The City of Light and Secrets

~ Chapter 4 ~

“Well that was close” She laughed. 

I looked over at her, the street lamps making her bronze skin look like it was shimmering of gold. Small streaks were down her face, I hadn’t even realised she was crying the whole run. 

“Im sorry about Paxton” I whispered as I grabbed her left hand that was in her lap. I gave it a tight squeeze. They were only together for half a year but its still enough time to open up to someone, for it to just shatter within a second. Celeste shook her head, her ponytail full of her silky black hair, now had a few strands lose, hovering over her face, “We weren't even official anyway” Her eyes met mine, the pale green glowing slightly in the dimness of the car.

Her eyes were like pointing a jade crystal up to the sun and looking through it, seeing all the beauty shimmering inside. My eyes were not as gorgeous as hers, but they were still unique. I have two different eye colours, my right eye is a deep ocean blue and my left eye a pale sunlit forest green. With my light brown hair, my eyes from afar just looked pale blue but up close you could tell they were different colours.  Everyone would stare at me in awe, especially if they were up close and personal to see them properly. Honestly made me feel like I was some extinct animal they wanted to see one last time. Was super uncomfortable at times, but I’ve learnt to take in the glory from time to time. Around the witches though I wear brown eye colour contacts. The witches loved unique things and my eyes were one of them, so to avoid anymore attention to myself and not be caught for helping them, I hid my eyes. Plus my mother wouldn’t let me out to them unless I wore them. The money was worth it, I needed to save up just incase I needed to leave this city, some of the Fae that disagreed with us humans living here were horrible to me. I personally think they just need to get over themselves. 

Celeste faked a smile as she turned back to the road, “Im relived really, he wasn’t that great in the sack, if you know what I mean” I definitely knew, she would call me every single damn time after they had s*x, no matter what time it was, every time she would emphasis how small he was that it felt like a toothpick fumbling in and out, with a small huffing in her ear, like a dog on desperately humping a tree. it was a clear picture to imagine that Its scarred in my brain till this day. Shed end the conversation on the basis she had to go and finish herself off, as he couldn’t even last a second.  She loved his personality and company though, he would always be over at her house, or asking to see her every single day. They had the same humour, well dirty humour and always just admire one another. He really did seem to care about her, which made it even more confusing that he would do this to her.

We made a left turn on one of the main streets that led towards the orders head office. It was based right in the centre at the end of the lane with another street running vertical from it. It was a double story mansion, made of old black bricks with its length that took up the majority of that street with long windows on every single floor or room, with a balcony on a few of them, which I guessed was the rooms of the counsellors who were not important enough to stay in the Queens court. The entrance was sunken in with black double doors centring, a dim orange light illuminating the doorway with the words shimmering gold overhead the entry frame ‘From above and below, we unite all foe.’ 

Before the order was created, there was only two rulers, who dictated and controlled everything, one ruled Zelartine, The City of Light, that was above ground, where I currently live and the other one ruled Asterois, The City of Night, under ground. The King or Queen still had the final say in things, but not without a heated meeting. One reason why I would not want to work for the order, the political side was just mentally traumatic. If I had to chose between a polit or a patrolmen id choose the later. The fighters including the patrolmen had to go through rigorous training for six years before they were out on the field, they were not only tortured physically but emotionally as well. Kace had completed his training before I was born but he spoke about it sometimes, usually when he was drinking. He spoke of a time when a trained seer, manipulated his thoughts so he believed all his loved ones had died by his own hands. For three days he was in a cell having it on replay after replay, once the three days were up, he was moved to an outside camp were they trained every single day for twenty hours in hand to hand combat, weapons combat, group training and escape training. He didn’t really elaborate on the escape training but I assumed it was something to do with having to get out of a s**t situation physically. Blaise, who is a councillor, as a Seer, also had to go through the same training as Kace, but was more focused on the mental side, practically training to be a snitch to everyone, especially other Faes. Both my brothers were half-fae, we had the same mother who was a human but different fathers, mine was a human, theres was a prick of a Fae. I met there father a few times, each time I wanted to gauge his eyes out, the way he not only spoke to my mother, but my brothers as well. Blaise would shrug it off but Kace let it get to him most of the time, well every time. My father treated them more like sons and they had a bond that not even I could compare. 

Celeste said something but I was so involved in my thoughts I hadn’t paid any attention, “What?” I said as I turned to face her. “Are you going to get out of my car or do you want to sleep in here?” I hadn’t even noticed we arrived at my house, although the council head office was only just around the corner from mine. “Sorry!” I rolled my eyes as I opened the door to get out, as an acute pain of cold hit me hard. I looked down and realised the foot that was missing my damn flip flop was cut slightly on the bottom, “im going to get an infection because of you” I said to Celeste as I stood up.  I slammed the door shut and she winded down the window, “No” she dragged the word out, “Its because of your cheap flip flops. Next time put better shoes on” she smiled. I gave her a vile gesture as I walked along the front of her car that was parked mid drive-way in front of our garage. She blew me a kiss, flickering her headlights at me, I couldn’t help but laugh. 

Usually the drive way wouldn’t be empty but because of the ritual coming up, both my brothers would be on shift with the order. 

I walked up the small steps to the front door of my house, as soon as I placed my keys in the brown door, Celeste started to pull out the drive way. She always waited until I was safely inside before driving off. I opened the door just a c***k and slithered my way in, closing it quietly behind me. We had a double story house, with a two way staircase on either side, the kitchens entrance straight ahead. On the left was a small room for the dining table, with all six wooden chairs tucked in nicely, two vases of white flowers placed on either end, with the curtains drawn closed over the window behind. On the right was the lounge room, a large white couch along the entry frame, a TV in the centre on the wall just above the fire place, two single white sofa chairs angled slightly on either side. My mother loved for everything to be symmetrical, she made sure nothing did not look out of place. 

I started to walk slowly towards the staircase on the right and heard a loud grazing screech coming from outside, I whirled over to the window next to the door, and saw Celeste had scratched the bottom of her bonnet at the end of my driveway, she looked over to where I stood at the window, I put my hands up and she mouthed sorry at me, I sighed in annoyance under my breath, returning back to the stairs. I needed to get back into my room without my mum knowing I was out of curfew, again. I reached the top of the stairs when I heard the kitchen doors smack open, I turned quickly to the right and sped walk to my bedroom that was at the end of the hall. I had the only bedroom down here, which was a perfect spot to be away from my brothers who would either be deaf and play music or a tv show on full blast or be arguing with each other through there bed room walls. 

I quickly went into my room, turning on my lights to see better. I walked over to my bed that was in the centre of the room, my bedside table on the left of it. I placed my scarf and phone on the top and opened the bottom draw searching for my moisturiser, as my whole body was chapped from tonights cold adventure. I found the small purple bottle and squeezed a great amount out, rubbing it on my olive skin, mainly my arms and face, it was cool and smooth against my skin, smelling of lavender and rose. 

I had a bathroom across the other side of my room and I was contemplating whether or not to have a quick hot bath, to relax my muscles and my almost infected foot. I was so tired but decided to have a bath anyway, as I needed to clean off the evidence that I was outside tonight.