Enchanted Ivy

present, a TV show, a funny thing a customer had said—and how much it had hurt to see that those memories had slipped out of Mom's mind like sand through her fingers. It was all due to ... to a weird homesickness?

But the queen wasn't done speaking. 'If she lived, she would return. She would never voluntarily be parted from this place. You must lie.'

'Mom doesn't remember,' Lily said. 'She thinks she's human. Or thought she was. Until this weekend, I thought she was too.'

The dryad queen's skin began to bubble with leaves. Vines sprouted on her arms and twisted around her wrists and shoulders. 'He has done this to her!' She was shaking with rage. The trees began to howl.

Lily clapped her hands over her ears. 'Stop it! He didn't do anything to her! He died in an accident sixteen years ago.'

'Yet she did not return!' The trees swayed as if they were in a storm. Vines writhed around the queen like snakes. They reared back from her and then dove back into her skin, causing bulges to rise and fall up her arms and neck. 'Why? There must be more to this 'accident.' Someone has kept her from us! Someone keeps her from us now. Why is she not here with you? Where is my daughter?'

'She's fine,' Lily said. 'She's safe. She doesn't remember you—'

'Return her to me,' the queen said. 'We will restore her memory.'

'Right now, she doesn't want to—'

'Then you must make her,' the queen said. 'If she cannot see the trap for herself, then you must free her from it.'

Acorns pelted the forest floor like hail. Lily covered her head as leaves and twigs rained from the trees. 'She's not trapped!'

Without warning, Jake sagged.

'Whoa, Pretty Boy.' Tye went over to his side and propped him up.

Lily caught his other arm. 'Jake?' She felt his arm muscles shake.

'Fine. I'm fine.' He waved them back and then he sank down onto his knees. 'Just need to ... gotta catch my breath.'

Above, the leaves calmed, and the forest stilled as if it were drawing a breath. The dryad queen focused on Jake for the first time. 'Young knight, I knew your mother.'

Jake's head shot up.

'She visited our world often,' the dryad queen said. 'She was one of several knights who wanted to build friendships between humans and our kind, led by the man who stole my Rose's heart.'

Jake gaped at her. 'My mother ... she came here?'

'At first, they were brought by a Key who was also a knight. Later, your brother and Lily were their Keys.'

'I don't have a brother,' Jake said.

'Half brother,' the queen corrected.

'My grandfather never mentioned a half brother,' Jake said. 'He would have told me. We have no secrets. You must have mistaken me for someone else.'

The queen's eyes slid across the trees, as if seeing a memory. 'One day, Rose and the knights crossed through the gate. She had her baby in her arms. And she simply ... did not return. None of them did. We believed that they had all died.' She fixed her eyes on Lily. 'If she'd lived, she would have returned. If she'd lived, you would have brought her back. The knights must have prevented it. They kept her in the human world until her memory faded, and they kept you in ignorance of it all.'

Lily shook her head. 'No.' Grandpa wouldn't have done that.

'Where is she now?' the queen asked.

'In Vineyard Club,' Lily said. 'Safe. Waiting for me.'

'So, they hold her even now,' the queen said. Once again, the trees began to tremble and shake. Branches creaked and snapped.

'I told you, she chose to stay!' Lily said. 'My grandfather is sick—'

The queen touched Lily's face again, a gentle stroke. 'I do not blame you, my dear,' she said. 'You have been used—you are being used—to keep Rose from her home.'

'No one's using me.' Lily said. 'My world is her home now.'

'Help her return,' the queen said. 'Give her back her memories. And then let her choose. If you truly love her, you will give her the chance to choose with full knowledge of what she has lost.'

Lily opened her mouth to reply, but she couldn't think of what to say. The queen was right. Mom deserved the chance to choose. But what would happen to her when she regained her memories? Would she still be Mom, or would she change into one of these distant and inhuman creatures?

'She must return,' the queen said. 'You know this, or you wouldn't be here. She slips away a little more from you every day, doesn't she? If she doesn't return, she will continue to lose herself bit by bit until you have lost her, too.'

Unable to speak, Lily nodded.

'Good,' the queen said. 'To ensure that the knights do not interfere, we will keep the head knight's grandson with us until my Rose is home.' She smiled as if pleased with herself.

'You can't!' Lily clutched Jake's arm. 'He can't stay in this world. He's already feeling the effects. He has to return!' The dryads shifted closer, tightening the circle around Lily, Jake, and Tye.

'I will not risk a refusal,' the queen said. 'My daughter is alive! But do not trouble yourself. We will treat your beloved human with every kindness. If you'd like, his half brother may remain with him to ensure his good treatment.' She nodded at Tye.

Tye jumped. 'I'm not his ...' His voice trailed off. His eyes widened as he studied Jake. In a strained voice, Tye said, 'You know, I always wanted a brother. Kind of pictured him less bigoted and with more of a sense of humor, though.'

'I have a sense of humor,' Jake said, 'and I think the idea that you're my brother is laughable.'

'You aren't laughing,' Tye pointed out. 'Tell me your mother's name.'

'Anne,' Jake said. 'Anne Mayfair, born Anne Norton. She died when I was little.'

Tye's voice was a whisper. 'She used to sing a lullaby about horses, and she always smelled of apples.'

'She did,' Jake said, his voice a croak.

'And she liked to read. I remember lots of books.'

'We still have her books,' Jake said.

Tye and Jake stared at each other as if they'd both grown wings and a tail.

Again, silence. And then Tye flashed his lopsided grin at Lily. 'You seem to have quite a knack for uncovering secrets,' he said.

'She's a Key,' her grandmother said with a wintery smile. 'She does as she was born to do. She unlocks us all.' The dryad queen then flicked her wrist. Branches swooped down, wrapped around Lily, and snapped her up into the air.

CHAPTER Thirteen

Snared in branches, Lily was yanked into the treetops. Screaming, she burst through the leaves into the sunlight above the forest, and then the branches coiled around her. 'Tye! Jake!' Whirring as loudly as a windmill, the leaves rushed to form a cylinder around Lily. She screamed again, and then she was sliding through a shaft of solid green. She tried to grab at leaves and branches as they rushed by. Suddenly she plummeted, held in a falling net of branches, vines, and leaves. And then the trees withdrew, leaving her lying on pine needles next to FitzRandolph Gate.

On their pillars, the gold eagles shrieked.

She could not afford to be sent back to the council. Lily scrambled to her feet and dove toward the gate. She saw a flash of white, and then she was skidding down the slate flagstones that led to Nassau Hall.