Memory's Wake Omnibus: The Complete Illustrated YA Fantasy Series (30 page)
Read Memory's Wake Omnibus: The Complete Illustrated YA Fantasy Series Online
Authors: Selina Fenech
Tags: #Fiction, #Fantasy, #Magic, #Paranormal, #Adventure, #Young Adult
They held him until he stilled. And then a little longer.
He pulled away from them, hands lingering in theirs, his eyes red but dry.
“I will go. I want to see my parents returned safely. But I will come back.” A small smile softened his face. “Memory. Eloryn.” The smile continued to grow. He bowed deeply to both of them then departed.
Memory closed the door behind him. With mirrored movement she and Eloryn pulled back covers on each side of the bed and tucked themselves in. They lay face to face, holding hands between them like children in a fairytale.
Eloryn closed her eyes. “I’m so sorry you didn’t get your memories back. They might be lost forever, but I won’t stop trying to get them back for you, if you want.”
Memory watched her sister’s frowning face. “I’m not so worried. I found out my name, where I was, and know who I am. Found all the family and friends I dreamed of. Hell, I even got myself a castle. I’ll make a new home, new memories.”
Whatever else might still be wrong with me, wherever the lost parts of my broken soul are, for now at least I’m alive, can live, here with my family.
She stared over Eloryn’s shoulder, where daylight brightened the diamond cut glass window of the balcony doors. Outside a thorny vine grew around the balustrade. The silhouette of a wild young man perched on it in front of the sun. She smiled. “Besides, things never just disappear. They have to go somewhere, right?”
Eloryn’s eyes fluttered back open again. She looked both shocked and accusing. “You found out your name? When? What is it? What am I to call you now?”
Memory smiled and closed her eyes. “Memory. Just call me Memory.”
First Published by Fairies and Fantasy Pty Ltd May 2013
Ebook Edition ISBN: 978-0-9875635-0-7
Memory’s Wake copyright © 2013 Selina Fenech
Cover illustration copyright © 2013 Selina Fenech
Internal illustrations copyright © 2013 Selina Fenech
Architectural floorplans © 2012 Rubén Navarro
All rights reserved.
Book Two of the Memory’s Wake Trilogy
Everything is slipping away from Memory. The bond of friendship between her, Eloryn, Roen, and Will, that was formed while running for their lives is tearing. In a world that doesn’t feel like home, with a mind filled with nothing but questions, Memory struggles to be true to herself… whoever that is. When her past self starts haunting her, she knows her sanity could be the next thing she will lose.
Hope’s Reign contains over 40 illustrations by the author and artist.
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Length: Full-length novel of 90,000 words or 360 pages in paperback.
Content: Due to some adult themes, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 14.
TRIGGER WARNING: Hope’s Reign deals with themes of abuse and suicide. Readers sensitive to these themes, please be aware.
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Living in the castle with her friends wasn’t turning out to be the Happily Ever After that Memory thought it would be. With skirts hitched up and heart fluttering with adrenaline, she bolted across the lawn and pushed through a gap between dense hedges and the garden wall. A final glance back showed a page, handmaiden, and guard stumbling down the palace steps, bewildered at her disappearance. Spying through the leaves, Memory grinned. If she knew it would be this easy to lose the entourage, she would have done it sooner.
Life had become an ongoing parade of public appearances, formal dress, legal documents, rehearsals, posing for portraits, fairy representatives, and the mighty task of rebuilding the kingdom of Avall. It gave Memory the distinct sensation of drowning. No time was left to just be herself. Whoever that was.
Moments ago, escorts had come to chaperone her to yet another meeting.
Yet another meeting. I couldn’t stand another meeting!
Something snapped and she just dashed off when they were looking the other way. A tactic they obviously weren't expecting. And she’d become well practiced at running away from people since returning to Avall.
Memory slowed from a jog to a relaxed walk. Light rain misted the air, weighing down her pale hair and the wide-skirted gown better suited to a ballroom. A carpet of muddy leaves sloshed under foot, and the hem of the dress was already stained, but Memory didn’t care. Water beaded on soft ferns and she caressed the fronds, like wet velvet under her touch.
Silence
. She listened and smiled.
I’ve missed you.
Memory wandered farther into the long strip of woodland that spread into the distance on the eastern side of the palace. Hunting grounds, left wild and ancient and full of life, including one new resident. Or at least Memory assumed Will now lived somewhere in these woods. Neck arched, she peered into the rain-blackened branches of the sturdy oaks but saw no sign of him. She frowned.
Mental note- must find out where and how Will lives.
Memory wondered if she’d come this way with the hope to see him, or just because being lost in a forest still seemed more familiar than the gold-leafed walls of the kingdom’s finest castle. With Will, there was no pretense, no pandering. He was her only link to a forgotten past and distant life. She wished he’d visit more often.
Memory felt like the kingdom’s newest toy, getting propped up next to Eloryn on display as the visible face of change for Avall, while behind the scenes Hayes and the Wizard’s Council dealt with pulling the kingdom back together. The Council kept the information about where Memory had been on strict lockdown, letting people assume she had been with Eloryn and Alward the whole time, but rumors of how she defeated Thayl spread fast. The twin with the strange hair, name, and behavior was the hottest topic in Avall. The most people gossiped about Eloryn was to say “how lovely” she was.
Hayes and his cronies also treated Memory like some sort of arcane oddity to be studied. Her first visit with them, which had been advertised as being friendly and social, turned into a civilized interrogation full of questions she couldn’t answer about things she didn’t understand. Where did she get her powers, where had she been, what did Thayl’s ritual do to her? They wanted her to use magic for them, to observe her. She didn’t want anyone studying her too closely, worried about what they would see.
Memory swore as something sharp jammed into the side of her satin slipper. The stupidly big skirts prevented her from even seeing her own feet and the source of pain. Memory glared at the lacey gown, now woven with twigs and leaves. She was not dressed for this.
Run-away-and-plan-the-rest-later proves yet again to be a bad fallback strategy.
Trying to settle the voluminous skirts, Memory sat on a nearby fallen trunk and brought the injured foot up into view. A sharp stick had wedged itself into the sole of her shoe. She pulled her knife from where it had been stashed in her corset, flicked the blade out, and levered the stick free with the point.
Eloryn would probably be able to just ask the stick to remove itself, not that she’d be hanging out with me in a forest anymore.
Memory sighed. Why did she think things would remain the way they were? Just her, Eloryn, Roen, and Will looking after each other. They’d bonded under extreme conditions, and now that they were safe, Memory could feel the group drifting separate ways.
The princesses’ every minute was managed, and when Memory thought things couldn’t get worse, Hayes sprung a new surprise on her. On top of the stress of the upcoming coronation ceremony, he insisted she had to go back to school. To that horrid land where bullies teased her hair colors and the only place to reliably skip class smelled like a urinal. She always hated school. She...
Chewing gum smooshed into the back of her head. The horrified disgust on her face when she turned around made the pointy faced boy behind her laugh. Gus. He was so getting unfriended.
“What’s the problem? It’s the same color as your hair anyway,” he said.
Her hands became fists. “Nice one. By that logic I guess it means you won’t notice when I stick your head in a toilet because you’re just a piece of—”
Opening her eyes, Memory clutched at the rough bark of the log to steady herself. The flashback was far too vivid to have been only imagination. Gus’s weasel-like features were still clear, and she could almost smell the dirty-sock scent of the school corridor. A shiver danced through her limbs simply by knowing what these were. Memories.
She replayed them like hitting the previous chapter button over and over on a remote, savoring them. She could remember something. School. Just a tiny fragment, but it was there, and it belonged to her. A low giggle started huffing its way out of her mouth, growing as excitement took over. She had to get back and tell Eloryn. A wide grin cracked her face. She closed the knife and jumped up to head back to the palace.
Memory skipped over woodland debris, ducking under dripping branches and trying not to slip in haste when she ran face first into something hard. A sharp sting shot through her nose, and she clutched at it with both hands. Eyes watering, she stumbled backward, only to hit something behind her. She blinked, trying to see what blocked the way, but found nothing. With arms outstretched, she tried all directions. The air seemed to spring back, like pushing on a firm mattress.
“Look what I caught,” an ethereal voice whinnied through the cool air. “Pretty as a princess.”
The creature moving forward twinkled from rain, which formed pearls on the fine layer of white fur that covered a feminine body. Bovine ears and curled horns protruded from a head of wooly hair, and long animal-like legs ended in cloven hooves. Was there even a little tail swishing to and fro? The creature stared straight at Memory with two nebulous black eyes and grinned.
Black eyes… does that mean unseelie fae?
But she’s so beautiful.
It must have been some type of fae, something that had a classification, a name, a place in either the seelie or unseelie courts. Eloryn would know. Memory just knew the creature was gorgeous and terrifying.
She held her breath, remaining still as though movement would provoke it. Would the Pact protect her from this? Maybe it was time to start paying more attention to the politics of Avall.
“So, hi,” Memory said. “Nice to meet you, I guess. I’m just heading off that way, as soon as I can move again. Are you causing that? Are you allowed to do that?”
The grin on the furry fae spread wider, and she tilted her head down to the ground. Memory’s gaze followed.
Stupid skirts.
She hadn’t even noticed past all their ruffles that she’d walked directly into a fairy ring. She’d heard that wasn’t a good thing to do. Memory pushed against the force that encircled her where the white-spotted red toadstools poked from the ground.
The fae giggled and danced around the circle. “My fairy ring, my territory. You’re mine, mine, mine.”
“Look, let me go, and I’m sure we can work something out. I’m, like, someone important here in Avall. And we’re both reasonable,” Memory paused, “people, right?”
The fae stopped and looked her up and down.
“I know who you are,” the fawn sang like a nursery rhyme, “Little ticking time-bomb came home from Hell.”
“What do you mean? And how do you even know what a time bomb is anyway?”
“We fae, we travel, see many things. Or we did, before the human plague poisoned the world.” The fae grimaced. “Now, I could keep you as a pet,” she began, stroking her furry chin, “but humans are so greedy and unclean.”
The snowy fae poked Memory in the shoulder. Memory startled, flicking the knife in her hand open again and holding it up protectively.
The fae snorted. “Cold iron. You stink of it. That knife will get you into trouble, princess. Just try and use it on me, I’ll Brand you faster than lickety-split. My territory means no Pact for you.” The fae bent in close. Memory could see her face reflected in the creature’s wide black eyes. “No, no, no. We’ll find a use for you. You look like you could dance well. I could make you dance for eternity. Dance, dance, dance so beautifully.”
Gulp. Time for an escape strategy.
Memory took stock of her assets and disadvantages. Corset strung too tight. Skirts too big. Rights under the Pact lost. Unable to use her fae-burning knife or be Branded. No one actually knew where she was. Will hadn’t seemed to have noticed his Memory-is-in-danger cue. Veil doors took too long to cast. Other magic was unpredictable and scary.
Assets, where are you?
Memory made a display of putting her knife away.
“I’m sorry. I’m new here and don’t know how things work yet. Is there any chance you can just let this one time slip, and if you ever catch me again I’ll be yours for reals? What harm could there be in letting me go?”
“What harm?” the fawn cried, sounding like a whinny. “This from the girl child who pointed an
iron
knife at me? A jest! Stinky, ticking time-bomb means no harm!”
The fae straightened up to her full height, just taller than Memory’s five-foot-nothing stature. “Perhaps, perhaps I will turn you into something harmless. That would be the best thing for everyone.”
Okay, magic it is then.
Memory hated using magic, the way it burned through her and left her empty and singed. But she had to get away. She prepared herself as the fae seemed to come to a decision.
“I’ll turn you… into a flower!” The fae lunged forward, grabbing Memory’s shoulders tight. She flinched backwards, lifting both fists as a shield. Releasing the flame of magic, she closed her eyes and hoped for the best, the only technique she’d mastered so far.
Magic exploded. Gusting winds and the disconcerting feel of the Veil pulled at her, but Memory kept her eyes squeezed closed. She waited, breath held, and after a few moments she couldn’t feel the fae’s grasp anymore.
And I don’t think I feel like a flower, not that I’d know what being a flower felt like.
She peeled one eyelid open, and the sight made the other eyelid snap wide alongside it.
“What the…”