I was falling.

And in that moment the only thing I could focus on wasn't the screams from outsiders, or the roar escaping Kieran's mouth as he shifted back into human form and stared me directly in the eyes as he watched my outstretched hands flailing before me.

No.

It was the sound of the wind rushing around me as the thin material on my dress began to shred, giving it an entirely new look. It was the way my hair scratched and scrapped at my face as my eyes took in Kieran's--the old Kieran's eyes, as he dropped his body over the broken window ledge and began to cry.

I could feel the ground coming closer and closer as Kieran's earthy eyes closed and let his tear drop.

I breathed in a breath as that single tear drop of his true inner pain dropped at a heavenly speed through the air. My fingertips felt as they were yearning to feel what he felt and make it become my own suffering just before I let the world slip by. They stretched and wiggled in a slow and torturous way that when that single tear drop finally touched my skin, the world froze.

My body paused in mid air as the world became lost in time. I watched in awe as the tear spread across my fingertip and started to shimmer in the sun's light. The orange and yellow hues turned to a darker red as it morphed into a dull purple, only to spring to a vivid indigo color.

The dark blue encased my fingertip as the world started to vibrate. I watched as the tear sunk beneath my skin, it's emotions folding and caving into my blood and effecting the beat of my heart.

It felt like what I imagined death to feel like. Only...it seemed to be more of a fresh breath of air than a suffocating one.

And I took it all in.

In a rush, the emotions spread like a wildfire. Every fiber in my body became electrified and my chest pounded. My mouth spread open as I gasped loudly. I threw my head back as the sensation of everything known to the universe coursed through my whole being. Taking hostage of my heart and my soul, Kieran's raw emotions changed me. And in that moment it was peaceful.

That is until the dark figure appeared in a tornado of black smoke and vivid sapphire eyes. "No!" It shouted in a riveting voice as the sky turned hazy and started to fracture. One jagged line connecting another, the rift to the world started to fracture.

I could feel the dark figures panic as it rushed to my side, gliding on its own wave of terror and secrets. It's intangible hands gripped me once before drawing back to stare at the thundering sky. Clouds had formed, their shapes taking the faces of hells demons and gods damned. But I wasn't afraid. I was welcoming the darkness. Wishing that it would consume me and take away all my pain. All my pain.

"It's not your pain!" The figure turned its face back to me. "Caelia, honey, you have to stop this!"

Caelia? I thought and tried to remember who or where I could have heard that name from. It sounded so painfully familiar and I was writhing inside just trying to figure it out.

"He's tricking you!" The figure cried and the closer I looked into its eyes, the more I started to see a face. In a wave of uncertainty, the black shield around the figure started to peal away as the dark figure reached behind itself slowly. "You must stop this honey, or else I'll have to."

Honey? Why was it calling me that?

I could feel myself--the real me--slipping back into my body. But the moment the darkness felt the same thing, it stung me with an icy flame of bitterness and loathing.

I glared at the figure as it inched closer to me. I was terrified in my lonely pit of reality the darkness allowed me to have as it let me watch the show. But I could see the walls closing in as the figure came closer and closer.

"Come back to me." The figure said and I watched as the darkness around it started to ebb away, bringing itself into more light and clarity.

A tear slipped from my face and I could feel the darkness soak in my pain as it leeched onto my wretched feelings as I stared into the face of the figure.

"I--" I shouted but the darkness choked me in a cloak of silence.

"I can't." The darkness spoke aloud for me in a voice that was not my own.

In a flash, the darkness that surrounded the true identity of the figure disappeared like a crashing wave as those sapphire eyes became all too familiar. I cried out in agony and misery as the shock vibrated through me as I stared into that warm face that was now glowering at the new me.

But the emotion on her face didn't last long as she pulled out a dagger with blue steal and with a force unknown to man, stabbed the dagger right through my heart.

In a show of fracturing light and screaming demonic faces, the world fell back into place as my mother disappeared in the sonic boom of blue light that scrapped the earth free of my darkness.

_____________

"Caelia!"

My name vibrated around all my surroundings.

I didn't even have to open my eyes to sense the presence of two bulky males and a softer touch in footing. I could feel and hear the sigh from the grass as it folded over to let them pass.

A soft thud sounded besides my ear and I felt a tingling sensation rub against my shoulder as I felt my body being pulled away from the earth.

Was I dead and feeling my surroundings for the last time? Should I be holding onto these feelings and touches?

But something in my gut told me I wasn't dead.

"We have to get her out of her, quickly." A gruff tone of voice spoke as several hands started to fall on me.

"Please tell me she's not dead." A females voice rang out with worry and for a moment I became wishful and thought it could be my mother. But then that thought was crushed when Freya's name was called in the background. "Oh dear god! What happened to you?" Freya cried out and I felt terrible, as if my stomach was spinning and flipping in its own vomit. Why couldn't I see the world? What was going on?

"I'm alright," someone huffed out a tired breath as their stomps in their attempt to jog, stopped. "Just got a little surprise by one of the Hunters."

Freya swiveled where she stood, her feet making a harsh turn in the grass, tearing it up and apart from its roots. "Wait," her voice echoed off slowly. "I thought you two were Hunters."

The gruff voice chimed out a harbored laugh. "No." I caught the wind screeching as the man's head shook through the air.

"We're part of the Seelie Court!" A young man's voice boomed in pride and worry. I had no doubt he was taking in my body and the people people around him as he tried to remain in the conversation.

I heard a slap of skin of leather and then the young man's breath hissing as the sound of clothing squeaked. "Don't go off bragging about it. We aren't in the highest of status, I'm afraid. But when everyone was squabbling about who would come and get the princess, I pulled my young mate here and we took off."

"She's not the lost princess." A familiar rang in tone made my heart ache. But I couldn't determine if it was truly Reighton or Weston standing besides Freya at the moment.

The man scoffed. "Of course not! The lost princess is a myth, but a good one at that." I felt his eyes linger on me for a moment and I had the urge to move away. Move away from all of this and start making Kieran and the Crown pay for they've done and put me through. But I was stuck. Forced to listen to them talk about me with me right there, dying.

"Then what is she?" That was the question of the hour and I was so glad Freya could be the one to ask it.

"Isn't it obvious?" The gruff voice asked. "She's the Tae Rune Princess."

"The Tae what?" Freya scrambled to put the words together.

"The Tae Rune Princess. The princess that brings together the humans and the fae but can also be used to destroy them." The young man chimed in before the other older man could. "Her light is said to protect the Watertree, the worlds existence--it's life! She's an amazing creature born from true magic. Not one of faerie blood or human, but a mixture of both. It's the first form of what most fae would like to call a Pure."

Freya's gasp shocked me. "Pure Faeries are already rare enough, are you telling me that Caelia exceeds even that?"

"The Tae Rune Princess is not given her powers until she has become of age in the eyes of the universe. There are only said to be five in the world, all alive centuries apart."

"Meaning, there can only be four children from the original Tae Rune Princess. And we all just witnessed the birth of she." The eldest man out of the group said as all eyes turned on me. "Something happened that only she knows about that made her this way."

"So her mom couldn't have been the original?" Yes, it was definitely Reighton standing here now. I could sense the way he walked against the grass to come kneel besides me.

"No." The man said just before he sighed. "There are myths and stories about how she is born into this life. But it's something so beyond our knowledge that I doubt even Caelia will be able to process it without driving herself mad."

"So what can we do for her?" Reighton asked and I could hear the slight hint of panic in his voice. He had no idea what to say or do for me when I woke up, and my heart warmed at the thought of him feeling scared for his lack of knowledge.

"Love her, cherish her, but always let her know who she really is. She may be a princess to the world, but she's not a God."

I'm not a God.

That much I've known my whole life. And even now, as I laid on the ground with everyone standing around me, I didn't feel like one. I felt broken and bruised. My mother had to be my guardian, why else would her face appear to me through the darkness.

But what if that was all an allusion of the darkness, something for me to remember it by?

I cringed at the thought of what I'd momentarily become. Had they all seen that? Had they all seen me pause and fight with Kieran's inner demons against my own?

Did Kieran know what he had done to me? Did he feed me his tears on purpose? The bastard.

Too many questions and too many voices filled my head as my friends started talking about meeting up with Weston and Emma.

"Weston should have been back by now though." Freya's voice rang out loud and clear as my world started whirl back slowly to normal. The sounds sounded less hazy and fuzzy as feeling started to tingle in my blood. "I told him to drop Emma off with my friends and then wait in the forest line."

"Well he wouldn't have gone back inside if he saw Caelia and you all jumping out of the highest window." Reighton growled the end of his sentence as if to make Freya feel bad about her impulsive decision.

"Just be glad we are here and not in the next dump Kieran produces from eating us all!" Freya snapped and Mar Reeve chuckled under his breath.

"He wouldn't have eaten you." Reighton retaliated and I felt my eyes flutter open. The trees above me looked like little green feathers at first as the world started to come back into focus.

"So you are alive girly." The man's voice cooed besides me and I turned my eyes to peer into his dark ones. But a friendly smile shimmered deep within them as he sat back on his heels. "Forgot to give you my name before the demon of a fiancé you have showed up." He handed out his hand. "My names Evan."

I took his hand with normal ease and I looked at my hand in his in shock. "Caelia." I offered my name even though I knew he already knew my name.

"Oh my God, you're alive!" Freya cheered before throwing her arms in the air and crashing into the grass besides me.

I smiled up at her just before she pressed her body against mine and gave me a tight squeeze. Reighton had to pull her off of me before I actually died.

"What happened?" I asked even though I sort of knew the answer already. I just wanted to hear it for the people gawking at me at the moment.

Mar Reeve fell to the floor instantly on his knees and pressed his forehead against the earth. "It was like nothing I've seen before." He breathed in the grass and I raised a questionable eyebrow.

I'd opened my mouth to her clarification on what he meant by that, but then everyone turned their heads to see the person emerging from the woods. But I was too caught in my mind to register the large frame running forward.

Was it really that great of a spectacle? What did this all mean for me? Do I have leverage over the Crown now? Can I take them down once and for all?

"Caelia." Weston's voice at my side made my heart start anew and I swiveled around to see him standing there. Cuts lined his jaw as if an animal had attacked him and several small, yet already darkening, bruises lined his left cheek.

"What happened to you?" I nearly shouted before racing up to him and cupping his chin in my palm. He hissed when my fingers brushed near his wounds. The action shocked me for the last time he was mildly hurt, he didn't even act as if he noticed his wounds.

"Emma's safe," he avoided the question. "But we'll have to get going, the Hunter's are moving fast and we don't--" he cut his sentence short once his eyes feel on Evan and Mar Reeve. "Who are they?" He asked with scolding eyes.

"Names Evan."

"Mar Reeve." Mar raised his hand as if he was in school while Evan extended his hand towards Weston.

Weston didn't take it and Evan dropped his hand back at his side. "What are you two doing here?"

"Came to rescue the princess, of course." Evan scoffed, rolling his dark ebony eyes.

"But then why are you dressed as Hunter's?" Weston seemed to be full of questions and not many answers in this hour.

"We spotted a few of the bastards outside the boarders and we jumped them and took their clothes." Mar Reeve explained.

"They were young lads. Obviously new to the whole stand and watch because they weren't watching anything around them." Evan whistled a small laugh.

"Who sent you here?" Weston continued with his questions and I cut a side long glance at Reighton. He gave me a small shrug as if to tell me it was nothing to worry about.

But I did worry.

"The Seelie Queen." Evan answered back in short. I could tell on his face that he wasn't a fan of all the questions either.

Weston seemed to take a hint and he dropped all his questions. He nodded his head slowly in understanding before turning his gaze back on me. "We must get you somewhere other than here. I doubt the Seelie Court will allow me in after everything my father's done to them, but I can at least get you there."

This sounded all too familiar and I felt a furrow rustle my brow. That was a similar statement Kieran had given me before I managed to get him through the boarder. Would we be facing another thing like that? Or will it be less strenuous?

"Alright," I said softly. "Then let's get moving."

____________

We'd been walking and jogging for what felt like hours. The sun was hanging low in the sky, giving off its last effort to comfort us in the dark day.

My feet hurt and I desperately needed to get out of this dress! It was shredding with every step I took and I had torn off many of the Ravens to spite Kieran.

No one has spoken the whole time we ventured off further and further in the Crown's lands. I expected more demonic beings to fly left and right out here in search for us, but none came. In fact, the whole earth seemed to be quiet. As if it was listening peacefully for our last breath when something with malice intent would spring out at us and cut off our heads.

Shaking my shoulders free of the stress and anxiety I was bearing at the moment, I started to slow down my pace. My back ached and I felt as if my toes were rubbed raw against the sides of my elegant sandals.

"Can we take a moment to rest?" I asked the others as they all stopped head of me and looked over their shoulders.

"You aren't feeling ill, are you?" Reighton raised an eyebrow and I scowled at his condescending tone of voice.

"No," I snipped as I pounded my feet against the ground as I made my way towards them. "I just don't think we'll get very far if we run or walk blindly. Plus, the sun's going down." I turned towards Evan. "Didn't you say we would be there before sundown?"

Evan nodded his head slowly, almost as if he was trying to remember his own words. "I did." He said slowly, trying to convince himself. "And I don't know why we haven't yet."

"Maybe they ran off when they heard about the fight." Mar Reeve put his two-cents in.

Evan waved the kid off. "No that's not it."

"Who's they?" Weston asked. He was always so skeptical about everything, I observed. But then wouldn't I be if I was born to hate the world and question everything in it?

"You can't just pass into the Seelie lands without a Passage." Evan huffed a big breath of air as he stuck his chest out. "Usually five men guard the boarder and we should have seen them a long time ago."

"Are you sure we aren't just going in the wrong direction?" Weston asked and before Evan could snap anything back at him, the sound of a small tree branch breaking echoed through the air.

Simultaneously, we all flipped around to stare into the eyes of a gleaming dark brown haired women with crystal blue eyes. A smirk ladened her face in the most gruesome way as he right hand fell over her exposed hip. The leather corset was pressed tightly against her tight tummy and the hem was cut in a large arch to show the detailed muscle underneath.

"Well shit." The women's voice laughed at us as her eyes grew in size, mocking us. "I let you know I was here."

Instantly, we all went to run away but we were stopped by a show of swords and revolvers pointed our way.

Somehow these men and women had snuck up on us and I felt like I already knew the answer as to how.

Freya pressed closer to me and gave me a look I thought she'd never give me. She was scared. I grabbed her hand and gave it a tight squeeze before letting go as the women stepped from her spot.

"And you've been going in the wrong direction since the start, handsome." The women continued to talk as the men, and few women, started to close a circle in on us.

Weston growled deep in his chest when one of the leather clad men got bold and tried to stick his sword tip closer to him. "What do you want from us?" Weston asked the women through gritted teeth.

The women passed through the shoulders of her men as she went to stand in front of Weston. "I want the princess." She demanded and Weston's jaw rippled like water as he fought to hold in his inner demon. The women laughed and then so did all the other people surrounding us.

I'd heard of the new weapon, the revolver, before from the kids in the village whenever my mom would let me go. But I never expected that being so close to one would make me taste the bitter feeling of death.

"She isn't who you think she is." Weston spoke once more and the women turned her cold eyes on me.

"No?" She tilted her head and gave me a look over. She was about to say something to me when her eyes skated over to Freya and then a dark scowl crossed her face. "If it isn't the nymph that broke my heart." The women placed a thin hand over her heart as she stepped around Weston.

I looked over at Freya to see her glaring at the women. "Not like I had a choice, Scar."

Scar.

So she had a name. 

"You could have taken the blame." Scar shrugged and Freya's lip curled in disgust. "Take them!" Scar yelled through the forest before the swords and revolvers got closer and closer, pinning us all tightly together. And we didn't even try to fight them as they tied our hands together individually.

Thank you all for reading!

Please don't forget to vote/comment!

Soooo? How was that! Caelia's fall and then the big reveal of the dark figure! Not to mention them the whole Hunter's falling upon them and Freya knowing this chick named Scar.

Hope the ending wasn't too anticlimactic. I tried to make it sort of a mellow cliffhanger for you all.

Only three more chapters left! And they should be coming in pretty quick this upcoming Tuesday-Thursday. :)

WC75

(Unedited)