2 Deja Blue (17 page)

“Um.
Fairy
stuff, Jer.
Not wizard stuff.” I corrected.

“
Whatev
.
It’s
freakin
’ cool. What the hell just happened here?” He looked
with amazement
at Anya and Brennan and Celestine.

“Yeah.
I’d like to know that too.” I said
, narrowing my eyes at Brennan
. I had a sinking feeling I wasn’t going to like the answer.

Chapter 17

“What?” Brennan said to me, holding out his hands, trying to look
innocent. “I got rid of
Grobel
and settled the manner in which you will repay Celestine the debt you owe her.” Celestine was smiling
warmly
and
nodded,
her freaky purple eyes bright with excitement, “Your Prince has very effectively handled all of our problems!”

My eyes popped wide open as
I shook my head
with
disgust and threw my hands over my heart, “My Prince? He isn’t
my
Prince!” I scoffed.

Celestine looked puzzled, “Well…
you offer your allegiance to him.  Y
ou see Fairies, talk to F
airies
and are connected to your gardens. You are of the Earthen Court, aren’t you?”

I stood there dumbfounded. I never thought of it like
that. Brennan was just the pain-in-the-
ass brother to one of my best friends. He was just helping me out of this mess. Was that somehow declaring my “allegiance” to him or to his Court? Did that mean I owed
him
now?
As usual, I found myself lacking in my knowledge of
Fairy
culture and customs. They really
do
need some kind of handbook.

As I stood there
,
unable to respond
,
Anya spoke up,
“
Ruby. Of course you are connected to the Earthen Court. You always have been. But now you have ties to the Water Court too, since
Sirrush
gave you his magic. It is, of course, your choice if you choose to pledge your
fealty
to the Water Court instead, but we just assumed you would
align
with us
.”

Jeremy continued standing there silently (that was so unlike him)
,
and
I lost it.
Once again, my teenage
d
hormones kicked in and
I
started ma
rching around them on the beach.
“What do you mean,
‘
pledge my fealty?
’
I’m not pledging anything! I don’t even really understand what is going on here! If you’re asking
me
if I’m on your side, or someone else’s, then duh – I’m on yours!
Of course I’m on your side.
But what’s all this about pledging fealty or allegiance or whatever? And what exactly just happened here with
Grobel
? What was all that…that…whatever it was when he knelt down and all that …sparkly stuff happened?”
I realized my voice was getting
shrieky
again
,
and I probably sounded like Jeremy having one of his temper tantrums. That thought irked me too. Since when did I suddenly turn into my volatile-tempered friend? I was usually the
calm, collected
,
cool one. I was the one who c
ould handle stress and not over
react. It was unsettling to me that I was losing control like this, but it was just so frustrating not knowing any
thing! I felt left in the dark…l
ike I was the one locked up in that dark
,
little attic closet in my room, waiting for someone to get the key and unlock it to let me out.

Brennan started chuckling
at my latest tantrum
,
and I instantly reached out and smacked him across the shoulder, “Oh!
You shut it! Stop laughing at me!”
I was so annoyed at all of this;
I didn’t really understand what was going on, and now Prince-Not-So-Charming Brennan was laughing at me! Ugh!

Anya spoke up quickly, “Ruby, what happened on the beach here was that t
he bond and promise
that
Grobel
has made
has been sealed with the magic of the Earthen Royal Court. H
e cannot break it.
If he tries, even
tries
to break the bond, he will die and his entire family will be banished from Fey.
Exiled.
You are forever safe from him. And, he will – or should I say – he
must
,
choose you to compete in the
Grá
mo
Chroí
Dúshlán
against the Water Court’s co
mpetitor. You competing in the
Challenge
will repay the rest of your life-debt to Celestine.”

Brennan
nodded enthusiastically
and
with
slight arrogance
added, “Yeah, thanks to
me.
And, since you’ll be competing on behalf of
Bexin
, you’ll be representing the Earthen Court.
My
Court.”
He raised an eyebrow at me.

As I started to bubble over in frustration again, Anya put her hand on my shoulder
to soothe me
and broke in again, “What my
brother
means is, since you are competing for the Earthen Court, it shows that you are aligned with us.”
I blew out a frustrated sigh and decided to keep my mouth shut for the moment. I guess it wasn’t so bad. I suppose I knew I was co
nnected to the gardens and the F
airies for a long time.
Getting
myself
wrapped up in all of this crap
only happened
because I wanted to help them get rid of the
dragon that was causing so many problems in
my
town. I guess I’d rather be aligned, or
pledge my fealty
or whatever
it was
to my best friends, (even
though
Brennan is an ass) rather than some unknown beings in the Water Court. But
,
to be honest, I didn’t want
to
pledge anything to anyone.

Finally, Jeremy found his voice, shaking his head in amazement, “This is
so
freakin
’ cool. Ruby, you’re totally inner-circle. Now, when exactly is this
Challenge
-thingy? And can I come? I
wanna
watch! Oh
my gosh
, I’m
so
oo
bringing my camera!
This is the
bombdiggidy
swizzle!
” Jeremy got all excited as his thoughts ran away with him.

Brennan
got very stern all of a sudden
,
as
his lips pressed together
,
and shook his head, “No. No cameras.”

Anya chimed in,
looking apologetic,
“Yeah, I don’t know if you’ll be able to come or not Jeremy. This
is kind of a…Fairy-
M
erpeople
thing…”

I looked at Anya, Brennan and Celestine with slight panic
, “Wait a minute! I’m not a Fairy or a
M
erperson
,
and
I
have to be there! I want Jeremy there. I’ll need him there for…for…emotional support!” I pouted.

Celestine just giggled and shook her head, “Well, I can see
the four of you
have much to work out. I will leave the details up to you. I look forward to seeing you at the
Grá
mo
Chroí
Dúshlán
in seven days.” She gave a quick nod to
me and
Jeremy, and a slight
bow to Anya and Brennan and took off jogging towards the surf. As she approached the water’s edge, she peeled off the sarong, peeked back at us over h
er shoulder and gave us a smile
,
and then dove into the surf…naked! She surfaced, waved at us,
and
then dove under the water again
flipping her huge diamon
d-sparkly emerald green tail in the air.

Jeremy’s mouth dropped open
and his eyes popped in amazement. H
e stood
there staring out at the water and gasped,
“Oh. My.
God.
”

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” I smiled at Jeremy. “I told you it was wicked-cool….and…kind of creepy.”
I added as I kind of thought about my legs turning into a giant fish tail.
Iccchhh
….I shuddered. I hate fish!
I looked back to Anya and Brennan. “So, seven days?” I looked questionably between my royal friends.

Anya nodded. Brennan answered, “Yeah. August
17th.”

Jeremy started excitedly jumping around,
clapping his hands.
“
Ohhhh
!
That’s the day before your birthday
,
Ruby!”

A feeling of dread and nausea came over me. My stomach churned
,
and I had a funny taste in my mouth, “
Ucchhh
, just what I nee
d…
Some major swimming
Challenge
causing me stress
,
premature wrinkles and gray hair the day before I turn 18.”

Anya rubbed my shoulder, “Well, technically, it’s the night before you turn 18.”

“The
Challenge
is at night?” Jeremy asked.

Anya nodded, “
Yes. It always has been. It has to do with
the
Merpeople’s
beliefs of the stars and such,” she kind of shook her head and waved her hands around, “You know
,
their
magic is more powerful at night.
Water Court beings swim faster at night, the water is cooler, all of that.”

With an unsure look, I kind of raised my eyebrows at her, “Uh. Not really, but I’ll take your word for it.”

Brennan spoke up
, “Well
,
of course they swim faster at night!”

“Of c
ourse!”
I sarcastically replied,
rolling my eyes.
“Why
wouldn’t
I know that? Oh yeah. I remember now…
‘
cause
none
of
you ever tell me anything
!” I practically shouted.

Jeremy intervened, “Hey now! Hey now
,
children…can’t we all play nice? Okay, does Ruby have to prepare or practice
or anything for this big
Gramma
d
ouche
bag thing?”
Anya giggled
,
and
even I cracked a smile at that one. Leave it to Jeremy to throw in the word “douche bag” in the most inappropriate way.

“It’s
Graw-muh-Khree
Doosh-lahn
,” Brennan corrected.

“
Whatev
,” Jeremy kind of shrugged his shoulders and contin
u
ed, “Well, does
she
?
…
H
ave to practice or anything?”
he looked at Anya and Brennan questionably.

I was curious to know the answer to this one too.

Brennan nodded, “Def
i
nitely. We’ll have you run some drills this week, Kansas.”

“Drills?”
I questioned.

“Swim laps, practice what the course might be, that kind of thing,” Anya answered.

“Oh
,
” I replied
, feeling defeated.
Not much else I could
say
I suppose. I felt the knot in my stomach clench
,
and my mouth
went
dry. I must have had a sick look on my face, because Jeremy came over and gave me a hug.

“Hey, hey,
hey
yyyy
!
You’ll
be fine Ruby! It’s not like
it
’
s
life or death or anything! It’s not the end of the world! You’ll be great!”