"Yes, but how?" Marion pressed.
"Well, your car was going over the edge—" Lorelai started, reducing the speed to make a right on Elmwood Street.
"Okay," Marion interrupted, waiving her hand at Lorelai who frowned back from the rearview mirror. "Clearly, we're big on stating the obvious so let me rephrase my question so as to get to the bottom line. What are you?"
When they stopped at the red light on the corner of Elmwood and Main and Iris saw the hospital sign a hundred feet ahead, she breathed a sigh of relief. Lorelai reached into the glove compartment and took out two bottles of water.
"Here," she said, leaning back and handing one to Iris and one to Marion. "You must be thirsty."
Iris hadn't realized it but the girl was right. Her throat was parched. She opened the bottle and took a long sip. Marion must have been thirstier than her because she emptied nearly half the bottle at once. "You still haven't answered my question," she said to Lorelai, closing her bottle and sliding it next to her on the backseat.
Iris looked at Connor. He had his head back against the headrest, his eyes closed, a deep vertical line between his eyebrows. She felt a sharp arrow piercing her chest at the thought of how much pain he had to be in. And all because of her. As if she'd read Iris' thoughts, Lorelai looked at her brother. She reached out her hand and pulled the collar of his shirt.
"Damn it," she mumbled.
"What?" Marion's voice sounded strange, like she was sleep talking, but Iris didn't pay too much attention to it. She was more worried about Connor.
"What is it, Lorelai?" Iris leaned forward to get a better look at his face and neck.
"I think he underestimated his injuries." Lorelai started off before the traffic light turned green. Iris felt her heart stand still as the other cars came squealing at them from all sides, even though Lorelai managed to avoid each one with the skill of a race driver. But then, instead of going straight ahead towards the hospital, the car turned left.
"What are you doing?" Iris said, panicked. The girl didn't answer. "Lorelai, this is not the way to the hospital!"
"We're not going to the hospital."
"What?! Are you insane?! Clearly he needs medical assistance."
"What he needs is—" Lorelai started, but then her words got distorted and weak and, before Iris could manage to make out their meaning, everything went dark.
Dorian looked at the car slowly sliding over the edge, ready to be swallowed by the darkness of the Silver Hollow Valley. There was something about one of the passengers inside it that bothered him. He could swear he'd never seen her before that morning, yet he felt like he knew her. Even more unsettling was the fact that for some reason she and her friend had managed to chase away the hound. He'd never seen or even heard of anyone escaping such an attack, and the fact that the girls were human made it even more disconcerting. He couldn't help thinking that, if it hadn't been for those two, he would probably be just a pile of shredded burnt remains right now. He knew the hounds had been chasing him for a while, but he'd never had one that close on his heels. What was it about those girls that made it forget about him and turn around?
The car squeaked and moved another inch into the precipice. Dorian jerked under the impulse to go back and help them, help her, but then he felt the stone pressing against his chest in the inside pocket of his leather jacket. He instantly remembered why he was there and stopped on his feet. As he turned around and got on his motorcycle he spotted two blurry shadows in the corner of his eye. He looked at the car again and saw two figures pulling it back up. Now he was certain that there was something special about the girls inside the car. Why else would the Elwoods risk exposing themselves to save them?
The phone vibrated in his pocket.
"Where are you?" Raven sounded impatient.
"I'm on my way."
5
Iris in Wonderland
When Iris opened her eyes she was laying on one of the twin white leather couches in the Elwoods' living room. She had a terrible headache and her eyes hurt, like she had sand on the inside of her eyelids. She wanted to sit up but her body wouldn't listen. She felt paralyzed and her heart started racing as she remembered the water that Lorelai gave her and Marion in the car.
She looked around and spotted her friend peacefully sleeping on a sofa near one of the windows. Connor was lying unconscious on the couch across from Iris. He was naked from the waist up and his shoulders and upper part of his chest were dark blue in color. As the memories of that morning rushed back to her, Iris' chest ached at the thought that she was responsible for Connor's injuries. Then she remembered her and Marion protesting when Lorelai refused to take Connor to the hospital, just before she fainted, and her headache worsened as she closed her eyes and tried to chase away all the horrible thoughts that invaded her mind.
Lorelai and her grandmother were leaning over Connor, their backs towards Iris, seemingly unaware that she was awake, and she lay there in silence watching them.
"It's worse than he said, isn't it?" Lorelai reached into her pocket and took out a sphere the size of an apple. It looked like it was made of crystal or ice with dozens of small pellets, each of a different color, lodged inside it. It sparkled at the slightest move, like the facets of a carefully polished diamond reflecting light.
"Yes," Aeryn said, gliding her hand over Connor's bruises. "Both clavicles broken, torn ligaments. He must have been in a lot of pain."
"I hate it when he plays the hero." Lorelai put out her hand, holding the strange object in her open palm. Slowly, the sphere rose a few inches in the air and opened up into smaller pieces, each containing one bead. Lorelai picked a glowing silver one and held it over Connor's chest. Although there was only one drop inside, when it came out a new one formed almost instantly and then the sphere reassembled itself in its original form. The silver drop that fell on Connor's skin slowly spread out into a thin transparent layer covering his entire chest and shoulders and disappearing into his skin, adsorbed like moisturizer. A few seconds later, the bruises started to fade until they vanished completely, like they had never been there. Connor moaned but didn't open his eyes.
Iris was now sure that she was dreaming and that soon she would wake up in her bed and everything that had happened that morning would have been just another one of her nightmares. She closed her eyes and waited for the familiar sound of her radio alarm.
"It's good that he did," she heard Aeryn say. "Otherwise she would be dead now."
"I don't get it." Lorelai's voice had a hint of irritation in it. "What's so special about her? Do you trust Agatha that much to have us take such risks for a mere human?"
A sea of darkness swallowed Iris before she could hear the woman's answer and, tired and overwhelmed, she let herself carried away. When she opened her eyes again, she was still lying numb on the couch, except that in front of her now lay Marion instead of Connor. He was up, next to his sister and their grandmother, all three gathered around her sleeping friend. Iris noticed that the three cuts on Marion's face where the glass from the windshield had pierced her skin were gone.
"She's fast asleep," Connor said, checking Marion's pulse.
"I'd be surprised if she wasn't. She drank more than half a bottle of sleeping water," his sister said and suddenly Iris felt a cold shiver going down her spine. She'd been right about Lorelai drugging them. She tried to speak but the words died in her throat.
There were a series of objects on the glass tea table between the couches that hadn't been there before, when Lorelai and Aeryn healed Connor—a white incense stick placed in a black wooden holder with gold engravings on it, a matchbox and a black porcelain jar. Iris didn't pay too much attention to them at first, until she noticed the white label on the jar, which had a series of characters that she couldn't associate with any language except maybe alien texts she'd seen in sci-fi movies.
Aeryn lit up the incense stick and waited for the fumes to rise. Then she opened the jar and took out some sort of silvery powd
er that she held in her palm. She picked up the incense stick and took a step towards Marion. Something wasn't right. Iris gathered her strength and managed to sit up, but she still had to prop her hand against the couch to hold her position.
"Stop," she mumbled. Her voice was faint and rasp and she barely heard it herself, but it served its purpose. The three turned around and looked at her.
"Iris." Connor sat next to her and gently took her arm. She jerked and pulled away.
"What are you doing to her?" she asked.
"Iris, you were in an accident on Chestnut Road," Connor said.
"I know. I remember. You and Lorelai saved us. And then Lorelai drugged us." At that point a mix of shock and confusion swept over the others' faces.
"It didn't take," Connor said to his grandmother.
"What didn't take?" Iris said.
"The memory replacement spell."
"Connor," his sister snapped at him. "Don't tell her."
"Why not? She remembers everything."
"We could try again."
Aeryn lowered her eyes and shook her head. "It won't work."
Dorian hid the motorcycle behind a bush a few feet away from the end of the trail and headed into the woods. He had to go on foot the last couple of miles up to the meeting point. The more he advanced, the thicker the forest got. After a few minutes he spotted two figures, half hidden by the wet green bushes rising from the ground. One he recognized instantly, the other he'd never seen before.
"What took you so long?" Raven started, impatient, looking at the woman standing by his side.
"I got… held up."
"Do you have the stone?" she asked.
She was slim—he could tell from the tight corset that she was wearing underneath her long cape—and almost as tall as he was. Her wide eyes had a yellow glow, like honey, a piercing contrast with her dark chocolaty skin and her pitch-black curls peering from under the hood of the cape. She didn't seem older than he was. And yet Kane had sent her to retrieve a powerful magic stone. That was unsettling.
There was something in the way she moved that made it clear she was not afraid to be there. That could mean two things—either she was a really powerful warrior, powerful enough to take down both him and Raven, or she was not alone. Or both.
Dorian inspected the forest around them as he slid his hand inside his jacket and took out the stone. He looked at it as he handed it to her. It resembled a bar of glycerin soap but he knew it had to be very powerful if he and Raven had to go to so much trouble to get it.
The woman took the stone and turned it on all sides, then she slid it in the pocket of her dress, smiling. "Well done. I honestly didn't think you could do it."
Dorian looked her straight in the eyes. "You've got what you wanted. Now take me to Kane."
The Elwoods' kitchen was, as always, warm and filled with the smell of cinnamon, Aeryn's favorite flavor of tea. Like the rest of the mansion, it was bright and incredibly spacious. The white cabinets with Cambrian Black granite countertops resting on the ebony hardwood floor seemed that much brighter under the light of the pendants hanging from the white coffered ceiling.
Seated at the round table in the breakfast nook and sipping from a steaming cup of what she suspected was a mixture of cinnamon, coconut, pineapple and ginger, Iris could see her reflection in the windows, dark against the heavy sky outside. In front of her, Aeryn, Connor and Lorelai, each with a tisane in front of them, were staring at her in silence. There was reluctance in Lorelai's eyes, like they were hiding a big secret and she wasn't too pleased with the fact that now they had to share it with Iris. Aeryn's gaze was resigned, peaceful even.
Connor's cheeks had regained color and nothing in the way he looked or moved showed even the smallest sign that, just half an hour earlier, he'd been lying on the living room couch with two dislocated shoulders.
Iris wouldn't let them continue whatever it was that they were about to do to Marion, not until they explained to her what was going on. Now her friend was fast asleep in the living room, while Iris was waiting for their explanation. It seemed crazy but she had the strange impression that Connor was actually happy about the whole thing.
Iris on the other hand was anxious. What she'd witnessed earlier in their living room was impossible to believe and she was still struggling to convince herself that it was real and not one of her nightmares. They had to be spies; that was the only reasonable explanation for it. She hoped that they were because otherwise all she was left with was stuff from sci-fi books and movies and that was impossible.
"So what are you?" she started, unable to contain the storm of thoughts wreaking havoc in her mind anymore.
After a few seconds, Aeryn spoke. "We're Fae."
Iris took a moment to process what she'd just heard. She had thought of countless possible explanations for what she'd seen that morning, especially inside the Elwood mansion—aliens, military human experiments, time travel—but not once had she imagined that.
"Fae as in… faeries?"
"Yes," said Aeryn.
"But I thought faeries were—"
"Imaginary?" said Lorelai.
"Yes. Also very small, winged creatures living in the woods."
"Surprise!" Lorelai swung her arms open.
Iris' eyes shifted from Aeryn to Lorelai to Connor. Lorelai stared back for a few moments, then she extended her hand and gently pushed Iris' chin up. Connor grabbed his sister's hand and pulled it back. She smiled at him and stuck out her tongue.
Iris had to swallow a few times before she could speak. "N—No. That's impossible."
Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Really? You still think that? After everything you've seen today?"
The girl did have a point. Iris wasn't sure if she believed them when they said that they were Fae but they were something. No regular human being was able to do what they could.
"Why do you live pretending to be human?" As soon as she finished her question Iris realized how stupid she'd sounded. How could they reveal their superpowers? "I'm sorry. What I meant was… well, it can't be easy to hide your abilities all the time so…"
Lorelai helped her out. Sort of. "You're wondering why we chose to live in a society and not hidden away in some lost corner of the wilderness like monks?"
Iris casually adjusted her bangs a bit longer than necessary, hoping the fire in her cheeks would die down before the others noticed it. "I…"
Connor came to her rescue. "We have to. We're Guardians. We were sent here to protect something."
"Sent from where?"
"Our world. Aldera. You can think of it as a different dimension."
"What's this thing you're protecting?"
"It's called the Fountain of Truth."
"You were sent here from another world to protect a piece of water-spitting rock?"
Appalled, Lorelai sniffed as if Iris had brought them an offense worthy of the death penalty. "The Fountain of Truth is not a piece of rock. It's a supernatural entity."
"What does it do?"
"It can offer the answer to any question."
"Lorelai!" Aeryn gave her granddaughter a long look to which the girl replied with an eye roll. The woman turned to Iris. "Those are legends. There's no official record that the Fountain can do that. It can, however, reveal one thing—the identity of a Traveler."
Going deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. "What's a Traveler?"
"A Fae that can cross over to the land of the dead and bring someone back into the world of the living. Although the Traveler can only make one journey, he can bring back anyone, from someone's dead mother to a country's worst enemy. That's why we're here—to make sure the Fountain stays hidden."
"You said this Traveler can only cross over once. Why?"
"A soul for a soul. There's a balance between realms that needs to be kept to prevent the two worlds from merging. The dead belong with the dead, the living with the living."
"Do you know where it is? The Fountain, I mean."
"We don't know its exact location. Nobody does. But we do know it's somewhere in Forest Hills."
"How can you protect something… someone, if you can't find them?"
"By protecting the only thing that can lead to their location, which in our case is an Amulet, a very powerful stone that can be used to find the Fountain and summon it. The Amulet is hidden here, inside the mansion, and only reveals itself every two decades, on the Harvest Supermoon. When that happens, anyone can get their hands on it, use it to find out the location of the Fountain and summon it, and then ask for the identity of the Traveler."
"Or the location of a secret treasure worth billions of dollars."
"Lorelai!"
"Yes, yes, I know, unconfirmed rumors. But seriously, who would brag about finding something that makes your wildest dreams come true? If you found a pot of gold, would you go around telling everyone about it or would you keep your mouth shut and enjoy the good life?"
No one answered, so Iris went on with her questions. She had so many, she didn't even know which one to start with. "Are you alone? I mean, are there others… like you?" She still had trouble referring to her best friend and his family as Fae.
Lorelai smirked and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Oh please. No one here is like us."
This time it was Connor who rolled his eyes right before he turned to Iris. "Yes. There are others. But they're Dark Fae."
Here we go again. Just when you think you've finally got a handle on things…"Dark Fae?"
"Yes. Fae that committed a crime in our world are stripped of their magical powers and banned into the human world. That's why they're called Dark Fae."
"Don't you have prisons there?"
Aeryn got up, filled the teapot again and put it on the stove. "We used to," she explained, returning to her seat, "but Aldera is a place full of magic. Often, many of those imprisoned found a way to escape. After centuries of debates, the Council finally had its sorcerers devise a new kind of prison, one that would allow very little magic, just enough to support the Council business."
The Fountain of Truth (Tales of the Dark Fae Book 1) Page 6
