The Last Faerie Queen by Chelsea Pitcher

Author:Chelsea Pitcher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: teen, teen lit, teen reads, ya, ya novel, ya fiction, ya book, young adult, young adult fiction, young adult novel, young adult book, fantasy, faeries, fairies, fey, romance, last changeling, faeries, faery, fairy queen, last fairy queen
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2015-10-05T16:00:00+00:00

20

ElorA

When the road narrowed to a razor-thin ledge, the mortals began to fret. First Taylor faltered, then Keegan, and Kylie, the only human permitted to ride up the path, kept peering over Lamia’s back at the darkness below.

“Trust,” I said softly, all-too-wary of spies listening in. The servants of the Dark Court still followed us in a swarm. And between the spindly branches of the nearby trees, snowy tree owls peeked out with impossibly black eyes. This close to the mountain’s summit, everything was black on white. Tufts of mist drifted across a landscape of jagged stones, while the snow-capped mountain rose up into the twisting black spires of the Unseelie Castle. Of course, the great obsidian structure up ahead was merely the tip of the Unseelie stronghold, its inner workings weaving all the way down into the mountain.

We dark things needed a place to hide in the summer months, when the veil that covered our land could not keep out the light. And in the winter months, when the world was cloaked in glorious blackness, we climbed out of the earth like dead things, and we danced. We would dance tonight.

“Come along,” I said, walking ahead of the group, showing them how it was done. Even without my wings, I had little fear of falling. I’d walked this path since I was a child, hurrying down the winding ledge until I reached the forest below, the snow-tipped trees that rose black and leafless no matter the season. To the mortals it must’ve looked like a lifeless wasteland, but they did not understand the things we did. Without death, there would be no new life. No growth without the decay. If nothing ever died, the earth would’ve been overpopulated centuries ago.

None of us would’ve been born.

And so the snow falls over the world, quietly lulling its creatures to sleep, so that all may be reborn in the spring. So the rocks sit, the blind and silent judges of the world, cold as the faeries here and almost as endless. And so my feet curved over the stone, like a seashell curving over a pearl.

“Faith,” I said softly, and my voice carried on the wind to the mortals behind me.

“Trust.” I wobbled playfully, and then caught myself when the mortals gasped.

“And connection.” I took a tiny leap and landed on one foot, perhaps showing off a bit. I just wanted them to get comfortable, to believe in the earth’s protection. Ironically, the only way for a human to travel this path successfully was to believe the earth would protect them on their passage. Most humans had long since lost their connection to the planet. Lost their faith in her goodness. Stopped trusting themselves.

Those humans would fall.

I slid my foot across the path, fast enough for the ledge to slice me, and as my blood slipped over the rocks, disappearing into the crevasse below, I turned to the humans and smiled. “And, if all else fails, a little gift is always appreciated.”

Taylor

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