Larkspur (37 page)

The fairies cheered! Jacob turned to look at
them, and suddenly they were silent.

Queen Fand appeared in the monolith.

She had been beautiful when he’d seen her in
the castle, but she was breathtaking now. Smiling from ear to ear,
she held out her arms and hugged Jacob. She kissed each of his
cheeks. Before he could say or do anything else, she kneeled down
before him. The fairies dropped to their knees. She took his
hands.

“
Thank you,” Queen Fand
said. “I am free for the first time in a very long time. I can
leave that dusty castle and . . .”

She gave Jacob a big smile.

“
Where is my Manannán?”
Queen Fand asked.

~~~~~~~~

Katy ran as fast as she could; Paddie was a
lot faster than she was. He stopped up ahead to wait for her. He
grabbed her hand, and they ran after Edie together.

“
Who are all these dead
people?” Paddie asked.

“
Parishioners,” Edie said.
“They were people who went to this church and believed in killing
fairies. But Maughold doesn’t know that Queen Fand’s sister Liban
tricked him into burying a few fairies here, as well. He thought
the fairies were destroyed, but Liban had other ideas.”

Edie stopped short, and Paddie ran into
her.

“
Ow.” Paddie rubbed his
forehead.

“
Sorry,” Edie said. She
pointed to the crypt on her left. “Here.”

She flew over the skeleton. They stood on
their tiptoes to see what she was doing. Edie was humming to
herself and waving her wand around. Blue sparks bounced around the
back of the crypt.

“
Okay,” Edie said. She
waved her wand. Paddie and Katy flew over the body and into a wide
compartment in the back. “It was made for one small girl, not a
small girl and a little boy .”

She looked at Paddie. He gave her the
“deal-with-it” look he had seen his daddy give to his Auntie Alex.
Katy giggled. Edie smiled at him.

“
How did you know I’d be
here?” Katy whispered.

“
It was foretold,” Edie
said. “You would come, rescue the queen, and save our
people.”

“
But I’m only here because
Mommy’s having my brothers,” Katy said.

At the mention of her mother, Katy felt
really homesick. She looked down and tried not to cry.

“
Yes.” Edie
nodded.

“
That was
foretold
too?” Paddie
asked. He leaned into Katy and whispered, “What does foretold
mean?”

“
I don’t know,” Katy
whispered back.

“
It doesn’t sound good,”
Paddie whispered.

“
A long time ago, someone
told us that all of these things would happen,” Edie
said.

“
Like a dream?” Paddie
asked. “Katy has dreams about stuff that comes true.”

“
Like a dream.” Edie
nodded.

“
But I wasn’t in the
dream?” Paddie asked.

“
We missed it,” Edie
said.

“
Katy, I wasn’t in the
dream,” Paddie said. “Maybe I’m messing everything up.”

“
No, that’s not true.”
Katy reached out to hold his hand. She turned to Edie and asked,
“Is it?”

“
Of course not,” Edie
said. “The knight Padeen had to be here to champion his Katherine.
We just missed it. And, it was a long, long time ago, when children
weren’t so . . . knightly.”

Edie shrugged and gave them a bright smile.
They heard something pound on the ground somewhere far above them.
Paddie and Katy stared at the ceiling of the vault.

“
Lie down so he can’t see
you,” Edie said. “He won’t be able to sense you here. We should be
safe.”

“
I don’t think he can see
at all,” Katy said.

“
He’s blind?” Edie
scowled.

“
His eyes are all white,”
Paddie said.

“
Huh,” Edie said. “That’s
good to know. Now hush. I’m going to put you to sleep so you won’t
be scared.”

Katy and Paddie nodded. Edie waved her wand,
and they were asleep.

Edie flew to the middle of the crypt and
turned off her light. He wouldn’t get the better of her this
time!

Chapter Two Hundred and
Seventy

On air

Katy opened her eyes but saw nothing.

She closed her eyes again to make sure that
when she opened her eyes she was really opening them. She waited a
moment with her eyes closed and then opened her eyes really
wide.

Darkness surrounded her.

She listened and heard nothing. Her ears
stretched out to the edges of sound.

There was no sound.

She sniffed and sniffed again. She couldn’t
smell anything. Not one smell. She touched her nose to make sure
she still had one.

She did.

“
Paddie?” Katy
whispered.

No words came out.

“
Naomi?” Katy used her
mind to call her grandmother to her. For the first time since Katy
was two years old, Naomi didn’t come.

“
Celia?” Katy used her
grandmother’s other name. Celia didn’t come.

Katy remembered the tiny,
blue-taffeta-dressed fairy who had come to help her.

“
Edie?” Katy
whispered.

No fairy. No grandmother. No Paddie.

Katy was alone.

“
I have to be brave,” Katy
said to herself. “I have to be . . .”

She let out a soft sob.

“
I’m five now,” Katy
yelled against the dark silence. “I’m supposed to be
brave!”

She had never been so afraid in her whole
entire life. She hadn’t been this afraid when she saw the dragon,
or the demon, or the serial killer, or when her old daddy tried to
steal her, or when her old daddy screamed and hurt her mommy,
or . . . Katy nodded to herself.

She had never, ever been this scared.

She did the only thing she could think
of . . .

“
Mommy!” Katy
whispered.

Just saying the words made her feel better.
That’s right, black darkness, she had a mommy.

A mommy who loved her very much.

A mommy who loved her even though she was
getting brothers today.

“
Mommy?” Katy
whispered.

Katy thought of her daddy. He was pretty
great and strong and had special skills like she did and was funny
but . . .

“
MOOOOMMMMMYYYYY!!” Katy
yelled at the top of her lungs.

~~~~~~~~

“
Katy?” Jill sat up from
the birthing table.

“
It’s okay,” Sandy grabbed
Jill’s hand. “Listen to your heart. Katy is okay.”

“
They are looking for
Katy,” Camille said. “The police put out one of those AMBER Alerts.
Someone will see Katy, and she will be home in no time.”

“
They will find our girl
soon,” Tanesha said. “Promise.”

“
Now lie back,
and . . .” Camille said.

Jill allowed Camille to help her lie down
again.

“
It’s time to have these
babies,” Camille said. “We are almost there,
and . . .”

“
Katy?” Jill was sure she
had heard her daughter’s voice.

“
What is it?” Sandy
asked.

“
I hear her,” Jill said.
“She’s very frightened . . .”

Jill felt herself fade.

“
Tanesha!” Sandy yelled.
“Grab her other hand!”

“
Oh no, you don’t,”
Tanesha said. “You’re not going . . .”

Jill disappeared from the table.

“
What just happened?”
Camille looked at Sandy and Tanesha’s stunned faces.

“
No idea,” Tanesha
said.

~~~~~~~~

“
Where is my Manannán?”
Queen Fand asked Jacob.

“
We believe he is circling
the island,” Jacob said.

“
We need to awaken his
army,” Gilfand said.

When the queen gave them a disinterested
nod, Jacob looked at Gilfand. His eyes were on his queen.

“
I must check on my
fairies,” the queen said. “I’ve been away from them for a very long
time. They need me.”

She disappeared.

“
What the hell was that?”
Jacob asked. “My daughter and wife are in danger. Lives hang in the
balance and she . . .”

Queen Fand appeared right in front of his
face.

“
I am a queen, young man,”
Queen Fand said. “My first duty is to
my
people.”

“
This is what I meant by
manipulating situations for their own agenda,” Celia
said.

Queen Fand smiled at Celia.

“
I won’t be long,” Queen
Fand said. She gave a little wave and disappeared.

“
I have
to . . .” Gilfand gestured to where Queen Fand had
disappeared. “Sorry.”

Gilfand disappeared, as did Liban. Jacob
looked up.

“
Will you help me?” Jacob
asked.

One by one, the fairies disappeared, taking
their light with them.

“
Won’t any of you help
me?” Jacob asked.

The fairies were gone.

Jacob screamed with rage. He used his
capacities to press against the walls of the monolith. He couldn’t
get out. He was trapped.

“
Mom?” Jacob
asked.

Celia was gone. Despair overcame him, and
Jacob fell to his knees. He dropped his head in his hands. He’d
known this would happen. The fairies had used him to solve their
problems and left him when he needed them. He felt something
nearby. He looked up.

A tiny spark lay on the path down to the
monolith.

And he understood.

He had to choose.

If he was a fairy or even fairy-humankind,
he was a member of the fairy world. He was one of Queen Fand’s
people. His people were Queen Fand’s people.

If he was human, he was not a part of Queen
Fand’s world.

It was up to him to choose.

For the first time, Jacob realized that this
struggle, this quest to free Queen Fand and break the curse on the
fairies, was actually about him, Jacob Marlowe. He closed his eyes
for a moment.

He truly hated having “powers.” He couldn’t
count how many times he’d wished to not be this way. He wanted to
be like his father, his amazing father. He used to try to reason
with God or spirit or the universe—I’ll give all of this up to be
like my father and I’ll never ever miss it. As a teenager, before
his mother got sick, he and Delphie had red-faced arguments, when
he would scream at the top of his lungs.

“
I’d rather die right here
than have to live one more day like this!” Jacob had
screamed.

“
Most people would
kill
to be like you,”
Delphie said.

“
They can have it! I don’t
want it!” Jacob had screamed.

Just Monday, an actual mythological
creature, a dragon no less, had laughed at him and told him he had
more power than he knew.

“
You never needed me,” the
dragon said. “You only needed to decide you were in the
game.”

“
Do I have to give up
being human?” Jacob yelled at the walls.

Gilfand appeared in front of him.

“
No,” Gilfand said. “You
have to stop rejecting your fairy nature, and take your spot in the
fairy nation.”

“
Why?” Jacob asked. “Why
do I have to do this? I will still help you raise the ghost army
and find Manannán. Why do I have to be a fairy?”

“
Because your daughter
needs you to be her father,” Gilfand said. “Your sons will need
you. More than anything, you need to be whole—for all of the men
who came before you and weren’t whole, and for
yourself.”

“
But I want to be a father
like my father,” Jacob said.

“
He is wonderful, isn’t
he?” Gilfand nodded. “He’s one of my favorite humans—of all time.
Wait until you meet Manannán. He and your father will be the best
of friends. But you?”

“
I’m fairy-kind,” Jacob
said. “Is this what happened to Kirk Maughold? Uh,
Machaoi?”

“
Yes,” Gilfand said. “He
also rejected his fairy nature. He went to the brothers to have it
tortured out of him. Then they sent him to destroy us, and in many
ways, he succeeded. We can’t go through that again.”

“
I need to be whole to
complete this,” Jacob said.

“
You need to be whole for
yourself,” Gilfand said. “And . . .”

The gargoyle’s voice faded out.

“
And?”

“
It is true that we
manipulate things to our advantage,” Gilfand said. “We needed you
to be human to retrieve Queen Fand’s body and place it here. We now
need you to take your place among us.”

“
Why?” Jacob
asked.

“
So that your children,
their children, and truly all fairy-humankind can breathe a little
easier.”

“
Oh, come on,” Jacob said.
“Like
I
can do
that. Please.”

Gilfand gave Jacob a kind smile.

“
What?” Jacob
asked.

“
You’re right,” Gilfand
said. “It’s not just about you.”

“
Then what?” Jacob
asked.

“
This is what you do,”
Gilfand said. “You dance around the edges of all your beauty,
power, and skill with cynicism and doubt, rather than meet yourself
head on and thus use your abilities to the fullest.”