Queen of the Fae: Book Two in the Fae Unbound Series (Fae Unbound Teen Young Adult Fantasy Series) (13 page)

"Could you explain it to me, first?"

"Okay, so...you know how on Fae Day, when people who became halfers got their new memories and abilities and it was all just pretty comfortable with the new fae side sort of accepting that they weren't going to be in charge? Well, it didn't happen that way for me. My fae never settled in—she's in there, separate, hanging out just waiting for a chance to grab control. And apparently she's been taking over a lot, especially when I'm asleep. James says he saw her in England."

"How...?"

"Sorry...don't know. But remember how everybody expected me to have really strong magic because Morgan was a powerful fae? Well, she's still got all of that magical power, and she's not sharing. I don't really know how she's doing it because, unlike Tanji with Langoureth or me with the human Morgan, I don't have the fae Morgan's memories to draw on."

Her mother's face softened in concern, "How can I help you, sweetie?"

"If I do something that you think isn't like me, tell Tanji or James. They may be able to help if they know when Morgan is taking over."

"I can do that. If I think it's Morgan I'm interacting with, should I say something to her?"

"No. You should stay away from her. She might be dangerous. I don't know. And...she's probably in there listening, too. I don't really have any secrets from her. But I will. I'll find a way to do something about her sneaking around in there all the time. I have to. She isn't going to win."

"I don't really understand any of this, honey, and I'm just frazzled, I think you know that. But keep talking to me about it. I don't want you to feel that you have to keep things hushed up so that they don't upset me...but I'm not sure that you should share this with your father."

"Oh, no way! I don't even feel like talking to him right now..."

"Just remember—he loves you, but he isn't always right."

"I'll get over it, but I just can't really work on that relationship right now, you know what I mean?" 

Mom nodded. "I do. Now, scoot...the last thing I need is to hear that you've been late to school because we were sitting at the kitchen table jawing."

James watched the pirate bobble-head on the dashboard bobbing up and down as he relaxed in the passenger seat of the gnome removal truck while Mr. Ross drove them to their next stop. This one was for the business’s first pixie removal. The job would be more difficult than working with the gnomes. A lot more could go wrong. 

They pulled the pixie cage out of the back of the truck so they could get to it easily when they captured the pixies. They also pulled out the nets they'd brought and got dressed in matching sets of heavy denim coveralls, gloves, helmets, and face masks. 

Pixies have a nasty bite, and their dust can have both hallucinatory and stimulant effects if inhaled or ingested in too large a dose. They had jars and hand vacuums to gather any dust that had collected below the pixie nest. They hoped to take some back for Tanji because it could be useful for magic in the right hands.

They quickly found the nest in the corner of the customer's old barn. James recalled his first pixie hunt as a boy. He hadn't been quite so well dressed for it, and he had come home covered in bites but bursting with feelings of success about the number of pixies he and his friends had captured and released several miles away. They'd left wards so that the pixies wouldn't try to return to their nest once the boys were gone.
Wait, those are Myrddin's memories. Wow. I'm not even trying to keep them separated anymore. I guess that's what I get for spending so much time digging around in them so that I can do a good job with Thomas's education
.

James watched as Ron approached the largest pixie, a whopper at around 6 inches tall. He swung the net, and the pixie easily avoided it. It made a run at James then, baring teeth that were normally hidden in a deceptively sweet-looking face. James ducked as the pixie dive-bombed him, and then he tossed up his net, capturing it easily.
Thanks to Myrddin, looks I've got some muscle memory for this
.

Ron thumped him on the back after they'd managed to capture and cage all five of the pixies. "Nice work!"

"As it turns out, I've done this before...what kind of wards are you putting up to keep the pixies from returning?" asked James.

"Tanji made a couple of wards last night that look kind of like...what do they call them? Dreamcatchers. She's sure they'll work better than her last run at it. They have something in the thread that pixies avoid."

"Fennel based?"

"I couldn't tell you. The magic talk makes me go all deer-in-the-headlights. But Tanji says it's the bees knees for pixie warding, so I'm going with it. She made them so that they look decorative, too. Apparently, pixie wards are going to be all the rage soon. We'll sell a million of them."

"I had no idea there was so much financial potential in the fae," James laughed, as he lifted his side of the cage and they started for the truck.

"Young fella, this is the U S of A— there's financial potential in anything if you can figure out how to monetize it. I did that for other people for twenty years. I think I like this better. I get to make my own hours, provide people with what they need to deal with a changed world,
and
I get to help people understand new ways of looking at things to boot," replied Ron. As they loaded the pixies into the back of the truck, he continued, "I do have a vested interest in trying to make a world where people like my daughter—and like you and Lizbet, too, I guess—get a fair shake even though you're a little bit different."

Thomas watched the wisps at the edge of the small pond. Some would assume they were morning mist and not even notice them, but Thomas could feel the pull of their magic. Ever since he'd healed James, he'd begun to think about other ways he could harvest the magic of the wisps for the good of the Fae. He’d used the wisps' natural attraction to James along with a magical pheromone to draw them. He wondered if the pheromone on its own would be enough to draw the wisps into a host and if he could increase his own magic in the same way.

Thomas took off his sandals and waded into the pond. The mud was cool and soothing between his toes. He was there to gather the starweed that grew in the shallow water at the pond's edge. The plant had once been known for its ability to absorb background magic, and if the wisps had been lingering around the pond long enough, the plants may have soaked up enough of it to make a source powder for light-casting. Not that light-casting was all that valuable in a world where everyone carried a phone with a flashlight in their pocket, but it still might have a use, and the powder would keep forever if it was properly stored.

After gathering the starweed and stowing it in a large plastic bag, he explored the shore of the pond for other valuable plants, but he didn't find anything of interest. Although Ohio was certainly better for collecting herbs and wild plants than London, he was still impatient because it would take so long to find and gather the things he couldn't purchase.

James had told him about the opportunity to work in the Ross’s magic shop with Tanji. He wasn't that interested in sharing magic with the non-fae, but it would certainly provide an opportunity to increase the range of his magical explorations. It might also bring him into contact with other half-fae who were seeking tools for their magic.

Thomas thought Tanji was frivolous. He also found the obvious interest she’d taken in him unsettling. He had no knowledge of females in the slightly-over-one-month span of his memory, and he didn't know how he was supposed to respond to her teasing and flirting. Although he had no memory of being a monk, he also had no memory of interacting with women. He could remember the details of all kinds of practical things—he was able to cook simple, healthy meals without a cookbook, and he’d repaired several small items in the flat in London without having to consult a manual. He had a legacy knowledge of the London Underground James often said he envied. But girls...his mind was blank. He had no idea how he should behave.

What he didn't need memories to know was that Tanji, with her huge brown eyes, long ringlets, and generous mouth was a very attractive girl—what any normal, healthy, non-monk his age would call “well fit”. Yes…well fit, indeed.

Lizbet had slept a total of six hours in three days. She’d gotten most of the sleep when Tanji was there to fend off Morgan if she took over. So far no problem. But she didn't know how much longer she could keep it up. She had dozed off sitting up in English, although she'd jerked awake quickly, disoriented when her forehead hit the desk. That was lots of fun. A hot blush had spread quickly across her cheeks when the kids started laughing.

She had been sure that having James back would make the difference in her life, but it had lit just a brief bright spot and now she was exhausted, in danger of her grades taking a real nosedive, and frightened of what Morgan would do if she let her guard down for even a minute. It was only a matter of time before she had to sleep or her mother noticed and forced her to get some sack time. She tried to focus again on what her history teacher was lecturing about, but her attention wandered...

She woke up on the floor with the school nurse kneeling above her, waving smelling salts under her nose.

"Lizbet, how do you feel?" the nurse asked as she helped Lizbet sit up. She took her wrist and checked Lizbet's pulse against her wristwatch as she talked.

"I'm okay. No problem."

"You fainted and fell out of your chair. Have you taken anything that could cause that? Any medication or other substances?"

"No...I...I haven't been sleeping much."

"Can you get back into your seat for me, or do you need help?" the nurse asked.

"I'm good," she replied as she got up and sat down in her chair again. The boy in the seat behind her looked up, snickered, and then settled back down to his reading as the nurse slipped a blood pressure cuff around her arm.

"Your blood pressure is normal. I don't think you fainted."

"No...I think I probably fell asleep. I'm very tired."

"I'm taking you to the infirmary and we'll talk about this there. Can you make it under your own steam?"

Lizbet nodded and stood up, following the nurse out into the hall while trying not to hear the quiet laughter behind her.

James was surprised when Lizbet's mom called him and asked if he could pick Lizbet up at school. He was even more surprised by the reason. When Lizbet had fallen asleep on his shoulder watching TV in the Moore's living room the night before, he didn't think anything of it. She'd slept for about an hour and woke up as the show ended. Finding out that she had intentionally been staying awake was worrying. 

James signed in at the front desk, and the front desk administrator pointed him in the direction of the nurse's office. When he got there, Lizbet was sitting in a plastic chair in the nurse’s waiting room. She yawned as he approached, although she tried to hide it. 

"Your mother is really upset that she couldn't pick you up herself. When she told me
why
you were waiting to be picked up, I got kind of upset, too. What were you thinking? People have to sleep, Lizzie." He turned and walked briskly toward the front of the school.

Lizbet stood and trailed him as he turned to walk back out to the parking lot.

"I was thinking I didn't want to do any more sleep-flying. You know why. Who knows what my body has been running around doing while I was asleep? It freaks me out."

James slowed his pace so that she could catch up. He realized that he shouldn’t be angry with her; Lizbet wasn't the one who was responsible for the problem. "Yeah, I do understand, but I don't think that's a good way to go about it. You know that Tanji and I are both working on this, and we'll figure something out. We will. If you need people to keep you safe until we do, you need to talk to us." James put his arm around her then, realizing how alone she must feel to not have reached out to her friends.

"Tanji, your mom, me...we’ll all do everything we can to help. Thomas would help you, too, if you'd let him."

"Yeah, because I am
so
ready to be Thomas's good buddy."

"Look, you were there and you already know this: Thomas is
not
Faolan. In fact, what he believes is completely opposite to what Faolan believed. He really has had a new start in this life, and it would help me out if you acknowledged that and got to know him as he is."

"Really? You want to have this conversation now? When I'm so tired I can't put one foot in front of the other?"

"Yeah, sorry. It's just that he asks about you every day. He has this idea that you're something special, and it would mean a lot to him if you could accept him." James opened the car door for her, and she curled up on the seat, laying the side of her head against the backrest. James said, "Seatbelt."

"Are you my mom or what?"

"Yes. I've been deputized as mom until I get you home and you are in your bed getting at least 8 hours of sleep. And I mean it. Your mom is depending on me to keep you in line, and I'm going to score some big points with her by doing exactly that, even if it means I’m missing work in my first week at the new job."

"I can handle you getting points so we can leave the house together sooner. Go ahead and mother me."

Lizbet dozed off before James pulled into the driveway of the Moore's house. He hated to wake her up to get her into the house, but he didn't want to have to sit in the car while she slept. Lizbet was five foot nothin' and looked perfectly comfortable, but even with the seat all the way back, his six foot frame was too tall to allow him to rest comfortably in the car. He walked around to open the passenger door and leaned in to shake her gently, "Okay, sleeping beauty, your carriage has come to a halt. Time to go to the ball."

Lizbet rolled over and sleepily said, "You've mixed up your fairy tales. Sleeping beauty gets a kiss."

James kissed her lightly on the forehead and smiled. "Don't distract me when I'm being your mom."

"Ewww...the image I just got about that is more than disturbing," Lizbet said as she got out of the car, "Wishing I was unconscious again..."

James walked with Lizbet up to her room, where she slipped off her shoes and got into bed fully clothed. 

"I'm going to be downstairs, so if you wake up and need anything, just call. Your mom asked me to stay and check on you every so often to make sure that you really are sleeping, and Mr. Ross was cool about giving me the rest of the day off in exchange for working part of Saturday on a pixie removal, so I'm going to pop over to my place and grab a book, but then I'll be right back."

"Sure, whatever..." Lizbet managed before she rolled over onto her other side and fell asleep.

Freoric peered out from behind a tree in the park where Thomas waded through the pond gathering weeds. He found his assignment distasteful. No elf would be pleased to be in a place where the humans swarmed like pixies, and he longed to return to France to be among his own kind. However, the Elders had tasked him to follow the monk, and follow him he would, no matter how distasteful.

If it were left to him, Freoric would put an arrow through the abomination's heart and end him. He couldn't understand why the Elders were holding off on the inevitable.

Over the past few days, he'd managed to keep an eye on Thomas without being spotted by him or his protector. The Elders still held Myrddin in some regard, but Freoric had seen no evidence that Myrddin's current incarnation controlled Myrddin's magic. He hoped that by continuing to shadow the monk he would also have the opportunity to prove James did not have that power. If he did not, then disposing of his prey would become less complicated. Freoric would be more than ready for that assignment.