Bloodfeather

Chapter One

 I was alive!

                The first thing I was aware of when I came back was how blindingly bright it was. I had been in such complete darkness, and the burst of colour made me close my eyes again. Then came sound. Everything was so loud! I could hear birds singing, and the wind rushing through the trees. Oh, the wind! The sensation of it across my face was like Heaven in itself.

                I became aware of someone patting my hair. I was being held close to someone and I snuggled closer. They smelt like pine and nature and wilderness. They felt safe. I opened my eyes again, wincing as my eyes focused. I looked up at the person holding me to see messy brown hair falling over deep brown eyes filled with tears.

                "Kail?" I asked my voice hoarse from disuse. When he saw that I was alive, his eyes widened.

                "Avery?" he asked in disbelief.

                "It's me."

                "You're alive." he breathed in wonder. He bowed his head and kissed me hard on the lips. He pulled away and looked at me. "You were dead."

His words made everything come back to me. The beanstalk, my destiny, my past, and my sacrifice. I felt the pain of the blade in my chest, and I felt myself die. I looked down at myself. I was no longer wearing my corset and skirt. Instead I was wearing a simple white dress. It was stained red in places, like they hadn't fully been able to stop the blood from flowing before they clothed me. I raised a hand and felt my chest. It hurt when I touched it, and when I lifted the bodice and looked my wound had been stitched up, and had mostly healed. Why was it healed? Dead people's wounds don't heal. I looked at Kail questioningly.

                "But how?" How was I alive? How was I mostly healed? How did I get in these clothes?

                Kail bit his lip. "Life magic. Stronger than any I've ever seen." He shook his head.

                I frowned. "I was dead. I died, Kail. People don't come back from that. Even life magic has its limits." I sat up and immediately lay back down again. Getting up fast had pulled on my partially healed wound, and it hurt. A lot. I sat up, slower this time.

                "That's what we thought. But we were wrong about its limits. It took us months to find the ritual, but Alise refused to give up. The ritual worked, too, even though I didn't think it would. But it came at such a price." Kail shook his head mournfully.

                "What price?!" I demanded. "Where's Alise?"

                Kail stood up, then helped me to my feet. I was shaky, but I held my wings up a bit for extra balance. I realised I was outside, in the forest that had become familiar to me while I was on the run. Except this time the forest wasn't empty. We were in a very large clearing and tents were scattered everywhere, dotted around the occasional unlit campfire. There were people, too. So many flower Fae. Some were going into or out of tents, some were just talking, and some were practicing fighting. There was one thing they all had in common though: they were all dirty, some bloody, and they all looked hungry and tired.

"What is this?" I asked Kail. He shook his head.

"Not now. There's something more important." He told me. Not now? What could be more important than a bunch of dirty, bloodied flower Fae living in the woods? He led me through the crowds of people and into a tent. It was dark and held only one item in it: a stretcher, upon which lay an unmoving body. As we got closer, I realised who it was.

                "Alise?!" I cried in horror, and ran to her side. She was so still, so pale. Her hair, once so wild and lively, lay in limp clumps around her face. I spun and faced Kail. "What's wrong with her!?" I demanded of him. He came close to me and placed his hands on my shoulders.

                "The ritual we found was powerful. So powerful that we didn't know if she could pull it off. You had been dead for three months, and it would take so much magic to bring someone back from the netherworld, if that's where you even were. It was all we could hope for that you hadn't moved on. We tried the ritual, and to begin with, it didn't work. But then Alise grew ill, then she slipped into the coma. The magic had totally drained her. We thought that since you didn't come back that it had failed. That was three days ago. We were preparing to bury you, and I was saying goodbye when you woke up." he explained. I stared at him.

                "She did this to herself...to save me?" I asked in disbelief. He nodded.

                "Neither of us could let you go, her especially."

                "You should have let me go!" I exploded. "I died for a purpose, Kail. I died to do something, to save the whole freaking world. I had my closure, and I was ready to go. You had no right to drag me back here! Not at the cost of my best friend!" My chest was heaving. How dare they? They should have moved on. They could have done something with themselves; instead they risked everything to bring me back from the dead.

                Kail blinked. I don't think he expected my outburst.

                "She chose this. She knew that the spell could have serious repercussions. But she didn't care. Avery, you mean the world to both of us, and there was nothing without you. We needed you. Avery, I needed you. I had just found you, and then you were torn from my side. I'm sorry you're upset, but I will never, ever be sorry for what Alise did." He said fiercely.

                Suddenly, I burst into tears. Kail looked unsure at my reaction, and the look was one I had seen on him many times. But now I noticed something else about the look that I had never noticed previously. His unsurity was tinged with wonder.

                "Are you okay?" he asked me worriedly. I nodded.

                "I guess coming back from the dead after three months really screws you up."

I covered my mouth in horror as realisation hit me. "Three months!? I was gone for three months?"