The sound of fireworks exploded in the sky, eliciting oos and ahhs from the occupants of the town square, the bonfire's burning brightly in the evening light. The chatter of people and sweet aroma of wine filled the night air. Celeste tentatively sipped at her glass of wine, a sparkling berry medley, one of the islands grocers had offered her with a small smile and nod.
She'd sniffed it thoroughly before drinking it.
"Did you see that?" Anelisse asked, her silver eyes cast skyward and jaw loose in awe, the light of the bonfire casting her ashen hair in a golden sheen, her own glass of wine hanging limping between her fingers, "I swear they get bigger every year."
"I've seen better," Celeste replied, a small smile on her face and she leaned over towards her sister, "one's the size of the island itself, bigger even."
"Really?" Anelisse inquired, looking slightly taken aback by the sudden offer of information that Celeste so often hid, "what did they look like?"
"Lightning and flame," Celeste's arms were crossed at the wrist as she lazily swirled her wine, her eyes cast skyward as more fireworks exploded, "gold and silver, rich hues of reds, green, purple, you name it, it was there." Celeste blew a stray strand of her hair from her face, "we even had lights than raced through the sky as though they were dancing spirits themselves."
Never mind mentioning to Anelisse they actually were spirits. It didn't matter either way, Celeste mused, she just wanted to share something with her sister, some honesty that she'd been so reluctant to give.
"Whoa," Anelisse whistled, her gaze lost in imagination as she pictured the swirl of color in her mind, no doubt picking the colors apart,"I wonder what it looked like, what it'd be like to paint that."
"Lovely." Celeste replied sitting forward, thinking back on the lovely paintings that had lined the walls of her childhood home, of the ridiculously large painting of a Pegasus that had hung above her bed since she'd been a small tot of four. She wondered if that painting still hung there. "Capturing them on canvas would be quite a feat."
"I wish I could have seen them with you," Celeste quirked a brow at her sister's suddenly somber tone, her hands rubbing together absentmindedly, "but I'll just always be here in Vanica."
"What makes you so certain of that?" Celeste replied, having sat further forward to look more closely at her sister, a tug of sadness pulling at her gut upon seeing her previously vibrant sister so quiet.
"It's true," Anelisse replied, refusing to look at her sister, "I've nothing special to offer the people on this island much less the big wide world, but you..."
Anelisse's voice trailed off as she sat down her wine glass, and began to twirl an ashen curl about her finger, "the looks, the experiences, the strength," an overdramatized sigh, all signs of the previous sadness instantly winking out as she looked at her sister, the back of her palm pressed to her forehead, "oh how unfortunate I am."
Celeste wasn't buying her sudden mood change for even a moment. She set her sister a knowing look, demanding a further explanation from the blonde.
Anelisse swallowed hard.
"You're different you know, not confined to this small existence," Silver eyes glanced up, full of some unnamed emotion, "you were never meant to be stranded here, even if you choose to stay. We're mortal Celeste, our days are limited. You, you're infinite, you'll be around long after Vanica no longer exists-"
"Enough," Celeste chastised cutting Anelisse off, "you're being completely nonsensical." Celeste watched as her sister begin to sway to some invisible tune, she took a stabling breath, "when we get away from this place I want to take you to see those things, to experience them."
"I thought you were set on never leaving," Anelisse quipped, her lips tugging up at the corners, "what happened to staying safe and stable?"
"I never said I wouldn't leave, I just said I wasn't going back to where I came from," Celeste swallowed hard as the fireworks continued to boom above them, "and I'm tired of this little town, of this ignorant place. There's so much out there, more than you or I even know." She glanced towards her sister who was watching her intently.
Anelisse bit at her bottom lip, a nervous habit she'd never broken, "you would truly leave with me? We could go together?" She glanced off to the side, her curls falling over her shoulder, "but what of Momma?"
"I won't take her to the Fae lands if that's what you're asking," Celeste snorted, Anelisse shot her a look of disdain, of course Anelisse knew that, "but we could go to the mainland, one of the larger mortal cities, find real jobs and a new home."
A small smile broke across Anelisse's face, "Yes," she mused a sparkle entering her eyes, "I think I'd like that very much." With quick nimble hands Anelisse reach into the folds of her dress and withdrew a small pendant, barely the size of a thimble.
The thoughts drained from Celeste's head though when she saw the small necklace clutched tightly in Anelisse's hand, her mind vacant and silent.
"I wanted to give you this," Anelisse said, her hands holding out the exquisite round amethyst pendant, barely the size of a larks egg, on a silver chain, the light reflecting like stars off its dark surface, "I found this hung around your neck the night Mamma brought you home and have been holding onto it for you until I felt it was right to return it." Celeste's eyes focused in on the small pendant, her heart skipping a beat at the sight of it, "I wanted to keep it safe, I didn't want to lose it, or to let Mamma be careless with it."
"Thank you," Celeste managed, a sense of understanding filtering through her as Anelisse stepped up to offer the necklace to Celeste.
Celeste only shook her head and wrapped Anelisse's fingers around the pendant.
"Please keep it safe for me awhile longer," Celeste choked out, willing the tears and memories down at the sight of the piece of incriminating evidence, the one that linked her to her past, "I want to wait before I take it," Celeste shook her head, clearing her thoughts, "I want to be able to explain everything to you before I take it." Anelisse nodded her head and tightened her grip on the necklace.
"I will keep it safe," Anelisse replied, her silver eyes searching Celeste's face, "I love you very much, please know that."
"I do Anelisse," Celeste replied, patting her sisters cheek, "I do. I love you too."
Anelisse leapt forward and wrapped her arms around Celeste as though she were a lifeline. Celeste wrapped her arms just as tightly around Anelisse, her face burying into her sister's hair.
"We're family," Anelisse looked off to the side, her arms still locked around Celeste, "You and I. Momma…. I can't do this with her any longer, she's never going to change, I love her…. but I can't do this." Tears slipped down Anelisse's face, "I need something more, I'm dying in this place, there has to be more." She gripped Celeste's hand, "Let's leave, you can sail, I can sew, we can find work somewhere. We can be different people."
Something like hope coursed through Celeste's body as she held her sister close, this was the way out she realized. They could go to the mainland, find work and make a new life for themselves. Find a place where even her past couldn't follow.
"Yes," Celeste whispered, the sound of fireworks exploding above them echoing out again, "let's do it."
"He looked so ridiculous!" Celeste cackled as she threw her head back, laughter escaping her lips, "I can't believe you agreed to do that folk dance with him!"
Anelisse slapped Celeste across the arm, her cheeks flaring red in embarrassment. The cool breeze from the ocean blew in off the ocean waves and caressed Celeste's too warm skin as they made their way down the town's cliff edge, the lights and sounds of the festival still in full swing behind them.
"You're impossible!" Anelisse hissed, though her amusement was clearly heard in her voice, "What else was I supposed to do? Tell the old codger no?"
"I think it was a better alternative than to have ended up under him when he lost his balance trying to lift you like that," Celeste's cackling had subsided into soft giggles, a lightness blooming inside her that she hadn't felt in a long time, "at least he apologized, profusely."
Anelisse shuddered, "Oh he was so sweaty and stinky! The whole square was in fits about it, I'll never live this one down."
"No," Celeste chuckled, folding her arms behind her head and looking up at the night sky, "No you won't." The moon was only a small sliver in the night sky, the stars around it shining brightly in their silvery hues, twinkling as though some answer to a long sought-after question.
"Why do you always look like that?" Anelisse inquired, watching her sister with raised brows.
"Like what?" Celeste replied, her eyes still cast upwards towards the night sky, watching as a single shooting star tore across its vast depth.
"Like you're a part of it," Anelisse said, then rephrased, "like you're home. When you look at the stars your face, it always softens." The soft breeze billowed around the girls, sending their skirts dancing in the wind. The tang of the ocean on their lips.
"It's…complicated," Celeste dropped her arms from behind her head and turned to face Anelisse, violet eyes hooded. A million thoughts tore through her skull, the truth she'd so carefully hid scratching beneath the surface seeking a way free. What if she could confide in her sister? let someone know who and what she was—she took a deep breath, "Anelisse," she paused for a moment, "there's something I need to tell you-"
Celeste heard the plummet, the tearing of wind against cloth, the tiny feminine yelp, and the splash before the blood curdling scream of fear tore through the air. It jolted Anelisse and sent a frenzy of chills up Celeste's arm. Celeste stole one glance at Anelisse and, without thought or reason, raced towards the source of the scream.
Panic danced at the edges of her mind as she raced down along the jagged edge of the cliffs, quickly outpacing her sister as she tore like a dark wind towards the source of the scream. Said source that of which was coming from near where the pewter cliffs gazed out upon the ocean's surface and where the local children liked to throw wishing stones on the eve of festivals.
The energy around Celeste buzzed like lightning, the tug of an invisible bond sending her hurtling for the source of whatever had just transpired.
Sliding on the slick surface of the cliffs, Celeste found Layla, Marrien and James mother, crying and shouting towards the dark waters below. Her pale feature's were twisted in fear as she waved her hands frantically at the sheer cliff drop off, her son tucked closely into her side his soft brown eyes wide with fear. It took only moments for Celeste to piece together what had transpired.
"Please," Layla bellowed, her voice choking on the tears streaming down her face and throat, "She can't swim! Marrien can't swim! MARRIEN."
Celeste, ripping her feet free from her newly crafted boot and tossing them aimlessly to the side, took two long strides to the cliffs edge before pushing herself off in one smooth motion and diving into the swirling waters below.
The water hit her like a ton of bricks, its icy touch sending a shudder through even her immortal body. For a moment her body froze, the memories of being tossed into equally freezing waters all those years ago rising to haunt her. She thrashed her head, willing the rising fear and panic to cease, now wasn't the time. Later, she placated herself, you can deal with this later.
With quick kicks she descended into the battering waves, looking, searching for any sign of the missing child. Yet even with her gifted fae vision she could see nothing but the tousling waters, cold, dark and murky.
Her lungs began to burn after several minutes and she was forced to return to the surface to refill her depleted oxygen. She broke the waves for only a second, the bitter cries of the mother and brother echoing into the dark night, now accompanied by the cries of Anelisse.
Celeste took in another lungful of air and dove deep beneath the waves, willing the child to appear.
She searched for several long critical minutes, returning to the surface twice to refill her lungs, before she felt the tug, that invisible thread yank suddenly and desperately from deeper in the waters. Without consideration she began swimming towards the tug, letting it lead her deeper and deeper into the rolling waves.
The cool tendrils of the dark waters wrapped around her limbs, their songs lulling and melodic willing her to them. Willing her to pull in only a small breath, since her lungs burned oh so fiercely, willing her to flow with the waves, to allow them to drag her and her heavy soaked dress down. She shoved the voices away, willing their insistent ramblings to cease.
Just as her hope was beginning to fade and her lungs felt as though they were going to burst, Celeste's eyes caught on a fleck of red and knew she had found her missing target. Her dress caught on a jagged rock, Marrien's body floated lifelessly in the waves, her small pale arms floating listlessly around her.
Gripping the child against her body, Celeste braced her feet against the jagged rocks edge and tore Marrien's dress free. Wrapping her tightly in her arms, lungs beginning to burn with such ferocity she felt she'd suffocate, Celeste shot for the surface willing her body to cleave through the waves.
She broke the surface with a loud gasp, her eyes stinging from the briny water. Marrien was completely motionless, frozen in her arms. Knowing she had no time to spare Celeste swam towards the cliffs side and gently shifted Marrien over her shoulder before digging her cold fingers into the cliffs surface and pulling herself and Marrien up with an unnatural amount of ease.
It took Celeste only moments to scale the cliffs side before clearing it and lowering the too still Marrien to the ground, her icy body swollen.
Layla was at her daughter's side in an instant, shoving herself rudely between Celeste and Marrien as she began to run her fingers over her daughters motionless and lifeless face. Anelisse was at Celeste's side instantly, her warm hands gripping her sister's cold arms tightly.
"No," Layla choked, her shoulders beginning to shake, "she's not breathing, she's not breathing! She's gone—by the Mother." Celeste, panic and adrenaline coursing through her system as she realized no life remained in the child, pushed Layla away and began working with the young girl, willing life back into her.
She shoved her soaked hair over a shoulder, vaguely aware of the crowd that had gathered and were watching with wide eyes, before assessing the child, thinking, willing some solution to come to forefront of her mind.
A lesson, one taught to her long ago, came to light in her mind as she parted the young girl's lips and forced air inside. She was met with the briny taste of salt water as it pooled from the young girl's lips, she immediately drew in another breath and tried again. For several long minutes she worked with the child, but she remained lifeless on the ground, the life having already fled the body.
A small broken whimper escaped James, the young boy's lips, as he clung to his mother skirt and watched the young fae woman try and fail to revive his limp sister.
Frustration coursed through Celeste as she lowered her head above the child, silent tears leaking from her eyes, the tears falling on Marrien's already soaked chest, failure clanging through her. The crowd had grown at this point, murmurs echoing around her, whispers and horrified gasps.
Opening her eyes Celeste looked at Marrien's face, the small sweet round cheeks that so often held kind smiles for her swollen and frozen.
It was too much.
Placing a hand on Marriens arm, intent on folding the sweet girl's arms over her chest, Celeste felt the invisible bond go taunt, hitching the breath in her throat. The world around her slowed, the murmurs of the crowd fading into silence behind her as that pit, that endless pit that she hid away so long ago pried itself open.
Tendrils of power began to seep out, upwards and through her finger tips, the caress of magic dancing through her veins.
A flash of green fields and warm sun consumed Celeste, her soul flying what felt as a million miles away. Glancing around she saw a field of flowers and a beautiful woman, swathed in a white dress, smile at her sweetly and reaching out for her.
"You've returned," the woman cooed, "how I've missed seeing your face my sweet lily." The woman stepped forward, her face hard to discern behind the tendrils of dark hair, "It seems this game is not yet finished."
Celeste snapped back into her body instantly, just in time to hear the collective gasp as Marrien's small dead form convulsed, like a fish thrown onto land, before a shuddering breath wracked through her lungs and life once again bled into her.
Her cold frozen skin flooded with color as Celeste heard Marrien's heart jump to life in her chest, like a panicked hummingbird taking flight. Ice and relief flooded Celeste as she fell back on her heels, her soaked dress landing with a squish in the sand.
Marrien's hazel green eyes fluttered open, something like confusion there as a piercing wail tore through the night from Layla.
"Celeste," Marrien questioned, her little hand immediately fluttering up to her raw throat, "What happened?"
Celeste looked at the small girl with sad eyes before James was upon his sister, tears streaming down his face. Sobbing he buried his face into his sisters-soaked chest. Layla followed soon after and Celeste sat there and watched as the small family held themselves together.
The impossible having just occurred.
Anelisse kneeled next to Celeste, her skin pallid and she looked on with utter shock. "Celeste, how did you do that?"
Celeste said nothing.
"Impossible," Celeste heard the hiss, the deep baritone of Lukas from the crowd, "Witchcraft. That was witchcraft."
Idiot, Celeste thought numbly, too tired and disoriented to even bother barking a reply at the foolish man, you really know next to nothing about fae.
Pain suddenly tore through her skull and she hissed, pressing a palm onto her temple. Anelisse's hands were on her immediately.
Celeste wasn't sure what happened next, the pain blurring the details, but she had the sensation of someone dragging her upright-Adder she soon realized as she felt the man's arm come around her waist supporting and the soft touches of Martha's hands smoothing her hair from her face.
"—take her home." Her ears finally tuned into the sound around her, "We'll go with you." Celeste felt the sensation of her legs moving, of walking as they made their way away from the silent crowd, their eyes boring holes into the back of her skull.
She glanced back over her shoulder, one final look and took into the thankful stare of Layla, her blue eyes still wide in disbelief, and the look of utter disgust on Lukas Pennington's face, his normally tan skin awfully pale and face distorted in rage.
Too bad he hadn't been the one who fell off the cliff.
