“Um, to the loading dock?” I asked, totally blowing the mystery aura.
“Yes, my dear, and hurry. Why must you always be late?”
Ari didn’t strike me as a candidate for “America’s Most Brilliant,” but without a doubt Grimm was losing all the mystique he worked to maintain.
“Why are we going to the loading dock?” asked Ari.
“You’ve heard of the fae? We’re about to get a little visit from them, a whole freaking family. Unless you want to make your innards out-ards, I’d suggest keeping your head down and your mouth shut.”
She looked a little pale, which pleased me to no end. I ought to have been ashamed about that, and maybe one day I’d get around to it. I enjoyed certain forms of procrastination.
I stepped out of the loading bay at 11:56 and took my place in the reception line. The portal, hastily drawn under Grimm’s personal instruction, stood at one end, and the makeshift throne we had constructed for the fae child (an office chair covered with a bedsheet) at the other. In between, Grimm had someone roll out a carpet, horrible orange shag.
The boy sat in the chair, gazing about with unfocused eyes.
Ari stood at my side, Grimm whispering from his best mirror the whole time about how she was not to speak.
The portal snapped open like a pop-up tent and vivid colors drifted out like smoke. The Realm of Fae was powerful. The colors were sharper, so vibrant they hurt, and yet so delicious you almost couldn’t look away. Where it interacted with our world it became vaporous, almost unreal. Also, things didn’t tend to go well for our world.
I tried to keep my eyes on the ground, like Grimm had suggested, but I couldn’t resist sneaking a peak. The fae didn’t come to town every day (Kingdom be blessed). Fortunately for us, they lived a realm away. I wasn’t going to miss a chance to see them. Two figures emerged from the portal and drifted along the carpet. They paid no attention to us.
The father was unearthly, regal and deadly at the same time, and his drift had absolute purpose as he moved along the line toward the child. He wore a circus tent with lace like mine, but the difference was on him it looked majestic. His feet didn’t touch the carpet as he passed, but the carpet curled up, burned and shriveled, beneath him, and below it, cracks opened in the concrete. Grimm was going to lose his security deposit for sure.
For the first time since we’d rescued him, the boy looked up, and he leaped out of the chair and ran forward, seizing his father’s cloaks. The father raised his hand, and the boy rose into the air, floating before him. Their laughter made the lights flicker and my nose bleed. The father raised his other hand and they drifted back, blowing like smoke toward the portal.
“It is a dangerous game you play,” said a voice like bells and thunder. I realized I had lost track of the mother. She stood a few feet away, speaking to Grimm. His best mirror had been brought down and he watched from it. How he appeared to her I cannot say, since I was focusing on my toes.
“Yours is no safer,” said Grimm, “for those who tread this world.”
She walked on and stopped at Evangeline. “Your time comes soon, messenger,” she said, and tread on.
I felt Ari tense and she caught her breath, and that’s when I noticed the lightning playing on Ari’s fingertips. I knew she was a seal bearer, but I’d never seen her use magic. She rubbed her fingertips together, her hands trembling. Maybe Grimm could teach her to control her abilities better under pressure.
“Princess,” said the Fae Mother, and the word echoed in my head, “you must become what you are.” She stood before me now, smelling like fields after a rain. Her gaze felt like the essence of the sun shining on me. “You dared touch him?”
I looked up at her. She had silver hair, the ends glowed like soft moonlight, and a sharp nose and chin. Her eyes were gray and shifted like storm clouds before rain. She was tall, taller than me by a foot. I couldn’t tell if it was a frown or a smile on her face. In fact, I couldn’t look away at all.
I stood trapped between Grimm’s order to keep silent and her question. As the moments ticked by, I realized she would wait my life away, so I answered. “Twice. Once to lead him out, and once to put him into the van.” I stood waiting, knowing if she struck me with magic I might never feel it, or the death might last an eternity. “Is he okay?”
The color dropped out of the world. I stood in a plane of nothing, gray without sound or color, and only dim shapes like ghosts in the fog.
“This is your world for one as young as my child.” Now her voice sounded sweet but not deafening. When she said the word child, it changed, and sounded like treasure. “You shed blood to save him. I will reward that.”
A thought leaped up in my brain. The fae were practically made of Glitter.
“No. Your freedom comes, but not by my hand.”
My heart skipped a beat and I felt like I’d swallowed a block of ice. “It’s the only thing I want.”
“Not so. It is your heart’s greatest longing. You will receive it at the cost of all you love. I give you the blessing of the fae, but it is a gift that must be accepted.”
“I can’t. Grimm would kill me.”
She closed her eyes. “It may be your only hope against the curse.” The word curse moved as she said it, like a spider in my ear. A curse. A real curse. “She comes for you soon. Our half sister, the Black Queen. Through your hand she will strike the victory blow.”
I weighed my choices, which seemed completely zero. The Black Queen. A curse. “I accept your blessing.”
She leaned in to kiss me on the forehead, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “You are twice blessed now to balance the scales. But you will drink from a river of pain.” The world became blurry, and darkness wrapped itself around me in a hug that felt like a mountain on my chest. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe. Somewhere in the darkness I slipped into nothing.
“SHE’S WAKING UP,” said a woman’s voice in the distance. I struggled to speak but my voice didn’t work.
“Calm down,” said a second voice, another woman. “You can’t talk until the tube is removed.”
My eyes didn’t work right; everything looked blurry.
“I’ll call him,” said the first voice, Evangeline.
“You’re in South General,” said Ari. She took my hand. “You’ve been here three days.”
I croaked out something that was supposed to sound like “Why?”
“You stopped breathing. Fairy Godfather used magic to bring you here.”
Evangeline came back, carrying an oblong mirror. “He says this one is certified to not disrupt electronics.”
Grimm’s eyes looked out from the tiny square, and he looked honestly concerned. “I’m going to have a nurse remove that tube, and when your throat is feeling better, we need to have a talk.”
IN THE EVENING, when I woke again, only Evangeline waited. She’d covered the mirror with her scarf, and sat backwards across the chair, staring at me.
I worked the corners of my mouth, dealing with my raging sore throat. “Hey.” Given my state it meant a lot more, but my mouth wasn’t cooperating.
“I went by your apartment and brought you clothes and your purse. Don’t know what happened to whatever you were wearing on the way here, but at least you can cover your butt when you leave.”
“Thanks.”
She reached into her pocket and took out something, and my stomach turned as I recognized the cell phone. “Found this on your dresser, M.”
I coughed and tried to force the words out. “It’s not—Please. Don’t—”
She held it up and snapped it in two, tearing the screen right off. “I know what it is. I won’t tell Grimm. This can be our secret. Working the wrong man, keeping phones, that stunt with the wolves. Think about what you are doing. Ask yourself what you want. You’re slipping.” She left me alone, and she took what was left of the phone.