Chapter 11: An Unpleasant Surprise

When she opened her eyes, she found Illyan, touching his slightly singed hair.

He looked perfectly fine, a bit peeved but uninjured. He glanced at her appearance then clicked his tongue in annoyance.

He cast a quick spell, restoring her destroyed closed then walked away, leaving her still frozen in amazement.

Mya had gone back to the restaurant after the incident, she was still astounded at the power Illyan had showed.

When she first met the warlock, she had thought he was just a sadistic fool who took joy in others misfortune, yet she had found out that he was a rather decent and powerful warlock.

She went about the day methodically, she helped in the kitchen, washed Alyssa's dress, and soon ended up back in bed.

She started scrolling through reels to pass the time, still unable to decide if she wanted to think about what had happened in the night or not.

Unfortunately, she didn't get to decide, she could hear Alyssa was calling for her as she ran down the stairs.

Groaning she turned over and covered her head with a pillow, "So have you decided?"

"Thanks for the dress, it's in the bag by the door." She conveniently ignored the question and curled further into the blanket. "Oh you don't have to return it, honestly I bought a second dress so now we're matching."

Mya flung her blanket off, staring at Alyssa with weird eyes. "Alyssa…are you okay?"

"I'm pretty sure I am…are you?" Mya shook her head and used her fingers to tame her messed up hair, there were dark circles around her eyes, she looked exhausted.

"Is it because of the witch? I don't know but if you're willing to meet Illyan he might be a be to help."

"Illyan…he's a warlock, right? How many warlocks are in Florence anyway?" she mumbled hoarsely.

"Well three strong ones, five weak ones, Illyan's the strongest one and he hardly ever leaves Florence."

She placed her chin on her palm thinking, "Does Illyan have red eyes?"

"Yep! Well sometimes, it's usually hazel, it only turns red when he's angry or excited or wants to invade your privacy…Oh so you also know him?"

Mya frowned, "Why didn't you tell me that he's met me before?" "I forgot?"

"Huu…whatever, Sarah was right about you."

"What do you mean Sarah was right about me? I'm not an airhead, what other lies is she feeding you."

Mya turned her head and catching a glimpse of Sarah standing at the door, smiling serenely.

"That you have no friends."

Alyssa jumped at the voice squealing.

"I honestly don't know why a hunter like you would be screaming over every little thing. Are you really a hunter? You're scared of spiders too."

Sarah ranted as she came in, arranging the little things around the room before stopping in from of Mya with her hands on her hips.

"Now dearie, I know that you are worried about this witch and many other things. I cannot guarantee you that Illyan won't do anything foolish, but I will guarantee you that he wouldn't risk your life. He's more likely to whip you into shape than to put your life on the line for fun."

She spoke confidently, as though she had made up her mind to make it happen. A smile broke the gloom is Mya's eyes as she looked at the strong and caring lady before her, she reminded her of her mother.

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Later that evening, after finally getting out of bed, Mya followed Alyssa as the navigated through the winding paths of the city.

Arriving in front of the dilapidated entrance, she felt a bit disappointed, she was expecting a fancy looking old Victorian house.

Alyssa smirked at her expression, "You wouldn't believe what's inside." She pulled Mya behind her to protect her from any possible flying weapons, then she carefully slid the plain looking black door open.

"Duck!" called Alyssa, dragging her to the ground with her, three arrows appeared where they were standing.

"HORACE! Oh it's you Jennie." A redhead was standing before them, nocking a new arrow, she took a stance drawing back her bow.

"Move or you'll get shot."

They moved out of the way, as soon as they were safe, Mya gasped as she noticed the tall pillars, the golden murals that ran from the floor to the high ceiling, the stained-glass windows.

The size of the building was far beyond anything she had ever imagined and certainly drastically different from the outside. It was a very well detailed and artistic building; she could say too pretty to be for just combat training.

Despite her amazement, she only received more shock, as she peered at the stained glass.

Through the beautiful windows, she could see a huge field of lush green grass, creatures of all kinds were in there. She could see supernaturals and hunters, running uniformly, training.

It was far more intense than anything she had ever seen, it reminded her of the original Heorte clan, when human combat was just as important as wolf combat.

"Don't catch flies." Beamed Alyssa as she used her finger to push Mya's jaw shut.

"How?"

"Magic…you forget that we live in the part of this world where anything can happen as long as you know the right way to flick your fingers."

Mya couldn't help but feel a rush of excitement upon seeing this place, it was a place where dreams came true through hard work and magic.

"So you're here." Came a voice from behind her, snapping her out of her reverie, she spun around and saw Illyan.

His previously singed hair was now as healthy and luscious as it was when she first met him, he had on a red training suit and his hair was up in a ponytail.

"Like the place?" She nodded, he ignored Alyssa.

"Follow me…I need to check something."

"Sarah said she'll come after you if you do something." Alyssa called out but he just scoffed waving his hand as he left.

As Mya followed him through the halls, she noticed flickers of light flickering about in and out of the walls of stained glass.

"What are these?" she asked as one fell on the tip of her nose before flashing away, "Pixies…well baby pixies, the older ones are too mischievous, so I put them together with the sprites."

"But aren't they rivals?"

"Exactly."

"Sadistic" she muttered under her breath.

"It's called working smart."

She rolled her eyes, she certainly didn't understand what was smart about putting creatures that have been fighting for centuries together, it would just spark more trouble.

"You don't seem to be understanding something, I can do something like this because I have the ability to do it. If someone else did this, they'd get killed by those monsters, they're only kind to those they love or those stronger than them."

She nodded meekly, she understood what he meant, the pixies and sprites were the sweetest looking but were extremely spiteful and could hold grudges.

She remembered a time when her mom told her; the only thing the pixies and sprites love other than playing tricks were the elves and fae, light or dark, those were their people.

It was mildly terrifying now that she saw them in reality, they looked like pretty little fireflies that could easily be squashed but were one of the reasons for Rome's downfall.

They soon got to a silver gate, he opened the door and she found herself transported into another world pixies, sprites, butterflies and flowers.

"You can see the city from here." Mumbled Illyan as he caught a sprite jumping around between his thumb and pointer finger, he seemed to be silently communicating with it and Mya could vaguely see his eyes glow green.

"You do that a lot."

"What?"

"Change your eyes."

He turned to her, his eyes still glowing, there was a tinge of red mixed in as he carefully watched her.

She felt a prickly sensation, like he was looking into the depths of her soul.

"Your energy is the same, it sparks along with your emotions." Her brows furrowed, and she followed behind him silently as he continued to walk deeper into the garden.

Stopping in front of a large tree with lilac flowers dropping off its branches, it looked like a willow tree but with flowers for leaves.

The strings of flowers drooping downward began to sway as he went closer to the tree, he placed the sprite on one of the petals, then he turned to her his eye colour now normal.

"Stand where you are, and don't move no matter what."

"Why?" his brow twitched, "It'll hurt us both…It will be more harmful to you though."

She pursed her lips, and obediently stood still.

He lifted his right hand, letting the tips of his fingers point directly at her face, and his left hand was placed on the trunk of the now shimmering tree.

She could see the pinkish light from the flowers were flowing into him, his body was starting to glow silver grey and the light spread from his fingertips toward her.

His eyes began to glow with beautiful golden light, similar to hers, but she didn't get to see it as her sight went dark.