Page 116 of Curse the Fae

“It’s that we thought he’d lost it,” Puck explains.

My grasp on the spear loosens. “Lost it,” I repeat in confusion.

“Meaning?” Juniper prompts.

“Meaning,” Puck obliges, “I assume if you and Elixir have gotten cozy, you’ve been here long enough to know he’s cursed.”

My sisters and I exchange glances. Again, they clam up on my behalf, since it’s my business to confirm what I know and don’t know about the river ruler. Though, they do frown in puzzlement when I hesitate.

“Yes, I know about that,” I say. “It happened the night of The Trapping.”

Cerulean’s expression strays into the tunnel’s black pupil. “That’s not all.”

“You gonna keep us in suspense?” Lark persists, at which point Cerulean breaks from the trance and strokes her knee.

He and Puck trade grave looks, then the satyr murmurs, “It’s no secret.”

Cerulean nods. “As fledglings, I was raised by animals, and Puck was born from a woodland seed, but Elixir had Fae mothers who were alive that night.”

Anticipation drums in my temple as I scoot nearer. The Faeries and my sisters do the same, closing the distance while the boat sways.

“After my future mate freed me that night—” Cerulean gives Lark a look of candid admiration, “—I saw the carnage of my kin, the fauna, and the animals who raised me. I managed to save the owl who became my father, along with several avians caged nearby, but there were more scattered across the landscape. I knew this, so I circled the village from above, and that’s when I caught sight of Elixir in a stream. I have no idea how he freed himself, but he was struggling to stay afloat, and there was something else in the water with him, but I couldn’t make out the silhouette, and he’s never told me what happened.

“I plucked him from the water and flew him to The Deep’s entrance. I didn’t have time to resuscitate Elixir or take him underground, not when other animals of the mountain needed my help. I left him there, intending to return later.

“At some point right before then, he was cursed, but he didn’t know it yet. Because of that and his age, he couldn’t control the power yet. The only thing that spared me from going blind was his unconsciousness, and I was already gone by the time he woke up.”

Cerulean’s eyes flash like a storm. “But his mothers were there.” His throat contorts. “Like him, they had the ability to shift between land and water. Shortly after I’d disappeared, Marine and Lorelei arrived to find their son just as awareness overtook him. He was disoriented when he opened his eyes, and he panicked, and…” Cerulean shakes his head. “And that infernal curse. He was too young and didn’t know what he was doing. He couldn’t fucking stop himself.”

Lark swears in horror, Juniper gasps, and I go utterly still. Dread crawls up my throat because I hear the devastation in Cerulean’s speech.

“Some of the villagers attempted to hunt us down.” Cerulean clicks his head toward Puck, who locks his jaw. “The humans were so desperate to catch us, they stormed the Solitary wild for a second time—scarcely a handful of them armed with iron weapons, but it was enough.”

Because Cerulean can’t continue, Puck speaks through his teeth. “While Elixir was waking up, his thoughts too scrambled to fathom why the fuck his mothers were shrieking and why he couldn’t see them, only hear them stumbling about. That’s when their attackers took aim. The mermaids were blind and didn’t see the iron blades coming. But Elixir heard the onslaught. He fucking listened to his mothers die, right in front of him.”

My hand vaults to my mouth while Puck grates, “I got there just as the mermaids fell, still clutching their eyes. I’d escaped and was mounted on my companion, Sylvan. We’d just made it past The Triad when I heard the shitstorm and galloped in that direction. The humans barely had time to target me or Elixir before I planted a shower of arrows in those fuckers.”

The tale rattles in a deep, dark place within me, the same impulse that once wanted to destroy Elixir. History shakes from its confines, breaks from its hinges, and collapses into a heap.

Comfort will not bring back what he’s lost.

That’s what Coral had meant. I know Elixir doesn’t mourn the loss of his vision, because it’s not a deficiency, so that’s not what ails him. Rather, he mourns what his condition did to those he held most dearly.

That’s what I’ve heard in his silence, and in his malice, and in his harp music.

I had cursed Elixir, and that curse had blinded his mothers, and the villagers had killed the mermaids. That’s the source of his pain. That’s the true curse. He couldn’t save them, couldn’t heal them. In addition to The Trapping, that’s why Elixir had vowed to take revenge on the mortals of Reverie Hollow—and on me.

Someday in the future, a child from my village and one from Faerie might feel the same way about each other. They’ll rue the other’s existence, and the cycle will never end.

It will reign like the sun and moon. It will endure like the wind, earth, and water. It will burn like fire.

And for what? More of the same?

For ages, the Faeries assaulted and abused my people. Eventually, we repaid them in kind, and they spurned us as a result, damned us to punishment. And soon enough, humans will rise again. There’s only so long we’ll remain fearful and docile before my world is driven to act once more, until the lines between right and wrong, innocent and monstrous, malevolent and compassionate are blurred.

I sling my arms around my stomach, lest I keel over and retch into the water. “Fables forgive us all,” I whisper, and everyone understands.

Water rustles around the boat as silence engulfs our small band. We bow our heads, remembering, harkening to those nights years ago, seeing it from endless vantage points, both human and otherworldly. I sense each of us retreating into our own memories, picking through the shards and deliberating whether the fragments can ever be reassembled.

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