“Why don’t you let me try,” said Finn, pulling his arrow out of the string and returning it to his quiver, throwing the bow over his shoulder. He frowned at me playfully, “Green elves can focus like nobody’s business. I ain’t lyin’. It’s part of our trainin’.”
I stepped back, momentarily bumping into Scrum. “By all means, green elf, have at it. Go hunt Chase down.” I seriously didn’t care who brought him back, so long as they did it.
“Take my hand,” said Tony.
Finn eyed it suspiciously. “Nobody better tell any of the green elves I was standin’ out here holdin’ no guy’s hand.” He took Tony’s hand and smiled. “Hey. He does have good hands.” He realized what he said a split second later and started frowning.
I couldn’t help but laugh, especially when I heard a tiny voice yell out from above, “He’s gay! He’s totally gay! I knew it!”
“What’s so funny?” demanded Finn, glaring at me.
“Nothing. Nothing at all. Just hurry up.” I knew if I told him what the hidden pixie had said, he’d refuse to go forward with the task at hand.
“Concentrate, Finn. Get me into that compound.”
I stood there watching them intently. I couldn’t tell from their expressions what was going on. Tony looked completely focused, and Finn started smiling. It seemed like a strange reaction to thinking about Chase, but whatever. Maybe he was gay. That would be the biggest shock of the year. He did argue the loudest against it. But I had been so sure that he had a special eye for Becky. Come to think of it though, he never did hang around with any of the green elf girls that I’d seen.
Tony did a sharp intake of breath and then sighed, but otherwise kept up his task.
I looked over at Gorm and he was carefully shredding a leaf, pulling fiber after fiber away to reveal the naked stem. It was a little disturbing to watch, actually, especially since I had such a special connection with the trees. It’s like he was messing with their body parts or something. Ew. I looked away to clear the images from my mind.
Finn caught my attention back when he stepped back away from Tony and dropped his hand. “Did it work?” he asked.
“In a way, yes.”
“In what way?” I asked suspiciously.
“Well, I was able to make contact.”
“Okay,” I said, still a bit mystified, but happy he’d had some success. “So what do we do now?”
“We wait. Not long I think. I felt a lot of enthusiasm.” He smiled, but revealed nothing further.
“Tony, why does that look make the hair on my butt stand up?” I asked.
Tony laughed in spite of himself. “You have hair on your butt?”
I shrugged. “Little ones. Fuzzy ones.”
“Dang girl, you ain’t gotta share everything, you know,” said Finn, shaking his head.
“Shut up, redneck. Everyone has body hair. Get over it.”
“Not on their butts they don’t,” he mumbled.
“Yeah,” I said, sassily, “they do! Even your precious green elf girlfriends do.”
“I ain’t got no green elf girlfriends.”
I totally had to get him back for the butt hair comment, so I decided to go for the nads. “Oh, that’s right. You’re gay. I forgot.”
“Dammit, Jayne, I ain’t ... !”
He never got the last word out. His eyes got as big as saucers and he yelled, “Becky!”
I turned and saw our little water sprite buddy, coming through the trees, a big goofy smile on her too pale face.
Chapter 8
I ran over, stride for stride with Finn, to get to Becky. “Beckster!” I yelled, grabbing her into a hug, immediately finding myself being enveloped in a second-layer hug from Finn. “Where in the hell have you been, you little shit? We’ve been so worried. I should smack you for doing that to us.”
Becky giggled. “Please don’t. I’m still a little out of sorts right now ... ow, ow, Finn, not so tight.”
Finn’s arms left us and I pulled back, looking at Becky’s face. She had dark circles under her eyes and was pasty white in the face, but otherwise she looked like her normal too-happy self.
I started getting cranky, thinking she could have at least let us know she was okay instead of letting us worry. I had felt so terrible thinking I had gotten her killed. “Seriously, where the hell have you been?”
“Oh my gosh, Jayne, what happened to your eyes?! They’re .... they’re beautiful!”
“Focus, Becky. Crazy-eyes explanation later. Where you’ve been explanation? Now.”
She sighed. “I have been in the Dark Fae compound. Their clinic, actually.”
To say that Finn and I, and now Tony and Scrum who’d just joined us, were shocked, would be an understatement. A big one. I opened my mouth to say something, but before the words would come out, Becky held up her hand to stop me.
“I know what you’re going to say, Jayne – and gosh how I’ve missed your potty mouth, so I hate to stop you right now – but let me explain.”
I started sputtering. “You’d better fucking explain or I’m afraid I’m gonna have to blast you myself. How are you ... ? What did you ... ?” I was sputtering and that was so not like me, it made me feel weird.
“Okay, okay. First, just take a breath. Let’s go sit down. I don’t have a lot of energy and I still have to go back.”
“Go back?” said Finn, his voice rising in anger. “Go back? No way, huh-uh. You ain’t goin’ back nowhere ‘cept with us, to the Light Fae compound! None o’ this ‘I’m all Dark Fae’ shee-it with you. No ma’am ... ain’t gonna happen. We already lost a good daemon to that horse puckey. I ain’t gonna lose you too.”
I was a little surprised at his vehemence, but I wasn’t worried. There’s no way our happy, bright water sprite would go Dark on us. She didn’t have it in her. I was willing to hear her out, but no matter what, afterwards she was coming with us, even if I had to beg Scrum to throw her over his shoulder and march out of here with her, Neanderthal style. I’d even go so far as to put a damn power bubble around her ass so she couldn’t teleport away. I refused to consider that it wouldn’t work. Maybe I’d try to mix a little magic into it like Céline suggested. I had to laugh at myself over that. As if I could manage complicated witch magic on top of what I was already juggling.
“Sit, please. I don’t have the energy to argue with you. And I want you to know that I love you guys for coming here. It means a lot.”
I looked at her like she was nuts. “Of course we came here – but we didn’t even know you were here. If we had, we would have been here sooner. We were actually looking for Chase. Something must have gone wrong.” I looked at Tony, frowning.
“Hey! Don’t look at me! I told Finn to think about Chase but all he kept doing was thinking about Becky’s face, Becky’s hair, Becky’s smile. It was Becky, Becky, and more Becky the entire time!”
Finn’s face turned beet-red.
Becky smiled. “Seriously, Finn? Oh my gosh, that’s so sweet. I’ve been thinking about you a lot, too.” She looked suddenly shy.
“Okay, lovebirds, save it. I need to know what the hell’s going on.” I sat down, pulling Finn with me. Scrum stayed standing, but Tony joined us on the ground, sitting with his legs crossed.
Finn said nothing, just alternatively looked at the treetops and then at Becky, turning away each time she caught him looking. It was like watching two eight-year-olds in puppy love – cute but nauseatingly dorky at the same time.
“So, why were you with the Dark Fae, Becky? And why do you look like shit?”
Becky laughed out loud, the echoes of it tinkling among the trees. “Well, Samantha teleported me out of the fight we were in, so that explains why I was in the Dark Fae clinic,” she giggled softly and added, “and that’s also why I look so bad right now. She’s still kinda new at the witch thing. Her magic needs some work.”
I growled, “The only thing wrong with her magic is it doesn’t have a self-destruct button I can push.”
br /> “No, Jayne, you’ve got it all wrong. Samantha’s not bad at all. She’s just trying to do the right thing.”
“What? Are you fucking kidding me? She killed you, Becky. I saw it. Your eyes were all glassed over and staring into the afterlife ... your body was all twisted and broken. Whatever they did to bring you back from the dead was some heavy duty voodoo or something.” I eyed her suspiciously. “Maybe you’re a zombie,” I said softer, watching her reaction carefully.
“Me? A zombie?” She started laughing so hard she fell over, holding her ribs. “Ow, ow, ow, that hurts. But it’s funny, it really is.” She kept alternatively giggling and wincing in pain while Tony moved over and helped her sit back up.
Once she was upright again, she looked me in the eye and said, “I know you and Samantha got off on the wrong foot,” she noticed me glaring at her angrily, so added, “and I know she’s done nothing recently to make you feel differently about her – but you have to trust me. She means well. She’s really trying. She’s just – awkward. Sometimes she tries too hard and her attempts bring ... unexpected results.”
“Pfft. Oh, yeah. Like she unexpectedly killed you. And Falco. Oh, and F-Y-I? He didn’t come back from the dead like you did. He’s gone forever, Becky. He was a great elf, you know. I really liked him. Everyone did.” The bitterness of losing him made me want to spit. I saw Finn look down at the ground and swallow several times in quick succession. He was fighting back the tears, which only made it harder for me to win the battle against mine. I cleared my throat loudly twice to make it stop hurting from the unshed tears.
Becky looked down at the ground. “I know to lose anyone is horrible. But you know ... the green elves were aiming to kill her. She was acting in self-defense.”
I looked at her like she was crazy – which she was, as far as I was concerned. “Becky? Do you hear yourself? Samantha came to our compound ... demanding to be let in. She sent arrows into our people. She blasted you to kingdom come. She tried to get her ogres and elves to assassinate me. She wasn’t doing anything in self-defense! She attacked us! We were the defenders.”
“I know, I know. She came to you first. But then things got all messed up.”
“Yeah, right. That’s how they’ve explained it to you. But in my opinion, and the opinion of all the true Light Fae, there’s nothing to assume from five separate attacks brought to our doors and several dead Light Fae, other than the fact that the Dark Fae started this war and they are the aggressors.”
“Are you saying I wasn’t a true Light Fae?”
“Well what are you now, Becky? Light or Dark? Because as far as I’m concerned, a true Light Fae would never turn her back on her people.”
She stared mutinously at me for a moment and said, “Well why are you here for Chase, then? He’s Dark Fae. He turned his back on the Light Fae.”
“I’m here because he made his decision under the influence of pixelation. That’s like being on drugs. I’m not going to hold that against him.” I grabbed her hand. “And if you’ve changed sides, you probably did it under the influence of pain and drugs too. So I’m going to forgive you too. Come back with us.”
She sighed, pulling her hand away. “It’s not that simple.”
“Screw that, Becky, it is too!” I yelled, throwing my hands up. I looked desperately at Finn, Scrum, and Tony. They were as shell-shocked as I was. “Come on, guys, tell her! Tell her she has to come back with us!”
Tony’s cooler head prevailed. He looked at Becky kindly and spoke softly. “Explain it to us. Tell us what isn’t so simple.”
She looked at him warily, as if expecting a trap.
He held up his hands in innocence. “I’m serious, I just want to know. Jayne and the rest of us can’t understand why you and Chase would leave, but we want to. We want to understand. Help us do that.”
I decided to let him take over. I was so pissed at Becky I wanted to ring her skinny little neck, which would probably be counterproductive to convincing her to come home. I sat there quietly, listening to the rush of blood in my ears, trying to get my racing heart under control. I was so mad I wanted to growl. It made me wonder if I had some werewolf blood in me somewhere. I wondered if it would hurt if I were to suddenly morph into a vicious animal that could shred the Dark Fae to pieces. Maybe the pain would be worth it. Becky’s words brought me out of my murderous musings.
“Samantha’s goal is the same as all the other Dark Fae – to get the Light Fae to join them.”
I couldn’t help bursting out with, “Yeah, we already got the recruitment speech from Ben – be all you can be, and all that other shit. Thanks, but we’re not interested.”
She glared at me, and Tony held his hand up, telling me to be quiet.
“Please, Becky, continue.”
She took a deep breath, let it out in a huff, and started talking again. “Samantha is a good person. She’s trying very hard to prove herself to her new family. It’s the first real family she’s ever had.” Becky turned to me, her eyes pleading. “Jayne, she has had a terrible life. Really, really awful. You have to understand how important her fae brothers and sisters are to her right now. She’d do anything for them. She wanted that with all of us, you know. It’s the Light Fae who turned their backs on her – just like her human family.”
I tried not to feel guilty about that, leaving Samantha on her own at the warehouse in Miami, since the decision had been out of my hands at the time. But I know how I’d feel if I had been rejected and then given a second chance. Maybe I would have followed her path. Maybe.
Becky turned back to Tony. “Sometimes, Samantha gets ahead of herself. I’ve heard stories about her, things she’s done since she’s been here. She gets things wrong a lot, but she tries. She’s awful powerful. They’re talking about her like she’s some long-lost sorceress or something, from an ancient fae family. So she has a lot to live up to and she’s really trying. Honestly, none of us can blame her for that – we’ve all finally found what we’ve been missing, now that we’re with the fae, haven’t we? Any of us would do whatever we could to do what is best for them, right?”
She looked at each of our faces, but I sensed a trap in there somewhere. This was how she was going to justify something. I refused to respond, but the idiots around me were like bobble heads, nodding yes, yes, yes. Shit, it was almost too easy for her.
“The Dark Fae took me in and brought me to their clinic to heal me – just like they did with Chase, just like they do with any fae who needs them. They don’t ask for anything in return except a listening ear.”
I snorted. “I’ll bet.”
Becky frowned but continued, ignoring me, “Once I listened to what they had to say and saw what they showed me, I realized – we have to work together. We can’t keep fighting like this. It’s going to destroy everything. And everyone.”
Tony responded, “But attacking the Light Fae compound is not really sending that message, is it?”
She practically bounced up and down in her enthusiasm to respond. “Yes, I know, but they’ve tried other ways! They tried speaking to the council, they tried going through other people, like you for example, Tony, with Ben. They tried all kinds of things, but none of it worked. The Light Fae refuse to listen to reason.”
Her last sentence really bugged me, but not in the way everything else had. It was bothersome because I agreed with her. The council did have a hard time listening to common sense sometimes. I’d been forced into strong-arming them to get them to do the right thing with Tony and let him become a changeling.
“So what exactly are you saying?” asked Tony, looking as confused as I felt.
“What I’m saying is, the Dark Fae are not making me stay here. If I stay after I’m healed, and I’m not saying I am for sure, it’s because I believe in their cause and want to be a part of it. For me, it has nothing to do with humans and our need to live out in the open amongst them. It’s more for the fae as a whole, so that we can continue to exist at all, exposed or not
.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I said, breaking in. “The Light Fae have no intention of dying out, and we practically live forever anyway. The only thing we want to do is not get all up in the humans’ faces – unlike Ben, who wants to be telling them what to do, where to do it, and who to do it with.”
“No, no, no, that’s not it,” said Becky, impatiently. “That’s a small part of the issue, yes, okay, but that’s not what is important to me, personally. You know I’d rather be just hanging out with the other sprites and sirens. Not to be rude or anything, but I could care less about humans, so long as they leave me alone. Besides, I’m no warrior fae.”
“Don’t we know it,” I said, rolling my eyes. She was useless in battle. There was a reason there were never many sprite casualties in fights – they never stuck around during the hard parts.
“Shush. There is a bigger problem out there, one that some of the Dark Fae have been warning the Light Fae about for years; but the Light Fae won’t listen. In fact, not all of the Dark Fae are listening either. But you should, Jayne. And Tony and Finn and Scrum. All of you. If we could all get together, we could challenge the Light Fae council and make them listen!” She was practically foaming at the mouth she was so excited. She looked like a rabid chipmunk, which made me start laughing in spite of the gravity of the situation.
“Stop laughing, Jayne, this is serious!” She sounded like she was about to cry.
“Okay, fine,” I said, trying to hide my smile. “Tell me what is so serious, other than what I already know.”
“We have huge problems, as I was trying to say a minute ago. We have a much bigger threat hanging over our heads than you could even imagine.”
“What already?” said a frustrated Finn. “Shee-it girl, quit with the suspense, would ya? I’m practically fallin’ asleep over here waitin’ for you to finally spit it out.”
She frowned at him but continued. “We are under threat from others.”
“She’s probably right, you know,” came the voice of Gorm behind us. I’d completely forgotten he was here with us. He was still sitting under the tree, a pile of shredded leaves around him and in his lap.