“I don’t trust any of them either,” I whispered.
“The elders won’t permit…they’ll feel betrayed,” he stammered.
Fully embracing Bastien’s idea, I argued from a stream of evolving thoughts. “They don’t have a choice. I need three Fae who understand clan politics, who recognize how frightening a dictator can be, and I need three I can trust.”
Sara shook her head, still refusing to make eye contact with me. Gavin turned and faced the opposite direction, shaking his head, and Billy just stood with his mouth gaped.
Sara finally spoke. “You want to pick us?”
“Yes, it makes so much sense. You’re the only Fae I trust. None of you belongs to a clan, and each of you has been willing to risk everything to protect me.”
“Even me?” Sara asked.
“Especially you. You left the Seelie to protect me, and you left the Sidhe, risking Dana’s wrath, to follow me here. You hid the secret about my family from Ozara at great risk to yourself, and you have more compassion for humans than anyone. And Billy, he doesn’t trust any of them—”
Billy groaned and cut me off. “That logic may make sense in your head, but there are a couple hundred Fae back at the Weald who will go crazy if they knew we were even having this conversation. The Elders will never accept answering to Fae as young as we are.”
“The elders are the problem. None of them sees the value in human life. They’re stubborn, many are bigoted, and all of them think they’re the next Aetherfae. They don’t value the human race. Not Tse-xo-be, not Wakinyan, and certainly none of the rest. Wakinyan told me not to trust any of them—including himself.”
“And if we cannot learn the elements?” Gavin asked, looking at Billy and Sara.
“I will speed up your education,” Bastien said.
“That’s not possible,” Sara said.
“Another lie we’ve passed on, I’m afraid. I can teach you. It’s a perk of having nothing to do for the hundred and eighty million years I waited for Tse-xo-be to show up.”
“Billy already knows two of the elements.”
Gavin turned and stared at Billy, who winced and wrinkled his nose and gave me a dirty look.
“Gavin knows three,” I offered.
They both gave me a dirty look and then turned to Sara.
“I don’t know how many she knows,” I said.
They continued to stare at her. Her shoulders dropped and she huffed. “Three as well. I struggle with Fire.”
“I will help you. All three of you,” Bastien said.
Billy shook his head. “Assuming Bastien can do what he says, I don’t think it is very wise to trust me, Maggie. Remember, I was on the verge of joining the Unseelie.”
“I know that, and you had every reason to join them—you’ve been suffering a loss that no one else understands. That is precisely why I trust you—you didn’t join them. You isolated yourself with humans instead. You once told me that you’d do anything to protect me as long as there was Naeshura in your veins. Remember?”
His tone changed. “Of course I do,” he said softly, with emotion.
“You’ve kept your word. You risk everything being here with my family. I need allies that I can trust.” I looked at Gavin when I continued. “I have every intention of surviving this, but I won’t be here forever. Someone has to intervene on humanity’s behalf.”
“But I don’t like most humans,” Billy said.
“I know you don’t, but you do like some. The day I met you, you said the people at Turpentine Creek were the kind of people who gave you hope, but too few of them ended up making decisions. Well, here’s your chance, Billy. If I give the clans too much power, you know what will happen when I’m gone. I can’t choose any elder without risking that—I need independents.”
With a raised eyebrow, Billy looked at Bastien and then at me. “I think you were planning this all along—your argument is a little too polished.”
“Maggie is right. The three of you are different than any of them—that’s why I suggested it,” Bastien said.
Sara walked up to Billy, and looked directly at Bastien. “I agree, we are different, but I’m not sure I want that responsibility.”
I stepped in front of her. “Sara, you’ve seen what can happen when the wrong Fae has power. You were bullied and manipulated by Ozara for thousands of years. You’ll not let that happen again and I don’t believe you’d ever do it yourself. And more importantly, you’ve seen what people do when we’re left to our own devices—we could use Fae guidance. You, above all, I trust not to allow outright manipulation. And Billy is pragmatic and always thinking three steps ahead.”
“Three?” he said. “I didn’t realize your opinion of me was so low.”
I laughed. “You’re a problem solver and you trust none of your kind—“
“Present company excluded,” he said.
“Exactly. And Gavin is the most caring Fae I’ve ever met. Brave and charismatic, everyone respects him—well, until I came along, but that’s neither here nor there. You’ll need a Fae who can talk to any clan. That’s Gavin. The three of you don’t always see things eye to eye, but I’ve seen all three of you work together.”
“I think you’re biased,” Gavin said.
“No,” Sara countered. “Maggie’s right—you don’t need to be modest.”
Gavin turned to her. “Are you actually considering this?”
Sara exhaled loudly and turned to me. “I will consider it, but only because you ask. I make no promises.”
Gavin turned. “Billy?”
Billy’s gray eyes were steely cold and he was inhumanly still. “I will do it if both of you agree. Will you?”
Gavin turned and looked across Fayetteville without answering.
Sara studied him. “Gavin?”
His head dropped. “I will.”
“Okay. That settles it. The next order of business is to learn the elements,” Sara said.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Bastien suggested. “If you’re comfortable.”
Gavin’s nod was almost imperceptible. He looked at me as though he was mourning the death of something he cherished. His expression chilled me. I wondered which of my sins was bothering him more—executing Chalen or forcing his hand on Aether.
THIRTY-FOUR
QUEEN’S GAMBIT
Bastien spent a few minutes with them, teaching each what he knew about the elements. Billy was weakest with Water, but he could conjure the essence in a small, faint stream. Sara tried but could not create Fire. Bastien told her that it was just a matter of time, and encouraged her to keep trying. Gavin, who did his best not to look at me, struggled even more with Water.
“Perhaps I am incapable.”
“Gavin, you need only to practice—you have a connection to Water, just as Sara has with Fire, it is just too weak to register on your senses. I can feel it—it’s as obvious to me as the flesh on your bones.”
My elevated connection to the elements confirmed Bastien’s statement. Gavin and Sara did have a connection. It was weak, but it was there. Something else was there, too. It was in the distance and moving fast. “Don’t move,” I said before casting them under a blanket of Clóca. I turned back to Doug’s grave and knelt.
Ozara’s mind, piggy-backed on the little girl, flashed to my side. Either my senses were stronger than ever, or she was projecting more emotion than usual. Her presence was so strong, it affected me like a pungent odor—though outwardly, I did not react. She remained stationary, so I assumed that meant she didn’t see Bastien or the others. After a few moments, I said, “Goodbye, Doug,” and got to my feet. I walked around my friends, Ozara in tow, and headed back to the car. Apparently I bored her, or she’d seen what she needed to see, because she shot north. The instant before I dropped the Clóca cover from the Fae by the grave, she was back. Ozara’s energy was low, almost imperceptible, but I could still sense the little girl she used as a cosmic vessel. What is she doing? I continued walking in
the direction of the main gate. Bastien roused the others to their feet. I kept them cloaked as they made a wide circle towards my position.
Ozara moved back up to where we were, directing the child’s mind to the very spot where Sara had just been concealed. In typical fashion, paranoia had my little voice reeling off questions faster than I could answer them. What is she doing? Did she see them after all? No, how could she? What is she looking for? Does she know I can sense her? Why else would she come back? “Get a grip,” I muttered to myself.
Candace, Ronnie, and my family were gone. When I checked my phone, I found a message telling me to meet them on the Square for lunch. The Fae shifted to Naeshura as I backed out of the parking space. By the time I pulled onto the street, Bastien had disappeared completely, masking his presence. I dropped my connection to Clóca when Ozara departed to the north. Gone, but for how long? And more importantly, how much time do I have before she learns to conceal herself?
They were good questions to which I didn’t have answers. Pondering them only compounded my anxiety, so I stopped worrying about everything and drove. I hoped it would give me a sense of peace. It didn’t, so I focused on what should bring me peace. The three Fae I trusted more than any other would each become Aetherfae. The little voice went off again—cruel this time. If you can keep them alive long enough to learn. If they survive what’s coming—they will be much weaker than Zarkus and absolutely no match for Ozara. Gavin refused to touch you after he saw what a monster you really are.
“It’s nothing—that doesn’t mean anything.”
Doesn’t it? When has he ever avoided eye contact? Hmmm? He’s disgusted by the sight of you.
“Okay, shut the frick up…music, I need music.”
Fumbling to drive and plug my phone into the jack, I nearly slammed into a Prius.
And Sara was right, you know. You were out of control—it was brutal.
“I know it was—shit, am I schizophrenic?” My fingers finally found the correct place on my phone, and Ryan Tedder’s soulful voice wafted out of the speakers. I sang along, letting him silence my little voice.
* * *
Wakinyan appeared calm, but the rest of the Fae were agitated. We parked the cars in the old barn—it seemed silly to refer to it as a Toy Box, since playing was the furthest thing from my mind. Billy appeared at the door when I killed the engine. Mom and I exchanged a worried glance, and she led the rest of my family back inside the cottage, leaving me to find out what had happened.
“An hour after we left,” Billy mumbled in a rushed but hushed voice, “the Alliance tried to send Fae through the Seoladán.”
I felt my eyes bugging out.
“Don’t worry, they were repelled. The Ohanzee and the Olympians cut them down before they could materialize.”
“How many?” I eked out.
“A dozen died. The rest retreated.”
“Ozara sent them when she found me in Fayetteville.”
Billy nodded. “It seems so. Suicide mission—she knew that.”
“Others?” I managed, as he began shaking his head.
“Yes, it appears as though they were waiting for you to leave. Aphrodite, Dana, and Apollo led a force across the lake, there, and there,” he pointed to the west and south west. “They didn’t engage. They fled when it happened.”
“So why the furor?”
Billy cocked his head to the side and looked at me like I was stupid.
“What?” I asked.
“None of them knew when Ozara and Zarkus might materialize—they felt exposed. They’re angry at you for leaving.”
“They have every right to be,” I admitted. “It was dangerous to leave them unprotected.”
“Yes, it was.”
Beneath his powerful brow, Billy’s eyes were a bit too wide, his breathing a little too heavy. “Calm down.” With an Air barrier shielding our conversation, I continued. “They’ll know something is up if you don’t control yourself.”
Billy blinked hard and rolled his eyes when they opened. “That’s not what is bothering me—well, it is, but not for the reasons you think. All but three—all but three—want you to name a successor to Caorann.”
“When?”
He exhaled softly, and I could tell by his pained expression that he didn’t want to tell me.
“Spill it, Billy. Full disclosure.”
“Oh, it’s going to be full disclosure. All right. They want you to decide now. I’m not sure they’ll be willing to wait until nightfall.”
The realization hit me. “Ozara is brilliant. That was no suicide run. She’s playing all of us.”
Billy’s lips curled into a smile, the kind that completely lacked humor. “Yes. Ozara knows your stubbornness.”
“She’s banking on it,” I said, panic tightening my chest.
“When you refuse them, she expects the Coalition to fail.”
“It will.” A plan began forming in my head and I mumbled. “We should let it. She wants me by myself. Let’s give her that.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“No, I have a plan.”
“You’ve got that look in your eye…Maggie?”
“What look?” I asked.
He shook his head and wrinkled his brow. “The look you get before you do something monumentally stupid. That look.”
“Name one time—”
“You bore the same distant, dull expression before you went to the island by yourself.”
“That worked,”
“You nearly got us both killed. And there was the time you decided to visit Cassandra at the Seoladán.”
“You weren’t there…”
“Wrong, I was with you an hour before you went—you had the same look. And then there was—“
“Okay, point taken,” I cut him off. “But I don’t have a dull, distant look. Jerk.”
“So, calamity in waiting, what path should we blindly stumble down today?”
“Thanks for the support. I will meet with the elders. Only the elders, and hope that I’m right about something.”
Dripping with sarcasm, he said, “That sounds awfully complicated.”
“Be a good kitty and sharpen your claws elsewhere.”
He grinned. “Smart-ass comment? It must be a good plan--you’re more like yourself than I’ve seen you in weeks.”
“Would you tell them?”
“Yes.”
“And Billy, have you seen Gavin?”
He rolled his eyes. “You know as well as I do that he’s standing on the second island with Zeus.”
“That’s not what I mean. It’s been four hours.”
He held his finger over my lips. “I know what you mean. He will come around—you cannot afford to be thinking about that right now.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” he said stiffly. “You need to focus on this plan of yours—you don’t have time to go all heartbroken schoolgirl right now.” He smiled, a hint of warmth in his steel gray eyes, and shifted to Naeshura.
I pushed the Air barrier out as far as I could without letting a Fae inside. “Please let me be right. Bastien, I need you for a little while. Please be here.”
No answer.
“Bastien, just one more favor. Please?”
The hoot of an owl crossed my senses, then the sound of a woodpecker chasing down a bug in the bark of a white oak, but nothing else. Crap, can I do this without him?
I crawled back into the front seat of my car and projected, focusing on Bastien. My mind didn’t move. Either he was sitting next to me, or I couldn’t find him when he masked himself. “Bastien, I hope you’re listening. I’m going to draw Ozara here tomorrow—a day early. You know what to do.”
Silence.
* * *
The elders were furious when I told them I would wait three more days. A hint of Ozara’s essence filled the air—she was watching, undoubtedly enjoying everything. Bastien never showed and I began having second thoughts. My doubts became con
crete when Dana stood and walked away from me, toward my barrier.
“If you’re not here in three days, you’re forfeiting your chance to learn Aether,” I said.
She spun, her body writhing with anger. “You daft child. Like I have been trying to tell you, Ozara and Zarkus will sweep across the Weald like a firestorm. They will consume everything. I will not be here in three days because you will be dead in two. I wish you the best, Maebown.” More quickly than they came, the Sidhe disappeared through the Seoladán.
Then there were two clans.
Zeus was not as angry, but Apollo and Hera were. They bickered, not bothering to conceal their anger.
“You must return with us,” Apollo begged.
“I will not leave my allies.” Zeus said
“So you condemn the rest of us to death—does your hubris know no bound?” Hera bellowed.
“If you haven’t the stomach for a fight, then scurry back to Olympus. Ozara will come after you in time.”
“You don’t know that,” Hephaestus countered. I’d never heard the bearded Olympian utter a syllable before that moment.
“No, but I do know that there may be time to broker a peace with Ozara. Her anger is with you and Poseidon.”
“Stupidity,” Zeus spit.
Ozara’s presence grew stronger. She couldn’t control her emotions. It was as strong as I’d ever felt it when Demeter, Apollo, and Hera led the vast majority of the Olympians through the Seoladán. Only Zeus, Aphrodite, and Poseidon remained.
And then there was one.
Zeus turned to me and said, “Well, I think your decision will be much easier now,” before he transformed to Naeshura and moved to the second island.
Aphrodite, still beautiful, but not exuding any sensuality like she normally did, gave me a caring but worried look. “Maggie, I respect your resolve, but I hope you didn’t just get us all killed.”
The Weald seemed incredibly empty, made even more so by the conspicuous absence of Gavin and Sara. My gut told me they would be back, but the wretched little voice in my head kept telling me that I’d driven them away. Even if they do return, will they ever think of you the same way? You were brutal, sadistic. But Billy was still there, I reminded myself. Yes, Sarin is here—he’s as twisted as you are, just as bent on revenge. Gavin and Sara are not like him. I had to gather my thoughts. Wakinyan and the Ohanzee elders were watching me.