The Weight of a Wing (The Stolen Wings Book 1) (8 page)

Cassie woke up feeling tired and scared after the excitement
from the previous night. To top it all off, she had a headache. Alise wasn’t
there to make her one of those special herb teas. She spent the first hours of
the morning alone, locked inside a long room with marble pillars and faded
murals on the walls.

It took her some time to figure out why the place looked
familiar. Cracked floor, dusty ceiling, chipped paint on the doors and windows…
Everything had to be at least a hundred years old
.
She wrinkled her nose
at the layer of dust covering most of the surfaces, and she narrowed her eyes.
It looked close enough to a regular building for her to assume she was still in
her world. She hadn’t crossed over, but where exactly was she?

Struggling to solve the mystery of her location, Cassie
paced the whole length of the room several times. The doors refused to open,
and the windows turned opaque each time she tried to glance outside. By the
time foggy silhouettes materialized inside the room, she was convinced she was
losing her mind.

Every few minutes, she scratched at her neck. The necklace
was gone, and so were the deep marks left by the turquoise beads that had
nearly choked her, but she still felt like she was suffocating.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” An irritated voice
echoed inside the room, and someone walked through the door without opening it,
just like those silhouettes did. The man, dressed in a bluish-purple tunic,
with sandy hair and a plain look scowled at her. “How many times do I have to
heal you?”

 Startled, Cassie dropped her hand from her neck and took a
step back. Being alone was preferable to this, even if she had to put up with
those ghost-like figures.

“Relax, I’m not going to hurt you,” the man said. He stopped
a few steps away from her. “You’re the Fairy’s pet.”

Like that explained everything. Maybe it did for him. But
Cassie didn’t feel like a pet. She felt trapped. While she had overcome her
natural fear and shyness after being introduced to the Guardians, she was far
from feeling brave. This … This was the enemy.

“Are you … Gorem?” she asked hesitantly.

The man gave her a half-amused, half-insulted look. “So, you
know about him. They could never keep their mouths shut.” He shook his head.
“What do you know?”

“I know he took Alise’s wings.” It sounded too much like an
accusation, but Cassie couldn’t help it. Such cruelty revolted her, and Alise
was her friend.

“Yeah, that…” The man waved a hand like it was ancient
history. “Anything else?”

Cassie bit her lower lip. What did she really know? “If
you’re not Gorem … you must be his Wizard.”

“Oh, you know about that, too?”

Cassie couldn’t tell if he was impressed by her logic, or if
he was making fun of her.

“You’re not entirely wrong, only I am not
his
Wizard.”

Was there a touch of pride in his voice?

“And Wizard is such a generic term… The name is Fabian,” he
said.

Did all people from the other realm only go by their first
name? Alise hardly ever used her last name, and Cassie still didn’t know Rafe’s
and Vale’s.

With a gesture of his hand, Fabian turned off the light
coming from outside. In the darkened room, the phantoms walking around became
brighter, but Fabian didn’t seem to notice.

“Enough with the pleasantries,” he said. “I need you to do
something for me.”

“W–what?” Cassie stammered, recalling some freaky pagan
rituals seen on The Discovery Channel.

“I want you to call Alise.”

“I…” She reached into her pocket. Thank God they had
kidnapped her before she changed into her pajamas. “I don’t have a cell phone.”
She had left it on the nightstand to charge while arguing with Vale about who
was going to sleep where. The Guardians liked their sleep, so he had refused to
let her have the bed all to herself. Damn Rafe and his boyfriend idea.

“You don’t need a cell phone to call her. Not when you have
me
around.” Fabian gave her a thin smile.

He stepped in front of her and raised his hands up to her
shoulder level. A new source of light, coming from the ring of fire circling
her neck, lit up the room.

Cassie screamed.

“But you haven’t had breakfast yet,” Sarah said.

As predicted, she had arrived during the night in response
to Mark’s booty call, and she had been the first one to wake up. Blonde, tall,
and skinny, wearing an expensive designer suit, she leaned against the counter
with a cup of coffee in her perfectly manicured hand. Except for when she
visited Mark, Sarah didn’t do kitchens. She only did restaurants. Breakfast was
bound to be a disaster, but at least she had tried.

“No, thank you. We’re in a bit of a hurry,” Alise said. “We
promised Cassie we’d pick her up after she finishes her exam. She wasn’t
feeling that well.” She feigned a look at her watch. “She should be done by
now.”

“Yes. Mark isn’t feeling well, either. He’s still in bed.
Some dinner that must have been,” Sarah said with a glance around the place.
“Just look at this mess.”

The monster blood had dried, looking like cocoa powder that
had gathered in small piles on the floor. Sarah would have been shocked to see
the kitchen right after the attack and likely never would have set foot in
there again, but now the kitchen looked somewhat decent, and the smell of mud
could easily be blamed on the dogs.

“We would help with the cleaning, but we have to go,” Rafe
said, clearly with no intention of helping.

“Maybe when we return,” Vale said.

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” Sarah waved a hand. “I’ve
already called Maria. It’s her job. Are you sure you don’t want some coffee at
least?”

Rafe opened his mouth, but Alise was already pulling him
away, saying, “We’ll get one in town.”

“Don’t wait for us with lunch. We’re taking her out to
celebrate!” He grinned from the doorway and waved at Sarah. The grin didn’t
stay on his face for long. He pouted the moment they left the house. “I wanted
some of that coffee.”

“No, you don’t,” Alise said. “It tastes worse than monster
blood.”

“Actually, she’s right.” Vale nodded and made a face. “I’ve
tried it.”

“How do you two know what monster blood tastes like?” Rafe
asked.

“I can tell by the smell,” she replied.

They climbed into Cassie’s black Toyota and drove downtown,
concentrating on finding any sign of its owner. The Guardians used their
tracking spells, unhappy with the results. All roads headed to the same place
at the bottom of the hill. Out of the two massive buildings dominating the
site, one was the library, and the other was the old university with the statue
of an ancient ruler in front.

“I couldn’t get this close last night,” Vale said, “and we
haven’t reached the barrier yet.”

“Are they losing power?” Rafe wondered.

Vale shrugged. “Could be. It takes a lot of magic to keep up
this kind of protection, and there’s no source to refill it.”

No one asked for Alise’s opinion, so she kept her mouth
shut, but she was tempted to agree.

They parked the car in a back alley and returned to the
square. The traffic going up the hill was heavy, and to make matters worse, the
place was crowded with students. Some were sitting on the terraces of the two
cafés across the street while the rest swarmed like bees around the university
building.

Alise yelled to make herself heard, “She really wanted to
take this exam!”

“Well, that is the problem with wanting something so bad. It
usually happens!” Rafe said. “She’s somewhere around here.”

“Can you feel her?” Vale asked.

Rafe placed his hand on Alise’s arm. “I sure do.” He nodded.
“I just don’t know where she is.”

It was surprising because the amount of magic used to create
the repelling force should have been like a beacon of light in the darkness,
taking them straight to her or, at least, to the source that kept her
imprisoned.

As they approached the buildings, the repelling force got
stronger, like a shallow curtain wrapped around the stone walls.

“Which one?” Rafe asked, looking from one entrance to the
other.

The library being closer, Vale started that way. Shrugging,
Rafe walked towards the university, still holding onto Alise’s arm. His grasp
on her tightened as they dodged between groups of students, but there was no
danger of losing her. She easily kept up with him by squeezing through the
space left by his large shoulders as he opened the way.

The consistency of the air became thicker and vibrated
around them when they approached the main entrance. Why didn’t anybody else
notice? It always puzzled Alise. But humans were insensitive when it came to
magic. Rafe took another step forward and reached out with his hand to cross
the threshold, but it bounced back as if it had hit a wall.

“It doesn’t let me pass,” he said.

She had a feeling it would have let
her
pass, so she
quickly took a step back. She didn’t want to go inside. Part of her didn’t want
to face Gorem again, not even for Cassie. Rafe turned to look down the street,
and she followed his gaze. Vale was coming out of the library. She didn’t
understand the signals they exchanged, but Vale walked down the front steps and
came to them.

The library was a quiet place and, therefore, the obvious
location where Cassie could have easily been hidden. Unfortunately, Gorem
didn’t always go for the most obvious choice. He liked to complicate things.
That was what made him such a strong opponent—there was always a catch. It was
how he won all his battles. So what was it this time?

The pain hit her without warning, a deafening scream
threatening to pierce her eardrums. Like a puppet whose strings had been cut,
Alise fell down on her knees. She clutched her temples while the world
distanced itself from her.

“It’s all right. She just found out she failed her exam.
She’s fine.” Rafe’s voice came from far away. He picked her up in his arms and
carried her to the pedestal of the statue where he set her down. “Alise, what
is it?” He brushed the hair away from her face.

She stared at him as if he wasn’t there, the scream still
echoing inside her head.

“What happened?” Vale panted, having finally caught up with
them.

“I don’t know. She collapsed,” Rafe said, and he lowered his
head to look into her eyes. “Alise?”

The pain ended as abruptly as it had started. Cassie gasped
and pressed her hands to her throat, searching for blood or burns. There was
none. The flames had vanished, along with the pain and her courage. She wanted
to disappear. But she couldn’t, not while Fabian was there. They were still
alone in the room, if she didn’t count the passing specters. One of them walked
away from the main group and approached the window at the opposite end of the
room.

 “I told you I wasn’t going to hurt you,” Fabian said. The
Wizard stood by one of the clouded windows, looking like he could actually see
outside. Chances were, he probably could.

 “What was that then?” Cassie gasped.

“Persuasion,” Fabian said without looking at her. “It’s more
effective, and I don’t have to waste any energy to heal you in between.”

Cassie’s lower lip trembled when faced with the idea that
there was going to be more of that. She whimpered, close to crying. “Why are
you doing this?”

“You know why.”

“Gorem wants Alise dead.”

“Well…” Fabian looked over his shoulder at her and frowned.
“She was meant to survive, but she wasn’t supposed to disappear. He wants her
back.”

It sounded so simple. “And he won’t stop until he gets her,”
Cassie murmured.
Like all bad guys from fairytales
. Who else would chop
off the wings of a Fairy?

“Exactly.” Fabian turned around and gave her a somber smile.
“So, it’d be better not to get in the way, don’t you think?”

But she was already in the way. She was trapped at their
mercy, and she didn’t want Alise to suffer, either. She didn’t see a way out of
this situation.

The specter moved to the next window, ignoring them both.

“Why me?” she whispered.

“Because she has a debt to you.”

Cassie gave him a puzzled look. “She doesn’t owe me
anything.”

Fabian made an impatient gesture with his hand, but he took
the time to explain, “You might think so, but when we cross over, if a human
helps us, we are required to return the favor. It’s a matter of…” He glanced at
the ceiling, trying to find the right word, “balance, if you will. Now that
you’re in danger, Alise will do everything in her power to save you. As a
healing Fairy, it goes against her nature to let you be tortured and have other
awful things done to you.” He smirked a little. “She will get those two
Guardians involved, too, which is most unfortunate, but we will deal with it.
In fact, they’re already here.” His smirk widened. “Ready for round two?”

Cassie shuddered. “Here? Where are we?” she asked, hoping to
buy some time.

“You don’t recognize this place?” Fabian gestured around,
surprised. “I suppose it’s a bit dusty and old, but… Come on. You’ve been here
before, even if not in this century.”

Not in this century?
Startled by the words, Cassie
looked around—really looked. Through narrowed eyes, she imagined the place the
way it might have looked in another era, and then she saw it. “Oh, my God We’re
in the university’s main hall. But where is everyone?” She had never seen the
hall so deserted.

Fabian grinned. “Not here.” He turned back to the window,
smiled, and murmured, “Be prepared. Any minute now…”

A few steps away from them, the specter finished inspecting
the windows and headed to the door. As he passed by, Cassie could have sworn he
had winked at her.