by Tom Mohan
What could have happened here?
“Bri?” Fallon’s voice came out as little more than a whisper but still sounded loud in the silence. “Brianna?” Fallon’s mind had been unable to comprehend Nidawi’s statement that Brianna was no longer in the house. Even now, seeing the destruction for herself, it seemed an impossibility.
Fallon stepped around a clutter of smashed dishes and flipped the light switch without thinking. She blinked in surprise as the room flooded with light. The destruction was even greater in the illumination. How had this happened? No one was supposed to be able to enter without permission, and only Brianna could give permission. Unless Brianna had not been here? That was as impossible as the scene that lay before her. She moved into the family room and gasped. The front window was smashed out, and only the fog-shrouded neighborhood lay on the other side. “Brianna? Please be here.”
“Brianna’s gone, but I had a feeling you’d show up.”
Fallon spun toward the voice.
Jacob Yoder stepped out of the shadows of the hallway. “Hello, Fallon.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you, of course. They told me you’d come here, that I only needed to wait and my prize would come to me.”
“You did this.” The anger was clear in Fallon’s voice.
“No, not me. I got here too late to stop them.”
“That’s not the way I heard it.” Fallon’s pulse was pounding in her head with the rage she felt toward this man she’d considered a friend.
“You know nothing. You Finns have always treated us normal people like we were below you. You looked down on us, used us.”
“That’s crap, and you know it. We treated you as part of the family. I’ve treated you like a brother.” She took a step back, almost slipping on something that rolled beneath her foot.
“You don’t get it, do you, Fallon? People like you never get it. We were made to be together, you and me. I’m the one who was born for you, and you pretend you don’t feel it. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you. I’ve freed you from the constraints of this world. The Prince and Princess will marry, and you and I will rule beside them.”
He took a step closer to her. His eyes had a strange cast to them. Images moved across them as though reflecting a nonexistent scene. It reminded her of when Conall was first infected. Something else was living inside Jacob.
Fallon’s stomach tightened. Her mouth went dry. “That’s what this is all about? Me?”
“I’ve loved you since the day I first saw you. I’ve grown up loving you, knowing that when I was a man we would be together. We were made for each other, Fallon.”
Something inside Fallon broke. Everything she had ever known and loved had been destroyed, and it was her fault. She could have prevented it from happening if she had only paid attention. If she had only returned his affections, none of this would have happened. She closed her eyes as visions of all that she could have saved rippled through her mind.
Jacob took her hand. “I love you, Fallon. Come with me.”
Fallon took a deep breath and opened her eyes. His face was only a foot from her own. She stared into his eyes, saw the thing that moved behind them. Her pulse slowed, and a cold calm settled over her. “You’re a monster—a monster and a traitor. I’ll never love you.”
Jacob looked as though he might burst into tears, but then his eyes lit up and he laughed. “Didn’t convince you, huh? Guess I was never meant to be an actor. I did love you, though. Long ago. Now it’s more of a lust. Lust for your hot little body and the power it can bring me.” He jerked her against him. “I will have you, Fallon. There’s nothing you can do about that.” He let go of her hand and wrapped both arms around her. He stank of sweat and something much more primitive. “You belong to me, now.”
Fallon struggled against him, but he was so much stronger than she could have imagined. He held her so tight that she could hardly breathe, her pinned arms of no use to her. He bit at her neck as his hands slid up and down her body. His embrace tightened, and he lifted her from her feet and carried her back down the hall from which he had come.
“No, Jacob. Please. Don’t do this.” She thought of screaming for help but knew no one would come to her rescue. The entire town was now under the influence of the fae.
“You are all mine, Fallon,” he whispered. His harsh breath was hot against her ear. “We don’t need a wedding. We’ll just consummate the marriage and call it done.” He carried her toward Brianna’s bedroom. “I’ve waited my entire life for this. Don’t disappoint me.”
The door to the bedroom slammed shut.
Jacob jumped back. “What the hell?”
The bathroom and spare bedroom doors slammed hard enough to shake the walls. The sound was deafening in the small hallway. Jacob’s hold on Fallon loosened and then slipped away. His eyes grew wide, and he backed out of the hall.
Small items that had been carelessly thrown to the floor trembled. Jacob ducked as a picture flew by his head before landing neatly on the fireplace mantel. His head twisted back and forth as another picture, and then another, jumped back to their rightful places. All around him, the house was putting itself back in order. Fallon moved from the hallway to the living room. Jacob backed away from her.
“Stop this. Stop it now,” Jacob said, all confidence gone from his voice.
“I’m not doing it.” Fallon felt the old familiarity as the dead emptiness of the house gave way to the familiar setting she had known forever. “You know, Jacob, I don’t think this house likes you very much.” She saw the fear in his eyes and almost felt sorry for him.
Jacob stumbled into the kitchen. Fallon followed. The small room was once again the cozy place of baking and comfort it had always been. The back door was closed. Around them, the house grew still. Jacob’s breathing was loud in the sudden calm, his eyes wide as they sought out any threat.
“They lied to you, Jacob,” Fallon said. Her voice was calmer than she had expected it to be. She felt no fear. She wanted to be angry, but even that was impossible. She felt only compassion for this young man who had been enticed into something beyond his understanding. “Help me stop it. Help me put things right.”
His face softened, and she saw the boy he had been not so long ago. Then the rage returned. He reached behind him and pulled a gun from his waistband. He pointed it at her face. “Screw you and screw this house. I’m walking out of here or you die.”
There was a moment of complete silence, and then knocking caused them both to jump.
“What was that?” Jacob said.
The sound came again. A knocking at the back door.
“What is that? What’s out there?”
Fallon shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve always been told there’s nothing out there.”
The knocking sounded again. Fallon felt more curious than frightened. She could see that Jacob didn’t share that feeling. The back door opened with a slight creak. Fallon and Jacob both looked toward it. The house was completely still, anticipation heavy in the air.
An unseen breeze stirred Fallon’s hair. The breeze grew stronger, but instead of blowing in, it became a vacuum sucking out the back door. Fallon’s shirt flapped, and her hair whipped around her face. Jacob began to slide toward the door. He grabbed the counter, his knuckles white as he held on for his life. His eyes met hers, panicked, pleading.
“Fallon, help me. Please.”
Fallon watched as his fingers slid along the counter. She looked into the face of the young man who had betrayed her family. Conall dead. Her parents lost. Brianna gone. All of the dead Old Ones. So much carnage because of one man’s pride. She wanted to hate him, to curse his existence, but she couldn’t summon such feelings. She felt sorry for him, sorry for the choices he’d made, sorry that she had not been a better friend to him.
“I’m sorry, Jacob. Really, I am.”
The wind intensified, howling through the house. Fallon’s hair hid everything but the ter
rified face of Jacob, as though she were cursed to witness his end. Jacob’s fingers lost their grip on the counter, and he slid across the floor. His hands raked the air for anything to grab hold of, but there was nothing between him and the door. His screams burrowed into Fallon’s mind, and then he disappeared into the Nothing that lay beyond the door. The door slammed shut, and all fell silent. Fallon stood there, Jacob’s screams ringing in her ears.
The phone rang. Fallon turned toward the living room. She had expected the wind to have trashed the house again, but everything was exactly where it should be. The phone rang again, and she walked over and picked it up.
“Hello, Fallon.”
Fallon fell back into Brianna’s chair. “Hi, Bri. What’s new with you?”
Brianna’s laughter rang through the phone. “Everything. Everything is new. Are you okay?”
Fallon blew a strand of hair from her face. “No, not really. Did you just save me from Jacob?”
“I’m sorry it had to end that way. I couldn’t think of anything else.”
“Where are you, anyway?”
“I’m there, with you. I’m also somewhere else, but they can’t hurt me anymore.”
Fallon blinked as tears formed in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Bri. I should have been here to help you.”
“Oh, stop it. You couldn’t have done anything, anyway. This had to happen. Besides, it’s not over yet. We still have a lot to do.”
“Oh, that’s good. I was starting to get bored.”
“Cut the sarcasm and listen. Liza really is the Princess the old legends speak of. Her father was fae.”
“We wondered about that. How is it even possible?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet. It’s true, nonetheless.”
Fallon’s exhausted mind struggled to comprehend what she was hearing. “So, Liza was in on this from the start?”
“I don’t think so. I think she’s innocent as she seemed. I do know that if she and the Prince complete their bonding, things are going to get horribly bad for the human race.”
Fallon heard an explosion from not too far away. “It’s already started,” she said.
“Only you can save Halden’s Mill, Fallon. Others have their tasks, but that is yours.”
Fallon blew the strand of hair from her face again. “Yay me.”
The forest was alive with chanting and whispers. The fae folk slipped through the trees on the ground and swung from branches above, moving as one toward a future promised centuries ago. Dark clouds boiled above the trees, rolling with an unnatural madness. Sheets of yellow, orange, and white lightning flashed from within. The cool air smelled of ozone and the hope of rain.
Liza was aware of little of this. She walked in a near stupor, lost in the knowledge that had been awakened in her. It was not only her mind that had been made aware—her body tingled with the truth of her heritage. She no longer felt a stranger in this strange land. She was one of them, one with them. Her entire life had been filled with questions about her father, her heritage, her ancestors.
Never could she have imagined the truth.
I’m not even human. Even the little I thought I knew was wrong.
The truth had left her numb at first, but she’d begun to see the future from two unique perspectives. As far as she knew, she alone was one-half of each world. She alone among the fae knew what it was to be human, and she alone among humans had the blood of the fae coursing through her veins. The fae believed her the embodiment of a long-awaited prophecy, but there was still something she was missing. The scene shown to her by the Mathair depicted another side of the fae. Was what she saw true? Did the king and his followers still exist, or had they disappeared in the mists of time?
Liza became aware of the ruins of ancient structures surrounding her. Hollow shells of what must have once been a town crumbled within the forest that had reclaimed the land. She turned toward one and saw a dark form disappear inside a ruin. Other forms moved about at the edges of her vision, slipping around or inside the structures.
She passed out of the trees and into a clearing. In the center of the clearing stood a mound much like the one she’d seen earlier. This clearing was also covered in flowers, however, instead of the blue of the poison flowers, these were blood red.
No path led to this mound. One was not necessary. She knew where she was going. She inhaled. The rich, perfume-like scent of the flowers flowed into her, spreading throughout her body. She felt as if her mind had awoken from a lifelong slumber. Her senses, too, came alive. Sights, sounds, smells were magnified beyond anything she’d ever known. She knew this was how the fae experienced the world, how things were meant to be. She felt a disgust at the mortal part of herself. How long had she existed without really living while her destiny had been so close at hand?
Liza continued her trek through the flowers. The mound appeared to rise before her yet grew no closer. Higher and higher, no longer a mound but a hill. Flames flicked from the top. She inhaled another deep breath of the sweet scent that permeated the air. The newly formed pendant was cold against her breast. She touched it. A new scene opened up before her, one of conflict and hatred, death and destruction, but also of light and life. She felt at one with the duality. Just as she was two parts of one whole, so was the pendant.
A wave of cold passed over her, and Liza felt a sense of dread. She removed her hand from the pendant and saw that she stood at the bottom of the mound. Steps made from rough logs were cut into the side. Her eyes followed the steps to where torches flickered at the top. Her destiny lay there.
Come to me.
The whisper mingled with the scent of the flowers and sent a shiver through her body. She placed her foot on the first step. She knew that once this first step was taken, there was no turning back. Sweat trickled down her back. Lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the path before her. Her body trembled with doubt and anticipation.
Come.
She climbed onto the first step, then the second. Another flash of lightning, this time followed by a low rumble of thunder. As she ascended, she felt the stare of thousands of eyes upon her. The weight of their expectation crushed against her. Then came another weight, much heavier than anything that could be placed upon her by any living thing, as the universe itself awaited her.
Liza felt a cool wind against her flesh and realized that she was nearing the top. She shivered as the wind dried the sweat from her body.
As she stepped off the top step, Darius fell in beside her. “Welcome, Princess.”
The scent of the serpent-thing was both familiar and revolting. Her heart pounded in her chest, and the human part of her screamed to flee this place. Her fae side, however, maintained control with curious detachment. Liza knew that both sides were herself. She still felt split into two pieces, unable to join the two into one.
Soft grass carpeted the top of the mound. A pillar at least twenty feet tall towered in the center. Tendrils of vines covered the pillar from bottom to top, leaving it encased within a living cocoon. Rising behind the pillar, beyond the mound, loomed a huge structure that yet retained some of its ancient glory. Light flickered in several of its windows. Though much had changed, Liza recognized the scene from the vision in the flames. This was the king’s palace. She gazed once more upon the pillar. It stood cold and silent. She walked to it and placed her hand upon the vine-covered surface. Tendrils twisted beneath her hand, allowing her flesh to contact the gold beneath. The pillar was surprisingly warm.
Liza closed her eyes and spread her fingers wide. She could feel the life force locked inside. The warmth of the gold seeped into her flesh, into her blood. Her body jolted as power like an electric current surged through her. The darkness that had flooded her mind was burned away by the light of a power beyond imagination.
She knew in that instant that the king still lived inside that pillar. The light she had seen in the vision faded as his followers grew farther from him and, over time, forgot about him. She sensed no anger, o
nly patience and sadness. She sensed something else as well. The king was not the only soul who resided within.
Ana? Cullen?
Yes, child. We are here. Ana’s voice whispered in her mind.
I’m so scared. So confused. I don’t know what to do.
You are the Princess. You must do what you must.
I don’t know what that is.
When the time comes, you will know. There will be different paths, but only you know the one you will choose. The universe awaits your decision.
Liza felt the presence of the Finn matriarch fade, and she was alone again.
“The king is dead.”
Liza’s head jerked up at the sound of the voice. A fae man stood about a dozen yards away. Even in the dim light of perpetual dawn, his strong form was breathtaking. His skin was even darker than hers. He had high cheekbones and thin lips that looked to have never smiled. Black hair spilled over his shoulders and down his powerful back. He was both beautiful and terrifying. She felt small and insignificant in his presence. His deep green eyes met and held hers. She shuddered as her fae blood responded to his.
“Greetings, Kiari. I am Oberon, Prince of the True Folk. I have waited long to finally meet you.”
Liza’s mouth was dry. She swallowed and found words flowing from her lips without thought. “Greetings, my Prince. I, too, have waited long to meet you.” Liza again had the feeling of being two people locked inside one body. In this place, the fae part of her was much stronger. She felt her human identity pushed aside, a mere spectator in the events unfolding around her.
The Prince moved closer, his powerful form towering a head and a half over her. He took her hand in his. His skin was cool and smooth. His other hand brushed her cheek, and his lips met hers in a soft kiss that sent waves of pleasure rippling through her body. Never had anything thrilled her so. Her blood sang with joy as her destiny became reality. With that one kiss, Liza knew that her life had new meaning. She knew she had finally found her place in the world, a place where she truly belonged. Too soon, his lips pulled away, but she knew she had an eternity to spend in the pleasures of her Prince.