The Last Faerie Queen (24 page)

34

E
l
o
r
A

My mother and I walked until the commotion was a dull roar, and then we walked some more. Down the twisting ledge that had threatened to pitch the humans to the rocks below. Through the Unseelie Forest. The bright faeries might've had lush, leafy trees, but we had hundreds of beastly things: thorns that bit and brambles that tore. Tall pines reaching into forever, glistening with icicles and glittering beneath the stars. A cluster of rocks here, jagged and beckoning.

One might sit and rest a while. One might be crushed. You never knew. That was the danger of the Dark Court, and the thrill. All of us were chasing death because we didn't know what to do with our long lives. Long, and unfulfilled.

Until now.

“Perhaps we could rest here,” I said, gesturing to a cluster of moss-covered rocks. We'd reached a point in the forest where the ground dropped off swiftly, leading almost straight down. If I looked far enough into the distance, I could see the place where the drop-off led directly to the border between the courts, there below.

But a faerie of the Seelie Court wouldn't have to wait for us at the borderlands today. Today, all sentries of the Dark Court were attending the celebration, leaving the border unguarded.

That was my mother's first mistake.

“Let us seek shelter beneath these pines,” I said, and sat beneath the second-to-largest tree. My mother would surely choose the largest, and this served my purposes as well.

“The wicked sun is less bright in the shade,” my mother agreed. The darkness that blanketed the Unseelie Palace was more like a film here, a thin, insubstantial veil through which one could see the light. It hung low on the horizon, indicating early morning. The higher it rose, the weaker she would become.

She sat upon a low-hanging branch, just as I'd suspected she would, facing away from the drop-off.

That was her second mistake.

I almost smiled. Down below, I could see a ball of light moving through the forest like a second sun, bold and bright and just as powerful. Gold among green. Beautiful in its own way.

“How much time will you give me?” I asked.

My mother shrugged. It seemed too careless a gesture for her. It occurred to me, in this moment, that she'd
never
wandered through the court with me. Never went on a long, leisurely walk. Never took her daughter on an adventure.

Here, with the court's fall imminent on the horizon, like those two shining lights coming from the east, my mother was giving me the things I'd always wanted. Her time. Her attention. Herself, removed from the court and her title as queen.

Surely, that couldn't be a sign?

“My faeries will sleep through the morning,” she said. “Only when the fog lifts, and the sun rises high into the sky, will they scurry back into the earth like worms.”

“So … ”

“So, you have until then.”

“That is more than gracious.”

“I told you.” She looked at me with pity, with condescension. “I am a most merciful Queen.”

“I suppose you could always be worse,” I allowed.

She laughed at that. “Indeed I could. I could've slaughtered all the mortals, and my daughter, in a matter of minutes. I could've fed you to the wolves.”

“The wolves like me,” I said, a petulant child. Still, how many times had I curled up in my mother's bed, amongst her wolves, while she was off ruling her kingdom with an iron fist? The
wolves
had been there for me.

“They may well love you,” she said, licking her lips as if the word tasted unfamiliar. As if it tasted funny. For a minute, I thought she might spit. Instead, she smiled. “But not as much as they love to eat.”

I scowled, looking away from her. Down below, that moving light had disappeared, which meant the Seelie Queen had reached the bottom of the drop-off and was just outside my line of vision. My heart began to race.

“Let us not waste time with things that might've been,” I said. “Or what might still be. Let me explain my interaction with the humans.”

My mother swallowed, and then she did spit. Her saliva was laced with red. Had she been suckling on Naeve's wrist, like he'd been tasting her? Or was she ill?

I shook myself, refusing to dwell on the possibilities. The former was meaningless, in terms of what was going to happen next, and the latter would only help me overcome her.

So why did my chest feel so tight?

“Trust me, Elora. If we could gloss over this part, I'd be a much happier queen.”

Enjoy being queen while it lasts,
I thought.

But I said, “That makes one of us.” She perked up at that. “What I mean is, I
want
to explain myself. I want you to understand.”

She looked at me then, looked right into my eyes, and I thought I could see the beginning of time. The first wash of darkness, the first spark of light. I thought I could see, too, how they'd once lived in harmony.

What had happened between them?

“I have little hope of understanding,” the Dark Lady said. “But try me.”

“I went to the human world because of the Seelie Queen,” I admitted. “Because she wanted a human.”

My mother inhaled sharply, and I could tell she believed me. So far, she believed me. “But why?” she asked.

“Why did I go, or why did she want a human?”

“Either. Both,” she said, as light rose up from below. Even if my mother turned around at this point, she would only think it was the sun. Both lights were coming from the east, one lined up with the other, as if the Seelie Queen had charted her course accordingly. How easily she could sneak up on my mother. How talented she was at trickery.

My heart skipped a beat as I said, “One answer is easy: I do not know. To this day, I do not know the Seelie Queen's reasons for wanting a human. I can only assume she grew tired of the sanctions and wanted a toy. Something to pet, maybe more.”

My mother shuddered, the way Illya had shuddered when I'd told her I was sleeping in the mortal world. The way I had shuddered when Taylor had first invited me into his home. If I could learn the truth about humans, maybe my mother …

A wicked sli
ver of light pierced through the trees, forcing me to blink. My eyes closed. Behind closed lids, I saw the lifeless body of Brad sprawled out across the stage. I saw my mother ordering me to dri
nk his blood like tea.

She is too far gone.

I bit my lip. “As for your other question, let me first explain what happened in the mortal world, before I explain why I chose to go there.”

She nodded, agreeing to my terms.

That was her third mistake.

If all went as planned, the Seelie Queen would arrive before such an explanation was necessary. My mother wouldn't know I meant to take down her court until it was too late. And as for what had happened in the mortal world, well …

I was actually looking forward to telling that part.

“I followed the ocean until I exited the Unseelie Court. From there, I headed farther south, until I reached a forest. The forest was greater than I would've expected for the human world.”

“Give them a decade. It will be gone.”

“Perhaps,” I agreed. I didn't want to argue with her, and besides, she wasn't entirely wrong. Regardless of Taylor's sweetness, or Kylie's, or anyone's, it didn't negate humanity's penchant for tearing down forests and putting up “plants.” Ironic, I know, that they should fill the world with dead things and name them after the living.

I still didn't understand it.

“After a time, I came upon civilization. First the farms, then the little towns. Then something a bit larger. I knew the Seelie Queen wanted a boy … ”

My mother's scowl deepened. But Darkness, she didn't know the half of it.

Not yet. “A boy old enough to lead, yet youthful enough to be considered ‘young.' Color me conceited, but that made me think of my own age.”

My mother smiled, and I thought she was proud of my affinity for leadership. Then she said, “Who would follow you but leaves and worms?”

“Someone would,” I whispered. She looked up, and for a moment I feared she was going to turn around. That light was creeping up the base of the hill, crawling toward us like vines. The Queen must be close.

The Seelie Queen, that is. Not my queen.

I don't have a queen
, I reminded myself.

“A mortal would follow me,” I said, drawing my mother's attention back to me. “But I'm getting to that. You see, once I realized she wanted someone my age, I lingered on the edges of a mortal school, in search of a leader. What I found was a loner.”

She tilted her head, as if listening for the part where I drew the mortal's blood, or led him into the sea.
Something
to prove I was the daughter of the Dark Lady and not a total disappointment.

But I did not need her approval anymore. “I watched him for the better part of a week. Watched the way he was pushed around by other students, or brushed aside entirely. Watched the way he slipped away to the park behind the school whenever he could manage it. There was something about this mortal boy, something that drew me to him.”

“Oh, Darkness.” She paled, though I didn't think it possible for her to get any lighter. In the brighter months, she would fade to almost nothing if she didn't stay underground.

“The mortal boy had a secret,” I explained. “That was all right. I had a secret too. I thought, who better to protect my privacy than someone who was trying so hard to hide his own demons? That is something I learned from you, dear mother: seek out a person with commonality, and use it to your advantage.”

She smiled, but it was short-lived.

“When he offered to take me home, I accepted,” I said, and that smile slipped from her face like a stain that had been wiped away. “He lived above his parents' garage, which afforded us a certain level of … freedom.”

She closed her eyes, to block out the horror of my words. To block out the glowing light. I realized, then, that the Seelie Queen must've been holding back some of her light. If she'd come at us with the full force of her brightness, we'd never have mistaken her for the distant sun.

The element of surprise would be ruined.

Now she was rising beyond the halfway point of the hill. I had minutes—minutes!—until she reached the summit. I'd have to forgo the creative version of my story and go for the final blow. Well, three blows, in succession.

First: “I'd been there a day when I allowed him to hold my hand.”

My mother's eyes snapped open, and rage flashed across her face. “You lie.”

“Oh, my darling mother,” I said, rising so that she would stand as well. “By the time I am finished with my story, you will wish I had the ability to lie.”

She stood, not disappointing me, as the Bright Queen's light spilled over the base of the hill. I could see the top of her head, all those leaves and flowers, a crown befitting a nature queen. My mother wore thorns and animal bones in her hair, amongst blossoms of poppies.

“By the second week, we were lying in bed together, and when he trailed his fingers across my skin, I didn't push him away.” I flashed a wicked smile, startling her with the strength of my conviction. “I
welcomed
it.”

“No,” she whispered, eyes filled with horror. “No, they've done something to you. It's happened before, when faeries lingered in the wasteland … ”

“God, mother, you're
rambling
. If only you could hear yourself—”

“God?
God?
Do
you
hear
yourself
?”
She reached for me then, and whether she wanted to cradle me to her chest or snap my neck, I did not know. “Oh, love, they've corrupted you.”

“No.” I shook my head, pushing away the word
love
. She didn't mean it. Couldn't mean it. “I wanted him to corrupt me. Do you know what I mean?
Corrupt
?” I stepped forward, forcing her back to the edge of the drop-off.

That was
my
mistake. Any sane person would've turned around to see how close she was to the edge. But my mother was not sane.

She looked at me with anguished eyes. “No, she cannot do this to me. She cannot take you, as she took—”

“
Mother.
You're ruining my story,” I snapped, barely able to follow her line of thinking. Who was “she”? The Seelie Queen?

Just as I thought it, I saw her face. She rose like the wicked sun—
no, like the natural sun,
I reminded myself,
a sun that is necessary
—behind my mother, the night. For a moment, darkness eclipsed the light. And my mother was buried deep in the depths of her despair, unable to witness her own undoing. Unable to witness anything but the daughter who'd betrayed her.

I wielded my final blow. “By my third week in the mortal world, we'd become entangled, body and spirit, and I was wrapping myself around him, wondering how it would feel to—”

“Stop,”
she commanded, and the forest trembled at her fury. Icicles fell around her, shattering on the ground. “Please, I cannot suffer it. Not again. I'm trying to save you. But I can't, unless … ” She reached out, clutching at my arms. Practically clawing me in her desperation. “Tell me he trapped you, please. Tell me he tied you down.”

“You see, Mother, that is the problem with people like you. You'd rather I be tortured than love him willingly. Rather I be raped than lie with him of my own free will. Do you know how
sick
that is? Do you know what that does to a girl who is growing up in this world, desperately trying to love her own body? And her
heart
? Her desires. My life could've been a wonderful thing … ”