Accidental? Binding did not bind?
Anger pools in the pit of my stomach.
“Well, I’m pretty sure I know how to explain,” I growl, leaping to my feet. “Someone botched my wedding.”
“Yes,” she squeaks, shrinking away from me as afraid I may strike her.
“How can you…how is it even…are you sure?” I ask. “Before I go and throat-punch my so-called husband.”
I make angry air-quotes with my fingers around the word husband, much to Liri’s horror.
“Yes,” says Liri, nodding gravely. “Your wedding, as you call it…this wedding was improper.”
“God, what does that even mean?” I ask through clenched teeth. “First Language, please.”
Liri nods, her tongue darting out to lick her lips. “Your wedding was botched,” she declares with a shrug.
“Yes, thank you, I’ve gotten that,” I say with an impatient sigh. “But how? Can you tell how this happened? Or who screwed it up? Colin knew what to do. He had on makeup and robes. The whole nine yards. It was dramatic. And then after the ceremony, the…uh, binding…was, of course, consummated…”
Liri giggles and looks away for a moment before growing serious again.
“Who else was there with you?” she asks, narrowing her eyes.
“Representatives of the Fae King and Queen, Alexander and me, obviously, and then Colin and Horace.”
Liri nods. “It’s possible that someone unintentionally interfered with the ceremony,” she whispers.
Someone sabotaged the ceremony, and it wasn’t unintentional.
My mind drifts back to the conversation I had with Greg a couple of weeks ago. “Maybe the Prince stole your faerie magic. Tricked you into marrying him so he could steal your magic? Faeries are tricky, Sophe.” I shake my head, pushing Greg’s words from my mind. Alexander would not do that. He would not do that to me.
“Do not worry. It is fixable.” She glances up at me as she flips through the pages on her clipboard before turning to Esmeralda. “Do you have Faerie Elderflower,” she asks in English.
“I do,” says Esmeralda, rising from her seat. “I have a fresh crop of it in the greenhouse.”
Faerie Elderflower? Greenhouse?
“Good,” Liri says, nodding as she turns to me again, switching back to the First Language. “Grind about a teaspoon up and drink it with water. It won’t taste very good, but it is a requirement for the re-binding.”
“Re-binding?” I ask. “You’ve got to be kidding me…how is it possible that the lightbinding of a Fae Prince is so easily botched? Was there no security?” Esmeralda places a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “What kind of operation are you faeries running, anyway?”
“Sophia,” Esmeralda murmurs. “It’s okay. We will fix this. We will get Alexander back here and perform the ceremony again. It will be okay. In the meantime, let’s get your magic up and running.”
I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I’m one step away from asking to speak to a manager, and I don’t like it. Liri scrawls something on a small prescription pad on her clipboard before tearing off the sheet and handing it to me.
“Do this,” Liri says, nodding toward the paper.
“This is nothing but little squiggles,” I say, examining the written gibberish.
“Formality,” Liri responds with a twirl of her hand.
“I don’t think you quite understand the point of a prescrip—“
“We’ll get the Elderflower, Liri. Much obliged for your help,” says Esmeralda, guiding me by the elbow toward the door.
“It is not a problem. We will check back with Sophia in a few days,” says Liri.
I pause, turning to my faerie friends on my way out the door.
“How did you get all of this information based on those weird tests?” I can’t help but ask as we are leaving.
Liri gives me a secretive smile. “That information is confidential,” she says in the First Language.
But as I leave the exam room with Esmeralda, I can’t help but to wonder if that’s all they’re keeping in strict confidence. I expected a lot of things when binding myself to a Fae Prince. Having to find a traitor amongst friends and supporters was not one of those things.
The Academy’s greenhouses are buried deep within the bowels of the Academy. At least, I think they are. Esmeralda has taken me down so many narrow stone passageways, lit only by small, thin candles mounted in rusted iron wall sconces, I have no idea where we are. It’s not a place I could ever find again on my own.
The candlelight that flickers against the damp stone walls, along with the sounds of shifting rocks and pebbles off in the darkness causes my mind to run rampant with creepy possibilities. I cling to Esmeralda’s arm and swear I can see human skulls embedded in the walls as we press ourselves through the tight corridors.
“The path narrows a bit up ahead,” Esmeralda explains, her voice bright and cheerful. “We must go single-file.”
“Great, I love nothing more than creepy, narrow passageways,” I say, gulping as Esmeralda disentangles her arm from my death-grip and moves in front of me.
What she fails to mention is that the passageway is also very dark. For such an elite Academy that is so ripe with magic, one would think these passageways would have come with some sort of magic that would flood every nook and cranny with light.
I reach, grasping for Esmeralda’s shoulder. Something shifts in the darkness behind me, and I choke back a scream as I jerk forward, bumping into Esmeralda.
“Sophia! My goodness, what is the matter with you?” she scolds, slamming her elbow into the wall to steady herself. Falling over could be deadly.
“Is this a bad time to mention that I hate caves and dark, cramped spaces?” I swallow hard, my throat dry.
“We’re almost there, my dear. Just a little farther.”
“Next time, I think I’ll stay above ground. You can find this Elderflower and then bring it back to me, Es. I’m about to have a nervous breakdown.”
“Don’t be silly,” she says. “Everyone knows you must take Faerie Elderflower the moment you pick it or it won’t be effective.”
“And it will, what again? Cleanse me so I am worthy enough to bind with Alexander?”
With a deep breath, I squeeze myself through the narrowest passage yet.
“We know you’re worthy enough,” she answers, her voice tinged with frustration. “The Elderflower wipes the slate clean, so to speak. I’m surprised you didn’t receive it the first time you were lightbound.”
Because someone didn’t want me to receive it the first time. That’s why.
After finally making our way through the cramped passageway, we reach a small, cozy room that looks like a speakeasy.
“Wow. What is this place?” I ask, ducking under low ceilings adorned with elegant Art Deco lighting. I marvel at the cozy booths set into arched brick grottos along one side of the room.“If you tell me we’re back in Berlin—“
“No, Sophia,” Esmeralda laughs. “This isn’t Berlin. Though this room was once a speakeasy. Now it’s more like an exclusive hideout for the Fae dignitaries when they come to this realm.” She chuckles to herself and shakes her head. “If these walls could talk. Oh, the tales they could tell.”
“Well, it is Nevermoor. Give them time, and perhaps they will,” I mutter, trailing my hand along the rich surface of a huge leather sectional in the heart of the room.
Residual pipe smoke hangs in the room, its sweet faa pleasant contrast to the musty dankness of the stone hallways we had to squeeze through to get here.
We approach an enormous bar with shelves of glowing, otherworldly bottles of alcohol. Esmeralda runs her hands along the bottles on the lowest shelf as she mutters an incantation. The shelves pull forward, revealing a small opening behind them.
“This way,” she says, beckoning for me to follow her through the opening.
I grit my teeth, preparing myself for more claustrophobic passageways as I step into
the opening. A blast of cool air almost knocks me off my feet, and I reach for Esmeralda, who lets out a whoop of excitement right before everything goes dark.
“You can open your eyes now, Sophia,” Esmeralda says, amusement in her voice.
I don’t know what to expect. I blink one eye open and then the other, my mouth dropping open at yet another stunning room. There are three stories’ worth of strange artifacts displayed in glass cases. Huge fossils belonging to ancient creatures I can’t even begin to describe watch over the room with hollowed eyes and gaping grins.
“Holy Smithsonian,” I breathe, admiring the opulent black chandelier that hangs from the ceiling, casting a warm, inviting glow over the room. “Where are we, and how can a place like this exist so far underground?”
“Ah.” Esmeralda holds up a finger. “Perhaps you only think you are underground.” She winks at me. “This is only the beginning,” she tells me as she starts across the room toward another corridor. “You could spend a lifetime here and still not see everything.” She glances at me over her shoulder. “It’s pretty incredible, isn’t it?”
Incredible is an understatement.
“What is it?” I ask, peering into a glass case containing a long, colorful robe made from iridescent fabric. “What is this place?”
“Well, the Smithsonian is a good way to describe it,” she says. “But it’s the magical version of the Smithsonian. And this, my dear, is the Grand Library.”
She leads me into another giant room, this one filled with level upon level of bookshelves, stuffed with books arranged in rainbow patterns that seem to change colors as my eyes scan the shelves. Craning my neck, I look up, but there are no ceilings in sight. The library seems to extend up into the heavens. And well beyond that, too. I gaze in awe at a starry sky, complete with shooting stars, colorful nebulas, and fiery planets. Once again, grand is an understatement.
“Hello, Esmeralda,” calls a sing-song voice from the center of the room.
A petite woman wearing vintage cat-eyed glasses and a scarf wrapped around her head sits behind a massive desk, beaming at us as we approach.
“Well, hello Sibyl,” Esmeralda says, smiling.
“What brings you here today?” she asks.
“On our way to the gardens and greenhouses.” Esmeralda waves her hand toward a huge arched corridor across the room.
“Ah.” Sibyl nods before turning her attention to me. A strange, almost hopeful expression washes over her face. “You must be Sophia.” She smiles. “We’ve been waiting for you. Welcome to the Grand Library.”
“Thanks,” I say. “How does one check out a book here?”
“Check them out?” Sibyl bursts into laughter like that’s funniest thing anyone’s ever asked her. “No, no, no. The books here check you out.”
“I should’ve known,” I mutter.
“You never know what you might end up with when you walk out of here,” Esmeralda says, laughing as we make our way through the library. “But it’s said the books know what you need, and they find you.”
“I need all kinds of things,” I say, raising my voice and hoping the books can hear me.
I peer down into the recesses of my bag, but much to my disappointment, no books have appeared.
“You could spend your entire life in that library and still not make a dent in all of it,” Esmeralda whispers as we exit the library and make our way bakc down another corridor. I’m relieved to find it’s a normal-sized-corridor.
“What all does that library contain?” I ask. “The history of the entire universe?”
“Why, it’s our history, of course,” Esmeralda replies. “Everything is housed in the Grand Library. It contains every record, grimoire, artifact, and rune since the dawn of time.”
Dawn of time?
“Dramatic,” I whisper. “Is this what you meant when you told me that lots of things are brought to you for safe-keeping? Because it all comes here?” Esmeralda nods, excitement sparking in her eyes. “And since you’re the headmistress, you’re in charge of it all?”
“Well, I have help, but yes. As headmistress of the Academy, it is my responsibility,” she says, her voice taking a weary tone. “I am like a head librarian, if you will. I know where to find almost everything in here.”
“And is it where you kept Auberon’s journal?”
She nods. “The very place. Aisle 5,456…no, 57…in the Fae section…well, one of the many Fae sections of the library. Though I must add that I am not responsible for the books that appear in that library. The books find their way there of their own accord.”
“Of course they do. This whole place runs on magic.”
“Precisely.” Esmeralda throws a grin over her shoulder. “Now, wait until you see the gardens.”
The gardens, like everything else in this Faerie wonderland below the earth, are rich with a wide variety of colorful plants, shrubs, trees, and flowers. If I didn’t already know I was a ga-zillion miles underground, I’d swear I was back in Faerie. Esmeralda and I walk along a soft dirt path that’s flecked with gold, winding our way through trees of every shape and size imaginable until we reach the actual gardens.
Vibrant purple flowers line a lush but neatly manicured grassy trail while pink, yellow, red, and white tulips form a curving pattern on either side of the path. Up ahead, I can see rainbow-hued water trickling from a huge stone fountain.
Sunlight warms my skin, and I gaze up at the deep, blue sky. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, and I want to soak it all up before my return to the doom and gloom of the real world.
“Why don’t we hang out down here all the time?” I ask, trying to resist the temptation to kick off my shoes and frolic through the thick, green grass.
“It’s not always this pleasant,” Esmeralda says, her eyes twinkling in the sunlight as she surveys the enormous variety of plants and shrubs. “The gardens and greenhouses are beautiful, but the weather is often rainy and dreadful.”
She grins at me before stopping to examine a plant specimen. Pulling out a small notebook and pen from the basket she carries, she jots down a few notes before resuming her intense scrutiny of the plant.
“So, what is this plant here?” I ask.
“Well, we’re in the medicinal plant section now. And this is White Wolfsbane,” she explains, nodding toward a small plaque that stands in front of the little plant. “This crop was on its last leg just a few days ago. Looking at it now, I’d say it’s on the mend.” She looks up at me, and I nod in agreement, as if I know anything about White Wolfsbane. “Colin MacLeod will be pleased, no doubt.” She straightens and turns to face me. “Speaking of Colin, where did he run off to? He’s usually eager to get down to these gardens in search of some rare ingredient for his teas. We just got a shipment in from the Twilight Realm, too.”
“Ah. So he really brews up magic tea, using ingredients from magical realms,” I say with a smile. “Not surprised.” I pause, remembering her question. “He didn’t tell me much, just that he was on some super-secret mission back in Weimar Berlin.”
“Oh.” Esmeralda’s eyes widen. “Can he do that?” she asks in disbelief. “I didn’t think the portals could open at random.”
“Apparently, he can.” I don’t like the concerned frown on Esmeralda’s face. “What do you think it’s about?”
She looks at me for a moment as if considering her answer. “Who knows,” she says, shrugging. “Druids involve themselves in the strangest missions. They don’t always make sense to us, you see.” She smiles at me. “Don’t worry too much about him. He’s one of the brightest druids to ever graduate from that Academy. Even if his father is an evil bastard.”
“Hey, there, Es,” says a low, gruff voice behind me.
Esmeralda turns and offers a quick smile to a small, hunched man with an disfigured face and a cheerful smile as he sidles by us, his beady eyes fixing on the White Wolfsbane.
“Oh, hello Matthew,” Esmeralda says with a wave of her hand. “Still l
ooking for the antidote to your most recent accident, I see?”
“The story of my life, Es,” he says, flashing me a grin. “Always the victim of some off-the-wall accident. I’m not sure what purpose my life would have if not searching for something to cure what ails me.”
He laughs like this is the funniest thing in the world and then does a little jig right there in the middle of the path.
What is happening?
“Matthew was the victim of an unruly Succubus attack a few weeks ago,” Esmeralda tells me. “Nasty things, Succubi.”
“Yes, but I fought her off of me before she could take my soul,” he says with a gleeful laugh. He stops his lively little jig and leans in toward me, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Would you believe I am an extremely handsome warlock?” he asks, cracking a good-natured smile.
“I believe it,” I say, unable to hide a smile of my own. Matthew’s positive attitude, despite his predicament, is contagious. “And I’ll be sure and keep your advice in mind.”
I already have plenty of supernaturals around me I’m not sure I can trust. I don’t need to add unruly Succubi to the mix.
“Say, kid, you’re new here, aren’t you?” Matthew observes, his dark eyes searching my face as he leans in close before pulling back and roaring with laughter once again.
This guy is off his rocker.
“Yes, well…sort of—“
“Oh, how rude of me.” Esmeralda almost drops her basket. “Matthew, this is the wife of the Fae Prince Auberon. Her name is—“
“Ah, the Unseelie Princess of the Autumn Court,” he says in a stately voice, kneeling as he takes my hand and presses a sloppy kiss to my knuckles. “Yes, I should’ve known. The realms are all abuzz with the news of your arrival.”
He reaches into his own basket and pulls out a handful of flowers he throws up into the air over my head.
Unseelie Princess? Autumn Court?
Faebound Rhapsody Page 10
