Elixir by Ruth Vincent Read Free Book Online Page A

adoption to fairy families who’d lost a son or daughter in the Elixir drought. But Obadiah didn’t seem like those abused, neglected children—he was part Fey, and when he’d talked about family, it sounded like he missed them terribly. Then again, my own Shadow had been a happy little girl. But she’d been the exception . . .
    “Yes, I was one of the Shadows,” he said.
    “But Shadow children are adopted, not kidnapped. No one held you hostage . . .” I protested.
    He frowned, his expression changing from surprise to disgust.
    “You think the Shadows stay because they want to?”
    “Why, of course, they’re free to leave at any time. Everyone knows that.”
    He slowly shook his head in disbelief, gripping the bar top with hardened knuckles.
    “Are you free to leave?” he asked me.
    “Free to leave the human world? No, of course not.” A lump rose in my throat. “But that’s because the Fairy Queen . . .” My voice trailed off, the old anger flaring.
    For a moment, Obadiah said nothing. He leaned back against the bar.
    “Well, I think the Fairy Queen tricked you twice, Mab,” he said at last, his voice icy, “if you really don’t know the fate of those stolen children.”
    “But, I thought . . .” The words died on my lips.
    What had happened to the children we’d rescued? Weren’t they with the fairy families who’d adopted them? I felt afraid. If the Queen had lied to me about being able to return, what else had she lied to me about?
    “What happens to the Shadow children?” I asked, the fear rising in my stomach.
    He set the glass down with so hard a clink I feared that it would shatter.
    “Do you truly not know?” he asked. “Are you really so ignorant? Or are you playing ignorant to make me like you?”
    I turned away, my pride and heart smarting. I wasn’t going to let him speak to me like that, no matter who he was. Grabbing my coat and pocketbook from the bar stool, I began walking quickly towards the door.
    “Good god, you really don’t know.”
    I stopped, but I didn’t turn around.
    That was when I heard him say, soft and low, from behind me:
    “She kills them.”

 
    CHAPTER 5
    “T hat’s not true!” I said, whirling around to face him. “Why would you believe such a horrible rumor?”
    “It’s not a rumor.” He looked at me coldly. “It’s a fact.”
    I shook my head. I couldn’t believe what he was saying.
    “But if it’s true, wouldn’t you be dead?” I shot back at him. “The Fairy Queen didn’t kill you. You came back. And the other children—they must still be with their adopted fairy families.”
    “Have you ever met any of these adopted families?” Obadiah asked me.
    I was about to retort something, but his words stopped me.
    “No, I haven’t,” I admitted, “but I’ve heard a lot about them. When I was younger, I used to help the Queen on rescue missions, before she lied to me . . .”
    “I don’t think that was the first time the Queen lied to you,” said Obadiah. “I don’t think there are any such adoptive families.”
    “What do you mean?” But my mind was whirling, a sick dread filling my gut. I thought of the children we’d led out of those hellish homes, their big, hollow eyes—I thought we were saving a human child and comforting a grieving fairy family at the same time. I saw my own Shadow in my mind’s eye, happy and cooing in her crib. The only way I could bear what we’d done to her was to think that somewhere in the Vale, she was growing up with loving fairy parents. Was it not true?
    “I think the Fairy Queen tricked you twice,” Obadiah said again.
    I felt like I was going to vomit. But why would she kill the children?
    “Look, I have no love for the Fairy Queen. I’ll never forgive her for what she did to me—trapping me in this human body, severing my powers. She betrayed me!” I said, my voice hot, fists clenched. “The Queen is evil. But what reason would she have for kidnapping and killing human