COUNTDOWN: 21 DAYS TO FULL MOON #2

                After much complaining, arguing, coercing, and bribing, the wolves had finally agreed to help Kita clean the basement. It had been a tough job, even with 12 werewolves helping out. Things like manoeuvering the pool table up the narrow stairs and digging through years of untouched dust… Kita was pretty sure that Xiumin and D.O. were scarred from the experience.

                So today when Suho had asked who wanted to come get groceries with him, everyone volunteered. Kita could even tell that Kai was wishing he could go lest she come up with another job for him to do.

                But she had nothing left for them, no tasks, no odd jobs, she just placed an order for several chocolate bars with Suho and let them be on their way. Honestly, she’d had no idea how useful that chocolate bar would be when Chen had given it to her ages ago, but it had been very useful in making Sehun help out.

                So as she heard the vans above her speed off to one of the nearby human cities, Kita sat in the newly-cleaned and not-furnished basement staring at the mark on the wall. She’d been sat there for hours already, examining everything around it. She’d searched every inch of this basement, and then every inch of this house and found nothing else that hinted of a Fey presence.

                “I’m going on my rounds.” Kai’s voice startled her as he poked his head down the stairs. “Wanna join?”

                Kita shook her head, she’d been on rounds with him last time, it wasn’t too interesting. There were more pressing matters here.

                She heard him sigh, “well at least come outside, you’ve been down here for days.”

                Kita nodded, but only got up a moment later when it was clear that Kai was not going to go outside without her. “You’re being a mother hen.” She muttered as he shut the door behind her.

                He laughed, for some reason in a better mood than usual. “I’ll be back soon. Faster than when we did them.” He laughed as if it was some kind of private joke then jogged off to run the boundary. Kita shook her head at the wolf and then plopped down on the grass, nothing else to do until he got back now that he’d locked her out of the house.

                And although Kai said he would be back soon, the rounds still took a long time. Kita had already counted the number of bricks that made up the chimney, and now she was doing a full circle of the house counting all of the windows.

                It was when she got to counting the windows near the ground, the basement windows, that she stopped in realisation. The cogs in her mind were ticking, clueing her into a solution.

                “The windows… they only go halfway…” She muttered to herself, the truth finally dawning on her. “Kai, Kai!!” She yelled for him, hoping he was nearby or that his wolfy hearing would at least bring him back sooner. She kept yelling, over and over again until he finally showed up.

                “What is it? Are you ok? I didn’t sense anything -”

                “Let me back inside.” She demanded, leaving no room for questions. He looked confused beyond reason but he unlocked the front door, following her as she raced back into the basement.

                Once down there, Kita span and re-counted the windows from the inside. What she had always thought was the far end of the basement was not at the far end of the house, there was extra room past that far wall!

                “Kai it’s a door!” He looked at her strangely but she kept talking, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet in excitement, “the mark, it’s a sign for a door! They’ve hidden something here I knew it!”

                As her enthusiasm began to die down she realised she had another problem, “how do I open it? It’ll need magic.” She was talking to herself now more than anything, “I probably don’t have enough magic, maybe on a full moon I would but… the full moon… Kai!” She span to look at him pressed against the far wall like she was crazy, “Kai I bet if we pool our magic together on the next full moon then we’ll be able to open the door!”

                Kai thought carefully about what to say, she seemed so excited about the prospect of opening the door but… “I’m not sure that’s a great idea Kita…”

                Her face fell, “why not?”

                “Well… it’s magic isn’t it? It’s dangerous.”

                She spluttered, “magic isn’t dangerous! It’s no more dangerous than any weapon, far less dangerous than the mass of weapons you have in your back shed!”

                “We know how to use those weapons, we’ve got no idea at how to use magic, and I bet you don’t know how to either, we’d be guessing.”

                “But the other night… you said…”

                “I just want to learn how to feel magic, I want to learn how to control it so I don’t go crazy every full moon! But I don’t want to use it, that’s where I draw the line.”

                “No Kai! I know I’ve never used it before, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how! I’m a Fey! I can figure it out!”

                He shook his head to her pleading, “we can talk it over with Suho-hyung when he gets back, but I don’t think you’ll like his answer.”

                Kita stared at him, unbelieving that he was so willing to ignore this. She could see a curiosity behind his eyes, a reluctance to say what he was saying, but he was still toeing the line, doing what his Alpha’s had told him.

                Kita walked past him, the buzz of magic as their shoulders brushed now felt like a rejection. He has the magic to help me and he chooses not to. Shutting herself in Chen and Lay’s room she waited silently for the other wolves to return, planning out the argument she would use to get the door open.

                It didn’t go as she expected.

                “I can’t believe this!” She said, looking at the wolves in their various stages of unpacking groceries. “After all the Fey have done, you don’t want to find out what they’re hiding?”

                “Why would they hide anything important in a house they gave to wolves?” Chanyeol asked, stuffing his food on the top shelf, catching something from Kris to hide up there as well.

                Kita rolled her eyes, “Because obviously, they didn’t hide it in there for you. You didn’t even notice the mark, that was left there for Fey!”

                “Then it has nothing to do with us.” Suho said, the only one fully paying attention to her. “We know you want it open, and I’ll admit, I’m damn curious about what’s down there, but magic can be dangerous.”

                “What would you know about it! All you’ve ever done with magic is run from it!” As several pairs of eyes rounded on her, Kita knew she’d gone too far, “what you had was wolf magic, that’s different! Wolf magic is impulsive and instinctive! Fey magic is easier to control, it’s safer!”

                “So you wouldn’t be using any wolf magic to get this door open then?” Suho asked, “you could do it without Kai?”

                Kita’s eyes flickered to Kai, could she do it alone? “I could try, but I’m not sure I could do it without him.” She admitted honestly.

                “Then-”

                “But it’s not like I’d be using his magic directly!” Kita cut Suho off, desperate for him to understand, “I’d be directing his magic through me and wielding it from there, it’s the only way since Kai has no idea what he’s doing. No offense Kai. His magic would have to obey Fey laws, it wouldn’t be able to be dangerous!”

                Suho was quiet, Kita watched him with baited breath. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity. “I’m sorry Kita, but until we can be absolutely sure that the magic isn’t dangerous, I can’t allow you to endanger this pack.”

                “But-”

                “I said no.” For the first time, his eyes flashed Alpha red, and Kita finally saw why he was also an Alpha. Suho seemed to regret it as his eyes crinkled in the corners and he let out a heavy sigh. “Maybe in time, when we know more about magic.” He pat her shoulder and left the kitchen, no longer being able to look at her grief stricken face.

                She felt Kai gently touch her arm, offering her his magic as comfort like he usually did but she didn’t want it. She tore her arm away and stalked outside, ignoring the pattering of her heart at his sad and guilty face.

                He should feel guilty. She thought as she lay on the grass. It was almost night, and she knew tonight was one of those nights that she needed Moonlight and nature and the constant pulse of Fey magic to calm down. For the first time in a while she wished she could go back in the forest, just so she could go to that dumb Tree and demand answers. How to use magic, how to control it, how to direct it, there were so many questions that she’d never been allowed to ask.

                She’d hidden her magic for years, for her entire life! But what good had that done her? Banished from her homeland, forced to live with wolves who could never understand the lives of the Fey. Alone, isolated, stuck in a farmhouse destined to never bond, never complete her soul. If she’d shown her magic she would have been taken to the Tree and she’d stuck her nose up at the idea in her past, but at least she would have been able to control this current inside her.

                And that night, for the first time ever, moonlight offered her little comfort as she lay curled up on the grass, not noticing the dark and sorrowful eyes of a wolf watching her from a second story window.