Elfin Trilogy

Chapter 6-2

Trik had heard that the most powerful of elves could travel in their realm without mirrors, but hearing about it and seeing it happen before his eyes were two very different things. The room slowly began to return to life as the music started again and elves stood from their kneeling positions.

He turned to leave, no longer in the mood for the company of others. As he made his way through the crowd, his eyes met Ziana’s. She had already moved on and was swaying in the arms of another male. The look she gave him was full of contempt, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

Cassie stared up at her ceiling as she lay on her bed. She put her phone down after checking the time for at least the hundredth time in the last half hour. She had helped her mom cook dinner, helped with the dishes, and even done a load of laundry in hopes of keeping her mind off of Trik and his whereabouts. Now she had nothing left to do. She picked up her phone again and looked at it, 9:01. One minute later than the last time she had checked. In a fit of frustration, she threw her phone across her room, but instead of the thud she expected to hear as the phone hit the wall she heard a voice instead.

“A little upset?”

Cassie shot up out of her bed.

“Syndra?” Her words came out breathless as she tried to calm her beating heart.

“Last I checked,” the elf said as she held out Cassie’s phone. The girl took it quickly and stepped back just as quickly.

“Are you afraid of me, Cassie?” Syndra asked.

“Should I be?”

“No,” Syndra shook her head. “I am not your enemy, quite the opposite actually.” Syndra made a slow perusal of the room and then turned her stare back on Cassie.

“I need to speak with you.”

Cassie heard the ominous tone in the queen’s voice.

“I should sit down, shouldn’t I?” Cassie asked as a wave of nervousness rolled through her.

“That might be best,” agreed Syndra.

“I-i-is he alive?” Cassie stuttered as she asked a question she feared the answer to as much as she wanted to know.

“Oh, he is quite alive,” Syndra’s words came out dripping with contempt.

“But?” Cassie implored.

“But I’m afraid you might want to kill him once I share this information with you. I hate to be the one to deliver it, but I feel you have a right to know.”

Cassie waited in silence. She hoped everything she was imagining would be much worse than what the queen was about to tell her.

It wasn’t.

“I found him at a place called Sanctuary. It’s the equivalent to a club here in your realm, but more than that. It’s a place where our kind can gather without fear of assassination attempts or petty skirmishes. It’s a peaceful place. Though, maybe a little less peaceful after my recent visit.”

“What was he doing there?” Cassie didn’t want to know, but she asked, despite herself, like someone slowing down to stare at a horrendous traffic accident.

“He was dancing,” Syndra answered meaningfully.

Cassie’s eyes narrowed. “With whom?”

“Another elf.”

“Good freaking grief, Syndra. Spit it out already,” Cassie growled, unmindful of the fact that the woman before her could squash her like an insignificant bug.

“With a onetime lover from his past,” Syndra finally finished.

Cassie didn’t know whether she was more angry or more hurt. She had spent her day wondering if he was okay, eager to see him again, and he had been hooking up with one of his flings. Okay, at the moment, she was more angry. Correction, she was livid.

She stood and began to pace.

“After all his b.s. about me being his Chosen and him never letting me go and kissing me like his freaking, pathetic life depended on it. That lying, fraudulent, piece of … argh!”

Syndra tried not to grin, but couldn’t stop herself. Even in anger, Trik’s Chosen kept a semblance of purity. Her anger was righteous anger. Trik deserved her wrath and her scorn, but even as the words left Cassie’s mouth, Syndra watched her deflate like a leaky balloon.

Cassie sunk to the ground, ignoring the sharp pain that radiated up her legs from her knees hitting the floor. She looked up at Syndra, who had genuine compassion shining through her eyes.

“Why? Why would he do that?” Cassie’s voice was small and she struggled to keep it from wavering.

“Why does he think it’s his choice who I’m with? Since when am I not my own person that I can’t decide for myself?” Cassie slapped the floor in frustration. “If I want to be with an evil, dark, butthead of an elf, then that is my choice. MINE!” She hit her hand against her chest in emphasis.

“I totally agree, Cassie, which is why I came.” Syndra knelt down so that she was eye level with her. “Don’t give up on him. I know you are angry and you have every right to be. But try and see things from his point of view. I’m not excusing his behavior, and he will have to answer to you for it. But he is old, and has lived a long time in darkness. It will take time for him to see that not all is lost in him. He needs you just as you need him.”

Cassie watched as Syndra stood and walked toward her window.

“It is ultimately your choice, Cassandra. Make sure it is the right one.” She stepped through the window as easily as if it were open and was gone.

Cassie didn’t know how long she sat on her floor. She was still trying to get her mind around the fact that the same guy who had held her and kissed her so passionately had been in the arms of another hours later. She finally stood and went through the motions of getting ready for bed.

As she lay in the dark in her room, silent tears slipped down her cheeks as she let the pain of loss engulf her.

Days passed and still Cassie heard nothing from Trik. She refused to talk about it, though Elora continued to ask. Every night she lay in her bed and her heart seemed to break all over again. She wondered why she wasn’t experiencing the horrific pain she had that first time he had left. When she realized why, she began to cry even harder. If she wasn’t hurting, it could only mean one thing, Trik didn’t want to be with her. He wasn’t forcing himself to stay away. He really didn’t want to be with her.

It had been exactly one month since the night Syndra had come to Cassie and told her of Trik’s hurtful actions. Four weeks of anger, hurt, and longing, but still he hadn’t come.

Trik watched as his brethren brought barrel after barrel of the powerful soil from his realm into the human world. They spread it out over the valley, covering the soil where the vineyard had once been located. They continually mixed it, so their own soil seeped down into the earth. Even now, as he supervised his king’s operations, he thought of her. Pain and anger radiated through him. At times, when her own anger and pain sought him out, he nearly stumbled under their oppression. Others avoided him at all costs, recognizing the danger they put themselves in if they were near him. He didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything anymore. He was simply doing his duty. Lorsan gave his orders and Trik obeyed. He didn’t sleep for fear of seeing her face. He never remained idle, knowing that if he stopped for one second, he would go running back to her, begging her forgiveness. He knew that was the wrong thing to do. She didn’t need him. And she surely couldn’t want him anymore, not after what he had done.

Trik walked through the fields, inspecting one of the solar panels he’d had installed throughout the property. The panels were to serve as direct passageways from their realm to the crops, making it easy for the elves to harvest what they needed. As he stood up from his inspection, for the first time in more weeks than he could count, he knew that he heard her voice.

“Trik,” she called to him.

Their souls were forever connected and everything in him longed to answer his Chosen. The pain he felt at hearing her say his name drove him to his knees. He clutched his chest as he felt his heart constrict and the breath rush from his lungs. His soul reached out through him, grasping at the voice and Trik realized that it wasn’t Cassie speaking his name, it was her soul. Her very soul was crying out to him.

“Why do you call and not her?” His own soul asked earnestly.

“Her heart attempts to move on.” Cassie’s soul was filled with anguish and disgust at the idea of another.

Trik understood what her soul was saying. Cassie was with someone else. Rage, unbidden, pure, and blinding, crashed into and out of him. He felt the fear of those around him but didn’t care how his power was affecting them. All he could focus on was Cassie. He thought of her in detail, allowing his soul to reach out even more, so they could find her. He stepped through the solar panel and into a bathroom.

Cassie dressed in what she had deemed the sluttiest butterfly, if butterflies could be sluts, costume she could find. She stood next to Elora, who was wearing the next sluttiest butterfly costume she could find. Elora’s costume was only second to Cassie’s because Cassie’s boobs were bigger. Music pulsed around them and black lights made everything glow eerily.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this costume,” Cassie yelled over the music.

“Give me a break. You look hot. Todd can’t keep his eyes off you,” Elora yelled back.

“Or his hands,” Cassie muttered. She glanced around the room, looking between the swaying bodies and past the make out sessions to see if she could find the host of this year’s anticipated Halloween bash, and to her chagrin, her date.

“Where did octopus arms run off to anyways?” Cassie leaned in close to Elora’s ear this time so she didn’t have to yell.

“I think he and Sam went to get us drinks,” Elora answered.

Elora had talked her into being Todd’s date to the party, after giving her a lecture that a month with no word from the cowardice, feeble excuse for a dark elf assassin, emphasis on the ass, was long enough to mope and to get her ass up. Elora’s words.

So here Cassie stood in a room full of blaring music and scantily clad Halloween costumes, waiting for a guy she didn’t like to bring her a drink she didn’t want. “Happy freaking Halloween to me,” Cassie muttered under her breath just as she felt an arm slip around from behind her.

“Got my girl a drink.” Cassie felt Todd’s breath against her neck and tried not to cringe at the unwanted sensation. He smelled of sweat and beer. She took the drink from him and slyly slid from his arm as she turned to look at him.

“Great party,” Cassie yelled over the music.

Todd nodded. “It’s even bigger than the one I had last year.”

Cassie smiled over the rim of her cup as she took a small sip. She tried not to cough as the burn of the alcohol hit her throat. She swore to herself she would only take one sip, especially after she tasted just how much alcohol Todd had poured into it, but the more Todd talked, the more her hand seemed to raise the cup to her mouth on its own accord. Cassie hoped that she was nodding in all the right places as she tried to listen to him, but found it increasingly difficult as her brain began to get foggy. Finally, someone yelled Todd’s name and he excused himself.

Cassie’s shoulders slumped in exhaustion. Who knew how tiring it would be to fake interest in a conversation?

Elora nudged her as Todd walked away. “You awake?”

“Am I that obvious?” Cassie asked.

“An unbiased observer might say that you would rather watch paint dry than spend time with your date.”

Cassie groaned, “His voice is just so, so…”.

“Not Trik’s?” Elora finished.

“Exactly,” Cassie paused. “What? No, no, that’s not what I was going to say.” She frowned at Elora. “He’s just not someone I’m attracted to. He’s so Todd-ish,” she finished lamely.

“Todd-ish?” Elora raised her eyebrows at her friend. “How much alcohol did he put in that drink?”