Discovering Fae

Between Naz’s demon homing thing and the Bond with Mal, Rollie wasted no time, getting me used to my magic. Literally, a few seconds after he told me that he killed his sister, he hauled my butt off the ground, and we got to work.

Since I was terrible at willingly reaching for the magic that was inside of me, the best way to get it to start working was by forcing it out and what’s the best method for that?

“Self-preservation, Fae!” he shouted as he literally tried to kill me. “It’s a powerful motivator if you let your instincts take over!”

He was legitimately aiming to skewer me right through the middle, lop off my head, or punch through my chest to crush my heart. Yeah, that one fracking hurt.

“I’m trying to let them take over, but you’re trying to kill me!”

“Obviously,” he rolled his eyes before leaping at me again.

I panicked. I dodged and ducked and tried to avoid getting turned into stuffing for a pillow, but I still got cut and felt the pressure growing in my chest.

“There! Right there! Feel it, Fae!” Rollie yelled.

“It freaking hurts!” I grunted, lifting the sword that Rollie had given me to get through this insanity.

“Let it in and it won’t.”

“I’m freaking trying!” I shouted and he slapped his hand over mine on the sword and I felt the pressure disappear from my chest.

“You aren’t,” he said. “You can’t run from yourself, Fae.”

“Seems to be working for you,” I gestured around us at his farm. “Is this the greater destiny you were supposed to have?”

“No. My destiny went hand-in-hand with Hadria’s,” he clenched his jaw and stepped back to stand ready again.

“What happened?” I asked, not lifting my sword again.

“You’ll have to read the journals in order to understand,” he sighed, sticking the tip of his sword into the dirt between his feet. “There were a lot of things that happened that... Well, they shouldn’t have happened. You were right when you said being blood relatives don’t make us family. Our path was never meant to end with us on a throne. I don’t know what we were meant to do, but when I killed my sister, I lost the connection to the Celestial side of our powers and the demonic parts grew weak. We were meant to balance each other, I think. One half of the whole.”

“You said that your family branch thought that you and Hadria both surviving the Awakening meant you were supposed to be on the throne,” I said, slowly. “They got in your heads, didn’t they?”

“At first, yes,” he nodded then held his sword up again. We started fighting once more before he spoke again. “We were young and impressionable. It’s not an excuse, just fact. We were pressured by the expectations that were put on us and driven into doing things by that ambition that haunt me still.”

“Like killing your twin,” I stated with an overhead swing.

“Like killing thousands of people because they wanted something different,” he corrected, blocking with his arm and swinging for my middle. “Both of us were so full of ourselves, so drunk on our own vanity and pride and rage, that by the time I realized what we were really doing, it was too late. In order to stop Hadria, I had to kill her.”

“That’s drastic, Rollie,” I grunted as I lunged for him, getting kicked in the side before I felt the pressure build in my chest again.

I groaned and tried to push it out, but it just dug in deeper and hurt worse until I felt Rollie’s hand land softly on my neck, draining the magic.

“The more of the journals you read, the more you’ll know just how true those words really are,” he said. “I don’t know what makes Fate decide what It does. I have no clue why It chose for us to have wings and set us on the paths to our destiny. I do know, however, that whatever the reason, you can bet every feather you have that ‘drastic’ might just become an understatement. You are the heir of Immail, which means you must sit upon the Infernal Throne. Like it or not, there is no escaping that destiny unless you wish to die. You are also meant for more. Something else that has yet to be revealed. Breaking the curse is only part of it. It’s what comes after that should worry you, Fae.”

“What comes after?” I asked.

“In the end? That depends,” he stepped back and lifted his sword again and we started fighting. “But either way, there will be war. The Celestials and demons both are holding grudges against each other. Once you sit on the Infernal Throne, the wars will begin.”

“I’d very much like to avoid that,” I grunted as I blocked a swing at my side.

“Things have been tense for millennia, Fae, but they have been, mostly, peaceful. That will only remain true while there’s balance to the two sides,” he gritted, moving his arm to bring his elbow down on my wrist painfully, making me drop the sword, then he slammed the pommel on his hand hard into my gut, making the pressure build again. “Once there is an undisputed ruler in the Demon Lands, the Celestials will scurry to appoint a military leader then fly for battle. They were running through the Horde nearly unchecked before the war ended the last time. The only reason why we didn’t go extinct is because demons reproduce quickly.”

I struggled with the magic some more, feeling the sweat roll down the side of my face before I was grabbed by the neck and slammed into the ground, the magic flaring before being drained away again.

“That hurt,” I groaned while I glared up at him.

“It’s meant to. You fight well enough. Clunky, but passable,” he said, lifting me up, by my throat, and putting me back on my feet.

“Fae!”

My head shot up and around just as the hum of Mal’s wings met my ears.

He had his sword out and aimed right at Rollie’s chest, flying far too fast to stop before he ran my cousin through.

“Wait!” I shouted, when Rollie twitched, about to move into defending himself.

I jumped up and met Mal, putting my hands over his on the hilt of his sword and pushing it down while I squeezed. Mal let go as the tip of the sword drove into the earth and I brought my sword up to stop Rollie’s blade inches from Mal’s neck, then spun, wrapping my wings around myself and Mal while also slamming them into Rollie, sending him flying backwards to land in a slide on his feet several yards away.

“You keep your hands off of her!” Mal shouted, grabbing for his dagger on his belt.

“Stop,” I put my hand on his and dropped the sword from my other hand to put on his face. “Mal. Stop.”

“The Bonded, I presume,” Rollie rolled his eyes and sat leisurely on the ground, one leg propped up and an arm resting on his knee.

“I felt you getting hurt,” Mal snapped.

“I promise, there’s a really good reason,” I said, forcing his hand down when he tried to draw his dagger again. “He’s not... Okay, he technically is hurting me, but there’s a reason and I swear, it makes sense. As much as I hate to admit it, I might have overreacted a little bit.”

“We’ll discuss that later, but only after he goes away,” Mal said.

“Introductions!” Rollie jumped up and waved his hands in the air like an overexcited child. “I’m her cousin!”

“You know those journals? The ones that wrote them?” I rolled my eyes shook my head.

“Hadria and Roltak,” he nodded.

“That’s Roltak,” I tilted my head towards Rollie.

“What?” Mal stood up straight, coming out of the fighting stance he had been in when I forced him to land.

“Fun fact,” Rollie held up his finger. “We age very slowly, but those of us in the family tree that end up with wings? We don’t age. At all.”

“Excuse me?” I looked at him sharply.

“Well, maybe a little bit?” he pinched his face. “I mean, I’m probably the oldest thing you’ll meet, and look at me.”

“Granny’s older,” I deadpanned. “Easily.”

“You mean... That primordial old windbag is still alive?” he gaped.

“Of freaking course, you know her too,” I rolled my eyes.

“Well, I’m the oldest thing you’ll meet that isn’t from the Dawn,” Rollie amended then rolled his eyes at my puzzled look. “Dawn of Time, Fae. Try to keep up.”

“Oh, sweet cheesy bits, my brain is about to melt,” I groaned and hugged Mal. “I’m sorry I took off like that. I promised I wouldn’t do that, and I did, and I’m sorry.”

“Wait,” Mal held up a hand and reached into his pocket to pull out a ring.

“Okay, gross, Mal. Why do you have the gross finger bone ring?” I lifted my lip.

“Because I’m not the only one with a bone to pick with you,” he looked at me sharply then rubbed the ring like a magic lamp. “No pun intended.”

“Interesting,” Rollie said slowly as Naz materialized out of the cloud of black smoke. They stared at each other for a moment before Rollie looked at me and pointed with his sword to Naz. “I take it back. That’s the oldest thing you’ll ever meet that isn’t from the Dawn.”

“This is not going to be entertaining at all,” Naz tilted his head to the side.

“Just how old are you, anyhow?” I asked Naz.

“How rude,” Naz crossed his arms, his tail flicking around his ankles.

“Are you still avoiding admitting it?” Rollie laughed and shook his head. “Oh, this is just too good, old man.”

“Watch it with the old man comment, whelp,” Naz hissed, then grinned, all sharp teeth and humor. “It’s good to see you again, though I could have sworn you were dead.”

“So freaking lost,” Mal said under his breath.

“Oh. He’s our uncle,” Rollie said with a smile. “Graloth the Nightmare King.”

“That sounds familiar,” I narrowed my eyes.

“He’s one of the Hundred. Immail’s younger brother,” Rollie laughed at Naz’s hiss. “Time to fess up, Uncle Loth. You’ll be needed before long anyhow.”

“You... Butt-breathed monkey sack!” I shouted and snatched the ring from Mal, throwing it at Naz and hitting him in the forehead.

“You really need to learn to swear better,” Rollie bellowed with laughter.