Authors: Lauren Shelton
“Do not worry,” the younger man said as he walked
slowly toward Tru’s body. “They will not feel a thing.” Little by little, the man’s features became more distinct as he
walked closer to her. Tru’s eyes were still a little blurred,
but slowly, everything made its way into focus.
As soon as Tru could see clearly, her mouth practically
fell to the ground when she looked up at the face that was
now directly in front of her. Except for the golden blonde
hair and small soul patch just below his lower lip, he
could
have
passed
as Edyn’s twin.
He
had
the
same
hunter green eyes, the same, perfectly chiseled jaw line,
and the same tanned complexion. His tattoos were almost
exactly the same as well. His wings however, were a goldenrod color, with flakes of gold, scattered throughout
each extremity. They shimmered in the moonlight, like
stars in a cloudless night sky.
The man leisurely knelt down in front of Tru so that
their faces were at the same level. It almost scared Tru
how similar his face was to Edyn’s.
“So, you have heard of me then?” The man began to
cackle, wickedly. “Well, if you have heard of me, then you
should be more afraid.” He laughed some more before
stopping abruptly to glare at Tru.
“I’m not afraid of you,” Tru said. She looked up at him
as he leaned closer to her, grabbing her neck in his lean
and delicate hands.
“You should be,” he whispered.
“Kayne!” Airi shouted.
“What?” Kayne yelled back, looking over his shoulder
at her, still holding Tru’s neck tightly in his grasp.
“The human is waking up again!”
“No,” Tru gasped, trying to turn and look toward Declan’s body.
Tru quickly wrapped her fingers around the rope that
secured her wrists to the tree, and pulled as hard as she
could. The thin twine snapped easily⎯ much easier than
she expected. And each time she used her strength, she
learned how to better control it.
Tru pushed Kayne’s chest away from herself as hard as
she could, as he continued looking over his shoulder. Almost immediately, his body was thrown about twenty feet
from her. With her hands still bound together at the
wrists, but detached from the tree trunk, Tru hurriedly
untied the restraints around her ankles, keeping a watchful eye on the small group of murderous fairies around
her. As soon as her feet were free, Tru flew over to the
other branch to join Edyn and Declan.
Edyn’s hair was still greying, but he didn’t look like a
man in his late thirties anymore. Instead, he looked like
he was going on fifty, and fast. He looked weak and fragile
next to Declan’s young and nimble figure.
“Declan? Edyn?” Tru called out to them when she
landed between their bodies, but they did not move. Their
eyes were closed, but she could hear the faint sounds of
the two of them breathing.
Tru tried frantically to untie the ropes around their
hands and feet. But when the twine wouldn’t come loose,
she began trying to wriggle her own hands free instead.
The ropes around her wrists were tied fairly loose, like
Kayne and Airi were not planning on her waking up anytime soon. Her hands slipped out of the ropes easily, but
not without leaving any marks. Tru threw the bindings to
the ground below them, watching as they tumbled out of
sight into the darkness. But when she turned back to
Edyn and Declan, she was still stumped.
The knots around their hands and feet were too tight.
She tried to pull the ropes apart, in hopes that they would
eventually snap from the pressure of her strength. But
just as they were about to break apart, a strong force
pulled her away from the tree completely.
Tru hung in the air, just feet above the branch that she
was previously tied to, completely unable to move. She
glanced down at her feet momentarily⎯ the ground must
have been at least fifty feet below her. And as she looked
down, it suddenly occurred to her that she was probably
one of the only fairies in the world that was afraid of
heights. Tru knew it had to be Airi suspending her so high
above the ground. Her powers were unparalleled.
Tru quickly looked over at Edyn and Declan again,
hoping they were still okay. This time, instead of seeing
two unconscious faces, they were both looking up at her
in a groggy horror.
“Gertrude!” Declan shouted, weakly. It took a few seconds for him to realize that his hands and feet had been
bound together, but when he looked back up at Tru, he
looked angry.
Edyn, too, looked at his hands and feet, and tried with
what little strength he had left, to loosen the ropes around
his hands. When he realized he couldn’t move either, he
looked back up at Tru. His face looked sad and vulnerable. Tears welled up in Tru’s eyes as she looked at the two
of them⎯ so helpless and afraid.
“What’s going on?” Declan shouted up at Tru.
“There’s no time to explain now. Just hold on! I’ll get
you out of here as soon as I can!” There was no way Tru
could explain it all now, but would she even get the
chance to explain everything to him later?
“Gertrude! LOOK OUT!” Edyn shouted, at the top of
his lungs. But he was too late.
Tru didn’t even have time to react. It felt as though Airi
had used the full force of her strength to kick Tru’s back,
thrusting her body through the air. Within seconds, her
entire body was hitting the hard ground of the dark forest. It felt like every bone in her body was broken, but Tru
knew that if she didn’t fight back, Edyn, Declan, and Tru
included would all end up dead.
Slowly and cautiously, Tru stood from the ground. She
could hardly breathe, but her own safety no longer mattered to her. She wanted to make sure Edyn and Declan
were going to be okay. She needed to protect them with
everything she had left in her.
Quickly, Tru raced back up to the branch where Kayne,
Airi, and the man she had presumed was a bodyguard,
were waiting. It was three against one, but she wasn’t going to give up. Not now.
Tru clenched her fists as she flew through the air, hitting Airi square in the jaw the second she reached the
branch. Airi’s body was pushed back a little, but she managed to remain on her feet. Tru watched carefully as Airi
regained her balance before she moved onto Kayne.
Tru aimed for his stomach, but he blocked it effortlessly. He was much faster⎯ and stronger⎯ than Airi, and
much stronger than Tru could ever hope to be. As she
lunged at him again, he moved to the right, causing her to
fall
down
against the
branch.
Tru
stood
up,
looking
around, trying to see where he went, but before she could
turn around, her body was hurled into the trunk of the
tree, with Kayne standing behind her, pinning her body
against the tree. Her face was pressed tightly against the
tree bark, making it hard to see anything around her.
“You will never beat me,” he whispered into Tru’s ear.
He was standing so close to her, that she could feel the
warmth of his breath against her neck, making every
nerve in her body crawl.
“Do you want to bet on that?” Declan shouted from
behind them. Immediately, Kayne's body was pulled away
from Tru. Confused, and now free from the trunk, she
quickly spun around to see what was happening.
Declan had somehow managed to escape his bindings,
and was riding on Kayne’s back, between his wings, like a
horse. Tru couldn’t see things clearly in the dark, but every now and then, she could see the glint of something
small and shiny in Declan’s right hand.
Tru quickly looked back over at the guard. He was bent
over, trying to help Airi back up to her feet. The last time
Tru had seen her, she was still standing, so Tru was
slightly confused as to how she had ended up on her back
against the tree branch. As Tru watched them, she could
see a large pair of burgundy wings strapped to the back of
the guard’s handmade leather belt, like a souvenir.
Swiftly, she flew up to the guard, latching herself onto
his back between his large wings, disabling his flying capabilities. And as she rode on his back, she looked down
at a very fragile Edyn, who was rubbing his wrists on the
branch below them.
“Edyn!” Tru shouted, grabbing the wings from
the
guard’s belt. They felt like velvet between her fingers, and
were surprisingly hard to grasp in her hands as the guard
tried jerking her body off of himself. He thrashed back
and forth, but Tru would not let go.
Edyn quickly stood from the branch, looking up at Tru
as he did so, and outstretched his arms. Without hesitation, Tru threw the pair of wings towards him. If he had
waited a second longer, he would have missed them.
As soon as he touched the pair of wings, there was a
large
flash
of
white
light
that
formed
a
tight
bubble
around Edyn’s body. Everyone stopped what they were
doing and stared up at him. Tru quickly shielded her eyes,
but when the light had vanished, and she looked around
for him, Edyn was gone.
Tru looked around frantically, hoping he was okay.
Floating in the air about a foot above the guard and
Tru was the Edyn that she had fallen in love with. His
skin was back to its darker tan complexion, his hair was
no longer grey and thinning, his wrinkles had completely
vanished, his eyes were once again a dark shade of hunter
green, and his tattoos were back to their vibrant black
color.
Tru quickly detached herself from the guard’s back and
flew over to the new branch that Declan and Kayne were
on. Declan was standing about ten feet away from Kayne,
and Tru could see clearly now, that the shiny metallic object he had in his hand had been a pocket knife. Declan’s
face was covered in blood, sweat, bruises, and deep lesions, but none of it seemed to affect him at all.
Without hesitation, Tru grabbed Declan’s empty hand,
lifting him effortlessly off of the branch. Swiftly, she carried him back to where the guard had been waiting.
“You take care of him!” Tru shouted. “I’ll take care of
Airi!” But just as she had finished her sentence, Tru realized that Airi was no longer on the tree limb with the
guard.
“More like I will take care of you!” Airi shouted from
behind Tru. Suddenly, her body flew into Tru, grabbing
her around the waist. Her grip on Tru’s body was so tight
that she couldn’t fly. Tru squirmed in Airi’s arms, trying
to pull away from her grasp. But it was no use. Sadly,
Airi’s strength was so tremendous that it felt as though
she wasn’t even trying to fight back. It quickly became
obvious that all she really wanted to do was prevent Tru
from getting away from her.
Soon, the two girls were descending through the cool
night air, falling rapidly to the forest ground. It didn’t
take long for both of their bodies to hit the soil with a
loud pounding sound. Tru could hear Airi grunting uncomfortably next to her. Tru quickly realized that she too
had also groaned the second she felt the ground beneath
her cheek.
Tru continued to lay motionless for a few more seconds, facing the sky, still completely unable to move.
Her body ached and she knew a few bones had to be broken. As she lay there, she looked up at the sky and
watched Edyn and Kayne as they fought nearly fifty feet
in the air above the small clearing that she and Airi had
landed in.
Suddenly, like a streak of lightening, a third body came
plummeting to the ground. Tru almost didn’t want to
look. When the body hit the ground, she could hear the
loud thud, followed by a terrifying, earsplitting shriek
that she instantly recognized as Airi. Slowly, Tru turned
her head to look at the body that had fallen just inches
away from her.
Miraculously, the guard landed on his back when he
hit the ground. His legs had been sprawled out in different directions ⎯ obviously broken in multiple places ⎯
as well as his arms. Cautiously, Tru looked at the rest of
the man’s body. In the center of his bare chest, was Declan’s silver pocketknife. A shallow pool of deep crimson
liquid had started forming on the ground. The smell of
rust almost made Tru want to vomit. She rolled over onto
her stomach, and then pushed herself up onto all fours.
Airi quickly rushed over to the guard’s lifeless body.
In that same instant, Edyn and Kayne came crashing to
the ground. As they both stood up, Tru could see that the
two of them were covered in bruises, deep lacerations,
and blood⎯ lots of blood. Edyn was bleeding badly from
his mouth, eyebrow, and arms and legs, but he didn’t act
as though he had been hurt at all. Kayne however, looked
tired, and severely more hurt than his brother. He had
deep gashes along his chest ⎯ blood ran down his bare
chest, staining the top of his pants ⎯ and bruises on almost every inch of exposed skin. His lip was swollen and
his teeth had been saturated with the crimson liquid so
badly that they were no longer white. Edyn had even
managed to tear one of Kayne’s wings in half, leaving it
dangling by a single vein ⎯ like the arm of a child’s overly
loved teddy bear hanging on by a thread⎯ and completely drenched in a gooey brown liquid.
“I killed our father, Edyn,” Kayne paused, catching his
breath and spitting out a mouthful of blood as he waited
for a reaction. “What makes you think I will not kill you
as well?”