Allegiance (6 page)

‘Because you did
such
a good job of it a few months back,’ Mum fired.

Before I could respond to her, Dad said, ‘Sorry love, I understand your disappointment but I don’t think it’s a good idea.’

My face began to burn and it must have shown because Dad reached for me and said, ‘Amy—’

I snatched my arm away. ‘Dad, do you think if you go on calling me Amy forever it’s going to make me human? I’m not human, I’m
Fae
and I want to go with my
Fae
grandparents and help them find my
Fae
brother!’ Without waiting for a response, I turned and fled to my room, slamming the door behind me before crashing into bed. All of my life I’d been watched and fussed over—my food consumption checked, my body scrutinised, dragged off to a new specialist every second week. And now with only a few months until my eighteenth birthday the situation was worse than ever. My parents didn’t have one bit of faith in me.

Jack came in and sat on the edge of my bed. I wriggled close and he put his arm around me. ‘I can’t even scratch myself anymore without them asking what’s up,’ I complained.

Jack brushed a hand up and down my arm. ‘You were so sick when you came back from Faera, Marla. They’re not over it.
I’m
not over it!’

‘They can’t bubble wrap me forever.’ But a heavy feeling was closing around my heart. I pictured my father sitting at the table, face in his hands. He didn’t need this.

If Jack was going to respond, he didn’t get a chance because Asher and Faun came into the room. I sat up quickly, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. ‘I’m sorry I’m not allowed to go,’ I told them.

Asher trapped me in a long lingering look—all huge blue eyes, cupid-bow lips and shimmering gold curls. He appeared the sweetest of angels only with crashing-together eyebrows and a dash of steel. My discomfort at his scrutiny grew—it felt like he was seeing me from the inside out. And just when I thought I couldn’t stand it anymore he said, ‘You are a
child
, Marla, and as such you must honour your parents and accept their decisions with grace and fortitude.’

I felt my cheeks flush. ‘I’m seventeen,’ I told him, hardly able to believe my cherub-faced grandfather was telling me off.

Asher didn’t hesitate. ‘Until you reach the age of immortality you are a child and it is your father and mother’s right and obligation to make choices for you as they see fit.’ A moment later he added, ‘These people have raised you, Marla. They have made sacrifices to keep you safe in this harsh world. You have hurt them with your behaviour.’

I watched my toes turn white against the floorboards. While I couldn’t agree with the whole ‘child till you turn eighteen’ thing, the shame over the way I’d spoken to Dad had now
smothered every bit of my self-pity and settled into my heart like cement.

I sucked in a breath. ‘Yeah, I know,’ I said, letting it out again before getting up.

After I’d apologised to my parents, Dad said, ‘If you’d rather be called Marla you only had to say.’

I dropped my forehead to his shoulder. ‘I don’t mind what you call me, Dad.’

He pulled me into a hug and after he’d released me said, ‘You don’t understand how hard it is for your mum and me to let you go, love. You’re so fragile, and after what happened…’

I looked up into his eyes. ‘But I wouldn’t be alone, Dad.’

‘Marla,’ Asher said from behind me, his voice laced with authority.

I closed my mouth.

‘If we were to let you go, how would you get there?’ Dad asked.

‘We will go via Faera,’ Asher said. ‘It is perfectly safe, and providing we plan our journey taking synchronised daylight hours into account it will be swift also.’

‘What do you mean?’ Dad asked.

‘Sunpaths between Earth and Faera are only open when the sun shines in both places. Your Mount Kosciuszko is almost always open because our daylight hours are so similar. But it is not so in other parts of your world. Usually the window of opportunity is much smaller—sometimes only a single hour.

‘So if you want to get from here to another country quickly, the sunpaths need to be open at the same time,’ Jack said.

‘Exactly,’ Asher agreed. ‘Otherwise a night stop in Faera is necessary.’

‘Well
Amy
can’t stop in Faera,’ Mum said, sounding almost triumphant. ‘She lost the right to be there at that ridiculous assembly!’

For the first time since telling it, I regretted my lie. Mum and Dad had always taught me and Ashleigh that lies will come back and bite you in the end. Then again, my truth was even worse. I glanced at Asher. He was watching me closely. So in the spirit of accepting my parents’ decisions with grace and fortitude, I bit my tongue.

Asher smiled and nodded before looking my mother’s way. ‘A night stop in Faera or not, we would always first seek the permission of our king,’ he said. ‘But I don’t believe a stop would be necessary. I am almost certain Australia’s mornings are America’s afternoons.’

‘They are,’ Jack said, taking out his mobile. ‘But how late in the afternoon depends where you’re going.’

‘California,’ Asher said. ‘Mount Whitney.’

A minute or so later, Jack tucked his phone away and said, ‘Okay, so 7am here is 1pm there.’

‘And just after sunrise in Faera,’ Melody said. ‘Perfect!’

My parents looked at each other and for a moment it seemed as though they had the whole betrothed telepathic thing going on. I watched Mum give Dad a nod.

Dad turned to me and said, ‘You can go… just for a few days. But I’d like Jack to go with you and please, be careful.’ His eyes were pleading.

‘Yay,’ I cried, throwing my arms around his neck.

‘There is no need to be concerned,’ Faun told my parents. ‘There is nothing more valuable to any of us than our granddaughter.’

Mum and Dad only looked a little reassured.

As long as Jack kept his grades up, his parents were pretty relaxed about where he went and when. Last year they bought him a car for his seventeenth and when he passed his driver’s test a couple of months later, he and Peter drove to the snow for a week. Jack’s only issue was what he should tell them about
this
trip. In the end he told them we were going away for a short break ahead of the exams. The hardest part, he said when he called me afterwards, was convincing his parents that mine had agreed. With Jack sorted out, I took myself off to bed early.

Of course I couldn’t sleep. The idea that this boy in America was likely Lysander had me tossing and turning for hours. I could hardly wait to meet him and learn about his life. Had he been adopted by an amazing human family like mine? Were his friends always there for him when things got hard? Did he have the same challenges as me? Had he always thought himself weird? I fell asleep finally, praying that wherever my twin was, life in the human world hadn’t been too difficult for him.

The next morning, Leander left for the Kingdom of Telophy just after sunrise, returning a couple of hours later with the king’s consent to travel through Faera with me and Jack. A short while after that, we were on our way to California, thoughts of my brother whirling in my mind like snowflakes. But as Mount
Kosciuszko began to take shape before me, my thoughts drifted to more disturbing things. Though I’d completely forgotten every detail of Leif, the memory of his father was burnt into my mind: the frozen dark eyes, the sneering mouth, the way he’d looked at me—so knowing and sure. And that kiss—the way I’d fallen into it completely! I shivered at the memory, a hint of longing heating the disgust. What if he was in Faera, waiting for me? I thought I might throw up.

But I made it to the mountain’s peak with my breakfast intact, my worries pushed to the back of my mind when Asher began issuing instructions. He directed us each to face Jack, who was busy doing stretches and breathing exercises as though he were getting ready for a marathon. We formed a tight circle around him, pressing our bodies close, putting a stop to his preparations. Then Asher told us to hold tight to my boyfriend with one arm and to the person beside us with the other. We were like a group of Emperor penguins packed together with Jack in the middle. I wondered how he could even breathe.

Then Asher said, ‘In order for Jack to accompany us he must become bathed in our sun. He cannot absorb it, but requires it to make the journey. It will not be enough to simply release our sun, we must direct it to him. We need to make him our focus; behave as one being with Jack as our centre. Now, open your wings and upon my count of three, release your sun.’

Along with my grandparents I opened my wings. At once a great tangle of flickering light enclosed us—my pale pink, Faun’s Autumn orange, Asher’s sunshine yellow, Melody’s lilac, and Leander’s, like the bright aqua of a sunlit wave. On my grandfather’s count of three, I pushed my stored sun towards Jack with all of my strength. I heard him cry out as the tingles that raced through and out of my body met his. And then my feet left the earth and we became consumed by the tube of burning light.
I wanted to ask Jack if he was okay, but I was unable to speak and, despite the huddle of us, felt alone. I could only squeeze my eyes tight against the bright and hope he was doing the same. Like every other time I had journeyed to Faera, I knew I was moving, but the motion was so smooth as to be almost undetectable. But there was a heaviness to this journey that I hadn’t experienced before. Worse, it felt as though my insides were being dragged out along with my sun. And just when I thought I couldn’t endure another moment of this excruciating new feeling—that I might erupt from it—I felt the ground beneath my feet.

I collapsed, overcome with exhaustion and relief. When I opened my eyes I found myself in a tumbled heap with Jack and my grandparents in the Kingdom of Constantine. Jack was leaning up on his elbows, turning his head this way and that, his face full of wonder. We were in the same clearing I’d arrived in when I was brought to Faera with Leif as King Telophy’s prisoner, surrounded once more by the great ring of boulders, and outside of them, the vivid green forest—the enormous trees that appeared to brush up against the sky. Today neither Leif nor his father were anywhere in sight. But the multitudes of guards were. Representatives from each Fae kingdom, they were distinguishable not only by the colour and design of their clothing and weaponry, but also by the mark of their king each bore upon their body—some on their chests, others on an arm, still others on their abdomens. Two of the guards were King Telophy’s own, the familiar emblem of the king in flight inked into the right bicep of each.

They came towards us, still piled together on the ground. One inclined his head and said, ‘His Majesty has secured permission for you to be escorted to the Kingdom of Nalen. We will leave after you have taken some time to recover.’

‘Why do we need to go there?’ I said to no one in particular.

‘Constantine leads only to Mount Kosciuszko,’ Leander said, his voice weary. ‘Nalen possesses the sunpath to Mount Whitney. From there we will fly to Washington state to meet with Mona.’

I glanced across to Leander before letting my head flop into Jack’s lap. Closing my eyes, I said, ‘I don’t remember feeling anywhere near this messed up last time I came.’ It felt as though every bit of my energy had been sucked out of me. My limbs were dead weights and my head a rock. I forced my eyes open again. If I allowed them to stay shut, I was sure I’d drift away for a week.

Leander sat up slowly. ‘You did not travel with a human last time.’

‘Why should that matter?’

‘To take Jack into the light with us required an enormous surge of energy that did not stop until we arrived. When we travel alone, we become one with the sun, taking in its power as we release it—an equal exchange.’

‘What would happen if we’d run out of energy halfway?’

‘We still have plenty of sun left in our bodies,’ Asher said.

‘But what would happen if we didn’t?’

‘Jack wouldn’t survive the journey,’ Asher replied.

I sat up, suddenly more awake. ‘It would have been nice to have been told that before!’

‘We knew he was safe.’

‘How?’