Page 30

Lily Baker Spinning Around and Around and Around…

There was a garden in the new place. The realization didn’t land right away, but after the fragrance had washed over Lily enough times, she was sure there had to be flowers somewhere nearby. She didn’t recall seeing bright blossoms or bushes on her way in, although, she didn’t remember much of the walk at all. What she did remember, however, was the danger of the food.

It took her only a day or two of refusing to swallow what she ate and spitting it out when no one was looking to clear her head. It was a miracle Jethwire hadn’t told her new captors that she’d learned about the food, or that she might try to keep from eating it. But when she was led through the halls, she continued to stumble around and stare off in a daze so they wouldn’t realize she was coherent.

The music was odd. It reminded her of a stringed melody in an orchestra except that it moved around in a different way, like a tangible current rolling over her skin and shivering down her toes, making her want to dance. She fought the urge day and night, clasping her hands together in front of her and counting to one hundred over and over so she wouldn’t be tempted to start twirling through the room they locked her in.

After two days, her stomach ached with hunger, and her arms trembled in weakness. She wasn’t sure she could resist anymore. The scent of food washed through the room three times a day, but by some miracle, whenever a fairy arrived with a tray for her, she still kept herself from eating.

Lily curled into a ball and hugged her knees to fight the cold in the evenings. She rocked back and forth and sang in a raspy voice to distract herself from the things pressing in, threatening to drive her crazy. It was Kate’s favourite song—a catchy one about a breakup. A large tear slid down her cheek when she realized.

“I can’t do this, Kate,” she said in apology. “I’m not going to make it back to you.”

It had taken Lily too long to come to grips with it. But now she knew.

She’d lied to Jessica Lewis. She wouldn’t be there to protect Kate and Greyson because she wasn’t going to survive this. She was already crumbling, teetering on the cusp of losing her mind, and the pressure was only growing heavier by the minute.

At least her siblings had the baristas to look out for them now. Maybe they didn’t really need Lily anymore anyway. Maybe she’d been fooling herself this whole time thinking that she could do a better job of keeping Kate and Greyson safe than the fae. Maybe Lily had been stupid to try and come up with all those gadgets and weapons at Desmount Tech. All that research and technical design seemed like a far-off dream now, something of the past. Just another thing she’d distracted herself with instead of spending time with the people she loved.

Now she was trapped in a haunted house like something from a terrible movie she and Kate would have clutched each other through as they watched. Only this horror movie was filled with pretty creatures who ate and drank and danced and sang and mocked her.

She lifted her hands to study the rough cuts along her knuckles, her chipped fingernails, and the dirt caked into every crevice. She didn’t even have clear memories of what the mess was from. Then she hugged her knees again, laid her head down upon them, and resumed humming Kate’s favourite song.

“What song is that?”

Lily sprang from the bed and landed on her feet.

A black-haired fairy stood at the door. She might have met him before, but she didn’t remember her first day of existing in this place, and therefore she had no idea who this was. Bruises and lacerations covered his face and neck, and it looked like several of his fingers had been broken and put back together like he was some kind of Frankenstein doll.

The fairy’s eyes roamed up and down her body, taking in her red dress, all the strands that had come loose from her braided hair, and her feet glued to the floor. “You were humming just now, weren’t you?” He drew into the room, and Lily took a step back toward the bed. “And since you’re not dancing,” his gaze flickered up to hers, “I’ll assume you’re unaffected by the enchantments of the food and music of this place, which is interesting to say the least.” He grabbed her hand when he was close enough. He lifted her arm and studied her tattoos, tracing a finger over the ones at her shoulder.

Lily tore herself away. “You’re right,” she said, then swallowed. “Your food doesn’t affect me, so you can stop trying to feed it to me.” Her empty stomach hated her for the comment. “I won’t be any fun to you or the rest of the fairies here. I was a waste of your money, so you should just chuck me outside and get rid of me.”

Her argument was so unconvincing, she was almost embarrassed she’d said it aloud.

The fairy laughed. “No human is immune to fairy food,” he remarked. “If Shayne Lyro really cared about humans so much, he should have told you that while you were in the care of his household.”

Lily’s stomach turned.

Shayne Lyro? The fairy had said it clear as a bell.

Shayne… knew this fairy?

Lily looked him over, but she didn’t recall hearing anything about a fairy with jet-black hair and a reason to be all banged up. There weren’t many clues to work off either. Apart from his dark blue coat and the yellowing marks on his jaw and fingers, he seemed like every other fairy she’d crossed—calculated, manipulative, and greedy.

“How do you know Shayne Lyro?” she asked. “Are you friends?” A bit of hope slipped out with the question.

The fairy laughed again, throwing his head back and barking at the ceiling. “Friends?” he asked when he was finished. He shook his head. “We’re something of the opposite, I’d say. More like enemies.” He scratched his head.

Lily’s heart sank. “Ah.” She glanced around the room, but there wasn’t much in it useful for self defense. Not even a pen or a rock. “So, you couldn’t deliver a message to him for me?”

“A message? Certainly not. But you could have delivered it to him yourself if you’d asked sooner,” he said, and Lily looked up at him in surprise. “He just left.”

She had to blink a few times before that settled in. “He just… left? Here?”

No, that couldn’t have been right. She glanced in the direction of the hallways, thinking about the various rooms she’d been in. If Shayne was in this place, he would have come to find her. He would have at least shown himself. He would have tried to help her.

The fairy clasped his hands behind his back and sauntered around the room. “Yes, Lily Baker. He just left here . It seems to be terrible timing for you, too, since he enjoys meddling when I’m trying to mess around with humans,” he said. “But he is engaged to my beautiful cousin, so maybe if you ask her to deliver a message, it might reach him. I should warn you though—she’s the jealous sort, and you’re quite pretty. She might poison you instead.”

Lily stared. She watched the fairy move about, studying the room.

Shayne was engaged? Already? He gave himself to someone that fast? Someone here ?

She studied the fairy’s mouth, eyeing his tongue. He didn’t chew on it or make faces like it was prickling or numb.

Her eyes dragged back toward the hall. So this was the place Shayne had run off to when he left her in the forest. He’d been prancing around here, meeting a beautiful fairy, getting engaged, not worried about Lily or the people he left behind. It seemed like things were going well for him here.

“Did… Did he know I was here when he left?” Lily asked, because she had to. Because she needed to know, even though half of her regretted asking the question the moment it came out.

When the black-haired fairy didn’t answer right away, fear sailed in. Lily knew Shayne—she knew he cared about her—he’d admitted it by the fire the night he snuck away. But what if he’d changed his mind? What if he left this place on purpose after she arrived because she’d done the exact thing he’d warned her not to do? He’d had a plan, he set out to do it, and she’d gotten captured. Maybe he couldn’t veer from his plan regardless of what had happened to her. Maybe he was upset.

The black-haired fairy turned and settled his gaze on her. He squinted his eyes and tapped his chin for a moment. Then he said, “Yes, he knew you were here. And he ran away anyway.” He tilted his head. “It looked like he was trying to avoid you, Lily Baker.”

Lily’s hope dissolved like steam. She felt like a flower drying out, its life breaking off in brittle pieces. She sank to the floor, her knees coming against the cold tiles.

He. Knew. You. Were. Here. And…

“…he ran away.”

So that was why Shayne never came. All that time she’d spent in his childhood home, he never showed up to try and get her out. He’d chosen to keep his course and had forgotten about all the times they’d spent together in the human realm, about every moment he’d interjected himself into Lily’s life, about every locked gaze or heart flutter or whisper he’d given her when no one else was looking. Frankly, she thought he cared about her more than he’d even let on by the fire that night when he’d kissed her. But he was a fairy, and now that Lily had experienced the Ever Corners firsthand, she realized that fairies were never what they seemed. Shayne must have been prancing around the human realm all that time just for fun. He’d only kissed her to enchant her, and now he couldn’t stand to be around her. Maybe from guilt that she was stuck here, and he didn’t plan to help her at all.

Still though. Still, she asked in a small voice, “Why would he leave if he knew I was here?”

The fairy shrugged. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Maybe he didn’t want to see you dance for us.” The fairy took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “But enough chatter. I’m here to ensure you’re ready for our first great Yule Celebration on tomorrow’s eve. You and I will dance the night away, I think. Until I get bored and decide to make you entertain the House.” He put a finger in the air, then added, “And I should introduce myself since I already know your name. I’m Cosmo Flora, nephew of the High Lord of the House of Riothin.” He reached into his coat and drew out a handful of what looked like peanuts, but Lily knew they weren’t ordinary food. A thick tear trailed down her cheek.

“Please don’t make me eat those,” she begged. It would break her—she’d be done. She couldn’t suffer through forgetting who she was again, skipping from place to place until her feet were sore and she wanted to collapse. Waiting around for a fairy she now knew wasn’t coming.

No, Lily wasn’t a survivor. She’d been denying the truth for too long.

She knew it for sure when the fairy walked over, slid a hand into the hair behind her head to hold her still, pushed the peanuts toward her mouth, and said, “Lily Baker, eat.”

The sea was spinning. The human was sinking in it.

Breakfast was berries and meat.

Lunch was apples and blossoms sprinkled with sugar.

Dinner was… well, by that point, she could no longer tell what she was eating.

A large mirror was placed before her—or maybe she was placed before it—and she saw the fuzzy silhouette of a dazzling young woman with tattoos on her arms she didn’t recognize. There was a window at her back, and she briefly thought she spotted twinkling stars and a heavy white moon through it in the reflection.

Garland was wrapped around her head in a wreath, and bright red lipstick was carefully dragged over her mouth. She was tossed with gold sparkles and silver tinsel and fashioned with a set of small antlers. Her feet were strapped into golden heels with ivy laces that wound up her calves, and bells were attached to her ankles, making noise wherever she went.

In the blink of an eye, she found herself in a bright room with abundant noise. People swooshed by her in blurs, the colours all melting together while the floor felt like the ceiling and the ceiling felt like it might have become the floor.

Someone strapped a basket of fruit to her head between the antlers. She was pushed to a wall, and she stared into the haze at figures who appeared to be lifting bows and shooting arrows at the fruit. It fell around her whenever someone hit one. Voices burst into cheers when a large, bearded man shot the whole basket right off her head.

“Lily Baker!” a guy with black hair called to her every now and again. His hands found her arms, her hips, her waist as he pulled her around and around, pausing every now and then to tell her to do things.

“The High Lord wants a show,” he whispered in her ear after a while. He shoved a slice of carrot into her mouth, then he pushed her away.

The human tripped and found herself in the middle of an empty floor. All the people that had been moving only a second ago were at the edges of the room now. Many eyes were upon her. The carrot—at least that’s what she thought it was—rolled around on her tongue. It was sweet like candy, and she wanted to swallow it.

She couldn’t climb to her feet; she tried and fell over again. The people standing around laughed, and when the black-haired guy returned to help her up, he called to a heavy-set man with a beard sitting on a throne at the far end of the room—the same one who’d shot the basket off her head. “I think I fed her a little too much,” he admitted. “Shall I make her vomit?” He spun the human around and pressed her back tightly against him like he was about to thrust his palm hard against her stomach.

But the strangest thing happened. Without thinking, the human grabbed his forearm, and she flipped him over her shoulder, dropping him to the floor where he landed flat on his back. Gasps and chuckles erupted around the room as the human blinked down at the guy.

Self defense. That’s what she’d just done. Though, she wasn’t sure how she knew how to do it. And it didn’t quite feel like enough for some reason.

She spat the carrot on him. He shrieked and rolled away as it hit his face.

Laughter rose again, including from the bearded man in the throne-like chair.

“Psycho,” the human said, though the word came out muffled. She wasn’t sure if she was talking to the guy on the floor or the man up on the chair watching it all and doing nothing to stop it.

Her name. It came back like a wave on the tide, sweeping in then threatening to drift away again, not tangible enough for her to grab onto and keep.

Lily Baker.

That was it.

Her hair was grabbed.

She shrieked as her head was tipped upwards. The black-haired guy gazed down at her with darkened eyes. “Tonight is going to be fun,” he said with a growl, “ Lily Baker .”

Lily Baker. Lily Baker. Lily Baker. She couldn’t forget. No matter what, she couldn’t forget that name—

A loud boom shook the room from two large doors smashing open, and the black haired-guy’s grip fell from her hair. Every soul in the space went quiet as the noise reverberated and women’s skirts fluttered in a cold wind. Someone marched in.

Lily’s eyes fell on the newcomer, but she couldn’t quite make him out. She thought he had white hair and blue eyes, but she knew better than to believe it—she’d seen that enough in the last place; she’d fallen for that trick over and over. It wasn’t him.

Chatter erupted and nearby people gasped and yelped as he pulled a crossbow around from behind his back. Muffled whispers of, “Isn’t that the Lyro?” and “Isn’t he now the Lyro House heir?” reached her ears.

“Lily Baker,” the guy shouted over the space.

Lily Baker … that was her. Lily’s muscles flexed, and her body jolted like it was standing at attention. Then he shouted, “Punch him. And make it good.”

Punch him ? Who?

As if her body knew even when her mind didn’t, Lily turned toward the black-haired guy. Her big eyes settled upon him, and his face blanched.

She clocked him.

The guy took it right in the teeth, sprawling backward and ending up on the floor again.

“Ha! That was perfect,” the newcomer said. His grin was wide and hazardously handsome, and Lily stared at it as something doubled over in her chest.

It was a delusion. He wasn’t real. She’d thought she’d seen him so many times already, she refused to believe that this thing standing before her was anything but a hollow figment of her imagination. She even whacked him to prove it, but her hand collided with a strong chest.

She stared at her hand, at his chest.

His hand lifted and wrapped around hers. A gold ring she hadn’t seen before circled his forefinger.

“You can’t have her,” he shouted up at the bearded man in the chair. “She’s mine.”

“Shayne…” Lily tried to whisper the word to ask, but her mouth made no sound; just rasp came out. She cleared her throat to try again.

“It’s me.”

Lily’s question dissolved in her mouth. She stared at where a warm hand held hers against his chest.

He tugged her to him, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and began leading her in the direction of the large doors he’d come through. Murmurs rang through the space, filling Lily’s ears.

“Heir of the Lyro House,” the bearded man’s voice boomed. “You can’t take a human from a banquet unless you wish to die—”

Shayne turned around, lifted his crossbow, and he fired.

People screamed as the arrow split through the air and pierced the bearded man’s chest. The room erupted in noise and running and shouting. Burgundy blood blossomed around the arrow as the man’s eyes went wide in shock. He crumpled off his decorated seat.

“You’re all correct!” Shayne shouted at the people. “I am the future High Lord of the House of Lyro! And my House wishes for war!”

Fresh panic made the noise in the room unbearable. People grabbed each other—one fainted. Some of the men pulled out weapons as whispers of war between Riothin and Lyro flitted through the space.

Shayne didn’t stop moving. He pulled Lily through the doors as he slid his crossbow onto his back, and the second they were in the hall, he scooped her off her feet and began running with her in his arms. Wailing alarms filled the building, and one or two men rushed out the large doors after them, but they were far behind. Lily looked around as her thoughts crystalized, as it dawned on her that none of this was imaginary, and that Shayne…

He was really here. He held her tightly, his fingers curling around her side and locking her legs against him as he turned down a hall and followed a path of bodies littering the floor. Dark liquid covered his hands, leaving fingerprints on her dress, and Lily wondered how many men he’d killed on his way in.

No, not men. Fairies.

She looked up at him in surprise. The sudden movement made him tilt his face toward her, bringing it close enough that his features were clear, cancelling out any doubt she might have had left about who this was.

“Shayne.” She said it with volume this time.

“Lily,” he said back as he turned and slipped them sideways through a doorway. “I’m in a bit of a rush right now. Can we talk later?” he asked.

“I…” Her mouth and tongue were thick. “I thought you weren’t coming for me,” she admitted. Warmth pushed behind her eyes as her own statement rang in her ears.

“As if.” He shook his head. “You’re crazy, ugly Human. How could you think for one second I wouldn’t come?” He spun and pushed a door open with his back.

Cold air brushed over Lily’s skin as Shayne sprinted through a garden. Flowers and leaves slapped against them until they reached a metal gate, and Shayne kicked it open. Lily almost screamed at the sight of a giant beast with fangs waiting on the other side. Shayne pushed her up onto its back, then leapt behind and reached around her to yank on a set of reins. The beast turned and galloped through a courtyard where more bodies made a path to a large gate hanging open before them.

“Is… is this real?” Lily had to check one last time. What if this was a dream? What if she woke up in a minute and all of this was taken away, and she was forced to eat and dance again?

“Absolutely,” Shayne promised into her ear beneath the roaring of the wind and the grunting of the beast. “I’ll prove it to you. Just wait.”

It was real.

Her body relaxed; she leaned back against him.

As they flew threw the opening, broke through the treeline beyond, and were consumed by a dark forest of trees, Lily felt Shayne hug her a little tighter to himself, and he whispered, “I’m sorry I was late.”