Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
SERAFINA
W e set out for the portal as soon as the rain stops—only hours after Cadmus’s revelation that still percolates in my head.
The Obsidian Queen.
Skinwalker.
Arisha.
Dying Faerie.
Cadmus didn’t need to say it out loud, but I understand his subtle implication.
The world itself sent the virus in order to rid itself of the rot infecting it. Or at least, that’s what he believes.
But how many innocent fae died to kill one evil fae?
And who is the one taking over where the Obsidian Queen failed?
What goddess helped her in the first place?
“I can’t help but wonder if my father wasn’t crazy,” Foster whispers from beside me, his tone hollow.
“What do you mean?” I glance at him in concern, but he keeps his attention fixated straight ahead.
“Some of the things he spewed… It’s starting to make sense now. He was the historian for the fae. It wouldn’t surprise me if he stumbled across this information during one of his studies.”
Kian, who’s walking on Foster’s other side, whips his head around to stare at him. “Do you think he has more information?”
Foster shrugs. “I honestly don’t know.” Then, in a lower voice, he adds, “I don’t know anything anymore.”
I reach for his hand and give it a squeeze. He offers me a tiny smile, though his green eyes remain subdued, swirling with emotions I can’t articulate.
“Watch your head,” Cadmus instructs abruptly.
All of us duck as we step beneath a tree branch covered in an unrecognizable substance. It almost looks like…cotton balls. Purple cotton balls, all clumped together to dominate the entire branch.
“What is that?” Kian asks.
He instinctively reaches for it, but Cadmus hisses, “Don’t! Do you want to lose a limb?”
Kian drops his arm back to his side.
“It’s Death Fluff.”
“Death Fluff?” I arch both eyebrows in disbelief. “That sounds…incredibly adorable.”
“If you think it’s adorable to have your arm turn black and fall off like a burnt marshmallow,” Cadmus deadpans.
Tristan turns towards the taller man. “How do you know about marshmallows? I’m almost ninety-nine percent certain you don’t have any here. Come to think of it…how do you know about any of this stuff?”
He waves his hands in the air dramatically to emphasize what he means.
Cadmus’s frown deepens. “This…stuff?”
“You know, modern slang and pop-culture references. I even think I saw a television in your camp.”
“Oh.” Cadmus focuses on the forest once more, leading us down a path I can’t see. The multiple suns in the sky glare down on us and send pinpricks of heat racing up both of my arms. “We have visitors from your world.”
“What do you mean?” I step over a luminescent purple plant edged in orange leaves.
“There was a human couple who knew about the fae and often helped when they could. They did research on the various creatures in Faerie and determined the survivability of the fae from your world returning here. Once they discovered our camp, they would leave gifts in the form of books, magazines, and lights for the camp.”
“You guys have electricity here?” Kian asks in surprise.
Cadmus’s lips twitch. “No. But we do have a fae with the power to create something similar to electricity. At least enough for a few bulbs.”
“Holy shit,” I breathe. Then something occurs to me, and I pause, causing Foster to stumble since my hand still clutches his. “This couple… Do you happen to know their names?”
“Jensen and Shelia, I believe.” A frown touches his lips. “Strange names, but apparently they’re quite common in the human world.”
Warmth blossoms in my chest. I blink, trying to ignore the burn crawling up my throat and crowding my eyes.
Cadmus volleys his gaze between me and my mates. “From the expression on your face, I take it you know them.”
“They’re my parents,” I whisper around the knot in my throat.
They visited Faerie more than once? Knew about Cadmus and the others? Why didn’t they tell me? Was it an attempt to protect the fae here? But from whom?
“They’re not fae.” Cadmus sounds confused.
“They adopted me when I was a baby. Apparently, they found me during one of their trips to this world and took me home. I think they assumed I was a changeling or something, especially since I didn’t exhibit any fae abilities.”
“Changelings were quite common when the virus first spread through the population,” Cadmus confesses. “Parents believed it was the only way to protect their children.”
“What happened to the humans the fae were swapped with?” Tristan asks, tilting his head to study what appears to be a weeping willow—if weeping willows have bright-yellow trunks and rainbow leaves cascading towards the ground like party streamers.
Cadmus’s lips turn taut. “This world is a brutal and unforgiving place. Most of them didn’t survive. And the fae children? Well, they either died an agonizing death that doctors couldn’t understand or treat…or they mutated. And what do you think the humans did to children who suddenly grew scales or fangs or horns or tails, especially hundreds of years ago?”
“Oh.” My chest caves into itself.
A part of me understands a parent’s desperation to protect their child, but I can’t imagine sacrificing someone else’s to do it.
“A lot of fae believed that the virus would go away in time. It wasn’t until the population started to… How do you say it? It wasn’t until the population started to drop like flies did they realize they needed to get out of here.”
“So they left through the portals and went to Earth,” Kian finishes.
Or, more specifically, the rich left through the portal, while the poor were forced to endure unspeakable horrors.
“Those who stayed and survived are who you see today—generations of fae mutated by the very land that was supposed to provide for and protect them.” Bitterness seeps into his voice.
“And you’re one of the leaders,” I point out.
Cadmus flashes me another one of his unreadable looks. “For now.”
I shiver and step closer to Foster. He immediately wraps an arm around my shoulder. The heat his body emits soothes me, chasing away the frigidness of all of the recent discoveries and revelations.
“I think I recognize this place,” Tristan says, perking up. “We’re almost to the portal.”
Cadmus nods once and then turns towards me. “I’ll help you save your mate, but then I must return. The human world isn’t meant for fae like me.”
He gestures towards his scaled, mutated face and those eerie yellow eyes.
“You don’t have to go back if you don’t want to,” I tell him cautiously. “You can stay?—”
“And hide away?” One of his brows crests upwards. “I can’t fit in like the other fae. None of us can.”
A strange sadness arrows through me. I don’t know Cadmus well, but I’ve come to enjoy his company during the brief time I’ve been with him. However, I understand his reasoning. He’s not only thinking about himself, but an entire community of people who look up to and admire him.
We pick up the pace once more.
Tristan’s right. I do recognize this place. Electricity skitters across my skin with every step towards the portal we take.
“Do you know why my biological parents would abandon me?” I ask Cadmus abruptly, as the glittery abyss of the portal comes into view.
The question takes me off guard, since I didn’t intend to actually ask it. Still, now that it’s out in the open, I can’t take it back.
Cadmus’s gaze lowers. “I’m sorry. I don’t. Perhaps your parents suspected you were to become the next skinwalker.”
“That still doesn’t explain why they would abandon me and hope for the best.” A wave of raw, unencumbered anger flows through me. If my adoptive parents didn’t come by when they did, I would be dead.
“Maybe it wasn’t chance that saw you with Shelia and Jensen,” Cadmus tells me pointedly.
I lick my upper lip. “Are you saying that my birth parents could’ve left me there on purpose, knowing that Shelia and Jensen would find me?”
I never considered that a possibility before, but now that it’s been presented to me…
“A parent would do anything for their child. If you had stayed here, the virus would’ve either killed you or mutated you.”
“I’m so sick all of the time,” I whisper around the knot in my throat. “I think it’s because I was exposed to the virus as a baby.”
Sympathy fills Cadmus’s eyes. “But you’re not dead, and that’s more than can be said about seventy percent of the other children who are born in this world.”
Dread nestles into my stomach at the reminder.
Is it possible that my birth parents sent me away…to give me a chance at life?
Hope starts to edge in over the shock.
Because if that’s true, then maybe my birth parents are still alive. Maybe they’re here. Maybe they can provide more answers about where I came from.
But those are problems for me to focus on at a later time. I need to worry about getting Cadmus to V.
Please be okay, V. Please.
Tristan and Cadmus—the fastest of the group—are both waiting by the portal, but I shoo them ahead.
“Go! Get him to V,” I tell my wolf mate.
He nods, grabs Cadmus’s upper arm, and they both disappear through the portal.
I quicken my pace, Kian and Foster still on either side of me.
Please be okay, V. Please.
I half expect something to attack us on the way to the portal, but nothing does. The three of us step through holding hands and end up spit out in the lavish hotel that serves as fae headquarters.
Fortunately, Tristan and Cadmus are already gone.
But unfortunately, we’re not alone.
A figure steps out of the shadows, tall and willowy, her perfect face set into a severe frown.
How is this possible? The last thing I heard, she’d been attacked with all of the other council members, trapped in a never-ending nightmare.
“Charise?”