Chapter 11
T hat night, I dream of a Coblynau weeping, surrounded by mist. Long, curved fingernails grasp a baby from a cot before replacing the little, crying, pilfered infant with a wide-eyed, curved-lipped Faerie. The Faerie’s face shifts, and the infant has returned, but with a gleam in its eyes.
I wake with a start, my hands slipping between the softest sheets of gossamer and owl feathers. My eyes blink open to a wide pink bedroom with winter berries and ivy winding their way around the walls.
I am wearing pyjamas made of spider silk and velvet the colour of late summer sunsets. Dae is already awake and sitting on a mushroom-shaped sofa, drinking what smells like cinnamon-spiced coffee.
Last night, when he brought me to this room, I tried to badger him for information. I even try to fight him three times, but he was being impossible. So eventually, exhausted, I fell asleep in his bed.
“Here,” he says, picking up a tray from the sofa beside him and offering me a honeyed apple and a little winding glass cup filled with coffee to match his own.
After gulping the entire drink down, with a slight buzz shooting through my veins, I open my mouth to speak.
Dae beats me to it. “Let’s go on holiday.”
I almost choke. “What?”
“I want to go on holiday, just me and you.” He crosses an ankle over his leg.
“Dae,” I say slowly, because I am starting to think he has lost a few brain cells, “I am finding a way to undo what you did, and then I am going home to my family, and I am dying. You need to accept that.”
He rolls his eyes. “Oh, stop being such a bore. Forget them. Go on holiday with me.”
“Send. Me. Home.”
“What if I can save you and your mum?”
“You can’t,” I say.
“What if we try, Elly? I’m just asking you to try.”
“You’re the one who put her in this position,” I say, although I am beginning to feel a little less sure of myself. Yes, obviously, if we can save both, that would be... I don’t let myself get too excited.
“Well, we’ll try to figure out a way to save you both, but we’ve got the whole of Spring. First, we’ll go on holiday.”
“You’re being very silly.”
“I’m always silly; it comes with the job.” He stands before throwing himself to the ground before me and grabbing one of my hands. “Come on, Elly. Forget all this. Let’s go away, me and you. We’ll go anywhere you want. Earth? The stars? You could come and meet my mum.”
“Let me guess, there’s a catch?” I say. I didn’t even know he had a mum.
He shrugs, a sly smile spreading across his lips.
“And then?” I ask, because someone has to bring him back down to Earth, or… Faerieland. “Mum’s only got a month, at most.”
“Fine, why don’t we go for a month, then?”
“Okay, and then if whatever plan you come up with doesn’t work, you’ll make a hag give me my fate back and let my mum live and me die?” I ask, swinging my legs around and dangling them off the bed. He places his arms on my lap, rests his chin on his arms, and looks up at me. He looks like he fell straight out of an early modern play about the Fae.
“It’s too early for me to think of a clever way to word a lie like that.”
I glance out the window. The suns are falling towards the horizon, casting the sky in purples and pinks. I sigh. “Let’s go one step at a time. I want to talk to a hag—to the hag who did it. Find her for me.”
Dae stands and begins pacing. “We’ll worry about that later. The people here can’t know you’re you. I mean, my friends know, but no one else. And they can’t. They’ll see an opportunity to kidnap you and try to ransom you off to Aberith. Trust me, neither of us will get what we want if someone figures it out.”
I narrow my eyes. “Why would your people try to sell me to my father?”
He ignores the question while running a hand through his hair. “Just, can’t you just stay here? In this room? No. You wouldn’t. Because you’re the most stubborn girl I’ve ever met.” He smiles at that. “Except with the only person you should actually be stubborn with. Besides, they’ve seen you now. They’ll wonder where you’ve gone. I could say I killed you, I suppose, but that would be out of character. They’d wonder.”
“Dae, you’re rambling.”
“I suppose I could tie you up and leave you somewhere. But you’ve probably got some kind of degree in untying knots. Maybe Abnehor can watch you, no one gets past him.”
“Dae!”
He takes a deep breath. “You’re going to see a side to me you might not like.”
“I don’t like any of your sides.”
He smirks. “Little liar.” He grows sober. “Just, give me a chance, please, love? Give me a chance to save both you and your mother.”
“I’ll trade you. A conversation with the hag for a chance.”
“Fine.” He jumps up and grabs my cheeks, kissing me. I let my mouth open, let him bite my lip, let him get comfortable before grabbing him by the hair and spitting in his open mouth. He laughs and swallows my spit down, half skipping out of the room.
“Dae,” I shout after him, but he is already gone.
He’s back a few minutes later, dragging a small, old woman beside him. She doesn’t look anywhere near as evil and menacing as I’d thought a hag would. I wonder if she’s the one who ruined Obi’s life.
He throws her into the centre of the room, and she stumbles a little. I frown at Dae. The hag sniffs the air and says, “I see it worked.”
“Give me back my fate. I don’t want my mum dying,” I say.
She side-eyes Dae, arching a brow, as though I’m some kind of idiot asking something unbearably stupid. He just shrugs and says, “Go on then, tell her.” She sniffs again and purses her lips. “What?” he asks when she doesn’t seem inclined to respond.
“I need payment,” she says.
“You’re joking?” Dae’s voice is a warning.
“Something small,” she says quickly.
“Here,” I grab the spiralling coffee cup and throw it to her.
Dae smirks. “That’s not yours.”
“Bite me,” I say.
She shakes her head. “Not that kind of payment. Information for information.”
I narrow my eyes. “What kind of information?”
“Anything. A secret, something useful,” she says.
“I stole 20 quid from my mum’s purse once,” I offer.
“Elly,” Dae gasps, clutching his chest in mock shock.
The hag shakes her head again. Her eyes narrow. “Something about your father.”
Dae hisses, “Leave her.”
The hag throws her hands in the air. “Something small,” she says. “A little bit of nothing. What kind of drink does he like, how does he take it, for example?”
I worry about the implications of telling her that, but what harm could his favourite drink do? “He likes coffee. He likes it sugary. No milk.”
The hag smiles, and suddenly I can see the menace others must fear. “Ask your questions.”
“It’s not a question. Give me back my fate and let my mother live,” I say.
“I can’t,” she says.
I growl, “I’m not playing these fucking Faerie games. Tell me what I want to know.”
Dae coughs. “Els, maybe you might want to ask her to tell you whatever she knows about the bargain your mother made with her.”
“What he said,” I say.
“Ahh.” The hag’s hands wave in the air, blue smoke pouring from them. I cough as the smoke reaches my lips, swallowing me down. The room shifts, the ground falls away, and the next thing I know, I’m following her across jagged mountaintops. My feet are hovering in the air. I almost trip, but something holds me up.
Dae isn’t here. We seem to have left him behind.
I watch as she questions beasts who speak in only hisses, women with tails for legs, and flying creatures with sharp teeth and even sharper eyes. Everywhere we search, the answer remains the same—there is only one way to give King Dae what he wants. A family member must take the girl’s fate on. And there are only two family members available.
The creatures beg her to trick Aberith, the father of Elysia. So, she tries. She sneaks into Ellyllon and begs, cajoles, and badgers the God of Life to give his up for his daughter, but he refuses. Finally, she slinks towards Earth and finds the mother, who gives hers willingly.
As the spell passes from one to the other, the hag spots something entirely unexpected. It is not fate that plagues the child, now the mother, it is a curse.
All the while, as I follow the hag, I trace the path she takes from Faerie to Earth and from Faerie to Ellyllon. Through the mist, out the other side.
I’m plunked back down in Faerieland—thank god I’m sitting on the bed, otherwise, I’d collapse to my feet.
Dad could have traded his life for mine. And he didn’t.
I train my eyes on the hag to stop from crying.
“What do you mean?” I cough. “A curse?”
“What else is there to mean?” the hag says. “Someone cursed you. There’s no prophecy. Someone placed a curse on you, and that’s why you were going to get sick on your twentieth and die shortly after. Now, the curse is on your mother.”
I’m about to say I don’t understand again, but instead, I ask, “How do you break a curse?”
She called Dad the God of Life. Is that what he is? If he’s the God of Life, surely he can save Mum and me. But, he had the chance to save me, and he didn’t take it.
I decide he must have some detail I’m not privy to, because the alternative, that my father didn’t bother trying to save me, is too horrible to accept.
She says, “Curses belong to demons. Only one of the seven can break one.”
My eyes meet Dae’s, and he’s smiling ear to ear as he says, “And what do you know? The Spring Equinox is only round the corner, when all seven will descend on Faerie.”
I circle the party with a pomegranate in hand, watching Obi. He dances like a fire fairy in autumn. Bright and strong and so alive. Completely and utterly alive. It’s hard to avoid the temptation to pull the pomegranate up and stuff it in my mouth, but I do.
I avoid looking at Dae, whose obnoxious laughter echoes across the courtyard. We fought once the hag left. Or rather, I picked a fight, knowing it would distract me from everything the hag said. There’s too much I don’t know. By the end of our fight, Dae was erratic and stormed off. I followed him to the party.
Circling, I create a plan. Finding a demon to undo what’s been done to my mum is the first priority. Dae said the Spring Equinox is in two weeks, but maybe I can get to one of the seven earlier.
Then, once I’ve broken the curse… I don’t know. I don’t want to think that far. I don’t want to dare to think I could maybe live.
Meanwhile, I’ll try to escape. I’m sure now that I know how to save both me and Mum, I can tell Dad what needs to be done, and I’m sure he’ll find some way to chat to a demon. He must. He’s my dad, after all.
Dae must have guards stationed all along the Earth side of the Nori, but what about the Ellyllon side? I’m betting he doesn’t think I’ll run there.
Dad can bargain with a demon and take me home, once he knows all is set right.
I jump a little as Obi leans against the wall beside me. He slides down the wall until he’s sitting on the grass and wildflowers. “So, that’s how you ended up here, then? The King stole you?”
“Huh?” I make a stupid sound as I slide down after him.
“He hasn’t taken his eyes off you all night,” Obi says, and I follow his gaze. He’s right. Dae is watching, sprawled along his armchair beneath my red snake painting. A beautiful blonde with the telltale greying skin of a Jinn rests against his chest. Two large, green butterfly wings sprout from her back, sweeping in arches and creating a gentle breeze that blows her golden hair out and around her face.
I wonder if she was born with the wings or if she shape-shifted into a form she likes.
I wonder if they’re dating. Not that it matters. Not in the least.
I remember not to look at the Jinn and as I turn, my eyes catch Dae’s. He’s glaring at Obi. That can’t be good. Obi flinches from Dae’s gaze, and his legs twitch, as though he’s about to stand. He stays seated.
I say, “Maybe you shouldn’t sit with me.”
“Probably.” He doesn’t say anything for a minute, just sits in silence before saying, “I used to be brave, you know? Well, I’m not sure if brave is the right word. Big, I guess.”
“You’re still big,” I say.
He doesn’t smile. “Yeah. But here that doesn’t matter. However big you are here, they’re stronger because they’ve got magic.”
“Right,” I say as Dae places his hands on the butterfly Jinn’s legs, eyes still trained on me. He forcefully crosses, then uncrosses her ankles until her two shins run perpendicular to each other. The Jinn drapes her skirts over her lap as an invisible dagger twists its way into my gut.
“So, you like him too,” Obi says.
“What?” I frown. “No, it’s not like that. I hate him, actually.”
“Okay.”
I stand. “I have to go. Have a good night.”
Circling the room, I look for doors. There must be a way to get outside into the forest. All the doors are guarded, but humans and Coblynau alike go in and out of the kitchens all the time. Maybe there’s a secret escape somewhere in there. My hand grasps the kitchen door...
“Elysia,” a chilling voice calls out.
The room stills. I turn. Dae is all ice shards and tapping fingers. He’s frantic. Wild. It’s like he feeds off the energy in the room. Like he’s part of it.
“Yes?” My throat bobs as my voice barely carries across the crowded room. I thought he was trying to hide me, why use my real name? Why draw attention to me?
“You haven’t been eating your fruit.” A cyclone is storming in his grey eyes. “Is it not to your liking? Should I go and find you some plums? Perhaps you’d prefer them.”
Heart hammering against my chest, I search the room for the half-eaten pomegranate. I left it on the floor right next to Obi. Obi is eating the seeds, watching us.
Running my hands down my face, I try to gather my thoughts, but it’s impossible. I don’t know how to act or what to do. I don’t know if I talk to him like I know him or I run, or what?
The entire room peers at me, waiting for a response. My lips curve up in a forced smile, a sharp pain in my chest as I bow my head slightly. He snarls, and again I realise I have no idea what the fuck he wants.
Eat the fruit, or get whipped? I don’t want either.
Dae’s fingers gently stroke the fleshy part of the butterfly Jinn’s arms, patiently watching me, waiting for a response. I search the room until I find a bowl filled with pomegranate seeds.
“Thank you for pointing that out,” I reply, the tremble in my voice refusing to piss off. “The fruit does look delicious today. I simply hadn’t had a chance to eat any yet.”
I edge closer to the table, then plunge my hand into the bowl and grasp a fistful of fruit. Dae watches every move, eyes alight with laughter as he tips his head to the side. I clamp my teeth shut as the butterfly Jinn beside him smiles comfortingly. My heart twists treacherously—I don’t understand what’s going on.
I put one pomegranate seed in my mouth, and my eyes roll to the back of my head. My stomach screams out for me to swallow it. To begin the adventure. But instead, I hold the seed in my cheek and stick out my tongue to show him I’ve swallowed it. His gleeful eyes narrow.
He gives the blonde Jinn beside him a gentle squeeze on the arm and slowly rises to his feet before walking over to the table. Long, jewellery-adorned fingers pick up a plum. I want to scream. To just scream and scream and scream.
Anything. A plum would make me do anything anyone wants.
“Do you think me stupid, Elysia?” My name rolls off his tongue like he’s said it a thousand times, as though he’s telling someone his own name.
My skin prickles with claustrophobia, and I wonder, with no small amount of dismay, how he could make my name sound like it belongs to him. Like I belong to him. I want to run. Just run as far and as fast as my legs can take me. They don’t have to carry me home, just away from here. Away from this traitor.
My eyes catch Obi’s searching ones as he bites into the pomegranate, skin and all, red juice dripping down his chin. I drop the pomegranate seeds in my hand and fish the one in my mouth out from underneath my tongue. My blood screams for me to pick it up, but I ignore it. I throw that to the floor as well. There’s no use pretending now.
“No,” I say.
Dae keeps walking towards me, patiently crossing the room.
“Then why are you treating me like I am?” he asks with the voice of a betrayed lover.
I just raise an eyebrow.
He smiles widely, forgoing the latest mask for a new one. He skips the last few steps to me, ever the playful Faerie prince. King, I suppose, a Faerie king. A traitorous, wretched Faerie king.
“I forgive you,” he grins. “Now, eat with me.” He takes a bite of the plum himself and reaches his hand out to me.
I can smell him now. My heart gives another twisted pull. My chest tightens, and I lick my lips. Roots move beneath the ground. I can hear them calling.
Dae chuckles, his smile stretching even wider. Free. Charming. An easy-going, joyful smile.
I shake my head softly and try to take a small step back. Dae catches my wrist and holds it there, squeezing it until my bones make a scraping sound. His eyes dance with a cold, liquid fire.
“I said eat, Elysia.”
I wish he would stop saying my name. I almost lean forward. Almost.
“No,” I say, before punching him in the face.
His face ricochets back, and the crowd gasps. People run towards me, but Dae holds up those long fingers, and everyone stills. He smiles and spits blood to the ground. His tapping fingers have quieted. He’s caught me in some kind of trap.
“Take her to my room.” He stands fully, he’s so much taller than me, I often forget how much taller he is. “I’ll deal with her there.”
The Fae snicker as thin fingers circle my arms. I pull away from them, fighting. “Thanks, but I already know the way,” I say as the guards stop trying to pull me. I storm up the staircase.
“I’ll be there soon, darling,” he shouts after me.