“Talican, can you show our guests their room and get them more blankets and pillows?” She winked at us boys, but she was so obvious about it that it made me cringe.
Talican slowly got up and flicked his head towards the tunnel for us to follow him. Hemlock waved wildly at Emerald, “I’ll see you soon, my greenie fishy fish!”
Emerald stopped and gave her a withering stare. Hemlock rolled her eyes and threw up her arms as she gasped, “I’m still working on it! Jeeze. Give me a break!”
Emerald turned around and followed Talican, the rest of us following her. He led us down some windy tunnels, practically running, until he got to a door, threw it open and glared at us. Then he turned on his heel and left.
“Oh, I think he likes us.” Zayden rubbed his hands together as he went into the room.
Chapter 21
Assoonaswegot into the room and closed the door, someone knocked. Ajax was the last one, so he opened the door and found blankets and pillows on the floor. He quickly scooped them up and shut the door.
“I’m so tired!” Zayden cried out as he fell back onto the bed. “But I know you all are going to want to talk.” He lifted his hand, opening it and closing it like it was a mouth.
“I mean, if you don’t want to talk about the fact that this girl looked at us and told us we had fae magic, then by all means, go to sleep and we will talk in low tones over here.” Rykon pointed to the other side of the room from where the bed was.
“Ahhhhh. You know I hate being left out more than sleeping! You dirty, dirty rascal!” He slowly got up, but I waved him down.
“We will come to you. I think we’re all tired.” I tried to reason because Ajax and Rykon were both barely standing, but they didn’t want me to know it.
Zayden looked up at me with big grateful eyes, “Thank you, my Gem, you are a saint among killers.” I couldn’t help but fight a smile at that. Who ever thought someone would call me a saint among killers?
I thought for a second and then pointed at him. “Did you just try to use your power on me?” His eyes got wide as he looked to his left and right, then shook his head furiously.
“Um… I don’t think so…” He looked at his hands, but if what she told us was correct, I think it would come out in his words.
“Okay, so we need to learn exactly what all of this means and how to use it properly.” Rykon said as he sat down on the floor next to the bed. I sat down across from Zayden on the bed.
As Ajax sat down, he looked at me, “It seemed like you already knew about yours?” There was an accusing tone in his voice, but I counted on that. I knew when she started, she was going to find something. My father and I always thought something was going on, and with my dark green hair, it wasn’t hard to guess that it had something to do with the fae… I just never thought it was from an especially powerful one. That information threw me.
“My father and I knew something was different with me. We just didn’t know exactly what. Since he was the assassin for the king who outlawed fae magic, we thought it wise I not really look too deep into it. Especially if I was going to take over for him.” I looked back at Ajax, not wanting to bring too much of the past up, I said quietly, “Remember the second night you saw me fight… How I seemed a little…”
His eyes got bright as he finished for me. “Unhinged?”
I nodded. “Well, that’s what happens when I don’t release what’s inside of me for a long period of time.”
“Can you share with the rest of the class?” Zayden’s annoyed voice rang out, and I smirked at Ajax before I turned back to the group. “In short, my body starts to heat up, starts to get jumpy.” I looked down at my arms. “My skin starts to vibrate and I get a kind of… blood lust going.” I took a deep breath as I looked up. “I usually need to work it out one of two ways.”
I left it at that, but of course, Zayden couldn’t just let it go. “And those ways are?” I glared at him, a smile on his face as he made a continue motions with his hands.
I looked away for a second, then shrugged my shoulders before I said it like it was no big deal, “Fight or fuck.”
Rykon’s eyes got wide with excitement as Zayden licked his lips. “So that’s when it all went down.” He eyed Ajax but quickly continued as his eyes shined when they met mine, “Just know for the future, I would like to be thought of for the fucking part. I’m sure I could sate your body’s need for exertion.” Ajax glared at Zayden, ready to hit him, but I just wasn’t in the mood.
“Anyway. Rykon, do you know anything about what dream magic she was talking about?” I knew that he frequently had dreams, but I never thought they mentioned more than just dreams.
He scratched his head, thinking, “I mean ya,” he looked at Zayden and Ajax, “I have dreams, but I don’t really see a future or anything. It’s more like I just have a feeling, I guess?” His brows pulled tight as he thought. We all kept looking at him to continue, and he shrugged.
“I had this dream that involved rope and when I woke up, I felt like we were going to need rope for the trip, so I brought some. It’s stuff like that which happens all the time. I’ve just learned to go with it.” I could see his mind turning, connecting past dreams of past exercises.
Ajax turned to Zayden, “I think we all know that you useyourmagic frequently.” Zayden’s mouth dropped open.
“I do not! I don’t even know when or how I use this magic. It’s not like I feel any different…” He trailed off as he thought about it. He tipped his head to the side, “but there are times that I have talked to people and was surprised that they followed what I said.”
I wanted to keep up with that momentum, so I said, “Think about one of those times. How did you feel? What was going on in your head? Did you say something specific? What kind of state were they in? All of those things could be triggers that activate your magic. Once we figure out how you activate it, then we can practice it and you can feel the difference between when you use it versus when you don’t.” Zayden nodded yet looked a little skeptical. I think he was having doubts about having ‘magic’ but I was almost positive that he did. There was always this extra specialness about Zayden that made him likable, even when he was being annoying.
We all took a moment before three sets of eyes looked at Ajax. He leaned back a bit by the force of our combined stare. “What?” He croaked out, looking a little unsettled.
