Simeon just shrugged and turned the page again. “When species are too different…they eventually separate. Over time, humans grew wary of fay wisdom and longevity. They called us arrogant and unyielding, but also said that we were soft, that we did not understand the sacrifices needed to build a great civilization. They resented our long lives, and claimed that we sought to control them. Meanwhile, we watched them grow fat with greed, haunted by their own prejudice and bloodlust. We realized that they would never learn. Each new generation, we would need to teach them again, repeating the cycle over and over and over for millennia. We were exhausted.”
“As if the Fair Folk are innocent of those things…” I muttered.
“Of course not,” Simeon agreed, “but we have only learned prejudice very recently, since becoming divided by human borders. And our bloodlust is ultimately directed by centuries of experience. I know you are thinking of what Lady Titania did to the soldiers at the time of your birth, and I would caution you not to judge her too harshly. It might have begun as a misguided mission of revenge for Lyric, but she and Hippolyta also spared the Arden from a terrible fate. On Johar’s orders, his men entered the forest intending to burn it, because he had been led to believe that his brother had formed an unholy alliance with the Arden Court.” I let out a long breath and sat back in my chair. No one had ever bothered to tell me this part of the story before, and it forced me to consider that Oberon’s motives for keeping me away from Titania might not be as straightforward as I imagined.
“Did…Rykard have some kind of bargain with any of the Fair Folk?” I asked.
“Not that I am aware of. But Titania did not differentiate in her slaughter, so even if he did, it mattered very little in the end.” Simeon took a breath, and I thought he was about to continue the story, but instead he stood rather abruptly. I looked up to see Oberon reentering the library. Sir Toby loped over to greet him first and he seemed in a good mood, which made me hopeful for what the day might hold.
“Ah,” he said, eyeing the book, “you found your mother’s loft.”
“I hope it’s alright…” I said quickly, glancing at Simeon.
“Of course,” Oberon sighed. “Of course. She would have wanted you to have it. This book in particular was quite special to her.” He flipped the book back to show me the inside of the front cover, which I had originally skipped over, where a short message had been scribbled on the yellowed endpaper:
Henry,
Something to help cure you of your human ignorance.
For all my eternities,
Lyric
Beside her name, she had sketched a tiny heart with dragonfly wings on either side, and I couldn’t help but let out a weak laugh. Simeon quietly shuffled away as Sir Toby came over to sniff along the edge of the table, leaving a trail of drool behind.
“Ugh!” I cried, hauling the book into my arms. “You monster!” All three of his heads whined at me, then he walked over to flop on the thick rug in front of the fireplace.
“How does your magyk feel?” Oberon asked. “Have you been able to use it at all?”
“I used it to clear some of the dust upstairs. I could control the air…sort of.”
“Good. That’s excellent. Are you ready to try more?”
“Yes!” I came around the edge of the table, still holding my mother’s book. “May I keep this in my room? To read later?”
“Of course.” Oberon motioned for me to follow him out of the library and we made our way down the stairs.
“What else will I be able to do?” I asked eagerly. “Once I can control the magyk properly?”
“I cannot say for sure, but I would like to unlock enough of your power that you can learn how to transport yourself through the Arden.”
My ears practically perked up like Sir Toby’s. “I was wondering about that…”
“With certain types of magyk gifts, and a strong enough connection to the forest, you can…pull yourself through the channels of power. I am able to share the ability with others, like Puck, but only on a limited basis. If you can master the ability, you will not have to rely on anyone else to take you places, and you will be much safer for it.” He glanced over his shoulder as we stopped on the landing outside my room. “Meet me outside. I must speak to Ceres for a moment.”
In my room, I carefully laid the history book on my desk. Devil’s orbs of pale light had dissipated, and Ceres had come in to clean, but I noticed something new laying on top of my neatly-made bed.
As I approached and realized what it was, I spun in a circle and called out, “Devil?”
I checked the balcony, and even peeked inside my wardrobe, but there was no sign of him. No sign, other than the single red feather, and my bronze snake torque. I picked it up and ran my thumb over the swirling, green malachite eyes, Devil’s words from the day of the revelry echoing in my head:Only the most respected, or feared, rulers were granted the honor to wear them.If I was going to earn anyone’s respect, or even fear, I knew it would begin with playing the part, so I carefully slipped the torque around my neck and went to meet Oberon.
Chapter twenty-seven
Aggravations & Theories
Two Weeks Later
“Again!” Oberon ordered. Icupped my hands and shadows poured into the thorny rose branches in front of me. With a twist of my fingers, I manipulated the bramble into a new shape, vaguely resembling a dog. In spite of the cold air, I was sweating from effort and wanted nothing more than one of Ceres’ hot-water clouds. We’d been practicing for hours already, and with every exercise that had me rearranging shrubberies or tying knots in tree roots, my frustration deepened. But that had more to do with the fact that nothing had changed.
