Lily Pondwhisper's Arc

Chapter 9 of 12

Lily crouched over the caster in the mud. The wand still burned in her fist. Mothman's red eyes fixed on something the caster clutched to her chest. The caster's hands hid it in the dark reeds. Lily leaned close but could not see. A small object, wrapped in her stiff fingers. Mothman took one step nearer. "That's mine," he said. "Buried it long ago. She dug it up." The caster's eyes fluttered. She pressed the thing harder to her ribs. Lily raised the wand between them. Its eerie glow flared, warm and white. Mothman flinched back one step. Then he held. The light did not blind him this time. He was too close, and too old for that trick. "Move the light," he said. "Or I take it and her." A voice came from the reeds behind Lily. "He hides everything." Lily turned. A pale fairy stepped from the wet grass. Leaves clung to her damp skin. Her white hair hung flat. Lily had never seen her, but she knew the look. Someone who had come to this dark place before and kept coming back. "You," Mothman said. Flat. He knew her too. "He took mine, once," the pale fairy told Lily. "A child carried it here. Never came out." She looked at Mothman without fear. "He buries what hurts him. Then guards it." Lily understood. The thing in the caster's hands was not Mothman's treasure. It was his mistake. Something he wanted gone and could not let go. The caster coughed and opened her fingers. In her palm lay a small heart-shaped clock. Diamond facets caught the wand's light. Tiny hands sat frozen at one hour. The caster's cracked voice reached Lily. "It marks when the curse was cast," she whispered. "He kept the hour. So no one could undo it." Lily's chest went tight. The curse was broken. But the proof of how, the record of the moment, sat in her palm. Her kin's true forms hung on knowing. Mothman lunged. Lily shoved the wand into his face and grabbed the clock in the same breath. Her fingers closed around cold diamond. Mothman's claws raked the mud where it had been. "Run," the pale fairy said. She stepped between Lily and Mothman, arms out. "I know his tricks. Go." Lily ran. She hauled the caster up by one arm. The clock burned cold against her chest. Behind her, Mothman's wings beat once. The pale fairy shouted something Lily did not catch. Lily reached the treeline and looked back. Mothman stood over the pale fairy in the reeds. He had not followed. He had chosen to keep the one who knew his secrets. Lily held the clock. She had the caster, the wand, and the frozen hour of the curse. But the pale fairy who saved her was now Mothman's, and the path home ran through his watch.