Allegiance (22 page)

‘What’s happened to you?’ Jack said when I sought him out. ‘You’re bleeding.’ I touched my fingers to my neck and felt the
stickiness. He lay a hand on Ameyah’s arm as he asked her to get me a drink and something to clean my neck with.

‘I think I just got attacked by the Shadow Fae,’ I whispered. My head began to whirl and my eyes went foggy.

Jack put an arm around me and led me to a seat by the fountain. ‘You’re okay now,’ he said, rubbing my shoulder.

I buried my face into his neck. ‘God, Jack, imagine if Leif hadn’t come.’ Nausea rose up my throat at the thought of what might be happening to me now. The significance of having King Telophy’s protection was suddenly blindingly clear.

‘But he
did
.’

Ameyah returned, handed me a drink and washed the blood from my neck with a damp cloth. I finished the contents of the goblet quickly. For a drink so cool, it made me feel deliciously warm.

‘Hey, take it easy with that,’ Jack said when he noticed the empty goblet.

My hand went to my cheek. It felt hot but in a nice tingly way. I told him I was fine and went in search of more. I found the enormous wooden bowl and refilled my goblet with the scoop, taking a long drink as I stood by the table. Warmth seeped all the way to my toes. I stared at the pale pink punch as I licked the sweetness from my lips.

‘I found a frog in mine once.’

I looked up to see Haigen.

‘It’s true, look closely and you will see. They usually become intoxicated and sink to the bottom but occasionally one will rise to the top. If you are very fortunate you will find one in your drink. It is considered the best of luck.’

I leaned over the bowl and peered through the fruit, pushing it aside with the ladle. I looked up to see Haigen stifling a giggle as she swayed to the music. The colours of the firelights danced in her eyes and flickered on her skin.

‘Funny,’ I said, too hot to blush. I took another long drink.

‘So, are you enjoying your party?’ she asked. ‘I see you’re enjoying the frog spawn at least.’

‘Oh yes, it’s delicious, who doesn’t love the flavour of amphibian?’

She laughed and refilled her goblet.

‘They put worms in the tequila where I come from,’ I told her.

She raised one eyebrow.

‘Ask Jack if you don’t believe me. He told me he got drunk off one in Mexico.’ I waited a beat. ‘That’s why I believed you about the frog.’

The second eyebrow joined the first.

‘Ask him,’ I insisted.

‘I believe you, Marla.’

Now I did feel myself blushing. ‘Have you been?’ I asked her.

‘To Mexico?’

‘Well, Earth at least.’

She shook her head. ‘Leif told me it’s a terrible place.’

Feeling a bit offended, I wondered what he’d said. ‘It’s not like here, but it’s not all bad.’

‘I have no wish to go,’ she said, still gyrating to the music.

I couldn’t think of another thing to say.

‘Leif thought he would not find you,’ she said after a moment. ‘Did you know? He had given up hope when you finally answered.’

‘Not
all
hope or I wouldn’t have heard him calling.’

‘Oh, but he did not think you would answer. He thought you were dead. He told me so.’

‘That can’t have been easy for him.’

She leaned close and shot me a sly grin. ‘I did my best to console him.’

‘Hmm, that was good of you.’

She took my hand. ‘Dance with me, Marla.’

She pulled me to a circle of polished willa where a group of Fae danced around a sparkling fountain, some on the ground, others in the sky, twirling around each other. A few were twined together in shadows, while others spun in laughing groups beneath sunstone lanterns suspended from the trees, downing goblets of punch. I started to move to the music, tried to copy the sinewy Fae movements before giving up and returning to the human ones I knew.

Haigen spun away from me and twirled a couple of times. When she came back she leaned close and whispered, ‘I told him I would forsake Classin for him.’

With effort I kept moving. ‘Why?’

She shrugged, ‘Because I love him.’

Her eyes were wide and sparkling. I ached and ached. After taking a moment to collect myself, I managed to choke out, ‘What did Leif say about that?’

She twirled away from me again. ‘He was tempted, of course,’ she said when she returned. Her dance moves added,
Who wouldn’t be?
‘But of course he wished to do what was right. So, he insisted I meet my betrothed first. Leif told me that
if
I still chose him after I met Classin, then so be it.’

I was tempted to push her into the punch. But I had to know what happened next.

‘I went to meet Classin and… well, I am sure I do not have to describe to you the power of the betrothal connection.’

‘Leif lost you to Classin.’

‘Yes, but often I wonder—’

‘How your life would be if you hadn’t met Classin,’ I finished for her, digging that blazing poker deep into my open sore.

‘I’ll always love Leif, Marla. And Leif will always love me.’ It was a warning, but I supposed I understood well enough, because I felt the same way about Jack.

‘I get it Haigen and, for Leif’s sake, I’ll try to be nice—as long as you try too.’ I sounded reasonable to my own ears, but what was going on inside of me hardly matched my words. I wanted this girl and her history with Leif to evaporate.

Frowning, she tipped her head to the side. ‘Why ever would I not be nice?’

I ignored her insincerity and continued dancing.

Leif came back a few minutes later and wound his arms around my waist.
You make me happy, Marla
.

I’ll try not to be jealous, Leif
.

You have nothing to be jealous of, my love.
He kissed me and Haigen disappeared.

‘How did you get to me so fast last night?’ I asked Leif when I woke as he climbed into bed just before sunrise the next morning.

‘I followed and watched from across the lake… Did you really think I would let you go off in the dark alone?’

‘I wasn’t exactly thinking,’ I said, hurrying on when I saw him frown. ‘What did you do to… the thing?’

‘I questioned it. A pointless exercise—they never talk.’

‘Then what?’

‘It was put to death.’

‘Really?’ I drew back to look into his eyes.

‘I don’t enjoy taking life, Marla, but the Shadow Fae hunt us—relentlessly. It is an obsession with them. They are difficult to catch so when we manage, we cannot afford to let them live. Entire Fae populations have been near decimated when they’ve managed to gain a stronghold in a kingdom.’ He caught my face in his hand. ‘If anything had happened to you…’

I shivered in the silence that followed and Leif drew me closer. Eventually my thoughts turned to other things. ‘Leif.’

‘Mmm?’

‘Thanks for the party last night.’

‘I’m glad you enjoyed it. And… it made me happy to see you with Haigen.’

I looked up at him. ‘She told me you two almost ended up together.’

‘That’s not
entirely
true.’

‘She said she was going to give up Classin for you.’

He sighed and looked to the canopy above us. ‘That
is
true, but I insisted she meet him. I knew she would choose Classin.’

‘How?’

‘Because
he
is the one she was born to be with.’

I wanted to believe him, I really did, but until I was allegiant to his father, I had little faith I’d
really
get to stay in Faera. I couldn’t help thinking the king would pull some trick at the last minute. ‘You don’t think your father will change his mind about giving me allegiance do you?’

‘Of course not, what would make you worry so?’

Should I tell him about all the horrible things his father had said and done? I couldn’t—it would just start trouble. I only said, ‘I don’t trust him.’

‘Marla, he has given me his vow.’

‘So why hasn’t he given me allegiance already?’

Leif was quiet for a moment, then he said, ‘Pride, Marla, that is all.’

‘I still don’t get how allegiance works.’

‘Well, if you are taken you will call for my father.’

I gave him an ‘as if’ look.

‘Believe me, you will do it without even thinking—like an instinct—and then he will send his guard to rescue you.’

‘But how do the guard know? It’s not like you have phones here.’

‘The king gives his guard the gift of telepathy with him. He can speak to them whenever he wishes.’

‘What if there wasn’t one close enough?’

‘There is never a shortage of guards, Marla. To be in the king’s guard is the highest honour—one many yearn to embrace.’

‘And you’ll have this power one day, Leif?’ I lifted my face to look at him.

He smiled. ‘The moment I inherit my kingdom and swear allegiance to my subjects.’

I drew my fingers across his chest. ‘That’s kind of a turn-on.’

‘Is that so?’ He laughed and tightened his arms around me.

‘Yes, it is.’ And that was when my resolve to not entice him ended. It didn’t do me any good though. He simply jumped out of bed and got ready to take me home to Earth for family day.

I strolled through the forest with Jack a few days later, listening to birds sing and watching golden sunbeams fall through the trees and turn everything to glitter. The path we followed was overgrown—a testament to the fact the Fae flew more often than they walked. According to Leif, there was a river at the end of this track, and if we followed it we would come to one of his favourite childhood places.

‘Are you loving Faera?’ I asked my friend as we clambered over rocks and scooted beneath giant ferns that reached across the path to kiss their mates on the other side.

‘I’m loving the scenery,’ he said with a wicked grin. I knew he wasn’t talking about the exotic plant life or unusual little birds and animals that allowed us a glimpse now and then.

‘Not really what you’re used to is it?’ I smiled.

His eyes left mine and flickered down for a moment before coming back up again. ‘You seem to have adapted well—ambling through the forest in nothing but a tiny bit of shimmery stuff.’

‘So have you.’ All he wore was a pair of light and loose Fae pants. They were rolled to his shins and tied low on his hips.

‘When in Rome, Marla,’ he said slipping a hand into a pocket.

‘I don’t think you’ll want to go back home.’ Jack was fitting in well and had charmed every single person he’d met.

He sighed. ‘The thought
is
kind of depressing.’ He pulled his hand out of the pocket and ran it through his hair.

‘Because of Ameyah?’ I held his arm for support as I scrambled over a rock.

‘We’ve become friends but that’s not it.’

‘What then?’

‘Well, I get to hang out with you.’ He smiled and carried on. ‘And life’s so easy here. Look at how the Fae live—eat, work, play, love. Your kind are not slaves to the system like us humans.’

‘I don’t feel like the Fae
are
my kind, Jack. I feel as human as you.’

‘But you’re not though, are you? You’re part of this amazing world. You’ll still be flipping your wings out and fluttering around, every bit as beautiful as you are now when I’m old and grey and dead.’ He sounded so sad that suddenly I felt miserable. I’d made a point of not thinking too much about the future. But it was true—if Leif’s father allowed me to stay here I would become immortal and every human I loved would grow old and die.

‘Jack, if I live to be a thousand, even ten thousand, I’ll never forget you.’ I reached for his hand and took it in mine. He turned back to me and smiled. ‘Anyway,’ I continued, ‘I don’t even know what will happen. Even if Leif’s father
does
give me allegiance, I’m sure he’ll take it off me and kick me back to Earth before my eighteenth.’

‘No way. You’ll stay here and in February you’ll become immortal and, like every good fairytale, you and Leif will live happily ever after… The one I feel sorry for is Ameyah. She’s grown up in this paradise. Imagine being the only person who’ll grow old and die in a world of constant youth—the only one stuck on the ground while everyone else is popping wings out of their backs and flying away.’

Jack was right. My situation was Ameyah’s in reverse. But where I’d gained, she could only lose. I thought of my brother, stuck in the middle somewhere, and for about the hundredth time since I’d discovered him, was tempted to confide in Jack. I resisted the urge and said instead, ‘She’s won your heart, hasn’t she?’

‘I like her, I admit it. She kind of overwhelms me to be honest. She’s so strong and brave.’

‘The opposite of me,’ I murmured.

Jack stopped and turned. He brushed his fingers down my face. ‘She’s grown up here, Marla, doing what she wants and eating what she pleases. You, on the other hand, have spent your whole life unwell and wrapped in cottonwool.’

‘It’s no wonder I’m underwhelming.’

Jack laughed. ‘Now you’re fishing for compliments.’

I blushed. ‘No, I’m not.’

‘Yes, you are, so here’s one for you: I
knew
Leif was behind your forgetfulness—from the moment you kissed me after I read his letter. But there was no way I could resist you.
That’s
how overwhelmed I was.’