THE FOUR OF
us—Zach, Bryn, Merc, and I—left the cave of our own free will. The back of Zach’s shirt was stained with a widening circle of blood, but it didn’t seem to have affected his strength yet as he hauled himself up the incline and back into the forest.
“We need to try to stop your wound from bleeding,” I said.
“I’m fine,” Zach said, putting a hand out to ward me off. He scowled, looking at the giant tree roots. He stepped toward the entry to the cave, shaking his head. “We may never get the opportunity to put the world right again.”
“The world is right,” Bryn said. “Come on, Tamara,” he added, grabbing my arm and tugging me.
Mercutio darted around the clearing of tall trees.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Lyons,” Zach said. He gestured at the trees. “These trees are like the pattern on the back door of the castle and in paintings in their halls. The tallest tree represents the original magic. Fae magic. The original symbol was a triangle. Fae on top. And to the right a dark stone for werewolves, and to the left a dark stone for vampires.”
We jogged deeper into the forest with Bryn leading the way.
“How did it become a diamond?” I asked. “What’s the smallest stone for? Witches and wizards?”
“Yes,” Zach said with a sharp nod. “The faeries will claim that humans betrayed them, and we sort of did, but not without reason.”
“Hang on, Bryn!” I said, grabbing Zach’s arm. “We’ve got to get this stopped or he’ll bleed to death.”
Bryn paused, frowning.
Zach took off his shirt and I cut it using Bryn’s Swiss army knife and then tied the strips together. I made a tight dressing around his torso. He grimaced at the pressure, but at least the wound stopped leaking blood.
“It might loosen when we start moving. Let me know if you feel blood running down your back.”
He nodded.
We started off again, and I called for Merc, who’d gotten too far ahead. I couldn’t see him. When he circled back, I bent and stroked his back. “Wanna hear about the history of magic? It’s about us. Finish the story, Zach.”
“The fae like human beings, especially ones who are young and playful or have a certain golden energy, as they call it. Like the legends say, they bring kids and young people into the Never.”
“We know all that,” Bryn said impatiently. “Get to the point.”
“Some humans passed in and out with the fae through the open gates on the solstices. They saw their own world and missed it. But they weren’t allowed to come and go freely. Once the faeries claim a human, they feel they own him or her for all time. And they didn’t want random humans passing into the Never to suck up its energy. The ambers were once displayed in the castle. A group of former human children who’d grown to be young adults lived with the faery queen. They took two ambers and left the Never with them. It brought magic into the human world. They were the first witches.”
“That’s why witch magic is the shortest tree or the smallest stone? It’s the newest form of magic?”
“You got it, darlin’.”
“And if the two stolen ambers are brought back into the Never? The magic in the human world will disappear?” I asked.
“Yeah. You’d be normal,” Zach said. “But we don’t want the fae to get all the ambers back, either, because then they’d have unopposed magic. The reason they’re stuck underhill and can’t come into our world easily is because witches, using magic, sealed the outside gates.”
“Where did you hear all this?” Bryn said skeptically.
“I trained as a human champion under a descendant of one of the original witches. She believes magic is like chemical warfare: It’s too dangerous and powerful. No one should have it or use it.”
We were close enough that I could smell the sea and nothing but. I should’ve been exhilarated, but the trees started to groan and creak, and my muscles grew tense.
Branches swung and blocked our path until we had to slow to walk and climb through and around them.
Flute music floated on the air, and a gravelly voice whispered a foreign language through the forest.
Mercutio yowled and scratched the limbs. A group of branches pinned him to the ground.
“Hey, no!” I said, trying to pull him free.
“Tamara, look out!” Bryn yelled, but it was too late.
A heavy branch slammed into my back and held me down, too. I looked up and saw trees imprison Bryn and Zach. We all struggled and fought, but it was no use.
Finally, I sighed and rested my head on Merc’s sleek shoulder.
“Prisoners again! I’m getting so sick of this!”
* * *
“HEY, DUDES.”
I turned my head as far as I could, pressing my temple against a branch so I could see Oz lying across the twisted limbs to peer down at us.
“Dad has you under his thumbs, yeah?” he said.
“Dad?” I asked.
“Colis the tree keeper is my father. You attacked the queen and—”
“Can you help us free ourselves?” Bryn asked.
“Dude, how do you know that’s why I’m here?” he asked.
“I inferred it from your tone. What can you do?”
“I’ve got a proposition,” he said, leaning closer to me and craning his neck so we were practically nose-to-nose. “I’ll give you back the already set emeralds. My new price for the second Fozzel you asked for is for you to assist me in my quest.”
“Your quest?”
“Aye, to get out of here. To go humanside and see the volcanoes of Mount Doom on a giant movie screen. To go to rock concerts!” He grabbed his T-shirt and pulled it up so I could see the face of Kurt Cobain. “I want to see them play,” he said. Then he launched into a pitch-perfect chorus of “All Apologies.” With his grungy angel looks and clear singing voice, he made my jaw drop.
“You know Cobain is dead, right?” Bryn said.
“No! How did he die? Airplane crash? They’re always falling from the sky, those rock stars. Only fae should fly. We’ve got the magic for it.”
“Um, listen, what can you do to help us?” I asked.
“With the singer dead, there’s an opening in the band, yeah? Can you arrange for me to have an apprenticeship? I have the third-best singing voice in the Never, and the other two wouldn’t want the opportunity. The first is the queen’s lark and the second is a hermit. Neither would venture humanside—”
“Oz! No one will be going anywhere if you don’t free us immediately. I’m sure the queen’s on her way, right?” I asked.
“Yes, a point for you, Kis. Do I have your promise you’ll take me with you? I have my tradesman tools, so no interruption. Everything I need is here,” he said, holding up a box with an embossed leather design on the cover.
I had no idea what he was talking about and I didn’t care. “Yes, Oz, get us out and I promise to take you with us.”
“Gravy,” he said. Then he cocked his head, his light brown eyes wide and inquiring. “Did I use that right?”
“Um, I don’t think so,” I said.
“I mean
it’s all gravy
,” he said, which still wasn’t totally right, of course, but I didn’t correct him.
Oz pulled out a flute he’d had tucked into the back of his headband. He played a tune and sang in a foreign tongue to the trees. At first there was only creaking and low whispers from them, but when he added a higher-pitched note to his singing, they suddenly unwound their branches and dumped us on the forest floor. Mercutio yowled and ran forward, tearing off a piece of bark and scoring the tree with his claws.
“Mercutio!” I said, grabbing him and pulling him back. “Don’t start a fight with the trees when they just let us go. It’s bad manners.”
“And lousy strategy,” Bryn added.
We jogged through the woods. Whenever trees began to close ranks, Oz played his flute and sang to them, his words carried as whispers on the wind.
We reached a field of dandelions that gave way to a rocky shoreline, but a row of horsemen galloped toward us from the west with the queen in a gown of red rage leading them. A lone knight stood between us and the sea.
Crux held out his hands for us to stop.
“Keep going!” I shouted above the roaring wind and surf.
Oz did. He started down the embankment toward the water, disappearing from view. Zach, Bryn, and Mercutio, however, stayed stubbornly by my side.
The queen’s lovely voice rang out fiercely above everything. “Crux, kill the Halfling stranger. The one who pretended to be my assassin when she was not.”
From behind me I heard pounding hooves and felt a storm at my back. I glanced over my shoulder, afraid I’d be trampled, but it was Kismet on her palomino. The arrow in her bow was pointed directly at Crux.
I slowed, looking back at him. I’d expected him to pull out his bow and shoot me. The queen had given him a direct order.
He had drawn his sword, though, instead of his bow. I stopped. So did everything, it seemed. Even the wind softened.
He stabbed the ground and then flipped the sword so the hilt stuck into the hole he’d made and the blade pointed up.
My heart seemed to understand before my mind, and my breath caught.
He locked eyes with Kismet and stretched his arms out.
She lowered her bow and opened her mouth. His eyes never left her face as he fell on his sword.
The queen’s scream was as sharp as a knife. My hands flew to cover my mouth. Kismet made no sound as her pony flew to Crux and she dismounted.
She dropped her bow on the ground and grabbed him.
“Iron?” she yelled in horror when his blood sizzled on the blade. She dragged him onto his side, withdrawing the sword partway until he grabbed the blade with his bare hands.
“It’s no use. I promise.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Why! How could you do it?”
“Death is the only oath breaker. If I had killed your sister, you would never have forgiven me. If you’d killed me to prevent it, you would not have forgiven yourself. This is the best way. Now I am what you wanted. I’m yours above anyone’s. And all will know I chose you above everyone else. Even her.”
Kismet grabbed her head and made an anguished sound.
“Kiss me as you pull out the blade. Taste how much I still love you.”
“You bastard.”
“Yes,” he said, and laughed. “Like you. Cut of that cloth. If only you weren’t. If you’d been full fae you could’ve challenged her. What a queen you could’ve made,” he said, coughing at the end, and his face contorted with pain. “The iron burns so much, Kis.” He panted. “Please pull it out. Steady hand, be quick.”
Tears dripped down her face and she kissed him. Her left arm flexed and she jerked it back. The blade slid from his chest on a river of red-gold blood. She dropped the blade and caught him in her arms and held him.
She kissed him again, and when she lowered him at last, his blood stained her mouth.
She grabbed her bow and swiveled to face us. Her green eyes flashed with fury. “Into the sea. Run!” she shouted.
For a second I was frozen, but then I turned and ran. I heard arrows whiz through the wind. I didn’t look back. I was afraid to.
Mercutio, Zach, and I rushed headlong after Bryn as he jumped off a cliff that jutted out above the water. I held my breath as my stomach lurched into my throat. A second later I plunged into the fae ocean, my tears mixing with the cool water.
I surfaced, gasping for breath. Bryn caught my hand and called for the others to dive with him.
“There’s a waterway, a faery path under the surface. Sutton, grab Oz. When I pull you into it, you’ll lead him through. Hurry!” he yelled.
I followed Bryn’s gaze to the ledge of the cliff, where the queen’s archers were lined up and shooting arrows.
Zach and Oz swam to us.
“Where’s Mercutio?” I shouted, but Bryn didn’t answer or wait for me to spot him.
“Follow me,” Bryn said to Zach, and then dragged me down.
When I thought I’d surely run out of breath and my heart thundered in my chest against my screaming lungs, Bryn kissed me and gave me his breath. Moments later I felt the water shift. It became heavier and colder. A current grabbed us and suddenly we were in a churning tunnel. I felt like a ball shot from a cannon, whooshing so fast even sound couldn’t catch up.
I began to feel dizzy, like I would pass out. My belly cramped. The pain was so deep and hard within me I thought I might die.
I lost track of the water, the path, the world.
Finally the waterway released us. We broke the surface like corks popping from a champagne bottle. The spray was icy cold, but I was so exhausted I almost sank underwater.
Bryn pulled me to him and kissed me, laughing and obviously exhilarated from the journey. He had no idea how close he’d come to losing me and the future we planned.
His black sealskin faded almost instantly, and his wizard’s magic poured into us, which rejuvenated me.
We’re okay. We made it.
Zach and Oz burst from the water a few feet away.
“Yahoo!” Oz yelled, pumping his fist. His dreadlocks had uncoiled, and his golden hair was plastered to his neck and shoulders and shimmered in the sun.
Zach ran a hand over his face to get rid of the excess water and then turned and swam toward shore.
There was a stone fort to our right and boats bobbing in the water in front of us. People—human people wearing jeans, sweaters, and jackets—came running to the beach when they spotted us. A few of them surrounded something and kept looking down.
When we walked from the ocean, the thing they’d surrounded came bounding down to meet me. I dropped to my knees on the sand and hugged Mercutio.
“You made it! If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: You’re amazing, Merc. Thanks for coming with me into the Never and for getting out of there alive.”
I looked over my shoulder, shivering in my half-frozen soggy clothes.
The friendly Irish people tried to hurry us away from the shore, asking dozens of questions, but I resisted being led to shelter. I smiled at them, but pulled back without answering.
“Let’s wait. She might be right behind us,” I whispered to Bryn, returning to the water’s edge.
“The queen won’t kill her. She’s too valuable,” Bryn said.
“Probably not. But maybe she didn’t get caught at all. She said her horse will run off cliffs. She could’ve followed us out.”