Finn, of course, doesn’t give me a second to think on it. “Pair up.”
Poppy looks at me, and I’m about to suggest we work together when Finn shouts. “Daesyn, come here.”
I pass Ryker and Seb, and of course Seb pretends like we don’t know each other, but Ryker winks at me. My not-so-friendly demi-god is standing with his legs apart, his arms crossed, and he narrows his eyes at me as I stop in front of him.
“You will be working with me today. It is unfair to place you against any of the other students when you are…powerful,” he chooses the last word carefully.
“Do you think you can handle me, sir?” I question, quirking an eyebrow.
He looks down at me, a slight bit of amusement in his eyes. “We will find out, won’t we?”
Finn nods his head to the left, and I glance back, seeing that Poppy is paired with a guy from our group. I haven’t a clue what his name is, but he is a shit fighter. I think Poppy might actually win one of these tests. More than a little bit of me is happy about that. I follow Finn out of the clearing and down a small winding path through the trees until we come to a small gap in the trees. Finn sits down and waves in front of him.
“Can you even use shadow magic?” I question him as I sit down opposite him. Moonlight glimmers down through the branches above us, shining onto his face, making his skin take on a gold tinge. His blond hair even seems to glow against the light of the moon.
Finn might be from the gods, but the moonlight looks like his home.
Just like it has always been mine. Some people belong in the night, looking to the moon to show them the way.
“Yes. I can use shadow magic, light magic, dark magic and the gods’ magic,” he tells me. “The only magic I cannot tap into is that of the spirits. But I am yet to see anyone who can, even the gods can only mimic their power.”
“Can you see the spirits? Talk to them?” I question, curious if it’s only that girl on the roof who can do that.
He crosses his arms as I dig my hands into the soil at my side. He looks away from me, staring up at the sky for a second, enough to make me think he is lying. “No one has that power, but the queen can briefly control them and use them in battle. It is unheard of to communicate with them and use their powers for more than a parlour trick.”
“You’re a crap liar,” I point out. He doesn’t answer me with words, instead he simply calls his shadow magic to the surface, and it attacks my magic with the force of a strong wave in the sea. I gasp, my body jolting back a little bit, and I instantly close my eyes. His magic is dark and moody, swimming around my body, looking for any weakness. It takes me a second to push my magic out of my body to protect myself, and instantly my legs leave the ground, my body hovering as I remain still. Finn’s magic pushes harder, and I grit my teeth, resisting against it, but it’s like swimming against the tide. My body aches, and it hurts with every second that bleeds into minutes.
Time becomes nothing more than the fight to push Finn’s magic away from me. From fighting the raw power of a demi-god.
And I’m not giving in.
With every bit of energy I have, I stretch my arms out as I build up my power. I open my eyes, seeing that we are hovering above the trees. Finn looks like he is sitting in the stars themselves, and he is glowing with shadows and darkness. I’m sure both of us are.
He smirks just before pushing more power into his magic, and I have the feeling he is going easy on me. A small cry leaves my lips as I am forced to let go of the magic I have built up, and it explodes around me. The trees break and snap as I scream, and then my mind is no longer my own, and instead, I’m forced into a memory.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?” the woman, who smells like cherries and has pretty red hair like my mother has, asks me. She leans down, her eyes running over my dirty clothes and the monkey sitting on my head. I don’t know how I got here from the beach, but I’m cold and tired. I don’t know when I last ate anything, and this village is the only thing around here. I don’t even know where I am in the mortal world.
“I’m lost. I need help,” I say. Mother always said if I got lost in the mortal world to find an adult. They would help a lost child.
“Are you human?” she asks, looking at my eyes in the dark night.
“No…I’m a reaper and I’m fae,” I answer proudly, though I’m sure my purple eyes would give me away the moment she got close to me with a light on. Her eyes widen, and she stumbles back, shaking her head, prayers to some god whispered harshly under her breath.
“Get away from here, you monster! Go away!” she screams at me, and I jump backwards. Earth is not like the Otherworld. The humans aren’t full of compassion and kindness like my uncle and mother said, they are mean.
I turn and run…and I never stop.
The memory disappears as Finn gets out of my head, stopping me from reliving the memory he wanted to find out. As I open my eyes, I become aware that I’m in Finn’s arms, and he is slowly flying us down to the ground.
“How dare you!” I grit out. Honestly, I’m embarrassed. I was a stupid kid, and I knew nothing about humans nor their hate for supes. I ran for a full day until I passed out, and a passing demon woman took pity on me, giving me some food and water. Five days after that, my demon boss found me, and it was somewhat easier to stay alive after that.
Alive but not happy. Not free anymore.
His piercing eyes search mine, seeing far more than I wish them to. “I will give you one of my memories in return.”
“Why?” I question.
“Because I believe you need to see how alike we truly are,” he comments as we land on the ground. He lets me stand before surprising me by placing his hands on my face. His magic washes over me, a mixture of dark and light magic, and his memory plays in my mind.
“What is wrong with you?” a woman demands, standing over a little boy who I instantly know is Finn. He can’t be more than five, his blond hair is short here, and his big gold eyes are filled with tears. Finn’s clothes are torn and old, littered with food and oil stains. I glance around the old farmhouse we are in, the broken sink and dirty sides. This place is falling apart, and it stinks of damp. The woman is human, I suspect, with large hips and curly blonde hair. “I don’t know why I took you in. You are nothing but a nuisance to me. Get outside and feed the chickens, and don’t come back for a long time.”
Young Finn cries as he runs outside, and I jog after him as the memory fades. I don’t see a demi-god when I stare at the little boy standing in the middle of a stone courtyard.
I just see a lonely boy. A lonely boy, when I was a lonely child too.
The memory fades, and I open my eyes, seeing Finn staring right down at me. Remembering what Poppy said to me earlier, the words leave my lips. “You’re not alone anymore.”
“My adoptive aunt said I was born to be alone, and I am yet to see that is not true,” he counters, leaning a little closer. I quickly become aware his hands are still cupping my face, his minty breath is blowing against my lips, and I can smell him, how he smells like everything masculine with a hint of coconut. He smells amazing. Holy all things god. “Being alone is not a cruelty when it teaches you so much about other people’s pain.”
“I’m sorry, Finn,” I whisper. He pulls away instantly, putting space between us as his face turns to that impassive cold man he pretends to be. His wings disappear into dust as I glance at the dozens of broken trees, the piles of leaves still falling around us in the wind and the tense silence that has drifted over us all.
“I do not wish for your pity,” he replies, pulling my attention back to him. “You failed today’s testing, and you can leave. You are not needed here.”
I glare at him as he walks away from me. When he is a good distance away, I look up at the sky, wondering if whoever his god parent is, is watching. “Your son is an ass, and my stupid face seems to like him. Can you send some kind of god-like message that I shouldn’t give up on him?”
Nothing happens, not that I expected it to. As I walk back to my room, an angelic female laugh fills my ears, sounding like the woman who spoke the word fearless to me that once. The laugh slowly changes to one word.
Forgiveness.
