Call to Arms (War of the Fae: Book 2) (37 page)

I’d never been in great physical shape like this before, and I’d never felt this confident.
 
Another bonus was that I’d learned some new swear words to add to my repertoire, but I found they were lacking a little oomph.
 
I only used them on the old fae – they seemed to be the only ones shocked by them anyway.
 
One well-placed
Blessed Mother Earth, Moon and Sun
and everyone’s panties would be in a bunch.
 
Some of them even scolded me, which was hilariously fun to instigate.

It was with this newfound confidence that I swaggered into the dining room for breakfast, Tim on my shoulder showing off his newgrown wing that was as green and opalescent as the other old one.
 
He kept jumping off and doing pirouettes in the air just because he could.
 
I was smiling at his antics, not even noticing the fae around me.
 
I came up to the table that held my friends and finally noticed that there was something going on.
 
Everyone looked really serious.

I looked at their sober faces, my smile quickly fading from my face.
 
None of them had plates yet and they were all staring at me, as if waiting for me to say something.
 

“What?”
 
It was creepy, having them all focus on me like that.

“Where have you been?” asked Becky.

“Out ...
”
 
I
didn’t want to admit that I had actually been in the Dark Forest again.
 
I had taken to going out to visit Maggie every once in a while.
 
It’s just that one day, when I was out training with Tim, he’d noticed some mushroomy green thing growing on the roots of one of the trees we were near, and he told me how much she prized them.
 
I asked him on several occasions how it was that he knew all this stuff about her and her preferences and brews, but all he’d ever tell me is that he had spent some time with her.
 
It was a sore subject for him, and I’m not sure how much of it was due to her clipping his wing for Chase’s brew and how much of it was due to something else.
 
He was clear about one thing though – apparently she had some kind of weird hang-up about green ingredients.
 
She thought everything she brewed had to have something green in it or it wouldn’t work.
 
That’s why Tim’s wings were especially valuable to her since they were not only green but also pixie wings, which have powerful magical properties to them.
 

So, anyway, now whenever I found something green that Tim thought Maggie could use in her brews, I’d bring it to her.
 
I figured one day I might need her again for one of my friends, and it wouldn’t hurt to have her on our side.
 
Plus she was an encyclopedia of information about ley lines and the energy that flows through The Green.
 
It was she who had taught me how to use the ley lines to my advantage.
 
It was so much easier to channel what I needed and how I needed it using these conduits.
 
And they were all over the world.
 
Her house went right over one, which made it much easier for her to do her spells.
 
Today she had taught me how to locate them, so even if I wasn’t standing over one, I could still sense where they were.
 
It’s not that I needed them, but they did make what I do easier and more effortless.

“So, you didn’t hear then?” asked Spike.

“No, apparently not.
 
What’s going on?”

Chase pulled out a chair next to him.
 
“Sit.”

Chase had been a gentleman before, but now, he was extra polite, like Tony.
 
He credited me with saving his life.
 
I credited Tim.
 
When Chase acted all chivalrous though, my thoughts of Tony still came; but the pain in my heart got less and less every time.
 
I had stopped emailing him that day over a month ago that he had told me to back off.
 
Letting go was the most painful thing I’ve done, but I was doing it.
 
It was better that way.

I sat down, suddenly feeling paranoid.
 
“Stop fucking around.
 
Tell me what’s going on.”

“Tell her, Chase,” said Finn, leaning back in his chair, balancing on the back two legs.

“Jared’s back.”

“From Florida?
 
Does he have new recruits with him?”

“Yeah, but that
ain’t
the problem,” said Finn, unable to wait for Chase to finish explaining.

“Problem?
 
Okay, so what’s the problem?”

“We’re not exactly sure,” said Becky, “but there’s a meeting after lunch and they’ve summoned all of us.”

“All the fae in the compound?”

“No.
 
Just us.
 
Our changeling group.”

Since we had been brought into the fold, several other changeling groups had come in.
 
The dining hall was filled with their eager chatter.
 
We were the most senior of all of them, so in a way it was
kinda
cool because they looked up to us.
 
But then again, it was often a pain in the ass because they were so full of questions and acted so stupid sometimes.
 
I really didn’t have the patience for them most of the time; I was too obsessed with my own training.
 
Luckily my friends were patient and good at making excuses for me; so far, I hadn’t managed to make enemies out of any of them.

“Just us?
 
That’s weird.”

“Yeah,” said Becky, looking down at the table.
 
That was a sure giveaway with her.

“She’s hiding something,” said Tim from down at the table where he was sitting.
 

“Yeah, I know.”

Becky glanced at me, at first not understanding what I said.
 
Then she realized I was talking to Tim.
 
They were getting used to me talking like a crazy person and having all of these what looked like one-sided conversations.
 
The new changelings always thought for a few days that I was a nutcase, walking around talking to myself.
 
Part of me was always a little disappointed when
they were filled in on the details, usually by Becky
.
 
I
kinda
liked it when they gave me my crazy person space.

“Fess up, Becky.
 
Tim and I both know you’re hiding something.
 
What haven’t you guys told us?”

She sighed.
 
“I hate that you guys can read me so well.”
 
She paused for a moment looking at Finn and Spike,
then
continued.
 
“Whatever Jared has to talk to us about, it involves Tony.”

I could actually feel my blood pressure go through the roof, like instantaneously.
 
My heart started pumping double time.
 

Tim jumped over and landed on my hand.
 
He did this whenever he thought I needed comforting.
 
I kept telling him how dangerous that was because one day I was probably going to squeeze my hand involuntarily and squish him, but he didn’t listen.
 
That’s one thing I had come to find out about my pixie friend, Tim.
 
He did whatever the hell he wanted, when he wanted.
 
He might be little, but he was as stubborn as a full-sized mule.
 
Plus he snored and had a lot of gas.
 
He blamed it on the fruit.

“Is Tony okay?”

“We don’t know any details, other than he’s alive.
 
So don’t panic, just yet.”

“Don’t panic?
 
Are you kidding me?
 
How can I not panic over this?”

Chase got up, nudging me in the shoulder as he stood. “Eat.
 
Then we’ll find out what’s what.”

He left the table and headed to the buffet.

“He’s right.
 
We have to eat.
 
We have no idea what’s going on, but missing meals isn’t going to help,” said Spike, smiling weakly at me.
 

Of all of us, I think Spike had changed the most in the last few weeks.
 
His training was almost the hardest because it was mostly mental, not physical.
 
Of course he did have some workout type stuff, but mostly it was learning how to capitalize on his speed and control his cravings.
 
His body was such that he was never going to get bigger or more muscular, so there was no point in doing workouts like Chase, Finn, and I did.
 
He had to learn to control his urges, use the energy he took to heal
himself
of wounds, and most importantly, how to draw energy from humans and fae without draining them dry.
 
It was easier for him to work with fae – they had a greater life force that was hard to drain completely, which is what made us hard to kill from regular stuff like arrows to the chest for example – lucky for Valentine and Naida, since both of them had suffered arrows to the chest during our training, and occasionally were injured again when changelings came through for their tests.
 
It was still only the old-timers who worked in the forest during tests, matching their wits and skills against the potential changeling candidates.
 
Spike was doing well, but he was tired a lot.
 
He lacked his usual verve and spark.
 
He hadn’t made a move on me in weeks, but I was glad.
 
Not because he wasn’t sexy as hell and still tops on my list for a hot makeout session, but he’d grown stronger and I was a tiny bit afraid of him, even though he’d been nothing but a gentleman to me and Becky.

“You’re right, I know.”
 
I got up reluctantly to get some food from the buffet.
 
A new changeling was there and he stopped, allowing me to go in front.
 
Another perk of being a senior changeling was priority at the buffet.
 
I put some stuff on my plate even though I didn’t really feel like eating.

I got back to the table and Chase had already finished half of his very full plate.
 
At least someone still had an appetite.
 
Not surprisingly, it was Chase.

Before I even sat down, the door on the other side of the room opened and Jared strode through.
 
This was the first time I’d seen him in weeks.
 
He ran the tests with the changelings every time, always disappearing from the forest and leaving them to fend for themselves and showing up from time to time to explain his absence.
 
In between moments of prodding them through the forest, he would come back to the compound and help with training, council decisions and whatnot.
 
He and I still didn’t talk much.
 
It was taking me a long time to forgive his deceit, even though now I could appreciate the reasons behind all of it.

Jared walked over to our table.
 
“Hey, do you guys mind bringing your lunch to the meeting?
 
I have to get out of here and back to my changeling candidates soon.”

“Pulled another disappearing act, eh?” I said.
 

He shook his head at me and rolled his eyes, saying nothing.
 
I guess he wasn’t in the mood for my teasing today.
 
That wasn’t a good sign.
 
He usually gave me a half-smile at least.

Something about him made me want to harass him.
 
I don’t know what it was.
 
Maybe because he was so cool all the time – unruffled.
 
Nothing bothered him.
 
Maybe I had some sick need to be the thing that bothered him ... the one thing.
 
Sometimes I looked for trouble, even where there wasn’t any.
 
Becoming fae had not changed that part of my nature.

We all grabbed our plates and drinks and followed him out the door.
 
He brought us to a meeting room that had a conference table with chairs and nothing else.
 
I’d never been in this room before.
 
On the door was a circle with a line through it.
 
It looked like a Greek letter or something.

Dardennes and Céline were already there.
 
We each took a seat, nodding to them in greeting.
 
I had found my peace with them, albeit reluctantly.
 
Jared was my last bitter holdout for forgiveness.
 
Even Niles had earned my respect, the little turd.
 
He may be gruff, but he knew his stuff when it came to strength training and brute force in battle.
 
He may be the size of a small child but he has the heart of a lion.
 
He pretended to be mad all the time, but I knew he had a soft spot for me.
 
Must be because I’m the only one who’s ever gotten the better of him out in the forest during the changeling tests.
 
He’d so far taken out five candidates with his little band of warrior dwarves, and he was very proud of that.
 
He was always saying that we are only as strong as our weakest link, and his job was to find the weak links and get rid of them.
 
The changeling group that I had been a part of was the only group to make it through without losing anyone.
 
We found out later that Becky was allowed in, even though she didn’t finish, because she was able to establish her status as a water sprite through her interaction with Naida and because I had tied her flag to the last Waypoint, so she technically had her flag up at each one.
 
They have since changed the rules so that only the person owning the flag can officially tie it there.
 
Becky and I shared a special connection over lots of stuff, not the least of which is that stupid fourth flag.