The orchestra hall had no door that led outside the building. When we went into the hallway, Zil slid over to one side where no one else was hanging around.
Zil shoved her hands into her pockets and looked at the ground. “So I, uh, got a message for you, but I don’t think the school is a good place for us to talk. What’re you doing after class? I can give you a ride if you need it.”
“I hang out with my boyfriend after school, and he gives me a ride home,” I said with a slight frown. What was she being so mysterious for? I folded my own arms. “What’s this about?”
She looked up at me sidelong through her long black hair, almost as thick as a horse’s mane. “We got your letter.”
A chill ran down my spine from the eerie tone in her voice. I didn’t need to ask who “we” was, but I was shocked. Zil, of all the people at our school, was working with the Unseelie? She was outspoken sometimes, but most of the time she hung out in the back of the room and didn’t talk to anyone, especially in orchestra where she played the drums. I had so many questions for her—but she was right, this wasn’t the time or the place to talk about them.
“I’ll tell him that I’m busy today,” I said, recovering quickly.
Zil nodded once and swiped her nose with her thumb. “I’ll meet you in the parking lot after class.”
I turned and hurried back inside, while we still had a few minutes left of the break. I found Kai goofing around in the brass section with the other trumpet players, and gave him an apologetic peck on the cheek. “I’m getting a ride home with someone else today, but I’ll call you tonight.”
Kai looked around the room. “Oh yeah? Who’s driving you?”
“Zil,” I said, struggling to keep a straight face as if it weren’t such an unusual thing. I tried to think of an excuse that he wouldn’t question. “It’s girl stuff.”
He wrinkled up his nose. “Ew. I’ll talk to you later, then.”
I kissed him again before walking back to my seat. I didn’t normally lie to Kai, but I wanted to find out what Zil had to say before I decided if I wanted to tell anyone else.
Zil drove a beat-up, two-door car. Her trunk was too small to fit my broom, so I had to stuff it in the back seat. And it took a long time with the motor running for the heat to come on. We were both hunched over and shivering for the first part of the drive.
She asked for directions to my house and then said nothing for a long time. I sat in silence, tucking my hands into my armpits for warmth, wondering what I could say to break the tension. But she’d asked me to come with her. She should do the talking.
About halfway into town, she finally said, “You know that your mom can’t talk to you directly. It’s not safe for her.”
I perked up at the mention of Mom. “But did she get to read my letter? Did you see her? What about Akasha? Are they okay?” Once I started, the questions all came out in a rush.
“Whoa, calm down,” Zil cut across my chatter, her ears flattening back against her head. “I can’t tell you anything yet. You need to prove yourself first. Do something that shows we can trust you.”
I raised one eyebrow. “How am I supposed to do that?”
Zil slowed the car on the side of the street, then set the parking brake and looked at me. “Think of something. What can you do to help us?”
I held up my open hands and shrugged. “I have no idea. What do you need? Who are ‘we’?” I saw her open her mouth to protest and shook my head. “I know, you can’t tell me.”
The pookha drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. Outside of school, she had put on fingerless black knit gloves with white skulls on the backs of her hands, adding to her edgy fashion statement. I stared at her hands, distracted.
She caught me staring and glared at me. “What are you looking at?”
“No—nothing,” I stammered, looking down quickly. If she really could contact Mom, I didn’t want to screw this up. She could be my last hope. “I just wish that you could give me some kind of hint. I really want to help, but I have no idea about this kind of stuff. I’ve never done anything like this before.”
One side of her mouth turned up in a smirk. “Yeah, you always were the good girl, weren’t you? You had it all, with your perfect family and your pretty faerie friends.” She jerked her chin out at me. “Now you’re begging for your mommy because you don’t know what to do without her.”
I looked away out the window, turning my head from Zil, because I didn’t want her to see the tears coming to my eyes. “Look, if you’re just here to make me feel bad and you don’t know anything, or you don’t want to help me, then please just tell me. I can fly home on my own.”
Zil stopped the car, and I was afraid that she really was going to kick me out. Then she shook herself and took a deep breath.
“Look, what about that thing you’re doing with your friends this weekend? Some kinda books up in their fancy castle?”
I whirled to look at her in surprise. “How could you know about that?”
Zil smirked again. “Hey, you were the one talking about all of your plans at school. It’s a small building.”
“You were listening in on us?” My voice was barely a squeak. I wrung my hands together, trying not to completely freak out.
Of course she’d been spying! I’d never thought there could be an Unseelie agent in my own school—a school where magikin and human students were supposed to be treated equally. The twelve of us—before Heather joined this year—had been in the same class together since seventh grade, and I thought all of us were pretty close friends.
To think that there had been someone so close watching me all along, and reporting on my actions to my mother, made my skin crawl. Sure, my friends had been careful to look out for another student accidentally listening in on us, but we’d never checked for spies. I’d never believed such a thing could happen.
In that moment, I hated Zil. But she was the one person who I needed the most.
I balled my hands up into fists at my sides and struggled to keep my voice steady. I spoke straight ahead at the windshield, because I couldn’t look at her right now. “What do you want me to do?”
Her tone was dismissive, as if it were the easiest thing in the world: “I dunno, bring me a book or whatever. Some kind of secret information that only the Court has access to. Better if it’s something we can use against them.”
Through clenched teeth, I said, “You want me to steal from the Seelie?”
“Yeah, I think that would go a long way to proving your loyalty.” Zil shrugged. “If you just ask them to borrow a book, because you’ve told them that you’re trying to play us, then we’ll find out and you’ll be in a world of trouble. We have people inside the Court.”
The threat of other spies, even if she didn’t have a way to prove their existence, made me stop short. First Mom, then my classmate—I was getting used to betrayal. Who could I trust? And if I told Glen that I wanted to give dangerous information to the Unseelie that could be used against his grandfather’s court, just for a chance to save my sister, I couldn’t see him agreeing.
With a sinking feeling, I realized just what information Glen wouldn’t want me to give them. The sorcerer’s spell Heather had mentioned, the one that created another gate through the Veil to let the Unseelie Fae back into our world.
Something must have shown on my face, because Zil reached across and patted me on the shoulder. “Yeah, you know what we want, now that I’ve jogged your memory.” She took off the parking brake and shifted the car back into first gear. “I’ll take you home, princess, don’t you worry. Then you can come find me at school next week and show me what you’ve found.”
I continued to stare out the window, unable to think of anything else to say. Could I really go through with this? There was a knot in the pit of my stomach, and despite the cold, my palms were sweating like crazy. I desperately wanted to find my sister, but now I wondered if I was about to take that hunt too far.
10
Rosamunde
Ashleigh was true to her word: she’d made the library at Doe’s Rest Castle a cozy haven. While spending the day surrounded by books was more my little sister’s thing, I had to admit that the place was nice.
The library was in a separate wing off the main building. And it was big, with three floors of bookshelves around an open central area, with tall windows running up the sides. Built in the 1950s, the style was modernist, and a decorator had redone the inside in retro mod to match. A cheery fire was crackling in the brick fireplace and as promised, one table was laid out with cups, a heated tureen of cider, and all kinds of snack food.
Kai and I came in shivering from the cold of the broom flight—it was faster to fly up Quiggs Mountain to the faeriekin court’s seat at the top than to drive, but despite layers of clothing, the winter wind had cut right through us on the ride. Servants took our piles of coats, gloves, hats, and scarves, and then we rushed straight for the fire, holding out our frozen hands and rubbing them until the feeling came back.
I saw Sir Allen lingering near the door and turned my face away quickly, afraid he could read my guilty intentions. Was he posted to guard the books, or was he hunting some clue? Maybe Zil was right about Unseelie spies in the Court. He’d denied the Unseelie’s existence to me, but the secretive faeriekin could know more than he was saying, and now he was following some threat I didn’t know about.
I stopped my thoughts with a shake of my head. I was getting way too paranoid. No one but Zil knew what I was planning to do. This would be easy if I didn’t second-guess myself.
Ashleigh, ever the smiling hostess, came up with a mug of hot cider for each of us. “You’re crazy for flying in this temperature,” she told me with a shake of her head.
I forced a grin. “Yeah, but the view is incredible! It’s snow, trees, and mountains as far as the eye can see.”
Kai hugged himself. “I’m not letting you talk me into this again. Driving takes longer, but at least we can crank up the heat in the truck.”
Glen looked up from another table, where he and Heather were already surrounded by a stack of books. “I can drive you guys home later if you want.”
I shrugged and glanced at Kai. “We can see how we feel then?” I loved to fly, but I wasn’t going to pressure him.
Kai shrugged back. “Yeah, we’ll see. On a broom, I do have an excuse to wrap my arms around you.” He grinned and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
I giggled and tried to relax. We made small talk for a while and sipped our cider.
At last, I wandered over to Glen’s pile of books and scanned the titles, trying not to look too interested. Most of them were local histories, covering everything from the Gold Rush boom to the establishment of the Faerie Court. A smaller pile, all of them old, mentioned the Unseelie.
Nothing about sorcery, the Veil, or the gates that allowed passage between the mortal and Faerie realms. I hadn’t expected this to be easy. My stomach did a flip-flop when I thought about sneaking away from my friends, searching through the shelves, and finding the books that Glen didn’t want me to see—if they were even in the main library.
I sat down across from Glen. “Where do we start?”
Heather tapped a notebook with her pen, then pointed to the smallest stack of books. “These are the ones we already went through last weekend. I took notes about them.”
I held my hand out and she handed me the notebook. There were several pages of neat bullet point lists of facts. “‘The post office was originally in the general store, but moved to a separate building across the street in 1852 as the town grew.’ Why does that matter?”
Ashleigh came up behind me and pointed to a list of names. “The general store was originally run by both Byrnes brothers, Duncan and Charles. Charles was the one who moved across the street and became the post master.” She looked up at Glen. “Other signs indicate that Charles started passing messages for the Unseelie.”
My head came up in surprise. “The Count’s own brother worked for the enemy?”
Glen folded his hands together. “Grandfather didn’t have a title back then. He earned it when he banished his brother, and everyone who worked with him.”
So the fight between different factions of Fae had been fought between two brothers here. I let out a low whistle. “Well, that sucks.” His unhappy face stopped me from asking more questions.
Kai, sliding into the chair next to me, leaned over to look further down the page. “This says when Duncan banished the Unseelie, he convinced a dragon to take over guardianship of the gate to prevent them from coming back through the Veil. I’ve never seen a dragon around here.”
I shivered as I remembered Kaorinix, the enormous golden dragon that warned me I could get trapped in Faerie for crossing over at the wrong time. “Believe me, you don’t want to run into her.”
Glen coughed. “Well, most people don’t see her unless they try to do something wrong. She’s not really in our world or in Faerie, she’s somewhere in between.”
“Okay, but say that someone did try to do something wrong.” Kai gave my hand a squeeze. “Like if your mom wanted to travel through Faerie as a way to sneak out of the county. Could she trick the dragon somehow? What if she disguised herself, or got someone else to distract it?”
Ashleigh shook her head. “The guardian knows everyone who passes through. A dragon is one of the few creatures stronger and wiser than even a full-blooded Fae. A human witch wouldn’t stand a chance against her.”
Heather lifted her head from an ancient book. “That’s why, if the Unseelie ever want to come back into our world, they have to create a new gate. All of the existing ones are well-guarded by the local Faerie Courts. That’s the service that the faeriekin perform in exchange for autonomy from human governments.”
The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. Without me even trying, the conversation had come around to the topic that I needed to ask about, but I still had to watch what I said to avoid suspicion. I tried to think of a way to come at the idea sideways.
“You said that sorcery might be able to create a gate.” I looked up at the ceiling as if I were just now contemplating the idea. “And Glen, you told me that the memory-altering spell my mom had me do was sorcery, not witchcraft, so she must know something about that kind of magic. When you were looking through all of her magical tools and things, you didn’t see anything that would suggest she was trying to create her own gate, did you?” I widened my eyes in sudden fear.
But he just shook his head. “Rosmerta is powerful, but she isn’t capable of doing something on that scale. She would need to be working with a lot of other experienced sorcerers to even think of attempting something like that.” He smiled at me reassuringly. “I know she gave your family a rough time, but I don’t think you have to worry about something like that.”
I watched him carefully, but Glen didn’t glance at any of his notes or books. No help there.
Kai frowned. “And no one’s ever used witchcraft to create a gate before?”
Glen gestured at the open books. “None that I know of! I’m not entirely trusted with all of this sensitive information yet, either. I’m still training, and my grandfather doesn’t tell me everything. These books only cover so much.”
And then I caught Heather’s glance, out of the corner of my eye, to a section of the library up on the second floor. I just barely caught myself from following her gaze, but I made a mental note for myself later.
Instead, I picked up the nearest book and flipped it open to a random page. “Well, let’s keep digging and see what you guys haven’t found yet.”
After hours of hunching over old books and piecing together the events of a hundred and fifty years before, I felt like I knew more about Calaveras County’s past than the people who had actually lived through it. What I didn’t know was how it would help find the people who were hiding my mother and sister or if any of it was information that Zil’s mys
terious friends would care about.
I stretched to ease my cramped shoulders. Kai stood up behind my chair and began rubbing out the knots. I closed my eyes and leaned back into his touch, grateful for the chance to stop thinking for a few minutes.
When he’d finished, I yawned and looked at Glen. “This has been very educational,” I said. “It’s given me a lot to think about, but I don’t know if any of it’s going to be useful.” I let my eyes drift up to the rows of bookshelves lining the walls. “I wonder what else you have around here. You wouldn’t happen to have books on witchcraft? I’m still trying to make up for the holes that my mom left in my training.”
Glen pointed up to the second floor. “All of the magic books are there on the east side. Most witchcraft isn’t written down, but we have some good herbalist texts you can borrow if you find anything you like.”
I stood up, one hand on my messenger bag where it hung from the back of my chair. “It’s really okay for me to borrow some?”
He grinned and waved me on. “Sure, these books are meant to be a resource for the court, and you’re a member of the court.”
“Awesome.” I smiled and gave Kai a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be up there if you need me.”
He winked at me. “Are you sure that I can’t come with you and help you look?”
I laughed. “No, I think you’d just be a distraction. Take a break for a while. I know all of this is very boring to you.”
I walked up the staircase alone and looked up at the first shelf to get my bearings. The books weren’t organized like the public library, with numbers to mark each section, and if there was a system behind their shelving, I couldn’t figure it out. I had to stop at each one and skim the titles to guess at the subject.
I did find the herbalism books and picked up a few, tucking them into the main pouch of my messenger bag. A glance at the contents didn’t show me anything that I didn’t already know, since Mom had always drilled me about every plant and root from her garden, but a review couldn’t hurt. I also grabbed a book on gems and crystals, and another on elemental correspondences. Then I moved on.
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