27.
Explaining the girls past to the Fae men was surprisingly easy as we continued our journey to the capital. Lucius looked concerned, but also suggested that the same people may have contributed to a similar event in the First Plane. Alvar shut that down quickly.
"Come on, Lucius." Alvar spat, slapping him lightly on the back of the head. It was the first time he really spoke up after I had scolded him to silence. "We've talked about this. Its no secret what the King has been doing. We know he's trying to take over this plane."
"More like destroy." Beast muttered in all our heads.
"What?" I snapped, glaring at all of them. "So now you agree that The Anima was lying, keeping something from us? What happened to 'they don't need an excuse, they're shadows.'" I finger quoted and glared at Beast.
"It is clear that she got to our heads. I wouldn't be surprised if there was something into that tea that made myself more susceptible to her influence, not asking further questions."
I wanted to yell a response, but a quiet snoring from the girl in my arms made me reconsider.
"So the loyal soldiers just nod along to everything she says and then say something different when out of the way of her wrath."I raised a brow, directing my thoughts only to Beast.
"She is the most powerful being in the First Plane. We were all most likely were also under her influence until they travelled here." I rolled my eyes at him.
"Not me." I retorted, "I am honestly not surprised. I am the one who said it wasn't as simple as she was making it out to be." I seethed quietly at Alvar and Lucius. After all, I'm the one with no ties to either of these kingdoms. Ihave no bias"
"You can't blame us." Lucius said quietly, "We couldn't have known."
"I know that." I snapped with a sigh, "It just makes me very sad, disappointed even, that your entire kingdom thinks of this place as the hell all the 'bad people' are sent and only wreck havoc in their free time."
"Well..."
"What!"
"I haven't exactly seen any nice folk here yet." Lucius shrugged.
"Don't be such a prick." I bit my tongue to keep myself from yelling, "You 'folk' aren't that nice either. Even Beast tried to kill us the first time we met."
"Good point." Alvar said quietly, raising his eyebrows at Lucius.
I almost smiled and then I remembered I was angry and frowned.
"Ugh! Beast, I think its time you and me had a little walk up ahead." Lucius sighed and pursed his lips. Beast snorted.
"What?" I asked, shifting Lucy in my arms, snoring.
"Let me take her for a moment, you two need to sort your differences out before we get to the capital." Beast nodded at the girl in my arms.
Nodding reluctantly, I gently placed the sleeping creature on the Gryphons back. She immediately sunk into the thick fur on his back and dug her sleeping fingers into the feathers on his neck. Knowing she was safe and balanced, I turned to Alvar. The others slunk off ahead, not straying far but not close enough to hear.
My hard gaze met a curly fringe that cloaked Alvar's eyes. Shoulders stiff, head down, he kicked up some dirt at his feet and nibbled on the inside of his cheek. I had the sudden urge to pick up a rock and throw it at him, for his appearance, although guilty looking, drove my heart into a frenzy and uncaged the butterflies in my stomach. Although I knew it wasn't real, it couldn't be. It was all a part of his plan to make sure I didn't abandon his world. I was certain he had glamoured perhaps more than just my trust and would run from me if given the chance.
"Why'd you do it?" My voice suddenly clawed its way up my tongue and lashed out in its agony.
He flinched back at the sound of my voice, but his lips were sewed shut. His silence broke the final thread that held my composure together and I began to cry. My face flushed as the hot water ran tracks through my dirt covered cheeks, lip quivering.
"Why'd you make me have feelings for you?" His eyelashes finally flicked up as he caught the quiver in my voice. His black eyes only made it worse and I melted completely. "You didn't have to make me! You knew I would have stayed anyway! So why did you do it?"
A scratch caught in my throat as I began to scream, not caring if the noise meant attracting something from the woods or if that put us in danger. all I cared about was getting the answer I wanted, one that wasn't a response to my question but something much deeper than that. For knowing someone returns your affection is perhaps the greatest feeling of all. It begins as a warmth in the stomach and grows until there is no more cold left in the world, only the heat of your two bodies.
But even still, Alvar said nothing. His chest rose and shuttered as it fell, an unsteady breath from an unsteady heart. I wondered for a moment if he feared answering truthfully, for he knew if that was the case, then there would be nothing left of me.
"I didn't." He spoke so softly I almost didn't hear him. He ran his tongue over his lips and raked his hand through his hair.
"You didn't what?" I threw my hands up in a fit of anger, the tears flowing harder.
"I didn't glamour you to care about me, if that's what you think." He was angry, angry that I thought he had glamoured me. But he did, did he not?
"Of course you did!" I had stopped screaming, but our voices were nowhere near a respectable level. "You did it the day you kidnapped me!"
"What?" Now it was his turn to star at me in disbelief, like he had forgotten, "I glamoured you to trustme, not love me."
"I don't love you." I snapped quickly, too quickly. His eyebrows lowered in pain, making it almost seemed like he really cared what I thought about him.
"I didn't glamour whatever you feel, it doesn't work like that. You may be glamoured, but your thoughts are your own. All my magic did was make you more willing to accept the things as you saw them, like Beast." He gestured to the empty woods ahead of us with a jerk of his chin.
"Then why did you let me have feelings for you?" I clenched my fists at my sides, my nails digging into the soft skin of my palms.
"I've already told you," He clenched his jaw, the veins popping in his neck, "I didn't want you to abandon us. And you wouldn't have left if you cared for one of us."
"But I already cared! Maybe not like that, but enough to stay! All I wanted was to make sure my family was okay, and then I would have come back for you all! And you know that; don't say you don't know that. So why did you have to kiss me if you didn't want me like that, Alvar? I would have stayed without it."
"Because I wanted to, okay! I wanted to kiss you! And now you've got this idea in your head that I didn't want this," He gestured between us, "but I do..."
I unclenched my fists, but didn't respond, knowing he could do more to explain.
"And yes, of course I knew that having you care for me would make you stay, but am I sorry? No! I'm not sorry for kissing you and I'm not sorry for making you stay."
"Well you should be sor—"
My words were cut off as he swiftly caught my face in his hands and brought his lips down to mine. I got lost in his mouth, his lips, and the gentle caresses of his tongue against mine. It was only when we were out of breath that we broke away from one another.
I tried to keep my angry frown in place as he began to grin toothily at me.
"Don't!" I pointed at him, a small smile tugging at the corners of my lips. "This isn't done." I gestured between the two of us.
"No, its not." He wagged his eyebrows and drew me closer to his body.
"I still don't forgive you." I drew my arms into my chest as he pulled me against his body, allowing myself the small distance to break away from his alluring influence.
"And I don't forgive you." I jerked away, appalled by his words.
"For what?" I exclaimed.
"For not letting me explain myself and getting so angry." He raised an eyebrow and laughed at my disgusted expression. It wasn't his time to be angry; he wasn't the one who felt tricked. "Just to clarify, I do have feelings for you too, Lyra. I just don't know what they mean yet."
I thought for a moment if that was enough. It was, as long as the uncertainty wasn't prolonged.
"So what's really going on here, Alvar? All that stuff about the Anima? Why have you only now changed your mind?"
"This isn't a sudden development, Lyra." Alvar sighed and ran his hands down my back, "You know that I have followed and protected you in the hopes that you could bring the Umbra, the Reckoning, to life. My world isn't what it used to be, and one little chat with the Anima isn't going to change that. I've heard many stories about that woman, none of them good. She may be our Goddess, but she isn't our saviour."
I nodded aimlessly against his chest. As much as I wanted to press him further about these stories, what he knew of the mysterious woman, I knew we had to get back to the others.
"Okay. Let's catch up with the others then. I doubt they went far."
Alvar sighed and released me. I reached for his hair and ran my hand through it, the soft curls falling between my fingertips. A small smile crept onto my lips; it brought me great pleasure knowing that just as he had a hold over me, I had one over him.
"You two kiss and make up then?" Lucius asked when we catch up to them, a smirk on his lips.
"Oh go shove it, Lucius." I spat, but I returned his smirk. Alvar was frowning.
"Enough of that," Beast sounded throughout all our heads, "We've got to get moving." I nodded and carefully picked up the sleeping girl from his back. She stirred in my arms, her large mouth poking from the jumper in a smile.
I smiled down at her and bounced her against my side. She giggled, cuddling closer to my chest and pawing at my necklace.
"Lets go then." I sighed and quirked an eyebrow at Lucius, still smirking.
He didn't respond, but he chuckled darkly and led the way back through the forest.
An hour later, when the sun had risen higher into the sky we were approaching the outskirts of the city. We had found a few more towns burned and broken just like Lucy's, but no more creatures or people. The landscape had become so barren that my mind wondered elsewhere; to the origins of the girl in my arms.
"Do you have any idea what Lucy is?" I asked the Gryphon.
He walked on all fours next to me, muscles tightening with each step. It appeared he hadn't heard me, or was lost somewhere very deep in his own mind. Carefully, I reached out and ran a hand over his beak, pushing it down a little to wake him from his trance. Air blew from the holes atop his beak as he began to shake his head. I smiled at him when he turned to me, but was worried. I had never seen him so lost in thought.
"Pardon, Lyra, I didn't hear you." He spoke softly inside my mind, and my mind only, Lucius and Alvar remaining ahead of us.
I wanted to press Beast on the matter of mind, but knew it wasn't the time or place. I could have extracted it from him, possibly entered his mind, but that seemed even more intrusive than assault. So instead, I repeated myself.
"Do you know what she is?" I asked again and shifted Lucy to my front.
She had a monkey grip around my neck and was drifting in and out of sleep. If she knew we were talking about her, she didn't seem to mind.
"Indeed, I think I do." He responded, pausing for a moment to lift a clawed paw and scratch the underside of his neck. "She is a Djinn, a very powerful creature when fully grown. She won't come in to her powers for another few years I imagine, so for now it is safe for us to talk around her."
"What do you mean 'safe to talk'? Is it something to do with being a... Djinn?" I suddenly felt extremely vulnerable and spoke through Beast's mind.
"A Djinn has the power to grant wishes. If you even accidentally wish for something, as simple as 'I wish this day would go faster', the Djinn has the power to grant you that wish. Once granted, it is allowed to feed on you whenever it likes. That's how they survive; by the blood of others. I imagine little Lucy here has never once eaten in her life, and wont until she matures."
"So she will literally be able to make the day faster?" I asked astonished, staring down at her with awe and uncertainty.
"No. Not quite. They can grant simple things by the way of spells, as the common witch, but the more complex wishes are achieved by compulsion. Someone who wishes for money, or to be rich, would find common objects, maybe the paper from the books in their homes, permanently turned to money notes. But to wish the day away, they can compel you to believe the day has past and then put you to sleep until the next morning. They're often confused with vampires among your kind."
"Well that's slightly terrifying."
If I was being honest, I was suddenly overcome with fear. If Lucy's parents had still been alive when we came through her town, we may have all been doomed to fulfil our silly wishes. I made a note to tell my sister, and my parents, to never wish anything along ever again, except in the comfort of our home. Beast, sensing my discomfort, chuckled.
"Do not worry, Lyra. They tend to gravitate towards the darker corners of your world. Drug dens, the homeless, and the overtly rich. And as you can see, not all wish to harm. They're given a bad rap for their feeding habits, but they only feed on those who fall into their care. Your family is safe as long as they stay away from dark areas of their your kind when casting their wishes."
"Thank god for that." I mumbled, mind still filled with images of my family visiting those places and becoming bound by blood.
Lucy stirred in my arms, awoken by my voice. She grinned up at me, teeth gleaming under the light.
"Idris says we are here." She giggled and the tiny creature emerged from her jacket. She had healed in the time she spent locked away in the fluffy jacket.
"We are where?" I asked both of them.
Alvar and Lucius had stopped walking up ahead, staring at the ground below them like there was something there I couldn't see.
"The palace! We are at the Palace!" Lucy exclaimed, excitement making her bounce in my arms. I put her down next to Beast and walked slowly towards the Fae men.
Coming to Alvar's side, feet crunching in the undergrowth, I saw the sight that captured their gazes. The ground came to an abrupt stop at our feet, falling away into a gigantic cliff. Below, amongst the trees and the undergrowth of the mountains, was the capital. Although it was miles down from my feet, I could see the intertwining buildings were writhing with life. But there was something wrong. Not a single colour was identifiable amongst the darkness of the city and the air carried only silence up the mountain. I squinted my eyes, trying to see anything that would tell me where to go or what to do next. But that was just it; there was nothing much to see. The realisation that the city had been levelled reverberated through my as subtly as a bag of bricks. The buildings I could see held no colour because only the foundations were left. The lack of colour wasn't due to the inhabitants, but the smoke that pummelled out of the broken rooftops. And the people moving about the city weren't just going about their daily lives; they were cleaning up the rubble from the streets.
"Are you sure my doppelgänger will be down there." I pointed to no particular building, for they were all as ruined as the others. "It's been completely destroyed..."
"I don't know..." Alvar trailed off, his hand coming to rest on my back. "I'm sorry."
I gave him a small smile, a simple quirk of the lips, but it was Lucius' brooding silence that scared me. Something had to be really wrong for him to be speechless.
"Lucy!" I called to the little girl.
She waddled over to me and reached for my hand.
"Does Idris know if the other... me... someone who looks like me is down there?" I asked unsure, squeezing her hand in mine.
Lucy tapped her ear and the tiny faerie emerged from her jacket. The Periwinkle whispered incoherently in Lucy's ear, sharp teeth flashing as it grinned.
"Yeah." Said Lucy, nodding. "She's down there. She's in the palace."
Alvar perked up and grinned at me. I frowned.
"But how do we tell which one is the palace? It's all been destroyed." I sighed and raked my hand through my curls. Something hard caught between my fingers. "Just great..." I mumbled to myself; there was a giant lump on the side of my head, likely the result of the hard fall between worlds I took a few hours earlier.
"Idris knows the way." Lucy picked up the small creature between her fingers.
They began to chatter amongst themselves, nodding and smiling at one another.
"She will show us."
"Thank you." The words slipped from my mouth. I gritted my teeth, but neither of the smaller Fae seemed to mind. I looked to Alvar, but his mind and eyes were elsewhere; Lucius' back.
"Go to him." I nudged Alvar's arm. "I'll ask Beast if he can fly Lucy and I down, you two can use your glamour I assume." He nodded, looking glum. "Hey, come on, we've almost got the answers we want. When you two are ready, we will meet you in that clearing."
I pointed to the only clearing of trees on the far side of the ruined capital. Swiftly, I gave him a light kiss and a wink, hoping to lift his spirits. He didn't smile; his lips only twitching, but that was enough.
-
-
-
-
-
Comment your thoughts!
Vote if you enjoyed :)
xx Charli
(unedited)