Day 21
I kicked open Rhylan’s door, making the hinges shatter from the blow. I had no idea how I managed to do such a thing since my frail bones did not prove very reliable throughout my life and broke several times forcing me to spend an entire summer in a cast when I was eleven.
Somehow, the rage boiling in my blood gave me the physical strength I needed to knock it down and find Rhylan splayed out on bed, typing frantically on his phone.
“Son of a bitch!” The words came out on their own accord and the instinct to harm him overpowered me, making me throw myself in the bed on top of him and start blowing hits across his face. Unprepared for the sudden attack, the faerie remained seated for a few seconds, trying to understand what was happening, then with a hasty movement, he turned me in bed and blocked my attack from above, catching both my wrists in one hand while I shook and struggled to escape like a caged animal.
“I guess you know,” he only said, shifting his attention to Cressi, who had just walked into the room.
“Rhy…” Only one word from her broken voice and he froze, releasing me immediately and abandoning the bed to walk by her side. I remained puzzled and panting, struggling to escape from the duvet and blankets I had trapped myself in from so much wiggling.
By the time I got myself free, Rhylan and Cressi sat by the door, both looking at me with concern, as though they had suddenly become the parents and me, the kid who just discovered Santa isn’t real.
“This ends now,” I recovered my composure, understanding that I made a fool of myself but not particularly giving a damn, especially not when my best friend threatened to fall into whatever trap he had set out for her. “You will not see Cressi again, or I will break the contract and remove you from this house.”
“Anwen, there are things you don’t understand,” Cressi took the blow for both of them, protecting the fae from my rage and slowly shifting her body in front of his, to become a shield against my hate.
“You cannot break the contract, you already signed it,” Rhylan tried to protest from behind her but I would not hear it.
“You haven't proved Ansgar is alive.”
“You saw him a few days ago,” Rhylan replied in disbelief.
Bastard, I mentally swore as I remembered what he had done to me. “I saw an image that you projected into my head, that doesn't prove anything. You said the Earth Kingdom royal family needs to verify that the lock of hair you’ve shown me belongs to him. Instead of doing that, you proceeded to keep yourself occupied by fucking my sister!”
I did not have any mirrors close by but I was sure I probably turned crimson from all the shouting and rage and I was surprised that no one else came to witness the spectacle.
“We will get to that, but first I think it would be a better idea for the three of us to talk. Without hitting each other ideally,” he suggested and Cressi nodded, pleased with the quick solution he found. Gods, I hated this, I hated seeing my friend like this, wiggling her tail like an idiot puppy at everything this prick said. He might as well suggest we all throw ourselves off a cliff and she would not object.
“No, you will do it now. We will go to the Earth Kingdom, now,” I accentuated the last word to make my point.
“We’ll need to get to Evigt first, that would take us an entire day,” Rhylan objected but I caught onto the lie.
“Or you do the appear-through-matter thing and we’re there in a minute.”
His eyes widened in surprise. Or maybe it was panic. I was forcing his hand and he had no escape. The bastard had enjoyed the life here, had done whatever the hell he pleased and now he was forced to fulfil his part of the deal.
“Tomorrow morning,” he offered while his hand instinctively pushed towards Cressi’s, catching it in his.
“Now,” I repeated for a third time. I did not know if he could jump so much, for such a long time and I had no idea what could happen to my body in the process. I’d only seen Ansgar doing it in the forest and Rhylan did it only once, for a few feet, but seeing as he did not object, I must have hit the mark.
“Now,” he nodded and took my hand, without shifting his gaze from my friend.
The next second, a deep line of trees surrounded us.
I struggled for a reaction, part of me wanted to jump up with joy at the sight of the beloved forest I had spent so much time in. The other part became weary and guarded, expecting something to pop out of the trees and eviscerate both of us within a split second. I felt guilty for how everything ended, about the fact that Ansgar chose to put my life over the district’s and didn't even want to imagine how everything must have struggled after his death. His passing. I didn't even know how to name it anymore, but the hope that Ansgar’s family would confirm Rhylan’s promises burst through me higher than fireworks on the fourth of July.
My fears immediately materialised as, within a few moments, several faeries and sjorkas came to investigate, and as soon as their eyes spotted Rhylan, weapons were drawn. Instinctively, I shifted close to a Cloutie tree, blending my body within the trunk, hoping that they would not risk hurting it by attacking me.
“Faelar,“ I exclaimed with relief as soon as my eyes landed on my friend. She looked so different from what I remembered, so much taller, and the beading around her neck, which she once explained to me it symbolised her status within the forest had doubled in size.
“Anwen?” she asked with a whisper, finding it hard to believe that I had returned, and with Fear Gorta nonetheless.
I swallowed dryly, observing the hatred in her eyes, the way she kept shifting from me to Rhylan and back again, judging my presence in his company.
“I’m back,” I stated the obvious, trying to appease the situation as much as I could. It didn't really matter, because I could not find a trace of my friend left in her and I knew that no matter what I said, the sentence was already decided.
Without waiting for the exchange to end, Rhylan stepped closer to me and the tree, he was trying to shield me in between his body and the trunk should they attack at any minute. Which, judging by the looks on their faces, they planned to.
