“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.Childwas 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.
When we rounded the corner and came upon the bathroom, a strangled cry left my throat. My mother was draped halfway out of the tub … a tub filled with her blood. Her normally thick candy-pink hair hung in wet clumps and stuck to her arms. Trissa reached out and grabbed my arm, hard. I was openly weeping again without realizing. The pain on my arm shook me from my grief, and I pulled myself together.
Kira bowed deeply to me. “I’ve tried everything. I’m sorry, Lily.” She was a healer and her bow was telling me this was it and nothing could be done. That alone crushed any hope I’d had that my mother would be healed.
I fell to my knees as my mom’s eyes tracked the room to find me. She was so beautiful, even now. Hair the color of a puckle flower petal, eyes that shone like stars. My mother was my hero. Seeker of the unfound, giver of life. She was irreplaceable, my whole world.
“Lily,” she breathed, and it killed me to see the tips of her hair stained red with blood, to see the light leaving her eyes.
She reached for my hand, and when our fingers touched, hers were so cold that I almost recoiled.
I shook my head at Kira. “There must be more you can do? Bring her to the crystal bed? Get the elders to lay light over her? Maybe there is an object or potion I could seek—”
“Lily…” Kira cut me off, speaking sternly, and I looked up to meet her face. She simply shook her head and then looked down at my mother’s abdomen.
I followed her gaze and a sob threatened to rip from my throat. Remembering Trissa’s instructions, I swallowed it, biting my tongue. My mother’s internal organs were splayed outside of her abdomen. I hadn’t seen it when I first walked in.
It was too late.
It was a miracle she was still alive.
“My sweet … Lily.” My mother reached up and traced spirals on my face, causing tears to spill out the corner of my eyes. She did this when I was a child; it used to put me to sleep. I wouldn’t sleep ever again. Not after this.
“Mom … I love you so much.” I didn’t know what to say, only that I shouldn’t cry. I shouldn’t let her think I was weak and couldn’t handle the responsibility of being Faerie’s only remaining seeker.
She nodded. “And I you. My little seeker … the last daughter of light. The only one who—” She stopped and turned her head to the side, away from me, spitting up bright red blood.
“No!” I rushed forward and placed my hand on her heart. I didn’t have healing affinity of course, but I had a small knack like all Fae did, just not like Kira. Still, I tried. I pulsed purplish silver light into my mother and she turned to look back at me, lips stained red.
“Lily … you must take up my life’s work. Find my journal … the truth…” She winced in pain, then reached out and placed her hand over my heart as mine rested on hers.
Journal? This was all so confusing; my heart couldn’t bear to see her like this. I just wanted her to be free from pain.
I nodded, tears filling my eyes. “I will honor your name, always.” I didn’t know what her life’s work was or what the daughter of light comment was about either, but I would do whatever required so that she could die in peace. I was three months away from my twenty-first birthday and my blue door ceremony. She would have told me everything then.
She looked fierce all of a sudden and her eyes glowed with light. “Youmustprotect Faerie from the Sons of Darkness.”
Sons of Darkness?
I looked to Trissa. Maybe my mom wasn’t thinking right. Trissa simply nodded as if in agreement with my mother.
“Okay. I will.” My voice was stronger than I thought it would be.
Daughter of light, Sons of Darkness, why was I just now hearing about this? My mother’s life work involved protecting Faerie? Protect from whom? That was my assignment?
“I found six of them.” My mother’s hand shook and her legs trembled, splashing the bloody bathwater around. “But you will need to return the rest.”
I had no idea what in the hell she was saying. “I will, Mom. I’ll do whatever is needed of me. Don’t worry.” Tears streamed down my face and she nodded.
“Trissa will … take you to Mara. She will teach you the way.”
Mara. My mother spoke of her often. She was the keeper of the blue door, and her most cherished friend.
