by Leia Stone
Cam’s gaze cut to Liam. “Did you hear that? She just admitted she’s going to steal the crystal from us. How can you ask me to trust you when your judgement is so clearly fucked around her?”
I held up a hand. “Let me finish.”
Cam glared at me, and his eyes darkened to pitch black. “You’d better redeem yourself. Quickly.”
“Calm down!” Elle snapped at him, standing to tower over him, knife in hand.
Rolling my eyes, I stood as well. “I plan to take all twelve crystals to the Tree of Life and restore Faerie. When I do, I want to offer all of you a place to live. In Faerie.”
Shock crossed his face, but he quickly masked it. “You can’t restore Faerie. It’s broken. That’s why our parents escaped it and came here.”
I shook my head. “No. Your parents broke it by stealing the crystals and coming here, and if I can return them, we can fix Faerie and all live together again. You can use the portal to come and go to Earth as you please. Open borders to visit your human family and live in the energy of Faerie to stay healthy.”
Cam crossed his arms. “My mom said only a Queen of Spring can restore Faerie and breathe life back into it, and that she’s dead.”
Liam met my gaze and nodded. If I was going to expect the Halflings to be on our side, I needed them to trust me.
“She’s not,” I said. “She’s sleeping, and she’s my aunt. I will wake her, restore Faerie, and offer you all a place to live by our sides. I swear it.” I held up my hand, palm out, making the oath.
Cam looked stunned into silence. It was a bold claim, especially since the Elders had all but told me to go fuck myself when I’d asked, but I planned to be persistent until they did as I told them. If not, I would bypass them and go right to the queen herself, as soon as she awoke.
“Fine.” Cam crossed his arms. “But betray us, and I’ll kill you.”
Fair enough.
“Likewise.” Elle stared at him, and he let his eyes wander over her body.
For two people who hated each other, they sure kept checking each other out a lot.
“I’m glad we got that over with. Now, where to?” Liam asked, starting the boat back up.
“The blue door. We need to go to New York.”
That damn Seeker stone better show me another crystal, now that I’d been to Liam’s, or I was all out of options.
“That was insane,” Cam mumbled as we weaved in and out of busy passersby in New York City. He couldn’t get over Mara and the blue doors and how we’d traveled here. “She—we—and then—”
Liam chuckled. “I couldn’t really enjoy it the first time, since I was half dead. But I know what you mean. It’s a trip.”
Cam looked at me when Liam spoke, so I wondered if he’d told him that I had saved his life. Remembering him lying in that house with his stomach torn open and the blue light dancing between us made my throat tighten.
I guided them through Central Park, having opted to leave Bashur back home. He wasn’t a fan of the boys. When we reached the entrance of the Shakespeare Garden, the sun was just setting. How had this day gone by so quickly? My legs dragged with exhaustion as I realized I hadn’t gotten any real sleep in a while. It was naps or being knocked unconscious. Not exactly restful.
“All right, it’s over here,” I told Liam as Cam and Elle hung back.
He stared at the headstone announcing the name of the garden and the quote underneath it. “This thing?”
There was an old lady sitting on a bench nearby, reading a book I was going to guess was Shakespeare, but other than that, we were alone. Reaching out, I placed my hand on the stone. It transformed into a map before our eyes, and I looked over to see Liam squinting at it.
“Hmm. That’s my house.”
I followed his gaze back to the stone, and my heart fell. “No. Not again.”
“Maybe my father’s crystals are hidden with dark magic,” Liam mused.
Creepy but plausible.
He reached for his belt and pulled a sharp knife.
“Uh, what are yo—”
Slicing the blade across his palm quickly, he produced a few drops of blood.
“Liam, that’s—”
“Yeah, yeah. Dark magic. Dark Fae. I know.” With that, he placed his bloodied hand onto the plaque, and the image shimmered. Black, smoky swirls ran across the plaque, changing the map.
Whoa. Okay. Dark, but apparently affective.
I leaned in closer, and my arm touched Liam’s, sending heat up my spine. Adjusting my stance so that we weren’t touching, I peered at the map. Three crystals had appeared in the shape of a triangle over a piece of land in Idaho.
“It worked,” I breathed.
“I know where that is,” Liam told me.
Perfect. We had a plan. Idaho, here we come.
“Working together now, are you?” a familiar voice called from above us, and I barely had time to register it before the Winter King dropped right between Liam and me.
We were ambushed. Half a dozen Sons of Darkness jumped out into the garden, and my first thought was of the old lady on the bench. But she was gone—and it was a good thing, too, because darkness had descended on Central Park.
The Winter King went right for Liam’s throat, and a cold blast of air whipped past me as I was tossed backward and slammed into the meaty body of one of his lackeys.
“Lily!” Elle shouted, throwing knives at guys left and right and trying to get to me. The man I’d slammed into turned, grasped my upper arms hard, and lifted me up into the air so that I was at eye level with him.
Holy crystals.
His breath was rancid, his teeth bared and sharp, and he glared at me with blank white eyes. He was the same breed as whatever Cam was but more sinister. Evil.
I was just getting ready to knee him in the balls when he snapped his head forward and crashed his horned forehead into mine. Pain exploded behind my eyes, and everything went black.
When I came to, I was bouncing up and down. Trying to get my bearings, I looked around and realized I was hanging over Liam’s shoulder, and we were just exiting the park.
“I’m okay,” I croaked, and he slid me down, his eyes honey amber with threads of blue. There was blood on his cheek.
“Cam’s hurt,” he said. “Bad. Can we take him to Faerie?”
I didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Two concussions in twenty-four hours might be messing with my brain, but I didn’t give two fucks about the Elders anymore. Liam, his brothers, Cam—they were fae, and all fae had a right to a healer when sick.
Elle caught up with us, holding a bleeding black wolf in her arms. My mouth popped open to ask why the fuck she was carrying a wild animal when I saw two horns on the wolf’s forehead.
“Cam’s a shifter,” I breathed.
Liam nodded. “Not for long if we don’t help him.”
Elle grunted under the weight of his giant body. “Come on, I can’t hold this illusion forever.”
Oh, yeah. Carrying a bleeding wolf shifter with black horns through New York City wasn’t normal. Elle must have a pretty big illusion up to make it all seem natural.
By the time we got to the apartment, Elle was pale white.
“I’ll take him,” Liam said, crossing the threshold into the living room.
Elle must have dropped the illusion then, because her color looked better, and she handed the limp wolf off to Liam.
I shut the apartment door and realized I’d told Mara to give us an hour. We still had twelve minutes before the other side of this door would transform into her apartment.
Fuck.
“Let’s go!” Liam yelled. “He’s bleeding out.”
My heart plummeted. “Twelve more minutes,” I mumbled.
“What?” Liam’s voice was hoarse. He’d laid Cam down right there in the hallway and was pressing his hands to his wounds. Crimson blood pooled on the wood floors around Cam’s body.
“I told Mara one hour.” I checked my watch ag
ain just to be safe. “We still have eleven minutes until she comes.”
“No!” Liam cried out, his face twisted with grief.
“I’m sorry. We just have to wait.”
“All right, call an emergency veterinary clinic.” Liam looked around for a phone. “We need to get him into surgery.”
Cam’s wolf form started to tremble then, and at the same time, my hands pulsed with white light.
“What the fuck was that?” Elle asked, looking at my hands like they were aliens.
I gave a nervous giggle. “Nothing.”
Why was my sunlight magic coming out now? I wasn’t in danger.
They pulsed again, and my hands warmed, sending a tingle up my arms. I had the strangest urge to kneel and place them on Cam’s quivering body.
I realized then that Mara had done something similar. She’d pulsed some kind of light into Liam to stop the bleeding. Maybe I could, too…maybe whatever the mermaids had done to me had caused me to be a healer.
My hands were glowing like lightbulbs now.
Elle backed against the wall. “That’s some freaky Elder power.”
“Liam.” I knelt and faced him, my warm, glowing hands hovering over where his held Cam’s bleeding wounds tightly. “Move aside.”
He looked up at me, unshed emotion in his eyes and torment on his face. “No. He’ll bleed out.”
I shook my head. “You have to trust me. After all this, can’t you trust me?”
Something changed in his face, and he removed his hands. The second they came off Cam’s body, I slammed mine down firmly. Light pulsed, sharp and hot, causing Cam to jerk and wake up.
I held on as the light seared into him and a howl ripped from his throat, echoing off the apartment walls. Chills broke out on my arms, and it felt like a wave of magic crashed into me and then flooded into Cam. Whatever that healing pool had done, it had given me some seriously awesome ability, and I was pretty sure that power was healing Cam.
Finally, the light died down, and Cam stopped howling. Laying his head to the side, he panted softly instead.
Removing my hands, I looked down and gasped. Where the deep bloody gash had been, there was now a closed and puckered scar.
Had the High Priestess of the healing pools given me healing powers?
I looked up at Liam, who just watched me with a furrowed brow and curious eyes.
“What the actual fuck was that, Lily?” Elle breathed next to me. Cam whimpered, and she instinctively reached out and stroked behind his ears, as one would to calm a dog. “You’re okay.”
We sat there for a few moments in silence, me staring intermittently at my hands, Liam staring at me, and Elle treating Cam like a prized pooch.
The door opened behind me, and suddenly, Mara was looking down at all of us. “I thought I heard a wolf. What happened?”
Liam picked Cam up, and we all moved into Mara’s house.
“We were ambushed,” I said. “I need you to take us to Faerie. Kira needs to see him.”
Mara’s eyes ran over Cam’s wolf form, and something sad crossed her face. “You’re dancing with the devil, Lily. If you bring another one into Faerie, then Indra will—”
“I don’t care anymore! Let her cuff me. Let her kill me. I will not live my life imprisoned by rules that I don’t agree with. It’s worse because you think you’re free, but you’re not. It’s an illusion of the grandest design.”
Mara began to tear up. “Damn. Your mother would be proud.”
She gave me a quick hug, and then we all ran down the hallway to her office. As we strapped in, I couldn’t stop looking at my hands.
Was I a healer Fae?
No. Kira’s light was blue. Mine was yellow, and you couldn’t be a Seeker and a healer. Right?
I wrestled with my thoughts until we stood at the blue door that led from Mara’s office and into Faerie. “Thank you,” I whispered, and we sneaked out into the night.
“I’ll get Kira,” Elle said, and I nodded in gratitude.
Weaving in and out of side yards and shadowy bushes, we made our way to my home without being seen. When we burst inside, Liam set Cam on my couch and looked at me, his eyes dark and his expression somber.
“You okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “This couch has some stories to tell.”
My cheeks reddened. Our first kiss had been on that couch.
He seemed to realize what he’d said. “I mean because of when I was injured.”
“Right.” I chewed my lip.
How was it that you could have the most intimate experience possible with someone one week and then feel like an awkward stranger the next?
The door opened before I could think on it any longer, and Kira walked towards us. Her hair was mussed from sleep, and her eyes were bleary. The second she saw the black horned wolf on my couch, she paused, and her gaze rose to meet mine. “Making a habit of this, Lily?”
I winced. “Trying not to. Can you help him?”
She moved forward hesitantly, and Cam whipped his head around to look at her. She froze, eyes lighting up in terror.
“He won’t hurt you,” Liam said.
She swallowed hard before kneeling in front of him and examining the wounds. A frown pulled at her face. “A shifter? And someone has already worked on him?”
Panic seized me. I wasn’t ready to be “out there” with my freaky sun powers. “Mara,” I said before anyone else could reveal me.
She seemed satisfied with that. “A poor job, but she saved his life.”
With that, she went to work, blue light filling the living room. Cam whimpered, and Liam tensed. “Do you have that pain elixir?” he asked.
Kira nodded. “Just made a fresh batch. It’s in my bag by the door.”
Elle had been perched quietly by the front door, and she moved now. She bent down to get the bag and riffled through it until she found the bottle. When she handed it to Liam, he thanked her, then gave the bottle to Kira.
“One teaspoon,” she told him, not looking up from her healing work or reaching for the bottle.
He pulled his hand back and cracked the lid of the bottle as I moved into the kitchen to grab a spoon.
After we coaxed the dose down Cam, the wolf fell into a deep sleep. Kira finished up the healing and looked at Liam. Her forehead was drenched with sweat, and she seemed tired.
“He’ll be fine. I’ll bring over some healing stones in the morning. I think they should be laid on him while he’s in his human form. More effective that way.”
Liam bowed his head deeply, then took her hand to his lips and kissed it.
The gesture shocked us both.
“Thank you,” he said. “I owe you everything. Name it, and it’s yours.”
She blushed as she pulled her hand out of his grasp. “No payment is necessary.” Then she looked at me. “Lily, a word?”
She walked to my back porch, which overlooked the garden my mother and I had planted years ago. It still thrived. Living in perpetual spring had its upsides.
“Thank you so much, Kira,” I murmured. “I promise this won’t happen again.”
She nodded. “I came by after the queen’s afternoon healing today. You weren’t here.”
I frowned. “Yeah, I was Seeking. What’s wrong, is she worse?”
Kira’s voice shook. “Well, I have been keeping the queen under constant surveillance like you asked. If I can’t be there, then I’ve sent my sister, Nika.”
Nika was a sweet nine-year-old healer-in-training. Not exactly the best person to look after the queen, but better than nothing.
I nodded. “Kira…out with it.”
The healer chewed the inside of her lip. “When Nika was watching over the queen, she said that Indra came in and gave her a potion. Told Nika it was just something to help her sleep and that it helped with the earthquakes.”
“What?” I nearly fell over.
Kira nodded. “Then Indra tried to change her memory to forget the incident, but she
must not know that you can’t do that to a healer. Our memories cannot be tampered with, as our bodies constantly heal, burning up the spell.”
I started to pace the balcony, the wind cooling my flushed face. This was treason of the highest order.
“Do you believe Nika?” I hated to pull that card, but she was nine. Once, when I was nine, I had told my mom I’d broken my ankle just because I wanted attention.
Kira shrugged. “I didn’t at first, no. But then I went to the queen and smelled her lips.”
I froze and looked at the healer. “And?”
“And it was snoozeberry juice. Clear as day.”
Holy shit. Was the queen actually sick, or was Indra keeping her in some drug-induced sleep?
I suddenly felt unsafe talking about this out in the open, even if it was the middle of the night. Unlatching the door, I pulled Kira inside. My thoughts raced a mile a minute, and I wished so badly that my mom was here. A moment later, I remembered her journal and the book I’d swiped from the Elder library and promised myself to read later.
“Okay, go back to the queen,” I said. “I’ll talk to Trissa and start having her take a shift.”
I trusted Trissa in my gut—she had been my mother’s most loyal guard.
Kira nodded.
“And no more snoozeberry juice,” I added.
She wrung her hands nervously. “I’ll…try to tell her not to, but she’s an Elder.”
I stilled, my hands fisted at my sides. “No, you throw your body over the queen and forbid it. You are the healer, you are the potions master—why the fuck are we bending to the Elders, anyway?”
It was like a veil had been lifted. We were brainwashed. Do this, do that, ask no questions, smile sweetly, bow your head. Fuck that. I was over it.
Determination settled on Kira’s features. “As you wish. I will protect the queen with my life.”
I pulled her into a hug. These were dangerous times, and I’d just asked her to put herself on the line. “I won’t forget this, Kira. Thank you.”
When we pulled away, her eyes were misty, and she bowed lightly to me.
She left, and I stepped back outside for some fresh air. This couldn’t be happening. Indra giving the queen a sleeping potion, then trying to wipe little Nika’s memory…that was beyond fucked.
