by Elle Adams
“I’m Blair,” I said. “Blair Wilkes. You’re…”
“I’m Jay.” He didn’t offer to shake my hand.
“And I’m Mr Harker, Nathan’s father,” said the grey-haired man. He stood and shook my hand. He had a very firm grip. Strong. They all were. Erin looked like she could throw me through a window.
“It’s great to meet you all,” I said.
“And you, of course,” Mr Harker said.
Lie.
Of all the times to have an inner lie detector. I wished I could put it on mute for the evening.
“Nathan told us a little about you,” said Mr Harker.
“But we all want to hear more,” said Erin, striding into the room. “Tell us, Blair.”
“There’s not much to tell,” I said. The four of them staring at me was somehow worse than being laughed at by small children while falling off a broomstick.
“I think there is,” said Nathan’s father. “You’re a witch, right? You’re not with one of the local covens.”
“Ah, I was adopted,” I said. “My foster parents retired to Australia. They don’t know about the paranormal world.”
“And you’re planning to tell them?” Mr Harker asked.
Huh? He must know it was illegal. Was this some sort of test?
“No,” I said. “I’ve only lived here a few months.”
“Well, you tamed Nathan in that time,” put in Erin.
Nathan gave her a warning look. “I was actually the first person Blair met when she came here.”
“Really?” Her eyes lit up. “Tell us all about it.”
“It’s not that interesting a story,” I said. “I mean, I got lost on my way to a job interview. I thought I was applying to something in the normal world… long story. Anyway, I ran into Nathan at the town border by the lake.”
“You didn’t know?” asked Mr Harker. “How could you apply to a job here and not know it was a paranormal town?”
“Ah, it was a misunderstanding,” I said hastily, wishing I’d never brought up the subject. “I had latent paranormal powers and showed up on a contact list for Eldritch & Co even though I didn’t know this world existed.”
“Is that common here in Fairy Falls?” asked Mr Harker.
Trying to get gossip for the hunters? Or just curiosity? I couldn’t say.
“No,” Nathan said. “But Blair’s mother lived here, which is likely why her name came up when Veronica was searching for candidates. We don’t have many outsiders come in, and even fewer people grow up in the normal world without knowing they’re paranormal.”
“Who cares? I’d rather get to know Blair personally,” Erin interjected. “So, Blair, tell me about your first date with Nathan.”
“Uh…” I somehow doubted Nathan’s relatives wanted to hear about the time we’d had to run out of the pub during a date to confront the wand-maker who’d faked his own death, or the time I’d had to be escorted home by a bunch of over-enthusiastic security witches because he’d been called out to investigate a monster attack. “We just… went to the pub together. Nothing fancy.”
“Not at all,” Nathan said. “Blair, can you come and help me set the table?”
I escaped the room gratefully, pursued by two small tabby cats.
“Cute,” I said, scratching one of them behind the ears. “What’re their names?”
“That’s Whiskers and Patches. Maurice is hiding upstairs. He doesn’t like noise.”
“Ah.” I walked after him into the dining room, where the table was laid out. “I didn’t know you cooked.”
“I had to learn to take care of my younger siblings,” he said. “Anyway—what is your cat doing here?”
“My what?”
I looked where he pointed. Sure enough, Sky sat up at the table, paws resting on the tablecloth as though waiting for me to notice him. When I’d seen him out of the corner of my eye, I’d assumed he was one of Nathan’s cats, but that eye colour combination wasn’t a common one.
“Sky… what are you doing here?” Had he taken me seriously when I’d suggested he show up to meet Nathan’s family?
“Miaow.”
I walked behind him. “Sky, this is a family dinner.”
“Oh, he’s adorable!” Erin squealed, bouncing into the room. “Is he yours, Blair?”
“I think he followed me here.” I made to pick him up, and he jumped off the seat and ran towards Erin. Traitor.
Erin stroked him behind the ears. Sky purred and bounded onto the table. A glass wobbled, and I lunged to catch it.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Nathan, setting the glass down. “I can send him home—”
“Oh, don’t worry,” said Erin, picking him up. “Nathan’s cats will never let me pick them up like this.”
“He doesn’t normally let me do that,” I said, feeling my normal-human act begin to collapse. Why me?
“Miaow,” said Sky, and purred.
“Hey, Eric!” Erin called. “Meet Blair’s cat.”
At least they’d stopped asking me awkward questions—but what was Sky playing at?
Eric came into the room. “Hey. How’d he get in?”
“Probably the cat flap.” Saying he appeared from nowhere would not help me pretend both of us were totally normal.
“He has such unusual eyes!” Erin said. “What breed is he, do you know?”
“I don’t,” I lied. “He’s adopted. Well, he adopted me.”
“Aww,” she said. “Tell me the story.”
“It was my first week in town, and he followed me home from the bookshop. I think he was a stray for a while.” Though he’d been friends with the leader of the local vampires—not that they needed to know that. “He just saw me and that was it. I was his owner.”
“That’s so cute!” Erin said. “Cats know what they want, don’t they?”
“Miaow,” said Sky.
“He's a familiar, right?” she asked. “That means he's magical.”
“Uh, kind of.”
I’d bet Nathan hadn't told them I was half fairy, much less the unusual nature of my cat. I wished I’d made an excuse and stayed at home rather than tempting fate.
Jay walked into the room, and Sky hissed at him. He started. “Whose cat is that?”
“My cat followed me,” I explained. “This is Sky. Sky, meet—"
Sky jumped out of Erin’s arms and dove under the table.
“He can sometimes be weird around strangers.” Never mind that Sky’s default mode was ‘weird’—I needed to get him out of here before Nathan’s dad came in.
I crouched down. “Hey, Sky, come out. It’s okay.”
“What in the world is that?” Jay said loudly.
I jumped, hitting my head on the table. Stars winked before my eyes and I withdrew my head to see the pixie hovering outside the window, surrounded by a cloud of glitter. Oh, no.
“Is that glitter?” Jay said. “Where’s it coming from?”
You have got to be kidding me. They couldn’t see the pixie, so it looked like glitter had appeared from thin air. Nathan looked at me and I gave a helpless shrug.
The pixie tapped on the window. I shook my head at him, trying to indicate that now wasn't the best time. He ignored my head-shake and rapped against the glass, louder. Everyone looked around for the source of the noise, but the pixie remained hidden by glamour only I could see through.
Go away, pixie. Now is not the time. I shook my head yet again, and this time the pixie vanished.
Then he reappeared inside the room—above the dining table. I looked at him in utter horror. Please, no.
“Blair, is something wrong?” asked Erin.
“Nope.” The pixie flew higher, its tiny wings beating like a hummingbird’s. I hadn't a hope of catching it and tossing it outside, especially with everyone watching me.
Erin crouched down and beckoned to Sky to come out from under the table. “Hey, Sky… Blair, where did your cat go? He’s not here.”
I could hazard
a guess: he’d gone out the same way he’d come in—by vanishing. I’d much rather deal with the cat than a hyper, glitter-shedding pixie. Just what was he doing here?”
“He must have run out,” I said.
“He's a magical cat, right?” Erin said.
“Uh, yeah.” I looked up at the ceiling as though I could make the pixie disappear by sheer force of will. “He has a very strong personality.” And I had a very strong desire to run for the hills.
“Why is there glitter on the table?” asked Jay.
“There isn’t.” There was. The pixie had also dropped glitter on Jay’s head. Nathan’s eyes went wide.
Drawing my wand right now would not be wise, but I could glamour something invisible. Okay, I’d only practised on myself---unless you counted the time I’d accidentally turned Sky invisible—but I had to do something.
I clenched my right hand at my side and snapped my fingers as quietly as possible.
Vanish, I thought urgently. Vanish—
The table disappeared.
Oh, no. Somehow, I’d managed to glamour the table… and everything on it.
“De-glamour,” I muttered, snapping my fingers. If I wasn’t careful, I’d de-glamour myself, which was not what I needed. I tried again. This time, everyone looked at me.
“Blair, did you do that?” Erin asked, her brow furrowing.
“I'm sorry,” I said. “I was trying to get rid of the glitter. I'll fix it.” I snapped my fingers frantically, but the table stayed invisible. Maybe I should try my wand instead. I pulled it from my pocket and streamers of blue light shot from the end. The others jumped out of the way, knocking into the invisible table. I heard a glass fall to the floor and winced at the sound.
“Sorry!” I put the wand away and snapped the fingers of my right hand. De-glamour. De-glamour!
“Are you going to get rid of this?” said Jay, who had bright streamers all over his head and glitter in his hair. It’d have been hilarious if I wasn’t so utterly horror-struck.
“Give me a second!” I kept snapping my fingers, wishing I could glamour myself invisible and run off instead. But it wouldn’t be fair to leave Nathan to deal with the fallout.
Finally, the table reappeared, glitter and all. Most of the glasses had fallen over and everything was covered in purple sparkles.
Then the doorbell rang. I ignored it and pulled out my wand to get rid of the glitter. To my intense relief, the vanishing spell worked.
Nathan peered out the window. “It’s for you, Blair.”
“Huh? Nobody saw me come here.” The pixie being an obvious exception. Then again, it might be best for everyone if I left.
I strode to the window and looked outside. Two elves stood on the doorstep. You might know it.
The doorbell rang again. Nathan gave me a questioning look, and what was left of my resolve unravelled like an old jumper. “Sorry. I’ll get it.”
I hurried from the room, my face flushed past ‘embarrassed’ and more in the category of ‘please sign me up for the next mission to the moon, never to return again’.
Opening the door a fraction, I whispered, “What are you doing here?”
“Blair Wilkes,” said Bramble. “The king would like to see you.”
“I’m sorry, we’re in the middle of an important family dinner at the moment,” I said. “Can you come back later?”
How had they known I was here? They must have followed the pixie. He and I would be having serious words later.
“This is later,” Bramble growled. “No humans are as important as the king’s request.”
“I have to disagree with you there,” I said, conscious that the others had come into the hall behind me to witness my awkward conversation through the crack in the door. “Also, I am human.”
“I beg to differ.” The elf snapped his fingers. I jumped backwards, and my wings brushed the walls.
My wings. Oh no.
I properly opened the door, giving the elves a glare. “What do you think you’re playing at?”
“The king would prefer you to visit wearing your real form.”
“Right.” Perfect. Nathan’s family stood directly behind me, staring in disbelief at my glittery wings. Never mind the moon. I’d board the next spaceship to the most distant corner of the galaxy possible if it got me out of here, right now.
“Blair, maybe you should go and see what your friends want,” Nathan said.
“They're not my friends.”
“How dare you!” Bramble said. “You are a friend of the king’s and you will do as we tell you.”
I cast Nathan an apologetic look. “Okay, I’ll deal with it. I’m sorry.”
If it was possible to die of humiliation, I’d be on my way to the morgue, not to visit the elf king. Had I accidentally put a dash of lucky latte in my coffee yesterday and run headlong into the backlash?
“What in the world was that for?” I said to the elves when we were out of earshot of the house. “I'm supposed to be meeting my boyfriend’s family and thanks to you and the pixie, they think I'm a raving lunatic.”
“The pixie is your responsibility, not ours.”
“He brought you here!” How much more could a person endure in a single day? “Not to be rude, but I don't work for you or the king. You just got me into a lot of trouble.”
“You told us you would help,” growled Bramble. “I thought you kept your word.”
“I will, but seriously, this is out of order.” I kept walking after them. The forest wasn’t far off, but in this part of town, most of it would be elf territory. “So you want me to defend you against Steve?”
“The king is very concerned about the accusations levelled against Twig and myself, as well as Bracken,” Bramble said.
“Bracken? Is he the elf who was drunk by the waterfall, by any chance?” He’d also looked familiar. I had seen him before. A few months ago, I’d seen him meeting Annabel Reece, the seer’s granddaughter, in the woods. The two had been dating, and as far as I knew, were happy together. So why was he drunkenly staggering around by the lake and throwing insults at any humans who walked past?
“He is unable to defend himself against the accusations,” said the other elf, who must be called Twig. Really imaginative names, the elves had. “But he is not a killer.”
“Hmm.” He wasn’t lying, though it was hard to tell with the elves. Sometimes they acted in ways I could understand, and sometimes they sent pixies to crash dinner parties.
But despite that, I was kind of curious about who’d reported the elves to the police. Most likely, someone else had seen Bracken hanging around by the falls. He’d also called me human filth, which didn’t sound like an insult someone who was dating a human would use. Maybe he and Annabel had broken up. But had he been involved with Terrence’s death?
“Also,” Bramble added, “the king has new information on your family that he thinks you’ll want to know. He will give it to you on the condition that you tell the police that none of us committed the crime.”
I knew there was another catch somewhere.
5
The elf king waited for me inside the hollow tree that served as the elves’ lair. As usual, I had to half-lie, half-crouch, because the place was designed for four-foot-tall elves and not for five-foot-something humans with a giant pair of glittering fairy wings. It’d been the elf king who’d clued me in that my dad had sheltered from the hunters in the woods before his arrest, which meant I couldn’t exactly write off his invitation, but his timing couldn’t have been worse if he’d shown up to a funeral in a tutu.
“You have more information on my family?” I asked.
“I do,” he confirmed, without elaborating.
“And you’ll tell me if I talk to the police.” I’d almost rather relive this evening’s events than go within a mile of the gargoyle. Steve and Nathan weren't on friendly terms at the moment, so I wouldn’t be able to bring him with me for moral support. Besides, he’d be occupied entertaining his
family all week.
Just thinking about them brought a hot rush of shame. I’d been under no illusions that nothing would go wrong at all, since nobody could come to a paranormal town without expecting to encounter a little magical chaos. But I hadn’t expected things to go that far out of control. I to see this through or I’d have endured the humiliation for nothing.
“I will,” he said. “I would not want any of my own to end up jailed for a crime they didn’t commit.”
“Uh, if you don’t mind my asking, what were your people doing by the falls to begin with?” I asked. “I’ll need to give the police their alibi if someone saw them near the crime scene. It’s the only way Steve might listen to me.”
Bramble scowled. “We own the forest. We’re entitled to walk in it.”
All right, then. “What kind of information on my family are we talking about? More about my dad?”
Why had he broken contact with me? Did he think I was in mortal danger if I stayed here? If he did, I would have expected more correspondence from him, not less. I didn’t even see the pixie much anymore. Except, of course, when I tried to pretend to be normal in front of my boyfriend’s family.
My dad had believed his life was in danger when he'd fled to the forest and that mine would be in danger, too, if I stayed in the paranormal world. The only explanation I could think of for his more recent panic was that he’d found out Inquisitor Hare, leader of the hunters, had invited me to join them. In fairness, it’d freaked me out too, but he hadn’t been in town since I’d turned his offer down. I didn’t see how my dad could possibly have found out about his offer unless the pixie had told him.
“Have you heard from any of my other family members?” I pressed, when the elf king didn’t answer. “Or has my dad told you why he’s in jail?”
“Maybe.”
I suppressed a groan. “Please, can you just be straight with me? And, er, next time you urgently need to talk to me, can you send me a note or pick a time when I can afford to be interrupted by a glitter-wielding pixie?”