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Leajka
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Glandias appears on the battlefield, looking ghastly in the eerie red light of the Southlands with her scarred face and bald head. Circling it is a crown with a red stone in the center.
I’m locked in a storm of conflict. The abundance of shadow fae overwhelms that part of me, pulling at me like a magnet. But it’s nothing to the love of my sisters, Tyrren, and new friends. Val and Kiki rescued me, Tyrren said that he loves me, and the others are willing to fight by my side. I’m torn between what I am and who I am. I focus my thoughts on the light and the promise I made never to forget no matter how dark it gets.
“What a delightful surprise. Guests, welcome to my new home.” Glandias holds her hands out wide.
Val snorts. “You should take some pointers from my great-grandmother. Even she has better hospitality than you.”
“Ah, is it Nathina of whom you speak? After the difficulty in Terra, I recently paid her a visit. Got some information from the Library of Memories.” Glandias cackles.
“See, I told you it was true,” Kiki mutters.
“I’m only sorry that the former king of the Southlands didn’t invite me over sooner.” Glandias adjusts the crown circling her head.
“You mean Emeric, your son?” Lea asks.
Glandias, ignoring me, taps her chin. “Now, what to do with the raven shifter, the wolf shifter, and the vampire?” She turns to my sisters and me with a wicked sneer. I know all too well what she’ll attempt with us.
The one rule I always had was to forget the past. I have to break that rule, which means pushing out all the bad thoughts, the regrets, the fears, and let in the light.
Glandias approaches Tyrren and draws a longsword.
In eighth grade when I saw him across the hall, I fell I love. He was walking with some guy from our math class. He tilted his head back and laughed. He always saw the good in people. Even me, even when I wasn’t particularly good. It was an unremarkable moment, but I realized then that he was my person. He proved that and more in tenth grade after the attack and every day since.
I may be lost in shadow, but I’ll tell Tyrren that I love him when this is over, which means we have to survive.
I don’t let myself think about anything other than the plan. Not the past even though it’s fodder. Not the future, even though it’s fuel.
Glandias waves her hand, restraining our magic. It’s a heavy, shackling sensation, and much like at RIP Jr.
I straighten and my pulse quickens. I have to do something and do it now. “Glandias, I’ll come into your order if you let my friends go. Grant them freedom and I will do your bidding.”
She tilts her head as though considering this.
Kiki watches the crown carefully.
Glandias’s gaze narrows. “The vampire could be useful in the forge. The shifters are useless, but you three—” She eyes my sisters and me.
I inhale deeply as fiery rage builds within. The thing about fire is it casts light. Just what I need to fight the shadows.
Glandias’s dry laughter fans the flames. I prepare to tackle her, to destroy her even without magic if I have to.
“Don’t get any wicked ideas, shadow fae. You’re no match for me without your magic. Listen, the three of you plus one more are part of the prophecy to be the count’s undoing.” She shakes her head slowly. “No, it’s not a prophecy but a promise. You, see, I have no interest in him ruling.”
“Yet, you wear his crown.” The stone almost looks black in the half-light.
“This was Emeric’s crown, but I suppose it suits me better as the stone amplifies my power.”
Kiki eyes it hungrily.
“Not too long ago, I formulated a substance to gain control over the vampires and use their strength to my advantage. I wonder how much it would take to get him to rip out your throats.” She angles the sword at Tyrren.
“Why are you doing this?” Kiki asks.
Ah, the old get the villain to explain their shady morals trick. I’m guessing Kiki and I have the same taste in movies.
“Since the three fae are instrumental in my rise to power and one of you added to my collection of scars, I’ll tell you. When I was young, I was in a fire. My parents didn’t survive. I was put into the care of my uncle. Sound familiar, Lea?”
I shiver and try to find some warmth.
“He was a cold, calculating man, but saw to it that I received the best medical care to improve what he referred to as my upsetting appearance. Scars covered nearly my entire body and when I was well enough to go in public, people would whisper and tease. They’d stare and ridicule.” She turns sharply. “Now, I have you faetchers to thank for new scars. After one of the more difficult grafts on my face, I fell ill and had to spend a long time convalescing. My nurse moved me into the library of my uncle’s home because she felt the sunshine in that room would do me good.” Glandias paces in front of us, gazing at her troops as though they’re her happy ending.
“You grew up in Terra?” Tyrren asks.
Glandias nods. “The rays reminded me of the fire that licked and then devoured my skin. But the books—the stories of military tactics and warfare sparked my attention. I consumed them much like the blaze and ridicule consumed me. The books were my antidote, in fact. I began to devise a plan to build my own empire. The poor kid who lost her parents. The freakish girl with the melted skin. The one who discovered a rune in a book that led to another realm. It made me believe that my triumph would come from strategy and power. There were a few detours. I studied to be a mage, had a son, returned to Terra for a time—”
“And now you want to destroy it and rule the Borean realm.” Kiki narrows her eyes.
“That puts a tidy little bow on things, doesn’t it?” Glandias says. “I will see these troops rise to their potential.” She gazes out at the lines of shadow fae with their eyes clouded over. “There is just one little hiccup. Count Vlad is posing a problem, hidden away somewhere in the realm and I’m relying on the three of you to lead me to him.”
“Why would we do that?” Val asks.
Glandias tilts her head with feigned curiosity. “Cooperate or your friends will pay.” She approaches me with sure footing and her nasty smile wrinkles her scarred cheeks.
The fire within blisters and burns. I don't do anything to extinguish it and glare at her.
“The others know better than to try to fight me, Lea. But I suppose you can’t be blamed for your behavior, considering you’re little more than shadow. Now, let’s see. There’s Soren the fatherless son of the fallen Raven Kingdom.” She paces past him. “We have Callen, who’s little more than a cursed wolf shifter.” She sneers at him.
“Do you mean a night howl?” Tyrren asks.
By the grim expressions of the others in response the answer is yes.
“Learned about them in class at RIP Jr. There’s a sanctuary to break the curse in Concordia where the Alpha Guardians are.” Tyrren shrugs.
Glandias dismisses Tyrren’s interlude. “Of course, the newest member of your little crew, the vampire, Tyrren. We’ll finish our tests later. This leaves me with the three fae sisters. There’s really no sense in prolonging this scenario. Ineke, Valora, and Leajka, I command you lead me to your father.” Glandias uses our true names.
Kiki and Val slouch and their expressions slacken. I recall Emeric using my name, how I bent to his will, feeling a pull that I couldn’t resist. This time, I don’t feel the fog or the sense that I’m slipping into a dream.
Kiki reaches into her pocket and produces the compass. “I need the stone from your crown.” Her voice is robotic.
Glandias’s eyes widen and she snatches the compass, quickly removing the stone from the crown and popping it into the empty spot indicating south. She turns in a circle as though trying to make sense of the spinning needle in the middle. She flashes a glare at Kiki. “Make this work.”
My sister holds out her hands. “Only one of us can use it.”
“I don’t trust you.” Glandias puts it in my hands likely because I’m already in shadow.
I blink slowly, keeping up the ruse.
“Leajka, use the compass. Lead me to your father.”
I force myself not to flinch when she says father. Doesn’t she mean Count Vlad?
I study the compass as though reading something important. When we first met, Kiki explained that the compass served four purposes. It can take you where you’d like to go, lead you to your heart’s greatest desire, to the location of the four missing stones in each of the pockets, and to its owner.
I turn in a slow circle like Glandias did moments before. The needle lands on Tyrren. “He knows where to go,” I say robotically, mimicking Kiki.
“The scab?” Glandias scoffs.
I extend my hand to his. “Tyrren, the iron bracelet will take us where we want to go.”
He tilts his head slightly and his lip quirks like he understands.
With one finger, I subtly trace the rune of passage on the bracelet around his wrist, the one I gave him and he used to get back to the RIP Jr campus when I went on the fool’s errand for Jurik—who was actually Glandias.
The mage steps closer, peering over my shoulder. Meanwhile, the others link hands.
Although Glandias will figure out where we went since she gave me the bracelet, it’ll buy us time. That is if it works.
But she can’t be touching me or we’ll take her with us.
I draw on the taste, the texture, and the essence of my light. I feel for it in the ether. There’s a silver thread. I grab onto it in my mind, pulling it closer, hand over hand. The more I pull, the brighter it gets, turning golden, blinding. I inhale and then whirl, using it to blast Glandias back.
I press my finger against the rune and shout, “Now.”
We slip into nothingness, spinning, swirling, lost to space and time.
I keep hold of the golden thread, not willing to let it go. I want my entire fae-self back, light, shadow, and whatever is in between.
Darkness fills my vision as I land on stone and hit my head.
