New World Order (War of the Fae: Book 4) (48 page)

I turned my head towards her, my hair rubbing in the dead leaves beneath.
 
“You’re not mad?”

She shrugged, coming more fully out of her house.
 
“Not anymore.”

“Well, feel free to get mad at me now.
 
Maybe you want to cast a spell on me.
 
Make me like Sleeping Beauty or something so I can sleep for the next hundred years and skip this part.”

“What?
 
And let you miss all the fun?
 
Ha!”
she barked out.

I snorted in half-anger and half-sadness.
 
“Fun?
 
You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.
 
I don’t call an arranged ... binding ... fun.
 
No.
 
No way.
 
I call it ... positively medieval.”

Maggie came over, slowly and painfully bending down until she had lowered herself into a sitting position next to me.
 
After she had arranged herself and caught her breath, she said, “You have been called.”

I looked at her with a frown.
 
I didn’t know if we were talking about the same thing.

She repeated, “You have been called to a binding ceremony, yes?”

“Oh.
 
Yeah.
 
Yes, I’ve been called.
 
I guess.”
 
I looked back up at the tree above me, trying to find some solace there, staring into the complex patterns of leaves overlapping other leaves with little pricks of sunshine peaking between them.

“And what is the problem?”

I turned my head to face her.
 
“Are you seriously asking me that? ... What is the problem?”

She shrugged but said nothing.

I got mad at them all over again.
 
And her for acting like it was totally reasonable when it wasn’t.
 
“I’ll tell you what the problem is.
 
The problem is, I am not interested in being bound to anyone, but most particularly to Ben.
 
Ben is a bad guy.
 
Ben is a bad person.
 
Ben is the last fae on this friggin planet that I would choose to be bound to.
 
I’d rather be bound to a buggane for shit’s sake.”

Maggie held up a finger, waving it slowly back and forth at me.
 
“Ah, ah, ahhhh, be careful what you say.
 
I have a very wicked sense of humor, or so I’ve been told.”
 
She smiled at me and I swear to all that is holy I saw something flicker at me in there that did not look good at all.
 
She leaned in closer to me and whispered softly, “Liiiiie ... ”

I swallowed hard, and looked back at the sky, my face now a few shades paler.
 
“Okay fine.
 
I wouldn’t rather be with a buggane.
 
But it’s true I don’t want to be with Ben.”

“We do not always choose our destinies.
 
Or if we do, we forget our choices made before coming to this realm and must realize the rightness of them later – after the pain has been suffered.”

“That means nothing to me, Maggie.
 
I started this life as a human.
 
My destiny was either to become the lawyer my dad wanted or the homeless person my parents feared I would be come.
 
Or maybe prostitute or something.
 
I don’t know.
 
But being a fae was never part of the original plan.
 
I’m flying by the seat of my pants here.”

“No.
 
You are incorrect!” she shouted, a couple specks of spittle flying out of her mouth.

I jumped in fright, not expecting such a strong reaction.
 
I slowly sat up, pulling leaves and twigs from my hair without even really thinking about it.

“Maggie ... why do you think you know so much about me?
 
And why aren’t you zapping me right now when I know I deserve it for messing around with you before?”

She smiled at me, showing off her few remaining rotted teeth, cocking her head to the side so she could see me better out of her one good and unclouded eye.
 
“Because.
 
It would not do, for me to zap my own granddaughter, now would it?”

My world started to spin and go black around the edges.
 
I fell back into the leaves again, fighting the waves of dizziness and then nausea that threatened to overtake me.
 
I gag-coughed a few times, trying to get my breathing back on track and my heart back to a normal rhythm.
 
Gasping for air, I said, “Holy shit, Maggie, for a second there I thought you said I was your granddaughter.” I looked over with my watering eyes, in time to see her shrug her shoulders.

“I can see you are happy about the prospects.
 
Good.
 
I am too.
 
You are a noble girl, if a bit rough around the edges.”

“Me?
 
Rough around the edges?
 
If that’s not the pot calling the kettle black ... ” I sighed at the utter ridiculousness of it all,
 
“Anyway, Maggie, I appreciate your sick sense of humor, believe me, I do.
 
But you’re like a thousand years old or probably more.
 
There’s no way you could be my grandmother.”

“There are some generations between us, to be sure.
 
But you are of my line, there is no doubt about that.
 
You and another young lady you know, quite well I think.
 
You wield The Dark of Blackthorn, just as my other granddaughters did before you, just as yours will after you are gone.
 
It is your destiny.”

“What?
 
What girl?
 
Becky?”

Maggie said nothing; she just stared at me, shaking her head no.

I sat up slowly and looked down at the dragon tooth that was in the sheath on my leg, under my now very wrinkled and messy cloak.
 
I threw the edge of the turquoise cloth aside so I could pull the weapon out.
 
I ran my fingers along the edge of it, still feeling the thrill of knowing it was a powerful relic from a long-ago place and time.
 
I slid it back into its holder and returned my attention to the haggie old crone in front of me.

“If it’s not Becky, then I have no idea who you’re talking about.
 
She’s the only girl around here I know.
 
Other than the twins and Céline ... or Celeste ... ”

She shook her head again.

“There is no one else.”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“So what does all this mean, Grandma?”

“It’s
Maggie!
 
Do not call me that.
 
It makes me feel old.”

I coughed really loud and long to camouflage the laugh that burst out of me.
 

Maggie narrowed her eyes at me.
 
“Speak.”

“Okay fine,” I said, my eyes sparkling with barely contained mirth, “I hate to be the one to break this to you – but Maggie, you’re old as dirt.
 
And not much prettier.”
 
I bit my lower lip and raised my eyebrows up, wondering if I’d been successful in pissing her off enough to earn a spell that would send me to la-la land.

“Nice try.
 
But you do not define my beauty and you’re not going anywhere.
 
You have duties here that must be fulfilled.”

I banged the ground on either side of me with my fists.
 
“I don’t
want
to fulfill those duties.
 
I want to do
other
duties.
 
I’ll become a brownie and scrub toilets.
 
I’ll chase bugganes around the forest.
 
I’ll do anything they ask ... just not that.”

“Why?
 
Why toilets and not the honor of uniting your people?”

“Because ... ,” I said petulantly, swirling my finger around in the dirt, staring at the patterns I made, “ ... I don’t even like him.
 
I like someone else.”

“Lie.”

I angrily smeared the pattern I’d made and flung the dirt and leaves away from me.
 

“No!
 
I don’t want Ben!
 
I want Chase!”

“That may be so, but it is not true to say that you don’t like Ben.
 
And you know that you cannot have everything you want – nor would you want that for yourself.
 
People or fae who are given everything they desire, without working for it and without concern for the consequences, are dangerous ... shallow souls with nothing but the Underworld to look forward to after the Here and Now.”

She struggled to stand, and once finally on her feet said, “Sacrifice!
 
That is what it means to be alive.
 
To really live, you must be a part of something greater than yourself.
 
Do for others before you do for yourself.
 
Listen to that little piece of your mind that tells you all is not as it seems ... because, girl ... it is not!
 
Nothing is as it seems.
 
All of this ... ,” she spread her arms around her, “ ... is just an illusion.
 
You have yours.
 
I have mine.
 
They have theirs.”

She started shuffling towards her door.

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“Do what you know you must.
 
What is right for your people.
 
Be who you really are and don’t be afraid of that.
 
You were born to greatness, as all the fae are.
 
Take what is yours and then give yourself back to us, the fae, one hundredfold.
 
We all need you ... and that elemental you claim not to like.”

She reached the entrance to her house and stepped inside.
 
She turned to close the door behind her.

I tried to stop her by continuing the conversation.
 
I had to know the endgame for myself here.
 
“What if I run away?
 
What if I don’t agree to go through with the ceremony?”

“Then you seal their fate.
 
It is your right to do that, if you wish it to be so.”

“I do.
 
I do wish it to be so because I don’t want to be bound to that elemental!” I shouted at her face, darkening as it pulled away into the shadows of her house.

“Lie!” she yelled, before she slammed the door in my face.

I stood there, brushing twigs, leaves, and dirt off of my soiled and uninspiring cloak, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do now.
 

The answer came in the form of an anxious pixie, buzzing through the air to stop in front of me, hovering, and as agitated as I’d ever seen him.
 
“Where have you been, young lady?!” yelled Tim, his hands on his hips.
 
He sounded so much like my father it was frightening.

“Talking to Maggie.”

“Well, I’ll have you know that you have everyone up in arms back there.
 
If you don’t get your sweet buns back to the Infinity Meadow, like right now, you’re going to go down in history as the changeling who ended the fae species and destroyed the world!”

“Well, then, what does it matter?
 
If there’s no one around to write that history down?”

Tim buzzed right up to my cheek and slapped me.

I slowly raised my hand to my face, stunned at what he’d just done.
 
“Did you just ... hit me?”

Tim backed up, his hands stiff at his sides.
 
“You bet your big fat butt I did.
 
Now stop talking nonsense and get back to the Infinity Meadow,
now!”
 
He did three loops and a twist in midair before settling down into hover mode again.
 
“I’m all out of whack here with anxiety.
 
I’m going to get airsick any minute now.
 
The stress is unbearable.
 
I could accidentally pixie someone, and I won’t be held responsible for that.
 
Please, Jayne,” he begged, “go back.”

“How do you even know about this?” I asked.

“Uh ... well ... that would be the witch’s amplified listening spell that I helped concoct late last night after you went to sleep.”
 
He looked nervous.

“Spill it, pixie.
 
What did you do?”

He flew a few more loops first and then said, “Okay, fine, I’ll tell you.
 
I approached one of the witches and suggested that it might be a good idea to spell the meadow with a listening cast – so those of us not privileged and important enough to be on the council could hear what you guys were saying.
 
And I worked with them to make sure it was properly amplified, because as I’ve told you on many occasions, pixies are good with electronics and things that act like electronics.”