Deception (10 page)

We were behind the neighbor’s house walking into the woods.  Old Man Frankhorn’s farmhouse was just down the opposite side end of our street. His land fringed the neighboring national forest land and led right up to the trails.  We lived on the outskirts of Winslow where
everyone’s
land was made up of woods.  We entered the tree line that marked Frankhorn’s land and crept toward the giant oak tree standing directly diagonal with the house.  Ian, Caylie, and I and a few others used to meet under that tree when we were in junior high together.  We told ghost stories, ate junk food, and talked about people we hated at school for making fun of our “weirdness”.  Well, basically just me and Ian.  Caylie was only ridiculed for having freaky best friends.  Things had changed so much since those days.  As we got older, Ian and I were kind of the “freaks” in school.  The Goth kids were freaky too.  We were not goth.  Nothing has changed.

Ian walked to the oak tree, put both hands against it, closed his eyes, and began to whisper leaning into the bark.  “Ready?” he said.

“For what?”  I wondered and said aloud at the same time watching his interaction with the tree.

He frowned.  “Before we take the next step, I must tell you one more thing,” he paused for my reaction, I could tell. 

I looked at his eyes forgetting the seriousness of the situation, easy to just focus on him like I never could before.  The fear I felt seemed shadowed in his face but I could melt in them regardless.  Forget the ears.

“Well?” I prompted bringing my mind back into focus.

“Sorry!” he said.  He seemed to be in a trance.

“What were you thinking?” I smiled.

“Um,” he uttered quietly with his mouth curved upwards, “Satisfying my curiosity.”

“What?” I was so confused.

“Grace.  You’re not completely human either.”  He watched letting that sink in. 
That
was the showstopper item I’d been waiting on.  I didn’t seem able to blink, or move, or even breathe.  Passing out twice in a night might be bad for your health, but so is someone telling you are not human.

“Take a breath,” he begged.  He grabbed my shoulders for the second time tonight and let out a huge breath feeling momentarily embarrassed. 

“You are half human for all intents and purposes.  You spent a lifetime there,” he paused again for me to breathe gesturing to my mouth.   “That’s about how well I thought you would take it.” 

I let out the breath.  “I am not human. Does my mother know?  Wait.  I should go talk to her.  Maybe I am jumping into this. This cannot be real.  I cannot be talking about fairies?  Are there elves and goblins hiding here too?  Ian, I cannot explain what you are, but to say I am one.  That’s just crazy.  I would know if wasn’t human?”

“I have been with you since you were born, Grace,” he urged.  Born!    We met in kindergarten, right?  “All those things you made people do with your mind.  You were never really  human.  You didn’t know you were doing it.  It was very hard to be sure I was always around to put things right.  Sometimes I didn’t make it.  Remember the librarian and the strange duck walk in the library.” 

I remembered like it was yesterday.  The librarian, the poor lady, had been standing behind her desk and everyone looked up where she was waddling like a duck around the tables.  I was so mad at her for letting the cheerleaders take over the library that day. 

“You have more talents than you will ever realize.”  He stopped and looked purposely into my eyes, “No, you will know.  Because now I can tell you all the things I have never been able to say or show you.  I will not hold you back anymore. Your world is about change, Grace.  You will develop talents that will save your life, guard your deepest thoughts, and hide even from other humans.  Some you already have.  Some will come later.  Are you sure you still want to come with me?”  He still seemed to be warning me off but obviously wanting me to answer with a yes.

Too much information.  Information overload.  Does not compute.
Did he just say guard my thoughts?  Why would I need to?  I was about to burst out into a scream to wake up but instead looked down at my skin to seek changes.  I tried to causally check my ears.  When nothing was altered  I sighed with relief. 

“Am I so bad to look at?” he asked. 

“Oh, no!  That’s not it,” my cheeks reddened.  Just the opposite.  I love looking at him.  It is me I am worried about.   

“I have looked like this Ian for eighteen years and now I look like this to you.  I promise
your
ears and skin will remain the same.  You will always look like
you,
this perfect Grace.”  He cupped his hands around my face making my heart skip a beat.  I fumbled with the sleeve of my shirt to escape the gaze but it didn’t last for long.  I had watched his lips many times when I thought he was sleeping on the trampoline.  I even ventured once to touch them when he moved and I never tried again. 

“Yes, Ian, I do wish to go with you.”  I was smiling, but deep inside I was so scared he was going to disappear and it was all a dream. I stood there so close and across from him, unsure not wanting to be disappointed.  “ I don’t understand any of what you say though.  You are still one big mystery.” 
Except the obvious!

“I was hoping for that!  Not all things need to be hurried.”  The bright green emeralds eyed mine wickedly in the darkness, minus the silver this time. His breath was even more minty this close.  I felt the air stir around us with the breeze and the same grunts as before.

He lifted my chin with his long fingers and pulled my up to look straight into his eyes.  He kept his hands cupped around my face like he was going to kiss me for which made my heart race even more than it had in the last hour, if that was possible.  Then he said very slowly with a deeper than usual voice, “Soon, very soon!  I will warn you, I’ll not give you back.”

I gasped for air, clearly dazed.
 
He seemed to make me dizzy a welcome feeling.  I shrugged nervously still under his fixed intensity.   He has no idea how intoxicating it is just to be able to be near him.

“Let’s go!” he breathed.

We hadn’t walked more than ten paces when the sky began to darken.  It didn’t feel colder, but I naturally shivered as if it were.  “Not to alarm you, but you will be cold in the goblin territory until we cross over the Seelie gardens.  Then you will be warm again.”  He held a ten-inch dagger at his side.  I didn’t see it come out, but I knew it hadn’t come from my back yard shed. 

“I’ll keep you safe.”  From what?  I looked at him confused.

“Goblins only attack in their own fear.”

Goblins? 
Forget it.  I am not leaving his side.
 
I moved closer to him without touching, though I wanted too.
 
“So, I am half and half what?  Tell me more.”  I was still scared of the truth even if having trouble with the idea of leaving him.  And what about my parents safety, I wondered, hoping I wasn't putting them in danger.

As we walked through what seemed like a well worn path, he talked and I listened.  He said we were still in danger from the goblins, but he could handle them. 

“My mother sent me to protect you when you were born.”  He stole a glance.  “When you were of a ripened age, I was to guide you back to...” he stopped.  “THEY, the others, want you also.  THEY are willing to turn you into something unnatural to get you there and NOT here with… the Seelie court.  And there are other ones out there that want you too.  I have guarded you against everything for a very long time now.”

“All these…they…them…want
me
? Why?” I frowned, dubious.

“Your mother is the daughter of the previous Firebearer who ends the summer season for our domain.  He perished in an untimely death before you were born.  This event is what caused you to be born a bit too early, and thus far changed
my existence
forever.”   He paused again to check on me.  I was in total shock, but wanting more. He was spilling everything so fast, but he stopped to give me a sanity check.  All I could think was that Mister Mystery was too late with that dramatic pause.
He started to continue but I stopped him. 

“Does my mother know all this?”  And am I destined to sit at post like a guard to light the lamps for the entrance to fairy land or is this a magic fairy tale job description for all girls who fall for the guy who lured them in. 

He nodded swallowing and making his Adams apple catch my attention.  “Your mother chose a human husband.  She will be okay.”

I know I didn’t look completely convinced. 

“There has not been a Firebearer since.  Your mother has housed the job and traveled to and from the realm until such an event would change for her to be unneeded.  You turning eighteen
is
that event.  Your grandfather died…trying to protect you.   Others were not pleased that yet another Firebearer had been born and their realm had been without for some hundred years.  Your mother was never convinced.  Needless to say, they wanted you dead.  That is where I come in.  I am your guardian.  They will never hurt you Grace though they have tried.”  He lifted his shirt just to his ribcage.  I’d never seen up that far.  My heart danced at seeing him de-clothe a bit, but then I saw the horrific scar that wrapped around his really tight, super nice looking ribcage…
Oh, my!
 

I’d never known that was there.  Come to think of it, now I know why I’d never seen him with his shirt off. I tried not to look all hot and bothered by the thought.  The scar didn’t bother me in the way he might think, but rather that I might have caused it.

“You wouldn’t know it was there,” he said answering my thoughts. 

Uh oh!

He quickly said, “There was never a reason to start worrying you. We have two days, Grace.  And then everything will change.”  He seemed nervous again.    Kin said something along the same lines. 
He
better not be there.

“What will happen to me?” I asked as I fumbled with my ears and touched my face. His answers seemed to be jumping around just like my questions.

“I told you, you will still be my Grace, but with a new history to learn.  And you will finally understand some of the odd things that have happened to you lately.”

My Grace? 
“What events do you mean?  And where will you be?” I searched my mind listing all the odd events.  And…pictured him in all of them.

“Right beside you.”  He slid his hand inside his belt letting me get a glimpse of another silver dagger hidden there. 

Contiguously, that’s what I want from him.   I wanted him connected to me in every possible way and this was my chance and not to lose him. 

“You have been playing mind tricks with people for years without ever realizing it no matter how much I tried to shield you from it.  You see things that are not really there.  Mostly, you thought you were imaging all of it.  I never thought it would be so hard to guard a human.”  I  jolted at the idea that he had seen some of the strange things that he often chalked up to my imagination and reminded me at the time, I wasn’t crazy.  I exhaled nervously.

“You will know soon enough,” his eyes took on a haunted look, but softened easily. 

UHH!  He is still hiding something. Magic tricks and possible mind reading.  And what about the strange fire in my hand when I felt Kin near?  The way they would feel like hot coals, but cool to touch had to be some kind of magic.  Ian knew my hands bothered me every time they heated up.  This Firebearer thing has to be why.

He repeated himself sounding desperate, “Your birthday moon is in two days time.  Our court seer sees what is to come, but not the outcome, so to speak.  You’re expected before the night ends.” 

I stared at my hands nauseated at the thought of Kin near me again. 
Would I be free of him? 

“He is never far.”

“How do—“

“Later.”

That’s it?  He knows how Kin affects me!  Does he know how he himself affects me?   

Ian slit his eyes so narrow I wasn’t sure if they were open or closed. This was a lot to take in and sounded so complicated. 

Before the conversation went anywhere else we were moving again.  My boring life I’d thought would never get exciting just completely u-turned in a matter of minutes.  Did I want exciting?  And what about Ian? He’d been this magical creature all this time.  And my mom knew!  That thought is what kept me going I decided.  It hurt to think all this had been kept from me for so long, but the excitement and thought of Ian having feelings for me kept me walking.  What next?

“Chach !  Chach!”  The brush near us began to talk.

Ian stopped, put his finger to his lips, and signaled for me to stay quiet.  He pushed himself between two prickly thorn-like bushes and allowed me to duck underneath his arm and slip through.  

A weird kind of laughing came from the brush and was getting closer. 

“Goblins, pesky creatures,” he answered my curiosity. My thoughts, I think.   

“Do you fear them?” I asked ignoring that he answered my thoughts, refusing to believe he could.

He turned his head fully around to give me a “why would you ask me that, I am a manly man” look.  I wanted to laugh but I kept even the slightest smile from forming.

“No, too daft and slimy.  Prefer a good fight that gives me a challenge.  Make me work for it.”  He tilted his head upward puffing his chest out.

I detected an underlying meaning in it, but smiled innocently back at his gaze.

The creatures passed and we stood still to remain hidden only.  “Are they dangerous?”

“Can be, if provoked or given a reason.”

“What reasons?”  My mouth went dry.

“Oh, young half human girls running through the woods alone,” he stated nonchalantly.

“Well, I am safe.  I forgot my red cape at home.   The big bad goblins will have to take a rain check.”   I tried hard to sound overconfident even though the nervous laugh didn’t help.

After several more minutes passed, we continued through what looked like a well-beaten path in another direction from whence we started.  Moss covered rock and earth surrounded us smelling woodsy and clean
.  Like Ian.
I snickered and thought of where I was. Frankhorn would have a cow—“

“What is so funny?” he asked.   

“Just the thought of Frankhorn shooting one of those!”  Maybe Frankhorn had known something I had not.  Hmm!

“Humans wouldn’t see them?”
 
Ian started to help me sort through my ever-tangled thoughts by the way he stopped again and faced me, but thought better and continued on the path.  I’d know soon enough.   I refused to ask anymore unimportant questions when there were so many others I needed answered first.

We’d traveled almost a half-mile I guessed.  My feet hurt.  I wasn’t wearing my hiking shoes.  Ballerina flats were not walking shoes.

He stopped twice again.  Nothing stepped out of the forest to slash and dash us so I assumed all was going as he’d planned.  He didn’t share his concerns with me.

We continued in silence and finally slowed down and stood before a huge maple tree standing what seemed like dead center on the path.  It was covered in strikingly, beautiful golden leaves with a dark, nut-brown trunk.  I couldn’t help but admire it.  He stopped and looked up to where I was staring. 

Unable to think of the right way to describe it, I settled for, “The tree is so amazing.”   It seemed to be perched on stage waiting for an audience.

“Beyond this boundary, there is no going back.”

I knew he meant more than the rocks below my feet.  Press on.

I followed him until we came to a stone rock formed into a hill that reminded me of a frog’s head.  I was brought up short by Ian and was just past the rock when he turned and said so simply, “Ready?”  I was.  “Close your eyes!” 

Hesitation stopped me,  not liking the idea of going in blind.  

“Do you trust me?” he said with his mouth quirked humorlessly at my panic stricken face.  

Butterflies began to dance in my stomach. Blind trust, the kind found in books I have relied on for moral fiber
.
My eyes closed, he put his arms around my waist and I stiffened in response.  He’d never done so except at the awards ceremony when I had to have an escort to walk me to the front of the auditorium in eighth grade.  I walked so stiffly that night, I’d nearly fallen twice trying to walk in sync with him.   That was a
long time
ago.  He took my hand in the here and now.  Wow, I was scared, but it felt amazing.  I had taken about six large steps and felt the earth change from beneath me, still blind.  He turned me just a bit, released, and let me know just how close he was standing. My eyes closed tighter, I felt his warm breath on my ear breathing soft, and somehow I could feel how fast his heart was racing.

“Hold still.”

He moved away, reached down, and picked up a handful of dirt and twigs and said something odd to the air.  I could tell because he shuffled his feet and heard the sound of his hand moving the dirt.  Wow!  I never realized how acute my senses were to little sounds like what I heard happening right now. 

“Open your eyes!” 

My stomach tightened, but I knew I’d made my choice.  The right one.