The Fallen Prince

His arm drops, and he pulls himself together. “I’m asking for compassion, something my kind has thrown away. Once condemned, forever condemned.”

He doesn’t sound like I expect. He should be bitter, but he sounds sad. Something about him feels off. I want to leave, but he demands my attention. “But you. You know about second chances. You can help me.”

He’s hit a nerve. I craved a new beginning, and I was given one. How can I refuse him? Except the last time I saw Baun, he was in the woods and the pux appeared to be doing his bidding, not torturing him. “I don’t know…”

“You’re my son. My own flesh and blood.”

Playing on the family card isn’t smart. It reminds me of all the problems I had growing up with a mother who cared more for herself than anyone else. Where was he when she went on her monthly rampages? Where was he when the guy-of-the-moment shared his anger issues with a closed fist? I don’t need another messed-up parent who thinks he can guilt me into doing whatever he wants. “You abandoned me and my mother. I may be your son, but you’re not my father.”

“She left me,” he hisses.

There’s no doubt Mom is messed up, but he has to take some responsibility for the woman she became, though he’s hardly the demonic madman Kera painted him. He barely looks like a man, more shriveled soul than maniacal tyrant.

“You didn’t take her with you. You knew what that would do to her. Kera told me. Our kind loves deeply, but the humans, they become enslaved. You ruined her forever.”

“It was not my intent. If she had only waited…but she fled. I vowed if ever I broke free of these chains, I would find her.”

“And do what?”

His voice drops so low I can barely hear him. “End her torment.”

“How?”

“We are only whole when we are together. I will keep her close to me always.” He turns away and drags his feet back into the shadows. “If you will not help me, then we have nothing further to discuss.”

His shoulders sag as his shuffled steps expose his defeat. He’s so alone…completely and utterly alone. It actually makes me wonder. “Even if I wanted to help you, I can’t.”

“You have the power to do so much, but you are too weak to use it. Your imagination is too small.”

If I have so much power, how can I be weak? The mess coming out of his mouth is the type of parental support I’m used to. Mom and Mr. I-Lost-It-All/Woe-Is-Me are perfect for each other.

“You don’t know me,” I snap. “You don’t know what I can do.”

“Your talents aren’t an eighth of mine,” his voice booms from the darkness. “I would show you how to control the powers surging through you, to use what you’ve been given, but why show an ant an elephant’s strength?”

“An ant can lift twenty times his body weight. An elephant can’t even lift his own.” Take that, old man.

Baun chuckles, but it’s not a pleasant sound. “When has an ant ever crushed an elephant?” The shadows shift as he lies down, turning his back on me and ending our meeting.

Instantly the dream blackens, and I’m swimming in a void. For once, my dream isn’t paired with the distorted images of death. It only shows me my own doubts and insecurities and the sharp edges of “what if.”

Unwanted

The caves that hid those tainted with human blood loomed ahead. Dragging a one hundred and ninety pound weakling with her caused her shoulders to ache and her back to spasm. She should have reached the caves by now. Frustrated, she settled Reece against a tree, calling the moss beneath him to thicken. He immediately closed his eyes and let out a huge sigh of relief. She touched his forehead with the back of her hand, checking for a fever.

He cracked open his red-rimmed eyes and stared at her. He hadn’t said much, but then he’d been concentrating, much like her, on putting one foot in front of the other. Lips pale blue, eyes shadowed darkly, and skin the shade of rancid butter, he looked awful.

She produced a flask of cool water and a serving of bread and cheese and placed it in his hands. The act of summoning whatever she wanted was becoming easier, but because of her, someone would most likely go hungry tonight. She had yet to learn how to pick an item from a specific location, so whatever she needed was plucked from close by. Even she couldn’t make something out of nothing.

“Nice trick.” His voice was weak and shaky, but calm. “Can I ask you a question?”

Kera held her breath and nodded.

“Exactly where are we? I know we’re in Teag, but what does that mean?”

“Teag is part of a bigger realm attached to your world. We share the same ground, but in a different way. No one talks about how it’s done, just that it is. Entering the human realm is forbidden to us. It wasn’t always so. We were your healers. Your wise men. Your philosophers and artists. We were a gift from God to the humans. Jealousy and fear turned your kind against us. Humans kill what they don’t understand. We returned to our land and the borders were sealed. We are better off without the humans. That is the official explanation.”

“And the unofficial one?”

“We are manipulators, given to the earth to keep it balanced. Yet we are easily insulted, and if that happens we can create more havoc than the devil. As your kind progressed, we began to fear you. We are not creatures who easily accept change. Humans have always forced that upon us, though we profited from it.

“Firsts cannot lie, but humans…they wallow in lies. So when they were brought into Teag, a disruption occurred. Powers were born to half-bloods who could lie. It strained the balance of Teag. Where we once could believe a man on his word alone, it became impossible. At first, any with human blood were driven out of Teag, but they always found their way back and integrated further with our people. Then a war began. It was small at first, occasionally receding but never dying out. It lasted for two hundred years. It only ended when Dylan’s father was thrown into exile and the wall was permanently closed. The humans who remained either became slaves or went into hiding. Even as weak as they had become, Navar still feared the humans, and hunted them down until only a few were left.”

“And that’s why Lani used her dagger on the wall, cutting a hole through it so she could cross and be safe?” Reese asked.

“It was a daring move, one born out of desperation.”

“I’m glad she did it. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Kera gave him a sad smile. She wished she could agree with him. She couldn’t. Lani lost her life because of what she did, and the wall continued to disintegrate, no matter what the council tried. Teag needed a leader. Teag needed Dylan, but he represented the troubles—all the bloodshed and pain of their past—and Kera was no fool to believe they would accept him.

“Eat,” she said and rose.

He tore off a small chunk of cheese and ate, though he kept his eyes on her. “It’s strange. You look like me, but you’re not like me at all.”

The implication that she was different snapped her spine straighter. “I’m exactly like you.”

But that was a lie. She was a full-fledged first now. And then it hit her. The spell that kept the firsts out of the area was keeping her out. No matter what she did, she wouldn’t be able to break through the barrier.

“Damn and be damned,” she muttered.

Reece shifted, his movements groggy. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said, but whispered under her breath, “Everything.”

Because of her impetuousness, they were stuck in the forest. It wasn’t like her. She had to start thinking before she acted.

Facing north, she wondered what her father was doing. Did he miss her? Was he safe?

Her father’s warning before she’d left for the human realm echoed in her head.