Forever Fae (24 page)

The King looks sorrowful and apologetic when he responds
.

“I need you to find Xylia and speak to her.  I would ask Calista to go with you, but she’s not here yet and I fear the longer we wait the worse it will be for her. I know Xylia thinks highly of you and she will need you there to comfort her.  Please tell her we will do everything we can to find who is responsible.” Conall bows to the King
again
and
then
straightens up to walk out of the Great Room.  I could see it in his eyes that it pained him to have to tell Xylia of her loss.

King Oberon’s voice sounds determined when he announces, “Raisa and Foster will not be forgotten, nor will their deaths be in vain.  They were loyal council members and dear friends to Queen
and me
.  Once things have settled we will hold a memorial for them and honor them the way they should be
honored
.”  Losing a close friend is not easy and I will have to endure the same feelings of it soon once Warren and I find out that he is indeed a traitor.  

Elvena takes this time to speak
.

“There is more,
Your
Highness.”

The King prompts her to continue. 

“I hate to say it, but Avery is missing as well.  Meliantha came to me and asked for a favor.  It appears that Princess Calista and Prince Ryder had some reservations about him and I was asked to look around his quarters.”  Elvena looks around and makes sure everyone is listening to her.  

“It appears that not only is Avery missing, but he had traces of dark magic around his room.  It’s the strongest magic I have felt in a very long time.”

The room falls silent. 

With Avery and Warren both missing, it’s starting to look like they were in this together.  I did see them talking at the ceremony and if it’s true, Warren is definitely a traitor.  He is my best friend, but even that will not save him from the punishment of death.

King Oberon finally speaks
.

“What does
all
this mean?  Are you saying we’ve had a traitor beside us this whole time?”

Elvena nods her head
.

“That is exactly what I’m saying, Your Highness.  The magic I traced is the same magic of the sorcerers I felt a century ago.  I believe it is what we have suspected all along
.
”
S
he
pauses and looks around the room again with a grave expression. “Another dark sorcerer is in the Land of the Fae,” she reveals.

Commotion explodes at the mention of a dark sorcerer being alive and the voices echo loudly from the walls of the
G
reat
R
oom
. It’s a deafening sound.  We all speculated there was a chance a dark sorcerer still lived, but no one really wanted to believe it.  I heard stories growing up about the dark times in the Land of the Fae a century ago.  

The King is obviously irritated
by
the chaos
in the room
because he yells above the crowd, “
Silence
!”

The room falls
quiet
again and I can tell he is thinking of an appropriate response to what Elvena has disclosed.

He commands
,
“We need guards searching the
S
ummer
territory for Avery in case he hasn’t escaped yet
.
When
he is found he will be executed.  We need to be on our guard
fully
.
” 

He turns to Elvena and asks, “D
o you know what the sorcerer wants?
”

She nods her
head
and gives the King a grave look
.

“He wants power
and as we all can assume
,
he is most likely the evil the
p
rophecy
speaks of.  He needs the power of
T
he
Four. 
The power of
T
he
Four involves Cal
ista, so she will be his first target.

“Does she know
this?”
T
he
King demands and
then
turns to Merrick to ask,
“Where is she?”  His voice is laced with
fear and
worry and
I don’t blame him because I’m
feeling the same way.  Calista is not here and I fear that something may be wrong. 

Merrick looks at me and
then turns to bow
his head
to the King and answers
.

“Forgive me, Your Highness, but she ran away from Ryder and me this morning.”  He l
ooks sheepishly around the room and adds,
“She subdued us both this morning and left us there.”

King Oberon looks agitated and asks, “Why would she do that?  Did she beat you up as well
?
You
both look like hell
.
” 

I decide to jump in and explain
.

“She left because we both
…
”
I point to Merrick and then back to myself
.
“
A
cted
like complete jackasses
.
She
got pissed at us and brought the force of her power down on us.
” I pause
for a second before saying what needs to be said next.  If anything happens to Calista because Warren was here
,
I’ll never forgive myself.

“
There’s something else you should know as well.  Warren, my friend that accompanied Kalen and
me
, has disappeared
,
too.  We searched his room and found most of his things missing.  He has been acting oddly since we arrived and I saw him talking to Avery yesterday at the ceremony.  I believe he has turned traitor.”

The King
is
in despair
.  It can’t be easy to know that traitors were here under his nose
this entire time
and he didn’t know. 

He quickly demands,
“I want guards watching my family at all times and do not, by any means
,
let the
m out of your sight.”  He looks at Merrick and Merrick drops his gaze to the floor in shame.
  I can honestly say I feel somewhat bad for
him
because he let
Calista get away, but so did I.

“Elvena, please go and find Calista,” the King pleads.

“Yes,
Y
our
Highness.”  She bows and turns to walk away, but not before giving me a questioning glance.  I shrug
my shoulders and shake my head so she know
s
I have no clue where Calista is.
  I wi
sh I knew.

Elvena
le
aves
in search of Calista and everyone in the great room
spen
ds
this time talking about strategies and preventive measures.  I’m beginning to get worried and I see that Merrick is looking agitated and worried
,
too.  I lean over to whisper to Merrick.

“Can you hear her…you know, in your thoughts?”

Merrick scrunches up his face in concentration and then deflates. 

“I try, but I can’t hear her.  It doesn’t feel
like her usual shield,
but there’s something there physically blocking me from entering her mind.  I’ve tried all afternoon, but nothing happens.”

I look up to see Elvena and Meliantha running through the doors. 

Meliantha is sobbing hysterically
and screams
, “She’s gone!  Calista’s gone!
” My heart stops and the feelings of dread wash over my body.  Where could she be?  If Warren has something to do with this I’m going to kill that fucker with my bare hands. 

Meliantha quickens her pace
as she walks
to King Oberon and wails, “
We’ve searched everywhere and Elvena can’t sense her anywhere here.”  She sinks to the ground holding her face and rocking back and forth.  Out of all of Calista’s siblings I can tell that Calista and Meliantha are the closest.  Kalen is about to
go and comfort her when Queen Ta
tiana runs toward her and takes Meliantha into her arms holding her tight.  Kalen backs up and I know he wanted to be the one to go to her.
The
q
ueen
takes the crying
Meliantha and leaves the room.

“Meliantha is right.  I can’t feel Calista anywhere near here.”  Elvena turns to Merrick. 

“Can you feel her, Merrick?”

He says the same thing he told me,
but now that he knows Calista is missing his face and voice show all the tension he must be feeling.  I can tell he blames himself for Calista
’s disappearance.
 

He replies worriedly,
“I’ve tried to contact her, but I’m being blocked by something.”

“It’s the dark magic.  She has to be surrounded by it, but she can’t always be, so when you feel that tension let up try to get i
n touch with her again,” Elvena instructs.  She walks over to me and Merrick and reveals,
“There is, however, a way for us to contact her in the meantime.”

It
got everyone’s attention and we
stood
,
silently waiting for
her to continue. 

She states,
“If I use the magic within me combined with
the
bonds she has with both of you, there is a way we can contact her.  The only catch is that she has to be near sleep in order for this to work.”

We both nod our heads and I exclaim impatiently,
“It’s evening now so we have a good chance at contacting her.  What do we have to do?”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to get her back,” Merrick says.

Elvena takes a deep breath and turns one of the table chairs away from the table.  She motions for Merrick and me to pull up chairs around her.  We form a triangle and bot
h sit down in the chairs waiting
for gui
dance on what to do.
 

Elvena explains,
“In order for this to work, you have to clear your minds and focus only on Calista.  I need you to picture, in your minds, the bond that pulls you both to her.  Think of it as a string that physically connects you to her and foll
ow it until you connect with her soul.”

Elvena grabs both mine and Merrick’s hands and holds on tight, giving a reassuring squeeze. 

She whispers,
“Now, close your eyes.”  We both follow her orders and close our eyes.

“Where do you want the setting of the dream to be?  If she is in distress and needs comfort, the place
should
be
where
she
finds peace,” Elvena points out.

I blurt out quickly, “It needs to be by the willow tree at the lake.”

I
c
an
tell, even with my eyes closed, that Elvena
is
smiling at the suggestion and Merrick
i
s
scowling.  Merri
ck
t
akes
in a deep breath and huffs
it out angrily. 

“The lake it is then,” Elvena says.

She takes another deep breath and lets it out slowly. 
Then she
starts to speak in the Old Fae language.  The Old language
isn’t
spoken often anymore.  When the fae started travelling to the mortal realm centuries ago, the English language made its way here, along with other languages.  Elvena continues her chant and I make sure to focus as hard as I can on Calista and our bond.  It’s not hard to concentrate on her.  I can still remember the way her hair smells, the glitter of gold in her bright green eyes and the way her body felt underneath mine by the willow tree. 
My body starts to feel like it’s going to explode with all the pressure around me.  It quickly dissipates and I’m left standing by the willow tree at the lake in some sort of dream world.  I look around and Merrick and Elvena are here
with me
,
too.

“Now what do we do?” Merrick asks
while looking around.

Elvena answers
, “We wait for Calista to join us and it might not be a good time to tell her about Xylia’s parents.  Let’s wait until she is safely home and has us all to lighten the burden.”