24. Miri
24
Miri
I wasn’t sure what was happening until Ivy yanked me under the wooden platform with her. We huddled together near a thick wooden beam while my heart pounded and my hands balled into fists, my body seemingly unable to move.
In front of us, the sea of bodies parted, revealing a tall enigmatic man wearing a black leather trench coat and an opulent breastplate made of a shimmery dark metal. His hair matched his outfit, as did his thick beard, making him impossibly more beautiful than the queen. He emanated a similar magnificence as her, but…darker. More violent and turbulent.
“My love,” he said, holding his arms out to either side.
That voice. A crack splintered through a barrier in my memories I hadn’t known existed until that moment, my mind shifting and breaking apart only to be put back together again.
I shoved that into a compartment to analyze later, choosing instead to focus on getting out of there. He stepped toward the stage, linking his arms behind his back and setting his black eyes on the queen above us. The floorboards creaked with her movements, moving from one side to the other as she seemingly shifted her weight.
“How lovely it is to see you,” he continued. “I trust you spent your Samhain in a manner befitting a queen.”
“You know me too well.” She tried to mask it, but a stammer in her voice indicated how shaken up she was by his visit. Ashley said their queen was tired and worn out by the ritual. The unexpected arrival of her estranged husband must have been the last thing she wanted. “Please. To what do I owe this great honor?”
He came closer, climbing the stairs to the stage, his boots clinking against the wood in a terrifying rhythm. I didn’t know why he couldn’t tell that four of his despised humans were hiding under here with the child he wanted to kill. But I held my breath to keep the secret going. One wrong move, one wrong sound, he’d look down and see us. There’d be little we could do to stop him after that.
I grabbed Ivy’s hand and squeezed it tight, hoping if he saw us, we could withstand his wrath together.
“I’ve come to make a deal.” The king’s voice held such opulence and magic, it washed over me like sugarcoated dew on a spring morning. I wanted to revel in it. I wanted to throw myself at his feet and beg for his leniency, but I knew that was only because of his fairy allure. Whatever it was that gave fairies their strength, it made humans want them.
“What deal?” The queen sounded frustrated, rightfully so, but managed to maintain a calm demeanor.
“The child for our peace.” The words echoed over the crowd, almost as if he wanted everyone to know about the trade.
The queen made a high-pitched laugh, almost metallic and tinkling like crystal glasses. “What makes you think I’ll sacrifice an innocent child for your selfish pride?”
“She’s far from innocent.” The conviction in the king’s tone made me pause and glance over to Poppy in Carter’s arms.
What the hell could he mean by that?
“You have no idea the power that resides in that one little human.” The king tsked like she was beneath him, as was this entire charade.
The queen sighed and moved away from him toward her throne, judging by the creak overhead.
“Do I not?” The stage shifted like maybe she sat. “I created her. I gave her life. I know everything about her.”
“You perverted her.” The king moved closer, and we huddled tighter together, collectively united in our fear of this powerful fairy who supposedly hated us. “You mutated her with our magic. Come, my love. You must see how that is not natural.”
“Poppy is extraordinary.” The queen cleared her throat. “And she is my child. You and I do not need to agree on this. You only need to live with it.”
“Live with it?” The king scoffed like she’d offended him, and my heart rate sped up as I tightened my fingers around Ivy’s grip. “How can I live without you? How can you live without me?”
They’re dual spirits, Smythe had said.
One can not live without the other, Ashley had reiterated.
“I manage.” The queen did not sound convincing. If anything, she seemed heartbroken.
“Come, Diana,” the king pleaded, using a name no one had dared mutter up until now. Her real name. The name between them. “Let us reconcile. I see you have already purged your retinue of the filth that once polluted it.”
Filth.
He meant us, the disreputable beings hiding under here with the audacity to be born human.
Diana made a sad noise, almost like a sigh. “In all these centuries, Alberich, you have learned nothing.”
I tried to pay attention to the grandstanding above me, but a tingling sensation ran down my spine and up the back of my head, and I turned my attention to Ivy. Her eyes went white, and soon, I heard her voice inside my head. I saw her inside my head. And Ashley, too, from across the valley.
“I’m using my magic to conceal you, but I can’t hold it much longer,” Ashley said. “Take Poppy and go around back. No one will see you. Trust me.”
Trust her? Trust her? After all this nonsense, after she’d haunted Ivy for months and given us no help at all? Now, she wanted us to trust her? But what choice did we have?
“Protect Poppy. Protect the ring. Go. Now!”
Ivy didn’t waste any more time. She grabbed Lex’s hand with the other and dragged us to the back of the stage. We stood, and a part of me worried Ashley had lied, that as soon as we moved, any of the hundreds of Alberich’s soldiers would see us. Or maybe, Alberich himself. The power emanated off him in thick clouds and wispy black tendrils that could likely choke the life out of us with barely any effort. I could imagine what horrible things he’d do to us, but he didn’t seem fazed. He remained on stage, berating the queen, monologuing to an entranced fairy audience.
I followed Ivy behind the tents, weaving around bodies and tiptoeing to keep the sound of my movements to a minimum. I wasn’t sure where we were going, just that we were connected, and Poppy clung to Carter by the neck. My legs trembled, and I couldn’t get good traction on the slippery morning grass. Somehow, we climbed the hill to get out of the valley, and once we were far enough away from the fairies, we took off into a run.
I didn’t have time to question if Ivy knew the way. I had to get free, back to my reality, back to my kingdom. I didn’t belong here. The trees had tried to warn me, but I didn’t listen.
The trees always know.
“Where’s the child?” someone behind us shouted. “Find the child!”
Uh-oh.
Cover blown.
“Miri!” Lex said, glancing over his shoulder at me, the one with the shortest legs and the least impressive stride. “C’mon!”
I ran harder. Faster. If Ashley told the truth, this asshole couldn’t cross over into the human realm. Which meant as soon as we got there, we’d be safe from him.
Dark curls of smoke swirled around me, choking the plant life into decaying dust, disintegrating whatever it found. Their agony echoed through me like ice under my skin, like pinpricks right into my brain. The rottenness surged in my veins and I stumbled, catching myself on my hands and knees with a loud grunt.
“Miri?” Lex’s panicked voice forced me to my feet again, helping me to keep going. I just…I had to keep going. Keep breathing and keep running. Don’t look back. Anything except looking back. I didn’t want to know if Death was on my heels. It seemed better to greet the bitch by surprise.
The ruins crept up in the distance, and Ivy beelined for them, corralling the rest of us with her behind the wall, safe inside its crumbling barriers.
“We can’t stay here,” Lex panted.
I bent over at the waist and put my hands on my knees, gasping for air. This was the most cardio I’d done in years, and my heartbeat became a visceral thump I tasted in the back of my mouth. This, on top of experiencing the king’s fury through my gift, made me want to fall over and never get up again.
“We need to get our heads on straight,” Ivy said, resting both of her hands on her head while she tried to catch her breath. “We need to figure out where the fuck we’re going.”
“Ivy’s right. We can’t go circling the woods for another three hours,” Carter said, still holding the silent Poppy in his arms.
The galloping sound of horse hooves loomed closer, and we shut up, backing into one of the dark corners to stay hidden.
“Did you see them?” asked a voice on the other side of the wall.
“No, I lost them in the tree line,” another gruff tone replied.
“You definitely saw him with the girl?” The first voice moved toward us, and the sound of him getting off his horse made me take a deep, fearful inhale. “He had her. I’m sure of it.”
Footsteps echoed in the night, right up on us now. The jingling of metal on armor bounced off the crumbling stone walls. I backed farther into the darkness, Lex’s body hot next to me, Ivy on the other side, and Carter behind us with the child. Alberich’s darkness had cast out most of the sunlight, making this corner particularly well-covered. Maybe, with a bit of luck…
“They could have gone anywhere.”
The sounds came closer. So…so…close.
I held my breath, terrified that if I let myself exhale, they’d hear it. I prayed I was the only one who could tell how hard my heart beat. One of the guards entered the doorway at the far end, his body angled away from us so he hadn’t noticed us yet.
This is it. It’s all over now.
“Javier. Norton,” someone else hissed. A woman. The guard turned and walked away. “What are you two idiots doing this far away from the village?”
Ivy stiffened and grabbed my arm, widening her eyes as if she recognized the voice.
Siobhan, she mouthed.
“We chased some humans this way,” the guard inside said.
“What humans?” Siobhan sounded pissed. “Where are they?” She paused for a reply that didn’t come. “Well?”
“We lost them,” the other guard added.
“Get your ass back on that horse and follow me to base, or I’ll tie you to that tree right now and flog you for desertion. How do you suppose our king would react to that?”
“It isn’t desertion,” one of them snapped.
“We were chasing someone,” the other said. “They had the child.”
“I don’t care what you thought you were chasing,” Siobhan sneered. “Let’s go!”
Three sets of horses galloped away, and we waited a long time, much longer than was probably necessary, to finally speak.
“That was Siobhan,” Ivy said.
“Did she know we were here?” I asked.
“Yes. She spoke to me.” Ivy pointed to her temple. “She told me to take Poppy and get out of here. Go back to our realm and stay there.”
“Why is she helping us if she’s working for the king?” Carter rubbed at the back of his head, keeping his voice low.
“I don’t know,” Ivy murmured. “She didn’t have time to explain, but I don’t think she’s switched sides. She told me to protect the child.”
Carter hitched Poppy higher on his hip, and she twisted her little hands around his neck, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Hey,” I said, rubbing the back of my finger over her puffy cheek to comfort her. “You okay?”
She pinched her eyes together and tucked herself into Carter’s chest. He rubbed his hand over her back, and a part of me fell in love with her then. Her life had been fucked-up by these monsters. She belonged with us. I knew it. I could feel it. The same way I belonged to my spouses and them to me.
“Shhh,” Carter said. “It’s okay. You’re okay now. We’ll keep you safe.”
“Um.” Lex ran his hands through his hair and pursed his lips. “I hate to be the heartless prick here.”
“I doubt that,” Ivy added.
“We can’t take the kid with us.” Lex focused his attention on Carter and me.
Ivy sighed and rubbed at the spot on her neck.
“What?” Carter furrowed his brows, seemingly confused.
Lex took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. “You need to leave her here.”
“No fucking way.” Carter held her tighter.
“Carter,” Lex cut in.
“I’m not leaving her,” he said. “And that’s it.”
“The king will never stop looking for her,” Lex said.
I couldn’t believe I was hearing this from him, the guy I used to spend my nights planning a family with under the stars. We had wanted lots of children, and he’d never cared if we adopted; he couldn’t be this apathetic about her. She obviously needed our help.
“She’s human,” I said.
“She’s none of our business,” Lex added.
“She became our business when we got here,” I argued.
“And what the fuck are we going to do with her when we get back to reality?” Lex raised his eyebrows, his hands on his hips, big hazel eyes darting between us. “Ivy and I cannot show up with a child out of nowhere. Neither can you, Miri.” He looked at Carter. “Chicago? You think your brand could take an illegitimate daughter?”
“That’s not the fucking point,” Carter snapped. “And you know it.”
“I’m not saying Lex is right,” Ivy said, “but I’m not saying he’s wrong.”
Carter hung his mouth open as he stared at her, half appalled, half shocked. “Weeds?”
“It’s something to think about.” Ivy rubbed at the spot on her neck. “Siobhan knows we have her. Right now, she’s helping us. But that could change. If it does…If he gets loose, he’ll come for us first.”
“He’ll have to get out of this realm,” I said. “You still have the ring. Right?”
Ivy held it up, showing it to us. “But that can’t be the only way for him to get out. Millions of years of history exist in this realm. I’m certain there are other keys.”
“We can’t leave her here to fend for herself,” Carter hissed at the same time I said, “I won’t leave her here alone.”
Silence fell and, for the first time since we were reunited, a canyon widened between us. Now I stood with my hand in Carter’s, staring down the loves of my life.
“I don’t know how to explain that we should care about a child that needs our help. This isn’t up for discussion,” Carter sneered. It was the first time I’d heard him talk to Ivy or Lex like that since Midsummer. “The queen gave her to me to protect. Not either of you.” His jaw hardened, and he shifted focus between the two of them. “And thank God for that. Because if this were my child, I’d sooner trust it to a pack of wolves. At least she might get some scraps before they tore her to pieces.” Carter gripped my hand tighter. “Now, let’s all get the fuck out of here before you both say something that makes me hate you.”
With the little girl that had captured both of our hearts, he led me out of the ruins.
* * *
We walked quietly along the trail, following Ivy and Lex ahead of us. The forest looked as barren as it sounded, the previous signs of life silenced by whatever darkness the king had brought upon them.
That voice.
It gave me chills to remember it. I’d known it from somewhere. It unlocked something in my brain, in my heart, some deeply hidden secret I didn’t realize I’d been carrying.
Dark eyes flitted through my mind’s eye. But whose? I’d never seen eyes like that before.
“This way,” Ivy said, pointing to the distance ahead. “We’re almost there.”
Both the times we’d done this, I couldn’t tell when we’d crossed in and out of Faerie. Of course, the first time I’d been hammered on fairy wine, and the second, I’d been chasing my dead parents. Now, a shimmering force field wavered up ahead, almost like the king’s presence had sucked up all the magic that had once kept the barrier invisible. It barely held itself together on whatever energy it could sponge up from the remaining forest.
A galloping sound from behind stopped me as a strange unease bubbled in my chest. Something ancient and powerful gained on us. Old magic. Dark magic. The rotten taste of smoke and despair inched over my tongue and down my throat.
The king.
“Go,” I said. “Run!”
Ivy and Lex took off, Carter quick on their heels. My legs pumped as fast as they could, but even then, my feet were anvils. I couldn’t stop what was about to happen…I shouldn’t. I needed to feel it. I needed to see it, to see… him.
Ivy disappeared behind the force field. Lex next. Carter and the child went after them. But this tightening inside made me stop and turn around. The magic took me, holding me in place, locking my knees until they wouldn’t move even if I wanted them to. A thrum reverberated in my molecules, rushing in my veins like pure adrenaline. I willed the woods around me.
Grow . Grow. Grow. Grow.
Yes, it answered. Yes, yes, yes.
It was exhausted from Alberich’s dark energy, and it needed time to heal, but this, it could do for me, for us, if I helped. And I could. I fed it my energy, willing the lingering vegetation to burst forth. I pushed everything I had left into it, knowing the woods and I could protect my family. We had to. We were the only ones who could.
I saw him up ahead, galloping in the distance, seated proudly on his horse. If I didn’t stop him, he’d get through the boundary with us.
I dropped to my knees and dug my fingertips in the cool dirt, shoving my life force into the earth as hard as I could. A scream tore out of my body like I could drive more of myself into the forest with the exclamation. Hot, sticky liquid dripped down my chin, copper coating my tongue, and I didn’t know if it was blood or tears or both, but it didn’t matter.
It ripped out of me, everything I had left, like an electrical current or my very own soul.
Together, the woods and I grew a barrier of thistles, thick thorny blood-red patches all the way around Faerie, protecting the barrier in every direction, protecting the human realm from this intruder, this villain.
“Miri!” shouted someone from behind me. It sounded vaguely familiar, but nothing could stop me. I had to do this. I had to make it as difficult as possible for him to follow us.
“Miri, come on!” said another voice, another person I knew.
“ Miriam, ” a deeper tone called from in front of me, from the king. “ Little Thistle . It’s lovely to see you again.”
That name… Little Thistle …It startled me. I jerked my head up and connected with his chaotic, hypnotizing gaze. Recognition blasted through me, punching me right in the gut.
I know him…from the crash.
The thought passed through my mind as a heavy hand landed on my shoulder and yanked me backward, out of Faerie and away from the king.
“Fucking hell, Princess!” Lex’s wide, panicked eyes came into view, his hair tussled around his head like a halo. “You’re bleeding.”
“Is she all right?”
They talked around me, but I could only focus on an obnoxious chattering sound. What was that noise? It needed to stop; it was driving me mad. As I moved my mouth to say so, I realized the chattering was my teeth and the annoying sound was coming from me.
Lex wiped at my chin with the sleeve of his shirt, and it came away bloody.
“Shit,” I said. “Am I bleeding?” I clawed at my face. My nose. And my eyes. And my ears.
“What did you do?” Ivy said.
“I stopped him,” I muttered, though that didn’t answer her question.
“No, Miri,” she said, glancing up at something above me. “What…the fuck….did you do?”
I followed her gaze to a ten-foot tall thistle bush with flowers a deep ruby color that matched the liquid on my face. It sprawled for three meters in either direction before disappearing into the ether. Into Faerie. But it was the density of the thorns that made me pause. I’d wanted the king to stay out, and it would be a massive pain to get through them.
Had I trapped them in?
Had I trapped us out?
Could anyone get through it anymore?
“Let him come after us now,” I muttered with a silly grin.
As the rest of my energy faded and the world went dark, I had only one thought.
Thistles…the flower of House Stuart.