by Leia Stone
Giving them my back, I prepared myself for the fight we were about to get into.
“I’ll try to hold an illusion for any of the prying eyes on the mountain,” Elle muttered beside me, pulling out a few of her throwing knives. Luckily, it was sparsely populated here.
“Okay.” I looked at Liam. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
With that, we took off through the skies, hoping Elle’s illusion was working on any normies.
“Step one, we need to get the shield down,” Liam called out next to me.
I nodded, feeling that warm power pulse at my palms. “You freeze it, and I’ll knock it with sunlight. Let’s throw everything we have.”
As we came up over the treetops, my gaze fell on about a dozen soldiers standing before the protective dome, and my stomach sank. They were ready for us.
Everything happened so quickly. The Halflings came up behind us and engaged the Sons of Darkness while Liam slammed a wall of ice at the barricade. It wobbled and shook but held strong. Feeling the warmth overwhelm my palms, I let loose, my light bursting forth and saturating the shield before us.
The shield vibrated, rattling.
“More!” Liam shouted.
Gunshots rang out beneath us as I flooded the dome with the brightest light I’d ever seen. I just had to trust that Elle and everyone else had our backs, because I couldn’t worry about getting shot at right now. As the sunlight burst from my palms, buttery golden light covered the entire shield, and I had to turn my head to the side.
I was blown backward a little by the sheer force of the power coming from me. Dizziness overtook me then, and my wings locked up. As I fell to the ground, a cracking noise rang through the battlefield, and the dome shattered.
Bracing myself for the fall, I tightened all my muscles, overcome with weakness after using so much light magic.
But I never fell. Liam swooped underneath me and caught me into his arms. My body slammed against his chest, and he tucked me into him as he lowered us to the ground.
The fight raged around us. I tried to track Elle but couldn’t find her.
“You did it,” Liam breathed. “Are you okay?”
I still felt dizzy. Everything was spinning, and to be honest, I felt like I was going to throw up. “Feel sick,” I muttered.
He frowned. “Okay. Stay here. I’ll get the crystals and be right ba—”
“No.” I shook myself, forcing him to put me down. “Last time you did that, you were…possessed. We’ll go together.”
I reached into my bag and pulled out the jar of healing water. Lifting the lid, I dipped my hand in it and splashed it on my forehead. The dizziness ceased immediately.
“Let’s go.” I screwed the lid on, and we took off running.
Time was of the essence when people were fighting for their lives. We had to be quick about this. As we sprinted across the green lawn, a whizzing sound passed my ear, and an arrow sank into the grass in front of me.
Yikes. My heart pounded with adrenaline as I shoved my boot into the ground and kicked off, taking to the skies and activating my Seeker power. Where were the crystals, exactly? I felt a strong pull in the direction of the house.
“This way,” I told Liam, cutting through the air, and he followed me.
Liam’s Halfling army was right behind us, running on the lawn and crashing into the Winter King’s men. There were yelps and groans, but I tried to push them out of my head and remember why we were here.
Get the crystals. Get home, I told myself.
I landed on the porch near the front door, dropping right in front of a guard. As he raised his sword to me, I reached out my palm and shot a pulse of sunlight into his eyes. He dropped his sword and clutched his face, wailing.
Liam landed onto the porch next to me. “You okay?”
I still felt shitty, but I was determined to push through, so I nodded.
He reeled his booted foot back and kicked the door in, splintering it. Then we both charged forward.
I don’t know what I’d expected…a regular house, maybe. But the inside of this place was…pulsing with power unlike anything I’d ever felt on Earth. It was dark and strong, and the second we stepped over the threshold, I was slammed with it.
I felt a presence at my back and turned to see Elle walking up, with Cam in wolf form and half a dozen other Halflings from Liam’s army.
Backup had arrived.
“What is that?” I shouted, gesturing into the house. I couldn’t shake the oppressive feeling in the air.
Liam shook his head, walking slowly like he was wading through quicksand. “The crystals. They’re all dark.”
My inner Seeker power went haywire. We were so close, but it felt so icky, I wanted to recoil. The hairs on my arms stood, and dread churned in my gut. This was dark, dark magic.
Walking through the entryway, Liam led us all to the living room. I took in the scene quickly. The three crystals sat about a foot apart in a triangle shape, pulsing with green, sickly looking power. The next thing I noticed was the Winter King, standing with five men just behind the crystals, glaring right at us. They were ready.
“You’ll never give up, will you?” Liam’s father asked him.
I felt the light pulse in my hands, and screams outside on the front lawn pulled my attention. Were we losing men? Or were they? We needed to do this quickly and get the heck out.
Liam took one look at me, and something unsaid passed between us. Blast these motherfuckers with light, grab any crystals, and run.
“No. We won’t,” I said, and threw my hands forward. A solar flare erupted from my palms, coating the men in searing orange light. Screams of agony filled the room, and Liam dove forward for one of the crystals.
Knowing what he was about to do—that he was going to willingly touch darkness in order to save Faerie—made me sick. Why did it have to be this way?
His fingers wrapped around the crystal, and he cried out in pain. There was no time to pull the jar of healing water out now. It would have to wait. Liam lunged for a second crystal, but his dad burst forward and stepped on his hand.
I felt power surge within me, and another wall of light flew from my palms, this one less bright, as if my power was limited and I needed to recharge.
A blur of black fur signaled Cam bursting forward, and he wrapped his jaws around the Winter King’s leg. Something exploded. Ice, snow, and frigid cold slammed into me, throwing me backward. I sailed through the air as my back hit the wall. Sharp pain sliced through my wings, and I slid down with a whimper.
Pain flared between my shoulder blades as snow and small bits of hail pelted my face.
“Retreat!” Liam shouted.
I tried to stand, but the force of the snow pushed me hard into the wall and pinned me to the spot.
It was chaos. The Winter King stood in front of the remaining two crystals and grinned at Liam like a madman. Meanwhile, his Sons fought our guys, and people were getting seriously injured.
Cam was thrown across the room, and I knew I needed to do something before our people were killed. I felt that pulse of power just under my skin and wondered if I had enough energy for one more big burst. One more burst of light to melt this ice storm so that we could get the hell out of here.
Letting the feeling build inside of me, I brought that warmth through my entire body. With a battle cry, I pushed out everything I had left and aimed it squarely at the Winter King’s chest.
It was like the sun had dropped into that very room. Everything flared for a second. Then, the ice storm died, and I was free to walk again without being pinned to the wall.
The only problem was my legs felt like Jell-O, and little black dots danced along my vision. Don’t pass out. Don’t pass out, I chanted.
But darkness prevailed, and the last thing I saw was my best friend opening her arms to catch me.
When I came to, there was shouting, and everything was moving as if I rode atop a horse or mule.
What the
—
Something soft under my cheek felt like fur, and my eyes snapped open.
I was draped over Cam’s back. His wolf back. We were running in a big group toward a house with a shiny, fresh new blue door.
“I can walk,” I mumbled, and Cam ground to a halt.
I slid off the wolf and peered around for Elle or Liam. They were half jogging. Elle had the lid off the jar of healing water, and Liam’s hand was plunged inside of it with the crystal. The crystal looked light blue and normal, which made me breathe a sigh of relief, but we only had one of them. Two were left behind.
Running up beside them, I looked in Liam’s eyes. “Are you okay?” Last time, the crystal had completely taken him over, and I could still see some faint traces of black threading in his eyes.
He nodded. “Are you?”
We slowed, and I reached for the blue door. “I’ll feel better once we’re all back in Faerie.”
Please let Mara be inside.
Turning the handle, I was greeted by Bashur.
Oh, thank the gods!
He jumped up on my chest and licked my face, dragging his wet tongue across my cheek.
Yuck.
Digging my fingers into his soft fur, I gave him a few pats, then pushed him out of the way. “Come on, everyone!”
I raced into the house, searching for Mara.
“Mara!” I called out. We needed to get the hell out of here before the Sons chased us down and burned this place to the ground, too.
When I opened her office door, she looked up at me, holding my mom’s journal in her open hands. Tears filled her eyes. “Oh, Lily.” The tears escaped and spilled over on her cheeks.
She’d read it.
She knew. My mom wasn’t my mom.
Standing, Mara wrapped me in a quick hug, and when we pulled back, she frowned. When she spoke, her voice was low and deadly. “I’m going to kill Indra.”
Panic seized me at her words. “What? No, we need to play it cool.”
Anger distorted her features, making her look dangerous. “Your mother was so afraid of Indra and her mind control that she felt she couldn’t even tell me this!” Her fist shook with rage, red hair trembling around her shoulders. “I could have protected her.”
All her anger whooshed out of her, and she sagged against the desk.
I reached out to grasp her shoulder. “What’s done is done. Let’s focus on the now.”
And the fact that the Sons of Darkness where probably coming here right now to burn the house down.
Liam and Elle ran into the room then, and I took the journal from Mara and placed it back in my bag. “We’ll talk about this later, I promise. But right now, I need you to take us to Faerie.”
She chewed on her lip before taking a deep breath and nodding.
Five minutes later, I was walking out into Faerie with over sixty Halflings at my back and another crystal in my hands. We passed Mr. Dursey first. He was on his front porch. When he looked up, the watering can dropped from his hands, and his jaw practically unhinged.
I held the crystal high. “Got another one.”
He just nodded, looking at the company of Halflings behind me. I didn’t fly to the Elders because I didn’t want to leave any of Liam’s friends behind in case they were attacked or ridiculed, so we walked right through the center of town. I knew that if I had brought them directly into Indra’s library, inside her home, she would have completely lost her shit, so I figured we would knock on the door like any old guests.
Rumors spread fast in Faerie, as they do in any small community. By the time we reached the Elders’ door, half the town had assembled behind us.
I looked over my shoulder to see Liam’s men, beaten and bloody but wide-eyed as they watched fae fly in from the corn fields with their pink, purple, and blue hair. They stared at the river, at the protection dome and everything in between. Kira flitted between them, giving a remedy here, laying light there. I didn’t have the heart to ask Liam if we’d lost anyone. I thought the answer was yes, and I’d ask later.
Before I could even knock, Indra wrenched open the door. When she laid her eyes on the Halfling army behind me, she actually took a step backward in shock. Then her gaze went to the crystal in my hands, and I could see the greed take over her expression.
“You got them?”
I sighed. “We got one. We need to recoup and get the other two, but we will.”
Her look of greed turned into a snarl of disgust. “They can’t be here until you get them all. That was our deal.”
Liam growled low in his throat—an honest-to-gods growl. “I lost three men today. For that.” He pointed to the crystal. “For you. For Faerie!” He raised his voice at the last part, and some of the fae stepped back and hung their heads in shame.
Three? My heart sank. Death…war…it was so pointless when we all wanted the same thing: to live long and happy lives.
Turning, I faced Liam. “Would you like to do the honors?”
Indra gasped. “Absolutely not!”
I was still feeling weak and definitely not in the mood for this shit. “You take it, then.” I reached out to hand it to her, and she recoiled.
The fae were watching, no doubt wondering why Indra wouldn’t allow Liam to take it to the tree when she herself couldn’t touch it. It was discrimination, pure and simple. She hated the Halflings, and it made a white-hot anger rise up inside of me.
She glared at me with such hatred, then, that I knew I’d gone too far. Liam took the crystal from me and walked past her, zero fucks given.
Indra bristled, but upon seeing the group of village fae behind me, she curled her lips into a fake smile. “Another crystal has been brought home!”
Everyone roared and thundered with applause, and I slipped in next to her, following Liam to the tree. The other three Elders stood around its base.
Then I heard the door slam shut behind me.
Crap.
I spun halfway to the tree and faced the livid Elder of Summer. Liam kept walking and gave the Elders a nod before kneeling by the tree. Indra walked right up to me, looking down at me with such malice it turned my stomach.
She brought her body so close to mine that I shivered in fear. “If you ever speak to me like that in front of my people again,” she whispered, “I’ll cut your tongue out.”
Her true colors were finally showing. But I still had my card to play: I knew the truth about my lineage, which meant I was above her in status. One day, she would fucking bow to me and the queen before the queen cut her head off.
I’d wait to play that card, though. I needed to wake the queen first so that someone powerful had my back. Elders didn’t just become Elders because they were old and ancient. They became advisors to the royal houses because of their strong displays of power. Indra was an Elder of the Summer Court who had once advised Queen Isana of Summer, and she’d obtained that title because of how strong she was magically.
I didn’t say a word, just watched as Liam clicked the crystal into the base of the tree. A little pop of light flickered from the branches, a single pink flower blooming on its petals.
Indra leaned in closer, letting her hair touch my shoulder. “All you’ve shown me with this stupid display is that I don’t need you if I have him.”
Fear washed through my veins like ice water, and Liam stood, turning to me.
Had I taken it too far?
I swallowed hard, realizing this might be my only time to get one of the queen’s hairs and do the spell my mom had left me. Indra would surely not allow me around here much longer unless I had a crystal.
“I’d like to check on my aunt,” I told Indra, who bristled. She probably couldn’t believe I’d told Liam that she was alive. I had to be careful to pretend that I still thought she was my aunt and not my biological mother.
Indra turned to Liam. “You may take your men and wait for Lily at the blue door.”
He looked at me, nostrils flared.
I nodded. “I’ll be
right there.”
With a sigh, he left the house, and I walked to the queen’s door.
The first thing I noticed was that she was all alone. “Where’s Trissa?”
Indra’s lips curled into a smile. “Oh, she was needed out in the farmlands. And you took Kira, so I’ve been looking after her.”
Fuck!
My hands shook with rage, and I had to fight to control my breathing. How dare she? Pushing down the warmth in my palms, which wanted to incinerate Indra’s face with sunlight, I stepped into the room. My stomach dropped when Indra followed behind me.
How was I going to get a hair with her standing over me? I walked slowly to the queen’s bedside, again marveling at the resemblance to my mother…and now myself.
Indra watched me like a hawk, stalking my movements. Falling to my knees on the cold, hard tile, I leaned over the queen.
“I’m sorry I never got to know you.” I had started the sentence as a farce, just to seem like I was all emotional, but saying it out loud brought tears to my eyes. “Auntie.” I leaned forward and kissed her cheek, inhaling as I did.
Snoozeberry.
With my left hand, I clutched the pillow on which her red hair was splayed and yanked on a single strand, pulling it up with me as I stood. I had no idea if I’d gotten it or not, and I didn’t dare look down. I simply slipped my hand in my pocket and walked over to Indra with unbridled rage boiling in my chest. When I got close to her, she tipped her chin in defiance.
“Hey, Indra?” I called out as I passed her.
She didn’t answer, but I paused at the door and looked back at her.
“Give the queen snoozeberry juice again, and I’ll have the entire village light you on fire.”
Her mouth hung open, her eyes bugging halfway out of her head. “Wha—I…”
“I see you,” was the last thing I said to her before I walked out of the room and slammed the door.
It was time to make a plan to get Indra out of power, because something was very wrong here. If I didn’t do something soon, she was going to put me in cuffs or cage me. I couldn’t let her rule the fae and preside over the queen’s care any longer. I crossed the house quickly, passing the tree and praying this would be over soon. Now more than ever, I needed to get those crystals and wake the queen.