Fire Rises

One, Two Step... Back

I stretched my hands far over my head and pointed my toes, relishing the feeling of my aching muscles constricting beneath my skin. The tingling growing sensation I'd felt since my arrival in the realm of the mortals had yet to cease, though the distractions were proving to be... well... distracting from my bodily abnormalities. Maverick was certainly classified as a distraction. And an end goal. And everything important in my whole life. Especially if he was going to love me the way he loved me last night... 

Oh yeah, that man is going no where. Not on my watch.

Despite the stress and giggles of the midnight interruption I slept like a baby. 

“Goodmorning, Love.” I cracked one eye open to find Maverick laying on his side, smiling gently at me. His  turquoise eyes beckoned me in further. There were many fair men and many fair eyes, but the way those yes beheld me, I knew the owner of them was mine. I wanted to take a deep dive to discover every secret and truth those enchanting gemstones had ever known, but something told me I was already well on my way. 

Unintentionally, the thought reminded me of seeing Archer's eyes for the first time. I wanted to swim in those luxuriously light sapphire pools, too. In many ways I still did. My world was complete with Maverick, but Archer's eyes held truth's that would allow Maverick and I and the rest of the world to officially live in happiness and peace, whether he knew it or not. Also his eyes just appeared to be marvelous natural ponds that only a fool wouldn't take a dive in.

I shook the thought and glanced around the room. Judging by the small amount of light coming in through the windows, it was still very early.

So... we have time...

 “Good morning! Oh man, I slept like an angel! This bed is so comfortable!” 

He chuckled. “Are you sure it wasn’t all that exercise halfway through the night that put you in such a deep sleep?”

Images of the night before came flashing back causing me to squeal in delight. Maverick started running his hands through my hair and nuzzled his head into my neck. I wanted to spend the rest of the day right where I was, but other unwanted images from the night before began flooding my mind.

“Ugh, what are we going to do?” I groaned the words, but for once only I appeared to have my head in the game. Maverick started placing feathery kisses along my neck and collarbone, succeeding at temporarily distracting me.

“I have a few ideas.” His hands started traveling up and down my body. I cherished every second his hands dipped and flowed over the curves of my body, but we had no time for his ideas.

“How can you even think about that at a time like this? Yesterday you had no problem waiting!”

“Yesterday," He spoke his siren words between feathery kissed along my stomach, "I didn’t know what I was missing.” He continued exploring my body, causing more than a slight waiver in my resolve.

I turned to face him, giving him my best seductive face. I leaned forward until my lips were right by his ear. “The sooner we figure this out, the sooner we can come back.” With all the confidence those words took to muster I pried myself from his grip.

I stood from the bed, still naked from the night before and put more than a little extra effort into swaying my hips as I walked away. His loud groan sounded behind me and I turned just in time to see him through an aggravated arm over his eyes. Enjoying the attention I continued my seductive waltz towards the bathroom.

“That isn’t very nice, Love.” I turned my head back and blew him a kiss before entering the bathroom and locking the door behind me.

No distractions. Not yet. I quickly worked my way through my morning routine. I picked out another one of the brightly colored outfits with loose flowing pants and a crop top with the diaphanous sleeves. Today my outfit was amber in color and it really made my eyes pop.

Once I emerged primped and polished, I gave Maverick a chest peck on his lips, leaving him to get ready on his own. I couldn't risk him pulling me in for me; there was only so much temptation a woman could withstand. 

Focus, Eve. There is more than d**k in this world. And there's more d**k in this world if you quickly and quietly bring the world peace. My thought process was sound. I saw no flaws.

Goal one: I needed to find Ari. She still didn’t know what had happened the night before.

I made my way down the hall and to her room. I knocked lightly but didn’t hear any answer. I waited for a few moments, before deciding to let myself in. I looked all around the room, but she apparently had already gone down for breakfast. As I turned towards the door I heard something stir behind me.

“Oh, hey! You’re up early! What’s up?” Ari was standing in the middle of her sitting area, disheveled and clearly out of breath. 

She definitely wasn’t there before… was she? I raised an eyebrow at her.

Ari took only a moment, before accepting it was obvious I wasn't going to answer. She conceded and filled the silence with nothing of sustenance. “...What?”

“You, what? You weren’t here. Where were you?” She made a reach for a nearby chair in an attempt to casually lean on it. She missed a little and stumbled making me laugh.

“I uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Oh? Just now? Yeah. Um I was just... I was just practicing my spatial manipulation skills... So, yeah. What's up with you? You look pretty today. That’s a great color on you! Really makes your eyes pop!” She was rambling. Her dreads were still braided from the night before, but they hung loosely, a few dreads breaking free from the tight knots.

“Uh, huh. Whatever you say…” My eyebrows were raised, but I didn't want to press her on whatever she was dealing with. Her hair didn't look like it had endured anything malicious; quite the opposite, in fact. 

“Um, yeah, anyway, did you need something?” She took a seat on the plush couch. I moved to the chair across from her. She was still wearing her clothes from the night before.

Okay, circling back to that later. “Well Archer came for a little visit in the middle of the night.”

“Shut up! No! What did he say? Is everyone okay?”

I gave her the full story. At the end I sighed deeply and slumped back into the chair. “So yeah. That sucks.”

“Huh. You can say that again.” We sat in silence both contemplating the situation. She broke the silence by saying what I had feared would be the answer. “We have to go back to Far, Far Away. Today. We need to tell the king and queen. I think it's at least worth a shot.”

“Ugh, I really was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.”

“Well, we really need to go back anyway. Lucian still hasn’t told anyone how he broke free from the Dark Place. Whatever hole in the binding spell he found needs to be sealed or we’re going to have much bigger issues on our hands and that family are the only mortals with access in or out.”

“Ughhh, I just hate that place so much! All everyone does is lie and trick and I hate it!” I aggressively rubbed my eyes trying to wipe away the reality of the situation. When I removed my hands, Ari gave me a disapproving look.

Oops. Are my eyes glowing again?

“Your eyes are glowing again. Eve, take a breath. It's going to be okay. One way or another, it’s going to work out. But we have to do our part to make sure things don’t get too much worse before they get better.”

“You’re right! UGH! You’re right!” I stood up and began backing towards the door. Before I left the room I added, “oh, but Ari, don’t think I’m going to let… whatever this-” I gestured towards her messy hair and day’s old clothes, “-is go.” Her cheeks turned bright red as I made my way back to the hallway.

****

At breakfast everyone had agreed that Ari’s idea was the most logical next course of action. Maverick had something to add though. He felt it would be best if we split up for the time being. We still needed to spread word to the remaining two kingdoms about what was going on. 

He was reluctant when I said I needed to go back to Far, Far Away with Lucian, but ultimately agreed. Ari was to accompany Lucian and I since she was the only other person who could teleport us in and out. Clara and Maverick would go to the final two kingdoms. We were all supposed to meet back in time for dinner. We'd have pork chops. It'd be awesome.

“Alright, Love. Let’s go save the world.” Maverick leaned down to tenderly kiss each of my cheeks before finally finding my lips in a sweet goodbye.

Slurping noises from across the foyer killed our moment. Lucian and Clara were not as gentle with each other. Clara was wrapped around Lucian’s body while his hands were deeply tangled in her hair. I was worried we’d have to cut chunks out in order to separate them. 

“Ugh, you all are disgusting! We’ll be gone for like six hours, not six years! Make like dinner and chop, chop people!” Ari was standing by the fish pond tapping her foot. Clara jumped down from Lucian’s arms, his hands surprisingly easily combing free from her hair, before she bounced over to Ari. 

“Goodbye, Ari! I’ll miss you, too!” Clara gave Ari a big hug before making her way to Maverick.

“Dinner?” Maverick asked as he took Clara’s hand.

“Don't be late.” I blew him a kiss as he and Clara started to disappear from view. Lucian and I each took one of Ari’s hands.

Lucian chuckled lowly. “Look at us. The ‘evil’ kids from the Dark Place turning out to be the world’s last hope at salvation! Who would have guessed?”

Ari and I had to laugh at the irony, too. The world started to blur and suddenly we were in Far, Far Away.

***

As we adjusted to our new surroundings I heard someone call from behind us, “Oh thank heavens you’re back!” The queen rushed to me and wrapped me in a hug. It was clear she hadn’t spoken with her son this morning.

“Hi, Cedra. Um, can we talk for a-”

A very unenthusiastic voice rang out from the corner of the room. “Oh my god. Yayyy. She’s back.” Autumn prowled towards us before attempting to give me a lazy hug. I side stepped her completely, causing the queen to give me a funny look.

“Cedra, can we go somewhere to talk? I need to-”

“Anything you can say to my mother you can say to me.” Autumn intertwined her fingers with her mother’s. 

“You sure about that princess?” Lucian’s lips curled and his eyes flared. If he wasn't my brother, even I would have flinched.

“Don’t speak down to me, you filth-” I cut her off before she could anger my brother any further.

“Okay, fine. Have it your way princess. I guess we’re doing this." I gave Autumn another prolonged look, waiting for her to back down. She didn't. My eyes latched to Cedra's, needing and imploring her to takee my pleas seriously. "Well, Cedra, Prince Maverick and I overheard Autumn and Sophia conspiring. Sophia gave me an enchanted cloak, at the command of Autumn, that would make me follow the prince’s every command. Autumn is planning to convince Charming that it was in the world’s best interest to use me as a weapon to overthrow all of the other kingdoms and rule them all himself, with her as a close advisor, no doubt.”

Cedra stared straight at me unblinking. It was then that I noticed the sunken look on her face. She slowly answered, “That is a very serious accusation. Do you have any proof of this?”

“I have the cloak Sophia gave me. I’m sure there is some way to test it for the magic.” Cedra wasn’t giving off her unmatchable positive energy. I began inching further away, trying to get Ari and Lucian’s attention so they would do the same.

Instead of stepping away, Lucian moved forward and spoke. “I need to speak with Charming. We were having a very serious discussion yesterday that ended… abruptly.”

“Ah, yes. I believe it was when your sister burned my son’s face nearly to the bone. Was it not?”

Lucian barred his pointed teeth. “He was assaulting her! She should have done worse, but she’s a good person. She only did what she had to to get away.”

“Mmm, interesting. Another very serious accusation.”

“Your highness, he wasn’t himself when he was acting that way. He had been placed under a spell. A very similar one to whatever you’re under now.” I felt the need to clarify the accusations against Archer. At the end of the day, it really wasn’t in him that had done such vile things yesterday. I grew up surrounded by societies most horrific dregs. I may have only been learning what a good man was like, but I knew sure as hell what a bad one was like; Archer was not a bad man.

“I assure you I’m under no spell.” Cedra’s trance-like state didn’t do anything to confirm her words.

“Yeah, sure. Seems like everything’s super cool and normal here." I didn't dare a peak at Ari, but I could feel the suppressed eye roll from across the room. "Sorry disrupt whatever typical day time s**t you were clearly in the midst of... We’ll just be on our way to find Charming…” Ari took Lucian’s hand and began back tracking towards me. 

She reached slowly before her eyes became wide and she suddenly lurched in my direction. She had closed the gap between us to a few minuscule inches when someone grabbed my waist from behind. The world swirled and suddenly I was fading from the foyer.