Chapter 18
When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the middle of the gardens facing the castle, and standing right in front of her was Elysia. She had her back turned toward her, looking up at the castle, no doubt looking for them. She was taller than she had expected, with her ears poking out through her jet black hair that was so long it nearly reached her feet.
She was wearing a black dress, and her wings were unlike any she had seen so far. They were just as large as Jasmine’s wings, only instead of being a bright color, or even pastel like the others, they were a dark purple, so dark they were almost black.
She turned suddenly, as though hearing her behind her, and the first thing that struck Abby was her eyes. They were bright yellow, contrasting so perfectly with the darkness of the rest of her, that they almost took her breath away. Elysia walked up to her and sniffed the air next to her.
“You reek of human filth, so you must be Aine’s bastard child” she said.
“You must be Elysia, I have heard such great things about you already, and I’ve only been here for an hour” she said sarcastically.
Elysia’s eyes narrowed and she could tell she had made her even angrier than she was before. That was when she felt it, the grass was happy she was here, and wanted Elysia gone. She thought in her head, I wish I had all the power of the garden at my fingers. Then she felt the air stir around her and she felt like there were millions of tiny ants crawling up her legs, but when she looked down, there were none. She knew then that the grass was giving her extra power. She looked back to Elysia and walked forward until she was practically nose to nose with her, not knowing where the sudden burst of courage was coming from.
“You are not welcome in this or any garden connected with this castle. Creatures are supposed to feel safe here, not terrified because of the likes of you. Leave now, while you still can” she said in a voice that was much deeper than her own.
She felt the air stir again, and she knew that her mother and Jasmine were standing behind her, but it didn’t matter, she wanted Elysia gone and she intended to make it happen. She stepped back to her spot in the middle of the garden.
“So, are you going to leave on your own, or am I going to have to make you?” she asked her.
Elysia narrowed her eyes, “I would love to see you try to make me, you bastard human” she said.
“You have some nerve speaking to me this way. I am the queen!” she yelled.
“Not for long” Abby said quietly.
Abby felt something in her hands, and she looked at them, gasping at the sparks flying out of her palms. She thought in her head that she wished she could just blast her, and a bolt of light came out of her palms and hit Elysia in the middle of her chest, sending her flying backwards against the wall of the castle. Abby watched as Elysia quickly stood back up.
“You will regret this” she said as she flew up into the air and disappeared.
Abby turned and looked back at her mother and Jasmine, and was surprised to see them standing there with their mouths hanging open. Her mother was the first to speak to her.
“I have never seen anyone do that before” she said.
Abby looked down at her hands, “I didn’t even know I had that kind of power” she said, mostly to herself.
She heard Jasmine gasp and turned to look over at her and saw that she was looking behind her, with her hand over her mouth in shock. She turned around and nearly gasped herself as she saw a large unicorn walking toward her. It was larger than she expected, standing much taller than a horse in the human world would, with the top of its back being much taller than she was. She watched as it walked straight up to her, then stopped, lowering its beautiful head until it was eye level with her.
She was afraid to move, scared that she would do something to make this majestic animal leave the garden. Suddenly she had this strange feeling run through her body, much like she had felt when she knew the grass was sad, but this feeling was one of complete love and trust, and it was coming from the unicorn.
She then somehow knew, deep inside of her, that he wanted her to touch him, so she lifted her arm and slowly put her hand onto the side of his large head, rubbing her hands along his neck. The fur felt like velvet under her hand, and as she continued to rub him, he lowered his head even more until his large golden horn was close enough for her to reach out and touch it, and so she did.
At first all she felt was the warmth, which surprised her for some reason. She had expected it to be hard and cold, due to the golden color, but it was actually warm and soft, feeling almost exactly like his fur had. Suddenly it grew very hot, so hot she almost let it go, out of fear it was burn her, but it didn’t.
Instead, it was as though the heat was slowly spreading through her entire body, making her feel almost as warm as when her powers had first been unlocked. Then, just as suddenly as the heat had started, it was gone, leaving her feeling as though she had just stepped out of a hot tub with goose bumps running up and down her arm as the heat left her.
She let go of his horn and lowered her other hand off of his neck and watched as he turned and walked back toward the entrance to his garden.
Once he had left, she turned back to her mother and Jasmine.
“That was incredible, has anything like that ever happened to you?” she asked them.
They both shook their heads, “No, they let me pet them often, but never have I been allowed to touch one of their horns, and their king no less” her mother said.
“I have never even been that close to one before, with me having wings and all” Jasmine told her. She was suddenly looking at her oddly as though she had grown two heads overnight. She shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t know for sure, but I think he was thanking me for getting Elysia to leave the garden. Everything became very hot when I was touching his horn” she told them.
Jasmine sniffed the air around me and finally said, “He has given you more powers, and I think he may have given you the ability to fly” she said.
Abby gasped, “Fly? I don’t think so” she said seriously.
Her mother nodded, “You may be right Jasmine. Abby I need you to see if you can fly, if not we can try other things later to see if he gave you anything extra” she said to her.
Abby nodded and looked at the sky, noticing for the first time that it had become darker, the sky turning a beautiful shade of lavender, and thought to herself, fly. No sooner had she thought that one word, she felt as though she had millions of tiny little bugs buzzing around her, even though she couldn’t see any.
She looked over to her mother and noticed that she was quite a bit taller than her suddenly and looked down at herself and saw that she was floating a few feet above the ground, her feet not actually touching anymore.
Her heart started to pound and she became scared that she would just lift away and never be able to touch the ground again when she fell. When her body hit the ground, the wind was knocked out of her lungs and she lay there not wanting to move, scared that she had broken something.
Her mother and Jasmine came rushing to her side where they helped her back into a standing position. She sighed, suddenly feeling very tired.
“Is there a place to sleep? I am really sleepy all of a sudden” she told them.
Her mother nodded, “Meet me in the queen’s bedroom” she said before her and Jasmine disappeared.
She looked up at the sky one last time and wished she was in the queen’s bedroom.
When the lights went away, she was in what she assumed was supposed to be a bedroom, but looked bigger than her father’s entire house. There was a large queen sized bed with a sheer white canopy covering every inch of it on one side of the room.
On the other there was a setup that looked like a living room, with a large white couch and coffee table. She then noticed the walls; they were painted much like the first room they had been in, with all of the different creatures lining the walls. She turned in circles admiring all of the paintings when she noticed one that was larger than all of the rest, on a wall entirely by itself.
It was the throne, from the throne room, and it was empty, with only a large diamond crown lying on the seat. She looked over to her mother.
“Why is the seat empty, except for that crown in this painting? Shouldn’t it be a painting of an old queen or something?” she asked.
Her mother shook her head, “No, it used to have my mother in it before she gave up the throne and left, but has been empty ever since. Legend has it that when the true queen returns to the castle, the painting will change” she explained to her.
“Why did your mother leave this place? Where did she go?” she asked, yawning.
“She is over on Mount Olympus with the Greeks. That is actually where most of the gods and goddesses went to once Elysia took over. One day, hopefully, you will be on this painting, sitting on that throne” she told her.
Abby shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know about that, I don’t feel very queen like right now” she said, yawning.
Jasmine walked up to her and put her hands on her shoulder, “You need sleep to renew your body. You have used too much magic today, and your body must rest so it can finish unlocking the rest of your powers” she said.
Abby looked down at her arm, which she noticed was still bright red.
“Am I going to stay red forever? I don’t think Tom would find me too attractive if I did” she said.
Jasmine smiled and shook her head, “No, you should be back to normal by the morning time. Don’t worry about Tom, the time does not move the same here as it does in the human world. When we go back tomorrow, only a few hours will have passed, instead of an entire day, so for now, just sleep” she told her, pointing to the large bed.
Abby yawned again and looked down at her dress, and wished she was wearing comfortable cotton pajamas, and just as suddenly as the dress appeared, so did some red flannel pajamas.
“I could get used to this” she said, smiling as she was sliding into bed. She never even heard her mother and Jasmine say goodnight or even leave the room because as soon as her head hit the pillow, she was fast asleep.
