Authors: Melinda Hellert
“It just got worse,” I growl through gritted teeth.
“I would say I told you so, but I think you are suffering enough. Here, chew on this.” She gives me a bit of what looks like tree bark.
“What is it?”
“Willow.”
Through the fog of pain I remember learning somewhere that something in Willow bark is what goes into aspirin. Good enough for me right now. I do as I’m told and take the rough piece of bark on my tongue, chewing on the hard, woody substance. It tastes horrid. I don’t recommend it. After five minutes of chewing it still hasn’t done anything for the pain. “It’s not working,” I grumble, careful not to spray bark juice in her face.
“I feared as much, here spit it out.” She hands me a porcelain basin and I expel the putrid stuff from my mouth. I lay back down, wiping a hand across my chin to chase away any remnants. The aftertaste of it still lingers on my taste buds, but I hardly care. By now I feel as if
I’m on fire. And not just any fire, like someone doused me with gasoline and threw a lit match on me then tossed me into a towering inferno.
I writhe in agony on the couch cushions, wishing for anything to take away the hurt. Where the heck is Derek with that antidote? I don’t know how much more of this torture I can take.
Just as I think it can’t get any worse the pain reaches its crescendo. The sensation of millions of tiny razor sharp knives starts stabbing into my flesh. I cry out. Any of my surroundings are lost in the delirium. Nothing looks familiar. Nothing at all. Not even the dark haired boy that has appeared above my tear-filled eyes. His mouth is moving but I cannot hear what is being said past ear piercing shrieks that may be or may not be issuing from me. I can’t tell. All I feel are those razor sharp knives.
Something cold slithers down my throat between screams and it’s the last thing I remember before I pass out from lack of oxygen and everything goes black.
awake after quite some time. At least I think it was quite some time, it could have just been a couple of seconds. I’m not sure. Upon further thought I realize I’m not sure of anything. I mean, I know my name,
Kate
but. . .
“Kate?” A woman’s voice called. “Kate? Mr. Carson! She’s awake.”
Mr. Carson? Who the heck is Mr. Carson?
My mind whirls in confusion. Who spoke? That it is a woman is obvious, but what woman?
Maggie is my first guess. A very stupid guess it is, too. It isn’t Maggie’s voice. I know that, how could I not? She’s my best friend after all. Then again, it was stupid that I don’t know who Mr. Carson and the mystery woman are. Didn’t my parents teach me not to talk to strangers? Or parent I should say, because dad. . .
It all comes flooding back to me. Derek, the Faery Queen, the scene of my father’s murder, Nyla, the poison. . . And speaking of Maggie, where is she?
I move to sit up, taking in the plant filled room, the glass ceiling—now covered by the drab brown curtain, Nyla sitting in a hard backed chair a few feet away. Derek rushes in through a plain wooden door, Maggie’s sleek, blond figure a few steps behind him.
Suddenly, I’m furious at the sight of him. I know full well that he’s to blame for me nearly
dying
. What sane person wouldn’t be livid?
“What is your problem?!” I shriek, shrinking back from the traitorous dark haired boy as he comes closer to me. Too close.
Far
too close.
“Get away from me!!”
“Kate, I—”
“HOW COULD YOU?! YOU BETRAYED US! WE TRUSTED YOU!!!” My voice echoes through the room, replaying back to me several times. The desperation. The hurt. And of course, the betrayal.
Something flickers in his eyes and before I can put a name to it, it’s gone. “Please, Kate, let me explain.”
“I DON’T WANT EXPLANATIONS!” I howl. “
I WANT YOU AWAY FROM
ME!!!” I scramble over the back of the couch, the only escape since the three of them have me cornered otherwise. I land unsteadily but at least I land on my feet. My eyes dart to the doors around the room. There are three, not counting the windows that seem out of place in such an open ceilinged arrangement. Whatever floats her boat, I guess.
As the full memories of the last few (What? Days? Hours?) settle in I think I must have been under a potent drug to believe that
Derek
had been worried about me. Tormented by the thought of me dying. That
I’d
been dumb enough to believe he’d help us. That he—
“Katie.” Maggie’s barely audible word breaks me from my silent tirade.
My eyes slew over to her where she stands next to
him
.
I raise my eyebrows at her. She appears so calm, but she’s wearing a look that I know well. One that says I’m being an idiot and not thinking clearly. Easy enough for her to say,
she
wasn’t nearly killed.
“Listen to him, OK?”
“But he—”
“
Enough
. Let him talk!” She crosses her arms over her chest, a position I soon mirror, just as stubbornly. It reminds me of something my mother once said.
“I’d hate to see a boy get on the wrong side of you two. A true force of nature, you girls are.”
I bet she never thought about pitting us against each other.
Truth is, far as that goes, Maggie would win for sure. Not because I’m not capable of taking her down in a fight. I just don’t have it in my heart to.
I sigh. “Let’s hear it, then.”
This better be good
, I mentally add.
“You can sit back down, I won’t bite,” Derek attempts a friendly smile.
I glare at him.
“OK. Look, it was never supposed to go that far. I got held up by some of the guards, but had I made it on time . . . you never would have gotten hurt. I swear. And I am so, so sorry that you had to go through all of that.” He swallows. “To both of you.”
Maggie offers him a kind smile.
“How exactly was it ‘supposed to go’?” I ask, ignoring that my best friend is a possible enemy now.
“You were to be questioned and I was to help you escape. But apparently only
you
could piss off the Queen
that
badly.”
“Well it wasn’t intentional!” I shoot back. “She wanted me to turn in her own
sister
for something she didn’t do! What was I supposed to do?”
“You could have lied. Gave her what she wanted. Did that ever cross your mind?”
“No.” I growl. “That’s insane. Why would I condemn someone who I
know
is innocent?”
“That doesn’t matter! We can take care of our own. One little lie wouldn’t have done anything except save you from the fury of that woman.”
“What is that supposed to mean, ‘we take care of our own’? In case it has escaped your notice, you aren’t a Faery.”
“I’m as good as one,” his voice drops to a low cadence.
I peer at him questioningly.
“Care to elaborate?” I ask, a little calmer than before.
“You don’t know much about me, do you?” he asks with a sad smile.
I give a shake of my head, baffled. How could I know anything about this strange boy?
I’d only met him a couple days ago.
“This is my home.”
“Your . . . your home?” I blink.
“In the sense of biological family, no. But this is the only place I’ve ever really belonged.” Again that sad, sad smile played across his lips.
“But surely your parents. . .”
“They don’t mind, trust me.” He looks wistfully at Nyla. “Besides, she’s more than any human family I could ask for. We’re outcasts, her and I”
“Outcasts?”
“Never mind that now. Kate, I need you to trust that I never wanted to hurt you. Can you accept that?”
I scrutinize him for a long time. Something clicks into place that I’d overlooked moments ago. “You . . . you saved me. First by getting me out of the Tree and then with the antidote. Why?”
“I never wanted to hurt you,” he repeats.
I meet his brown eyes with my own green ones. Remorse shines at me from his.
If he’d wanted me dead, I realize, I would be already. I don’t doubt that for a second. So maybe, just maybe, I’ll listen to him. I don’t trust him. Not yet. He’s hurt me and Maggie—albeit unintentionally—and it will take a lot to make up for it. But today is a start, in the least.
I lean against the back of the couch for support. “OK.”
His brown eyes widen to the size of saucers. “Really?”
“Yes. I realize . . . that if you want me dead, I would be. But this doesn’t mean I trust you. Not yet.”
“I understand.”
And he does. The smile playing up his lips shows me that he wasn’t expecting me to cave so easily. But there’s worry in his eyes, and in the way his brow is knit together in an almost single line. Worry over what? What happened? Me? What lay ahead? I don’t know for sure and am too unsettled to ask him such personal questions about what he may or may not be feeling.
I decide to change the subject. “So you live here?”
“Yes.
Nine
years now.”
“What’s with all of the formalities then?”
“What?” he asks, seemingly caught off guard. “Oh you mean what Nyla calls me? Usually when its business matters, we use surnames. With what I do . . . it’s just easier.”
That doesn’t seem to make any sense to me but I brush it aside. “What exactly do you do?” I ask.
Derek fidgets uncomfortably for a split second, like a bug caught under a magnifying glass. “I can’t really tell you. Not all of it.”
“What
can
you tell me?”
“Katie. . .”
“Don’t call me that. No one calls me that,” I snap even though it isn’t completely true. The only people who ever call me
Katie
is Maggie and sometimes Parker and my mom. “Derek, tell me. Something, anything.
Please
,” I try again. I’ve never felt so lost in my life. I have no idea what is happening to me. No clue what any of it means.
He sags in defeat. “Look, there are . . . certain things that I can’t tell you, but what I can,
I . . . I promise I’ll be as truthful as I can be.
“What I do, it’s a dangerous dance between life and death. If Chrysantha were to find out that I’ve been in league with Ceara all this time, a double agent so-to-speak, she wouldn’t be pleased.” He scoffs. “No that’s downplaying it. In fact, I’m sure she’d be extremely livid with me. So let’s not let her find out any time soon,
capech
e
?” He meets my gaze with eyes beseeching my trust, that I won’t turn him in. I give a grim nod, he continues, “Chrysantha heard about you two from her guard. She knew you would be key to once and for all eradicate any believers that the Zions existed. If she could get you to say that Miruna acted alone, that she was responsible for her own demise, her subjects would remain submissive. For them to find out that their
Queen
was hiding something of this magnitude from them, she’ll have a full uprising on her hands. The Faery Court would divide it’s allegiances, which is saying something since it’s already divided as it is.”