Heir To The Nova (Book 3) (19 page)

Something was off, that much I knew. I tried opening my eyes, but they didn’t seem to respond. I was weak and so very tired. I felt like I was in a bed; at least there were soft things around me. I could also feel a weight on my chest, but any concerns I had about my condition vanished as I recognized the smell of Maya’s hair.

I drifted back to sleep and rested for what felt like a long time until a firm hand clasped my shoulder. “Alex, son, it’s time to wake up.”

My eyes opened, but were unfocused, registering only a blob of color standing above me. I blinked and it was like a series of magnifying lenses started to snap over my eyes, each layer adding additional sharpness to the image until I could see every line and crack in the polished wooden planks that made up the ceiling of our tower room at the top of the keep. Shifting my attention to my father, I watched him smile tentatively, but the crow’s feet near his eyes showed that he carried a great burden of worry. Looking away from him for a moment, I could see I was propped up against the headboard, surrounded by mounds of pillows and covered with a thin blanket.

Maya was stretched out on her stomach on the bed, with her head on my lap, her curls spread out in all directions on top of my blanket. She was covered in a blanket, too; but it appeared there was something else on top of her as there was a conspicuous bulge. I put my hand gently on the back of her neck and lifted up the blanket slightly. All I saw were feathers and a lot of them. So why is there a dead bird in our bed? Running my hand down to her shoulders, I discovered two intriguing things. One, my dark elf was completely naked under that blanket and two, those feathers were small, immature wings, and they were attached!

Reeling a bit and hoping fervently that this was a dream after all, I bent my head to my own shoulders, and I was gifted with an excellent view of similar wings, draped over the headboard and attached to my own back. They were handsome wings I would have to admit; primarily white, with black speckles. Turning back around, I looked at my father questioningly, hoping for an answer.

“How?”

He chuckled and pulled up a large side chair. “Honestly, we don’t know, but you two gave everyone quite the moment when you both started screaming. Your mother was frantic and gave off so much magic, I think she goosed every wizard in the fortress! I kept trying to tell her that if the crystal was going to kill you, you would have just been instantly vaporized, but she was in no mood to listen.”

“Umm, thanks…I think.”

He suddenly looked horrified with himself. “That was the completely wrong thing to say, wasn’t it?”

“Just a little.”

“I’m sorry, I am still getting used to having a son.”

“It’s alright.”

“Anyway, you two had a bad time of it, screaming and thrashing about; but you never let go of each other. In fact, we had to pry your hands apart to bring you up here. Rosa grabbed the druid girls and Alera, and brought them to you as quickly as possible. But there wasn’t much to be done; the transformation was beyond the ability of human magic to alter. Thankfully, you both fell unconscious shortly after.

“So what are we really?”

“Well, you are exactly what the crystal entity explained you would become, the new generation of special protectors of this planet. Of course, to everyone else you probably look like owls.”

“Owls,” I repeated woodenly.

..................................................

Maya

Sleep was wonderful, and a rest-filled night after the last few weeks was very much needed. I could sense Alex’s presence and, as always, it made me instantly comfortable, so much so that I nearly drifted back to sleep again. But then he started doing something that he shouldn’t, and he wouldn’t stop! I shifted uneasily in the bed and turned my head without opening my eyes.

“Hmmm…Alex…you’re playing with my ears again…”

He chuckled but didn’t even flinch like he normally does. “For once, I can safely say that I am not touching your ears.” He’s not? Well, whatever he is stroking feels really, really good. Wait…what is he touching, my back? I opened my eyes. I was on my stomach so I had to crane my neck a bit to look up at him, and strangely, my field of vision seemed wider than normal so it was no problem to see him. Alex was gazing at me lovingly with his hand on the back of my shoulders. I was still having vision issues, because his normal gorgeous brown eyes looked amazingly large and rounder from this angle. And the lenses of his eyes were like polished crystal; they almost glowed. He had his back to the low headboard, and it looked like there were wings behind him; big fluffy, white and black speckled wings.

“Um, are we dead?”

“Nope.”

“Sea slugs?”

“Not slugs.”

I sighed and got more comfortable on his lap, but then I started thinking. “If we’re not dead, then why do you have angel wings?”

Alex snickered. “If I was an angel, I wouldn’t be having the kind of thoughts I’m having about a certain beautiful dark elf, who happens to be completely naked under those covers.”

“What?” I raised myself up on my elbows and looked down my front, and then grinned up at him. “Hmmm…very astute observation, but you’re hiding something. Why does it look like you have wings?”

“Because I do, sweetheart.”

“Ahuh.”

“And, I’m afraid, so do you.”

“What?” I twisted around and tried to see, but Alex wrapped his arms around my shoulders and held me in place.

“Maya, calm down; we aren’t allowed to move around yet!”

In disbelief, I struggled with him anyway. Escaping his grasp momentarily, I looked back and there they were! About four feet long; but mine were totally white on the top half and only went to black-speckled toward the tips. Instantly, I felt a sharp stab of pain ripple through my back. Shaking his head, Alex carefully pushed me back down to my resting position on his lap.

“Told you not to move; our wounds aren’t closed yet.” He reached for something next to the bed and carefully placed it between my shoulder blades. “Yep, you reopened one; Alera will be pissed.”

I did my best to calm down but still, how does one respond to ‘you have wings’? Alex straightened the blanket covering me to preserve my modesty and sighing, shifted his weight and brought one of his wings over the top of the headboard so it was directly in front of me. His wing was a little longer than mine, but still only a little over four feet. I had to admit it was gorgeous to look at, even if it was totally inadequate for flying. From my experience in the forests, I would say this looked like a juvenile owl’s wing more than anything else.

“We have wings,” I said in disbelief.

“Yes, it seems that we do; but, Maya, considering the alternative of death or sea slug, this doesn’t seem so bad.”

“But why do we have them?”

“Well, my parents don’t even know, but I would have to guess this is what the crystal entity meant when he said ‘something new’.”

I didn’t really know what to say, and a little full-blown panic began to set in. How will my life change with this? Am I even a dark elf anymore? By the stars, what am I going to tell my parents? Will I even be able to use a sword effectively with these useless things on my back? Sensing that I was about to lose it, Alex started to massage my neck and shoulders. I didn’t want to be placated, but I couldn’t help but relax with his strong hands running over my body.

“
Feeling good now, are we?”
said Winya with her usual snide remark.

“
Oh, shut up, you have no idea how good this feels.”

“Actually, I do.”

“How?”

“What? I never said anything. I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
Ok, she is definitely hiding something. But before I could properly confront her on the subject, the door to the room popped opened as Dawn and Dusk walked in with huge smiles on their faces.

“Oh good, you’re both awake, and so cute, too.” Dawn nodded, before yelling down the hallway. A few seconds later the druid girls, all three of them, burst into the room with Alera and Rosa not far behind. The first thing they did was break out their sketch books and started writing and whispering among themselves.

Rosa threw herself on top of us and tried her best to hug every inch of us. “Alex, you owe me! And I demand as payment that you never do anything like that again!” she said as tears ran down her face. “Your screams still haunt my dreams. I felt your pain. I know it wasn’t your fault or anything, but I still don’t like it.” I tried to hug her as best I could with Alex still keeping me from moving.

“Alex, you can let go of me now.”

“Actually,” Alera growled, sliding around from the other side of the bed, “it is better if he didn’t.” Rosa dried her tears and sat down next to me on the side of the bed to hear what the healer had to say. “You seemed to have reopened your wounds and he appears to be keeping you from causing further injury to yourself. If you don’t start behaving, I will have to administer a sedative.”

Rosa smiled next to us. “A fine idea!” She looked at the girls who were huddled together comparing notes in their sketchbooks. “Girls, could I have a time estimate, please?”

They buzzed a bit longer before Ryliss stepped forward. “If our observations are correct, the transformation should be done in about fourteen hours.”

“Excellent!” She leaned down and whispered in Alex’s ear, “Don’t think you have outshined your master just yet. Even without help from your mother, I learned one of your own enchantments and made some improvements of my own. Nighty-night, you two!”

“Rosa, wait!”

But it was no use; I went out like a candle in the wind.

..................................................

Alex

This time when I woke up, I was on my stomach facing the door, hungry and more than a little cross. “Dammit, Rosa,” I hissed, “I’m sick and tired of being in this bed!”

Her face appeared inches from mine and, as always, she was annoyingly cheerful and smiling. “Well, I would have to say that charm worked like a charm.” I groaned at what had to be the world’s lamest joke. But it is impossible to stay angry at Rosa for any length of time.

“How is Maya?” I asked trying to move my head to look in the other direction. My mentor brought her hand down on my ear and stopped me.

“Your girl is doing fine; she’s just on the other side of the bed. Alera is just finishing up with her. We’ll wake her up in a few minutes, but right now we want to concentrate on you.”

“All done here,” Alera announced from behind me, and I heard Dusk say something about dressing her.

Losing patience, I finally burst out, “Can I get some clothes and get up now?” Looking down, it appeared I had some short pants on, but nothing else.

“We’ll have to design you some new shirts,” Rosa said excitedly. “We pieced together some things for Maya that will do for now, but at least you don’t have breasts to worry about.”

“Yes, Father, don’t put on an uncomfortable shirt on our account,” Dawn chimed in snickering, as she apparently finished dressing Maya somewhere behind me.

“Fine, whatever.” I tried to roll over, but Rosa continued to hold me in place.

“Not a wise move right now,” Alera said briskly. “You two are going to have to teach yourselves how to do many things differently in your daily lives, sleeping being one of them.”

“Why, because of our wings? They didn’t look like they would be too much trouble, they aren’t very big.”

“Weren’t,” corrected the healer. “They weren’t very big fourteen hours ago. Now…well, that’s a different story.” Alera ran her fingers over my back in a few places, doing a cursory exam. “You’re all good here. Unlike your girlfriend, you listened and didn’t thrash around much. Ok, now I’m going to remove the spell I put on the two of you. Once I do that, your bodies will be free to control your wings, and I use the term control loosely. I’m almost positive the part of your brain that controls motor skills is going to have a major meltdown with all the new nerve endings and musculature, so be ready.”

She cancelled whatever spell she was using on us, and I was expecting some form of muscle tremor explosion, but all my wings did was twitch slightly before relaxing fully and remaining motionless.

“Ok, well that was…anticlimactic,” Alera muttered. “And once again, I look like a complete fool in front of my King and Queen, but what else is new.”

There was a bright flash and my mother appeared in the room. She walked up and put an affectionate hand on Alera’s back. “Alera dear, no healer in history has dealt with anything remotely like this situation. You have performed splendidly, and we are very grateful for your efforts.” Alera flushed and performed a small curtsey. My mother continued, “As for their reaction, I think you will find they are predisposed to flight, just as if they were born with these feathers.”

“Ok, so how do we move these wings?” I asked.

Lin spoke up cheerfully, “If it’s anything like when we change forms, my best advice is to not think about it at all. Your body already has all the muscle memory…just do.”

By this time, I could hear Maya was awake and rustling a little next to me, but not saying anything. At a nod from Alera, the twins effortlessly lifted each of us out of the bed and onto our feet. That’s when I got my first full view of my girl. She was dressed in soft pants and had on a form of vest with cut outs in the back for her wings. At the moment, her arms were held tightly at her sides and her wings were folded and quivering on her back. The tops of them rose more than a foot above her head. The tips of the wings actually brushed the ground slightly behind her; these things were big! She did not look at all happy, as I could see tears forming in her even bigger emerald eyes and her bottom lip was trembling. I was about to move forward to comfort her when my mother, of all people, stepped up and gently took her hands.