Leah loitered at her kitchen table, slowly pushing the clumps of microwaved cheesy broccoli around a scratched plate. Human food wasn't something that she would miss upon her inevitable return. Normally, she would have eaten but leaving Jehovah today put a pit in her stomach. What if he changed his mind and married the queen? After all, what could she truly offer him? Their relationship would be significantly harder to conceal when they were back home. The boarders were dangerous though not from guards or sentries. The lands separating the two course were rife with all manor of beasts, the worst of which the Kelpies. Madocav – the leader of their race – was a beast she had met only once. When Leana was training away near the boarder in Glenera, two young kelpies wandered into the lands of the camp, luring two young nymph boys to a watery grave. Ariana had made an agreement with Madocav that all trainees were to be left alone unless they were caught trespassing. The morning after the boys had gone missing, Madocav, the large, black beast himself had brought the boys drowned bodies back to the camp. He hadn't spoken more than a word to her as a child. He had simply turned to the small child whom didn't even reach the height of his leg and bowed his head. "Lady Payne," He had murmured before moving on in complete silence. Clearly, he had respected her father but then again, who hadn't. As polite as Madocav was to her, she would like to avoid meeting with him again for the foreseeable future.
Taking her by surprise, there was a quiet knock at her door. Leah jumped to her feet, once again reaching for a knife. The knock itself was far too meek and quiet to be Deploma. Keomie never visited her here and Jehovah had gone home earlier that day. Slowly, she began edging closer to the door. The knocking continued getting gradually more violent and erratic as she placed a shaking hand on the knob. Swinging it open, she studied her visitor from head to toe in astonishment. "Leah!" Katherine yelled, eyes fixated on the knife. "What the fuck!" Leah dripped the knife with a clatter.
"Kath," Leah stuttered as if she was trying to convince herself that her friend truly was standing at her door. Understanding the immediate danger, she grasped the sleeve of her denim jacket and yanked her into the house, taking one last glance around and closing the door, locking it as if a lock would keep the king out.
"Hey!" she yelled as she stumbled into the building but Leah ignored her.
"Who knows you're here?"
"What? No one,"
"Not even Sam?" Katherine looked down and toyed with the ends of her sleeves.
"No," Leah relaxed. At least there was only one of her friends in danger. One was easy to protect. When Leah dragged Kath into the apartment, she hadn't thought about all of the maps and artifacts in the room, only remembering that they were on show when fear flooded Katherine's face.
"Leah?" She wavered, backing into the corner, eyes fixated on her fathers sword glistening from the light propped against the wardrobe. "What is all this?" The human woman began to fear for her life.
"Kath," She began as she slowly inched closer. The frightened woman backed into a corner.
"What is going on with you two!" She screamed now clutching at her shirt as if needing to just hold on to something to remind her that what she was seeing was real. "You… you…" She stammered. "You both keep disappearing, one minute you're madly in love and the next you despise each other. Explain it, Leah!" She yelled.
"Alright!" Leah screamed as she stomped her foot on the floor causing Kath to jump a mile. She stormed to the vanity, Kath's eyes never leaving her, and gulped down a full bottle of glamour, casting the bottle down to the floor. As Leah transformed, Katherine looked as though she was going to faint. Where a tiny, human girl stood only seconds ago now stood a real life faerie! She had the most beautiful, full wings Kath could have imagined. Her skin glowed with pure beauty as her now violet hair cascaded down her back. "This is what I am," She told her, holding her arms out. "This is what we are," For a moment, Kath tried to imagine what Jonathan would look like with wings but shook the thought from her mind.
"P… Please don't hurt me," Kath spluttered as she began to shake. Hurt filled Leana's eyes as she shook her head violently.
"No!" She gasped. "I would never. I didn't need friends here, all I needed was to know your social structures, your technology advancements, all that boring crap that my kind make note of every hundred years or so," Katherine began to relax as she allowed Leana to slowly edge closer. "I came here a broken woman, Kath, and you and Sam helped me fix that," She turned away, crossing her arms across her chest. "I didn't tell you to keep you safe. There's bad people in my lands and if they knew they could use you to hurt me…" She couldn't even finish the thought, it was too horrible.
A gentle hand cupped her shoulder, she turned to face Katherine's beautiful green eyes as she forced a smile through her nerves. "I'm listening,"
Leana took a seat at the kitchen table as Katherine brewed some tea which was all that she could think of doing in the moment. After placing the cups down, she leaned forward in anticipation.
"You want the full story, huh?" Kath nodded. Of course she did. Leana released a shaking breath that she didn't know she was holding and began. "That sword," She nodded her head towards the blade in the corner of the room. Kath gulped, it was so magnificent and large that she didn't even think that she could lift it let alone swing it. "It was my fathers before he died. He died the day I was born,"
"I'm so sorry," Kath wavered and tried to reach out a hand but she wafted her away. She didn't need sympathy.
"It was a long time ago," Kath retreated and sipped her tea. "Luckily, my father was the closest friend of the Unseelie queen, Ariana, she took me in when he died," Katherine tensed.
"You're Unseelie? Aren't they the bad ones?" She may not have known much about folklore but she knew that in terms of the fey, Seelie were good and Unseelie were bad – right? Leana shook her head.
"That's like saying the Germans are evil but the British are saints – there's good and bad on both sides of the border. Kath nodded as she adjusted her knowledge and listened for more. Leana smiled as she recalled her childhood. "The queen raised me as her own, she gave me a home, education and all the gowns and jewels a girl could ever want," Kath raised her brow as she dropped her mug to the table.
"If your life was so good, why are you the way that you are?" Leana tensed, soiling the perfect memory with more recent history.
"I fell in love," She revealed. "With the prince – Ariana's son,"
"And he didn't love you back?" Leana shook her head and sipped the drink.
"Oh no, he loved me more than he'd ever loved anything I'd say," She looked to the side in pride. "He even threatened to renounce his throne if it meant that he could marry me freely," Kath smiled at the beautiful story, completely unaware how sour it would turn. "He sent me love letters, seduced me with nothing more than words, and loved me more dearly than I had ever imagined that I could be loved,"
"Did he die?" Katherine asked, leaning in ready to console her once more but Leana shrugged.
"In a sense. When the Seelie killed his mother, he went mad," Leana shivered. "Since then, he has indulged in nothing more than the perverted, evil suffering of others," her hand fell to the hem of her shirt and lifted it. Kath's eyes fell wide. "Including mine," For the first time, Kath began to see every mark. The subtle bruises on her neck, the bloody bandage on her waist, her irrational fear of men. Everything clicked into place. Katherine had never felt sadness like it.
"Leah…" She gasped.
"My name is Leana. Jonathan's is Jehovah,"
"Leana," She began again. "What did he do to you?" She looked up at her from under the mug, her eyes heavy with tears.
"You know what he did," Of course she knew, though she couldn't bring herself to imagine it.
"Does Jon… Jehovah know?" She asked. Leana nodded as she bit her lip, looking away out of shame.
"He saved me. But now he's been called back home to the Seelie court… and now I'm all alone," Kath stood, rushing around to the other side of the table and pulled her to her chest.
"You'll never be alone. Sam and I, we love you! Both of you," She gently rubbed her shoulders as Leana sniffled into her chest. "You can stay here whenever you wish," Leana shook her head and pushed Kath away gently.
"No," She told her. "He will come for me, and Jay too. He's safe in Seelie lands but he will come," she told her darkly. "I can't have you two caught up in this. This isn't your fight," Kath took her arm and forced her to look at her.
"I made it my fight when I came here," Leana had no words, she simply jumped to her feet and threw her arms around her friend. She wasn't sure how long they stayed like this for before Kath pushed her out and smiled hopefully. "Come with me tonight. One night out before everything goes to shit?" Leana smiled.
"I'd like that,"