The Last Faerie Queen (14 page)

16

E
l
o
r
A

The universe exploded in a world of colors. I felt the way it must feel to exist inside the Aurora Borealis, with all those colors pouring down. The light, the beauty. The wonder.

It rushed over me and I crashed into it, a girl made of storms. Of waves. He was bringing me to life with his kisses, with that soft touch. His hands curved into the backs of my thighs, holding me close. We were two beings, and we were more.

We were the entire universe.

I wanted to touch his face then, to tuck his hair behind his ear, but it was difficult. That skirt had a mind of its own. Every time I tried to maneuver around it, I encountered another fold. I told myself to relax, to simply revel in the sweetness of what was happening. And it was sweet, like moonlight on the skin. Sweet like nectar dripping down your fingers.

I gasped, and a thrill went through me. All around us, the air was moving, inky black from the darkness I'd created, but also permeated by cool, glittering light. Light coming off of
him
, I realized, and shivered in the air. Now the colors were mingling, black bleeding into purple, and gold fading into white. There were violets and blues, dancing the way that we were dancing. My body. His lips.

Entangled, but not close enough. Those colors were blending, but they weren't becoming one, and for the first time, I wanted them to. Wanted to stop being Elora the singular entity, and become a part of the world. I'd still be myself when it was all over, still be able to stand on my own. But there was strength in collective power. Strength in trusting another.

Suddenly, I could feel the distance between us. Could feel the distance between our lips. The hands that weren't grasping each other. And I needed that right now. I needed him.

“Baby,” I whispered, and I felt foolish saying it. Like I, myself, were a child, needing to be cared for. But I couldn't care anymore what I sounded like. What I looked like. All that mattered was how I felt. How we felt, together.

“I need you,” I said.

Taylor retreated from the folds of my skirt. When he appeared in the dim light, his cheeks were pink and his hair was all mussed up.

I started to laugh. I loved him so much.

“I'm here,” he said, sliding his thumb across his bottom lip.

“Yes, but I need you
here
.” Adjusting a little, I scooted down until I was in his arms.

“Do you want to stop?” he asked. He looked a bit … disappointed.

“No. I just wanted to be close to you.”

He nodded, but I could tell he wasn't entirely convinced. Moments ago, we'd been
very
close. “Was I … did it—”

“You were wonderful,” I said, and he relaxed. After all, faeries can't lie. “I just missed you.”

He nodded, looking into my eyes. “I'm right here.”

“I think we should undress,” I said, fingers stumbling over the button of his pants. Dresses were so much easier. You could simply pull them up or down.

He laughed, because I must've sounded very solemn. And he unbuttoned his pants for me. “Here. I have more practice.”

“Oh, I imagine you do,” I joked, and he blushed a deep red. It was beautiful.

Then he turned away from me, and it physically hurt. That distance, that inability to look at him—it felt like a chasm inside of me.

“Come back.” When I kissed him at his collarbone, he moaned and turned to me. “And tell me about this practice,” I added.

Now he was laughing, as I guided the pants over his hips. “Not a chance,” he said, but I didn't care. Now we were both laughing, and then we were kissing.

Soon, we'd shed all our clothes.

“Can I touch you?” he asked, hand resting on my side. We were both on our sides now, facing each other.

“Do you really have to ask?”

“At this point, I feel like I should.” He kissed my cheek, then trailed to my ear. “I mean, better safe than sorry.”

“Then I should ask you?”

“Oh, never.” He shook his head, and I giggled. “I mean, you can literally touch me anytime.”

“Really?” I pressed my hand against his heart, slowly moving down.

“Oh yeah.” He was nodding, his face a mask of seriousness, but I could tell he was fighting a grin. “Just
whenever
you feel like it.”

“All right then.” I trailed my hand past his navel. “I'll remember that next time we're at dinner.”

He laughed. “Let's cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said. And then he didn't speak anymore, because I was doing what he asked. I slid my hand down. He slid his hand down, too. We were hands and lips and hearts, weaving together like vines. We were love and light and darkness. We became that which we'd always wanted, and always
were
, but never felt until now.

Whole within ourselves.

Unstoppable together.

–––––

In the morning, I awoke feeling stronger than ever. I could hover ten feet above the ground! Unfortunately, my efforts ended the same way they always did: with me slumped on the forest floor, gasping for breath, as pain radiated through my back.

I would not be able to fly during the battle, and it terrified me.

Still, the day had its gaiety. Taylor revealed his paintings and Kylie revealed the armor she'd been making: crude plates of iron hammered into intricate patterns and designs. Together, we fawned over it.

“I've never seen such detail,” I gushed, my eyes trailing over the places my hands could not go. If I went my entire life without touching iron again it would be too soon. But Taylor touched the armor for me, as did Alexia.

Only Keegan kept his distance.

“I made emblems for everyone,” Kylie explained, holding up each chestplate so that it caught in the light. “A lion for Taylor, a raven for Alexia. A sneaky fox for you,” she said to her brother, trying to get him to join in the fun. “And a unicorn for me.”

“Hey.” Alexia grabbed Kylie's chestplate, examining the horned horse in the center. “Why do you get a unicorn? All I get is a raven.”

“Ravens are very powerful beings,” I interjected. “Back home, I had a train of them following me around. Telling me secrets.”

“Actually, I think ravens are pretty cool,” Alexia admitted. “But they're not
supernatural
.”

“Why did you pick a unicorn for yourself?” Taylor asked.

“Because … ” Kylie avoided our gaze.

“Because why?”

“Because I made them! So I got to pick.” She was blushing.

“I think it suits you,” I said. “Unicorns are pure of heart. Protective of those around them. I think it's perfect.”

The blush worsened.

“In fact, I think they all suit you,” I went on, to shift the focus from her. “Alexia's wisdom, Keegan's craftiness. Taylor's courage. His wildness.” I stepped closer to him, touching his chin with my fingers.

“I have something for you, too,” Kylie said, beaming up at me.

“What is it?” For a moment, I shuddered, thinking she'd give me something made of iron. Even though it was an irrational thought, my body was unable to forget the way it had felt to have those iron shards slide into my skin in the graveyard.

But perhaps Kylie hadn't forgotten either. “Here,” she said, procuring a crown from behind a patch of bushes. The obsidian frame was adorned with jewels that glittered like gold in the light. Perfect for …

“It reminds me of Naeve,” Keegan said, and I expected Kylie to frown. But she didn't.

She smiled. “It is for Naeve,” she said. “And it's for Elora. Let me explain.”

I nodded, watching her turn the crown upside down. All along the bottom, thin slats appeared, but I did not know what they were.

Until Kylie flipped a little switch on the side, and spikes shot out of the bottom.

“Oh, Darkness. Is that … ”

“Iron,” she said, flipping the switch again. The spikes slid back into the crown, perfectly hidden. “Here.”

I took it, worried the bottom of the base would burn my fingers. But it didn't. The spikes were perfectly concealed, until …

I flipped the switch, holding the crown by its tallest point. When the spikes shot out, I grinned. “This is brilliant.”

Kylie grinned back. “I thought you would like it. And when you wear it into the battle, Naeve's going to be distracted by it.”

“God, he'll be mesmerized,” Taylor said. “I mean really, it represents everything you have that he wants. Your mother's blood. Your mother's crown. Her love.”

I laughed, because love was something I had never felt before him. Even with Illya, I had kept my distance, afraid she would turn on me. And she had.

“So I simply pretend to surrender,” I said, as Taylor reached for the crown. “Then, as I hand it over to him, feigning submission, I flip the switch, and he presses those iron spikes into his head. He uses iron against
himself.
Oh, it's poetic.”

“It's perfect,” Taylor said, studying the crown. Turning it over in his hands, he touched one of the spikes, so softly. “Ow.” A single drop of blood appeared.

I stepped up, willing to kiss his wound even though the iron in his blood would hurt me. But Taylor slipped the finger into his mouth, eager to protect me. He stared at me. I stared at him. Then my hands went into his hair.

“Oh God,” Alexia drawled. “Surely you can refrain from jumping each other's bones for five more minutes. I want to showcase my talent.”

“Ah yes, all the world's a stage,” Keegan muttered from behind our backs. “And Alexia's the star—”

“What's the matter with you?” Kylie rounded on him. “Why are you being so mean?”

“I'm not.” His tone was cold, almost emotionless. A volcano waiting to erupt.

“Don't you think we've done a good job?” she asked.

“I think you're all very talented.”

“Then why are you acting like this? What is your problem?”

“
I'm
not acting like anything! All of you are acting like we're having a fucking tea party. We're about to go to war. A war that doesn't have
anything
to do with us. And even that's fine, because I know it's important. But you shouldn't be acting like you won a prize.”

Kylie stared up at him, eyes wide. It didn't take a genius to understand that he'd never spoken to her this way before.

“You could die,” he said after a minute, his strong voice cracking. “And you don't even care.”

“Of course I care. What do you think the armor is for? Why do you think I've been practicing riding horses? I've been working day and night to protect us and you haven't even—” She broke off, shaking her head.

“Say it.”

“Nothing.”

“Say it!”

“I didn't mean anything.”

He shrugged. “You're all thinking it, you might as well say it. I'm useless and you have no need for me.” He looked at me then, looked right through me. “But at least I'm not fooling myself. You're a bunch of humans going to war with monsters and you think you're going to survive this.” He turned back to his sister. “You're a fool.”

“Oh, right, I'm an idiot,” she said. “I'm stupid and I'm helpless and I'm going to get myself killed. Thanks for saying what I always knew you thought. Thanks for spelling it out.”

Taylor went to step between them, but hesitated. None of us knew what to do. They'd always been playful and sweet. Best friends. But war makes enemies of all of us.

“I don't think you're helpless,” Keegan said. “But don't act like you can go up against some great evil and survive. Don't act like you're invincible.”

“I don't think that.”

“But you act like it. You act like nothing can hurt you because you don't
want
it to. That's not how the world works, is it?”

“You have the nerve to tell me that?” She wheeled forward, forcing him back. “You think I don't know that?”

“I think you need to be reminded.”

“Well, here's a newsflash for you, Keegan. You know why nobody's found a job for you? Because they don't know who you are. Nobody does. Not me. Not our family. Not anyone.”

He stared at her, dumbstruck.

“You don't let anyone in because you think they'll only see the bad in you. But they can't see the good in you, and that's why—”

“I don't have to listen to this.”

“Yes you do,” she shouted, because he was moving away, into the trees. “You have to hear it. If you keep shutting people out you'll always feel useless, because no one will know all the wonderful things about you.”

But it was too late to placate him with compliments. Keegan was gone.

Now the wind had gone out of Kylie. Now she was crying. “Damn it,” she said to her hands, covering her face so we couldn't see. “Why did he have to do this? Why did he have to take this away from me?”

I knelt beside her. Alexia did the same. Taylor stepped up behind us, and we all tried to console her, but we didn't know how to make things right. I think we were all coming to the same conclusion, realizing what Keegan had kept hidden: he didn't protect his sister so fiercely because she needed him. He did it because he needed her.

Now everyone knew it. I knew it, and she knew it, and he must've known she knew. There was no undoing this revelation, no putting back what had been pulled away. I could only hope that, in his desperation, Keegan wouldn't seek an audience with the Seelie Queen. She might allow what I had forbidden.

Then Keegan would find his purpose and seal his fate.

17

T
ayl
o
R

Elora went off in search of the Queen, and I didn't try to stop her. I didn't want her to know that I'd overheard her talking with Keegan in the woods. Besides, at this point, finding him was the most important thing. So splitting up made sense.

Still, I didn't exactly love being away from her this close to the battle, and I found myself making up ridiculous scenarios as Kylie, Alexia, and I pushed through the underbrush. I envisioned the Queen covering Elora in vines until she looked like a part of the forest. I envisioned Elora sneaking into the Dark Court without me. The longer we looked, screaming Keegan's name, the more I was convinced things were about to get ugly.

And I was right. I just had the reasons completely wrong.

We came across Keegan on the outside of a thicket: something so covered with vines that it was impossible to see inside. We were on a bit of a hill, so I could see the location of our camp from up here. I could also see how close we'd come to the border between the Bright and Dark Courts.

I shuddered, wanting to get Keegan away from here as soon as possible.

I crouched down in front of him. “Hey. Let's get you out of here,” I said. I wasn't even sure why I was treating him like a frightened deer. Then I saw the look in his eyes, and I understood why my instinct was taking over. Keegan was sitting on the ground, his back up against a tree, and his eyes were completely
blank.

“What's wrong with you?” Kylie asked, coming to a stop before him. She reached out for his hand, but he didn't take it. Probably for the first time in their lives, he didn't take it.

He didn't even acknowledge her.

He was rocking a little, and I started to get really freaked out. We had no idea what kind of creatures lurked in this forest. Sure, the Queen and her ladies seemed protective of us, but they were four faeries out of what? Thousands? Millions?

Probably thousands,
at this point
, I thought as Alexia started poking around the space.
Because of human expansion. Because of human destructiveness.

Which meant they had a right to be upset with us, which meant we never should have trusted them in the first place. Yeah, the longer Keegan went without saying a word, the worse I felt about this entire place. We'd turned our backs for one second, and something had gotten ahold of him.

But what?

Kylie reached down to brush the slick sheen from Keegan's forehead, and he jerked away. When he moaned, I actually jumped, because his mouth hadn't even shifted. Then I realized why:
he
wasn't moaning. The moaning was coming from inside the circle of trees.

Kylie and I looked at each other. Alexia was already circling around the back and couldn't be seen.

“I'm going in,” we said at the same time.

“No, you stay here, and I'll check it out,” I said.

Kylie shook her head. When it came down to it, she was as stubborn as me.

“Fine,” I said, helping her out of her chair. Then I knelt down and crawled under a patch of vines. I could feel them scraping against my back, drawing blood with the slightest bit of effort. When all was said and done, my clothes would be torn to shreds.

Thanks a lot, Seelie Court.

Still, I'd had it pretty good since I'd arrived. I mean, things could've been worse. For example, I could've been tied to a tree by my wrists, half-starved and half-clothed, moaning like I hadn't moved in weeks.

I could've been like him.

“Brad?” 

I stepped up to him slowly. I thought maybe if I moved slowly enough, he'd disappear before my eyes like a mirage. Like a simple creation of smoke and mirrors, here one minute and gone the next. A glamour.

Not a person, made up of flesh and blood.

A lot of blood,
I thought, my eyes trailing to his wrists. Thin red lines crept down his arms. The blood was dried, which meant he hadn't been struggling in a while. God, had he been here the
entire
time?

“Who did this to you?” I asked, while Kylie called to me from the outside. I actually considered ignoring her. Sure, she'd be mad, but she'd be spared the sight of … this. I wished I'd been spared. I already wanted to gouge out my eyes.

“Taylor? Can you pull me through? This branch is sticking in my back.”

I could see Kylie's hand poking through the branches. For a second I was frozen. Trapped between staring at Brad, still in the black jeans he'd worn to the prom, and Kylie's hand, poking through the branches into hell.

“Can you hear me?” I whispered to him.

He wouldn't look at me. Wouldn't talk to me. But he was talking to himself, mumbling like the air was filled with faeries. And it wasn't, this time.

“
Taylor?
” Kylie called.

“Fuck.” I knelt down and took hold of her hands. Pulling her through to the other side, I didn't even say anything as I set her beside a tree, three feet from Brad. I just waited for her to see.

“What took you so long?” she asked. “And where did Alexia—”

She froze, trailing off in mid-sentence. Her eyes fell over the mess that was Brad. The body that remained of him. I mean, sure, he was alive, but how much now?

“What have they done to him?” Kylie breathed.

I shook my head, then realized she couldn't read my thoughts. Still, speaking was taking an incredible amount of effort. My tongue felt heavy. All of me did. “I don't know.”

“Who—”

“I don't know.”

Kylie pushed a hand through her hair, but it fell right back in her face. It was probably better that way. Better to see the world through dirty lenses, through clouds, through smoke.

Better not to see it at all.

“I didn't think Faerie would be like this,” she said, so softly, as she stared at Brad. Her greatest tormentor, back home. The boy who'd taunted her and drugged her and tried to photograph her n
aked.

At least
photograph her.

When Kylie reached up to set Brad free, the word just slipped out of my mouth: “Wait.”

She turned, hand on the vines. “What?” she asked. “God, I should've brought one of my knives.”

“I have to ask you something,” I said. From the other side of the thicket, Alexia was calling, “How did you guys get in?” but we could barely hear her, and it didn't matter anymore. The only people in this space were the people who were supposed to be in this space. Just me, Kylie, and the boy who'd made her life a living hell. The boy who'd made my life hell too, before Elora came along and convinced us to take him down.

I lowered my voice. “That night you went over to Brad's … ”

Kylie huffed, struggling to slice the vines with her fingernails. “Taylor, I really don't want to talk about this right now.”

“I need to talk about it right now,” I said as Brad squirmed. I thought maybe he could tell we were talking about him but couldn't find the words to respond.

I closed my eyes, blocking out the sight of him.

“Okay, well, I guess I'll just stay with Keegan,” Alexia called from another dimension. That's how it felt, like she was in a made-up world and we were in the real one, where terrible things happened for no reason. Unless …

“You told us Brad wanted to take your picture,” I said, keeping the rest to myself. How Brad had told everyone at school that Kylie had “boy and girl parts,” because she was bi. How the photo was going to “prove” it.

The first vine broke free, and Kylie turned to look at me. “So?”

“So, is that really true?” I asked, and she narrowed her eyes. I'd never seen her look so mad before. “I mean, is that
all
he did? I'm not questioning that he would do that to you. I know he would. But I always thought … ” Again, I had to look away from him in order to say these things. I had to separate the guy in front of me from the guy he'd been. “I just wondered if maybe he'd tried to do something more.”

Kylie stared at me a long minute, her hand frozen in the air. She'd managed to slice the second vine, and now she'd only have to pull on it to set him free.

But should he be free?

I hated myself for thinking it, but I couldn't get away from this thought that if Brad had tried to do more than take her picture, if he'd tried to touch her, or …

“What are you doing, Taylor?” Kylie was staring into my eyes, and hers were so bright. Like she could see into the depths of me. See the darkness there.

“I just need to know,” I said softly.

“Because why? Because then you'll feel justified in leaving him here? Are you really using me as an excuse for that?”

“No! I wasn't—”

“Yes you are.” She shook her head in disgust. “You did the same thing back home. You used what Brad did to me, or tried to do, as an excuse to hurt him, but you want to know the truth of it?
You wanted to hurt him all along
. Long before I came into your life, you hated him, like so many people did, but you wouldn't retaliate.”

“Maybe that's true. But—”

“Maybe you didn't think you were worth the effort. Maybe you even thought he was right to torment you.”

“Kylie … ” I'd never heard her talk like this. It scared me. But here we were, three feet from a boy being kept as a slave, and I was trying to justify it. Maybe it was the only way to keep myself from going completely insane. I needed to believe there was some reason for all of this, that the universe was exacting its vengeance, unleashing karma on the boy who'd hurt so many people. Because if it wasn't, if life was just one bad thing happening after another, one more person hurting someone for
no reason
, who could live in a world like that?

Who could
fight
for a world like that without contributing to the problem? Without perpetuating it?

“You know I'm right,” Kylie said, still staring into my eyes. “Until I came along, you mostly just put up with his abuse. You told yourself it was better to not fight back, because it would only get worse. Trust me, I know the mentality.” She reached out to touch my arm. “But do not convince yourself that hurting someone for me makes it okay. Because if he did something to me … if he hurt me, then it already happened. You didn't stop it, and he didn't stop it. It's over. That moment is
gone.
Do you understand?”

I slid my hands over my face, trying to hold myself together that way. “No. I don't. Are you saying something
did
happen?”

She shook her head. “I'm saying that if it
had
, you didn't protect me, or save me, or whatever you think I needed at the time. So if you go after him after the fact, you aren't doing it for me. You're doing it to appease your own guilt, and using me as an excuse. And I'm not going to be used for that, or anything.”

She moved back from the vines, and from Brad. One of his wrists was still tied in place. “So do what you're going to do, Taylor. But don't use me as an excuse.”

She watched me, and Brad watched me too, his eyes struggling to stay on my face. Barely coherent, but not entirely gone.

We could still save him
, I thought, and relief rushed over me. I couldn't even explain it to myself. I'd hated Brad for so
long
.
But I guess the truth of it was, I didn't want to hurt him the way he'd hurt us. I'd just wanted him
gone
.

No, I'd wanted him to not be cruel in the first place. To choose to do the right thing, instead of putting more evil into the world.

In one swift movement, I unsnapped the vine that held him.

“I loosened it for you,” Kylie said with a smile.

I smiled back, but it was shaky. Brad was just slumped there, staring at his wrists. I crouched in front of him. “Who did this to you?” 

He narrowed his eyes, like he could hear me but I wasn't speaking the right language. “
Taylor
,” he said finally.

I jerked back, affronted. “No. I'm Taylor.”

Brad started to laugh. “No, no, no,” he said, shaking his head.

“What's going on?” Kylie asked.

“I don't know.” I peered at Brad. “Who tied you up? Was it the Queen? Tall, curvy, kind of … tree-like?”

“Like a mother oak,” Kylie supplied. “But also a person.”

“Taylor,” Brad said.

“What about the faerie with twigs for teeth? She looks like she sprouted up from the ground? Kinda scary looking?” I asked.

“I know the name,” Brad murmured. “Taylor. Taylor. Taylor.”

“We need to get him out of here,” Kylie said. “He needs help.”

“That's the thing,” I said, as Brad poked at his wrists. “We don't know who can help him, because we don't know who did this to him. I don't even think he can walk.”

At that, Brad started shifting his legs, just a little. Bending his knees, as if testing them.

“What about horns? Did she have horns?” Kylie said, but I could tell she was just humoring me. She probably thought I was a fool for thinking Brad would tell us anything.

Brad shook his head.

“Was it even a
she
?” I asked.

Brad huffed at that.

“Most of the faeries here are girls,” Kylie said. “I mean, Keegan found some satyrs. But I haven't seen many.”

“Maybe the Queen prefers girls in her court.”

“Maybe the Queen prefers girls.”

She let the statement hang, and I couldn't help but think of the Bright Queen's story. After all, Naiad and Dryad had been “close” for many years. Maybe the Bright Queen hated the Dark Lady because Elora's mother had rejected her. Possibly for Elora's father.

Then again, if the Bright Queen had set Elora's parents up, that didn't make sense. Unless she and the Dark Lady had been estranged for so long …