“It’s easier to talk when I don’t have to squint down at you,” Kaorinix said with another chuckle.
Dandelion stepped forward and kissed her on the mouth in a very familiar manner. “You look lovely at any size, my lady.”
Her perfect eyebrows arched up at him. “It’s rude to comment on a woman’s size.”
I couldn’t help but giggle at Dandelion’s nervous tone as he tried to apologize for the gaffe. I’d never seen someone who could beat him on attitude before. But I’d barely started to relax when she turned her piercing green eyes on me, and I realized that even in human form they slitted like a cat’s.
“Come here and greet me properly,” she said, and I barely had time to realize what was happening before Dandelion pushed me closer, and she enveloped me in a hug. Her skin was still hot to the touch, but now she smelled less like smoke and more like the faint perfume of jasmine and something else, a sharp citrus like bergamot. She held me tighlyt for a long moment, and I was uncomfortably aware of the voluptuous curves underneath that silk dress. I didn’t want to think about how dangerous it would be to get too friendly with a dragon, despite Dandelion’s intimate kiss with her just before.
At last Kaorinix let me go and pulled back far enough to look me over. Her eyes examined me from top to bottom, and then she nodded her approval. She brushed the scale necklace at my throat. “How do you like my present?”
I looked down and thought of all the possibilities I’d just seen stepping through the Veil. “It’s a little overwhelming—well, more than a little. I’m still not sure why you would trust me with it.”
She took me by the arm. “Let’s go sit down and talk about it.”
When Dandelion and I followed her, the crystal cave seemed to shrink around us into a cozy little room. Three carved stone chairs were suddenly in front of us, padded with purple velvet cushions. At the dragon-woman’s direction, I sat in one, Dandelion sat on my left, and Kaorinix took the one across from us. Every move she made was flawlessly elegant, with her hair falling into place at the slightest movement of her head and her silk dress flowing smoothly around her figure. If it was magic that made her look that good, there was more magic in her little finger than in any mortal I’d ever met.
“My servant has been watching you for some time,” she said, gesturing to the Fae with one graceful hand. “But I noticed you when you barged into my domain, and managed to win your way through. Do you know that not one person in a thousand can break through my fire like that?”
I ducked my head, embarrassed to remember my mistaken attempt to enter the Otherworld at the wrong time. “No. I was just desperate.”
The dragon-woman laughed, and I wasn’t sure if I imagined the ground rumbling again at her deep voice. “Don’t sell yourself short, honey. You were strong when I met you and you’ve only gotten stronger since.”
“I don’t feel strong,” I blurted out. My heart still felt like it had been shattered into a million pieces by everything that had happened. Every choice I’d made had only made things worse, and the people that I trusted the most betrayed me. “I’m barely holding it together now. Now you want me to take on this kind of power and responsibility? I’m just a teenage girl.”
Kaorinix shook her head, making golden waves ripple over the dark skin of her bare shoulders. “Teenage girls can save the world like anyone else.” Her eyebrows came down in a scowl, and her pupils dilated until her eyes were more black than green. “And I will use any tool at my disposal to get my scale back. No one steals from me and gets away with it.”
Dandelion started forward and put his hand on her arm. “Deep breaths. Remember where we are. There was something that you wanted Rosamunde to do.”
Her anger cooled just as quickly as it had come, and she brushed his touch away. “I’m not losing focus. I know how important this is.” She fixed me with her stare, green returning to her eyes as the pupils narrowed into slits again. “I need you to create your most powerful spell yet.”
I swallowed hard. Most of my spells had been small, little charms to protect myself or tricks to amuse my friends. I had more experience taking apart other people’s spells, like my mom’s. “What do I need to do?”
“You will weave a cape of nettles.” She held up her hand to stop the question on the tip of my tongue. “It’s the wrong season to harvest them in your world, yes, so you can gather them here. As you work, I also want you to include pieces of every plant and herb that you know how to use in your magic. Focus on the powers that each one gives you.”
I shook my head. “My mother taught me how to harvest plants for spells, but I’ve never woven anything in my life. How am I supposed to make something like that?”
Dandelion leaned forward and handed me a pamphlet called “Making Clothes with Natural Plant Fibers.” “I’ll help you harvest the nettles today. It may take a few days to prepare them before the fibers separate nicely.”
Kaorinix cleared her throat. “I’m not finished yet. The entire time that you are making this cloak, you cannot speak. And no trying to get around it by texting on your phone, or anything like that. The point is that you won’t be able to communicate in words until the cloak is completed.”
“Why?” I demanded, ignoring the dragon-woman’s disapproving glare. “I can’t go to school tomorrow and not be able to talk. I couldn’t function. And how long is this going to take? I’m testifying at the trial next week before the Faerie Court, and my testimony might be the only thing that connects the Unseelie to their crimes.”
She shrugged. “It’ll take as long as necessary. You can’t worry about the Unseelie or anything else. All of your energy needs to go into this spell.”
I looked over at Dandelion, hoping that he could give me some kind of reprieve. “This is insane. It’s too much for me.”
Kaorinix stood up from the chair. “Then I underestimated you. We’ll find someone else for the job.” She turned and started to walk away.
Dandelion stared at me. “Are you really giving up that easily?”
“No!” I jumped to my feet. “I mean, I’ll try, if this is really what I have to do. It still sounds crazy, but if you think that I can do it—”
He leaped up and threw his arms around me. “Wonderful! We’ll begin at once. But remember, you have to stop talking now.”
“Do I at least get a chance to explain to everyone—”
“No talking,” he interrupted me, putting a finger on my lips.
I rolled my eyes, but I held my tongue. This was going to be the hardest thing I’d ever done.
7
I'll Go It Alone
Rosmerta
The evening after the arraignment at the Faerie Court, Angelica called to give me the update. I listened to the list of each charge brought against my friends with mounting anger.
“Elizabeth got to go home on bail, and the rest of the Burbage family wasn’t charged at all,” she finished at last.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said with a sigh. “Mary stopped talking to me. After she gave me the scale, she told me that she was done helping. She’ll never forgive me after I made her daughter turn herself in.”
Angelica groaned on the other end of the line. “But you were right, they couldn’t make any charges stick to her. Even with Rosamunde’s testimony, it looks like the worst she’ll get is a slap on the wrist and a little community service.”
I drummed my fingers along the counter in Tom and Frank’s kitchen, where I was watching a pot of my hearty winter stew simmer on the stove. After cooking all day, the flavors were finally coming together, and now I just had to see when the vegetables were finally at the right tenderness before serving dinner. “I promised Mary that I wouldn’t let any member of their family get charged with anything. I couldn’t keep my word. The way things stand right now, everyone has a right to be mad at me.” I’d promised them that I would open a gate to the Otherworld, and so far, I had failed.
The dwarf woman coughed politely. “But you s
till have a plan to fix that. She could still help you.”
So many things had gone wrong when I’d let others help before. My new plan only needed myself and Akasha, and with fewer variables to control, I had a lot more confidence in its success. “I’ve decided that I don’t really want any more help,” I said, letting down my friend as gently as possible. “It’s easier if I don’t involve anyone else. Thanks for the update, Angie.”
“I’ll still do what I can,” Angelica said brightly. “If you don’t need help, then I’ll concentrate on foiling the Court’s investigation so they can’t come up with any new charges. You know, the trial date’s been set for the full moon next week.”
“So soon?” I caught my breath at that. “That doesn’t leave us much time.”
She laughed without humor. “Yeah, I know. But that’s the next time the Veil will be thinner, and they want the more powerful Fae to be able to attend. It really feels like they’re rushing things—how much evidence could they gather in such a short time to make their case?”
I took a fork and tested one of the chunks of potato floating at the top of the stew. It was almost ready. “Perhaps they already have all of the information they need. With Sir Allen in custody, there’s no way for us to know what’s really going on in the Court now.” I struggled to keep my voice even when I spoke his name. Although she was my closest friend, Angelica didn’t know about my history with the faeriekin knight.
“Yeah, we’re really in the dark without his help.” Angelica sighed again. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. I’ll call back if I do manage to get any updates. And you let me know if you need anything.”
I thanked her again and tossed the burner cell phone onto the counter. I’d had to switch phones yet again when my friends were arrested, to make sure that no one could use my number to trace my current location. Along with avoiding public spaces and putting a glamour on my car, which was now hiding in Tom and Frank’s spare shed, it was just one of many precautions that had become part of my everyday life to avoid capture. After years of secrets, living in hiding didn’t feel like that much of a change.
But for Akasha, it was harder. And for my daughter, I had to fix this mess we were in. I only had to convince her to help me. Ten days until the full moon, and I realized that we would have to be ready by then, both because of the trial and because it would be the perfect opportunity with the Veil thinner. That wasn’t much time to train her in the use of magic. But worse, Akasha had been acting strangely since she learned the truth, and she was making my life difficult. I only had ten days to change her mind.
8
Growing Pains
Akasha
Tuesday morning, I woke up in pain for the third day in a row.
Still lying in bed, I stretched, trying to ease the ache in my muscles. They cried out in protest. I groaned and buried my face in my pillow, wishing that it would all just go away. But this was my new personal hell, ever since Mom’s spell had revealed what I really was—it wasn’t just going to disappear.
At last, I managed to haul myself up and stumble down the hallway. I was still wearing my flannel pajamas, but I didn’t care—I’d slept in late once again, so I knew Tom and Frank would already be at work. They were older than my parents and very out of the closet, but I still felt self-conscious around them. Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry about that today.
Mom, who got up early even on weekends and holidays like a crazy person, was sitting at the kitchen table and sipping tea. She raised her eyebrows at my appearance. “I was wondering if I should send in the paramedics to check if you were still alive.”
I grumbled incoherently and sank into another chair, then slumped forward until my forehead rested on the table.
“Are you still hurting?” Mom asked calmly.
“Ugh,” I grunted in agreement. I stuck my leg out from underneath the table. The pant leg on my pajamas exposed my whole ankle. In the past three days, I’d grown at least two inches taller. “At this rate, none of my clothes are going to fit anymore.”
She tapped a pile of catalogs. “Tom brought these so you could pick out some new outfits. If we pay for rush delivery, they could be here by the end of the week.”
I sat up and folded my arms. “I can’t pick clothes out of a catalog! I want to go to a store where I can see stuff and try it on.”
She sighed. “You don’t really have a choice right now. Someone could recognize us if we go out.”
I pointed at my face. “I’m not sure that I recognize myself right now. And everything hurts.”
Mom reached out and put a hand on my arm. “I’m sorry, dear. I think it’s just growing pains. Faeriekin tend to be tall, and your true appearance is starting to come through. I’m afraid that you’ve had my short height up until now, so you have a lot of growing to catch up on.”
I made another unhappy grumble and put my head back down on the table.
Mom’s hand started stroking my hair, and I relaxed a little under her comforting touch.
“My poor baby,” she said in a soothing tone. “I hate to see you hurting like this. But if you used your magic, then you could ease most of it on your own. Why won’t you let me teach you how?”
I tipped my head to one side so I could glare up at her. “No magic. I hate it. Maybe I was born with it, but I’m not going to use it.”
That earned me another sigh. “Now, dear, we talked about this. You can’t change who you are, so you might as well embrace it.” She pulled her hand back. “And besides, I need your help to set things right again.”
I snapped upright and my eyes narrowed. “I knew you had an ulterior motive for telling me the truth. What kind of crazy scheme are you plotting this time?” She’d kept the details from me over the past several months, but whatever plan she’d tried to pull off before, I knew it had forced us to move again and gotten several people arrested.
Mom cleared her throat and turned her face a little away from me. “It’s not like that. But you want things to change, right? So we can stop hiding, and you can go back to school?”
I chewed one of my fingernails nervously. “If I’m a faeriekin, does that mean I have to go to school at Crowther?” I’d felt weird before, being the only human in my class and jealous of the popularity that the faeriekin kids had at the school. Now I might fit in better, but I still didn’t want to go there with all of the other magikin freaks.
“You can go to whatever school you want.” Mom pulled my finger out of my mouth. “And stop biting your nails. That’s a nasty habit.”
My stomach growled. The sudden growth spurt made me hungry all of the time. I stood up to raid the fridge and grunted again as my aching muscles protested.
I stopped short and gripped the back of the chair, breathing heavily. “Okay,” I said finally. “If you think there’s a way I can use magic to make this stop hurting so much, I’ll try it.”
Mom stood up with a smile. “I’ll make you some breakfast before we start your training. Do you want eggs, pancakes, or both?”
“Both.” I grinned. “And bacon too, if there’s any.” I knew that I could count on my mother to feed me something tasty.
After a satisfying breakfast, I felt tired again. I was tempted to curl up on the couch and doze for a while. But I’d made a promise to my mother, and I hoped that she was right about magic being able to help the pain.
I dropped the last of the dishes in the sink and turned to look at Mom. “So, how do we do all this magic stuff? Do I have to meditate again or whatever?”
Mom walked over and put her hands on my shoulders. Last week, I was over a head shorter than her, but I was already closing the gap. It was weird not being able to look up to her anymore.
“Whatever helps you to tap into the magic inside you.” She looked into my eyes searchingly. “My magic comes from someone else, so it’s harder for me. You just have to stop blocking it. Let go of your hatred and embrace what you are, and you’ll fit better in your own skin.”
&
nbsp; I stiffened. “I’m not holding back anything. I don’t feel anything there.”
She sighed and shook her head. “It’s nothing but your own stubbornness. You don’t want to feel anything, so you don’t. Just let it go.”
I tried to pull away. “This isn’t going to work.”
“Calm down,” she said, holding me firm. Her eyes locked onto mine and I couldn’t break away from her gaze.
I wanted to struggle against her, because something about her look made my skin crawl. Then I gradually realized that she was right—I was resisting the magic. It was like I was clenching my stomach or holding my breath, keeping it back. When I located the feeling, I tried to do as she said, and just let it go.
The warm, tingling feeling I’d experienced before spread out from the center of my chest until it filled my whole body. I blinked, thinking that there was something wrong with my vision, because the world suddenly looked a little brighter, almost sparkly. All around Mom was a faint outline in, no kidding, a rosy pink shade, deepening to red around her heart.
“Why are you glowing?” I wanted to know.
“You’re seeing my aura,” she said with a smile. “It’s like a bubble of magical energy surrounding my body. You have one, too.”
I looked down at my hands and saw that she was right. My aura was a pale purple, darkening into violet at my heart. Where Mom touched me, a little of her pink blended into mine, and a little of my aura touched hers in turn.
The energy was moving, pulsing with each heartbeat. But where Mom’s aura flowed evenly over herself, mine was full of snarls and tangles where it stopped. As I looked over myself, I realized that in the areas where I was growing longer—my arms, my legs, my spine—there were particularly nasty blockages that kept the energy from reaching all the way out to my extremities. In medical terms, I thought of them as clots in my arteries, stopping the life-giving blood flow.
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