The Secret of the Dread Forest: The Faire Folk Trilogy

by Gillian Summers

  The rose quartz grew hotter. When it started to burn she dropped it, and just like that, she was free of the Earth magic. Then the Dread closed in on her with suffocating swiftness. She scrambled for the rose quartz and gasped with relief when she found it. She made a mental note to get a second one as a backup.

  Her father still held the magic, and now the green magic and golden light rotated counterclockwise in a single coil of energy, focused through the rose quartz.

  Keelie was about to rise but Dad shook his head. “Stay.”

  From beneath Ernem’s roots a veil of green rose, flecked with yellow sparkles that glittered like teeny, tiny suns. It rose higher and higher, enveloping the tree, Dad, and Keelie.

  “Wow!”

  Dad smiled, his casual, laid-back self again. “We do good work, daughter. Ernem will heal and be protected.” He patted the trunk reassuringly.

  It had grown dusky while they worked, and she held the light pink crystal in front of her to illuminate the area around them with its glow. “That kind of recharged its batteries.”

  Dad laughed. “In a way, I guess it did.”

  “How did you use the energy that I summoned?” Healing Ernem and protecting him made her want to work more in the forest with Dad.

  “It takes practice, but I don’t think it’ll be hard for you to learn. You have more ability than anyone I’ve ever worked with, including my own father.”

  Before she could ask about her grandfather, Dad’s relaxed demeanor vanished and he grew stern again. Oh great, he was back to being Dread Dad. The vision of them working together in father-daughter harmony disappeared.

  “It’s time to go home, and it’s time for you to tell me exactly what you saw—I think you’re keeping something from me. ”

  “Okay, Dad. But not in front of Grandmother.”

  “Why not? She’s the Lady of the Forest.”

  “Because—” She fell silent.

  She couldn’t see a way out, but she’d have to figure out a way to save Jake—even though she knew the punishment would be extreme.

  eleven

  Back at the house, Dad called for Grandmother Keliatiel. She didn’t answer.

  Keelie looked up at the empty space above the fireplace. Mom’s carved portrait would look good up there. She crossed her arms over her chest. She didn’t know why she was thinking about Mom right now, because Dad was about to demand answers about the vampire. She didn’t know what to do.

  Dad returned to the living room. “Your grandmother tells me that the Council is reconvening tonight. An emergency meeting.” He pointed at Knot. “Keep guard.”

  Knot hissed and walked away.

  “Don’t take that attitude with me,” Dad called after him. “As long as you remain her guardian, then you obey me.” He turned to Keelie, agitated. “He always took your mother’s side, too.” He motioned toward the chair. “We need to talk.” He was wearing pants underneath his robes, but he maintained the same regal air that he’d had when confronting Niriel in the forest. It was like her father was transforming right in front of her eyes, turning into a Council elf.

  Keelie remained standing. “What do you mean, Knot always took mother’s side?”

  Dad ran his fingers through his hair. “Keelie, I don’t have time to explain. I have to go to the meeting too, and I need to know what you’ve seen.”

  It angered her that Dad thought he could just not talk about Mom. Hide it all away, like he had hidden her portrait in the closet upstairs. No, Keelie wasn’t going to do this anymore. It was time Dad talked. If he expected Keelie to tell him what she knew about Jake, well, he could talk first. “I want to talk about Mom.”

  “Not now. I need to know what you know. You saw an entity sucking a tree’s life force. Can you explain everything you saw?”

  “Didn’t Ernem tell you?”

  “He did. He said it was a vampire. But I want your version too, Keelie. He’s a jittery kind of tree, and he didn’t see much because of his panic.”

  “I got that same vibe from him.”

  “Tell me what you saw, and we’ll see what we can do. There’s so much you don’t know, Keelie.”

  “Yeah, because you don’t talk to me… because you don’t explain anything to me.” Anger and grief burned through her heart like hot molten steel. “You didn’t contact me for thirteen years. You let Mom take me away without fighting. Then you drag me back here to the Dread Forest and make me live with a grandmother who makes it really obvious that she hates humans. You keep going to Council meetings with the other elves. What do you talk about? How to handle your Round Ear child?”

  Dad’s face paled and his ear tips reddened. His expression was pained, but Keelie was glad she’d finally let her father know how she felt. It was time for them to deal with some real things.

  Dad opened and closed his hands, making fists. “Your mother chose to take you away, thinking that it would protect you. But we stayed in touch, in our way.” His voice rose. “Katy left me, but I’ve honored her wishes.” Dad looked past Keelie as if he were seeing the image of Mom standing in the room. “If she had stayed, I would have chosen to age as she aged. And when she died, I would have faded.”

  Surprised that Dad was even talking, Keelie reeled at the fact that Dad had been willing to end his life when Mom died. She would have been all alone.

  Dad turned back to Keelie, his face angry but also filled with pain. “Your mother ran from me, Keelie, and took you from my life. She wanted me to promise not to come to you, but I sent gifts, and she sent me photos of you.”

  Mom was no ogre. If only she were here to give her side of the story. Keelie wanted to protect her, but without the truth, she didn’t know how to answer. Mom had taken so many of her secrets with her.

  “And I couldn’t have come to you even if I’d tried. You were under the protection of the Shining Ones.”

  Keelie was confused. That’s what the trees had called her friend Raven in the Wildewood. “What are the Shining Ones, exactly?”

  “The Shining Ones are the high fairies.”

  “Like the bhata, the feithid daoine?”

  “Yes, but more.” Dad looked up at the ceiling as if seeking some help from the universe. “There are different kinds of good fairies, just like there are different kinds of bad ones. The Shining Ones are the high court.”

  “Like a fairy queen and king?” Keelie remembered images from her Arthur Rackham fairy-tale books.

  “The very ones.” Dad’s mouth was stretched in a solid line. “And they’re not very nice.” He seemed to state that as someone with personal experience.

  “And that’s why I want to get rid of that cat. It’s a spy.” Grandmother appeared in the doorway. Her eyes were bright and her head held high in indignation.

  “Mother, I think you’ve interfered in my life enough. I will do as I see fit in this matter. I was given the message that Knot stays, and Knot stays. If you hadn’t interfered, then Katy might have let me be part of my daughter’s life.”

  Stunned, Keelie whirled around and stared at her grandmother. She seemed indignant now, but hurt, as if Dad’s words had pierced her heart.

  “I didn’t know she would take the child,” Grandmother said. “I couldn’t let you fade. I’d lost one son. I couldn’t stand to lose another.”

  Dad glared at her. “I lost my child because you couldn’t bear to let me go.”

  Grandmother Keliatiel walked closer to Dad, her hand stretching out for him. “I insisted Katharine leave Keelie with me. I told her I would raise the child. She was half elven—she would have magical powers. Katharine said she’d make sure Keelie never discovered she was elven. She would only know the human world, but Katharine did not tell us she was kin to the Shining Court.”

  The Shining Court? No way. Grandmother was making up stories to excuse her behavior. Keelie could see it being played out as Grandmother told the story: Mom packing her bags, telling Dad not to find them, and leaving with toddler Keelie in tow. Mom
had done exactly what she’d threatened to do. That much was probably true, minus the fae kin.

  A knock at the door startled them.

  Dad stood. “We have to go to the meeting.”

  Grandmother sat down carefully. “I don’t know if I can attend.”

  “You must, Mother. Niriel is going to try to convince you to use the book.”

  Grandmother was silent for a moment. “He wouldn’t dare.”

  “He spoke of it in the forest. He brought the entire Silver Bough, armed, with him.”

  “He dares raise an army? The book stays in my house.” Grandmother squeezed her hands into angry fists, then dropped them and leaned back. “I’m too tired to deal with this, but I will need to be there to argue on the side of reason.”

  Keelie wondered if she should mention the amulet, but decided against it. They were talking about the book; they knew nothing of the amulet.

  Dad walked over to Grandmother Keliatiel and held out his hand. “Let’s go. You can rest when we return.”

  He pulled her gently to her feet and offered his elbow. She linked her arm through his and leaned against him, looking defeated and old. Even though the old woman had never been nice to her, Keelie’s heart ached to see her like that.

  Dad stopped at the door. “You’re to stay in this house and not go anywhere, please.”

  Keelie stood there. They’d just had this big argument, and they were going to leave her. Elves!

  Dad must have sensed her feelings. “We’ll talk later.”

  It wasn’t the resolution Keelie had wanted after such a big argument. But she had a lot to think about, and being away from Grandmother Keliatiel was exactly what she needed. She shouldn’t feel sorry for the woman who had driven Mom away. Not that Mom hadn’t had a part in her own exodus from the elves.

  Keelie leaned her head in her palm as if she could push the thoughts back into her mind. It felt as if they were spilling out of her forehead. If she ate something, maybe she could think better.

  She was just finishing a bowl of leftover vegetable soup when she heard Ariel banging her wings against the mews walls. It was time to feed the hawk. Dad had said to stay in the house, but even though the mews were outside, they were technically part of the house. It would be cruel to allow the hawk to go hungry.

  Keelie grabbed a rat from the refrigerator where she’d left it thawing that morning. She smiled. Grandmother became squeamish whenever Keelie served rat. Mom would’ve run in the opposite direction. Keelie smiled sadly imagining Mom’s reaction.

  Using a flashlight, she walked to the mews. The waxing gibbous moon shone down on the house.

  Ariel’s milky eyes seemed cloudier tonight. Behind her, in the dark of the side of the house, a stick snapped. Alarmed, Keelie shined the flashlight in that direction. Her heart raced as she searched the area. Nothing.

  “Hey girl. It’s going to be fast-food rat tonight, Ariel.”

  Tendrils of fog drifted around the mews. Keelie froze in mid-rat toss.

  Fog swirled around, then began to solidify.

  “What the…?” She was ready to run as adrenaline pumped through her body.

  The fog dispersed and there stood Jake with a goofy grin on his face. “Too bad it’s frozen rat, otherwise I’d have a snack. The energy from the ones in Seattle is sort of slimy from the pollution they absorb through their bodies.”

  “I don’t even want to know. What are you doing here? And can’t you just walk?”

  “This is faster.”

  “If the elves find you, you’re going to be in trouble.”

  Jake waved his hand nonchalantly. “They’re all at the meeting except that girl Elia and her father. It will take hours. Your father may not be home until tomorrow afternoon.”

  Keelie cut her eyes over to him. “How do you know so much?”

  “I hang out. Watch.” He extended a hand, pale and long-fingered. For a moment nothing happened, and Keelie wondered if she was supposed to do something, but then a dark mist seemed to seep out from his skin like a microfine spray of ink. The mist thickened until she couldn’t see his hand anymore, and then he dropped his arm. The mist moved, showing that his arm was gone, turned to black fog.

  Keelie’s mouth went dry. “Can you do that with your whole body?” Her voice came out papery and rough. She held the rat, a heavy weight in her hand.

  “Yes. I’ve been practicing for a very long time.” He looked into her eyes, and they were no different than they were before. Jake’s eyes, not some monster’s. Her breathing slowed, and with it her heart. She’d just thought he summoned the fog to hide himself in, not that he could actually turn into mist.

  She hoped he hadn’t been watching her shower.

  “I’ve seen evidence of that creature that chased you in the woods. Can we talk?”

  “Let me feed Ariel first. And yes, let’s talk—I have a few questions for you.” She went to the mews, where Ariel eagerly pounced on her rat and nibbled at it with her beak. Keelie turned away before Ariel got to seriously digging into her rat supper.

  She walked around the side of the house and saw Jake on the porch, in a rocking chair that Dad had made. She smiled, trying to act as if everything was normal, and sat on the porch swing (cedar from New England).

  The stars twinkled in the night sky, visible in small open patches in the tree canopy. Keelie could see the silvery outline of Jake’s face in the moonlight.

  He rubbed the smooth arm of the rocker. “Your father has a great talent for wood.” He sounded wistful.

  “I know. People love his stuff at the Ren Faires.” She stroked the swing’s arm.

  “Do you miss being with other humans?” Jake asked.

  Keelie shrugged. “I do. I miss the friends I made. It was like leaving another family.” Then she gestured with her hand to encompass the house and the woods beyond. “But we came to the Dread Forest. Home Sweet Home.”

  “It’s not so bad. Give it a chance. There’s a lot going on right now.”

  “There’s always something going on. Ever since I arrived at the High Mountain Renaissance Faire, it’s been one freakin’ dysfunctional adventure after another.”

  “Adventure nonetheless,” Jake said.

  “I can do without all the excitement, thank you.”

  “You are spoiled, Keliel Heartwood,” Jake said sharply. Red flashed in his eyes. “You have a home. Your home travels with you. From your mother’s heart to your father’s love. Think before you speak. Think of what others may have lost.”

  A pang struck Keelie’s heart. “Was it really awful being exiled?” she asked.

  He turned his face from her. “For almost seven of your lifetimes, I have wandered the earth, banned from my forest and my family. Do you know what that’s like for an elf?”

  Keelie thought of the trees, whispering her name as she slept. She thought of Dad fixing oatmeal, of the bright colors of the Ren Faires, and the deep and varied greens of the forests she had seen. “I’m starting to know.” She put her hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry.”

  Jake smiled at her, the red fading from his eyes. “You said you had questions. What are they? I’ll answer them to the best of my ability.”

  “If you’re a vampire, why aren’t you like Dracula? Or like Edward Cullen?”

  “It’s all about the way you’re transformed. Bloodsuckers are changed by a bite from another vampire. My change was brought about by using dark magic, magic that caused harm to bring about change. Let’s just say there are consequences for using dark magic.”

  “But what if you use just a little dark magic, for a good cause?”

  Jake shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if one’s intentions are good. There are rules to magic. It’s like physics. You can’t choose to skip gravity.”

  Keelie’s mind spun. “When you saved the Dread Forest, did you use the book of magic?”

  “I tried, but it didn’t work exactly like I thought it would.”

  “What happened?” She ne
eded to avoid whatever he’d done that had failed.

  He shook his head. “Things didn’t go according to plan, and I tried something different. By the way, I found more dead rabbits in the woods, and a dead deer, too. There’s another vampire out there. We have to find out who it is. If it keeps killing, its blood thirst will deepen and it’ll become a full-blown nosferatu.”

  “So there are two of you running around the Dread forest.” Bad news.

  “The other one needs help, Keelie.”

  “I need help, too.” Elia stood in front of the porch. Her gown was torn, and she had scratches on her face.

  “What happened to you?” Keelie asked.

  “I was near the construction site, and I tripped and fell into some briars.”

  Jake jumped up and guided Elia to his chair. She accepted the help meekly.

  Near the construction site? That sounded very un-Elia.

  “I’ve seen the fairies around you. I know they protect you,” Elia said to Keelie. She leaned forward shakily and ran her fingers through her tangled golden curls, raking leaves and twigs out to drift to the porch floor. “You have to go to them and ask them if they can heal him. He didn’t mean to hurt anyone. He just wanted to save the forest. Our home.”

  “Heal who? Save what?” Keelie was totally confused.

  Elia lifted her face to Jake. “You did the same thing, once. There has to be a way to cure him.”

  Jake shook his head and gazed at Elia with sympathy. “I’m sorry. There are ways to deal with it, but he is on a course that was set when he tried to kill a unicorn.”

  “What are you talking about?” Keelie stood up, not wanting to be left out of the conversation. And she wasn’t sure she liked the way Jake was looking at Elia—as if she’d hit him with a baseball bat.

  Elia’s eyes were rimmed with tears. “You have to help him, Keelie. You know what it’s like to lose a parent. I can’t lose him. He’s my father. I’m begging you for your help.”

  Keelie stepped back. “Wait a minute. Are we talking about Elianard?”