by D. N. Hoxa
The fairy guard, followed by two others, had short hair and a golden armor, much like the ones Galladar’s fairy guards had worn. The memory sent shivers down my spine. Holding my breath, I watched as more fairies came through the golden flames, until the Seelie King with his Queen beside him made it to our side. They all appeared to move in slow motion at first, blinking their eyes until they adjusted to the light of Earth.
“What’s his name?” I whispered to Julian when I realized I never knew the names of any of them. Except Raina.
“You don’t speak the name of a King,” Julian said, chuckling.
But his chuckle died on his lips when we saw the next person coming through the light. Jane Dunham, a.k.a. Raina of the Seelie Court.
Every cell in my body froze for a second, then exploded into fire. Julian must have felt my tension, because he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. He knew I was about to lose control of my own body, and jump her the way I had at the fairy event.
No, that wasn’t going to do anyone any favors. We had a plan, and I was going to stick to it, no matter how much it cost me. Taking in a deep breath, I raised my chin and analyzed her face, forcing my mind to clear and to think rationally. We were there to banish her, possibly kill her, but after we were done, Lynn and Ezra were going to be safe. All we’d need to do was go into the fairy realm and find where she’d hidden them. After that, it would be over.
When she met my eyes, she didn’t dare smile or even acknowledge that she knew me, because too many people were across from her, and almost all of them already knew her true face. So instead, she lowered her head and moved her eyes to the Seelie King.
“Your Highness, thank you for agreeing to meet with us on such short notice,” Simon Reed of the Blood coven said.
The King gave a curt nod, strings of blond hair that had escaped his golden crown falling on the side of his forehead.
“I meant it when I said that the Seelie Court wishes to end the way our worlds have looked at each other until today.” His voice was strong and deep, sending chills up and down my body. I hadn’t even noticed it when I first met him at the fairy event. Maybe because I’d been so caught up in killing Jane.
“And we appreciate it, Your Highness,” Simon Reed continued. “The matter we wanted to discuss with you today is regarding a member of your Court.” He, together with all the other coven leaders, turned to look at Jane Dunham, who was standing on the right of the King, behind three other fairies I didn’t recognize. “We have reason to believe that who you think is a fairy named Raina, is in fact a Hedge witch by the name of Jane Dunham, infiltrating as your fairy.”
I was watching Jane closely, without even blinking, so I saw the second the surprise registered on her face clear as day. Oh, she definitely didn’t see this coming. I was tempted to smile.
“Again with this nonsense?” the King spit, his voice full of anger all of the sudden. Then, he began to search the crowd, until his eyes fell on my face. Blood rushed to my cheeks and I had the strongest urge to look away, but I didn’t. Biting my tongue, I held his violet eyes, thankful that I’d emptied my bladder back at the Bone coven headquarters.
“We can prove it,” Amelia said when the fairies began to whisper and shake their heads—except for the Queen. She only looked at the leaders, eyes full of suspicion and curiosity.
“So, prove it,” the King shouted. “A member of my Court is a member of the royal family. By insulting Raina, you insult me!”
“We do not wish to insult anyone, Your Highness, simply shed light on a lie that we’ve all been fed,” Simon Reed said. “We have seen this sort of thing done before. We’ve seen Hedge witches wearing the skin of wolves, and all they needed to do that, was an enchanted item full of powerful dark magic.”
Please, please, please believe us…
But the King laughed, and the sound wasn’t pleasant. “Dark magic? You accuse my Court of using dark magic?”
“Strip her.”
Everyone fell suddenly silent, and they all turned to look at Julian. He looked at the King, chin raised and hands pulled into fists, almost as if he were daring him.
“Julius?” the King asked, shaking his head as if he were disappointed to see him there.
“Strip her. She uses an item to look the way she does. Like Raina,” Julian said. “We could be wrong. All you’d have to do is strip her.”
“Madness!” the King shouted. “I do not need to prove anything to you!”
“But you do,” Simon Reed said. “Your Highness, if she really is a Hedge witch, a fugitive wanted by our law, it is your duty to expose her, and banish her from your realm so that we can serve the necessary justice for her crime of fooling your Majesty, and the rest of the fairy realm—not to mention killing the fairy she is impersonating.”
“No!” Jane Dunham shouted. She looked terrified suddenly, but at least half of it had to be an act. “My King, don’t let them humiliate me this way, I beg of you!”
But it didn’t matter what she said because…holy spell, the King looked confused.
Confused was good. Confused meant he was thinking about it. He was actually considering…
“This is madness. I come here, ready to extend a hand of help, and this is what you attack me with,” he muttered, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes with his fingers.
“If it’s true, if she is not who we say she is, we will make it up to you, Your Highness,” Amelia said. The other leaders turned to look at her, narrowed brows and wide eyes, but she didn’t seem to even notice. “If you are right and she really is Raina, we will apologize and be at your disposal for a matter of your choosing—without limitations.”
Simon Reed stepped closer to Amelia and whispered something in her ear, but I couldn’t hear it for the life of me. They were too far away.
“Is this true? Do you all stand by her words?” the King asked, his voice completely transformed now. He no longer sounded angry.
“My King—” Jane started, her eyes full of tears, but the King simply looked at her and she clamped her mouth shut. A smile couldn’t be helped. Oh, we had her. We had her good, and she knew it.
“We do,” Simon Reed finally said. A sigh escaped my lips. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d said no. Amelia had promised the witch covens to the Seelie King for a matter of his choosing, and that wasn’t something to be taken lightly. Not at all. But thankfully, it was Ezra they needed back, and my word was the best choice they had.
What felt like ages later, the King turned to Raina.
“Take off your clothes,” he said with a nod. It seemed the covens offering themselves to him had turned the tables completely around. He was excited, too. I could see his fingers tapping on his golden vest impatiently, as if he couldn’t wait to prove us wrong, then come to collect what the leaders had promised.
“No,” Raina whispered, taking a step back, shaking her head. “My King, please. This is outrageous! I will not be hum—”
“Do as your King commands you.”
The words came straight out of the Seelie Queen’s lips. Her voice was sharp, it made me think of an eagle, and it had everybody freeze in their places—even Raina.
And when she took a step back, two of the King’s guards immediately made for her.
“Raina, we will get this over with here and now. Strip, so we can leave,” the King said, his voice leaving no room for arguing.
Without even breathing, I looked at Jane’s terrified face, counting the seconds until she began to take her clothes off. Watching the whole world realize who she truly was had become a personal dream of mine, and I couldn’t wait to realize it.
But Jane shook her head once more. The fairy guards took a step closer to her. “Strip, I say!” the King shouted.
Jane lowered her head. This was it. The moment I’d been waiting for. And after she showed us all her true face, I didn’t intend to let her leave. No, I was going to kill her for the second—and hopefully last—time. I took out my guns and prepar
ed my beads for when the King banished her. Then, she was mine.
Unfortunately for me, things rarely went my way.
When Jane raised her head again, the terrified fairy was gone. In her place was the smiling lunatic, the same one who’d been in my office, and the one who’d taken Ezra and Lynn from Bender’s house in Providence.
“You old fool,” Jane said to the King, her voice nothing like before, when she was begging and pleading with the fairy. The blood in my veins froze.
This was not right. She wouldn’t dare say that to a fairy King, no matter how much dark magic she could do. I jumped forward, both my guns aiming at her face.
“Banish her,” I said to the King, who was still looking at Jane, confused as fuck, unable to believe she’d called him a fool. “Banish her, now!” I shouted with everything I had, then pushed a coven leader to the side with all my strength, and I began to run and shoot at Jane.
A scream tore from my throat, loud and long, when I stood just a foot away from where she’d been a split second ago. The bullets were buried in the wall of the building next to the portal.
Jane Dunham had slipped from my fingers, yet again, and in her place, she’d left a flower.
Nineteen
A flower.
Yes, a flower. I hadn’t lost my mind.
It could have come from anywhere, blown by the wind in between the two buildings, right in front of the portal. Or, it could have even come from the fairy realm.
But it didn’t. It had been Jane that had left it there. Don't know how, or where she'd even gotten it, but it was her. She knew I’d recognize it. Of course, I would. My mother only had one favorite flower—the same one that was on the ground in front of my feet, mocking me: a perfectly white peace lily.
Tears filled my eyes. My mother wasn’t big on flowers and plants. She did have a few around the house, though—and three of them were peace lilies. The most beautiful flower in the world, according to her. A monster grew inside my chest and ate at any good feeling I’d had until then. That bitch. How did she know about my mother or her flowers? How the hell did she know about my father?
And more importantly, what could she possibly want from me? Why leave me a clue? Why tell me where I could find her? I doubted that it was because she wanted to die sooner rather than later.
“Winter, you need to step back.”
Julian was right behind me, his hands on my shoulders, trying to pull me back while I looked at the flower on the ground, surrounded by the shells of all the bullets I’d fired at Jane—after she’d disappeared. And the King hadn’t even banished her.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I let Julian drag me away, back behind the coven leaders, who looked even more terrified now.
And the Seelie King looked no better. Jane was right, he was a fool. A fool for not banishing her when he had the chance. Instead, he’d wasted precious seconds by just staring at her, shocked at being called names.
“Find Raina’s body, immediately,” he said to his guards, and one of them nodded, then ran towards the golden flame that would take him through the portal, and back to the fairy realm.
“Don’t bother,” I said through gritted teeth, though Julian squeezed my arm to tell me to shut up. I was too pissed off to listen. “She already used Raina’s body as a source for her spell. You’re not going to find anything.” Just like we had never found the bodies of the wolves the Hedges used to terrorize the covens before.
“This is impossible,” the King whispered. “She is a part of my Court. Has been with me for a very long time…”
“Well, she’s a Hedge witch. The fairy who’s been with you is long gone. What you can do now is banish her, make sure she doesn’t come back to the fairy realm,” I said.
But the King raised his blonde brows. “I cannot banish her without her presence,” he said.
“What?” Fucking, shitting, sucking hell!
“How did you know? Why did you not bring this to my attention before, witch?” the King said, taking a step closer to me as if he were trying to intimidate me. He did so, right before he let Jane Dunham go by standing there and looking at her like a fool. And the rest! Fairies, witches, werewolves—everybody had been there, and they’d just looked at her and done nothing. I was the only one who’d fired a weapon against her—because my magic would have been too dangerous and there were too many witnesses around—which only proved the one thing I’d always known deep, deep down inside me: almost nobody had really believed me when I said she was Jane Dunham.
“I tried to. At the event, remember? You kicked me out instead,” I said to the King, and without waiting for him to reply, I turned around, ignored the stares of the coven leaders and the witch guards, and hopped into the first car on the street.
The keys were already there, waiting for me, and no guard stopped me.
Julian climbed in on the passenger seat even before I turned on the ignition, and Bender was already in the back when I drove away. It didn’t matter what had happened. It didn’t matter that Jane got away from me again. I knew exactly where I was going to find her, and I wasn’t going to come back alive without Ezra and Lynn.
“She’s in Long Island,” I said, the image of that lily forever imprinted in my mind.
“Are you sure?” Bender said. Looking at his face through the rearview mirror was like looking at a ghost.
“What the hell good is that King of yours?” I hissed at Julian instead. “How could he just stand there and watch her disappear?!” I really, really didn’t get it.
“He had no idea she had the ravenstone ring,” Julian mumbled.
Laughing couldn’t be helped. “He had no idea? He’s the King! I mean, why would we have gone through so much trouble to gather and to summon him here, if we didn’t know for sure what we were talking about?” If I didn’t know what I was talking about.
“I’m not saying that what he did was right. He should have acted faster, but he didn’t believe us, Winter. He was trying to earn himself a favor from the Earthlings. He didn’t really think she was Jane Dunham,” Julian said, shaking his head, disappointment dripping from his every word.
“Earthlings?” said Bender, narrowing his brows.
“Yep,” Julian said. “How do you know she’s in Long Island?”
“She left me a clue.”
“What kind of clue?”
I bit my bottom lip. “My mother’s favorite flower.”
“How the hell does she know your mother’s favorite flower?” asked Bender, a dumbfounded smile on his face.
“I don’t know.” The only thing that made sense was that she’d asked around, but even that was far fetched, because who would she have asked? My mother wasn’t exactly friendly with others. The only people who’d been in our last house were my teachers.
“You think she has Lynn and Ezra with her?” Bender held onto the front seats and leaned his head out like a kid.
“Perfectly possible,” Julian said. “I don’t think she saw what we tried to do coming.” I agreed. The surprise on Jane’s face had been very clear. “But even if they aren’t there, that’s a good thing. It means she’s not with them.”
“She wants something,” I said, the words forming a lump in my throat.
“She wouldn’t have left you the clue if she didn’t. Any idea what?” Julian asked.
I shook my head. “Not even a little.”
“It doesn’t matter what she wants. Let’s go get her,” Bender said.
“Oh, you can count on that. But we’re going to need backup first. If she has those fairy soldiers with her, we need someone who can fight them.” And the fact that I was on the way to the Bone coven headquarters instead of Long Island did make me want to claw my eyes out, but I resisted the urge to turn the wheel around because I didn’t think we’d get another chance with Jane Dunham, if she escaped us this time, too. And even if we did, I frankly didn’t want to. I’d had enough of the witch. No more joking around.
“I doubt she has the sold
iers. The Seelie King must have already ordered all of his men to stop taking orders from her,” Julian said.
“But are you sure?”
When he clamped his mouth shut and looked away, that was enough of an answer for me.
“We’ll meet to talk to the coven leaders once more. Tell them where we’re headed. Request the best people they have. This time, we can’t give her even a little chance.”
“She’ll still have the damned ring,” Bender hissed.
“Let’s make that our top priority,” Julian said. “Without it, I don’t think she can disappear.”
“She can’t,” I confirmed. “Otherwise she would have done so the last time we fought. Back when she was just a Hedge witch, looks and all.”
“She’ll still have a plan. We’ll put the best people on guard,” said Bender. “Even if the fairies are still with her.”
“Sounds like a plan, boys.” I parked the coven car in front of the headquarters building. I just hoped that the leaders wouldn’t take too long.
“They’re all on their way,” Bender said, as if he’d read my mind. That’s when I noticed him putting his phone back in his pocket.
“I wish I could change these goddamn clothes,” I mumbled as we walked up the stairs, because this time, none of the two witch guards standing by the doors stopped us. Instead, they opened them for us.
“I could lend you one of my shirts,” Bender mumbled.
“I’ll take that. Black and short sleeved, if you have it.” Anything at all that wasn’t my aunt’s shirt. The fabric stuck to my skin like it was wet and it made me itch all over. A man’s shirt wasn’t ideal, but it would be bigger, and I could tie it around my waist tight enough to make it comfortable.
When Bender stopped on the second floor, and Julian and I continued up the stairs, he grunted. “You shouldn’t be wearing other men’s shirts, Winter.”
It took me a second to figure out what he meant, and when I did, I actually blushed. “Well, if you were a gentleman, you’d offer me your shirt.” His was a plain black one—exactly my style.