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— T A M M I
Home; my heart nearly ripping out of my chest to scream the word aloud. I was seating on a new, wine-coloured sofa I didn't recognise from my dreams of this place. But the antique clock, my mother's vase collection and the old and time-worn rocking chair were assuring me that this was the living room where I used to spatter my figurine collection all over the blood-red Persian rug, their plastic legs sticking in the golden strands of it and destroying what must've been a thousand-pounds worth carpet. But I was never scolded for ruining the carpet while playing, neither for eating outside the dining room or bursting into my parents' offices. Because every time I did any of these things, my parents were looking at me with the same adoration that was adorning my mother's features.
"I didn't know which tea you prefer so I asked Betania to bring all of them," she said with a little smile and I abstain from laughing at the multitude of kettles on the coffee table, the maid that brought them visibly sick of bringing them in.
"Anything non-caffeine is fine," I say and my mother pours me a cup that smelled like roses and wild berries. I knew exactly whose favourite tea is this, and the familiar, rich and soothing flavour of a sip of it confirmed my guess.
"You're buying tea from the Lowlands?" I ask her, the perfume of the plants from the lands where lesser Faerie dwell giving away even the merchant from whom it was bought. Merchants from the Lowlands are always lining up in Annwn's market on Saturdays when the Seelies are making their usual shopping for their sumptuous Sunday lunches after the weekly service in the temple, but Mum always stops at this particular hobgoblin's booths to get the finest teas gold can buy.
"Lady Seren often gifts me all kinds of assortments of teas. I give her, in return, magazines." I give her a look and the fact that she was serious makes me burst in laughter.
"I can't imagine seeing Seren reading about the latest mundane gossips or searching for fashion advice from human trendsetters."
"Neither do I, but it was the easiest way to trade information. And arrange little meetings, when you and Adeline were still too young to remember those."
Her eyes were full of a sad glee, the melancholy of those memories, of the stolen, few moments Adeline and I spent where we were supposed to be all along: home. "I do remember," I reply, little smile branding my face as I list again the chair, the vases and the clock showing now that it was past midday in the human world. Which meant that it was also the middle of the night in Faedom and my parents are about to inform the Queen and King that I haven't returned home.
"Mum," the word slipped so easily off my tongue I was as shocked at her when the sound of it met my ears. But I regained myself quickly, "I've had a visit from Princess Adelaise. She... it's going to happen soon."
She barely tenses, the motherly smile still warm and kind. "I know, my dear. We're ready. Are you?"
I nod fiercely and put the cup back on the tray. I've been waiting for this moment to come for years. "I've seen Adeline too. She's got some problems with the vampires in Boulder, you know?"
"That girl has a thing for putting herself in danger. I'm wondering how she isn't dead by now."
"I take that you're not on the best of terms?" I giggle and I spot some annoyance in my mother's eyes. But it vanishes quickly and she regains her kind posture.
"Are you staying over tonight?"
"You know I can't," I reply in a sigh. "Seren and Zain are probably on their way to denounce my absence to the Queen as we speak. I better head back..."
"I'm sure they'll understand."
"No, they won't," I say back and I frown at her smiling face. She really doesn't know them? They're not playing around the rules, and I already broke so many by coming here. "It was nice to see you, mum."
As I raise from the sofa, so does she. But I don't think anything of it, as I head to the front door and open it. But instead of stepping outside the house, I stumble backwards, away from Princess Adelaise who was, once again, standing before me. A strong grip catches my shoulder and I try to shake off its icy touch, but the person only clenches its fingers deeper into my flesh and their other hand catches my other shoulder. "I told you to find Adeline, Tara."
"I'm going to," I defend myself, trying to look over my shoulder to the person keeping me in place. My skin starts burning from their icy clench, but I'm still not able to shake them off. If anything, I'm getting weaker by the second. My eyelids start fluttering like a butterfly's wings, my knees shaking from the effort of keeping me standing up, and I'm suddenly too tired to will any word out of my mouth.
"We know," the voice behind me whispers. "We'll make sure you'll do exactly as we tell you to."
With the last bit of my powers, I spin hard, taking the person holding me by surprise and managing to get his hands off me. Through my blurred vision, I see his glamour wearing off, the image of my mother morphing into the figure of a tall man, an infamous tattoo covering the left side of his face. "The Crann Bethadh," I whisper and I try to back from them because when I turned to Adelaise, to ask for help or ask what is going on, it was no longer the famed princess of the Unseelies, but a brunette girl, with eyes colder than the man's touch.
"Tesaur", whispers the girl like in a dream and not a second later I feel jumped from my feet and pulled by a scaly rope into a sea of coal-black smoke.