Take Me

“I'm not doing so badly now. You should go tell them. They're probably worried,” I said.

How much time had passed? I had no way of knowing. The sky was darker now than when I first left the cave and had my little temper tantrum.

“Later. Right now, I want to talk about what happened before you fell. Do you truly not remember any of it?”

“Why are you making me think right now?” All I wanted was to close my eyes and forget about the pain for a little while.

But now that he was beside me, I could imagine myself drifting off into a sweet, dreamless slumber. Sleep tugged at me, promised relief. Was it smart to fall asleep with a head wound? Of all the times for common sense to come knocking.

“This is important. I know you are hurting, but we need to understand what happened—and why.”

I grumbled softly, even though I understood. Call me crazy, but I wasn’t in the mood to be reasonable when various parts of my body were either broken, bruised, or swollen. “I remember falling. I remember you trying to help me. I could feel it.”

“What else?” he asked in a tight voice. Was he remembering how he had failed to catch me?

“It wasn't your fault.”

“I know. What happened before then?”

Fine then. “Um...let me think. I walked into the woods.”

“And exactly why would you do that?”

I didn't much care for Elliot’s know-it-all attitude. It was bad enough that he was making me play twenty questions. I was hurting. He needed to get to the point.

“I'm sorry, do you think I did it because I wanted to? Sure, let me traipse through a Fae forest and see what's what. Why not? After all, everything up to this point has gone so well!” I snapped.

My pulse began to race, quickening with every word I spat. That didn't help anything. My head pounded harder than ever, enough to send nausea roiling through me.

“Easy, easy. You’re still hurt.”

“Thank you for cluing me in,” I said, drawing a slow breath, willing my heart to settle down. “Like I was saying, I went to the woods because the...He drew me in!”

“Healynas?”

“Yes. He was there,” I said.

Now it was becoming clearer, like storm clouds breaking up after the heavy weather passed. A thunderstorm, maybe. Why did that seem important all of a sudden?

“And he said...Well, he said a lot of things. Weird things. I couldn't understand a lot of it, but I couldn't get away.”

“Naturally, he would keep you in his control,” Elliot said.

“I remember something about developing my powers.”

“Yes, you touched on that when you were falling.”

And flapping my arms. Elliot was considerate enough to leave that part out, but I wasn’t going to forget it anytime soon.

“He said he was the only one who could give them to me, and that I would need to prove myself to him.” The more I thought about it, the more of my memory unlocked.

“He said that? That he would give them to you?”

I would have nodded my head, but it still hurt too much. “He said he gave them to my brother too. But he wouldn't make the same mistake with me as he did with Jett.”

“He gave Jett a royal right,” he snorted. “I should have known. That's the only way Jett could be capable of what he did.”

“I don't understand.” Talk about an understatement. It would’ve been easier to get it tattooed across my forehead.