Deception (19 page)

No answer came. 
Arg!
             

Everyone stood and I understood this to be a dismissal of the meeting.  Ian left first, but motioned for me to walk in front of him.  Pike followed, and then all of the guards whom stayed right outside the camp area where we hovered.  Ian explained that our conversation would be exclusive to the three of us while under the same magical shield mentioned earlier.  Who conjured it, I didn’t know.  I was shown where the invisible line was drawn to show that we were out of the shield.

We made it back to the falls and were given a table full of food.  We sat and tried not to show our day long hunger that had built up.  After we had our fill, we moved under a tent to the same kind of dark rustic table that had maps and odd papers spread over it.  The bench was made of the same, but both smooth to the touch.  I was awed by the beauty of what could be made from the trees I loved so much.  My heart ached for the tree that was lost, but the result was more than amazing.  I sat across from Ian not realizing this forced Pike to sit beside me. 

An hour passed before we stood again.  Pike and Ian took turns giving  specific details of how the Nyms had once mated and created half Fey and half Nym offspring.  These offspring felt entitled to more lands.  They just call them Nyms, but really they are the half-breeds that evolved.  Ha!  I wasn’t the only one!

The Fey, I learned, had tried to defuse the tensions, but the current Seelie Queen and Unseelie King couldn’t agree on anything, much less help retie peace talks.  “The Nym leader is, well you say, an almost disagreeable character I am gathering.” The two boys exchanged a look when Ian told me this and I repeated it.  I didn’t like the evil looks they kept throwing each other.  I’d find out soon, that I was sure of.  Magic powers, here I come.

Pike grunted. I wanted him to quit pissing Ian off on purpose too.

Ian and I walked over to the falls for what I felt like was going to be another private talk.    I remembered our kiss earlier there and, naturally, hoped for another.  I looked at the wall of water falling enjoying the solid sound of it.  It was like the taste of his bottom lip.  Solid, but pliable.
             
The falls are beautiful and sent me to another world with Ian near.  Feeling silly, I promised myself to not fall if he kissed me there again. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Pike yelling at the papers on the table. He definitely had a mental side to him.

Before we’d apparently made it out of ear shot, I asked Ian, “Why does Christian, I mean, Pike hate me so much.   He was annoying all these years in his quiet broody self, but never hateful towards me like now.”  I tried to reason his declaration of pure hatred towards me, one who’d hardly spoken two words to me in my lifetime. Ian took my hand now.  I didn’t know why he wasn’t answering, but he was walking faster now. 

From behind came a shout, “Why not you just tell her,
Prince Ian
.  Tell her why I hate you.  Tell her everything she keeps asking in that unfiltered brain of hers.  Tell her what she has been oblivious to for eighteen years and what options she has, Prince.  Tell her!” he burst out angrily.  His fists were turning white.  I heard his knuckles crack.

I was so taken aback by the outburst that I inadvertently stepped too close to the falls.  The sound of the water pounded in my ears that were as silent as a purr earlier.  I was about to take another step when Ian reached for my other hand and pulled me up hard against him. If there hadn’t been an audience, I would have smiled at the feel of him.   My body tensed in an odd way, not like I wanted, but enough that he realized what I’d felt. I liked it too much and chose to ignore the danger I’d just put myself in instead looking at his lips just an inch away from mine.  The waiting game of not being able to kiss him for years was building up a slow fire even if I’d finally had a couple of those dreamed about kisses.  I wanted more.

“Are you okay?” he asked me quietly. I’d forgotten all about the danger I’d just put myself in.  Ian was always there.  I’d have to be a little more independent I realized now. 

Water sprites were jumping belly flops in the water behind with hoorays and love chants and once I even heard an, “Oh, Prince Ian”. 

Pike had more steam coming out of his head than the falls behind us.  He suddenly smiled devilishly at Ian making it obvious they were talking unpleasantly too each other nonverbally.   I stood there and waited acting as impatient as I allowed myself to display by sighing aloud several times.  Ian moved to cover me. I couldn’t see in front of him but Pike’s undying devotion to be hateful was flowing freely right through him and bouncing off me.   Pike stepped closer to our invisible bubble. Christian, or Pike wouldn’t hurt me, would he?

Ian gritted his teeth and growled.  Seriously!  I glanced up at the side of his face and saw the raw emotion.  Ian angled his hands across me and stepped closer to Pike at the same time.  I barely heard him say, “She is mine,” with more vehemence than I thought he was capable of. “My claim.  Mine. Let it rest.”  What did Christian...I mean Pike say to make him have that much anger? To say such a thing.

Pike huffed and stomped away.

I stepped back and adjusted my gown to have something to do.  It was more rugged than the thin gowns I’d been wearing, but Ian forced me to wear some kind of thin armor to protect myself with this gown and I still felt bound up in it. 
Jeans
, I thought and sighed inwardly as I returned my gaze to him.  When Pike went stomping away I asked, “What did he mean by his behavior and why did you say that?”

Ian sighed heavily.  He found a spot near the falls and sat me down, just not so close to the edge. 

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Pike giving orders to a short, mousy creature with crooked horns wrapped around his head.  I watched curiously as he looked back at us and pointed to a different direction, then turned and walked away out of sight.

“Is he listening to us?” I said in a small, discreet tone.  I knew Ian didn’t seem to care for me watching Pike, but I wanted to be sure he was out of earshot. 

“No, he can only when I let him,” he seethed.  His teeth were gritted and he spoke through them.  Intending to attempt calming him, I could tell he was about to confess something huge by the sound his voice made.  I just knew that about him now.   And it seemed very hard for him to say whatever it was.  I waited for fire to breathe out as I watched his lips press into his teeth.

“Pike was the last Seelie court Queen’s son.  His mother died and mine became queen.  He has held a grudge against me since I was born.  One does not just stop being a prince because of a title change.”  I saw his knuckles tighten in his lap. 

“He is a Seelie court prince, also. But he is not your equal, I am guessing.”

“No, when your queen dies, you lose your status too but keep your place in the court.  He was appointed to the guards.”

I was figuring it out quickly.  “So you marry the new queen and you don’t lose your status.  He is jealous of your position yet he still holds his magic, but not like yours,” I prompted.   “Go ahead,” my voice was calm.  I could tell there was more.

I was much more observant than he gave me credit. I knew Pike was being a little more attentive to me than should be and now it made sense.  What I couldn’t figure out was if he really hated me or not.  Steal me, yes.  Hate me all the while, well, there was nothing to go on to help a conclusion.

Ian sighed.  “He has always been jealous of many things.  Tis’ the nature of both of us being a prince to the Seelie Queen.  His father died like mine, so he endured the same type of childhood as me.  But when you were born, and the prophecy came about, he believed that the prophecy included possibly him instead of me and became hopeful,” he said all this in a rush.

I was trying to recite the prophecy in my head.  It wasn’t working.  I rationalized that surely the prophecy meant the current prince, but if it didn’t specify…

  “But then how did you come to guard me if you are not the prince the prophecy was talking about.”    I was startled by the idea of another. 
No!

“We both guarded you, Grace.”

Ian seemed truly ill at ease but he is the prince and had the rightful position, I’m sure of it.  I’d be mad to if I was Pike.
 
Ian absolutely hated admitting all this. 

I smiled now to help his pain stricken face.  If Pike thought he was the prince the prophecy was talking about, Ian was worried I’d leave him.    That was all very sweet, but they hid this from me too.  Who knows what the prophecy really means?  Everyone seemed to speculate it regularly.
“I don’t care about a prophecy anyway, Ian.  Yes, I will do what you ask.  I trust my grandfather knew something about me was going to happen, that much makes sense to me!  But I love you.  You have been beside me and in my head before I knew you even were.  You loved me even when you knew my deepest darkest thoughts, habits, and etcetera.  Even when I was the “freak” and out-casted.  That makes you the most amazing man I have ever known.  And, he has been a nasty, arrogant…” I paused to gain composure, “well, he has been not so nice about things.”  I watched his face soften. 

“There is one more thing,” he was barely audible.  He was staring at my shoulder and caressing it, his eyes full of shame.  “I have wondered…I cannot help but think…when your eyes didn’t change and I cannot hear your thoughts and you cannot hear anyone or see from their glamour and you have no magic…there is something wrong. Or if it is not me you should be with. What if…”

I realized what he was about to say and stopped him with my Caylie style pointer dexter finger, “I don’t think that means the prophecy is meant to be him.  He can hear me, yes.  We cannot just say what we think and declare it as the reason why I have not turned into this magic thing you keep hoping for.  I think if you will allow me to voice my opinions, that the scratch, or my half humanness, or something we don’t know we were supposed to do, or all three has something to do with it.  I think everyone is expecting me to be like all the rest.  What if this history changing event in Fey history is meant to change in more ways than even the Fey expected?  I thought a lot about this.  It is really hard to sleep at night when you are so far away and I want to talk to you so I have to occupy my mind somehow.  I just got what I wanted for the first time in my life and now he thinks he might not be for me.”

He straightened his back. 

I had his full attention now.  Yep!  “I think that Pike will have to accept that I love you and move on.  I am not changing that whether I am the queen or not.  Banish me, but you better come with me.  I didn’t hesitate to come with you.  Either we are in this together, or not at all.”  My monologue was over.  I finally took a breath.  Applause, please!

He blinked rapidly, but I could tell he didn’t think I saw.  When we let go, Pike was standing in front of us with his usual so I used his glare tactic back at him.  How much did he hear?  I thought it was private.

“All of it!” Pike answered making me realize I was wrong about the glare.  He looked almost sad but mixed with a lot of uncontrolled anger issues.

I was confused.  “I thought it was private.”  I looked at Ian. 

“He needed to know.” That was all Ian said. 

My own anger was blazing now, but I managed to hold back what I really wanted to say.  “You cannot just choose when you want privacy and not Ian.  You have to draw the line somewhere.  And you cannot leave me in the dark either on everything.”  I looked back and forth at both of them. “Either of you!”   I was insane with anger.  And I felt sorry for Pike.

Pike laughed with an odd, twisted smile on his lips.  “Lovers quarrel?”  He liked seeing this.

“Shut up!  You have no right to act as you do.  You should be thinking for the good of your people, not sulking like a child all the time.  If you’d spent more time appreciating what you have instead of stealing what is not yours, maybe you would be a little happier.”
              “Maybe you would be a little more grateful you are still alive if you knew what I know. All your little declarations are fine and dandy until some very ugly truths are let free.  Maybe one day your little prince will tell you all of his secrets.  I am not hiding anything.  Everything you see is what you get,” he motioned down his body, “maybe one day you will realize where your rightful place is.  And you need to control your emotions and stop relaying your insights about whatever else you want to say about me and my body,” Pike was flat out yelling at me. He was ticking me off.  I looked at Ian.  He was ticking him off too.

“Yeah, like invading her dreams worked,” Ian rarely spoke out of turn but acted like he wanted to make sure Pike was as far away from me as he could get him or at least from my perspective. I didn’t care what Pike thought.

“Look who’s talking.  You can't avoid all of us.  Round three coming soon.”  Pike walked off fuming.  Seems to be his thing.  Create confrontation and then avoid the consequences by walking away when one should face the problem.  Not Pike apparently!  This was a small glimpse into the world of Pike and I didn’t like what I saw. So naturally I overanalyzed why I liked throwing the sparks back.

We all needed to calm down.  The drama department was winning an epic award for the performance I just put out.  A real audience would be asking for the encore.