Page 77 of Samhain

“Come.” Ashley put herself between us and the queen, nudging me away from the platform.

“Get them fed and out of my realm,” the queen said, pushing to her feet.

“Yes, my lady.” Ashley ushered us back to her tent, wringing her hands and glancing over her shoulder as we walked through the crowd of appalled Faerie residents.

Well, that was a shit show.

“I told you it was a bad time for a visit,” Ashley said once we’d returned to her tent. “She’s tired from the ritual. If she were better rested, she might have helped you. As it is…”

“Can you just—can you give us some answers? Please?” Ivy sounded desperate. “What is this gift? Why did Siobhan give it to us?”

“It’s not really a gift,” Ashley explained. “It’s an old trick fairies used to play on humans. It’s sort of like a love spell. If you don’t stay together, you’ll hurt until you are. You won’t be able to get excited about anyone else.”

Rage raced through my veins, and I ground my teeth as my pulse pounded in my head. A trick? How cruel. These assholes played with human lives like they were nothing, like rotten children with ants and a microscope.

“But,” Ashley continued, looking back and forth between us, “whatever is going on with you is different.”

“What do you mean?” Ivy narrowed her piercing stare at Ashley.

“I thought Siobhan enchanted you and made you perform the sacred vow on hallowed ground. But this?” She focused on Lex with suspicion dancing behind her expression. “What were you trying to do to my lady? Did you think you could make her reveal more than she did?”

Lex pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes on Ashley while he reached into his pocket for his cigarettes. He lit one and inhaled deeply, but he didn’t answer her question.

“Yes,” Ivy responded, taking a step toward Ashley. “I can see inside people’s minds. Miri can make plants grow by touching them. Carter is lucky, incredibly lucky.”

Ashley took a deep breath and straightened, tilting her chin higher. “Siobhan should not have done that. I’ve only seen this once before.”

“Only once?” I raised my eyebrows. “The myths are filled with fairy curses and gifts. You told us about them yourself the first time we met.”

“Yes, those are tales. Legends. My lady commanded that her followers make the vow hundreds of years ago. No more interfering. No gifts. No enchantments. In one night, Siobhan both enchanted you and endowed you with magic. She allowed it to spread to all four of you.” Ashley shook her head, rubbing her hands over her face. “Siobhan claims to have the knowing, an instinct about what would happen. She’s what’s called a banshee.” She glanced at each one of us before returning to the folded hands in front of her. “She predicted the king would leave.”

“Is that why she did this to us?” Ivy asked. “Did she have a knowing about…about me?”

Ashley sighed. “I don’t know, truly. But the only one who can undo this is Siobhan.”

“What?” Ivy said. “Why?”

“That’s the rules. The caster is the only one who can break it.”

“Well, where is she?” Lex asked, flicking ash onto the grass floor. “Let’s track the bitch down and make her undo it.”

Ashley gave him a nasty look at the curse. “After she was cast out, I lost touch with her. Last I heard, she had joined forces with the king.” She sighed and went to the table, slowly lowering herself into a chair so she could take a drink from the chalice. “They used to be together, the queen and the king, for centuries. Eons. As long as I can remember. But very recently, they had a falling out over the child.”

“Why?” I asked. “Who’s the child?”

“Poppy. She’s named after her mother, one of my lady’s favorite human consorts. She labored for days trying to bring her into the world, and finally, just as the child tore its way out of her body, she departed this life.” Ashley wiped at tears falling down her cheek, her breaking voice indicating how much the elder Poppy must have meant to her. “The queen took the infant as her own; it was one of the last things my lady promised her friend. How could she not?” Ashley shook her head and took a drink of mead. “She’s raised Poppy ever since.”

“Really?” I raised an eyebrow. “Poppy seems more like a servant girl.”

“The child serves at the pleasure of our queen,” Ashley said. “As do we all.”

I pursed my lips but didn’t argue. Poppy didn’t know there was another world out there, one with her own kind, one where she could go to school and live however she wanted. If she did, would she still choose this? Would she still hold grapes and pour wine for a fairy queen that kept her kind locked away in this fantasy realm?

“The king doesn’t believe in the mingling of humans and fairies,” Ashley continued. “If it were up to him, he would have cast all the humans out of Faerie after the last Great War. Humans are destructive and violent. If they found out about this place, they would consume it.”

She wasn’t wrong. Look at what humans were doing to the planet in their own realm.

“As my queen’s lady lay dying, birthing the younger Poppy into the world, my queen tried to revive her. She put her hands on the woman’s belly, but whatever happened did not save the dying mother.” Ashley looked between us. “Instead, whatever she did passed through the mother into Poppy. And now—” Ashley shook her head, perhaps realizing she’d said too much. “Poppy is special.”

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