Fate of the Emerald Fae (Epacia Academy Book 1) Read online

  Emma Smith

  Fate of the

  Emerald Fae

  Epacia Academy Trilogy: Book 1

  For the dreamers, the stargazers, to the ones who look to the moon and imagine a better world

  Chapter One

  The only thing I remember about my mother are the stories of strange human-like creatures living in a place us humans could never dream about. She spoke of these creatures as if she knew them, as if they were friends and family. Before she died, her last words to me were about these creatures. Not of love, of anything else in the world she could have said to me, it was about the Fae. Fae that I’m not even sure are real at this point. I’m not even sure why my mother was so obsessed with them, especially in her final days as her delirium progressively became worse. Ever since then, my brother and I have been searching caves and forests, not completely sure what we’re looking for. Our mother’s dying wish was to search for them. “Find them,” her voice echoes in my ears, tears welling up in my eyes, “You need to protect yourselves, find the Fae. They will keep you safe. ”

  My mother had always been eccentric and creative, if that’s how you’d wanna explain it. Many of her stories consisted of a castle, deep in the Faerie realm. She described this castle and the many types of Fae that lived in these forests in great detail, reminiscing as if she had really known these creatures. She talked about the rulers of this realm with joy and happiness. I had always assumed it was because her father, my grandfather, had told her stories about these things. Could there possibly be a deeper meaning? I don’t even want to think about what all this could mean. I sighed, rubbing my hands over my face, stepping over murky puddles and sharp, jagged rocks embedded in the path between every step.

  From my knowledge, my mother lived in this small country town in northern Ireland for most of her life, a population of only a bit over a thousand. Aeron, my brother, and I travelled here after my mothers death to stay with our uncle. He doesn’t exactly know of our whereabouts most of the time, but I’m sure he knows about my mother’s last words to me. If he had the same “stories” told to him as a child, he would know what my mother had said to me. We came here to search, as our mother told us to. We’ve been searching for months now to no avail. We’ve travelled deep into the forest at this point. There’s really not many more places we could search, unless we stray further from the town. Any further would be very unlikely that we would find anything.

  Pushing more vines out of the way, I step deeper into the cave with my brother trailing behind me. I hop over the puddles of murky water, eyes trailing around the walls. After camping and walking through the dense, old forest for the last few weeks, we finally found a cave that, although dark and slightly terrifying, looked the tiniest bit promising.

  The cave around us was beautiful, there were jewels of various colours shining around us, jewels that I had never in my life seen before, glowing eerily in the darkness. The only sounds in the cave were the trickling of the water and our quiet footsteps. I watch as Aeron runs his hands over the jewels as if he’s entranced by their colours. The small waterfalls of water rushing out of the walls glowed as if they, too, were made of the colours themselves.

  I venture deeper into the cave, running my fingers across the walls, the glinting of jewels encrusted into the rocks of the wall. Glancing around, I see the vines swinging down around the walls, water droplets glistening as the light from our flashlights shine on them. It really was a beautiful cave. Beautiful things are sometimes deceiving, especially in these kinds of caves, where ethereal creatures could lurk around every corner. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Ethereal creatures? I huff a laugh to myself, I must be going insane. I continued walking, the darkness creeping over me as we walked deeper and deeper into the darkness. All at once, fear started trickling through my veins, my heart started to pump faster as if my body sensed something was off, something bad about to happen. I shake my head, clearing my head once again and soon enough both Aeron and I were completely surrounded by the darkness, save for the occasional glinting of the jewels.

  “I don’t know if we’ll be able to find our way back, it’s been more than a few hours of exploring by now, it feels like we’ve been here forever.” I mumbled, glancing quickly at my brother.

  Aeron just shrugs and steps ahead of me, seemingly noticing something else in the cave. I look down and see a small purple glow being emitted from a corner of the cave. Slowly, one by one, the gems in the cave glow brighter, changing colours, shades of purple racing through the cave, pulsing, as if we were inside a heart. The walls glittering all shades of magenta and indigo, I look around, entranced by the dazzling colours dancing around in front of my eyes. My body relaxes, fear leaving my body. This was definitely not normal, my body relaxes yet my brain was racing, thoughts flying through my head like a hurricane. Aeron puts his hand on my shoulder, “This doesn’t seem normal…” he trails off.

  I nod and take a few steps forward, “Let’s just keep going. Something feels different here. We need to keep going.”

  As we continued into the cave, the lights seemed to grow brighter, my body relaxes as the light washed over us, yet somehow I knew we were flies in a spider’s web. The energy radiating from the gemstones felt familiar but I had never seen anything like them before. My mind wanders back to my mother once again, remembering her stories.

  I sat on my mother’s lap, almost 5 years old staring into her bright green eyes as she hugged my brother and I closer, preparing to tell us another story. The soft scent of her lavender shampoo took over my senses, comforting me immensely. I cuddled closer as she began talking, excitement to hear another story about the fae sizzling in my veins.

  “The Fae were ruled by four Queens, keepers of the gemstones as well as the elements of the Fae world. They each ruled a different element, sometimes more than one. They lived in peace with one another, at least everyone but the vampires and their allies.” My heart stuttered at the thought if vampires. How scary could those guys be?

  My mother felt my thoughts and ran a soft hand over my hair, a breathily laugh leaving her lips as she did so before she continues the story once again, “The Queens did not have to worry about the vampires for now though, as they held each gemstone in their power. Without the gemstones, the vampires were powerless against them. Most of the vampires were sent away from Epacia as they were not trusted in the kingdom, but a select few were allowed to stay in the castle.” A soft smile appeared in her face, as if reminiscing, and she paused for a moment, thinking.

  “One of these select few was a man named Adrien. His charm and intellect allowed him to be trusted by the Queens and become the King consort for the fire ruby Queen, which many weren’t happy about. The vamps and many others in the kingdom were unhappy with her choice, as the Gemstone Queens were supposed to marry the most powerful counterparts they could find. Adrien was all darkness, compared the the Ruby Queen’s fire at least.” as she said this, she pulled four glowing gemstones from her nightgown. Ruby, Emerald, Aquamarine, and Quartz, and two smaller stones, one light and one dark, which I assumed represented each element as well as the gemstones from the stories. Although they looked like normal gemstones, they radiated energy. My eyes watched the pulsing light coming from them in interest. Once again, she stowed the stones away in her pocket before giving me a knowing smile.

  My heart hurt, feeling as if it was trying to tell me something. It yearned to be close to the energy once again but I wasn’t completely sure why.

  “When the Ruby Queen finally bore children, she knew the power that they could hold. The vampires and fallen angels rebelled against the Queens, coming back from
banishment to try to kill the innocent children. The Queen knew she would have to run, to protect her children at all costs. She fled to the human world, the world we live in. It was the only place she would be able to protect her children from the angry Fae. As soon as she got there, she hid away and hid them as well as she could as they started to grow up. Their powers were concealed in the human world.”

  The memory fades from my mind as I realized where the familiarity from the gemstones came from. My mother had these exact gemstones, in different varieties, but they were still the exact same ones. She told these stories often, but that’s the only time she had ever shown us those damn gemstones. They were engraved in my mind forever, leaving a mark on me. They felt like home for some odd reason. The stones start to flicker wildly, snapping me out of my thoughts. I look around the cave as they flicker, and growling sound erupts from the depths of the cage, the ground started to shake and the pebbles on the floor started to fly everywhere. The fear finally tearing through my body, lungs constricting, I drop to my hands and knees

  “What’s happening?” I scream over the shaking cave.

  The darkness creeps over us, pushing a cold chill into my bones, I scramble to my feet not knowing where Aeron is, noticing faint glowing holes in each corner of the room. Finally finding Aeron within the darkness, we stand back to back. The glowing in the holes become brighter before exploding into a stream of light as a rotten smell seeps into the room, and I finally see them. They were like nothing I had ever seen before. Long, spindly legs like a spider, but nothing at all like a spider. The body looked as if it was made up of organs and body parts of humans, undoubtedly where the smell was coming from. As they crawled, they grew bigger and bigger and within seconds they were bigger than a lion. The room was still shaking, my head becoming light headed as my eyes strain to focus on anything in the room.

  I look to Aeron in the limited lighting we have and see his eyes wildly trying to assess the situation. He looks at me, the both of us realizing we had walked into something we may not be able to escape from.

  I look to my right and see a small opening, just big enough for Aeron and I to fit into. The eerie glowing gave me no sense of security, as if the glowing from this hole was dark, powerful. Completely different from the comfort I felt from the glowing gems just minutes ago. In a split second decision I crawl over to Aeron and grab his hand, trying to drag him over to the opening as fast as I can. He sees where I’m trying to lead him and shakes his hand out of mine, starting to crawl towards the opening too. I could hear the sounds of their scuttling legs behind me and my heart beats louder in my chest, “Aeron, they’re getting closer!” I yell, breathless, my lungs struggling to take in breath, the darkness seeming to slow us down.

  I hear him swearing under his breath, mumbling, trying to think up a plan as fast as he can. He’s always the one getting us out of sticky situations like this, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to get out of this one. Even if we get into this passage, there could be numerous things waiting for us around the corner.

  I see Aeron with a look of determination on his face as he launches himself into the opening, leaving another few feet of space between him and the creatures. Just as I’m about to do the same, I launch myself forward and the leg of my pants catches on one of the sharp rocks jutting out of the floor. It cuts through the material of my pants and tearing the skin underneath, blood gushing out. I grab my leg crying out in pain, blood coating my hands as I reach out towards my brother. Propelling myself forward as quickly as I can with my uninjured leg, my brother reaches for me. With one last push towards the opening, Aeron grabs my arms and hastily pulls me in. I landed hard on the ground, gasping for breath while stars dance through my vision. Then the creatures stop. They stare at us with the glowing magenta eyes, their eyes the same exact colours as all the gems in the cave.

  I turn my head to look at Aeron, he’s shaking uncontrollably and is pale as a ghost. A huge gash is bleeding out across his chest. “Oh my god, Aeron, what happened? Are you okay?” I rushed over to him, as quickly as I can in our cramped space.

  “I-I think I’m okay, one of their tails must have caught me in the chest. What were they?”

  I look back to the creatures, still frozen in time, staring intently at us.

  “I don’t know..” I whisper, “We need to get out of here. Now.”

  He nods and turns around to the other side of the opening, “Hopefully we can get out this way.” We both stared in silence for a moment before starting to crawl through the endless pathway of darkness.

  What seems like hours later, I sigh and collapsed against the wall.

  “We’re never going to get out of here Aeron.”

  “Yes we will, maybe if we just keep going we’ll find a way out, or at least another opening in the cave,” He says, looking at me with pleading eyes, “Please, let’s just keep going.”

  I opened my mouth to object, but the floor starts to rumble again, shaking even more than before. I look underneath me as the ground begins to crumble and crack right before my eyes.

  A cracking sound to my right reveals the walls closing in on us, trapping us inside. Aeron finds my hand, squeezing it so tight it feels as if my whole hand might fall off. I should have never suggested coming into this cave. I put my best friend, my only brother in danger and now we’re about to be murdered by some stupid cave that probably wasn’t even worth it in the first place. I can feel the ground crumbling beneath me, and soon I’m in the air, hand still clasped in Aeron’s. The air rushes around my body, and I scream as the darkness engulfs both Aeron and I. My heart pounds in my chest at what feels like a thousand miles an hour, my stomach drops.

  The wind whistles in my ears for a few more seconds until time seems to slow down. The bottom of our stony cage opens up to a bright light, a blue sky coming into view as we fall, headfirst into whatever could be ahead of us. Everything else around me is a blur as I fall down, down, down the chill leaving my bones as my body is encased in a warm breeze for the few seconds that I fall through the air. Everything speeds up as I hit the water, the chill once again creeping into my nerves, my bones. The searing pain of the impact sizzles into my body, my muscles and joints locking.The water feels like a boulder squeezing every bit of oxygen out of my body right until I'm forced to breathe in. As I opened my mouth to take my final breath, unfamiliar arms reach around my waist, gripping me in an iron-tight grip and pulling me out of the water. Emerald green eyes are the last thing I see before everything turns black.

  Chapter 2

  I opened my eyes to darkness, an unfamiliar room surrounding me. My wet clothes replaced with silky pyjamas, plush blankets and pillows radiate warmth around me. I blink slowly, my eyes adjusting to the darkness while I try to remember what had happened to have possibly gotten me here.

  The creatures.

  The freezing water.

  The emerald eyes.

  Panicking, my body flies out of the comfort of the bed and onto the hard wooden floor. Stars dance in my vision while I attempt to get back on my feet, mumbling curse words to myself. Panic seizes my chest as a figure steps away from a chair in the corner of the room, I realize there’s a few torches along the walls which he lights as he makes his way toward me, “Your brother is fine,” a deep, husky voice drawls “You’re at the Academy.”

  “Who are you? What’s the Academy? Where are we?“ My hands tremble as they questions tumble out of my mouth, my brain a flurry of confusion.

  The man— boy? Whoever he is, cuts me off before I can ask any more questions. He turns to me and my heart flutters, my eyes widening in recognition as those same emerald eyes watch me in amusement, a smirk on his lips, “ Your questions will be answered soon, all you need to know at this moment, Lillian is that you’re safe and so is your brother.”

  “You know my name?”

  “Of course I know your name, and your brother's name. Your mother was one of the most powerful fae to ever live, along with the other 3 rulers of
Epacia.”

  The words “Fae” and “my mother” echoes through my ears, shock taking hold of my body as I stare, jaw slack, and the… Fae standing in front of me. “Fae? You mean like, real Fae? My mother was Fae? What the hell are you talking about?” My voice trembles more as each question comes out of my mouth.

  I shake my head, clearing my mind of all the jumble within it. Finally, I focus on the boy in front of me. His hair, the colour of a crows’ wing was pushed back in an ‘I just got out of bed but my hair is still perfect’ kind of way. He was beautiful, in an ethereal kind of way. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest as I watched him, the sly smirk dancing on his lips. I once again shake my head, the motion knocking me out of my trance. It must be a side effect of almost drowning, I’m still dreaming! I probably haven’t woken up yet. That’s it, he can’t be real, none of this can be real. Faeries aren’t real. My mother was just crazy.

  I feel a sharp pain in my arm and look over to see the boy, hand outstretched, “You’re not dreaming, Lillian. This is real.”

  “Did you just pinch me?” I snap, venom coating my words, “Why the hell did you do that?”

  “You thought you were dreaming,” he replied, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, the mischievous look plastered on his face once again.

  My mouth twists in exasperation and I sigh, tugging at my hair nervously as I pace back and forth on the cold floor. My thoughts become a hurricane, twisting and pulling me every which way. My breathing feels laboured, heart pumping wildly as I try to calm myself once again. I feel the walls closing in on me again, feeling how it did in the cave except this time, it was in my mind. My chest heaves, trying to force air in my lungs as the panic increases until it feels like i’m about to explode. My hands clench as I hold them against my chest, all these unexplainable things around me overwhelmingly confusing. The panic seizing me grows and grows until it just… stops. A wave of calm washes over me like a mug of hot chocolate on a cold day, the calm caressing me gently. I look over to the boy, a dim light pulsating from his hands as he kneels beside me, a look one could almost decipher as concern flashes in his eyes before the arrogant smirk appears once again. He backs away a bit and the light dims a bit, but the calm feeling stays.