Discovering Fae

I didn’t like how Grim looked at me after he came back with a sword. Determined and sad at the same time. Angry, too, like whatever happened out there was my fault. I suppose some of it could be laid at my feet, but I was in a cage for crying out loud. What could I possibly do right now?

I had curled into my wings again, trying to figure out how much longer I would have to wait before I was able to maybe get out of here. Fire came easier than before and both water and air seemed almost eager to move. Earth, however, I was having a hard time with.

Mom had called it the stubborn element and the most resistant to being changed. It was certainly proving it now. I never had a problem with it before, though. I had easily used it to trap and hold people before. I wasn’t sure why I was having problems with it now. The cage maybe. The fact that I haven’t felt Spirit since waking up in this thing probably wasn’t helping either.

“They’ve been lying to you, Fae,” Grim said and I moved my wings, tucking them back behind me once more. “They’ve turned you against me, told you I was dangerous, jealous... unstable.”

“You are all of those things. Current situation proves it,” I crossed my arms.

“I was forced to do this by their betrayals,” he shook his head. “I care about you, and they saw that as a threat to their plans.”

“And what plan was that?” I asked, tilting my head. “Getting through my Awakening? Pretty sure everyone wanted that to happen.”

“They wanted you because you’re special,” he said. “I always knew you were. I just didn’t know how special.”

He smiled as he looked at me now. Between the markings and the wings, I hardly looked anything like myself anymore.

“No one knew this was going to happen, you know,” I tilted my head a little bit.

“He knew,” Grim growled.

“Not even a little bit. He’s my Bonded,” I tapped my head. “He can’t anything from me.”

“He isn’t your Bonded!” he shouted.

“Fine. Think what you want but I still love him,” I crossed my arms again.

I could still feel the trickle of energy Blaine was feeding me and it was helping, just so slowly. I had to buy my time because I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew what he planned if things got out of his hands too much and it involved that sword.

“You don’t love him! You love me! I know it as surely as the sun will rise,” he stood up and started pacing.

“I love all of my family and I’m lucky to be finding more and more of it at every turn,” I shook my head and stood up, holding on to the bars. “I found my brothers. You, Blaine, Ben and Nando. I found the love of my life in Mal. I met my parents, an uncle, a cousin. In the past year, I’ve gone from completely alone to surrounded by people that care about me. I’ve done crazy amazing things I never in a million years would have thought I could do. I grew wings!”

I laughed and spread them out through the bars of the cage.

“You aren’t wrong in saying that I love you. You were my brother once upon a time and I will always love that version of you,” I said, letting my wings fold back against my body. “But once this is over, good or bad, I’ll forget all about Grim. I refuse to remember my brother like this.”

Mal

“It’s not enough!” I shouted as I sliced another enemy down.

I could feel myself getting tired, growing heavier with every swing of my blade. Ben wasn’t much better off. The only one that seemed to be holding up was Blaine, but even he was showing signs of exhaustion.

“If we stop, Fae will likely be lost to us again,” Ben shouted back.

“Blaine is devouring as much and as quickly as he can. It’s us. We aren’t bringing them close to death quickly enough,” I grunted.

“There’s two of us. What do you want us to do?” Ben snapped.

“This is a really bad time to not have magic,” I huffed.

“Perhaps I can help with that?”

There was a blinding flash of red lighting and the waves of enemies that were threatening to overrun us fell to the ground, leaving only the three of us. And Rollie.

“What are you doing here?” I snapped.

“You’re right. We have no right to judge Fae for her actions when we’ve made the same choices,” he put his hand on my shoulder.

Blaine growled and devoured the souls of the wounded before stalking over and bit Rollie’s leg.

“Yes, I’m aware that you will rip me apart if I prove to be a liability. If you decide that, be sure to devour my soul and send it to Fae,” he said. “I’m plenty tainted enough to give her a decent boost.”

We started fighting again as the fresh wave of enemies poured from the cave, this time we had Rollie beside us.

“Where is Naz?” I asked.

“His ability leaves no room for a hound to devour the soul, so he went to scout the other exits, in case they decide to try surrounding you again,” Rollie answered. “How is Fae doing?”

“Considering she’s being held captive in a cage that dampens her magic by a madman that used to be one of her Bonds, I’d say she’s doing swell,” I hacked at someone else. “Can you do that finger snap thing whenever you like, because now is not the time to be holding out.”

“I’m not holding out,” he answered. “I’m not as strong as I once was. I can only do that a few times. Maybe once more.”

“Better than nothing so quit complaining,” Ben growled and shifted.

“He is very unorthodox,” Rollie shook his head.

We were fighting for... Gods, I don’t even know how long. Days, it felt like, though it was more possibly a much smaller amount of time. Rollie was very skilled and technical, like someone who had been taught and trained in every move they made with a weapon. Centuries of experience hardened the lessons into a formidable cache that I would love to tap into when this is over with.

I heard a yelp, and my eyes went to Ben and the red bleeding wound on his side.

“Blaine!” I shouted, using my wings to launch across the battlefield and drive my sword into the enemy standing over Ben, about to deal the killing blow.

I grabbed the fox and held on to him as I fought off a surge of enemies trying to take advantage of my limitation.

“Mal!” Rollie shouted at the same time Ben snarled and tried to snap over my shoulder.

I screamed, feeling the white hot, searing pain in my back as one of my wings was cut. Red lightning came from the sky once more and I fell to my knees, dizzy from the pain as I looked at the severed half of my wing on the ground.

The world pitched and tilted as Blaine devoured the souls and Rollie spread his feet to keep his balance and they all growled. Ben’s fur stuck up on end and Rollie swore as his face went nearly as pale as Blaine.

“Wh-what was that?” I managed to get out through the agony.

“That was a whole lot of bad news,” Rollie said. “We need to regroup. Right now. The safest place is either with Fae, Mary, or Naz. My money is on Naz at the moment.”

“What?” I frowned.

“A Sin is coming,” he put my arm over his shoulder and Blaine picked Ben up in his mouth and we left to rejoin Mary and Quinn.