Where did you go? (Infatuated fae #3)

14. Caly

14

CALY

S omething was off, and I couldn’t figure it out. Why was Mendax so wary of this stranger while Eli was so comfortable with him?

The air on the mountaintop felt different the closer Mendax and I got to them. As I stepped next to Eli, the man pushed back the hood of his robe to reveal his face. A few glasswing butterflies flew out from under the hood, only making it a few feet before the rain pummeled them into the dirt and rocks of the small landing at the peak of the mountain.

There was no denying it—the glasswing butterflies were the proof. This man had been sabotaging us from the beginning…and Eli was friendly enough with him to have given him a hug.

I peeled my eyes off the struggling, wet butterflies and saw a plain-looking older man with gray hair that was short on the sides and just a touch longer on the top. He had big blue eyes that made you feel seen, like he’d know if you lied or stole. Something about the way he carried himself—or perhaps it was the way the wrinkles near his eyes creased in a friendly sort of way—put me at ease. He had an air of superiority but a countenance that suggested the opposite.

“Cal, this is?—”

“The man who’s been following us,” I interjected. Eli was a pushover, and unlike him, I wasn’t going to let the kind eyes of anyone stop me from getting to my father. “Why are you doing this?” I demanded.

His eyes darted to Eli for a split second before they returned to me. He had the nerve to pretend he was surprised that we’d caught him. It was a good act but not quite good enough.

Eli moved toward me. “Cal, stop. You don’t understand. This is?—”

This time, the stranger was the one to cut off Eli’s sentence, placing a quieting hand on his forearm. “I can tell it would take a lot more than words to convince someone as headstrong as yourself, but at this time, that is all I can offer you. On the contrary, I have not been following you, my dear, so much as I have been leading you,” he said politely but somewhat stiffly.

“The glasswings,” I said. Somehow it felt like I was losing footing with this conversation before it had even begun. “Are they your symbol? They must be if they follow you as they appear to. What are you?” Why was Mendax not doing something? It seemed so unlike him to be silent like this. I felt something from him in the bond too that I couldn’t place.

The older man’s eyes fell to my feet like I’d insulted him. I took the time to observe Eli. For some reason, his face also seemed to look a little uncomfortable.

“I am Artemi, Calypso. Forgive my surprise. I forget myself occasionally and fail to recall that no one around here sees Artemi anymore. Though we are unique in that each Artemi can have their own symbol, mine, as you’ve so aptly guessed, is the glasswing butterfly,” the man said so softly, his voice almost didn’t carry over the rain.

My head spun dangerously fast. How did he know my name? “You’re Artemi…” It felt overwhelming to be in the presence of an Artemi again. I had never even seen one, aside from my sister. I gripped my pendant as if Adrianna herself would rise from the ashes inside it to save me. “How—how do you know my name?”

Eli grabbed my hand and squeezed. “This is your father, Cal.”

I pulled my hand free, but no thoughts came that could tell me what to do beyond that. In a moment of pure panic, I looked to Mendax.

I’m here. I’ll do whatever you want. Just tell me what it is you need from me.

What was it I wanted to do? I looked from Mendax back to…my father. Even thinking those words filled me with a blur of emotions that I couldn’t begin to decipher. What was I doing just standing here? I should have been wringing his neck. If I killed him right now, I could leap from this mountain to my death and finally have completed all this; every plan and goal I’d made in my life would have been officially carried out. Mendax and Eli would remain alive, while I would be in the Elysian Fields with Adrianna, finally . It was the perfect ending.

So why was I just standing here? Why couldn’t I move?

“Of course I would never expect you to call me anything of the sort. Please call me Zef, Calypso,” stated the man with a gentle bow of his head.

Why wasn’t I moving?! I couldn’t even speak, yet I suddenly had so many questions, and not one of them involved asking what weapon he’d like to die by.

“You must be the slayer I’ve heard so much about. Smoke or shadow?” Zef asked, putting his hand out to Mendax. His voice was tighter and less friendly than when he had spoken to Eli and me.

Mendax casually let his eyes travel down to Zef’s outstretched hand before they rose to his face again without taking the man’s offered hand.

The Artemi pulled his hand back slowly, as if Mendax was a snake about to strike. “A bit odd, don’t you think? Given our kind’s history, I would have thought I’d be the one holding a grudge.”

I caught Eli’s eyes and, in typical best-friend fashion, silently asked him to somehow fill me in on what I was missing with a wide-eyed head tilt.

“I’m referencing the near-complete annihilation of our kind, Calypso,” Zef said to me, eyes still on Mendax. “Your…boyfriend alone was responsible for a significant number of Artemi deaths during the Great War. That doesn’t even include the destruction those of his lineage caused. He and his mother were two of the reasons I had to hide you and your sister in the human realm.” The last sentence ripped away all composure he had, leaving in its place a rattled man filled with sadness and horrors of his own. It tugged at something in my chest.

It was something I’d never once considered—that he felt…well, anything about leaving us.

This was all wrong. This was not how my first meeting with him was supposed to go!

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but the water is rising fast. It will be here any moment,” said Eli. “If you are taking us to Moirai, then we should do it soon.”

Zef looked to Eli with a thankful pull of his lips and gave a nod. “Yes, forgive me, Calypso. This is not the time for a history lesson. We can discuss the Artemi struggles of your father and Adrianna’s existence at a later time.”

“Don’t you dare speak her name.” I glared at the man who so easily called himself my father. He wasn’t my father—I had no such figure. “Dumping your seed in my mother never made you my father. It made you my sperm donor and nothing more.” I palmed the dragon’s claw concealed in my leather bag, fully ready to make him bleed.

But then something happened that surprised me to my core. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I had years to absently build the imaginary personality of my father and this was not at all what I had envisioned, but nonetheless, his reaction was unanticipated—and completely unexpected.

The man began to cry. Not a heaving mess or anything, but a few unrestrained tears. Truthfully, with the rain, I couldn’t even see the tears, only the familiar expression of deep, in-your-bones sadness that leaks out when you least want it to. But that wasn’t the part that surprised me. My reaction to it was.

My gut twisted and dropped. He was upset by my words, but not angry like I had expected or even hoped.

In that split second, in his face, I had seen the reflection of my pain exactly as I had in every bathroom mirror I’d ever broken down in front of. He was hurting too.

Was it possible he mourned the loss of them as I did?

Unexpectedly needing space from the group, I took a step back. I blinked away the zillion feelings that were attempting to overtake me and looked down to register that my feet were covered in water.

The flood had reached the top of the mountain—the tallest peak of the in-between that we knew of.

Again, I looked to Mendax. I don’t know why. I wasn’t some mindless woman without capabilities, but in these moments when there was too much clouding my thoughts, I knew he would make the decision closest to what my own would have been.

“I know that none of what is about to happen will make any sense to you right now, Calypso, but unfortunately, time is not my friend to explain further. I can live with you hating me, just as long as you live,” Zef said softly.

“Sir,” Eli said as he pointed to the now knee-level water.

How had it risen so fast? Whatever Eli had said to the weathered seemed to have made far more of an impact than what Mendax had attempted.

“Yes, yes,” Zef replied somberly as he pulled up his hood to cover his head once again.

He waved his right arm, moving it in a long sweeping motion behind him, and a small wooden skiff slowly winked into existence in the exact spot he had waved. The empty boat swayed and rocked on top of the rising water.

Zef climbed into the oak skiff with the litheness of a teenager, waving us along as soon as he was in. Eli followed with a bit more of a struggle before he quickly stabilized and leaned over to help me in. Mendax lifted me up, his hands tight around my waist as he stopped midway to whisper in my ear, “You and I are in this together, no matter what.” His cold blue eyes gave me every bit of strength I needed in that moment. He was right. We would be in this together until the very end—or until my end.

I nodded, and he continued lifting me into the boat, then climbed in behind me.

The perspective of the land was completely disorienting the higher the water rose, turning what a few hours ago had been an eerie mountain amid a snowy forest into a treeless expanse of blue-gray water. The sky still had a light sheen of sun poking through the clouds, but the farther up the mountain we rose, the closer the fluffy cumulus clouds got. Now, it appeared as if we were going to float right up into the clouds if the water didn’t stop.

Scientifically, none of this made sense; it shouldn’t have been happening, yet it was. I felt like I was in a fever dream of sorts when Zef held his palm straight and began to steer the boat with nothing more than a slight bend of his fingers. This type of magic was probably an everyday occurrence to Eli and Mendax, but to me, it still felt like I was imagining it all.

We continued this way for several minutes before Zef, at the front of the small boat, tuned to the three of us. “Oh my! Do forgive me!” he exclaimed before waving his hand at us and turning back around. The rain above our heads diverted itself as if there were an invisible bubble surrounding us—well, almost all of us.

Mendax remained next to me still getting rained on.

Eli made a face at me, indicating how impressed he was. The silence was much louder now that the wind and rain had been redirected.

“He seems to be everything my father told me he was,” said Eli, his voice filled with appreciation.

Of all the things to say to me right now. I leaned in close to his pointed ear. “Perhaps he’ll visit your father in the Elysian Fields after I kill him,” I whispered through clenched teeth.

Mendax rested his palm on my thigh and leaned in with a wink. “Say the word, pet, and there will be a mutiny at sea.”

I squeezed his hand and laced my fingers with his.

“How much farther to Moirai, sir?” Eli asked.

“What a dick rider,” Mendax sneered at Eli.

The water ahead of us seemed to have a lot more movement in it for some reason. The crisp, flat line of water in front was no longer flat; in fact, it looked almost beveled. The only reason for that would be?—

“You son of a bitch!” I shouted at my father as I stood up from the small wood bench to see exactly what I knew I would.

We were headed straight toward the edge.

“What is it?” Mendax leapt up, causing the boat to rock so hard, it nearly tipped over.

“It’s for the best,” Zef muttered, facing away from us.

Mendax stepped to the front of the boat in a silent rage. As soon as his hand extended to wrap around the Artemi’s throat, Zef’s figure dissipated from sight.

Eli and Mendax began to shout at each other.

“Hold on!” I screamed. I barely had enough time to grip the board beneath me before we slowed to a stop, the skiff’s bow hanging over the giant waterfall, teetering with nothing but air beneath the front half.

Whoosh! The boat tipped, nose-diving straight down.

All I could see was more and more water as I clung to the simple bench seat. My stomach tingled with the feeling of bottoming out from the sudden fall.

The boat’s bottom dragged against the curtain of water, sending great sprays and splashes of water onto us. Suddenly, the cold water was pulling at my hair and throwing my body like a children’s toy, yet somehow, I remained holding on to the bench.

Within a second, everything went dark. My body was submerged, but my head was still above the water’s surface. I could feel it. My eyes opened in a panic to an overhead covering of wood. It took me a few seconds to realize the boat had flipped and I was under it, arms still looped around the bench.

I gasped for air and reluctantly moved one arm to swat around for Mendax and Eli with the hope that they would somehow be next to me. Panic set in when I felt nothing but the slow drag of cold water against my palm. They were too weak for this. What if one of them hit their head on the way down?

“Eli! Mendax!” My shrill voice echoed back into my face under the shell of the boat. I would need to flip it, but that would involve letting go of the bench completely.

The boat over my head flipped, and light burst into my vision, causing me to squint.

“Cal, are you all right? Are you hurt?” Eli grabbed ahold of my shoulders. His blond hair was slicked back, revealing more of his handsome face. “It’s okay,” he reassured me, encouraging me to let go of my bench so that he could put the boat in its upright position. “Mendax is up ahead. Let’s get in, and the current will take us to him.”

My head pounded, and my eyes stung. I felt like I had just been flushed down a toilet, both mentally and physically. I climbed into the boat, almost tipping it completely over again as Eli pushed me in before falling clumsily in after me.

Sure enough, the current wasted no time before dragging us down toward a dark figure I could only assume was Mendax. As we got closer, we began to pick up speed until we were barreling straight toward the wet fae treading water.

My eyes caught on movement at the edge of the stream. Along the sides stood tall, twisty trees with long, outstretched branches that seemed to be rattling with excitement as though they were watching our struggle.

“Mendax!” I shouted.

He rotated in the water, turning to face us head-on. As large as he was, I knew he had to be struggling to stay as still as he was in this current.

The small boat nearly took him out as it careened by, narrowly missing his shoulder. My stomach warmed with gratitude when Eli pulled him in the boat. I wouldn’t have been able to get him out of the water had he left the task to me.

Mendax seemed to have taken the brunt of the fall in comparison to the rest of us. His face had small cuts that oozed onyx blood. Water dripped down like ink from his black hair. Somehow even after near waterboarding, he still looked like a god.

“Are you okay?” I croaked.

He was panting, so I was appeased by the rough nod that he was in fact fine.

“How are we going to get out of this stream? It’s picking up speed as the channel narrows. Any idea of where we are?” Eli asked with a look to Mendax, who simply shook his head.

“What are those?” I asked as I pointed to the rough-looking trees along the water’s edge. There had to be at least three rows of them back to back. It looked so dense. None of the branches had a single leaf on them, and I swore I saw faces on a few of them as they swayed and shivered. Horrible flashbacks of the forest bog tore through my mind and sent a cascade of goose bumps over my skin.

“It looks like the knots but older,” Mendax said to Eli.

Eli said nothing, only relaying some side-eye to the other fae.

“Knots are a family of trees we have in most of the fae realms. They are as sentient as you and I are and live in the forest with other members of their family. A long, long time ago, a pair of fae brothers went into the forest to gather firewood for their family home. They accidentally cut down and murdered the knots’ oldest living daughter while she was asleep. The knots turned aggressive and for centuries did not allow anyone to step foot into certain forests. Eventually, tree tamers came into play and everything got sorted out, but these knots seem a bit more…feral,” said Eli as he glared at the trees.

“It’s old, wherever we are. I can feel it,” Mendax murmured.

The boat seemed to be slowing enough that I was sure between the three of us we could wade to the shore, but at the same time, I was hesitant to suggest it, because the knots along the edges seemed to be watching our struggle as though they were incredibly hard pressed for entertainment. I hated to think what untamed, feral trees would think was good entertainment if they could get ahold of us. I kept quiet and waited to see if perhaps we came across a better stopping point.

The stream ahead was almost completely out of view as it veered right so hard I feared we would be tossed to the shore and have no choice but to deal with the knots. Luckily we all three remained safely in the boat around the sharp turn.

Unluckily, we were headed straight at a wall of rock covered in vines.

Without a moment to spare, Eli jumped over the bench and hunkered down in front of me and Mendax. It was heroic, attempting to take the brunt of the crash, but unfortunately, with the speed we were going, if anything was going to happen to us, it was going to happen to all of us. There would be no avoiding injury.

Mendax rose to stand as we all clamored to find a way onto the sides before we smashed into the rock. The edge was too far away on either side, and wild knots lined the bank even if we found a way to get to it somehow. Their wild creaks and groans sang over the rushing water in a haunting melody.

“It’s a cave!” I shouted as I gripped Mendax’s forearm. “Behind the ivy, in the middle. Look! The water isn’t splashing up. It’s going through! There’s a hole behind the ivy!” I shouted. I wasn’t sure if that realization caused more excitement or terror. This felt like one of those awful water roller coasters in the human realm’s theme parks, only no one had done any safety checks and there were trees that watched and cheered, hoping you’d drown.

A high-pitched scream left me. I gripped Eli’s shoulders with one hand and Mendax’s arm with the other. We were going too fast.

Our boat magically steered straight toward the black hole, which only served to open up another set of problems in my mind. Where did the hole go? If it went straight down—and I had a horrible feeling that it did—there was no way that this boat would be able to make it through a fall like that again.

Mendax squeezed my leg as we readied ourselves with one final look at each other.

The boat slammed into the wall of rock with a sound that will haunt me for the rest of my life—or at least it would have hit the wall of rock had the dark hole of the cave not moved. The bone-grinding sound was from the wall somehow moving until the opening was right in front of us.

Our boat sailed straight into chilly blackness.

“Oh my suns,” Eli said with a heavy exhale.

I squeezed both my hands, seeking Mendax’s and Eli’s muscular comfort. I had no idea where we were going, but it somehow felt better knowing we would all be together.

We didn’t stay in the darkness long before the boat picked up speed and the wind began to whip through my hair. The torrent of emotions around what was about to happen while not being able to see anything other than pitch-black was both horrifying and calming at once. It was like a part of my mind believed if I stayed in the dark, everything was a dream, and I didn’t need to worry for another second. Of course, that wasn’t true, and the other part of my mind wouldn’t let me forget that.

Suddenly, the boat dropped. My hands fell away from both men as we plummeted. The nerves in my feet trembled as I kicked my feet into empty, black air, unsure of what or even if they were about to land on something. My hands clawed at the emptiness in a frantic effort to find something solid and unmoving, but they remained empty and untouched.

A bluish-gray light appeared from somewhere below me. Instinctively, I braced myself to land, tensing my body as the sensation of being dropped continued to tickle the inside of my belly. I heard two deep thuds accompanied by grunts that I would recognize anywhere—the boys had just landed. My body remained tense and ready to hit the ground with them.

On and on and on I continued to fall until finally I saw what looked like a moonlit forest.

“Calypso!” Mendax shouted as he looked up at the stars and saw me plummeting toward him. He struggled to his feet and held his arms out?—

—and I continued to fall past his outstretched arms.

I braced myself for the impact with the hard forest floor, but it never came. I continued to fall straight through it until I was tumbling through another sky, and then suddenly, I was lying on the damp forest floor.

My muscles ached as I lifted myself off the dirt. A bone in my back cracked, and I had a kink in my neck as if I’d been asleep on the floor for a year. Quickly, I stood, searching for Eli and Mendax.

“Eli! Mendax!” Even my voice cracked and scratched as if it hadn’t been used for a long time. I could feel myself starting to unravel.

I quickly took note of my surroundings. The forest I was in was lush and beautiful. The trees looked like plain trees, not the kind that wanted to waterboard you, which I was very glad to see. The moss was green and spongy under my feet. It was beautiful, but I couldn’t ignore the feeling as though everything had some kind of filter on it. It all just looked so…boring and lifeless. The air even felt different here, like I was seeing it in a photo but not feeling it. It didn’t make any sense, but everything in this forest seemed like a decoration.

I heard soft sounds behind me, and I spun, expecting to see the boys.

Glasswing and monarch butterflies, at least twenty of them, fluttered slowly on a few trees behind me. A few sherbet-green luna moths were mixed in, along with a death’s-head moth or two. Fireflies lit up the area. It looked like a fake display of butterflies.

“Wha—”

My eyes landed on the familiar circle of destroying angel mushrooms.

I was in the human realm—in the exact same portal I had used to get to Unseelie.