Demetri I

Chapter three

Demetri I

Fleur fixes the lilacs in the vase. She’s been toying with them for half an hour now. Draco, Gill and I watch her as she changes the petals different colors, arranges them, studies them and turns them all white again before repeating the whole process. Her orange hair is twisted in a messy bun with baby’s breath flowers poking out around the edges. Her big round green eyes scan her new arrangement of flowers before she huffs in exaggeration as she turns them all white again. Nerina stands behind her making tea for everyone. Nerina and Xana show some resemblance due to their close relation in elemental origin. They both have white eyes though where Nerina’s are watery like the surface of the ocean, Xana’s are hard and steely and there are crackles in her eyes like ice and from the cracks there’s a glow like light is try to break through the steely ice in her eyes. Both their hair is blue, this Nerina’s aqua and Xana’s a very dark blue, and their skin is pale, but Xana’s paler. Even their faces look alike; sharp features that make them look like troublemakers (which Xana defiantly is), a very angular jaw and big almond shaped eyes. They could be actual sisters, but Xana is more beautiful in my opinion.

“Here Demetri.” She hands me a mug of tea. The mug has a crest with a big H in the middle.

“Hey Nerina, what is this?”

She looks at the cup with narrowed eyes. “Hmm, couldn’t tell you, it’s Xana’s mug.”

I chuckle. “Of course it is.” I take a sip as Nerina passes out mugs to Draco, Gill and Fleur at the kitchen table. She pours tea into the mugs as Fleur rearranges flowers.

Suddenly she gasps and drops the tea kettle. It clatters onto the table and spills tea across the surface. “Was that her door?” she breathes. We all freeze and listen. Seconds later we see Xana streak by the kitchen in a mad dash for the front door. Fleur squeaks and Nerina gasps again. “Xana!” I stand up, knocking my chair to the floor. All four of us dash to the hallway. The others across the hall in the living room are opposite of us, staring at us in shock.

Not once in all these ten years has Xana left her room on the day of the anniversary. She’s always cooped herself in there with no food, no water, and no visitors. Now she’s running down the hall.

The sound of her throwing open the front door snaps us out of our momentary shock. I dash for her with everyone at my tail. Xana stands at the edge of the porch just as the top of something big peaks up from below our vision. Xana falls backwards onto her butt as I and the rest of the gang freeze. The big something raises higher like a balloon. As it moves into our vision more I realize it’s a carriage; a carriage moving towards the Queen’s palace. It’s wooden with red curtains and draping on it. At the wheels are long spokes sticking out so the small sprites bound on chains by their ankles can lift it. On the door is a large C made of two snakes slithering around each other and the phrase “Veni, Vidi, Vici” bent around the space in between the C to make a full circle. I know that symbol.

Xana stifles a scream in her hand. I run forward and yank her off the ground. I hold her close as we watch the carriage rise towards the Queen’s palace. I back towards the door with Xana shaking in my arms. “Everyone, get back in the house, now.”

Faeries scramble to get back into the house. I back into the house dragging Xana along with me. I wield her towards the middle of the hall. I sit her down on the carpet and kneel next to her, hovering over her. Our friends gather and watch. I straighten up and look at them. “Lock the doors, close the windows, shades, curtains, shut off the lights, now,” I demand. Some stare at me in shock, either of what they saw or of how commanding I was. Adana snaps out of it. “Get moving!” she orders. Again faeries jumble around, following my instructions.

I hover over Xana again as the air is filled with locks clicking into chambers, windows closing, shades and curtains pulled over the window, and lights shutting off. She looks up at me, her crackled white eyes wide. “What are they doing here?” she asks with fear rattling her usual ringing voice.

“I don’t know sweetie.” I flinch. Sweetie? I think to myself. So soon? Come on Dem, that’s like relationship suicide. Think bro, think!

She doesn’t seem to care thank goodness.

“What do you think this means?” she asks and rubs the metal plate over her shoulder.

With scrunched eyebrows I search her eyes desperately, trying to gauge her fear and see how far I should go. I bite the insides of my cheeks. “I don’t know Xan.”

I take the back of her neck with my hand and kiss her blue lips. The coolness of her drives me crazy. Actually no, everything about Xana drives me insane. Since seven years old I’ve been crazy for her. Now that I have her I never want to let her go, no matter what the universe throws at us. It’s almost hard for me to pull away from her now. I rest my forehead against her cool forehead. Our breaths mix, her cold one making my warm one visible.

Slowly the others gather. “What was that?” asks Gill with his arm wrapped protectively around Nerina’s shoulders.

I straighten up and look at all my friends. They all seem pretty on edge, which they damn right should be. “That,” I say slowly, “was Caesar’s carriage; King of the imps.”

Aleen ducks her head into Cecile’s shoulder. “I knew it,” she sobs.

Author's Note

this is one of my shorter chapters