Trik walked through the fields, inspecting one of the solar panels that he’d had installed throughout the property. The panels were to serve as direct passageways from their realm to the crops, making it easy for the elves to harvest what they needed. As he stood up from his inspection, for the first time in more weeks than he could count, he knew that he heard her voice.

“Trik,” she called to him.

Their souls were forever connected and everything in him longed to answer his Chosen. The pain he felt at hearing her say his name drove him to his knees. He clutched his chest as he felt his heart constrict and the breath rush from his lungs. His soul reached out through him, grasping at the voice and Trik realized that it wasn’t Cassie speaking his name, it was her soul. Her very soul was crying out to him.

“Why do you call and not her?” His own soul asked earnestly.

“Her heart attempts to move on.” Cassie’s soul was filled with anguish and disgust at the idea of another.

Trik understood what her soul was saying. Cassie was with someone else. Rage, unbidden, pure, and blinding crashed into and out of him. He felt the fear of those around him but didn’t care how his power was affecting them. All he could focus on was Cassie. He thought of her in detail, allowing his soul to reach out even more so that they could find her. He stepped through the solar panel and into a bathroom.

~

Cassie dressed in what she had deemed the sluttiest butterfly, if butterflies could be sluts, costume she could find. She stood next to Elora, who was wearing the next sluttiest butterfly costume she could find. Elora’s costume was only second to Cassie’s because Cassie’s boobs were bigger. Music pulsed around them and black lights made everything glow eerily.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this costume,” Cassie yelled over the music.

“Give me a break. You look hot. Todd can’t keep his eyes off you,” Elora yelled back.

“Or his hands,” Cassie muttered. She glanced around the room, looking between the swaying bodies and past the make out sessions to see if she could find the host of this year’s anticipated Halloween bash, and to her chagrin, her date.

“Where did octopus arms run off to anyways?” Cassie leaned in close to Elora’s ear this time so she didn’t have to yell.

“I think he and Sam went to get us drinks,” Elora answered.

Elora had talked her into being Todd’s date to the party, after giving her a lecture that a month with no word from the cowardice, feeble excuse for a dark elf assassin, emphasis on the ass, was long enough to mope over and to get her ass up, Elora’s words.

So here Cassie stood in a room full of blaring music and scantily clad Halloween costumes, waiting for a guy she didn’t like to bring her a drink she didn’t want. “Happy freaking Halloween tome,” Cassie muttered under her breath just as she felt an arm slip around from behind her.

“Got my girl a drink.” Cassie felt Todd’s breath against her neck and tried not to cringe at the unwanted sensation. He smelled of sweat and beer. She took the drink from him and slyly slid from his arm as she turned to look at him.

“Great party,” Cassie yelled over the music.

Todd nodded. “It’s even bigger than the one I had last year.”

Cassie smiled over the rim of her cup as she took a small sip. She tried not to cough as the burn of the alcohol hit her throat. She had told herself that after that one sip she wouldn’t take another, especially after she tasted just how much alcohol Todd had poured into it, but the more Todd talked the more her hand seemed to raise the cup to her mouth. Cassie hoped that she was nodding in all the right places as she tried to listen to him, but found it increasingly difficult as her brain began to get foggy. Finally someone yelled Todd’s name and he excused himself.

Cassie’s shoulders slumped in exhaustion. Who knew how tiring it would be to fake interest in a conversation?

Elora nudged her as Todd walked away. “You awake?”

“Am I that obvious?” Cassie asked.

“An unbiased observer might say that you would rather watch paint dry than spend time with your date.”

Cassie groaned, “His voice is just so, so…”.

“Not Trik’s?” Elora finished.

“Exactly,” Cassie paused. “What? No, no, that’s not what I was going to say.” She frowned at Elora. “He’s just not someone that I’m attracted to. He’s so Todd-ish,” she finished lamely.

“Todd-ish?” Elora raised her eyebrows at her friend. “How much alcohol did he put in that drink?”

“Not enough,” Cassie grumbled.

Elora laughed. “I’ve never seen you plastered Cassie. This might be exactly what I need.”

“What you need? What about what I need?” Cassie whined.

Elora was looking over Cassie’s shoulder when she finally responded.

“Oh you’re about to get what you need.” She shot back the rest of the contents of her cup and then grabbed Cassie by the shoulders and turned her around.

Cassie’s mouth dropped open when she saw what Elora had been watching.

Trik, in all his tall, pitch black hair, Elfin glory, had Todd by the throat. The room was frozen, though the music continued to rip through the air. Cassie felt like she was moving in slow motion as she moved across the room. It felt like an eternity before she finally reached them.

“Trik?” Cassie blinked at him, confused at his sudden appearance, and the fact that he was holding Todd by the throat.