Fey Queries

By Zia Williams McKean

Fey Queries is a modern faerie tale, full of unfolding secrets and terrible beauties. Luna was just a normal girl living in the suburbs, or so she thought. First, her father went missing without a trace, but, along with her mother, and her brother, Luna had found a new normal with school and boys and all the things a normal teen girl should be interested in. Years later, Luna learns all of the odd occurrences sprinkled throughout her life were connected to the biggest secret of her existence being kept from her. Joined by a recently revealed guardian, Luna discovers the Faerie Realm and all of the secrets it has to offer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Release date: May 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685833695

Book preview

1

Luna stepped outside her front door and squinted her eyes in the morning sun. The leaves that have been gathering at the base of the ancient oak in her front yard swirled lethargically in the breeze. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost hear whispers among the rustling leaves. But to what the whisperings were telling her, Luna was oblivious. Even if she could hear the murmured messages of change on the horizon, it would not have made any sense.

She walked slowly across the creaky wood of the front porch. The ratty ends of her jeans scuffed over dirty red converses and the ground as she stepped into the freshly cut grass. Ben, her older brother, had just finished mowing the grass in the front yard, the push lawn mower now rested heavily at the right side of the porch, the heat ticking. It reminded Luna of a crouching monster. There was something about the lawnmower that left her uneasy. The action of cutting the grass had always seemed unnecessary. Her father had never allowed the lawn to be mowed. She stopped and breathed the air in deeply. She could smell the sweet grass underfoot, the blooming honeysuckle, and the metallic scent that always precedes a storm. She also could smell the hot exhaust from the lawnmower that was still lingering around the yard. It seemed like she was the only other person that had such a sensitive nose, and would be bothered by the slightest smell that others didn’t even notice. Something else was wafting in the air as well, an elusive perfume of rotten leaves and twilight she sometimes smelt before something odd occurred. It seemed strange things were always in abundance around her, strange people, too.

Instinctively, she tensed, prepared for whatever might happen in the next moments. She knew she wouldn’t be hurt, sometimes she even laughed at the oddity that occurred--but usually, she was caught off guard when it happened. Wary, she continued to walk across the lawn and onto the old sidewalk that went past her house and into town, her hands stuffed into her brown corduroy coat pockets to hide her balled-up fists.

It was a warm Saturday morning, and the downtown arcade that sat under a big yellow pavilion was coming into view. She had spent most of her summers wandering around the grass that surrounded the arcade and playing the occasional video game. As she walked down the sidewalk, something she could have done blindfolded, she listened carefully to her surroundings, the silence of a quiet neighborhood a false reassurance. She didn’t hear another soul breathing or moving. She didn’t hear the footsteps in the grass beside her. She was sure she was alone, but she felt a hand carefully but firmly touch her shoulder, and she jumped around with a gasp, her hands jumping from her coat pockets ready to fight.

Luna, Aleck said, his voice like darkness, like ice. He stared at her with intense, deep blue eyes, and a reckless smile.

She had always been uneasy around Aleck. He was a stranger she saw everywhere. Luna felt like she knew him, but he was shrouded in a cloud of mystery. The only reason she knew his name was by catching him off his guard once. Sometimes, from the corner of her eyes, she could swear she had seen a long ear sticking out through his hair that was no longer chocolate brown, but the fiery red of an autumn leaf. But surely it was her eyes playing tricks on her, right?

Aleck, I didn’t hear you, Luna said, trying to sound as indifferent as he did. She lowered her fists and relaxed her hands. He had never harmed her in any way, in fact, once he had dashed from seemingly nowhere to push her out of the way of a car that would have hit her otherwise; but something about him always made her insides quake with anticipation. Luna was afraid someday that he might lead her to do something incredibly stupid, not for love, but maybe for something more sinister.

Some move swiftly. Stealth is a must. Only heard when they want to be. He chanted in a hypnotic rhythm. His voice often found that rhythm, and it drew Luna in every time like a moth to a flame. But some are hidden, even from themselves, Aleck said with a knowing grin.

You know that doesn’t make sense, right? Luna replied to his cryptic response. Did you read that in a poetry book or something?Or something. Aleck replied with that same knowing grin.

Luna had started to notice Aleck about a year ago. She usually saw him sitting in a tree, or lounging on a bench near the arcade. He didn’t attend the high school in town. Luna assumed Aleck lived in another town, and he just found his amusements where she called home. There were small communities dotted around the countryside, each with a small school, usually a K-12. It wasn’t unusual for teens to frequent the neighboring communities for some anonymous fun. He was usually alone, save a few times lately she had seen him with a girl with long lemon-yellow hair and odd green eyes watching her with mock interest.

So, where is your girlfriend today? Luna was obviously annoyed. They were standing in a neighbor's yard now.

She’s not as you elude, she is not mine any more than the leaves belong to the wind. He motioned to the leaves being picked up by the wind and dancing across the grass. Or did he flick his hand and then it happened?

Aleck was tall, six feet probably, and graceful as a dancer. He could dodge or sidestep anything. It was almost as if he didn’t walk so much as drift above the ground. Luna assumed he was one of those weird theater kids whose parents carted them to every dance class, choir recital, and school play. Or maybe he went to private school and took fencing? This boy was such a mystery!

Without thinking, Luna reached to take a leaf from where it was caught in Aleck’s chin-length messy mane. Aleck flinched, his hand twitching to his side as if he had something hanging from his tooled leather belt.

She began to examine the leaf curiously. Luna had a vast knowledge of plants. She always had, since she was a little girl, known the name and origin of every plant she touched. A sycamore leaf, she said, they don’t grow here. The wicked grin melted off Aleck’s face. He looked as if he had been caught hiding something. Where have you been today? she asked with innocent curiosity.

He looked at her stunned as if she had just asked him to cut off his own thumb. Then his face brightened with an idea. Come with me, I’ll show you! He said and reached for her hand. Luna pulled her hand away and stood her ground. Aleck, quick as always, spun to her other side and snatched her other hand with a surprisingly firm grip.

He began to run down the street with Luna having no choice but to be dragged along after him. When the street dead-ended into the woods, he kept on running, never missing a beat in the transition from suburbia to forest. Aleck almost flew over the roots and leaves, and Luna rambled behind him as fast as she could. She prayed quickly that she wouldn’t trip because he didn’t look like he intended to stop if she did.

After five minutes of the insane dashing, he stopped at a clearing. Aleck let go of Luna, she scowled at his as she rubbed her sore and red wrist. Her scowl deepened as she saw the bottoms of her jeans and her shoes were soaked with mud and foliage.

Luna had wandered these woods many times, she had even gotten lost once when she was seven. But now, she knew every foot of it but never had she discovered this clearing before. The woods were small, mostly pine and aspen, and scattered with small cabins, rarely used. But this forest proved her wrong, there were new trees. And they hadn’t seen a house yet. Usually, Luna wandered into someone’s back yard after ten minutes of being in the woods. But perhaps they were in a rich man’s expansive back yard planted with these unfamiliar trees to create the illusion of something interesting behind his house. In all her years of forest wandering, she had never seen this clearing or these trees. Surely she would have noticed the commotion of huge trees being planted. The noise alone would have been heard from anywhere in this small patch of woods.

She was surrounded by knobbed apple trees, their branches heavy with shiny, red apples, thick willow trees, green boughs hanging low like the hair of a weeping woman, sycamore and oak trees with trunks, three feet in diameter, pulling their roots out of the ground and twisting above the forest floor.

Everything was green, even though it was fall. The ground was covered in a carpet of spongy moss, a tuft of soft grass and small, white flowers littered the ground.

What is this place? Luna asked, in awe.

A place. He answered and sat down in the roots of a great oak tree that created a bowl-like chair. He looked well at home in the earthy roots.

Luna knew in her gut that these trees didn’t grow here. She was feeling strange. The strange perfume that always preceded weird occurrences was very strong here as if someone had emptied a whole bottle of the scent in this clearing seconds before Luna and Aleck arrived. It was so strong that it made Luna’s head spin and buzz. She thought she might pass out.

Do you smell that? She asked Aleck as