Call to Arms (War of the Fae: Book 2) (47 page)

“Well, when you put it like that, it does sound a little crazy ... but yes.
 
That’s the gist of it.”

“Jayne, these drugs you’re on have done one hell of a number on your brain.
 
I’m really worried about you.”

I stood up, furious.
 
“Listen you fuckwit ... I am not high, I am not wasted, and I am
not
suffering a mental breakdown.
 
Your
friend
Ben is not your friend.
 
Ask yourself a couple questions, would you?
 
Be smart.
 
Why is the hottest
guy
in the entire school instantly your friend?
 
Huh?
 
All our lives we’ve lived here and been pariahs at our school.
 
Invisible.
 
Suddenly after passing the fae test, you’re his best friend?
 
And where the hell did he come from?
 
Did he ever tell you that?
 
He supposedly just arrived in town last month, but that’s funny, because I have a picture of him at our Halloween dance last year, following you and me around.
 
Yeah
.
 
And I’ll bet he started filling your head with negative shit about me from day one, didn’t he?”

Tony started to squirm a little.

“Yes, you know he did.
 
He’s one of
them
, Tony.
 
Dark Fae.
 
He wants you to join his side.
 
He wants to use you against me ... against the friends that you made with me when we ran away together.
 
You recognized Chase for shit’s sake!”
 
I threw up my hands.
 
“I don’t know what else to say to you, Tony.
 
This is the truth.
 
I am not making one bit of this shit up.”

Tony was looking down at his hands.
 
“It’s true that Ben is pretty popular.
 
I have asked myself a lot of times why he wants to be my friend.”

“Yeah.
 
Hello.”

“But I figured it’s because I’m a nice person and a good friend to have.”

He sounded so pitiful, I instantly felt like a complete asshole.
 
I ran back to the bed and sat down next to him, grabbing his hand.
 
“You
are
a nice person and the most awesome friend of all time!
 
I
know that!
 
But people like Ben never see that stuff!
 
They are too self-centered to ever see it!”

“Yeah, but he’s different.”

“You’re right.
 
He is different.
 
He’s not human, he’s
fae
.”

Tony shook his head looking at me.
 
“Jayne, you’ve been a good friend to me.
 
I want to believe you, but what you’re saying is just too
out there
.”

“Tony, you have the memories in your head.
 
They were just erased or washed over.
 
But you were there with me!
 
You were almost killed!”

He cleared his throat, trying to get the next words out.
 
“Well, if I was such a good friend of yours, why did you let me go?”

I laughed bitterly.
 
“You know, I’ve been asking myself that same question.
 
But the truth is, you didn’t want to be in the middle of a war that you didn’t think was your problem.
 
The stuff we saw freaked you out.
 
You wanted your normal life back.
 
I respected that.
 
And I thought after I did some training there, I could come back here and be with you again.”
 
I sighed.
 
“I guess I didn’t really think it through very well.
 
But to be fair, I didn’t really know how things were going to turn out.”

“Well, assuming just for argument’s sake that everything you’re saying is true – and I’m sorry but I still don’t believe a word of it – why would I change my mind now and get involved?
 
It’s still not my war, and I’m not a magical person.”

“
It’s
called being fae, not magical, and you
are
fae.
 
And whether you want to be involved or not, you are.
 
Ben has targeted you as a valuable asset.
 
He wants you on his side.
 
For some reason he hasn’t forced you over, but he will when he wants to if you don’t go willingly.
 
The Dark Fae
don’t
care about making it a voluntary thing.
 
What they want, they take.
 
I don’t know what he’s waiting for, but something tells me now that I’m here, he’s not going to wait much longer.”

Tony put his hand on mine, his face holding only pity.
 
“I think you have your heart in the right place, but something happened to you when you ran away – and I’m sorry, but I think you need to see a doctor.”

I started feeling desperate.
 
This was getting worse not better.
 
The more I tried to get him to see reason, the crazier he thought I was.
 
I had to trigger his memory.

“Remember last night, or the night before?
 
You were listening to that song,
My Immortal.
 
You looked at our picture and threw it against the wall.
 
How could I know that?
 
I was here, Tony, doing astral projection with a gray elf.”

Tony looked at me a little afraid, pulling his hand back from mine.
 
“Jayne, you were probably standing out on my roof, just like you did tonight.
 
You are seriously deluding yourself and probably stalking me.
 
You need to be on medication.”
 
He was backing away from me slowly, trying to be cool about it, but he kept darting glances at his phone.

I reached over and grabbed the phone.

“I’ll bet Ben has been keeping very close tabs on you hasn’t he?”

Tony got mad.
 
“He’s been a good friend.
 
You left.
 
He came and picked up the pieces.”

“No!
 
We ran away because you sensed my mother’s boyfriend was molesting me.
 
You paid for our tickets to Miami on the Tri Rail.
 
You went into the forest with me and won the right to claim your place with the fae.
 
Ben is an imposter trying to take you away from me.
 
From us!”

“
Us
who, Jayne?
 
Who?”

“Me!” came a little voice from the window.
 

Of course Tony didn’t hear it.
 
But I did.
 
And that’s when it came to me.

“Tony.
 
If I can prove to you that the fae are real, will you please give me a chance to help you see the truth?”

Tony shook his head.
 
“No, Jayne, I can’t keep letting you do this.
 
I’m going to get my parents.”

He stood up, but I jumped in front of him.

“Please!
 
Just one chance!”

“Jayne, don’t make me hurt you.
 
I don’t want to hurt you.”

That pissed me off.
 
“
Listen
, Tony.
 
I haven’t been picking flowers in a fucking meadow for six weeks.
 
I’ve been training.
 
For war.
 
The only one who’s going to get hurt if we tangle is
you
.
 
Now sit the fuck down so I can prove you wrong.”

He took a small step forward and I took up a fighting stance.
 
“I. Will. Fucking.
Do it.
Tony.”
 
I started to cry a little.
 
“I
will
hurt you, even though I love you, so that you can see I’m telling you the truth.”
 
I angrily wiped the weak ass tear off my cheek and cleared my voice loudly, forcing the frog in my throat to go the hell away.

He held up his hands and took one step back.
 
“Fine.
 
I’ll listen to one more thing.
 
If it doesn’t convince me, then you have to agree to let me go.”

“Deal.”
 

I released my muscles from their fighting stance and held my hand out.
 
“Tim, could you come here for a minute?”

I heard Tim’s wings before I saw him arrive.
 
But arrive he did, thank goodness, landing neatly on my outstretched hand.

“Tony, I’d like you to meet my fae roommate, Tim.
 
Tim is a pixie.”
 
I looked at Tim standing in my hand, looking like the most awesomely badass pixie with a fanny pack that I could ever hope to see.
 
“Tim, this is my best friend in the whole entire world, Tony.
 
He is a human.”

“Nice to meet you Tony!” shouted Tim.

“He says it’s nice to meet you.
 
I know he’s hard to hear.
 
His voice is tiny, but his power is mighty.”
 

Tim preened under my compliment, swaying from side to side, trying hard to look like a pirate, I think, thumbs hooked in the edge of his fanny pack.

Tony just stood there staring at my hand, his mouth hanging open.
 
I waited for his brain to catch up to what his eyes were seeing.
 
His hands reached up to his face, scrubbing it a few times and then slowly moving away.
 
He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them back up wide, staring at my hand.

“Is
... ?
”

Tony’s mouth and voice didn’t seem to want to work together.
 
His mouth was moving but no sound was coming out.
 
Then his mouth stopped moving but his throat was making noise.

“What’s wrong with him?” asked Tim.
 
“Is he retarded?”

“No, he’s not retarded,” I said impatiently.
 
“He’s just in shock.
 
He’s never seen a pixie before.”

Tim farted.

“Oh, for shit’s sake, Tim, not
now
.
 
Geez.”

I looked back at Tony who broke his gaze away from Tim to look at me.
 

“That’s ... he’s ... ”

“Yeah.
 
That’s a fae.
 
He’s a pixie.
 
I’m a fae.
 
You’ve got fae blood.
 
This is what I’ve been trying to
tell
you Tony.
 
I’m not friggin’ lying.
 
All of this shit is
real.”

“Is he wearing a ...
fanny pack?”

I laughed, the joy bursting across my face.
 
“Yes, he is.
 
Cool, right?”
 
I lifted my eyebrows at him, begging him to play along.

Tony’s phone buzzed in my hand.
 
I lifted it up and looked at the screen.
 
It was a text from Ben.

‘WUTZ UP?
TRUBL?’

“Look.”
 
I held up the phone to Tony’s face.
 
“Try to tell me your boy Ben isn’t fae.
 
How could he possibly know what’s going on with you right now?
 
Fae have powers to sense other people’s emotions.
 
Or they have little friends who spy for them.”
 
I lifted Tim up higher as evidence.
 
“Hello!”

Tony looked at the screen, doubt flooding his face.

I pulled the phone back.
 
“I’m going to text him back and tell him you’re okay.
 
You
are
okay, right?”

Tony nodded numbly.

I texted Ben back.
 
‘IM FINE. MOM. :(
 
 
CU LTR’

Tim jumped off my hand and into the air, showing off his mad flying skills.
 
He buzzed around the room, doing flips and barrel rolls and midair cartwheels.
 
He finished by landing on my shoulder.
 
Tony didn’t take his eyes off Tim the entire time, and Tim
was loving
the attention.

“Tim, can you go tell the guys to come up?”

“Guys?” asked Tony.
 
“
There’s
more of them?”

“Yeah ... well, no, not more pixies.
 
I brought our friends.
 
Guys you know.
 
I want to see if you remember them.”

Tim left to go deliver the message.