me a gift from her and always referred to her as Aunt Mara.
I felt the wind rush behind me as the four elders’ wings went erect. I was going to go out on a limb here and say they didn’t get along.
Though she was imprisoned and stripped of her elder status, she’d spent every day with my mother, helping her with her life’s mission. My mother always spoke of her with a smile on her face and said she was like a sister to her.
“Any time wasted and we could lose Faerie forever,” Mara declared. Her pointy Fae ears were longer than mine, identifying her elder status. Well … elder before she was banished status. There was a story there, though no matter how much I begged, my mother never told me. Mara was a Fall Court Fae and she looked at Willow, who stood to my right, and they shared a pleasant nod. It said a lot that Mara could be cordial with the very Fae who took her job. Couldn’t say I would be the same.
“How can I … just start seeking and not honor my mom with a celebration of life ceremony?” I whimpered.
Mara’s face crumpled. “Because it’s what she would want. She dedicated her entire life to saving Faerie. We must press on. She would be so proud. Come on.” She indicated I come to join her. “I’m sure you’ve had enough of these old geezers.”
The elders bristled at her, but it caused something within me to lighten a tiny bit.
She opened her arms, and even though I’d never met this woman, never even seen a picture, I sprang from where I stood and ran into her arms, which she wrapped around me in a motherly embrace. Mara was not permitted to leave the blue door, and until now I was not permitted to open it. Our only link were stories my mother might have told the other. And by the way she held me fiercely, my mother had told her a lot.
“Come, child, have a rest. Tomorrow is a new day.” Her words soothed me, and I wondered if all of her elder power had been stripped. The elders had a way of making you so calm in their presence you forgot about your pain or worries. With one last glance at Trissa and the four elders, who did not look happy to be called geezers, I walked through the open doorway, stepping into what could only be Mara’s office and home. The second she shut the blue door behind us, I knew that Trissa and the elders would take my mother’s body to Faerie and start the celebration of life. She’d be buried by the river, dropped into the deep waters, and washed away by the current. Much like my innocent childhood. Gone were the days of Elle and I picking puckerberries until our lips were purple. Now I had to grow up. Fast.
I won’t let you down, Mom.
The next morning I awoke to a warm light on my face and the sound of falling rain. My eyes sprang open, and for a split second I was about to get up and search the house to see if my mother had left for work. Then it all came back to me.
Mom. A sob formed in my throat, but I didn’t have time to grieve.
Mara’s voice called out from beyond the bedroom: “You’re up! Come have breakfast with me. Jonah is about to walk his dog.” The door was open a crack and I could see her sitting at the kitchen table. I buried my face in the pillow, sucking in a long deep breath before sitting up. The pillow smelled like my mom. She slept here some nights, telling me it was a part of her job. I never questioned it. She was always home in the morning to see me off to school or grab me from Elle’s house if I’d slept over there.
Mara’s house was … quirky. She was bound to this place, between the two planes. The last fairy alive who could move the portal, or so she told me last night when I tried to ask her a hundred questions before I passed out in a pool of my own tears. The wood floors of my mom’s bedroom were hot pink, but when I walked out into the kitchen, the floor was a bright yellow. It was a one-floor home, but the rooms felt endless. Last night I’d passed a