The Emerald Staff (15 page)

“Come, we need to rest before our long
journey tomorrow.”

Faedra stood up and faced Janessa and Mrs.
Forbes, doing her best to avoid Rowan. She didn’t need to look at
him to know he was giving her a disapproving stare; his energy was
shouting it from the rooftops. “Thank you for a wonderful
dinner.”

“You are welcome, my dear.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Faen came to a stop halfway down a long,
carpeted corridor. Walls adorned with portraits and tapestries
underlined the sheer elegance of the house. The light from ornate
sconces threw a soft glow over his features, highlighting just how
handsome he was.

“This is your room.” He gestured to the door
they were now standing next to.

Faedra turned her gaze to the closed wooden
door and puffed out a breath. She knew all too well she was not
going to be getting a good night’s rest.

For goodness sakes, Faedra, pull yourself
together. You have survived a redcap attack, slayed half a dozen of
them. You beat an evil princess in a sword fight, and you’re about
to go ask a dragon for help. You can flippin’ well sleep on your
own for once.
She waited a few heartbeats hoping her inward
brow beating would work. It didn’t.

She turned back to Faen, “Well, goodnight,
then,” she said as she reached for the door handle and turned
it.

Faen could see the anxiety shining in her
eyes, there wasn’t much he missed when it came to his charge.

“Would you like me to stay with you
tonight?”

Faedra’s look must have been one of surprise
as Faen added quickly. “Just to sleep, Faedra.”

“What about your parents?” Faedra couldn’t
imagine his parents, particularly Rowan, being too happy about him
sleeping in her room, especially after the conversation she’d
overheard just a short while ago.

“Faedra, it is my duty to care for your well
being both physical and emotional.”

“Just your duty?” The words came out before
she realized she’d even said them. Warmth flooded her cheeks; she
pulled her gaze away and looked down at her feet.

Warm fingers lifted her chin, coaxing her
head up until she met Faen’s intense gaze. What she saw there stole
her breath away.

“No, not just duty,” Faen whispered as he
tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Eyes full of emotion, he
leaned down and placed a gentle kiss to her lips.

Electricity flowed from the heat of his lips
on hers, sending liquid warmth to her core, melting away all the
fear and anxiety that was building there.

She leaned into him, tangling her hands in
his silken blond hair. Faen deepened their kiss, and Faedra thought
her legs were going to give way. Faen must have felt it, too, and
he scooped her up.

“I will take that as a yes then,” he said,
voice slightly ragged. A smug grin was pulling at the corners of
his mouth.

When no objection came, Faen pushed the door
open with his foot and walked them inside, closing the door behind
him.

The next morning came around far too quickly
for Faedra’s liking. Just for one second between her eyes opening
and her consciousness waking, she was in heaven. Still snuggled in
her Guardian’s arms, warm and safe. His even breaths fanning over
her neck told her he was still asleep. She smiled, remembering the
previous evening. He got into bed with her after she’d changed into
the pajamas Janessa left for her, tucked himself around her and
held her all night. She had slept like a log.

She wished it could be the same every night,
but when in her home, it was too risky for him to sleep in his fae
form in case her father walked in for any reason while they were
sleeping. So Faen spent his nights in her bedroom as her lovable
dog, although he graduated to sleeping on her bed after the ball,
but it wasn’t quite the same.

Unfortunately, this moment couldn’t last. Her
dad needed her.

A little while later, Faedra was dressed and
waiting for her Guardian to finish in the bathroom.

She stood by the bed and stared down at the
time-pebble nestled in the flat of her palm. The color was
encroaching further towards the center, and the familiar knot made
its presence known in her stomach.

“Hang on, Dad. We’re coming,” she
whispered.

She squeezed it in her hand before shoving it
back in the front pocket of her jeans.

Faen emerged from the bathroom a moment
later. “Ready?”

Faedra gave the room a sweeping gaze and
sighed. It was a heavy-hearted sigh, as if she’d never again spend
another night in the safety and comfort of a bedroom. With a brief
closing of her eyes to calm her nerves, she bent down to grab her
backpack and swung it over her shoulder as she turned and strode
towards her Guardian.

“About as ready as I’ll ever be.” She tried
to hide the defeated undertone in her voice but it sneaked out.

“Come now,” Faen walked past her and opened
the bedroom door. “We will be fine, you will see. And we
will
get your father back.”

The sound of determination in Faen’s voice
gave Faedra some much-needed hope. She gave him a weak smile.

“Now let us go and talk to Draconis.” He
scooped up her hand and held it tight. She could feel his support
seeping into her blood.

Janessa, Rowan and Mrs. Forbes were waiting
for them in the magnificent marble entrance hall to the house.
Janessa was doing a very poor job of hiding her worry but Rowan’s
face was stoic, unreadable.

They walked outside into the bright morning
sunshine, which momentarily blinded Faedra after being in the much
darker innards of the house. But a moment later her sight adjusted
and she didn’t feel the need to squint anymore.

“Do you have everything?” Janessa asked,
concern seeping into her voice.

“I believe we do, Mother.” Faen turned to the
housekeeper. “Mrs. Forbes, thank you for doing such a wonderful job
packing Faedra’s pack. There is enough in there to feed us for a
week.” He leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek and noticed a
slight tinge of pink on the usually unflappable housekeeper’s
face.

“You just come back to us safe and sound now,
Master Faen.”

“We will do our best.” Faen gave her a
reassuring smile and turned to his father.

“Thank you for your help and advice, Father.
Without your guidance on this, we would not be as well prepared as
we now are.”

Rowan responded with an impassive incline of
his head. Faen wasn’t about to accept that and gave his father a
hug, whether the stern looking man wanted one or not. Rowan brought
one hand up in an uncomfortable gesture of compassion and patted
his son on the shoulder. When Faen released his father, he turned
to his mother who was trying very hard to bite back her tears.
Something she had done countless times before when her husband had
left on dangerous missions and she wondered if that would be the
last time she saw him or touched him.

“We will be all right, Mother. Just you wait
and see,” Faen responded to his mother’s unspoken words. He wrapped
his arms around her and she almost bear-hugged him in return.

“I am just being silly. I know you will come
back to us safely.” Her voice was slightly shaky along with her
smile.

Faen bent a little to plant a kiss on her
cheek before turning to face his Custodian.

“We should be going.”

Faedra nodded in agreement a few seconds
before Faen scooped her up in his arms and beat his wings, lifting
them from the ground. No matter how many times she’d flown with
him, her stomach still did flip-flops for the first few moments.
She couldn’t quite work out if that was from being held against him
or from being lifted above the ground; probably a little of
both.

“We will be back before you know it,” Faen
said to the departure party before turning and flying in the
opposite direction.

Faedra rested her head against Faen’s chest
and closed her eyes, as if that very action would block out all the
worry and fear she felt. Although it was a warm day, she felt
chilled to the bone and Faen could sense as much.

Faen had timed their departure according to
how long he and his father estimated it would take him to fly
carrying Faedra. They wanted to arrive near the mountains at dusk.
The plan was to drop Faedra off somewhere safe, a little way from
the enclave of redcaps that had taken up residence around the mouth
of the mountain. He would then do a surveillance flight under the
cover of darkness and from there, try to work out a plan of how to
get them passed the redcaps and into the mountain.

Faedra had been silent for most of the
several hours into their flight. At times Faen thought she may be
sleeping but each time he looked down to check, her eyes were wide
open and taking in the surrounding beauty of the countryside they
were flying over.

He had left her alone with her thoughts until
now.

“Penny for them?”

She twitched a little. She’d been so deep in
thought, the sudden break in silence made her jump. She looked up
into the aqua gaze of her Guardian. He smiled at the questioning
look on her face.

“I believe, that is a human term: A penny for
your thoughts.”

She gave him a half-hearted smile. “I don’t
think they are worth a penny. I was mainly just enjoying the peace
and tranquility before what I expect to be all hell breaking loose.
A bit like the calm before the storm.”

“With any luck, we will not need to use too
much force. I am hoping we can sneak passed most of them and just
have to neutralize the ones guarding the entrance to the
mountain.”

“I hope I don’t let you down.” Faedra
admitted.

“You have never let me down yet; I do not
expect this occasion will be any different.”

Faedra breathed in a deep breath. “Well, you
certainly have a lot more faith in me than I do.”

A few more moments passed in silence, then
Faedra’s thoughts took a different turn when she suddenly realized
they had been flying for hours.

“Faen, you must be getting tired. You are not
used to flying with a heavy weight. Maybe we should stop and rest
for a few moments.”

Faen looked down to see the concern in his
charge’s eyes.

“Do not concern yourself, Faedra. We go
through this in our training. It is always a possibility that
Guardians will have to fly their charges to safety, so we have to
carry weights for long distances to improve our wing strength. I am
fine.” He gave her a reassuring smile to cement the statement.

Fact was, his wings were starting to wane a
little but he was not about to admit it, he had far too much pride
for that. And besides, his Custodian was beating herself up quite
satisfactorily enough on her own without him giving her any more
ammunition to use.

“We are nearly there, Faedra.” Faen said a
while later. When he got no response he looked down at the young
woman in his arms. Her eyes were closed, her head resting against
his chest. He noticed her breathing had evened out sometime before
and suspected that she had finally fallen asleep. Now her face was
a picture of serenity, the wrinkle between her eyebrows, that had
been a constant fixture on her features since her dad’s
disappearance, was smooth and her forehead resembled porcelain, her
milky-white skin was so smooth. He almost didn’t want to drag her
from the tranquility of wherever she may be in her dreams but they
had to get ready to act.

He spoke a little louder, not wanting to
startle her out of her slumber. “Faedra, we are almost there.”

She stirred, opening her eyes. A smile crept
across her lips at the sight of him being the first thing she saw
upon waking.

“Huh?” she murmured.

“The mountains, they are just up ahead.” He
looked up and focused his gaze ahead of him.

Faedra turned her head following his gaze,
then brought her hand up to scrub the last remnants of sleep and
tranquility from her face.

The sun was starting to dip in the sky and up
ahead in the distance loomed the majestic Alovison Mountain
range.

“How long have I been sleeping?”

Faen could hear the chagrin in her voice.

“Not long… no apologies now, I am glad you
were able to get some restful sleep. You will need your energy,” he
said when he could sense she was going to chastise herself for
falling asleep on him. Truth was, she admitted to herself, when he
was close to her, it seemed to be the only time she could get a
good peaceful sleep.

Faen spied a thicket just before the mountain
range and decided it would be as safe a place as any to leave the
Custodian while he went and did a sweep over the redcap’s
encampment. As he got closer, he made his way lower to the ground,
finding an opening through the trees. The sun was now dipping
behind the mountains and when they got down to the ground, it was
almost dark because the angle of the mountains was now hiding the
sun, leaving twilight colors painting the sky.

The thicket of trees was dense and Faen
lowered his charge’s legs to the ground with care. He expected the
weakness she would feel when her feet made contact with the earth.
His arm under hers, Faen steadied her for a few moments until she
regained her equilibrium.

“My legs go like jelly after flying with you.
Why is that?”

Faen shrugged, then a mischievous smile
curved his lips.

“I guess it must be the affect I have on
you.” His smile widened to show a row of immaculate white teeth. It
stole Faedra’s heart, he so rarely gave up a carefree smile like
that and it lit up his face. She wished he would let down his guard
more often.

She returned his smile with a broadening one
of her own.

“I guess so.”

A moment later her legs were back to normal
and Faen stood in front of her and rested a hand on each of her
shoulders, his features having resumed their no nonsense aura of
seriousness.