The Last Faerie Queen

by Chelsea Pitcher

  And yet, Brad manages to race. I couldn’t understand it. Then again, I hadn’t been held captive for weeks, bound and starved and God knew what else. I found myself hoping that Maya de Lyre had only kept him like a pet. It was a ridiculous thought to have, but things could’ve been worse.

  They were about to get worse, still. Brad wasn’t just nearing the border. He’d reached it. Now dark hands were beckoning to him, calling him into the darkness. Calling him into the place where the light couldn’t hurt him.

  “Don’t do it,” I yelled, and Brad’s head snapped back to me. He smiled, like I was so stupid. Like I didn’t know anything. As he crossed over the border, those hands surrounded his body. They clawed and reached and scratched. In one second, he’d been swallowed by the darkness.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Alexia cursed as she ran. “What is he thinking?”

  He’s thinking the bright faeries won’t follow him there, I thought, struggling for breath as we neared the border. Behind us, I could hear Kylie and Keegan crashing through the trees. None of us was trying to be quiet.

  “Stop,” I called as we neared the darkness. Alexia screeched to a halt, already in front of me. A short distance away.

  So why was my heart in my throat?

  “He’s gone,” I said, hunching over and taking big, heaving breaths. “We need Elora. She’ll know how to get him back.”

  “No,” Alexia said, her hand reaching. Not toward me, but toward the darkness that hovered along the border like a living entity.

  “No? Alexia—”

  She turned to me, eyes alight with fire. She looked ravenous, the way I’d felt when I’d first met Elora. The way I still felt every time I looked at Elora. “If they keep him, it will be my fault.”

  “Why would it be your fault?” I asked, in barely a whisper. I wanted to grab Alexia, but I thought it might make her bolt. I felt like the first responder on a bridge where there’s a jumper.

  And in a way, I was.

  “Because I knew what Lora was doing,” she said, using the name Elora had given us back home. “I knew she was taking him and I didn’t stop her.”

  “It’s okay.”

  Alexia shook her head, and she couldn’t stop shaking. “I wanted her to take him. I wanted him out of our lives.”

  “We all hated Brad,” I said, taking a single step. “We all wanted … ” But I couldn’t say it, not now. “You can’t go in there.”

  “I can’t stay,” Alexia said, swaying a little. She lurched forward, and Kylie screamed.

  I shot toward the border. But Alexia was too close to it; two more steps, and she’d crossed over to the other side. We all waited with bated breath for the hands.

  This time, they brought their bodies with them. It was like a wave of darkness rising up from the ocean. First, a shadow danced and twisted. Then another joined it, and then a third. Soon Alexia was surrounded, and we could see the hands first—why, always, with the hands first?—and then the wave crested.

  Then it crashed.

  Alexia screamed, a deep, guttural sound, like crows were feasting on her entrails. Then, as if intuiting my fears, the wave contorted, separating into a swarm. A swarm of crows, a swarm of bees. Then Alexia was screaming, and the bees were stinging and the crows were diving, and God, I almost wished she’d stop screaming, because then it would be over.

  Back on our side of the world—that is, back in the Seelie Court, where things like that didn’t happen, or couldn’t happen, or hadn’t happened yet—a cloud of self-loathing descended over us all. Even Kylie, who was scrabbling against her brother’s grip, had taken to attacking him with nails rather than fists. All of us wanted to help Alexia, and none of us did.

  Even when the faces came, grinning with impossibly long, impossibly sharp teeth, we didn’t move. Frozen by fear, or self-preservation, we reached for each other’s hands, Keegan and I, with Kylie wedged awkwardly between us. And we watched an entire person disappear into the darkness.

  Once, in the human world, I’d watched Elora disappear into the darkness, but she’d only been using glamour to make herself blend in with the night. This was real. Alexia had been surrounded. Tortured. Now the darkness lifted her up and carried her away.

  “No! ” Kylie howled, a final cry, but her strength was gone. She glared up at Keegan with so much hatred, I wondered if he’d ever get over it.

  I wondered if either of them would. And then I couldn’t wonder anymore, because Elora was charging out of the forest behind us. “What happened?” she asked, eyes wild.

  “They took her,” Kylie screamed. “They took Alexia. Please. We have to go after her.” She was struggling against Keegan so much, she almost broke free. But he grabbed her around the waist and wouldn’t let her go. I thought for a minute she might fling herself from his grip and crawl into the Dark Court if she had to. I could imagine her climbing the mountain that way, doing whatever it took to get Alexia back.

  “Why was she in there?” Elora asked, kneeling in front of Kylie.

  “She went after Brad.” I ran a hand through my hair. I felt like my brain was going to fall out. But then the dark faeries would just steal that too.

  Elora’s head whipped up. “Brad? ”

  “They were keeping him as a slave,” Kylie said, staring out into the darkness. It called to her now, just as it had called to Alexia.

  But I wouldn’t let it hurt her.

  “When we let him go, he bolted, and Alexia—” Kylie choked on the words, doubling over. “She tried to save him. The darkness swallowed her.”

  “It’s a spell.” Elora shook softly as she touched Kylie’s hand. “She’ll be taken up to the palace. But we can get her back.”

  “We will get her back,” I promised. “We’ll get them both back. We just need a plan.”

  “I don’t think so,” a cool, calculating voice said. A low voice. The voice of a queen.

  I turned to face her. “You can’t stop us. Not after we’ve seen who the bright faeries really are. How you really treat humans.”

  “And what, exactly, are you going to do?” The Bright Queen asked. Her gown was trailing on the ground behind her, pulling vines and leaves as it went. Or maybe they were growing out of it. For a second, I was afraid she would use the entire forest to contain us. I could see it rising up around us the way the darkness had risen up around Brad. Around Alexia.

  I took a step back. “Whatever it takes to save the person you were keeping as a slave.”

  The Queen’s eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed like she’d been slapped. But it was all an act. All of this was an illusion.

  This whole stupid Court.

  It is beautifully inviting, but it does not do what you expect.

  Why hadn’t I listened to Elora? All this time, I’d been warning my friends that there were no “good faeries.” Still, I’d wanted to believe it. Wanted to believe in goodness somewhere.

  I turned to Elora and saw it. I turned to Keegan and Kylie and remembered myself, and my purpose.

  “We’re going to the Dark Court,” I said. “We’re going to clean up your mess.”

  “Is that so?” the Bright Queen asked. I hadn’t noticed before, but her brown skin was flecked with gold. Her green dress shimmered like crushed-up leaves had fallen over it. She wasn’t simply the queen of this forest, she was a part of it. The heart of it. “And you thought I would let you leave? Undo all that I have done? All the tireless work, for years—”

  “What?” Now she was babbling. And honestly, I didn’t have the patience. “Look, you’re off your rocker. I get it. But we’re not, and we have a job to do, so if you don’t mind … ”

  I’d taken three steps when her voice hit my back. But unlike a wave, it didn’t knock me down. It held me in place.

  “By the power of your name, I command you to stay.”

  18
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br />   ElorA

  I waited for Taylor to take another step. To laugh. To call the Queen an idiot. Sure, she might’ve lashed out, but that would have been better than this. Anything would have been better than this.

  “No.” I turned to look at him. I turned, and felt I was looking at a corpse. A body preserved in a casket. “You didn’t.”

  “I had to,” Taylor said, so casually, as if there were no thought required. As if offering up his name to the Seelie Queen had been a natural thing to do. As if giving one’s freedom away did not go against the very laws of nature. And now, knowing what she’d done to Brad, I felt so sick I couldn’t even speak. I couldn’t move.

  Together we stood, immobilized. Together, with a world between us.

  “Why?” I managed, finally closing the gap. Taking his hands, looking into his eyes. Doing anything to convince myself he was still mine.

  No, I thought, shaking myself. Still his own, to offer his time to me. His lips. His love.

  “I needed to save your life,” he said, and again, it sounded so simple. Perhaps to him it was. Perhaps he’d simply do anything to protect me, the way I’d done everything to protect him. Convinced myself the Queen wanted a wicked mortal, instead of a sweet one. Lured Brad into these wretched lands. Allowed the Queen to … to …

  Again, I felt sick and clamped a hand over my mouth. And Taylor put his arms around me, as only his legs were unable to move. I had a crazy thought, then, of throwing him over my shoulder. Sure, the Queen could stop him, but she couldn’t stop me.

  Then I looked up at the leaves growing out of her hair and remembered who I was dealing with. Remembered why I’d agreed to solve the riddle she’d given me in the first place. I was not strong enough to stand against my mother, a great Queen of Faerie, and win. Now, this great Queen of Faerie loomed over me, taunting my limitations. Taking away the one person who’d ever loved me unconditionally.

  “Just tell me why,” I entreated. “Why did you ask for a young leader of men if you wanted a toy? Why did you only pretend to send Brad home? This makes no sense!”

  “Because you do not understand the riddle yet.”

  “The riddle is completed! You have what you wanted, and then some. I was simply the body you used to get it. And isn’t that what it’s always been about for you? A body to do your bidding in the mortal world? Another to do your bidding here? And even that wasn’t enough.” I turned toward the Dark Court. “You needed yet another to fulfill your sick, twisted—”

  The Queen struck me across the face. It happened so fast, like a bolt of lightning striking a branch. I fell to my knees.

  But I would not bow to her, or any Queen of Faerie. I was done playing their games. “Release him,” I said, rising to my feet.

  “Fine. You may walk again, sweetness,” the Queen said to Taylor. “As long as you do not cross over any border.”

  Any border to the Dark Court. Any border to the human world.

  Clever little wretch.

  “He does not belong to you,” I insisted. “Let him go completely.”

  The Bright Queen shook her head. “Why?” she asked. “So you can bring him into your mother’s court? Lead him proudly to death, or dismemberment? Let your mother make an example out of the boy who loves you?”

  “Oh, Darkness forbid she should make an example,” I spat. “Darkness forbid she should tie him up and torture him. Only you’re allowed to do that?”

  The Queen scowled, and her three ladies slid out of the forest. Together, they flanked her, as if they were going into battle at her back. And perhaps they were. Perhaps this was war, one more battle I hadn’t anticipated. Would life always be this way? Beginning to trust, only to find myself tricked and betrayed? Again?

  I opened my mouth to attack them, but Kylie beat me to it. “You!” she shrieked, wheeling toward Maya de Lyre. “You sick, psycho—”

  “Whoa, there,” Keegan said, struggling to hold her back. But I could tell he was exhausted, and Kylie was just getting started.

  “This is your fault!” she screamed as Maya de Lyre reared back. “You’re the reason she’s gone.”

  The faerie’s eyes went wide, and her body flashed as if she might set the place on fire. Still, she wasn’t the one we needed to worry about here.

  The Bright Queen turned, vines curling out of her hands. “What did you do?” she whispered, soft as a dragon’s breath. Quiet as smoke.

  “I … ” Maya de Lyre stammered, trying to step back into the forest. The trees slid together to keep her from passing.

  “I told you to take him home,” the Queen said.

  “But you didn’t say his home, Lady. So I took him to mine.” Maya de Lyre smiled, the tiniest bit. That wicked, glittering wretch nearly grinned as she thought about what she’d done to Brad.

  I really was going to be sick. “You expect us to believe you didn’t know about this?” I asked the Queen, swallowing back bile. Swallowing back anger and fear and disgust.

  “Actually, I believe it,” Taylor said.

  I turned to face him. “Why?”

  “Because Maya de Lyre’s been helping me all along,” he said, eyeing the royal songstress. “When no one was watching. When we were alone.”

  “Has she now?” This time, when the Queen exhaled, a small trickle of fire slipped out of her lips. No, not fire. Light. Illuminating, scalding light. The kind that could burn away the forest and leave only the skeletons of trees behind.

  “She gave me weapons,” Taylor said. “She wanted me to fight.”

  “Did she?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “Or did she lead you to believe that without actually saying it?”

  “I … I don’t remember,” he said softly. “It feels like forever ago. But why would she pretend to help me? Why would she give me weapons, if … ”

  Maya de Lyre said nothing, but her gaze trickled across the clearing. It settled on me. This time, she didn’t smile.

  “No,” Taylor breathed, and he looked deflated. Like all the air had gone out of him. “You were trying to break us up! That way, Elora would storm off to the Dark Court, and you could have me for yourself.”

  I thought of that moment when, returning from the border, I’d seen the humans playing soldier with the bright faeries. I’d been furious until I realized they were fighting for me. They weren’t reckless, and they weren’t helpless.

  They were brave.

  “I wanted to keep you safe,” Maya de Lyre said, frowning at Taylor. Her hands were curling in on themselves, like she wanted to grab him and run.

  “No, you wanted to keep me captive, like you were keeping Brad.” He looked up, at the Queen. “She was going to secretly trade me for him. She was glamouring him to look like me. I didn’t know until I saw—”

  “Is this true?” the Queen demanded, looming over the royal songstress. “You kept a mortal captive for these purposes?”

  Maya de Lyre cowered under her gaze. “I never touched him,” she said. “Not in the way you think. I only fed him, and slept by his side.” Her eyes trailed to the forest. To the place where Brad had been kept. “It was just one human! You were going to keep four. It wasn’t fair—”

  “Enough,” the Bright Queen shouted, and it shook the trees. “Did you intend to take this mortal for yourself?” She pointed to Taylor.

  Maya de Lyre was still staring into the forest. “I never touched him,” she said again. “Not in the way you think. I knew it was important to you—you said never to touch them like that, unless they asked.” She tilted her head, a bird searching for prey. “Then I met the offering, and he was just so sweet, like a succulent peach. I could’ve sunk my teeth into him—”

  “You’re insane,” Taylor spat.

  Maya de Lyre grinned. “We’re all insane, pretty mortal. All faeries. All humans. All of us killing each other, and making love in between, to conv
ince ourselves it’s worth it. This destruction of the natural world. This destruction of the body. The soul.” She turned to the Queen. “I’m ready to be done. You’ve given me nothing but empty promises and empty beds.”

  “I never promised you my bed,” said the Queen.

  “No, why would you? Why would you promise your bed to anyone? No one can measure up to your precious Vi—”

  “Stop.”

  “I will not stop. You cannot make me do anything. I renounce my queen.”

  “Maya de Lyre—”

  “That is not my name,” the faerie said, and she was crying. “I am not my voice. I am not my body. Do it now, please.”

  “As you wish,” the Queen said softly. “You have bound a mortal against his will. May the punishment fit the crime.”

  She reached out her fingers, releasing a single, slithering vine. It wrapped itself around her longtime servant, sprouting limb after limb like ivy suffocating a tree. For one quiet moment, I thought it would end like this. Softly. Peacefully. Then those vines constricted, and Maya de Lyre began to scream. Faster and faster they wrapped around her, until they had covered her completely.

  Then, just as quickly, it was over, and she was silent. Only a wild, twisting bramble remained.

  “It is done,” the Seelie Queen said. “She will remain bound until the boy she stole takes his final breath. You are safe—”

  “Safe?” Taylor said, trembling. His face had gone white. “We’ll never be safe here.”

  “We’ll never be safe again,” Keegan said. “Not as long as you keep trying to control us and manipulate everything.”

  “And what would you have me do?” the Queen asked, rounding on him. “Hurl you into danger? Somehow convince myself you will survive?”

  “We’ve been practicing for weeks,” Kylie broke in. “We can ride into battle. Hide in the trees.”

  “They’ve been practicing for centuries,” the Queen said in reply. Her gaze shifted to the darkness.

  “I don’t care. I’m getting my girlfriend back,” Kylie said.

  For a moment, I thought the Queen was actually considering her words. Her face softened as she looked at Kylie. There was something missing here, some piece of the puzzle I hadn’t found yet. The Queen seemed to genuinely want the humans to be happy, and yet she tried to contain them.