Elixir (34 page)

At first nothing happened.

Could something have gone wrong? Was it not enough Elixir?

But then, slowly, my feet left the ground. I was beginning to levitate. So was Eva, only slowed by the wheelchair. I reached over to her and gently disentangled her body from the metal and leather. The chair bumped to the ground and Eva floated free. I clutched her arm so that she wouldn’t float away. Obadiah’s feet had left the ground too. His lips were moving, chanting a flying spell. He grabbed my hand. Holding on to each other, steadying ourselves, gripping on to the bricks in the wall of the building, we slowly made our way higher.

“What floor was she on again?” Obadiah asked.

“Eight.”

The cold wind swirled under our feet.

I saw Obadiah’s lips move as he counted the rows of windows we passed. I was counting too. Six . . . Seven . . . Eight.

I gripped both their hands even tighter as rounded the corner of the hospital building, towards Eva’s window. Below us, people were scurrying to and fro from the great glass doors at the entrance of the hospital: nurses in their crisp blue scrubs, people in street clothes, patients and visitors. I couldn’t believe that none of them noticed us hanging from the side of the building somewhere near the eighth floor. But no one looked up.

Obadiah inclined his head in one direction, signaling he thought her window was that way. We began to make our way slowly across the side of the building. We moved very carefully, cautious not to make any noise. The people below might not notice us now, but a sound was sure to make them look up. So we moved stealthily along, from one brick to the next. Thankfully, most of the blinds were drawn in the windows we passed, so no one inside saw us—to them we’d be at eye level.

And then the thought hit me—what if the blinds were drawn in Eva’s room? How would we know which one was hers?

At last we came to a window where the blinds were opened. We peered in.

There was a face pressed to the glass. But it was not Eva’s.

A child stood by the window. His eyes went big, and his mouth puckered into a round O of shock as he saw us. We were in the children’s ward. But that meant we were getting close to Eva. He opened his mouth like he was going to scream. I didn’t know what to do. I let go of Eva’s hand for the briefest second, put my finger over my lips and made the sign of “Shhh!” Eyes big as saucers, he nodded. And then he smiled at us, a chipper, gap-toothed smile.

I grabbed back on to Eva’s hand before she floated away, and we made our way to the next row of bricks.

“Obadiah, what must that boy think we are?” I whispered as we made our way away from his window.

“He probably thinks we’re fairies,” he whispered back, smiling.

I started to laugh, trying hard to stifle the sound so no one would hear.

There was another window up ahead. Could it be Eva’s? Her shades were open when we’d visited her. Praying that it was, we edged forward. When we got to the corner of the glass, I peered in.

I let out a deep sigh of relief and signaled to Obadiah behind me.

Eva was lying in the hospital bed.

She looked like hell.

Her body was smaller, visibly withered, and her complexion was gray. Like the bark of a tree. The spell was starting to fail. Her Fetch body was beginning to return to its natural state. We had come not a moment too soon.

I signaled to Obadiah. He let go of Eva with one hand and reached into his pocket to procure the strange stone knife with the crescent-moon handle. He slipped it into the tiny crack where the window met the sill and began to jiggle it. I heard him muttering to himself, hanging on to the wall with one hand and the knife with the other. I heard a soft pop as Obadiah tilted the knife in a prying motion, and the window slid open an inch. We pushed it with our hands till it was open all the way.

I crawled in first, and Obadiah helped me lift Eva’s limp body through. Then he entered behind me.

Even considering the head injury, the real Eva looked a lot better than the Fetch. Comparing Eva’s apple cheeks and soft skin, despite the bruise on her head, to that living corpse made me feel much more optimistic.

Obadiah spoke.

“I’m going to go outside to the hallway and mill around, make sure no doctors or nurses come in to see that there are two of them. Do you think you can get her into the bed?”

“That’s not a problem, but what do I do with the other one?”

Obadiah’s face scrunched up, thinking.

“Hide her in the closet until we think of something better to do?”

It was hardly a high-tech-sounding plan, but I couldn’t think of anything else at this moment.

“Okay.”

Obadiah turned and kissed me before he walked out into the hall.

I stood in the middle of the room, grinning like a fool, feeling the warmth of his lips still on my cheek. It was good to have him back.

I turned towards Eva. I was going to have to get her Fetch off the bed before I could make room for her in it. Slowly, I approached the Fetch. The hospital machine with all the tubes in it was still beeping rhythmically, so I knew the thing was still alive—or at least in some semblance of life. But it looked like a corpse. And when I touched it, I shivered. It was as rigidly stiff as a corpse as well. I drew back. But then I looked down at where I had touched it. There were long lines of cracks in the skin—tiny fissures running the length of the arm, just from where my fingers had lightly brushed it. A fearful hope grew in me. Picking up my courage, trying to force down my repulsion, I grabbed the arm again, harder this time. I winced as I heard a crunch. The arm had disintegrated under my grip, like rotting wood.

Now I knew what I had to do.

Picking up the body, which was surprisingly light, much lighter than Eva, I placed it on the floor, watching the fissures spreading from my touch.

I lifted the real Eva, who was a lot heavier, into the bed, and gently tucked her in under the blue hospital blanket.

Then I turned back to the Fetch. Trying to pretend her face didn’t look like my friend, I hit her. Her face disintegrated to powder at my touch. Relieved and repulsed, I hit her again. I hit her a third time. The body was barely recognizable now. Just a brown ash scattered amongst clothing. I swept it into the hospital wastepaper basket, shook it out of the clothes and then folded the apparel and set it over in the corner by Eva’s suitcase as if it had always been there. It worked—but it still freaked me out.

I turned my attention back to Eva. I didn’t know how to get all the tubes back into her. We would need the doctor’s help for that. But the replacement was done.

Eva’s eyes were open now and she was looking up at me, a confused, questioning expression on her face. But there was a light in her eyes, a life.

“Mab?” she said uncertainly.

“Eva!” I rushed to her side.

It was as if destroying the Fetch had given her new vitality. Her head was still bruised, but at least she was conscious.

“Am I in a hospital?” she asked. I nodded, but the smile was still on my face. This was the most lucid she’d sounded. I still wanted the doctors to check her out. I was sure they’d be running in here soon, since I’d unhooked the beeping machine from the Fetch. But this was the first time I’d felt a real optimism that Eva was going to be alright.

“I guess I must have taken a pretty hard fall,” she said. “That’s the last thing I remember. Hey, who is that guy?” She pointed at Obadiah, standing in the doorway. “Is he with you?”

I must have blushed, because Eva raised her eyebrows at me and winked.

“Nicely done!”

I resisted the urge to swat her. She was back. The real Eva was back!

“Listen, I’m really sorry about what happened in the Vale,” I said to her. “I should have never brought you to the dungeons. That was my battle to fight, not yours. I really, really appreciate what you did for me. You saved my life. And I’ll always be grateful. But I never should have brought you there.”

Eva stared up at me, her eyes confused.

“Mab, what are you talking about?” she asked.

“The Vale . . . you know, my Shadow . . .”

She looked at me blankly.

“The . . . what?”

It was the blow to her head. She didn’t remember.

“The last thing I recall was going to that club . . .” said Eva.

She had forgotten everything that happened in the Vale, everything she had seen—the Fairy Queen, the Shadow children, my own Shadow, saving my life, everything. I wanted to cry. If she had forgotten everything that had happened, it meant she no longer remembered what I’d said to her—my confession about being a changeling. All the truth she’d learned about me, about our world, it was gone now. It was like it had never happened for Eva. We were right back where we started.

Maybe it was for the best, I told myself. It would be a lot for a human, to all at once realize a whole other world existed. But Eva had been happy to see it all. I felt so intensely melancholy as I looked at her—she’d had the adventure she’d always wanted, and now she didn’t even remember it. And I’d finally told her the truth about me—and she didn’t remember that either.

“What’s a matter, Mab?” Eva said. “You seem sad.”

“It’s okay,” I said quickly. “I’m happy you seem like you’re doing better. But I want someone to examine your head injury. It looks like they’re coming in to check on you now.”

A man in a white lab coat was hurrying into the room.

I stepped outside to give him space to do his work. Obadiah met me in the hallway. When we were out of Eva’s earshot, he turned to me, touching my hand.

“She’s going to be okay, Mab.”

“But she doesn’t remember any of it! The Vale, the Queen, the children, how she saved me from my Shadow. It’s all gone!”

Obadiah let out a long sigh.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I guess the Queen was right. It’s too much for a human mind to handle, knowing there’s another world.”

“But not Eva’s mind,” I said hotly. “I think she could have handled it. If she hadn’t gotten hit on the head.”

“Maybe it’ll come back to her,” Obadiah replied hopefully. “Often memory loss from a head injury is temporary.”

“We can hope. I finally told her the truth about myself, and now, it doesn’t even matter,” I said sadly.

“Of course it matters,” said Obadiah, taking my hand. His touch was warm, and it sent its heat through me, giving me comfort and courage. “Every time you tell the truth, it makes it a little bit easier to do the same next time.”

CHAPTER 27

“G
lad you’re a free woman!” said Reggie. He had bought us both bagels and coffee in celebration of the fact that the NYPD had decided to stop investigating Obadiah’s club and weren’t going to bring criminal charges against him or me. We’d set the breakfast up picnic style on his big mahogany desk.

“Glad I am too!” I said, midmouthful. “The detective told me that Eva’s toxicology report came back with traces of an unidentified substance, so they’re considering the case drug related. It didn’t match any known narcotic, though, so basically all three of us are off the hook.”

I hadn’t had the heart to tell Detective Foster that that “unidentified substance” they were calling a narcotic was Elixir. He would never have believed me. But I was just grateful neither I, nor Eva, nor Obadiah would be going to prison.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you,” said Reggie, taking a swig of his coffee. “I heard some gossip from an old friend of mine that works in the forensics lab. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but”—he paused, and then clearly decided to tell me anyway—“your friend’s toxicology report caused quite a big stir.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, beginning to feel nervous.

“Well, my buddy told me they shipped whatever this stuff is they found at Obadiah’s club off to a serious science lab for further research, because they’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“What happened?” I asked. Now I was definitely nervous. What would they think Elixir was?

“My buddy told me the researchers gave this stuff to some lab mice,” said Reggie, “and you’re not going to believe this, Mab, but the mice . . .” He shook his head incredulously. “They
levitated
!”

“Oh my god!” I exclaimed, trying to make my face appear shocked.

“I know, right?” said Reggie. “I mean, it’s crazy!”

“Yeah, crazy.” I nodded. The researchers had found Elixir! And they were going to study it. This would be the first time humans had ever studied magic. My heart was beating wildly. What were they going to discover?

“It would kind of explain how your friend fell,” Reggie said. “I mean, if someone put that stuff in her drink? Also,” he added, frowning, “maybe that’s what happened to Charlotte. Maybe that explains her fall . . .  ?”

“Yeah . . .” I said, exhaling slowly.

“The whole thing is pretty unbelievable, though,” Reggie said. “And I thought I’d seen it all!”

He stared out the dirty window at the midwinter sunshine, and then back at me.