“No worries, girl. Love you.” Elle gave me a tight hug, and Mara caught my eye as she passed into her house, bringing Bashur with her.
“I’ll be up late if you want to talk,” she said.
I nodded. “I’m fine.”
I’m not fine. I’m drowning, I wanted to say.
With that, they closed the door, and I was left on my own.
Walking to the bedroom, I let myself fall face-first into the soft comforter.
Fuck this week.
Nothing was easy anymore, and I was over it. I was just about to call the concierge and ask about getting some ice cream delivered when I remembered the journal Bashur had found, the one I’d stashed in the bedside drawer. My mother’s journal.
Sitting up, I reached into the drawer and pulled it out.
The leather spine was well worn, and it brought tears to my eyes to remember my mother writing in it often. I peeled back the cover, looking at the blank pages.
“What were you hiding, Mom?” I asked the empty room. Then a nudge of intuition prompted me to change my words. “What were you protecting?”
You didn’t make journal pages blank for no reason. My mom had known something—the Elders had said the same. She’d known something she hadn’t wanted anyone else to find out.
I placed my palm flat on the pages. “Reveal.”
Nothing.
“Lily, daughter of Violet.”
Nada.
“Fucking open.”
Yeah, that didn’t work, either. Ugh!
I thought about asking Mara, but there was a reason my mom had hidden it in the Shakespeare Garden. She’d known I would eventually go there once I took on this job. If she’d wanted Mara to pass it to me, she’d have given it to her.
With a sigh, I collapsed onto the pillows.
I lay there for hours, just listening to the sounds of the city: horns honking, sirens, people yelling, dogs barking. It was kind of soothing in a weird way, and it helped to calm my anxious mind. I didn’t realize I had even fallen asleep until I felt something heavy land on my chest and a wet tongue lick my face.
Shit!
I bolted up in bed and slammed my forehead right into Bashur.
He whimpered, and I clutched him, rubbing his back. “I’m sorry, bud. What’s going on?”
It was pitch black in the room, and I peered at the clock to see that it said one a.m.
“Lily!” Mara called out in alarm from deeper in the apartment.
Bashur leapt off me and ran into the hallway.
I shoved my mom’s notebook into my messenger bag and bolted into the hallway, rubbing my face. “What’s going on?”
Mara looked stricken. “There’s been another earthquake. The…Tree of Life has split in two.”
Oh, gods.
Mara took me back to Faerie at once, and when I opened the blue door of her office, it led right into the Elders’ home. I walked into the library, noticing that no one was there to greet me as usual. I bypassed the large sitting chairs, running instead into the main room.
When my eyes fell on the Tree of Life before me, I gasped.
It was split down the middle, though not the whole way. A good foot of the trunk was still intact, but both halves hung awkwardly to the side, straining the base. Maple knelt at the base of the tree, weeping as Indra rubbed her back.
“What happened?” I shouted, running to the tree and falling to my knees.
Indra snapped her head in my direction. Her hands shook as she pointed to six of the crystals that had fallen off their golden disc. “Hurry, put them back.”
Crap.
I hadn’t even noticed before.
Scrambling to grab them, I collected all six and clicked them onto the base as quickly as possible. When I finally set the last one, a bright pink light shot out from the tree, forcing me to lower my eyes.
When it died down, I looked back up and sagged with relief. The trunk had mended itself. It was stitched back together crudely, in lumps and knobs of bark, but it held.
I spun on Indra. “What. Happened?”
She placed a hand on her chest. “The same thing that keeps happening. Until there are twelve and the queen awakens, Faerie is dying.”
I frowned. “Is she sicker?”
Maple nodded, sniffling. “Her nails are turning green. Something’s wrong with her.”
“Every time I leave, something goes wrong with her,” I mused. It wasn’t exactly an accusation, but it certainly came off that way.
Indra’s face shook with absolute rage. “You ungrateful child. I’ve kept this place standing for twenty yea—”
“Wrong,” I growled, finally snapping. “My mother kept it standing. And the queen is sicker, the tree is sicker—all since my mother died, so don’t for a second think it was you holding it all together.”
I spun on my heel and brushed past Rose, who stood shocked at my display, to get to the queen’s room. Turning the knob, I let myself in.
Kira looked up from where she sat at the foot of the bed, the queen’s feet in her hands and a golden light pulsing from her palms. Aubin, the Winter Fae Elder, stood beside Kira, and both seemed startled to see me.
I looked at the Winter Elder. “Out, please.”
His face scrunched up. “Excuse me?”
“I want a private moment with the queen’s healer. Leave now.” I was sick of this shit. My whole life, I’d seen the Elders as gods when really my mom had been the one doing all the work. Now they thought they were going to boss me around and deny my requests? It was time I took a stand and demanded respect.
The Winter Elder stepped forward. “I don’t appreciate the way you’re speaking to me.” A frigid gust of air brushed past me, and I steeled myself. It reminded me of Liam.
I stepped closer to him, calling his bluff. “I don’t appreciate you denying my request to give the Halflings a place to live once I wake the queen and fix the world.”
Kira swallowed hard, head down, trying to pretend she wasn’t eavesdropping.
I crossed my arms. “So, if you want me to
