Paranoia, Pixies and Prophecies Read online

  “Shannon?” Laslow asked, stepping even closer. He reached a hand toward me, as if he wanted to stroke my face or touch my shoulder, but then seemed to think better of it. Instead, he let his hand drop down to my side to grab my bloodied hand in his own. “You are bleeding. I can heal that for you.”

  Without another word, Laslow clasped my hand in his own, covering the wound with his palm, and closed his eyes. He tilted his face toward the sun for a moment, and I felt a strange tugging on my palm like someone was giving me stitches with plenty of numbing cream.

  After a moment, he opened his eyes and pulled away, revealing my newly healed palm.

  “That is much better,” he beamed at me before stepping back and taking a deep inhale through his nostrils. “I have missed this world. The way it smells and sounds. Where are we, exactly?”

  The question was clearly directed toward me, but I still hadn’t found my words just yet. Like the gentleman he was, Hunter stepped in and answered for me.

  “Just outside of Portland, I believe,” he said, glancing around the empty field. About a half of a mile away, I could see a road that led toward the massive buildings of the main part of Portland.

  “Portland,” Laslow breathed in awe. “I never believed I would see this city again.”

  With those words, everything rushed toward me, all at once. The little bits and pieces I knew about Laslow’s life with Grams, the hurt it had caused when he’d left, the excitement in her eyes when I’d had my first vision of him.

  And the fact that he was standing right there in front of me.

  “Magda, we should get you home,” I said suddenly, surprising even myself.

  “Are you sure?” Magda asked hesitantly, glancing between myself and Laslow. “I can just—”

  “Nope, your husband hired us to deliver you back to him, safe and sound, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” I told her. “Unless you’d like to go to Aaron, of course.”

  Magda bit her lip, but there was hardly any hesitation. She fought back tears as she shook her head at me. “No. I want to go to Bruce.”

  Well, Magda may have been kidnapped, essentially, and on the run for the last few days, but at least it seemed as if it may have repaired her marriage.

  “You can take Laslow home,” I said, looking to Hunter and refusing to meet the elf’s eyes. “

  I’m sure Mom and Grams will be happy to see him.”

  “Shannon,” Hunter started, and I could hear from the tone of his voice that I was in for a slew of questions.

  “I’ll meet you there,” I promised him. “Later. Okay?”

  Hunter furrowed his brow, trying his best to read my expression, but I knew he would find that impossible at that moment. Finally, he just nodded, seeming to understand that I needed a moment to attempt to process everything.

  I turned to Magda, pointing her in the direction of the road, where I would hopefully be able to find cell service so I could call an Uber.

  “Be safe, granddaughter,” Laslow called after me.

  Those three words alone with like a knife to my heart and a piece of the most decadent chocolate cake all at once.

  “You, too,” I called over my shoulder.

  But I still couldn’t bring myself to turn around and look at him.

  20

  I was aware that what I’d done back in the field could be, and probably would be, construed as rude. But truthfully, I couldn’t think of any other way to deal with the situation. I’d needed to get out of there for a moment, to get some time and space to breathe.

  “I mean, okay, sure when I jumped through the portal I was expecting to land in the world of the fae, and I knew my grandfather was there, obviously, right?” I was saying aloud as Magda and I walked down the road in search of cell service. “But I wasn’t expecting it to happen yet. Or to happen so easily. I mean, sure, now that I know there are portals between the worlds that just anyone can find if they know the right tricks, it seems like it was bound to happen. But all I was trying to do was find you. I figured we’d nab you back from the bounty hunters and be off on our merry ways. What was the last thing on earth that I expected? To find my grandfather at the veil, trying to get back to this side. And, by the way, I am almost certain that he’s supposed to be in prison, which just begs the question- how did he get out? Did he do something nefarious? Should I really be associated with someone like that? Ya know? So many questions.”

  I shook my head, letting out a long, heavy sigh and looking up toward the sky like I thought I might find some help there. Actually, I wasn’t even sure what I thought anymore. Everything seemed topsy turvy.

  “Do you always talk this much when you’re stressed?” Magda asked with a small smile.

  “Oh. Yeah,” I replied sheepishly. “It’s a bad habit. Sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” she chuckled. “I’m finding it very entertaining- oh! Oh! I got service!”

  I swear, I thought I was about to cry when she made that announcement. Quickly, Magda called her husband to come to pick us up, deciding it was better we not ride in an Uber with a stranger, just in case we happened to let something slip.

  And by “we,” I knew she meant me, seeing as I could hardly keep my mouth shut.

  “You know, if Laslow was in prison, that probably means he’s one of the good guys,” Magda said, turning to look at me seriously. “Trust me on this one- the king is an evil, horrible man. The people he throws in those jails are the good ones. The dissenters. The ones who just happen to fall in love with the wrong person.”

  “Like you,” I replied.

  “Yes,” she sighed. “Like me.”

  We fell silent as we waited for Bruce to show up, and I mulled over her words. Of course, on a logical level, I knew that Laslow had been in prison for falling in love with my grandmother. But there was still that small part of me, the one with a lawyer’s heart, who thought that prison was a place for the bad people to go.

  Of course, I could rationalize that plenty of people were put behind bars for idiotic things, or because the system worked against them, but those types of cases were fairly rare.

  Especially when I was in charge.

  “That’s him!” Magda gasped as a Mercedes came down the road. The minute Bruce saw us, he slammed his foot on the gas, screeching down the street to come to a dead stop right in front of us. I wasn’t even sure he’d had time to put the car in park before he shoved open the door and raced out, sweeping Magda up into his arms.

  They hugged and kissed and stared intimately into each other’s eyes in a way that made me feel way too much like a peeping tom, so I had to turn my gaze away and stare up at the sky, pretending that the clouds were the most interesting thing I’d seen all day.

  “Thank you,” Bruce said, turning to me with watery eyes. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

  “Don’t mention it,” I replied. “Just give my boyfriend a good tip, alright?”

  I hardly even caught the fact that I said “boyfriend” until the word was out of my mouth.

  Well.

  That was something that I didn’t have the energy or brain capacity to attempt to dismantle right at that moment.

  “Let us take you home,” Magda said, turning in Bruce’s arms to look at me.

  The way she was clinging to him, and him to her, made my heart want to burst. I could tell just by looking at them that the fling with Aaron was over.

  No matter what laws and rules tried to keep Bruce and Magda apart, no matter what secrets came out or stayed hidden, it was very clear that they were meant for one another.

  And that just made me wonder: how many other couples weren’t together, or would never be together, because of this strange and idiotic separation of the worlds? How many loves had been torn apart?

  I knew of at least one other. And they were probably waiting anxiously for me to get home.

  “Yes, if you don’t mind, I’d love a ride,” I said.

  I had Bruce and Magda drop me
off just down the street. I needed to feel my feet on the ground, carrying me forward, before I faced what I hoped would be a happy family reunion.

  But, as it turned out, I wasn’t the only one who needed to hit pause before seeing Mom and Grams again. I found Laslow and Hunter halfway down the block, milling about in front of the Pearson’s house.

  “You guys haven’t gone in yet?” I asked.

  “Nope,” Hunter shook his head and glanced at Laslow, making it clear that this was the elf's place to speak.

  “I am, uh, nervous to see your grandmother after all these years,” he explained. “I am not sure if she believes I abandoned her, or, well… And then there is your mother…”

  He trailed off, unsure whether or not he wanted to finish his sentence.

  Just then, it was as if all of my previous hesitation and tension melted away. All I could see in front of me was a man who loved a woman more than anything else and had been mercilessly torn away from her and their unborn child.

  “She doesn’t think you abandoned her,” I promised him gently, taking his hand in mine. “A fae came to visit her after you had been taken and told her everything. She’s spent every single day since you left wishing she could have done something to help. Trust me, Laslow, she still loves you more than anything.”

  “She does?” He whispered quietly as if that act was far too big for him to even fathom.

  “Yes.” I nodded. “Come on. I’ll go inside first, and you can follow.”

  “Okay,” he breathed, straightening his shoulders and pulling himself up to his fullest height.

  I wasn’t sure how many days it had been in the human world since Hunter and I stepped through the portal, but I found myself hoping that it was somehow, miraculously, the exact same day, and therefore no one had noticed my absence.

  I was dead wrong, it turned out.

  The moment I opened the front door, I heard heavy sobbing coming from the living room. As a matter of fact, it kind of sounded like a symphony of sobs. One person would inhale heavily, while two others let out loud, long, whining sobs, and then the process would start all over again.

  “Hello?” I called out as I stepped inside, not really in the mood to startle anyone so badly I got my head taken off.

  Instantly, the sobs stopped and were followed quickly by a gasp.

  “Shannon?” Mom’s voice said.

  Within seconds she was skirting around the entrance to the foyer, coming to a stop just in front of me and examining my face like she couldn’t tell if I was real or a ghost.

  “Thank God, the girl’s alive!” Marcella called out, dashing up behind Mom. “Where on earth have you been? What happened to you? We haven’t seen you in four days!”

  “Four days?” I gasped. “Jesus, time really does move differently over there.”

  “Over where?” Mom demanded, just as Grams came around the corner.

  She paused, staring at me with wide, nervous eyes. We could both feel the tension in the air between us, heavy with the memory of our fight.

  Finally, though, the tension broke, and my little old grandmother ran up to me and threw her arms around me, letting out a shaky sob.

  “I’m so glad you’re alright,” she breathed, letting out a final sob. “But what the hell were you doing? Why didn’t you call?”

  Grams stepped back and punctuated each of her words with a smack to a different area of my torso, causing me to jump back to avoid her heavy hands.

  “Hey!” I protested. “I would have, but you don’t exactly get cell service over in the fae world.”

  “You crossed the portal!” Mom screeched. Now, it was her turn to hit me.

  Slightly annoyed, but also glad to be back to normal, I laughed it off and let them swat out their anger.

  “I made a split-second decision,” I shrugged. “I seem to be making more and more of those lately. But I think you’re going to thank me for this one.”

  “Thank you?” Mom demanded, raising an eyebrow. “Not likely, missy. I don’t want to thank you for nearly giving me a heart attack and almost causing a premature death!”

  I didn’t say another word, deciding it was best to show them instead of telling them. So I backed up to the front door and stuck my head out to peer at Laslow.

  He was standing on our front porch step, twisting his hands nervously in front of him. Hunter as down a little further on the path, hands in his pockets, and his shoulders slumped.

  “I’ll just give you some privacy,” he said, giving me a wink and a little wave.

  “Thank you,” I grinned at him, then turned my attention back to Laslow as Hunter walked away. “Are you ready for this?”

  “Shannon, who are you talking to?” Grams demanded from the foyer behind me.

  “Just a minute, Grams,” I called over my shoulder. “So?”

  That was directed to Laslow. I hadn’t missed the way he’d perked up at Grams’ voice like an excited puppy. He desperately needed to see her, I could tell.

  “I shall come inside,” he nodded seriously.

  I opened the door wide and stepped back, shifting so that I didn’t obscure Mom and Grams’ view. I moved behind them to stand next to Marcella, who put an arm around my shoulders and leaned down to whisper in my ear, “You did good, kid.”

  Not that I needed anyone’s approval, but to have Marcella’s made my insides swell up like a helium-filled balloon.

  “Oh my,” Grams gasped the second she saw Laslow.

  Standing next to him like that, the height difference was very apparent and probably would have been almost laughable if it weren’t for the weight of the situation.

  Grams stumbled back a step, tears clouding her eyes, and pressed her hands to her mouth hard like she was afraid that one more sound and breath of air would blow Laslow away, and she’d truly never see him again.

  “Who… are you… Shannon?” Mom demanded, turning away from Laslow to look at me.

  “You are so beautiful, my child,” Laslow breathed, stepping toward Mom and looking at her with that same loving gaze he’d gifted me. “I never dreamed my little girl could have been quite so perfect.”

  Mom’s mouth dropped open, and she let out a strangled sound that was somewhere between a cry and a shout. She whipped around, staring between Laslow and me, trying to figure out if this was some sort of trick.

  “Elle, it’s really him,” Grams finally breathed. “After all this time, you’ve finally come back.”

  “There was not a day that passed by where I did not desperately wish to return to you, Adora,” Laslow murmured, bending down to press his forehead against her own.

  And then, I witnessed something I thought I’d never see in my entire life. Laslow grabbed Grams around the waist and kissed her like they were two newlyweds on V-day. In fact, it got so hot and heavy that I had to look away out of pure embarrassment.

  “Your Grams has still got it, huh?” Marcella laughed out loud.

  Blushing, Grams pulled away from Laslow and glanced at Mom and me.

  “It has been a very long time,” she said breathlessly.

  “Hey, Mama, if you’re going to get kissed like that, I don’t plan on making a fuss,” Mom chuckled.

  “HA!”

  The sound Laslow let out was so abrupt and almost terrifying that I actually jumped.

  “She is funny, Adora,” he laughed. “Our daughter is funny!”

  “Try living with that for sixty-five years and you might think a little differently,” Grams replied. “Now, who’s hungry?”

  And, as we always did when there was a massive family crisis going on, we ordered food. From three different restaurants, actually, since the last time Laslow was in the human world the restaurants weren’t nearly as huge and diverse as they were now.

  By the time we’d all stuffed our faces and filled out bellies, Grams and Laslow had recounted the story of how they met about a hundred and one times.

  Not that I minded. I would have heard that story every minute
of every day for the rest of my life if it meant I got to see my Grams giggle and laugh like a woman in love all the time.

  Because she was a woman in love. No matter how many years they had been separated for, the love that she and Laslow shared seemed like it was new at all times.

  I might have doubted it when I’d first brought him back, but now, there wasn’t a single doubt in my mind. I may have gone through that portal to get Magda, but I was really meant to find Laslow.

  When we had all finished eating, Marcella leaned back from her place on the floor in between Mom and me and surveyed Laslow with a keen eye. Honestly, I got a little nervous. Marcella was a rather unpredictable person, and for all, I knew she was about to announce that she absolutely despised Laslow.

  That would cause a fight that I did not want to see.

  “So, Laslow,” she started slowly, and I could literally feel my heart pounding against my ribs, “I get the sense that there is something you would like to say?”

  I didn’t dare breathe a sigh of relief yet, fully aware that this could go either way. Grams shot Marcella a warning glare, silently telling her not to do a thing that might mess this up.

  Laslow, though, wasn’t the least bit on edge. As a matter of fact, he simply leaned forward and nodded.

  “Yes, there is,” he replied darkly. “The elven king of our world is not the true king.”

  Laslow paused, glancing around the room as if he expected his words to garner more of a reaction from the other three. But they just stared at him blankly, not yet understanding everything since they’d never been to, or been a part of, the fae world.

  “Magda mentioned that,” I nodded encouragingly to Laslow. “She said he’s evil, to boot.”

  “Absolutely,” Laslow replied. “King Inueya is the reason our worlds are so divided. And if we would like to end that division, to make our worlds whole again and allow our people to live freely, as they deserve, the king must be overthrown and the true leader restored.”

  “So you’re saying that everything that’s happened- the fighting between the fae and the witches, is all the result of an evil king who’s not even supposed to be on the throne in the first place?” Marcella clarified.