IN FULL COLOUR - Dark Fantasy
Chapter 20

Gabrielle

Dealing with Axel turned out to be much harder than I initially anticipated. The man was unbelievably unpredictable, and it somehow scared me. Unnerved me.

His energy and mood kept on changing, more abruptly and dubious than any other I had ever seen. Was he always like that or just whenever he was around me?

It was exactly the same as that first night we had almost met. The moment our eyes connected from across the room, the energy which wafted out of him exploded in a bright yellow, almost white colour, indicating that he was happy, in awe, hopeful even. But as he began making his way towards me, something changed. Something inside of him took shape, stirred, and it took mere seconds for the bright yellow to turn into a deep, eery blue, so dark it almost seemed black. As soon as it did, he stopped, stood there for a moment and then stormed out.

Something had shifted inside of him. Something I did not understand and probably never would.

Usually, when people’s energy changed, it happened gradually.

Over the years I had learned this along with what all the different colours meant. Light, warm colours, such as yellow, orange, gold, silver and white, indicated positive feelings. Happiness, hopefulness, delight, excitement, love, acceptance, and so on. Darker, cold colours indicated the opposite. The darker the shade, the heavier the mood. For example, deep-blue, purple, burgundy and even deep shades of green signalled negative feelings and bad energy leaking out. Feelings such as jealousy, envy, hatred, annoyance, sorrow, guilt and malice. In short, it was hostile.

Everything else in between was a mixture of which side the person was leaning towards. If for instance, the energy surrounding a person was a light green colour, it could indicate that the person was slightly hesitant, but did not feel threatened. If the light green started turning a deeper shade, it meant that the person’s unease was growing and pretty soon he or she would become scared, angry or defensive.

To summarize, light colours were good, dark colours were bad and everything else was ok.

As I sat in the dining room patiently waiting for him to join me, a large cloud of yellow and orange entered the room. Even before he had decided to show himself, I knew who it was. There was only one person who had the nerve to walk around here with such arrogance, as if he owned the place, yet he didn’t even live here.

Nero lifted his head for a moment to inspect the new arrival but snuggled around my feet again as soon as he realized who it was. He was familiar with him, knew his scent and sound.

“He’s not here yet, you can show yourself,” I said, looking straight at the cloud of energy taking slow, lazy strides towards me.

“Is he late or am I early?” Locke asked huskily while removing the glamour he had on himself so that I could see him.

He had now stopped mere feet away from me, leaning forward onto the table, resting his weight onto his calloused knuckles against the cold, stone surface. The muscles in his arms flexed as he leaned onto them, turning his handsome fae face towards me with a mischievous smirk playing over his features.

“You are early and actually not supposed to be here at all,” I answered, leaning back into my chair, and crossing my arms over my chest. A small smile being the only indication that I wasn’t angry but found him to be quite amusing.

Locke was a high fae and one of four sons of the fae King of Light and Lightning, King Gaute. We had known each other for ages, and I had grown used to his cocky, arrogant nature.

“And miss a chance to see what prince charming looks like? Never,” he purred, those warm brown eyes gleaming in the dim light of the candles.

The top half of his chocolate-brown hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, leaving only a few strands to fall over his chiselled face, the rest was left to hang loose over his black intricate fae jacket, almost hiding most of the delicate golden embroidery which decorated its shoulders and front.

Locke’s large frame filled every inch of his clothing and his muscles bulked in his forearms as he leaned forward to smell the scent wafting up from one of the beige candles in the middle of the white stone table.

“Please,” I scoffed, “he is no prince.”

Locke cocked a playful brow and turned ever so slightly to face me, “no?”

My mind drifted back to the previous night, where Axel had sat at the other end of this very dinner table and ate like a barbaric peasant. “No,” I stated firmly and flicked my eyes back to Locke’s.

He was clearly enjoying this and had a lazy smile on his face as he studied my features, “let me be the judge of that,” he said with a wink.

“No, Locke, just go. We can talk later.”

I wanted him to leave before Axel arrived. It was hard enough, being in the same room with my so-called mate, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have an audience witnessing our awkward interaction if there would even be any.

“Oh, come on, don’t spoil my fun, he wouldn’t even know I’m here,” he said, straightening up and picking at something on his jacket.

“No, but I will.”

“And?” He asked, that mischievous smirk back in place, “when have my presence ever been a hindrance to you?”

Right then, Axel’s scent drifted into the room and my wolf’s ears perked up, waiting for him to make his presence known. He was right outside the door and by the looks of it, Locke sensed it too. He turned his whole body to face the hallway and winked at me again over his shoulder.

“Maybe I should toy with him a bit first?” Locke whispered before disappearing from sight although his energy remained fixed in place.

“Don’t do that,” I stated and heard Axel step into the dining room. Heat crept over my cheeks.

I couldn’t look up. I didn’t want to see those powder-blue eyes burning into my soul and I didn’t want Locke to see how Axel’s mere presence affected me.

Why couldn’t he just leave already? My gaze drifted to Locke’s energy as it started to slowly move towards Axel, who had now taken a seat at the opposite end of the table. Although I didn’t look at Axel directly, I could see the deep red tendrils of his energy seeping out of him, filling almost a quarter of the room with its unfriendly presence.

If I could give him one thing though, it was that he was strong. VERY strong. The mass of energy that usually wafted from him was much larger than other wolves’ energy spans.

Nero huffed loudly as he lay his head back down around my feet and Axel bent down to see where the sound had come from.

As he peered underneath the table to inspect, I watched in silence as his deep-red energy instantly changed into a dark purple, almost navy-blue.

It wasn’t the first time I had seen him change so abruptly and I wanted to understand what caused him such instability.

Unsure whether I should use his name or rank to address him by, I found myself asking, “Mr Scott?”

Locke’s energy began lighting up and flickers of bright silver formed in the cloud of yellow and orange. Oh, he was enjoying my awkwardness alright.

Axel lifted his head from under the table and sat back casually in his chair, draping one arm over the wooden back.

“What just happened?” I asked, “what made you change your mood so suddenly?”