War of Faeries

Chapter 39

One day. I have one more day that's all the time I have left.

I glare at Sebastian. Instead of being in the palace, wrapped up in Matthew's arms, I am here. Sebastian smirks at me, he knows I leave tomorrow, he knows I don't want to be here. That I shouldn't be here.

"They are dead. At least two of them are." I slip him the pieces of paper he gave me, this time they have dead written across it in big red letters.

"How?" he asks, this information was clearly news to him. He truly thought they were missing in action, that they were still alive.

"Bar fight. They got into a fight with the wrong people." the lie slips off my tongue easily. Sebastian's men were famously known for getting into petty fights with strangers.

"I see. What about the others? I need to know where they are." he tells me, fire burning in his eyes.

"Look I can only do so much. You still haven't told me who I am supposed to be looking for."

"And yet you still found them." he shoots back.

"I found them because I know your men. If you tell me who I am looking for, then I can get you the information you are searching for faster."

"Id rather not tell you. You are about to go-"

"Fine, tell me after I get back then. It doesn't matter to me, you are the one who wants answers."

                                               ****

"Where do you go?" Matthew asks massaging my shoulders.

"Out."

"You will have to tell me eventually. Secrets aren't good for relationships."

Only if he knew what he was asking me to reveal. Only if he knew what would happen if I told him the truth. Sometimes a secret here and there isn't a bad thing.

"I was training." 

"That's not what Max told me, or Justin. You want to try that again?"

I turn around so I am facing him. He had me followed? He sent Max and Justin after me? He tilts his head to the side, awaiting my answer. I bite the inside of my cheek so I don't say something I am bound to regret later.

"I cant believe you. You had me followed? What you couldn't trust me?"

"I was worried about you. First you come back with a book- which you don't want to answer any questions about. Then you need me to keep the royals busy. I understand wanting to ditch those meetings, but to sneak out of the palace? To go- to go...."  he couldn't finish his sentence, "A whore house? Its not that I don't trust you, its that I am worried about you."

"I was visiting someone." I murmur.

"I don't doubt that." he says with a sour face.

"Look, if you go digging around in my past you are going to find a lot of things you don't want to know. Things that will make you run for the hills. I don't want to loose you, not after we just started this." I place my hand on his cheek, "Trust me, you don't want to know, and you don't need to know what I am doing outside these walls."

"I want to know what you- who you were visiting. I deserve to know that." He pulls my hand away from his face.

"I know several of the girls that work there. I- I used to work there. I wanted to make sure they were okay. That life is... it isn't pleasant. I was lucky enough to get out of there, but others aren't as lucky."

"You worked there?" I pull away from him, wrapping my arms around myself. "You worked there?" he repeats.

"I understand why you don't want to see me any more. I should have told you before. I-"

"It doesn't change anything for me." He says cutting me off.

"What?"

"It doesn't change anything for me. You did what you had to for your survival. I get that. As long as you have left that life behind it doesn't matter."

He wraps me into a hug, and I rest my face into the crook of his neck. We don't have time to fight, time to argue. The bottom line is I am leaving, and there is nothing we can do to change that. So why would we waste the precious time we do have fighting?

"How are they?" he asks, pulling away from me.

"Most of them moved on. But the ones that are there are surviving. Holding on to the hope that one day they will leave that life behind."

"You got out. So can they." he pushes a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"If it was only that easy." I whisper.

"You want to talk about it?" he asks.

"Not right now. Later."

                                               ****

All day the thought about being trapped in the whore house plagued me.  When I was in that house all I wanted was a way out, and when I had one I jumped on the opportunity. If I hadn't taken that jump, where would I be now? Would I still be in that house? Or would I be in a grave somewhere because I never got out.

"What are you doing up?" Matthew asks sitting up in my bed, so the sheets fall into his lap.

I close the file that I had sitting open on my desk. I suck my bottom lip into my mouth, I don't know how to tell him. I had only shared this information with one other person. I knew then that him loving me for who I was and what I had done was rare, but now I have a second chance. Another person willing to love me for who I am.

"Can't sleep?" he asks rubbing his hand over his face.

I nod meekly at him, he opens his arms. I walk over to the bed and crawl into his arms. He covered me with the blankets and held me in his arms. He was giving me the space I wanted, and I was giving him the silence he didn't deserve.

"Being back in that place, it brings me back to a dark time in my life. Being there reminds me that I almost never got out." I start.

"But you did get out." he says rubbing my back.

"Barely. You don't understand how hard it is to get out. The things... what has to happen." I mumble.

"If you don't want to talk-"

"I need to. I need you to understand."

He doesn't say anything, he just waits. Waits for me to talk once more. To tell him what I need to tell him.

"You arrive to that place by your own free will, but you only leave once a man decides to take you out. Once a man decides you don't belong in a place like that."

"So who took you out of there?" he asks.

"Someone that loved me. Someone who- Someone who was apart of my life until I walked away." He wraps his arms around me tighter.

"Its okay. Everything is going to be okay." He kisses the top of my head and leans us back onto the bed. "I've got you. Everything is going to be alright."

He continues to rub my back until he passes out, and I fall asleep shortly thereafter.