Chapter 36
Seda
“What do you mean by ‘Cahir disappeared’? Where is he?” Seda asked everyone around her.
“We were coming over to talk to him about what Ojore said, and he just disappeared!” Benny exclaimed.
Kalon stepped forward and sat by her side, and Seda watched him pick at a little white flower with a red center on the ground.
She thought back to her fight with Ojore. He mentioned that Cahir was Fae and that Ojore’s people were suffering as a result. Seda had known Cahir for years. She trusted Cahir. Why would he hide that from her? She didn’t even know what a Fae was.
It couldn’t be true. Cahir would never lie to me.
“Is what you said true, Ojore?” she asked him.
“Which part?” he asked, his voice rough and his hands twisting together.
“Everything!” she barked sharply, furrowing her eyebrows. All this time, Cahir, the person she trusted most in her life, had been lying to her about what he truly was. It couldn’t be true.
“The part about him being Fae? Yes. It took me a while to figure out who he was. And when I did, it really upset me,” he started, “but the hurtful things I said about you and about Elco,” he glanced at Elco and lowered his head. “Those parts I regret. Those parts weren’t true, and I’m truly sorry.”
The Fae from her mother’s bedtime story growing up? Magical Fae?
She heard his apology, and it meant something to her, but she was too focused on Cahir to care. She looked up to him and asked, “Who is he, Ojore?”
Ojore looked over in the distance at the smoking piles of ashen plants. “Cahir is really Ael Cutlass, King of the Fae.”
Her fragile glass walls shattered, and a painful whirlwind of emotions surged through her. She never truly knew Cahir. Who was this person she allowed in her life so closely?
She believed her mother’s tales about the Fae were mere myths. But could they truly be real? Or at least partially so? With magic coursing through her veins, Cahir didn’t appear too shocked when he discovered this.
How could he? Why would he lie? Where is he?
Her stomach dropped as betrayal consumed her thoughts. She thought they were a team; she believed they were friends; she had started to hope they were more.
Bile curdled at the back of her throat. She allowed someone so close in her life, just to be lied to. She was trying to get pregnant… she wanted his children!
Her wrists began to glow as anger wrapped itself around her, and she gazed down at them, struggling against her labored breathing.
“None of that, moon-flutter,” Elco said from his position across from her. “We do not know why he lied. I’ve seen him care for you. He must have a reason.”
She looked at him and bared her teeth. “What reason could justify him lying to me for years, Elco? To share a home with me! To allow me to inseminate myself to produce his children!” Her nostrils flared.
“Thank whatever fucking god is out there that never happened. Could you imagine?!” Her voice rose, and she threw her hands in the air, releasing the built-up tension from her fingertips.
Elco lowered his head.
“He was not allowed to tell you the truth, Seda,” Feich said to her.
Feich, who hardly ever speaks, had no room to say anything.
“Who do you think you three are?” She pointed to the Corvids.
“You said you followed me around for years, and you never showed yourself until all this shit hit the fan! A little warning would have been nice. I don’t know, maybe if you couldn’t tell me, you guys and Cahir, I mean Ael.
” She rolled her eyes. “Could have written a fucking letter!”
Ferona and Roya looked away from her, and Feich anxiously fiddled with his hands.
She stood up and marched around the area, ignoring the pain in her ankle. She wanted the pain for being so foolish. It was a better alternative to the agony eating away at her heart.
She tried to recall the clues she unintentionally overlooked.
“When that stupid Rozzer tripped and he caught the sword with his bare-fucking-hands. I should have known something was strange then. And then he also offered to find Dad when he was taken. I knew he couldn’t make a difference, but he insisted and went anyway.
And then he returned!” She laughed loudly.
“He was always gone for ‘meetings’. Then he ripped Michael’s heart out with his bare hands like he was made of paper! ”
She turned to Ojore and commanded, “Tell me what you know about the Fae.”
Ojore looked around at the others. “Well, I will tell you, but there is something I must say first before that wrath of yours comes after me. I know he is Fae for a reason.”
Seda looked at him in a what-the-fuck manner.
“I… I’m not human either,” Ojore said, placing his hand over his neck and shifting nervously.
Seda threw her hands in the air again, and electricity shot upward into the sky, illuminating the area with a purple flash.
“What are you, Ojore?” she slowly asked in a hair-raising tone.
“I’m a Lycanthrope. Specifically of the bear sort.”
“And that means?” Her eyes brightly flashed as she focused on him.
“It means that I can shift into a bear.”
She heard Benny and Askold gasp.
“And what does this have to do with Cahir?” She was quickly losing what little patience she held onto.
“Well, where I’m from, the Lycanthrope and the Fae have had a ‘disagreement’. I knew he was Fae the moment I saw him, but I didn’t realize who he was until later.”
“Is there anyone else with any hidden secrets like this?” she seethed, looking at everyone, including her brother.
Benny raised his hands in defense. “Human as they come, Seda. Where do you think Cahir is now?”
“Umbrea, most likely,” Roya said as she looked back and forth between them.
“The place he has wanted to take me this whole time?” Seda seethed.
“Uh, he did mention that on a couple of occasions,” Benny said to her, nervously looking at her eyes and noticing her hands brighten intensely.
“And how do we get there?” she sweetly asked.
Benny bristled and looked away. He had no fucking idea. She looked at the Corvids.
“We have to talk to the Wisps first,” Ferona chimed in for the first time. She looked back down at the ground after speaking up.
“And what is it that I need to talk about to the Wisps, Ferona?”
“They, umm. I do not know, Your H…” Roya elbowed her hard in the ribs, and Ferona fell to the ground, apologizing and wheezing.
Seda pulled at her hair in exasperation. “All of these fucking secrets!”
She marched over to Seren’s body and looked back at the group. “This,” she said as she pointed at his body. “I will never allow this to happen again. Ojore, you were right. I have failed to protect myself for too long. I will never cower again.”
She paused and then softened her voice as she looked down at Seren, “He was the kindest man, and he deserves a respectful service.”
The group lined up and gave their condolences, all saying something nice about Seren.
Seda watched his unrecognizable body throughout the entire thing, never taking her eyes off of him.
She would burn the image of him into her mind forever.
She would never allow her cowardice to harm another one of her friends again.
She had power surging through her veins, and she was going to use it.
In the Camp, she had vowed to herself that the weak Seda of the past was behind her, and she meant it. Now she just needed to show it.
When the service was over, Seda bent down and placed a flower on Seren’s chest. She said a silent prayer for him, unsure to whom, but it was definitely not to Lord Mordred, and then stood up and stared at the group. “Let’s get to the Wisps.”
They set off north into the trees once more. Seda felt grounded as she limped, her toes squishing into the soft moss and ferns. Kalon quietly walked up to her side from behind and handed her the small flower he was playing with earlier.
He stepped back into his place at the end of the line.
She looked at the delicate white flower in her hand and admired the soft, white petals. They reflected her fragile exterior, but internally, the flower was a vibrant scarlet, echoing the burning embers of her spirit.
She tucked the flower above her ear and continued walking forward into the unknown.