Page 37 of The Iron Fae
On the next breeze the strong scent of lavender carries toward me again. My shoulders fall away from my ears. I take a deep breath thinking of the blooms that could produce such a lovely aroma. As soon as I relax, all my muscles tense again. Lavender... the flowers.... that's what I'd smelled earlier. I won't be allowing this Wishing Spirit to come in here and bribe me with a bouquet.
What an odd thing for me to smell. What do I desire so much that smells like wild flowers? Romance? Nah, that's fleeting. I try to concentrate on my thoughts to recognize on my own what I could potentially be up against with this spirit, but Kai's voice rips through my thoughts.
"It's here."
Then the spirit starts to talk. "Briar!" A woman's voice. "Briar! I can't believe that you found me."
I point my gaze to my shoes and reach for another flimsy sapling of a tree to pull myself up the volcano. The voice is inviting. The voice is... familiar. I repeat her phrases in my mind trying to place it.
"I can't believe it's you. It's really you," the voice says again.
From the edge of my vision a figure appears. Skirts catch on the rubble of the forest floor, but the girl, she moves closer, reaching for me. I dodge her hand with a gasp.
"You didn't tell me it was going to try and touchme..." I trail off as I look back at my own honey brown hair and dark blue eyes. The last I'd seen of her, her stomach was round and pregnant, now it's flat, and her face is youthful as I remember. She's younger than me. She died younger than me. Queen Amelia.
"Mom?" I whisper.
"I can't believe you would even recognize me. Honey, you've grown up to be so beautiful. Come now, come with me. I've got so much to tell you and it's dangerous for your two companions to know that I've lived. We need to go hide." Her eyes are kind, and she smiles at me like I'm the Christmas gift she's waited her whole entire life for... like I'm her missing child.
"It's not real," Kai whispers into my ear, pushing me forward. "I know you want it to be real. I do too. But it's not what you think it is. The spirit isn't your mother."
"Don't you dare say that to her!" The ghost of my mother pales. "I've waited my whole life to see my baby, to holdmydaughter in my arms. You won't play me off as some figment of her imagination. You can see me can't you?" She points to Kai.
The Prince's attention is zeroed in on my back. His hand against my spine is the only thing that moves me forward. Ahead of us, Rowan groans and swats a fly away from his face.
"Do you see her?" I press, looking back at my mother. She looks so real, my heart aches knowing she's not.
"No," Kai says sternly. "I see me."
I know she's just a spirit projecting my need to be loved, my need to have a family, my every want to be a part of something... but if I could just look at her a little longer. All of me wants to memorize her face, make her less of the reflection of my own father's memory. I want her to be more than the painting that hangs in Queen Cordelia's room.
"You see yourself? That seems a little vain, don't you think?" I say, softly.
"Briar, my dear, don't listen to him. He sees me. They aren't safe for you. It's safe with me. Come with me. Please." The spirit begs.
I squeeze my eyes shut and turn away. "Kai, I need you to talk to me right now."
"I see me," he repeats, his voice hoarse. "Me, crowned. Me, without my looming parents, without the restrictions they've placed on me."
"I didn't think we were sharing what we saw." Rowan pauses looking up at the suddenly steep climb over a large boulder. He bends ever so slightly at his knees before pouncing to land in a crouch above the rock.
I try to stare ahead at Rowan, not to give the false imagery of the mother I never had another glance, but she steps toward me. My foot catches along the root of a tree and Kai's arm shoots out behind me. He means well but the force of his hand hitting my back propels me back forward. I stumble again reaching to catch myself on anything I can grab.
My fingers hit flesh. Soft, with the slightest hint of a pinkish glow, I stare down at my grasp that encompasses a slender forearm. Blood drains from my face as Kai hisses through his clenched teeth. I look up. My mother smiles at me, gently.
Lavender fills my lungs. The urge to let her wrap her arms around me, to sob into her tattered dress, makes tension build in every muscle. She's real.
"M--", I open my mouth and her smile turns wicked. The gentle edges of her human teeth lengthen to points and black oozes from her mouth like thick saliva.
My hand slips from her soft skin, still tingling with the need for her touch.It's not her. It never was her. I knew it all along and still a part of me wanted to believe it.I curse myself as my feet pedal backward.
My mother's image is no longer in view. A single blonde braid flashes before me as Kai slips between us. His boot connects with the Wishing Spirit that lets out an undeniably inhuman scream. Any desire for what I thought was my mother is quickly replaced with a new fear.
Slipping against wet leaves, I scurry toward Rowan. I can't chance another glance back. I don't want the image of the Wishing Spirit turned devil in my mind’s eye for a second longer.
"Rowan take her hand!" Kai shouts.
I'm stretching on my toes for Rowan's touch that extends along the rough stone's edge. My shirt rises and my midriff scraps along the pointed peaks. I try to use them as leverage to climb up to him. My boot slips from the small lips with every try.
