The Maiden of Air

Chapter 8

I walked like a zombie all the way back to our room with Luke and Michael. It had been a very long day...

First off, I was almost r***d in the early morning and I had to go to the hospital to get stitches. Then the She Witch graced us with her presence and dragged me to the airport, where I met the ever so pleasant Michael Thomas. I arrived and quickly escaped the wondrous Moon Palace, where I then discovered some corpses and dark magic, along with a feisty puma cub. I took said puma cub back to the place I had just escaped to nurse it back to health. I attended the very ceremony I was running away from and became the thing I didn't want to be. Then socialized with more people than I probably have in my whole life before I ran away. None of which were my fellow Maidens, mind you. No. They stuck to their cliques and proceeded to gossip about me. Oh! Not to mention the omen Elisabeth told me.

Now, the cherry on top of this depressing sundae, is that I haven't had sleep in over twenty-four hours. I didn't even know how I was functioning at this point!

My last bit of energy came back to me when I saw the door to our room. I rushed past the boys to get to the door first to crash on my bed as soon as possible.

My heart jumped in my throat when I opened the door to reveal this scene.

The couch, the curtains and the carpet were covered in pillow feathers. I saw the cub spitting and hissing at Emily. She was holding what I assumed was left of the pillow in a fatal attempt of blocking the cub's attacks.

I quickly closed the door and faced the boys. Both had a question mark written on their faces.

"Hey... Isn't there an after party? I'm not quite tired yet. I still want to socialize." I lied, with the best fake smile I could muster with my waning energy

Michael rolled his eyes and pushed past me. "Of course there is no after party. We have to wake up early tomorrow for your first day of training. Why are you acting so weird?"

He opened the door and as soon as he did, I heard something glass break. He stared at the scene for a moment, then closed the door. He slowly turned face me. I could tell he wanted to explode.

"You will get in there and put a stop to whatever that is and then you going to explain to me what is going on." He said. He had that kind of calm tone that scares you more than yelling. He glanced at Luke, who was still behind me. "You knew about this, didn't you?" Michael demanded.

I turned to look at Luke. He had a fake look of surprise on his face and was scratching his head. "What?! No! We knew nothing about this." Luke tried to play it off.

Michael crossed his arms, raised an eyebrow and said, "Luke. You are one of the worst lairs I have ever met. Plus, you always scratch your head when you are hiding something."

Luke quickly dropped his hand back to his side.

Michael began to massage his forehead just above his brow. "Just get in there and deal with it. It's been a long day and I would like some sleep."

Luke went in ahead of me, carefully opening the door. Just in case the cub tries to make a run for it. Emily was now standing on the couch using a new pillow to fend of the little cub. Luke quickly made his way over to the window and yanked one of the curtains down. He then slowly approached the cub from behind while Emily was still distracting her. As soon as he was close enough, he used the curtain to scoop her up without getting scratched in the process. The cub tried fighting, but Luke quickly rapped the curtain around her, trapping her limbs inside the curtain. He then handed the little burrito to me.

It was weird. She kept fighting while in Luke's arms, even when her paws were trapped. But when she was put in my arms, she almost immediately calmed down. Maybe she just finally got tired.

"Thank the Goddess, you're back!" Emily exclaimed. "As soon as she woke up and saw that you were gone, she freaked out and tried to attack me. All due respect young Maiden Erin, I know the poor thing was just scared and trying to defend herself, but I would prefer to never do something like this again." She smoothed out the skirt of her dress and was picking off the pillow feathers as best as she could.

"I understand. Thank you for doing this for me." I said to her. I think that was the first time I was genuinely thankful for something since this morning.

"I will be back first thing next morning to clean this up. I assume you still don't want anyone finding out?" She asked

"At least for now." I said.

"Right. Now, if I may be excused. I would like to get cleaned up and retire for the night."

"Of course. Go right ahead." I said and stepped out of her way to the door.

Once she left, Michael stepped in front of me and Luke.

"Okay. Now you are going to tell me what the hell is going on and why there is a mountain lion cub in our room!" Michael said, slightly raising his voice.

"Well....." I started to say. I went on to tell him of how I tried to run away again and found the dark magic circle.

"So, then you just decided to bring it back here?" Michael asked.

"Yes. She was hurt and all alone. She would have died if I left her." I said. The little cub had calmed down, so I released her from the curtain and cradled her in my arms. She quickly fell asleep as I petted the top of her head.

Michael sighed. "You should have just came back and told one of the senior Maidens. They would have done an investigation."

"I'm not sure that would have been a good idea..." I said, quietly.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked.

"Well, at the banquette tonight, Elisabeth told me about an omen she had. One of my fellow Maidens is supposed to bring darkness upon this cycle."

Michael and Luke were silent. They just looked at me as if I had sprouted horns or grew dog ears or something.

"Well, if it was one of your fellow Maidens, it still would be safe to tell one of the Senior Maidens. Right?" Luke finally asked.

I shook my head. "I'm sure that the circle wasn't made by a young Maiden. We just got our amulets. She wouldn't have had the power to do that kind of magic. I think it was either one of the Senior Maidens, or maybe one of the older Maidens who moved on from the palace, or..." I trailed off. I was thinking of something. But it is almost impossible.

"Or what?" Michael asked with a hint of annoyance.

"Or a wendigo..." I said.

"Are you serious?" Michael scoffed. "Wendigos aren't real."

"While we don't have legitimate recorded history from the first cycle and of what plagued the world during that time, I have probably every book there is about anything Maiden related. You can find wendigos referenced in a lot of them. They were probably brought up the most whenever the books talked about the darkness." I said.

"Even if wendigos did exist, that isn't the sort of behavior it would have. One might have killed the pumas, but it wouldn't have been smart enough to draw a magic cycle." Luke reasoned.

I thought for a minute. "You probably right. Whatever the case, this needs to stay between us and Elisabeth. We'll just let Emily know the bare minimum. I don't want her knowing anything about the dark magic. for her own safety." I said.

Luke gave me a firm nod. Michael was taking a minute to think about it.

He sighed and said, "fine. If Elisabeth is worried, it's probably for a good reason. But. That stays out of my room." He pointed at the sleeping cub in my arms.

"I'll try my best." I said, giving him a taunting smile.

"Alright! Now that we got that figured out, we should really get some sleep." Luke said right before yawning.

"Yeah. Good idea. Goodnight." I said to the boys.

Luke gave me a cheerful reply, while Michael's was less enthusiastic.

If this was my first day at the Palace, I don't think I am prepared for what might come next.