20. CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY
Calista
J essandra found me sitting on the cobblestones of the courtyard, staring at the goblin carvings when she returned. Dirt and grime covered her from head to toe.
“Did you find it?” I asked.
“No. Did you?”
I wasn’t surprised she already knew of my failed escape. Astaroth probably found her and filled her in on my excursion. “No, but I wasn’t looking for it. What’s the big deal anyway? It’s just a pixie.”
“Just a pixie,” she mumbled under her breath. “You are not privy to our way of life. There are creatures that appear big and scary and some that seem small and endearing. It would be easy to confuse them if you did not know. Surely beings on Earth are similar.”
I nodded. There were all kinds of insects and animals that fit the profile. She definitely fit the profile here. Whiplash should be her nickname. Why was she being so nice to me right now instead of dragging me back to my room by my hair?
I took the inch Jessandra gave me and pushed a little further. “But a pixie?”
She held her dirty hand out to me and ignored my question. “Give it time. You will learn.”
I accepted her offer, and she pulled me up. The muscles in my body protested the quick movement, and I pushed on my lower back to help straighten my spine.
“So, time does exist here.”
She shrugged. “What is time, really?”
This place was as deceiving as those within it, or are they deceiving because they are in this place? It was a paradox. Would I become like them the longer I stayed here? Or was I already like them from all the lying I’d done through my life? It was driving me insane.
I dropped my head back and winced. I rubbed my nape then stretched to rid myself of the soreness.
“Your old body can’t handle it.”
“Old? Look who’s talking! You’re like a bajillion years old and look like you’re thirty.”
Jessandra actually laughed. The smugness she wore well returned to her. “It is an honor to age in Faery.” Her smile drooped, and she changed the subject. “Come, I will accompany you to your quarters.”
“Wait.” I jogged to catch up with her long stride. “Can I ask you a question?”
She didn’t slow down. “You just did.”
“Ugh.” I forgot how direct I had to be if I wanted a straight answer. “No, not that. What happened to you after I left? Did he find you? Were you punished?”
Jessandra peered at me out of the corner of her eye. “Take a breath, human.”
She continued her march out the intricate archway of a loggia overgrown with withering grapevines entangled with the ivy. The view of this courtyard wasn’t much better. I shivered upon seeing a monument of Astaroth in the center of the water fountain, smack dab in the middle of the yard. It felt like he watched me as we made our way into another part of the castle.
It was hard to see last night, but the interior of the castle was far grander than the outside. I wasn’t sure why. If this were medieval times on Earth, I’d say it was to hide wealth and strike fear into the hearts of anyone who dared try to overrun it, but this was the labyrinth. Who in their right mind would try to usurp Astaroth?
Jessandra entered the hall where the stairwell was. I knew this part of the castle from our trip last night. Statues of weird beasts sat on either side of the opening. The same artist who carved the columns must have carved these. I started up the winding staircase behind her, seeing it in the daylight for the first time. I lagged behind after she passed the second level, even farther when we hit the third. A tapestry on the wall caught my attention, and I paused to catch my breath.
“Astaroth,” I grumbled at the life-sized image of him with his hair blowing in an imaginary breeze created by the storm-like portal behind him, exactly like last night. Even in the tapestry, his presence was pronounced and commanding. I didn’t want to look away.
I rubbed my bicep where Jessandra had bruised me when she dragged me back into the dining room and gazed up the stairs after her. How long would she remain nice to me? Why was she being nice to begin with?
Lack of sleep had caught up with me. I trudged the remainder of the stairs to the very top floor where she waited outside my bedroom door.
“If you are to bear Roth’s heirs, you must grow stronger.”
“ Heirs? ” I hissed. “As in multiple?” When she didn’t answer, I continued, “Uh uh. I didn’t sign up for that.”
“Actually, you did.”
“I agreed to one life for one life, which I never thought would be collected because I refused to ever get pregnant.”
“I told you, never—”
“I know!” I held up my hands and stormed inside to get away from her I-told-you-so look. “Never trust a fae.” I could hear the door close as I slammed on my brakes and mumbled, “Especially a king.”
Astaroth
I leaned against the balcony in the very spot Calista stood day after day. Now I knew why. She had a better view of the comings and goings of the guard than I had from my balcony and learned their routine. It was time they switched it up in case she decided to give it another go. Pure luck saved her from being mauled by the beasts hunting their nightly meal. Had one of the goblins not seen the flickering bulbs in those corridors and investigated, I could’ve been too late.
Calista’s presence surrounded me before she entered her room. When she stepped onto the balcony, I turned to face her.
“What is this?” She motioned at the small table with two chairs that sat in the middle between us. A covered dish rested on top.
“Ziggy missed your presence at breakfast. It seems you’ve made an impression, and he seeks to make one with you as well.”
Her lips slightly curled at the edge of her mouth. “I am rather hungry.”
“I, as well. I didn’t get to indulge on pizza last night.” I wanted to kick myself when her smile turned into a tight line. Pulling out a chair for her, I said, “Have a seat.”
Calista approached like a scared animal and sat. She pulled back her hood, her hair bundled in a mess atop her head. “You’re eating with me?”
I tucked her chair under. “I would like to have breakfast and dinner with you.” Her wispy strands brushed my face when I leaned down. She smelled of wild blooms. “Or midnight snacks.”
The sharp intake of her breath made me smile as I went to my seat. Her cheeks were a touch pinker. The slight glow hid her exhaustion.
“Go ahead. Let us see what Ziggy has created for you.”
Calista raised the lid from the platter, revealing a pie of sorts, with one piece missing. Then, she laughed. Leaning forward, she closed her eyes and smelled it. Her smile grew as she savored its scent. When was the last time I took something in the way she was now and savored it?
When I was with her. My existence was not the same in her absence. It was dull, lifeless, and a near endless waiting game, like that of my brethren.
She pinched an edge next to the missing piece and pulled one free. “Looks like Ziggy beat us to the first slice of pizza.”
While she ate, I tapped the stone to find her content, dare I say happy. I wasn’t a fool to presume she would remain this way. Every moment with her would bring its own joys and sorrows, but if I could prevent her from becoming hangry, as she called it, I would.
Calista paused in her feasting and lowered her hand. “Do I have something on my face?”
“No,” I said as she wiped her mouth with her sleeve. “Why do you ask?”
“Because you’re staring at me.”
“I’m staring because I enjoy looking at you.” And because I fear if I blink, I will awaken from this dream, and you will disappear.
“Oh.” She dipped her chin and took a nibble off her food. “Are you going to eat or just watch me?”
“Ziggy prepared this for you. Would you like me to eat with you?”
A battle waged inside her. I could feel it through the stone, but I didn’t need to. It was clearly written on her face and on the stoop of her shoulders.
“If it means you stop staring, then, yes, I will share this pizza with you.”
She chose her words wisely. Who was the trickster now, Calista? I would deliver every meal she refused to have with me and watch her eat until she invited me to join her.
“So, this is pizza?” Calista watched as I took a piece and looked it over. I brought it to my nose and smelled it. I tried to fight the smile spreading over my face when I scented the toddling ninny biter among its ingredients. It seemed Ziggy was playing a game of his own.
“Well, your style of pizza.”
I took a bite and tested it on my tongue. “I could eat this every meal.”
“That’s good.” Her face lit up and a true grin pulled at her lips. “I think Ziggy plans to serve it for every meal.”
I looked away when Calista took another helping, but I could see her curiosity in my peripheral as she watched every bite I took. I didn’t find it unnerving in the least. Having her undivided attention excited me.
As we neared the end of our meal, she asked quietly, “Who was the man in my house?”
I discarded the hardened edge of my pizza on the platter and grabbed another. Before I took a bite, I said, “I do not know.”
“How do you not know? He came through a portal, same as you.”
“He did not come through mine, though.”
“What if he comes after my brother or my friend?”
“He won’t.” I took another bite and avoided her hardening gaze.
Calista slammed her hand on the table. “How can you be sure?”
My eyes dropped to her chest where the pendant lay beneath her shirt before returning to hers. “What he wants is now here.”
A blast of anger swept over me when my words registered. “Why would you send me, a child , home with this if someone would kill for it?”
“Not a day passed without me observing you.” Except when she hid the stone away. Those years were dark without the sunshine of her smile to brighten my days. “You were safe.”
“Safe?” The pizza drooped in her trembling hand. Bits rolled off the top onto the table. “My father died a horrible, painful death because of it. Where were you then?”
“With you.”
I wanted to hold her when she dropped her face into her sleeve-covered hands and cried. Instead, I sat on the ground next to her chair and allowed her sorrow to wash over me, settling in my chest and constricting it. Her grief wasn’t new to me, but this level would’ve knocked me off my feet had I been standing. I considered it an honor and a duty to sit with her beneath its crushing weight, so she didn’t bear it on her exhausted shoulders alone.
Those cries became gasping sobs that rattled me. I rested my temple against her leg and wondered what it would be like to love someone so deeply they became a part of you. As highly as I regarded Calista, I now understood the love I had for her was but a sapling of what would yet grow. I never wanted to see her hurt like this again, especially from my doing, but I knew it was inevitable and would happen eventually. I could, however, ease the intensity of her grief.
She didn’t fight me as I scooped her from the chair and carried her to the bed. What little energy she had left fled with her tears. Her blue eyes floated within their watery wells and trained on me as I knelt on the bed and laid her in front of me. When I pushed off the bed to leave, her fingers brushed my knee and stayed there.
“Stay,” she whispered. “I don’t want to be alone right now.”
I did as she commanded of me. Stretched out on the bed, I leaned against the headboard and looked down at her curled in a tight ball on her side. The realm’s unease tickled my senses while Calista cried and left me perplexed by the sudden shift in energy. Her return had put changes into motion that even I didn’t foresee. I opened myself to the realm and allowed a sliver of magic to settle around us. Inch by excruciating inch, she slowly worked herself closer to me while we sat in the silence, only her ragged breaths and random sobs filled the room, until finally her forehead rested against my leg. Only then did she relax and her breaths even out.
This I savored. The closeness. Her wanting me—if only for her base need and comfort to soothe her woes. Calista would berate herself later for it, though. I couldn’t help myself and reached down to tuck the loose strands on her head behind her ear.
“What did you do to your hair?”
“I colored it,” she said while yawning.
“Why?”
She shrugged. “I like the mermaid look.”
I hated to ruin her fantasy, but mermaids didn’t look like that.
“It looks bad now, but will grow out eventually,” she mumbled.
She snuggled closer, and I waited until she fell asleep to play with the ends of her hair. Magic dripped from my fingertips through the silky strands and her hair reverted to its natural golden hue. I stayed with her until my eyes grew heavier and sought sleep in my own bed.