She nudges Jarreth in the arm. “Who is that?” she asks, nodding her head in the direction of the man.
Jarreth looks bewildered and shrugs.
“He doesn’t look like good news if you ask me,” Drake says darkly from behind them.
Calandra turns to him and she senses that Drake somehow knows more than he is letting on, judging by the smirk on his face. Before she can push him for any answers, he winks and walks away into the night.
True Colors
“You do know that I don’t believe you for a second, right?” she asks Drake as they walk through the town together.
Jarreth wasn’t particularly happy with the way she planned to try and get information out of Drake about the man in the pointed mask at the ball. But Calandra can’t seem to shake the felling that it is extremely vital they find out exactly who it was. Jarreth insisted that he at least accompany her to put her plan into action, but she knew that Drake would be much less accommodating with him around. Surprisingly, Jarreth hadn’t fought her on it, not as much as she had expected at least. Tristan had yet to show back up and Calandra had been fighting with her conscience, which was trying to remind her how much he meant to her and the huge apology that she owed him for the way she’s been treating him.
“Have you developed a lie detecting power as well?” Drake sneers.
“Perhaps I have.” She smiles at him, and then remembers that she is a horrible liar.
“Oh, my dear Calandra, you can’t be more cunning than me, so don’t even try!”
She feels slightly discouraged and wonders if her plan is actually going to get her anywhere. She had felt pretty confident when she left and headed over to Drake’s house. But somehow, when she’s not around Drake, she seems to forget just how good he is at deceiving and playing mind games. She has only just begun to learn to keep up in the Fae mind game department, and she is nowhere near the same level as Drake, or even Jarreth for that matter. She has a long ways to go in every aspect of this world, but something tells her that the mind game play is one talent she will never be able to learn to the same extent as Drake.
“Take me to the field,” she tells him, deciding not to go along with his previous comment.
“For?”
“I want to learn more about my powers.” She looks in front of her, trying to be sure that her eyes won’t give away her true intentions. “Jarreth still won’t show me much of anything.”
“Figured as much,” Drake mumbles and turns their direction toward the field. “Luckily I had a good bit of fun the last time we were there alone.” He winks at her. “I’m more than happy to return with you anytime you’d like.”
Calandra has to remember to keep her eye roll to herself and go along with the plan. She forces a smile and decides to kick things up a notch by taking his arm in hers as they walk. The field is back to normal without a single sign of the ball from a few nights ago. In a way, Calandra feels slightly disappointed to see it back in its original state. The lights had given it an extra boost of magic that had made it stunning. Although, she gets the feeling that the field would prefer to be in its current state than messed with in any way. Nature has a tendency to be vain, as Jarreth had explained to her after the ball.
Without even thinking about it or realizing what she was doing, Calandra walks straight over to the large tree in the field. Something about this tree always draws her in. She feels connected to it. It’s a sort of magnetic pull that she can’t, and doesn’t want to fight. She puts her hand on the tree and lets its magic course through her. Her eyes close instinctively. Drake’s hand is on her shoulder before she even realizes he is behind her.
“What is it?” she asks, once again feeling unable to form a coherent question. Luckily for her, it seems to be a faerie trait to read between the lines.
“Your draw to the tree?” Drake asks, leaning in much closer to her than he needs to.
Calandra nods. “It’s just a tree, how can I feel it?”
“Just a tree?” Drake sounds surprised. “Calandra, it’s not just a tree. It has a spirit. All plants do, they are living, breathing beings.”
Calandra turns around and gauges his expression to judge if he is being serious or not. Sure enough, there is no sign of sarcasm, which is certainly a rarity for Drake. “So why me?”
“Who says it’s just you?” Drake responds immediately, but a look flashes across his face and she wonders what it means.
“Is it?”
Drake shrugs, leaving Calandra wondering what he’s not telling her. “I guess you’d need another human around to ask that question wouldn’t you?” His sarcasm returns full force.
“So all of the humans left right after the ball?” she asks.
“Rules are rules,” Drake replies nonchalantly.
“What is it that you need them for exactly?” Calandra realizes as soon as she asks the question that she’s liable to regret it.
“Different things for different Fae, Calandra.” Drake leaves the question unanswered, and turns to walk a few feet away from her.
“Like?” Calandra presses further.
“Emotions.”
“I know that one already, what are some of the others?”
“Looks for some, morality for others, vanity, blood—” He barely speaks the last word audibly.
“Blood?”
Drake nods.
“Like a vampire?”
“Not in the least!” Drake responds; he is clearly offended at the comparison. “Vampires need blood for food, it’s their survival. Fae need it for … different reasons. We don’t partake of it in the same way, it’s more of a ritual for us.”
“So vampires are real?”
“That’s your question?” Drake arches an eyebrow at her.
Calandra shrugs, feeling embarrassed, and then giggles.
“You surprise me, Calandra.”
“Is that possible?”
“Of course it is, I can be … intrigued. My interest can be piqued. I’m not completely emotionless.”
“Is there a reason for the tree and me?” She changes back to the original line of questioning, sensing that he is avoiding the latest question for some reason.
“Yes,” he says simply.
“What is it?”
“That’s not for you to know just yet I don’t think.”
“You know I’ll just have Jarreth tell me,” she scoffs.
“How do you know that he knows? You seem to have some mistaken idea that Jarreth and I know the same things when it comes to you. I have to wonder what exactly gave you that impression.”
Calandra shrugs.
“You’d do well to remember that’s not the case, not even close. Remember, Jarreth was not the only one that was in the picture with Hollyn, so if you really want some answers you just might have to come to me, whether you like it or not.”
Drake walks over to the center of the field where a group of Sprites dance around a leftover rainbow tulip from the ball.
“Wanna play?” His voice changes completely; it turns boyish and mischievous.
Calandra is disturbed that her first instinct is to get excited and say yes. The desire doesn’t go away, it sits in her chest, burning through her with the intensity of a forest fire. Suddenly, a new thought distracts her from it, at least momentarily. “What makes you think it’s okay to mess with creatures like that?” she asks.
Drake shrugs. “Why not?”
Calandra scoffs, “Do you have any regard for feelings other than your own?”
“Faerie!” Drake replies simply. “Besides, for your information, I was asking in regards to your feelings. Don’t pretend like you didn’t enjoy our time here a few weeks ago.” He smiles up at her mischievously as he says it.
The burning desire comes back full force. Calandra can’t fight the smile from breaking through and she blushes along with it.
Drake’s eyes seem to light up in response. “You don’t have to hide it from me, Calandra, I won’t judge.”
Calandra sits on the grass across from him. “Somehow, I feel you’d be the first to judge me.”
Drake looks surprised and nods his head. “Calandra, evil doesn’t judge, it only tempts, remember?” He taps her nose gently before turning his attention back to the Sprites playing between them. “Now, I asked you a question. Fun or no fun?”
A million different answers run through Calandra’s mind, most of them the types of responses she should say, the ones that end in no. However, when her mouth opens, it betrays her and says the one that ends in yes. She instantly wants to take it back and say no, but it’s no use. Her brain, heart, and mind aren’t working in the same direction.
Drake’s smile goes up a few notches in wickedness as he looks over at her. “I want you to try something,” he says, reaching his hand out to her.
Calandra looks at him skeptical of what to do. Memories of the last experience here flash through her and it sends a mixture of temptation and guilt pulsing through her. After a few moments, she realizes that fighting the urge is pointless. She sighs before she gives in and reaches out to take his hand.
He turns her hand over in his and faces her palm toward the ground. Holding her gaze, he lightly rubs his finger in small circles on her palm. A tickling sensation runs through her and mixes with the chill that his touch makes her feel. Just like that, he empties out her conscious. Drake holds her hand in midair for what seems like an eternity before he finally places it on the grass below them. “Close your eyes,” he tells her.
Deep down, in the pit of her stomach, Calandra knows she should be questioning what Drake is doing. Or more likely, she should be running the other way. However, she ignores that instinct. Instead, she has an inclination to discover what he will show her. Her anticipation rises and she obliges his request and closes her eyes.
“Listen to your surroundings,” he whispers into her ear. He is somehow suddenly behind her.
Her breath catches somewhere between her stomach and her throat, and she has to steady herself again. After refocusing, she is able to concentrate on what she was asked to do. The feel of the grass against her skin sends tickles through her as she allows nature to fill her and course through her.
“Remember how to focus that to do what you want it to?”
Calandra nods. “What am I doing with it?”
“Just let it go,” he says softly into her ear. “I don’t want you to try and direct it to anything in particular. Just let it go and see what happens.”
Calandra doesn’t understand where he is going with this, but she does as he says anyways. She focuses on all of the feelings inside her and all at once lets them go through her hand. She lifts her hand up off the ground and feels it release through her fingers.
She opens her eyes to find flowers covering the field; there are so many that not a single blade of grass shows anymore. The ones closest to her are multicolored, like the ones that were scattered during the ball. She turns around and notices that the flowers surrounding where Drake sits behind her are all black roses. A shudder runs through her when she recognizes the difference. Further out from where they sit, the flowers turn into a beautiful mixture of blue, purple, and pink lilies. The scene takes Calandra’s breath away until she realizes that the sprites are frozen in front of her. Her heart sinks. She thought she had done something beautiful this time in making the flowers, and somehow unknowingly, she also did something ugly.
“Relax, Calandra,” Drake says as he comes back around her to sit in front of her again, bringing them face to face. “I did the Sprites, you did the rest.”
Something lifts inside her with the relief that she wasn’t the one that caused their stand still. But it unsettles when it hits her that there is no need for them to be frozen. Drake simply did it for spite, for some sick pleasure. She lifts her hand toward the sprites and musters up the little bit of strength she needs to unfreeze them.
Drake looks disappointed. “It doesn’t hurt them, you know?” he says simply.
“That’s not the point, Drake. You don’t have the right to toy with creatures like that.”
Drake rolls his eyes and gets up. He looks down at her once more, but his expression is unreadable, and he turns and walks away without another word. Calandra sighs in his absence. So much for her plan. She hadn’t managed to get any useful information out of him, Jarreth had been right … again.
One of the Sprites lands on her shoulder. She must be forgiven from the last time she was here when she had been the one to toy with them. “Sorry,” she mumbles under her breath and lies down in the grass. A shadow appears over her and startles her upright again. Tristan stands behind her and looks timidly down at her.