“No, there’s another me. I didn’t tell you all because she said she was made from my broken soul, and I didn’t want you to know. But if that’s not true…” Memory looked around the circular room. “Then who are you? What are you?”
She didn’t appear. Memory groaned in frustration.
“Is Hope who you’ve been talking to?” Roen asked. He and Eloryn looked at each other with clear concern.
“Don’t tell me she isn’t real, that I really have been crazy all along.” Memory squeezed her hand into a fist. The cut across the palm still stung. “It can’t be. A hallucination couldn’t have cast the spell to bring my memories back. She knew things, about my past, before I did. Game’s up, Hope, come out!”
A movement flashed in the corner of Memory’s eye. Hope stepped out from behind the stack of paintings. Memory’s friends gasped, and she sighed in relief that they were seeing her too.
“You spoiled everything,” Hope pouted. “It was just meant to be you and me, but now they all know, things will have to change.”
“You’re not me, not made of my soul, so what are you?” Memory demanded.
Hope picked her way through the unwanted furniture in the room. She lifted her palms upward, the vision of innocence. “Hey, I only knew what you knew, right? Maybe I’m just made up of your memories after all?”
“Don’t bullshit me. The things you told me to do, that isn’t me. It never was.”
“What, you really wouldn’t do this?” Hope cocked her head to the side. “Cuir aerlaith, briseadh cloich, séid goath.”
Hope’s words of magic bent the air around them, flinging a gust of wind that pushed Eloryn toward the open balcony windows.
“What are you doing?” Memory screamed. Eloryn was yelling her own magic words, but nothing seemed to stop the gale forcing her to the edge. She looked to Memory for help.
“I’m doing what you should have done. Such a shame your sister would die from a tragic accident.” A few more words from Hope, and the balcony Eloryn slid toward crumbled away. Eloryn fell to her knees, clutching at the ground, trying to hold herself still. Roen ran to grab her and was caught in the rush of air himself.
“Ah yes, unfortunately this time, there are also witnesses that will have to go.” With a look from Hope, the air seemed to wrap Clara and Will, pushing them the same way. Clara shrieked, crying.
The sound of the wind rushed through Memory like a river. Memory roared over it. “Stop it!” She let her magic loose, forcing a bolt to strike Hope.
The wind stilled. Memory’s friends scrambled for stability.
Hope didn’t even sound human when she screamed back. The whole tower rumbled, and the stones beneath Eloryn’s feet fell away. Clara pulled her across onto a solid piece of ground then looked surprised at herself. She barely had a moment before the floor under them started breaking away.
Memory threw more magic at Hope. Even with the new control she’d found, it was all she could do. Each burst of magic knocked Hope back, disrupting her for just a moment. Memory wanted to Veil door her friends to safety but was worried if she let up her assault on Hope for even a second it would be too long.
Memory pummeled Hope back across the room, but it barely seemed to distract her.
Memory yelled. “Stop this!”
The floor kept crumbling on its own, too little left of its structure to stay intact. Furniture and old frames slid into the gaping pit. The stones under Memory dropped away. She almost fell backwards into the spreading hole. Will grabbed her and dragged her to solid ground at the edge of the room.
A wooden beam dislodged itself from a wall, throwing itself across at her friends. Memory managed to deflect it, but it still clipped Roen on the back when he stepped to block it from hitting the girls.
Memory gritted her teeth, staring at her twisted twin. “Why are you doing this? I didn’t give you permission, I didn’t…”
Hope had said she’d do it for her, if she’d just give the word. She should have known then, should have realized.
Hope only showed up after Thayl had died. Appearing at will, manipulating her, wanting debts and bargains and asking permission to harm those she loved. Just like Providence. Just like…
“Bronmer… Bron… Shit. Eloryn, I think she’s a fae, Brand her!”
Eloryn cried, “BRONMARBH AIL-”
Hope was gone. Vanished in a flash, just the way a fairy would.
Memory breathed, liked it was the first time she had in weeks.
But the tower still roared like a crumbling stone dragon.
“The tower’s coming down,” Roen yelled over the sound.
“Can you try and hold it together?” Memory asked her sister.
Eloryn already spoke her words and nodded so as not to interrupt them with her reply. A sudden jolt shifted all of them a foot across the floor.
“Loreee?” Memory sang. “Whatcha doing? Can you hold this?”
Eloryn shrugged, shook her head, kept speaking words of magic anyway.
“Time to run, then.”
Everyone nodded. Clara remained still, terrified, and Memory grabbed her hand and they ran first down the stairs. Eloryn, Roen, and Will followed close behind.
The roof of the tower flattened the room they had been standing in just as they hit the stairs. Memory let go of Clara who kept running and paused to check everyone was out and okay. Roen and Eloryn passed her on the stairs.
Dust and shattered slate pelted them from the destroyed roof. Eloryn stumbled her steps, and stumbled her words. The tower lurched, tipping to the side. They all slid with it and hit the wall of the stairwell.
An explosion of noise cracked around them and the stairwell split. Eloryn and Roen looked back at Memory, and she looked down at them from across the chasm where the stairs had been.
Will grabbed her hand, a question on his face.
Memory nodded.
He scooped her up, and at a run he jumped the gap, running along the wall and hitting the landing at the bottom on his feet. Memory bounced in his strong arms and tucked herself tight into his body.
Sprinting down the last flights of stairs, they slid out into the adjoining corridor atop an avalanche of crumbled masonry. All that was left of the tower.
They all sat there coughing, checking over each other with silent looks.
It was Eloryn who spoke first.
“Mem, are you okay?”
Memory wafted dust from her face. “Yeah, in one piece.”
“I mean, really okay?”
Memory felt like laughing. She was full of relief and wanted to express it through that unstoppable sort of laughter that hurt your belly. But her sister stared at her so seriously, she worried her relief was misplaced. Maybe she had a metal pipe sticking through her chest and didn’t know it yet, like those dumb chicks in gore flicks.
“Why?”
“Because you’re going to need to be.” Eloryn bit her lip and tried to smile. “I’ve abdicated. You’re now the queen of Avall.”
Memory’s Wake
Hope’s Reign
Providence Unveiled
Full Table of Contents
PROVIDENCE UNVEILED
The Memory’s Wake Trilogy, Volume III
BY SELINA FENECH
Books in this Series
Memory’s Wake
Hope’s Reign
Providence Unveiled
Copyright Information
First Published by Fairies and Fantasy Pty Ltd January 2015
Ebook Edition ISBN: 978-0-9875635-7-6
Story, Illustrations, Design and Cover Art Copyright © 2015 Selina Fenech
All rights reserved.
www.selinafenech.com
About This Book
Book Three of the Memory’s Wake Trilogy
http://www.memoryswake.com
Just when she is finding herself, Memory is about to lose everything. Home, friendship, family, goals, love… Memory will break all the rules to try and save what is importa
nt to her, but her actions are being manipulated by a dark force toward a dark end. Worlds will be broken, love will be stolen, and sacrifices will be made.
In this final novel of the Memory’s Wake trilogy, the truth will be unveiled.
Providence Unveiled contains over 40 illustrations by the author and artist.
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Length: Full-length novel of 85,000 words or 350 pages in paperback.
Content: Due to some adult themes of death and abuse, parental guidance is recommended for readers under the age of 14.
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Chapter One
Memory laughed a strong, high-pitched laugh that made her sides ache. The surrounding cloud of dust was chalky on her tongue and the last small pieces of falling tiles and roof shingles clattered onto the debris that surrounded her and her friends. Eloryn, Roen, and Clara sat sprawled where they had tumbled out of the tower that had collapsed around them. Will was right beside Memory, close enough for her to feel his warmth and hear him still panting from their wild escape. They were all powdered with dirt, but safe and mostly uninjured. Memory was sure one of her fingers was broken. Everything was such a blur, she wasn’t sure if it happened during the tower collapse, or earlier when she and Will hit the mattresses after their fall. But she was grateful for it. Grateful that was all they’d suffered, and that she was still alive. Will held her other hand.
Memory couldn’t stop laughing.
Eloryn sighed. “It’s not a joke. You are now the Queen of Avall.”
Memory paused long enough to take a breath. “That’s even funnier,” she wheezed, and started laughing again. “I thought I was the crazy, irresponsible one, and then you go and make me queen!”
Memory wiped tears from her bottom eyelids and tried to breathe between her giggling. It didn’t help. Trying to stop only made it worse and her whole body shook with uncontained laughter.
Roen grinned roguishly. “I have to admit, it is rather funny.”
A chuckle burst from Eloryn as though she had been holding it in and was no longer able to contain it.
Small at first, her laughter built until it matched Memory’s. She moved forward and wrapped her sister in a tight hug. Memory put one arm around her, the other hand still entwined with Will’s.
They laughed together there in each other’s arms, and Memory whispered, “What the hell happened? I’m really queen? What am I going to do?”
Eloryn whispered back, “You’ll manage. You’ll be great. I know you can do this.”
“I’ll try.”
“I’ll be there for you. Anything you need, anything I can do. You’re my sister, and I love you.”
Memory pressed her face into her twin’s shoulder. “Can you fix my busted finger?”
“Of course.” Eloryn tightened her hug. “I like your new hair color.”
“Want me to do yours? You’d rock a fading pink.”
Eloryn kissed Memory on the cheek. “Don’t ever leave me.”
They separated and stood up, smiling at each other. Will, Roen and Clara also stood by Memory, holding her hands and her shoulders, supporting her.
My family.
Memory still felt shaky and overwhelmed. In the last fifteen minutes of her life she’d tried to kill herself, had someone else try to kill her friends, then had everyone almost all die again from the fall of the destroyed tower. Her emotions were so high strung and confused she could barely think. She drew deep breaths, letting herself accept the support of her friends, accept that they were there for her now, and for whatever lay ahead.
I will manage. I will be great. For them.
Shocked servants and guards appeared at the end of the hall, gawking at the destruction. The entire north wing tower was now a pile of rubble, and the wall it had been attached to was all but gone, opening the corridor to the cold winds of night outside.
Memory felt guilty for having a part in knocking down one of the palace’s towers. Not a great move for her first day as queen.
Acknowledging the arriving servants, Clara said, “I’ll inform the staff to begin organizing the cleanup and bring help.”
“Thank you. I think we’re all okay though. Just make sure no one was injured outside,” Memory said.
Clara nodded and took a step away, then with a puppy dog expression, turned back and gave Memory a firm hug. Then she hurried down the hall to speak with the other staff.
Roen moved in next and held Memory.
Memory giggled at the tag team. “I’m okay, really. Only current risk is being cuddled to death.”
Roen let go and looked insulted. “Do I need a near death experience to embrace you now? Being queen is already going to your head.”
Memory laughed again, then stopped abruptly. “Hang on. I’m the queen. That means Hope got what she-”
Swirling winds and gray smoke filled the room, interrupting Memory. Sparks of gold swam within the Veil mist like fireflies as it opened up in a round portal. The sound of distant rain dripping on bells came with a flood of warmth, and a crowd stood before them.
A crowd of fae royalty. The Seelie Queen, Aine, and her human consort Lugh were flanked by a dozen fairy knights. Each guard wore armor of woven silver with embedded mother of pearl and held a fairy gold spear twice his or her height. Behind the unearthly beauty of the queen and her companion, stood a group of sprites, including Mina, and Yvainne, the princess of the sprites with whom Eloryn had once made a bargain. Standing all together, the sheer beauty of them made tears well up in Memory’s eyes. Pearlescent skin was contrasted with tangles of silky hair and the pretty tatters of their cobweb and feather dresses. Aine’s dress was more whole, full of draping translucent folds that teased at the shape of her body, leading a viewer’s eyes up to her face. Her long auburn hair that Memory had once seen trail on the ground behind her was bundled into a tall and intricately woven mass atop her head, stuck through with glass flowers and silver twigs. Her skin had a warm shimmer, like diamonds drenched in honey, but her expression was far from warm.
Aine’s gaze swept across the rubble and settled on Memory’s face. Her lips were stretched thin and eyebrows lowered. “So, the fickle humans have changed their ruler yet again.”
Memory looked to Eloryn, who gave her an encouraging nod in return.
Memory lifted her chin. Time to start being queen. She curtseyed to Aine. “I only just found out myself. News travels fast.”
“We have watchers for anything we consider important, or dangerous.”
Yvainne and Mina stood proudly behind their queen. They’ve still been keeping tabs on me after all. Memory wondered just how much she’d been watched, and what they might know. Mina stared Memory down with her usual glare. With the malicious creature Hope now confirmed as being a fae, standing in front of this group of them made Memory’s paranoia tie itself in anxious knots. Hope could be Mina, or Yvainne, or Aine. Any of them.
Memory calmed the shiver chasing up her spine and curtseyed a second time for good measure, then pointed with her thumb at the ruined building around them. “Your Majesty, you can probably see that this isn’t the best time for a chat. Can we do the ruler meet and greet a bit later on if there’s no urgent issue?”
Aine’s eyes narrowed. “We take issue with you.”
Mist from the torn Veil spilled into the corridor again, and a second group emerged from it. A raspy male voice hissed, “As do we.”
The Unseelie King, Finvarra, and his daughter Nyneve became clear as the smoke faded, their own darkly armored guards following.
Memory noticed down the hallway a troop of palace guards led by Peirs rushing to the scene, and held up a hand to halt them. She turned back to the newly arrived fae royalty with what she hoped was a brave face.
Nyneve wore her usual shades of mourning, her hair even blacker, impossibly black, not a highlight showing in the nebulous masses swirl
ing around her silver skin. Her father’s gnarled body was clothed in a maroon color darker than night. Between them they presented a front of imposing darkness. Nyneve stood a step behind her father, head bowed slightly, as the black eyed king growled at Aine like a feral dog. “Trying to slip in and make decisions without us? We must have our say as well.”
Memory cleared her throat. “Inside voices, please. I’d already noticed that the fae aren’t very keen on me. You guys have always known I’m full up on magic. What’s changed?”
Aine said, “Now you are monarch of the humans. We can’t allow such power to be in the hands of a ruler. There must be restrictions.”
Restrictions? Memory shook her head. “You let Thayl go about his business.”
“You compare a candle to a forest fire,” Aine said.
Finvarra’s needle-like teeth ground against each other, scraping like chalk on a blackboard. “She’s unnatural, stealing away the life of the earth, hoarding it within her. Restrictions aren’t enough. She should not be allowed to be queen. She should not be allowed to exist.”
By her side, Will took a step forward, and Memory matched him, blocking his way. She said, “She is right here and doesn’t appreciate threats to her existence. I am queen and you should treat me with some respect.”
Nyneve raised a silver hand and put it on her father’s shoulder. It seemed to calm him and he muttered what might have been an apology.
“Whatever magic is inside me, it’s not there by my choice.” Memory knew it had been given to her by Providence, whom she was sure was a fae. But now didn’t seem the best time to be making wild accusations. There were still too many questions. If I’m going to be queen, I need to be smarter, better. I need some answers first. “There’s not much I can do about it. It’s in me now, part of me, for better or worse.”
Aine tilted her head in a supplicating motion, but the slight sneer on her lips made the motion a lie. “We ask that you give an oath never to use your stolen magic again. For the safety of our worlds.”
Memory's Wake Omnibus: The Complete Illustrated YA Fantasy Series Page 53