Mistfall (25 page)

John put his forefinger to my lips. Abel had
been the last one to do that to me and I resented it then. Now, I
didn’t mind so much since John was the one doing the shushing while
holding me to him with one of two very strong arms. “Ssh. You’ll
see, I promise,” he replied. Kissing me chastely on the forehead,
he then went into his room, winking at me before closing his
door.

I was in front of my own door, twisting the
doorknob when Finn decided to come up behind me. “Sweet Brigid!” I
gasped when I turned around, finding Finn two inches away from me.
I tried to back up to regain my personal space, but the door
greeted my butt and I could go no further.

“Listen up,” he demanded while poking me in
the chest with his finger. “I only have one rule for you. DO NOT
leave your room. No exceptions. I don’t care if the roof comes
crashing down. I expect to find your body in the rubble of this
room. No one is allowed in your room either.” Finn moved his finger
from me to the door of my room. “Don’t even bother coming out in
the morning. I will tell you when you can leave your room.”

Against my feisty side’s better judgment, I
turned towards my room, feeling it best to go inside instead of
arguing it out with the foul Fae. I didn’t get halfway turned
around before I realized he wasn’t done barking at me yet.

Finn poked me once again. “And one last
thing. I AM NOT your servant. I will not bring you anything or do
any bidding. Do you understand?”

What was this guy’s problem? I just met him
and certainly didn’t have time to make him hate me. Could Finn’s
attitude really be because he couldn’t join the writhing sex fest
going on outside?

I slapped his hand away from me. Upset or
not, he had no right to treat me so unkindly and I had no intention
of putting up with it. I pushed him back a bit to regain some
breathing room.

“I don’t know what your problem is with me
bud, but let me tell you something,” I told him, reacting with the
intensity of a lightning storm. “Just because the only action
you’re going to get tonight is with your hand doesn’t’ give you the
right to act like such an asshole. Secondly, if you don’t let me
out to use a restroom, be warned, I will do my business on you.”
(The bathroom comment was really a non-starter since there was one
in my room, but I was trying to make a point.)

Finn’s mouth opened slightly agape at my last
threat. I had his attention, but I wasn’t done yet. “So you know, I
have no intention of leaving this room tonight,” I informed him.
“That is out of respect for Rory and not because you demanded it,”
I added. “Lastly, there is not a damned thing on this planet that I
want from you. Do
you
understand?”

Finn looked as if someone had slapped him. He
didn’t respond to me, but stood there like a deer in
headlights.

“Are we done here?” I asked Mr. Personality
while waving my hand in front of his face to get his attention.

“I uh…I-I-I’m sorr…” He was stammering and
confused. I wasn’t too sure what was wrong with Finn. His behavior
was beyond any explanation. I was so done with him for the night.
“Whatever, goodnight,” I said rudely and went in my room, slamming
the door behind me.

I may have, under normal circumstances, tried
to find out what Finn was playing at. As it was, I was tired and
just didn’t give a crap. Safe in my room from the Fae orgy outside
the inn and Rude Ralph outside my door, I sat down on my bed and
laid back.

Staring at the ceiling, tears formed in my
eyes. The stress of everything had finally reached its limit and
needed an outlet. I had been reminded of my precious stone covered
ceiling at home. That led me to thoughts of Willa.
I really wish
she was here right now,
I thought.
She’d know what to
do.
My battle was over, but there was still a journey ahead of
me.

I was wondering if I had the fortitude to
continue to fight against Iblis, The Powers, and Abel when one of
the walls in my room began to split in two. I sat up like a shot at
the spectacle. The hard, wooden, immovable wall acted as if it was
a curtain. It swayed a little as if a breeze had blown through
though the air was still. Invisible hands pulled each side of the
wooden curtain open and John stepped through.

He cocked his head to the side at the sight
of my tear stained face. “What’s wrong beautiful girl?” John took a
seat next to me, wiping my tears away with the hem of his
shirt.

“I’m just decompressing,” I replied and laid
my head on his shoulders.

John stroked my hair to comfort me. “Don’t
worry Violet. Everything’s going to be fine from here on out.”

“I know it will. It’s just my built up
frustration finding its way out,” I told him.

John didn’t try to calm me down after that or
distract me. He gave me a squeeze and held me as I let go.

David’s assault, Luca’s betrayal,
imprisonment, and the constant attempt on my life by Iblis and the
Aelfadl were just the top three on the list that had my head tied
up in knots. There was also the possibility of two futures that
ended up in some type of horror. I also had a hard time
understanding why everything that had run afoul in my life had to
do with me being an anomaly, an outlier among Otherworlders.

I couldn’t wrap my head around why so many
people were going out of their way to destroy me. I wasn’t anything
special. Sure, I was more powerful than most Otherworlders, but
there certainly were those more powerful than I.

I wasn’t a politician or member of any royal
house. There wasn’t some long lost prophecy concerning some ominous
destiny either. Prophecies, by the way, are overrated. The
vagueness of the superfluous language they’re written in leave its
meaning up for speculation. The Dreamweavers vision of my future
isn’t a long lost prophecy. That was some type of psychic vision,
foreknowledge, etc.

Iblis has always been straightforward in his
pursuit of me. He wanted me for my powers, plain and simple. Abel
too wanted me for my magic. However, Abel harbored extreme hatred
for me, making his attempt at acquisitioning me an exercise in
brutality. Sure, he might use me to squash his enemies, but I’m
fairly positive my mouth would incur his murderous rage and I would
become a genie in a bottle. An urn shaped bottle.

My brain eventually fizzled out and my tear
ducts dried up. I knew my face was red and swollen from the crying.
I could only imagine what the smudged mascara was adding to my
looks. I stayed in John’s arms for a few minutes more as I calmed
down.

John didn’t push or prod me as he held me. He
was giving me what he thought I needed, a shoulder to cry on. The
heat from his body radiated out, enveloping me like a warm blanket.
He was endearing himself to me more and more. I was one lucky
girl.

I eased myself away a few inches and looked
up at him. I should’ve cared what I looked like, but John had seen
me sweaty and dirty in the past (from training). This was nothing
compared to that. “Thank you,” I told him. “Thank you for letting
me cry on your shoulder.”

He shifted so we were sitting face to face.
Lifting my chin up with his hands he said, “You’ve been through a
lot and we’ve been on the go since. At some point you had to
decompress. I was starting to worry because you hadn’t.”

He let go of my chin and sat beside me once
more, draping his well tanned arm around my shoulder. “That’s too
much for one person to hold inside, even for a warrior jinn like
you,” he added.

My heart felt like a bevy of butterflies had
taken up residence inside it. With John by my side I could stand up
to whatever challenges would come my way, without breaking in the
process. I was starting to feel like my same old self once
again.

John took my hand in his and squeezed it.
“Now that you’re back to sorts why don’t you get out of that
ridiculous costume and into something you can breathe in,” he
suggested.

I looked down at myself and laughed. How I
didn’t bust through my dress from the crying was beyond me. John
was right. Aside from looking ridiculous, it wasn’t very
comfortable either. “Good point,” I told him and headed to the
bathroom. Now that I was back to sorts I wanted to wash the smudged
make-up off my face and look like a normal girl once again.

I was halfway across the room when the sound
of a scuffle came from outside the door to my room. As soon as I
turned to John, the sound stopped. He got up to go and see what the
commotion was all about, but I stopped him.

“You can’t go out there,” I told him, putting
my hand against the hard planes of his chest. “Rory and Bitchy
McGee would throw a fit if they knew you walked through the wall
and into my room.”

He didn’t move any further, but the hard
stare he focused on the door told me I had to act quick. “I’m just
going to poke my head out the door. If something’s wrong then you
can come out.”

He ignored me and with a single minded
determinedness walked towards whatever threat lay beyond the solid
wood of the bedroom door. “John!” I hissed. “We can’t afford to
upset the Fae this close to going home.”

He stopped dead in his tracks. He knew I made
a good argument. Trying to find another way home while Abel was
possibly laying in wait for me outside the village walls wasn’t a
good play. He crossed his arms, unhappy with the fact I was right,
and reluctantly ceded to me. “Alright. But if there’s any trouble,
and I mean any, I’m coming out.”

Closing the distance between us, he held my
face in his hands. The inflexibility in his face was replaced by a
softer, kinder one. “Violet, you’ve been through enough. I’m not
about to let any more harm find you until you’ve had some time off
to rest. Damn the Fae, I’d rather find another way home than see
you hurt.”

The butterflies that had set my heart a
flutter were having a party and their friends were over. But where
did this protective edge to him come from? Sure, the next baddie
that came my way anytime soon would meet a bloodier than normal
end, but I wasn’t some delicate flower. Then again, the feeling of
having a big, strong knight in shining armor protecting me was kind
of cool.

I could see that I would have to learn to be
better at letting my guard down around John if we were going to
have a future together. My fiercely independent nature wouldn’t
disappear overnight, so it was a good thing he knew me well enough
to carefully choose his battles with me.

Poking my head out the door, I was surprised
by what I saw. Nothing had changed. Finn was sitting calmly in his
chair reading a book. There were no signs of a struggle anywhere.
Nothing was broken, Finn’s breathing was regular, and no one else
appeared to inquire about the disturbance.

“Is everything okay?” I asked cautiously,
wary of the temperamental Fae.

“Quite fine Magdalene,” Finn replied in an
unusually cheery tone.

“Oh.” I was stumped. John had heard the sound
of fighting too so I know I wasn’t imagining things. “I thought I
heard a scuffle,” I informed Finn.

“Nothing of the kind has happened, I assure
you,” he replied. “Thank you though for being so kind to
inquire.”

What the…?
“Are you sure?” I double
checked.

“Yes ma’am,” he replied with a smile.

The Fae’s mercurial behavior had made the
situation all the more confusing. “Oookay,” I said unconvinced.
“Well, good night then.”

You know what? I’m not even going to bother
figuring out what happened. For all I know, the insane Fae was
arguing with one of his personalities. Tomorrow I was going home
and would make sure I put enough distance between myself and the
Otherworld. I didn’t want to bother with any of them, aside from
Melissa and John, for quite some time. A hundred years sounded like
an appropriate amount of time.

I was back in my room and closing the door
when Finn spoke up. “Um Magdalene? May I speak with you for a
moment?”

I hit my head against the door, on purpose.
“Why me?” I whispered as I looked towards the heavens. Motioning to
John that I would be a moment, I stepped back outside of the room
to see what Finn wanted.

“What do you want?” I asked, exasperated.

Finn was fidgeting with his hands, his head
was down, and his eyes darted everywhere except to me. He seemed
ashamed, embarrassed even.
Oh, for Odin’s sake, what personality
is this one?

“I just wanted to apologize for my behavior
earlier,” he uttered.

He had progressed from Surly Fae to Smiley
Fae and now Shameful Fae. I preferred the seven dwarves.

I was a little afraid to say anything, unsure
of what personality I would be greeted with next. With my luck it
would be a murderous one. “Um, thank you?” I replied.

He looked up at me through his lashes.
“You’re still angry with me?”

Oh for Pete’s sake!
“No Finn, it’s
fine. I’m not holding a grudge against you. Hopefully, from here on
out, we shouldn’t have any more problems.” I even put on a fake
smile in order to convince him I was over our earlier
confrontation.

“Yes, yes,” he murmured before abruptly
leaping at me.

His sudden movement caused me to take a
defensive stance. Finn stopped his approach when he noticed my
reaction. “Please, I only wanted to shake hands with you,” he
cowered.

I made no move to attack and said nothing. I
didn’t even know what to say. Hades only knows what would happen if
I opened my mouth again.

“I’m sorry,” Finn apologized. “It’s just that
I don’t know what came over me earlier. I’m not a mean person
normally,” he disclosed in an attempt to convince me.

I wasn’t convinced. Even though Finn seemed
sincere, something bothered me about the situation. This Fae was
seriously unhinged. This conversation needed to end quickly. I
couldn’t believe I was actually looking forward to Rory coming back
on duty.