“You’ll see when we get there.” Zil kept the knife unwavering at Ashleigh’s throat.
The roads got narrower and more treacherous, but the whole way was freshly plowed with snow lining either side of the road, so I knew we were following some pre-planned route. I kept getting more turned around until I had no idea which mountain we were on or what part of the county we could be in. So I was surprised when Zil told me to stop in an empty lot and I recognized a park ranger sign.
“Byrnes Camp,” it read, yellow painted letters carved into a brown wooden sign. We were in the ghost town.
“Why here?” I demanded.
Zil ignored my question. “Bundle up, ladies. It’s cold outside, and we might be here for a while.”
We all shrugged into our thick jackets, tied scarves around our necks, and found gloves and hats from where they were scattered around the car. Then Zil climbed out first, threw open Ashleigh’s door, and gestured with her knife. “You walk in front of me. I’m going to keep an eye on you.”
Ashleigh did as she said, and I followed behind. We walked into the perimeter of the ghost town. Late afternoon sunlight glinted off the snow-covered ground. I looked around warily, but I didn’t see anyone, spirit or otherwise.
Zil led us to the post office. Even though I was expecting her, I was still shocked to see my mother appear in the open doorway.
Mom looked at all three of us with a wide smile. “You’re just in time, girls. Come on in.”
Inside, the old post office was swept clean once again, with candles illuminating the sparse room, and it was full of people. I saw satyrs and dryads that I didn’t recognize, several dwarves including Marzell and the owner of Black Forrest Dreams, and Zil’s mother Mary. But one figure towered over all of them, stopping me short when he stepped forward.
Sir Allen didn’t wear the uniform of Count Duncan’s personal guard, but I recognized him all the same. Now it all made sense. How the Unseelie knew so much about what was going on in the Seelie Court, why the witch hunters had never managed to track down Mom. The false faeriekin knight had been watching us the entire time and no doubt thwarting all attempts to find my mother.
How had he managed to break the oaths that bound him to the Count and the Seelie Court? There was magic in an oath, especially one sworn by a faeriekin. I couldn’t imagine how he’d managed to pull off the betrayal, let alone what could have driven him to sink so low.
Allen came up to Zil, curling his lip at the knife in her hand. “You can put that thing away now. I’ll take charge of these two.”
Zil’s cold iron blade disappeared back into one of her pockets, and she winked at me over her shoulder. “You do what the man says, and nobody gets hurt, just like you wanted.”
I threw her a quick glare, but looked back at Allen with even more hatred. “You lied to me.”
“This is bigger than you or your mother.” Allen opened a box and pulled out two pairs of manacles. He put one on Ashleigh, the other on me.
The metal was so cold it felt like it was biting into my skin, and a chill settled over me despite my heavy layers of clothing. Cold iron. It blocked my access to Fae magic, the witchcraft that I had planned to use for our escape. A hollow ache settled in the back of my skull. Now I had no hope of stopping the ritual or freeing us.
I looked over at Ashleigh and saw that the touch of the cold iron affected her even more. Her face looked pale and drained, and she hunched forward, swaying on her feet as if she were going to fall down.
Mom came closer. “Just a minute. I’m sure she’s got a few tricks hidden, as well.”
We stood there stiffly as Mom dug around in first Ashleigh’s pockets, then mine. Ash had nothing, but in my pockets, Mom dug out the lie-detecting charm, the mirror charm for blocking spells, several crystals and other magical ingredients, and the keys to the SUV I’d driven up here. She threw all of them in her purse with a sneer, then gestured to the faeriekin knight to take us away.
Allen took each of us by the arm and pulled us behind the postal counter. There were half a dozen wooden chairs waiting. One of them held my sister Akasha, hunched up with her feet on the chair and her arms hugging her legs to her chest.
She looked up when she saw me and her face brightened. “Rosa! You came!”
I sat down in the chair next to her, and Ashleigh slumped down in another. “Of course I came for you,” I said with a faint smile. “I’ve been looking for you a long time.”
Akasha threw her arms around me in an awkward hug that I couldn’t return because of the manacles. “I missed you so much!” She withdrew and scowled in Mom’s direction. “She says we can’t leave until after the ritual’s over. But then I get to go home with you!”
“That’s great,” I said, but I didn’t sound nearly as enthusiastic as her. I looked around the room instead, trying to see how they were going to do the ritual.
By the candlelight I could see some symbols drawn on the floor and walls in white chalk: sorcery runes that I didn’t recognize. There was a large circle traced on the floor, directly underneath the Unseelie eye on the ceiling. A table on one side held many of Mom’s tools: a silver dish, a glass bottle, and another knife.
Another dryad came in the door and pushed a slight figure into the room: Heather. Her wrists were bound with twine. Allen led her back to sit in another chair with us and resumed his guard post, standing with arms folded between us and the only door.
Heather looked from Ashleigh to me, then shook her head. “I’m sorry, guys,” she whispered. “They caught me following your car. What are we all doing here? I thought we were going to a cabin.”
I hung my head. “They knew about our plan to stop them. Zil pulled a knife on Ashleigh and forced us to drive here instead.” I held up my hands, showing her the heavy manacles. “Now we can’t do any magic. I have no idea what to do.”
Allen coughed loudly. “That’s enough talking back there.”
Heather clamped her mouth shut, but she patted her pockets, showing me they were empty. Then she raised her eyebrows back at me.
I shook my head sadly. Mom had taken everything on me.
“Here comes our last guest,” Mom called from the window.
I looked up, and sure enough, there was Glen, standing in the doorway. His confident smile faded when he saw Ashleigh slumped in a chair at the far side of the room.
“What have you done to her?” he demanded. Then his gaze went up, and his face went even paler when he saw how many Unseelie were in the room, including Sir Allen. “Traitor!” he spat. “Release Lady Ashleigh at once!”
Mom stepped in front of him and took both of his hands. “Your betrothed will stay unharmed as long as you cooperate with us.” She pulled him forward, leading him into the center of the circle. “You will serve as a conduit between the worlds, and open a gate into Faerie.”
Glen stood there stiffly and looked around the room a third time, taking in the same symbols and tools that I’d noticed earlier. “I—I don’t know how to open a gate,” he said. “That kind of magic is forbidden.”
Mom smiled slowly. “Don’t worry, I’ll guide you. Do exactly as I say. I don’t think I need to tell you how dangerous it will be if you get even one small detail wrong.”
He shook his head. “I can’t do it. I swore an oath to the Seelie Court, and it binds me from taking any action that could endanger the county. You can’t break that magic.”
“Your first oath is to your betrothed.” Mom looked over her shoulder.
Zil approached us again, pulling her knife out of her pocket and holding it to Ashleigh’s throat. This time, the poor girl was so weak that she barely flinched away from the touch of the blade.
“No!” Glen cried out, struggling to get away from Mom’s grasp, but she held him fast. “Don’t hurt her! I—I’ll do it.” Pain crossed his face as he said the words: the broken oath would take its toll on him physically.
“Good.” Mom dropped his hands and crossed to the table. She opened
the container of salt and began to pour it onto the floor in a long, thin line, following the chalk circle. “Wait for my instructions.”
We all watched, helpless, as Mom continued her preparations: casting the circle, calling in the elemental quarters, and gathering the tools for the spell. I recognized some parts of it as witchcraft, but other parts were sorcery, creating a weird hybrid of the two styles of magic.
At last, Mom came to stand in front of Glen again, holding up the silver dish in one hand. With the other hand, she held out the knife, hilt pointed at Glen. “You’ll need to draw some of your blood,” she said.
Glen searched the room nervously. “Don’t you need some kind of object to serve as a focus—something to be a bridge between the two worlds?” He was looking for the dragon scale, which none of us had spotted so far.
Mom shook her head. “You will be the focus. You are a child of both worlds, Fae and human, trained in both types of magic. That should suffice.”
Glen frowned. “I’m not sure that will work.”
Next to me, Ashleigh was shivering violently. I leaned closer so that my shoulder pressed against her, and I found that she was freezing cold, even more than the chilly winter evening in an unheated, drafty building should have made her. The cold iron was sapping her energy too much—Ashleigh was a full half Fae from her mother, and more sensitive to the metal. I tried to get closer, to warm her with my body, but I wasn’t enough to warm her up. I was afraid she would freeze before the ritual was completed, especially if Glen kept stalling.
Mom had launched into some complicated explanation about the technical aspects of the ritual, detailing how Glen could conduct energy linking the Otherworld to ours. I couldn’t follow the discussion, so I concentrated on how I could keep Ashleigh warm.
I blew on her face, trying to draw up as much warm breath as I could from my lungs. I thought about the warmth at my core spreading from me to Ashleigh. I felt cold seeping into me from her, sapping my own energy, but I didn’t stop.
Think warm thoughts. Spiced apple cider. Hot chai latte from the Drip. A roaring fire in the hearth at the castle. Summer sunlight, shimmering on the blacktop. Dragon fire, surrounding me when I was trapped in the Veil, the fire that I’d used to burn my mother’s garden—
Heat flooded through me. I felt it tingling all the way down to the tips of my toes. Where the cold iron touched me suddenly began to burn, now with fire instead of ice. I looked down and watched the manacles glow, then fall away from my wrists.
Before I could think about what was happening, I reached out and grabbed Zil’s arm. The knife in her hand began to glow and she cried out in pain, dropping it. She stared down at her hand and the ugly red burn spreading across her palm from the metal.
Before anyone else could react, I grabbed Ashleigh’s hands, and her manacles fell off just like mine did. As I saw the strength returning to her face, I yanked her up to her feet, kicking aside the chairs and bolting for the door.
Ashleigh lunged for Glen instead. “Stop!” she cried, knocking the second knife away from his hand before he could cut himself.
It was the moment he was waiting for. Glen turned and looked to the window. “Guards, to me!”
Faeriekin knights suddenly flooded through the open doorway, and more climbed in the empty window. The room descended into chaos.
35
Final Confrontation
Rosamunde
Most of the Unseelie surrendered immediately, throwing their hands up in the air. For a moment, I thought that everything was over.
But then Mom threw salt in the eyes of the knight who reached for her, and bolted for the back of the room. She grabbed Akasha out of her chair and pulled her along.
We all hesitated. It looked like she was running nowhere, about to get trapped in the back of the room.
She bolted for the back wall, which shimmered and revealed a door, hidden by a simple illusion. With one hand she threw it open, with the other she dragged Akasha outside with her. Her broom was already hovering outside. They jumped on the back and took to the sky.
I scrambled to follow her, but she took off before I could reach her, and I was left standing alone outside. For a horrified moment, I couldn’t remember where I’d left my broom or how I would follow her. What could I do now?
Then I saw the SUV parked at the edge of the ghost town. My broom was in the back with the luggage. I could still catch her.
I ran, feet sliding on the icy ground, and made it to the vehicle. I reached into my pockets, only to remember that Mom had taken the keys along with all of my charms. What to do?
My foot kicked a rock on the ground underneath the snow. I hoisted it up and smashed in the window without remorse. I’d have to apologize to the Count later for the damage.
I reached in, careful to avoid the jagged fragments of glass still hanging in the frame, and found my broom. Quick as a thought, I was on and flying up into the sky.
Once I cleared the tree line, it was easy to see Mom and Akasha speeding away to the southwest. I put on every ounce of speed I could manage and tore after them. I hoped that without a passenger to slow me down, I’d catch up to them.
Sure enough, I was alongside them in minutes. I angled my broom dangerously close to Mom’s and kicked my foot out. “Land!” I called to her. “It’s over for you!”
Mom teetered precariously when I hit her. “What are you doing, Rosamunde? You’re going to get all of us killed!”
“Land!” I yelled again, and swerved directly in front of her.
Mom narrowly managed to avoid me this time, but I flew above her, forcing her down. “Okay, okay! Just let me land in peace!”
Our brooms touched down in a small clearing. Before she could make another move, I dove down and snatched the broomstick away from her, clutching it to my body. “You really thought I’d let you leave with Akasha again? You’re crazy! You spin up these schemes and you have to keep digging yourself in deeper just to keep from getting caught—”
Mom raised her right hand and slapped me across the cheek so hard that I saw stars. “You don’t understand anything!” she shrieked.
I stepped back, holding up both brooms to shield myself. “I understand that you’re ruining our lives! There’s no excuse for what you’ve done—”
She caught me by the hair. I cried out and grabbed her wrists, straining to free myself. She was older than me and we were both the same size, but she was insanely strong.
I lashed out with my foot, trying to trip her up, and succeeded in knocking both of us down. We landed on the ground in a tangle of limbs and brooms. Mom struggled to get up and push me off, but I wrapped myself around her any way that I could—an arm on her waist, a leg locked around hers—and held on for dear life.
“I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you and your father!” Her breath came out in a ragged sob. “I knew the spell was wrong, but he wouldn’t forgive me for what I’d done, so I thought if I made you forget—”
Memories came flashing back to me. I was three years old, before Akasha was born. I was crying because Daddy had picked me up and told me we were going to Grandma’s house, and Mommy couldn’t come with us. Both of my parents were yelling and I just wanted them to stop being angry. I didn’t understand what was going on. All I knew was that Mommy had done something bad, so bad that Daddy said he didn’t love her anymore.
I went very still and blinked up at my mother’s twisted face. She must have seen something in my eyes, because she stopped struggling against me, too, and now she just looked very sad.
“What did you do?” I whispered.
“I never meant for it to happen,” she said, shaking her head. “I certainly wasn’t planning on hurting you or your father. I was just trying to figure out what I want.”
The words hit me harder than her slap just minutes ago. I’d heard those very words come out of my own mouth just one week ago. When I’d cheated on Kai with Zil. And all of a sudden, I understood.
“You
had an affair,” I spat at her. “You were gone all of the time and you wouldn’t tell us where you’d been when you got home. Dad got suspicious, and then he got mad—he must have figured it out. So that’s what all of this was about? You used a spell to make Dad stay with you after you broke your own marriage vows?”
She let go of me and went limp on the ground. Her eyes drifted up to the sky. “I’m so sorry, Rosamunde. I begged him for forgiveness, but he was just so angry. I thought if he just couldn’t remember what I’d done, he would still love me, and we would all go back to being a happy family. I swore I’d never screw up like that again. But you’re right, I had to cover up one lie with another, and then it all just built up into this huge mess.” She sighed. “And now when you turn me into the authorities, I’m going to be punished for all of my mistakes. Is that what you want?”
I blinked back tears. The truth hurt so much more than I thought it would, now that I could remember back to how sad and confused I’d been as a child, not understanding why my parents’ marriage was falling apart. Somewhere that pain had been locked inside me for all of these years, hidden under the web of illusion Mom had woven with her spells. She’d betrayed the very foundation of our family and nothing, no spell or apology or act of contrition, could undo that.
And yet I couldn’t see my mother suffer.
I let go of my deadlock on her legs and stood up, moving away from her. “You need to go,” I said to the ground, unable to look at her. “Get out of here before they find you. I couldn’t let you open a gate and endanger the whole town. But I don’t want to see you exiled, no matter what you’ve done.”
She struggled back to her feet, breathing heavily. The preternatural strength seemed to have drained out of her. I managed to look in her direction and saw her look at me with pleading eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, but,” I took a deep breath, “you need to let Akasha go. It’s not fair that you’re dragging her down with you. You promised I could take her home to Dad.”
Fae of Calaveras Trilogy Box Set Page 50