Chapter Twenty-Two
The Sabras greeted Adelphie when she returned.
Iona was the first to require details of her naughty interludes with Finn.
Adelphie avoided it while she ate but she finally gave in and told them all about the carriage ride to the village and the second time in his chambers.
The third and fourth times had been in her guest chambers, and the last time was in the back of the stables, just before she left.
That one was completely unplanned but possibly the best of them all.
“It’s just so romantic. Like the stories I’ve been reading. The man sweeps the woman off her feet and they make sweet love… Aaahhhh! I am so jealous of you!” Iona said, fanning herself.
“You should stop filling her head with these stories. She may explode,” Dyna grumbled.
“Oh, Dyna,” Adelphie said, dismissing her friend’s attitude. “Even you would have enjoyed the Winter Ball. There was food and dancing. I know you love to dance.”
“Not with others,” she replied. “I prefer to dance alone.”
“There are plenty of dances that you can do alone, but there is something special about being in someone’s arms and swaying to the music.”
Iona sighed again, hanging on to every word. She wasn’t the only one. Just about every other Sabra was sitting around Adelphie, listening to her review the entire ball. She told them about the queen’s engagement. They seemed very interested in hearing about her time there.
Before, they couldn’t have cared less about what went on in Junacave.
But now that they had visited the kingdom and met the people, they couldn’t help but be curious as to what happened there after they left.
Finn told her about the wildfire that attacked the kingdom, so she told that story to them as well.
When Adelphie was too tired to share anymore, she went into her hut and fell asleep.
She dreamed of Finn. It was becoming routine for him to make an appearance in her dreams. She would spend the entire night with him as she slept.
Then, she would wake up expecting him to be there, but he wouldn’t be. It was depressing, to say the least.
She tried to stay focused on her tasks, but there wasn’t much to do in the middle of winter.
Their hunting parties were shorter and less often.
Wood was already cut and stacked for the fires.
And the storage hut had enough food in it to last through the rest of winter, as long as everything went as planned.
There simply wasn’t enough work to keep her mind from wandering.
She caught herself humming one of the songs from the ball.
This was getting ridiculous. It was consuming her every thought.
She looked down at the leather hide in her lap that she was supposed to be sewing into a new pouch for her hunting belt.
It looked terrible. She had gotten so distracted that her stitching was uneven. It looked like something Sid had sewn.
This was frustrating and she cursed aloud.
“Are you alright?” Dyna said, poking her head into Adelphie’s hut.
“No, but I will be.” Eventually. She forced a smile and started to pull out the stitches.
Dyna wasn’t convinced but she left anyway. Adelphie finished removing the stitches and decided to give up on the pouch for today. Dyna called out for Adelphie, so she left her hut.
“Why is my horse saddled?” she asked. Her horse, Beauty, was in the center of the encampment, wearing her saddle, with several bags tied to it.
“Because you are going back to Junacave,” Dyna said, holding the reins out.
“No. I’ll be fine. I just need some time to return to my usual routine.”
“You will never be able to return to your usual routine, and I think you know that.”
Adelphie looked around to see the other Sabras watching her. “I can’t go back. It’s a nice suggestion, really, but my place is here. My place is with you. I’m a Sabra, not a citizen of Junacave.”
“Maybe so, but you can’t stay here forever, pining over the fire-headed man.”
“He has a name, you know.”
“I know.”
Adelphie was confused. “You don’t even like him, Dyna. So why are you trying to convince me to go back to him?”
“Because you are becoming obnoxious. And I imagine if he has you behaving this way that he is probably even more intolerable for the people there. We’re doing them a favor also.”
Adelphie smiled. She knew that wasn’t the real reason but getting Dyna to admit her feelings—or even to admit that she had feelings—would be a miracle.
“I appreciate the concern. I really do. But even if I did go back, things would never work with Finn. We are just too different. It may be entertaining now but it won’t last.” She had the sudden urge to cry, which almost never happened.
She felt terrible for what she was saying but it was true.
There was no future for her and Finn. He belonged in the castle, and she belonged in the forest.
“That may be true, Adelphie. Maybe it won’t work out, but can you honestly say that you could live with yourself, for the rest of your life, knowing that you were too much of a coward to give it a try?”
“Coward?” Now that was a name she had never been called.
“Yes. Coward.”
“I am no coward.”
“Prove it.” Dyna lifted Beauty’s reins up into the air. “Remember what you told Sidonie? It also applies to you. You are a Sabra. And Sabra’s do not give up what is theirs without a fight.”
She tried to think of a good argument but Dyna was using Adelphie’s own words against her. Finally, after several moments, Adelphie relented and took the reins. She mounted the horse and looked back at her hut.
She wasn’t leaving for good. She would be back. When Finn decided that their relationship was no longer amusing, and she was sure he would, she would return to the Sabras.
After a few quick goodbyes, she pulled the reins to the side and rode her horse out of the camp. The trail back to Junacave was a long one and it would take several days for her to reach the castle. She stopped only to let her horse drink and to take short naps.
On the second day, she was resting against a boulder, eating a piece of dried meat when she heard rustling from a nearby bush. Gently, she stood, picked up her bow, and nocked an arrow. She slowed her breathing so she could focus on the sound. Lightly, she crept toward the bush.
Suddenly, a large rabbit hopped out and onto the ground in front of her.
Her muscles flinched, but the arrow stayed put.
She sighed in relief and lowered the bow.
Then she heard another noise behind her, like the snapping of a twig.
She quickly spun around and dropped to one knee, with her bow at the ready. Then she gasped.
“Finn? What are you doing here?”
He didn’t reply but smiled.
“You scared me half to death. You shouldn’t do that.” She lowered her bow and walked up to him. “I was just coming to Junacave, to see you.”
He held out a hand and she took it, then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. The kiss was hard and fast and entirely different from how he had ever kissed her before. It felt strange and confusing. She pulled away.
“What is wrong with you? That actually hurt!” He still didn’t speak but she noticed something about him.
Something that didn’t quite feel right. She looked into his eyes.
They were the same hazel beauties that she was used to seeing, but around the outside of the pupil was a bright line. She stumbled back.
An imp.
“You’re not Finn.”
The imp started to laugh with a high-pitched voice, only the laugh was coming out Finn’s face.
It was bizarre to witness. She had heard of imps before but had never actually come into contact with one.
This one must be powerful if it had the ability to change forms. Thankfully, she did know how to pull it from its disguise.
“Come out, come out, whoever you are!” she shouted.
Suddenly, Finn’s body lurched and the beast shrieked. Then it began to shrink and melt into another form. A shorter black form that looked like an ugly demon with two sharp horns on its head and wings that spanned over the length of her horse.
She stared at the creature and didn’t move, her bow still in her hands. She knew from stories that imps were once fairies who were overcome by darkness. They didn’t have a choice really. Sometimes the wickedness would just consume them and change them into the demon form that stood before her.
Imps were incredibly dangerous, often leading an unsuspecting passerby to their death.
Imps fed on the suffering of others. Like the fairies they once were, they used forms of trickery to fool their victims. But unlike fairies, imps didn’t use their power to punish those who wronged them.
Imps tortured and killed, using the misery they caused to fuel their life forms. Or death forms really.
Now that she’d forced the imp to reveal itself, she wasn’t sure what to do.
She felt a pang of sorrow for the poor soul.
It was once a beautiful fairy and now it lived in this cursed body.
She almost didn’t want to kill it. But when it reared back and bared its nasty fangs at her, she changed her mind.
She pulled back the string of the bow and let the arrow fly.
The imp’s wings expanded and it flew into the air, avoiding the arrow.
She took another shot at it while it hovered above her.
Another miss. The imp swooped down and charged her.
She dropped to the ground, and its claws barely missed her head.
Then she sprung up and chased it. She couldn’t leave it alive to find another victim.
Swiftly, she ran, jumping over rocks and fallen trees, following the creature as it weaved in and around the branches. She nocked her next arrow, but when she looked up to shoot it, the imp was gone. She spun around, searching for it.
Then she heard it laugh. Its squeaky voice echoed through the forest and she followed the sound.
She came to a small cliff and glanced over the edge.
She couldn’t see anything except for the ground below, covered with leaves and brush.
A noise behind her got her attention. She turned to see the imp, standing much too close for comfort. Its large beady eyes were watching her.
“It’s alright,” she said. “If you won’t hurt me, I won’t hurt you. I’ll just go and we can pretend that this never happened.”
The beast seemed to be considering her words as it tilted its head and continued to look at her. For good measure, she lowered the bow, to prove that she meant it. But in the end, the creature didn’t believe her. It flung its wings out and started to flap them at her.
The wind that the wings were creating was strong and only got stronger as the imp flapped faster. The gusts made Adelphie stumble backward, toward the cliff. She tried to move against the wind, but it was no use. Her feet slid on the ground, pushing her to edge.
She looked up into the beast’s eyes just before she lost her footing and tumbled over the side, landing on the ground below. The imp stopped flapping its wings. Then it curled up its thin mouth, revealing its black fangs, pushed off of the ground, and flew away.
~*~
Cicilly felt the warm sun on her skin. She noticed a breeze blowing through her dark red hair as she sat up on the sand and looked around.
The tropical air was exhilarating and the salty ocean aroma relaxed her.
From a distance, she saw him coming toward her.
He looked very handsome in his formal attire of blue and red.
He took her hand and kissed it when he approached and kneeled.
“We meet again, Cicilly,” he said, smiling and revealing his perfect white teeth. He put his hand on her leg and started to rub it, which felt familiar to her. She had been here before, with him, like this. He leaned in closer and whispered in her ear.
“I’ve missed you, my love. But not to worry… we will be together someday soon.”
It was happening again. He was invading her dreams. He was back. Somehow, he had survived.
Cicilly woke and shot up out of bed as fast as lightning, screaming in horror and startling Nick awake beside her.
Her nightmare wasn’t over.
Silas was alive.