Between Two Worlds

Chapter 19 - Trapped in the Trees

Small clouds of condensation puff out of my mouth as I dodge another attack by Delilah. We are sparring together, and she is a surprisingly good fighter- she is agile on her feet, quick to dodge an attack, and speedy to recover and attack weak points in my defence. She is trying to show me how to use my ability of apparition to my advantage during battle.

We had awoken early before the sunrise and Delilah had told me about the current situation in the Winter Realm. Edgar was a cousin of my father, Nathaniel. Edgar’s father and my paternal grandfather were brothers, with my grandfather being the eldest brother. The Johannessen family were a long line of Alpha’s, who prided themselves on being a pure lineage of strong Alpha males. The Moon Goddess fating my grandfather to a fairy, irrespective of her being royalty, was seen as an abomination. Obviously, my grandfather didn’t care what other people thought, and he had married my grandmother.

Edgar and my great-uncle did not believe that my father, Nathaniel was the rightful heir to either the fae throne or the Alpha of the Winter Realm Pack. So together they staged a coup by creating an army of rogue wolves and a powerful coven of witches to overthrow my father’s reign as Alpha and King of the Fairies. The witches managed to trap all the fairies and wolves loyal to my father in the Winter Realm inside the trees within the forest by casting a spell over the Cristallo. The Cristallo is a natural source of energy for the fairies and which allowed wolves to move between the werewolf realms as well as the Fairy Realm. There were only a handful of fae and wolves who escaped, and they had gone deep into hiding, fearful of what Edgar would do to them if they were caught.

Edgar had planned, once the fairies and wolves were trapped to kill both my parents and me, as the heir to both the Alpha and Queen titles, to claim the throne for himself, restoring the “pure” Alpha bloodline. Thank the Goddess that the Mother of the Coven was not entirely loyal to Edgar’s coup once she learnt that there was an innocent child involved, and she formulated a plan with my parents to protect me. My father cast a concealment spell over me to suppress my fairy genes until I was 18. My parents organised with the Coven Mother to escape through the Cristallo to the Sangue Luna Pack, my mother’s pack, to hide me away in the care of my mum’s best friend. With the help of their most trusted warriors, Lyall and Lucas, and Delilah, my fae-in-waiting, my parents travelled to the Summer Realm and were assisted by Alpha Randy to hide me away and shield me from any knowledge of my true identity. As an extra measure, my parents also cast a protective enchantment over Duke for him to be protective of me and always ensure I was safe… and boy did he fulfil that role in my life, I thought internally rolling my eyes.

The Coven Mother then cast a binding spell over the Cristallo- the fae and werewolves of the Winter Realm would be freed from their tree prisons when the rightful heir to the fairies and Winter Realm Pack returned to claim her throne after her 18th birthday. When Edgar heard this, he was furious. He set about trying to chop down the forest, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not cut down the trees- his axe would continually blunt. He then tried to set fire to the forest, but it would not light.

My parents, along with Delilah and the warriors, Lyall and Lucas, returned to the Winter Realm to live under concealment charms, spread across the realm, to spy on Edgar and keep watch over their people imprisoned within the trees. Delilah spoke of the simple and quiet life she leads living alone in her little cottage, making frequent journeys into the woods to press her hand on the trunks of the trees of her loved ones, filling them with the energy of her presence.

“That’s what I saw my mum doing in my dream!” I exclaim excitedly.

Delilah’s brow furrowed. “That was not a dream, Princess Neve, you actually did portal to the Winter Realm in your sleep. Your magic was starting to grow, becoming too powerful for the concealment spell, and your soul longed to be connected to your parents. Once Edgar was aware that you were starting to appear in the Winter Realm, he realised that your parents were here too and so he set about capturing them.”

I gasped, horrified that my visiting the Winter Realm had put them in danger. Edgar was keeping my parents as bait to lure me out of hiding and to finish all three of us off trapping the fae and werewolves forever, and solidifying his reign. “How can we stop them?” I asked softly, unsure how just me and one fairy were going to overthrow an Alpha and his rogue pack.

“Easy,” says Delilah simply. “you’re going to visit Lucas and Lyall”