Chapter 5 Alix
ALIX
For the second time in less than a day, I burst out of the center of a freezing pond.
Instantly, a high-pitched wail of terror reaches me.
I flail in the water, looking around frantically for my mom.
She too has emerged from the pond, her mouth wide and eyes bulging.
Her designer jacket is plastered to her windmilling arms, sending water droplets flying like tiny crystals in the winter air.
“How dare you!” she shrieks “What the—”
“Mom, calm down!” I yell, splashing toward her.
“Calm down, Alixandrea? Really? Is this some kind of sick joke to you?”
Oh, if only it were.
I realized the moment my mom insisted on visiting “Ireland” that I was caught.
I had to tell her the truth. Except, you can never tell my mother anything.
I had to show her, and the only way to do it was to drag her kicking and screaming into the portal lake—literally.
We left Ruby at home alone—she was only too happy to be rid of my mother—and made the long drive back to the portal.
Only now, I’m second guessing everything.
Nana’s head pops out of the water next to me and looks over at my mom, who is muttering angrily under her breath. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Ali-girl.”
I sigh. So do I.
My mom claws her way toward the bank, her soaked sweater clinging to her shoulders, teeth chattering so hard I can hear them from here. I don’t think she’s yet realized that we’re not in the same lake that I pushed her into mere moments ago, or that it wasn’t snowing in New York.
“Wait, Mom—” I swim after her, but it’s too late to stop her.
Summoned by all the noise, Aurelia, Odessa, and Beatrix come running out of the house.
Pausing at the edge of the water, mom looks up at the sound of their footsteps and I can see the exact moment she realizes that the enormous mansion and sprawling rose garden were definitely not there a second ago.
Then, she focuses on the three women running toward us and her eyes bug out of her head.
Odessa glides forward, one pale hand extended toward my mother. “Let me help you.”
Mom scrambles backward in the mud, crab-like. Her voice cracks. “Stay back!”
I sigh. I feel a little guilty. I mean, I’d feel guiltier if my mom hadn’t backed me into this corner in the first place, but still…
I’d forgotten how frightening the Fae seemed to me when I first arrived, and especially Odessa, who is so beautiful that my brain immediately registered her existence as wrong.
“Mom, it’s okay—” I begin, but never get to finish.
“Here, let me fix that!” Obviously trying to help, Aurelia holds out both hands. Golden light spirals from her fingertips toward my mom’s drenched jacket, and steam rises from the fabric.
My mom’s gaze drops to her suddenly dry clothes, then back to Aurelia’s glowing hands, then over to me. There’s a combination of betrayal and fear in her face before her eyes roll back into her head.
“Catch her!” I yell, but it wasn’t necessary. Odessa is already reaching instinctively for my mom, grabbing her by the shoulders before she crumples into the water.
I look helplessly around at everyone and shrug. “I guess it could have been worse.”
It’s early evening by the time my mother calms down, and snow is pelting the darkened windows.
Odessa, Beatrix and Aurelia sit on one side of the long kitchen table, steam unfurling from the mugs of tea in front of them. On the opposite side of the table I sit between my mother and Nana. Mom taps her long nails against the side of her empty mug in an anxious, staccato rhythm.
“Here, take mine,” Beatrix says kindly, sliding her own untouched mug of tea toward my mother.
Mom doesn’t thank her, but wraps her fingers around the new mug without drinking. Her knuckles are bright white and she keeps shooting sideways glances at Dessa, like she’s going to launch herself across the table and attack us.
I catch Dessa’s eye and grimace apologetically. She just shrugs, as if to say, “It happens.”
I want to tell my mother that she’ll get used to everyone’s other-worldly beauty, even Odessa’s, but I haven’t been able to get a word in for a while.
Nana is leaning over me talking to my mom.
Her voice has gone hoarse in the time she’s been talking, relaying the entire story of how she first fell into Ellender, escaped, and later wrote her bestselling book about it.
We haven’t even gotten to the part where I enter the story yet, and I’m not sure we will—at least, not tonight.
Mom stares at Nana as if they’re strangers. Her mouth is slightly open, eyes blinking rapidly every few seconds like she’s trying to clear her vision. She looks like she’s had about enough insane revelations for one day.
Then, suddenly, she comes back to life.
She sits up straighter and clanks her mug against the table with a sharp crack, sloshing the hot liquid everywhere. She swipes a strand of hair behind her ear, her wedding ring catching the light. “Okay,” she says, voice steadier than it’s been since she arrived. “Okay, that’s enough.”
I internally groan, and real guilt washes over me. That’s it, I’ve killed my own mother. She’s going to drop dead of shock any second.
“Do you want me to take you home?” I ask.
She swivels and fixes me with the same look she gave me at sixteen when I missed curfew. “No! I want to know where your fiancé is.”
I blink at her, nonplussed. “That’s what you’re worried about?”
“If any man is important enough to drag me through—” she gestures vaguely at the window. “—whatever this is, then I need to meet him.”
Okay then.
In answer, I turn to Beatrix. “When did Daemon leave?”
“Hours ago,” she answers promptly. “He refused to take any guards with him, just Fox, Jett and Kastian.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Where did they go?”
“The village,” Dessa says. “They went to look for the children.”
I frown and glance at the dark window. The snow is coming down harder by the second, pelting at the windows. I’m not worried about Daemon or the others—they’ve survived far worse than a little snow—but I am worried about the missing children.
“Can’t you just call him, Alixandrea?” my mother demands.
I ignore that question and instead dig in my pocket for the heavy gold pocket watch that Daemon gave me last Yule—just past seven in the evening. Incidentally, that’s earlier than it was in the human realm when we entered the portal to come here, but time never works perfectly between realms.
I’ve been trying to think back to two years ago when I first arrived in Ellender.
What made me finally believe that the world was real?
Aside from the enormous wolf and Daemon’s wings, I think it was when we first left the palace and I saw the wider Fae world that the truth really started to sink in.
I’m about to suggest we go into the village after them—if only to get out of the house and give my mother something else to focus on—but I don’t get the chance.
The door to the back garden swings open with a gust of cold air, and Connell steps in, snowflakes melting in his dark hair. “Evening!”
“Where did you come from?” I demand without thinking.
He grins at me and winks. “Wouldn’t you like to know, darling?”
My mom’s spine straightens, as she looks from Connell to me, her eyes widening slightly as she takes him in. His flushed cheekbones catch the firelight as he shrugs off his coat, revealing broad shoulders under a simple linen shirt. She sits up straighter. “So, this is Daemon?”
She sounds almost hopeful and I roll my eyes. Connell is objectively handsome, but he’s human, and in my eyes can’t hold a candle to Daemon.
“No, Mom, that’s Connell…” I trail off trying to figure out how to introduce the pirate. He’s not exactly a friend. A guest maybe?
Without missing a beat, Connell gives my mother a sweeping bow. “Pleasure to meet you, my lady.”
To my absolute shock, my mother giggles like she’s fourteen and holds out her hand to him. Rather than shaking it, he kisses the back of it, and she beams.
Dessa catches my eye and we have to look away from each other immediately or we’ll burst out laughing.
“Ignore him, Mom,” I say in a choked voice. “He’s like that with everyone.”
“Not everyone, just the beautiful ladies,” Connell says, winking again.
“Alixandrea, who is this?” my mom asks, not taking her eyes off Connell.
“I’m their prisoner,” he answers, grinning unhelpfully.
My mom’s simpering smile slides off her face and her eyes bug out of her head. She turns to me, her voice returning to its usual disapproving tone. “Alixandrea, what the hell is going on?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. I should have faked my death.