Chapter 10: A leap of Faith.

We got to the air strip seeing the morning sun high in the sky, Kyle and Lena took their seats in the front cabin of the plane while Conner pushed Marco in forcing him to take a seat. Logan jumped up on the step and offered me hand to get into the plane which I gladly took, he pulled me up and sat me down in the seat I had sat in before which just happened to be across from Marco, his knee hitting mine making me lean into Logan.

I watched Marco curiously seeing him smirk and look around the plane as Kyle and Lean took off and we were well up in the air.

“Well my dear, it appears that our little plan to get out of here isn’t going to work after all, I can’t do much with my arms tied behind my back.”

I looked at him wishing my telaphaic powers could develop faster.

“Shut up Marco!” Logan yelled at him through clenched teeth.

“What did I do now, is talking against the law as well?” Marco said to his brother.

“You broke my jaw!” Conner yelled from next to Marco.

“Did I? I thought it was the Troll?”

“You gave the order!”

“And what prof do you have? You know trolls aren’t the obedient kind.” His voice was calm and control, confident beyond measure. Conner shook his head in defeat and leaned his head against the window as Lena leaned over and patted his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

A crack of lightning across the sky took me by surprised as the plane began to shake. Is that normal? A plane shouldn’t be shaking so much should it?

I closed my eyes tightly and grabbed on to the only thing that was close to me, Logan.

He sat a little closer to me pulling me o his side, his thumb rubbing calming circles on my skin to relax me.

“It’s ok” he whispered in my ear, his warm minty breath fanning my neck sending a shiver of tingles down my spine.

“haven’t you heard about the storm that guards the Bermuda triangle?” Marco yelled from in front of me.

“No!”

“Marco shut up” Logan said again from next to me bring his arm around my shoulder making it easier for me to cuddle into his side which is exactly what I did, snuggling my head into his chest and fisting my hands in his t-shirt.

“Have you ever been on a plane before?” Marco continued despite being told to shut up repeatedly.

I looked at him narrowing my eyes in an attempt to shut him up. I may not have been on a plane before getting in this one back in Florida but he didn’t have to find it so damn entertaining at my expense.

“Well then think of it this way, every other plane ride from now on will be a breeze.”

I think I may kill him instead of Logan, it was like ever since we found Marco Logan had turned into a nice considerate guy in a second while his brother is the one making me want to jump out of this plane.

“Ok guys time to jump, if I get any closer I’m going to lose the plane!” Kyle yelled from the front seat. Jump?! No I was kidding, don’t you know what sarcasm is?

“We’ll see you in there, be safe.” Lena said helping her brother with the controls while the plane shake and rattled in the wind and rain while the hail stones threatened to put a whole in the wings and windows of the plane.

I looked around the plane in a panic as the words ‘time to jump’ played over and over in my head. My hands shock as the panic set in.

I looked up to see Marco smiling at me. “Did you have sky diving on your bucket list?”

“No” my vice shock and was almost a whimper.

“Too bad” he laughed as Conner grabbed his arm pulling him to his feet and tying a piece of rope around his arms and then opening the plane doors, the strong gust of wind echoed through the thin walls and blew my hair in all directions.

It was like a black hole surrounded by a tornado with rain and lightning making it impossible to get a good view of anything. My heart was pounding and my breathing laboured as I watched Conner pull Marco to the wedge and then make the jump, disappearing from the plane into the darkness below.

“Our turn” Logan said getting to his feet and pulling me up with him and over to the door.

“No, take me home now, I don’t want to do this!” I struggled in his arms trying to pull myself free.

“Britney, relax. I’ve got you. Just hold on tight.” He said pulling my closer to his chest, his arms going around me, holding me tightly as he took the final step jumping out of the plane pulling me along with him.

I screamed as loud as I could almost certain that everyone in the world would be able to hear me. I buried my head in his neck while my fingers clawed at his chest and my legs wrapped around his waist as I tried to hold on as tight as I could, clinging to him like a baby monkey as we fell into the darkness.

It felt like we were falling for minutes before I stopped screaming and actually looked around. The darkness that was once surrounding us was now above us, looking down I see rolling green hills, small houses scattered in the distance, forests and a wide open lake hidden in the trees. It was a breath taking view from up here making me slightly glad that I had jumped – well that Logan had jumped and pulled me out but that’s not what I’ll be telling people.

I spotted Conner below us who was holding Marco in a head lock as they went down, Conner repositioned himself in the air before his white wings ripped through his shirt, spreading out and acting like a parachute ready to aid their landing.

“Hold on, this may hurt” Logan whispered to me.

I tightened my grip on him – if that were even possible – and I went back to burring my head in his neck. His wings came out making our fall come to a steady glide, the sudden pull against the wind hurt my chest and winded me making me feel like I had a weight pushing against my chest.

My hand and gripped slipped making me let go of Logan and start to fall once again leaving Logan above me in the air. Screaming and waving my hands around in the air like a lunatic I could do nothing but watch as the ground made a speedy accent to meet my face. I turned back to Logan and watched as Logan pulled his wings in close to his body and he began to fall at an impeccable speed letting him reach me in only a few seconds. He grabbed my hand pulling me towards him, snaking his around my waist, holding me tightly he pulled back fluttering his wings slowing us to a stop as he placed our feet on the ground.

“I thought I told you to hold on?” He said when we were both safely on the ground, his forehead resting against mine as we both tried to catch our breaths.

“Well next time don’t push people out of planes.” I defended earning a deep chuckle from him.

“Yeah well you screamed my ears off so I think we’re even.” I couldn’t help but laugh at that. He had a point. “You looked like you started to enjoy yourself at the end of that though.”

“Well I was… until you dropped me!”

“I didn’t drop you, you let go.” He defended.

“Did not!”

“Did so!”

“Shut up the both of you before I kill you both” Marco said from behind us as Conner dragged him over the hill and over towards us.

“Did you behave?” I asked him as if I were talking to baby.

“Do I get a surprise if I say yes?” such a joker.

I rolled my eyes at him and watched as Logan uncuffed Marco and dragged him forward to walk alongside him leaving me to walk with Conner behind them.

“I’m sorry about what happened in the Underground” Conner said after a few minutes of an awkward silence.

“It’s fine, not like it was you fault.”

“Well it kind of was, it was my job and I failed” he said looking ashamed as his eyes were focussed down at his feet.

“It’s fine really.” I smiled trying to reassure him. I looked at him and saw nothing but a strong guy who could snap my neck with his two little fingers, but when he opens his mouth you get the feeling that he is gentle beyond all reason and maybe even slightly insecure.

That gave some ideas. Maybe I can get some answers off of him.

“So the Underground, it’s where all things non-human live?” I figured I start with the easy ones.

“Creatures like Goblins and trolls usually live there, we Volucris have our own realm as you can see and so do the elves but theirs is somewhere in the Antarctic. I’ve never been there, not a fan of the cold. But you can find fairies; vampires and stuff amongst you humans, even some of the Volucris live amongst you, but not many.” He told me.

“Really?” I asked hoping to keep the flow of conversation going.

“Yeah, we have to obtain a pass or what you would call… a visa but there are a lot of us out there.”

“Oh, right” I said thinking about all of the customers I served, some of them could have been a Volucris or even a vampire, werewolf or elf and I would have had no idea.

“I hope Logan wasn’t too harsh.” Conner said pulling me out of my thought about creatures that live amongst us and back to the now. Why does everyone keep saying that?

“He was fine. Why?”

“Well he and Marco have a reputation for being a little… rough. I didn’t even know why Logan was sent to get you; he could never keep his civilian alive in training.”

“Yeah so I’ve heard.” I still couldn’t get over that, or just how causally he said that they were just missing their heads, like it was a lost shoes or something.

I looked over at Marco and found myself wondering just how much of what Kyle told me was true.

“So they weren’t that close?” I asked him thinking back to what Kyle had told me.

“They used to be and I think they still are” he said looking over at them walking side by side engaging in casual conversation. “Marco was sent to the underground as a guard like Logan and I were but when his parents were killed Marco never came back. The Underground started calling him the King of the Underground and our own Royal family weren’t too happy with that, I think they took it out on Logan. If you have so much as a scratch on you when we get back then he’ll lose his head.”

Geez that’s a little harsh. I had cuts on my legs from the twigs and branches in the woods, Bruises in all kinds of places from falling down or being so gently dropped on the floor, my nose still hurts from walking into that tree and my elbow is bruised from hitting him the stomach back on the train. Add with the fact that I was almost eaten by a fairy and still have her law marks to prove it you might just say I wasn’t exactly covered in bubble wrap and handled with care.

I may not be Logan’s number one fan but he shouldn’t lose his head just because I am clumsy.

I looked over at Conner and see him smile kindly at me, he has already given me so much information and so many answers helping me trying and make sense of all of this… but I still wanted to know more.

“Hey can I ask you something?” Well a bit late now but oh well I was trying to be polite.

“of course” he smiled at me.

“Why did Logan kidnap me and bring me here?”  watched him freeze on the spot and his face drain f all colour. Oh great, I was never going to get an answer to that damn question. I am beginning to think that they’re going to use me in some sort of ritual of some kind because every time some looks at me and I ask that same question they stare at me as if I’m already dead.

“I u-uh i-it’s not my place” he stuttered.

“That’s what he said!” I shouted a little too loudly making Logan and Marco turn around and look at me. Oops.

“I should have known you’d start asking questions.” Logan said shaking his head in disbelief.

“Well maybe if you give me some answers I wouldn’t be asking.”

“Oh stop your complaining you’ll get your answers soon enough.” He answered me before turning off and walking in the direction we were headed.

“Yeah Logan tell her why she’s here, I want to see her face” Marco added sill facing me as a devilish grin grew across his face and an evil laughed escaped his lips. I wonder if there’s a train around here so I could push him under it.

“Shut up Marco!” Logan said turning around and grabbing his brother’s arms forcing him forward.

“But…”

“Yeah Marco shut up I’m sick of hearing your voice!” I yelled at him my usually cool and calm temper going out the window.

He stared at me smiling, not really caring at all that I had just yelled at him. “I like her” he muttered to Logan but loud enough for me to hear it.

Logan turned to his brother and hit him over the back of the head before walking off. Conner looked at me and then to Marco who death stared him before he ran up ahead to Logan’s side leaving me alone with a total amused Marco. Damn it, what did I do in my past life to deserve such an annoying pain in the ass.

“You know, you’ve really gotten under my brothers skin.” He said to me after we had started walking off after our captors. I could feel him watching me carefully and we went and found myself fighting the urge to flatten his face if a hammer.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.” Then why bring it up?

We were walking in silence for a few minutes before I finally broke it. “What did you do? You know to get arrested?”

“I killed the three men responsible for my parent’s death, I gave out visa’s to trolls and goblins and I may or may not have started calling myself the King of the Underground.” He explained without an inch of regret in his voice.

“So what are they going to do? Lock you up for a few months or years?” A revenge killing didn’t seem too bad to me, he was avenging his parents death, I understood that. Calling himself a King when he wasn’t didn’t seem so bad but from what Conner said earlier, it was a bigger deal than I thought. And Fraud in a human prison would only get him a few years max but not life.

“No I will be locked you for the rest of my life or if the King is in a bad mood executed.”

“What?!” I struggled to believe that Logan would bring his brother back here only for him to be executed; I didn’t exactly like Marco all that much but it didn’t mean that I wanted him dead. I briefly remembered what I had overheard last night. You’ll never make it to the noose. Logan doesn’t think that Marco will be executed, but how the hell is he going to get out of this one?

“Yep, our laws are tight and my brother and I aren’t the most liked people in town. We should never have left the underground.” He said the last part mainly to himself in a soft breathy voice that made me think it wasn’t meant for my ears.

“Why did you?”

“Logan thought that the king would execute our parent’s killers but he didn’t instead they walked away without o much as a slap on the wrist. I went back to the underground and Logan stayed here to train. No matter how good he gets he will never be anything other than a low class solider.” He said pausing for a moment at looking over at Logan still walking a fair way in front of us. “But underground he’s a prince, respected and admired.” He added.

This didn’t make sense to me, why wouldn’t a King grant the brothers justice for their parent’s death? Why wasn’t Logan given a chance to be more? I suddenly started to make sense of Logan’s earlier comment about feeling more comfortable underground.

“Do him a favour and don’t tell them that he took you to the Underground… or that he talked to you at all.”

“Why?”

“If you care for him in any way, you won’t.” He quickly muttered before almost jumping a good distance away from me.

What’s that supposed to mean? I definitely had strong feelings for Logan but I not too sure that they aren’t entirely positive or negative, I mean he kidnapped me and then was an inconsiderate ass for most of our journey here but I did feel safe around him and he had a very comfortable pillow but I’m still not sure what I felt towards Logan.

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