Becoming Fae

“I’m fine,” I frowned, looking at my nails. I cringed seeing that they had started to turn dark blue. “Oh.”

“What poison is it?” Mal panicked.

“I don’t know,” Rollie shook his head.

“The list could go on and on,” Naz agreed as Ben rushed from the hut.

“We can stop it, though, right?” he asked as Blaine brought a chair and made me sit down.

“You know not every poison has an antidote,” Naz shook his head and looked at Rollie. “Go get her parents.”

“I don’t even feel that bad,” I said, then hissed at the pain in my head spiked and I got nauseous.

“Watch out!” Mal warned as I turned and vomited all over the floor.

“Jesus,” Blaine said, covering his nose. “It’s fucking black.”

“Move!” Ben said, pushing past Rollie who was on his way out. “What died?”

Harmon walked in and picked up my hand, examining the nails, then pulled back my eye lid and tilted my head towards the light, making my head feel like it was shattering. Then, he looked at the vomit on the ground and his face went stark white as he pushed my lips up.

“You know what it is,” I whispered, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

“Unfortunately, I do,” he sighed, closing his eyes. “The poison is designed for demons. Fortunately, it has to enter the bloodstream, meaning the whole camp isn’t in danger, since you ate and drank the same things as everyone else.”

“That’s not fucking fortunate,” Mal growled, his fists clenched by his sides.

“It was made by Celestials, wasn’t it?” I asked him and he nodded, his head and wings falling in shame. “Is there a way to stop it?”

“Normally, no,” he said quietly. “It’s made from Celestial blood, in a sense. The light in our existence clashes with the darkness in theirs. Usually, they are evenly matched, but this poison is distilled and made more potent. The experiment reports were... disturbing.”

“Another reason not to trust you. When did you give it to her!?” Naz bellowed, grabbing Harmon by the throat and slamming him on the table, making the imp squeal and jump to the floor in terror.

“I ha-haven’t so m-much as touched her skin,” Harmon struggled to speak as his face turned red, yet he didn’t try to fight against Naz’s grip.

“I told you we can’t trust him!” Naz shouted, his tail lashing back and forth.

“How long does it take to get to this point?” I asked Harmon.

“Hour,” he wheezed.

“Lies!” Naz hissed.

“He hasn’t been near enough to her to do this,” Blaine growled.

“Naz, you’re going to kill him,” I pushed to my feet, holding my head as the pain made the world tip sideways.

“I- he-elp,” Harmon struggled, his face turning purple.

“Garloth! Release him!” I shouted, my wings spreading slightly and the feathers shaking.

Naz growled and snarled as he fought the command, bound by his nature to obey not only his Queen, but the blood of his older brother that ran in my veins. Harmon gulped air as the pressure eased and he rolled over, hacking and retching as he tried to resupply his body with oxygen.

I slumped to the chair and closed my eyes against the pain in my head and I felt tiny hands touching my knee. I cracked open my eyes to see the imp climb into my lap then shove his wrist against my lips.

I recoiled at the taste of blood, but the instant relief made me groan and stop fighting.

“What are you doing?” Mal asked, reaching for him.

“Even numbers are auspicious. I rejuvenate,” the imp grinned happily as his tail flicked in pride.

“It won’t cure it,” Harmon coughed, sounding ragged, and waved at my vomit on the floor. “The poison is damaging everything about her that’s demon, turning it into that.”

“Rejuvenate,” Mal said thoughtfully.

“Fae!”

The imp pulled his wrist away as Mom rushed into the hut and covered her nose with a look of disgust.

“Wait!” Mal shouted, grabbing the front of Harmon’s shirt and sitting him up. “Can you heal the damage being done? If we can keep her from having full organ failure, will the poison metabolize?”

“It’s in her bloodstream,” Harmon frowned.

“Most of those poisons eventually get filtered out, if you can stay alive that long,” Dad said, doing the same examination that Harmon had done. “It’s working very fast, though.”

“No. No, no, no, I just got you back,” Mom put her hand on my chest, and I gasped as heat flooded my body.

“Mary!” Dad called.

“Stop her!” Harmon struggled to reach for Mom.

It was Ben that pulled her away from me. As soon as her hand left my skin, she slumped, and Dad’s eyes rolled into the back of his head. Naz caught him before he fell and lowered him to the ground while Ben fell to his butt with a huff.

“What the hell was that!?” Naz shouted.

“Spirit,” I muttered, rubbing my chest. “Oh gods. Her hair.”

Growing from both side of her head were silvery gray streaks.”

“She was giving you her life force,” Harmon said in awe. “I’ve heard of it but have never seen it happen.”

“Guards!” I called, knowing full well that at least two had come with them. When they walked in, they grimaced, and I blushed. “The queen has expended too much energy. They both need to return to the Palace and be under the watch of a healer.”

“We felt it, princess,” one of them bowed stiffly. “We’ll arrange what needs to be done.”

“You should come with us,” the other guard added.

“I can help the healers understand the nature of the poison,” Harmon said.

“You are not going anywhere near her again,” Naz bared his teeth and snapped his tail like a whip.

“Naz, he didn’t do this,” Blaine said. “He’s right. He hasn’t so much as touched her since he got here. I would smell it.”

“I’ve been with him most of the day,” Rollie nodded. “And he didn’t get within ten feet of her during the announcements.”

Naz just growled and stormed out of the hut.

“I will go with my queen,” the imp raised his hand, speaking proudly. “She wants to keep an eye on me.”

Mal sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as I stifled a chuckle.

-----

Mal

I was freaking out. I felt a little strange, but I didn’t think anything of it until Rollie noticed her nails turning colors. I felt like I was being aged twenty years for every second as I paced in our room back in the palace.

The imp, who had decided his name was Glitter, had discovered that pillows were comfortable and had promptly made a nest in the closet. I shouldn’t let him, but I was too worried about Fae to care. Harmon had come with us and was whispering to the healer as Fae sat in the bed with a waste bucket next to her, in case she got sick again.

“Mal,” she called out and I looked at her. “Come here and stop wearing a hole in the floor.”

I climbed into the bed with her, wrapping my legs around her after she sat up and leaned her head against my chest. She had managed to bathe after coming here, with the healer helping her and finding a small cut on the back of her leg that was black with lines already forming around it. No mystery how she got poisoned.

“I don’t know what’s worse,” I muttered and kissed the top of her head. “You constantly getting taken from me or this. At least when you get taken, I can hit the person that did it. If you don’t get to him first, that is.”

She smirked up at me.

“I don’t know how to make this right, Fae,” I sighed, and she leaned up and kissed my chin.

“But others do,” she put my hand on her cheek. “It’ll be okay, Mal.”

“I wish I could be that sure, my love,” I said softly.

After a second Harmon and the healer came over and the healer use his magic to check on her again.

“As ill-advised as it was, the queen seems to have given you enough to help slow down the damage done by the poison,” Harmon spoke and looked up as the closet opened and Glitter came out, using the duvet to climb onto the bed. “As little as I know about anything to do with demon anatomy that doesn’t involve where to stab for a quick death, I think there’s a real chance you’ll survive now. You’ll probably get much, much worse in about two to three hours, though. It’s going to hurt like nothing else and you’ll be very, very sick. You’re fortunate that Glitter can somehow rejuvenate you. Another thing I’m completely clueless about, by the way.”

“It’s fine, Harmon. You’re doing plenty already. No one has all the answers,” Fae nodded with a small smile.

“I want to know how this happened,” I grumbled, holding her tighter.

“Since the poison is Celestial in origin, I’d be willing to assume that one of them tried to hit you while you were flying,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Fae. I think one of them followed me right to you.”

He flinched and rubbed his neck where the dark purple bruise from Naz stood out in stark contrast.

“It’s fortunate that the dart only grazed you, otherwise I don’t think anyone would have noticed before it was too late,” he cleared his throat and looked away.

“We’ll do regular checks on you to heal the damage we can,” the healer said, patting Fae’s leg before standing up. “Between that, the queen’s effort, and your imp’s blood, I am hopeful you’ll make a complete recovery; however, anything can happen between now and then. As barbaric as the practice is, I suggest we begin an infusion of fluids and minerals into your bloodstream the human way to keep your body as prepared for this as we can.”

“Hook me up, Doc,” Fae held her arm out.

“Does she have to ingest your blood, Glitter?” I asked the imp. “Could we give it to her with the fluids?”

“Not the same,” he shook his head and gnashed his teeth, miming biting. “Must be direct.”

“You aren’t going to drain yourself for this, Glitter,” Fae said firmly.

He smiled broadly, looking very childlike with his legs crossed and holding his ankles. It was a strange moment of reflection that, a few months ago, seeing a demon at all would have been odd for me. Now, they were more familiar than the fae that surround us.

“I swear, Fae, if I thought for second you wouldn’t yank my wings, I’d lock you in this room and never let you out again,” I nuzzled my nose against the side of her face and kissed her cheek.

“I just need to be more careful,” she rolled her eyes.

“I have an idea,” Harmon brightened suddenly, his feather rustling. “It’ll take a day or two, but... I’ll be back.”

He nearly ran to the balcony and flew off.

“I’ll be back in an hour,” the healer said. “If you need me before then, call for me.”

“You may want to open windows and doors,” Glitter beamed. “Expulsion is unpleasant.”

“No kidding,” Fae muttered as I got up to open the room up for fresh air.

I knew she was trying to shield me from what she was feeling, but I still felt the pain and nausea that wracked her body. It was dull, thanks to Glitter and her mother, but it was getting worse by the minute. It was only a matter of time before the worst part came, like Harmon said.

It was going to be a long couple of days. I could feel it in my churning gut.