"The next one won't go into the ground."
She took out the Amulet and handed it to him. The hatred in his eyes proved that he was going to shoot her and take it anyway. She watched him take the red stone and turn around. But then, just as he was walking away, his head tilted to the side in a swift motion and he fell to the ground. Iris saw the object that hit him only after it fell on the wet grass next to his body—a white stone the size of her fist, with a red stain on it. Her heart racing in her chest, she looked in the direction the stone had come from. For a moment there was nothing but darkness, but then a shadow emerged from behind the trees.
"Marion?"
32
Death or Dare
"Marion, what are you doing here?"
Her friend didn't reply. She picked up the Amulet from the sheriff's inert hand and stared at it. When she finally looked up, she didn't seem like the Marion that Iris had known her entire life. There was something in the girl's eyes, something dark and scary that Iris had never seen before.
With careful steps, Iris advanced towards her friend. "Marion, give me the stone." She put out her hand, but the girl didn't move. She just stared at Iris. "Give it to me, Marion."
The girl took a step back. "You should have told me."
In that moment Iris knew that Marion knew. She knew about Fae and the Amulet, and she knew it from someone other than Iris. As soon as she realized that, Iris understood what the darkness in Marion's eyes was—hatred.
"How did you find out?"
"Really? That's what you're worried about?"
"Marion—"
"I could have saved her, you know? My mother… If I'd known… If you'd only told me the truth… I could have saved her. I could have convinced her to leave town for a while…"
"I'm sorry. I tried—"
"You tried?! Please! Stop lying to me. Just stop lying! You had so many chances to tell me the truth… And even after she was gone… After Vincent took me… I gave you so many chances to tell me… You wanna know how I know? I've known for a while now… It was the vampire blood that Dorian gave me… Apparently it restores not only your health but also your lost memories. Lost or… stolen and replaced with fake ones…"
Iris shuddered at the thought of how long her friend had been living tormented by the knowledge of what had happened, unable to talk to anyone. Her eyes filled with tears.
"Marion—"
"Do you know how much I hated you when I finally realized what was happening? Because it took me a while, you know? At first I thought I was losing my mind. Nothing made any sense. Hounds of fire, supernatural abilities, vampires, healing gadgets. I really thought I'd gone crazy. I had no one to talk to because the only person I would ever trust enough to reveal these thoughts to was precisely the person who was responsible for them. I hated you and missed you at the same time. And even so, I decided to give you the chance to explain. Instead, you chose them. You always chose them over me." She shook the Amulet in her hand. "This is my chance to get back at them for ruining my life."
"Marion, they will die if we don't return that Amulet."
"They deserve to die. My mom died because of them. Hell, your grandmother died because of them."
"I know, and I'm angry too. But an eye for an eye is not the answer. Their deaths won't bring back your mom or my grandmother."
"What are you?"
"I don't understand."
"You're different. What are you?"
"I don't know. No one knows."
Marion paused for a while, staring Iris in the eyes. "I'll give it to you on one condition."
"Name it."
"That you use it to find out what you are. Use the Amulet to summon the Fountain and ask it what you really are. I'll give it to you if you want it for yourself, but I'll die before I return it to the Elwoods."
"It won't work for me, Marion. The Fountain only reveals the identity of someone called the Traveler."
"No. It gives you the answer to any question."
"No one knows that for sure."
"No one knows it doesn't."
"Still, I can't do it."
Marion shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. She smiled, but it was a sad smile. The sparks of joy in her eyes that had always managed to cheer up Iris even in her darkest moments were now gone. All that was left was a mixture of disappointment and resentment as she realized the reason Iris refused to use the Amulet. "Because it would get the Elwoods killed."
Iris nodded. "Yes."
"Then I guess they'll die for nothing."
The girl turned around and ran off.
"Marion!"
Iris chased after her. The wrist, now swollen and blue, was pulsing with a new kind of debilitating pain and Iris tried to steady it with her other hand to keep from fainting. Under the silvery light of the full moon, Marion seemed like a ghost darting through the trees. Iris followed the girl's eerie shadow, ignoring the loose branches that cut into her cheeks. When Marion stopped, Iris thought she'd changed her mind, but then, as she got closer, she noticed that the girl was smiling and Iris soon realized why. Marion was standing in the middle of a wooden bridge, halfway across a deep crevice. A thin spring murmured as it sprung over the limestone rocks at the bottom.
Iris stopped at looked at her friend. They both knew that it was the end. Iris wasn't going to follow any further. Marion smiled and turned around, disappearing into the darkness of the forest on the other side of the bridge.
The two edges of the crevice were no longer than fifty feet apart, but there could have been a jumping distance between them for all she cared—she still couldn't cross it. The bridge was old and primitive, made of wooden planks and rope, and it was obvious to her that not many travelers had crossed it lately, since it was missing a lot of pieces. Iris sat on the ground at the edge of the precipice. She was tired, scared, frustrated and in a lot of pain, and when tears blurred her vision, she didn't try to fight them anymore.
She sat there for a few moments, thinking of her life before that fatidic morning when she chose to avoid crossing a bridge over Cinnamon River. The irony wasn't lost on her. It was her fear of water that had brought her there. If she hadn't taken Chestnut Road, the hellhound wouldn't have attacked her and Marion, and none of what had happened ever since would have happened. Or maybe it would have but not with her as a protagonist. She would have kept on living unaware of the existence of the supernatural world and her own part in it. Unaware, but at peace.
And yet… Her grandmother had never been a religious person but she'd always believed in karma. Everything happens for a reason, she'd say, and everything is set in motion long before it happens, by forces that our feeble minds are incapable to comprehend. If that was true, then Iris' involvement in the Fae's world was inevitable. One way or another, she would have entered their lives or vice versa. I always knew you were destined for great things. Was that what Elizabeth had meant? Be brave and face your fear. Including that of water. Easier said than done. Especially then. There was no way to rationalize it. With rain, she told herself that, despite the feeling of sharp needles piercing her skin where raindrops touched it, no one had ever died from being rained on. However, crossing over that bridge could actually kill her. Seeing how fragile and derelict it looked only reinforced her fear, and her mind was invaded by images of her falling into the great emptiness underneath it, her bones shattering against the hard rocks at the bottom, her lungs filling with water and blood to the point where she couldn't breathe anymore.
And then she couldn't breathe anymore. She instinctively applied her father's breathing exercise. Your father must have known it too, which is why he tried so hard to protect you. Her father had sacrificed himself and her mother to protect their daughter. Even when he knew that he was going to die, he chose to save Iris' life instead of his and his wife's.
She got up and grabbed the rope with her good hand. The other one, she couldn't feel anymore. She stared at the bridge. It looked like the denture of a
n old sailor—black, broken and with many missing pieces. With her fingers clenched on the rope to the point where her white knuckles hurt, she stepped on the first plank. She didn't congratulate herself yet because she was still on solid ground. She tried to look at the bridge and block out everything beyond it. She'd heard that when you're afraid of heights you shouldn't look down, so she looked at the planks in front of her and then closed her eyes and stepped forward. She wouldn't be as scared and as hesitant if she walked through a minefield. She was lightheaded and the constant movement of the bridge under her weight, up, down and sideways, only made her dizzier.
About a third of the way through, she stopped in front of the first gap in the bridge. Hard as she tried to avoid it, she couldn't help looking down. The bottom of the crevice seemed even darker and more menacing seen through the narrow space left by the two missing pieces. Iris turned to face the rope and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and extended her leg sideways. The bridge rocked underneath her and she nearly lost her balance, as her back foot slid off the wet plank. In the face of death, her survival instincts kicked in and she tried to secure herself with both hands. She withdrew her broken wrist like she'd been electrocuted and she blinked repeatedly to clear her eyes. Then she threw her hanging foot forward and, as soon as she had both feet on the planks, she pulled herself on the other side of the gap.
When she finally stepped off the last wood plank and was on solid ground again, she looked back at the bridge and smiled. I did it, Grandma! She darted into the woods, hoping that Marion hadn't gained too great an advantage. She wondered what her friend was going to do with the Amulet. Was she going to use it herself to summon the Fountain, but in that case, for what? Or was she going to give it to someone else, and in that case, to whom?
She was so absorbed by her thoughts that she almost passed by a clearing a few feet to her right where a dark shadow moved slowly and swiftly under the tree canopies, almost as if it wanted to steer clear of the moonlight. Iris saw it in the corner of her eyes and stopped on the spot, squinting to see it better. Although she already knew, somewhere in the back of her head, she still gasped when she recognized Marion.
It occurred to her that Marion was waiting for someone, and so Iris ducked and walked towards the clearing with careful steps. As expected, a few seconds later, a second figure, a man judging from his height and the way he walked, appeared behind the first line of trees on the other side of the gray circle of light that the moonlight drew over the clearing. There was something familiar in the way he carried himself. He stopped just for a second and looked in Iris' direction and she ducked and prayed that he hadn't seen her. When she resumed her position, he was already walking towards Marion.
As soon as she saw him, Marion waved but stood where she was, waiting for him to reach her. He stopped a few feet in front of her. The light of the moon hit him from behind, so Iris couldn't see his face. He took out an object from the inside pocket of his jacket. It looked like a fountain pen of sorts. Marion, whose back was towards Iris, took the pen and brought it to her face as her head tilted slightly backwards. She then reached into her pocket, took out the Amulet and handed it over to him. He took it and slid it inside his jacket. Then he stepped towards Marion and took her in his arms. A second later, the girl's head tilted to the side a bit more than normal, and when he let her go she fell to the ground.
Iris jumped on her feet and covered her mouth with her good hand to muffle a scream as her eyes filled with tears. The man looked at Marion's body, then he took out the Amulet and held it in his hand for a moment, staring at it. As the red light reflected on his face, Iris recognized him. Her hand fell to her side and she felt something break inside her chest as she watched Dorian disappear into the darkness of the sleeping forest.
Iris couldn't tell how long she'd been sitting there, holding Marion's dead body in her arms and crying over it. Her life was a joke, a series of ludicrous turns of events put together by the invisible hand of a cruel fate for the amusement of a sadistic audience who seemed to take extreme pleasure in the misfortunes of the main character and kept asking for more. Every time she thought things couldn't get any worse, a new disaster was waiting for her just around the corner. Maybe that was what she was—the bringer of death. How else would one explain the fact that, try as she might to prevent it, sooner or later everyone around her ended up losing their lives?
She didn't hear Connor approach. She didn't feel his hand on her shoulder either. She only became aware of his presence when he shook her back and forth to pull her out of the trance she was in. She tried to speak but the words refused to come out.
"Who did this, Iris?"
"D—" She fought to stop the sobs enough to get a word out. "Dorian." Connor didn't speak but he didn't have to. She knew what he wanted to say. She acknowledged it. "You were right about him. So was Lorelai."
"Does he have the Amulet?" She nodded. "Iris, I have to go after him. I can't let him summon the Fountain."
She jumped to her feet. "I'm coming with you."
"Iris—"
"No. I know him. He'll die before he gives it up. But before he does, I want to ask him why he had to kill Marion. She gave him the Amulet. He could have let her live but he didn't."
"He's a monster. It's what he does. He doesn't need to have a reason to kill someone."
"If that's the case, then I want him to look me in the eye and tell me that."
33
The Fountain of Truth
Iris was crying and running. Somehow, she couldn't feel the pain in her arm anymore and she suspected that the reason for that was her anger. It neutralized every other feeling she had, like an anesthetic. She was grateful for that. It also gave her an almost supernatural dose of energy that, much to her surprise, allowed her to keep up with Connor. She was grateful for that too.
For a second she lost him from her view and she picked up the pace. When she caught up to him, he'd stopped and she nearly bumped into him as she came out from behind a thick wall of tall bushes. He was staring at something in front of him and she followed his gaze. A few feet away, partly shielded by the sky-high, centennial trees, two tall figures—one of them was Dorian, the other Cyrus. Connor's face was white as a sheet and the moonlight that somehow managed to creep through the thick canopies cast eerie shadows on it that made it seem whiter still. He was staring at the two men, and Iris wondered why he didn't barge in to recover the Amulet.
"You lied to me, Cyrus," Dorian said.
"I didn't lie."
"You never told me you worked for the bloody Council of Seven."
"This doesn't change anything."
"They're the ones who exiled Raven's father and put Raven in a desert prison for over a decade. And that's not even the worst thing they've done. Ask any Fae in this bloody human world. Nine out of ten were unjustly put here and their families killed. And perhaps the most important thing of all… the bastard who kidnapped me and kept me in a cage for ten years worked for the Council! But then again, you already knew that. You've known all along, which is why you've kept your employer's name from me this entire time. Because you knew that I would have never taken your offer had I known. You didn't come to me because I had nothing left to lose. You came to me because you knew that I was harboring so much hatred, I was actually mad enough to go against the Guardians."
Dorian's voice broke. Iris' heart skipped a beat. Next to her, Connor's shoulders jerked and tightened.
"That's not the reason—"
"It makes no difference now. I swore I'd take revenge for my parents' deaths and hunt down everyone in the bloodline of the man who was responsible for that and that's exactly what I'm going to do." He took out the Amulet and held it in his hand.
Cyrus put his arm out. "Dorian, the Fountain won't tell you that. It only reveals the identity of the Traveler."
"Oh, I think that's rubbish, made to deter anyone from using it for things that the Council considers trivial. You know, like cures for diseases o
r rotten members of the Fae authority."
"Listen to me—"
"No!"
Dorian raised his arm. The Amulet lit up the clearing, sending rays of red light through his fingers and making the skin of his hand look translucent. Connor darted forward.
"Dorian!" Iris jumped over a bush and emerged into the small space between the trees just as Dorian was lowering his hand.
He stopped and turned his head for a second to look at her. Then, just as Connor darted forward to stop him, Dorian got down on one knee and hit the Amulet on the ground.
A flash of neon silver light exploded, forcing Iris to shield her eyes with her hand. The earth began to shake violently. Iris lost her balance and fell. She remained there, lying down, propped on an elbow, her hand over her eyes. Through her fingers she saw the hundred-year-old trees around them fall to the ground with a deafening cracking sound that shook the forest. Instinctively, she covered her head with her hands. A gust of wind and dust hit her like a wave as the trunk of an ash tree hit the ground a few feet to her left.
Connor, who was closer to the blast, was propelled backwards. He flew in the air and hit his back on an old tree twenty feet behind Iris. She watched him fall, her heart pounding in her temples. As he landed on the ground, she thought she could hear bones break. There was horror in his eyes as he stumbled up, trying to find his balance. He launched himself at Dorian again but the result was the same. Dorian was now standing inside an invisible circle that nothing and no one could penetrate.
Cyrus' shadow had been pulverized, only to materialize a few feet outside the circle a few seconds later. He seemed unmoved as he watched the events unfold. On the other side of the circle, Connor helped Iris get back on her feet. The ground kept shaking and he put his arm around her shoulders to keep her from losing her balance again. They both stood there, side by side, powerless, watching Dorian sign the Elwoods' death sentences.
The Fountain of Truth (Tales of the Dark Fae Book 1) Page 29
