A/N: So . . . here's another chapter. I hope people like it, and am sorry for wasting you time for the last nine chapters if you don't.
This chapter is dedicated to Kyradeath88 , and I'm sorry I can't update more. Tests are coming at me at an insane rate. I just seem quite unable to grasp Spanish this year.
Again, I hope you enjoy and am sorry for wasting your time if you don't. R&R! :)
The thick curtains blocked out the early-morning sunlight, but the large room was far from dark when Holly woke the next morning. Artemis had turned the lamp on at some point, and was back to annotating the book. Holly huffed with annoyance.
"Did you sleep at all?" she asked, raising herself up so she could lean against the headboard.
"I had a nightmare, so yes. Unfortunately, I did," he responded, marking his page and setting the book down. Holly felt her brow furrow, but she pushed away the uneasy feeling. Artemis was fighting the Mesmer, she supposed she could understand not wanting to sleep. The need to be constantly aware, have constant control of your mind.
"If we're going to start going after Glimmer today," she said, sliding out of the bed, landing softly on the richly-carpeted floor. "Then we should get going."
Artemis nodded, drawing his legs out from under the heavy comforter. He was wearing sweatpants, an odd look on the normally overly-formal mud-boy, and a grey T-shirt of some kind of silky-looking material. Scratch that. Knowing the Fowls, it probably was silk.
Holy left to go freshen up in her own room once she was sure that Artemis wasn't just going to fall back onto the covers.
The cool water she used helped to wake her up a little more, and she pulled her LEP suit on, fixing the belt with her weapons around her waist and tucking her helmet under her arm before heading downstairs.
Becket must have still been asleep, but Myles was sitting at the kitchen table as Holly entered the room, a pensive look on his face. He looked up as Holly sat across from him, and dropped his eyes back to his fingers, which were tracing little circles on the wood.
"You alright, Myles?" Holly asked shrewdly, taking a red, shiny apple from the dark wicker basket on the table-top.
"It's my fault," the little boy said. "Isn't it?" he sounded close to tears, and his voice was so warn that Holly was sure he had not slept much the last night, if at all.
"You're smarter than you let people know, aren't you?" Holly responded. This boy was a far cry from the one she had seen when she had first got here.
"I don't want mom and dad to worry 'bout me," the little boy stated. "They worry about Artemis getting into more trouble all the time, but they never worry about Beckett. So I figured . . ." Holly just kept looking at the boy, one slim eyebrow raised.
"And?" she asked.
"And I didn't want them to find out," he said reluctantly. "I mean, I guess I kind of knew about the fairies before I was her, but-"
"Her?" Holly asked sharply. Part of her felt a little bad about grilling the boy about this so early in the morning, but the opportunity had presented itself, so . . . .
"The fairy. She's the one who did that to my brother, isn't she?"
"We think so, yes." Myles looked up at her sharply, and suddenly wore a look much older than his age. Something she suspected that Artemis had had as well. Something he still had.
"We?"
"Artemis and I," Holly said. "We thought you knew more than you were letting on. You're quite the little mischief-maker, aren't you?"
"Not a good reputation for someone who gets found by trouble," Myles muttered, looking back down at his fingers again.
"Are you sure you didn't go looking for it, little brother?" Artemis' voice came as the elder Fowl opened the door to the kitchen area. He was wearing black pants now, and a dark blue dress-shirt. Holly couldn't help but smile and shake her head in exasperation. Only Artemis would get dressed to find a rouge fairy. But this was Artemis fowl, and without his usual suite jacket, he was actually dressed down.
"Do you?" Myles asked.
"I did the first time," Artemis said quietly as he let the door swing shut behind him. "And it thrust me into a world I wasn't ready for. For all that you are intelligent and unlikely to be kidnapping a fairy anytime soon, you are not ready for it either."
"Why? Because I'm even younger than you were?" Myles challenged.
"Age has nothing to do with it, except for the fact that I want you to live before you get thrown into situations that could snatch your life away from you!" Artemis growled, then visibly calmed himself. "I apologize," he said quietly. "But age has nothing to do with it Myles."
"I'm sorry," Myles blurted out suddenly suddenly. Artemis blinked, freezing on his way to the pantry.
"Excuse me?" he asked, brow furrowing in confusion.
"It's my fault, isn't it? That you were sick?"
Holly exchanged a look with Artemis. Myles had no idea what exactly had happened, what was happening, to Artemis.
"No, Myles," Artemis said quietly. "Even if it is because you found her, it's the fairy's fault, not yours." He disappeared into the pantry for a moment, coming back with a loaf of bread and a jar of currant jelly. He took three plates from the cupboard, placing pieces of bread spread with the jelly on the white porcelain. "Here," he said, sliding a plate in front of Myles and one in front of Holly, who looked at it for a moment before taking a bite. Holly would have toasted the bread probably, but it really was not bad. Not bad at all for a mud-boy who could hardly make a sandwich. Actually . . . he couldn't make a sandwich. Period.
"Thanks," Myles said, swallowing a large bite of the bread.
"Mm hm," Artemis hummed. "Myles, how did you meet her? The fairy, I mean."
"I . . ." Myles didn't seem to know what to say. "You know Stonehenge?" he asked. Artemis chuckled. He still hadn't quite gotten over the fact that the place was actually an old pizza place.
"Yes," he said. Then paused. "When did you go to Stonehenge?"
"A couple of weeks ago," Myles said. "You went with dad to some kind of meeting, and mom took Beckett and me to see Stonehenge. She said it would be interesting."
"And was it?" Artemis asked, still with some amusement in his voice.
"More interesting than she knew. Mom was telling Beckett about how they are really, really old. I got bored and wondered a little ways off." Myles took another bite of the jam-coated bread, smearing it all across his mouth. "I don't know what happened," Myles continued once Artemis had tossed him a napkin. "But one moment I was just walking, and the next, I kind of walked into a cave. There was a fairy there. She had wings, and pointed ears. I don't know. She scared me a little. I . . . she screamed at me, and she shot something blue at me, but it missed 'cause I ducked. Then I just ran out the way I came and ended up back by Stonehenge."
The story was a little disjointed, but Holly understood what she needed to. Glimmer was hiding out by Stonehenge, and her hideout was covered. Or perhaps totally cut off from the outside world, made accessible only by magic. In which case, she'd need to call up Mulch. And find out what he and Doodah had found out about Glimmer's eyes in Haven.