Page 40 of The Tricksters Deception

"You're my hero, Corvu," I smile at him. His ears twitch and his face turns a little red, but he still looks down. "Promise me you'll look after each other, I don't care what anyone says I think a Trickster and a Pixie make great brothers. Now, please smile for me, guys. That's what I want to remember." Even though it's a bit forced, they both manage a smile for me.

I have to go. It's the right thing to do. I belong in my world; that's where I'm from. And someday, my parents might come looking for me, so I have to go back. I take a deep breath and try to memorize their faces. I have to go home.

In three.

Two.

One.

Chapter twenty-two

Days Without Them

When I open my eyes, I'm really home. Everything looks unchanged, as if barely any time has passed despite my hour-long absence. My face feels hot and flushed, and I realize it's wet with tears. I didn't even notice I was crying all that time.

Walking through my apartment, everything feels surreal, like an illusion. Then I see Corvu's old clothes hanging on the bathroom rail. It wasn't a dream. I grasp his tunic, wondering if they'll remember me in the years to come. Maybe as part of the King's Guard, they'll find happiness? People will learn to trust Tricksters with Corvu, and maybe the ones born in the future won't have to grow up the same way he did.

Moving slowly around my apartment, I reach my bed and drop the satchel by my feet. Patricia's clothes served me well in the woods; I was never too cold or too hot. They were perfect. Collapsing onto the bed, I begin to cry. The pain will fade eventually. I'm sure of it.

I don't get back up again until late the next morning. Despite not feeling hungry, I know I have to eat something. I pick up my traveling clothes and remember something J'san gave me—an envelope with information about his missing sibling. Pulling the envelope out from the pants pocket, I open it to reveal a photograph. It's one of those old-fashioned prints from when people used to carry cameras and develop film, long before mobile phones became ubiquitous. As soon as I see the photograph, I recognize the child in it. Someone that does belong in Skiora.

I need to make a very important call.

It's eight days later when I get a knock on my door. Opening it wide, I smile at the one friend I've had since my days in the orphanage.

"Kai!" I smile. She returns my excitement with a huge, embracing hug.

"Tia, it's been ages. Sorry I took so long, I had to finish my assignment and flights are getting a little chaotic at the moment," she rants, coming into my apartment and dropping her bag on the coffee table. She kicks back and slouches in the same spot on the couch she always sits in when she's here. Kai is a lot shorter than me, but with her sparkly grey eyes and curly red hair, it's no wonder she was adopted so quickly. Like me, she had been left behind at the orphanage with no explanation, no idea why she was abandoned.

"So, what's the news you couldn't tell me over the phone?" she asks. I take a deep breath and sit down next to her.

“I’m going to tell you most of it from the beginning, but you have to promise to keep an open mind and believe everything I tell you.” She raises an eyebrow at me but otherwise nods in agreement. “Okay great, I know you don’t like long stories so I’ll try and keep it short.” I take in a deep breath before continuing. “A homeless woman saved me a year ago so I used to bring her sandwiches to thank her, she gave me an amulet which I thought was magical because it zapped me into an alternative world which actually exists alongside ours, it’s full of Daemonaria, like Pixies and Clawhops and Snout and Shorgs and Tricksters, there was a lot to learn. I was there for a few weeks but here it was like, a couple days, and no one knew I was even gone. Then I magically pop over here again with the Trickster, who like saved me a bunch of times, found out the homeless woman is his long lost mother, so I take them both back because as it turns out I’m a Witch and the amulet doesn’t do anything so I destroyed it and saved a Kingdom from an Orc invasion, then I came back home because I thought I belonged here but as it turns out, I don’t at all and never did need to go back.” Breathing heavily I wait for her response, although it seems like she doesn’t have one. In fact she wasn’t reacting at all.

“Okay, hun.” She starts, grabbing both my hands, “In case the doctor asks, you need to tell me what you took. I won’t be mad.” I roll my eyes as dramatically as I can at her response.

“I’m not high.” I pull on her hands to get her off the couch, leaving her to wait by my kitchen bench. I go to my bedroom and roll out a large suitcase. In fact, it was the biggest one I could find at the nearby market. “I’m going to live in Skiora. Which means, I don't know if or when you will see me again. But I’ll write to you and send you stuff. I’m pretty sure I can do that now. Magic is hard, but not as hard as I thought.” I giggle. She really is looking at me like a few screws fell out of my head.

“Say this magical fairy land of wild pixies is real, why would you want to move there and leave New York?” Kai asks.

“Because the people I want to be with are there, the people I want to spend the rest of my life with.” Folding her arms she starts to smirk.

“Oh I see, you met a boy.” Rushing around the apartment to collect the last few things I planned to take with me, I respond.

“Corvu is not the only reason I’m going to live in Skiora.” I chuckle, picking up the bag of non-perishable groceries I had collected to bring with me for my friends to try, not to mention a couple years supply of a contraceptive and feminine hygiene products. “There’s also Gecko, he’s a great kid. He’s actually a Pixie but he doesn’t have his wings yet-”

“Tia!” Kai shouts, grabbing my shoulders to keep me in place. “You can’t ditch your job, your studies, and your home to live in a country that doesn’t exist! These Pixies and Tricksters - they don’t exist! ”

“Hey!” I drop the bag when I hear two very familiar voices respond in unison. By the window attached to the fire escape stood Corvu and Gecko, who were already inside my apartment. I try to speak but no words come out. Gecko rushes toward me, embracing me around my waist in a huge hug.

“Did you miss us?” He asks. As Corvu begins to walk toward me, my voice slowly starts to return.

“H-how?” Gecko releases me and stands beside Corvu.

“Oh come on.” Kai groans, “Don’t tell me you hired these clowns to prank me. Am I on a show of some kind? Is that what this is? Are these things even real-” As she pulls on Gecko’s ear he yelps and she lets go almost immediately. Now she is stunned into silence.

“How are you both here?” I ask. This time, Corvu responds.

“Well, it took awhile for the word about Witches to circulate, then we had to go find one that was strong enough to send us here.”

---