Five

Valentine came back to the waking world with a groan and the feeling of being shaken. The glass jingled as it fell off of him, he blinked slowly getting used to the light.

“Get up.”

He recognized that voice. He turned his head to come face to face with Emalia. She looked different somehow, maybe it was the lack of nature themed makeup on her face or the pointed ears and transparent dragonfly wings, or the green outfit that looked like it had a similar texture to leaves

“I said get up.”

Valentine did in fact get up. He shot up straight into a sitting position and scrambled to look behind his seat only to find an empty spot.

“Where’s Isabelle?” Valentine asked her. He pushed the door open and stumbled out, he grabbed Emalia by the shoulders, “Where is she? Where’s my sister?”

Emalia gave him a disapproving look, “You need to calm down.”

“How can I be calm?! My parents are dead, my sister is god knows where, my best friend is some sort of fairy thing and you expect me to be calm. HOW CAN I BE CALM?!” Valentine glared, his ears flushing red and breaths coming out harshly.

“Your sister is safe, she’s in shock but she’ll be alright, my friends took her to the hospital and altered her memory,” Emalia explained, “we can’t have any more tri-Ms know about the Greyworld.”

“tri-Ms? Greyworld? Em you are making no sense, just like the other day, what can’t I know?” Valentine was gripping her shoulders in a vice grip, his eyes filled with desperation and need, a need for everything to make sense once more, the fairy stepped back watching her best friend with furrowed eyebrows, “no more secrets, Em. Answer me. Tell me why those demons killed my Mom and John? Why were they after us?”

Emalia sighed, “follow me. I’ll answer along the way.”

The forest was a rather nice place, cleaner than any forest Valentine had ever been to. Sunlight filtered through the skeletal trees and the snow crunched under his boots, he wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt to stay warm. Emalia didn’t seem faced by the cold despite wearing a thin tank top and leggings, but her boots were fluffy and seemed warm so at least her feet were warm.

“What do you want to know?” she asked, giving him a side glance.

“What did you mean by Tri-M and Greyworld?”

“Tri-M is what we call humans and the Greyworld is the supernatural world of Light and Dark, of Angels and Demons, of Faerfolk and Vampires, we’re the world that lives alongside yours, we blend in and stay hidden that’s why you haven’t known about us until now,” Emalia explained as if she had to go through this every day.

Valentine slowly nodded, “okay, so next question. What could you not tell me?”

Emalia spread her arms and gestured towards the world around her, “about this. About the Greyworld, the demons and all.”

“Who was that guy? You seemed shocked when you saw him.”

“That was Peace, Tri-Ms are not supposed to see him, well normal Tri-Ms aren’t supposed to, it’s rare that even people from the Greyworld see him, but your kind,” she scoffed, “it’s unheard of. Maybe that’s why I was assigned to watch you, because you’re different.”

“Last question, why did those demons attack us? There have never been any demon attacks on this side of Lunaris before,” Valentine looked down at his feet and kicked up a pile of snow.

“You house the soul of Wrath, demons want him dead-”

“Why?”

Emalia sighed in frustration, “Wrath is in charge of punishing damned, corrupted souls, they all want to get rid of him, if they get rid of him, they get rid of their pain.”

Valentine swallowed thickly, and sighed shakily, “so they’ll hunt me until I’m dead?”

“No, they’ll hunt you until whoever is giving them orders to hunt you is dead.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he rushed after her. They walked up a set of stairs and into a castle made of trees that swirled together to make the walls and doors and windows. A white blanket of snow covered it like a light sprinkle of powdered sugar on cake making it look like a mountain. They walked down winding corridors decorated with flowers that shouldn’t have been able to bloom in such cold but it was warm inside as if he had walked into the permanent residence of spring.

They entered a throne room. It was as wide as a ballroom and cobwebs hung from the chandelier in the middle of the room decorated with dew drops, the throne was made of twisting vines hanging from the ceiling like a swing, it was draped with silk and secured with hardened honey. A young girl sat on the throne, she wore silver and had pale periwinkle skin like ice, her hair was greyish blonde and her eyes were a cold grey like the storm clouds. She sat with her legs crossed and her arms resting on either arm chair, her back was as straight as if someone had stuck a pole up her- you get the picture.

“Queen Andromeda, I brought you the boy,” Emalia kneeled.

The queen motioned with her hand, Emalia stood and walked away standing beside Valentine. Andromeda scanned him up and down, then she stood and transformed into an older woman. Valentine looked down at his feet suddenly feeling as if he was being inspected by the HeadMistress of his school, the queen put an ice cold finger under his chin and lifted his head up so they were eye to eye. She suddenly smirked, a smug expression taking over her ethereal features.

“Yes, he is here,” she chuckled, a dark sound for such a fair creature, “Wrath has graced us with his presence.”

Valentine was once again pulled back as if Mal had decided he’d rather not risk the silly human doing something wrong and angering the woman standing before him, Valentine was also glad he didn’t have to do the talking he’d rather not lose a limb. His eyes closed then he opened them again, he heard Emalia gasp and he guessed his eyes were glowing red signalling that Mal was the one in control.

“How may I be of service to the Fairy Queen?” Mal bowed, but it felt mocking somehow. For the first time Valentine noticed just how calming and velvety yet unfriendly and monotone the demon’s voice was.

“Fairy Queen? It sounds so childish, doesn’t it? So much more innocent than the real thing,” Andromeda smiled darkly, “I prefer Lioness.”

“You can’t tell lies, yet you go about repeating the truth until it loses all meaning,” Mal grimaced, “what do you want answered?”

“Aphid,” she waved her hand in a fluid motion that resembled water, “go bring the body.”

A boy with pointed ears and a cow’s tail ran off. It took a couple of minutes for him to return, he was carrying a stretcher with the help of another fae who seemed like they hadn’t been happy one day in their life. The two stopped close to the queen and put down the stretcher. Mal glanced at the tall woman and then at the body, she gestured towards it and he took it as a cue to inspect it. The body was one that was pale and grey, the veins could be clearly seen, they were black. On the shoulder there was a golden mark but on the neck was something more like a brand.

“It is one of the demons that attacked your host,” the dark fae stated.

Mal shook his head, “this is not a demon. It may have the mark that demons are branded with but it is not one."

“Then what is it?” the queen demanded.

The demon looked up at her, his eyes flashed a brighter red than before, a sign that he was agitated. A shadow flashed over his face and all the fae tensed in anticipation.

“It is a corrupt Angel.”