The City of Light and Secrets

~ Chapter 1 - A Thousand Years Later ~

It was absolutely freezing and all I could manage to throw on before Celeste dragged me out my bedroom window like a k********g, was a yellow scarf, a dark blue long sleeved crop top, white tracksuit pants, which I was lucky enough was the pair that was tight around my ankles, and my damn flip flops. We stood in the shadows, up against a dark wall in an alley way, that was definitely not a safe choice, especially since it was not a dead end street and anyone could just waltz on in behind us and end it right then and there. Celeste stood to the right of me, her head peering around the edge of the wall from the alley, looking over at a small liquor store called Teddies finest drop. She prepared herself well, with her warm black fluffy jumper, black tracksuit pants and black joggers, clearly wanting to stay hidden. Then there was me dressed like a frickin CareBear. Even her hair that was tied up in a high ponytail was black, but that was just her natural hair colour. 

I pulled out my phone from my pocket and checked the time, Ten O’clock, “s**t” I whispered under my breath. The order had a curfew of eleven at night at the moment during the New Moon Crowning, which is a celebration with a lot of festivals for mainly the Fae, as it was the ritual for the new ruler awakening. The curfew was a pre-caution after there had been murders and missing people over the past month. If your caught outside of the curfew, you’d be given a fine with a huge amount of money to pay on the spot,  If you continued to argue they would arrest you. From what I’ve heard the cells are like a torture chamber and I’d rather not find out if the rumours were true or not. Its also dangerous during the festivals as the Fae are not only s*x craved and party animals but their powers become enhanced with little to no control over them. 

The festivals happen everyday until the end of the month, then all those who have been chosen meet in the city centre where the current ruler will be there ready to accept and escort them to the castle of light. If there are any missing the Fae Battle-Guards, who serve the Queen, will go door to door to find them, which Isn’t hard for them due to their keen senses. Once your marked thats it, a boundary is set midway into the golden forest, so you cant leave.  If you try, the mark instantly kills you on the spot. I wasn't alive to see the last crowning, but I wish I had been with the stories I’ve heard, it was a brutal battle. Usually it would be one ruler for hundreds of years, as full blooded Fae live for almost eternity, but Queen Rosette was only half-Fae, so even though she looked about thirty, her soul was nearly two hundred years old, hence the new crowning. In the last crowning Queen Rosette out did them all. Ten were chosen for the trials; nine Faes and one witch. However, the witch never even made it into the first trial, as she was found dead the day before. Till this day no one knows exactly what happened. 

A loud bang sounded and I looked up to see bright colourful circles of gold splaying along the heavens, followed by sparkly lines of purple and yellow moving through the gold circles, painting along the dark sky. The colours reflected onto the moon making it look alive and the stars seemed to glimmer in approval to the fireworks. I let out a long huff, looking over to see if Celeste notices my boredom. She didn’t move a single muscle. This sucks balls. Everyone gets to be around all the fun and it was safe to say the festivals weren’t happening anywhere near this street as no one really came down here. I understood why, it was literally the most dodgiest place I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t called dead lane for no reason thats for sure.

I leaned against the wall and looked up watching the sky light up again. The only excitement in this city were the festivals that happened every few hundreds or even thousands of years. It was pure torture that I was born in a exciting time of food stalls, dancing with strangers to all sorts of music, lighting lanterns and just pure fun. Me standing in a dark alley way was not my idea of fun. 

A noise came to the left of  me and I jumped at the sound. This was it, this is how I die, great. Some guy emerged from the shadows at the other end of the entrance and was now searching through the bin, mumbling something about the moon and its evil spirit. He pulled out a half eaten kebab that had a cigarette butt on top of it. He smiled and took a big bite, including the cigarette. My stomach lurched as I said aloud, “Eww.” I hadn’t realised how loud it was until he looked in our direction and whispered, “The new moon approaches, the evil spirits are watching we must protect the chosen one” and just sprinted away with his kebab in hand. What the actual frick was that. 

What did he mean by evil spirits? Maybe he was just crazy. From what Celeste has told me, of the new moon, the current ruler cuts an opening on their hand to release a slither of their essence into the whole city, floating around to find the next potential worthy ruler. If the essence finds more than one, it splits itself until all those who are chosen are picked and will then compete against each other. Whoever is chosen will know, as a mark will appear on the chosen bodies, with the symbol of the sun and two crescent moons sitting inside it facing opposite ends. 

I looked back to Celeste to see if she saw what I saw, but she was too distracted trying to catch out her boyfriend Paxton that she thinks is cheating on her. She was rambling on about how she ‘accidentally’ used her shadowpath power and caught him lying but wasn’t sure exactly what about. She wasn’t supposed to use her power, especially not against a human. No one would really know unless she used it for a long period of time and a seer sensed it. Celeste once said her shadowpath power is like a telepath but only uses shadows, to either hide things in the mind or in plain sight as well as hearing unwanted thoughts that others want to hide. 

Her power was considered powerful, especially to the order who would love to use and abuse it. The last place she ever wanted to work, was with the order.  But if a seer sensed it and found out it was her, she would be forever recruited with the order. The training is just brutal and some don’t even make it out alive. Lucky my brother Blaise is the Orders new seer leader and keeps it to himself about Celeste. Although he does warn her on multiple occasions. 

The order was created after Queen Rosette was crowned, they became the advocates for all beings in both the cities, as well as creating the laws, to assure no humans were affected or manipulated by any Faes against their will and vice versa. The witches weren’t really included due to the whole murdering situation. The councilmen, leaders of the order, are the highest ranking, they are like mini rulers, with two Fae and two human advocates. Then comes the councillors which are warriors who hold abilities that no one can escape from, like my brother Blaise, who is a seer. He has the ability to not only communicate mind to mind but can see everything about your past, present and future. In any given time, he can also manipulate and use your own mind against you. It was scary sometimes. We also have the patrolmen, who roamed and protected our streets making sure we follow the rules. My brother Kace is a patrolmen and he’s a pain in the ass, acting like he runs the joint sometimes. We also have the polits who give advice in political agendas. In my opinion they are just useless. We also have Battle-Guards but they lived at the castle and served the Queen, only protecting us in a time of war, that is why we never really see them in the suburbs. 

However, one of the Fae Battle-Guards came to visit my brother Blaise and till this day I still want to jump his bones. The way his black armour sat along his broad shoulders and large chest, every piece of his muscles defined with every movement. His pants fitting so tightly that his manhood was practically about to pop out. I made sure my eyes were keeping a close watch on it, just incase it did pop out and I needed to catch it. He was that tall, he almost didn’t make it past the door. His face was just pure perfection, his face slim but the jawline sharp, a long with his cheekbones. His eyes were a deep green, flecks of bright blue in them, like sapphires in a forest. His nose was evenly placed between his eyes, small and pointed. Those lips, gods, so plump that I could probably kiss it for days. When he smiled, his small fangs grazed his lower lip slightly and a small dimple appeared along his cheek, under his right eye. His hair was short and black, standing up slightly at the top. His ears pointed like a dagger with a small earring on his left ear at the point. I could tell he smelt my arousal when he winked at me, a small smile playing on his lips right before he left. Blaise didn’t speak to me for a week though but its not like I acted on it. I wish I had. 

I continued to stand in silence with a million thoughts running through my mind, as Celeste stared ahead seemingly focused on the liquor store. I’m not even sure who she thinks he would be cheating with, I cant see him doing it he adores her to much. It’s not like he judges her for being Fae he loves it, lots of humans have Fae partners these days. There are still some Fae out there who despise us humans, through high school I was a main target. One of the reasons why im saving up, just incase I need to make a quick escape. But times have changed, we all live in the same city and neighbourhoods, we frequent the same drinking bars and shops. 

“Can you stop thinking so much, its distracting” Celeste said, I gaped at her, “Celi! You said you wouldn’t use your shadow s**t on me anymore” She turned to me and narrowed her eyes, “Im not, but when your knocking on my mind wall, pretty much yelling ‘let me in’, its hard not to” she moved her attention back to the shop and mumbled something under her breath. I wasn’t thinking that loud. What did she expect from me, I had to do something to keep myself busy while suspiciously standing in a dodgy alley way freezing. I cant help that I was obsessing over the upcoming ceremony it was exciting!