The Last Faerie Queen (3 page)

3

T
ayl
o
R

I'd never taken drugs before. It wasn't that I was a kiss-ass or anything, though I knew to stay away from the hard stuff. Anything you snort or inject could stay the hell away from me. But the natural stuff, the stuff that grows in the forest, well … I'd thought about it.

The sad truth was, I'd never had anyone to experiment with. I wasn't about to try drugs alone. How sad would that have been, tripping in my bedroom above my parents' garage, the place where I'd been serving the self-imposed sentence for my brother's death? One look out the window and I would've seen the tree I'd stupidly let him climb, knowing full well it was dangerous for a little kid to be up so high. What if my drug-addled mind got stuck on that thought
and I saw him falling all over again? I would've lost it completely, torn my room apart.

I would've gone insane.

But this was different. I was with my friends, and though they'd essentially dosed me, there was nothing I could do about it now. And since I was suddenly incapable of feeling anger, or shame, I settled in with the three of them and watched the world unfold before me. Not the world I'd known, the hum
an world.

The real world.

The first thing to change was the air. Had the air always been so
alive
? Had there always been little beings there, beings of color and light dancing just outside the corners of my eyes? Even the shadows moved, where I could find them: in little patches underneath the leaves, and under my body. Creatures were everywhere, saturating the air, changing shape as I reached out to touch them.

That, too, was amazing. Rainbows of light followed my hand, the way a trail of light follows a shooting star. I could hear my friends laughing around me, looking at my movements too, but nothing could hold our attention for long. Soon we were moving around, shifting the dirt with our fingers, approaching the trees.

We wanted to touch everything.

There were
things
living in the dirt, but it wasn't that simple. The entire ground was breathing, in and out; I could feel it. I pressed my hand against the dirt—something I'd done at my brother's grave a hundred times—and the ground pushed back, greeting me. To my left, on the edge of the clearing, Kylie was reaching up and checking which leaf was a leaf and which was a faerie. Half the leaves touched by her fingers curled back to reveal some green-winged thing, and others scurried away like animals. Everything was something other than what it seemed, and everything was alive. Rocks rose on little legs and hobbled past us. The wind sang in our ears, beckoning us the way sirens beckoned men into the ocean.

I wanted to feel the ocean then, to feel waves pouring over me, showing me all the creatures that lived underneath. But the light felt a lot like water, like something warm and fluid moving over me. Or maybe there were faeries there made out of light, touching me. It was impossible to know what was real. Was all of it? Was none of it? And, more importantly, did it matter?

All the worries I'd carried for most of my life—my father's disappointment in me, the loss of my brother, my never-ending quest to gain love from Elora, from anyone—just slipped off of me, and I felt clean. Unburdened. I leaned against the trunk of a tree and felt arms reaching out for me, lifting me into the branches. The bark scraped my back but I didn't care; it felt like scratching an impossible itch. It was only when those hands started getting too friendly that I detached myself from them and really looked around.

The sight should've been ordinary—a host of branches dangling green leaves. But it was anything but ordinary. A world existed between those branches. Each tree was home to a civilization. I poked my head into a hole and saw a dwelling way bigger than the space implied. Little creatures scurried around inside, with backs like pinecones and faces like men. The creatures were not lounging, they were re-arranging. A bed of moss flew into the air, barely missing my face, and landed on the other side of the room. Tables and chairs moved of their own accord. A particularly small creature raced this way and that, screeching, “Different! Different!” and another one, sitting surprisingly close to my face, hissed like a talking snake. “Which kind of flowers?” it asked.

I couldn't imagine the right answer, so I said, “Roses,” thinking I could give them to Elora. I missed her, even now. In fact, I may have missed her more, because I wanted her to be able to share this experience. But my eyes started to wander, and my brain followed as roses sprang up out of every wall, climbing over the bark and twisting around branches like a
living tapestry, a painting you could smell.

And they smelled amazing. The entire world smelled like roses. I reached out to take one and immediately regretted it. A thorn pierced my thumb so hard, I thought it was deliberate.

“The beauties bite back,” said the hissing faerie.

“No shit.” I stuck my finger in my mouth, sucking away the blood before the flowers could get to it.
Evil roses. The vampires of the garden
. Well, they wouldn't get my blood! The Bright Queen already had my name, and that was plenty, thank you very much. Sure, I was having a grand old time, but I had to keep a sense of myself, or I'd be lost.

I remembered that much. I remembered …

The hands were back, caressing my legs in a way that made me feel special and very uncomfortable at the same time. Pulling my knees into my chest, I lifted my head out of the tree to find so many nymphs, I thought I must have been hallucinating.

Well, duh! I am hallucinating
.

Except some of the nymphs were probably real. I was just seeing three or four for each one of them, or maybe I wasn't. It was hard to tell, and it was hard not to stare. They weren't exactly wearing much, except in the weirdest places, like a leaf covering a shoulder, or a vine wrapped around the thigh. Clothing as costume rather than covering. Something Keegan would dig. He liked to use outfits to screw with people, like Alexia used words to screw with people. But Kylie—she never screwed with people. She was just honest. God, they were awesome. I missed them.

I fell out of the tree.

“Ow,” I said, more because I thought I should than out of actual pain. I mean, when you fall ten feet onto your ass, it's supposed to hurt, right? But it didn't. I thought, with a kind of detached fascination, that someone could pull my arm out of its socket and I wouldn't feel a thing.

God forbid the doctors get ahold of this shit
. With faerie drugs at hand, the medical industry would have a field day. I started busting up then, because
we
were having
a
field day
.
We were actually
in a field
, or a reasonable facsimile of one.
Field
day.
Oh my God, I'm hilarious
. I was laughing, and then my friends were laughing, and then the trees started laughing, which made us laugh even more.

Then everyone was dancing with everyone, and I feared the n
ymphs might start to kiss me, but instead they twirled in circles, waving their hands. At first I thought it was some kind of ritual—a Welcome to Faerie dance—but then I realized they were manipulating the light around me. Ever since I'd spoken my name to the Seelie Queen, that light had clung to me the way it clung to her faeries, but now it
solidified
behind my back. Tur
ning this way and that, I saw the tips of golden wings, veined in green. It was only glamour, but it looked amazing.

The dancing continued, and I started to spin around, trying to get a better look at my wings. Then Kylie and Alexia were kissing in this totally frenzied way, like they might never see each other again, which gave me this creepy-crawly sense of premonition, and Keegan was sneaking into the forest with a satyr. I thought I should go after him, maybe warn him against getting too caught up in the happy faerie­land illusion, but he didn't get far because suddenly trumpets were blaring. And pipes, and, and … what was that sound? A sort of tinkling, crinkling sound, the way glitter would sound if it
had
a sound. I mean, the way laughter would sound if you were underwater. I mean …

I had to sit down. My legs had gone all gelatinous, and it was kind of serendipitous because someone was sliding a chair
right under me
. One of those recently crafted chairs where you could still see the shape of the branches, with a pillow made of moss. As I sat down, the others gathered around, and this huge, elaborate dinner table was constructed right in front of us, out of branches and vines and a tablecloth that
I swear to God
had to have been spun from s
unlight because it was so light and soft.

When the food arrived, I realized how hungry I'd become. I could've eaten a horse, except I wouldn't be doing that here because horses were probably centaurs in disguise, and besides, faeries didn't eat meat due to their aversion to iron. And I was okay with that. I was more than okay with that. If everything was alive, I didn't need some animal to die for me. I didn't need anyone to die for me. Especially not Elora.

Elora
.

And there she was. Dressed in glowing teal, the same exact color as her eyes. The Seelie Queen had probably put her foot down at Elora's usual black. But this was nice too; it was better than nice. God, she was so beautiful. I wanted to pull her into me and kiss her and tell her I'd give anything to make up for what she'd given me. I would have, too, right in front of everyone, if my legs hadn't turned to jelly.

The shaking I felt was worse now, with her standing so close. Across the long table. To the left of the Queen. How angry the bright faeries must've been to see the daughter of the Dark Lady taking her seat next to their queen. But if they only got to know her, they'd fall in love with her.

What was not to love?

She was amazing.

Now that she had joined us, I couldn't care less about anything else. Faeries were closing in around me, filling my goblet, dropping treats onto my plate, but I couldn't focus on them. I started drawing an image of Elora with my food: her fire-lit eyes, bright as blue and green flames dancing. Her pale, luminous skin. Her wings.

Wait
.

“Oh my God.”

“What?” Kylie asked, following my gaze. She nudged me, like I'd simply been taken in by Elora's beauty.

Hello, that was two minutes ago. Catch up.

“Her wings,” I breathed, barely able to produce simple sentences.

“I told you,” Kylie said, juice dripping from her mouth. Alexia's hand was in her lap like they couldn't stand to stop touching each other.

“That was so … fast. The healing … ”

“It's magic.” Kylie grinned like she was some amazing faerie expert. I wondered how she was going to feel in the morning.

“It must be. I have to go talk to her.” I pushed back from the table, determined to make it over to Elora, no matter how wobbly my legs were. But something else stopped me from moving this time. A hand on my shoulder, holding me down.

“Not so fast, little mortal,” a voice whispered in my ear.

I looked up to see a faerie with hair made of light. Her pale skin was glowing, like she was lit up from the inside, and her green dress clung to her so tightly, I thought it might fall away at any moment.

“Why can't I go over there?” I asked.

“You can,” the faerie said, crouching next to me. From this angle, I could see the wings poking out of her back. Unlike Elora's wings, which were black and tattered, even before the dark faeries got to them, these were green and glistening like a dragonfly's. “But
should
you?” she pressed.

“I … yes.”

“Are you certain?”

“Oh my
God
. Just say what you're thinking. Don't hint.
Say
it.”

The faerie laughed. And she placed her hand on my knee, making me all kinds of squirmy. “I know about your deal with the Queen.”

A hitch caught in my throat. “What do you know?” I asked, pretending to drink from my goblet. I wanted to hide the movement of my lips, in case anyone was watching.

“I know you offered your name to save the princess.”

“Can you tell me what that means?”

She hesitated. On the other side of the table, the Queen was leaning into Elora, whispering about something, but she could glance our way at any second. “It means she can control your every move, if she is so inclined.”

“But will she?” I asked, and my body twitched. It was like I wanted to feel fear, but I couldn't quite
get
there.

“She is not a dark faerie. She will not harm you—”

“There are lots of ways to harm a person,” I said, glancing at my knee. At
her hand
on my knee. “And they don't always require a sword.”

The faerie took back her hand. “Forgive me,” she said, blushing. “It has been so long since mortals have graced this land.”

I know
, I thought smugly. Elora had told me all about the sanctions between the courts. The dark faeries had agreed not to attack humanity if the bright faeries agreed not to befriend them. It was a tentative agreement, but it had put centuries of fighting on hold. Now it was all unraveling because of me.

“I will respect your boundaries,” the faerie said. “
I
will, but … ”

“The Queen won't?”

Again, she paused. Across the table, the Queen of the Bright Faeries sat like an embodiment of Mother Earth, waiting to cradle us in her arms. But I had seen another side of her, a side that would kill as easily as give life. She would've let Elora bleed out if I hadn't offered up my name.