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Mavis had said it was a defense mechanism, analyzing me again, saying it was an underlying problem I refused to admit. I wonder what she would say if I told her I could see.
Or maybe not, as the only thing I saw was this girl, Sophie. My eyelids grew heavy and the last thing I saw before the darkness consumed me was a bright light.
SOPHIE
After dinner, feeling spent, we all went to bed, but my coiled muscles refused to relax, and sleep wouldn’t come. I was still starving. I couldn’t eat anything at all, even the appetizing sandwiches the nuns prepared for us.
The room was so small, making it feel as if the walls were caving in on me. I stared at the shadow the cross cast against the wall. Was God in this creation, too? Everything we’d learned about magic in religion had a negative connotation to it, but I always saw Jesus from the Bible filled with magic. Didn’t he heal people by touching them and performing miracles during his time on earth? This was so confusing.
So many questions filled my mind. Questions that would probably never get answered, like, were my birth parents like me?
Why did they abandon me in front of that church? Why couldn’t they care for me?
While my mind mulled over those thoughts, I also wondered about the agency chasing me. I wondered if perhaps my parents were like me, then the agency would have been chasing them too. What if to save my life, they had to leave me somewhere they thought I’d be safe? That was a comforting thought, more comforting than just being dumped on the doorstep of some church for unknown reasons. My thoughts jumped back to Brooke manipulating the water. That made me think of Maverick manipulating the forest, and the question came up if Alex could control anything. Or was his sole purpose to be The Key Bearer?
It was a scary thought that there were humans, or rather beings, out there that could manipulate the elements.
I missed Mom and Dad and couldn’t help thinking how hard they had tried to get me the right help. I wished I could get word to them I was okay, that I was different, and that they should let me go. But Francis and Daniel would never let me go. They would fight for me until their last breath. And given what I’ve seen about the world I had just been sucked in to I was unsure they would make it out alive.
Rolling off my bed, I wrapped the blanket around myself. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I padded across the room and carefully opened the door.
Faint voices came from a room at the beginning of the hallway. Alex and the priests were in a serious conversation. From what I could hear, they were still waiting for Drake.
Why isn’t he here yet? What if the cross-people had him? The guilt hit me hard, and my head sank. I stood staring at the royal blue carpet that lined the hallway. This stance allowed me to hear more as I crept closer to the room. But I didn’t have to go that close as their voices echoed throughout the passage.
“His projection is strong. Yeh didn’t make a mistake by leaving ‘im behind. We both know how stubborn the pup can be, and besides, he told yeh to go, to stick to the plan.”
“Yes, I know. I should’ve done things differently with Sophie. Drake was adamant about rescuing this one.”
“He’s like that about savin’ all of ‘em,” the priest said.
Alex didn’t give a verbal answer.
“Why do yeh think that?” the priest asked.
“I don’t know. It’s like he waited for her. He had more information than Alpheus.”
The little light orb?
“Meanin’?”
“Come now, Father. We both know what it is Drake can do. Even if he refuses to tell us, he can see. We all know why he doesn’t say a thing. Avery would put him to death if he voiced it out loud.”
To death?
“Ah, yeh think he saw ‘er?”
Saw me?
“For months now,” Alex replied. “He was always waiting for the right words to leave Maverick’s mouth. It drove me insane.”
What is Alex saying? Could Maverick see too?
“Maybe she is special,” the priest said.
“She has headaches. You, of all people, know they are a common trait.”
“It’s not my meanin’. It’s the way she stared at me when she met me.”
“Stared at you?” Alex asked.
“Like she could see through me. Knew I was different.”
“You think she can see through glamor?”
That’s what I see, their glamor?
“We both know that one is impossible.”
Impossible?
I swallowed hard, spinning back around and smacked right into Maverick carrying three cups of coffee. With great reflexes, he kept the coffee from spilling.
His eyes slanted. “Tis not a wonderful trait to eavesdrop on others’ conversation, lass.” Maverick looked different now, wearing a blue sweater, jeans, and sneakers. The guy needed a haircut, but I had to admit, he sure was easy on the eyes.
“Sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t mean to.”
“Come, yeh must have loads of questions.” He nudged me into the dining room where Alex and Father Matthew sat.
“Sophie?” Alex got up. He was also in street clothes, and it looked weird seeing him wearing a hoodie with tracksuit pants and slippers. My eyes lingered on his big fluffy bunny slippers, and a smile trudged up my lips.
“Found the lass wanderin’ in the hallway. I think she’s strugglin’ ter sleep,” Maverick said, and placed the cups of coffee down. He took the chair opposite Alex.
“What are those?” I asked Alex, still staring at his slippers.
Maverick and the priest laughed.
“What?” Alex looked down at his feet and the top of the bunny slippers moved with the motion of his wiggling toes inside of them. “They are terribly comfortable. Believe me, when your feet are as old as mine, you will wear slippers too.”
“Come sit, child.” Mirth soaked up Father Matthew’s expression. I tried my best not to look at the horns on his head and sat down in the empty chair next to Alex. My gaze flickered to the fleur de lis on the wallpaper and the lit fireplace. Flames danced in the hearth, casting moving shadows over the pictures on the wall of former priests and nuns. They stared back at me as if they were judging my eavesdropping. A huge wooden cross parted the pictures of the priests and the nuns. A dressing table carrying a porcelain tea set sat below a vast window. Blue curtains matched the color of the carpet lining the hallway outside the room.
“Yeh must have a lot of questions,” the priest said.
“I do. What am I?” I looked at the priest and then at Alex.
“We will know when Hank sees you,” Alex answered. He had an otherworldly beauty with his rich, brown-colored skin, piercing blue eyes, and crazy long dreadlocks.
“Who is Hank?”
“He is a specialist at Earwyn, a Frost Eagle. He has a delightful ability that helps magical beings like yourself,” Alex replied, as if I knew what he was talking about.
“What is a Frost Eagle?”
The three of them choked back their laughter. “We sometimes forget how intriguin’ our world is,” Father Matthew said, using a softer tone.
The corner of my lips quirked.
“Frost Eagles,” Maverick answered, “are giant white eagles that can breathe a snowstorm, lass. Best not ter get on their wrong side. They can also detect normal folk from magical ones. Most of them dinnae like ter go beyond the barrier.”
The human with a beak filled my mind. Was that the reason I only saw one?
“How can you manipulate the forest and Brooke the water?” I had to know the answer. I needed to know why they were so different from Father Matthew and Lindy.
“Because we are faes.”
“Faes?” I asked and looked at the other two. “Like the kind with the pointy ears and wings?”
Father Mathew smiled.
“Not wings, just pointy ears,” Maverick answered and looked at Alex. “Can yeh imagine us havin’ wings?”
Alex chuckled at that. “Maverick is an Earth fae, I’m a Wind fae, and Brooke is a Water fae. Maverick and I run this group. Drake has been part of our team for the past three years, and Lindy joined us about a year ago. Brooke is an intern. Next year, when she becomes a graduate, she will advance to either become part of the graduates, meaning she will learn to master her gifts, or Concordia will assign a special place for her in society. You will find your place too, Sophie.”
“Where is Concordia?” The questions popped out of my lips faster.
“Nobody really knows, but it’s a world filled with magic and mythical creatures that this world only gets to know through their fairy tales. You will meet them or most of them at Earwyn,” Alex answered.
“What sort of creatures?”
“Dinnae worry. They have human forms too, like Lindy and Drake,” Maverick said.
“Drake is a creature like Lindy? Will he be okay?” I didn’t see any animal part on him.
“A Phoenix Griffin. He lights up like a torch. I’m stunned that he didn’t reveal that today. You really worked his nerves.” A grin fanned over Alex’s lips as he sat back in his chair with the cup of coffee in his hand.
“Aye, lass. Worry about the damage he’s goin’ ter do ter someone.”
Laughter escaped Alex’s lips as Maverick told Father Matthew about the few times I’d tried to escape.
“Don’t look at me like that, Father Matthew. Losing me to sex traffickers was one of my mother’s worst fears.”
More laughter erupted. “That is what yeh thought he was?”
I nodded and looked at Maverick. “I feel bad about thinking the worst of him when I first gained consciousness.”
Father Matthew had a joyous laughter to him. He was so friendly, but the ram horns made him look like the devil in disguise.
Father Matthew looked at Alex and said, “I doubt Sophie is feeling up to sleeping right now. I know how I felt on my first night.” He looked at me and winked. “I’m going to get the book.”
The priest raised to his feet, crossed the room to the colossal bookshelf, carrying old brown leather hardcovers. He pulled on a particular book. I heard a click and then a secret drawer opened at the bottom of the shelves. He bent down to retrieve an object wrapped in a green velvet cloth with the dimensions of a biggish book.
Father Mathew returned with the package and unwrapped the velvet cloth. It was an old leather-bound book engraved with silver writing on the spine, steel caps on the corners, with letters engraved on the front cover.
The first page had a beautiful frame drawn around the edges. Gold glistened in the words, written in cursive style.
Alex launched into the history of Concordia.
“Concordia was a beautiful world, filled with lush forests and trees as high as skyscrapers. The waterfalls cascading from snow-capped mountain ranges sparkled with rainbows across the width of the flowing rivers. It was ruled by a ruthless queen who hated magic and banned her people from using it. The irony was that she was a Phoenix. In Concordia, the fae were the most oppressed because, without practicing, their children couldn’t control it. Lots of accidents had happened that led to hearings, jail time, and sometimes deaths.”
“Wait, as in, cut off your head?” I asked.
Alex nodded.
“Isn’t that a bit drastic?”
“It was a brutal existence until a fire fae had enough. A brave fire fae riled up the faes and promised to free Concordia from the tight grasp of the Phoenix Monarchy. Faes and shifters fought to dethrone the phoenix queen. And it was the end of an evil era and the beginning of the modern society we live in now. Where all fae and creatures can practice magic in a safe environment.”
“Evil? I thought phoenixes are good.”
“A bit of a fib. They are not supposed to exist, remember?”
I nodded. I’d loved the symbol that attached itself to the phoenix. It meant life, change, and I had to admit, discovering that evil phoenixes ruled Concordia was hard to process. Why the hell was I dreaming about a phoenix if they were evil?
“He did more than just dethroning the phoenix, Alex.”
“It had to be done, Father Matthew. You weren’t there when they ruled.”
“I know, but it wasn’t wise to kill ‘em all.”
“Kill them all?” I asked.
Alex sighed, and he struggled to come up with an excellent reason to justify killing off an entire race. “The fire fae made sure they were extinct that night. Magic is part of us, Sophie. We need a fair king, not a tyrant.”
I nodded.
“But plenty escaped that night, and that is how the lost came to be. People like you who don’t know what they are. They are changelings or orphans like the priest and Brooke.” Alex carried on.
I looked at the priest. He was an orphan too?
“What is a changeling?”
“When a bairn is very sick and suddenly heals, they’re usually fae bairns,” Maverick answered. “A fae mother that couldn’t take care of her own, so she replaces the sick one for ‘ers.”
“I’m sure you fathered plenty, Mav.” Alex winked.
The priest protested playfully and tapped Mav on his arm. “You need to confess your sins before you go.”
“What happens to the human baby?” I looked at Maverick.
“A bairn like that is ter weak for our type of healin’. The faes keep them comfortable until they pass on to the afterlife.”
“My birth mother was part of the lost, wasn’t she?”
“Most likely,” Alex answered.
“You think she knew what she was?”
“We will never know, Sophie,” Alex answered this one, too. “From what we gathered, they dropped you off at the church when you were only a few days old.”
I nodded.
I didn’t know why I felt sorry for my birth mother. I didn’t know her, but tears brimmed in my eyes, anyway. Was she an orphan too, or did she live with adoptive parents like I had? Or was she a changeling? So many questions plagued me. Questions I would never get answers to.
Alex kept paging through the book, then turned the book around to show me. Creatures with panther bodies and owl heads filled up the page before me, with the heading—Drivines. The next page depicted a picture that resembled a dragon’s head with antlers and the body of a deer. Hair and feathers covered their feet. I couldn’t see if they had claws or hooves. These creatures were titled Duredina.
“Both creatures are very gentle, and as for their human side, they are easy to approach and conversationalists. They are also very intelligent,” Father Matthew said as he tapped on the image of the Duredina.
“Just a pity that The Guild dinnae see it that way, Father,” Maverick said.
The rest of the night, we paged through the book.
Pegasi, manticores, griffins, chimeras, and crows that could disappear in a cloud of dark smoke were all inside this book. Even fairies, who carried unique abilities from guiding magical beings to reading minds.
There was a picture of a phoenix, but it looked nothing like the phoenix bird in the art that I’d seen. The torso was a bird, but it had two hind legs with paws. Enormous, majestic wings carrying the colors of the rainbow spread across the page. It had the most beautiful cat-like face. They looked so friendly, and their fire was different for each species. Some had orange, where others had a bright pink. Some of them radiated blue and purple fire.
The next few pages were about the fae.
There was a picture of the fire fae who had saved Concordia. The title read: King Avery.
“There are five elements that faes could control—wind, fire, earth, water, and spirit.”
“Spirit?” Ghosts roamed in my mind. An icy finger ran up my spine just thinking there were faes that could control them.
Alex answered, “Visions and everything that has to do with the mind. Spirit faes are uncommon in our world, and you are lucky that King Avery has assigned a spirit fae to take the responsibility at Earwyn.” It was hard to take Alex seriously with those ridiculous slippers, but I had to concentrate on learning all I could of this new world I found myself smacked in the middle of.
“Mind faes.” I nodded, wishing it would sink in faster. “So the fire faes play with fire?”
“It’s the element they were born with. Some dabble in other elements. Like me, I can guide fire if needed. I only need a fire source for that to happen. I can also assist Maverick in his element, guide it if he gets too distracted.” A smile crawled across Alex’s face over at Maverick, who gave him the lazy eye.
“Yeh can be glad we’re in the Lord’s house,” Maverick chirped.
Father Matthew thought that was funny, and it put a curve on my lips.
“But it takes years to dabble in the other elements. It’s difficult to learn how to do that, too.”
I nodded again, letting the information sink in.
“Why is Drake not back yet?” I asked.
They all just looked down at the table.
“We don’t know. Something tells me he might not be in a compromising position and is waiting for the right time. I meant what I said earlier.” Alex tapped my hand. “Drake can take care of himself. He has other abilities other than fire to keep him safe.”
“There was the vanishing thing he did. That was quite impressive, but also scary at the same time,” I answered.
“Oh, yeah, you saw that when you did your running away trick.” Alex snorted.
I just nodded, burrowed deep in the thought and hoped that Drake would be back in the morning.
6
SOPHIE
“Sophie,” I heard my name, then felt someone pull on my arm. The dream of the lush forest clearing faded away as I opened my eyes and saw Brooke standing beside me. The sun streamed in through the open curtains casting a beautiful glow around her.
I wiped the sleep from my eyes. “What time is it?”
“Five to eight. I’m afraid you missed breakfast.”
“Why didn’t you—”
“Yesterday couldn’t have been easy on you,” she interrupted. “You had so much to deal with. I thought it best I leave you to sleep in for a bit.” She jabbed a finger at the cup of coffee that stood beside a plate of cookies on the bedside table. I noticed Brooke twisting the ring around her finger vigorously.
