15. Chapter 15

Chapter fifteen

" I t's time to get up!" A loud and annoying voice called, startling Haven awake. The voice sounded an awful lot like Roman. Haven could murder him for waking her at what felt like such an early hour. Not that she actually knew what time it was.

The covers were quickly pulled off of Haven, causing her to groan and sputter curses at the intruder. He was lucky she had worn her pants to bed, otherwise, he'd be getting an eyeful and she'd have a valid reason for murder. At least valid in her mind.

Roman repeated to Haven that it was time to get up at least three more times before she finally sat up. Telling Roman she was awake, she shooed him out of her room. After he left and presumably went back into his room across the hall, Haven climbed out of the moderately comfortable bed and slipped her feet into her shoes. Padding to the door, she left her room and entered the small bathroom at the end of the hallway.

After taking care of her needs, Haven looked in the small mirror above the sink basin and grimaced at what she found. Apparently tossing and turning all night with dreams of being chased through a dark forest was not good for a girl's complexion. The bags under her eyes and exhaustion weighing down her shoulders told Haven she clearly did not get enough sleep.

It wasn't hard to figure out why, it was also likely the reason for her dreams about being chased.

Haven could not get used to the idea of possibly hailing from one of the missing royal bloodlines. Nor could she get the thoughts to leave her. Her mind constantly switched between the doubt that was so strong and had almost convinced her she was crazy and the nagging feeling that she might actually be onto something. There was also a possibility Binah was simply messing with her. Although, the necklace was clearly old and while Haven did not know the older fae well, she got the impression that Binah would not take advantage of Haven's naivety of all things fae like that.

Exhaling and heading back into her room, Haven pulled the brush from her bag and braided her hair. She easily twisted the wavy strands until a neat plait laid across her shoulder that she tied off with a small leather band that had been looped around the brush handle.

Roman appeared back in her doorway fully dressed, told her he was heading down to grab some breakfast and that Trevor had said they'd be leaving soon. Haven nodded and he left without another word.

Pulling the note from Binah out of her bag, Haven reread over it. Sleep had not made things any clearer.

Haven made a mental note to start looking for the diary mentioned in the letter as soon as they arrived at the castle. After securing her pack to her back and wrapping her dark green cloak around herself, Haven made her way down to the inns dining room for breakfast.

***

The fact that she looked human had never been so apparent to Haven. Her, Roman and Trevor were situated at the back of the inns dining room waiting for their breakfast. Filling the room around her were fae, all of varying races and ethnicities. Some had gorgeous pale skin with vines that appeared to be crawling across them, others had stunning dark brown skin with flowers braided into their hair. Each fae was different and unique and Haven found every single one of them beautiful.

One of the things that stuck out the most to Haven was that no matter their differences, every single one of them had pointed ears. Some had long and skinny ears, some were short and very sharp but each and every one of them was pointed. The fact that no one else had rounded ears like her and Roman caused Haven to pull up the hood of her cloak and take solace in the fact that Binah had told her that given time she would develop most of the common fae features.

The pointy ears, the fangs, all of that would come. She reminded herself multiple times while waiting for breakfast to arrive. Roman didn't seem at all put off by the fact that he also did not have the pointed ears, if he even noticed at all. The entire short time Haven had been at breakfast he hadn't said one word. Instead, twisting a few sticks of straw into what appeared to be the rough outline of a crow.

Other than Romans complete lack of concern, one fae in particular had captured Havens attention. He had inky dark skin and bright icy eyes. He was truly stunning and while his good looks might have been what caught her attention, what kept it was the snowflakes he kept having to knock off of his exposed arms. Every few minutes some would gather in clusters up and down his forearms, then he would send them tumbling off his arms where they dissipated before they ever hit the floor. A few minutes later more would gather. He seemed to be the only one in here with that sort of problem.

"Some fae with nature like talents have to do things like that" Trevor spoke, pulling Haven from where she was taking mental snapshots of the obvious display of magic.

"Occasionally with the more powerful fae, their powers can take on characteristics of their own. For example, A fae with a power over flame will occasionally leave burn marks where they walk or have little tendrils of flame flitting around them wherever they go. Sometimes the flame will even interact with others." He finished

"That is entirely awesome but sounds kind of inconvenient," Haven responded.

Roman was quiet next to her. Every once in a while he would scan the room with his eyes and then go back to folding the straw in front of him.

Before Haven could ask Trevor to tell her more, a waiter came over and dropped off plates piled high with eggs, bacon and biscuits. Next he picked up glasses of orange juice off his tray, sitting them down in a cluster at the middle of the table before asking if they needed anything else and leaving. Haven was just about to reach for one of the glasses when Trevor pulled all three towards him, picked them up one by one and took what Haven could only describe as a very thorough sniff.

"Checking for poison" Trevor commented sheepishly, a slight blush rising to the kids cheeks. Haven thought it was adorable, although the thought of being poisoned kind of ruined it.

"Find anything?" Haven asked slightly sarcastically.

"Nope." Trevor responded, sliding a glass towards her. It occurred to Haven that Trevor could have easily lied and she would never know until it was too late. She pushed the thought aside and took a sip of the orange juice. It tasted fine to her but she assumed all the best poisons had no taste.

Luckily, Haven didn't keel over and die on the spot after taking a drink so it was unlikely Trevor or anyone else had poisoned her. It wasn't long before breakfast was over and they were back on the road towards the castle. Only a couple of hours, Trevor had told her. Only a couple more hours until she would be in an actual fae castle. The warning from Binah weighed heavily in the pack slung across her back but it hadn't completely kept her from being excited. The big adventure of her life was beginning. It wasn't college and a degree like most expected but she'd taken an actual fantastical adventure over a degree any day.