But she didn’t answer, her eyes looking out, unfocused, as if she were lost in a memory.
I shook my head as I squished the revelations and secrets and messed-up family dynamics to the side. There was too much circling around my head right now, and I needed to focus on what was most important.
“Ashlyn?”
No answer.
“Ashlyn?” I tried again. No answer.
Finally, I said, “Mom.”
Her eyes snapped to mine.
I swallowed. “What about Caleb? If I leave, nothing changes. Everyone’s still trapped. There’s no magic to heal him.”
“My sweet Kella,” my mother said, her voice breaking into a cough, “if you’re a good girl and do what I ask, I’ll promise you something. I’ll promise to take care of him for you.”
I sucked in a breath. “You can heal him?”
“If you go back and do the investiture, I’ll take the power back long enough to help your brother. I will do that for you.”
The decision was an easy one. I nodded like a bobble head. “Deal,” I said.
She grinned.
“I mean, I swear.”
Her grin grew wider, but instead of being comforting, the half-rotted teeth she’d exposed made me more uneasy than before. Why was I trusting her with the person I loved the most in the entire world—the person I’d do anything for?
But that was easy to figure out. It wasn’t because she had sacrificed herself for me—although that should have been reason enough. I simply had no other choice. I didn’t know how to heal Caleb, just like Mickey had said, and no one else could do it—not with their magic trapped in their glamours.
“It’ll be all right, Kella. Don’t you worry. Mama will take care of you,” she crooned. She swiped a hand across her cheek. “Look at you, so grown up. Come here so I can touch you.”
I swallowed but obeyed, tears blurring my vision as I tried not to stare at her sun-spotted, emaciated face, her distant blue eyes.
My mom cupped a trembling hand around my cheek, her palm more papery than soft. “I wish I could see how you truly look,” she said, a sigh escaping her mouth, her breath smelling like rotten fruit.
“Kella,” Deena murmured, looking at her phone.
“I—we need to go. Please just…” I whipped my head between my mom and Caleb. “You’re sure you can heal him?”
“I’ll have my power back soon enough. I’ll help him then. But until that happens, you need to do your part.”
I nodded
“Now be a good girl. Listen to Mommy.”
“O-okay, I’ll just—” My words broke apart as a tremor shook her body.
“Go now. Don’t make them come after you or they’ll find me, and everything I’ve worked for…gone.”
I stared at her emaciated body, the bags under her yellowed eyes. I watched her hands tremble as she struggled to dominate the need racking her body. For the first time, I saw the mother who didn’t run—the mother who sacrificed everything so I would have a chance. I found myself nodding, even though I felt sick to my stomach that I was leaving Caleb again—not that I had another choice.
Deena nudged me, and I let her lead me out of the room and down the hall, out of the hospital and back to the parking lot.
We didn’t say anything. There really wasn’t anything to say. Deena simply stood next to me, her arm slung around my shoulders as we waited for the fae to show up.
We didn’t wait long.
Ten minutes later, Officer Louie pulled up alongside us. From the set of his mouth, I could tell he was glaring at us behind his sunglasses.
“Him.” Deena said under her breath. “He acts like an animal.”
I shrugged.
“Well, I have a way with animals,” Deena said as Louie rolled down the car window. She leaned closer to whisper, “I’m gonna get under his thick skin and make him squirm.”
Was she going on about Louie to distract me from everything? If that was the goal, it wouldn’t work, but I was grateful for the attempt anyway.
“Thought I’d have to pull you away from your brother,” Louie said.
“It didn’t work.” I didn’t have to fake the tremor in my voice. “I couldn’t heal him.”
Officer Louie shook his head. “Don’t know what made you think you could.” Somewhat gentler, he added, “Now in the back.”
I quietly complied, but Deena stood there with a stubborn set to her face.
“You too,” he said, more gruff than before.
“Oh, I know,” she said. “I’m just waiting, that’s all.”
“Waiting for what?”
“For you to ask me politely.”
“Ma’am…”
“Now that’s a good start.”
Officer Louie clenched and unclenched his jaw.
“… please get in the back. Now.”
“Well, since you asked so nicely…” Deena flounced in.
“I liked you better when you were snoring,” he muttered.
He caught Deena’s look of disbelief in the rearview mirror and grinned.
“Snoring?” Deena said. “I don’t snore. Kella, tell him I don’t snore.”
“Fae can’t lie,” I said as I stared out the window, wondering if I’d made a mistake. I hoped my mother knew what she was doing—that I’d made the right choice.
Deena patted my knee, but I barely felt it. Please let this not be a mistake.
Chapter 20
I’d expected Louie to take us back to the precinct. Instead, he turned on vomit road and drove past the turnoff, past the spot I’d named the road after, and all the way to the cabin Edon pointed out a month ago.
“Out,” he said, opening our doors so we could exit.
“Such a gentleman,” Deena said as she slid out of her seat, batting her deep brown eyes like she got a lash caught inside her eyelid.
Louie’s mouth tightened.
Deena brushed past him and stopped in front of the dark brown cabin doors. I followed her reluctantly.
My mom had a plan. She said she’d keep Caleb alive. It had to work. It had to. At least that’s what I tried to convince myself as Louie came up from behind, opened the door, and nudged us into the inside.
“You.” He pointed at Deena. “Sit over there.” He swung his finger to an
