Fallen Allegiance

Chapter Thirteen

Running out of the alleyway I looked around, trying to recognize anything so I could find my way back to the hotel. Nothing looked familiar so I ended up wondering around the streets. People kept pointing at me, bowing to me, waving at me. It was getting annoying. My friends on Earth had always said being a celebrity would be amazing, that it was their biggest dream. Now I was basically a celebrity here, and I hated it.

Every-so-often, someone would come up to me and talk about things I had never heard of, or things Khadi had done which they thought was amazing. I just wanted to get back to the hotel. Get back to something I knew, to the people who knew I wasn’t Khadi.

Eventually I gave up, sitting on a bench, shivering and tired. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to block out the rest of the world, trying to find some comfort in where I was. The bench underneath me gave a groan as it became heavier and I glanced to my right to see Jayden smiling at me.

“Found you. You gave us quite a fright, suddenly running off like that, do you do that often, Khadi?” He asked, leaning his elbow against the bench arm.

I sighed, “I, um, I thought I recognized someone, but I guess I was mistaken.”

Jayden nodded as if he understood, “I do that a lot too, I had to look twice to be sure it was Ariadne today.” I raised a brow at the nickname; the two must have been pretty close.

“How do you know Ariadne?” I asked, leaning back and wiping the rain drops off my arm.

“She and my little sister were friends in Melilon. I basically grew up with her by my side,” said Jayden, looking thoughtfully at the city around us. People rushed by, some holding umbrellas, some, like me, letting themselves be soaked. The shops around us were closing, locking their doors and turning the lights off. The sky was darkening and in the horizon I could see reds, golds and oranges from the sunset. Sprites were disappearing, probably going back to their city, Kutarka.

“So, she’s like a sister to you?” I asked, assuming that was their relationship.

“No, not a sister… more like a, um, friend, an old friend,” Jayden paused, trying to figure it out.

I raised a brow, “But you’re a werewolf.”

Jayden glared at me, “Is there something wrong with what I am?”

“No, no!” I quickly spluttered out, “But isn’t Melilon the pixie city? Only for pixies?”

“Oh, yes, it is. My father is a pixie, my mother a werewolf. We were allowed to stay in Melilon because of my father, it was better than travelling around in a clan like the rest of the roquaries,” Jayden told me, taking a picture out of his pocket, “That’s us. Ariadne on the right, my sister, Hayden, in the middle and me on the end.”

I took the picture staring down it. Ariadne was on the end, her brown hair looked curly, not straight. Hayden was in the middle and looked a lot like Jayden, she had curly black hair down to her shoulders and bright green eyes, her smile was also lopsided. She had her arms around Ariadne’s and Jayden’s shoulders and was the only one staring at the camera. Jayden was on the end, looking past Hayden and locking eye contact with Ariadne, the two of them seeming to be off in their own world.

“So you’re seventeen?” I asked, guessing from the fact Ariadne and I were sixteen and Hayden was younger than him.

Jayden nodded, taking back the picture and slotting it back into his pocket, “Yep. Come on, we’d better go find Ariadne, Sayer and Dwynwen. When I left them Dwynwen and Ariadne were having an interesting conversation about Thorn eating you.” I cringed, Thorn ate people? Well, Andor hadn’t mentioned anything like that.