I simply nodded, unsure what to say.
“One more thing, love,” Mara called out as I stepped outside. “You can’t spend more than two nights on Earth or you weaken. You need to either recharge with a crystal or in Faerie.”
I gave her a blank and confused look.
“Don’t get kidnapped. You could die,” she clarified, and my eyes widened.
“Oh. Gotcha.”
Wow, they really weren’t holding back with the bad news, were they? Shit got real so quickly I felt like I was in a movie.
She and Bashur gave me one last look before shutting the blue door.
I spun, seeing Trissa and Elle giving me a nervous look as they shifted on the balls of their feet. Oh right, they were waiting on me. I was the last seeker of Faerie and only I could find this crystal and save my world.
We were so fucked.
“This is so insane. I can’t believe your mom never told you that she was saving the world!” Elle hissed.
We were alone for the first time. It turned out that we had properties all over the world with blue doors. This one was a little one-bedroom cottage in Seattle, with a dilapidated shed on the side that Trissa was rummaging through.
“Yeah, a little heads-up would have been nice,” I said to my bestie.
She bopped on her heels, twitchy fingers resting over her two swords and a stack of throwing knives. “I’m so excited to get some action. I’ve never really fought someone. Only in practice.”
Leave it to Elle to be excited to get blood on her blade. She was a warrior through and through, no matter the circumstances of her birth. “They told you about the Sons of Darkness?”
She nodded, stepping closer to me. “The elders said to beware the black-winged ones. They’re the worst.”
I guess I’d rather know my enemy than not. “Where do you think they come from?” I whispered. “Are they Fae?”
“Found it!” Trissa cried, causing Elle and I to quiet as she walked out of the shed with an old rolling pin in her hands. She was covered in dust and cobwebs. To a normie, our word for humans, all evidence of her Fae nature was gone. No pointy ears, no wings. She looked human. It was part of the illusion that settled over us when we crossed into the realm. It happened naturally. I could still use my wings of course, because they were still there, but a normie wouldn’t see them.
I raised an eyebrow at the rolling pin. “Are we baking poison cookies for the Sons?”
She grinned. “No, but that’s a good idea. Oh, your mother would kill me for giving you this, but … I know you’ll need it.”
She handed me the rolling pin, and the second my fingers touched the smooth crystal inlayed into the wood, it started to … change. From wood, it turned to cold steel and then bulked out, popping and bending and creaking as it transformed into … a motorcycle.
“Wicked,” Elle breathed.
“No helmets needed, just fly if you’re about to crash,” Trissa declared.
Yeah, I was pretty sure that wasn’t how it worked, but whatever, this bike was badass. My mother would totally flip out and give me no less than six hundred rules on how to drive it safely. For my sixteenth birthday, she smuggled a laptop and American DVDs into Faerie for Elle and I. I’d seen The Terminator about a hundred times, and had always wanted to ride a motorcycle like Arnold.
I swung a leg over the bike. “What did my mom ride?” Clearly, she wasn’t flying around Earth, scaring normies, and seeking could take you hundreds of miles.
Triss looked uncomfortable. “A red pick-up truck. It was … we don’t have it anymore.”
Oh. I was going to have to sit down with her when I felt emotionally ready and find out exactly what happened that night to my mom. But that might not be for years, if I would ever be ready. For now, Faerie depended on me to find that crystal.
Trissa pointed to a button. “Kill switch.” Then she pointed to another thing. “Petcock.”
It took every ounce of maturity I possessed not to bust out laughing at “petcock,” but Elle did it for the both of us. Trissa shot her a glare and then pointed to something else. “Throttle.”
Then Trissa pushed something, flipped another thing, and twisted something else and the motorcycle roared to life.
“Got it?” she asked.
No. Hell fucking no. I nodded, because I was so far into this shit train … what did it matter?
“You start seeking. Take Elle, I’ll follow on this.” She pulled a little electric scooter out from behind her back and popped it open.
Elle jumped on the bike behind me and hooked her arms around my waist. This was no big deal, like seeking anything. I’d done it hundreds of time. Taking a deep breath, I remembered the bluish-purple color and texture of the crystal, the way it was cool to my touch and how the light bounced off of it. As I was imagining it, there was a small tug at my navel.
“Got it,” I declared. The thrill of seeking always excited me. Feeling that intuitive hunch and pull in the general direction was always a bit like solving a mystery.
Elle clung to me. “Don’t kill us!” she shouted.
I nodded and pulled on the throttle lightly. The bike lurched forward and both Elle and I screamed. I slammed on the brake and we jerked to a halt.
“Okay, you know what, let’s work up to the motorcycle.” Trissa set the electric scooter on its kickstand and I frowned. “You ride the scooter and Elle and I will follow you.”
My one shot to be a badass bicker chick and I blew it.
Get your shit together, Lily.
“Come on, Lily, we need to hurry. They’ll move the crystal,” Trissa urged me.
Right.
Walking over to the scooter, I jumped on and set off at a whopping ten miles an hour. I followed my instinct out onto the road, and then to the right at a fork when I felt a strong tug in that direction. It was hard to keep my mind clear when I kept thinking about my mom. Had her celebration of life started yet? Were the elders bathing her body in crystal water and wrapping her in white silk? It was hard to get the gruesome bloody image from my head of her in that bathtub.
I got so wrapped up in my thoughts, I barely felt the tug to the left at the next fork in the road. Craning the handlebars at the last minute, I drifted down the road scolding myself for losing the connection with the crystal.
“Focus, Lily,” I told the wind, thinking again of how the crystal had felt, the way the sunlight shone on its light purple and blue.
Like a kick to the gut, my connection was back again, and so strong it knocked the wind out of me. We were close.
Trusting my gifts and following that tug, I careened the scooter down a small side street. I would have missed it had I not been looking; it was marked by two huge trees. We were here. After turning in, I immediately steered into the thick bushes, hiding from view.
Trissa and Elle pulled in behind me and cut the motor, walking the bike to where I stood and stashing it in the foliage. I peered through a gap in the hedge and gazed upon a yellow dilapidated farmhouse. Something kicked in my belly, signaling the object I sought was here.
“It’s here,” I whispered.
Trissa consulted her watch. “Different place than last night. They’re moving it every twenty-four hours or so.”
Nerves prickled along my skin. My mom died going after this crystal … and now I needed it to save Faerie. No fucking pressure.