by ERIN BEDFORD
I gave an awkward cough, not sure what she wanted me to say. Instead, I focused back on the roses. “They are an unusual color. I’ve never seen a rose with white and red petals before.”
“No, I cannot imagine you have.” She gave a small sad smile. “They used to be as white as a newborn Opalaught’s coat, but after that horrid incident, they began to bleed red. They’ve stayed that way for the last century or so, but for some reason,” she held the rose out for me to examine, twirling it around between her fingertips. “They have begun to turn white again. Very curious, is it not?” Her eyes twinkled as her lips curved up in a peculiar smile.
I licked my dry lips. “Yes, very curious.”
“Here, take it.” She held the rose out to me. I stared down at the rose and then up to her eyes, which seemed to be searching for some kind of reaction.
“Oh no.” I shook my head. “I couldn’t.”
Mab’s eyes hardened, the curve of her lips pressed into a thin line. “Would you deny a gift from the Queen’s garden, the garden you are currently trespassing on?”
I gulped. Well, when she put it that way, I couldn’t refuse. I reached a hand out to grasp the stem in my hand, but the moment I touched it, a sharp sting caused me to drop it. Of course it had thorns. I should have known better.
“I’m sorry.” I gave a quick apology as I reached down to pick it up. Before I could pick it up, the queen’s lace-covered shoe stepped out and crushed the rose beneath her foot. I gave a wary glance up to the queen.
“Speak no more of it. There are plenty more. You must be more careful.” She took my hand in hers, examining the blood swelling from the prick. “Blood like yours should not be wasted.”
I had a feeling I knew what she was going to do, but before I could take my hand back she had pressed her mouth to the wound and licked the blood from my skin. I watched her face as it contorted between disgust, surprise and then a knowing smirk covered her face.
“Well now, that is interesting.” Her inquiry was more to herself than directed at me.
“What?” She wasn’t the first one to find my blood appealing. Could she tell I was part Fae? Did she know I was human? Or did she find out something different altogether?
“Nothing of importance.” Mab waved a hand, dismissing me. “Now get out of my gardens before I call the guards.”
“But–” I started, but found Mop and Trip at my side in an instant, leading me back out of the garden. As I let myself be dragged away, my eyes darted back to the queen, who’d turned her eyes back to the roses before her. Something had transpired here, and even though I had been present I was lacking the knowledge of knowing what it was.
“And Katherine.”
I paused at the exit. “Yes?”
Without turning to me, she spoke, “We will meet again. Have no doubt.”
My brow furrowed at her cryptic statement. Before I could inquire further, Mop and Trip pulled me into the maze and out of sight. Curious indeed.
21
The Orchard
THE HEDGE MAZE wasn’t as much of a maze as an entryway into the orchard. Thankfully, it was nothing compared to the headache I endured before encountering the satyrs. A few more turns and I found myself standing at the entrance of what was without a doubt the orchard.
My confusion over Mab’s final confounding words was pushed aside as I was drawn into the reality of where I was actually standing. The orchard. It had been a hard and mystifying trip, but I was finally going home.
The orchard was exactly what it sounded like, an orchard. Though, I’d never been to one back home, it was the same as most were in books and movies. There were a dozen or more rows of trees, all with different colored fruit on them. At the moment, there was nobody to harvest them. Actually, there was nobody around at all.
A light breeze blew my hair across my face. The majority of it was still white and I wondered briefly how I was going to explain that change, let alone my eye color. Would it change back on its own, or was I stuck with it for the rest of my life?
“The door’s this way.” Mop waved me over toward a stone wall that wrapped around the orchard, caging it in.
“Mop?”
“Hmm?” He moved along a path which circled the trees. There were wheelbarrows and baskets sitting alongside the wall as if workers would come back any moment. For all I knew they would.
“I was wondering about my hair and eyes.”
“Yea, what about them?” He didn’t look at me as he answered.
“Well, am I stuck like this or what?” I gestured to my hair, growling at his nonchalant attitude.
“Nah, the affects don’t last. As long as you don’t be lettin’ anymore Fae feed on you that is. Ye should be back to normal after a few days.” He paused and then shrugged his shoulders. “Probably.”
“Probably?” Mop sped his pace up, ignoring my question. “Wait. Mop? What do you mean probably?”
“Trip likes Lady’s hair.”
I glanced down at my long-eared friend and smiled. He always knew what to say to make me feel better. I’d miss him when I got home.
It felt like I had spent a lifetime in the Underground. What did my grandmother’s house even look like? What did my bed feel like? Did anyone miss me? Would there be cops waiting at my doorstep with my overly dramatic mother crying about her socially awkward daughter’s quick hang up? It was hard to guess what would be waiting for me.
More than likely no one had noticed. Everything would be the way it was and work would be there in the morning. It was half tempting to stay in the Underground just for the lack of enthusiasm I had for the human word in general.
“Are ye comin’ or not?” Mop snapped his fingers at me, pulling my focus to the little brown Fae. “Time’s a wastin’, and I’d rather not spend my best years lollygaggin’ with ye.”
“Impatient to get rid of me, huh?” I smirked as he shuffled his feet and if his skin had been lighter I’d swear he blushed.
“Well now, I wouldn’t say that. I’ve grown kind of used to ye.” He scratched the back of his head. “Don’t ye wanna go home?”
I thought about it for a moment. Did I want to go home? Not really. What was there for me? No real job. No boyfriend. My family, I could admit, I would miss no matter how out of place I was in the family pictures.
“I don’t know to be honest.”
“Lady could stay.” Trip tugged on my hand. “Lady could stay with Trip. Trip would let Lady sleep in Trip’s bed.”
I laughed at the excitement in his eyes. “Oh really? Then where would you sleep?”
Trip opened and closed his mouth as he thought about it. I giggled at the dumbfounded scrunch of his brow. Guess I wasn’t staying with Trip.
“It’s all right.” I patted him between the ears. “I really should go home. But you guys could always come visit. You have to deliver my biscuits to Teeth for me, remember?”
“Or ye could do it.”
My eyes snapped to Mop. “But wouldn’t you guys get in trouble? I mean, look at all the trouble it took to get me to this point.”
“Yea but ye have the faerie key now.” He pointed to the key around my neck, causing me to hold it up to examine it.
“What about it? I have to give it back, don’t I? I mean, it does belong to Alice.” I waited for Mop’s usual chastising growl, but it didn’t come. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders not at all worried about my slip.
“Not unless ye be wantin’ to, and that there key don’t have no time limit like the rest of them. It was stolen from the reception desk the first time the girl was here.”
I clasped the key in my hand. It made me feel better to know I could come back. It made leaving so much easier, yet I still didn’t want to go.
“Trip doesn’t want Lady to leave. Trip will miss Lady.” White furred arms wrapped themselves around my legs, his ears and tail drooping.
I held my hands up not wanting to touch the opalaught. If I did, I knew I’d start crying. I really didn’
t want that to happen. If there’s one thing I hate more than crying women it is when I cry. I’m not a pretty crier. All splotchy and puffy, nose running, and then the wailing would start. It was not an attractive picture.
Seeing my dilemma, Mop placed a hand on Trip’s shoulder, easing the opalaught away from me. “Come on, Trip. Let’s go back to the tea party. Hare will be wantin’ to know how everything went. And Hatter should be back by now.”
Trip’s sad eyes filled with eagerness at the thought of seeing his cousin again. The very thought of going back to Hatter’s gave me a headache. That was one place I wouldn’t miss.
I mouthed a thank you to Mop who nodded his head.
“Ye take care of ye self and we’ll see ye again after everything dies down on this side.”
I gave a curt nod. “I will and thank you for everything.”
I watched as my two companions, who I hadn’t known for long but had become endeared to me, made their way back down the orchard’s path. My eyes followed them until they disappeared beyond the trees, and I could no longer delay what I had to do. What I needed to do.
I turned back to the door before me. Identical to the one I had entered back in the Between. It had the same texture to the wood, the same brass doorknob, even the scars in the wood were the same.
I supposed it would only make sense for me to come out the same place I went in. Meaning I would have to go through the Between again and meet that horrid two-headed bird. Gripe and Type.
Great.
I gripped the key in my hand, poised to insert it into the keyhole. The urge to stay roared in me even as the key touched the hole. Though, before I could slide it home, the key jerked from my hand and into the brush a few feet away.
I glanced between the door and where the key had landed. The feeling that was urging me to stay changed to an urgent need to go to it. My feet moved on their own, and with each step closer to the key, the need increased until I found myself before the brush. I bent down, searching between the branches. I could see the key glinting in the dark. I reached my hand out to grab it, the brass key just out of my reach.
Just a bit further.
I got down on my hands and knees and inched my way into the brush. I pushed the branches away from my face, the leaves pressing against my arms as if urging me forward. With each inch into the foliage, the key seemed to be further and further away. Then, when I glanced back, I could no longer see the orchard. The branches had closed behind me, blocking out any chance of going back.
Something or someone wanted me to come this way. I could still feel the tugging on my stomach telling me I had to keep moving. There was something waiting for me. What it was, I had no idea, but I knew deep inside it was important. A piece of me was missing and I needed to get it back.
The bushes seemed to go on forever. The further I pushed my way through the more there were. I was about to give up hope of ever getting the key, despite my intense need, when I happened to glance to the left and see a wooden sign. The majority of it was covered by a bush and was overgrown with vines. I ripped the vines away to uncover the wood beneath.
It had seen better days. The wood was worn and decayed, and there were grooves from where animals had gnawed on it all along the edges. In the dim light, I could barely make out the faded words, etched into the woods surface.
‘Enter at Your Head’s Risk.’
Well, that wasn’t ominous at all. I peeked back the way I came at the closed over path. I didn’t really have a choice; I’d already come this far. If I did get caught and ended up back in the Shadow’s Between…well, hopefully, the shadow man would be there to rescue me. I shook my head and laughed at the thought of the shadows saving anyone. It sounded crazy even by Fae standards.
Passing the sign, I crawled further into the tunnel of bushes. As I progressed further, my eyes locked onto the key in front of me, the small opening I had to move through seemed to expand up and out, until I was able to stand up from the ground. There were fewer branches now and stone walls peaked out from between where one bush ended and another began. The heels of my boots made a click-clacking noise as the ground faded from dirt into stone floors.
Though I hadn’t seen anyone move the key or an invisible force picking it up, the key was always a few feet ahead of me. I was beginning to wish I had taken Trip up on his offer to stay with him when my game of cat and mouse ended. I found the key right at my feet.
I bent down, my hand slow to reach out and take the key for fear of it moving again. My shoulders relaxed when the cool metal of the key pressed into my hand as I wrapped my fingers around it.
Finally.
Standing up, I looped the key around my neck as my eyes took in my new surroundings. The stone walls were bare of any green life forms and wrapped up and around the area. A hoot from my right jerked my eyes to my missing feathered friend. What was he doing here? I stared up at the ceiling where the stone curved up into a dome.
How did he get there? I glanced back to Mr. Blue Eyes and noticed the familiar large stones he was perched on. I had a feeling I had been there before.
“I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know what would happen.” Alice’s voice echoed in my mind even as my eyes searched out the tree I knew would be there.
Staring up at the tree, it was not as huge as I had believed from my perch in the daydream. The tree was actually not much bigger than a one-story house. The large roots poking up from the ground were disproportionate to the height of the tree, as if they had grown out on their own accord. There was one thing about the tree that was the same.
The fruit.
Unlike in the dream where there was an abundance of fruit, a lone glowing fruit hung from one of the branches. The peach-like shape made the fruit resemble a glowing ball of light and beckoned me forward.
My eyes stayed on the fruit as I once again found my feet moving on their own. The closer I got to the tree, though, the more I found myself drawn to something else in the roots. The need that had begun to settle in my belly flared to life.
There was something there. I remembered something. Something from the vision or maybe a memory? But how was that possible? I’d never physically been here before, had I?
Hand stretched out, I took one step after another, each step becoming more urgent than the last. I fell to my knees, both of my hands spread out across the rough surface of the tree’s roots. The magic inside me, which had not surfaced since the veil, began to raise its head, seeking out something that lay beneath the tree’s base.
A body.
It was there, beneath the wood and stone, but hallow. An empty shell forever stuck in time. It was no use to my magic now. It couldn’t fill the empty hole inside me. The one I somehow had always known was there but could never fill.
I sat back onto the ground, leaning back against the base of the tree my eyes wandered to Mr. Blue Eyes who was watching my every movement. He tilted his head to the side, eyeing me as if to ask ‘What are you going to do now?’
I wished I knew.
The magic in me was still simmering on the surface, waiting to be released. To where though? There wasn’t anyone attacking me. I didn’t have a clue what I was capable of let alone what I could do to dispel the magic that had built up in me.
My eyes swept away from the owl and across the rock-filled area before landing back on the lone glowing fruit I had bypassed earlier. Why was there only one? In the vision I had there were so many more on the tree. Had someone taken them? The tree did seem a bit more worn than before.
My magic tingled along my skin as I thought about the glowing fruit. My hand came up and beckoned the fruit forward. At first nothing happened. I furrowed my brow and coaxed the energy from below my skin to do as I bid.
Mr. Blue Eyes squawked an alarming cry when the fruit wiggled on its stem. Fighting the temptation to look at him, I kept my eyes on the fruit and willed it to me. It jerked in place as I stood to my feet. Gaining more confidence from my new stance, I gave a sharp cry of surpr
ise when the fruit hurled itself toward me and into the hand I had held up to protect my face.
Well, at least I knew that worked.
“Pretty cool, huh?” I glanced over at the white-speckled owl. He huffed and shuffled his feathers as if to say to me ‘big deal.’
“Screw you too, buddy,” I growled turning my back on him with the fruit in my hand.
It was a big deal to me. Magic was something I still hadn’t fully accepted yet, let alone the idea of me doing magic. I smirked down at the fruit in my hand. I could move objects with my mind.
I felt a bit giddy at the idea. Even more so because of the floating feeling that had begun to inch up my skin from where I was holding the glowing peach-like fruit. I turned it over in my hand and held it up to my face as I searched out the source of the light coming from inside it.
This was the fruit that granted Alice her powers and killed the Seelie Princess?
Like most things in the Underground, I had to be cautious until proven otherwise. Could the fruit grant my wish? Probably. Would it be exactly what I wanted? Not fucking likely.
Still, part of me was whispering, what could it hurt? I couldn’t go back the way I came, even if I had the key to get home. Home. That one word made the decision for me. I wanted to go home and this fruit could get me there.
Ignoring the warning bells going off in the recesses of my brain saying it was a bad idea, I brought the fruit up to my mouth. Mr. Blue Eyes must have agreed because as my teeth sunk into the skin of the fruit and its juices flowed into my mouth he began to squawk and hoot in vigor. As I swallowed the tangy flavor down, my head began to swim.
The magic of the fruit poured into me, making me drunk on power. I tried to focus on my one thought of going home, to think of my grandmother’s house. The vegetable patch in the backyard and the lines of flowers all along the front lawn, but the images just wouldn’t come. The only coherent thought in my mind was the word home.
I focused on that one word. Home. I willed the fruit’s magic to take me home. To where I belonged. Of course, it wasn’t a clear enough request, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances. It wasn’t like I had any other home to go to.
