There was no way of knowing where Kael swept Alyvia off to.
The "big-brother-instinct" as Alyvia called it, kicked in while watching Kael's hand rest against the small of her back, steering them back into the estate and disappearing up the stairs. Reeves had tried to move after the two, planning to follow at a good distance to eavesdrop on their conversation, but he stopped. Both because Jenner held him back, and because he had the sudden realization that his sister was no longer a child. She had grown into a beautiful and capable woman. The way she was handling all of this sudden change, keeping her brothers in line, said enough about her character. And with that sudden realization, came pride, because Reeves wasn't afraid to say he was the one that raised Alyvia. Their mother died and their father left, and all that remained was Reeves.
He pushed the sudden flood of emotions aside and focused on the current situation: What could a fae lord have to speak with his sister about? And exclude the other two humans he was harboring.
He swallowed down a groan of frustration.
Jenner wasn't doing any better.
Vinny had ushered them back into the estate, showing them back to the rooms they had first woken up in. Each of them had their own bedroom, all connected through a little living area. Everything was a neutral white or beige, some gray thrown in, but very bare and plain. Reeves assumed it was that way to accentuate the many plants around the room leading to the balcony which had vines growing on the surface and branches looming close above.
Jenner lay on the couch, having commandeered a small ball made of glass from somewhere and was tossing it up in the air before catching it in his waiting palm. Reeves silently prayed his brother wouldn't drop it while he rubbed at his temples. He knew Jenner wouldn't, though—he has quick reflexes, and while the blond always seemed to not be paying attention, he had the senses of a lion, always watching.
"What's it like?" Vinny suddenly asked. She stood in the foyer to the common room, hands clasped in front of her. Her ears twitched from atop her head, swiveling as if they had eyes of their own arching forward, directed at Reeves when he shifted in his seat.
"What's what like?"
It was hard to tell against Vinny's dark skin, but Reeves saw the beginning of a blush anyways. "The human lands."
Reeves made an O with his mouth, eyes darting to his brother who smirked at the glass ball before throwing it back into the air. Reeves cleared his throat and turned back to Vinny. "Oh, well, it's definitely different than here."
Vinny rolled her eyes, swiftly moving forward and plopping onto the couch beside Jenner. "I know that, homo stultus." Vinny shoved at Jenner's legs, making more room for herself beside him. He grunted, almost dropping the ball before giving Vinny a glare, to which she glared right back. Reeves stifled a chuckle.
"I want to know what it's like. Do you really have armies that patrol the streets? Do you hold your dead in boxes and put them on display? Do you eat your pets when you grow tired of them, or they grow too old? And what's with all the rules? Fae have their own rules, but not like you humans. So strict."
Reeves stared at the woman in surprise.
"Your questions are stupid," Jenner snorted. "None of that is real. We have so many better questions. Ask them, Reeves." He looked over at his brother, gesturing back to Vinny. He seemed to plead with his eyes to do something with her.
"I thought you had an accent," Reeves voiced instead.
Vinny tilted her head. "Ah. That. Lord Kael thinks I am from the souther part of Grafgate, the part in Vecuria. Their accents are thicker and heavier than where I am truly from." Vinny plucked at a loose strand from the cushion beneath her. "He is an easy male to trick and please, ironically so. We will keep it that way, won't we?"
Instead of the abruptness to her voice from their first meeting, she now spoke beautifully, quickly, as if her voice was the result of wind blowing through grass. Soft, yet strong. Light, yet deep. It was a total contradiction to the image Reeves had begun to create for her; the timid maid who's voice broke in strange ways. It definitely suited her better, pairing well with her orange hair, tufted animal ears, and plethora of freckles.
"You're a strange woman," Jenner muttered, looking at Vinny in a new light. Reeves imagined he wore a similar expression.
"Female," she corrected. "I am no woman. That implies I am human, and I most certainly am not that."
Jenner leaned back, throwing an arm across the back of the couch. "Excuse me? What's so wrong with humans?"
Vinny's purple eyes widened in exasperation. "Really? So are you doing to deny you have armies that patrol your streets? You keep your dead in boxes on display? Are you going to deny any of those things, and more, aren't true?"
Jenner scrunched his nose. "What kind of stories are you hearing? Who is telling you these things?"
Vinny straightened. "They're stories our elders tell us so we stay away from the wall. You are our worst nightmares."
Reeves burst out laughing at that. Unable to help himself, he kneeled over his knees, gasping for breath. He knew both Jenner and Vinny were staring at him, but he couldn't stop. Once he started, there was no end. Everything began piling on top of each other; his conversation with Sid, the wall between the two lands falling, meeting fae, finding out they apparently can't go home. Each of those things were incredibly overwhelming on their own, but throwing them all together...pressure began to build at the base of his head and his laughter disappeared into a groan.
"He's losing it," Jenner faux whispered to Vinny before looking back at his brother. "Don't start going crazy on me now, brother." He rolled the glass ball in his palm, a look crossing his face that quietly told Reeves to shut up and stay quiet. A look that he had never seen on his younger brother before. It made him look older, more defined, a true warrior. He dutifully closed his mouth and leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest even as his head began drumming against his temples.
"Look," Vinny said, pushing a hand through her hair. She scratched at her ears, finger getting lost in the orange fur. "I've never believed in those stories, but many did. Many still do, and always will. Your kind are welcome here." She gave them a small smile. "I understand that you have been told wildly accusing stories about the fae as well. While I can't say not all of it is untrue, there are still some who are different. Like me."
Vinny looked proud when she said it. A slight flush came to Reeves's cheeks.
"Like Kael?" He asked before he had a second to change his mind.
Vinny turned her violet eyes to Reeves, a color he had never seen before. It had him growing uncomfortable the longer he stared into them.
"Kael Rockwell is many things."
The room fell silent, the brothers waiting for Vinny to continue, but she didn't.
"Wow," Jenner grunted, pushing himself up from the couch. "Super vague...super helpful."
Reeves sighed, rubbing a hand down his face.
Vinny let out a long and heavy breath. "I'll only say this once: you should be careful who you trust. Everything north of your precious wall is not always what it seems."
Jenner's voice was quiet, "What's going to happen now that it was...brought down?"
Vinny sniffed, rubbing a freckled hand over her arm. "Kael says it's going to lead to war. He says a darkness is coming, that it was foretold in one of his prophecies he's obsessed with. But really, no one had any idea." Her eyes met Jenner's before meeting Reeves's. "All I know is things are going to change, they already have."
"With three humans across the border?"
Vinny shook her head, hugging her arms around herself. "With three beings completely unaware of what they have gotten themselves involved in."
—
Reeves felt sick.
His whole body ached. A rock had formed in his stomach, pushing and pushing and pushing. Burning bile made his chest constrict. He squinted away from all the lights around the room, not wanting to antagonize his headache.
Vinny had another servant of the estate bring him a glass of tea with a pitcher when he dragged himself to his bedroom.
The bedroom made him more sick.
He had opted for the balcony then, hoping fresh air would help.
Except he realized quickly that if his room also had a balcony, and so did Alyvia's, and the common room, that they all did. And they were stuck in a tower.
Kael had given them rooms, yes, but he had given them rooms in a fucking tower.
He remembered reading fairytale stories with Alyvia about villains locking princesses away in towers, throwing away the keys. Keeping them there where no one could find them, where the world would forget them. Those stories usually ended with the prince running to save the girl. But this wasn't a fairytale, and there would be no happy ending.
At least not for him.
This time, he threw up the contents of his stomach over the side of the balcony.
A set of footsteps sounded behind him, gentle enough not to throb his ears, loud enough not to startle him.
Reeves spotted the blond hair swinging next to him before Jenner held out another cup of a dark liquid.
"I asked Vinny to take me to the kitchens—which are huge, by the way. Really nice. I made some of mom's old sick remedy. The one she used to make you when you got fits like this."
Reeves sniffed the cup, a calming sense of memory wafting over him, before downing the contents. Ginger and cloves mixed with chamomile tea and one mint leaf. It wasn't the best tasting concoction, but their mother had been giving it to them since they were little whenever any of them grew sick. Reeves especially, after they realized that he grew sick more often than his siblings, more often than any person they knew. He took up the recipe after their mother was gone.
"Did I make it right?" Jenner asked, looking at Reeves with an expectant look.
Reeves nodded, trying not to cough or gag. His voice came out thick. "Yes, just like mother's."
Jenner nodded in satisfaction with himself.
Reeves was glad for his brother in this situation. Being the middle child, Jenner was sometimes forgotten by others. So he found ways to stand out and become noticed. First it was learning how to read earlier than his peers. Then learning to cook with their mother. Learning how to fight, to talk to girls, even how to knit at one point. His need to stand out from everyone else turned into wanting to learn to do everything the world had to offer. It was remarkable, really. To have his mind set, and yet not at all, was a tricky line to walk. But Jenner managed it. He always seemed to manage walking those fine lines.
Jenner knew more about Reeves's condition than anyone else. After their mother died, Jenner was the one sitting in the washroom with Reeves while he purged himself of everything, down to bile and mucus. He had seen a doctor at a young age, but they had no name for cure for such an illness.
"Not yet anyways," the doctor always said with a curious smile. To which Dona Lebree cursed him out of the house, not wanting to entertain the idea of her son becoming a test subject. The doctors always came back though, because Reeves always got worse.
"When was the last time you had your medicine?" Jenner asked quietly.
"Ah, shit," Reeves groaned, remembering Malena had dropped off more for him just as he ran out. He hadn't been completely honest with her when she arrived that night. He hadn't just run out of medicine the day before, but actually the week before. Something in him wanted to see if he had gotten better, could live without the vile concoction. It seemed fine for a few days, but maybe he was wrong.
He forgot to take some that night, the meeting with Sidem taking priority in his brain. And then they'd been whisked away here. He hadn't been able to take anything to stave off the pain he knew was surely coming.
Danyel Danverz had been Reeves's hero back then. A small practicing doctor at the time, had offered his services to keep the fits, the pain away for a time. It had worked, tasted awfully like mud and vile alcohol, but it made Reeves feel like normal. And ever since, he had to take the concoction normally for fear of that monster returning to wreak havoc upon his body. But now...
He wondered if those leaves Kael had tried to give him would actually work. He hadn't taken them when they left the study, but when he entered the bedroom he found them on the nightstand. He had initially ignored them, but he told himself to try one before he went to sleep. Just to see.
Jenner rubbed soothing circles on Reeves's back now, like he used to when they were younger. Patterns of trees and flowers, of spring birds and pattering rain drops.
"What are we going to do, Reeves?" Jenner asked quietly after some minutes.
Reeves stroked a finger over the lip of the cup. The sick feeling had finally started to dissipate, but not disappear. He'd rather feel nauseous than hunched with pain he knew would happen when his sickness hit suddenly and was not tended too quickly.
"I don't know, Jen. I still don't fully understand what is going on here. But whatever it is, we'll get through it together." He looked at his brother, his yellow eyes being drowned out by the setting sun. "We always do."
Jenner smiled and nodded, continuing to rub Reeves's back. Continuing to imprint picture and stories into Reeves's body, a notable distraction and a pleasant feeling to his nerves. His eyes fluttered, and closed on the world around him.