“Jasper, you’ve been busy on your visits out here,” I told the warlock.
“Oh, mind your business,” he growled and marched off ahead of us.
Again, Trissa stayed silent but rolled her eyes.
I felt lighter than I had in days until I remembered where we were heading and why. Taking power away from the Queen felt wrong, but I knew it needed to be done. I’d been thinking about that vision with Indra. The Queen, my biological mother, fell into her drug-induced sleep, thinking that I was her daughter and assuming all was well with me and her sister. She was going to wake, and I’d have to tell her that I didn’t think of her as my mother… that my entire life, I hadn’t even known she existed.
I was pulled from those dark thoughts when we reached the edge of the farmlands.
Black, ashy ground met the rich green grass of Spring in a starkly contrasting line. This was where the protection dome must have reached.
“The castle is about a mile from here.” Trissa sounded wistful. “Best we fly now.”
“Finally!” Jasper groaned.
One by one, we kicked off the ground, flying over the ashy smoking earth. The entire time, I kept my head low and watched the thin streams of lava or black pools of oil that desecrated the land. Spring was the exact opposite of this, and I prayed with all my heart that when the Queen woke, she could restore all of it. The fae deserved a fertile, restored land that wasn’t dead and wasted like this.
Elle coughed as we flew through a plume of putrid sulfur, and Trissa shot her a sympathetic look. “Spring was last to fall, so it’s got more recent traces of disease, but I’m told the dark beings don’t go here.”
That was interesting. I wondered why not.
I was so busy looking down at the desolate land where my mother and the Queen grew up that I almost missed the castle. When I saw the brilliant gray stone wall stacked twenty feet high, I looked over it and into the courtyard and gasped.
“It survived.” Trissa’s voice held so much awe.
In the center of the ashy black ground was a tree so rich in greens and blues that it looked fake. Like someone had just painted it with fresh globs of color and left it to dry.
“Is it like the Tree of Life?” I asked her as we set down near it.
“Their seeds were twins.” Jasper’s voice pinched with emotion.
“Twin seeds? I didn’t know that.” Trissa seemed to know what he was talking about.
“What’s a twin seed?” Elle asked what I was thinking.
My boots settled into the black, dusty ground as they crunched across the gravel toward the magnificent tree. “They say there was once a magical tree near the healing pools, which every thousand years grew a single piece of fruit with a single seed. If you used the seed from inside of it, you could grow a tree with magical properties.” He inhaled and then sighed deeply. “The last fruit, when opened, revealed two seeds, and it’s said the Tree of Life and this tree were grown from it.”
I didn’t know why his story made me emotional, but it did. Tears welled in my eyes.
“You said there once was a magical tree? What happened to it?” Elle asked.
“Dark war. It was the first thing to burn.” He looked wistful, and I found myself wondering how old he was and how he knew all of this.
We stood in reverent silence for a moment, just watching the leaves sway in the wind.
“I wonder how it was saved with no dome,” I finally spoke.
“The Queen, no doubt.” Trissa lowered her head in respect.
She had the power to cover this before the fire and darkness took it? Maybe because she knew, one day, I would need it?
I shook my head. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Elle straightened her spine, peeling open an old tome and flicking the pages between her fingers. “Okay, according to this, the tree will recognize your lineage. Merely placing your fingers onto the bark will activate your powers and transfer them from the Queen to you.”
Transfer them… what if it killed her? What if this wasn’t what she wanted? Or it wasn’t the right choice? What if—
A strong hand landed on my shoulder and squeezed. “She’d want you to do anything to save Faerie.” Trissa’s voice was firm, and I wasn’t sure if she was talking about my mom, the Queen, or both.
