The Hybrid (9 page)

Again, Edyn glided across the floor, closer to her. As he
advanced, his face slowly came into focus. Tru examined
him as the muscles around his neck and shoulders tensed.
He smiled, his pearly white teeth practically glowing in
the dark. Tru couldn’t help but smile back. With the
moon’s light shining down on her face, she knew he could
see the natural pink tone of her fleshy cheeks turning into
a bright red color.

“No, I am not cold,” Edyn replied, speaking aloud now.
Clearly he heard what Tru was thinking, but she didn’t
care. Anyone with any feeling in his or her body could tell
it was cold outside.

Anyone,
she thought,
would ask how he isn’t affected
by it.
“My body changes climate when the weather does.” He
stopped walking, leaving only a foot between the two of
them, and grabbed Tru’s hand. “When it is cold, my internal temperature rises. And when it is warm, my temperature cools.” He pulled her hand close to his body, and
then pressed it flat against his chest. His skin was warm,
and soft, and wonderful, but being the shy girl that Tru
had only just recently become, she removed her hand almost immediately. Tru looked down at the ground, hoping Edyn wouldn’t notice how embarrassed she had just
become.
“Sorry,” Tru said, barely audible.
“Do not be so apologetic,” he replied, creeping closer
once more, slowly closing the gap between them. “It has
been a while since I have been this close to a human.” Tru
could feel his warm breath against her skin as he spoke. “I
have forgotten how to act around one.”
“Sure, ‘cause fairies usually do this all the time, right?”
Tru asked sarcastically again, looking up. His bright green
eyes looked down at her. She gazed up at them, getting
lost almost instantly, noticing the fact that even in the
darkness, they seemed to shine even brighter, almost like
there was a tiny light shining out through the back of
them.
They’re glowing,
she thought to herself, amazed.
Edyn chuckled. “Can I show you something?” He took
both of Tru’s hands within his grasp, pulling them down
by his sides. “But I need you to promise me something in
return.”
“Anything.” Tru tightened her grip around his hands,
stepping closer to him.
“You cannot tell anyone about what I am going to show
you. If any human knew about my family ⎯”
“I understand.” Tru didn’t want him to finish his sentence. She knew what would happen, and she knew she
couldn’t let it happen.
“Do you promise?” He took one step back, bending
forward slightly so that they were at eye level once again.
His tone of voice changed instantly, becoming very serious, and very quiet.
“Yes, I promise.”
I do. I mean it.

“Then follow me.” Edyn took Tru’s hands and led her
through the open sliding glass door and out into the cold
air. The sky was clear now, and the moon flooded the
backyard with light ⎯ a blue glow that bounced off of
everything it touched.

With Edyn pulling her forward by a single wrist, the
two of them hurried across the yard, passing the new table and chairs her grandmother had set up sometime earlier that day. When they reached the edge of the forest,
Edyn stopped, causing Tru’s body to slightly bump into
his shoulder. Tru gazed at the opening of the path that
meandered through the forest, ending at her meadow. It
wasn’t distinctly marked, but she knew it was there. Instantly, she wondered if Edyn could see it too. Suddenly,
he turned to face her.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

Tru looked up at him. The moonlight created mysterious shadows around the contours of Edyn’s cheeks and

eyes, leaving only the left side of his face completely visible in the dark. His left eye looked slightly greyish in the
light, while the right still resembled a small firefly.

Tru nodded, slightly frightened by what she was supposedly ready for.

In an instant, Tru’s legs and feet were scooped up from
the ground and her body was thrust into his chest. His
arms held her tightly, one firmly gripping her shoulders,
while the other slid gently under the crease in her knees.

“Oh!” Tru
gasped, slightly
surprised. She
knew
he
could fly⎯
obviously
⎯ but she didn’t expect to be flying
with
Edyn any time soon.

“The only way to get to where we are going is to fly.”

Tru sucked in a hurried breath, and in that same instant, the two of them were nearly fifty feet in the air.
The trees looked very different when looking at them
from above. They reminded Tru of the dark choppy caps
of the waves of the Pacific Ocean as she and her parents
sailed out across the deep open waters in search of some
fresh yellowtail tuna. Tru hadn’t been out that far since
her father had passed, but looking down at the trees, remembering the fun they used to have, made her slightly
miss the water, and the smell of the ocean spray hitting
her face.
Tru and Edyn were just high enough above the trees to
where they could sail freely through the air, but surprisingly still provided them with proper cover. At times, Tru
could have reached out and touched one of them if she
wanted to.

Edyn flew fast, and the chilling wind hitting Tru’s face
felt like tiny daggers with blades made of solid ice. She
huddled her face into Edyn’s warm, supple, wonderful,
and completely naked chest, and closed her eyes, almost
forgetting where she was ⎯ and who she was leaning
against. Edyn snickered. Tru’s head bounced with his
chest as he laughed.

Tru couldn’t tell how far they had flown, or even how
long it had been since they had left the house. She could
only measure time by the steady pace of Edyn’s heartbeat.
He flew so smoothly and so quietly that she felt as though
they hadn’t been moving at all.

And before she knew it, her feet were back on the
ground again.
“You can open your eyes now,” Edyn whispered into
her ear as he placed his hands on her waist.
Tru opened her eyes slowly. Edyn was looking directly
down at her, smiling. Instantly, Tru became very dizzy,
and his calm face began to spin in front of her. Edyn
grabbed her shoulders quickly, and lowered her to her
knees. Slowly, he knelt beside Tru and placed a soft hand
on her cheek. Tru sucked in a deep breath, filling her
lungs with the chilling air.
“Are
you
okay?” Edyn
asked,
rubbing
his thumb
against her skin.
Warmth
.
That’s what I needed.
“I’m fine,” Tru lied. She sat up straight and looked at
their surroundings, trying to focus her eyes quickly in the
dark night sky. But when she looked down, she immediately noticed that what she had originally thought to be
dirt ⎯ solid ground beneath her body ⎯ suddenly became more terrifying.
Tru was kneeling on a thick branch of an enormous,
unfamiliar
looking
tree,
nearly
thirty
feet
off
of
the
ground. Quickly, and without using any part of her conscious mind, Tru’s arms wrapped tightly around Edyn’s
bare neck, holding on for dear life.
“Are you sure?” he asked. Edyn placed one hand on her
hip and chuckled.
But Tru was too focused on the ground below her now
to pay any more attention to his voice.

Don’t look down. Don’t fall
.

“I would never let
you fall,” Edyn said after a few
minutes of silence.
Of course. The mind reading thing again, how could I
forget?
Tru turned and looked up into his eyes, beaming a subtle smile, and then looked back down at her knees safely
planted on the branch.
“So where are you taking me?” she asked, looking back
up into Edyn’s eyes.
“To my home.”
“To the veil?”
He nodded.
“Is it safe now?”
He nodded again.
“Where is it?” Tru looked around, but saw only trees.
Here.
He did not move his lips.
Tru’s face twisted into a confused mess as she looked
at him.
He spoke quietly as if he were worried someone would
hear him, “welcome to Artensia.”
Is he joking?
Tru looked around again, but still only saw trees. Tru
expected to see something a little flashier, maybe even
some more fairies flying around. But no. There was nothing but trees, trees, and more trees. It looked just like any
other part of the forest. Tru looked at Edyn again, confusion still clearly written across her face.
“You see only trees. But through my eyes, you would
see the windows and doors that have been carved into
there massive trunks. Over there,” he pointed to a wide
space between two trees, “is a wooden planked bridge,
softly illuminated by hanging lanterns.” Tru examined the
space he was pointing at, but saw only darkness. “And
around each of those enormous trunks, are narrow staircases, spiraling all the way up.” He pointed to the three
enormous trees directly in front of them. Tru pictured the
place in her mind, imagining how beautiful it must have
looked.

She pictured the bridges and the wooden staircases,
glowing in the dim light of the lanterns, like something
out of a fantasy. She imagined the doors and windows in
the trees, and visualized what it must look like with more
people like Edyn standing there, in the open doorways,
walking
up
the
staircases,
fluttering
from
branch
to
branch effortlessly. Gertrude blinked, and for a moment,
she could have sworn she could see the faint glow of one
of the lanterns on a nearby tree, but as she blinked again,
the light quickly disappeared.

“Why can’t I see any of this?” she whispered with a bit
of excitement in her voice, as she hurriedly looked at
Edyn.

“Artensia is protected by many ancient spells and incantations.” Edyn looked at her now. “In case any human
accidently stumbles upon our home, they would not know
it. It would just look like any other part of the forest to
them.” He looked up into the branches above them. “Our
magic protects us. But we are a dying breed. And fewer
and fewer Fey are born with these special gifts. If we lose
that protection, there is no telling what may befall upon
my people.”

“Aren’t
you
all
born
with
the
same
abilities?” Tru
asked, continuing to look at his face. Edyn did not remove
his gaze. For a moment, Tru thought he might have been
looking at the stars, but when she looked up, she could
only see the shadowed tree limbs above.

“No. Our destiny is written out before we are born, and
our powers are chosen for us. Most of us acquire our full
range of abilities when we reach maturity. Some unfortunately, may never receive their gifts.” He looked down at
his left hand as his fingers tightened around Gertrude’s.
“The markings on our skin,” he pointed to the spiraled
marking on his forearm with his right hand, “they tell
other Fey what we can do. They are our identity, our history, our lives. This one here,” he pointed to one higher
on his shoulder. “This one says that I belong to the royal
family of our veil.” Tru looked at the shape of the marking, noticing how it curled like the crescent moon, but
had tiny pieces that poked out in different directions. It
reminded her almost of the thorny stem of a rose bush.
“And every year, these will grow, covering almost my entire body. They will continue to grow until the day I pass.”

Tru grabbed at his arm, and began tracing the fading
black lines on his tan skin. They felt silky, and smooth
under her fingertips. And almost immediately, after realizing what she was doing, Tru pulled her hand away, placing it gently in her lap, while the other stayed wrapped in
Edyn’s delicate hand.

“So where is everyone?” Tru whispered as she looked
around again.
“My brother has taken a hunting party to another part
of the forest. The women and children are in Riventalis,
our neighboring village, where they can be safe.” He
looked around at the trees.
“What are they being protected from?” Tru was curious
now. What could be forcing his people to run for cover?
What kind of enemies did the fairies have?
“It is just a precaution. With no males around, they are
unprotected from
anything
that may threaten our entire
existence.” He looked at Tru again. “Some things cannot
be stopped with magic.” Tru looked into his eyes, noticing
how they seemed so serious and still so warm and inviting. “But never mind that. Now I can show you around
more easily.” Slowly, the two began to stand from the tree
branch.
With Edyn’s
arms
now
once
again wrapped
around Tru’s waist, the two managed to make it only
about a foot above the wooden branch before she decided
to speak again.
“Wait,” Tru whispered, gripping Edyn’s neck tightly in
her hands.
This is my opportunity. I have to take it.
“Yes?” he said, hovering for a moment before lowering
them back onto the branch.
“I was wondering,” Tru looked down at the ground,
“what else can you do?”
Edyn
released
a
hand
from
around
her
waist
and
placed it against Tru’s cheek, rubbing her flushed skin
with his thumb, before gently pushing a loose piece of
hair behind her ear.
“I will tell you when you are ready.” He smiled his familiar quirky grin.
“Are your other gifts that bad?”
“No, I just think they can be a little overwhelming to
humans.”
Overwhelming?
In all honesty, meeting a fairy, let
alone any mythological creature that⎯ up until today⎯
only existed in children’s storybooks, seemed incredibly
overwhelming to Tru. Maybe
he
wasn’t ready. Maybe he
was testing her first, just to make sure she wasn’t going to
tell anyone about him. Or maybe he was bluffing. Maybe
he didn’t have any other abilities.
“Oh,” Tru replied, trying not to sound too pushy.
Edyn lowered his hand, wrapping it around her waist
again. So, she gripped his neck even tighter in her own
hands, readying herself. Slowly, Tru’s feet lifted from the
branch. She had the urge to close her eyes again, but
something told her to keep them open. This time, the
flight was slower, and definitely more intimate, than it
had been before. Tru pressed her face closer to Edyn’s
chest, this time out of comfort, not out of fear.
“You’re so warm,” Tru whispered without thinking. It
was too late to take it back, but part of her really didn’t
care what he heard anymore. She knew she was bound to
say something that she would feel embarrassed about. A
quiet laugh rumbled through Edyn’s chest. She could feel
his muscles quivering against her head.
“Do not be afraid.”
“I’m not.” Tru knew she was lying to herself. Edyn
knew she was lying to herself. Tru was terrified. She tried
not to look down at the forest floor so far below them as
Edyn slowly carried them through the chilling night sky.
It looked like it was a mile away, but Tru knew it couldn’t
have been more than forty feet.
Tru’s hands began to sweat nervously. She was nervous
of how high they were. She was nervous every single time
Edyn was anywhere near her. It was a miracle she hadn’t
passed out again.
Tru tightened her grip around Edyn’s neck, hoping she
wasn’t hurting him, though she knew, that to him, it
probably felt like she was barely even touching him. But
her hands were getting so moist and slippery that it was
hard to keep even a
loose
grip around his neck. Carefully,
she removed one hand from around Edyn’s neck so she
could wipe it off on her cotton basketball shorts. But her
strength was nothing like his. She could hardly support
herself with one hand.