room jerked wildly, nearly throwing me across it. I clutched to Liam’s chair for dear life, while Elle grunted. A few more jerks and sputters and it finally stopped. That was a rougher ride than usual.
“We here?” I asked.
She nodded. “Hope so.”
Lifting Liam up, I threw the door open wide and we flew out into the pandemonium. There was a huge crack in the ground that I almost fell into. Fae were shouting and flying around in a hurry. We were at the cliff on the edge of Faerie. With Elle’s help, we took off, Liam in our arms, and flew right for the elders’ house.
I spotted two of the elders, Rose and Maple, out in the city square helping some garden tender Fae fix up market stalls that had fallen over. Fresh food splayed out over the ground, and the river was a murky brown. We flew right up, over all of the chaos and directly to the elders’ door. Using my left booted foot, I kicked in the door and we landed hard and fast.
Indra was near the tree when we came tumbling into their house, and I saw the jar of healing water in her hands. She shook herself in shock as we splayed out in a crash landing in her entryway.
“Bring that to me!” I shouted, pointing to the jar.
Her mouth popped open in shock as she flew towards us, jar in hand. “You let him in here? After I forbade it?” Her voice laced with anger as she scowled at me.
I looked down at Liam, who was bleeding out on the front of her doorstep.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!” I shrieked. A crowd had started to form behind me, I could hear the flutter of wings and murmur of voices. “A Fae is injured. A man is dying. Give. Me. The. Healing. Water. NOW!”
Something unfurled inside of me, and I knew if I wasn’t careful that bright light would shoot out and I wasn’t ready for Indra to see that yet if I could help it. I still needed to figure out what it was.
She tucked the jar into her chest. “This is for the crystals.” She lowered her voice, smiling nervously at the crowd that had assembled at my back.
I was about to give her a piece of my mind when Liam reached into the messenger bag and pulled one of the crystals up into the air, his hand turning black as he held it.
Oh gods.
Indra nearly fainted from seeing such a thing, and I lunged forward and yanked the jar from her grasp. Unscrewing the top, I knelt to pour it over Liam’s wound, when he held me back and dunked the crystal inside of the jar.
He visibly sighed in relief as the water touched his hand and chased away the darkness, turning the crystal a clearish blue like the others. Not even a trace of the darkness remained on the crystal, his hand, or even in the water.
“Now you,” I told him.
He shook his head, shakily setting the clean crystal at my feet and reaching into the messenger bag to get the second one. When he grabbed this one, his body convulsed for a second, and I choked down a sob.
“Liam!”
He dipped it into the water and his shaking stopped.
Finally he pulled his hand out and clutched the clean crystal to his chest tightly. Wasting no more time, I yanked up his shirt and poured the rest of the healing water over his stomach, watching as a miracle was performed. Skin stitched together, arteries and muscles grew. It was like no healing I’d ever seen, and a depressing realization hit me that this might have saved my mother, had I known and had some then.
Liam gasped, clutching his stomach as the water slowly healed him, until finally he sat before me, panting. All that remained was a small puckered white scar.
The entire village was behind us now and I knew this would require an explanation. And I was glad for that.
Fuck these lies.
Fuck keeping people in the dark anymore. The truth needed to be revealed.
Standing up, I pulled Liam up slowly to stand with me, each of us holding our crystal.
“Indra,” I said to the elder, “Liam is my soulmate, whether you choose to believe it or not.”
The crowd gasped and I heard a few mutter “black wings” and “Dark Fae.” “He helped me get these crystals, and we will work as a team from now on, getting the rest