“I was once a commander in the Wind Kingdom. I know how it feels to lose everything you love,” he sighed.
Chapter Eleven
“Anwen, what are you trying to tell me?” Cressida’s eyes widened at my announcement.
“I know it sounds crazy,” I repeated. If the roles were reversed and I sat in bed where you are, hearing me say what I am about to, I would also think me crazy. I just want you to know that I am perfectly aware of that,” I tried to justify the fantastical explanation I planned to blurt out in the following minutes.
“Okay…” Cressi dragged her shoulders back and settled in a more comfortable position on her side of the bed, readying herself for the conversation. Her expression looked weary, as though she just saw me for the first time and did not recognise her friend in the frantic woman in front of her.
“Right,” I paused to scratch my forehead, not knowing where to start. “Remember all the research I did before going to Evigt? How Erik had told me to go there, or at least so I thought?”
“Of course I do, I was the one to plan your big speech to convince your parents,” she nodded.
I imitated her gesture, relieved that at least this bit of information sounded reliable in her head.
“I did find some things in the forest, not exactly what Erik wanted me to, or at least I don’t think so. But I did find something. I found Ansgar,” I said as a tremor sank into my heart again. It had become a tradition that appeared every time I thought about him.
“Anwen, is this one of those things where you feel guilty for moving on?” Cressi asked in confusion.
“Just stay with me,” I raised my hands and extended my palms wide, acting like a birthday party magician who needed to capture a young audience. “Ansgar never told me he was a biologist, it is something he let me assume. He only said he came to the forest to care for the plants. Because that is what he was assigned to do.” Cressi frowned, but let me continue.
“By the royal family, of which he belongs to,” I added quickly, feeding her bits of information.
“From the Earth Kingdom.” This time my friend’s frown lowered so deep, it created an upward reflection of her nose.
“Of the faeries,” I finally added and waited for the volcano that was my friend to erupt.
“As in Ansgar is a faerie?” Cressi asked carefully.
“He is a fae,” I corrected but it felt totally beyond the point.
“What’s the difference?” Cressi continued to display her frown.
“I don’t really know, from what I’ve seen, the fae look like humans.” I raised my shoulders, surprised that I hadn’t investigated the minor thing further, yet here my friend was, questioning everything from the first note.
Cressi stopped for a while to analyse what I had just said, then grabbed the laptop and read the description again, shifting her gaze to me from time to time, then back to the screen and continued to do so for a few minutes.
“And Rhy is this kind of fae. A Fear Gorta?” she asked finally.
I nodded and waited for her to have a laughing fit or to blatantly get out of my room screaming. Instead, she remained seated on the bed, the only proof of her shock the fact that she extended her hand to grab the cucumber water bottle from the nightstand and took a few big sips.
“Let me see if I get this straight,” Cressi said and started gesturing with her hands, placing people and specific points in time, as though she displayed products or talked about something eventful on a video to her followers. “Erik told you to go to Evigt, which you did. And you found Ansgar there, who is a faerie of some kind, and fell in love with him in what people think is a magical forest.”
I nodded, allowing her to continue. “And then Rhy met you in Evigt and you became friends and he is also a faerie of some kind, but from another place of fire. And then the first faerie, which is Ansgar, disappeared from the magical forest?”
I nodded again, tears forming in my eyes. I realised how crazy it sounded and that I had absolutely no proof rather than her physically seeing Ansgar during our video chats and whatever articles I found on the internet. I had no photos, no proof of me visiting Earth Kingdom, and especially no method to show how a body can just turn into leaves. And I was sure as hell Rhylan would deny everything if I confronted him.
“He died,” I finally said. “Or so I thought. Apparently, Rhylan took him to their kingdom to find out some information Ansgar refuses to give them,” I added.
“So Ansgar is alive, in a faerie kingdom, where I am guessing you and Rhy will travel to on...” she paused for emphasis, “Autumn Solstice, which I am also guessing is a big thing in the faerie world or something,” Cressi finished with a smile.
There it was, she was either preparing to mock me, laugh in my face or think all this to be a prank and completely dismiss it. I wondered what my reaction would be if my best friend came to me and said such things, after bringing a sexystranger home.
Cressi sighed and looked at me in disbelief, but what her lipspronounced next was nothing I could have prepared myself for in a million years.
“I still don’t understand why I can’t fuck him,” she contested, offended by the situation.
My eyes went wide and I wanted to drop to the floor from the relief that overpowered my entire body.
