Nothing keeps my mom down, that’s for sure.
It’s been months since Euphoria and I gave Agravaine the old smackdown, and in between school and work, I’ve spent every waking hour at Mom’s bedside, hoping, just hoping she’d wake up. And then bam! One night, there she was, sitting up, asking for a Five Guys bacon cheeseburger.
Once she could stomach solid food again, I got her one every day. That was a month ago. Since then, it’s been some serious therapy to get her back on track. She’s coming home today.
I wave as the nurse brings her closer. It seems so unreal. My mom come back to life, practically. Suddenly, I’ve got something in my eye… I look away, try to think of something else.
Euphoria and I have spent the past month redoing the apartment, getting everything ready. Miss Jardin helped too. I guess it’s nice having a helpful downstairs neighbor who knows what we are, even if I don’t really know who—or what—she is.
The apartment smells like jalapeno peppers, but it’s clean and the furniture’s been repaired.
Anyway, later for that. Right now, I’m just psyched that Mom’s going to be okay.
Euphoria gives me a little nudge, and I run to my mom and hug her. Thankfully, she has no real idea of what went down the night of the Winter Formal. The papers just said there was a “technical problem” with the sound equipment, and a lot of kids got treated for dehydration. Fiann got treated for malnutrition—probably from the Moribund—and her raw fingers—from being faestruck by the gramarye—and then she was sent to a rehab of sorts. Or at least, that’s the official story.
I guess no one wants to say the words “mental health facility.” Looks like her rich, privileged family would rather everyone think she was on drugs.
A part of me feels sorry for her, even after all she did to me, to my mom, Euphoria…
I mean, she fell to madness. And all for the sake of popularity?
No thanks. I’d rather be a misfit geek forever.
At least, the danger’s passed. Agravaine is dead. Fiann’s no longer a threat. Without the Moribund, it’s not like she can make good on her plans for world conquest. Guess she’ll have to wait on that teenage dream of becoming the dark Fae queen.
Boo. Hoo.
I step back and take my mom’s clothes and stuff from the nurse. “Ready?”
Mom nods. I see in her eyes and in her aura that she wants to ask me what happened that night, but she doesn’t. I told her that everything was taken care of. Agravaine, the Moribund. Of course she heard about Fiann. Everyone did. I blame Prudence for that, the little minx.
Fiann’ll have all she can do to pass this year and not get held back. Her parents are wealthy, though. I’m sure a hefty contribution to Richmond E will smooth things over. After all, no one knows that she was half of the plan behind killing the entire student body and turning them into batteries for Agravaine’s dark plan, à la The Matrix.
Yeah, that girl’s got some serious baggage.
The nurse wheels my mom to the door, where I’ve got our crappy soccer-mom SUV waiting. I fall in step and Euphoria trails behind.
As for the rest of the school… Winter’s come and gone, and spring is in the air. Classes end in a week. Things are back to normal. I’m still on the school newspaper, me and Prudence with her GoPro. Nowadays, we use our hall passes as they were meant to be used—to take pics for the yearbook—not to spy on evil dark Circuit Fae. Prudence’s even worked her way up to senior editor since Justice is graduating.
The Spring Formal’s tonight. Euphoria and I are skipping it. We’ve had enough stuffy formals with dark Fae trying to take over the world to last a lifetime.
The gymnasium was repaired for minor damage. The cops cited a water main breakage. It’s like nothing ever really happened there.
But Euphoria and I know.
We know the truth.
I hug my mom tight. I’ll never forget as long as I live all the sacrifices she made for me; I’ll never forget what Fiann tried, what Agravaine did. I’ll never forget who I am.
“I love you, Mom.”
“Love you too, bug.” She eyes Euphoria over my shoulder.
Uh-oh. I can feel it like a prickle up my spine—the old enemy starefest thing is going to come back full force. I swear, the two of them. Glamma would say they’re like two little old French ladies bickering.
But my mom only holds her hand out to Euphoria. “Come on, girls, let’s go home.”
We get back to Syl’s place, after a side trek to Five Guys for bacon cheeseburgers—yum!—and I’m expecting Syl’s mom to want to crash out on the couch and relax. Instead, she points at her daughter. “Syl, go grab a sheet from the hall closet.”
Syl gives her a bit of a funny look but does it, and when she comes back, Georgina tosses me a hammer and a pack of nails. I catch them both, wondering if she meant to brain me with the hammer. That smirk on her face tells me she wouldn’t have minded. Not like it can really hurt me, anyway. But I swear, lady likes to embarrass me.
“What gives, Mom?” Syl finally asks, standing there with a Hello Kitty sheet. It’s kind of adorable.
Georgina starts stringing twine across the living room and gives me a look over her shoulder.
Uh-oh. I know that look. It’s a mess with my daughter at your peril look. And suddenly I get what she’s doing.
“If you’re going to stay here, you can’t very well stay on the couch or in Syl’s room.” She’s rocking that Mom stare, the one that lets us know that she knows. About us.
I do my best not to blush. Nope. Not gonna… Ah, crap. At least I’m darker complexioned than Syl. She wears her blush like a badge of pink on both cheeks. I want to kiss those cheeks, but not with her mom staring at me like I’m some kind of stalker.
I only nod, bobbing my head like a dork and then helping her string the twine across a third of the living room. We hang the sheet, and I’ve got a little alcove of my own.
“We’ll pick up a futon at the Scratch ‘n’ Dent this weekend,” Georgina says. “And you’ll be expected to chip in around here.”
“Sure.” I shrug one shoulder. I’m, like, a fancy glam-Goth star. “I’m happy to chip in for rent.” No sweat.
“And chores and cooking.” Georgina fixes me with that glare again.
I want to tell her I’d burn water, but my objection dies on my lips. It feels weirdly good to have a mom getting on my case. “I’ll…uh…learn.”
“Good.” She puts her hands on her hips. “Now get out of here and let a lady get some rest.”
“Wait, what?” Syl asks.
“Go.” Her mom makes shoo fingers at us. “The Spring Formal is tonight. Don’t think I don’t know.”
Syl looks at her. “But we don’t have—”
“Your tickets are taped to the fridge.”
Whoa. That is some next-level mom wizardry.
“But…” Syl splutters, trying to find an excuse, and somewhere in there, I get the sense that maybe she does want to go.
I step in to save her. “We can use the same dresses we bought for the Winter Formal.” I wink at her, and she caves. I suspect she wanted to cave all along.
“Thanks,” I say to Georgina as Syl scampers off to her room. I go to follow.
“Rouen.” Georgina’s voice stops me cold. “Have my daughter back by eleven. No fighting Moribund hell-hounds, no battles with dark Fae wannabe princes, and no funny business.”
My face gets red at that last thing, and I have to throw a retort or I just wouldn’t be me. “What are you, my mo—?” And then I stop, because yeah, she kind of is.
And I’m kind of okay with it.
Plus, I don’t want to tell her that although Agravaine is dead and Fiann’s out of commission, there’s still the matter of UnderHollow and my people. With the hearthstone broken, the passages to UnderHollow are all caved in. The rest of the dark lands will follow, in a slow, collapsing decay, until my people are entombed in the vaults below the gloomy castle, entombed in Winter’
s Sleep. Forever.
I’ll never stop looking for ways to free them.
And then there’s Syl…Awakening as the fair Fae princess. The fair Fae haven’t been seen in a hundred years, but then again, they’ve had no reason to resurface. Maybe with Syl Awakened and Agravaine gone, maybe they’ll come to claim her.
And then who knows that’ll happen? It’s not like the fair Fae and the dark Fae are on friendly terms. Nope. Not at all. I’m sure there’ll be some big throwdown when those fancypants fair Fae find out a dark Fae princess is dating their golden girl—the entire Summer Court with their panties in a bunch.
My gaze meets Georgina’s, and I see it in her eyes—she knows all of this stuff is coming down the pipeline. When it does, we’ll be ready.
For now, though, Syl and I can revel in being “ordinary” high school students going to a Spring Formal.
“Come on, E!” Syl’s voice echoes from her bedroom.
Georgina nods, and I do what I always do.
I go chasing after Syl.
The End
The Adventure continues in Ouroboros,
Book 2 of the Circuit Fae
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Genevieve Iseult Eldredge is an author and editor, an MFA grad from Seton Hill University, a martial artist, sapphist, a self-rescuing princess, and all-around strong female character. She’s multi-published and in her role as an editor has helped hundreds of authors make their dream of being published a reality.
Born in the wrong century, GIE is more able to fix a chariot than a computer. Nevertheless, she forges ahead on her trusty laptop to bring her love of LGBT literature, urban fantasy, young adult fiction, and fairies together in her lesbian YA series, Circuit Fae.
She believes in fairies (in fact, she’s clapping right now), true love (not “to blave”), and championing the often-unheard female voice. She might be using D&D figures to plot out an epic fight scene right now.
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