Kai's POV

      Since Phoenix has her date tonight she couldn't hang out with the rest of our friends and I as we have a day where we just hang out and catch up with each other. We did invite her in the group chat we all have on our communicators but she told us that she had a mandatory date. All of us feel bad for her and some of our friends even tried to convince her to refused him of course they don't know the extent of what they're asking her to do.

       We all met at my house considering my "parents" are at work. I made sure to dismantle my de-glamour-er so my friends wouldn't be shocked when I suddenly looked like someone else. One of the main reasons we met at my house was because of my collection of movies that I built up over the years. I have everything from Disney movies, to Marvel movies, to Star Wars movies, to horror movies, and other genres of movies.

      "What do you guys want to watch today," I ask the group.

      "How about this one?" Nessa asked holding up Disney's Tangled as everyone shrugs or nods in approval.

     "Sure," I nod as I pop the movie in the DVD player.

      The movie starts to play on the screen and for a while everyone sits in silence watching it and eating the snacks I put out until Alisanne spoke.

      "I wonder if names like Rapunzel and Mother Gothel were common names because with names like that I can almost understand the name ban, they're a mouth full."

       "I don't think they were, from my reading names with harsh sounds like those were uncommon and were mispronounced or made fun of, but people also gave out nicknames based on a shortened version of the name, personality, or a reference of some sort," Hugo states matter-of-factly.

       I wonder what they would think of the names of Phoenix gave them, the names she gave them are essentially nicknames based on their personalities I wonder what they think of them or how they would react. I think they would actually like their names because it describes them to a T.

       Before I could think about that thought anymore all of our communicators ding with a new message.

      "Considering we all got that text I'm assuming it was a group message that poor girl must be suffering and needs us to distract." Alisanne remarks.

       " I don't see why she doesn't just reject him anyone can see she hates her match and is uncomfortable near him, I mean at least I was lucky enough to get a nice sweet girl as my match." Arlo says solemnly shaking his head, he got lucky in the match department getting matched with a nice sweet girl, a little while after Phoenix got matched, whom he seems really liking.

       I pause the movie and we all open the text from Phoenix and are shocked and confused by what it says:

" I'M saying goodBye AmaziNg friendS tHis thE harDest KindA of thIng PLEASE comfort MY DAD."

     "Goodbye?"

     "Is this some kind of prank or is she just being melodramatic, why would she be saying goodbye to us?"

      "Why do we need to comfort her dad?"

      "What's with the strange phrasing and capitalization?"

       All of them voice their confusion at once but it is Hugo's question that sticks with me. The capitalization in the phrasing... capitalization... phrasing. I look at the capitalization and the words hit me; Phoenix's true message: I'M BANISHED KAI PLEASE MY DAD.

       "S***! S***! S***!" I shout and frustration and realization; my friends stand in shock as I have never cussed in front of them or lost my cool any major way before.

        My shoulders shag as I exhale and look at them, "There's lot to explain, but right now we need to go to her house. I'll explain the short version on the way."

                            🌊 🌊 🌊

       "So let me get this straight. Not only are fae real but you, her, and the slime ball's cousin are all at least part fae with different abilities, right?" Nessa questions.

        "Right," I respond.

        After clarifying that part she continues, "You can manipulate water and somewhat read minds, she can control fire and burst flames out of her hand and someone predict the future and the slime ball's cousin, who is her - what did you call it?"

         "Amor aeternus."

         "Right, that. Her amor aeternus," she continues where she left off the Latin words sounding strange on her tongue, "which is basically a soulmate, can shape-shift into animals?"

          "Yes that's right."

           "And you're almost a thousand years old not 16 like we all thought you were?"

           "Yep."

           "And you use a glamour to hide what you really look like which looks around 25 years old."

           "Uh-huh."

            "Not only that but our friend has given us all names in her head that match our personalities; her being Phoenix because of her fire ability, you being Kai because she thought you were like water even without knowing you were fae too, me being Nessa because of my fierceness and ambition, her being Alisanne because of her truthfulness, him being Hugo because of his intelligence and love of learning, and lastly him being Arlo because of his emotional and physical strength," she continues pointing to each person in turn.

          "Right again."

           "And so now Phoenix got banished by the slimeball, who she calls Lucifer based on the devil of an old religion, because his permanent job is a Fae Enforcer and somehow he found out about her being Fae and now we have to save her dad because of a promise you made to her and fae can't break their promises? Is that about right?"

            "Yes that's about right," I reply as we continue to wait for Phoenix's dad to get home knowing they won't test him that work.

             "It doesn't seem logical if I hadn't seen you move water with your mind I wouldn't have believed you about any of this, but I can't doubt what I saw with my own eyes, what everyone saw with their own eyes," Hugo states frustration and confusion evident in his tone, yet I can also tell that he does believe he just doesn't understand.

         "I know none of this makes sense right now but just trust me and when Phoenix's dad gets home Fae Enforcer ambulance won't be far behind. I have an idea on how we can prevent him from getting banished, but we're going to have to wait until after his blood is drawn and I'm going to need one of you come with me into the ambulance all the others distract guards. This needs to happen quick and it needs to be after the blood is drawn but before they put it into the blood machine thankfully they need to have the blood set for at least a minute before they put it into the machine. That being said does anyone want to be person who help me out with my part of the task.?" I tell them.

           After a couple seconds Hugo raises his hand.

           "Great the rest of you will need to provide a distraction so me and Hugo can get into the ambulance and do what we need to do now this distraction can be anything from a fake fight that the officers think they need to interfere in or even asking them questions like a concerned neighbor will work, hopefully. It doesn't need to be a long distraction just about two minutes at most. As for Hugo I'll give you further instructions once we're inside the ambulance it's hard for me to explain what I'm planning to do."

             "I'll ask questions like a concerned neighbor and if that doesn't work I'm pretty sure Nessa can stage a fight of some sort with Arlo." Alisanne states.

            "I sure can, if it comes to that just play along the more heated the argument the more likely they're going to come and watch it or break it up I apologize in advance for anything I may say or do to you if we have to go with that plan." Nessa says with a slightly disturbing gleam in her eye.

            As we wait they talk amongst themselves using their new names, the names themselves sounds foreign on their tongues yet at the same time familiar. Some of their conversation seem like they're trying to make sense of all this talking about how aweful Fae life must be in this era and trying to brainstorm ways they can change it even though they know they probably won't be able to change it they still feel injustice and want to fight against it.

            Finally Phoenix's dad arrives home I quickly get out of the vehicle and the rest follow me. We sit in the bushes hidden from view and wait. The ambulance shortly after. We watch as the guards get out of the vehicle and knock on the door. When he answers I see his face pale and recognition of the badges on their chest and slowly walk out to the ambulance his shoulders slumped as he walked knowing not to resist otherwise it would mean they have to use force.

              We watch silently as they draw his blood from his arm and place the vial inside the ambulance. I nod at Alisanne as I creep around the side of the ambulance with Hugo in tow.

              The guards stand outside the ambulance waiting for the time when they can put the blood into the detector machine from my viewpoint I can see Allison jog over with a frantic look on her face after going around the front of the ambulance.

             "Oh my God is everything all right? Is he sick or something? What happened?" She asked in a frantic tone of voice for someone who hates lies she can act pretty well.

             The guards exchange a glance and then one of them tries to dismiss her with a simple phrase, " Everything's fine ma'am please go back to your house, we have this covered."

            She tries to ask more questions knowing that we can't quite get in to the ambulance yet but they keep brushing her off. I look back to our former hiding spot to tell Nessa and Arlo it's their chance but they're already gone.

              From the other side of the ambulance we hear a loud shout.

              "YOU A******!" Nessa's angry voice demands attention.

              The guards look curious what's going on but still not enough to move I guess Nessa realizes this to because next comes a sound that almost always gets people to look.

SMACK!!

               I can tell by the sound that Arlo is going to have a red handprint on his face for a while, but the slap does its job and gets the guards attention, allowing Hugo and I to sneak into the ambulance as we do I catch more of Nessa's yelling and screaming something about a match and being rejected and a lot of cussing every now and then Arlo replies with just as much cussing and screaming.

             The vial is easy to spot on the counter waiting to go into the machine I quickly take the lid off the vial evaporate all the water out of the blood, and leave behind what looks to be red sand with white dots in it, but there's also something else too.Along with what looks to be red sand is a thin golden cord.

              "Hugo, quickly grab the golden strand and pull it out," I say trying to keep all the evaporated water in a small mist of the vial.

               He does as he's told after finding a pair of tweezers and quickly puts the strand in an empty vial next to us then puts the vile in his pocket. I breathe a sigh of relief for his quick thinking and understanding as I place the water back into the blood, close the lid, and give it a good shake to remix the blood.

             We quickly exit the ambulance and hear the distraction fight still going on sounds like other people have come to watch and try and break it up. Then I noticed Phoenix's dad sitting on the curb waiting with his head down and his shoulders slumped. When watching the guards I guess I didn't see him walk over to the curb to await his supposed doom.

             "You go 'break up the fight' I'll talk to him," I tell Hugo gesturing to Phoenix's Dad.

             I walked over to him and he doesn't look up or seem to notice me. After a second or two ahem not noticing me I sat down next to him. Finally looking up he seemed surprised to see me not a guard. But see me brings no comfort because soon understanding dawns on his face followed by a great sadness.

          "She's banished isn't she," it's not a question, but I nod anyways.

          "She made you promise to try and protect me didn't she," again it's not a question yet I nod anyways.

           "I'm never going to see her again am I?" His voice breaks as he all but cries.

            "I'm sure you'll see her again some day, but you can't get banished  my promise to her was to try protect you from getting banished. I'm sorry."

          "I understand," he says and I know he does, "you got to get going before they tell me my daughter has been in a car accident and unfortunately I blood type didn't match and I was last resort the save her or some other BS."

          "She's strong to make it through this," I say as I leave him his thoughts screaming and broken so much so it almost hurts to leave him alone.

            I meet my friends back at the car the the atmosphere is both victorious that accomplished our task and melancholy can we just lost our friend and that realization is starting to sink in with everyone.

             Just as I thought Arlo has a handprint on either side of his face I guess Nessa got in a second slap when I was in the ambulance. They all wear expectant faces wanting to know what happened in the ambulance.

              "I separated the fae strand from his blood after I evaporate the water from it I did the exact same thing that machine would have done which would be separate the blood and sift through it to see if the golden strand or in a half blood's case golden nuggets remain I made sure that his blood didn't have the golden strand, at least that sample of it." I sigh as we start moving, "Hugo has the strand if you want to see it."

           He pulls it out of his pocket and they all stare in wonder at the small thing that separates fae blood from their blood.

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Hey guys long time no see

Sorry for that

I've been officially an adult since November, so yay.

Hope you enjoyed the extra long chapter to make up for my absence.

~ countrygirl