Take Me

13JAIDE

At least theground was flat. No more climbing, no more sliding down loose, rocky slopes.

Now, all we had to deal with was a forest so thick and dense, it turned high noon into something closer to dusk. Parris and Garret could walk without their cloaks for once, since a few errant beams of sunlight wouldn’t do much to them. For the most part, they were safe, even if the thick growth and eternal dusk meant the forest smelled like mildew, mold, and dampness.

Still, I would take this over the constant burning in my thighs as I pushed them beyond their normal limits. Not that I was exactly sedentary back in the day, but running up or down a few flights of stairs was the most I was used to.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Parris.

It didn't seem like he much enjoyed going over what had happened back there. Getting knocked out and all that. He took it as an insult, like it wounded his pride. He got all stiff and closed off whenever I asked, but I felt like I had to. It was the only way I could show him then and there how much I cared.

“I've been through worse,” Parris replied. His brief, tight smile told me how unnerved he was.

“Let's face it. We would have been nothing more than dust by now if it hadn't been for what Jaide did.” There was pride in Garret's voice, and in the warm look he gave me over his shoulder.

Parris was behind me with Elliot flitting in and out. Sometimes, we'd come up against a fallen tree or an absolute tangle of vines and brambles, and Elliot would fly off ahead to see if there was another route we could take.

He fell in step beside me, and I was glad. I felt better when he was there, when we were all together. It gave me a little peace, and peace was something I was in short supply of.

“How are you after that? Any aftershocks?”

I wiggled my fingers as if I was testing them out, and the way he winced made me giggle. “What? You think I'm going to shock you?” My laughter died, though, when I remembered the destruction I had caused.

I mean, we didn't go looking for a fight—they had brought it to us. But that didn't make me feel much better, especially with the stench of charred flesh and burning hair still present in my nostrils.

“You did what needed to be done,” Parris reminded me.

“That's the thing. It's not like I did it on purpose, not exactly. I saw you get hurt, and I saw how many more there were of them than of us, and I lost it.”

I closed my eyes for a second, not exactly a good idea while walking in a dark forest. I tripped almost instantly, but Elliot caught me and kept me on my feet. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I was just—”

“Remembering what that dying Fae said?” Elliot replied. When I shot him a curious look, he shrugged. “Lucky guess.”

“What was he talking about? He said something about a ‘lost house’? Pretty cryptic for his last words because they didn't make any sense,” I said.

“Maybe not to you,” Elliot said.

Oh, joy. Yet another riddle. “Are you going to tell me what it means, or are you going to keep me on the edge of my seat as always?”

“Do you know something?” Garret came to a stop, turning around to face us. “Out with it.”

“I can do two things at once, you know. Let's walk and talk,” Elliot said. He gave Garret a playful, little shove against his chest.

It was nice to see the two of them getting along and being affectionate.

“Before I get too deep into it, I want to make it clear that this is a story I heard in bits and pieces over the years. More legend than anything else—at least, that was how I always thought of it,” Elliot added. “The kind of story people tell around a fire late at night, something to give them hope during the darkest times. There was a story about a house of the Fae that disappeared in the early days of the war. It was a house of light. Most believed they were eradicated, and they more than likely were. There was a great deal of destruction in those times.”

He held out a hand to help me over what at one time must have been a fallen tree but was now completely overgrown. “When Healynas appeared, and the destruction began again, it was only natural for those in hiding and afraid of what might come to create a myth, a legend about a child of light who would save us all. They needed something to give them hope. Like I said, that's how I always regarded the stories. Something people made up so the future didn't seem so bleak.”

“What you're saying is that dying Fae thought I was this so-called child of light?” I asked.

“I'm sure that once he watched you radiate blinding beams of light that quickly obliterated his entire tribe, yes, that was where his mind went. It would have been as good an explanation as any.”

“But you believe it, don't you?” I asked Elliot. It was my turn to come to a stop, and no little shove was going to get me moving. With my hands on my hips, I glared at him. “Tell me the truth. Do you believe it?”

“She can't be.” Parris came to me, placed a hand on my shoulder, and that was good. His touch worked magic on me, soothed out the knots of confusion and disbelief that were tightening in my chest. “If she is, then we must be wrong about her being Healynas' daughter. She would have to be half-light Fae, which Healynas is not, and we already know her mother was human.”

“What if she wasn't?” Garret interjected.