The blood of royalty is thinner than water.
Bonds of Blood
"Who are you?" I asked the guy, who seemed to be amused by my sharp look.
"Zacharias," he introduced himself, "But you can call me Zack."
"I wasn't just curious about your name," I said, but nodded anyway.
He shrugged, then pulled his lips. "If you're so curious, I'm Alistair's brother."
My chin hit the floor.
"I know, I know," he snorted, "Everyone reacts like that when they find out. We don't look alike, we're different, blah blah blah..."
"So he has a brother he never ever, not even accidentally uttered a word about..." I said quite distrustful.
"Why would he?" he looked at me like I was crazy. "It wouldn't be like him."
Okay, okay, he got me. Alistair never talked about himself.
"Alistair..." I said, but the sentence was left unfinished.
It would have been stupid to ask if he was okay. The fae boy nodded. I knew immediately from the look in his eyes. Alistair was dead.
"Oh, yes," he slapped himself on the forehead. "It's good you brought it up..."
He searched in one of his pouches for a few moments, then suddenly threw something at me. I caught it and raised the gold ring, which looked exactly like Zack's black stone ring. On Zack's left hand, on his ring finger, he wore an antique ring with a huge blue stone set into it, and on his index finger, I discovered a gold ring — only later did I realise that the head of the ring was turned towards his palm. The jewellery immediately reminded me of an eye — at least a black elongated pupil, thinly circled with gold.
"What is this?"
"Your inheritance," Zack answered simply, then pulled out an emerald stone, "And this is my share."
"How..." I asked, but my voice trailed off. "can you stay so calm... ?"
"What?", he looked quite surprised for a moment, then he understood the meaning of the interrupted sentence.
He looked at me seriously. "That's how it is with us fae: when someone dies, we don't mourn for weeks. Sure, it makes me sad, but life goes on. We don't make a big drama out of it. Seriously, It almost drove me crazy when you were whining about feeling sorry for your friend like a real drama queen — and he's still alive!"
He rolled his eyes and put on the jewellery instead. That's when I realized how special Alistair really was. Fae cannot truly show compassion. He must have guessed what I was thinking because without looking at me again, he added:
"We don't show emotions, even if we have them. A moment of weakness can be fatal, remember this, young one!"
I was silent for a few moments. Although the fae's features were devoid of any emotion, and I could not read anything in his eyes, the way he said the words made me suspect that he was feeling as devastated as I was.
He turned my attention back towards the ring I held in my hand. "Take good care of it! It's valuable."
"Really?" I looked at it more closely.
The stone of the ring emanated a kind of supernatural energy that tingled my skin when I touched it.
The fairy nodded. "It hides us."
"Hides us?" I repeated.
"If you wear it, you can only be seen by the people you want to be seen by," he explained. "It's everyone's secret dream to become invisible and scare humans like that, isn't it?"
"Yeah," I nodded, although I thought we had a slightly different idea about the second half of the sentence.
That solved the mystery of why I was the only one who could see Alistair when he was watching me. When I first mentioned it to my brother and pointed towards him, he stared at the dark shadow in bewilderment, and though he didn't say anything, he was startled by my nonsensical imagination — which is why I never told anyone after that about the dark figure always looking at me. At first, I even showed a little willingness to convince myself that I was going crazy, and then slowly I began to accept that I clearly felt that the shadow was real.
We were silent for a while. I was clutching my ring in my hand, sitting on the bed, with Alex's hand still in my lap and the idiot snoring loudly beside me. He looked much better. He had some colour to his skin now and the needle had been removed from his hand.
"Tell me, Zack," I asked, "do you have any other siblings?"
The fae's eyes flashed with a sly glint. "Oh, so you're doing genealogical research?"
What could you say to that?
"Yes, I have another sibling, but I think you know her at least by name. Have a guess?"
I shook my head.
"Well, little brother, you're related to Titania," he grinned widely.
If I wasn't sitting, I'd have probably collapsed like a house made of cards.
"Titania..." I repeated in exasperation. "Titania as in Titania the Moon Queen?!"
"Yes, yes," Zack nodded looking bored, "Small world, isn't it?"
"So... you're... Titania's younger brother," I croaked. "And Alistair was Titania's younger brother too..."
"Oh no," he shook his index finger. "Alistair was the eldest brother."
"What?", I frowned, "How old was he?"
Zack shrugged. "No one knows for sure. After a hundred and fifty, he didn't count..."
"Damn," I cursed. "That's unbelievable."
"Well, not that incredible," Zack said, pursing his lips, "Fae tend to live much longer than that."
"You could live that long," he added, "You have our blood in your veins."
I immediately shook my head.
"Your loss," he shrugged. "But now it's my turn to ask."
I was a little surprised at the sudden turn of events.
"You know, we've got the shard of life and all," he explained, "but I'm curious how it is that you walked out of the building in one piece when moments before you had ripped your friend from the acid hellhole with your bare hands."
"I have good regeneration skills," I replied, "That's all."
Zack pulled a knife out of the sheath on his belt and threw it at me — all in a single moment and a series of blurred movements. He aimed for my left eye, but things did not happen the way he expected. Without thinking, my hand instinctively reached out and grabbed the handle of the knife before it got too close to me.
The guy whistled joyfully. "Not bad, you're up to the speed of the fae — at least partially."
Zack jumped up, walked to the bed with unhurried steps, then took the knife from my hand and ran it across my palm. A few drops of blood gushed from the wound, but then almost immediately it closed up and disappeared without a trace.
"Hm, interesting," the fae murmured.
It was only then that I got a better look at the eyes of which the moon folk are so proud: a sharply outlined black ring around his light grey irises. Even his eyebrows and eyelashes were silver, and his skin was incredibly pale up close.
I pursed my lips. "If you try that again, I'll put this knife in you. Right through your heart."
You filthy fae! Just because I heal fast doesn't mean I don't feel pain...
"My deepest apologies," he smiled, but his words were in stark contrast to the unconcealed mirth in his voice.
"Zack," I started. "Why did you help us?"
He looked me straight in the eye, but I couldn't read anything in his expression.
"If I told you it was out of sheer familial love, you wouldn't believe me, would you?"
"Hell nah."
"Then, suffice to say that it was in my best interests," he shrugged.
I didn't ask anymore. It didn't really matter.
"I don't know about you, but I'm in the mood for a good fight," a sly grin crept onto his lips. "How about a fight? To the death?"
Once again I was baffled by the sudden change.
"No..." I shook my head. "I don't really feel like it. I will not fight you."
"You look well enough already," he shrugged contemplating for a couple of minutes."I wanted to bring it up since yesterday..."
Seriously, are all fae this crazy?
"Well, next time then, " he finally shrugged again, looking a little disappointed.
No, no way! Of course, I didn't say that out loud.
"Anyway, I have to go," he said, "I've already stayed here too long..."
There is a God! And he answered my prayers! I just nodded in agreement and tried to keep the satisfaction from showing on my face.
"Do you want to come with me?" He asked and his voice then for the first time rang a little uncertain.
I was so surprised that I felt my eyes widen. Zack continued, perhaps for that very reason:
"I think, in consideration of your bond to Alistair, Titania would certainly let you live. In fact," he grinned, "she might even put your name on our family tree!"
I shook my head again. Zack looked a little disappointed. I could see no change in his face or eyes, but for a moment he didn't speak.
"If you change your mind, you can find my number in your phone," he said finally.
My eyes narrowed. How did he find out my password? It was a random sequence consisting of six numbers. He shrugged before I could ask.
"I was bored."
I rolled my eyes.
"Don't call me with simple matters," he added almost menacingly. "But you can call if there is a big issue. It's not sure I'll help, though. Only if I am bored or something."
I nodded in response. I did not expect anything more than that. The next surprise came when he ruffled my hair.
"Welcome to the family, little brother!"
This was accompanied by a devastatingly joyous grin that brought me close to the edge of shock. He gave me another grin and waved, then opened the window and casually jumped out of it. Well, he's not so heartless, that's for sure... but I don't like him.
I grabbed my phone from the nightstand.
[Your Coolest Big Brother Zack]
For a moment I was just looking at my newly acquired contact, strongly contemplating just deleting it there and then. I just sighed.
I crawled out of bed, careful not to wake the bastard, and the doctor chose that moment to enter.
"Oh, I see Zack is already on his way," he remarked, a little disappointed.
I nodded.
"Um," I started. I've never been one to say thanks for anything. "I appreciate what you're doing for us..."
"Don't mention it", he smiled.
Alex had chosen that moment to wake me up and grab my hand so hard that I suddenly felt like slapping him across the face. Then when I turned to him, the neck slaps eventually turned into soothing caresses.
"It's okay, I'm here," I said, "Go back to sleep."
When his mind cleared a little, he nodded and slowly relaxed, but he didn't seem to be inclined to close his eyes. The doctor looked at him sympathetically as he put his palm to his forehead. He must have been using magic because the next moment the wolf was sleeping again. I pulled my hand out of his grip and hoped he wouldn't wake up again. Alex kept snoring.
"It will take a little time for him to process what happened to him," the fae explained, "It's not easy to recover from trauma like this."
I nodded. I had a feeling it would be like this. Alex has always hated small and cramped places, and at the time he had suddenly realised he was in the belly of something... He must have been scared to death.
"I'd like to go home and get a change of clothes," I said.
The doctor assured me he'd send someone to check up on Alex from time to time, and he also told me that his magic would keep my friend in his dreams for a few more hours. My heart felt a little lighter. Maybe he wouldn't even notice I was gone.