My Resolution

Chapter 13

I woke up early the next morning and snuck into Donovan’s room. Something had been nagging at the back of my mind since our conversation with Theo the previous day.  

I climbed into the bed and started squeezing his cheeks together while telling him to wake up.  

“Valley, what the hell?” he groaned, rolling over and covering his face with his pillow.  

“Hey, wake up,” I demanded.  

“No,” his voice was muffled through the pillow.  

“Hey, why didn’t you tell Theo what we are really researching for?” I asked.  

He sighed, finally removing the pillow from his head. “So, the fae are very private creatures by nature. They tend to avoid meddling with affairs outside of their realm,” he emphasized the last two words.  

“Okay?”  

“Well, if Emma is part fae, and I think there is a really good chance she is, then they might be less willing to cooperate. Fae can be great friends, but they don’t tend to romantically associate with creatures outside their community, so Emma’s birth would be a major scandal among the community.”  

“So, if she is, in fact, fae royalty?”  

“If she is in fact descended from the royalty, there would have been a massive cover-up, and she could be in danger,” he barely whispered.  

“Oh, f**k!”  

“Yeah.”  

“What do we do?”  

“We do what my father instructed. We find all the information we can, and we protect Emma and Finn while doing so,” he said calmly.  

“Why the f**k didn’t you tell me all of this?” I demanded.  

“Yeah, that was a f**k up on my part. Honestly, I know you don’t tell people's business, so I didn’t need to worry about you saying anything randomly,” he explained, absently scratching his elbow.

He wasn't telling me something, I raised an eyebrow, “what else?”  

He took a deep breath before continuing, “I didn’t want you to worry about them, so I didn’t say anything,”

“Donovan!” I chastised, “That was a really stupid decision. First, what if I had slipped up? Huh? Second, if I’m going to be a part of a mission like this, I need all the details. That was not your decision to make.”  

“f**k, Valley, I’m sorry. I know it was stupid.”  

“Never leave me in the dark like that again, not with something this important.”  

He nodded, “I won’t.”  

We ate breakfast and spent the rest of the morning working in the library. I decided to see if I could find anything that would help us explain Finn’s eyes and smoky breath. I was able to find information about creatures with glowing eyes, like wendigos and ghosts of children with tragic deaths. There were accounts where Athena had eyes of fire. Demons and Kapre have burning eyes. Fire or smoke-breathing creatures included dragons, chimers, the stallions of Ares, and a handful of demigods. There was also one account of a Kaper possibly breathing smoke, but most accounts just state that they smoke cigars. I took notes of everything, hoping something would be helpful. Donovan continued his look into werewolf genealogy hoping to find information on a fae/werewolf mated pair. He could only find three occurrences, and the most recent was a couple in Australia, six hundred years ago, but there were no substantial details. The longer we looked, the more defeated I became.  

Donovan suggested we grab a picnic lunch and take a walk. I agreed since I was becoming increasingly frustrated with every dead-end.  

“Thank you,” I huffed.  

“Yeah, well, I know it's time for you to stop when you’re using ‘f**k’ like a comma,” he smirked and raised an eyebrow.  

“Yeah, yeah,” I rolled my eyes.  

We had the kitchen staff prepare us a picnic lunch again and I followed Donovan out the door. We were on our way to the back gate of the garden when we heard a deep voice hiss, “...took care of it, and you will keep your distance.”  

“I can’t keep this...” a melodious voice was stopped with a sharp slap.  

“I don’t need to remind you what will happen if you don’t keep your f*****g mouth shut, do I?” The deep voice sneered.  

“No,” sniffled the sweet voice bitterly.  

I grabbed Donovan’s hand and we hastily and silently got as far away as we could. Neither of us dared to breathe deeply until we were well out of the garden.  

“Oh, my goodness,” I laughed uncomfortably, “what do you think that was all about?” I look at Donovan, who wore a look of concern on his face. “Donovan, what?” I asked, concern growing for the first time.   

“I think, no, I’m positive that that was Theo’s parents,” he said, biting his lip.   

“Okay?” I asked, confused about his apparent concern, “they definitely seem to have a really shitty relationship, but I’m not seeing why you’re upset.”  

“Valley, Theo’s mom is Luciana,” he answered.  

“Okay? So, she's named after the fae goddess. So, what?”  

“No, Valley, you don't understand, she is the fae goddess,” he said slowly. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped.  

“So, so, okay, so he just.”  

“He just slapped and threatened a f*****g goddess. And she just stood there and took it.”  

“Nope, this is none of my business. I’m here for one reason. I am not meddling in the affairs of the gods. Nope,” I concluded.  

“Valley, this could...”  

“No,” I interrupted, “look, Donovan, you are the future alpha, and these are friends of yours and I don’t know what all else, and that’s fine. You do what you need to do, report to your dad, put out feelers, whatever, but I am staying out of it.”   

“Okay,” he put both hands into the air, “Okay, that’s fair. You’ll hear nothing else about it. Let’s go enjoy our afternoon.”  

“Awesome,” I nodded.  

Donovan, to his credit, did not bring it up again and didn’t seem distracted by it either. He led me deeper into the forest, there was no discernible path, but he seemed to know where he was going. Occasionally, we would see streaks of brightly colored light zip across the trees. Donovan said those were fae in their alternate form. I saw a bright pink light resting on a flower and tried to get a closer look, but all I could see was light. The light left quickly when I pulled away, it occurred to me that I would have probably been uncomfortable if a giant had leaned over and stared at me for no apparent reason. Even if I knew the giant was a human. That was pretty rude of me, so I left the others I saw alone to their affairs.   

“Just ahead,” Donovan announced, placing his hand on the small of my back and escorting me the final several feet.  

The trees gave way to a clearing where a pool of clear rippling water sat with a stream flowing off in the opposite direction, it was being filled from the top by water falling off a cliff maybe twenty-five or thirty feet up. Lush green grass surrounded the pool and wildflowers grew around the rocks and trees.   

“What do you think?” Donovan’s voice was a sultry whisper in my ear. A shiver ran up my spine and goosebumps rose across my skin in response to his warm breath on my neck. I closed my eyes and fought to catch my breath.  

He softly laughed, taking my hand, and led me toward the waterfall. I followed him over some rocks and around the curtain of water to a hidden cave beyond. I was surprised to see it was well-lit through the falling water and it was completely dry. We spread out and ate our picnic in our secret cave.  

After we had both finished eating, Donovan moved closer to my side. He placed his arm around my shoulders and leaned his head against mine. We sat like this for a few minutes before he turned and took my face in one of his hands, turning me toward him. “Tell me to stop, and I stop,” he breathed, leaning in taking my lips in his, gingerly at first, then increasing intensity. I returned his fervor breath for breath. Heat spread through me from deep inside my core, taking my breath and causing a tingling across my skin. He moved his soft lips passionately down my cheeks and to my neck, causing me to gasp, a moan escaping with my breath. He leaned me back against the floor of our cave, never stopping his assault on my tender neck. He reached down and he gently ran his fingertips across my exposed abdomen. He raised his head, looking deep into my eyes, then he brought his luscious lips to my waist, slightly lifting my blouse and kissing his way up higher and higher, across my belly button, up to the bottom of my ribs, working his way up even further, until...  

“Hey, Donovan, are you guys in there?” a disembodied voice called from the curtain of water.  

“Mother fucker,” Donovan grumbled, sitting up and lowering my shirt back over my abdomen, taking my hand and helping me sit back up.  

“Yeah,” he called back, “We just finished lunch.”  

“What’d you have?” a gorgeous redhead asked as she and Theo made their way into the cave to join us. “I’m Amélie, by the way, Theo’s fiancé.” She spoke with a flowery french accent.

“Sandwiches,” I replied, “and I’m Val.”  

“Hey, didn’t expect to see you guys today,” Donovan said tightly, but they didn't seem to notice. 

“Well, when Val stared me down when you walked by, I thought I might introduce myself,” Amélie laughed.  

“Were you the pink light? I am sorry about that. It didn't occur to me until you flew away, how uncomfortable that probably was,” I explained.  

“arrêtez de vous excuser,” she exclaimed, “I assure you, it's not a big deal.”  

“So, what are you two up to?” Theo asked.  

“Nothing in particular. I had thought about swimming after, but we forgot to grab swimsuits,” Donovan shrugged.  

“So, we swim in our underwear,” Amélie said simply, “I do it all the time.”  

My face must have given me away, because she looked at me and said, “It's basically the same as a bikini. I wouldn’t swim like that in front of everyone, but my fiancé and close friends? Who cares?”  

“Babe, stop, you’re making her uncomfortable,” Theo chided, “Not everyone is as happy to walk around in their panties as you.”  

She scoffed at his remark, and he laughed.   

We spent the rest of the afternoon behind the waterfall and joined them for dinner that evening. I found I really liked Theo and Amélie. I could see why Donovan was so fond of them.   

The rest of the week we were either researching in the library or hanging out with Theo and Amélie along with a few others from time to time. We went swimming a few afternoons at the waterfall. It snowed one day, so we spent the evening wrapped in blankets sitting by a large fire pit in the garden, exchanging stories.   

On our last day there, I decided to pull the genealogy books for the blue fae and Luciana. I didn’t expect to find much, but given the lack of anything concrete, I didn’t have much to lose. There was a page documenting the king's birth to the original blue fae some five thousand years ago, followed by information about his marriage to Luciana around three thousand years later and the birth of their two children, Theo and Gwen.  

‘Woah, Theo is three hundred years old? He looks good,” I remarked.  

“Huh?” Donovan responded, “Oh, yeah, that sounds about right. Fae are immortal, so they age fuckin’ slow, like real fuckin’ slow.”  

“I guess so,” I remarked absently, turning my attention to the familial history of Luciana, being the goddess of the fae, she had her own history. It was easily the oldest book I had ever seen with its crisp aged pages and bound in soft worn leather that was deeply scarred.   

I tried the table of contents, hoping to locate her marriage quickly, but there wasn’t one. I started carefully flipping through the pages skimming for anything that might indicate I was in the right century. I started to notice random pages had been ripped from the book, sometimes it would be one or two pages, sometimes more, then I came to a section that was missing an eight-hundred-year span of time, then picking up at her marrying the king. Another two pages were missing right before the birth of Theo and Gwen. What the hell?  

I quietly showed Donovan the missing sections and he furrowed his brow, biting his lip. He picked up his phone and sent a text message. My phone immediately vibrated in my pocket, “Something isn’t right” it read. I nodded at him.   

He began straightening up all his books, and I followed suit. “I think we have found all we’re gonna need,” he announced happily.   

‘Me too,” I cheerily agreed. I don’t know why we were acting so damn happy, but I knew there was a reason.   

We went back to our rooms and packed our bags since we would be leaving in the morning. Donovan said he needed to go talk to Theo about our upcoming departure, so I left him to it. As I stepped into my room, I heard a soft voice behind me, I turned to see Queen Luciana tucked into a doorway across the hall. I opened my mouth to speak, but she held a finger up to her lips. I nodded, showing I understood. She made a motion with her fingers, pointing at her eyes then directing her fingers toward either direction of the hall. “Was anyone watching?” I checked the hall as nonchalantly as I could, I didn’t see anyone, neither a person nor a ball of light. I casually walked back through my door, giving her the “OK” sign with my fingers. She nodded, taking a breath, then she held up her hand and a sparkling pure white ball of light formed over her palm. She blew it toward me, like a kiss. I caught it in my palm, and the light solidified into a glass orb with a light sparkling in the center. When I looked back toward her, she was gone. I backed into my room and softly closed the door.   

I studied the glass orb, not knowing what I was supposed to do with it. I hid it safely in my bag, wrapped up in some soft pairs of socks. I hope Donovan has some clue what to do.  

I waited for what felt like hours for him to return to his room. I texted him several times, “Hey, what you up to?” but I never got a response. Finally, I heard a knock at the door. When I answered, it was Donovan and Theo.  

“Hey, sorry to mess up our plans, but my dad just called. We have to leave for home tonight.”  

“Oh! Okay?” I was confused and surprised, but also glad to be leaving early now that I had Luciana's glass orb in my possession.  

“I’m sorry you have to cut your trip short,” Theo sounded genuinely upset we had to leave early, “Hopefully, you can come back to visit soon.”  

“I really hope so,” I smiled.  

“Me too, man,” Donovan and he grasped hands and pulled each other into a brief hug.   

We gathered our things and Aisling and Ashling guided us back the way we had come. The portal was a lot less unnerving the second time around, and the hike back didn’t seem to take as long as the first time. We loaded our bags into the Land Rover and drove back up the road watching the entry disappear behind us. We stopped at the first drive-thru we found and ate while we drove. Donovan finally stopped the car near Chicago so that we could get some rest.  

We continued our journey the next morning, making our nine-and-a-half-hour drive in eight hours. We went straight to the packhouse. Donovan didn’t say anything as he pulled out one of his bags and motioned for me to follow him. We went directly to the alpha’s office and entered without knocking.   

“Oh, good. You made it back!” Alpha Fredrick exclaimed, sounding relieved.  

“We left right after I got off the phone with you,” Donovan explained.  

He was digging through his bag while he spoke. “Here it is,” he said, pulling an old worn leather book from the bag.   

It was Luciana’s book.