"What?" Tatou asked.
"When Melusine taught Plantine and me how to block Father's telepathic intrusions, I became the best at building interior walls. I was certain that would stop everything."
"But it didn't?"
"No." Melia's heart hammered in her chest. No matter how many psychic walls she threw up, or how thick the walls were, when Faerie's moons were dark the visions came. The most logical explanation made her uneasy. They weren't coming from outside of her, they were bubbling up from within.
"Try the ylandria one more time," Tatou said.
Melia slumped with her back bowing out, her elbows on her thighs, and her chin on the flats of her fists. They used to chase glow sprites on the shores of the Undine, but now they experimented with faerie herbs.
Maybe the ylandria wasn't working because she didn't want to know the truth. Her father's trespass had violated some inner boundary, one from which there was no retreat. It was a disturbing thought, to be forever transformed for the worse through no fault of her own, and at such an early age. — Excerpt from Chapter 1. Ylandria, Half Faerie
Melia's INNER WORLD, her psychic terrain, has been invaded in a troubling way. Who is responsible for said invasion, the sudden introduction of violent images that now recur according to a lunar rhythm?
From The Uses of Enchantment, On the Meaning and Significance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim: "There is a widespread refusal to let children know that the source of much that goes wrong in life is due to our very own natures—the propensity of all men for acting aggressively, asocially, selfishly, our of anger and anxiety. Instead we want our children to believe that, inherently, all men are good. But children know that they are not always good, and often, even when they are, they would prefer not to be. This contradicts what they are told by their parents and therefore make the child a monster in his own eyes.
The dominant culture wishes to pretend, particularly where children are concerned, that the dark side of man does not exist, and professes a belief in optimistic meliorism."
Not only do "CHILDREN know that they are not always good, and even when they are, they prefer not to be", children ALSO know the same about ADULTS!
As Melia's story opens she struggles with that universal question: Whose demons? Hers? Her Father's? Or ... someone else's? If they're not hers, how are they being/could they be transmitted into her mind? Through some INVISIBLE but potent connection, energy, field? Electromagnetic forces interacting with plasma?
The half faerie just wants to stop them and get on with her life. Meanwhile, if she could sprout a pair of wings and be like all the full-blood faeries!
Imagine Dragons cover of Demons by Gareth Bush & Morgan Kingdon:
Demon Lyrics:
When the days are cold
And the cards all fold
And the saints we see
Are all made of gold
When your dreams all fail
And the ones we hail
Are the worst of all
And the blood's run stale
I wanna hide the truth
I wanna shelter you
But with the beast inside
There's nowhere we can hide
No matter what we breed
We still are made of greed
This is my kingdom come
This is my kingdom come
When you feel my heat
Look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
Don't get too close
It's dark inside
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
At the curtain's call
It's the last of all
When the lights fade out
All the sinners crawl
So they dug your grave
And the masquerade
Will come calling out
At the mess you made
Don't wanna let you down
But I am hell bound
Though this is all for you
Don't wanna hide the truth
No matter what we breed
We still are made of greed
This is my kingdom come
This is my kingdom come
When you feel my heat
Look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
Don't get too close
It's dark inside
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
They say it's what you make
I say it's up to fate
It's woven in my soul
I need to let you go
Your eyes, they shine so bright
I wanna save that light
I can't escape this now
Unless you show me how
When you feel my heat
Look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
Don't get too close
It's dark inside
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
As a half-faerie, Melia is an outcast in the enchanted world where she lives with her two sisters and full-blood faerie mother. The girls' father has been exiled to the mortal world for breaking his faerie troth. When a tragic accident destroys what's left of Melia's fractured family, her mother is unforgiving. The punishment she metes out will leave her daughter torn between guilt and ecstasy, challenge the bonds between three sisters, and complicate Melia's relationship with a young priest who’s come to the Realm of Faerie on a mission of his own.
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