Chapter 7 is herreeeeee!
Chapter 7:
I was greeted with a sight of Brody bending over my body, with tear stains on his face. He was holding my limp body- that was becoming not-so-limp anymore- and was cradling me to his chest. His body was shaking.
Why are you crying? What are you doing! I'm not dead! I'm still here! I tried to shout. When I couldn't even get a whisper out I started to panic. Alright, just lift your hand. It didn't work. Lift your hand! I yelled loudly at myself. Lift your fucking hand! Lift! I command you!
I tried to move anything, anything at all but it wouldn't work. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't move. I would've cried if I had that capability. I realized something- my chest had stopped moving. I wasn't breathing. I panicked, trying to suck in air- any air, but I couldn't.
I started to float, and move higher. I saw the scene from above and gaped. That was me. Me, and Brody. I looked around the room where we were. I saw Jeremy, and Gavrael were standing on the other side of the room. Mac had her lips pressed in a line, and she looked pale. Jeremy's face was expressionless. Gavrael looked like he was about to start crying. Harmony hadn't been recovered.
I looked down at myself and screamed. I could see right through myself. I kept rising, too. I swiped my hands, and tried to swim through the air towards Brody.
"I'm alive! Don't you let me die! You are going to let me live, and we are going to get through this and we are going to bring Harmony-" I stopped. Where was Harmony? I'd noticed she wasn't here but I hadn't really taken it in.
She wasn't there. After all of the energy that I spent to get her out, she wasn't there. It also looked like we were still in Faery. So, after that, we were still stuck, and hadn't gotten any closer to getting Harmony out.
There was a flash, and the Fae that gave me the tip to who could tell me where Solus was- Viridia- appeared. She and Jeremy exchanged a look so filled with love and longing that I blanched- but only for a second. I re-focused my mind to the task at hand.
"Give this to her- give it to her now!" she snapped her fingers and a giant glass appeared. She shoved it into Brody's hands. He hesitated.
"Do it!" she yelled at him, and that was all the encouragement he needed. He pried open my mouth, and poured some in, and plugged my nose, and closed my mouth.
"Swallow, lass, swallow. Ye can't leave me now. Not now. Ye can't. Please, lass, please." he begged. My throat moved.
I started cheering myself on, "Drink you stupid idiot! We still need to save Harmony, and Barrons and the Keltar are very obviously not capable of doing it themselves! Drink!"
Brody poured another bit of it, and kept repeating that. I grinned, and then realized something. I was not in my body. My body wouldn't wake up without me...I think...
I swallowed multiple times, and then I felt a tug in my navel, and then I slammed back in my body. My eyes flew open, and I gasped, sucking air into my lungs. I coughed, my body shacking, and I instinctively turned, and went on my hands and knees. When I was done with my coughing, I noticed the weird warmth that was spreading through my limbs.
"What... what was I drinking?" I asked, a hand on my head, which was now pounding.
"Ye were drinking a drink from Faery. I think it was just an imitation apple juice." Brody replied gruffly, trying to look as if he hadn't been as distraught only a few minutes before.
"I had the weirdest experience. I... was outside of my body. I floated out of it, and you were holding me... and I tried to move, and it didn't work, and I tried to get myself to talk, but it didn't work. I watched myself die... and then I saw Viridia appear," I turned to her, and she and Jeremy were cuddling, "and she gave you that, and I was sucked back in, as if my body decided it wasn't time to die just yet..." I looked around the room, making sure that I took everything in.
I was still in the same leather pants, and tight leather jacket. My sword wasn't even pretending to be hidden. It was right out in the open, in a sheath on my right thigh. My leather boots were intact, and the iron was in ever nook and cranny I'd managed to fit it in as well, as far as I could tell. I looked slimmer though. I'd definitely burned all of the fat I'd had, and then the rest of the energy I'd had. I would have to pig out for weeks to gain back all the weight that I'd lost in about three minutes.
I grabbed the container of juice from Brody's hand, and gulped down the rest- I was parched. It even refilled itself after I finished it. After the third time it'd refilled itself and been emptied Viridia cleared her throat.
"There's one thing that you should know about drinking something from Faery. Although, capable of healing almost anything, it comes with a price. You will have a super extended life, like Mac, and will live for at least two or three thousand years. The only weapons that can kill you are Fae weapons now. You will heal faster." she paused. "Brody, if you wish, you can drink that as well."
I looked at him, with this feeling in the pit of my stomach. Now was going to be the time where he had to choose between living a mostly normal life, with a normal family, and a normal job, or being with me. For thousands of years. I wouldn't blame him if he chose not to. We barely know each other, and I don't know anybody who'd be willing to spend even a hundred years with me, let alone two thousand. I was slightly annoyed that they had failed to mention this before I'd downed it all, but I guessed it didn't really matter- I'd drank it before I was even aware. It saved my life.
Brody reached for the cup. "Are you sure?"
"More sure than I've ever been in my entire life, lass." he downed two glasses. "Is that all I need?"
"Yes." Viridia confirmed. "I must go now. I will be in touch." She went on her tippy toes and kissed Jeremy, and they embraced tightly, as if they never wanted to let go. She then stepped away, and sifted off.
I looked at all their faces ad remembered something. When I'd scanned the room I hadn't seen Harmony. "Where's Harmony?" I asked.
"When ye passed out, the illusion was broken. We were all going, and then Solus got ye. Harmony ran back for ye, and so did Barrons and Brody but Solus had already grabbed Harmony. He was about to grab ye again, after Brody got tae ye." Gavrael said, running his hands through his hair. "There was nae chance tae get tae her without another being taken, and she understood. She knows we'll get her back."
I looked over at Brody, and noticed that his arm was bent a little bit awkwardly where an arm really shouldn't bend. It's broken. "How did that happen?"
"Solus had you... and we were going to go and regroup, and get you both... but Brody didn't care what happened to him. He attacked Solus, and managed to get you out of his grasp before Solus sifted off with Harmony, but he broke an arm, and three ribs." Barrons stated.
"You were almost killed! You should've left me there! Harmony and I would've found a way out! You heard Solus- apparently I'm a hot commodity, he wouldn't have let me die! That was stupid and reckless! I don't want you risking your life for me!" there was a sickening set of cracks as his bones reset themselves- presumably the effect of the drink.
"Ye don't understand, Dru. Without ye there is nae life for me anymore!" his eyes were full of pain. "Ye have nae idea what it did tae me tae see ye lying there, crumpled and dying! Tae know that I couldn't dae anything tae save ye! Don't dae that tae me ever again, dae ye ken?" his accent started to get thicker as he started to go deeper into his feelings. I ran to him and embraced him, burying my face deeply in his chest.
"Not tae ruin this lovely moment but we're kind of stuck in Faery, and if ye don't mind I'd like tae get out of here." Gavrael stated, looking around nervously.
"He's right. Time to go." Barrons stated.
"How're we going to get out?" I asked, not really sure what he was planning.
"We're going to a place where I know there is a tabh'r that leads to Earth- I just don't know where." Barrons seemed a little too calm about the fact that we could very well be sent into the middle of the ocean, or into Antartica if that's where the portal lead.
We walked around the Fae Court for what seemed like hours, and all that was good that came out of it, was that I was holding Brody's hand, and that we were getting to know each other a little better.
"What yer favourite movie?" he asked, with a smile.
"Honestly? White Christmas. The one with Bing Crosby, and Clooney's daughter." I laughed. "Kind of corny, but I could watch that over and over for ages. What's your favourite thing to do in your spare time?"
He laughed. "Honestly? I like tae ride the horses, and I really like tae train our dogs as well. I'm sort of a softie when it comes tae animals."
"Sometime you should teach me how to ride." I said and realized how that sounded. Gavrael laughed, and so did Brody, and that even got a little chuckle out of Barrons. "That's not what I meant!" they continued their laughing. "That's not what I meant and you know it!" I paused. "At least not yet..." I murmured too softly for anyone to hear- and then remembered Barrons' super hearing.
"You know, that's really something that either shouldn't be said at all, or should be said for all to hear." he stated, the corners of his mouth twitching.
"Yes but unlike us normal people, you have super hearing, so you hear every little thing." Oops. He wasn't supposed to know that I knew that either.
"How much do you know about us, anyways?" he asked.
"Enough." I countered, and pleaded to Brody with my eyes for some help.
Barrons stopped, and so did all conversation- we were at the tabh'r. We were about twenty meters away, and already my fingers were starting to twitch. "Brody, carry me. Run with me, and don't stop until I've completely stopped twitching." I comanded, and he obeyed right away.
We all ran to the tabh'r, Barrons going through first, and then Gavrael, and then Brody and I last. We all popped up in searing heat. Of course. As if we didn't need another desert. When we'd gotten sifted to Faery the first time, we'd ended up in a desert. By the second week we'd found forest, but the time in the desert had been... traumatizing to say the least.
"Where are we?" I asked as Brody set me down a safe thirty or forty meters away from the tabh'r.
"A desert." Barrons replied.
"That was great, worthwhile advice. Thank you." I said sarcastically to him, sending daggers with my eyes. Of course he needs to take us to a tabh'r that sends us into a desert.
"When I want your opinion I'll give it to you." was his only response. His dark eyes were calculating, and he was searching our surroundings. Maybe assessing if the four cacti that I could see were threats.
"We're going to have to freeze-frame, as you call it, to the end of the desert, or else we'll never get to land in time. It will take a good five minutes. You shouldn't have to exert yourself too much now, because of he potion you drank in Faery." Barrons stated.
I glared, and grabbed Brody tightly. Barrons grabbed Gavrael. He went first and I followed. After three minutes, I had beads of sweat forming, and my legs were burning. My whole body was aching, and I just felt like if I collapsed, everything would be better. The heat wasn't helping much either. I looked up, and saw green, which rejuvenated my strength. I went as fast as I could to the green, and when I got there, I collapsed, gasping for air.
"Fuck... you... Barrons..."
"Are ye okay Dru?" Brody leaned over me, concerned. He pushed back the hair from my forhead, and I nodded weakly.
"I just need to rest, and, you know, not freeze-frame anymore." I glared in Barrons's general direction.
Turns out, we were in the Sahara. Not the middle, obviously, because that would have taken days to cross. But how lucky was that? Not.
When we got back to the bookstore everyone was going crazy. Pierce, Dean and Mac were waiting for us when we got in.
"Where were you guys?"
"Where's Harmony?"
"What the hell happened to ye?"
They all bombarded us with questions at the same time. I looked at Brody, and did the only thing I could do; did one last freeze-frame to the kitchen, where I proceeded to stuff my face, until I couldn't eat anything anymore. I then walked up the stairs to my bedroom, and flopped down on my bed, falling into a deep restful sleep.