Iris nodded.
"Now come on. Lunch is ready."
Dorian was welcomed by a big, warm smile, but it belonged to the wrong woman. "Hello. I'm here to see—"
"Iris," the woman cut him off. "I'm Elizabeth. Her grandmother. Iris is in the shower but she'll be down in a few minutes. Come in."
"Uhm… That's okay. I'll wait here."
The woman took a long look at him, then she leaned in and brought her palm to the corner of her mouth, like she was about to share a secret with him. "You're one of them, aren't you?" she whispered.
"One of them?"
"Yes." She lowered her voice, looking left and right. "The Fae."
Dorian's eyes widened involuntarily. "You know?"
She giggled. "Yes. Iris told me everything. You must be the dark stranger with silver hair who keeps saving her life. Dorian?"
Dark stranger? "Yes, ma'am. I am."
"I knew it." She joined her palms under her chin, smiling. He really liked this old lady.
"Then I guess you also know that I can't come inside." He wondered whether Iris had also told her grandmother that their house was warded against the supernatural.
She tapped the tips of her fingers to her forehead. "Of course. Silly me." She slipped her hand under his arm and led him to the table at the end of the porch, extending her hand to invite him to sit in one of the four chairs around it. "Alright. You just sit right here while I go make some tea."
"I don't want to bother you."
"Nonsense. Iris' friends never bother me. Besides, the kettle's already on the stove."
Indeed, a whistling sound came from inside the house. The woman disappeared and returned a few minutes later holding a tray, which she laid on the table with careful hands. She put a steaming cup of tea in front of each of them and a plate full of biscuits in the middle.
Dorian removed his gloves and took a sip. It tasted like orange and wild berries.
Elizabeth looked at him for a while as if she was gathering the courage to speak.
He was starting to feel uncomfortable and he himself was a bit shocked because he'd had all sorts of emotions throughout his life, from paralyzing terror to blinding rage, yet never had he felt uncomfortable before. "Is there something you'd like to say?"
"I know we've just met but Iris has told me a lot about you and how you've saved her life more than once… Sometimes at the cost of your own safety… That's why I feel like I can trust you… You see, I have a favor to ask of you."
There was something in her eyes that made it impossible to say no to her and Dorian wondered if the woman had some kind of supernatural ability too. "Certainly. What is it?"
She leaned forward and took his hand. "I want you to protect Iris. I'm the only family she's got left but I'm old. I don't have much time left on this earth, and when I'm gone, she'll need someone to look after her. She's destined for great things, I know it, but she won't be able to accomplish them alone."
"She won't need me. She has the G—the Elwoods."
"No. I love Connor like a grandson. I've known him ever since he was four or five. But if everything that Iris told me is true, then he and his family have a mission and that mission is not to protect my granddaughter."
Her request was unnecessary. Much to his chagrin, he was already compelled to protect Iris no matter what. Whenever she was in danger, something inside him, something he couldn't resist, forced him to save her. It was like, if she died, he died. Elizabeth stared at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to speak. Eventually, he nodded. "I'll do my best."
"Thank you." She smiled and sighed. Then she changed the subject. "What brings you to Forest Hills?"
Dorian wondered whether or not to tell her the truth. Raven was the only person alive who knew the real reason he was in town, who knew his story. He was tempted to lie, but then he thought that, if Iris trusted her grandmother with the truth, then maybe so could he. Plus, there was something about that little old lady with grey hair and warm eyes, who'd served him tea and cookies and who giggled like a little girl, something that told him that she wouldn't judge him no matter how awful his past. That encouraged him to open up to her.
"My parents were killed when I was three. A madman took me from my mother's arms while she was drawing her last breath. He kept me in a cage for a decade. A few years after he took me, he told me that he'd done it because my parents were traitors and he wanted to protect me, except that his idea of protection involved starving me for weeks on end and beating me senseless. He wanted to make me a warrior, he said.
"When I was about ten, he brought in a girl. Arianna. I was so naïve, I actually thought he'd done it for me, so that I could have some company. Later I realized that she was part of my training. She was a prisoner too. He would start beating her and I would always offer myself in her place. He promised to give her back her freedom if I stopped intervening but I kept doing it because I couldn't bear to see him hit her.
"One time he got really mad and went a bit too far with his training. It was the first time I truly believed he was going to kill me. When she wasn't being used as a torture method, Arianna would cater to him. One day she slipped belladonna in his food. It didn't kill him but it paralyzed him long enough for her to carry me out of the dungeon. I'd been unconscious for two weeks. When I came to, we were in a container on a boat towards the US. I was thirteen at the time.
"I don't know what my parents did that got them banished here, but they were not traitors. Even though I was only three years old when I was taken, I remember. We were living in a small village in England. My father was a blacksmith, my mother a florist. Someone went out of their way to make them look like traitors. Someone betrayed them and then covered it all up. After I recovered from my injuries, I went back to the house I used to live in with my parents. It was all gone. Like it had never been there. The only thing that was left of my former life was my father's sword, half buried in the woods nearby. And what's even more curious is that no one in town even remembered my parents. As I stood there, looking at an empty lot, I swore to myself that I would hunt down and kill every single member of the bloodline of the person responsible for my parents' deaths and everything that happened to me after that."
At the end of his confession, Dorian was drained. He wouldn't have felt so weak if he'd run a hundred miles. However, much to his surprise, he also felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
Elizabeth, who hadn't said a word the entire time he'd spoken, now smiled, but there was sadness in her eyes. "I understand your grief. But revenge is not the answer. It never brings peace to the soul."
28
Funeral
They said that if it rained at a funeral, it meant that the deceased cried because he or she did not want to die. If that was true, then Sarah Young was shedding a storm of tears. Yet, despite the rain, nearly a hundred people had gathered around the mahogany casket to say their last goodbyes to a beloved member of the community.
Marion was in the front row, with her father by her side, holding a large, black umbrella over her head. His free arm was wrapped around her shoulders and they were both staring at the casket. The priest's voice was loud as he delivered his eulogy, yet they didn't seem to hear him.
Marion wasn't crying but her eyes were red and swollen. She was composed, like she'd finally accepted the cruel reality that her mother was gone. When they'd spoken on the phone the day before, Marion's voice had remained even and calm for the entire duration of their conversation. Iris had wanted to know if they could meet, after the funeral. She was determined to follow her grandmother's advice and tell Marion the truth but she wasn't sure when to do it. She'd decided to wait until after the wake. It still seemed like a bad time but the more she waited the less courage she had.
When the priest was done, everyone took a step forward to leave a flower on the casket. Some stopped to express their condolences to Marion and her father, some just squeezed their arms without saying a word, and then one by on
e, they slowly headed away. The rain didn't seem to bother them. As they left, they walked at the same rhythm as they would have if they'd attended a royal funeral procession.
Elizabeth and Iris walked side by side under the same umbrella. In front of the casket, they stopped and each put a white rose on it. Iris almost felt her heart break from sadness and guilt at the thought that Sarah had died because of her.
Mr. Young put his hand on her grandmother's shoulder. "Thank you for coming, Elizabeth."
"Sure."
"I'll see you back at the house."
Iris and her grandmother walked away, leaving Marion and her father alone to say goodbye to Sarah. Through the thick curtain of rain Iris could see the Elwoods a hundred feet away. She wondered why they would come, knowing their reluctance to getting involved in human affairs. And all the more so after their fight the day before, at dawn, while they were waiting for the last spark of the hellhound fire to die down and blaming each other for letting Vincent slip away, again. She'd accused them of being selfish, of not caring about anything or anyone but themselves and their stupid mission. It didn't matter who died, or who they handed over to the enemy as long as they got their way. Connor had called her shortsighted and Lorelai downright stupid for trusting Dorian and defending him even knowing what a horrible person he was. Iris had replied that she wished they'd never been asked to protect her, that way they wouldn't have had to get close to her and become friends. Now, looking at them, she regretted having said those words, although her anger hadn't died down.
As soon as they saw her, they turned around and walked away. Iris went after them but she barely took two steps before she heard an all too familiar, terrifying voice behind her. "When you look back at this moment, remember that it was your fault."
She turned around at the same time as the Elwoods and she jerked at the sight in front of her. Vincent was standing behind Elizabeth, holding a sharp knife to her throat. The empty right sleeve of his coat was fluttering in the wind, bending at the end of the severed arm inside it.
Iris gasped as tears welled up in her eyes. Elizabeth was calm, smiling even, but Iris knew that she was scared and was only trying to seem strong for her granddaughter's sake. Iris saw what was going to follow before it actually happened. And it happened fast, before either she or the Elwoods could intervene.
Elizabeth slid to the ground, a red line across her neck. A second later, Vincent's body fell next to her. It was missing its head. A tall figure stood a few feet away, holding a round object. Iris blinked repeatedly to clear the tears away. The tall figure was Dorian. The object in his hand was Vincent's head, blood still dripping from the neck.
Iris threw herself on her knees, wrapping her arms around Elizabeth's body. "Grandma—" She tried to speak but the words died in her throat. Her heart beat so fast that she couldn't breathe anymore. "Somebody—" She took a few long breaths. "Call 911—" She began to feel lightheaded. "Lorelai, the sphere!"
The girl wasn't moving.
"What are you doing?! Lorelai! Hurry!"
She felt a hand on her shoulder right before she heard Aeryn's voice. "There's nothing we can do, Iris. She's already—"
"No! She's not—You're wrong!"
She looked at her grandmother's white face and caressed her cheek. "No, no. She's just unconscious. Can't you see? Lorelai, please!" They were all looking at her with pain in their eyes. "Somebody, do something!"
Someone dying while attending a funeral is bound to create some panic. Decapitating someone with your bare hands in a cemetery in front of a few dozen people leaving a funeral will definitely generate some massive chaos, the last thing you need when you're Fae and the victim is a mass murderer.
Connor watched the crowd running around, women screaming, men dragging them to cover. The only one who wasn't moving was Iris. She was sitting on the wet ground, holding her grandmother's dead body. Her hair was pasted to her face and neck. Drops of rain mixed with tears gathered on her chin and then fell on Elizabeth's white face. Iris kept running her trembling fingers over her grandmother's cheek, wiping them off.
Dorian had dropped Vincent's head. Raven, who seemed to materialize out of nowhere, had joined him and the two of them were now standing a few feet away, looking at Iris. For a moment Connor thought he saw pain in Dorian's eyes.
"Connor, we need to contain this otherwise the whole town will find out about us." Lorelai reached into her pocket and took out her sphere.
"I'll take the east exit, you take north one. Hopefully, we'll get them all before they leave the graveyard. Grandma, you stay here and make sure no one leaves."
"You won't get to them all in time."
"Then what do we do?" Lorelai's voice was higher than usual, a sign that she was starting to panic.
"We need something big and fast."
Connor had already thought of a solution even before his grandmother spoke but he hated the idea of asking the enemy for help. Still, they had no choice and so he had to do it. He turned to Dorian and Raven. "Can you help us?"
Raven took a step forward and raised his hands. His eyes took a darker shade of neon blue as the rain drops began to gather above his head, melting into each other and whirling around inside a massive sphere fifty feet above ground. A second later the sphere exploded and its contents spread across the air above them, creating a sort of dome of dark blue water that replaced the gray sky. For a moment Connor understood what surfers must feel like inside a massive wave.
"It spreads all over the graveyard but I suggest you move fast," Raven said, dropping his hand to his sides.
"Can anyone see it from the other side?" Connor asked.
"Not only can they see it, but they can't get through it. Imagine that for a newspaper story."
Connor nodded then turned to his sister. "Lorelai."
The girl set her bow on the ground, activated the sphere, dropped a bead of sleeping water on the tip of an arrow and then pointed it upwards. Everyone watched the arrow fly towards the dome. When it reached its destination, it exploded, creating a massive cloud of mist that filled the area inside the dome. As the barrier evaporated, everyone who had been confined by it dropped to the ground. The only ones standing were the Elwoods, Dorian and Raven. Connor looked at Iris. She was lying next to her grandmother, her arms still wrapped around the woman's dead body.
"Well, this has been fun," Dorian said, heading away. Raven took his hand to his forehead in a mock salute and followed his friend.
"So typical of you to create trouble and then walk away."
Dorian turned around. "You know, Lorelai, you should really work on those people skills. I'm quite sure that's not what you say to someone when you want to express your gratitude after they save your ass."
"Dorian!" Connor was angry and frustrated and the mischievous look on Dorian's face only made it worse. There had been a time when he found it endearing, when he'd been even a bit jealous of Dorian and his freedom in contrast with Aeryn's rigorous training and rule sets. But that seemed like ages past. Now he fought the impulse to beat Dorian senseless just to wipe that devil-may-care smile off his face.
"That's okay, Elwood. You don't need to thank me."
Connor disregarded the mockery and kept walking until he was just two feet away from Dorian. "You got what you came for. The hounds are gone and Vincent is dead, which means there's no reason for you to remain in Forest Hills any longer. When we get back to town I want you and your friend to be long gone."
"By heavens, Elwood. Are you threatening us?"
"I mean it, Dorian. I don't know what your business with the Council is but you better do it elsewhere."
Connor noticed a hint of surprise in Dorian's eyes. "My business with the Council?"
"Yes. Cyrus works for the Council of Seven. Iris told us he's the one who saved you when you got shot. He wouldn't have done that unless you were running some kind of mission for them. Whatever it is, make sure it never brings you back to our town."
"Then I gues
s this is goodbye. As always, it hasn't been a real pleasure seeing you lot."
Dorian and Raven turned around and walked away. Connor watched them for a few seconds then went back to his family.
"Where's Lorelai?"
"She went to gather the humans." Aeryn was whispering something into the ear of Rose's father.
"What are we going to say about Iris' grandmother?"
"That she had a heart attack. I saw Dr. Campbell is here. It won't be hard to convince her to write that down in her autopsy report."
The contact with the icy water sent a shockwave of electricity through every cell in her body. Iris wasn't an exceptional swimmer but she could handle herself in a critical situation and yet, the more she struggled to come out of the vortex, the tighter the deathly embrace of the cold waves got, until she had no choice but to surrender. As the water filled her lungs, she thought of her parents. They'd probably died the same way. Life could be painfully ironic sometimes. At least now she could join them. She had no reason to fight anymore. With her grandmother dead too, she had no one left in the world.
A voice called her name from far away and for a moment she thought it might be her father's. She felt a sense of joy at the thought that she might actually meet him after all that time. She had so many things to tell him.
"Iris!"
The waves pushed and pulled her from all directions. Her entire body was shaking and she felt two cold spots on her shoulders.
"Iris!"
The voice was clearer and definitely familiar, but it didn't belong to her father. It was…
"Iris! Open your eyes!"
She obeyed. "Connor?" She looked around, confused, and realized that she was in her room.
The Fountain of Truth (Tales of the Dark Fae Book 1) Page 26
