Zoe Linn and the Song of Faery


 
 
 
 
 Zoe Linn and the Song of Faery
 
 
 
 Michele Roper
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright © 2019 by Michele Roper
 All rights reserved.
 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
 
 
 
 
 For my Family
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 
 
 Chapter 1
 
 
 Chapter 2
 
 
 Chapter 3
 
 
 Chapter 4
 
 
 Chapter 5
 
 
 Chapter 6
 
 
 Chapter 7
 
 
 Chapter 8
 
 
 Chapter 9
 
 
 Chapter 10
 
 
 Chapter 11
 
 
 Chapter 12
 
 
 Chapter 13
 
 
 Chapter 14
 
 
 Chapter 15
 
 
 Chapter 16
 
 
 Chapter 17
 
 
 Chapter 18
 
 
 Chapter 19
 
 
 
 
 About the Author
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chapter One
 
 
 
 
 
 Zoe opened her day planner designed by famous faery artist, Morgan Stone. A faery with green wings decorated the upper right-hand corner. Halloween was in three days. Zoe circled October 31st so many times she'd torn a hole in the paper. It would be three days a year ago that her enchanted life with her parents had transformed into a hellish nightmare without them.
 Now, Mom was in a coma, wasting away at the hospital, and as far as everyone was concerned, including the police, Dad had disappeared from the face of the Earth. There had been no trace of him after the Masquerade Concert. Wishing she could remember what happened, Zoe closed her eyes. No matter how many times she tried, she could only recall some discordant notes piped on a piccolo, and bright light, after that, nothing. It was like a brick wall had formed around her memories of what happened that night.
 Zoe opened her eyes, and she slammed the day planner shut. Clutching the roses tighter in her left hand, she pressed the stems so hard that the thorns pushed through the plastic and their sharp tips pierced the palm of her hand even through her fingerless gloves. Why did she bring sterile store bought roses to Mom? Because Zoe hoped the scent would wake Mom up.
 Aunt Rachel turned the Volvo into the hospital parking lot. Zoe opened her day planner, again. She'd scribbled Miles Crossroad Coffee shop on Tuesday and Thursday. Those were the afternoons that Zoe and her band, Hearts of Darkness played to kids like herself: outcasts and loners who gathered at their favorite hangout.
 Aunt Rachel didn't like the band, and she didn't like Zoe's Goth friends, Rowan and Tal. Zoe countered that the psychiatrist said that it was healthy for her to have friends and be creative with her music.
 Aunt Rachel and Zoe had reached a truce: If Zoe played the flute in the school orchestra, then she got to play the electric guitar in Hearts of Darkness.
 Mom was written down in the Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday blocks for this week in her day planner. Black inked hearts circled the word, Mom. Four times each week Aunt Rachel and Zoe came to see Mom.
 Today, Abby and the baby were being dragged along. After visiting Mom, Aunt Rachel had to run an errand to the feed store for oats for the horses and some rat poison. A couple of nights ago, rats had invaded the horse barn, and it was making the horses skittish.
 Fifteen-month-old baby Brandon babbled in his car seat. He hugged his well-loved and tattered bear, Woo-Boo to his chest. On the other side of his car seat sat Zoe's cousin, Abby 'bitter as hell' because bad grades had caused her to get kicked off the cheerleader squad.
 Zoe's flute case pressed against her leg. If it had been left up to her, she would've tossed her flute out the window, a year ago. She hated it. But, Aunt Rachel made her play it because Mom would've insisted that Zoe stay in the orchestra.
 Today, she felt different; she wanted her flute. Bits of a melody from a dream last night had plagued her all day at school, and it had been going round and round in her head. She would try the new song at the hospital for Mom. Then, later Zoe would play it on her acoustic guitar in the privacy of her bedroom. She wasn't ready to share it with the band, which was strange because she shared everything with Rowan, her best friend.
 The B-52's on the radio sang Rock Lobster. Stupid song even though it did have a fun beat. Aunt Rachel always played the B-52's to keep her spirits up the afternoons they visited Mom.
 Zoe tightened her grip on the bouquet of roses with her gloved hand. Ever since Halloween, Zoe wore fingerless gloves; she was always cold even through the hot summer, she'd been freezing her butt off. With teeth chattering, she'd wear sweaters and jackets, even when she had to poop scoop from the horse stalls, while Abby pranced around in skimpy halter-tops and shorts.
 Zoe even wore her gloves to orchestra practice, and it bugged Ms. Iwanski, the music teacher. Even with her gloves on her hands, Zoe outplayed all of the other kids in the orchestra. She could hear a song one time and know it from beginning chord to endnotes. After practice, Ms. Iwanski would say that Zoe had magic in her fingers because the music she created with her flute made people feel it in their hearts.
 Zoe squeezed her hand into a fist. Her knuckles strained against the black cotton. What most people didn't know was that it wasn't magic that possessed her fingers, but a cold pain that burned in her joints.
 Aunt Rachel