by Alexia Purdy
Then the past began to roll by. My sixteenth birthday. My tenth. Then my sixth, rolling back until I was two years old. I was at a birthday party, bouncing on my father’s arms and chewing on my lower lip. I’d just bruised it after tripping over my feet. There was an argument going on, and I peered over to see a girl who looked like me with her arms crossed as she pouted, my mother lecturing her about something. I didn’t quite understand what was going on, but my father chose to tickle me at that moment, and I giggled, laughing with him.
My mother looked so young, no crow’s feet around her beautiful green eyes. Her hair was a bright orange-red color. Freckles sprayed across her nose and cheekbones. She wore only light makeup, so unlike the thick amounts she wore now. I turned and admired my father’s face, also younger in appearance, and placed a chubby hand on his mouth, shushing him playfully. He kissed my palm, making loud smacking noises which made me laugh even more.
Then the memory morphed to another time and place. I was six years old, holding onto a new doll I’d just gotten at my sixth birthday party. It was a stormy day, and I looked out from the back porch of our home, afraid. What was I scared of? I looked around and realized Jarvin was still next to me, watching the scene with great interest. The girl who’d been at my second birthday party was standing in the yard, crying as rain began to pour down.
“I don’t want to marry anyone. They can’t make me,” she whimpered as her body shook. The rain was cold as I walked out into the yard, ignoring the damp earth and rain mucking up my clothes and shoes.
“Annie! What’s wrong? Don’t cry.” I ran to her and wrapped my arms around her waist, never wanting to let go.
“Oh, Star. If only you could understand. One day, you will. When you’re sixteen, like me, you’ll feel like the world has ended. One day, you’ll fall in love with the most amazing man, and I hope you’ll be able to stay with him and not be forced to marry another who you don’t love.”
She bent down, kissing the top of my head, her long red hair hanging over me like a shroud. We were both soaking wet and shivering.
“Who do you want to marry?” I asked her.
“A most wondrous, magical man. He’s not like us though and I’m afraid mother won’t approve. I’m going to have to go soon, and I probably won’t be coming back.”
My eyes widened at her declaration. “What do you mean you’re not coming back? You can’t leave. Who’s going to be my sister?”
My mouth fell open. I had no memory of this. Why?
“I’ll always be your sister. It’s just distance between us. My heart will stay with you forever. Wherever you are, I will find you and keep you safe, even if you don’t see me.”
Little me looked confused, and suddenly I was jerked away. It was my mother, angry and far more frightening than I’d ever seen her.
“What are you doing out here in the rain? You’ll both catch your death. How can you let Star out in this weather? You know she just got over the flu.”
“Sorry, mother. She followed me out here. I—”
“You need to get fitted for the coupling ball. The seamstress is here to size up the gown I chose for you. Get inside now!” she snapped before she ordered me back in as well.
“No. I won’t go to the ball. You can’t make me marry that decrepit old man Robinson. He’s disgusting. I want to marry another.”
“How dare you? You can’t marry another. This arrangement was difficult to obtain and will keep us afloat. Your father’s factory is nearly bankrupt.”
“I don’t care!” Andromeda yelled back. The rain came down harder and harder as I watched from the porch, my muddy doll clutched to my chest. I’d ruined my dress, but I had plenty of them. My mother had them made for me before my father’s company had gone into the red. They were using borrowed money to pay for Andromeda’s gown.
“You are no daughter of mine,” my mother spat. She turned on one foot, but before she returned, she called out over her shoulder. “Get inside now.”
Andromeda shook her head, taking a step back. She was crying hard, her lips blue from the cold rain. “I’ll never marry him. Never.”
She turned and ran out of the yard, the rain swallowing her whole as it came down in sheets. My eyes widened as I dropped my doll and ran, trying to chase after her.
“Annie! Annie!” I cried.
My mother snatched me up before I could exit the yard and dragged me back inside, kicking and screaming.
I couldn’t remember much after that. There were holes in my memory, with only intermittent flashes of my mother talking to a doctor and looking worried, her eyes swollen from crying, and a handkerchief constantly held to her face. I saw her sitting next to me in the dark of the night, holding vigil over my feverish body. She pressed a cold, damp cloth to my face as I whimpered and passed out once more.
When the fever broke several days later, I had no memory of the previous six years. No memory of Andromeda. My parents questioned me at first if I recalled anything and then stopped asking me. Andromeda was gone, and they stopped talking about her entirely, as though she had never existed. I barely noticed her photographs taken down around the house, put away into boxes, and stored in the darkest crevices of the attic. The sickness had affected my memory, but I got better as time went on. Pieces came back to me now and then, but I didn’t know what they meant or who I was remembering. The years went by, and all memory of Andromeda disappeared, too painful for my parents to speak of anymore. Amnesia had taken her from me.
I gasped as Jarvin pulled away, his dark eyes as wide as mine. We both remained planted, stunned from the trip through my thoughts. I shook with exertion, feeling as though I were coming down off some sort of medically induced high.
“I had a sister,” I whispered. “Her name was Andromeda.”
Chapter Thirty-six
Star
I could remember her now. My sister. Andromeda. Eleven years my senior. I had forgotten her after a bout of meningitis triggered by the pneumonia I had caught from being out in the cold rain. Why had my parents kept me from remembering her? Why had they erased her from our lives, and where in the world had she gone?
I trembled as though I were near collapsing. The forage through my head had left me exhausted, and Jarvin led me back to the table and sat me on a chair. I don’t know how long we sat in silence nor did I notice when Fealty excused herself to go to bed and disappeared down a hall, to what I supposed was her room. My bones ached to rest, but I fought the fatigue, still trying to understand these revelations haunting me like ghosts.
“I met her one day, in the market,” Jarvin said softly. “She stood out like a jewel amongst stones. I was glamoured to look like a human man, searching for a mate of my own. Females are scarce in our world. The only solution was to find a mate aboveground. I found Andromeda. She noticed me as well, and we became fond of each other, spending almost every waking moment together. When I asked her to be my consort, she agreed.”
I turned toward Jarvin, surprised he was offering so much information about my sister now. “Please, tell me more,” I begged.
He nodded, adjusting as he leaned on the table, folding his hands together. “One day, she came looking for me. Without any belongings and drenched to the bone, she was near death. I took her under my protection and brought her to my cavern, hoping my magic and the crystals’ powers would save her. She was pale and feverish. Her illness made it impossible for my magic to make any difference. I took her to the Glass Sky City for medical attention. She needed human medicine, not fae magic. We are forbidden to enter the city, so I left her at the edge and created some noise to draw the humans over to her. They found her and took her in to see a doctor. I never saw her again.”
The solemn look on his face told me everything. He had left without knowing if she had lived or died. I didn’t know either, nor had I ever seen her walking around. Maybe she had passed from her sickness. It was the only explanation.
“Do you think she’s dead?” I asked.
“I can help you find her, if she’s alive,” I said, reaching out to touch his arm. His eyes shifted to my hand, and I snatched it back, afraid I shouldn’t have touched him. I looked down at my hand; crystals shined on my skin. I slid my palm over them, but they wouldn’t brush off.
“Why would you help me?” he asked.
I looked up at him. He waited pensively as I gathered my thoughts. “If you help me find Gideon and Clyde and allow us to finish our mission, I will help you find her. I swear it. I will search the Glass Sky until I find someone who knows what happened to her. There has to be someone who was there when she arrived at the infirmary.”
“And if you fail?”
I swallowed hard, perplexed by his question. “I suppose that’s up to you.”
His eyes burned into me. “Payment for helping you must be made.”
“What sort of payment?”
He stood up and paced the room, his arms folded across his chest as he thought to himself. Something about this deal wasn’t adding up. A part of me screamed to not make deals with faeries and that it wouldn’t end well. I don’t know how I knew this, but I ignored it. Gideon and Clyde needed me, and I had no other options.
He stopped pacing and slowly turned in my direction.
Here it comes, I thought. I braced for his demands.
“If you fail to find Andromeda, you will return and stay here with me.”
I didn’t know what to say. I was stunned. “I—I….”
“If you do not agree, the bargain is null.” He approached me as he held out his hand. I glanced down at it, suddenly at peace with my decision.
“Okay.” I took his hand. “How do we do this?”
He smiled for the first time since I’d met him, his face lighting up at my words.
“With blood and crystal.” He held up a knife with a blade made of what looked like opal and quartz. He placed it above my palm and glanced up, asking for permission with his eyes. I nodded, bracing myself for the cut.
The blade sliced across my palm as I hissed from the sting. It was incredibly sharp. The cut was hair thin, but blood began to blossom, crimson and bright like the ruby pendant around my neck. He then did the same on his hand and pressed it to mine, our palms together. Heat ignited as a bond fused between us.
“The bargain is made.” He pulled away and wiped the blade on a cloth he produced from a sideboard nearby. Slipping the blade back into its sheath at his side, he looked at me, elated. It was a stark contrast to his broody, dark behavior from before. I shivered, feeling his magic traveling through my veins from the cut. I brought my hand up to look at the wound. The blood slipped into the cut in reverse, taking his blood with it and knitting together until the wound was nothing but a thin, white line, barely visible to the naked eye.
Warm, syrupy bliss spread through me as I swayed slightly. I was drunk on faerie magic. I could taste it on my tongue, and it danced through every cell in my body. I wanted more but knew it was dangerous, an anchor to the creature standing before me. We were bound together until the bargain was fulfilled or I returned to stay with him forever.
The last thought sobered me up quickly, and I blinked away the fog on my mind, returning to the room in Jarvin’s domain.
“Now how do we find Gideon and Clyde?”
He grinned once more, this time showing me his sharp teeth, much like Fealty’s. I wondered why they needed such sharp choppers. I hoped it wasn’t to bite off human flesh. I shuddered at the thought.
“Follow me.”
Chapter Thirty-seven
Star
I leaned forward on my knees, wheezing from exertion. Lifting up the light crystal given to me by Fealty, I stared ahead and frowned, my heart sinking to my stomach. I could see maybe ten feet ahead, with anything beyond blurred with darkness. The tunnel went on and on, turning and winding like a labyrinth of death.
“How much farther?” I asked. This uphill trek to the prison chambers was absurd. Jarvin had promised we’d find Gideon and Clyde along the way. I hoped he kept his word. I didn’t know how much time had passed since I’d been taken, but the more time that passed, the more my fear grew that I’d never find them again.
“Not much farther,” Jarvin answered. He waited as I recovered, not nearly as winded or exhausted as I was. These Others had the endurance of androids. I closed my eyes, sweat drenching my face and running down my neck. I wanted to rip off my jacket, but what if I needed it down the line? Sooner or later, the river would get in our way.
“Are you rested?” he asked, never looking my way as he continued to scan the area. Sympathy wasn’t their strong suit, from what I could see. I straightened, tugged out my thermos, and drank down several mouthfuls of water. It didn’t quench my thirst, but it helped a little.
The tunnels were pitch black, and I wondered how he could see anything beyond the light of my crystal. He didn’t carry one, which meant he had night vision of some sort. I peered out into the inky darkness where the branches of the tunnels broke off in different directions. I closed my eyes again. We’d already gone miles and miles, and I couldn’t hear the river at all. Nothing made sense.
“How do you know where you’re going?” I asked, my voice hoarse even after drinking water. My lungs burned as I coughed up phlegm, which tasted oddly tinted with blood. I needed to increase my stamina if I ever went through there again.
Again? I planned to never step foot beyond the Glass Sky City ever again.
“I’ve lived here for hundreds of years. I can walk these tunnels blind,” he answered as though it were obvious. His voice was a bit tight, and I caught him tilting his head like Fealty did, listening to the emptiness surrounding us.
“Do you hear something?” I asked, darting my eyes around the tunnel, holding up the light crystal to see.
“It’s nothing. Come along. We’ll reach the river soon.” He began walking again, and I groaned, hurrying to catch up to him. My legs were shorter than his, and I didn’t think he had taken that into account as he took large strides up the incline of the tunnel.
Suddenly, a howl echoed through the tunnel, causing the hair on my neck to rise. I took a sharp breath as my eyes bugged out; the noise was nearly deafening. The sound faded, and the ensuing quiet felt far more insidious now that I knew we were not alone.
“What was that?” I whispered, afraid that whatever creature lurked in the caverns would hear me.
“That is a Dark One,” Jarvin answered, narrowing his eyes to the path ahead. He pulled out the opal dagger and held it in front of him, flicking his eyes back and forth.
I stiffened. “What do they look like?”
“They look like me, except they become twisted and grotesque if they’ve used too much magic to ascend aboveground, looking for a mate. They have pointed ears and charred skin. They are cursed to roam the tunnels, banished for all eternity and unable to use crystals for power.”
“Oh. If they’re fae, why were they banished?”
My questions kept my anxiety down as we continued, listening for more howls. There were no more, but it didn’t mean the Dark Ones weren’t out there. I grasped Gideon’s totem. It brought me some comfort having a piece of him near me. I hoped he was all right somewhere out there. Maybe he and Clyde were searching for me. I would rather die than to know harm had come to them.
“They’re banished for population control,” my guide answered. “They are without mates. Females are as scarce down here as they are on the surface. The old wars poisoned both human and fae alike, and we paid dearly with the inability to reproduce as well as we’d have liked.” Jarvin’s face darkened, the first true emotion I’d seen from him.
“How—” I began before he
interrupted.
“Shh!” he hushed me. “Your voice is going to attract them. Hush.” He spun around, clamped a hand over my mouth, and pressed us to the wall.
My eyes grew wider as we listened to the hollow sound of the tunnels. Jarvin sniffed the air and growled. He let me go and dropped into a crouch, scanning the area for something I couldn’t see or hear. I produced my own dagger, terrified I wouldn’t survive if Jarvin was killed. I prayed this wouldn’t be the day I died.
He straightened, glancing over his shoulder. “I thought I heard someone approaching, but it’s—”
He flew back, grunting as he was thrown against the wall, smashing some of the stone. A silhouette of a man appeared, just outside of the circle of light from my crystal.
I gasped, taking in shallow, ragged breaths as I froze.
“Jarvin?” I called out into the tunnel, hoping he’d recovered from the assault. I was met with silence, and I feared he was badly hurt.
I couldn’t move. Too scared to run, I watched the shadow close the gap between us and step into the light. I drew in a sharp breath at what I saw. The creature was as dark as midnight, with scaly skin and eyes like a tiger. Its hair was chopped short and unkempt. He glared at me as though I’d just trespassed on his territory and would suffer the consequences. He snarled at me, his sharp, crystalline teeth contrasting against his dark skin. His eyes flashed in the blackness, reflecting the light of my crystal, which he narrowed in on and then promptly swiped from my hand.
I was plunged into darkness as my crystal shattered against the ground, but I could just make out his face in the dim glow from a few stray light crystals embedded high up in the tunnel wall. Dizzy from my shallow, stiff breaths, I tightly held on to my dagger and flattened myself against the wall. He was right in front of me, his hot, rancid breath scorching my cheek.
