Discovering Fae

You’d think that finding a Null would be easy, since they kind of sucked the magic right out of things and with the Sidhe being mostly pure magic... But no. They were notoriously hard to find because they ate magic. They were very rare but were also hunted down out of fear of what they could do.

I found a lot of Voids, creatures that masked the presence of magic, but not a single Null in hundreds of miles. I risked villages and got a lot of stares because of my wings. They rose about six inches over my head and the feathers still dragged on the ground a bit, forcing me to lift them a little bit to keep from ruining them so I could fly. In total, I had nearly twenty feet of wingspan folded against my back. It was hard not to notice.

I left the others yesterday and, as much as I missed Mal and felt the absence of my Bonded in my chest, I couldn’t go back yet. Not until all of this magic nonsense was gone. I admit, I would kind of miss the wings, but if it meant I could finally have the peace I wanted, screw the wings. Broken magic be damned.

I was flying towards another town on the eastern edge of Malokia when I heard the shout from above me and looked up just in time to see something tuck wings and dive right for me. I couldn’t dodge fast enough to completely avoid getting struck and the weight and momentum of my attacker sent me plummeting to the earth from hundreds of feet in the air.

“Brakes!” came the shout and I was yanked around my middle enough to force the air out of my lungs as we slowed down and I was, more or less, dropped to the ground like cheap luggage. “So, you’re the new one, huh?”

I rolled onto my back, tucking my wing to keep it from getting crushed and blinked up at the person that had taken me down.

He was... strange. He had very tanned skin and the looks of a designer clothing model or an ad for some cologne that reeked of too much chemical. If he had no tan, I suspected, from the very pale yellow of his hair and light blue of his eyes, that he would have been super pale, which was an insane contrast to the nearly black horns on his head and leathery wings at his back.

He looked young, too. Maybe in his early twenties or so, but he was a demon, so who knew how old he actually was. He was also freaking tall.

“Why are you not wearing a shirt?” I glared at him.

“I was working,” he rolled his eyes. “Surprisingly, farming is sweaty business.”

“Why did you just boot me out of the air?” I huffed and tried to sit up but winced as I ended up pulling on a feather.

“The main reason or the one you’re most likely to believe?” he asked and offered me a hand.

“Great. More than one reason,” I said, taking the help. “Look, I know that the whole demon throne thingy pinpointed me and all, but I kind of have things to do that I’d prefer to get done sooner than later.”

“Gods, you are a mess,” he shook his head and grabbed my wing, lifting it and holding it out to look at it before letting it go. “Odd combination. I’d have assumed you’d have more demonic traits than Celestial. And your magic is... ugh. It’s a disaster.”

“What are you talking about?” I snapped, yanking away from him when he touched the thumb joint.

“It might come as a bit of a shock, your majesty,” he gave a sarcastic bow, “But you aren’t the only one in your bloodline to have wings.”

“Yes, I know about Hadria and Roltak,” I dusted myself off and looked at him. “How do you know about them?”

“How do you know about them?” he looked confused.

“Journals,” I pursed my lips.

“Ah. I thought those were long gone by now,” he nodded. “And Haddie said they were pointless. Goes to prove who the smarter twin is, huh?”

“Who are you?” I frowned.

“Roltak of Valkeen,” he bowed dramatically. “I prefer Rollie, though. So, which cousin are you?”

“I’m sorry. What?” I held up my hand. “You know what? Forget it. I don’t care. I’m done with this whole thing. I’m out. Point me in the direction of a Null or leave me alone.”

“Null, huh?” he scratched his jaw. “Let me save you the trouble; it won’t work.”

“The hell it won’t,” I scoffed, and he reached out and grabbed my wing as I tried to take off.

“It won’t. Trust me, I tried it myself. It just comes back,” he said firmly.

“Once magic is completely gone, it doesn’t just come back,” I yanked my wing free again.

“It does for us,” he said. “You obviously haven’t read the journals all the way of you think a Null will work.”

“Shockingly, I’ve had a lot on my plate, thanks,” I snapped at him.

“I bet you do,” he chuckled. “Heir of Immail.”

“Don’t call me that,” I pointed at him.

“So, I’m a bit out of touch, so which branch of the family are you from?” Rollie crossed his arms.

“The only one left,” I narrowed my eyes.

“Ah. Princess, then,” he smiled.

“Bow one more time and I’ll zap you,” I held up a crackling finger.

“As scary as that might be for others, that won’t hurt me,” he pushed my arm down, the electricity running from me to him and back again. “We’re family, you know.”

“It might not hurt you, but it can still knock the smirk of your face,” I glared at him.

“Ha! Yeah, you very much are a cousin, Squirt,” he put his hand on my head and mussed my hair. “That kind of attitude fits right in with the rest of us.”

“Get off me,” I swatted at him. “What are you? Part giant or something?”

“I’m the same as you, more or less,” he shrugged. “Those wings kind of got me, though.”

“Trust me, there’s a lot of that kind of confusion going around,” I said flatly. “If you’ll excuse me-.”

“Nah-ah. Hold it, Squirt,” he said, grabbing my wing again. “I told you; Nulls can’t help you.”

“Will you stop that?!” I yanked away from him again.

“Hell no,” he grinned. “This is far too much fun, and it’s been centuries since I’ve been around family.”

“Being a blood relative does not make us family,” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Hm. I suppose it doesn’t. It counts for little when you need it the most, anyhow,” he said, the smirk falling off his face. “Which one are you reading?”

“Journals? Hadria’s,” I answered.

“Hm. Well, you must not be very far, then,” he sighed, his hands on his hips and face turned to the sky.

“I’ve been busy,” I said flatly.

“Come on. We have a lot to talk about,” he gestured for me to walk with him.

“What are you talking about now?” I huffed.

“I’m talking about the curse, of course,” he said.

“Hadria didn’t say what it was,” I rushed to catch up with him.

“Because she didn’t know about it until after those journals were written,” he said. “But let’s go back a bit. It was just after our Awakening. It was a pretty big deal, since there were fewer of us in our branch of the tree that made it through with every year that passed. Twins usually don’t come out of it. One dies or they both do. So, when Haddie and I both came through, our family branch took it as a sign that we needed to be on the throne.”

“You can have it, as far as I’m concerned,” I muttered.

“Ha-ha, nice try, but no,” he laughed.

“Damn.”

“Well, a few weeks later, after we’d recovered from the whole process, we were taken to this place,” he said. “I can’t say about what Haddie went through where she was taken, but it was... unpleasant for me.”

“What took you?”

“Wolves. You?”

“Bats.”

“Wow. They suck,” he looked at me. “How long were you gone?”

“A few weeks.”

“What?! Hold on. No, seriously. How long?”

“About a month and some change,” I answered again. “Seriously.”

“It took me years to get through their training,” he shook his head. “And the bats? Those assholes never are satisfied. How did you get out after a month?”

“I was about to pull their cave down around us if they didn’t send me back,” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Gods above, no wonder your so screwed up!” he threw up his hands. “What is it with you young people having no freaking patience?”

“Those bats took me away from my Bond,” I defended myself.

“You... Hold on,” he pinched the bridge of his nose. “You made a Call. You wouldn’t have those markings if you didn’t have a Soul Bond. You’re telling me that happened before the bats took you?”

“It wasn’t complete then, but yes,” I crossed my arms.

“So, somewhere between your Awakening and the bats, you made a Call. How does that even happen?” he shook his head.

“I made the Call before my Awakening.”

“What?” he shouted.

“Can you not do that?” I winced and rubbed my ears.

“Where is your Bonded now?”

“He wasn’t thrilled with the idea of me finding a Null, which I still intend to do,” I rolled my eyes.

“You left?! Are you insane?!”

“Obviously,” I shrugged. “Care to tell me how?”

“Oh, sweet gods, please give me the strength because I’m about to throttle my cousin,” he muttered as he looked to the sky. “Okay. Once we Awaken, we’re judged by Fate on our worthiness.”

“For what?” I asked.

“To break the curse on our family,” he said. “Fate paired our ancestors together and then the bigotry interfered with the grand design. That curse is preventing Fate’s will from being completed.”

“What is this curse, exactly?”

“It’s multi-faceted,” he said flatly, then waved it off. “The point is, if we’re deemed worthy, we’re given wings and total access to every power our bloodline has to offer. Including me and you, only three of us have ever been given wings. Now, the meddling gatekeepers are total tools. All of them, even the rabbit and those guys are stupidly adorable. They took my sister and me because of the unlimited amount of power we were about to tap into. We had no clue how to handle that kind of thing, so they took us to teach us how to control it, so it didn’t implode and cause a rift in the realms.”

“Hold the heck up,” I grabbed his elbow and pulled. “First, how do you know this? Second, what in the actual hockey puck do you mean ‘rift in the realms’?”

“I’m freaking old, Squirt. I know things,” he said flatly. “And I mean exactly what it sounds like.”

“It sounds fluffing bad!” I shook my head.

“You don’t swear much, do you?” he gave me a look. “The feathers are making more sense now.”

“We’ll circle back around to that, because I have questions, but you need to keep talking before I have a panic attack again,” I put my hand on my chest.

“Fate doesn’t like the gatekeepers, for reasons that are pretty damn good,” he said

“You mean the whole unraveling the design? Yeah, I heard about that,” I made a face.

“But they have a purpose and that is to keep Fate in check. To prevent things like a rip in the veil that keeps the realms separate,” he gave me a slightly scathing look. “Now I know why I was told to come find you, little idiot.”

“Hey,” I recoiled.

“Don’t ‘hey’ me,” he mimicked me. “You are a massive problem and if you don’t get fixed, things can get really bad. No, scratch that. They will get bad.”

“Thus, the Null. If I’m not fae, that solves all of the problems that sum up all of this,” I gestured to myself.

“I told you, that’s not how it works for us. Our magic isn’t like that. You really didn’t read much at all,” he sighed. “So, Immail was one of the first demons created by the Unholy One.”

“I’ve been informed,” I nodded.

“Then you know he was created by His blood, right?” he asked, and I nodded. “He isn’t a god, but He is one of the very first fae, Squirt. That isn’t something that just gets deleted from existence.”

“Then give me a transfusion. I can’t do this,” I held my arms out and turned around. “I can’t do the things that this is making me do. I can’t.”

“You can, but you have to do it right, which, clearly, you aren’t doing,” he shook his head. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that right now, you are in a lot of pain, right? Holding back on the magic to try to get it to be docile?”

“That’s what it’s supposed to be,” I huffed.

“Not ours,” he shook his head. “You know we can use spirit, right? Well, most of the people in our family tree are only given a teeny fraction of their potential. Bending spirit to your will is how it works for them, but we have more. You can’t bend it that much.”

“Then how do I not end up frying the life out of my Bonded in my sleep?” I snapped.

“You would know that if you had stayed with the gatekeepers, but that ship has freaking sailed,” he rolled his eyes. “So, let me give you the crash course. You have to accept yourself. Everything that makes you who you are, good and bad. Self-discovery takes time, of which you have very little.”

“So, what do I do, then?” I groaned and looked to the sky.

“Learn to harness it,” he said. “There’s a reason why the gatekeepers are between the veils. You can release the full power of your magic and it doesn't do a damn thing, but we don’t have that luxury. So, Princess, practice makes perfect. You need to use it, a lot, so you can understand how it works. I can’t tell you, because it isn’t something understood with words, but you now also have to practice restraint so you don’t go punching holes in places that shouldn’t have holes.”

“Or live with a Null for the rest of my life. I’m good with that,” I shrugged.

“You’ll kill them,” he sighed. “I went through three before I figured it out.”

“Shit,” I flopped to the ground and let my wings hang off my back loosely.

“Yeah. Like I said; I know why I was told to find you now,” he squatted in front of me.

“I don’t want any of this, Rollie,” I sniffed against the sting of tears in my eyes.

“I didn’t either, Squirt. Despite what my sister’s journal says,” he nodded.

“I don’t have a choice, do I?” I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the answer.

“No. I’m afraid you don’t,” he said. “Haddie and I thought that the thrones were meant for us, since we ended up inheriting natures of our bloodline’s founders, but... Well, it wasn’t. Our hubris landed us in a very bad situation that neither of us stopped to see coming until the outcome could no longer be avoided.”

“What outcome?” I asked.

He was quiet for a long time and had this faraway look on his face that was so full of regret, it made my heart hurt.

“I killed her,” he said, softly.