To the daughters of light.
I was pulled from a deep sleep by someone shaking my shoulders. My eyes snapped open. Trissa was hovering right over my face, her lips pulled into a frown, eyes wide with terror.
“Lily, you must get up,” she hissed and yanked me forward.
Bleary-eyed, I looked outside to see the moon was still high in the sky.
“What’s wrong?” My voice was thick with sleep. Trissa’s face was a mask of fear, nostrils flared.
Anxiety spiked through me as I started to become more coherent and realize my mother’s personal guard was waking me up in the middle of the night.
“Where’s my mom?” I demanded, throwing the blanket off of me as my heart jackknifed in my chest.
Trissa just grabbed my hand and yanked me towards the door. I stumbled, trying to run after her while still half asleep. Shaking me awake in the middle of the night … something was gravely wrong. It was only then that I noticed her pale blue t-shirt was soaked with crimson blood.
“Trissa, daughter of Bethany, inform me of my mother’s condition right this moment!” My voice shook and she must have recognized I was near total panic because her entire body stilled. We were halfway out of my room when she stopped and faced me.
Holy crystals…
She was … crying. Trissa Hart didn’t cry. Not when she nearly lost her right leg on a mission, and not when her husband left her for another Fae who lived three cottages over—and had four kids, all with different men. Trissa was made of steel. She’d trained me in Earth studies and deadly weapons since I was three, and I’d never seen her shed a tear. Ever.
“Your mother … has fallen.” Her voice broke and the room spun around me. “She won’t make it … but if we hurry, you can have a final word.”
Fallen. Won’t make it. Her words slammed into me like bullets and I wasn’t prepared for the shock. A shriek left my throat, my knees gave out and I sagged forward into her. Grief and panic crashed into me with equal measure, weighing me down like I carried a truck upon my back. My gossamer wings wilted with the news as I no longer had the energy to keep them upright.
“Call a healer!” I thundered, trying to think of how I could save her.
My mother’s guard clamped her hands around my arms to steady me, forcing me to meet her big brown eyes. “The healer is with her now. She’s the one who sent me to get you.”
Oh fuck.
My whole body felt like it was made of iron. Surely I would pass out any moment. But without another word, and for fear of wasting any more time, I allowed her to pull me in the direction of the front door. I felt like I was sleepwalking; Trissa just yanked me this way and that, while I forced the sobs down from my throat.
Stepping outside to the moonlit streets of Faerie, we took to the skies, my wings fluttering through our small village. We flitted past my best friend Elle’s cottage, and then Nikola the blacksmith’s, before quickly reaching the jagged cliff that butted against the raging river. I craned my neck to look at our one source of fresh water. A clear glass-like magical dome cut right into the middle of the crystalline blue river, as five feet of black water from the other side smashed against the protective wall. The black water lapped against the protective shield, keeping what was left of Faerie from drowning in darkness.
I’d lived my whole life in this dome, like an upside down salad bowl covering what was left of the faerie. Everything outside of it was… too horrifying to even think about. Even seeing a passing shadow of the creatures that lurked on the other side gave me nightmares. Coming to the edge of Faerie was always a frightening and humbling experience. One crack in the dome shield and…
Trissa yanked me towards the ground and snapped me from my thoughts. We walked right up to the blue door cut into the cliffside and I stilled. My wings quivered at the thought of going through it.
I looked at Trissa with shock. “The blue door … am I … ready?”
I’d wanted to open this door since I could talk. It was a privilege and responsibility given only to the females of my lineage. Only to seekers. “Our work, our purpose,” my mother would say, “is done beyond the blue door.” I never knew what lay beyond and my mother never told me. “When you’re ready,” she’d say and leave it at that.
My mother and I were the last seekers left in all of Faerie. Any object you desired, we could find. A relic, a treasure, a book, a lost family heirloom, a person. Nothing was off limits to my seeker magic. What my mother searched for day after day, on the other side of that door … I had no idea. I just knew that it was of upmost importance to Faerie and that one day she would tell me.
Trissa spun and took my face into her hands. All trace of tears were gone. That hardened gritty soldier I’d come to love and trust was back.
“Listen, Lily, this wasn’t how she wanted to hand things over to you, but you must pull yourself together and be strong when you present yourself to her. Understand?”
I realized then that I was openly sobbing. Tears stained my nightshirt and my cheeks. My eyes must be blotchy and red. If my mother was going to greet my ancestors in the realm of the dead tonight, I wouldn’t want her to depart this plane with worry and fear for me.
I nodded, wiped my eyes and straightened my back, flicking my shimmering crystalline wings up into the air. “I’m ready.”
My hand shook as I reached out and took the cool brass handle. I’d touched it once, on a dare from my friend Tobin. It had vibrated then and freaked me out, so I’d let go and we’d run off giggling. It did so now too, but much less and I wasn’t scared this time. I wanted to see my mom, to be with her.
The lock was a crystal that sensed my energy and seeker bloodline and allowed me to turn the knob. Without ceremony, I yanked the door back and stepped inside. I don’t know what I expected: a great library; maybe a room full of crystals or rare objects that my mother had collected for the elders; dragon’s scales; pixie dust; anything … but not this. I’d stepped into … a fancy apartment. Purple walls greeted me with shiny hardwood floors, and a siren blared out the window, turning my attention to … a view of downtown New York City. The Statue of Liberty could just barely be seen in the distance. Confusion crossed my face, and then it hit me.
“The blue door is a portal?” I said almost to myself.
If we wanted to see the human world, we had to swim at the edge of the shield and into the blue lagoon to touch the enchanted shell. I’d been to the human world many times growing up as a part of my seeker training, since objects the elders needed were often in the human world, but I’d never in a million years thought the blue door was a portal. I figured when my mom went to earth she used the enchanted shell portal.
“It’s many things, child. This way.” Trissa weaved in and out of the living room and past a kitchen with dishes piled high as I followed her numbly. Child was her nickname for me even though I was twenty winters old.
“Mother!” I seemed to remember my reason for being here and picked up my pace, tearing through the apartment.
I’m in shock. I’m not thinking right. This isn’t happening.
“We’re back here!” I recognized Kira’s voice and felt a small measure of relief. She was the best healer Faerie had. One of the only healers Faerie had. Just her and her clumsy sister Nika. The rest perished when our lands fell into darkness.