Fae (5 page)

"You've attacked my men on
more than one occasion. You brought two of the enemy with you and
expect us to feed the crippled one. So please, Little Miss, do not
tell me what I can't do. If the Emperor weren't in the way, I'd
have you skinned alive for all you've done."

I opened my mouth to
speak, but nothing came out. Lastrini had hinted in the past about
his less-than-positive opinion of us, but this threat was
different. He'd changed. He was a lot bolder now.

"Consider us warned,"
Cailen said. His hand brushed my lower back, feather light, and
urged me forward.

Chapter Three

Warned

I picked at my sandwich,
making a nice little mound of shredded crumbs of doom, then tossed
what was left of the crust back on my tray. Cailen sat across from
me, devouring his. Funny how guys could do that. Nothing really
messed with their appetites.

But I think we were both
ignoring the darkened mood in The Block in our own way. Cailen's
show hadn't gone unnoticed by anyone. I guessed they thought I was
new and therefore some volatility could be expected. Cailen,
though? No leniency for him.

Or maybe it was my size.
No matter what I did, no one could look past my stilted, diminutive
height, especially when I was at least two feet shorter than
everyone around me.

I kept my eyes down,
pretending I didn't notice the stares--or the whispers--directed at
us. The whole dining facility was packed with soldiers, not one
chair empty except for the ones at our table. People stood at the
corners with their trays balanced on one hand just to avoid sitting
by us. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore and kicked Cailen
under the table so he'd stop eating and actually discuss
this.

He peered up from his food
with a quirk of a smile on his lips. "Yes?" he said.

I leaned forward and
whispered, all conspirator-like, "We can't ignore this." I looked
around again at the glares and smirks. "They don't seem very
happy."

"If you remember, I've
been wanting to leave since I got here. You're the one who wanted
to stay." He pushed his chair back and leaned forward too, our
faces just inches from each other, his breath playing against my
cheeks. "What did you think was going to happen?"

"I thought they'd at least
realize I'm trying to help."

He smirked. "You've said
it yourself; the Mamood are here for you. You're not the only one
who's thought that. Honestly, if they find out about the Fae'ri
now, they probably
will
try to skin us alive."

I rested my head in my
palm and looked past him. I knew we should have left long ago, but
I couldn't. Not then or now. Couldn't the Soltakians see that my
leaving wouldn't change a thing? Look at what happened the last
time. No one could convince me those Mamood in all their warships
outside the planet's atmosphere hadn't known Manoo had captured me.
And yet they didn't leave.

I'd already defeated
Manoo. I could save Soltak. They needed me to stay.

"We can't go. Not
yet."

"I can't believe you still
want to stay." His hand tightened around his tray. "They don't want
us here."

"I can't leave." I forced
each word out of my mouth, hoping to make some kind of difference.
Maybe if I said it enough everyone would believe I meant it for the
best. "They need me."

He pursed his lips and
shook his head, backing away. "You've given your devotion to all
these strangers." He paused before setting his eyes on mine. "You
give everything to
them
." He stood up with his tray and half-turned to leave before
he stopped and said, "You know, I got Meir. After everything, I
could see what he meant to you, but you haven't even gone to see
him since you saved his life." Then he shook his head and
left.

I watched him leave in
stunned silence. He was right. I hadn't gone

"That's because you didn't
really save his life, now did you, Ella?"
Malik's voice whispered in my skull.

***

I stood outside Meir's
room. The door was closed and the corridor was--thankfully--empty
in the lull between shifts. Ironically, this moment kind of
reminded me of my escape on
Sho'ful.
The heavy silence, my
speeding heartbeat thundering away underneath my chest.

The last time I saw Meir,
he was alive. But that was right after I'd seen him dead and nearly
rotted through. So now I didn't know. Maybe that was a bad excuse
for not seeing him, or even
trying
to see him until now.

I closed my eyes and ran
my hand over his door.

Meir died.
Period.

I saw him dead.

He couldn't be
alive.

"You're right,"
Malik whispered.
"Everyone's lying to you."

My eyes snapped open, and
before I could talk myself out of it, I ran my hand over the blue
screen and the door slid open. I poked my head in, hoping to
see...I don't know what. Anything but a corpse.

The bed was made, the
sheets crisp and wrinkle free and wrapped in a plastic, sterilized
cover like our first night in The Block, which meant Meir had never
slept in it.

I swallowed down the bile
building in my throat, turned to run back to my room, and ran right
into someone else instead.

"Forgive me," said a boy
about my age in a golden tunic and pants. He had his head down,
looking toward the floor. His voice was soft, timid. "I did not see
you."

I rubbed my knee where I'd
accidentally just hit his leg with it, and laughed. "You're
apologizing to me?" I shook my head. "I'm the one not watching
where I'm going." I laughed, way past the point of sanity. Voices
talking to me and a dead man who everyone said was
alive.

"Even so," he said, still
not taking his eyes off the floor, "I should have been more careful
where I walked." He looked up then, tentative and shy. "Is there
something I could help you with? Were you looking for
someone?"

I wondered if I should
tell him. Judging by his clothes, he was either a civilian or a
servant, so maybe he'd know. Meir’s Mamood looks did stand out,
after all.

"I'm looking for a
friend." My heart started beating faster, terrified for his answer.
"He's older. A lot older. And has dark skin. He's dressed like a
Mamood."

The boy nodded and smiled.
"Yes, I've seen him. He's where all the civilians go, in one of the
Information Viewing Rooms."

I waited for relief to
wash through me. Meir was alive. And yet that's what everyone had
been saying. Visions of maggots eating his flesh swarmed my mind. I
took a step back and grasped the wall. Darkness started licking at
the edges of my vision. The room swayed.

"Are you all right?" His
hand brushed my arm, sending a spark against my skin.

I pressed my hand against
my forehead and backed away. "Just...dizzy. I think I need to lie
down."

"Would you like me to help
you to your room?"

"No, it's just down
there." I waved in the general direction and slid to the floor. The
cool, icy floor. I pressed my hot cheek against it. The night
outside in the mountains, by the stream, flashed through my head
again. Maggots. Death. The smell.

Meir. Dead.

Dead.

Malik.

"Hush, little
Ella,"
Malik teased.
"Go to sleep. Because when you do, you'll be
mine."

I bolted upright then and
stumbled to my room, running away from the voice, from Meir's room.
All of it. Just away.

The boy in the golden
tunic, with the wispy black hair and watery blue eyes might've
called for me, but I was long past hearing.

Once inside my room, I
fell on the bed and buried my face in my pillow. All I saw were the
backs of my eyelids. No more visions of death. No more
voice.

I sighed and stretched out
my legs, feeling the solid bed, sensing the solid walls around me,
finding comfort in their closeness.

And then my wall dinged. I
groaned. I just wanted to rest.

But I rolled over to look
at the time projection. It was way too early for the next shift so
it might be important. The clock winked out and bright red words
scrolled over the wall in its place.

Duha'i ni. Orsilani.
Ba--

And then it was gone. It
didn't even finish scrolling from one corner to the next. It just
winked out.

I stood up and pulled open
my wall data pad, trying to get the message back, but when I
flipped through my wall's data histories, there was no mention of
even one message to me. It was like what I'd just seen had never
existed.

Orsilani...

My interest piqued and I
pushed all thoughts of visions and Malik to the back of my mind. I
wondered if the message had anything to do with Ranen Orsili. Odd
considering he'd had nothing to do with me since I'd gotten back.
Not even a "Hello, welcome back. Great job defeating Manoo and
fulfilling that prophecy I'd been so worried about. You know, the
one I was supposed to prepare you for but didn't?"

Yeah, very nice of
him.

But still, I was curious.
Who wouldn't be after getting a mysterious message that winked out
of existence the moment it popped up? So, I repeated the words
under my breath so I wouldn't forget and left my room for Cailen's.
The very same Cailen who was at that moment angry with
me.

Chapter Four

Cailen

It occurred to me I
probably should've gone to his room sooner and for a different
reason, but I never seemed to make the right decisions.

I repeated the strange
words from my wall one more time before knocking on Cailen's door.
I heard some rustling, muffled through the steel that separated us,
and then the door slid open.

Electricity crackled all
over the surface of my skin, boring into my veins, oozing warmth
into my lungs. And then I saw Cailen and I lost all sense of
everything. Thoughts of the message? Completely and utterly
gone.

He stood inches from me in
only a pair of olive pants, his arm resting on the doorframe, and a
look of death in his eyes, challenge pouring off of him in waves.
His wings spread across his back, the green tips casting lovely
shadows on his face.

The moment our eyes met,
every muscle in my body melted. I only half-noticed my hand reach
out to his, my fingers lacing through his fingers, pulling him to
me.

His gaze lightened and his
lips quirked into a smile. "I thought you were someone
else."

I rested my head on his
chest, soaking up the liquor-sweet warmth. "You didn't feel me
coming?"

His free hand slid down my
back and he pressed his cheek against the top of my head. "I always
feel you here."

My heart swelled beneath
my chest, almost aching, and I closed my eyes. I breathed him in. I
wanted all my senses totally and completely consumed with Cailen.
His smooth skin beneath my cheek, his heartbeat drumming against my
ear, his lips on mine.

I lifted my head and
looked up into his eyes. I rubbed his bottom lip with my thumb,
wondering if I should kiss him. Would he pull away?

Instead, I said,
"Sometimes I really do think I love you."

He brushed his fingertips
along my jaw. "I know I love you. Every moment of my
life."

It was at that moment that
my body shuddered, rocked to the very core. I knew beyond a shadow
of a doubt that yes, I loved him. That I craved those electrical
sparks and his touch not like a Tat Wack craved information or a
drug addict craved his next fix, but like a broken, orphaned girl
hungry for the one person she'd kept a piece of her entire
life.

He leaned down and laid
his forehead against mine. I realized then as my back pressed
against a cold, flat surface and his warm body pressed against
mine, that he'd pulled me into his room and closed the door behind
me.

"I'm so sorry," I
said.

"For what?"

"For taking so long to
figure out how I felt."

"You lost your memories."
His hands tightened on my waist. A moment of anger ripped through
him to me before calm washed it away. "I was a
stranger."

My face flushed hot with
guilt. There was so much I hadn't told him. So much he didn't even
know about me. I wondered if he'd feel the same way if I told him
everything.

"Yes, Ella."
Malik's voice oozed like tar through my
mind.
"Tell him about me."

My body froze over. Terror
made my heart rip and roar beneath my chest. Not again. Please, not
again.

Go away.
Please
, I pleaded to a voice that
shouldn't have been there.

"Never."

"Ella, what's wrong?"
Cailen had backed away, his face punctuated with worry. And then I
remembered he could feel my terror. But he didn't know why and it
had to stay that way.