Broken Lungs

Isaac awoke to the sound of glass shattering against the wall somewhere in the penthouse and jumped out of bed fluidly to go and see what was wrong. Before leaving the room he glanced at the bed, his wolf reflexes so fast he hadn’t noted that Finn was no longer in bed beside him. His hand froze midway to the knob on the bedroom door before he spun and went to the dresser drawers she had given him, tossing the tees around to see the empty bottle he had drank last night was now gone. Immediately he knew what must be going on down the hall and timidly made his way towards the noise. He didn’t want to alert them he was listening in, but their raised voices were easy to catch even if he didn't have werewolf-hearing.

“I told you to leave him alone, Alva!” That was Finn – with an anger in her voice he had never before witnessed. The usually smooth, sultry voice he adored was rough like tumultuous waves in the ocean.

“I promised to try.” Though he couldn’t see her, he could picture Alva looking disinterested, painting her nails or something with a slight grin on her face.

“This is none of your business.” The scary rage simmered and the calm was almost more terrifying. She was quiet but severe with her words. “He is mine. You want to play with someone’s emotions, go find your own.”

“When will you understand, dear one, that this is our life now. There is no going back to that happy place – we have to survive. The quicker you realize this, the longer we may all live in this new world.”

“I will find another way for us. Even if I must go to the Queen.”

There was commotion, Isaac sensed Alva was languidly getting up to go toe-to-toe with her sister and almost stepped out to protect the younger faerie. “You take one step inside the Courts and you will be done for. Inga will not hear of your petty excuses. We stay out of the Courts. We always have and we always will.” Isaac listened as her footsteps dissipated and nothing but the sound of a deep sigh and the bubbling waters of the fountain could be heard.

He took that as his cue to step out and see Finn, sinking onto the steps on the other side of the fountain from him. She looked so unbelievably conflicted and miserable it made his heart ache. He didn’t care to remain quiet as he crossed to her. At the last moment she looked up and in her deep blue eyes it looked like she was on the edge of crying. Without hesitation, he sat beside her and wrapped both of his arms around her, holding her to his chest.

Finn was angry, but it wasn’t Isaac’s fault. His arms were comforting and he was so warm, the beat of his heart steady and calming, so she naturally sank further into him. She gripped his shirt and steadied her breaths, smelling the earthy undertones to his cologne as he rubbed her back gently. At times, speaking with any of her older sisters, she felt like a scolded child and this was one of them. She did not fit in with the club, did they not understand? This life was not for her, clearly, as she continued to screw up. It was only by strange circumstance that Isaac landed here and she dared not abuse it like they did. It was frustrating, though, being disciplined by her sisters as though she was still a little girl.

When her breathing slowed and she looked up at Isaac, he gave her a slight smile that flushed her cheeks, brushing his fingertips through her hair, fiddling with the ends of her soft blonde locks. “Do you want to talk?” He asked, his voice barely above a whisper as their faces were only inches apart.

“I believe I owe you a story. Come, we’ll talk in my room.” Though she was completely content to just stay in his arms on the steps of their living room, she wanted some privacy. There were rules as to how much she could tell him, especially being a mythical being himself, and she didn’t want the others to overhear her should she give away too much.

Isaac got up as gracefully as she did, linking their hands as she pulled him back to her room. She passed Eira, wanting to reach out and say something to her since their slight argument but the look on the youngest faerie’s face told her it would be wise not to – she still looked rather displeased and her glaring eyes focused on their intertwined hands. As though he could sense the tension, he gently squeezed her hand as they passed into her room and shut the door behind him. They crawled into bed just like they had when he had told her about himself and once again he sprawled out horizontally as she sat proper with her legs crossed.

“The legend of my kind is … complicated. It’ll be hard to make you understand where it is we come from and what it is we are capable of as it seems to change with every generation of our beings. Specifically, the other girls and I, come from Sweden. Our families were part of a troupe of fey who lived together on the sea. For many generations our families stayed in Scandinavia, only leaving to keep our identity secret or to bond with other troupes. But, as I told you before, fey have been dying out for a long time. There are so few of us left that our troupe grew smaller and smaller until it was five families.”

“Why are you dying out?”

“Fey are not like wolves – you cannot become one, you must be born that way and to two faeries. One faerie and one human will never reproduce. Not a human or a faerie … they are incapable, or so we have been told. I’m not sure any faerie has tried since most believe that humans are below us and it could breed a half-ling. Inga doesn’t like to talk about it, but a lot of families have been vanishing. Troupes we used to know, gone, and I don’t know why. She won’t tell me though I suspect she has an idea. Our parents … about a year ago they vanished just like the other troupes did and Inga moved us to Paris. We have no choice but to stick together, you see?”

“It’s like you’re … it’s like you’re being hunted. There are hunters - I’ve crossed path with a few families of them. Is that what’s happening?”

“It’s hard to say. I don’t know why anyone would want to kill one of us – we do not meddle with humans and we harm no one. We have kept to ourselves on the sea for a long time, practicing only with each other and never the dark magic.”

“What kind of magic do you practice?”

“Inga and Nixie are very powerful with their enchantments. Eira and I … we have issues controlling ours sometimes. That light that I shocked you with? That is just one of many things we can do. Our magic is specific to who you are. Inga, she is very … protective of us so one of her gifts is the ability to absorb pain from us onto herself. Nixie and Alva … their magic borders on dark every now and then but it’s only because they only see humans as toys. Nixie can do some transportation spells and Alva likes disguises. Transformation spells.”

“I don’t care about their magic.” He grinned at her, propping up on his elbow to look more intently into her eyes. “I only want to learn more about you.”

“I do not know what my power is. Eira and I are too emotional to focus. We haven’t discovered ours. We are a young troupe when it comes to the fey and Eira and I are young even in out of the five. ”

“Are you … immortal?”

“Yes. We stop aging around twenty-five. Inga has already stopped. But we can die. And there are things that harm us severely.”

“Like what?”

“I like you Isaac, but there are some things I am not allowed to tell you about my kind.”

“You like me, huh?” He grinned, and Finn was happy that the conversation seemed to have drop and he wasn’t angry over her withholding information from him. “As it so happens, I like you, too.”

For a moment, Finn allowed herself to imagine that what he was saying had nothing to do with her intoxicating drink and that he genuinely felt that way. Deluding herself would cause her pain later but giving in, even if just a little, felt like nothing she had ever known before. She felt intoxicated herself, almost like they were already kissing heatedly but they weren’t even touching. She decided to change that, tracing her finger down the side of his face gently. He closed his eyes, his teasing grin changing into a peaceful smile. And she had a thought, looking upon that look of absolute happiness and contentment, that if she could provide him that feeling then was it so wrong to give into it just a little?

“Isaac?”

“Yes?” He asked, still with his eyes closed.

“Kiss me.”

And he did.