The Water Witch (35 page)

They each said “I love you,” then stepped, hand in hand, into the spiral circle and vanished into the water.

I
placed the undine eggs into the pool below the spring, along with the Aelvestone that would nourish them as they grew in the shade of the willow beside a stand of wild irises. I didn’t know what would happen to them in a hundred years if the door was closed, but I couldn’t worry about that now. Every beat of my heart told me that I wasn’t going to let the door close.

I walked toward the door. The sun was rising, the sky pink at the tips of the treetops, the sky above a deep lilac. It was almost dawn. The Grove would be working their spells, but I was confident now that I could stop them. I’d just sent two people to Faerie through a ring of water. As I repeated the words of the heart-binding spell, I felt my power thrumming through my body, from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head, cleansing me of the wards. Only one link remained—a rusty broken link snagged in my chest—a nagging ache that was the last lingering grief over losing Liam forever.

I followed the scent of honeysuckle to the dense overgrown thicket. From there, I followed the murmur of voices to a wide circular glade where I found a gathering of townspeople,
college faculty, Grove members, and a motley assortment of other creatures. Standing on the edge of the thicket, I noticed that the glade seemed to have widened since I’d last been here. I listened to the creak of intertwined branches above me and had the uneasy feeling that the honeysuckle thicket had widened the glade to accommodate this morning’s gathering—and that the thicket could just as easily tighten the noose again and squeeze us all to death in its grip. Nor was I the only one who seemed to feel that way. The nine members of the Grove stood on the far side of the glade, nervously looking up to the sky as if that might be their only exit. The crowd of townspeople and college faculty appeared, oddly, less anxious. They stood in small groups, talking softly among themselves, saying last good-byes. They were sad and resigned, or angry and indignant, but unafraid. I felt a stirring of pride in their bravery—and a renewed determination to make those farewells unnecessary. We would unmask the Nephilim and then I would open the door and keep it open using the heart-binding spell. But where were Frank and Bill? I looked around for them but didn’t see either man. I caught Liz’s eye and she hurried toward me. I stepped into the glade to greet her—hearing the branches and vines snick closed behind me.

“Callie, there you are! We’d begun to wonder if you were coming.” A fleeting look of hope passed over her strained features.

“I had to see Lorelei,” I said loudly and then, beneath my breath, added, “I have a spell to keep the door open and Frank has a plan to stop the Grove. He’s with my friend Bill. Are they here yet?”

Liz shook her head. She looked around the glade, wringing her hands. “I can’t believe it’s come to this. Perhaps if I had been stricter in whom I let in … but each case was so compelling and I truly believed that diversity made us stronger.
Now look at us! What will the college and town do without all these good people?”

I looked around the glade at those we would lose. “We would be weak,” I said, “a shadow of what we are. That’s what the Grove and the creatures they’ve joined are counting on, but I’m not going to let it happen.” I squeezed Liz’s hand and leaned closer to tell her what Frank had told me about the Nephilim, but then there was a loud rustling in the trees above us. Even my grandmother and all the members of the Grove looked up nervously. All except the two blond twins who were striding through the glade, parting the crowd with the same preternatural force I’d witnessed before in Beckwith Hall, coming straight toward me.
Angelic-looking
, Frank had called the members of the Seraphim Club. These creatures had the features of angels, but there was a cold emanating from them that no one would ever call angelic.

Liz stumbled backward, pushed aside by a disturbance in the air that arrived with the blond twins. I felt it now, too—pulsing gusts that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Then the blond twins turned to flank me and the disturbance was around us. There was a strange vacuum, as if the air had been sucked out of the glade. They each tried to grab one of my arms, but I shook them off and walked toward the rest of the Grove members, who moved aside to reveal an arched doorway in the thicket. The Grove members had been guarding the door—but why? It wasn’t as if anyone here was anxious to get through the door to Faerie. Could they be worried about what might come
out
of the door?

“You’re late,” my grandmother said by way of greeting.

“I had some things to take care of,” I replied, refusing to sound apologetic. “I see the Stewarts have brought Lorelei,” I added, noticing now the plaid-clad group. The Stewart men stood around her protectively, fierce looks on their broad faces,
more like an honor guard at her service than jailors now. She had managed to work her charms on them on the journey through the woods, but at least she hadn’t made a break for it.

“I thought we’d start with her,” Adelaide said. “What are you waiting for? You
can
open it, can’t you?”

“Of course I can …” I began, but then hesitated. If the Grove was working their spells to close the door why did they need me to
open
it? “Can’t you open the door?” I asked.

A look of annoyance crossed over Adelaide’s face. “That’s not the kind of magic we do, but if you like we’ll destroy the door before you open it. Your friends will be trapped in this world forever without Aelvesgold—”

“That’s not true,” I said. She looked so startled to be interrupted that she didn’t bother to deny it. I continued in a low voice only she could hear. “Your new friends at the Seraphim Club have all the Aelvesgold you’ll ever need. That’s why you want to close the door, so you’ll have the only source of Aelvesgold in this world. Witches will have to come to you if they want to stay young, and the fey that remain in this world will become your slaves.”

Her lips curled into a faint smile. “And why not? It’s better than witches being the slaves of the fey, as they have been for thousands of years. Join us and you’ll see how powerful you’ll become with an endless supply of Aelvesgold to feed your magic.”

“I don’t need …” I began, but I suddenly thought of the Aelvestone I’d dropped into the spring. The power I’d absorbed from it was still thrumming through my body, but how long would it last if I couldn’t keep the door open? Already I could feel a longing for more of the stuff. Of course I knew where the new Aelvestone lay, but Lorelei’s eggs needed that one to grow. I’d never be desperate enough to take it from them, but would others find it and steal it?

Adelaide’s smile widened. “Go ahead. Open the door and let the
good neighbors
of Fairwick go back where they belong. Once free of their influence, you’ll see you’ve joined the right side. You owe them nothing. Even your incubus boyfriend has abandoned you.”

The taunt nearly undid me, but, conversely, it steeled my resolve. Liam might not be here now, but he’d saved my life—and so had my friends in Fairwick. Frank was on his way now to destroy the Nephilim. I needed to stall for time.

“I’ll open the door,” I said, “but I won’t let you close it.” I drew the fairy stone from my pocket and saw Adelaide’s eyes widen.

“I saw that in your father’s hands once. I wondered what had become of it.”

“He gave it to me, of course.” I slipped the stone on my finger and turned to face the arched doorway. There was nothing beyond the arch but more thicket now, but I’d seen it opened onto a seaside cliff. With that image in mind, I passed my hand across the doorway.

Nothing happened.

My heart stuttered in my chest. Was the grief I felt over Liam keeping my heart closed, and so the door as well? Was
that
the caution I’d ignored in Wheelock?
Don’t use this spell if you’ve recently had your heart broken
.

I felt Adelaide tense. All the eyes of those in the glade were upon me. Were they afraid I’d fail—or hoping I would?

I closed my eyes and pictured the time I was in Faerie with Liam beneath the willow tree. I felt the warmth that had spread between us, the way his face had been haloed by radiant light, his eyes full of love. If only we’d had more time together, I thought, if only he’d been able to tell me who he was when he became corporeal in this world, or if he hadn’t changed when he took a new form …

I heard a gasp from the crowd behind me. I opened my eyes and found myself facing not the cliff and ocean but a green field that sloped down to the grassy bank beneath the willow tree: the place where Liam and I had made love.

“Good idea. Show them the prettier side of the place,” Adelaide whispered. “They’ll see the ugly side soon enough.”

I wondered whether there really was an ugly side to Faerie or if Adelaide was just bound and determined to think so. I was glad, though, that I’d summoned this beautiful place. When I turned to the crowd behind me I saw the golden light reflected on their faces.

“I promise you that I will not let the Grove close the door. It will stand open on the solstices as it always has. If you wish to go now to visit Faerie, go ahead. I promise that you will be able to return as long as you pledge to do no harm in this world.”

A murmur of voices rose from the crowd and I heard someone say, “We should go—at least we won’t be trapped in this world.”

Lorelei stepped forward of her own volition, looking calm and at peace. One Stewart walked on either side of her, each carrying a set of bagpipes. As they approached the door, they began to play.

The plaintive notes captured exactly the mood of the gathering. The two pipers separated and went to stand on either side of the door. Lorelei paused beside me.

I nodded at her and she understood that her children were safe.

The ghost of a smile lit her face, then she adjusted the plaid mantle around her shoulders and daintily stepped through the door. I watched her walk down the grassy hill toward the willow tree where Lura and Quincy stood waiting for her with a group of undines. Among them I could make out one undine
with red-gold hair bouncing up and down on her toes and waving to me. Raspberry. I was glad to see her looking so happy.

When I turned back to the glade I saw Fiona Eldritch in a long green dress, her ash-white hair falling loose around her shoulders. As she stepped forward, bells chimed. I had never been fond of the Fairy Queen, but the sight of her preparing to leave this world forever squeezed something tight in my chest. The Stewarts piped a mournful dirge as she approached the door.

“This isn’t the first time we have had to leave this world,” said Fiona. “Always when humankind have thought they have no need of us they have soon enough seen the error of their ways and longed for us to come back. As long as one human longs for our return the door will not stay closed forever.” She turned to me. “And I believe that this doorkeeper will make that happen.”

Gathering her skirts and in a whirl of green and the chiming of bells, she stepped through the door. On the other side a man appeared, mounted on a white horse. His hair was the color of spun gold, the same gold that glittered on his horse’s bridle and reins. He held in his hands the reins of another horse, white too, but with silver saddle, reins and bridle. Fiona’s back tensed as she saw him, but then she bowed low, touching her forehead to the ground, her green skirts spreading in a pool around her. It was startling—and a little frightening—to see Fiona bow to anyone, but when she rose at his bidding I caught a glimpse of her face, radiant in the golden light of Faerie, and saw that she looked more triumphant than cowed. As she mounted his white horse at his bidding, I heard someone behind me say, “She’s back in her domain.”

I turned and found Casper Van der Aart and his boyfriend,
Oliver, standing beside me. “Do they fight often?” Oliver asked. “Because no one likes a bickering couple.”

“We’ve probably got a few hundred years of happy reconciliation balls,” Caspar said, and then, turning to me, he explained that Oliver wanted to come with him. “Although I keep telling him he doesn’t have to.”

“And I keep telling him I’m not doing it because I
have
to, I’m doing it because I
want
to. Besides, I’m dying to see this place. And no one is going to stop me.” He glared at the blond twins who had taken up places beside the two pipers. Their lips curled in identical smirks but they made no move to stop Oliver from stepping through the door with Casper. As soon as they stepped through I saw a group of stocky white-haired men and women waving from the bank and Casper lifting a hand in greeting.

The denizens of Faerie were coming forward to greet their long-lost friends and relatives. As the Brownes passed through, they were greeted by a flock of diminutive creatures clad in leather pelts and peaked caps. Dory, the last of her family to reach the door, arrived hand in hand with Brock.

“We only just got you back,” I said to Brock. “I promise I’ll keep the door open so you can both come back.”

“I know you’ll do your best, Callie, but don’t worry. If we have to stay, we’ll be all right—and so will you. I hear you’ve found a good handyman.”

I blushed, wondering what else he had heard about my new handyman, then I hugged Brock and Dory, trying not to cry. They stepped through the door still holding hands. Another group had gathered on the bank—tall blond men and women, a one-eyed man with a spear, a giant carrying a hammer, and a cavalry of women on horseback with winged helmets on their heads. As Brock and Dory walked toward them, the Valkyries saluted them. I turned away, my eyes overflowing
with tears, and saw Diana Hart standing at the door, surrounded by a herd of deer, the golden-eyed stag in the lead. Liz stood beside her, holding her hand. Although it was summer, Liz wore her fur coat around her shoulders. Not just any fur coat—it was her familiar, Ursuline. Of course Liz wouldn’t leave without her.

“Don’t worry,” I told Liz. “I won’t let them close the door forever. I have a spell to stop them.”