AND ALMEDA!

It came rushing back to me. Their strange behavior, the alley, the relic!

I couldn't believe how stupid I was being! How quickly I was numbed to possibly the most traumatic experience of my  life, however much of it was left!

The man driving the wagon turned toward me enough to reveal just his deceptive brown eye. Despite the liquid rage threatening to burn through me, all I could muster was my flaring nostrils and biting my lip until a bitter metallic taste greeted my tongue.

"Mulligan." I seethed. If I could curse him with just his name alone his body would've already hit the dirty path he was snuggling me over.

"Are ya only now recognizing me? I must'a hit you harder than I meant to."

"Damn you! Where are you taking me!?" I screamed as loudly as I could, never minding the awful pain it caused.

"Don't listen very well do ya?" he laughed awkwardly.

I could feel my body physically heating from the rage I felt but all it did was bubble beneath the surface. The angrier I felt, the worse the pressure of what must've been Mulligan's power became, pressing me deeper and deeper into the uncomfortable bedding as if he could've seen my hatred.

My heartbeat was frenzied, I struggled to breath.

What was going on here!?

"I'd calm down if I were you," he said, "I won't let ya up and you'll just end up passin out again."

So he had knocked me unconscious after purchasing me like some common scrap at a marketplace? Lovely.
Bitterness was swimming in the red of my emotions now and I saw the faint blackness trying to fade in once again.

Calm down, Eden. Focus.

More deliberate, slow, and shallow breaths left me lips, though I could steal feel myself shaking inside. He was taking me lake. Fine. But to some human family?

Was he an idiot?

No families would willing take in a half-breed, least of all humans! They'd all be killed on the spot as soon as my marks were spotted! Who could be so foolish?

"What family are you taking me to? Why?" I asked carefully, struggling to bite back the venom behind each word.

A deep sigh followed his overly large body stretching uncomfortably. I could accept that he had power, he'd used it enough to prove that much. How much longer could he keep it up? I found myself chewing on my lip again. Would he tire enough for me to escape?

"I don't see the difference in tellin' ya now and you findin out on yer own."

Wanting to hurt him will hurt me right now.

"Mulligan...you're a half-breed. I am too. You've kidnapped me. I can't move. I have no one and nothing but my life left....the least you could do is tell me who you're handing it over to." I wanted to sound numb. Like I didn't care one way or the other. Yet, my teeth were clenching. The tears I'd been fighting were already spilling over with each word leaving trails of heat across my face.

Another sigh as if this was all so bothersome for him. Perhaps he'd consider that the next time he took someone's freedom!

For a moment, I thought he would ignore me. I could feel his duality as he considered it but, in the end, the wagon had come to a much slower pace, the power that held me lightened enough so that I could freely sit upright, though I had no control of my hands or arms. Those he kept held as Mulligan turned to face me fully.

Once again, I was stunned by his features. As he faced me now, I could not tell him apart from any other human man. His golden eye hidden beneath a brown facade.

He was glamoured.