Xana II

Chapter four

Xana II

We’ll under lockdown all night. Demetri holds me now. The warmth of his body radiated off him and bled into me. It’s a nice change from always being cold. It’s funny how fast a relationship can thrive, especially when you’ve spent most of your life flirting and being more than friends even though you didn’t realize you real feelings for them until they kissed you.

One kiss and suddenly you are falling head over ice-heels.

Everyone sleeps in the living room. Jinx sleeps near me, wrapped up in her Avengers comforter, her pink hair in a bun atop her head. She’s like a little kid.

Starling, Adana, and Kiri share two comforters, one below the three of them and then another over them. Fleur couldn’t resist staying close to Draco, which I guess didn’t bother him. If they both rolled over toward each other, they’d be nose to nose. She has her comforter over her and a sheet from her bed over Draco. Sora sleeps at the corner of the couch, her caramel colored hand draping over the armrest.

Now all the couples sleep together, you know breaking all the rules and stuff. Gill and Nerina are cuddled up on the couch, Aleen and Cecile are wrapped in each others arms on the floor and Demetri and are lying together. Not an inch separates me from him. Our legs scissor, our arms wrapped around each others’ waist or pinned to our bodies. My body fits into his like a Lego or a puzzle piece. His chin rests on my head as the top nuzzles into his neck, my eyebrows resting on his perfectly curved collarbones. The tips on my eyelashes tickling his skin every time I blink. He traces patterns on to my skin via the diamond shaped hole in my dress. We’re not sleeping clearly; how could we?

I’m afraid I’ll have nightmares, Demetri is afraid we’ll be broken into and invaded by imps. Though I can’t blame him. He has an anniversary too. Though his passed a few months ago, I know the memory gets to him every now and then.

A few years ago, after I lost my arm and Demetri’s father replaced it with a mechanical one, Demetri’s home was invaded by a little gang of imps. At the time I lived with them and shared a room with Demetri.

I’d already had my fair share of war at the time so when I heard the gurgling of the imps I shot out of bed.

“What is it Xana?” asked young Demetri as he rubbed his eyes.

“Stay here,” I told him.

“No,” he grumbled stubbornly. “You always leave me to go exploring, this time I want to come.”

“No Demetri. I think we’re in danger.”

“You always think we’re in danger.”

I shot him a look. “I’m not playing with you Dem, get back in bed.”

“No.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine,” I hissed. “Just stay back ok?”

“Ok.”

With my hands in front of me we proceeded through the dark hallway. “I don’t hear anything Xana,” whispered Demetri. Just then low gurgling sounded from down the hall. “What is that?” breathed Demetri.

I shushed him, but was immediately sorry for it.

Two imps bounded down the hallway. Demetri yelled and backed away. One bit me, in the metal arm. I slammed its skull against the wall and froze the other one in midair as it leaped towards Demetri.

With that done I turned angrily to Demetri. “This is why I told you to say in the bedroom.”

“What about my mom and dad!” he exclaimed.

It suddenly dawned on me, we weren’t the only ones in the house. “Stay here!” I ran down the hallway were I met three more imps. I tried out my unique technique and it work swimmingly.

I ran to Demetri’s parents’ room and swung the door open. An imp leaped at me and racked its claws against my face. Claw marks dribbled blood from my temple to my cheek. I froze that b*****d and used him to throw at another imp coming my way. Quickly I turned on the lights of the bedroom. On the bed was Demetri’s parents covered in blood. Imps stood over them the way they did my parents. “NO!” I screamed and obliterated every single living thing in that room.

Then I heard Demetri scream. “Xana!” I ran back to him with tears still in my eyes to see him holding his arm and running from more imps. I remember thinking to myself, ‘They’re not taking Demetri away from me either!’ Furious I ran in front of him and stepped on the neck of one imp, and impaled the rest into the walls with small spears of ice I made out of thin air. Poor Demetri was so shaken. I took his arm and he yelped. “Hold still.” I ripped part of my dress and wrapped the fabric around his arm. It was too dark at the time to really see the wound, but later I figured out that one of the imps clawed his arm and badly.

“Where’s my mom and dad?” he asked frantically.

“I’m so sorry Dem,” I wept.

The authorities came minutes later and swept us off to safety.

I didn’t let him see his parents that night. I didn’t want him remembering them like that. I wanted him to remember them in the good times like when his mother would read him to sleep, or when his father taught him all about mechanics. I gladly take those horrendous images from him; I’m already messed up as it is, two more murders will only put me closer to the edge, faster.

I blink tears out of my eyes. Demetri shifts himself only to pull me closer still. I think he’s finally succumbing to slumber. I tilt my head a bit and kiss the crook in his collarbone.

He moans softly. “Xana?” he asks sleepily.

I hush him. “Go back to sleep Demetri.”

He ignores me. “Why are you crying?”

“I’m not crying dear.”

“Yes you are. I can tell when you cry; when you’re sad, I get sad.”

Tears tumble down my eyelashes. “Oh? But I’m happy right now.”

“No.” He shakes his head slightly and pulls me closer. “No Xana, you’re crying.”

�-–

Knock knock knock knock

Everyone jumps at the sudden obnoxious rapping on the door. Demetri jumps up and I slowly follow him. Together with the others watching from afar, we approach the door. He peeks out a window. “It’s a faerie.”

I open the door.

“Oh Xana!” gasps Gaia, an earth faerie living in the coven house nearby.  “Did you hear?” She doesn’t even wait for me to respond before answering. “The Queen has made allies with King Caesar of the imps! They’re moving into Fey City to live among us!”

At first I don’t understand. Imps? Allies of faeries? Living in Fey City?

The though it’s self is so ridiculous it seems impossible; I can’t wrap my head around the idea. But after a moment or two of thinking about it really sinks in. My hand shakes. Ice spreads from my hand on the knob and creeps across our door. Gaia watches with wide eyes, but I barely pay any attention to her. A red curtain of anger closes over my mind. The door creaks violently. An enraged scream claws through my throat scratching my throat raw. “THAT B***H!” I shriek. I punch a hole in the door with my metal arm. The door shatters around my hand and clatters to the floor.

“Xana!” Demetri grabs my hips and pulls me away before I can run out of the house and beat both the Queen and King Caesar senseless. “Hey,” he says softly.

“Come on.” Fleur takes my arm and steers me away from the door. I can barely hear Adana and Sora apologizing to Gaia and thanking her for the information. Kiri is ordered a mission to weave vines and roots for a quick makeshift door. Fleur stirs me to my room, but I rip my arm out of her grip. “No!” I yell. “I’m sick of being helpless! I’m going to do something about this. I’m going to have a nice firm talk with the Queen of -”

I’m cut off by Demetri. “Enough!” he yells as I rant. He takes my head in his hands and kisses me hard on the mouth cutting off my sentence. I murmur something angry against his lips but he doesn’t give in. He only breaks away from me when I calm down. “Good. Now, take a deep breath. Yeah?”

Instead I bite my lips. He shrugs. “Good enough. Now I don’t want you to do anything.” I open my mouth to protest, but he cuts me off. “Shut up.” Sometimes I forget how obstinate he can be. “Don’t you dare do a thing, Xana Frost. Not just yet. I’m going home. And I’m sure Draco and Gill are too. My brothers need to know what’s going on.” I nod and he smiles slightly. “Don’t you leave this house. Do you understand?” he says firmly. I nod again. He kisses my nose. “I’ll be back.”

“Soon?”

He smiles. “As soon as I can.” He jogs away. I can hear him talking to a few girls about making sure I don’t leave the house. And with that he and the other two boys are out the door.

I decide to go to my room for the rest of the day. I came out for dinner where, after my sisters’ praise, we sat silently before I went back to my room. I lied on the bed watching a crappy, love movie where I fell asleep in the middle.

�-–

There’s a loud obnoxious knock on the door.  “What do we have here?” asks Sora as she saunters to the door. “A few faithful boyfriends?” She swings the door open and squeaks in surprise.

“Good day young maiden,” booms a deep voice. “I am here on behalf of the Queen.” My attention snaps to the door.  “I am here to pick up a certain young faerie. Is Xana Frost home?”

“Umm…” sputters Sora. “Uh, yes sir.”

I rise off the couch and inch my way to the door numbly. What could the Queen want with me? I haven’t done anything wrong… yet.

I walk peek into the hallway. A burly faerie with black hair and pale skin stands at the door. His uniform is white with blue stripes indicating that he is a water faerie as well as a servant for the Queen. Ok so they aren’t really called servants, but they might as well be by the way she treats them. His seaweed green eyes drift to me and a black eyebrow rises. “Are you Xana Frost?” he asks.

I nod and walk all the way into the hallway. His eyes take me in slowly, his eyes lingering on my arm. “So you’re the girl with the metal arm.”

“I am.” It wasn’t a question, but I answered it anyways.

He hums thoughtfully. “I was given orders to take you to Fey Court.”

My heart skips a beat. Sora gasps and quickly tries to hide it. She looks wildly at the man. “Oh you can’t take her there! She hasn’t done anything wrong!” My sisters file into the hall.

“I’m only doing what the Queen sent me to do.”

“She’s done nothing wrong, I can vouch for her,” states Adana.

“But you can’t take her there!” exclaims Fleur.

“I can take her and I will. And if any of you girls don’t let her go I’ll come in and drag her out.”

Aleen opens her mouth but I cut her off by slapping my hand over her mouth. “Be quiet girls.” I walk to the door. The man nods at me, walks off out porch and flies into a carriage parked midair in front of our house. I turn towards my sisters and smile as convincingly as I can. “Who knows, maybe I’m not even in trouble, plus, I’m sure I can take whatever she has coming my way. I’ll see you guys in a few.” I turn around and walk slowly across the porch. I look up and see a few other coven households on their porches, looking down at me as I enter the carriage sent by the Queen. A few girls press their palms together and close their eyes, praying for me. I’m almost unable to stand it; my legs feel as unstable as jelly. I snap my wing into hyper drive and take off into the carriage.

I sit across from the man in the suit. He eyes me wearily. “You are a brave young girl,” he says quietly. “I’m sure you will do the right thing.” And with that the doors close, the curtains pull together and the carriage begins to rise towards Fey Hall.

�-–

Fey Hall; a place where weddings were held, where faeries danced all night and went home happy; now is a place where our blood is spilled, where we’re tortured and exiled. I’m going there now, the day after the imps were invited to live with us. I fought against the imps. I killed great amounts of their filthy kind. I am one of the last ice faeries.

We pull up to the main door. The soldier gets out first and holds the door open for me. I wearily step out. My heels made of ice click on the marble floor. The soldier closes the door and starts to ascend the stairs. After a moment’s hesitation I follow. Probably shouldn’t piss off the Queen just yet.

The massive doors to the hall are grand and fashioned to look like the gates of hell only more grotesque. Sculpted skeletal bodies reach out of the stone, begging for mercy. Some of the bodies are burning, some scraping their throats as their tortured. There are some being tortured in ways I can’t even describe to you. The soldier opens the doors swiftly and walks past it. Shivers run down my spine as I pass the doors.

The hall it’s self would still be beautiful with its stained glass dome over head and sleek white columns holding steady, if it weren’t for the blood stains on the marble floor. Mounted on the walls are faeries’ wings of all size and origin, like trophies. I hold back a whimper. There are much too many wings, and most disturbing of all, decent amounts are children’s wings and even further, a whole wall is made of ice faeries’ wings. I pity them; I pity every single one of them. God bless their souls.

Someone clears their throat. I snap my head forward and look ahead of me. In a throne fused of gold and rubies sits a grand woman. Her red hair is threaded with gold and braided like a goddess’. She’s draped in luxurious velvet that clings to her slim body perfectly. A golden diadem sits perfectly center on her regal head. Everything, from her manicured toenails to the baby hairs on her head, is nothing but royal. Even the way she peers down on me with those rainbow eyes makes me feel like I should be kneeling and begging for forgiveness even though I have no idea what is going on.

“Welcome young ice faerie,” she says in a honey-like voice; slow and sweet. “Or well only ice faerie is more like it.” She giggles like the jingling of bells. The look on my face must have stopped her. “Oh my. I see you didn’t hear. Well it might be easier coming from your Queen. Anyways! Yes I’m so sorry dear but it seems that you are the very last ice faerie in Fey City. Poor ol’ Izo bit the dust last night. I think it was poison. But he’s dear I’m very sorry.”

I don’t let that sink in; I’ll think about that later. “I’m very sorry as well, he was a great man.”

“Oh indeed! But enough of that, you must be wondering why you’re here.”

“I am.”

“Well!” She says excitedly. “As you may have heard, we’ve accompany some new friends.” My stomach twists. She gestures beside her. Because her presence is so overwhelming I barely noticed the little man standing next to her throne. His skin is wrinkly, a sickly tan pallor and little turfs of hair stick out of his scalp. His beetle eyes graze over mine and when he smiles I can see everyone one of his yellow, razor sharp teeth. If you looked up the definition for ugly, his picture would be right next to the word. Same goes for nightmarish.

“Hello dear,” he rasps. A shiver runs down my spine. I take a shaky breath to calm my anger and my fear.

“Young miss Xana Frost, this is King Caesar. He is king of the imps, our new allies.”

“I’ve noticed,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Now now my gem,” she says sweetly, “I know you’ve had a hard time getting along with the imps.” I shoot her look. We are not children on a playground fighting, we were in a bloody, nasty war against one another! I wanted to scream at her, but she cuts me off the moment my mouth flies open. “But I would like it if you, no all of us put all this hatred behind us and start new!”

“They killed my parents,” I mutter. “I watched them eat their flesh.”

“Oh pish-posh! You heard me gem, we’re going to put all of this behind us! And if not,” her voice becomes serious, almost deadly and her eyes bore into mine like she can see straight into my soul, “well I’ll have a new set of ice faerie wings on my wall. Do we understand Xana Frost?”

I nod slowly. “Well lovely!” she cheers and claps her hands excitedly. “You truly are a gem miss Xana. Now shake hands with our new friend; it’s only fitting that an ice faerie and imp end this silly little feud.”

King Caesar outstretches his ugly hand. I reach for it with my left hand but hesitate. I don’t want to end the feud, if you can even call it that. I don’t forgive them for what they’ve done and I don’t think I ever will. “Take it gem.” I take his cold, dry hand. He curls his grimy fingers around the back of my hand. Suddenly he digs his sharp yellow nails into the spot on the back of my hand between my thumb and index finger. I suck in a breath. The imp yanks on my hand and I try not to cry out. He brings my head towards his. He leans into my ear. I smell his rancid breath from here as he whispers in my ear. “I’ll make sure your death is the first one.” I grit my teeth. He releases me.

I take several steps away from the two of them. “Fantastic!” cheers the Queen. “That will be all Xana Frost, have a nice day.”

I back away, not taking my eyes off them until I’m close enough to the door to turn around and fly out at full speed knowing I’ll be ok. I fly home at a speed I didn’t even think I could fly; my wings beating wildly fast. I hold my hand to my chest as I fly, the pain still stinging the cuts. I zip through the front door of my house in a numb blur. I accidentally freeze the wooden door knob made hastily by Kiri.

Fleur abruptly appears from the living room and crushes me in a hug. “Oh thank Nix!” she breathes.

“Xana!” Aleen drags Cecile around the corner. “Oh my nixie, are you ok?” She asks frantically. She, Cecile and Starling, who peeked into the hallway, gather around me and check me out. My guess is that they’re truly making sure my wings are still intact.

“Xana?” Adana comes down the hallway with her eyebrows scrunched. Now normally Fleur’s hug would have been enough, but right now I need Adana. You see there’s a difference between the two; I have a different relationship with the both of them. Fleur is my best friend; she’s someone I can hang out with all day and talk to and just plain goof off with. Adana is like my foster mother; she hugs me and tells me I’m fine when I’m not and takes care of me. Right now I need someone to take care of me.

Fleur let’s me go and with two big strides, I run into Adana’s open arms. “Nix Xana,” she says exasperated, but with relief, “you have us a scare. Are you alright? What happened to you?”

“Izo died.”

She clicks her tongue and sighs sadly. “Oh Xana I’m so sorry.” She rubs circles into my back, between my wings.

“So you’re that last ice faerie,” states one of the girls quietly, though not quietly enough.

“Do you want some hot cocoa?”

“I’ll make it!” I hear Nerina, with her clicking heels, scurry into the kitchen.

“Is that why you were sent to Fey Hall?” asks Kiri.

“No, the Queen wanted me to meet King Caesar and make up with him,” gasps come from all around, “though that didn’t go well.” I show them my bleeding hand.

Adana sucks in a slow breath through her teeth. “It’s deep,” she says as she examines it. “Come on, let’s clean this up.” She ushers me into the kitchen where Nerina’s heating water on the stove. I let her run cold water over the wounds and then she sits me down at the kitchen table. Sora sits across from me along with Jinx. Sora rests her caramel hand on my metal one and smiles sympathetically at me. it saddens me even more that I can’t feel her hand.

The door knocks for the second time today. “I’ll get it,” says Sora. She lets her hand slip off of mine as she rises to get the door. In a matter of seconds we hear the door open. I ready myself for the soldiers voice again, even though I’m sure it’s not him. “Nerina,” says Sora in a nervous sort of haste way. “Nerina get in here.”

Nerina zips by me and I get up and follow her. I’m suddenly behind her at the door with a fist of ice ready for attack. I lower my fist when I see its only Gaia. I see I’ve arrived too late to hear the news because Nerina screams at the top of her lungs and flies like hell out of the door.

“Sora, follow her,” I order. She nods and does what I say. I turn my attention to Gaia. “I’ve had just enough of your affinity to tell coven house three bad news.” As I say this my sisters gather behind me in a sort of silent agreement. “Now you tell me, what did you say to Nerina?” I say through gritted teeth.

She frowns and squints her eyes angrily. “The whole coven is missing. The house is abandoned and there’s no sight of any of the boys. The community fears they’ve been exiled. The same goes for your friend’s house too. Coven houses two and six are missing of their faeries.”

My stomach drops. Demetri’s coven house is six. “Get out of my way.”

I’m swiftly out the door and in the air in a matter of seconds. The air combing through my hair, the wind burns on my cheeks, the rush of flight are all lost as I tear my way to Dem’s house. I can barely hear the cries of Nerina a few houses down. I skid onto his porch and clumsily run into the door. I try my hardest to open the door but its jammed or lock or something. Without even thinking about it I freeze the door and kick it down. Wood covered in ice rains down and I waste no time waiting for it to clear; I run straight through the waterfall of shards. “Dem?!” I call through the house. “Demetri!”

The house is completely empty; no life is sight. The lights are out, there are a few scattered items on the floor, and a chair is fallen on the floor. I immediately start to panic. “Demetri!” I sprint through the living room and rise up into the main hall. I’ve been to Demetri’s house before and even if I didn’t I’d know where to go; all coven houses are constructed the same, I’d just have to go to the room where Adana’s room would be. I rip open the door and zoom in. No one. There’s nothing. “Demetri!” I open his closet, the bathroom door, I even look under his bed; no Demetri.

“Xana.” I whip around and see Fleur in the door way with a trembling lip. Her already green tinted skin is even more so, and chlorophyll tears trickle down her face. “Where did they all go?” she asks quietly.

“I don’t know Fleur.”

“But they’re ok, right?”

“I don’t know.” A cry escapes her lips and she plows towards me. I open my arms and catch her. She squeezes me tight as she breaks down and I hold her with the same amount of strength. I feel like crying but no tears come; it seems I’ve run out.

Demetri’s out there, I know it. He’s alive and well and hiding. I don’t know why he’s hiding, but he is. He’s thinking of me, right now, I can feel it. He won’t leave me for long; he’s coming to get me; and I know that because I know him. He’ll always comes back for me; always.