Betrothed (17 page)

‘We learn from others as we spend time with them. As far as my father is concerned, I stayed with my grandfather last night to learn something of the ways of his kingdom.’

‘So it’s like you’re home schooled. That actually explains a few things,’ I said.

‘What does it explain?’

‘The way you talk for one thing. Your language hasn’t been messed up by being surrounded by a bunch of other kids every day.’

Leif smiled. ‘But you have a sweet way of speaking. I enjoy listening to you very much.’

I smiled adoringly right back at him.

Ashleigh rolled her eyes and started going on about how unfair life was. That’s when I knew my sister would be just fine.

‘Did you like my grandfather?’ Leif asked when we arrived home a short time later.

I looked at him to see if there was any innuendo behind his words. There wasn’t a hint so I didn’t mention the whole weird hand kissing thing. ‘He’s nice.’

‘
Really
nice,’ Ashleigh agreed, flopping into Dad’s recliner and flipping the footrest out.

Leif looked at her and smiled. ‘He would be pleased you think so,’ he said, before turning his attention back to me and adding, ‘Of all my grandfathers, I am closest to Aren.’

‘How many do you have?’ I asked as I took a seat on the lounge and pulled him down beside me.

‘Many—the longest lived is 367 times great.’

‘Geez, how old is he?’

‘Ancient,’ Leif replied, lifting my hand into his lap. ‘We lose track of age after a while and count generations instead.’

‘How do you remember how many times great each grandfather is?’ I watched him coax each of my fingers straight with his own.

Leif smiled. ‘It is just something one commits to memory. It hardly matters though. Except for the father–son relationship we all refer to each other as grandfather or grandson.’ He was playing with my fingertips now, smoothing each nail with his thumb.

‘So you have 367 grandfathers?’

‘Not close to that number. Elrin just happens to be the oldest living; many who came both before and after him have passed to the next world. He no longer possesses a kingdom of his own,
claims he lost the will when his queen died—long ago now. He now sees his role as provider of history and imparter of wisdom to his many grandsons.’

‘Wow.’

‘Yes . . . But I have become distracted.’ He closed my hand in his. ‘I meant to speak to you of my grandfather, Aren, and the plans he and I have been making.’

My hand flew to my mouth. ‘Oh, Leif, wait. I almost forgot. My friends will be here soon and I need to know if it’s okay to tell them about . . . us.’

‘Do you trust them?’

‘I would trust Jack and Hilary with my life.’

‘Then I don’t see that it would be a problem.’ He began stroking my fingers again.

I caught his eyes and smiled. ‘Do you want to come into my room until they get here?’

He raised one dark eyebrow. ‘I think not.’

‘You don’t like my bedroom, Leif?’

He watched me, his eyes narrowing. ‘I like your bedroom well enough,’ he said finally.

Ashleigh made a noise like a chuckle combined with a snort. ‘If you’re worried about
me
, don’t be, I’m going to Kate’s place. I’ve got heaps to tell her.’

‘Ashleigh!’

‘OMG, can’t you take a joke?’

‘If it’s funny.’

‘Geez, as if I’d tell her . . . She’d think I was psycho.’ She went silent for a while then seemed to shake herself back to normal, after which she looked at Leif and said, ‘How about a lift, Leif?’

‘Just walk, Ashleigh, it’ll do you good,’ I said before he could answer.

‘Okay,
Mum
,’ my sister said, shooting me a dirty look before looking back to Leif with begging eyes.

But it wasn’t necessary because Leif—conned by her sucking up—had already freed his hand from mine. ‘It will take me but a moment,’ he told me as he made for the balcony door, my sister right behind him. Like a two-year-old, she turned and stuck her tongue out at me.

I didn’t give Leif a chance to sit when he returned, just grabbed his hand and led him to my room.

‘Aren’t you worried you’ll be seen flying?’ I asked as I lay on my bed and made room for him.

‘No.’

He lay down beside me and I snuggled into his side. ‘Do you put a spell on people or something?’

‘If I do not wish to be seen, Marla, then I am not seen—unless of course I encounter a person gifted with the sight, in which case he or she would have a difficult time convincing another.’

‘What’s the sight?’

‘The ability to see the truth when the immortal Fae would wish it otherwise. In fact sometimes we do not even have to wish it otherwise—or be immortal. Sometimes the truth is denied humans without our even trying.’

‘How?’

‘Well, as you are not born of this world and mortal still, you must often be unwell.’ He looked at me for confirmation.

I sighed. ‘I’m always unwell, Leif.’

‘So you have endured tests—on your body and blood?’

‘I don’t even know how I’ve got any blood left.’

‘Yet you do not know the results of these tests.’

‘I know I’m allergic to everything.’

‘But you do not know why, nor have you been given a blood type.’

I considered this for a moment. ‘How did you know that, Leif?’

‘Because your blood is not human and unless you had come across a doctor with the sight, the protection you were born with would have confounded anyone confronted with the fact.’

No wonder I’d always felt weird, I
was
weird.

‘So what type of blood do I have?’

Leif smiled. ‘Fae blood, Marla—there is only one kind.’

Leif gazed around the room while I digested all of this, his eyes settling on one of Ashleigh’s posters. ‘Who is Johnny Depp?’

‘An actor—Ashleigh’s favourite.’

‘Her celebrity crush?’

‘You remembered!’

‘I remember every moment we have spent together.’

‘That’s why you left the poster for me. I told you that you were my crush and I couldn’t take a picture of what was in my mind!’ All thoughts of blood types and weirdness flew out of my head.

‘Anything to make you happy, Marla.’

‘Anything? That could come in handy.’

‘Yes, I would do anything for you. Are you happy in this place? If I could, I would take you home this moment.’

There was such yearning in his voice. It was hard to listen to.

‘I am home.’

‘This is not your home.’

‘But . . . everyone I love is here. And now that you’ve come, I feel . . . complete.’

He watched me for a moment, quiet and still, then brushed a slow finger around my hairline, tucking a stray wisp behind my ear. When he spoke, his voice was so tender that I thought I might melt right into my sheets. ‘You would have had me sooner had I been able to connect with you . . . After I became immortal, I exhausted myself calling for you. For the longest time, I was
certain you no longer lived. But still, I could not allow myself to give up. And then, I began to sense you near . . . ’

‘I could hear you, Leif. I mean, I didn’t know
I
was Marla, but every night I was trapped in this dark place and I could hear you, calling and calling to her. And your name was stuck in my head too, like an echo . . . I’m glad you cared enough to keep trying.’

‘You are my other half, Marla, how could I not?’

I looked up into his warm dark eyes and smiled.

A knock at the front door interrupted the moment. I dragged my eyes from his and scrambled over the top of him to get off the bed. ‘That’s Jack and Hilary, would you wait here a minute? I need to prepare them to meet you.’

It was hard to know the best way to tell my friends about Leif. Unlike Ashleigh, they’d at least shared the journey of my strange dreams with me. But still it was difficult, especially after my moment with Jack the night before. I mean, how was he feeling about that?

In the end I just sat them down, got them each a drink and told them everything that had occurred after the dance. Jack hesitated for a single heartbeat—then he threw his head back and laughed. When he realised my silence he stopped and said, ‘This
is
a joke, right?’

Hilary watched me as she waited for my response. She didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands—first they were clutched in her lap, then covering her mouth, and finally clasped to her chest.

I said, ‘I’m not joking, Jack.’

The expression on my face must have confirmed it because the next thing I knew the remnants of his smile were gone and he was standing and hauling me into his arms.

‘Sweetheart, do you think it’s time you went to see your doctor? I’ll come with you if you want.’

I pulled away from him and looked into his worried eyes. ‘You don’t believe me, Jack? But you were the one who said you wouldn’t rule anything out.’

‘I know but . . . ’ Jack went quiet for a little while, then he said, ‘You say this dude, Leif, is waiting in your bedroom?’

‘He is.’

Jack turned. I clutched his arm. ‘Wait, I’ll go.’

I went into my room and came out with Leif. Jack fell back into his seat. I watched the colour fill his face as it simultaneously drained from Hilary’s.

I said, ‘Hilary, Jack, this is . . . ’ I struggled to know how to introduce him: boyfriend was too casual, betrothed too strange and future husband definitely too presumptuous. ‘This is Leif . . . Leif, my friends, Hilary and Jack.’

Leif inclined his head to each of my friends, told them it was his pleasure to know them and then nobody spoke for a good long minute.

Eventually Jack looked at me and said, ‘Is he the same . . . you know . . . as in your dreams?’

‘Actually, they weren’t dreams, but yes, exactly the same.’

‘And he says he’s . . . from another world?’ Jack seemed to be having trouble looking at Leif. Hilary on the other hand, couldn’t take her eyes off him.

‘Leif does have a voice, Jack.’

With reluctance, Jack turned to Leif and said, ‘Well—are you?’

‘I am.’

Jack picked up his glass of water and took a long drink. Then he watched Leif for a while longer before he said, ‘How did you get here then?’

‘I came with the sun.’

I drew in a rapid breath and Jack choked. He spluttered and coughed and took a moment to pull himself together before saying, ‘That’s impossible! This is some kind of joke.’

Leif held Jack’s eyes as he said, ‘Not impossible for the Fae, Jack. We are of the sun.’

Jack gave Leif a disbelieving look. ‘
Of
the sun . . . What does that even mean?’

‘It means the sun is a part of what we are, and when the need arises we can become one with it in order to travel between our two worlds.’

Hilary, seeming to have lost any ability to speak, just sat watching Leif. She was pale as a sheet and I was actually starting to get concerned for her.

I said, ‘You okay, Hil?’

She nodded slowly, eyes still fixed on Leif.

I said, ‘Pinch him, he’s real.’

‘I’m not going to pinch him,’ she whispered.

‘You are most welcome to if it will help,’ Leif said, granting her one of his gorgeous smiles.

She smiled faintly but stayed silent.

‘So . . . you
were
at the dance last night?’ Jack asked. ‘Marla wasn’t imagining it?’

‘I was and she was not.’

I said, ‘You were looking straight at him, Jack.’

Jack’s eyebrows were pulled close as he studied Leif. ‘Impossible, I’d remember.’

‘Too many people had seen too much. I had no choice but to confuse the room.’

Jack shook his head. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

That made two of us. I caught Leif’s eyes and said, ‘Confuse the room, Leif?’

Leif looked at each of us in turn. ‘I do not wish to overwhelm you.’

Quietly, Jack said, ‘I think it’s a bit late to be worried about that.’

‘When the Fae reach immortality they are able to confuse humans. I, as prince, am able to confuse many at once. What that means is that I am able to make people forget one thing by making them believe something else.’

The fire and the fight!

I said, ‘But why would you do that and then leave? I thought I was crazy when no one could remember seeing you.’

‘The people in the room could not return to normal while I remained. It would have quickly turned to chaos.’

‘But this morning neither Ashleigh nor Jack could remember what they’d imagined last night.’

‘The false memory confuses the real one, and later disappears, leaving no recollection of either the real or imagined event,’ Leif explained. Then he smiled and said, ‘Had you interviewed each person present last night you would have heard some strange stories.’

‘This can’t be real,’ Jack murmured. He turned to me. ‘You’re going to tell me he’s your cousin from England in a minute aren’t you?’

I shook my head. Leif released his wings. After cries of surprise, my two best friends fell into silence again observing Leif’s dazzling wings through squinting eyes.

‘So what happens now?’ Jack said after his initial shock had worn off and Leif had tucked his wings away. ‘Do you just plan on taking Marla away to this Faera place?’ There was a hint of something cold in his voice.

‘Jack.’

He turned to me, frowning. ‘What?’

‘I don’t know what’s going to happen.’

Jack looked back to Leif. ‘Well, do you?’

‘Marla is my betrothed—naturally my desire is to take her home.’

The two gave each other long assessing looks—not too far from cavemen really.

Jack spoke first. ‘So you just expect her to leave her family and friends behind?’

‘Marla will be princess, and as such will be free to come and go between our two worlds as she pleases. And, when all is well, I do not anticipate a problem with her loved ones spending time with her in Faera.’

‘Humans can go?’ Jack said, shocked out of the hard stare he was giving Leif.

‘I confess I have only heard of infant humans being taken to Faera, but I don’t see that transporting adults will present too much of a challenge.’

‘Why only babies?’ I asked.