The Forgotten Light

68. Fairlight

Wake up, Firefly. We are going home," said a golden-eyed angel to the accompaniment of a strange ringing.

She heard him. She wanted to listen to him, she wanted to go home, but she couldn't wake up.

"Why isn't she waking up?" he spoke again, this time in a sadder voice.

She wanted to cry. Help me...

Wake up, an unobjectionable voice, much stronger than the first one, ripped through the surrounding darkness like a thunderbolt.

She opened her eyes, feeling a throbbing pain in her temples and someone's hands on her face. A boy with blond hair and large golden eyes was looking at someone above her. She couldn't see more through her hazy vision.

Where had he come from?

She blinked a few times to focus. The blond man looked at her, and his face took on an expression from stern and distrustful to friendly, brightened by a beaming smile and a strange light that formed a golden halo over his bright head.

"Hey, there you are at last. It's okay, everything is going to be just fine."

There was a terrible ringing in her ear, as if the bang of the gunshot was still echoing in her head.

"Who are you?" she muttered. Something told her that he was not an angel after all.

"My name is Kaelen and..."

In her sight, behind the boy's back, Darksen appeared all in black, with two belts thrown over his shoulders, crossed on his back. She widened her eyes in horror. She trembled, cringing, pushing Kaelen's hands away and screaming, "Run!"

"Easy now."

She felt his warm hands clenching gently on her wrists. Kaelen sent a furious look to Darksen.

"You did this to her," he ground.

Fairlight grabbed her head. The ringing in her ear after the gun went off right next to her was back. The pain of a cracking temple returned as well.

She thought he had shot her. First he had betrayed so terribly, and then he had squeezed the trigger so ruthlessly.

"Time to go," Darksen said, avoiding her gaze. He reached over his shoulder and took out an Invicta sword.

Kaelen slowly helped her up, and only then did she see a shining portal in the corner of the room. She froze, not understanding anything at all anymore.

"Come on, Fairlight. Let's get out of here." Kaelen offered her a hand.

She didn't accept it, gazing in amazement at the Prince who approached her. He stopped so close that she felt his scent and his strength. He turned the sword handle toward her and said, "I think this belongs to you."

She took the blade from him, afraid that he would hurt her again, and once again she gasped in amazement. It was her sword, the chipped one she had fought with in the cabin in Arizona. She thought she would never see it again.

She furrowed her eyebrows. "You're just giving it to me like that?" she asked quietly, with doubt.

"I'd almost forgotten, one more thing." He reached into his pants pocket and reached out to her with something in his fist. "Whatever it's for, you might still need it."

Fairlight hesitantly took the mysterious object from him. It was enough that she felt its familiar weight and shape, and she didn't even have to look at it to know what it was.

The Jeep's keys.

She held back the laughter and tears that this small, probably already useless item brought out in her.

"I'm not going to thank you," she told him directly in his eyes.

"I know."

"I still hate you."

Darksen smiled crookedly, taking a step back. "Get out of here. May I never see you again. And as for the silentium bracelet..."

The door to the hall stood open, almost ripping it off its hinges. Kaelen cursed loudly and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the portal.

Thandor stood rooted in the entryway and looked at the glowing passage, then at the golden-eyed newcomer from God knows where, then at Fairlight, who only moments ago was dead, and at the terrified Prince, whose eyes screamed that they should run right now.

"Oh, Darksen, you were so convincing." The King aimed a piercing look at him, and Fairlight knew that this was not going to end well for the Prince.

She looked over her shoulder at him and couldn't believe her eyes.

He was still smiling crookedly at her, even though there were guards running at him from all sides.

It was too late when she realized what he had just done.

He hadn't harmed her, he'd helped her.

He saved her.

She jumped with Kaelen into the luminous opening.

At last she was free...

And then she heard Darksen's distant scream and the tunnel suddenly ceased to exist.