Finding Fae

I said nothing the entire way back to the club. I was fuming mad at one person in particular. Malachi freaking King, you have officially been added to my list and you better pray that I don’t get my hands on you before someone stops me, because you’re going to come out of it bleeding!

Once we were back, I was the first one out, stomping across the pavement and throwing the door wide open, making it bang loudly against the wall, echoing in the open space. My eyes went over every bit of the area before I stomped to both restrooms and the changing room backstage, but found nothing.

“That sorry sack of pixie dust! I’m going to break every bone in his pitiful body when I get my fingers around his worthless neck!” I screamed into the open area of the main floor.

“Um. Fae? There’s a note for you,” Ben said as he and Nando took several steps away from me.

“The hell do I care about a piece of paper? That mother fairy fart!” I threw my hands up in the air.

“Okay, first of all, wow. We need to work on your swearing,” Blaine said as he tossed his keys to his bed and picked up the note that was sitting on the bar. “Second of all, the note is from that “mother fairy fart”. Colorful wording aside, I think you might want to read it before you unleash the apocalypse.”

I snatched it from him and held up a finger, wanting to say something else, but holding it back as I stormed away to the changing room. I kicked a trash can then a locker and slammed one of them shut loudly before flopping to a chair in front of a vanity. Flicking on the lights so I could read the impeccible handwriting that Mal had, I flipped open the folded paper and started reading something I wasn’t entirely prepared for.

-----Malachi-----

I wasn’t expecting Fae to happen. I wasn’t content with my lot in life, but I had resigned myself to it, being unable to change things. I was, after all, only a bastard. As is tradition, my marriage had been arranged. I was to finish school, spend some time learning a trade that would benefit the family, then marry at twenty one.

I despised my betrothed. She was pretty enough, I guess, for an evil brat that literally stomped her feet when she didn’t get what she wanted right away. She reminded me of poisonous dart frogs. Pretty to look at, but toxic enough to kill. I wouldn’t put it past her to try to kill me after the wedding, to be honest.

I was going through the motions of my days. I could have graduated a year in advanced, but then I would be forced into learning a trade instead of trying to figure out how to enjoy the last bit of freedom I had left. Then, this girl showed up.

She was far from the kind of beauty most females aim for. She was thin but not like she was trying to be. It was a healthy thin with a bit of curve in all the right ways to know that in a few years she would be quite a knockout. I felt a connection to her. It wasn’t this big moment either. It was just there as she stared at me in that class.

I resented her. She came in to my life and showed me that I wanted something more from my life than what was planned for me. It was like the longer she was there, the more color came into my life that I didn’t even know I was missing. She was ruining everything, making me feel things I had given up on long before I could remember. I tried making her go away, to leave me to my resignation. Deep down, I knew it would hurt like hell if she listened and actually left.

Still, she stayed. She hated me though, so I tried, foolishly, to hold on to that. To keep her hatred towards me in the front of my mind so I could lie to myself and say she wasn’t something special. It wasn’t working, especially when she showed up to that stupid party that weekend.

She looked to be way out of her element, but was surrounded by those four idiots from school. She was having fun and the difference between her hiding at school and her laughter that hit me like a sucker punch to the chest was astounding. Fae was glowing outside of the hell hole she endured every day.

I was supposed to try to have a good time that night. Instead, I was standing in the shadows of the backyard, glowering at a smiling, happy Fae as she sipped on a drink. Then she started to look drunk. There was no way she should have been after only two cups. I had watched her closely the whole time she had been there.

I sniffed my cup, which I had gotten at some point but never drank and swore as her friends took her cup away and looked like they were about to leave. Then, Victoria happened and Fae went into the pool.

I don’t know what had me running across the yard at that point. It hadn’t been long enough for there to be a problem, but it was like I was running in molasses. I was close to panic as the bubbles slowed down. Fae couldn’t swim and her friends didn’t know it because they were just standing there.

Then, I saw it. This warm, bright light coming from Fae and it felt like getting hit with a concussive force right in the chest. It sounded like her, begging for someone to help her. I dived into the water and she was deathly still and looking no better. I have never been so terrified in my life as I grabbed her and pushed for the surface. Someone pulled her from the water as I got out and I shoved whoever it was away as I started pumping on her chest.

There are no words to describe the terror I felt as I prayed to every god and goddess the world has ever known or ever will know. Move, cough, spit, anything, just be alive. Please, be alive.

Then she rolled over and vomited the water from her lungs and the relief was profound.

She was quickly taken away by her friends and I was left soaking and freezing but happier than I should have been, considering I was now shivering, I was so cold.

It wasn’t until I got to the house and was in the shower that I understood what had happened. I held my wings out to warm them in the water when I saw the soft glow they now had. I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me until I turned off the lights and saw the truth for myself.

First came joy. Fae’s call had resulted in us being Soul Bonded, since that was the only way a fairy’s wings would glow like that. That connection I felt before grew and I wanted to make sure she was okay. I had to know. I just didn’t know where to look for her. No one did. It was like she was a ghost with those friends of hers. So, I did the only thing I could until Monday. I suffered. I couldn’t sleep, barely ate, and my already foul mood grew worse.

Monday came and I knew I was totally screwed. Then, depression came. She hated me. I may have saved her life, but it was, in a way, my fault that it had been in danger to begin with. Self loathing followed shortly afterwards. How could I have been such a prick to her? She had every right to be angry and I didn’t fault her at all. At the end of the day, I followed her home.

After that, I stayed close to her, not leaving her side for longer than necessary. I couldn’t stand distance between us. She didn’t feel it as strong as I did, since she had yet to Awaken, but that was okay. At least she wouldn’t feel the anxiety I did. She had enough to worry about already.

Then, my father called me. He was talking about trade options agreed upon by the family heads and making arrangements for my wedding to that dart frog. I had been so consumed by being Bonded, that I had completely forgotten everything else. I knew what happened when a noble fairy Bonded, in any way, to another.

Cast out until the Bond broke. People changed and normal Spirit Bonds broke. It wasn’t tragic or anything. But Soul Bonds don’t break. Never. Once the process of Bonding begins, there’s no going back. Not even death will keep the two apart, as they follow each other.

I want to say I was being chivalrous, but I was being a coward. If Fae didn’t make it through her Awakening, I would die with her if I did what I truly wished and begin the process. It was true that I would rather not live than to live in a world she no longer existed, but I also was raised to follow my duty to my father, at least.

And it would have been so simple to give in and forget about the duty I owed my father and the need to prove myself worthy of being his son. One kiss. That’s it. Such a small thing would change so much. For the better, in my opinion. It got harder to stop myself every day. Every time I was near her, my whole body itched to do it already. But, again, I was a coward.

Then they left to see Heather. I was screwed again, this time by my own doing. I knew Fae well enough to know that, if she got the answer she asked for, she’d be livid. She couldn’t seriously hurt me because of the Bond, but she would let me know just how much she wanted to. My guess would be astronomical.

And, I’m ashamed to say that, once again, I was being a coward. I left a note, explaining the best I could and apologizing for being such a piece of shit. Then, I left, knowing it would make her hate me all over again.

-----Fae-----

I was shaking I was so angry. Not only did he know this whole time and didn’t say anything, but when it became clear I was going to find out, that waste of wing space took off. He didn’t say anything to anyone. No “see you later” or “bye. Sorry I’m a piece of crap”. Just a note. Like a freaking coward.

“Malachi King!” I screamed, knowing he was long gone by now. “I’m going to make you suffer for as long as you live you son of a butter cup!”