Willa
As the movie ended, I lifted my arms up and stretched, rolling my head from side to side.
Looking over at Callie, I smiled, finding her curled up and fast asleep. I stood up and grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch, pulling it up over her. I rubbed my hand against the bracelet and tucked her hand under the blanket, watching her for a second until she settled back in. I had never meant to drag her into any of it, nor had I ever meant for my past to come back to me.
I was naïve to think that it wouldn't, though.
I was a Fae Princess and I had let down my guard over the years. It was my mistake, and a big one because it almost cost my best friend her life. Had the witches taken Callie to the Fae, they would've realized she was a human and there was only one thing that happened to humans when they found out about magic. Shivers ran down my spine even thinking about it.
Grabbing the remote, I switched off the TV. In the background, I could hear the cat and dog arguing still. I was wondering if they would ever stop. I chuckled to myself, figuring it could've been worse. Callie could've come home and realized that I had accidentally magically turned her cat and dog into talking plants. It would've been her worst nightmare and probably really messy.
Picking up the teacups, and the empty box of cookies, I headed toward the kitchen but stopped in the doorway. A tingling sensation ran down my spine and I could hear a whisper coming from outside. I furrowed my brow, unsure of what it was, and quickly set the glasses down in the sink. Though it was getting close to morning at that point, it was still pretty dark outside. I walked out onto the porch and wrapped my arms around myself, the wind blowing harder than it had been earlier. I looked up at the sky, but there were dark clouds covering the stars and just a faint bit of the moon poking through.
As the wind whipped around me, I put my hand to my chest, feeling the energy ripple through me. There was something in the wind, a message, but my Fae magic was far too faint and rusty to pick up on it right away. I closed my eyes and focused in, trying to clear away the static from the voice singing through the breeze. As it became clearer and clearer, my heart beat faster, recognizing my father's voice.
"He has me."
I focused harder. "Daddy? Who has you? Where are you?"
"He's coming… You have to help us…"
"Daddy? Where are you? Talk to me!"
I could hear a rapid breathing and then silence. I continued to search the breeze, looking for the message, trying to find him. Suddenly, I caught wind of the breathing again. "Is that you? You have to tell me where you are. I can't help you if I can't find you."
A deep and menacing laugh, starting out faint, rose louder and louder in my head. "You can't save daddy now. But you'll see me soon enough. What a lovely addition to my collection."
As the laughing picked up again, a sharp pain shot through my chest and I dropped to my knees gasping for air. It ran through my veins, tightening everything inside of me. And then, as suddenly as it began, it all stopped. I put my hands down in the grass and gripped them into fists, breathing heavily as I calmed my own mind. I shook my head, disconnecting from whatever message had been sent to me. Opening my eyes, I stared out into the darkness.
Something big was brewing, something far beyond anything I had ever faced before.
The Collector was coming for me… And he would take down everything, and everyone in his path on the way.
Shade
Once we returned to the mansion, Thorne took the guards and began sorting them out with Eliza, doubling the watches and making sure that everything was secure and safe. The magic over the mansion had been replaced. They had called a Mage in to ensure the stability of it that time around. I excused myself to the library, pulling down all the information I could about dark Magic creatures from the past. There was no way that something as strong as the King Collector could be out there, yet nobody had ever seen it before.
As I flipped through the pages of the book, Callie ran through my mind. I tried to push out the memories, knowing full well what my task was. I couldn't have anything distract me from that. Especially not a human… Or magical human… Or whatever she was. My brother was out there, and so was the Spring King.
I had been in the Royal House my whole life, and I knew one thing was for sure. Finding my brother was paramount, my number one priority. But there was something to say about helping to find the Spring King. Though we had been at peace for a long time with the Fae, I knew that helping to reunite their King with his throne would push that peace even further and create a stronger alliance for my brother and for future kings.
Sure, the witches did not like the Fae and vice versa, but when it came to fighting off-world, in another realm, the Fae were our best chance. They were strong, and had they been able to use their magic in the human realm, probably would have been just as strong as the witches. That kind of alliance could change the course of the witches and the Fae. First, I had to find my brother and I had to show Willa that working with the witches was worth it. I knew that Callie was gonna come along regardless of what I thought. I just hoped that having her there wouldn't distract me from what my purpose was.
Hour after hour I sat in the library, scanning through books, typing on the computer, looking everywhere I could for any old magic that I might have missed growing up. It was hard though, with all the different types of magical creatures in all the different realms, not knowing what the King Collector was, laid open an infinite number of possibilities.
About six books in, I closed the last of that stack and tossed it to the side, leaning back in my chair. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes, angered at the idea that I was hitting a dead end at every turn. For all intents and purposes, as the brother of the King, and sworn protector, things had been relatively easy for us. We hadn't dealt with any big wars or enemies trying to track us down. The biggest trouble we had was with our own kind. Rogue witches who decided that the darkness was much better than the light. Usually though, those types of witches were easy to take down and I rarely even had to do it myself.
As I sat there in the silence of the library, building up my willpower to continue on, I heard something shift on the second level. I opened my eyes and scanned, but the lights were dim upstairs and all I could see were streams of light through the balcony railing. I stood up and looked around. "Hello?"
There was nothing, and for a second I thought maybe it was just how tired I had been. But as I reached for the next book, I heard it again. My energy immediately kicked up and I could feel it streaming through my arms as I headed for the winding staircase that led to the second level of the library. I took one step at a time, slowly making my way up, aware of every movement of shadow or sound. When I reached the top, I looked straight down the first aisle of books and froze.
Standing in front of me, flickering in and out, was a magical vision of my brother. His ankles were in chains, his uniform torn and his body dirty and ragged. He slowly lifted one hand toward me and then dropped to his knees. Out of pure reaction, I ran forward, but when I reached down to grab him, my hand went right through the vision.
He looked up at me, his green eyes shimmering. "He has me."
I dropped down to my knees, looking him in the eyes. "Who has you? Where are you?"
Vlad gasped and looked over his shoulder and then back at me. "He's coming… You have to help us…"
I shook my head, wanting to reach for him, wanting to save him, but I couldn't. "You have to tell me where you are."
He shook his head as the vision of him sputtered and flickered in and out, and then disappeared. Suddenly, a race of dark magic came soaring straight at me, slamming into whatever visionary wall held the images in front of me. I stumbled backward, falling down and getting back up. "Who are you? Where are you? If you hurt my brother…"
A deep laughter began to echo through the whole library and a voice bellowed out. "You can't save your brother now. But you'll see me soon enough, you and the Fae, and maybe even the human too. What a lovely addition to my collection."
My teeth gritted and I stepped forward, but before I could say anything, a piercing pain struck me in the chest. My eyes went wide, and I fell to my knees, gripping onto my shirt as it flooded over me, tightening every part of my body. The laughter echoed around the room, filling my head as the pain filled my body. Then, as suddenly as it happened, it ended. I sat on my hands and knees in the library floor, breathing heavily. As soon as I could get my heart to slow, I sat up, grabbing onto one of the shelves to help lift me to my feet.
My phone rang in my pocket and I pulled it out, seeing Willa's name on the screen. "He visited you, didn't he?"
There was a pause. "He visited you?"
I nodded, staring at the space where the vision had been. "This is much larger than I ever thought."
"I know," Willa replied. "And it's coming for all of us."
"Callie?"
Willa talked quietly. "She's fine. She's asleep on the couch. I don't know how safe we're going to be here, but the King Collector wants her too. I don't think we have a choice. She’s going to have to stick with us and help us find your brother and my father."
"I know. Past behind us, there's no more time for bickering. The darkness is here, and it won't stop until it finds us all."
Turn the page to grab book two!