The Hybrid (27 page)

Tru tried to gather everything she was hearing, to
make sense of it all. “So, I still look like I’m seventeen
because of the fairy part of me? Because they age slower
right?”
“That is correct,” Edyn replied, nodding his head. “My
mother said that when you were a baby, Margaret was
hopeful that you were mostly human. You aged properly
up until seven years after your birth. And then you only
changed every two, and then every five. Margaret knew
you could never know the truth. She had to protect you.
She knew what my brother would do if he found out.”
“Then what happens to me ten years from now? Will I
still look like this?” Tru pressed her hand flat against her
chest. She could feel her heart pounding heavily, but
steadily, beneath her muscles.
“More than likely. Soon it will feel like you are not aging at all.” He looked down at the ground. “Unfortunately
for me, time is now catching up.” He continued to look at
the ground as he took another sigh. “It will not be long
now. Soon, I will be looking like Ben.”
Tru giggled a bit before realizing that, to Edyn, this was
no laughing matter. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, placing
her hand over her mouth once again.
He smiled up at Tru lazily, before saying, “It is alright.
There is nothing I can do to stop it now.”
“So why doesn’t Maggie age like you are now?” Tru
asked, looking at the grey streaks in Edyn’s hair.
“There are only two ways for the Fey to become human. They can either wish it, once and only once, or they
can be stripped of them. When they wish it, they become
human and age like one. When it is against their will, they
die ⎯ within a matter of
days
.” Edyn looked
at the
ground again.
“Is there anyway to reverse it?” Tru asked, placing a
hand on Edyn’s shoulder. “Is there anyway to make you a
fairy again?”
“I do not know for sure, but my mother told me to find
my wings. She never told me what I had to do once I
found them though.” Edyn tilted his head in her direction. “If I do not find out what to do when I get them,
then I will never be Fey again.”
“So,” Tru was terrible at changing subjects, but for
both his sake and hers, it needed to be done. “Did my⎯
did Maggie know all this was going to happen?” It was
hard not to call Maggie her grandmother anymore, but it
was even harder to call the woman her mother.
“She knew. She just did not know when.” He pointed
casually to the mark on her hand. “I am almost positive
that when she saw that, she had a pretty good idea as to
when.”
“Oh my god,” Tru said aloud. She had completely ignored the fact that Maggie would soon be coming home to
a fairy.
What am I going to say? Hi Maggie, I know all about
the fairies. Look at my wings. Aren’t they cool? Not likely.
“I am also surprised that she left you here alone.” Edyn
stood from the couch and walked over to the front door.
Tru watched him carefully as he gently placed his hand on
the wooden door, and then leaned toward the small window near the top. He took a deep breath, and then turned
to face Tru once again. “You can not possibly be finished
can you?” he asked, grinning as he walked back to the
couch and plopped down beside her. “I cannot hear your
thoughts anymore, but I know you must have more questions for me.”
Tru watched him, noticing that he quickly glanced over
at the sliding glass door again. Tru pretended she didn’t
see the gesture by looking over at the front door until he
looked back at her.
“What happened to you?” Tru asked, barely able to get
the words out of her mouth clearly as she spoke hurriedly.
“Who did this to you?”
Edyn
casually
placed
his
hands
on
his
knees
and
looked at Tru intently. “Do you remember how I told you
that when our wings are taken by force, we become human?”
Tru nodded in response.
“And do you remember Airi?” He continued to stare as
he leaned closer to her.
Of course Tru remembered her. How could she forget?
She was the reason why Tru couldn’t remember three
days of her life. Tru nodded at Edyn, “yes. Did she do this
to you?” Tru rose from her seat quickly.
“No,” Edyn said, pulling her back down. “That day that
she attacked you,” he paused looking for a reaction from
Tru. But
his
expression, from what Tru could see, looked
pained as he sat next to her. It was almost like he was being pulled in a million different directions at the same
time. “That day,” he repeated, “I was chained in our dungeon, accused of treason. I heard you calling for me. I am
so sorry.”
“Is that when they took your wings?” Tru asked, grabbing his hand.
“No,” he replied quietly. “Two days later, when I chose
to stand up against him, he hung me from a balcony after
telling the guards to rip my wings out of my back.” He
looked down at the ground.
As Tru looked at Edyn’s face, two deep lines appeared
on the outside corner of each of his eyes. She shifted her
body closer to Edyn and rested her head on his shoulder.
Even though he now looked much older than the Edyn
she had first met, he was still a beautiful creature.
“Why did he do it?” Tru questioned, softly.
Edyn leaned his cheek against her forehead. “He was
looking for a traitor and found out that I was seeing you.”
Tru still wasn’t used to Edyn’s cool skin against hers.
His touch had been so warm and inviting before that it
seemed as though the loss of his wings had taken everything she had come to love about him. His face was missing its usual half-grin. His eyes looked heavy in their
sockets, and he hunched over as if he carried the weight
of the world on his shoulders. But his heart would always
be warm, even if
he
didn’t feel it, Tru could.
Tru’s body jolted up in a panic when she realized what
Edyn had said. “He doesn’t know I’m a fairy now, does
he?”
“No.” Edyn looked at a spot on the wall. “I was a traitor
because I was talking to a human. I have told him nothing
of what I discovered about you.”
“Who told him about us in the first place?” Tru spoke
quietly, but Edyn could still sense a tinge of worry in her
voice.
“Airi. I was waiting for you in the meadow that morning. I did not realize that she had followed me there. Usually I can hear her thoughts from a mile away. But for
some reason ⎯” he paused, taking a deep breath. “Anyway, she started yelling at me, telling me I was crazy for
speaking to a human. She informed me that she had told
my brother everything.” He fell silent, took another deep
breath, and then continued. “Shortly after that, his guards
came into the meadow and took me back to our village.
Kayne told her to leave as well, but she stayed and waited
for you.” He pulled his focus away from the wall to gaze at
Tru’s hand as she grabbed one of his and pulled it closer
to her.
“It’s all my fault,” Tru said quietly.
“No!” Edyn shouted. “How could you ever say such a
thing?” He leaned away from Tru, grabbing her shoulders
firmly in his hands.
“Because it’s true.” Tru looked into his pale green eyes.
“If I had never gone into that meadow, if we had never
met, you would still be a fairy!” Her head dropped into
her chest. Edyn quickly wrapped his arms around her as
she closed her eyes.
“Do not ever say that again! Meeting you was the best
thing that ever happened to me!” Edyn rubbed his hand
down Tru’s back, without realizing how intimately he was
holding her. But as he held her, her slightly rushed heartbeat calmed.
“Really?” she asked
“Really.”
Edyn and Tru remained silent for a while ⎯ she felt
comfortable in his arms. She felt safe and protected, like
nothing could harm her as long as Edyn kept his arms
tightly wrapped around her. She sank further into his
chest, and as she did, she closed her eyes, letting her
breathing deepen.
As
she
rested
against
him,
Tru
could
hear
Edyn’s
steady heart pounding away under his skin. She could
hear
his
calm
melodic
breathing.
And as
she
slowly
counted the beats of his heart, her own heartbeat slowly
fell into step.
“How did Maggie and Ben know where to find me?”
Tru finally asked after a few more minutes. The meadow
was so deep in the forest that they would’ve had to have
been told somehow.
“Maggie and Ben have known about that meadow.
They knew that is where you were going everyday. It is
the same meadow that they met each other in. When you
did not come home that night, Ben went to find you.”
Edyn rubbed Tru’s back vigorously as he spoke. “I should
have been there,” he whispered.
Tru wanted to cry, but she knew she couldn’t. So, she
fought back the tears, taking a few steady deep breaths
instead. Tru didn’t want Edyn to know how upset she
was. He had been in trouble that night too, and there was
nothing she could’ve done to help
him
either.
“You are lucky she did not kill you.” Edyn took a deep
breath. Tru’s head moved up and down with the rise and
fall of his chest.
“Edyn,” Tru whispered.
“Yes?”
“Earlier⎯”
Tru
stopped,
trying
to
compile
her
thoughts before she spoke again, “earlier you said you
have to protect me from your family.”
He gently squeezed her tighter to his chest and quietly
said, “Yes.”
“Is your brother going to kill me?” Tru’s eyes began to
tear up again, but this time she couldn’t hold them back
quite as well. She could feel a single strand of salted water
rolling down her cheek, stopping at her upper lip. As the
tears pooled up on her lips, she licked them away, sniffling into Edyn’s bare chest.
“I fear he may try.”
“How soon?” Tru closed her eyes, pressing them together tightly as more strands of salty water fell to her
chin.
“It is hard to say. He could be on his way here right
now. I cannot hear anyone anymore, so I cannot tell if he
is near us or not.” Tru could hear the fear in his voice. It
sounded like he was going to cry as well. “Or he might
wait until I am gone.”
“What do you mean gone?” Tru asked, pulling away
from Edyn’s body. But as she asked the question, she remembered what Edyn had said to her just moments before.
Edyn looked blankly at the space that was now between them.
She knew exactly what he had meant by gone. Every
second that he grew older was another second closer to
death. But the thought of Edyn leaving so quickly upset
her ⎯ a feeling that surprised her. Tru hadn’t known
Edyn for very long, but they had a connection, something
that no one else could ever have with either of them. And
it hadn’t hit her until he had said that he would be gone
soon, but Tru had completely fallen in love with him. She
immediately felt like she would die if he weren’t close to
her.
Tru didn’t hesitate to pull Edyn into her body. As she
sat there, she tried to imagine him the way he had been
just a week ago. “Please,” she whispered, “don’t leave
me.”
Edyn gently kissed her forehead, and then whispered,
“Never.”

As Maggie rounded a corner and headed down another
aisle of the grocery store, Ben pushed the squeaky cart
behind her. He leaned against the handrail, easing the
pain in his lower back.

“So what should we have for dinner tonight?” Maggie
asked, looking at the hundreds of cans of soup on the
shelves. Their cart was already pretty full.

“Well, it’ll just be you and I tonight. Trudy has that
party to go to.” Ben looked at the shelves as well, not seeing
anything
that
looked
too
appetizing.
“How
about
some spaghetti and meatballs?”

Maggie
looked
over
her
shoulder
at
her
husband.
“Don’t you feel like something a little more exciting?” She
grabbed a can of clam chowder off of the shelf and threw
it into her cart, looking back at her sloppily written list
she was holding in her hand.

Ben pushed the cart a little further down the aisle as
Maggie continued to peruse the shelf. “I don’t mind what
we have. It’s always good when you cook.” He pointed to a
random aluminum can, “even when it’s just a bowl of
cream of broccoli soup and a slice of bread.” He smiled up
at his wife, who looked at him comically as she threw a
can of chili into the cart.

“Funny,” she replied. “Fine, spaghetti and meatballs it
is.”
The two continued to walk, skipping over the rest of
the aisle, as they made their way toward the meat section
of the grocery store. As they walked, Maggie picked things
off of the shelves, tossing them into the cart, one by one.
When
they
arrived
at
the
meat
department,
Maggie
stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Ben.
“Do you think I did the right thing?” she asked, placing
her hands on either side of the cart.
Ben looked up at her as she looked down at the boxes,
cans, and bags of food piled inside the metal basket.
“What do you mean?”
Maggie picked up a box of cereal, mindlessly turning it
in her hands as she replied, “With Gertrude.” She placed
the box of cereal back into the cart and looked up at her
husband. “Do you think I did the right thing letting her
come to stay with us?”
“Didn’t you want her here? I don’t know about you, but
I’m happy she’s here. My daughter, my wife, my son. All
in one place.” Ben released the handrail of the cart and
walked over to his wife, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“This was going to happen eventually. Maybe it’s time to
tell her the truth.”
Maggie wrapped her arms around him. “Gail called
today. She said the same thing. But when I saw that mark
on her hand, I got so afraid, that I just froze up, and
walked away from her.”

“I am afraid that she will hate me. Or that she won’t
believe me. I took away her memories, Ben. I hid her life
from her. I left her with Gail, a woman who never even
wanted to be a part of any of this. I wouldn’t be surprised
if she hated me.” Maggie looked up into her husband’s
eyes and pulled away from his chest momentarily. “She’s
starting to find out things, Ben. She keeps asking me
questions. And we know she’s been going to see
him
. He’s
told her things, about that life. About you and I too I’m
sure.”