by Leia Stone
“Ow!” I yelped, my fingers springing open and dropping the water jug. “No!” Leaning forward, I reached all the way into the water and tried to grab the jar, but it sank to the bottom of the pond. That power zap happened again, and I yanked my arm out of the water to find my heart jackknifed in my chest. What the hell?
Why is the healing water trying to kill me?
“What’s wrong?” Trissa asked without looking back at me. Her eyes were peeled for anything moving in the creepy-ass dead forest.
“It … zapped me and I dropped the jar.”
“Zapped you? Okay, well, dive in, we need to get a move on. The water is perfectly safe, I assure you. My grandmother swam in it daily, and lived longer than we all could tolerate.” That made me grin. Okay, swimming in the zapping healing pool. No big deal. No pain, no gain.
Snap. Another twig. This one sounded like it was right behind me.
Without waiting another moment, I took in a huge lungful of air and dove into the cool water. I plunged into the deep lake and it felt like my skin was crackling. A burning tingle worked its way up my back and I started to panic. Maybe the healing pool had changed since Trissa once knew it. But I was already halfway down. I might as well bear the pain and get the jar. Kicking, I swam to the lower depths of the clear pond and wrapped my fingers around the edge of the glass. The second my fingers touched the edge of the jar, something pulled at my navel, and then everything around me spun. It was like I’d been thrown inside of a washing machine, similar to when Mara transported us from Faerie to Earth. The water swirled around me and I got disoriented. Then I was falling.
What the…?
It was a portal.
I dropped onto dry earth, inside some kind of cave, landing hard on my feet. Water dripped from me as I stood soaking wet on the sandy beach.
Doing a full 360, I realized I was trapped. The cave was completely closed off, no light but for the small glow of a few crystal lamps that hung on the walls.
“Hello, dear,” a lyrical female voice called out behind me.
A bright golden light at the back of the cave flickered. I stepped closer and the light began to etch into details of a humanoid form.
Whaaaat the…?
Long red hair cascaded over a woman’s shoulder as the light then moved to her lower half and it took the form of a tail. The cave glowed so brightly with this golden light I had to squint or risk being blinded.
When the light died down, I stood before … a mermaid.
A gasp left my throat. I thought they’d all died.
“Umm, hi,” I croaked.
She smiled and beckoned me closer. I took small, cautious steps until I was close enough to be respectable but far enough to retreat if attacked. Mermaids were beautiful, loving creatures, but they looked an awful lot like sirens, which were another story. I couldn’t trust my judgement to tell the two apart since I didn’t grow up around them, only hearing stories and seeing paintings.
“Hello, dear, I’m Aura, high priestess of the Spring Fae mermaids and the spirit keeper of the healing pool.” Her voice danced around the space, bouncing off the walls and coming at me from all directions.
High priestess of the mermaids? Spirit keeper?
Whoa. Should I bow?
“I’m … Lily.” I gave a small curtsy for good measure. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing here or how I got here, but if she had brought me here, I was going to show some dammed respect in the hopes she could free me as well. She smiled hugely, bowing her head back to me in a gesture of good faith. I think this meant she was truly a mermaid and not a siren. The vibes felt right, but I made a mental note to go home and get as many books on the mermaids as possible.
“I brought you here because I respect your free will,” she said, her purple scaled tail glittering in the reflecting light of the crystal sconces that lined the cave wall.
“Umm, thanks.” At this point I was wondering if I would be trapped here forever. Maybe she was lonely … it didn’t look like there were any other mermaids hiding in here with her, but I could be wrong.
“I see that you brought a jar. Most people come to my pool to be healed, but I haven’t had a visitor since the dark times, and so I wonder … did you come to be healed or just to take my water in your jar and heal another?”
I gulped, guiltily grasping the glass jar. “Well, I don’t need a healing. I ca—”
“Don’t you?” She sat erect and her hands pulsed with a silver light that then swirled in the air above her.
Did I need healing? Is that what she was telling me?
“Umm, do I?” Fae didn’t really get sick. I mean, of course there was poison, curses, old age, mortal injury and the like, but I didn’t have any of that.
She sharpened her gaze. “You do not know?”
I swallowed hard. “Know what?”
I felt like she was about to give me a cancer diagnosis or something, but Fae couldn’t get cancer of course.
“You have an extremely powerful and intricate binding spell on you. If anyone else were to remove it, they would meet their death. Anyone but me of course. I can remove it if you like…”
My mouth opened in shock. A binding spell … on me?
“Binding what?”
She shrugged. “Your true power I would think. What else?”
My true power? I was a seeker. That was my power … right? My mind reeled as I soaked in her revelation. Who would bind me? My mother? Maybe she’d planned to tell me about all this on my birthday and then remove the spell? But that didn’t feel right. My mother was a lot of things, but she would never bind something in me, some power. She’d want me to train with it because untrained Fae power was dangerous. Maybe I was a healer too … or a warrior Fae with extreme strength like Trissa…
Speaking of the warrior Fae, I knew that Trissa and Elle were waiting for me and they’d be worried—I needed to act quickly.
“Remove it please,” I declared, making up my mind. If I had some kind of binding keeping me from my full potential, then I wanted it gone. ASAP.
She nodded. “As you wish. Visit me again soon, yes? I’ll introduce you to the others next time.”
Others? I gulped.
“Okay,” I lied, unsure if I could make that happen.
With a smile, she clapped her hands and then I was plunged into water again, spinning and spinning.
An electric jolt ran through my body, and pain like I’d never felt before ripped through every cell I had. It was burning, deep and electric, as every muscle in my body flinched. I screamed, bubbles rising before my face and up to the surface. The pain then retreated, just as soon as it had come, and I started to kick up to the surface, jar in hand.
What. The. Hell. Was. That?
My body trembled as currents of power pulsed into me. I kicked my way to the shore, breaking the surface, but at first glance couldn’t find Trissa and Elle.
Rolling out of the pond and back onto the ground, I stood on shaky legs screwing the lid on the jar with weak hands. It felt like I’d been plugged into an electrical socket and power was vibrating just underneath my skin.
“Run!” Trissa shouted, and blasted past me with Elle next to her.
Without question, I took off running just behind them. Risking a glance behind me, my gaze fell on a … creature … of nightmarish proportions. It had two racks of horns, six eyes, and a slimy body that was all muscle. Running on the hind legs of a deer and the upper portion of a man, it was … horrifying. Its mouth was open; two thin strings of black drool hung from its sharpened teeth.
Oh gods.
I pumped my legs faster, trying to ignore this new weird powerful electric feeling in my body. Trying not to think about the fact that I’d just been sucked into some mermaid portal where she’d … unbound some spell on me?
I need you, Mom, I silently sent up to the ethers.
Peering up into the thickly treed canopy, I knew that if we tried to fly, we risked wing injury for all of the low hangin
g branches.
We reached the edge of the black river in record time and Trissa looked over at me. “Jump!”
I nodded as they dove into the water, but something pulled at my consciousness, forcing me to freeze. Peering over my shoulder, my mouth unhinged as I gazed upon dozens of vibrant green patches of grass and pink and purple flowers. They were in the shape of footsteps. My footsteps. Looking down at my feet planted in the earth, lush green grass grew where I stood.
Holy hell. What was this?
The creature was gone, giving me a moment to really absorb what I was seeing. Did I really do this? Was my secret unlocked power, a garden tender Fae?
“Lily!” Trissa snapped, and I shook myself, diving into the water and over to where they floated near the protection. I didn’t want Trissa to see it, whatever it was, because it scared the shit out of me.
A thought came to me then and relief rushed through my body. It was the healing water? Yes! That was it. The healing water I’d swam in had rolled onto the land and healed it.
A reasonable explanation, which also made me wonder if that was the key to eventually healing Faerie if I couldn’t wake the queen. Was there enough water to heal it? I didn’t know. Paddling hard, I reached the protection and handed the jar to Trissa. She took it but kept her eyes on the murky water for any more psycho fish. Reaching my palms up to lay them on the protection spell, I used my seeker power to quickly open a hole so we could all slip inside, and then quickly closed it before too much black water polluted Faerie.
After we finally made it to the shore, we lay on the sand, panting and out of breath.
Elle’s hand slipped into mine. “We did it.”
“We did it,” I agreed. I didn’t want to tell them about the footprints because I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure that it was because of the healing water, and that scared me shitless.
Twenty minutes later, Elle and I had changed and we were ready to meet up with Liam and find two crystals. One for each of us. The elders had showed up on shore and taken the healing water for “safekeeping,” saying that it could not leave Faerie. I was getting pretty damned tired of them telling me what to do. I mean, I knew they were the leaders of our world, but it seemed like I was doing all the work and they were giving the orders. My rebellious nature wasn’t having that, but I didn’t feel like starting a war, so I allowed them to take it. They must not have trusted me to bring it to Earth, which really pissed me off.
“So you’re letting him keep a crystal?” Elle pulled her short brown hair into a tiny ponytail at the nape of her neck. “Must be love.”
I rolled my eyes. “We have a business agreement. Love isn’t even on the radar.”
Not with him anyway.
She nodded, “Mhh hmm, sure.”
I reached for the blue door handle to Mara’s wearing a slight grin, and I opened it. Mara was standing there with Bashur, playing checkers.
“Did you figure out what that earthquake was?” I asked her, noticing she’d gotten everything back onto their shelves.
She looked up. “Nope. Not a clue. Ready for the next adventure?”
I nodded. “Back to Seattle. I need to pick up Liam and get the next crystal.”
Her face drew into a frown. “Why are you still working with him?”
I sighed. “Look, I know you don’t like him, or trust the halflings or whatever, but I need him. Only he can touch the dark crystals and bring them to Faerie to be healed.”
Mara came around the desk, golden handcuffs clanking together as she sat on the edge of the desk and looked up at me. “I’m not that worried about Liam. He could be a great guy for all I know.”
I frowned. Not worried my ass. She’d all but told me he was a liar who was hiding something and she didn’t trust him.
She lowered her voice. “I’m worried about what the elders will do to you when they find out you’re continuing to work with him.”
My head reeled back. “Do to me?” Chills ran the length of my arms and tears lined Mara’s eyes.
“You want to know my story?” She held up the cuffs. Elle and I shared a look and nodded. I’d been waiting to hear this for so long, ever since my mother told me of the imprisoned fae. Now I wondered if I really wanted to.
She took in a deep breath. “I’ve had to forgive myself a lot over the years.”
Forgive herself?
Tipping up her chin, lip quivering, Mara said, “I started the Dark War.”
I gasped, stepping back a little, and regretted it when hurt crossed her face. “How?” I regained my composure and took two steps closer to her in an act of what I hoped was support.
Mara sighed. “I was working the portal, taking the elders and other high level Fae out on important Earth missions when I met him … Daniel.” She smiled sweetly and a tear fell down her cheek. “A human.”
Oh shit. Rule number one of being a Fae: DON’T fall for a human. Like Ever. Ever. Did Mara … could she have … no…
“The Sons of Darkness, the halflings, they’re because of you?” Elle asked.
My mind was working a mile a minute trying to keep up.
Mara shrugged. “I guess. Daniel and I were soulmates, the blue light didn’t show up on him but it did on me. And I just knew… it was a feeling.”
Soulmates! With a human?
Mara looked lost in her memory, “I got pregnant and word got around. Fae started to wonder if they could venture out onto Earth and lay with humans too. We were having a war between Winter and Summer. It was already a vulnerable time. People wanted an escape and Faerie had become heavy. Earth was fun and light and free, and humans were innocent to our troubles.”
We nodded, encouraging her to continue.
“I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.” Tears rolled down her cheeks and I reached out to grasp her hands. “But she was stillborn. That’s when I started to wonder if maybe I’d made a mistake.”
My heart broke in that moment. Pain ebbed from my chest throughout my limbs. “So you lost your baby and the elders fucking imprisoned you?” Anger rose up inside of me, washing that pain right away and replacing it with rage. How fucking dare they?
She sighed. “No. I lost my baby, let over fifty Fae escape out onto Earth, including the Winter King, then Daniel died … that’s when the elders imprisoned me.”
I winced. Oh. Well, that sounded kind of bad. You weren’t allowed to let Fae off-world unless it was for an approved mission. Even when using the enchanted shell. “Why’d you let all of the Fae out?”
She shrugged. “People deserve free will, do they not?”
Yeah, they did, I guess.
“How did Daniel die?” Elle asked, her voice small and full of compassion.
Mara’s jaw ticked. “Fae poison. I smelled it on his lips. I tried to give him a healing stone, but it worsened the effect and he just went quicker. To this day, I do not know who did it.”
That was bad. Like really bad.
“I’m so sorry.” I stepped up to embrace her and she squeezed me tightly. When we pulled back, she smoothed my hair. “I don’t ever want something like that to happen to you. Understand?”
Loud and fucking clear. I needed to play my cards right with the elders and Liam, but it was time to remind them just who was in charge. Until they got off their lazy asses and started having seeker abilities, I wasn’t going to be taking orders from them.
“Okay. Seattle?” Mara wiped her cheeks, trying to change the mood. Elle and I shared a sad look.
Poor thing. She’d been carrying that weight for so long.
“Seattle,” I affirmed.
Five minutes later, I stepped out onto the green, tree-lined front lawn in the rain to see Liam pacing the area nervously. “You’re here!” he cried out, and ran over to me. There was blood on his jacket and his wings were limp, lifeless.
“What happened?” I almost reached out to touch him and then remembered myself.
He followed my line of sight to his jacket. “Oh, that’s n
othing. Come on, we don’t have much time. You took forever.”
Elle and I shared a look. What was his rush? Our world was ending, not his. I knew he didn’t trust me or I would have asked.
I started to dig a hole in the grass to put my feet in and help us seek the next crystal when Liam took out a knife and sliced his palm.
“What the hell!” I shouted.
He frowned. “What? I’m going to find where the next two are.”
I pointed to the dirt I was about to stick my feet into, and if that didn’t do it then it was off to New York.
He scoffed. “That barely works, and only if it’s within a few hundred miles, never in another country. This works no matter the continent.”
He let his blood drip onto the earth, mumbling under his breath as a cool wind passed through the yard.
Whoa.
“Blood magic is … dark,” I croaked. My mother told me to never ever use blood in a spell. It called the darkness to you, and once you did that, it was hard to get off.
He narrowed his gaze at me. “And you thought this entire time that I was a light Fae?”
I sighed. “Obviously not but—”
“But nothing. I’m a Dark Fae that does dark magic. Get over it,” he snapped and closed his eyes, leaving me feeling like I’d been slapped.
Elle raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms, while I decided to just ignore the asshole. He was obviously in distress and in a hurry, but that was no excuse for talking to me like that. He touched the part of the dirt that had his blood on it and stuck his finger deep into the earth. The cold breeze rushed harder, slamming into us. I had to plant my feet into the earth just to keep from falling over.
Then, just as quickly as the breeze had come, it died down and Liam stood.
“They’re here.” He looked shocked, “On Orcas Island, just outside Puget Sound. A place where no blue doors exist.”
“They? Both crystals?” I brushed off my hands and prepared to fly to this island.
He nodded, seeming to be far off in his mind. “Three of them actually. If we move quickly, I can make it back in time.”
