Chapter 10
The windows were rolled down and music played softly in the background. Shayden sat with me in the back, an arrangement with which Miss Red, whose name I’d been informed was Mimi, was entirely unhappy about.
“I seriously don’t understand why one of you can’t sit up front. The air is better, the sun is brighter, and all in all it would make me feel an immense amount better.” Mimi huffed and puffed and blew the hair out of her face as we giggled at her continuous babble about the injustice of looking like a common hired-helper.
“Probably because that irritates you more, and right now your voice is less irritating than your discomfort is amusing. Therefore, we’re staying right here.” Shayden jumped up and down in the seat like a kid.
“Shay, look! I can’t believe how amazing those waves look.” Shayden and I were grinning slyly at one another, a look that Mimi, apparently, didn’t miss.
“No way! We just got this car cleaned and serviced, and now you want to get it all dirty by driving it up to the beach. Not a chance!”
“Excuse me, but I’m pretty sure that where this car goes or doesn’t go, considering it’s mine, is up to me. So put on your sunglasses and a pair of flip-flops Mims, we’re going to the beach.” Shayden and I were still giggling and playing around when Mimi slammed on the brakes.
Nixie’s face was scrunched into the headrest of the seat in front of her; Shayden had been knocked right off the seat and was lying there holding her arm; and Mimi was sticking her head out the window, looking up at the sky.
“What the hell, Mims? What’d you do that for?”
“They’re up there; watching us.” Shayden’s face paled.
“Who is?” Nixie leaned over to the window and just as she was about to stick her head out of the window Shayden grabbed onto the back of her shirt and pulled her away from the window just in time for a bullet to go whizzing past her, where her head had just been. “What the hell is going on here? Did somebody just shoot at me?”
“Nixie calm down; you’re going to be fine, just stay away from the windows.” Shayden moved so fast that Nixie could barely even see a blur as she stretched to take a peek out the window and ducked back in. Bullets started raining down on the car. Little bullet-sized dents were forming all over the roof, mostly directed towards the back of the car. “Mirah, drive! We have to get out of here and keep Nix safe!” Without thinking Shayden wrapped her arms around Nixie and pulled her down to the floor of the car.
“Did you just call her ‘Mirah’?” Shayden’s eyes widened for not more than a fraction of a second before they turned soft and, obviously, guilt was written all over her face.
“I’m really sorry Nix. I didn’t want to lie to you about who Mirah was. I just didn’t think that introducing myself as the person who had freed a ‘convict’ was the right way to start this.”
“What do you mean by ‘this’? Is Shayden even your real name?” Shayden held onto Nixie’s hands, even though she was fighting to pull them away.
“Please understand, there are many things I need to explain, and although I really want to tell you them right away, there is simply not enough time, nor is this the right place.” Shayden cupped Nixie’s face with her hands and made her meet her gaze. “Nixie, I cannot tell you how much I care for you, for fear that I will chase you away. But I can promise that the way I feel cannot change. Should you reject me and deny the bond between us, I would never seek to fill the hole in my heart with anyone else. I can’t even imagine it. I just know that we’re supposed to be together. Those who are up there know that, and that is why they are trying so desperately to either take you from me, or me from existence. Either way they would have won.”
“Who are ‘they’?” Nixie couldn’t help it, she forgave her without question, it wasn’t a fact of just blindly believing what Shayden was saying, it was a case of knowing with everything in her that Shayden was telling her the truth.
“No time for that, let’s go. We’re coming up to the tunnel now you guys have to be ready to leave the car and run as fast as you can. The Port is not far from the Eastern Tunnel passages.” Mirah was driving like a lunatic, swerving between cars, even drifting around some, yet she handled the car with such confidence that it seemed she’d been driving for far longer than her youthful looks suggested.
The car made a sharp turn into a dark, dimly lit tunnel. Mirah sped down the tunnel, further and further and further along until we came to a sudden halt. All the lights went out.
“On the count of three; one, t-…” Bright lights shot through the darkness, before Nixie had time to register what was happening Shayden was dragging her out the left backdoor and towards a large metal door. A large gun had materialized in Mirah’s hands and she was firing shots like crazy out into the dark tunnel.
“Hurry, Shayden, they’re closing in real fast, I can’t hold them off forever.” Shayden replied with a quick ‘yes’ and went straight back to drawing strange patterns on the door. “Shayden, look out, they’re almost here!”
With a final flick of her wrist, Shayden finished the final part of the pattern and the door seemed to become covered in bright glowing runes. Shayden pushed against it and it swung open to allow us entrance into a mostly-lit passage.
Mirah fired off her last few shots and sprinted toward the door. Behind her a small flash of light materialized into a large, muscly male with wings of such white feathers that Nixie’s eyes hurt just looking at them. Mirah was about to turn around to face him when a black arrow buried itself in his chest. The winged-man gave a low growl before falling to his knees and finally pushing the arrow deeper when he fell, face-first, onto the cold tar.
“Mirah, don’t dawdle, we must leave now.” Nixie stared after Shayden as she tucked away the small black bow and its quiver of arrows into a black bag she hadn’t seen before.
“Come on Nixie!” Mirah pulled Nixie after her down the passage. Behind them they heard the large metal door slam shut. They ran for what seemed like miles until they reached another large door, yet this one was made of a light oak. All along the border were more strange runes and after touching them randomly – yet probably in a specific order – Shayden opened the oak door to reveal a large white room.
“Go set the portal to transfer us to Falls Plain.”
“Shayden, why aren’t we going straight to Wingdom?”
“Mirah, I’m not sure we’ll be going to Wingdom. The Queen is, well, she doesn’t seem to be on Team Shayden at the moment.”
“Queen Shailer is merely concerned for her country. Shade, after all, was supposed to have been born first. Had you not come along prematurely, Wingdom would have its very first semi-human Queen.”
“And what, she thinks just because our Queen would be half-human that they’d suddenly welcome our kingdom back into the fold with open, non-electrified arms?” Shayden paced up and down the room with a tortured look on her face.
A loud banging rang out across the room. All three women turned to look straight at the door. The vibrations grew louder and louder as the time between bangs became shorter. Shayden nodded to Mirah who ran over to an electric panel and started typing something in frantically. Nixie moved to stand beside Shayden on the portal pad.
The pulling began deep in her gut. Nixie and Shayden began to fade from existence in Blue Plain Two while Mirah worked to clear traces of where they’d travelled off the computer. The final timer started counting down from five. Mirah gave a final few taps to the computer and rushed towards the pad.
Three.
Two.
One.
At the very last second Mirah managed to get a firm grip on Shayden’s hand and was pulled into the portal pool. A blue hue surrounded them and blocked all vision. A hand reached out and latched onto Nixie’s arm as she fell through a seemingly tangible space.
When the thick air cleared they found themselves standing on a portal pad which was identical to the one they’d previously been standing on, yet the surroundings were completely unlike the white, metal-filled room of before. This portal pad was located in the middle of a vast and vibrant forest. Nixie’s eyes followed the natural curves, crevices and creeks the made up a sparkling blue river which ran directly down the middle of their path. When she reached the end on the river she saw it fade to nothing.
“Where does the river flow to?” Nixie walked alongside the river searching for a glimpse of the ground to which the water fell. Shayden and Mirah merely followed silently behind her as she explored the paradise that was Falls Plain. Nixie reached the edge and looked over… at mist. “The water disappears.” Nixie turned to look at Shayden and Mirah in shock.
“The water doesn’t disappear, it just evaporates into steam. It floats back up to the peak of the island and condensates, just to flow all the way back down and evaporate once again.”
“Wow.” Nixie looked up at the cobalt blue sky, looked left to see the peak of the mountain, and saw the water pouring back into the river as if by an invisible hand. When she looked back to Shayden and Mirah her smile turned upside down. “You two better start explaining.”
Mirah rolled her eyes and slapped Shayden on the arm, laughing as she walked away telling Shayden she should sort her own ‘women troubles’ out because she had enough of her own.
“Women troubles?” Nixie raised her left eyebrow and look to Shayden in question.
“She means Alana.”
“Ah, and what of the ‘this’ that you mentioned earlier.” Shayden hung her head and looked away. Nixie stepped closer to her and placed her hand gently on Shayden’s shoulder. “I’m not trying to pressure you; I’m just trying to understand what’s going on. Why you look at me the way you do, why that look makes me feel like nothing but melting jelly, and why we both don’t even seem to care that it’s happening.”
“Nixie, there is just so much about me you don’t know…”
“Then tell me! Please, I want to know. I don’t know what you have to say but I’m pretty sure that whatever it is I probably won’t even care.”
“You can’t say that.”
“No, but I can promise that I’ll listen and I’ll try.”
Shayden paced in front of Nixie. From right to left, tree to boulder, east to west, on and on. Shayden was nibbling at her lip nervously as she tried to come up with the right words, the right way. She saw a bed of dried grass in a nearby clearing. She grabbed Nixie’s hand. They trudged through the tall grass. The sat down. Shayden finally looked up to meet Nixie’s eyes.
“I’m a night-flyer.”
“What’s that?” Nixie actually seemed genuinely interested. Shayden smiled and wrapped her hands around Nixie’s left one, leaving her right to rest hesitantly on Shayden’s lower thigh.
“We are winged creatures, creatures of the Air. We don’t work the same way as humans or even most of the rest of our kind. We have extra… limbs. And-.”
“Extra limbs?” Nixie searched Shayden for a sign of an extra arm or leg. None were found. Shayden laughed and shook her head. She moved one of her hands and lifted up her shirt.
“I hide them.” It was a simple statement; one which couldn’t have been more ominous had it been used in any other context. A light shimmering across Shayden’s finely-toned abdominals revealed the reason for Shayden’s nervous and pained expression. Nixie couldn’t take her eyes off of them. She stared for the longest time; hearing voices shouting in her head. ‘They’re ugly!’; ‘Disgusting!’; ‘Atrocious!’; ‘Have they always been there? She’s a deceiver!’ Nixie’s mind was in utter turmoil.
Finally she dragged her eyes from the sight of Shayden’s stomach and stared into her eyes. She saw the glimmer of hope dim and die. Shayden moved to pull away and Nixie held her fast. She wasn’t sure if it was because her hand was frozen in its grip of Shayden’s hand, or if it was her natural instinct to keep Shayden close. A look passed between the two and a calming silence settled around them.
“Stay. Please.” After a while Nixie was joined again by the girl with the tightly curled, blonde hair; and they looked into each other’s eyes. Never before had Nixie seen someone whose eyes were such a pale blue, an almost white hue. She’d never noticed how they brought out the colour in the fair, unblemished skin; nor how the light caught them, the mirrors which told only truth, Shayden was fair, too fair, both inside and out. And there - in that moment - lay the answer to her mind’s troubles.
“So what are these?” Nixie looked down to Shayden’s abdominal area. Shayden, for the first time, blushed profusely and let out a deep breath.
“They’re the parts of me that make me, me. They are what give me the ability to become who I will one day be. And, should you accept me, they are what will seal the bond between us.”
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