“Not what I meant. You’re clearly uninformed, so I will tell you what you are doing.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared down at the rodent trying to ferret-splain my own craft to me. He was lucky that I hadn’t punted him into the lake yet. Maybe it was because of his cute stature.
“Aflying ointmentis an old witch potion meant to help the witch astral project, either into their own subconscious or into other planes. It alters your state of mind with powerful hallucinogens so that you can do things your otherwise weak mind would not be able to do on its own.” Feri nodded, clearly proud of himself.
I pointed a wooden spoon at him. “If you ever explain my own work to me again, I will lock you in something much lessbreathablethan a storage container.”
His lip curled, revealing sharp teeth. “You will need to learn to have more grace so that you do not offend absolutely everyone who passes through your court.”
I didn’t remind Feri that I wanted nothing to do with the fae court. The argument was a losing battle, and I wasn’t going to waste energy on it.
“If you plan on taking this flying ointment tonight, you should call Rhoan to stand watch over you. I know that the two of you aren’t exactly on good terms yet. I would not argue if you wanted to call your female friends. I would feel much more comfortable if someone were to be here while you made this initial trip.” Feri looked into the cauldron dubiously.
No. I didn’t want anyone here. A fierce need to be self-sufficient slammed into me. I could do anything on my own. I didn’t need others constantly holding me up, constantly rescuing me. It…it was shameful.
“How about this?” I crossed my arms over my chest before facing the rodent. “I’ll leave my phone unlocked. If anything happens, you can call one of my friends. In fact, I’ll open it up to Addie’s phone number. Her husband is a cop, and he has teleportation powers. Call them, and they’ll be here in the blink of an eye.”
Feri wrinkled his nose. When he narrowed his eyes at me, I wondered what was going on in his little rodent mind. But he acquiesced, much to my surprise.
After the potion brewed, I poured it into a teacup. There was something moderately entertaining about drinking such a poisonous brew out of a delicate cup. It brought a smile to my face while I drank something that could potentially kill me.
Had I balanced the herbs properly? Was it too much? I liked to think that I had my craft perfected, but all it took was one improperly brewed potion to prove me wrong. If anything happened, then Addie could use the ashes of my body to raise my corpse and admonish me one last time.
The room turned hazy. My head floated towards the ceiling. I grabbed at the counter to keep myself from falling.
So, that’s why they call it a flying ointment, I thought before I promptly blacked out.
* * *
I crashed through the dark,slamming into door after door. I almost laughed at the shapes they took. What should have been a roughconcepthad become actual doors. There were French doors, sliding glass doors, screen doors.
Over and over, I hit them. The impact rattled me each time. They started to slam shut as I approached. I couldn’t stop my fall. Someone else was trying to block me out. I had no choice but to careen straight into the hard surface.
Nothing could stop me, though. Whoever had closed these doors didn’t have the power to keep me out. My potion was a little too strong, but that was a problem I would deal with later. Right now, I tore through the magic keeping my memories from me.
I’d always thought that I’d forgotten my childhood. My parents told me that one day, I woke up and was justdifferent. They’d had no explanation for why I’d changed. In my mind, I’d blamed Alvin. He’d made my childhood a nightmare, so I blocked it all out.
That wasn’t entirely true. I couldn’t remember anything because someone locked it away.
The change my parents noted…that was when the fae took their real child and put me in the little girl’s place.
A knife slid through my heart at the thought, but I barely had time to process it. I fell into a memory before I could even think to stop. The world bloomed with color and sound all crashing in at once.
I blinked away the blur. The world was too large. Everything towered over me. I stared up at the massive marble columns and the flowers hanging from them with my jaw hanging open in awe.
“There you are, my little blossom.” A woman lifted me from the ground and held me close to her chest.
I craned my neck to look up at her. She had long blonde hair the same shade of gold as my own. It hung down her back and revealed pointed ears heavy with a myriad of earrings like she was a magpie collecting shiny objects. When she smiled, I noted a sharp tooth at the corner of her mouth.
We looked so similar, this woman and the woman that I saw in my mirror.
She cradled the back of my head and pressed a kiss to my forehead. When she pulled back, her grin practically beamed. She was brighter than the sun shining down on us.
Was this the queen who’d given birth to me? I refused to call her Mom. She hadn’t raised me the way that Molly James had. This woman hadn’t patched up my skinned knees. She hadn’t been there when my prom date cheated on me, leaving me crying on the curb that night.
But this woman mesmerized me in a way I couldn’t explain.
The man that sidled up behind her had brown hair woven with threads of copper. He pressed a passion-filled kiss to her cheek before turning his attention to me. The eyes that looked back at me were the same color as my own.