Forever Fae (18 page)

I change out of my clothes and head for the bathroom.  The walls of the bathroom
are
golden and all of the fixtures are made out of gold.  The
entire
bathroom has to be worth several million dollars in the mortal world.  It is amazing, but too lavish for me.  I enjoy the finer things in life, but this goes way beyond that.

I take
a
shower and shave. 
It’s going to take some time to get accustomed to my newly changed body
.  The magic it took to change things
this drastically
had to be phenomenal and the changes are not over yet.  I can’t wait to see what my brother has to say about all of
it
.  I am not looking forward to seeing Warren.  With the way he has been acting, the minute he hears about my marriage proposal there’s no telling what he’s going to do.  I regret bringing him here in the first place. 

I finish washing up and get out of the shower.  I change into a black t-shirt and some running shorts.  I need to be comfortable when I show off my warrior skills to Merrick.  A knock at the door stops me.  I wonder who it is since I am not expecting anyone.  I open the door to see Elvena holding a covered tray.

“I brought you some breakfast, Prince Ryder.” She looks me up and down and smiles. “I see you and the princess must have had some interesting times last night.”

She tries to hold in the laugh as she sets the tray on the small table by the bed.  The food smells wonderful.

I look at her and say, “It was definitely life-altering.” 

She reaches over to touch my hand and lingers for a second. 

“Yes, I can tell.  You do look and feel like a new man.”  She laughs again and let go of my hand
.
I can’t help but laugh
,
too.  She has a way of making things humorous in a tough situation.

“I plan to ask King Oberon for his permission to marry Calista,” I blurt out.

Elvena asks, “So you finally figured out the role you play in the
p
rophecy
?”

“I am not doing this because of the
p
rophecy
.  I am doing
it
because I love her,” I say
whole
-
heartedly.

She smiles and by the look on her face I would say she was testing me to see what I would say. It looks like I passed.  Prophecy or no
p
rophecy
, I still love Calista and want to be with her more than anything.  We just need to figure out where we belong now.

“Good answer, child.  On that note, I will take my leave.  I need to speak to Calista before she goes to training.”

She turns to leave but I stop her before she reaches the door. 

“Do you mind telling me where Calista and Merrick train?”  I really hope she tells me so I don’t have to go sneaking around.

She shakes her head and wags her finger a
t me
.

“Don’t you dare tell the
p
rincess
I told
you.
  She will be so mad at me if she finds out
.
”
She pauses and it looks like she’s not going to tell me, but then she lets out a deep breath and continues
.

“They train ab
out a half mile past the lake
.
I’m
sure you remember where the lake is?”
She turns her head and snickers
.
I just smile at her and shake my head.  She sure does love to joke.

I laugh
and say
,
“Yes, of course
I remember where the lake is and
t
hank yo
u for telling me.”

As Elvena is leaving, Kalen walks through the door.  He looks at me and does a double take. 

“Do I have the right room?”
H
e
says looking back and forth from Elvena to me. 

He gives me a knowing smirk, then looks at Elvena and asks
, “I am looking for my brother, have you seen him?  He’s tall with long, spiky brown hair and pale skin.” 

His chest is bouncing up and down with the laughter I know is waiting to come out.  He is being such a smart
ass.  I flip him off
with my finger and the laughter finally bursts out of
him
.  He laughs so loud he’ll
probably wake
everyone in
the palace
.  Elvena waves goodbye and walks out the door.  She will be headed to Calista’s room. 

Kalen walks over to inspect my newly changed body. 

“Ryder, why do you look like that?”
H
e
asks as he points up and down my body.  “Did you go to the mortal realm and lay in a tanning bed?”

Kalen loves to joke around, but
I shake my head no at his ridiculous question.

“Tanning beds do not work on us.  Remember when Sorcha tried that last year?”

“Yeah, that was funny,” Kalen
says as he
laughs.

My younger sister, Sorcha, went to the mortal realm and
discovered
tanning beds.  She looked like a lobster for a week and then her skin went right back to being pale.  We heal very quickly, but for some reason the tanning bed really messed up her skin during that time.  She never did it again.

I sit down at the table where Elvena left my breakfast.  Kalen joins
me and steals a pie
ce of apple bread from my plate. 

While chewing his bread
, K
alen opens his mouth to speak and sprays crumbs on arm when he asks,
“Seriously, Ryder, what happened?”

I stare at him with an exasperated look while wiping the crumbs off my arm.  He seems oblivious to his atrocious manners.

“Apparently, Calista and I are bound to help save the kingdoms and this is just the beginning,” I say
.

I take a
break from talking to eat the rest of my apple bread before my brother steals it all.
  I
had
spent all night watching Calista instead of eating at the ceremony
.  I didn’t realize how
hungry I
had gotten
.  I look up at my brother and he’s staring at me dumbfounded.  I guess it’s a shock to see me like this and it must be dawning on him that this is actually a serious situation. 

I wave my hands in front of his face to get his attention and say, “Calista has changed
,
too.  It wasn’t just me, and what’s weird is this
.
” 
I reach
over to touch his hand and he gasps with surprise.

“Oh
, wow.  This is some crazy shit
.  Where do you go from here?”
H
e
exclaims.

I rub my hands through my hair and down my face.  I look
at him in all seriousness. 

“I don’t know, but I plan to ask Calista to marry me.”

He whistles, clearly astonished that I would take this step.
 

“Wow, Ryder, you have it bad and you haven’t even slept with her yet.”  He
creases
his eyebrow
.
“Or have you?”

“No, we haven’t slept together yet, but we probably would have if we weren’t distracted by our bodies doing this
.
” 
I hold up my hands to clarify what I mean. 

“I’m in love with her, Kalen, and it kills me that I have to leave today because she’ll be alone with her
g
uardian
,” I say
,
worried.

“She is always going to be alone with her
g
uardian
.  That is just something you are going to ha
ve to get used to and get over,” he says.

“He pushed her to kiss him last night and
he
wouldn’t let her go.  I saw
it
through her window
last night.” Kalen
gives me an exasperated look
.

“
A
nd
before you say anything, I was not snooping.  I happened to be walking by and saw the whole thing.  I was so angry I started a blizzard
out there
where I was standing.  El
vena stopped me before I was able to charge
through Calista’s window and bea
t the shit out of him.”

Kalen says
in a worried tone, “I am glad she did.  Can you i
magine th
e uproar that would have caused if you attacked a Summer
Court
fae in
their own
court?”

I would never be allowed back in the Summer Court if I did that, even if Merrick did deserve it. 

“I wouldn’t attack him unprovoked.  I know of the repercussions I would face.  When we get home
I need to tell mom and dad of my plans to marry Calista.  I also need to get
Warren back to see
Heyflred
because he’s not acting normal, and
I’m hoping
Heyflred
can use his magic to tell me what is wrong with him.”

“Speaking of Warren, he wasn’t in his room this morning.  I have no idea whe
re he would have gone so early,” Kalen replies.

This is not good.  If he is unstable
,
there is no telling what he will do
, especially
since he has
become
more violent
.  I need to find him before he does something stupid.

I say
assuredly
, “I will take a look around and find him.”

I get up from the table and brush the crumbs off my shorts.  Kalen takes a look at me again. 

“Can I ask why you are dressed like that?  You don’t plan on going to the mee
ting looking like that
,
do
you?”  No
,
but I don’t want to tell him what I’m hoping is going to happen.  A little training won’t hurt anyone
…
much.

My brother is
dressed in a nice blue, short-sleeve button down shirt and khaki pants.  This was the first time I have ever seen him try to dress nice.  He always wears nice things to the winter balls and other festivities, but I wonder why he would try so hard here.  Who was he trying to impress?

I put on my sneakers and tie them up.

“I plan on doing a little hard core
training with a live mannequin,” I tease and wink at him.  “But the real question here
is
:
why are
you
dressed like that?”  I point at his ensemble.

“I just wanted to look nice for the ladies.”  He straightens his shirt and gives me a look
indicating
I better not say anything else.  I know he really liked talking to Calista’s sister last night.  I decide not to say anything more about it.

I look at the clock and see it is time for me to go.  I don’t want to arrive early for Calista’s training, I want to hang back and see how she fights.

“Do us all a favor, Ryder, and don’t hurt her
g
uardian
too much
.
 
He is the one that is supposed to protect her and he ca
n’t do that with a broken neck,” Kalen teases.

“I’ll try, Kalen.  He deserves a lot w
orse than a broken neck,” I say
,
frustrated.  Thinking of what I saw last night just gets me so angry.

I head for the door and he follows.

“Have fun, brother.”

The anticipation of a fight has me all worked up.  My muscles are tense and ready for action. 

I give my
brother a wolfish grin and say,
“Oh, I plan to.”

I clap him on the back one good time and we head our separate ways.  Now it is time to find Warren and then head to the field where Calista and Merrick will be training.

Before Training- Ryder

At
the grand staircase I see many of the servants milling about getting things ready for the day.  The meeting will be held in the
G
reat
R
oom
where the ceremony was h
eld last night.  I look in the Great R
oom a
nd it has completely changed, there is now
a huge rectangular tabl
e in the middle of the room.
  Now that parts of the
p
rophecy
are coming true, I know the danger
of the evil will be coming soon so w
e need to be ready when it does. 
Meeting with everyone from the different kingdoms will help us strategize how to keep everyone safe.