Tracks

I wasn’t really excited to do this, I decided as I sat on the beach and stared at my cell phone. It was one thing to talk to Leila and Tracks about Faeries; since coming to Ireland, nothing had seemed particularly normal anyway. But Ma and Dad were still in the world I considered normal. Ma and Dad were still in Connecticut—Dad still managed an electronic store and Ma still worked in the local gallery. Life was still human where they were. And part of me wanted to keep it that way.

But I knew I couldn’t. Not anymore.

I dialed the number and put the phone to my ear, part of me praying they just wouldn’t answer and I’d be able to convince myself not to try again later. But as I heard the click on the other end, I remembered something else: they were eight hours behind us. Of course, they were home.

“Hullo?” Ma’s voice was tired. I could hear her yawn even as she tried to stifle it.

“Hey, Ma.”

“Leslie?”

“Leslie? Is that her?” Dad’s voice came next, distant.

“Aye, it’s her. Sweetheart, what’s the matter?” Ma asked, and then a moment later I heard the sound of my dad picking up the other phone.

“Leslie? What’s the matter? Are you all right?” he repeated as though Ma hadn’t spoken.

For a split second, I smiled. It was good to hear their voices again. I hadn’t spoken to them since I’d said goodbye at the airport; I’d been too afraid I’d break down in tears if I did. But…I missed them. I’d forgotten that.

“No, I’m fine. Everything’s all right, guys. Relax.” I laughed a little to prove my point. “I’m sorry. I totally forgot about the time change. I’ll call you guys back later.”

“No!” Ma said a little too loudly. She paused and took a single, calming breath. “No, sweetie, it’s all right. Your father and I have been worried about ye. Come on; tell us how yer trip’s been.”

How’s it been? I wanted to say. Awful. Terrible. Ri-fucking-diculous. But I kept that to myself. I could get into that once I figured out how to work Faeries into the conversation.

“Not so bad. Ma, you neglected to mention that Calaway’s the size of a thumbnail.”

She and Dad laughed.

“See, that’s exactly what I said when I first visited your mom’s home,” Dad commented, still chuckling. “I could’ve spit farther than the town stretched. Drove me insane all three days I was there.”

“What’d you do?”

“Booked a hotel room in Galway. Kept me sane for the most part.”

I snorted. That was exactly the kind of thing I’d have done if I had the money and the freedom to do it. “Smart man.”

“Have you met many of the locals yet?” Ma asked, her voice wistful. “Catherine and Benjee? Oh, what about Mary? She was always such a charm. Used to sneak me and Thom cookies when Mum wasn’t watching.”

I smiled. “Yeah, I’ve met Mary. She’s, uh, making me a dress for the local ball or something. By the way, thanks for the warning, Ma.”

She laughed again. “I didn’t expect ye’d go. Guess I shouldn’t have underestimated Leila’s power of persuasion. Aaron had the same complaint last year. And what of Catherine and Benjee?”

“Haven’t gotten around to them yet. It’s been an…intense few days,” I decided at length.

“Oh?” Dad said curiously. “How so?”

I hesitated a moment, wondering what exactly I could say without just dropping the Faery tale bomb on their heads. Then I remembered Ripper’s.

“Remember Ripper’s, Ma?”

“Jimmy Chesney’s place. Aye, and I do. Been around as long as I can remember. What about it?”

I suddenly wished I’d picked a less sentimental place. “It, uh, it’s collapsed, actually. The whole place is leveled.”

For a second, there was silence on the other end of the phone. Then, I heard Ma’s soft sigh. “Oh no,” she murmured. “That’s awful. Is Jimmy all right?”

“Yeah, he’s fine. No worse for wear, luckily,” I said, glad that I could give her some good news too.

“Oh, Ripper’s was his baby. He poured all his money into it after his father died and left him the building. That poor man.”

I winced. I hadn’t realized just how important the place had been. “Yeah.”

“Does he have plans to rebuild, do you know? I hope so. Ripper’s was doing so well last I heard.”

“I have no idea, Ma. But I’ll keep you up to date. I’ll ask Brenna when I get back to the house and give you a call back.”

“Oh, ye’re not leaving already,” she said quickly, as though trying to stop me before I hung up. “Oh, stay a little longer, sweetheart. We miss you so much.”

I felt the first hint of tears prick my eyes. “I miss you guys too. I miss home.”

“It’ll still be here in a couple months,” Dad assured me gently, his subtle way of saying “don’t ask to come home yet.” “Just enjoy your vacation.”

“If only I could,” I murmured.

“What’s that?”

I cringed. Of course they’d hear that; all parents have super powers when it comes to mumbling. I still wasn’t sure how to turn the subject in the direction I wanted.

“Nothing. It’s just been a long few days.”

“How so?” Ma wondered again.

“There’s…a lot more to this thumbnail than I expected when I left.” I chuckled wryly. “And honestly, if I’d known, I probably wouldn’t have let you two convince me to come.”

The other end was silent again, and I could practically see my parents exchange a look.

“Leslie,” Ma said carefully, “what do ye mean?”

From her tone, I was pretty certain she knew what I was trying to get around to. And it wasn’t because of mother’s intuition: it was because she knew about Faeryland.

" Ma…what do you know about Faeries?”

I’d expected Leila’s reaction. A long, stunned pause or even a gasp of surprise. I expected Ma to spend a very long time figuring out how to get around the topic. But instead, she just sighed.

“Oh, Leslie…”

And with those words, I knew. Tears streamed down my face before I realized my eyes burned.

“It’s true, then?” I asked, trying to swallow them back so my parents wouldn’t notice. “What Leila said is true?”

“What did she say, honey?” Ma’s voice was so apologetic, so pained, I couldn’t have gotten mad at her if I tried.

" Ma, was Aaron a Faery?” I choked at last. “Was Uncle Thomas?”

This time, it was Dad who sighed. “Meara, we should have told her a long time ago,” he said softly.

I bit down on my hand to keep myself from crying out. It was then. All of it was true.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “We should’ve.”

“Ma?” I pressed, when she made no move to go on.

“Yes, Leslie. Aye, and your brother was a Faery.”

“And you?”

“No.” Through the certainty of her answer, I could hear the longing in her voice. “No, the magic only passes to the eldest child. Thom received the magic; I’m just a human with the blood, sweetheart. Just like you.”

I shook my head, even though I knew she couldn’t see it. “No,” I said, my voice a lot firmer than I’d expected. “No, not like me. I don’t want this, Ma. I don’t want to be stuck in this stupid war like Aaron was.”

“War?” Ma was surprised. “Leslie, what has Leila told you?”

“Almost nothing.” I wiped at my eyes. “All I could get out of her was the difference between her and some clan she called the Straight Edges. Magic, she said it was. Magic was the difference. But there’s more, Ma. There’s a freaking battle going on over here and no one will tell me why they’re fighting.”

“Who’s fighting?” Dad sounded concerned now. “Leslie, who is?”

“Leila.” I shrugged. “And her friends—the Naturalists, she said they were called. Like this is some stupid TV show. This is a game to them; she’s telling everyone on this side of the ocean that Aaron’s still alive. She’s saying it’s to keep me safe.” I swallowed. “Bull.”

“Leslie…” Dad’s tone was stern before he realized the triviality in censoring me considering the conversation. “I’d thought this was over,” he murmured. “Meara, I thought that—”

“So did I,” she murmured. “I never knew…I wouldn’t have sent him…” She trailed off, distressed.

“Ma?” I pressed, urgently. “Ma, what?”

The silence stretched on way too long. I clutched the phone in my hand and tried with all my might to keep patient. It nearly killed me.

"Ma.”

“This was supposed to have ended, Leslie,” she admitted, her voice quiet. “When Thom died, I thought the war was over. If we’d known it was still raging, that Leila of all people was still fighting, we never would’ve sent Aaron. Baby, we never would’ve sent you.”

“What’s the war, Ma? What the hell are they fighting for?”

“Leslie, we don’t want you involved in thi—”

“You think I want this either?!” I suddenly shouted, getting to my feet and kicking at the sand. “You think I wanted any of this?! The moment I lost Aaron, all I wanted to do was crawl into a hole and cry for the rest of my life, but you two begged me to come here! You said it would be good for me; you thought it would help. Aaron’s last wish was your stupid excuse. I didn’t come because I believed you, but because you asked me to. And now, I’m in the middle of this stupid war or battle or whatever, just as Aaron was.

“No one believes her, Ma!” My voice echoed through the rocks. “The townsfolk are blind enough to, but Fitz and the others—the dumbass Straight Edges—they know Aaron’s dead. And now they’re out for me.” I was shaking with anger but no matter how much I kicked or how loud I shouted, I couldn’t find any reprieve. “I’m stuck in the middle of all this just like Aaron was but no one will help me. No one will tell me anything. The worst part is that neither did you guys.”

My voice dropped then and the hurt flowed out. “Neither did Aaron.”

I sank back down on the sand with a thud. “I don’t know what to do anymore,” I murmured, carving my finger through the sand. “If I try to walk away, I can’t guarantee the Straight Edges won’t follow. You guys have got to help me. You’ve got to tell me what you know.”

I heard Ma’s quiet sobs on the other end of the line and I knew I’d told her too much. I hadn’t wanted her to know just how deeply I’d gotten into all this, and I hadn’t meant to blame them for my predicament. But that’s how it came out. That’s what she heard. And I knew that she blamed herself to.

She took a shuddering breath and let it out slowly. “Go to the cottage, Leslie,” she said quietly. “Get your laptop and hook up yer webcam. This is something we need to talk about in person.”

I ran back to Egan Street. I was a good ten minutes away but I made it in six and a half, a new personal record. And as far as I could tell, no one was home. Thank God.

When I made it to my room, I found Tracks sitting on one of the branches right outside my window. I crossed the room right away to let him in, apologized again when I saw his nose was bruised, then grabbed my laptop out from under my bed and hooked it up on the desk. Tracks pulled up a chair beside me, keeping out of range of the HP camera, and a moment later, my parents appeared on the screen.

Her eyes were red. Ma had been crying. An anvil of guilt plummeted in my stomach as I gazed at her and knew that I’d caused it. Tracks reached out under the table and slid his hand into mine. Behind her place at the kitchen table, Dad stood silently.

“It was three hundred years ago,” Ma began without preface, her voice soft, a tissue in her hand. She sniffled and took a deep breath. “Before that, all Faeries lived in peace in a land all their own. The legends refer to it as the Otherworld, Leslie, but that wasn’t what it was truly called. To us, it was Faeryland.”

Us. That stuck out a hell of a lot more than anything else she’d just said. Accepting my ma was technically of the same blood as the guy beside me took more effort than admitting to myself that Faeries were real.

“But three hundred years ago, there was a civil war. Faeryland was split right down the center with half fighting in the name of the king, the other half in the name of the queen. It wasn’t just a war among people; it was a war between rulers.”

I swallowed. I felt something intense coming. “Why?”

“In short, the king didn’t want to stay locked up in Faeryland. He wanted to branch out; he wanted to gain dominion over the mortals.” My brows rose and I fought the urge to look at Tracks. That was just so…human a desire—the desire for total domination. I’d expected mythical creatures to be above that.

Ma continued. “The queen had known of the king’s plans for a very long time, just as he had known she would never take his side. Two completely different people they were, darling, and he knew the only method to get his way would be to take the queen down by force.” The Irish in her voice was stronger now, and it made me smile a little to hear how much more relaxed Ma was with it. “When the war finally broke out, both sides were almost evenly matched. It was the same race fighting; their weapons were all the same.

“But the queen had a secret weapon, one the king never saw coming. No one is certain what it was any longer; the details have long since fallen out of folklore. But there was a violent explosion, one that rippled through the very hearts of every Faery present. The result: those who fought on the king’s side lost their magic; those who fought on the queen’s lost their wings.”

I sat up straighter. “Wait, are you saying there wasn’t always this wing versus magic division? All Faeries used to have both?”

Ma nodded solemnly. “Aye. That’s where the common idea of Faeries comes from—the stories prior to the seventeen hundreds. Once upon a time, those legends were truth…for the most part.”

“Why would the queen want to change that then?” I wondered, confused. “Why would she take away her own wings?”

“She didn’t mean to, Leslie. She wanted only to strip the king’s side of their magic, so that, even if he won the war, the king would never have the upper hand over mortals. But her plan went wrong, and she and her people were robbed of their wings.”

“It’s not a bad trade,” Dad commented with a shrug. “I’d rather be able to bend the elements than fly any day.”

“Which is exactly the attitude of the surviving members of the king’s army.” Ma nodded. “Recognizing they stood no chance against magic, they fled, leaving Faeryland in the hands of the queen and her warriors.

“That’s what they’re fighting for, Leslie.” The pain in her voice was evident. “They’re fighting for Faeryland. It’s been around since before the Tuatha de Danann came to Ireland, and it will continue to remain long after this world has ended. It’s the source of their power and their wings. Think of it…” She paused, searching for an analogy I’d understand. “Think of it as the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings. It drew energy from whoever was in possession of it. In the same way, Faeries draw strength and energy from Faeryland. Whichever side can obtain it permanently again will be almost undefeatable.”

I sat back. “And no one’s gained control in the last three centuries?”

She shrugged. “The Winged Ones have; the Elementals have—those are the true names of the factions Leila mentioned,” she stated calmly. “But neither for more than a short period of time. There hasn’t been a king or queen since the magical split. The queen gained control when the Wings fled, but after she died Faeryland has traded hands more times than can be counted. Its inhabitants were all driven into hiding, out of fear for who would take control next. Until a new king or queen arises again, Faeryland cannot be taken by either side. Until the next ruler comes to light, this war will never end.”