by Leia Stone
When I got outside, I was alone. The crowd had dispersed, and Liam and everyone else were gone. Probably waiting for me at the blue door.
Pulling my hand out of my pocket, I looked down.
One of the queen’s dark pink hairs was intertwined between my fingers.
Gotcha.
When we returned to Mara’s, Liam asked her to take us all back to Seattle. We would check on his mom, give her the next dose of drops, and make a plan to get the final two crystals. We would mourn the dead and recharge.
As we pulled up to his farmhouse, Liam seemed in good spirits. We held hands as we walked to the front door. “I wonder how my mom’s doing,” he said.
“I’m sure she’s even better and can take the next drops,” I told him.
Without warning, Liam’s grip painfully tightened. “No!” he shouted, and yanked his hand from mine.
I looked up on the porch, following his gaze, and the world spun around me.
One of the guards he’d left to look after his family was dead, splayed out on his back, blood pooled around his body.
“Tye!” Liam fumbled into the house, mumbling his brothers’ names in a panicked ramble. “Cain, Colton, Trevor, Brian! Mom!”
He tore through the house, and I ran after him, opening doors and screaming their names. I could hear my pulse pounding in my ears as panic seized me.
We found another guard dead in the bathroom. One of his brothers’ stuffed toys lay at the guard’s feet. The wall was smashed in, and it looked like there had been a struggle. A whimper died in Liam’s throat at the sight of the toy, and he sagged against the wall.
He wasn’t thinking clearly, but I was.
We were Seekers. We could Seek anything, including people. Since I’d met all his brothers and knew what they looked like, I called up one of their images in my mind’s eye. The fourteen-year-old, Tye.
A strong pulse flared in my gut, and I knew he was close.
“I’ve got him!” I shouted, and ran out of the house. Footsteps pounded after me as I followed the feeling pulling at my navel.
The barn.
I bolted across the lawn and around the side of the house, while the others dealt with the guard on the porch and started to walk the perimeter.
The moment I laid my hand on the barn, my Seeker power flared to life. “He’s in here,” I told Liam with absolute certainty.
What I couldn’t say was whether he was dead or alive.
Ripping the door open, Liam called out his brothers’ names once more.
“In here!” Tye called back, and my body nearly collapsed with relief.
Thank gods.
When we turned the corner, I noticed first that Liam’s mom was sitting up, clutching her boys with a bloody knife her in hand. She looked…strong. Her hair had grown out a few inches, like magic, and there was color in her cheeks. But the next thing I noticed was that there were only four boys.
The little one, Cain, was missing.
Liam fell to his knees in that moment, and my chest ached with heartbreak. “Cain,” he croaked.
His mom stood with Tye’s help and lowered her knife. “Your father took him. He took the crystal, too.”
Liam stood, his wings snapping outward. Flames ignited at the tips, causing all of us to step backward. “I’ll kill him,” he growled.
He kicked off the ground and shot up into the barn’s rafters. I pushed off as well and went after him.
“Liam, he’ll destroy you!” I shouted, shooting through the sky as he sped out of the barn’s doors and hovered over his house.
He spun on me, and what I saw in his eyes scared me. They were dark. “He has Cain. He’ll kill him!”
“Let’s think this through.” I held up my hands. “Get a good rescue plan together. Would your dad really kill one of his heirs? Isn’t he obsessed with having children and growing the race?”
Liam’s face softened a little. “I don’t know what he’s capable of anymore.”
I nodded, flapping my wings to keep myself in the air with him. “I know. It’s scary, but look at your mom. She’s healing. And your other brothers are okay. We can bring them to Faerie to keep them safe tonight and go save your little brother in the morning with a solid plan.”
He seemed to mull over what I was saying.
“While we’re there, we can get the final three crystals,” I said. “We just need some more help.”
Liam shook his head. “I’m out of allies. I used my entire army today, lost three men, and only got one crystal. You nearly fainted bringing down the shield.” I could see he was near the edge mentally, going to a dark place.
I wanted to pull him out. “I’ve got an idea. What if we got Jasper the warlock to help us bring down the shield?”
Liam shook his head. “Jasper isn’t going to give a shit about our problems. He’ll want to know what’s in it for him.”
I shrugged. “How about a free ticket back into Faerie and some land to call his own once it’s restored? Guaranteed by yours truly, Princess of Spring.”
Princess of Spring…whoa, that sounded weird out loud.
Liam’s face fell. “No. We shouldn’t trust him with your secret. Do you have any idea how powerful your blood is? One drop and…no.”
I gripped his upper arms, forcing him to look at me while we hovered in midair. “I don’t care about my secret. I care about Cain. We need your brother back. We need the last three crystals. It’s time to start taking risks.”
He sighed, then started to descend, bringing me down with him. “You’re right.” His hands shook. “We need a solid plan so we can end this. Then I can get my brothers into Faerie with the rest of the crystals, where they will be safe forever.”
“No more running,” I said with a nod. “No more searching for the next crystal. We can be together.”
He gave me a small, sad smile. “You make it sound so easy…”
“It won’t be. Blood will be spilled, war will be waged. We’ll have to bring Faerie back with our blood, sweat, and tears. But it’s going to be worth it.”
Faerie restored. The queen alive and well. The fae community thriving once again, out in the open fields, with all four seasons brought back to life. It brought tears to my eyes just thinking about it.
Liam leaned forward and kissed my forehead, bringing the warmth of his body with him. “I’m going to go check on my family and give my mom her next dose.”
I nodded, pulling the pink hair out of my pocket. “I’m going to do a spell. We leave first thing in the morning to recruit Jasper.”
He looked down at the hair. “You got it?”
“Yeah.” I sighed. “Not sure I’m ready for the truth it holds.”
Something dark crossed his face. “Sometimes, the truth can leave scars…a wound that can never be healed.”
What? Before I could ask him what he meant, he squeezed my hand and flew off.
It didn’t matter. This was something I needed to do alone, anyway. Now that the initial shock of finding out who my real mother was had worn off, I was ready to learn everything.
After checking with Kira and borrowing two flowerberry seeds and some puckerberry juice from her, I was ready for the spell. I sat on Liam’s bed, the down comforter sinking in around me, as I ground the seeds with the mortar and pestle Kira had loaned me. Adding three drops of puckerberry, I gulped. Seeing this, seeing an actual memory of the queen’s…it would make it so real. Was I ready?
Yes. I had to know. I had to know what was real, and with Indra messing with everyone’s memories, this was the only way to discern the truth. I coiled the queen’s pink hair into the poultice and took a deep breath. Reaching into the stone bowl, I globbed a large amount of the thick paste onto my fingertips and closed my eyes, rubbing it over each lid. Then I lay back on Liam’s bed.
“Memories, memories, reveal yourselves to me.”
The second the words left my lips, my mind was assaulted with feelings and thoughts I didn’t recognize. It was a
ctually slightly terrifying, and I had to remind myself that this was a spell and I could wash the paste off to stop it.
I thought of my mother and instantly was pulled into a memory that wasn’t mine. It was like I was in the queen’s body—I was experiencing this as her.
She was running down a long hallway inside of a big castle. Probably Spring Castle, which was now lost to the darkness of Faerie.
She looked down at her arms, and a shock ran through me. She was holding a young toddler. Maybe a one-year-old, from the looks of her, with fuzzy pink hair.
It was me.
The queen burst through a bedroom door, and I was stunned to see my mom so young. She looked my age, barely twenty, and was sitting on my dad’s lap. Seeing him in the memory brought tears to my eyes.
“Violet!” the queen shouted in desperation.
My mom’s eyes darkened as she took in the queen’s distraught appearance. “What’s wrong? Is Lily unwell?”
The queen shook her head. “The Winter King marches here now with his army. He’s killing all of the heirs. Faerie has fallen into darkness. Queen Isana has ordered the Spring Court to stay and fight.”
My mom stood, and my father stepped up behind her. “Killing heirs? This war is pointless! Why is Spring even getting involved?”
I could feel my chest heave with emotion, as if I were feeling everything the queen felt.
“We must side with Summer, lest we be wiped out,” the queen said.
“Gods,” my mother breathed.
My young baby-self cooed, then, reaching up to tangle my fingers in the queen’s hair. Extreme grief overwhelmed my body as the queen’s emotions slammed into me one by one. She was terrified that I would be killed in the war.
The Winter King was trying to take over the realm and become the supreme ruler, no longer happy as one of four. He wanted things to be run his way, and he was willing to fight for it. He wanted all of Faerie to be a cold winter land, and because his Halfling son had just died, he wanted to punish the other royals for it by killing their children.
Reaching out with shaking hands, the queen handed me to my mom. “Vi, she’s all I care about. You must protect her with your life. If I fall, then you must raise her for me.”
I could read the queen’s thoughts. Her husband had died just last week fighting on the border, trying to keep the Winter Court from infiltrating. My mom and I were literally all she had. A sob escaped my throat as the queen’s memory overwhelmed me.
“Dahlia…what? No. I’ll stay and fight with you.” My mom tried to hand me back to the queen, but she shook her head, taking a step backward.
“We may only be half-sisters, but you are the only one I trust to keep Lily safe. This war has changed people. I need to know that she will be okay…that you’ll both be okay.”
My mom looked horrified as she cradled me. “Dahl…I—”
Someone burst into the room then, a fae guard wearing the old metal armor of the Spring Court. “Your Majesty, the Winter Army has breached the south wall.”
The queen tipped her chin high, a fierce swell of emotion radiating up through her chest. “Load the cannons, line the archers along the west wall, and prepare to fight. We defend Spring with everything we have. I won’t be forced out of my own court.”
“Oh, my gods,” my mom breathed behind the queen.
When the queen spun, my mom stepped forward with me in her arms, and they embraced, my little body tucked between them.
“I will protect her with my last breath and raise her as if she were my own,” my mom said.
Back in the memory, the queen looked down at me and touched my nose. “I love you, Daughter of Light.” Then she kissed my forehead, and a tear rolled from her cheek onto my baby face. “Now, go!” the queen roared. “There’s no more time! I’ll Seek you. When it’s over, I’ll Seek you both to the ends of Faerie, and we will be together again.”
It hit me that the queen and my mother had both been Seekers—it was a genetic gift, a royal gift. There were probably more memories I could see. I could search for so much more, but I didn’t want to. I’d become overwhelmed with grief. Tears streamed down my temples and onto Liam’s pillow.
Snapping my eyelids open, I stumbled to the bathroom and vigorously rubbed the paste off with hand soap. When I was done, I blotted my face dry and looked at myself in the mirror.
There was no denying it now. I was the queen’s daughter. I was the princess of Spring. I was the last Daughter of Light.
Holy fucking shit.
A depression settled over me as I stumbled into Liam’s bed. I couldn’t imagine going through what the queen had gone through. Giving up her child…it was unthinkable. And my mom, raising me as her own without me really being hers. It just made me feel so sad.
Sobs racked my body as I cried myself to sleep.
The next morning, I awoke with determination. The queen had risked so much to keep me safe. I was going to risk whatever I had to in order to wake her.
Even though I would always think of Violet as my mother, that didn’t mean the queen wasn’t my family. She needed me, and I wasn’t going to let her down. Liam was also my family, and I wasn’t going to let him down, either. We would get his little brother back, get the remaining crystals, and escape to Faerie, where we would be safe.
No matter what. No matter who I have to kill.
The Halflings in Liam’s army had stayed the night, camped out in his yard with over two dozen tents. They’d slept in the barn, in cars, and lying on the floor in the house. Basically, there’d been boys everywhere.
We’d left them to look after Liam’s family while we went to see Jasper, just Liam and me.
Standing at the base of the steps leading up to Jasper’s house, my stomach tightened in knots. “Do you think he’ll help us?” I asked as we took the steps two by two.
Liam shook his head. “No, I don’t.”
I frowned. Well, Liam wasn’t exactly known for his sparkling optimism, so I wasn’t going to let his response get to me.
Before we even reached the top step, the door opened, and the creepy-looking warlock glared at us from within his hooded cloak. “No, go away,” he called out.
I rolled my eyes. “You haven’t even heard what we need.”
He waved his hand. “I don’t care.”
“Or what we have to offer,” I added.
He looked at me, raising one eyebrow. The snake tattoo on his head wrinkled with his skin. “You have two minutes.” Stepping aside, he ushered us into his office, then turned to face me, looking rather peeved at my presence.
Showtime.
“The Winter King has the remaining three crystals of Faerie, and we need a warlock to break down his shields and help us get them out—”
“Pass,” Jasper said, picking at his nails.
“In return”—I raised my voice—“I will offer you passage back to Faerie, where you can live among the crystals forever.”
He rolled his eyes. “Faerie is a tiny shithole right now. I want nothing to do with it in its current state.”
Okay, ouch. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear about my homeland.
“What about in its restored state? I’ll give you your own patch of land, and you could be the only warlock left. Lots of business.” I went for the ego, hoping that would sway him.
His eyes darkened. “And how, exactly, do you keep a promise to restore Faerie?”
I looked at Liam, who shook his head. It was either expose that the queen was still alive and make her vulnerable to an assassination or out myself.
I looked him straight in the eyes. “Because I am the princess of Spring. Queen Dahlia was my mother.”
I expected a big, dramatic moment, but instead, he laughed. Full-on head-tipped-back laughter. “You poor thing. You must really believe that, or you wouldn’t have passed my lie detector last time. All right, we’re done here.” He moved to usher us out.
“It’s true!” Liam shouted.
Jasper
sneered at his old friend. “If it were true, she would have untold power, magic that you couldn’t imagine in your wildest—”
I shot a stream of sunlight right at his bookcase, and one of the books exploded into little burned bits of paper.
Jasper froze, and Liam used his ice magic to put out the fire, holding his hands over the burning book and encompassing it in snow.
“I’m in,” the warlock said immediately.
Relief flooded through me. “Really?”
He nodded. “But I want ten acres of prime Spring Court land, and I want to be the official warlock to the royal court.”
That sounded like a big position…a position I was sure the queen would want to fill personally. But how many warlocks were even left? I mean, what if he was the only one? Then I was doing the queen a favor.
“Deal,” I told him, and Liam facepalmed beside me.
“Sealed in blood,” Jasper added.
Shivers ran down my spine. “Umm, well…”
“No,” Liam declared. “A royal does not do blood oaths, and you know it.”
Jasper sneered, leaning against the open door. “Then how do I know she will follow through?”
“A contract. Signed by both of you and witnessed by me.”
“A contract? How very human of you.”
“You have five seconds to answer before we go elsewhere,” I tried to bluff.
Jasper rolled his eyes. “Oh, all right.”
Over the next twenty minutes, we wrote up a very detailed contract stipulating Jasper’s return to Faerie and the land and position he would be granted upon the restoration of the realm. Then I signed it.
Lily, daughter of Dahlia, princess of the Spring Court.
Staring at daughter of Dahlia was one of the weirdest moments of my life. But we had a powerful warlock on our side now, and that was all that mattered.
He glanced between Liam and me. “Look at you two. This is all very Romeo and Juliet. Let me pack my things.”
An hour later, my convertible was filled to the brim with Louis Vuitton suitcases and Gucci duffel bags. Clearly, Jasper liked his material comforts.
