chapter [1]

"Vael, did you take the lunchbox that I prepared for you?"

I was in the middle of trying to get my shoe on when mum shouted from the kitchen.

Having a quick glance at the clock calmly ticking above the doorframe, I realized that I had already lost too much time doing last-minute studying this morning. The bus would arrive in two minutes so I would have to sprint to the station again.

"Yes, mum, I'm in a hurry!" I rolled my eyes without her seeing but maintained a respectful tone. Mum had always been overly caring for me even though I was an adult since yesterday. For some, it might be annoying, but I secretly appreciated it.

One last time, I caught a glance of myself in the mirror, again being reminded of how desperately I needed to shower. The dark brown strands of usually curly hair had lost their volume and almost poked out my eyes at that length.

"Geez, I really gotta go now. See ya!" With a last quick smile to the woman standing there with her hands on her sides and raising an eye brow I grabbed the stuff for school and was about to shut the door when she yelled after me again.

"Good luck! And-"

"Don't talk to the fairies, I know I know." I laughed and began to jump down the stairs rather than walking without looking back another time.

This was the last day of exams after all... after this day, all of my friends and I would finally finish school and be one step closer to our future.

And even though I wouldn't say that I was pleased about most likely parting ways with them, this feeling of soon starting something completely new was thrilling in any way possible.

The only problem here was... my condition. Right... that special gift of seeing the hidden world of mystical creatures that only a handful of people in this country possessed, my mother being another one of them. My father, who died before I was born, apparently didn't have that gift, so I must have inherited it from my mother.

But while she called it a gift, it was in fact more of a burden to me.

The first 8 years of my life my mother and I had lived secluded in a small village where people wouldn't question a little boy running through the fields trying to catch pixies, fearing the waters because of the sirens, staying away from the forest because of the monsters and putting cookies and milk in front of the entrance door for the brownies.

But even if nobody asked a thing, we had always been outsiders there except for the few children that had played with me once in a while because they thought I was funny.

As a result, mum had home schooled me and repeatedly taught me about the hidden world and its countless dangers. It had taken a very long time until I was able to persuade her to move into a bigger town, but even now, I still felt different from everybody else.

Back then, my ability had been hard to accept, and I still felt awkward when flinching back from a gloomy looking elf that my friends couldn't even see.

Even now that I entered the school grounds trying my best to avoid the gaze of the butterfly pixies that were sitting on a stone and chatting in their high pitched voices I wished that I could simply be like everybody else.

If you didn't see them, they weren't a threat... but if I were to attract their attention somehow, dangerous things might happen.

For example, those mischievous pixies... small creatures seeming weak at first glance with their tiny hands and cat-like features. They were chatting, singing, and dancing the whole day, so if I'd approach them, some might want me to dance with them to eternity unless I wanted their wrath on me.

To be fair, getting killed by a pixie was unlikely, but they had a talent of being incredibly annoying.

That was why the most important rule was to never interact with these unpredictable creatures. But then again, what use was it being able to see them but a constant bother?

Well, I couldn't really say that I was stickig to that rule anyway. One of my best friends out there was the dwarf that lived in the basement of the school, after all.

As for the other friends I had, there were a few that I liked to hang out with, but the only one that I'd stay in contact with even after school was probably Sam.

"You commin to the party this weekend? Everyone in our year will come." I was entering the room when one of the guys came up to me. Right before the final exam, they already thought about celebrating it...

"Sure thing, I'll see if my evening is free." I assured him but continued walking to my place. Honestly speaking, I'd really love to go there and finally be finished with all of this school stuff. It was sickening.

Luckily, I couldn't spot any new creatures in the area, so the exam went calmly.

I even finished earlier than most others and handed the math exam to the supervisor before leaving the hall.

I had made it... I really made it.

Taking a deep breath of the cooling wind in this summers heat I closed my eyes for a moment and calmly continued my walk to the second building of the school where I'd put my stuff to get it tomorrow.

On the way, I came across those pixies again, this time whispering something suspicious to each other. Since their voices were so high-pitched, I had trouble understanding, but some words came across very clearly.

The prince... the son of the fairy queen...

I allowed myself to follow their gazes to the third floor of the building in front of them. It was as if they were pointing at something or rather someone there.

Son of the fairy queen... I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to remember where I had heard that term before while at the same time heading right for the third floor. I had to go there anyway, and if someone suspicious strolled around our school, I would have to check it out.

Right! My mother had told me about the fairy queen before. Aide (pronounced Ah-ee-deh)... that was her name.

She was an eternal being, one of the oldest living creatures that ruled over all kinds of fairies and animals. Her powers couldn't compare to those of an ordinary fairy, and she lived in a palace hidden in a giant forest whose location could not be pinpointed.

According to what the books said, she was breathtakingly beautiful but spread an aura that made one sink to their knees in fear. As the queen of the hidden realm, she was considered strict, even cruel, but her passion for her people was without limit. However, you ought to never hurt her pride because it'll cost you your life... scary lady indeed...

So if that person that the pixies were talking about was the son of the fairy queen, he must be quite the powerful being too, right? Then why in gods name was he in the school building right now?

I decided to move with caution and started by pretending to be a normal student, putting my stuff into my locker and proceeding to stroll around the hallways.

At first, there wasn't much but dust on the floor and in any classroom or hallway that I checked, so I wondered if I had just wasted my time here.

That was until I reached the office of Mr. Robberts, the biology teacher that everyone was scared of.

Usually, I would have walked by his door as fast as possible but what I witnessed through the glass window almost made me scream out loud.

The old teacher in his everyday clothing style that had never once changed was being pinned against the wall by his throat. His face was distorted in fear and several wounds were bleeding from his leg and side.

The man doing this to him was covered in an ocean blue robe and showed me his back so I wasn't able to make out his face.

What came as a surprise was his height that had to be at least 1,95 m (6.4 feet) which was even taller than I was.

In other words, this situation sent chills down my spine.

Subcontiously, my hand had reached for the door knob to which I was clutching like my life depended on it.

Should I step in? I would definitely break all rules of security that mum had always praised so much, and if this was the prince, then I had no chance at fighting him.

But Mr. Robberts! No, I had to help! Maybe this creature could be talked to. In any case, I wouldn't let an innocent man be killed like that.

"Stop it!" I forcefully pushed open the door and approached them until the distance was still big enough to not stand in his range.

But the hooded man didn't even move a muscle and mercilessly pressed his throat tighter.

My eyes met with those of Mr. Robberts widened immediately.

"R- run!" He coughed out without hesitation, but I didn't even think of listening to him. I couldn't say where I got the courage, but in the next moment, I grabbed a chair and threw it at the man in the blue robe. Although it didn't affect him in the slightest, I could clearly see his head turn for a second.

In that moment Mr. Robberts lost his consciousness and was dropped like an old bag of trash. He sunk to the floor and didn't breathe or move anymore.

"No!" I pushed the hooded man away and sank down next to him.

"MR. ROBBERTS!" Yes, I never liked this teacher, but when I looked into those dead eyes that reflected the light like a doll's, my body froze in a state of panic.

"Why did you do that to him?!" I turned around, standing up quickly, but the man had already turned around and calmly walked out the door. My body shook in fear. He didn't want anything from me... if I just let him go away and left the school building, I would probably get out of this situation unharmed. The teacher was dead already, so what could I do?

My eyes began to burn when I felt strangely helpless.

"Hey!" I could not stand doing nothing and pretending like I hadn't seen anything. How could he just kill a human and ignore me? So this was how cruel and heartless these creatures were...

"Who do you think you are, huh?!" I didn't even know if I had ever felt that much fear, but when it turned into anger, a foolish confidence was created. I ran after him and blocked his way. When he pushed me away, I couldn't stop myself from reaching back and punching him right at his side. It was too late anyway... I'd at least take revenge for the teacher.

He froze for a second, and I used that opportunity to place another hit when he suddenly rushed forward and grabbed my fist before it could hit. With a simple movement of his arm, he twisted mine around, making me groan in pain.

My blood was boiling, and I charged forward despite the pain to stop him from leaving. However, the man easily dodged every of my attacks as if this was child's play to him. Of course I wasn't an experienced fighter but this situation was just frustrating. "Explain this right now" I demanded when taking a short break to catch my breath. But the moment I lost focus I already felt my head crashing with the wall. He had grabbed me brutally and threw me like I weighted nothing...

My vision blurred and the pain was close to making me throw up. I tried to stand up but my muscles gave in and I had no option but to stay half conscious on the floor while I felt hot blood dripping down my face.

So that was how weak I was... did that mean I'd die today? Why did I even think that I stood a chance against the son of the Fairy Queen? No... I didn't think about that to begin with. The only thing in my head was the wish to take revenge on the murderer of my teacher. No matter the case, what I did was right... even if it meant that I had to get hurt.

"How dare a filthy human lay his hands on me" I heard the fairy creatures hateful words like my head was underwater and watched him wipe his hands on his coat while not even looking at me.

I thought it had to be any second that I lost my consciousness completely but strangely it didn't happen.

There was this other feeling spreading from the injury on my head to my whole body. A comforting heat like diving into a steaming hot bath tub, that soothed all the pain and made my senses sharpen.

In that moment I didn't even think about what was happening to my body but when I felt a new wave of energy spreading in my body, I gathered all my strength to charge forward one last time. Right now, the mad had let his guard down and didn't even look at me. This was the perfect opportunity!

I jumped at him to push him down to the floor with my whole body weight. With a loud bang, his head hit the ground and his hood finally fell back.

Underneath was in some way what I expected of the Fairy Queen's son but in another way, I could have never imagined a face as breathtakingly beautiful as this.

His features weren't as pointed as those of an elf but rather soft and his eyes shone as blue as a sapphire. But his hair had the color of a pearl... as white as snow but glowing lilac and blue.

Under different circumstances, I would have been blown away by that, but his careless expression hit a nerve. So after killing a person and being punshed, he wasn't even angered? This bastard still didn't take me seriously... 

"Huh? This is interesting..." He commented in an arrogant tone. The way he was completely calm but eyed me up and down like a tiger before he began chasing his prey, send shivers down my spine. I was the one holding him down and yet he was so confident...

"Why did you kill him?" I repeated my question and pressed his wrists to the ground next to his head. It was odd how cold they were... as if his body temperature was a few degrees colder than mine.

"You should have been dead by now but it seems your head is fine... or is it? It's annoying enough that you have the third eye, but it seems you have a death wish too..." He grinned at me and I noticed he was right. My head had stopped bleeding, it was only the blood from before that dripped down my forehead and chin until a drop landed right next to the Fairy Prince's lips.

"Why did you kill him?" I repeated my question again because I knew the more time I waisted, the higher the chance that he'd attack again and finish me once and for all.

But the Prince seemed to enjoy this conversation... he licked my blood from his skin and tasted it like it was grape juice.

"That pig killed hundreds of my people for his own amusement... I just took out the trash. " He sighed and I found myself doubting his words immediately. How could I possibly believe him? It was true that there were humans using fairy creatures and monsters for horrible experiments. Was Mr. Robberts really scum like that?

"Even so, death is not the right way to solve this! You're not human but that doesn't give you the right to break our rules!" I hissed, making the guy raise one of his pretty eyebrows.

"Is that so? Ironically, you are breaking one of my rules at the moment... but there is a really easy way to solve all of this, right?" His eyes began to glow bluely like the icey ocean in the north.

"What-"

"You just have to die"  His expression turned serious and I got chills. Right... I still had no idea what he was capable of. In a sudden panic I held on tighter to his wrists.

"It was nice chatting with you" he said before he tried freeing his wrists with force. I felt the incredible power in his movement but I held against it with everything I've got. In the end his hands stayed in place and I won the battle in strength.

Again he tried it but it didn't work and I could clearly witness the sudden panic in his eyes.

"Who are you?" The Prince's eyes turned dark. He was not in a mood to joke around anymore so we were finally on equal terms.

"Not even the strength of a black hound can compare to mine" He spat and took a deep breath before the temperature of his skin sunk rapidly.

"Black hound my ass. You're weaker than a fucking gnome" I hissed back at him.

In that moment I noticed the hissing noise comming from my palms. And then the prince's expression distorted in pain.

"What the-?!" Seeing the smoke comming from the place where my hands had touched his wrists I instinctively let go expecting to be in pain... but it wasn't I who had taken damage but the fairy prince. The parts of skin where I had touched were painfully burned red.

In sudden shock I let go and stumbled back where I fell on my back. What did just happen? I stared at my own hands that had the same appearance as always before looking back at the fairy prince.

Even though he had obviously been in pain just now, he stood up like nothing happened and touched his sore wrists that were already in the process of healing.

I did that... I burned him

"I'm actually annoyed now..." he spoke so quietly and coldly that the whole hallway felt like it was freezing all of a sudden. His eyes gleamed with anger and even the lights began to flicker.

"What are you boy? You are too ugly for a fairy creature and your blood tastes bitter... so perhaps a demon?" He took a step closer and I crawled back.

"But a demon would't go this far to avende a human. Then an animagus? A forest spirit?" He slowly stepped closer and again I pushed my body back still being on the floor.

"I'm human." I breathed out but these words suddenly felt weird comming from my mouth. How did I dominate him in strength then? Why did his wrists burn when I touched them?

"You surely look like one... but something..." In a matter of seconds he was hovering above me and put his freezing hand under my chin.

"Something tells me you clearly aren't" He turned my face from left to right while I looked up at him in fear. Before, I had the will to continue this fight but after what happened just now I was scared of myself... or what I would do.

"I shouldn't have fooled around with you. Look what it caused me..." his icy breath was stinging my skin and his crystal like eyes were focused on mine.

"Look at how your body is trembling now... did you finally realize who you are up against?" His lips curled up to an amused smile when he placed his hands on my neck and let them glide down to my shoulders and chest.

One move of him and I'd be dead for sure. All his senses were up and killing intent filled his eyes mixed with a dreadful kind of curiousity.

In panic I looked around.

'Vael!'

What?! Did I just hear someone calling my name?

I was caught off guard for a moment when I finally spotted Gigrin, the oddly kind dwarf of the school that I had met on my first day here.

He waved at me to come over to where he was standing in front of a tiny portal. Wait... a portal? Things like these existed?

"It's your eyes. They were as red as blood when you dared to burn my skin." The fairy prince moved his head even closer and I felt his silky hair on my shoulders and chest.

Just a small moment would be enough to break free and disappear with Gigrin or else that maniac would do who knew what to me.

"Make them turn red again, will you? Otherwise I will have to poke them out..." The fairy prince brushed his thumb over the side of my cheek and the close distance of our bodies was overwhelming to the point that my brain wouldn't work properly for a moment. In his eyes I saw my own reflection that looked back at me like a stranger.

"You're supposed to listen to the prince's orders, don't you know that?" He whispered with a grin when he drew a line down my throat with his nail making my body shiver.

"I don't serve the Fairy Queen... and I will not serve you either." I intensified our eye contact for a moment before banging my head into his with all the force I could afford.

As expected he let go of me for just enough time to escape his grip and slide over to where Gigrin was reaching his hand out to me.

"YOU INSOLENT-" his yell was cut off when my body was swallowed by the strange substance of the portal.

It felt like spinning around while being squished together at the same time before I hit the cold brick stone ground in Gigrin's room in the school's basement.

I knew this place because I had hidden here or just spent time with the dwarf whenever I was bored.

"Urgh..." Groaning at the uneasy feeling that almost made me throw up I pushed myself from the ground finding Gigrin's strangely long and crooked nose right in my face.

"Vael! Are you out of your mind?!" With his squeeling voice he spoke and pointed his finger at me in total frustration.

"Sorry, I know I'm not supposed to get involved in something like this but he killed-" I tried to explain myself but Gigrin wouldn't let me finish my sentence and went up and down the room in fury.

"No! There are no buts! I'm sure you are aware that the creature you just encountered is the son of the Fairy Queen and Jack Frost."

"Jack Frost?! He is real?" I tilted my head in disbelief at this sudden mentioning of a character that I usually associated with movies. At least it made sense now that this guy seemed so icy.

"You should have listened to your mother better, urgh..." Gigrin groaned but I could remeber only faintly whether she might have said anything about Jack Frost before.

"Vael, listen. The Fairy Queen has sent her son on a mission to take care of Mr. Robberts who had been involved in many cases of experiments on sirens and similar species. Humans are not supposed to know about the hidden realm in order to maintain a healthy co existence so this matter was of utter importance."

"He killed a man!" I couldn't believe my ears. According to what ethos was it justified to kill?

"The hidden realm handles things differently from the humans, but that is not the problem here..." he slowly sat down and held his head with his hands that were way too big to proportionally fit to his small body.

"I... I am not the one supposed to tell you about this, so ask your mother about it once you get home. But... what is for certain is that she and I have been trying to hide you not only from the humans but also from the creatures of the hidden realm. They can not know about your existence... but now the fairy prince has noticed something suspicious about you.

If you are not careful, Vael... all sorts of creatures will come looking for you in the future, and the Fairy Queen is the most dangerous one among them for sure."

"What makes me so special that she would want anything from me?" My eyes narrowed, trying to fit the pieces together. Me being able to see the mystic creatures was nothing totally unique, but what I had just experienced with the fairy prince... no... even in the past, there had been events that I couldn't explain to myself with human logic.

But... Gigrin ignored my question visibly.

"He said something about my eyes... that they were glowing red." I wasn't even sure why I brought it up, but the sudden flinch of the old dwarf made my eyes widen a little.

"What did you say?"

____________________________________

"The third eye": The ability to see the hidden world of mystical creatures. Only very few humans are gifted with it.

"Gigrin": A kind dwarf that lives under Vael's school since it was built. He has been aquainted with Vael's mother for a very long time and has the unique ability of manifesting portals.