by J. S. Malcom
“Aye, Silvia,” Helen says, as we start climbing the stairs. “The poor thing wandered in from Silvermist not long after you disappeared.”
I'm not surprised to hear that a replacement for Ellie was quickly found, but I'm glad they trapped another half-blood this time. If the new nanny had been a changeling, the children would be alone right now. As for Raakel, I was looking forward to getting revenge, but I guess it doesn't really matter. It would be too easy anyway, and I imagine she'll get what's coming. She must have a long history of people hating her.
We come upstairs into the kitchen just as Esras swings the door open. He strides into the room, the others freezing at the sight of him.
“It's okay. He's on our side,” I say, eliciting more shocked stares.
Esras rushes over and wraps me in his arms. I breathe in the scent of him, through the smell of smoke still clinging to his clothes.
“Thank the gods you're okay,” he says. “Cade told us what happened.”
I make the mistake of glancing over his shoulder at Helen, Lily and Mitch. It's hard not to laugh at their stunned expressions. First I put the magical hammer down on the Queen and High Mage, and now I'm hugging Esras. It must be like the whole world just flipped upside down. Which, in many ways, it did.
“I thought you might come here,” Esras says. He glances at those watching us. “Is everyone all right?”
They hesitate, and then nod mutely. I wish I could tell them about everything Esras has done and been through, but that will have to wait.
“What about my family?” Esras gestures to indicate the rooms he just crossed through. “They're not here, obviously. I assume they must have fled with the rest of the nobles.”
My stomach sinks at being the one to tell him. “We think the children are upstairs.”
Esras's mouth drops open in shock, and the pain in his eyes makes me almost look away. Without another word, he turns and runs from the room, and I fight back the tears pricking at my eyes. For his entire life, Esras's family has caused him nothing but pain and it isn't over yet.
“Come on, guys,” I say. “You should get back to Silvermist. We'll figure the rest out from there.”
Helen, Lily and Mitch again seem at a loss for words. They must have dreamed of this moment a million times. For years, they've been trapped here. In Helen’s case, decades. Now they can finally leave, and the reality seems impossible to process.
We leave the kitchen and start walking past all of those vast sitting rooms with their objects of art and luxury. Helen is the first to voice her thoughts. “I'm not sure where I'll go,” she says. “I don't know what I should do.”
I reach out and take her hand. I speak softly. “It'll be okay. We'll work it out.”
We're almost through the last of the front rooms, when a figure appears in the foyer. I can’t see his face in shadows, but the sick feeling in my stomach tells me who it is. That feeling is confirmed when Esras's brother emerges into the light. Despite the power I now hold, I'm momentarily crippled by my own trauma. Memories race through me of being held pinned to the ground, of his hands groping my body, of how close I came to not being able to fight him off. A recurring nightmare that I fear will always manage to take roost again.
Weylar pulls a dagger from the sheath at his belt. “Think you're going somewhere?”
I recover my senses, the power of the ley line rising inside me. I thrust out my hand, fingers spread, ready to do way more than render him immobile.
“Weylar, stop!”
Esras stands on the stairs holding Erdella, while Perth stands beside him. Behind them, a teenage girl looks back at us with wide fearful eyes. She must be Silvia.
Weylar sneers at his brother. “They're trying to leave! Were you just going to let them?”
“I was going help them, if I can,” Esras says.
Weylar’s face twists with disgust. “They're half-bloods. They're not even Unseelie!”
I'm so close to lighting him up, but I grit my teeth and hold back. I just can't do it in front of Esras and the children.
“It’s over,” Esras says. “Now put that damned knife down and let them pass.”
Weylar’s face turns scarlet. “What’s wrong with you? You’re a noble!”
Esras sets Erdella down, then starts to descend the remaining steps. “Weylar, our time is over, as it should be. In your heart, you must know this. Now, please—”
“Maybe your time is over, coward. Not mine!” Weylar spins toward us and cocks his arm back. He locks his hateful gaze on me and daylight gleams against the dagger blade.
“Look out!”
Helen's panicked shout reaches my ears in the same moment that she shoves me aside. Then she spins, her eyes agape as she stumbles. She draws a ragged breath and drops to her knees, with the dagger's hilt protruding from her chest.
For one frozen moment, the children stare, their eyes wide with horror. Then Esras leaps down the stairs. He's upon his brother before Weylar has time to draw his arm back from the throw. Weylar reels against two powerful blows, the third dropping him to the floor as Esras stands over him.
I fall to my knees beside Helen, where she now lies on the floor. I wrap my arms around her, cradling her as tears stream down my face. “You'll be okay,” I say. “Just hang on. You'll be okay.”
Helen reaches up and gently brushes my hair back. Her voice comes out weak and soft. “I don't think so, love.”
“No, please,” I say. “Helen, please hang on.”
I call the magic up inside me, holding onto her as I will that force toward Helen. Light blooms around her, pulsing and flickering with power. I tell myself she’ll be okay, that I can make her right again. I control the magic that can help her. I reach for the knife’s handle, ready to withdraw the blade from her body, believing with all my heart that Helen’s wounds will heal when I do. Suddenly, the light surrounding her starts to fade. I gasp and withdraw my trembling hand as that magic continues to recede. Tears stream from my eyes as I grit my teeth and try again, willing that magic to surround her once more, to heal her. But what I want seems not to matter. For some reason, it’s beyond my control, even as within me magic continues to thrum outward. The light surrounding Helen soon fades out altogether.
“Oh, Megan. You're a sweet girl,” Helen says. “But some things magic just can't fix. And that's the way it should be.”
My breath hitches in my throat, as my tears continue to fall. “Cassie,” I whisper. “My real name is Cassie.”
Helen strokes my hair again. “You'll always be Megan to me, love.”
I tighten my hold on her, as I rock her back and forth. “Oh, Helen. I'm sorry.”
Helen smiles at me, blood rising to the corner of her mouth. “There wasn't much for me anyway,” she says. “Just look after those two. Promise me.”
I look over my shoulder, to where Lily cries in Mitch's arms, both of them watching us.
I turn back to Helen. “I promise.”
“You're a sweet girl, Megan. I’m glad I got to meet you.” Helen gazes into my eyes one last time and whispers, “Don't cry, love. You saved me. You saved all of us.”
Then I hold onto her even after she's gone.
CHAPTER 28
One month later, I return to Faerie. Not to rescue anyone this time. The mysterious rash of people suddenly changing into unrecognizable strangers has come to an end. Nor do I go because I'm compelled to join in some sort of conflict. According to what I've heard, conflicts there have ended now that magic is shared equally and only used for beneficial purposes.
Instead, I go to attend a wedding. I've brought my sister with me, traveling first through Silvermist, since I decided to keep a few secrets. One of those is that, these days, I’ve had to learn how to cast a glamour. It seems funny now remembering that talk I had with Helen months ago, when she told me that my ears might still grow in. At the time, I thought she was crazy, but apparently she was right. As was Sloane, who said for some it doesn’t happen until the
y come to accept what we really are. For a while, I managed to convince myself that it was just my imagination. Until the tips of my ears started poking through my hair. Then I knew for sure that it was glamour time.
Another secret I’m keeping from my sister is that, of the two of us, only I possess the power to access the fae realm directly. Given the highly edited version of events I shared with Autumn, it seemed unlikely I could explain the difference between our powers without explaining much more. On one hand, I really do think I should tell her what happened. On the other, I know that I’ll never hear the end of it.
Also, as my older sister, it burns her a little when I demonstrate magical abilities beyond her own. I wouldn't call it a jealous streak, exactly. More like we share a healthy competition. But there's no point in having her get all worked up. She'll just keep poking at me with questions until I spill the rest of the beans. So, for now, I decide to leave well enough alone.
As we take our seats alongside Lily and Mitch, Autumn keeps craning to look around. Not that I blame her, and I can barely stop doing the same. The Royal Gardens make for an exceptionally stunning wedding location, even now that the plants and flowers have shrunk to normal size and the butterflies only have two inch wingspans.
Autumn shifts in her seat again, this time for another look at the palace behind us. “I can't believe you didn't tell me about this place. It's beautiful!”
“I did tell you. We're here, right?”
Autumn shoots me a look. “You know what I mean. So, you met this Cade guy in a bar?”
“Yeah, he's the one who got me drinking pale ale.” I figured that was close enough to the truth, since my first real conversation with Cade took place in the Rowan and Thistle. And I have been sampling some pale ales, so far striking out on finding anything comparable to the beer in Silvermist.
Autumn lowers her voice to a whisper. “What about the people next to us? Where did you meet them?”
She means Lily and Mitch, of course, who remain holding hands and whispering too as we wait.
“I bumped into Lily when I got split up from Cade one night. She sort of showed me around a little until I found him again.”
Autumn looks at me suspiciously, but decides not to push it. People can hear us, after all. She can try to pry more out of me later.
Instead, she lowers her voice even more. “Do they normally have weddings at the palace? You said Cade's an Uber driver, right?”
A smile tugs at my lips, as it always does when I think of Cade—half-blood thief and traveler between three realms—driving people around to pay his rent. “Was an Uber driver,” I say. “He'll be living here now. And this wedding is kind of a big deal. They just changed the law here about fae people being able to marry half-bloods.”
Autumn cocks her head at that one. “Why didn't they allow it before?”
I shrug. “Everyplace has its problems.”
Autumn sighs. “Well, at least they're making progress.”
“Exactly.”
Having the wedding here was actually Esras's idea. For now, he and Revlen are both serving as interim leaders of Faerie. That way, both the Seelie and Unseelie are being represented until Faerie experiences its first free election in the spring. According to Cade, Esras thought it would also speak well to relations with Silvermist to hold the realm's first legally sanctioned marriage between a fae and a half-blood at the palace. All expenses paid from Queen Abarrane’s coffers, of course.
As for the High Queen herself, she’s been imprisoned along with Vintain and most of her Seelie court. When I heard that, I had to wonder if a prison could hold Vintain for very long. Hopefully my concerns are unfounded. After all, he can't possibly find another means of gaining access to magical power. Can he?
For now, I tell myself to relax and enjoy what's going on around me. I have to agree that having the wedding here truly is the perfect gesture. I also have to laugh since, in a way, Cade just pulled off another heist at Seelie noble expense, this time the queen herself. Well, ex- queen. It's no secret that the wedding is a gift from the kingdom, so I can only imagine that Prisoner Abarrane must be flipping out in her cell somewhere.
The orchestra, which was playing soft background music before, kicks it up a notch as the wedding party proceeds up the aisle toward their seats at the front. Revlen and Esras lead the procession, causing a murmur to ripple through the crowd. Everyone cranes to see.
Autumn whispers, “Who are they?”
I give her a quick recap on the recent shift in power, leaving out the parts involving me. So, it must seem a bit strange when, as Esras and Revlen walk by—fully decked out in their formal attire—they each look my way and smile.
Autumn grabs hold of my arm. “Oh, my God. Have you met them?”
I nod, wiggling my arm to loosen her grip. “Yeah, they're nice,” I say.
Needless to say, there's no freaking way I'm telling her about me and Esras. Even now, just thinking about that night sends a ripple of pleasure through my body. I look away from Autumn, because I'm pretty sure my face just turned red.
I haven't actually spoken with Esras since leaving Faerie, although whether I left or stayed became a very close call. He asked me to stay there with him, saying now that the conflict had ended, we could finally take our time and really get to know each other. I’m pretty sure that had multiple meanings, so it was a very tempting offer, to say the least.
In the end, I decided it just wouldn't work. For one thing, I went most of my life without knowing my mother or sister. I couldn't imagine telling them I'd decided to relocate to a different dimension. There was also the fact that Esras’s father, mother and brother are now in prison. His brother for murder, of course, and his parents for having held slaves. That same fate was decided for all who did since, technically, that was illegal. Sure, we might be able to get past that for a while. After all, Esras went up against his family too. But down the road, I could see where it could make for some ugly lovers’ quarrels. Not to mention, awkward holidays.
There was also the fact that the fae age differently. While that seems to be the case for veil witches too, the feeling I get is that at some future point I’d be an old lady while Esras would remain, at most, middle-aged.
But the deciding factor was that people were already talking about whether Esras might be chosen for king. If that happened, it was speculated that he'd be expected to take an Unseelie bride as his queen. Esras said he wasn't interested in any of that, but I got one of those little psychic pings when thinking about it. I could see Esras making a great king, and I didn't want to be the one standing in his way, or in the way of what might be best for Faerie.
All of this might be a long way of saying that I freaked out once again when it came to commitment. I'm truly a mess on that score. But, hey, so far I've dated a necromancer, a changeling and a guy from Faerie. Needless to say, my love life has been complicated.
The music swells again, this time to signal that the guests of honor have all taken their seats. It's time to get this show on the road. All of us stare at Cade and Dabria, who now stand upon the altar, where a fae priestess will soon perform the ceremony.
Dabria looks radiant in her flowing silk gown, and Cade looks pretty dapper too in his new dark blue tunic. It too is made of the finest fabrics, the front brocaded with silver and gold. Upon his chest, he wears the medal bestowed upon him for the bravery he showed on behalf of the rebel cause. Way to go, Scamper. You really did end up being a hero, and it might well be that you’ll be remembered in children’s books.
Suddenly, a shadow falls over the crowd as something blocks out the sun. We all look up as massive scalloped wings push a breeze back down at us, and a long serpentine tail glides gracefully by.
Autumn gasps and grabs hold of my arm again. “They have dragons here?”
I smile and nod, but keep my eyes on the sky. After all, in the realm of Faerie, seeing a dragon is thought to be a very good omen. And I'm the one who set the dragon free.
It’s a beautiful, crisp and clear day as I get off the bus and walk through Carytown on my way to Grimoire. I pull my jacket tight against a chilly breeze, but that’s okay. We’re heading into winter and it should be cold. Richmond doesn’t get a lot of snow, but if we’re lucky we’ll get some soon. I’ve never felt more ready for winter. A real winter, with real ice and real snow. And, hey, maybe even a power outage or two. I’d be just fine with that too. That’s what blankets and candles are for. Well, okay, kind of lying to myself there, but if my phone is fully charged I should be able to hack it for a couple of hours.
The bells on the front door jingle as I enter the old bookstore, where Maggie sits perched on a stool behind the counter. “Sorry I’m late,” I say.
Why I say it, I’m not quite sure since I’m always late and Maggie never seems to care. In fact, it takes her a moment to look up from reading a beat up old volume she must have picked up on her rounds. I’m pretty sure she has the rest of Grimoire’s books memorized.
“No worries, sweetie,” she says. “Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci was a witch?”
Despite the many things I’ve heard since living at the Cauldron and working at Grimoire, this one still stops me. “The painter?”
It’s a ridiculous response, I realize. Who else could she possibly mean?
Maggie closes her book. “As well as inventor, mathematician, musician, architect and scientist.”
“Just making sure we’re talking about the same guy.” I peel off my jacket, roll it into a ball and stuff it into one of the cabinets beneath the register.
“I didn’t know either,” Maggie says. “But it says here he may have been a speculomancer.” She taps the worn leather cover of the book she was just reading.
“Huh?”
Maggie chuckles. “Mirror magic. Which, by the way, has long been considered to be veil witch magic. Leonardo even left a sketch behind called ‘Witch Using a Magic Mirror.’ The drawing’s subject was a woman, of course, but we all know how Leonardo was when it came to women in his paintings.”