Chapter Eleven

 

 

 

Soap

Sitting on the porch of Shade’s family home, I listened to the wind howling through the trees, beckoning me back to the Land of Faerie. While they searched the Pyren for the answer to Kilara’s riddle, I enjoyed the serenity of the night air. There, things appeared much simpler. There, the problems we all faced seemed miles away.

Shade was preoccupied with her mission, and her mood had stabilized without much nudging, a huge relief to me. Dylan’s absence was harder on her than I’d imagined, and it had proved to be a maddening frustration for me as well.

Nevertheless, I was patient. I could wait out anyone, even Shade’s husband. He’d come around. I’d make him if I had to, even if it broke me. I needed her happy, and if it took convincing that stubborn Teleen to submit to Shade’s desires, then so be it. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Hey, Soap, what’s up?”

Isolde slid down onto the step next to me and held out a can of soda. I promptly took it and thanked her as I snapped the top open. I swallowed a large swig of the fizzy drink and sighed happily.

There were so many things I missed from the human world. I’d nearly forgotten some of them. It was good to get out of Faerie now and then.

“This whole elemental power thing is kind of weird.” Isolde placed her can of soda between her feet and leaned on her knees, staring out into the dark forest surrounding us. Her long dark hair fell like a curtain over her face and shoulders. She was svelte, but not so much that her bones stuck out. I wondered how her magic kept her wings hidden. If elemental magic was baffling, Nephilim magic was even more so.

“Yeah, it can be off-putting if you don’t know much about it. Fire is one of my own powers, so it’s not such a stretch to understand it. Your powers are… new to you, right? Nephilim?”

She shook her head. “Not exactly. But they were suppressed. I ran from my powers for a long time. My old friend Ciaran kind of forced me to face them when he knew I was hiding something, though he could’ve had more tact about it.”

“You getting used to them now?”

She shrugged. “Somewhat. I don’t exactly advertise my powers. I hear Nephilim are supposed to be extinct. Showing my true nature can be off-putting to other fey.”

I pondered this, wondering what it must be like to not be in sync with one’s powers. It couldn’t have been easy for Isolde, and it made me think of Zena and her brother, Xyon. One had been living as a human, the other a prisoner. I couldn’t imagine how hard it’d been for them to wrangle the magic they’d suddenly acquired after Xyon had been freed. Twin powers. It must have been overwhelming.

“It can’t be easy, that’s for sure.”

“So this thing between you and Shade… how does that work, with her husband part of the puzzle too? Isn’t it weird?”

I tilted my head toward Benton’s girlfriend. Her wide blue eyes gleamed mischievously. She was just curious. That was fine, but I hoped my answer wasn’t too disappointing.

“I fell in love with Shade the first time I met her. I couldn’t lose her. If it takes sharing her, so be it. Dylan isn’t as open to it as I’d hoped, but it’s not me who’s asking him. Shade has asked him to accept too. It’s not uncommon in our culture, but Dylan hasn’t quite warmed up to it.”

She snorted, apologizing as she laughed. I shifted, feeling somewhat foolish. I knew it probably sounded crazy to everyone but Teleen people, who practiced polyamorous relations, but it was what it was.

“What’s so funny?”

“I can’t say I blame Dylan. I mean, he was married to her first. Why couldn’t you leave it be?”

I sighed, staring out across the lawn and then up into the night sky above the tree line.

“When you’re a faery and you give away your heart, it’s usually a forever kind of thing.”

Isolde scratched the tip of her nose pensively. “I see. I guess that’s reasonable. Maybe he will come around, especially if he sees how much you mean to Shade.”

“I hope so.”

“Chin up. Things never turn out the way you think they will, but it usually ends up better than you expected. Take Benton and me. I fell in love with him in high school and never thought I would see him after the Faerie war began and we both left. But here we are again. Full circle.”

She reached out, squeezed my shoulder, and smiled. Her warmth made me feel better, and I continued staring out into the quiet night as she got up and went back into the house, leaving only the screen door shut to allow the night breeze to continue to air out the stale house. I listened to her switch on the TV again and flip channels, but I remained on the porch, letting the cool air keep me awake. I wasn’t tired, but I was emotionally drained. I wished I could be renewed by the Pyren like Shade and her siblings.

But I wasn’t elemental, and I was far from being human. They had advantages over faeries, and their hearts were not as fragile. Sometimes I thought they were superior in that department, for when their hearts broke, they were not left completely in pieces like faeries were. It could mean death to someone like me.

Shade had saved me when she’d accepted my marriage proposal, but would it break Dylan? It was far too big a price to pay. I pressed my fingers into my palms, digging the nails in.

I touched the ring on my finger. It was connected to the other two souls wearing the same binding metallic bands. I closed my eyes and let my power roll out across the land and past the city, back to Teleen, deep into the stone caverns. I was hoping to find Dylan, but the stone was dense, and my connection to him thin and frail. The moment I reached him, I felt him turn away from the magic and snap the line, cutting me off.

I flicked my eyes open, feeling a jolt of pain at the separation. I gulped as the pain subsided. He knew how agonizing it would be for me to be cut off from his magic like that. I wondered if Shade had felt it too. Probably not, for it was I who had sought him out, and he’d directed the gesture toward me alone.

There were consequences to us all if Dylan didn’t accept the situation. It was a price I doubted any of us wanted to pay, and it was safe to say that none of us really knew what the true cost might be.