Memory's Wake Omnibus: The Complete Illustrated YA Fantasy Series (54 page)

“Would you like to go in?” Dylan asked.

Memory realized she’d been staring at the pub for long enough to seem strange.

“Nah, I don’t think I’m ready to show my face there again just yet.” Having Will dominate her thoughts also left her in no mood for clubbing.

Dylan and Memory were about to walk away when Memory saw a face she recognized. One of the older orphans from her shelter was leaving the pub with a gangly man. Memory focused, and saw the man had the elongated, emaciated limbs of a corpse, and all black eyes. An unseelie fae.

The mousy haired boy with him - Memory searched her mind, his name was Bran - looked dazed as if he’d been drugged.

“Bran?” Memory called out. The boy didn’t respond.

Memory headed toward them. “Bran, are you okay?”

The unseelie fae creature led him away completely under its spell.

Memory ran until she could stand in front of them, blocking their path. She waved her hand in front of Bran’s eyes, but he seemed to stare straight through her.

She looked up at the fae. Its skin was pale gray, both wrinkly and stretched like pulled taffy. It wore a suit in the human style, but it was dusty and tattered.

“What do you think you’re doing? Where are you taking Bran?”

“No concern of yours. He’s mine. Get out of our way.” Its voice surprised her. For a masculine creature, it sounded almost like an old woman.

Memory folded her arms. “Okay, now I’m really not letting you take him.”

“Who do you think you are? Unnatural scum.” The creature spat a glob of black goo at Memory’s feet. “Think you can order anyone about? You’re nothing but a power store created by my master, who’ll come to collect soon, you mark my words.”

Whoa, what?
Those few words from the creature slammed Memory. So much meaning, but what did it mean? Who did it mean? Providence?
Could Providence have been a fae?

Dylan caught up to Memory and pushed her behind him.

“How dare you speak that way to our princess?”

The fae leaned down, hissing at them through needle-like teeth.

Dylan reversed, running into Memory who held her ground. His voice was high pitched. “Back down. If you do anything I shall Brand you, unseelie fae.”

A crowd of humans and fae emerged from the tavern to see what the commotion was about. Memory frowned at them, willing them to leave.
Great, caught up in another spectacle. I really can’t come back to this pub again.

“Do you think I care?” The unseelie fae howled, wild anger in its cry. “I can feel my life fading from me, ebbing away. Not long and it’ll all be gone. I wouldn’t mind taking a few humans with me.”

Memory gasped when the creature lashed out at them, swinging a long arm and backhanding Dylan across the jaw. It knocked him sideways, and he fell on the pavement hard.

The fae advanced on Memory, and she backed away. Some of the crowd moved in to try and pull her to safety.

Memory saw Dylan spit blood from his mouth. He looked up and spoke through red-tinted teeth. “Bronmarbh Aileadh.”

The unseelie fae loosed a cry that drilled through Memory’s body, aching her eyes. A rune symbol appeared on its forehead, as though burned into the gray flesh.

But the Brand didn’t slow the creature down. The unseelie fae lunged at Memory. She managed to dodge, bumping into a large man who walked into the fray, smiling.

The mark on the creature’s face changed everything.

The humans and seelie fae around her were no longer on the defensive. They moved forward, happily turning on the unseelie fae. The creature was seized, and the humans fell upon it, tearing into it.

Three men held down the unseelie fae who screeched and buckled in their hands. The large man she’d bumped walked up between them and started stomping on the creature’s head.

Pixies darted about high above to get a good view. Dust and what looked like thick mud started pouring from the unseelie fae. It smelled of ocean winds and rotting mushrooms.

Bran watched blankly from right by its side. Memory ran over to him, unsure whether he was really seeing anything, but covered his eyes with her hand anyway.

She wanted to look away herself, but couldn’t.

Some of the seelie fae swooped down at the creature like buzzing hornets. Cries of ‘monster’ grew in the crowd, cheering on the violence. The large man had succeeded in pulling off one of the unseelie fae’s arms. He held it above his head on display.

Dylan stood beside Memory, wiping his mouth. “Stupid monster deserved it.”

Memory just shook her head. “I want to go home.”

Memory took Bran under her arm and walked him back to the shelter. On the carriage ride home to the palace, Dylan tried to lighten the mood again and failed at every attempt. The violence kept flashing inside Memory’s eyelids with each blink. She stared into the black night around them and tried to contain her lurching stomach.

By the time they arrived and hopped out of the carriage together, it had passed midnight. The very few guards patrolling the grounds who saw them eyed them scandalously.

Memory grunted. “Fantastic. More reasons for people to gossip about me.”

Dylan paused and caught Memory in his arms. His lips lifted on one side in a wicked smile.

“You know, Memory, if people are going to talk, why don’t we really give them something to talk about?”

Still smiling, Dylan leaned in and kissed her on the mouth.

The world spun.

Memory found herself in the Ivy Room.

Goddammit!

Memory gagged out the feeling of the Veil. She hadn’t been expecting Dylan to do something so spontaneous, not after the night they’d had. And she certainly hadn’t expected the result.

Memory turned slowly in a circle and found herself desperately disappointed she didn’t discover Will sitting behind her amongst the vines.

“At least I’ve saved myself from the walk of shame,” she muttered, making her way off the roof and down the stairs to her room. Her Veil door defense mechanism occupied her mind, and she was glad to let it take over after the earlier events she never wanted to think about again.

Was that twice now? Did the dream count? Or was it more?
Memory thought back to when Thayl’s magic had killed the wizard hunter with the scarred face, and she was pinned under his body. She didn’t know what happened at the time, how she got free. Maybe his body had just been knocked off her, but maybe this uncontrollable Veil dooring had been happening since then. Either way, it was happening too often.

Memory reached her chambers and stepped inside with her shoulders drooped. She was about to close the door when Dylan bolted down the hall with an anxious expression.

“Thank the fae,” he gasped. He took a moment to catch his breath then chuckled softly. “I kissed the princess and made her vanish. If I didn’t find you, I would have been in trouble!”

Emotionally spent, Memory just mumbled. “Sorry about that. It’s just this condition I’m dealing with at the moment.”

Dylan held her chin in his hand. “If I do say so myself, it seems I had quite an effect.”

Memory thought of the effect and her destination.
She wasn’t sure exactly who was having an effect on her.

With his mouth close to hers, Dylan whispered, “Would you begrudge me another attempt?”

Part of Memory wanted to pull away, not ready for physical contact, not now. But the lure of Dylan’s persistence won out. As though being desired so much could make her feel better, make
her
better. Memory lifted her head and he pressed his lips against hers.

This time she stayed where she was. The kiss left a bitter taste in her mouth and a shiver low in her spine. But he liked her. He wanted her. That was all that mattered. Right now, she needed that.

Memory half smiled when Dylan pulled away. “I’m still here. Disappointed?”

“Not at all.”

With a kiss of her hand, Dylan said goodbye and Memory shut the door, closed her eyes and leaned against it. Her head was a mess, and she just wanted to sleep.

After a few deep breaths, she was ready to drag herself to bed. When she opened her eyes, Will stood in front of her.

“Goddammit!” Memory choked. “Will, you scared the ass off me!”

Will stared down at her, breathing heavily, his expression dark. Half naked, ferocious, the way he used to look.

Memory’s pulse pounded in her throat, and she felt sickened by the idea Will had watched Dylan kiss her. She spoke softly, knowing just next door Eloryn probably slept. “Did you see… Were you watching me?”

Will growled low in his throat. “You shouldn’t be seeing him. He’s only pretending to like you.”

“Right, because it’s so unbelievable someone could like me that way?” The thought that Will couldn’t understand someone would like her burned like a scorching sun in her gut. Memory could feel her temper slipping again, but Will had a habit of bringing high emotions out of her. She continued, her voice rising to a yelled whisper. “Thanks so much for dropping round, spying on me and telling me I’m unlovable.”

“That’s not what I said. I’m trying to warn you. He’s not good for you.”

Memory folded her arms across her chest. Staring at his, she saw the scratches there almost healed. She softened her tone. “Is this me we’re talking about or you? Why don’t you tell me what your relationship with Mina is really about?”

Will turned away, and Memory worried he would bolt. He looked over his shoulder, his blue eyes sparkling under strands of dark hair. He looked cute when he frowned that way, the same way he’d frown when he was a boy, as though his eyes held thoughts deeper than a boy should know.

“It’s complicated,” he said.

“Don’t Facebook answer me. I want to know if you’re okay, that she isn’t…”
Hurting you. Hurting you. Hurting you.
The words ricocheted in her head, but her mouth was dry and wouldn’t work.

Will spoke again, his voice shaky. “You said you’ve remembered some things. Have you remembered much about where we came from?”

Memory thought of their tattoo, her rules, how they met. It was her fault for letting the kid follow her everywhere, crush on her, making him do what she said.
He must hate me. He must blame me for bringing him here.

“Is that what you want? To go back there?” Her tone was harsher than she meant, her pain biting into her voice.

Will’s only reply was to growl and leave.

Memory collapsed into an armchair, not even enough strength left to make it to bed.

Memory pulled the curtains to her living room open, but the dim sky didn’t offer much light. She’d been unable to sleep, so when the first hints of morning sun appeared she gave up trying and got up. Her mind wouldn’t stop, filled with questions and theories and worries about the day before. And the day before that. And the day before that.

The things that fae creature had said haunted her. And Bran, being led away, to who knows where. Memory had already sent out a letter for Peirs, instructing him to investigate ‘Beyond the Veil’ and other fae hang-outs to stop more abductions. Memory kept imagining little Edele being taken as well and what might have become of her at the hands of a monster like that.

And then there was Will. Another life she’d destroyed.

Memory stretched and shook herself out. It was time to start finding answers. She stared at the spread of notes on the floor, all in Alward’s handwriting. They’d been left in her room while she was out the night before. There was a note on top from Eloryn, apologizing that she hadn’t had time to study them herself and how she thought Memory might like a look.

Hope picked up the note and scowled. “Didn’t she give you every bit of help I told you she’d give you?”

“Lory is busy, that’s all. And she could have kept all this, but she gave it to me instead. That’s something.”

“Like she could have given you the crown, but kept it instead?”

“Not even the same thing.” Memory knelt down and shuffled through the papers. Alward’s notes were rambling, but well annotated with clear subjects and headings. Memory focused in on his theories on the other world, and ways to travel there.
If Will really wants to go home, it’s the least I owe him. I have to work out how.

“Semi-permeable membrane,” Memory read aloud.

Hope squatted down beside her, looking concerned. “Are you having a stroke?”

Memory pointed at the section of research that had caught her eye. “That’s how Alward describes the Veil, as a membrane between dimensions, between the human world and the fairy world. He seems to think what the fae did when they separated Avall from the rest of the world was bring it into some kind of bubble within the Veil.”

“Stop changing the subject. Eloryn isn’t to be trusted, didn’t I tell you?”

Memory didn’t reply, too caught up in her epiphany. She considered the knowledge the dragon had left with her, the way she pinched and pulled at the Veil to open doors. Moving within Avall was like bending that membrane, skimming the surface of the bubble holding Avall. To get through to either the rest of the human world or the fairy world would require punching a hole right through.

“When I tried to open a door to the other world for Thayl, it felt like pushing against stretch fabric. I was trying to do the same thing I normally do, just skimming the membrane, and I just ended up pushing against it when I needed to pierce through.”

Memory flicked to the next page. Alward had spent sixteen years trying to write a behest to get to the rest of the world, find her, and return them both safely to Avall. The return seemed to be the hardest part in his opinion.

But Memory didn’t need a two-way door. She doubted Will would want to come back for visits. “I think I can do this. It’s just a different mindset.” Memory chewed her lips, reading and absorbing the information.

Hope stood back up and kicked at the papers, messing up the rough order Memory had laid them out in. “Why are you wasting your time on this stuff? You don’t want to go back there. You don’t remember what it was like. Your place is here. As queen. That’s the way to solve your problems, not this stuff.”

Memory slapped at Hope’s foot. “Quit it. It’s not my problems I’m trying to solve here.”

Hope blew a raspberry and dumped herself in an armchair across the room. “Then who is going to solve yours? It’s not going to be Eloryn, too busy. Not Roen, he’s only interested in her. Not Will, off with the fairies. There’s just you and me. Don’t think otherwise. Except maybe Dylan, but he’s just a bit of fun. Why don’t you go get some of that right now instead of this garbage?”

Memory ignored her. She was absorbed in Alward’s curling handwriting, and the knowledge it contained. The idea of seeing Dylan again after last night also left her cold and uncomfortable.

You’re nothing but a power store created by my master, who’ll come to collect soon.

The dark fae’s master. The fae were able to travel between worlds. They only didn’t anymore because of all the cold iron in the rest of the world. Providence was able to open a doorway to the rest of the world.
Opened one and sent a human through to do her work for her,
Memory realized.

“Do you think Providence is a fae?” Memory asked aloud, even though she was already certain.

Hope stared at Memory for a long moment. “Makes sense. Let’s face it, only a fairy could be that cruel, right? Should be exterminated, the lot of them, if you ask me.”

Memory scooped up a few key papers then stood up. “I’m going to see Bedevere.”

“Bedevere? Really?”

“What? He wasn’t on your list of people who wouldn’t help me. I trust him. He’s been helping me so much in our private lessons.”

Hope blew another raspberry and turned away to look out the window. Memory left her behind.

It was only when knocking on Bedevere’s door that Memory noticed she was still in her night gown. She’d been up too early for Clara to have come and readied her for the day. In her mind a dress was a dress, but her appearance forced a crack in even Bedevere’s stoic expression when he greeted her.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Memory said. “What I want to show you is far more interesting, trust me.”

Bedevere let her into his chambers, which were plain and immaculately kept. A tray on his desk had a steaming pot of tea and a plate with nothing but some crumbs. She was glad he seemed to be a morning person.

Bedevere pulled a seat out for her, but she remained standing.

“I want to open a Veil door to the rest of the world.” Memory said.

“Straight to the point.” Bedevere poured himself a fresh cup of tea, carefully straining the golden liquid with a strainer and putting three spoonfuls of sugar in. “Do you believe you are able to?”

Memory nodded and explained her new understanding of the Veil. “I want to try it, but I wanted someone around, you know, just in case.”

“Wise. It hasn’t been unheard of throughout history for wizards to attempt to travel between worlds. And a few have succeeded. At least we can assume so by their absence. Unfortunately, wherever they went, they never returned.”

Memory nodded again. She was getting jittery, nervous of what she was about to attempt, and her head felt like it was bobbing up and down of its own accord. “Thayl said the same thing, that Providence said it’s pretty much one way, unless someone is holding the door open, like she did for Thayl.”

Bedevere put his tea down without having drunk any and leant against his desk, as though the enormity of what they discussed required some support. “If you succeed, is that what you would do for me? Hold the door open, so I can confirm what you have done?”

“Only if you want to go through. I know it could be dangerous, and I’m asking so much.”

“Not at all. To even take a step into the other world would be an incredible experience. It would prove so much of what I’ve theorized. I trust you to help me return home again.”

Memory wasn’t sure she liked the answer. It meant she had no reason left not to try, and Bedevere’s faith in her only made her feel worse.
What if something goes wrong?

But she had to try. For Will. “No time like the now, I guess. Shall I?”

A single nod marked his approval, and Memory focused her thoughts. She considered locations, and picked the vacant lot from one of her returned memories. Instead of pinching the Veil she placed her hands palms together and jabbed them forward like a thrusting blade, then spread them, widening the hole, spilling the heat of her magic into it. Before her eyes, the Veil tore and opened, swirls of smoke whipping about.

Bedevere said nothing, just looked at her for approval and then stepped through.

Memory held her breath, and just a moment later, he returned. His face had turned an off-green tinge, and he walked straight to the lounge across the room and sat down.

Memory let the doorway fade.

It worked. She could tell just by the look on his face. Memory sat down hard in the seat Bedevere had offered her before. She had opened a door to the rest of the world. Will could go home. He would go home. He would leave her.

Memory’s hands shook, and her throat felt blocked. The pot of tea rattled violently beside her. Bedevere put his hands on it to keep it still and looked at her, concerned.

“Deep breaths, in, out, in. You have just achieved something incredible, but you have to keep calm. When your emotions overflow, so does the magic inside you. Like a pot boiling over.” Bedevere spoke a few words in the magic language, and the pot bubbled and steamed, spilling tea from its spout. Memory sympathized with his demonstration. “I believe that’s what is causing your accidental Veil door events also. The Veil is of magic, and like calls to like. The mass of magic within you is unstable, and when you aren’t in control, that magic tries to flow through the Veil as well, taking you with it. You just need to keep calm.”

“I just need to keep calm,” Memory repeated like a mantra. Her inner voice laughed maniacally at the idea.

“The other world, the rest of the world, even the brief glimpse…” Bedevere’s jaw shook. “I would love to go back, for longer, again, anytime you would let me. But of course we must learn if a way to return to Avall is possible, in case the door closes.”

Travel between the worlds would change Avall forever. It would change the rest of the world forever as well, to discover Avall, to discover magic was real. It was too much to consider, too large of a responsibility. At least for now, as far as they knew it was one way only. Just enough for Will to go home.

“No one else can know. Not yet,” Memory said, looking at Bedevere.

The pleading expression on her face must have been obvious.

“Of course. It is too early,” he said.

“Thank you,” Memory said and stood up. Bedevere stood as well and put a hand on her shoulder when her center of gravity failed and she almost fell. Still shaky, she thanked him and headed to the door.

“Memory?” Bedevere said.

She looked back.

“You are a wonder,” he said with a bowed head.

She left.

Back in the hall to her chambers, she found Roen, pacing in front of her and Eloryn’s doors.

“Hey you,” Memory called to him as she approached.

Roen looked up, startled out of thoughts that had him frowning. Those frowns turned into a smirk at one look of her outfit.

“So sometimes I get distracted and forget what I’m wearing! Honestly, I am actually making an effort at my etiquette classes now. And still I end up like this.” Memory tried to laugh casually, but wired nerves made it sound like a snort.

Roen chuckled silently and dropped his head, looking at the floor. When he looked back up his smile had faded slightly, and his eyebrows were twisted.

“I’m leaving,” he said. “I’m going home with my parents, back to our duchy.”

Memory stopped in her tracks. She had in no way prepared for any craziness today aside from her own. “Why? You said you’d stay? Is this, because of me, what I did sending you to see Lory?”

Roen shook his head but his lack of voice made Memory second guess his response.

He put his hands in the pockets of his coat and shrugged. His hair was a mess and gray smudges marked his bottom eyelids. “I wanted to tell you and El first, before letting my parents know. And then the Council, since they seem keen on my absence.”

“Have you told her yet?” Memory asked, tilting her head at Eloryn’s door.

Roen looked at the door for a long moment. “No. Soon.”

Roen bent forward and kissed Memory softly on the cheek then walked away.

She watched him go then stood in the hallway, numb, for a long while after.

Hope is right. Soon I’ll have no one left.