Callie
Squinting, I examined the city in the distance.
It wasn't instantly familiar to me, and it was nowhere I had ever been in person before. However, the large stone buildings, the roadways, and the historical relevance began to sink in. I shook my head in disbelief as I stared out over the city of Rome.
"How can this be? It has seriously only been about a day and a half since they took my ass."
I knew that I hadn't been there that long, not long enough to be passed out, wake up, and find that I had gone to a completely other country with no recollection of traveling there or even a hint of jet lag. Sure, the farthest I'd ever traveled was across the country, but even then, I felt like crap for days after. Either I had been asleep for a lot longer than I thought, or magic was playing a bigger part in the whole puzzle that my life had become.
Behind me, I could hear the rustling of bushes and the muffled sound of voices shouting. They had found the crack in the dome, and it wouldn't be long until they found the hole. I clasped my jacket tightly closed and immediately started down the hill, putting my hand back to stabilize myself since it was so steep.
I didn't know anything about Rome, but it was a lot safer than where I was. With it being such a high tourist area, I knew that I'd be able to find someone that could help me. If nothing else, there were plenty of people in Rome, and plenty of places to hide. By the time they tracked me down, I definitely could get ahold of Willa or even go to the police.
As I slid and bounced down the embankment, I thought about a visit to the police in a foreign country. "Oh yeah, I was kidnapped by two gigantic Fae, but then escaped their magical handcuffs. I ran down the bridge, was almost hit by a car, but witches saved me with their magic. Then somehow, a day later I woke up here in a hidden mansion on top of a hill. Oh, and they think I'm someone I'm not because my best friend is apparently a Fae Princess."
Okay, maybe the police weren't such a good idea. But I had to find a way to hide, and a way to contact Willa. I was glad I was on planet Earth. That meant I wasn't going to stumble down the hill and have to explain that I had been kidnapped by witches to a gnome or a dragon, or whatever else happened to be real that none of the humans on earth actually realized existed.
Getting down that steep hill was hard. There were moments where I would slide at least fifty feet, forgetting my footing. When I finally got to the bottom, I was covered in dirt and I could feel the stinging of cuts up my legs. I was thankful that they had finally given me some pants and a shirt to wear instead of that horrible nightgown that I had woken up in. It would not have been pretty tripping down the giant hill in a grandma nightgown and robe.
I stood up, trying to dust as much dirt off me as I could. Reaching in my pocket, I found the remnants of the glasses that I had been wearing, but they were broken in half from my graceful fall from the crazy house. I didn't have a clue what I looked like, but it had been a while since I'd taken a shower and I knew I had pink hair sticking out in all directions. I definitely was not dressed for success at that moment. But my clothes didn't matter to me. I needed to find somebody to help me.
Glancing back up the hill, my nerves were rattled and I took off toward the city. As soon as I managed to make it over the city limits and into a more populated area, I stopped at the first person that I saw. He was a vendor at a small street market. He had been looking down at the paper when I ran up to him and grabbed his arm. "Please. I need help. I need to get to a phone or computer. Can you help me?"
He looked incredibly startled and confused at the same time. He shook his head. "No mi dispiace. Io non parlo inglese Italiano. Tu parli Italiano?"
My head dropped with a frustrated breath and I pressed my hand to my rolling stomach. I shook my head and kept moving, knowing I didn't have time to sit there and try to get him to understand me. I didn't speak a lick of Italian and I wasn't yet far enough into the city to find a tourist or a guide that did speak English. As I turned around, I found the eyes of all the other people in the market glaring at me. They were looking at me as if I were dangerous, and I was pretty sure if I looked how I felt, I couldn't blame them. I cleared my throat and tried to straighten out my clothes, pulling my head high as I slowly moved through the market to the other side, and onto the sidewalk. I passed by a storefront and froze, looking over at my reflection.
My hair was crazy, all over the place with chunks of dirt stuck in it. My clothes were covered in mud and ripped, and there was blood trailing down my leg. I tried to straighten myself out as best I could. Behind me, voices raised higher and I heard the sound of bells in the distance. I turned, following everybody's eyes toward the hilltop. Far in the distance, I could see cars coming from the mansion down toward the city.
They knew I had escaped. They knew and they were coming after me.
Shade
"How the hell does that happen?!" I slammed my hands against my desk, sending my keyboard flying through the air.
Thorne and Eliza stood nervously in front of me, glancing back and forth at each other. Eliza rolled her eyes at Thorne and stepped forward. "We don't know. We know that the Fae cannot use magic like that here. On top of that, we put an extra shield over it because she was here. The front gate guards watched her slam right into it. There's no way she could have done that."
Slowly, I raised my head and glared at Eliza. "Obviously, you're wrong. Obviously, she is powerful enough that she can break our magic. You know how I know that?"
I turned and pointed out the window at the large crack jutting up and over the house. "That's how I know that. And right below that is a hole that she crawled through. We found pieces of her jacket stuck in the bush."
Eliza put her head down and stepped back. I pressed my fist to the desk and lowered my head, trying to calm myself. "Thorne, grab three men and meet me outside. We'll go in the first car. Eliza, follow with six more. We're going to go to Rome, try not to bring any attention to ourselves, and find her. She's not going to want to come back with you. She's going to make a scene because she's in public, so you need to put her out as quickly as you possibly can."
Both Eliza and Thorne nodded and turned, hurrying out of the room. I took a moment and closed my eyes, trying to center myself. The woman had been a pain in my ass from the moment she arrived, but there was something about her… Anybody else, anybody, I would've already thrown into the damp and disgusting cages beneath the house, but not her. I wasn't sure what it was, but I struggled to not feel bad for her. It was incredibly frustrating and had I not been enchanted by a Fae before, I would've definitely thought it was magic. But it wasn't the same, and I knew that it wasn't magic aimed at me. It was just something about her that was different.
Losing her was a setback. It was a setback that we couldn't afford. I growled angrily and banged my fists again before grabbing my jacket and throwing it over my shoulders as I marched from the room. We were going to go down to the city, find her, and bring her back. There was no other option. If she made it back to the Fae before we did, she would know exactly how to lead them to us and how to break into our compound.
By the time I got to the bottom of the steps, the car was waiting. Thorne was holding the door open for me and I slid inside. He hurried in behind me and shut the door. As the car moved through the gates, I looked back at the mansion, watching the red sparkling crack in the dome of magic begin to splinter. I shook my head. "Only a powerful Fae magic could have broken that spell. Are we sure that no one helped her get out? Or that there wasn't someone on the other side of the dome?"
Thorne shook his head. "We had precautions for that. There are sensory magical elements that detect Fae and other kinds of magical beings when they get close to our boundaries. Nothing went off. Not to mention that it took several minutes for us to even realize that something had happened to the magic dome."
I shook my head, looking out the window as we headed toward the city. "Well, maybe the magic just wasn't strong enough. The next time I guess I'll do it myself. I do know one thing. There's no question in my mind now that she's lying. There was a split second there where I was starting to get confused because she genuinely put off this guise that made it look like she was wholly confused with what was happening. But with the level of magic that it takes to break one of our spells, there's no way."
Thorne leaned forward and handed me my cell phone. "If that's the case, and she's that powerful, then we're going to need eyes in the city. The last thing we need is a magical battle in the middle of the humans. We've managed to keep the others off our radar for a very long time now. We can't let her ruin that. And we can't lose her."
I nodded and tapped through my contacts, skimming for the right number. I pressed call and put the phone to my ear. It rang several times, but finally the phone was answered. "Shade, I figured I be hearing from you. I was told something happened to the magic dome and then I heard your alert bells."
"She's there. She escaped and I'm not really sure how, or if anyone's with her, but she's gone. The only place she has to go is to the city. We found traces of her down the hill."
"That can't be… That kind of magic…"
I closed my eyes. "I know. It shouldn't exist, especially not in the human realm. But apparently, there are exceptions to every rule. None of that matters now. She's there, and we need to get her back as soon as possible. We're heading straight toward you, so meet me in front of your shop. We've got a Fae Princess on the loose, and she's the only one that can lead us back to the King. I need her alive."
"Of course. I'll meet you outside."
I clicked the phone off and dropped it in my lap, watching the city as it grew closer. Not only had I lost my one connection to find my brother, but if she got away, the woman could destroy us all. I would find her no matter the cost.