by Sara Thorn
A scent lingered in the air here, which was different from the smell of the rest of the forest. It was sweet and earthy, and I noticed myself taking great, giant breaths of it that I wouldn't usually have taken. Quinn and Cassius had both told me before about how many illusions and trickeries the fae people were capable of. I wondered how much of what I was experiencing was real and how much was just a magical dream they had concocted.
We strolled toward a large tree with leaves hung in the air around it without actually being attached to the branches. The foliage was golden orange, and it made me think of the fairy fruit that I had read about in stories when I was a little girl. Outside of the tree stood a tall woman with silvery hair that flowed down against her waist. The color and length of her hair indicated she was probably older than most of the trees in this forest, but her face was more youthful than mine. The younger fae who had led me to her whispered something into her ear and then left the two of us alone.
She tilted her head and met my eyes. "You'd like to know about your gift," she said as she smiled at me. This time, the smile looked more sympathetic than anything else.
"I'm not sure I would call it a gift," I said. "But yes, I was hoping you'd be able to tell me more about my connection to Mystreuce. I searched inside the castle's library to see if I could find anything in the books that spoke of similar power, but I couldn't find any information about it at all. I know I’m the only human with a tie to Mystreuce, but my friend, Bree, suggested I come to consult with you to see if the fae could help me learn more."
"You may be the only human tied to our world now, but you are not the only human who has ever been tied to Mystreuce."
Yes! She knew something about this, which was precisely what I had been hoping for.
"There was another?" I asked.
"Yes, a very long time ago. She was a human from your world. One of the fae had visited Earth out of sheer curiosity and had fallen in love with her upon meeting her. She fell in love with him, too, and he ended up bringing her back here to Mystreuce so they could be together. Our world welcomed her with open arms, and the land itself bound her to it. She also possessed a power similar to yours. But, even with her gifted, magical ability, she was not able to save herself." The fae woman looked solemn as she spoke about it.
"What happened to her?" I asked.
"She died during childbirth. Her fae lover was unbearably distraught. He had loved her with all of his heart. He was a powerful magic wielder, and he frequently delved into the alluring power of shadow magic. When his beloved died, he was so beside himself with grief that he used his shadow magic to curse the newborn child."
"Why would he do that to his own child?" I asked in horror. "The child would have been the last thing left of his lover. Wouldn't he have wanted to protect their child at all costs?"
"One might think," she said slowly. "But shadow magic has a way of perverting thought and amplifying intense feelings to the point that they are unrecognizable. His anguish couldn't turn toward love for the child. Instead, it turned toward hate, and he despised the boy. That is why, to this day, the boy has been cursed with a predisposition to shadow magic that makes it almost impossible for him to resist. He is an easy host for its power of corruption because he is not only tied to the land through his mother but also cursed by magic by his father."
She stopped and looked at me as if she were waiting for me to figure out the implication of what she had just said. It was only a matter of seconds before I did.
Quinn.
"Quinn is the child?" I asked in shock. "Quinn's mother was the only other human who has been tied to Mystreuce as I am?"
"Yes."
"What can you tell me about my power?" I asked, even more eager to learn what it can do now.
"Unfortunately, I cannot tell you very much. Quinn's mother became pregnant and then died so quickly after arriving in our world that we did not have much time to learn about her gifts. But I can tell you this; the power you possess is both restorative and protective. It can help you and those around you if you can figure out how to harness it. Quinn's mother might have been able to save herself if she had been given the time to understand how to use her power. What happens on Mystreuce will be reflected through you, just as is happening now with Quinn," she said.
"He's dying," I said with more sorry than I could bear. "That's why the part of the forest surrounding him is dying, too."
"Yes," she said empathetically. "But, you may be able to help him."
My eyes flashed widely at her. "How?"
"Your power might be able to help heal Quinn, too. I'm not sure; it's just a feeling I have that might not be accurate. But I feel that you, Quinn, and Cassius are connected in a very powerful way. The three of you may be able to affect change in each other."
"If there is any chance that I can help Quinn, I have to figure it out and try."
"You love him, don't you?" she smiled.
"I love Cassius," I said.
"Yes, that may be true. But there are as many different kinds of love as there are shades of mushroom caps in this forest. The love you have for Quinn might not burn as a bright, fiery red like the love you have for Cassius, but you do indeed love him all the same."
"I should be going now," I said as I started to feel uneasy. I didn’t know why that made me uncomfortable, but somehow, it felt like a betrayal to both men.
She smiled again and motioned her hand toward the way out of the fae enclave. I thanked her and then headed back toward the path. As I left, just like it had happened when I had walked in, the animals and fae faces watched me go with pleasant smiles and kind eyes. I looked around me one last time at all of the splendor here, and I found myself really wishing I could stay.
On my walk back to the castle, I stuck to the path. I didn't have the feeling that Quinn was there, watching me, anymore. Instead, I felt most alone. I let my mind wander, not in any sort of actual way but just in a fantastical and fictitious manner I knew couldn't cause any real harm. I loved Cassius, and there was nothing that could ever change that. But inside my head, where I could entertain even the wildest and absurd ideas, I thought for a moment about what it would be like to have accepted Quinn's offer to stay with him and live amongst the fae.
How indulgent and appealing would it be to be surrounded by magic and beauty all of the moments of the days and nights? I walked and let the cool air kiss my cheeks while I got lost in deeper and deeper thought. I wondered what life would be like if everything could be enchanted—the food, the drinks, the smells. I would imagine that there would be no reason to have anything normal or mundane when you could instead transfix it into whatever you wanted it to be. You could even transform yourself. I wondered if you could choose what animal you were able to shapeshift into or if it was something that you were just given at birth. That thought made me think about Sen and the cat eyes she had gotten stuck with. They were so beautiful, though, and so was she.
Thinking about her made me wish again that she was here to temper her brother and bring him back to me. That led me to think about Quinn. It kept coming full circle. I wondered what it would be like to make love to a fae and in what ways it was different than making love to a human or even a dhampir. I was simply pondering the idea in curiosity and not in any sort of meaningful way, at least not until my thighs started to get heated, and I quickly moved my thoughts to something else.
For a moment, I thought I heard a rustling between the trees and turned to see if Quinn was following me again. I hoped that one of the fae gifts wasn't being able to hear the thoughts in someone else's mind because if it was, then I would have really wished that I hadn’t entertained any of that. I continued walking all the way until I got back onto the castle grounds without stopping. I was a little worried that I would look flushed, even though there was truly no reason to be; everyone wondered curious thoughts about random things from time to time. If I had looked flushed, I could always blame it on the breeze.
As soon as I g
ot back inside the castle, I went to find Cassius and Bree to tell them what I had learned about both my power and about Quinn. Cassius was wary of Quinn and rightly so since Quinn had repeatedly threatened to attack him. Quinn also had enough glamoured humans somewhere in his part of the forest to do so. I wondered what the glamoured humans saw when they looked at the dying section of the woods. I was sure that it was probably something made to look beautiful and peaceful.
Quinn had told me once that humans under a glamour don't remember any of their time or experiences while inside the illusion. It was unfortunate to think of all those people being used as puppets. I wondered what the other fae thought of Quinn and what he was doing in his sectioned-off piece of woods. They could obviously see the forest was dying and the fae woman who spoke with me seemed to know Quinn was fading, too. I wondered why they didn't use their magic to help him or, at the very least, ease his visible suffering. Maybe it was because they didn't condone his actions. Regardless, Cassius and Bree needed to know. I only hoped that Cassius would be willing to try to help Quinn and not just defeat him. At one point, they had been friends, and I hoped that my interference between them hadn't broken that relationship forever. They seemed much more like spiteful enemies now.
I walked into the castle's main hall, where I found Cassius and Bree sitting together at a table, talking while looking at some sort of map.
"Mara," Cassius smiled as he got up and walked toward me. "Where have you been?"
"I went for a walk in the woods."
Chapter Three
"Alone?" Cassius asked.
I laughed. "Yes, alone," I said. "I'm pretty sure that if Mystreuce is willing to attack you with vines while we are play-fighting, then a rogue woodland animal wouldn't stand a chance."
"It's not an animal I would be worried about," Cassius frowned. "Although at this point, he is relatively indistinguishable from one."
I knew he was talking about Quinn, and it hurt me to hear his comment. It pained me even more now that it brought an instantly visible image of Quinn's deteriorating condition to the front of my mind.
"I saw Quinn in the woods," I said.
I had intended to talk about what the fae woman had told me first, but since Cassius had already brought up mention of Quinn, I figured it would be best to talk about him now. Cassius looked immediately uneasy.
"Did he talk to you?" he asked.
"Yes. And Cassius, he's not well."
"I already knew that," he said dismissively.
I didn’t think he cared, to be honest. He was validly distrustful of Quinn, and he had every right to be. But I was still hopeful that I could soften his heart enough to help me save my friend.
"Bree and I were just trying to plan a way to free all of the humans from Quinn's glamour and return them back to Earth."
"What do you mean, unwell?" Bree interrupted. "Is he more consumed with the shadow magic than before?"
"Yes, very much so," I answered. "I'm pretty certain it's killing him." I didn’t want to give a visual recount of just how bad off Quinn was, but I would if I deemed it necessary to get their attention and assistance.
Bree got a pained look on her face, but Cassius turned the subject back to their plan. He didn't want to talk about how much Quinn was ailing; he wanted to talk about how to stop him.
"We're going to have a party," Cassius said as if he were revealing some sort of great and impressive strategy.
"A party?" I asked. This was more important than saving a life?
"Yes. They seem to have always worked in the past with Athan. Parties are a good way to get the opposing side to come and let down their guard," he said.
"What do you think is going to make Quinn let down his guard? He's pretty jaded at the moment, and I don't think he's going to be very eager to believe you're throwing a party for the sake of goodwill."
"You," Cassius answered.
"Me?" I said. "What am I going to do?"
"You're going to dance."
"Oh, Cassius, no. I don't want to lie to Quinn. I know we need to stop him and free the humans he has, but I also want to help him. If he finds out that I'm deceiving him, then he won't trust me anymore."
"There's no other way," Cassius said in a very matter-of-fact tone. "We've planned it all out, and I think it can work. I'll invite Quinn and his glamoured humans along with the other fae to another one of my lavish gatherings. I'll present it as a token of temporary peace between us, similar to what I used to do with Athan. Quinn remembers those parties I used to throw for the vampires, and he will see it as just that—a gesture of fragile and temporary peace. He will come, and when he does, we will free the humans from his glamour."
"How do you free them from his glamour?" I asked.
"Rowan berries," Bree said. "Rowan berries will break the glamour and wake them up almost as if they were in a dream. They'll be confused and disoriented at first, which will allow me the chance to use my magic to open a gateway to Earth and push all of the humans back through it. They won't remember a thing."
"How will you get them to eat Rowan berries without Quinn noticing?" I said. "I mean, even if I do a dance for him, that likely won't make him blind to seeing all his human puppets munching on the berries that will break them of his influence."
"They're not going to eat them," Cassius answered. "They're going to drink them. We're going to infuse all of the drinks with Rowan berries and make sure that only the humans get the drinks that are imbued. As long as you're dancing, Quinn will be watching you and not them. Trust me, I'm sure of it." Cassius made a soured expression when he said the last part.
I really wasn't comfortable with crossing Quinn. Not only did I feel bad about doing it, but I was nervous about what his reaction would be if the plan went sideways and we were caught before Bree managed to return the humans home. I was also worried about what it would do to Quinn to find out that I had betrayed him; he was already in such a tenuous frame of mind. But Cassius was right; something had to be done to stop him before Quinn attacked the castle and put all of the unknowing humans in danger.
"Okay," I said in agreement. "I'll dance at the party. But you have to promise that you'll keep a close eye on Quinn the entire time. He's not in a position of strength right now, and I worry about how he'll react if something goes wrong. I don't believe he is thinking clearly anymore. He could very easily lash out and put everyone at the party in danger."
"Oh, no need to worry about that," Cassius said with narrowed eyes. "I will be watching him the entire time."
Cassius sent out the invite, and the next night, I found myself getting dressed in party attire again. This time, since it would be mostly fae in attendance—with the exception of the glamoured humans—and no vampires, I thought I would dress for the occasion. The sights of the fae forest yesterday had inspired me to put on something that looked more woodsy and magical than I would usually wear.
I found a dark-green velvet dress that clung to my sides and against my bodice in the same way that moss hugged the trees. I pulled just a couple of side pieces of hair up with sparking amber-colored clips that looked like the color of some of the wilder-looking mushrooms I had seen on the forest floor. I let the rest of my hair fall down against my back so that it was loose and untamed.
When Bree came into the room after I had gotten changed, she stared at me with a wowed expression, and I could tell that I had chosen the right thing to wear in order to best distract Quinn. "You look gorgeous," she said.
"Thank you," I smiled. "I just wish I could be more magical like the fae and sparkle or something."
"I can help you with that." Bree walked over and touched the skin at my breastbone just above the plunging neckline of the dress. Her fingers felt warm and slightly tingly, and when I looked down, I could see why. My skin looked iridescent, as if it were made of dragonfly wings and that silvery powder that comes off of moths.
"Wow, thank you!" I beamed as I looked at myself in the oval mirror that hung against the cas
tle's stone wall. Not only did I look pretty, but I felt pretty, too. "How long will that last?" I asked as I touched my fingertips to the silky, smooth glimmer that seemed to be coming from inside my skin instead of resting on top of it.
"It will wear off by morning," she said. "Mara, can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"What did Quinn look like when you saw him in the forest?" Bree looked troubled, and I knew that she would be on my side when I tried to convince Cassius to help me save Quinn.
"Bad," I said, being completely honest with her. "He was twisted and darkened like something that would creep out of the level of the shadows bad."
Bree dropped her eyes to her feet, and I knew she must have been truly saddened by the news, too. Quinn had taken her under his wing to mentor her in her unstable magic while she was just a stray fae. Regardless of how far Quinn may have fallen, she and I both knew he was someone else inside there beneath whatever the shadow magic had done to him.
"I almost forgot!" I said to her, utterly flustered that after the conversation the three of us had yesterday about the party and the plan, I'd never finished telling her and Cassius about what the fae woman had said to me. "The fae woman did have some insight into my power yesterday."
"She did?" Cassius said as he came into view of the doorway. His jaw dropped when he saw me. "My God," he said. "You look lovely."
"Thanks." I blushed. I felt the warmth of my skin mix with the tingling of the magical shimmer Bree had put on me, and for some reason, it made things go pleasantly fuzzy for a minute as Cassius's eyes traced across my body. I had to shake myself from the stalled moment before I decided that I just wanted to run away to the bedroom with Cassius and scrap the whole plan for tonight.