Chapter Ten
Sorry about all the mistakes, this chapter is slightly confusing but after the story picks up from the next chapter, this story will gain momentum and all the little confusing bits will start to make sense.
Aubrey didn't do drugs. Maybe it was because she had enough prescribed to her to stop her from having hallucinations, but mostly because despite everything that had happened to her she liked to think herself as level headed.
But at the point where she stood on the doorway of a Kingdom that looked something like it had come out of a Lord Of the Ring movie she was seriously starting to doubt wether she had slipped or there was some hallucigenic in her lunch.
That's right, she hadn't had lunch because she a vending machine had blown up in her face and then her history teacher had tried to kill her with a sword in the girls bathroom.
Could this day get weirder?
But there was this feeling, an instinct almost, that made her sure that this was all too real and somewhere deep inside she had always known that the explanation to all the weird things things that was happening to her was even weirder.
Faerie Kingdom.
The Seelie Court.
"-I told you not to shove her inside the damn portal Declan." Michael was saying,"She's probably gone into shock."
She couldn't see Declan but she could almost hear Declan rolling his eyes,"She's not in-"
"Faeries." Aubrey said slowly,"What do you mean by Faeries?"
Declan pushed past her starting to walk towards the bridge,"They don't have wings, they're not particularly tiny and and neither do they leave a trail of glitter in their wake."
He then stopped and stared thoughtfully,"Well not all of them."
What the-
"The Seelie Court." Michael interrupted shooting a glare towards Declan,"It's the greatest Faerie Kingdom out there."
Out there? There were more?
"That's only because we convince ourselves that the Unseelie Court does not exist." Declan piped up.
"Who are the Unseelie?" Aubrey asked,"They're some different kind of Faerie?"
Declan nodded,"To be honest they're more interesting, evil and darker. You know the stuff of nightmares Vampires, Werewolves, that kind."
"Interesting?" Michael scoffed,"They're killers, all of them. Beginning from their faceless queen to her golden general."
Aubrey was unbelievably lost that it was almost laughable.
Faceless queen?
Golden general?
Vampires?
Werewolves?
And the way they talked about it was almost so casually was unnerving.
"Well they maybe murderers but that does not make them any less interesting."
"Is that so?"
Aubrey jumped back crashing into Michael as she saw the new arrival.
It was Sarah.
As in Sarah from school.
But she didn't completely look like Sarah. She still had her soil coloured hair falling in beautiful waves and her tanned complexion glowing in the orange lights of the city.
Or Kingdom? Aubrey didn't know what to call it.
Her features were sharper as if in school someone had put a mist in front of her face blurring her features into a more softer sculpt but now it had cleared revealing a much sharper and inhuman set of features.
Her ears were pointed upwards and her eyes glowed a bright green scanning Aubrey from head to toe.
"Oh Sarah, what a surprise." Declan said mockingly,"And do tell us to what we've done for you to grace us with your great presence."
Sarah ignored Declan and looked at Michael,"Our King and Queen awaits."
Michael nodded and pushed Aubrey slightly forward but she stood frozen in her spot.
"She's a Faerie?" Aubrey asked.
Sarah rolled her luminescent eyes,"She can hear you and yes, I'm a Faerie. A full blooded one if you haven't noticed. We may be immortal but I don't have time to waste."
"Im-Immortal?" Aubrey stammered out.
"God, she's a dumb one no?" Sarah pipped in,"Can't believe that they think she's an original?"
"A what?" Aubrey asked not caring if she looked dumb or not.
Declan chuckled,"Come on cupcake, you'll get the answers to all your questions soon enough."
Sarah raised an eyebrow,"Cupcake? What now the newbie is another one of your conquests?"
Declan sighed,"God Sarah let it go. Green is not your color."
"Is that a joke." She narrowed her eyes,"Because-"
"Yes yes we all know- well except for Aubrey that you're the Earth Original." Declan sighs,"Thank you for reminding us once again."
The ground began to shake beneath Aubrey's feet.
"Sarah, let's not do this again." Declan said,"Have you not had enough of this? While I've thoroughly enjoyed our little banter, you turning my last girl into a pumpkin was totally not cool."
She rolled her eyes,"I'm turning this one into a turnip."
And then Aubrey realised what was going on. Granted she was slow but she was enraged none the less.
"I am not Declan Vaughn's girlfriend."
Okay maybe that wasn't the particular thing to be enraged about at that second.
Sarah raised an eyebrow and Michael chuckled but it was Declan who spoke up,"Nobody can be my girlfriend-"
Sarah's eyes narrowed once again,"You filthy little half breed-"
"Sarah." Michael said,"I will report you if you don't-"
Aubrey didn't care, she'd already started making her way forward to the bridge leaving the three of them.
Michael was by her side in a flash. He could move fast, not that she should be surprised Declan had moved just as fast when he'd killed Thorne.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"Going to the castle." Aubrey replied calmly. To be honest right now everything in her told her to go anywhere but. She wanted to run away from this place but she was stuck here,"That's where you are taking me anyway, to the king and queen?"
She was stuck, but she was stuck in a place where answers were within her reach and she certainly wasn't going to get them by listening to Sarah and Declan's relationship problems.
That and she was starting to get sick of the fact that everytime she thought about Declan and Sarah together she wanted to rip Sarah's pretty little head off.
"Right." Michael said looking a little surprised.
"Come on then." He says leading her ahead,"I'm surprised how well you're taking this, I expected you to freak out by now."
Oh she was freaking out, but for some reason once the initial shock had worn of that same déjà vu like feeling had hit her in full force.
Faeries, she thought out, why wouldn't they be real? Demons were so it was only natural.
This is what her life had come to. Faeries and Demons.
Well it was rather this than being crazy. Although she wasn't sure as to how different the two were.
"Are you also a Faerie?" Aubrey asked slowly trying her best not to turn and look at Sarah and Declan behind them. Michaels feature hadn't changed, he looked the same, unnaturally good looking but no pointy ears or anything.
"Half." He said,"So is Declan, Sarah was half too."
"But how did she become-"
"That's a story for later." Sarah interrupted. Aubrey hadn't noticed her following them but it wasn't a surprise that she was as stealthy as Declan.
"How old are you?" Aubrey asked Sarah and this time Sarah smirked as she said,"Now that's a better question. I'm two hundred and forty six years old."
Aubrey nodded thoughtfully, she's probably lost the ability to be surprised anymore and turned towards Declan,"And what about you?"
His lips curved,"Seventeen."
"You're not-"
"No, demi-fae aren't immortal." Michael said.
"No." Declan said,"But they are a hell of a lot more powerful."
"Only you seem to think so." Sarah said.
Declan raised a challenging eyebrow.
"And y-you think I'm a- a Demi fae?" Aubrey sputtered out. She was having a hard time getting the words out.
"No." Sarah said distastefully,"They think you're something a whole lot more powerful."
____________________
By the time Aubrey reached the castle, she felt out of breath. That just told her how out of shape she really was. In her defence the bridge was a lot longer than it seemed.
That and it took a whole lot of effort on her path not to want to accidentally trip and push Sarah off the bridge.
Yeah she really didn't like Sarah. Wasn't the Earth supposed to be calm gentle and nice? Mother Nature and all?
Well she was anything but. All Sarah really did was glare or pass a rude comment every now and then.
In that way, Declan was absolutely perfect for her.
It was ridiculous, Aubrey knew that. She was in some other dimension or whatever and she was in midst of creatures of magic, the things of legend.And all she could think about as to what had gone on between Declan Vaughn and Sarah whatever her last name was.
But that was the thing. After the initial shock wore of, all Aubrey had gotten strangely used to it as if she has always known the truth.
And that sense of déjà vu. It hit her so hard that she was almost knocked of her feet. The bridge, the palace, she'd seen it all before, she was sure she had seen it all before. Well,at least it seemed like it.
But the déjà vu aside there was another thing that was bothering her.
Declan.
Declan hung back, thankfully so she wouldn't have to see much of him but that didn't necessarily mean he didn't plague her thoughts.
Time had stopped.
She had seen it.
With her own eyes.
Time had stopped just because they touched.
What did it mean? How could they do that? She was sure she hadn't done it, it was Declan. And the way he pulled back and purposely avoided the topic with Michael made her think that Declan Vaughn had a whole lot of secrets which she had somehow stumbled onto.
Now it was upto her to wether to keep it or not.
The sword, the fact that he purposely lied about killing Thorne and of course the fact that he has stopped time seemed to be just a few of them.
There were so many ifs and buts about Declan that it was driving her crazy.
The city below the bridge twinkled in the night. Aubrey wanted to lean by the side and see the city but she knew that the answers would lie behind the castle walls and not the city below.
And right now she had a whole lot of questions that she wanted answered.
Some of them she wasn't sure she wanted to ask.
They stopped in front of the giant wooden doors that had a huge angel carved into it.
The angel was male and glorious, it's wingspan easily equal to Aubrey's respectable 5'9 stature. The angels chin jutted upwards, his hair covering his face.
He held a long sword, horizontal in the palms of his hand as if offering it to someone. The sword was the only thing in the entire wood carving that was gilded with gold making it stand out.
Aubrey tore her gaze away from the carving and turned it towards the two guards on either side of the gate. Both were tall and held spears that were a dark black in colour.
Their ears similar to Sarah's were pointed at the ends and they stood staring ahead with absolute attention. They reminded Aubrey of the guards she saw in picture who were always guarding the Buckingham Palace but while those almost looked like a joke with their red coats and furry helmets, there was nothing funny about these ones.
Their eyes were a steely grey and if Aubrey had to take a bet she'd think that those eyes of theirs were even sharper than their blades.
They almost looked like the elves from Lord Of The Rings, sharp, pale, unmoving but Aubrey knew they were the real deal, there was absolutely nothing soft in their features.
Michael gave small nod and suddenly the guards turned and raised their palm upwards touching the edge of the wings of the angel on the door.
The angels sword glowed a bright gold before the door swung open.
And when the door opened, the interior took Aubrey's breath away.
The walls were made of crystal that shone brightly bathing everything in white light. Attached to the walls were stands that held torches. The torches were lit, but instead of a plain red orange flame, the flames here burnt bright blue.
But the thing that took her breath away was the floor. It was made of clear glass that gave a fill view of the city down below.
It was almost jarring to see just how high they were through the glass. She didn't want to step on the glass and hesitated but one look at Sarah's smug face and she shook of her anxiousness.
She stepped on the glass floor and it almost immediately began to crack.
And then the weirdest thing happened. It was as if she was seeing a movie playing out in front of her.
A girl, who'd appeared seemingly out of nowhere, stood in front of her. She was faint almost like a mirage, as if she was being projected in the air in front of her.
It was like a memory or a dream playing out in front of Aubrey's eyes.
The girl stood in front of Aubrey, her strawberry blonde hair piled into a neat bun and she wore a pale icy blue dress that could have only belonged in a ball. But it was tattered and torn with bits of blood splattered on the hem.
Her eyes were the color of her blue dress and she stared at Aubrey calmly as she stood on the cracking glass.
"This is the way it's supposed to be." She said,"You've always known it Aubrielle."
And then she smiled and looked behind Aubrey,"What do you have that we don't?"
And the entire glass floor shattered.
The world went black for just a second and when Aubrey's eyes adjusted, the girl had vanished, the floor was perfectly intact and Michael was saying something to her.
Absolutely nothing had changed.
Aubrey looked behind her at the spot the girl in her vision was looking at when she spoke her last words.
And she found herself looking right at Declan who was staring back at her intently.
What do you have that we don't?
Her mother had told her almost the exact words on the day she died.
What do you have they don't?
What was that supposed to mean?
"Come let's go." Michael said,"The king and queen are waiting."
"Has the glass ever shattered?" Aubrey asked Michael who stared at her confused and wide eyed. They were still standing in the magnificent and strangely empty hall above the clear glass floor.
"Yes it has." Sarah spoke up. She was standing on the glass floor looking bored,"Over three hundred years during the last Unseelie seige."
Over three hundred years ago.
Had she seen something that had happened three hundred years ago?
How was that even possible?
Aubrey looked at her unsurely,"Aren't you scared of standing there? The floor may crack."
"It won't." Michael said taking a step forward and another and then extending his hand towards her,"Come on. It's okay, it won't crack."
But that image she had seen in front of her had been so real and she could hear the glass cracking over and over again.
She took another step forward and halted waiting for the glass to crack but nothing happened.
And then she realised how stupid she was being. All three of them were staring at her like she was some kid who was terrified of absolutely nothing.
She wanted to open her mouth and tell them what she had seen but again something stopped her.
Nothing should have, after all they believed in magic, could do magic, why wouldn't they believe her?
And yet she couldn't tell them about the girl had seen. The girl once again looked eerily familiar, almost like everything in this place was.
So Aubrey collected herself and walked forward. She admired the white glowing walls the massive ceiling with delicate ice chandeliers, anything but the floor.
And when it felt like they had walked forever in the oppressive silence where no one said anything, they stopped.
The doors they stopped in front of this time, were made of pure silver and carved intricately on it was an angel, but this one unlike the other one was a girl.
Her hair hid her face from view and instead of holding a sword she held a single flower.
A single dying rose.
What was with all the angels? They were Faeries so why did they have angels seemingly everywhere?
Aubrey could have stared at it all day but this the doors swing open on their own accord revealing what could only be a massive throne room.
Aubrey could have tried a billion times but she could have never done justice on capturing just how beautiful that room was.
It was enormous, the ceilings so high that Aubrey could have sworn it touched the sky. Light streamed into the room from the pure white walls, each lined gorgeous tapestries, showing various scenes of rivers and mountains.
And on the far end of the room stood thrones.
The first row of thrones consisted of two ornamental chairs. Both made of bright silver, with deep red cushions set in them. The throne on the left had a ruby placed on top of it. The stone itself was so large that even all the way at the other end where Aubrey stood she could make out that it was at least the size of a baseball.
And the silver throne on the right... Was occupied.
Sitting on it was someone who could only be a king. His hair was the color of gold and his eyes were blue.
Not pale, not dark but a shocking electric blue and they glowed. He looked young and old at the same time but there was no mistaking him for any commoner, Faerie or not.
His crown was made of pure gold, with a diamond in the middle that could have given the ruby on the other throne a run for it's money when it came to it's size.
And behind him were another set of thrones.
Seven thrones, Aubrey counted. Each made of silver, each with a different precious gem embedded on top.
But what was more interesting were the tapestries behind them.
Each throne except for the biggest one smack in center and the one on the far left had a tapestry depicting a single angel behind them.
And without even realising it, Aubrey started walking forward, her feet moving in their own accord toward the thrones.
And the closer she got, the more her suspicions grew and she when she finally reached in front of the king just a mere feet away from him did she realise that her eyes were not playing tricks on her.
The angel depicted on the tapestry behind one of the silver thrones at the back with a large emerald embedded on it's top, looked exactly like Sarah.
And on another the angel on the tapestry that stood behind yet another silver throne with a large diamond embedded on the top looked like a dead ringer for Michael.
Sarah and Michael didn't look like the angels depicted, they were those angels.
It was clear that whoever had made that tapestry had to have intended for them to look exactly like Michael and Sarah.
"Miss Valdis it's a pleasure to meet you."
Her eyes snapped back at the king who was currently watching her intently, his eyes glowed shocking blue.
Aubrey's eyes fell onto to the tapestry where Michael was woven into.
The blue eyes.
She whirred to see Michael kneeling down in front of the king and Sarah copying the exact same position but Declan was still standing, his head just bowed slightly.
And then Michael looked up. His shocking blue eyes were unmistakable.
Aubrey glanced back at king disbelieving. The similarities had been too few figure out at first glance but now that she stood in front of the Faerie king it was all too clear.
The king looked exactly like a slightly older version of Michael, but he was Fae.
"Your niece is even more beautiful than I expected her to be, Jenna." The king said and with a start Aubrey realised just the throne room apart from the king and his few soldiers, was almost completely empty until they had entered.
Almost.
Aubrey didn't know how but she had completely missed the Fae that was currently kneeling right in front of the king, next to Michael and Sarah, her brown hair covering her face only the tips of her pointed ears visible.
But Aubrey knew, even before the Fae turned she knew who she was.
It was her aunt.
And she was a Faerie.
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