17. Miri
17
Miri
IRELAND
K illwater seemed much the same as it had the last time I’d been here. The same cobblestones lined the narrow streets. The same old townhouses sat on either side, their decaying shutters evidence of how apart from time this city really was. If I closed my eyes, I could almost be that twenty-two-year-old girl again, as if I’d never left.
Despite that, a strange vibration whistled through the air and coated my skin like electricity. As soon as I stepped out of the vehicle, the ethereal sensation forced itself down my throat like battery acid, pungent and sweet. Had it felt like this last time? Or had I been ignorant to it, naive and unaware of how dangerous this place could be?
At least the weather wasn’t unbearable. We’d arrived in October instead of June.
Samhain.
Most of the town was preparing for the celebrations later in the week. I’d grown up at various boarding schools throughout England and spent a great deal of time in Scotland, so I understood some of the Gaelic legends. I didn’t remember much about the fairies, but some believed ghosts walked among us on Samhain. Some believed the apparitions were fairies themselves. In either case, perhaps it was fortuitous we’d arrive at the time when it might be the easiest to find the land of the fairy folk, if indeed such a thing existed.
Ivy booked a room at the pub that had once been owned by Siobhan and Ashley. It was now in the possession of a retired couple named Bill and Keely.
“Have you lived in Killwater long?” Carter asked when Bill offered to bring our bags up for us.
“All my life,” he said, lugging our suitcases into the top room.
“Looks like everyone’s excited about Samhain,” Carter said, attempting he’d see what he could get out of the guy.
“Oh, aye. It’s mostly for the locals, ya know?” he said. “But you’re welcome to come. There’s trick-or-treating for the kids, and lots of toasting for the adults.”
I walked around the space. Two queen beds sat on either side with a small window overlooking the woods on the wall opposite the door. The old furniture reminded me of Aberdeen, of how I’d taken the disregarded pieces from each castle I liked and filled my most beloved space with them.
“The bathroom’s through here,” he said, but my attention refocused on the trees.
They were different now, pulsing with an energy I hadn’t noticed before. Taunting me. They knew we were here, that we’d returned, and they beckoned us to them like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. But I knew better now. I knew that house made of candy held dark, dirty secrets, and I’d be better prepared this time.
Or at least, that was what I told myself to build the courage to see this through.
“What about the woods?” I asked Bill.
“The woods?” He raised his eyebrows as he turned to me.
“Yeah,” I said. “Are there any festivities in the woods on Samhain?”
Bill’s features dropped, his eyes widening, his mouth hanging open.
Fear.
The woods scared him, but in the way powerful things often did to the wary. There was terror, sure, but mixed with respect and awe. He knew the secrets that lay out in the forest, and he didn’t dare tamper with them. He feared we might do the same.
“No,” he said, regaining his composure. “Not that I know of. And if you were smart, you’d stay far away from there.”
Lex smirked. “Why is that?”
“People your age go missing in the woods all the time.” Bill cleared his throat and hiked his pants higher on his waist. “Don’t come out for months if they come out at all.”
“Our age?” Lex raised a curious eyebrow.
“Older folks know better,” he said. “Fairies don’t want them, anyway. Fairies want beauty and eternal youth.”
Ivy crossed her arms. “You believe in fairies?”
“Of course,” he said. “They’re real, and they’ll give ya a go if you aren’t careful.” He patted down his pockets like he was making sure he’d given us everything we’d need. “Breakfast is served between six and nine, and if you come in after twenty-two hundred, I’ll ask that you use the back door so you don’t wake up any other guests.”
“Sure,” Carter said. “Thanks, Bill.”
He took one last look at us before going to the door and opening it.
“Stay outta the woods,” he said. “Nothing good ever came from going in there, especially on Samhain.”
None of us said anything, but when he shut the door behind him, we looked at each other.
“We should listen.” Lex lit a cigarette and pinched it between his fingers, going to the window next to me so he could open it and blow the smoke out. “We know what’s lurking out there. Everyone in this town does.”
“That’s the whole reason we came,” Ivy said.
“It’s a last resort, okay?” Carter said, ever the peacekeeper. “We’ll check out the library. Maybe ask the townspeople.”
“Let’s take a moment to think before we do anything stupid,” Lex added.
I returned my focus to the trees as a shiver snaked down my spine. Energy emanated from them, reverberating through my bones the same way it did with my flowers back home, but this was different. It brewed infinitely more powerful. I understood Bill’s fear. I was terrified myself. The trees were strong, and they hid a closely guarded secret, one we’d only gotten a glimpse of on Midsummer.
When I was a little girl, one of my nannies had taken me on a hike in the woods behind my house in Aberdeen. I’d raced through the undergrowth all morning, and she’d struggled to keep up with me. I couldn’t have been more than ten, so my eagerness to explore far outweighed my concern for her tiredness. She’d stopped to take a breath, I’d wandered off, and by the time I realized I didn’t know where I was, the sun had set low in the sky.
I called out for her, but I didn’t hear an answer.
As the moon rose higher, shadows played on the ground like monsters in a nightmare, their twisted limbs like long icicle fingers, waiting to wrap around my throat. I’d walked for hours until my legs went numb and my knees couldn’t hold me anymore.
Eventually, I’d collapsed in a hollowed-out log, convinced that if I closed my eyes and stayed still, the monsters wouldn’t get me.
The trees know all, my nanny had said. They see all.
Help is coming, I heard them say. Stay calm. Stay calm.
I listened to it until I fell asleep. The hounds found me shortly after that. Search and rescue escorted me back to my house, mostly unharmed. In the morning, I’d convinced myself I imagined the whole thing, that I’d been dehydrated and trees didn’t talk.
But standing in the window of that bed-and-breakfast in Killwater, I thought perhaps I hadn’t imagined it at all. Perhaps I’d been marked from birth, given the ability to communicate with nature in a way no one else ever could. If that was the case, then Siobhan had nothing to do with our fairy curse, and this was a fool’s errand after all.
“We have two days until Samhain,” Ivy said. “If we haven’t found anything substantial by then, I say we take the ring and go for a camping trip.”
Carter sighed and scrubbed his face, clearly as exhausted as the rest of us.
“Even if we find Siobhan, what exactly are we planning to say? Thanks for the gift, but no thanks?” I crossed my arms and turned back to the room, tugging my jumper tighter around me. “The first thing Ashley told us was not to piss off the fairies.”
“We don’t know she’s a fairy,” Lex said before quickly adding, “I can’t believe that’s something I seriously said.”
“We don’t know she’s not.” Ivy sat on one of the beds and leaned forward so her elbows rested on her knees. “One of us should double back to the college.”
“Why?” Carter asked.
“Ashley was the lore historian,” Ivy said. “She and Siobhan came there every day. They were chummy with Peter Smythe, the associate professor who was friends with Stephens.”
“Shit, that’s right,” Lex said.
I had all but forgotten about the other people who were there when this started.
“They still have the intensive every year,” Ivy said. “Stephens is still the sponsor, and Smythe still works in the theater department.”
“Fuck, Weeds,” Carter said. “You’re brilliant.”
That settled, we started planning. Ivy and Carter decided to hit the local library to ask around, and maybe, with Carter’s luck, they’d find someone who could be useful. Lex and I headed to campus to find Dr. Smythe. If anyone could make someone tell the truth, Lex could. How did he know Ashley and Siobhan? Was he a fairy, too? And if he was, did he know how to find our mystery woman?
* * *
When we entered the art department’s lecture hall, Smythe stood at the front, giving a talk on the types of movement in theater theory. At this time of year, the students were in full study mode. We slipped in the back and took the seats closest to the door. Disguised among the sea of coeds, I relished the opportunity to assess him before we began our interrogation.
Tall and handsome with curly salt-and-pepper hair and a beard that matched, he wore wire-framed glasses that gave him an educated aesthetic. But what I hadn’t noticed last time that stood out now was the tattoo on his hand: a beautiful, timeless rose with ivy vines swirling over his wrist and disappearing under the sleeve of his cardigan.
Something about him drew me to him. I didn’t know if it was the streaks of gray in his hair or the way he spoke, his voice like butter and honey and molasses, sweet as decadent pie. No, there was something else there, too. Something…elemental.
No sooner had the thought skidded across my mind than his eyes settled on me. Even from the center of the hall, I sensed the danger in him. The power. The raw force of whatever made him him. He wasn’t human, certainly. Or…he wasn’t entirely human, not like everyone else in this room. Maybe he could tell I knew that about him because one side of his mouth pulled into a smile before he returned to his chalkboard and continued his speech.
“He knows we’re here,” I whispered to Lex.
At the end, we waited until everyone else left before we stood and made our way down the stairs. He closed his briefcase on the desk and snapped the locks in place before turning to face us with a smile, his hands folded in front of him.
“Miriam Stuart,” he said. “Alexei Fairfax. I’m so pleased to see you again.”
It was possible he knew our names, being children of very famous people, or maybe he remembered us from the last time we were here, although that seemed more unlikely.
“Yes, I know who you are,” Smythe said. “And I know what brings you back.”
“How’s that?” Lex gave a small chuckle, like he was barely a blip on his radar.
“You’ve been marked,” Smythe said, glancing at me while I narrowed my eyes at his explanation. “So have you. A group gift, if I’m not mistaken. Let me guess, there’s two or three others?”
I cleared my throat, and Lex straightened his spine, his eyes widening for a moment before he locked his surprise down again.
“We need to find Siobhan,” Lex said.
Smythe shrugged. “I don’t know where she is.”
Lex pursed his lips like he didn’t believe him. “She was seen not far from here three days ago.”
“Three days?” Smythe raised his eyebrows and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “She could be anywhere by now.”
“It’s Samhain,” Lex pressed on. “If there were a reason for her to come home, wouldn’t she wait until the veil between the realms is thinnest?”
Smythe kept his cool. “That depends on what you think she wants.”
I looked at Lex with frustration, almost to say, Are we done here?
Yep, replied his stoic expression.
“Tell me the truth,” he said, and I gasped at the strength in those words. They hit me like a tsunami, pulling me under his massive power, assaulting all my molecules. It affected Smythe just as intensely. He sagged into his desk, gripping at the edges to keep himself upright.
“Bleeding hell,” Smythe said. “I don’t know where Siobhan is. But if she did come back, she’s headed for Faerie.” He pronounced it like Fay-Ree, and I assumed that was the name of the fairy realm.
“How?” Lex said. “How do you get in?”
Smythe licked his lips, visibly sweating. “Please don’t. They’ll kill me.”
“Who?”
He shook his head and whimpered, opening his mouth like he was compelled to answer, but would rather bite off his tongue than do it.
“You know who,” he said. “You don’t have to ask. You know.”
“Ashley,” Lex said. “Siobhan.”
“All of them,” Smythe confessed. “I’m half fae. They kicked me out a few years ago, but I’ve been trying to get back in. Ashley and Siobhan, they were helping me. We were helping each other.”
“What happened?” I asked.
Smythe rubbed his cheeks, wiping away tears. He obviously didn’t want to tell us, and part of me felt conflicted about forcing it out of him.
“Maybe we should stop,” I cut in. “This feels wrong.”
Lex only took another step closer to Smythe. “Tell me how to get there.”
“In the woods,” he blubbered, spit flying out of his mouth. He cracked open like an egg, tears now streaming out of his eyes, sobs ripping from his chest. “Full fae like Ashley can come and go as they please. The same with Siobhan before she was banished. Me and you? We need a key. An invitation.”
Lex looked at me as the puzzle pieces clicked together in my mind.
“The ring,” Lex said. That was how we got there the first time. Siobhan had slipped the ring into Ivy’s pocket, and she’d had the foresight to bring it with her when we went to find the Midsummer ritual.
“Yes, a ring. A bracelet. Something fae made. Even then, you might not be welcomed,” Smythe said. “They’re not the forgiving type. If the queen decides she doesn’t like you, that’s it. They’ll kill you and not think twice about it.”
Shivers went down my spine as I imagined a terrible winged beast with claws and fangs and evil red eyes, hell-bent on devouring me and my beloveds. I wouldn’t let that happen, no matter what I had to do to stop it.
“Or worse yet, if she decides she does like you, you can never leave.” Smythe winced, perhaps remembering something terrible. “She’ll keep you and feed you ambrosia, so you stay as young as you are now.”
“Siobhan’s not the queen?” I asked. “Not Ashley?”
“Gods, no.” Smythe shook his head. “They’re pawns. Players. Ambassadors to the humans. At least, they used to be. I haven’t seen Siobhan in a long time. Ashley sold the pub and her house to go home after the king left.”
Lex and I exchanged hesitant looks. Ivy had mentioned a fairy king and queen, ancient beings capable of terrible power.
“Tell me about the king and queen,” Lex said. “Who are they? What are they like?”
Smythe bit his bottom lip. “Please, enough. I’ve already said too much. If they find out it was me, if they find out I said this?—”
“They won’t,” Lex said. “You have my word.”
I ignored my impulse to gawk at him because I didn’t see how he could promise that. We couldn’t even guarantee our own safety. There was a good chance this wild goose chase was going to lead us right into those woods, and once it did, I feared Smythe might be right. We may never come out again.
Smythe curled into himself as the weight of his confession brewed on his tongue, seemingly defeated by our arguments and show of force. “The queen looks favorably on the humans that live in Faerie. The king does not. They quarreled about it before the king left. But they’re dual spirits. One cannot exist without the other. The queen called her fae back to her kingdom to console her, all that weren’t banished.”
My heart ached for Smythe. It was quite obvious he missed his home, missed living among his fairy relatives. The fact that they had kicked him out made my stomach twist with what they might do to us, relative strangers compared to him. “Why’d they banish you?”
Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he dabbed them away, clearing his throat before saying, “I loved the wrong woman. The queen’s favorite.” He stole a heartbroken glance between Lex and me before dropping his gaze to the floor. “When the queen found out, she killed my beloved and cast me from the realm.” He cleared his throat and swallowed back a sob. “No one can touch her ladies without her permission. She might have allowed it had we asked, but we didn’t, and that is unforgivable.”
“That’s horrible,” I said, my heart twisting for him. “I’m sorry you went through that.”
He nodded and pulled himself together. “You both are marked, so I know you won’t heed what I’m about to tell you. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t say it anyway.” He darted his tearful, bloodshot eyes back and forth between us again. “If you go into those woods on Samhain, you are looking for trouble. If the king finds you, he’ll kill you. And if the queen finds you, she might keep you forever, even if you don’t like it.” He gave us one grim smile before sighing and turning to stuff his books in his leather messenger bag, muttering, “Whatever gift Siobhan gave you, you should learn to live with it. Leave the past in the past.”
“Thank you.” I nodded toward the door as if to suggest we leave, but Lex kept his suspicious gaze on Smythe.
“You know more,” Lex said. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“Lex.” I grabbed his arm, trying to give Smythe a break. “C’mon. He’s already a mess.”
“Tell me, ” Lex snarled, the power in his words almost bringing me to my knees.
Smythe balked and took a step back.
“Prepare yourself for what you might see there, Alexei,” he said. “The fairies aren’t happy pixies or glittery Disney princesses. These fairies will gut you and string up your insides for kabobs. They think of humans as thralls, something for entertainment. Humans and fae have a long, complicated history, and you’ve barely scratched the surface.”
This time, I managed to drag Lex from the room, shouting, “Thank you, Dr. Smythe,” over my shoulder as we went.
Smythe pressed his knuckles onto the table and hung his head between his shoulders, the weight of his regret nearly a tangible, visible thing. He shouldn’t have told us, and walking out of that room, part of me prickled for making him. I didn’t like it. But if it meant getting to the bottom of what was going on with us, how much of my conscience was I willing to risk?