Journey into the Realm: The Stolen Child (Journey into the Realm Series) (13 page)

***

As darkness descended upon Honeysuckle, Ellie’s only distinguishing features were the flames from her boots. The rest of the city seemed consumed by darkness. No lanterns were lit, no other fires started, as if the Element fairies could see in the dark. It wouldn’t surprise me. After all I had witnessed, it seemed as though the Element fairy race had been fashioned for this particular lifestyle. I couldn’t imagine them behaving any other way. And yet Queen Brielle had spoken of rebellion. Could there be Element fairies who would rather make peace than rage needless war? Until I met one, I wouldn’t believe it.

We still had no word from Daur or his irritable sibling. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone else, so I listened to the leaves sway in the night wind and the crackle of Ellie’s flames.

The hours stretched on. Tavis nodded off shortly after the moon rose, Nathan sometime later. Only I remained awake. My mind and body buzzed with anxiety. I couldn’t settle down enough to shut my eyes. I disliked waiting, giving the Element fairies time to think of another plan. But what really angered me was Ellie’s presence. I let her live; I let her go. And this was her way of repaying me? I had acted as the better individual when I let her escape with her life. Now my friends and I were cornered. Maybe, in this war, dignity didn’t matter. Maybe honor was a waste of time. Maybe all that mattered was winning.

I wanted to win. I wanted to beat Ellie in every game she tried to play. I wanted to crush her spirit, destroy her focus, ruin her will. That’s what happened to me when she killed Stellan, but I had managed to recover, for the most part. I didn’t want her to recover.

She didn’t deserve a second chance. Our last moment together should have been when I told her to go. But no. She was greedy. She wanted more. I was ready to give it.

“Feeling angry? Vengeful? Unable to quiet your dangerous thoughts?” a familiar voice wondered.

I looked up. Perched neatly on a branch far too slender for me to sit upon was Daur. Elegantly, he dropped down from his branch and landed noiselessly on mine, sitting so that we were facing each other.

“Did my expression give that away?” I asked, instead of directly admitting my thoughts.

“No. Your skin did,” he replied evenly, watching me with vivid green eyes.

“My skin?” I questioned.

“It is easy to categorize the fae as emotionless. That is not quite true, however. All fae experience emotions, just differently compared to humans and elves. For fairies, emotions are hindrances. Emotions interfere with their control over magic. Some fae choose to go without an emotion or two to lessen the difficulties. The Flower and Woodland fae are like that. They have done away with sadness and cannot comprehend tragedy, but their magical skill is very precise and controlled. Other fae choose to experience every emotion in order to strengthen their magic, but they feel far too strongly.”

“The Element fairies do that,” I recognized.

Daur nodded. “Element fairies are weak in that sense. They allow their emotions to control not only their magic, but also their reason. They believe it contributes to their strength, and it does, but it also makes them irrational.”

“Irrational enough to start a useless war?” I asked.

“Exactly,” he confirmed.

This lesson on fairy emotions was interesting, a subject that had drawn my curiosity on several occasions. But what did it have to do with my skin? What argument was Daur trying to make?

“What about Golden fairies?” I wondered.

“Ah, that leads me to my point,” he confessed. “I said earlier that I was told not to interfere in this matter…but I have decided that I must.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “Golden fairies feel most emotions the same way elves do. When a loved one dies, they grieve. When they accomplish a particularly difficult spell, they smile in contentment. Only two emotions are able to make a Golden fairy lose control: anger and joy. And I’m not talking about simple frustration or happiness upon receiving a bouquet of flowers from a lover. I am speaking of anger that reaches your very core and joy that lifts your spirit to the sky. Two extremes of normal emotions. Two extremes that can control and consume you if you are not careful.”

I blinked hard, stunned by his words. Was this what he meant earlier when he said my dormant power was waiting for my call? Was my Golden fairy blood waiting for me to experience these extremes so it could take control?

“When you feel either of the two extremes, your skin will glow, warning you of the power to come. Just like it did before I interrupted your thoughts,” Daur explained. “Tell me, what were you thinking?”

“That I want to destroy the fire fairy,” I admitted, suddenly feeling ashamed. “She killed someone I loved and tried to kill me.” I twisted a loose thread from my shirt, using the distraction to subdue my anger. “She hasn’t stopped trying.”

“This is a war, Ramsey,” Daur replied, “so I will not ask you to refrain from killing. Unfortunately, violence is necessary during these bleak times. But revenge killing is the greatest gateway to feeling the anger I speak of. If you kill her, it should be in self-defense or to defend those you love. Not because you can. Not because you want to. Not even because she deserves it.”

“But –”

Daur sighed, cutting me off. “I know it does not sound fair. But to harness the irrational wildness in your blood, to keep it dormant, you must listen and obey my words.”

“What happens if I don’t? What happens if I lose control?”

Daur’s eyes narrowed until they were green slits, making him look like more of a serpent than a Tree fairy. “Sooner than you expect, the magic will
destroy
you
.”

I swallowed dryly and cleared my throat, preparing myself to respond just as I heard Nathan stir. He lifted his head and looked at us curiously. “Daur? You’re back,” he commented.

Daur turned from me to address Nathan. “Yes. I have come to explain your situation. I was just discussing it with Ramsey.”

He didn’t miss a beat. It was almost as if our conversation had never happened. But it had, and again I found myself facing a change within me. I knew something about myself I had never expected. I was naturally dangerous, to myself and to others. I wasn’t a powerful magical being; I was a gathering storm on the brink of wreaking havoc if I wasn’t careful.

Nathan nudged Tavis awake so he could listen to Daur’s situation update. As inconspicuously as I could manage, I looked down to make sure my skin had ceased to glow. I felt my rage over Ellie simmering beneath the surface, but I was able to contain it for now. I didn’t want anyone asking questions, especially Nathan. Telling him about the dormant menace within would either bring him closer or push him farther away, and I liked him at the distance he was.

Tavis yawned and stretched out his arms. “What’s going on?”

“Daur’s going to explain to us…well, whatever’s happening,” I said, clasping my hands together to quell my anxiety. I had to appear as though nothing had changed. I had to stay strong for the group. At this moment, the immediate danger wasn’t me; it was Ellie and her Element fairy soldiers.

“As you have most likely guessed, the Element fairies have stretched their influence to include the Flower Fairy Realm.”

“Along with the Mermaid Realm, that’s two Realms they have under their control,” Tavis remarked. “Has the Woodland Fairy Realm succumbed as well?”

“Undoubtedly,” Daur concurred. “I do not know what these Realms have been promised, whether it is safety, riches, power…it truly does not matter. They are not fighting in the war, but they are prepared to stop you from reaching the Golden Fairy Realm at any cost. They have succumbed, and unfortunately there is nothing to be done about it until the war ends. You cannot busy yourself trying to change the minds of the rulers who have been tempted.”

“You’re telling us we can’t even try to show them the truth?” I asked, appalled by his unwillingness to do good.

“It would not be wise. King Vortigern’s influence is too strong. I suggest focusing on ending the war. Once the King is stripped of his power, the other Realms will be easier to sway.”

I shook my head. “I don’t like it. It’s not fair to ignore the other Realms just so we can win.”

“What Daur’s saying makes sense, Ramsey,” Nathan argued. “You can’t help anyone who doesn’t want to be helped. These Realms don’t understand what’s at stake. They see only what the Element Fairy Realm is offering.”

“I fear that this was inevitable,” Daur said, sighing softly. “Keeping the races separate, creating boundaries…it is as if we all went into hiding. No Realm knew the other’s intentions. When the Element Fairy Realm suddenly surfaced, the other Realms were not prepared. No one knew what to expect or how to react properly.”

“So we just ignore what’s happened and focus on the end result?” I asked. I released a long breath. “I don’t like it, but I suppose I see the reason in it.”

Daur nodded. “Good. Now let us discuss our current situation.”

“How long are we supposed to stay up in this tree?” Tavis asked. “And separated from the others?”

“The Element fairies are prepared to wait as long as they must. The protection our trees offer will not fail, but you cannot remain here forever. You have a journey to continue,” Daur said. “However, you need the crown to carry on with your travels, and it is currently being guarded by your enemies.”

“So we fight,” Tavis concluded.

“That seems like your most viable option,” Daur agreed. “Take whatever time you need to prepare. Drasill and I will offer as much help as we can. We are not fighters, but we have plenty of magic to lend.”

Daur was right; to survive this, we needed to fight. I was afraid, but not of what the Element fairies might do. If Ellie and I were pitted against each other, I didn’t know if I would be able to control myself. Having to kill her was a definite possibility, but if it came to that, would I be able to take a life in self-defense and resist surrendering to my full capacity of uncontrolled rage?

Could I kill her without destroying myself?

With Elvina and Aimee in the other tree, the difficulty of accurately planning our attack quickly became apparent. We had Daur and Drasill acting as messengers back and forth, but strategizing became a lengthy, choppy process without fluid conversation between the trees. Our tree agreed on an all-out attack, while the other tree favored using stealth to our advantage. Neither tree was ready to back down on their plan.

“Tell Elvina that an all-out attack will take the fairies by surprise,” I conveyed to Daur. “Ellie won’t expect it. I know she won’t.”

“But the fairies will recover quickly,” Drasill argued after Daur had delivered the message. “And Elvina says it is too risky to rest success on the Element fairies’ reactions. What if you are wrong?”

“She’s not,” Tavis said, backing me up. “Think of how many we can take out with one strike each. There are enough of us to significantly bring down their numbers. The rest will be tough to kill quickly, but manageable.”

This time, Drasill left to deliver the message, leaving Daur with us.

“This is a mess,” I said to him. “Can’t you move Elvina and Aimee to this tree?”

Daur shook his head. “Drasill and I are the only creatures able to move between trees without disturbing the protective magic. We are naturally gifted in tree magic, but setting up these barriers took time. In fact, to set up the protective wards, it took from the time we entered Honeysuckle to the moment I gave you the signal.” He looked to the ash tree and back. “If we brought Elvina and Aimee to this tree, the barrier would be down too long, and you would be forced into fighting.”

“We’re left with no choice but to agree on a single attack,” Tavis said. “Elvina and Aimee will have to surrender.”

I rolled my eyes. “They aren’t going to give up that easily.”

Drasill returned, and, having heard my last words, nodded. “Elvina and Aimee say that with the use of an invisibility spell, you could locate and acquire the crown without bloodshed.”

I sighed. “I’ve used the invisibility spell in the past, so I know how beneficial it is,” I expressed, remembering my escape from Fire Prison with Emera. Being invisible saved us from discovery after we had nearly run into Finn. “But it seems too easy. Ellie knows we have two fairies with the ability to perform spells. What if they’re prepared? We still don’t know the extent of Flower fairy magic. Suppose there’s a Flower fairy in Honeysuckle with the ability to detect performed magic. Ellie will find that fairy and use him or her to stop us.”

“That’s why our way is better,” Tavis boasted, crossing his arms against his chest.

Drasill glared at him. “Like Elvina said, it is too risky. You are too engrossed in your plan to see reason,” she insisted, her raspy voice bathed in bitterness that was difficult to take. Unlike Daur, who was understanding and easy to converse with, the ash fairy was condescending and judgmental. I knew that approach wouldn’t sit well with a stubborn elf like Tavis.

Tavis smirked. “And you’re a dormant Tree fairy in hiding who hasn’t been trained to fight.
We
have been. So why don’t you keep your opinions to yourself?”

“Tavis,” I snapped.

“What?” he retorted.

Drasill went completely still. Her ashy skin grew shades darker until it was almost black. Then she started shaking. Slowly, she held out her hands and spread apart her fingertips. Still trembling, she began muttering in a language I didn’t understand.

“Drasill, please,” Daur cautioned. “Do not do this.”

“He insulted me,” Drasill replied, her eyes changing into glowing white orbs. “He cannot go unpunished.”

Tendrils began to grow from her fingertips, like brown branches one would find on a tree. They made cracking noises as they bent unnaturally around Tavis’s body, tightening until he began to gasp for air. Only then did she call them back in the same strange language. The branches slithered back to her and disappeared into her hands.

“My brother and I have not been trained for combat. It is true we have been in hiding for many years. As you can see, that has done little to impede my natural gifts,” she said evenly, her eyes and skin returned to normal. “Your accusation was impulsive, just like your plan.”

I had to admit, Drasill had proven a very good point with that display. However, an argument could be made that it was a little too dramatic.

“Look, I understand your side of things,” I conceded, eyeing Tavis to make sure he was okay before continuing. “But we can’t rely on stealth alone, just in case the Element fairies are prepared. I’m sure you can see the sense in that. So what do we do?”

“Compromise,” Nathan suggested. “Have Elvina and Aimee use the invisibility spell, while we use the outright attack as a distraction.”

I nodded along with his plan. “Sounds like a good solution to our conflict. Drasill, please inform Elvina and Aimee.”

After one last wicked glare toward Tavis, the ash fairy nodded curtly and disappeared. Without hesitation, I reached for my bow and arrow set, which had been hanging on a nearby branch since my arrival in the tree. Tavis followed my actions by retrieving his own set.

“Since there are five Element fairies, I can’t afford to waste energy by performing too many spells, so I’m going to use one spell to enchant my arrows to make them stronger. Nathan should do the same,” I advised.

“Nathan doesn’t have any arrows,” Tavis brought up.

I began removing each of my ten arrows from my bag, preparing them for the spell. “He’s going to use yours,” I replied.

“Then what about me?” he wondered, his tone of voice darkening with frustration.

“It makes no sense for you to use arrows when you have a perfectly dangerous ability to use against the Element fairies,” I pointed out, rifling through my belongings for my mother’s spell book, which I would use to find the enchantment spell I required for the arrows.

Tavis’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. “You mean blow them up?”

“Of course,” I said, distractedly flipping through pages.

“Um, I don’t know…,” he trailed off.

I raised my head from the spell book and narrowed my gaze. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“I haven’t exactly blown anything up before,” he admitted in an uncharacteristically small voice.

I was hugely surprised by this unwelcome news. I closed the book, focusing my full attention on the elf seated across from me. “What? Why not? What about in school?” I asked.

“Well, then it was only small things. Like pens and pieces of paper. But fairies…I have no idea.”

Annoyed that my seemingly good plan had a few kinks, I grabbed Tavis’s bow and arrows and planted them in Nathan’s lap. “Well you’re going to have to try! Nathan and I will shoot down as many fairies as we can, but we’ll need to rely on your ability to finish them off. Fairies aren’t easy to kill,” I reminded him.

He nodded, but I could tell he was still uncertain. “All right, I’ll try.”

I sighed. Tavis rarely felt intimidated. I couldn’t ignore his insecurities in favor of fast action. I needed to make sure he was okay if I was going to feel comfortable relying on him during the attack. “Hey,” I said, reaching to squeeze his hand. “You were given this ability for a reason. I know it’s unpredictable and dangerous, but your gift is a part of you. You deserve to use it.”

He took an audible breath and squeezed my hand back. “You’re right. I can do it. Just…make sure to stay behind me, okay?” he asked, his eyes moving from me to Nathan and back again. “I’m not certain about the accuracy of my aim.”

Shock coursed through me upon hearing this, but I made myself seem perfectly fine on the outside so as not to frighten him with my own fears. “I’m sure you won’t hurt us, but we’ll stay back, right, Nathan?”

Nathan, who was a little less capable of hiding his emotions, blinked a few times until he finally nodded. “Yes, of course.”

Daur cleared his throat, a reminder that he was still with us. “I will scan the area and report back to you with the positions of the soldiers.”

“Thank you, Daur,” I replied. “The enchantments should be ready by the time you return.” As the oak fairy turned to leave, I returned to my mother’s book, turning the pages until I found the spell I needed.

Nathan left his own branch to sit next to me, his shoulder brushing mine as he leaned closer to the book. I suddenly felt a yearning to rest my head against him, a gesture that should be natural considering our relationship. But then a voice inside my head reminded me that seeking comfort from Nathan wouldn’t help me perform the spell, so in the end I refrained.

“What spell did you find?” he asked, his mouth tantalizingly close. I couldn’t remember the last time I had kissed him, really kissed him. Not just a little peck on the lips. But in a situation like this, what would a kiss accomplish?

“A strengthening spell. It’s designed for fairies, but I think I can make it work on the arrows,” I murmured, carefully reading my mother’s instructions.

“Why don’t you perform the spell you used to kill Finn?” Tavis wondered. “From what I’ve heard, that seemed to work fairly well.” Obviously, he was still concerned about his ability to blow the fairies up without killing us. Too concerned to realize the mistake he had just made.

My fingers trembled where they marked my place on the page of my mother’s journal. “No,” I choked. I cleared my throat. “I will never use that spell again.”

“Why not?” he persisted.

I closed my eyes and tried to breathe.

“Because it was the last spell she used before Stellan was murdered,” Nathan explained, always the one to echo my thoughts. “Instead of trying to find a way out of using your ability by being insensitive, you should figure out a way to avoid killing us when you
do
use it.”

Tavis hung his head but didn’t speak. He turned away from us, muttering to himself about something I couldn’t make out. I didn’t know what to say to him, so I remained silent, hoping he would recover on his own.

I resumed reading about the spell. The scene with Tavis was over, but my fingers still trembled, and my eyes blurred with embarrassing tears. I needed to get a handle on my grief. Currently, I was in no shape to fight Element fairies. If I was this unstable when I confronted Ellie, she would laugh in my face right before she set me on fire.

“Hey,” Nathan said, covering my fingers with his own. “Don’t listen to Tavis. He’s just scared and he’s not used to feeling that way.”

“It was his idea to attack the Element fairies,” I muttered, grateful for the warmth of Nathan’s skin. “He needs to accept his part in this.”

“He will,” Nathan assured me. “When the moment comes, he will.”

I nodded, taking a deep breath as I pulled my fingers out from under his. “I’m okay now.” I could tell the gesture bothered him because he frowned and crossed his arms like he wanted to protest, but wouldn’t. “Thanks,” I added, in an attempt to make him feel better.

“You’re welcome,” he said in a strained voice. I knew he wanted to say more, but he was too afraid to hurt me. He was being suffocated by my grief, his voice slowly dying, and I was too selfish to save him.