The Crystal Trials

34

The last day of the winter break, Faolan came pounding on my door. I grumbled at him to go way, a headache closing in. The bubbly drink from the ball had been stronger than I had thought. I itched my arm absently in my stupor. Memories of a beautiful, wounded lion came to the forefront of my mind. I bolted upright, me head throbbing from the motion. I looked to my arm where the gold winged lion lay. Strangely, it turned to look at me, and flexed its wings.

"Show off," I muttered to it. He roared silently. Faolan pounded my door saying something about how he could unlock the door himself with magic. I ignored him still. "You need a name I guess." I told the lion. I was talking to a tattoo. It would have bene crazy if he hadn't responded by sitting as if waiting or the name. I racked my brain. "Leonard?" The lion bared his teeth, his movement making the god shimmer on my skin. Hmm. Ah! "Achar? It means trouble." The lion arched his back and flicked his tail. "Yeah? You like that one?" He went back to his normal pose and froze on my flesh again. Fine, Achar it was, I decided.

Right then, my door flung open, and Faolan ran in and slammed it behind him. He bound to me in a few steps and landed on my bed and laid back into my pillows and sighed deeply. I looked back at him and giggled at his shirtless body and disheveled hair. I lay back and propped myself up on an elbow to see him better.

He grabbed my hand and breathed, "He loves me."

Oh, my gods. "Tell me. Everything." And boy did he. No detail was spared about his night with Evander, and it was beautiful. When he finished, I swelled with pride for him and his love.

"I have to tell you something else Nik." Faolan sat up on his own elbow, his face more serious. "First of all, I knew you were in the woods that night. I'd know your scent anywhere. Did you enjoy the show?"

I swallowed and smiled. "Immensely."

Faolan beamed.

"Well," he flattened the sheet in front of him, "what neither of could see was his back." I searched him, confused.

"Alden wasn't lying to you babe. Erix hurts Evander too. All of the brothers get punished." Tears glinted his eyes as he continued, "Evander and I cannot be together again. He fears his father. Alden told me at the ball that Erix is a purist. He believes in the reproduction of the of Fae lines."

I sat up and looked down at him. "Truly?"

"I'm sorry Nik, it's true. You should have seen him. I've never seen that man so broken. It hurt." Faolan's tears fell freely. My poor sweet wolf. I drew him in for a hug and he sniffed in my ear. "And what are you doing kissing Dath?"

I cringed. "You saw that?"

He laughed, despite his tears. "Yeah hun. Everyone saw that disaster except him."

I blanched. Alden saw too. Faolan nodded, confirming my thoughts. I wondered why Alden hadn't interfered.

"Alden watched the whole thing. And you know what he said to me?"

I shrugged and he said, "He said that he wanted t make sure you could choose for yourself because you had had enough choices taken from you."

I sobbed at the truth behind the words. Faolan reached up and wiped my tears. Then sprang up.

"I know what we need."

"Food?"

"Always! But let's go out. It's the last day of break. We can explore the market more. Just you and me. Please?"

His puppy eyes won me out in the end, and he howled in victory. I got dressed in a tight shirt and pants he picked out and threw my hair up in a knot. He ran to his own room and threw a shirt on.

At the market, I bought him a shirt that read "Alpha" and he roared with laughter while putting it on. We walked through the shops all day, buying silly things and eating as much food as we could fit out faces. When we passed by a back street, Volar was stand at the edge blatantly. Faolan stood in front of me and growled. Volar rose his hands in surrender but met my eyes conveying he needed to speak. Up until that moment, he had sought me out alone. Something must have changed.

I ushered him down the alley and Faolan followed but very guarded. I grabbed his hand, feeling his claws starting to extend. I didn't attack or threaten Volar. He had never hurt me before so I would give him the benefit of the doubt unless he forced me to reconsider. I placed my hands on my hips and waited for him to speak.

"Things are getting worse. Please I beg of you. You are your friends must escape the university."

"Escape? No one is holding us hostage Volar. We're standing here right in front of you."

"For now. There is someone at the school that is hurting the students. The poisoning is not by accident. Read my card. Seek out the meaning."

Volar's eyes had dark circles under them as if he hadn't slept in days. I looked him over, concerned.

"The Axion. The real Axion, were missing something vital piece of information. You're the only that has been willing to hear me out in years. Please, if you see or hear anything else that stands out, please come find me."

"And how do I do that?"

"There is," he paused and debated how much to tell me, "someone there. Someone working for me. They will seek you out once you discover the truth. But please, hear them out when they reveal themselves."

Volar looked around as if someone watched for him.

"I have to go. Now. Please Nik. Promise me."

I believed him. Something strange was going on at the university. And if it got bad and needed a way out, it didn't seem like a bad idea to have someone to lean on.

"Ok. I promise." Achar on my arm shifted his wings and it tickled. Volar looked down and his eyes went wide.

"Who gave that to you?"

"I'm not sure of his name. Wait, how did you-"

Panicked, Volar vanished in thin air, true to form.

"Nik... what just happened?" Faolan asked full of concern.

A crash sounded at the other end of the street, the opposite direction of the market. We both took off at a run before I could answer him. Another crash sounded and we ran at breakneck speed. A man screamed and was thrown into the wall out a back door right in front of us. We pulled up short and Faolan rose his hands water in each one. I drew upon lighting to compliment his water. The man at our feet moved, clearly injured. And an Axion member exited the building. We attacked him without warning. Faolan drenched him and I shocked him. He fell dead instantly. Faolan checked on the man and healed the minor wound on his back. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and followed it into the building the Axion just exited.

Faolan was right behind me as I followed the shadow. We sprinted through a small dwelling and through the front door to eh main street on the other side. The figure rounded the corner and we stopped at the corner and hid. We peered around the corner and Faolan's intake pf breath told me he aw the same thing I did. Rion was looking back in a panic, an Axion mask in his hand.