by Paige, Bea
“Anyone born of the clan can become the creatures Queen Adrielle created when she cast the curse. Did you not know this?”
“Hold on a minute. Are you saying that I can become a vampire if I choose it?” I twist in my seat to look at Ezra. He looks as stunned as me.
“Yes. You are the missing daughter of Clan Lux, are you not?”
“Well, yes but…” I say, turning back to face them.
“Even if that were true, Accacia will never become like us. She is here to break the curse, not to join us. I will not allow it,” Ezra says, resting a hand on my shoulder. His touch makes my skin pepper with goose bumps. Ezra mutters under his breath and removes his hand quickly.
“Ezra’s right,” I say. “Why would I choose to become a vampire? I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to find a cure for this disease I thought I had. Now that I know it’s a curse, I want to break it.”
“We understand. But for us, the people of Clan Terra, it is different. The curse Queen Adrielle cast means we are connected to the forest. We cannot leave because we are trapped here. You have seen the vines, have you not? Our essence, who we are as a people, is bound to the earth, to the trees, to the plant life, to very soil you walk upon.”
“What about the pods? I have seen none since arriving here. We were under the impression you were confined to them too,” Ezra asks.
Eldon shakes his head. “Not anymore. When we were first drawn down beneath the earth we were all confined to the pods. For a long time, we were trapped within them, asleep. Then one day, they began to open, and we awoke here in this place. We built a life down here, beneath the trees that grow above ground. We are, however, still confined to the Forbidden forest, above and below ground. We cannot go beyond the limits of the forest in our fae form.”
“But you can in another form?” I say, remembering the saplings Clover had been so excited about and the pods they grew into.
Avery shrugs. “Yes, but only for a short time. That magic does not last long. We took a chance, and thankfully Clover found us. If she hadn’t, we would have perished anyway. That’s why we had to return because, no matter what, we are bound to the forest.”
“Clover chose to return with us. Just like she has chosen to become fae. To help cure the disease that is taking over the forest,” Eldon adds.
“Tell us about it,” Ezra says.
“For some years now, the Forbidden forest has been sick. If the forest dies, we all die. Eldon, Jael and I were sent to find Clover, to bring her back here in the hope that she will be able to save our people from certain death.”
“But her purpose is to break the curse so that you are no longer bound to the forest. Not to become like you, not to be imprisoned in the same way,” I shout, unable to help myself. “Why would Clover walk willingly into a cursed life? Why would she choose to be fae? It makes no sense. None at all.”
Avery’s face lights up. “Clover is special, Accacia. There are things we cannot explain, things we are forbidden from revealing about the fae to anyone outside of Clan Terra. But will you trust me when I say we have her best interests at heart. Clover has made a decision that will help all the people of Clan Terra. She is selfless and good.”
“I know she is. She has been my friend for most of my life,” I snap, unable to accept what Avery and Eldon are telling me. “How can I believe a word you are saying? I can’t even speak with Clover to see if you’re telling the truth. You said she speaks of me often, you implied you can converse with her as well, but how is that possible given she’s asleep?” I shout, pointing towards her sleeping figure in the other room.
“We can communicate very well. I believe you have experienced our form of communication already, have you not?” Eldon says patiently.
I narrow my eyes at both men, refusing to listen. “You’ve used your magic on her, haven’t you? She doesn’t know what she is doing, and I am telling you now to stop. You stop this. You let her go.” I stand up, anger coursing through me.
“That is not how it is,” Eldon says. “We would never do anything to hurt Clover. Jael, Avery and I are the three fated to be with her.”
“Fated? What are you talking about now?” I ask, but wave my hand in the air as Avery begins to speak. “I don’t care what you say. I don’t believe anything you tell me. Clover warned me away. She said I was in danger. You have trapped her here. This is all a lie.” I stand up and run back into the bedroom. Ezra is by my side in an instant. “We need to get her out of here, Ezra. Please, will you help me?”
Ezra places a hand on my shoulder, just as Eldon and Avery enter the room. The three men exchange looks. “Accacia, look at me,” he says, pulling me around to face him.
“What?”
“I do not believe these men are lying to you. I believe them when they say they have Clover’s best interests at heart.”
“Rubbish. She is under their spell. She wouldn’t choose a death sentence like this. You heard what they said, the forest is dying. If she becomes fae, she will be connected to the forest as well. She will die, just like the rest of them.”
“What makes you so sure? Clover has spent her life studying, growing, cultivating plants. Look at this place, Accacia. What if Clover being here will save the forest. What if that’s her destiny?”
I shake free from Ezra’s hold, frustrated that he is taking their side. “Studying plants is one thing, becoming fae and being bound to this forest is quite another. Clover is sensible. She’s a scientist, like me. She wouldn’t make a stupid decision like that.”
“Clover is from Clan Terra. She has their blood running through her veins. Before the curse, these people were already connected to the land, gifted with the ability to grow crops. The prophecy has brought her home to her people. This is her fate. I do not believe that is a bad thing.”
“Damn it, Ezra, they’re lying! They are using her for their own gain. I know it,” I say, my voice cracking with emotion.
“Eldon and Avery, they are not lying. I believe this is the prophecy happening as it should. You have to trust me on this, Accacia.”
“Trust you? How can I trust a man who would rather walk away from his people, from his brothers, from me, because he is too afraid to live? I know what I felt when I took your blood, I know what I felt when we kissed,” I shout, rounding on Ezra. I push against his chest, not caring that I am revealing how I feel. “I know you felt it too, that connection. Yet still you refuse to let me help you. So not only will I lose you, I will lose my best friend to this curse and I will probably lose Rhain and Devin too, if the fae king has his way.” I turn back to Clover, falling to my knees beside her. “Wake up, Clover, please. You don’t have to do this,” I say, pressing my face into her hair.
Ezra doesn’t attempt to comfort me, or even tell me I am wrong, he simply walks from the room. I can hear the low murmur as he talks with Eldon and Avery next door, but I am too exhausted to try and listen in on their conversation. After a while I get up off the floor, slide into bed next to Clover and fall asleep.
Chapter Nine
I’m standing on the roadside looking down upon the Light fields below. It is daytime, the sun a golden orb in an azure blue sky. I can see a woman walking alongside a little girl of no more than eight or nine years of age. They are heading towards the centre of the field. Every now and then the woman gently touches one of the cylindrical shapes. They are holding hands, talking, laughing. Their closeness and ease with each other tells me that they are mother and daughter. Neither appear to be bothered by the dazzling light surrounding them. The sun is not their enemy, and seemingly not mine. I lift my arm up and look at how my skin remains unblemished. This must be a dream.
I hear laughter and my attention is drawn back to the little girl. Her dark brown hair falls in a sleek curtain over her shoulders. From here I can see streaks of golden highlights within her long tresses. She looks familiar to me somehow.
A light breeze blows my own hair across my face, and when I tuck the disturbe
d strands behind my ear, Clover is standing next to me.
“Accacia, I knew you would come, despite me telling you not to. Why are you so pig-headed?” She laughs at my gawping face. “Don’t look so surprised. You wanted to speak with me, now you can. It’s good to see you.”
I throw myself into her arms. “Clover, you’re really here?” She squeezes me tightly then pulls away and pinches me hard. I flinch. “Ow, that hurt,” I say, stepping back and rubbing at my arm.
“Well, you wanted to know if this was real or not. I think that makes it pretty clear, don’t you?”
“But the sun. Why am I not burning?” I look up into the cloudless sky.
“Because we are just observing, not partaking,” she says cryptically.
“Observing what?”
She points to an open expanse of space next to the Light fields. I hadn’t even noticed that the land next to it is full of people farming until she points it out. The Forbidden forest has gone, and in its place there are endless fields full of men, women, and children of all ages working together. Several horses are pulling along ploughs which churn up the rich brown soil. Behind them the workers are planting bulbs and packing the dirt back on top. The children are playing, laughing and squealing as they run between the adults.
“Can you hear them?” Clover asks.
“Hear what…?” The moment I ask the question it’s as though the volume has been turned up. The people are singing in the fields. The song is unfamiliar, the words unclear, but the melody is joyous and happy. It makes me smile.
“These are the people of Clan Terra, Accacia. These are my people.” Clover steps closer to my side and takes my hand, gripping it tightly. “Watch,” she says, her face darkening a little.
For a while the people of Clan Terra continue their work, content, happy. My eyes trail to the mother and child who have stopped in the centre of the Light field. They stand in the centre, chatting happily.
Then a loud thunderclap sounds, drowning out all other noise, and the sky darkens so suddenly it’s as though day has turned to night. I can just about make out the people of Clan Terra looking skyward, talking animatedly with each other. Some of the children start to cry. In the middle of the Light field the little girl is wrapped in her mother’s arms. They are both looking skyward. Then another boom sounds, and the sun erupts once again.
That’s when the screaming starts.
Clover wraps her arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to her. “So you understand,” she whispers into my ear, her voice choking on the words.
I watch horror-stricken as the people of Clan Terra are drawn down into the earth, the very soil sucking them into its depths. Children are desperately trying to reach their parents, but they too are being devoured by the very earth they love, their tiny hands waving in the air frantically. One woman is desperately pulling at a little boy’s arms, trying to pull him out of the earth, but she isn’t strong enough and they are both swallowed. He can’t have been more than four or five. I can see others clawing at the ground, screaming in desperation and shock.
One by one they disappear beneath the surface. Then the soil begins to undulate like a stormy sea as thick, green, vines start erupting from the ground. They shoot skyward, sending dirt and rocks rushing up into the air. It takes only a minute, perhaps less than that, for the Forbidden forest to appear and an awful, monstrous, silence to descend.
“Noooooo.”
I snap my head around to the mother and daughter still standing in the Light fields. Like me, they had been watching the scene with dread. Only now their screams are of a different kind. Fear and shock is replaced with pain. All-consuming, overwhelming pain. I attempt to run towards them, to try and help, but Clover holds me fast.
“There is nothing you can do for them now,” she says sadly. “This is what once was. You cannot help them, Accacia.”
The mother has her daughter in her arms, trying to shield her from the light that is now burning their skin off in layers. Their cries are like nothing I have ever heard before, or ever wish to hear again. It takes a long time for them to die, their skin erupting in painful blisters, until eventually they both fall to the ground, still. The light they once adored has reduced them to nothing but ash and dust.
In the distance, over the echoes of their screams, I hear a man’s tortured cry and I know without a doubt that it is Ezra, that I have just witnessed the death of his beloved Thalia and Roseanna. I shelter my face in Clover’s arms and scream until my throat is raw.
Clover holds me against her chest, her hand soothing my back. I don’t think I will ever recover from what I have just witnessed, so how can I expect Ezra to do the same? In this moment, I understand fully what he has lost.
“This is what Queen Adrielle did to our people. This is why I must become fae, so that I can break the curse.”
I untangle myself from Clover’s arms, shock rendering me speechless for a moment. She stands before me, her own face wet with tears. Yet her eyes are alight with a fierce determination.
“It is the only way, Accacia. I have spent the last few months with these people. With Avery, Eldon and Jael. I wear their ring. I am of Clan Terra. They are my people and I will save them, but you must let me go.”
“I can’t…” I begin. Clover grabs hold of my hands, and wraps them in her own.
“You must if I am to help my people.”
“But the curse… the forest is dying.”
“Yes, it is. The forest has been sick for some time now.”
“And you think you are the cure to that illness. That you alone can make it better? You are one person,” I say angrily.
“Yes. I am one of the five, as you are, Accacia. It is my destiny.”
“To break the curse, Clover. Not to become a part of it.”
“They are intrinsic to one another,” she says, sighing. “Right now, it is difficult for you to understand that. This is new to you, all of it. I have been here for much longer. I understand what is at stake and what must be done.”
“It makes no logical sense.”
“Logic has nothing to do with this. Something far more powerful is required. You will understand, but you need to find this out on your own. I brought you here because I need you to let me go.”
“But I came to take you home.”
“I don’t wish to go home, Accacia. This is my home now. These people are my people, the good and the bad. I can help them.”
“You’re not going to change your mind are you, no matter what I say?”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“Damn it, Clover. What will I do without you?” I hold back the sob that wishes to escape. I’ve done enough crying. It is time to be strong.
“You will survive this, Accacia. You will play your part and together alongside the other sisters we will break the curse.”
“How can you be certain that will happen?” I ask.
“Because I have faith.”
“Faith?”
“Yes.” She smiles, her eyes filled with hope. “I know you, Accacia. We have been friends since we were little. You are as stubborn and as pig-headed as I am. You will do what needs to be done, because it is the right thing to do, because you care. I can see something lighting within you, just like it has lit within me. Do not ignore it.”
I stare at Clover for a long time. I came to Ever Vale in part to find her, but I also came to save Rhain from himself, because of a connection I was beginning to feel for him. Now the connection has been sealed with the Claiming I cannot let him go, and neither can I ignore the growing feelings I have for Devin and Ezra too. Clover is right; something is lighting within me and it scares me to death.
“You have your own path that you must take now,” she says with a gentle laugh. “There is only so much Jael can do for Rhain and Devin. He is keeping them safe for now on my request, but the fae king will never set them free. You must rescue them. They need you now, not I.”
“How will I do that?”
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“Avery will give you a map of the fae city showing you directions to an inn. Once you arrive at the inn seek out a fae man called Solomon. He is one of the elders who is loyal to us, he will help you.”
“But the city is some distance away. Avery said it was a miracle we weren’t spotted heading to you. There is nothing but open space between your place and the city.”
“There is a secret pass that runs beneath the tree. You won’t be seen.”
“And Solomon, how will I know who he is?”
Clover opens her hand and out of her palm an image of an elderly man appears. He has the same green eyes that all the fae seem to have, and a kind face. Long silver hair hangs in pleats down his back, with a beard to match. On his cheek is a silver tattoo resembling a bee. The image disappears in a puff.
“He has a bee tattooed on his face?”
“Yes, he does. Before the curse, Solomon was Clan Terra’s beekeeper. He looked after the bees, and in turn they pollinated the crops. He reminds me of my friend Dannika…” Her voice trails off as sadness slips across her features.
“Clover?”
“The most difficult part of being here is missing those I’ve left behind. Even though I have my own path, to know you are one of the five sisters makes me feel a little stronger about what I have to do. What we have to do.”
“I understand.”
“Solomon is a good man, he has an affinity with bees, just like my friend Dannika has with horses. His gift is stronger now that he has become fae. It has evolved into so much more and is the only reason why the fae king has not put him to death. Solomon believes in the prophecy, he will help you and Ezra.”
“Thank you,” I say.
“Accacia, there is one more thing you must know.”
“Okay, what is it?”
“Ezra is broken by his loss. You understand now how he feels, yes?”
“Yes,” I agree. How could I not? The pain I felt at watching his wife and child perish must be nothing in comparison to his.
“But he cannot return to the light. You have to find a way to persuade him to take your blood. He must live. It is important.”
