Beyond the Fairy Gate

Chapter 41

Damien

Damien lay on the couch in the large common room, one arm over his forehead and the other across his stomach as he fell in and out of sleep. Just like he'd been since his scouts had headed into the human world. Ever since he'd watch that airship take off, he'd felt this overwhelming sense of loss that he didn't understand where it was coming from. Nothing had changed, he'd watched his scouts leave on missions all his life, so why now did it seem so different and why did he feel like something bad was going to happen.

"Damien," He looked over to see Ryan standing next to the couch and blinked a couple of times to clear his vision. He could see that Ryan had his arms crossed, slight worry on his face as if that hadn't been the first time he'd called Damien's name. Pushing himself to a sitting position he rubbed his face a few times before he pulled his long hair over his shoulder and started to run his fingers through it, his eyes on Ryan. "Prince Gabriel is here." He said shortly and all Damien did was nod as he stood and headed towards the door where it was cracked. He pulled it open to see Gabriel standing there with Sigma and Dashiner, a tired smile on his lips.

"Hey," Gabriel spoke as he turned from his scouts to greet him but paused. "You okay?" Damien ran a hand over his face and shook his head once to clear the fog that always seemed to be hanging around these days.

"Yeah, I think I'm just a little tired," Damien mumbled. There was a beat of silence as they just looked at each other. It was as if Gabriel was trying to figure something out that he didn't understand. "What's up?" Damien asked, breaking the silence, and Gabriel's eyes refocused on him.

"Oh, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to join us for lunch? We're heading down to get Nyline and her maids from the training grounds." Damien paused as he glanced behind him, seeing his scouts picking up their cards and grabbing shoes.

"Yeah, we'll come. Just give me a minute to get my shoes on." Gabriel nodded as Damien walked over to the couch to start pulling his boots on. Gabriel walked into the room looking around a little before his eyes landed back on Damien.

"The scouts should be back later tonight or tomorrow, we're you guys planning on staying for a few more days or heading home to meet them in Dunhule?" He asked his eyes falling back on Damien. It took Damien a second of just looking at Gabriel before his eyes found Nathan. It had been a couple of days since the scouts had left and yet he hadn't received an update. A knot formed in his stomach as Damien made a mental note to ask Nathan what was going on, he was sure that Angelica was checking in, but he knew that he'd been out of it the last day or so.

"That depends on my scouts," Damien spoke as he stood and started towards the door, his scouts talking softly behind him, "If they want to come up here, we'll stay and if not, we'll meet them down south." He paused looking at Nathan. "Do you know what Angelica and Jake want to do?"

"I think they both planned on coming back up this way before heading back down," Nathan spoke as everyone walked down the long hallway, heading towards the steps that would lead them out into the large front garden.

"Would you mind double-checking for me?" Damien asked and Nathan nodded as Damien increased his speed so that he and Gabriel were even as they strode across the lush garden and to a side gate that he hadn't seen yet. "Your training grounds are pretty close to the castle."

"Well, these are the private ones for scouts and royal guards," Gabriel explained as he opened the large wooden door and they started down the incline.

Damien didn't catch what Gabriel said next as he looked across the vast open area where he saw Nyline with a scout blade, going full force against King Nicholas. Their blades clashing against each other with such force that he was seeing sparks. His eyes looked around the large clearing to see that the two maids that were often with Nyline were off to the side with swords as they seemed to be sparring with each other. His hand went to his empty hip as he watched the two moved with fineness as they attacked, defended, and parried with ease. He wished that he'd brought his sword so that he could challenge one of them. It had been a while since he'd been able to go up against a new opponent.