Chapter 12

Masen

Allie and I walked to our very small tent and looked first at it and then each other. I knew what I wanted to happen tonight but I wasn’t sure how Allie felt. I also knew that if we took this final step to unite, our powers would be so much greater than they already were.  We crawled into our sleeping space and realised it was much smaller than we thought. We couldn’t move without bumping in to each other and while it wasn’t a bad thing I could feel Allies tension ratcheting up at an alarming rate. I needed Allie to feel comfortable. We lay down and I pulled Allie in to my chest and rubbed her back in a calming caress.

“Allie right now I just need to be close to you. You know I want you.” She had to know considering how close we were laying. “But it’s up to you how this night goes.”

I felt Allie relax more into my body and my heart rate accelerated. Knowing she was trusting me this much was a heady feeling.

“Let’s just see how we go.” Allie said before reaching up and kissing me.

The rest of the night was a blur of pleasure, short naps and whispered conversations. We both felt the shift in the air when we finally became one with each other. Allie had clung to me in fear when we both felt The Darkness rage at the joining of our powers. Truth to be told even I felt fear at the roiling anger pushing towards us. I still didn’t really understand exactly why The Darkness feared Allie so much but I knew its chances at getting into her mind were greatly diminished now that we were together. Allies mind was a place of extreme variations. I was getting an insight to why she was who she was. As bright and as happy as she projected to the world, Allie was in fact an intensely lonely person. All her life she had felt out of step with everyone around her and this coloured her way of thinking and behaving. All I wanted to do was hold her tight and help protect her from the outside world. If we could live in this bubble of togetherness for ever it would be amazing. But the world waited for us and morning came with a dull light that was foreboding and there was a light drizzle keeping things uncomfortable.

Exiting the tent together, I was surprised to find Fadden and Garron sitting with Deema. Fadden looked up with an unholy look of mischief on his face.

“Not one word, Fairy. Not. One. Word.” I spoke before he could even open his mouth and the look of disappointment on his face was gratifying. I sat on the log next to him and pulled Allie on to my lap. She wiggled as if to get away but subsided when I banded my arms around her waist. “When did you both get here?” I asked Garron.

He finished with his breakfast before answering me. “Not long after you went to rest. The others will be here soon. Amell wants to introduce you to the unicorns that will be with you for the next part of your journey. You know how protective she gets with them.  Chris and Jimmy are with her and Sala will be bringing some of her friends from The Powers.” Garrons eyes flashed when he mentioned Salas name and I wondered for a second what that meant. He was such a mysterious being that even after a year of living with him I still didn’t know him well.

Fadden tapped me on the shoulder and said “Jimmy has met his match in Amell. You should see the two of them together. They are entertaining to say the least.” He laughed as he got up to walk away.

“Wait! Jimmy and Amell? Are they together?” Allie called out to him in shock. “When did this happen?” She had a look on her face I couldn’t read.

“Honestly, for someone as powerful as you are, you really don’t pay attention to the world around you, do you?” Fadden snapped at Allie. “Or are you just upset that you won’t have your little lapdog anymore?” He glared at Allie and waited for her response.

“What?” Allie jumped off my lap and stormed over to him. “I asked a simple question, Fadden. Jimmy is my friend.” She emphasised the word friend. “How dare you imply otherwise.”

“Fadden, what are you doing?” Garron asked angrily. “What the hell is your problem?”

I wanted to know the answer to that too. Fadden looked at me and sighed.

“I’m sorry, Allie. I guess I just thought you maybe did feel something for Jimmy and that annoyed me because Masen is like a brother to me and I didn’t want you to mess him around. I jumped to conclusions.” He finished his apology by walking over and holding out his hand to Allie. She took it with a look of surprise because fairies are stingy with their physical touches to humans. By the amazement on her face she was obviously getting to see that Fadden was sincere in his words. The touch of a fairy can do many things and one of them is that you can feel and see their honesty when they choose.

“Okay that’s enough touchy feely stuff for the day.” Fadden let go of Allies hand and walked back over to me. “Don’t even think about hitting me.” He said to me as he sat back down.

I laughed at him and smacked his shoulder anyway. “Nice way to defend me, idiot.” I knew he only did it of loyalty so I wasn’t too angry. “What’s the plan for today? We really need to get going. Are you coming with us?” I looked at both Fadden and Garron when I asked this. Had the plans changed? Were they coming with us now?

“As soon as the rest get here we will all head out. Something changed with The Powers and they’ve decided it needs all of us to fight this battle. There are some things that only you two can do though.” Garron responded as he searched the forest around us with sharp eyes. “I need to go and see where they all are.”

He quickly walked away and disappeared into the tress.

Allie was still standing where Fadden had left her with a bemused expression. She walked slowly over to where I was sitting and sat back down on my lap. Hey eyes swung towards Fadden and she opened her mouth to start speaking when he cut her off.

“Please don’t. What you saw was unintentional and I would prefer it if you kept it to yourself.” His voice was hard and his eyes were glowing.

Obviously he had sent more than he meant to when he held her hand and I was burning with curiosity. Allies expression changed to one of sympathy and she reached out to touch his shoulder but he shrugged her off and got up to leave.

“I’m going with Garron.” With that he walked away and left us alone.

“So, I still don’t know exactly what we are doing today. Maybe we should pack up and get ready to go.” I spoke in a quiet voice. All I really wanted to do was stay here with Allie and learn more about her but that wasn’t going to happen.

Allie sighed and said “Yeah, we should.” Instead of getting up though she settled even  more on to my lap. “I’m so scared for Manny and I’m not used to being scared.”

I wished I could take her fear away and make things easy but the worst was still to come. It was time to get battle ready and we were facing a foe we couldn’t see half the time.

“Now that we are united, we can use our minds so much more. We don’t always have to be open to each other, but we can access each other’s strengths whenever we need to. Our biggest advantage is we are essentially one, with our friends as our backup. The Darkness still operates on its own most of the time. It sends out its creatures when it needs to, but they can’t think independently.” I hoped this eased some of her fear but I could still feel how tense she was.

There was the sound of talking and laughter coming from the forest so we stood up and turned towards where it was coming from. Sala burst through the trees and ran straight up to Allie hugging her tightly.

There was whispers and giggles coming from both of them plus a few looks at me that made me uncomfortable. I left them to it and went to where the rest of the group had assembled. Jimmy, as per usual, ignored me but Chris threw out his hand to shake mine.

“Well, we’re all here now. Amell is picking out what unicorns are to stay and which are to go with us. I’ve let Jenny know where we are although she probably knew before I did what was happening.” Chris spoke in his quiet deep voice. “ Still trying to get my head around her being Maybell.”

“That’s Queen Maybell to you.” Fadden shoved Chris. “Show some respect.”

Chris pushed him back and before we knew it the two of them were wrestling on the ground like kids.

“Oh for heavens sake! Get up you pair of heathens.” Sala strolled over and looked down at the two clowns on the ground. “ Honestly, act your ages. Especially you, Fadden. Aren’t you a million years old?”

Fadden leapt up and said “ A million? You take that back. I’m only in the thousands. Damn, woman. I’m in the prime of my life!” He stalked away muttering under his breath.

The sound of laughter caught my attention and I saw Allie talking to Jimmy. While I loved hearing her laugh part of me was irritated that it was him she was laughing with. The dude hated me, yet Allie was over there having a great time.

I made my way over to them and watched as Jimmy’s face changed from open and happy to closed off and angry. Nice to know I still got to him.

“Having fun catching up?” I asked her.

“It means so much that I get to have all of you with me. Everyone who means the most to me is here.” Allie was so cute when she was being sincere. “ I hope you two can get along properly whole we are travelling.” This was said with a pointed look at both Jimmy and I.

“I’m good to go. How ‘bout you, Jimboy?” Yeah, I may have been pushing it but he really annoyed me.

“I can handle anything you throw at me, Braveboy.” Jimmy sneered at me and it was quite impressive. Not many people can throw that much snideness in one sentence. I laughed to myself and decided it was time to pack.

“I’ll be getting our stuff together while we make plans. Yell if you need me.” I said to Allie before heading over to wear our gear was stacked up. We really needed to pare down how much we were taking as we would be moving much faster now. Already the sun was trying to break through the murky clouds and it was warming up rapidly. Deema was standing at our stuff waiting for me. Together we quickly packed what was essential and stored the rest in our tent. There would be a guard of dwellers who would stay and keep the campsite safe for our return. I made sure that we had enough weapons and that we had provisions for when I knew that Allie and I would be on our own.

I realised that I hadn’t seen Garron with the group and looked around for him. I saw him standing in the shadows watching Sala with his eyes glowing. That could be either he was angry or she meant something to him. He noticed me looking at him and his eyes quickly changed back to his normal icy blue. Strange, but then again, Garron was a strange being. Shrugging it off I returned to the group and we started discussing our plan. Allie wandered over and listened intently to everything Deema was saying.

“Once you get past these border lands the terrain is rough and there are enemy outposts everywhere. I have drawn a map which shows all the ones we know of. We will set off small ground shakes as we go to hide our passage through their territory. With Garron and Fadden using their time jumps we should be in place by early afternoon. Be aware and be alert. At all times.” Deema spoke in a voice that commanded respect and attention. There was more magic in his small body than most people knew.