Discovering Fae

“What were you thinking?!” Mal yelled, his voice echoing off the stone around us as he snatched his sword from my hand and put it back in his scabbard.

“I’m not losing another person, Malachi,” I replied. “I can’t bring back Nando and I most likely can’t do anything for Zane, but I refuse to sit by and let the screwed-up circumstances that surround my life and infect everyone in it take someone else from me. And I sure as hell will not let one of you carry the burden of losing another brother when he could be stopped another way.”

“You didn’t know that, Fae! No one knew that because he’s too powerful! And that was before he fed on all of those souls!” Mal shouted.

“I submitted, didn’t I?” Blaine answered.

“Easily, which, I find disappointing,” Naz said, kicking his legs back and forth like a child in an overly large chair. “Why didn’t you fight? Hounds always fight their masters when they try to make them submit.”

“Hounds fight those that bind them because we never see our masters as worthy,” Blaine said, then looked at me. “Fae is different. The Fury was afraid of her. That makes her worthy.”

“That’s not the point!” Mal threw his hands up.

“No, it is the point,” Ben said, buttoning his pants and shaking a shirt out from his bag. “You aren’t a demon, Mal. You didn’t feel it.”

“Feel what?” I asked, confused.

“You tapped into your heritage as Immail’s heir,” Naz smiled. “You might want to get very familiar with demons, because that command you issued? It sent one massive wave through every demon in the Sidhe. Probably even out of it, too.”

“And that means... What?” I asked slowly.

“They’re coming for you, my queen,” Naz said and jumped off the rock to land in front of me, his hands in his pockets. “Some will come to serve you, others will judge you, but the ones you need to concern yourself with are the ones that will come to challenge you for the right to sit upon the throne.”

“I’m not a queen and I have no wish to be one,” I shook my head.

“That isn’t how it works, Fae,” he said, bending slightly at the waist to look upwards at me slightly. “Your mother rules the Sidhe by action. Your ancestors were chosen for that role, so you may step away from it, as you have. But the Infernal Throne belongs to you by blood and by blood is the only way for it to belong to another.”

“Oh no,” Ben whispered, going pale and Blaine growled softly in his chest.

“Yes, little fox. For the throne to pass to another, her blood must first bathe the seat before another claims it. All of her blood.”

-----

With that less than ideal bit of information, we left the crags and made camp for the night. Mal was livid, as I expected. Ben was pretty upset as well, which I had also expected. What I didn’t expect was for Mal to grab me by the elbow and drag me away from camp a good distance before letting me go and turning to face me, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

“I don’t know how to explain it, Mal,” I said, knowing what he wanted.

“Try,” he bit out and I sighed.

“Something told me to wait. Not run, but wait,” I said with a frown. “Not a voice, exactly, but not just a feeling, either. It was like something in me knew I had to do this.”

“I felt something in you,” he sighed, and scrubbed his hands down his face. “Something different. Not bad or good or even strange. Just different. It was still you, I think, but a part I just haven’t gotten to know yet.”

“You do know me, Mal,” I corrected. “All of me.”

“There is nothing that could make me not love you, Fae. You know that. I know that,” he said.

“There’s a ‘but’ coming,” I cringed.

“But I think all of these changes mean more than we know. Something is happening to you and it scares me, because it’s clearly putting you in danger,” he held his arms open and I stepped into them. “I want to keep you safe and I’m not sure I can do that. I don’t think I ever could.”

“Maybe you aren’t meant to protect me all the time,” I muttered into the side of his neck. “Maybe you’re supposed to help me learn how to protect myself and be ready for whatever is coming for us.”

“You think something is coming?” he asked and I could hear the frown in his voice.

“I think it’s been there since we got to the Sidhe,” I said. “So little, I didn’t notice it. But it’s getting stronger. Heavier. Whatever is coming isn’t good, Mal. I can feel the suffering and sorrow already building in my chest.”

“How much of this can we handle, Fae?” he asked, sighing, and I felt his own sorrow as he accepted what I was saying to him. “We’re all already broken and barely healed. How much more can we take?”

“Broken things are dangerous,” I leaned back and grinned. “Jagged edges, pointy bits, misfiring magic.”

He laughed and shook his head as I put my hand on his cheek.

“I am so scared, Mal,” I whispered.

“I know,” he put his forehead against mine. “I’m scared, too.”

“I feel like this storm is coming and it’s going to demand a price from everyone that we can’t pay,” I shuddered. “That something unthinkable is going to happen.”

“Then we should make sure you’re ready for it,” he kissed my forehead and took my hand as we walked back to the camp.

-----

With my wings, Mal can’t carry me anymore. I’m too heavy, and he made sure to be quick about specifying he didn’t mean ‘fat’. And Naz, despite his look, was freaking heavy, too. So, with the trail of the Morphi cold, and the wrong one, we left the crags.

I carried Naz, Mal toted Ben, and now that Blaine was bound, he was faster, so he ran below us on our way back to the grasslands. Once we were there, lessons began for all of us.

We learned that now that I had wings, I couldn’t fight the way I used to. So, I had to start over with fundamentals, to get the feel of how I felt with weapons in my hands. Mal’s sword was a little too long so I tried Ben’s daggers. They were better, but I didn’t like how close I had to be in order to strike. Naz was now my sparring partner, now that I was heavier. Until I became familiar with myself again, I could accidentally hurt Mal when striking, were Naz had the thicker skin and denser bones of a demon. He was also very old and his skills had been honed over centuries of use. Plus, the weaselly little demon was good at dodging my attacks, since I was now slow as molasses on top of it all.

During the day, we all sparred while Naz took us through demon studies. He also informed us that while many of the demons that would attempt to challenge me would be overly ambitious garbage, he was concerned about the Sins, since they were just as likely to support me as kill me. With him being the Lord of his House, he was able to keep the weaklings away from us while we trained, which is why we all froze and shared a look when we heard the heavy concussion of wings in the air, much like mine.

“Should we be concerned?” Mal looked at Naz.

“Yes,” he answered, lifting his lip. “I haven’t felt something like this in a very long time.”

“And it would be what?” I asked, shading my eyes as I looked up to see a huge wingspan coming down right on top of us. “Move!” I shouted, and flung out my hand, sending a wave of air to push them away as I brought up the daggers I had been using for the past week.

The clang of metal on metal echoed across the grasslands and my knees buckled at the impact, my wings shifting outward to keep me steady as I braced myself.

“Foul creature!” the man hissed and I noticed, finally, the almost golden glow and stark white wings held up and over him.

“Says the messed up angel attacking a girl, monkey breath,” I gritted out. I tucked my shoulder as I brought up my wings slightly, slamming them down and sending me forward right into his gut, taking the bigger man off his feet and slamming him into the ground.

He kicked me off, using our momentum to send me rolling over his head. I slapped my hand to the ground to keep my head from hitting it and breaking my neck and felt the ground shaking as large slabs of stone slammed together right where the Celestial had been seconds before, had he not taken flight.

“The Fallen One shall not return to this world!” he shouted, dropping from above like a rock.

I jumped sideways, laying flat in the air and using a wing to send a wall of air towards him, propelling him faster than he would have gone and slamming him back into the ground. I landed with my feet and hands dragging in the soil and one wing thumb hooking in deep to anchor me as I leapt forward and up, only to drive my knee downwards towards the Celestials head.

Sadly, he rolled away at the last second and I threw out my wings to shove him backwards as my knee met the ground. I spun around and held up both of my hands, feeling the anger in the storm cell miles away from us and calling it to me, unleashing it on the Celestial that was, once again, on the ground.

It hit him solid in the chest, lifting him up and sending him flying, completely stunned by the electricity as I shouted and launched for him once again, using my knees to pin his arms by his side and both daggers at his neck.

“Are you quite finished?” I breathed heavily. “We can go back to trying to kill each other later, but I think you might have the wrong idea.”

“Your foul words will not sway me, Abomination!” he hissed and struggled only to stop when I stabbed a dagger into the ground beside his head.

“Tell me, angel, if I was so foul, why have I not killed you yet?” I asked him.

“A single feather from a Celestial wing-.”

“Means nothing to me. I have plenty of my own,” I held my wings out so the blocked the sun. “And mine are prettier.”

“What devilry is this?” he whispered, eyes darting over the black feathers.

“Like I said, I think you have the wrong idea,” I huffed. “Momentary truce? I would like to know what in the heck is going on.”

The Celestial looked like he was going to start spitting out more insults, but looked at my wings again and clenched his jaw as he nodded.

“That was entertaining,” Naz laughed and clapped his hands in glee.