Saving the Fae (Daughter of Light Book 3) Page 7

  The time of my tiptoeing around Indra and hoping the Queen would awaken and deal with her had passed.

  I was the only one right now with the authority to deal with this. I had to put on my big girl panties and face the truth, deliver the consequences. Because if Indra really had done all the shit my mother said she had in her journal, there would be consequences, and I had no reason to doubt my mother. But I felt, to be a just Queen, I had to see for myself.

  I was a pro at the memory spell by now. Mixing the paste, grinding the mortar and pestle, it had a soothing quality to it. When I split open the book and pulled the long, orange hair from its pages, the first tremors of anxiety rolled through me.

  What if she had done things even more horrible than I’d originally thought?

  With a shaky breath, I lay back in my bed… her bed… and rubbed the paste over my eyelids, thinking instantly of my mother and wanting to pull a memory with her.

  Instead… I saw blackness.

  What the fae?

  I thought of the Queen and, for a slight second, felt a pull but then hit blackness as well.

  Indra… she’d… hidden her memories?

  Anger surged through me at the thought. Just how powerful was she? I’d have to ask Jasper how this was possible. She was less like a regular powerful Summer fae and more like a…

  “Witch,” I hissed into the open room. Now that I’d said it out loud, the realization dawned on me, and it felt like I’d been struck with lightning.

  Indra was a fucking fae witch. Witch fae were pale, tattooed, had a certain look, and not usually allowed this close to royalty for fear of betrayal. Jasper advising me was one thing. Indra posing as an elder of our people, the right hand of the Queen, making policy, was another. How did she hide her true nature so that she looked like the rest of us?

  Magic.

  The anger started to pulse through me, causing light to emanate out of my palms. I could see it lighting up my room from behind my closed eyelids.

  How fucking dare she. How dare she mask herself as a common Summer fae and worm her way into the Queen’s inner circle. The light pulsed harder until it consumed me. Warmth spread across my skin, burning up my anger and Indra’s blocking spell right along with it. Because the second I thought of the poor Queen trusting this woman for so long, I was pulled into a memory, and the light behind my eyes ceased to glow.

  The Queen was running down the small lane from the farmer’s land and toward the river. She stopped when she reached the river’s edge and looked into the water as it slowly turned from blue to black. The darkness was coming. I was inside Indra’s body, chasing the Queen, and I looked over her shoulder into the water. A fierce expression shone in the Queen’s eyes, and then I saw my reflection. Indra’s reflection since I was her.

  Holy mother…

  Indra. Even though she was a darker-skinned woman, there was a paleness to her skin, a tilt to her ears, a tattoo on her neck of a harpy. She was a dark witch…

  A snapping twig brought both of their attention to the other side of the river.

  An army of dark creatures stood there, ready to take on our small village. All that was left. Fae ran screaming and shrank back away from the waters, hiding in their houses. I recognized the house I lived in with my mother but not the old woman who slipped inside behind the doors. It made me wonder what happened to her…

  The ground shook, and the Queen cast a look over her shoulder at Indra.

  “Where’s my sister?!” the Queen growled at her, thick disgust in her voice.

  Whoa…

  Indra pointed to the blue door. “She’s gone after the crystals. Your daughter is safe inside with Trissa.”

  My sister? Your daughter? I’d been taken to a time when this was common knowledge, and it punched me in the gut.

  Arrows sailed through the air then, snapping on the rocks at the Queen’s feet.

  Where were the warriors? Where was her backup?

  I knew the answer, and it made me sick.

  They were all dead.

  The Queen growled, thrusting her palms outward, and a blast of light rocked the riverbank. The dark creatures hissed and fell backward, ceasing their advance. Next, the Queen bent down and started to claw at the dirt with her fingers until she reached damp soil.

  What the…

  I saw it then, golden light emanating off her skin as she nourished her deep connection to the earth. It seemed to thrum through the Queen’s body as she called on the earth’s magic. It zipped up her arms in blue and green arcs of electricity, and I felt the envy burn through Indra. She wanted that much power.

  Slowly, the protection dome rose from the earth, shaking the small patch of Faerie just as the blackness and smoke started to creep forward from the woods. She was sealing it all off, saving what little part she could.

  Indra just watched in fascination as the Queen pulled on her power and erected a dome over the last little bit of Faerie she could. When she was done, she panted and tried to stand, swaying on her feet. “I’m getting weaker…” she mused and wiped her hands on her dress before turning to face Indra.

  “That should hold until we can—” The Queen’s words died in her throat as Indra threw a spell at her chest. It crashed into her, a ball of red magic, and splashed over her breasts. She doubled over, clutching her stomach, and Indra did a quick look around to make sure no one saw before catching the Queen in midair.

  Anger like I’d never felt before thrummed through my veins, and I wanted to rip this paste off my eyes and go find Indra right now and kill her, but I needed to see more.

  As the Queen lay there gasping like a fish, she muttered one thing.

  “Why?”

  Indra felt a pang of remorse. Her memories were not as accessible as Liam’s, so I didn’t know the extent of their friendship. But they must have been close for it to hurt Indra even a tiny bit because otherwise, she was cold as ice inside.

  “You’re too powerful.” Indra pulled a bottle from her pocket and brought it to the Queen’s lips. “And I can’t have that.” She upended the potion into the Queen’s mouth, and I gasped as the Queen went completely limp, into a deep sleep.

  Then, a huge fake wail rocked Indra’s chest, and she screamed for help, the sheer bad acting of it all made my stomach turn.

  Screw this, I couldn’t watch anymore.

  I thought of my mother, wanting to be done with this memory, and felt myself pulled forward in the timeline.

  Indra stood over my mother, her fingers at my mom’s temples. Just seeing my mother again like this, close-up, smelling her hair through Indra, seeing her downturned lips, it was a punch to the gut of my fresh grief. But that grief was quickly replaced with rage as I realized what she was doing to my mom.

  “Your sister has fallen into a deep sleep. The land weakened her. And the child is your daughter.”

  My mother frowned. “Mine?” Her voice was dreamy.

  Indra nodded. “Oh, yes. All yours.”

  Indra’s gaze flicked up, and I saw a line of people waiting outside to meet with her. Mara, Trissa, they were all waiting to meet with the new high elder of Summer, the one the Queen appointed in charge.

  And she was going to brainwash every single one of them.

  I didn’t need to stay any longer. I’d seen enough at this point. Standing in the room, I washed off the paste and then rinsed my face, watching as my hands shook in the mirror.

  The Queen was a badass. She hadn’t fallen after building the dome or losing the crystals. She fell because Indra spelled her. She’d said she was weakened, but I had no reason to believe that the loss of the crystals was what actually made her weak.

  Stepping forward, I wrenched open my door and grabbed my special sword off the wall, hanging it at my hip.

  I burst into Kira’s room, causing her to jump. “How long until the Queen would wake on her own if Indra had been spelling her into sleep this whole time with snoozeberry juice?”

  Kira frowned. “Twenty y
ears of it? I dunno… days, weeks?”

  I nodded and ran out, marching through the empty house until I reached the outside where Trissa and Elle were talking to Jasper and pointing out something in the distance.

  “Elle!” I snapped, causing all three of them to turn. “I’m going to officially arrest Indra for treason. What do I need to know?”

  Her eyes widened, and all three of their mouths fell open in shock.

  “You have proof?” Elle pulled her royal law textbook from her satchel and started to flip through it.

  Jasper’s hand dropped on the book to keep Elle from reading anymore. “She’s the Queen. She can call treason on whomever she wants.”

  Relief poured through me. “Good. Because Indra is a fucking witch. Literally. So, Jasper, I might need you to help me take her to the cages.”

  Jasper raised one eyebrow in shock, and I was relieved, quite honestly. For a second, I thought he might be working with her or something crazy.

  “A witch? But she looks—” Elle started.

  “I know,” I growled. “Illusion.” People were milling about, and the sun was about to set. I wanted to get this over with before I lost my nerve.

  “Jasper! Are you ready to help me?” I growled.

  He bowed slightly. “At your command, my Queen.” There was a playfulness in his voice but also an undercurrent of respect.

  Without waiting for another word, I kicked off the ground, shooting up into the air and taking off for the house that Indra now shared with the elders. I felt the wind rush at my back as Trissa, Elle, and Jasper flew behind me. Jasper kept his wings concealed often, tucked down into his coat, or maybe they were magically cloaked. I assumed it was to remind him not to use them out in public in the Earth realm. Only so many illusions to explain a flying person. But ever since he’d come back to Faerie, he’d been flying a lot more now.

  We zipped through the small busy road of tall houses. People were coming home after a long day in the fields or sitting on their porch reading to their kids. Even in all the destruction lately, we held to our daily routines, and that was comforting.

  When we reached the small blue house at the very end of the street, I landed hard on my heels. Rose was out front, rocking in a chair on the porch with a book in her lap.

  She looked up, shocked to see me holding my sword aloft and charging up her lawn.

  “My—,”

  I held my finger to my lips, and the words died in her throat. Rose was just about the only one I trusted of the three of them. I’d trusted Maple too, but she was gone now…

  Rose clutched her book, staring at my sword with terrified eyes as I mounted the steps to her house. I laid my hand on the knob when Jasper pushed his way in front of me.

  “Let me go first,” he hissed, holding a wispy ball of green magic that lit up his palms.

  Right.

  I had magic, but I wasn’t a witch. I had earth magic. It was different. He threw the door wide, and a burst of red glowing power arced through the air, headed straight for his chest.

  Okay, she was ready for us.

  Jasper threw the green ball in his hands, and they collided in the air, causing the whole house to shake. Indra stood there, halfway out the back door with a feral grin on her lips. She’d dropped the Summer fae illusion. Her hair was now jet black, skin an ashy gray, and her ears held their telltale tilt.

  At the sight of her true form, instead of anger, I felt heartbreak. I trusted her; we all did. She was like the mother to us all. She helped single-handedly rebuild Faerie after the Queen fell. This was the ultimate betrayal.

  “Indra!” I shouted across the space, noticing that Aubin was nowhere to be seen. “You are under arrest for treason.” Pulling my sword, I advanced with Jasper at my side as Elle and Trissa flanked into the room as well.

  Indra sneered. “I should have killed you when I had the chance,” she spat and jumped backward out of the door. Her wings snapped out, and she took for the sky.

  No!

  I charged forward, ready to fly after her when Trissa grabbed my arm. “Let her go. She’ll die out in the wastelands, and you can resurrect the shield after getting the Spring Tree power activation and lock her out. We can’t waste valuable time chasing after her.”

  She was right. It could take days. Already, she was a blip on the skyline, and with her advanced magic, who knew what kind of illusions she could do to cover her trail.

  I took a shaky breath and nodded. “Where’s Aubin? I want him questioned concerning everything he knows. I can’t have any more liars in Faerie.”

  Jasper nodded and moved to turn when Rose’s blood-curdling scream rang throughout the house.

  A stone sank in my stomach, and I knew right then, somehow, that Aubin was dead. Indra had known we were coming. Was her magic that powerful?

  That was scary...

  After racing to the backroom to find Rose huddled over Aubin’s body, I led her away. Poor thing was distraught. She told me that Indra had asked her to read outside and give her and Aubin private time to speak, and she’d obviously killed him. I wondered why Indra would spare Rose, but it was easy to see. Rose was like an innocent child. She was harmless, and it showed me that Indra had an ounce of compassion left. For whatever that was worth.

  We moved Rose in with Elle’s mom for a while so that we could have her keep an eye on Rose, and then I told Trissa to prepare to leave for Spring Castle tomorrow morning. I would take the activation, regain my full power, and fix this entire mess. Once the Queen awakened, I’d find a way to give her the power back, and everything would be okay.

  Hopefully.

  But right now, I had something important to do. Something that if I didn’t do it now, I feared it would never happen. After showering, putting on a short denim dress and black knee-high boots, I had Elle twist my hair into two cinnamon buns atop my head. She did my makeup, adding a splash of glitter at the corner of my eyes that was a bit overkill, and then sprayed some light floral perfume at my neck.

  “You look…. Whoa.” Elle held out two hands.

  I swallowed hard. “What if we can’t be like we used to be?” I was nervous that if I kissed Liam again, like really kissed him, there would be resentment there.

  Elle shrugged. “You won’t know until you try.”

  She was right. That’s why I was going over there. I wanted to try. I wanted him back. I needed to see if we could move past everything.

  I nodded. “Thanks, girl.”

  She pulled me in for a tight hug. “Always.”

  I walked across the courtyard, waving to the two passing fae I saw. It was probably weird to see their Queen dressed up in a miniskirt and boots for a date, but they didn’t say a word about it. It was dark out, just after dinner, and the moon was high in the sky, lighting my path. I’d told Liam to raincheck the date, but I was hoping if I showed up like this, he’d change his mind.

  Crossing the bridge we’d built to connect the two communities, I found him sitting at the large outdoor dining table, a roaring fire beside him as he laughed with his friends and brothers. He looked happy, and that made me smile.

  The entire group of over a dozen guys fell to a hushed silence as I stood there. Liam stilled, following their gaze, and an orange fire flashed across his eyes like lava.

  “Lily?” He stood, wiping his palms on his shirt, and walked over to me.

  My stomach flipped over as he approached me. Black wings, dark unruly hair, those insanely blue eyes. I still found it hard to breathe as he stepped closer. He had that effect on me.

  “I was… wondering if you wanted to do that date… now,” I mumbled. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him until I saw him again. It was a low ache in my chest that was only relieved when he was close.

  The slow half-cocked grin that pulled at his lips made heat rush down my chest until it pooled between my legs.

  “I’d love to. Be right back.” He jogged away to slip inside one of the huts, and I waited nervously for a few mi
nutes until he emerged in a tight, button-down shirt, dark wash jeans, and held a bouquet of freshly picked wildflowers. The roots were still hanging from them.

  Laughter peeled out of me. “Hey, if you snagged those from Mrs. Hannah’s garden, she’s going to be pissed.”

  A blanket was tucked under his arm, and he held a picnic basket as well. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He winked, handing me the flowers.

  I took them, wearing a stupid grin on my face as I inspected them better.

  Lilies.

  Tears pricked at the edges of my vision, but I bit my tongue to keep them from falling. It was so thoughtful. If Liam noticed, he didn’t say a word. Slipping his hand into mine, we started to walk along the river.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “A cool place I found today. It’s safe,” he said.

  I felt bad that we’d put him and his guys at the edge of the dark forest, but the fence we were building seemed to be deterring any dark beasts that were on foot. The harpies and other beasts of the air were another story. It was only a matter of time before they realized the dome was down and came to pick us off. The sooner I could restore the protective dome, the better.

  But I wasn’t going to think of that tonight. Tonight was for Liam and me, to see if we still had what I hoped we had.

  “You look amazing.” He side-eyed me, letting his gaze run up the length of my thighs to my face. My belly warmed, and I had to swallow hard before speaking for fear that my voice would crack. “So do you,” I told him. “I’ve missed you,” I added.

  I felt the tension fall away from his shoulders; his hand relaxed a little at my words. “I’ve missed you too.” There was sorrow in his voice. After a few minutes of walking down by the river, he cut left into the forest. We were still on the green path, the new growth that I’d restored, when we came upon a giant tree. It was over a hundred feet high and the trunk at least twenty feet wide with a carved-out door, big enough to let us enter.