Where did you go? (Infatuated fae #3)

16. Caly

16

CALY

T he moment I stepped into the ring, I dropped. Before I even had a chance to blink, I was falling, and for the first time, I welcomed the odd feeling in my stomach and the dizziness it caused.

I was going home one last time.

Knowing what was happening didn’t make the fall any easier than when I had no idea what was going on or where I would end up.

“You better fucking find—ugh!” shouted a familiar, broody voice just before I smashed into something solid and landed on the warm, sunlit grass.

I opened my eyes and looked into the face of the most handsome man I’d ever laid eyes on. It felt like I was seeing him for the first time all over again but with fresh eyes that truly grasped how short our time together really was now.

“Calypso,” he muttered. His voice felt like gravel and leather.

For the second time in my life, I had fallen on the Unseelie prince, only this time was much different from the first. Instead of looking at him with horror, as if he were a monster, I now stared at the darker flecks of blue in his cold eyes with complete and utter adoration and infatuation. Even though my life would be short, it had been filled with excitement, and Mendax would always be my favorite adventure of them all.

He rolled, pulling me into his lap in one smooth motion. He moved his head forward, and I wet my lips, preparing for a passionate kiss, but was surprised when he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed. Every crumb and morsel of doubt left my body in that moment, and I knew I had made the right decision.

“Please don’t,” Mendax whispered against my neck. “Don’t leave me again. Ever.”

The good feelings I had shattered and broke, and once again, my guilt returned. “I won’t,” I replied softly. The lie sat on my tongue as sour as a lemon. I would be leaving him again, only this time I wouldn’t return. I’d like to think he would understand, but when it came to me, Mendax did a lot of things I couldn’t understand.

The worst of it was if I was successful and arrived in the Elysian Fields to be with my sister, I was guaranteed to never see Mendax again. He was granted a resting place in Tartarus with the rest of the Unseelie royals. Even in the afterlife, we would never get another chance to be together.

“Stop hogging her,” Eli shouted as he reached over and pulled me out of Mendax’s grip. If I had thought the previous fae’s hug was tight, I had been under a grievous misconception. My best friend squeezed me like a vise, spinning me around in a circle. He held me so tight, he almost pressed my broken pieces back together again. Everything had turned so complicated between him and me. It almost felt like this was the first time we were really seeing each other since we’d been separated for all those years. Before an engagement was pushed on us…and before I had killed his mother.

It felt like I had my best friend back.

Perspective is a messy bitch that knows no boundaries.

“Oh, Cal!” Eli exclaimed after setting me back down to the ground. “We couldn’t get through the portal! I didn’t know where you went. I’m so sorry. I had no idea Zef was going to be so…” He paused and looked at the sky while he thought of the word he wanted.

“Ouch!” I yelped, jumping a solid foot off the ground. Something had bitten me in the ass. Hard.

“Suns in the sky, this damn pony!” Eli exclaimed loudly.

I spun in time to realize that a floricorn had accosted me. It had a beautiful chestnut-brown coat with a pretty blond mane and big brown eyes below the most beautiful spiraled horn. The little unicorn pushed its stubby little body between Eli and I, putting her ears back and nipping at the other floricorn that stuck its nose near Eli. She snorted and pushed my hand until I rubbed her ear.

Immediately, I remembered the sassy creature from when she had been absolutely enamored with Eli during an earlier visit to the farm.

“Thimble!” I said happily as I rubbed the mare’s ears.

“Thistle,” Eli corrected me. When I gave him a questioning look, he replied, “I’ve thought about this beastly pollinator once or twice since we visited.” He chuckled.

Mendax held out his hand and revealed a tightly rolled glass scroll that sat like a ticking bomb in his palm. He nodded, urging me to take it.

Reluctantly, I did. The smooth glass felt heavy in my grip. I looked to Eli for some sort of reassurance before I opened it. He watched while nervously petting his new friend.

“Talk with Zef before you decide to do anything.” His voice was low and somber. He sounded so much more tired now than he had at the beginning of this journey.

“Okay,” I replied with a nod. It was an easy response after my mental drawbridge of questions had been lowered. It was a clipped response, but I didn’t want to get into it with him now. I was still furious he was siding with the man who tried locking me out of a realm just so he didn’t have to see me and deal with the consequences.

I ran my thumb over the smooth glass. Prickly goose bumps rolled down my back when I unrolled the scroll. Every time I did this, it was the same whimsical feeling. My human brain just could not understand manipulating glass with such ease.

Calypso Petranova,

1176 Arcanus Lane, the in-between

The second room on the left. Hay is in the first room on the right.

538 lilies

Attached to the very bottom of the letter was a small strip of ripped paper.

Divide and swallow this ticket for a shortcut.

“It’s the address! We have an address!” I squealed.

“Fucking finally,” Mendax grumbled.

Eli let out a deep breath.

I handed the scroll to Mendax so he could inspect it and bounced over to Thistle and gave her a big kiss on the nose. She snorted at me but seemed to like the kiss.

“This isn’t signed,” Mendax noted. “All the other ones have been signed ‘the Fates.’”

I froze. He was right.

“There’s also that little note at the bottom. Since when have the Fates ever offered us a shortcut?” Eli interjected. “Nothing good ever comes from taking a shortcut.”

“What’s so weird about a note instructing you to eat it for a shortcut?” I asked.

Silence. The guys just stared at me.

I tossed my hands up in the air. “In the human realm, a flower pulled a teeny-tiny letter out of its mouth and laughed at me—not with me, at me. A mini uni—sorry, floricorn—is guarding you like a German shepherd. You can speak to me through an invisible bond tying our souls together, and you turn into a fox.” I caught my breath. “So no, eating a piece of paper for a shortcut doesn’t seem that weird to me here.”

Another moment of silence passed as both men looked at each other thoughtfully.

“Ya know, she might have a point,” murmured Eli as he refocused on petting Thistle.

“I don’t like it. If something is too easy, it’s about to make you experience something really difficult. I think we head back in the direction of the Inn Between. Someone over there can tell us where this street is, and then we can see if it’s worth looking into,” Mendax said.

“What? It will take days to get back to the inn. What if this street isn’t even that way? We don’t have enough strength between the three of us to do all that traveling,” I argued.

“She’s right,” Eli said as he lifted the piece of torn paper up to the light.

“Mendax has a point though. All the other letters have been signed. What if this is another trick from my father to get rid of me?” I asked. Saying the words out loud made me furious all over again.

“Are you serious? He’s doing this because he loves you. How can you not see that?” Eli asked.

I bit the inside of my cheek so hard, warm blood swirled on my tongue. “There’s only one way to find out if this takes us to Arcanus Lane or not,” I said as I snatched the strip of paper from Eli’s hand. I ripped the paper into three pieces and moved to hand Mendax the scroll and his piece. His penetrating stare captured me as he refused to hold out his hand. “Here,” I growled at him as I shoved the items into his chest. He didn’t budge. “Fine,” I said, setting the scroll on the ground with the remaining two pieces of the ticket promising a shortcut on top.

I moved a few steps away from the boys. I felt like a toddler who had disobeyed his parents and was being scolded.

“I’ll see you at Arcanus Lane,” I murmured.

“Cal, wait!” Eli moved toward me.

With reckless abandon, I stuffed the paper in my mouth. It tasted like glue and old books. The wetness of my tongue clung to the small paper, and I had a bit of a struggle moving the crumpled-up wad to the back of my throat, where I swallowed it.

My eyes darted between Mendax—still silent and broody—and Eli, who had begun to say my name in a falsetto while he lunged for me.

I blinked, and everything went black.

When I opened my eyes, I was standing at the end of a long, windy path made of bricks. My heart pounded at the realization that I had actually left the guys. My lungs filled with the crisp night air as I whipped my head around and tried to get my bearings.

Blue darkness claimed the upper half of my vision. The moon seemed abnormally large in the sky as it cast a silvery glow on the dew-tipped grass that lined either side of the brick road. There were no trees in sight, at least that I could see. A few clumps of fog floated in the lush grass, looking like faint clouds or ghosts. I was in the middle of nowhere and nothing.

Curiosity, ever my friend and enemy, urged me to continue up the brick path and see what lay in the shadows, out of my moonlit view. I listened for any animals that might tip me off to where I was or what was around me, but it was deathly quiet. Not even a mosquito dared to break the silence. I took a long breath, picking up on the scent of grass and something sweet and calming, like lavender…or maybe basil?

Something solid brushed against my shoulders.

Swallowing my scream, I turned and cracked my sharp elbow into whatever it was while I threw a low punch with the other hand. A cry ripped from my chest when my elbow cracked painfully against whatever was behind me as a strong forearm pulled me against a hard chest.

“Boo,” Mendax’s husky voice whispered into my ear.

My eyes fell shut with relief. I should have known he wouldn’t let me go alone. “You came,” I sighed. He adjusted his pressure on my neck, forcing me to turn around to face him. Eagerly, I wrapped my arms around his waist. “I think your armor broke my elbow,” I whispered with a laugh.

“I think your elbow dented my chest plate,” Mendax returned.

Laughter burst out of me. He had been so somber and reserved this entire trip, and it felt nice to see him lighten up a little. Embarrassed by my loud cackling, I looked up, expecting to see him with a scowl or another broody and stiff mask molded to his handsome face. He had never been the lighthearted, joke-making type, and for some reason, I thought he might be annoyed with my own humor, that maybe he would think I was letting my guard slip if I laughed or something. But when I sought out his eyes, nothing could have been further from the truth. Mendax’s blue eyes looked two shades brighter as they glittered in the moon’s glow. His mouth had dropped open in surprise, a hint of a smile lingering at the corners of his eyes and mouth.

He looked like he had just discovered he possessed magic.

In all my thoughts of Mendax, none had been of him appearing awestruck, but gods above, I hope it stayed. He looked so…so happy.

“What is it?” I chuckled. I shot a glance behind me to make sure there wasn’t something else that was causing his expression.

“Nothing,” he replied. His fingers laced into my hair at the back of my neck. His head lowered, and he pressed his soft lips against mine. Eagerly, my mouth parted, begging for more of him. His touch, no matter how threatening or gentle, sent sparks straight into my bloodstream. “I enjoy your laugh immensely.” He deepened the kiss as he wrapped me tightly in his embrace. How was it possible one person was capable of making me feel this way? “I love you, Calypso. Stop leaving me though, or I will make you regret it, I promise.”

My heartbeat doubled for a second. There was no way he could know that I planned to end my life after I killed my father, right? I hadn’t said a word out loud. “I?—”

The disgruntled whinny of a horse cut off my thoughts.

Appearing from nowhere, Thistle the floricorn stomped her foot on the brick path just behind where Mendax and I stood. She put her ears back and took a step toward Mendax’s butt.

“Do it and you’ll be flower-scented adhesive.” His low voice threatened the equine.

“Oh my suns! She must have eaten Eli’s paper!” I clamped my hands over my mouth. “But if she ate his, that means he won’t be able to?—”

Eli suddenly appeared, almost on top of Thistle. “Fucking disgusting!” he exclaimed as he spit on the ground and rubbed his tongue feverishly with a swatch of his shirt.

Mendax and I made a face at each other and stepped apart.

“Oh no, don’t stop your make-out session for me,” Eli said sarcastically through bouts of spitting.

“Aurelius, why is that creature here?” Mendax grumbled.

“After you left, I went to grab my piece of paper, and this heifer”—he pointed to the chestnut unicorn—“ate my piece! I had to grab it out of her mouth, and I only got half—and it was wet!”

I grimaced. “You ate the piece after it was already in her mouth?”

Mendax burst out laughing. It sounded rough and new and wonderful.

“Did you want me to go to Moirai with you or not?” Eli huffed grumpily. Thistle proceeded to rub her head up and down against his thighs aggressively as he tried to shove her away but laughed and rubbed her head as she had wanted instead.

“She really loves you.” I smiled at the two of them.

“All the better. I’m sure you were tired of being the third wheel by now,” crooned Mendax.

“Look,” I said, pointing to one of the bricks under our feet. Several of them had letters and words on the tops. One directly in front of my foot stuck out to me. “Arcanus Lane.” The lettering was jagged and imperfect, reminding me of carving my name in clay as a child in school. “This says Arcanus Lane! Then the letter was real. It was a real shortcut.”

Mendax looked to me, still wisely apprehensive of this being a setup of some kind. Eli was busy pulling grass from the side and trying to feed Thistle.

“Then I suppose we should continue up the pathway.” I led the way with Mendax following closely behind me and Eli and Thistle bringing up the rear.

“Do you think we can stop to collect some grass before we get to Moirai?” Eli said, looking slightly bashful about asking. “I want to make sure Thistle has something to eat when we get there. I don’t know if they have floricorns in Moirai,” he said, completely serious.

“Oh my suns!” I stopped in my tracks and dug into my bag. “The scroll—the one we just got! It said something about hay!” I grabbed the scroll and read it out loud.

Calypso Petranova,

1176 Arcanus Lane, the in-between

The second room on the left. Hay is in the first room on the right.

538 lilies

“They knew this would all happen! They knew I would choose to return to you guys and that Thistle would end up eating some of the paper and coming. They put hay in Moirai, knowing all this would happen.” My mouth hung open in pure befuddlement. I felt like a pawn.

“What do you think five hundred thirty-eight lilies means?” The golden prince absently combed his fingers through his new companion’s mane as he looked around. The little pony leaned against him a little, watching him with loving brown eyes. I could feel how happy the mare was to be reunited with Eli.

“I don’t have the slightest,” I replied. If I didn’t think he and this floricorn were so cute, I would have been jealous of my best-friend status being taken by a farm animal. Seeing how happy he looked made me realize how unhappy he had been before. I thought everything that had happened with his mother and the rest of Seelie weighed on him more than he would admit.

The silence of Arcanus Lane was the accompaniment to a noiseless chorus of finality. This was it. We would continue down this road to Moirai, where our lives would be forever changed.

With one final exchange of looks, Mendax led the way down the path that would end up being the cause of my sadness for years to come.