Give Me (Wyrd and Fae #1)(40)

Ten years later, Elyse woke with the glass on her bed, focused on Cade accepting a cup of tea from Marion.

Elyse didn’t stop Beverly from watching her child. There was no harm in it once every ten years. Anyway, the bond between Beverly and Cade reminded Elyse of her bond with Frona. She renewed her resolve to atone for what she’d done to Galen and Diantha and to Lourdes.

Marion became the only friend Elyse had ever had. She visited, made tea, and told fantastical lies about the world. Airplanes, Elyse could believe—and she’d seen Spitfires fly over Dumnos during one of the wars. She confirmed the existence of television. But men on the moon? Utter hogwash. Still, the stories were entertaining.

Until Marion betrayed her.





14

Lily



Elyse was frozen on the outside, but her mind raced. While Marion pulled on the oracle’s ring, grunting and panting, Elyse ticked through the possibilities. How had Marion, neither wyrder nor fae, done this to her?

Beverly snickered from some corner of the brain. That was it. Drugs! Marion had drugged the tea. Stupid woman.

Elyse wyrded off the drug’s effects just as Marion pulled golden Galen away from silver Diantha. The lovers screamed in agony in Elyse’s brain, and rage boiled through her veins and exploded. Elyse thought she might nearly have another soul to atone for, but Marion wasn’t hurt.

“I’d do anything to see my sister again.” She retreated and ran to the door, the gold band still in her clenched hand. “Just one more time.”

“Silly woman. You’d do anything to get your sister back? Well, so would I!” Elyse wyrded the door shut and threw a boundary around Marion. “Stupid, stupid human beings!”

That was it! Human beings. That’s where she’d made the mistake, inhabiting human bodies. She needed a body with fae blood. So obvious. The wheels clicked and whirred in her mind. Mother wasn’t the only human ever to lie with fae. Elyse knew that much from her brief exposure to Beverly’s life. There must be someone else like Elyse in the world.

“I’m going to let you go,” she said. “Give me the ring.”

“No.” Marion shook her head.

“Give me the ring, Marion. I’m not going to die. You only got half of it.” She held up her hand with the silver band still there. Marion’s face fell. So forlorn, Elyse felt sorry for her.

“I want to make a deal with you.”

Elyse put a wyrd on the Galen half of the ring so it would attract a faeling, a human with fae blood. “Send this half of the ring out into the world. If it brings the person I need, I’ll let you see the Beverly again.”

Of course Marion agreed. What choice did she have? She took the Galen half to an antique dealer in London. Antique, ha. They had no idea. Then they waited. A month passed with no response, and they were all miserable, Elyse, Marion, Beverly, and Diantha.

The strategy failed utterly. Galen was gone, and Diantha’s constant wailing gave Elyse a headache even she couldn’t cure. For the first time in a millennium, she sympathized with Aeolios.

Then one morning Beverly made her presence felt above Diantha’s sobs. Wake up! Wake up! Look! The glimmer glass lay beside Elyse on the bed. She’s the one. The glass showed a young woman lying on a bed, crying.

“How do you know that, Beverly?” Elyse said. “Who is she?” Beside the woman was a paper that contained pictures of Tintagos. There was Igdrasil. And could that pile of rocks be Tintagos Castle? Oh, Brother Sun and Sister Moon, no!

Look. She has a tether. That’s how the glass found her.

She was right. The woman in the glass held a necklace in her hand very much like the one Idris had tried to give Elyse all those years ago. “Beverly, you clever girl. There’s more to you than I’ve realized.”

Elyse touched the glass, and it told her the woman’s name. She was on the other side of the world. Thank sun and moon for airplanes. Elyse sent a wyrd through the glass to call the woman to Tintagos. “You deserve a reward, Beverly. Tomorrow when Marion comes, you can listen when I tell her to prepare a place at the inn for Lily Evergreen.





15

Give Me



Lilith sat across from Marion in the carriage next to Bella. Cammy got in last. Instead of sitting by Marion, she plopped down between Lilith and Bella and handed Marion her phone. “Our last ride in the Bausineymobile,” she said. “Would you take our picky, Moo?”

Cammy saying “Moo” was just wrong, like nails being dragged across a blackboard. She had been cloyingly sweet since this morning when she discovered Lilith in the lobby, having been stood up for her breakfast date.

When Marion had returned from taking the earl’s breakfast, she said Cade wasn’t feeling well and she’d replace him at the Handover ceremony. She was nervous, and Lilith had been sure she was lying. For one thing, Cade had already told her last night that he wasn’t going to the Handover. Marion was probably covering for him.

Cammy retrieved her camera and moved over beside Marion. “I’d have thought his lordship would never miss the big day.”

Cade had abandoned them all. Likely, he’d come to his senses and realized he wanted nothing to do with Lilith. If only she could remember clearly what had happened last night. One minute they were on the verge of making mad passionate love, and then the prince and princess from her dreams had shown up. Then she was in Cade’s car, and he was taking her back to the Tragic Fall.