by Beth Bracken
“Take this,” she says. “It will protect you.”
“It’s beautiful,” I say, gazing at the delicate necklace. “Where did you get it? How do you know it will keep me safe?”
Andria’s face turns dark. “An old friend gave it to me for doing her a favor,” she says. “Don’t tell any of the faeries about it. It might be worth something to them. You might be able to trade it. I’m not sure what it means to them. My friend never told me. But save it for a last resort and don’t give it to the queen.” She stands up. “Now. Go.”
I look down at the charm on the chain. It’s a four-leaf clover trapped inside a three-ring circle.
Then I secure the chain around my neck. The charm drops down to my heart, and I tuck it inside my shirt.
“What should I do once I’m there?” I ask. “In the faerieground, I mean. How do I get Lucy back?”
“Find the queen’s secret,” she says. “The wish that keeps her captive there. But be careful. She’s crafty. She’ll trick you.”
I stand to leave, but Andria stops me. “Wait a minute. I almost forgot. There’s something else you might need,” she says.
She rummages in a closet and pulls out a jar.
Just a simple old glass jar.
“What is this for?” I ask.
Andria shrugs. “It’s always good to have a jar. You’ll see.”
I put the jar in my knapsack.
“Bring her back,” Andria whispers.
The next thing I know, I’m running toward Willow Forest.
Soli
Once we were in the woods, Lucy and I, playing a game.
I don’t remember what the game was, only that I was hiding, and Lucy was supposed to find me.
It grew dark. Cold. I kept waiting.
The woods, once a playground, became scary.
I waited and waited and waited.
I knew my way out of the woods. I knew the woods like I knew my own face, or my mother’s face. I knew exactly where I was and how to get home from there.
So as the woods became darker and darker and colder and colder, I could have stood up, brushed the dirt off my clothes, and walked home. I would not have been afraid.
That’s not what I did.
I believed Lucy would find me.
And she did.
Lucy
When you think of faeries, you think of light.
Sweetness. Joy.
Queen Calandra’s palace has none of those things. It’s cold and damp and dark. Spiderwebs cling to the walls.
The guard brings me to a stone-walled room. Candles burn on a table. And of course there is a throne.
“She is here,” the guard says. He pushes me forward. Then the doors slam behind me.
“Do you have it?” a woman’s voice asks, rising from the near shadows.
“Have what?” I ask. I look down at myself. I have nothing except my clothes.
“The necklace. Your mother’s necklace,” the queen says. Then I see her. Queen Calandra. She is beautiful and dangerous. She doesn’t look like the other faeries. She is more solid, and also more terrifying.
“The necklace!” the queen snaps. Her voice is a whip bent across the room.
“No, I don’t have it,” I say. “She never takes it off.”
It’s the truth. My mother has worn that necklace forever. As long as I can remember, anyway.
“Then you’ll have to wait until someone brings it,” the queen says. “You may as well make yourself at home in the prison.”
“This isn’t my home,” I say. “Please, just let me go. I can make sure you get what you want.”
“No,” the queen says. “I don’t trust humans.”
Then her eyes glow. “Unless you make a wish, that is.”
“What kind of wish?” I ask.
“Wish for that friend of yours to take your place,” she says. “Trade places with your friend. Send her here, free yourself.”
“I could never do that to Soli,” I whisper. “If that is my only way out, there is no way out.” I won’t betray Soli, not again, not ever.
“Imagine being back home, the comfort,” the queen says. Her voice drips with sweetness.
“Stop it,” I say. “Stop.”
“Your own bed. How soft it would be, after a night spent on stone! How warm, how welcome! Wouldn’t you love to sleep in your own room again, your mother in the next room, protecting you?” the queen whispers, a sugar-spun smile crossing her face like a flicker.
“Stop,” I moan.
“The gentle arms of your mother, embracing you,” she says. “Your mother! All you have to do is wish her here, your friend. Soledad. And then you can be with your mother again. A simple trade. An easy bargain.”
“I won’t do it,” I say. I make my voice as strong as I can. Strong like my mother. “I won’t do that to Soli.”
“She wished you away!” the queen says. The honey is gone from her voice.
“I’m not her,” I say.
The queen laughs. “No,” she says. “No, you’re not. But you’re close.”
Soli
In the forest, I stop running. I find the place where Lucy and I were yesterday.
The undergrowth is matted where we sat, where we fought.
I know wishes are heard here.
I reach up and touch the charm around my neck. Find a four-leaf clover? This could take hours.
But. I have to do it.
I drop to my knees. It’s dark in the forest, even though it’s still morning.
As I pick through the clover, one firefly blinks nearby.
Soon, it’s joined by another, then another.
They cluster over a patch of clover in the shadows beneath a thick, old tree.
I set down my backpack and hear the clunk of Andria’s jar hitting the ground.
When we were little, Lucy and I loved trapping fireflies in jars. Some kids squashed the bugs and used their guts to paint lit words.
The light only lasted a minute.
Lucy and I didn’t want to hurt the fireflies. We just thought they were beautiful.
When we put them in jars, they’d blink at us, like an old-time message. Lucy and I would make up meanings, pretend we knew what the fireflies were saying.
Now, without Lucy, I gaze at the fireflies. There are more now, maybe a dozen. Their lights flash in rhythm over a patch of clover.
I reach out my hand, but none fly to me. They stay where they are.
When I walk over, they swarm away.
I reach down, and the first thing my fingers touch is a four-leaf clover.
A tangle of fireflies is caught in my hair.
And when I open my backpack, Andria’s jar is full of fireflies, and the lid is tightly sealed.
I close my eyes, pulling the clover leaves one by one.
“I wish to see faeries,” I whisper.
I pour my heart into the wish.
I wish it more than I’ve ever wished anything.
And then I hear a whisper.
“Follow.”
Lucy
The guard throws me back into the cold stone room where Kheelan still waits. In the light from the opened door, I can see him, bound by iron chains to the wall.
After the door slams shut, we are blind again. But only for a moment. There’s a tiny window high above Kheelan’s head.
I wouldn’t even think of escaping—it’s only a few inches tall and a few inches wide. But now that the sun is out, enough light streams in to see by.
He has dark hair and eyes. In a way, he reminds me of Soli. The way her gaze feels hot, almost. Like she can see inside me. Kheelan’s gaze feels like that.
“You’re back,” he says. “How was it?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I think I made her mad.�
�
He nods. “But you didn’t do what she asked,” he says.
“No,” I say. “No, I didn’t.”
“That’s good,” Kheelan says. “With Queen Calandra, it’s never just what she says. Never just the one promise. It ends up being a million horrible things, but you already agreed, and you can’t take it back.”
“You can’t take back a wish?” I ask.
“No,” Kheelan says. “Never. It’s a bond between faeries, a contract.”
“Between faeries?” I repeat. “But Soli and I aren’t faeries.”
Kheelan smiles. His smile looks like Soli’s, too.
Soli
The fireflies guide me.
The woods grow darker. Soon, I stand in front of an old willow tree. Years ago, Lucy and I carved our names into that tree’s trunk, close to the ground, in the shadows.
I bend and see that our names are still there. My finger traces the letters.
“What do you want?” a voice asks.
I jump up and look around, but no one is there.
“What do you want?” the voice repeats. The tree’s branches sprawl in all directions, gating me in.
“Um, I got a message. See?” I say, taking the rock from my pocket.
“They’re waiting for you,” the voice tells me.
The tree creaks at its roots.
A door opens.
“You may enter, Soli Meddow,” the voice whispers.
I’m scared to go in. It’s dark and cold in there. I don’t know what’s inside.
Unknown.
Well, not totally unknown. I know two things.
First, that Lucy is in there.
And second, that we are supposed to be together.
I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and step into the darkness.
Lucy
I cry myself to sleep on the stone floor of Queen Calandra’s prison.
I dream I’m back at school, yelling at Jaleel. He looks scared and shocked. I scream at him, over and over. He tries to run away, but he can’t. I try to run away, but I can’t. I am made to stand there, yelling, tears falling down my face and collecting in a puddle at my feet.
I dream I’m at home, in my room, in my bed, in my blankets. I can hear my mother’s voice. She’s talking about me. Saying I’m missing, saying she doesn’t know where I am, saying I’m gone. Then she says she doesn’t care, and she laughs, and she sounds happy. Free.
I dream I am at my father’s funeral.
I’m terrified and sad, and I can’t find Soli.
When I ask my mother where she is, my mother says she’s never heard of anyone named Soli, who would name a child Soli, what kind of name is that anyway?
When I try to remind her of Soli, my almost-sister, my best friend, my mother just laughs and laughs and laughs.
I dream I’m in the woods, running after Soli.
I know she’s angry with me. I chase her and chase her through the woods, ending up at the old willow tree where our names are carved. When she turns around and sees my face, she smiles, and she stretches her hands out. I run to hug her, and just as I’m about to wrap my arms around her, she disappears.
Soli
I’m here.
The faerieground is beautiful and scary.
As soon as I’m here, I wish I wasn’t.
My wish isn’t the kind of wish that sent Lucy away. That wish was spoken and not true. Or not really true, anyway.
This wish is different.
A true wish. A secret inside wish.
I try to cover it up with bravery.
I try to turn my skeleton to steel, so nothing can hurt me.
I try to be fire, so nothing can stop me.
I try to stand bravely in the forest.
My mother always said I was brave, but I never believed her. After all, I spend so much time hiding, in the shadows. Not being brave.
I don’t think of myself like that.
Lately I’m realizing that I don’t really know what I think of myself. Besides that I’m Lucy’s friend. That’s all I really know.
Lucy is the measure I measure myself by.
I think Lucy is brave.
My mother is brave, and my brother even more so. It might run in the family, but I’m adopted. My birth mother could have been brave.
I don’t know.
I never knew her.
Maybe she was brave.
I used to be, I guess.
My mother always tells this story about when I was a little girl.
I would walk right up to the road.
I would wait for cars to pass.
And walk across. Just like that.
Also, when I was a little girl, I would introduce myself to strangers. I would smile and put out my hand and say, “I’m Soli. Who are you?”
So maybe there’s something brave inside me after all.
Maybe it was the small, brave part of me that wished Lucy away and then also the small, brave part of me that followed her here.
And I know that it is the small, brave part of me that takes the first small step into the faerieground.
When I feel something watching me, and I start to run, is that the brave part of me or the scared part?
Does it matter, if it’s all to find Lucy and bring her home?
Lucy
I can’t believe I ever complained that my room at home was too small.
Now that I’m spending my second night in a prison cell, that little room at home seems like heaven. This cell smells like mold. It’s dark and I’m freezing. I’m miserable. And I’m afraid. How long will my life be like this? How long before the queen gets what she wants and Soli and I can just go back to life the way it was?
I make a promise to myself. Once I’m home, I won’t even look at Jaleel, unless it’s to tell him about how wonderful Soli is. I’ll never kiss him again.
And even as I’m making that promise, promising it to whatever can hear inside my head, I know I don’t want to keep it.
I will, if I have to. But I don’t want to have to.
I sigh and try to find a comfortable spot on the stone floor, but it’s terrible.
Kheelan is sleeping on his side of the cell. He’s been here a while. He’s used to it. But I can’t sleep here.
I hear voices through our tiny little window. Footsteps, walking faster and faster. When the voices get closer, I can hear what they’re saying.
“Yes, the dark one,” a man’s voice says. “She’s here.”
“Here? But how—” a woman begins.
The thumping of my heart drowns them out as they move farther away.
The dark one. That’s what they keep calling Soli.
The dark one is here, the man said.
Soli, here? Has she come to find me?
“Kheelan, are you awake?” I whisper.
I hear his body moving on the floor. “No,” he says.
“I need your help,” I say. “Soli is here. We have to find her. I don’t know if she can protect herself.”
“Your friend is here?” he asks. I hear him shift in the darkness. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I say.
“How do you know?” he asks. “Do you two share some kind of signal, or something?”
I sigh. “No. I heard the guards talking,” I tell him. “Can you get me out of here?”
He laughs. “If I could get you out, wouldn’t I get myself out first?” he says. But his voice has changed. I can tell he’s thinking about it.
“Then get yourself out,” I say. “And find my friend. She needs our help. She can’t do this on her own. Once you find her, you can come back for me.”
I don’t trust Kheelan. Not completely. He could be a murderer. He could be insane. After all, he’s in prison
, and all I know is that he angered the queen. I don’t know what he did to make her angry.
And he doesn’t trust me. Not completely. And why should he? What does he know about me? That I’m a human who suddenly found herself in enemy territory. I could be a spy, I could be someone come to hurt them all.
We don’t trust each other.
But we’re all we have.
“Please,” I whisper.
“Fine,” he says. “I have to come up with a plan.”
Lucy
It seems like hours pass in the cold, cobwebby silence of our cell.
I even fall asleep. It could have been for five minutes, or it could have been a day.
Then, suddenly, Kheelan screams. “Guards!” he yells. “The girl, the human! She’s escaping! Hurry!”
“What are you doing?” I whisper.
Kheelan is crouched next to me, an animal waiting to pounce. A cat who’s found a mouse.
“Play along,” he says. He yells again, “Guards! Hurry!”
We hear voices, shouts, a whistle blowing. Heavy footsteps pound up to our cell’s door. Iron keys slip into the locks.
I hold my breath. The door opens, and Kheelan launches himself at the guards, pushes past them, is gone.
Soli
The thing chases me through the forest. Its footsteps pound behind me. Until I find myself running into a cast-iron gate.
Then the thing is gone.
The forest is quiet.
Whatever it was, it led me here. Maybe it was chasing me. Maybe it was herding me to this place.
My clothes and shoes are soaked and muddy from my run. I wipe sweat from my face and look around.
Beyond the gate is a bright green garden. The wildflowers are familiar but not quite right, like flowers in a dream.
And beyond the garden is a river, and beyond the river is the castle.
And Lucy must be inside that castle.
So that is where I need to go.