by Elle Adams
“Does he have your wand?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, I dropped it outside when he brought us in here.”
“He’s fetching his pet monster. We need to get out.” I crouched to help her undo the bonds on her ankles, and helped her to her feet.
“Did he take your boots, too?” she asked.
“Unfortunately, but I can fly.”
Her gaze went to my shoulders. “Yep. I think I might be dreaming.”
“Or in one of my nightmares.”
The pixie appeared in a shower of glittering dust, beckoning us to follow. “Definitely a nightmare,” murmured Alissa. “I guess he took the glamour off?”
“He’s not the only one.”
The carpet was coarse against my feet and I’d be treading glitter everywhere for days, but I kept running. We ran into the living room, where my levitating boots lay discarded. I grabbed them, tossing them to Alissa.
“Alissa, put these on,” I told her. “I can already fly.”
The ground trembled as a roar came from behind us. Alissa’s hands fumbled the boots. “Is that thing inside the house?”
“I’m guessing yes. Ready to fly?”
“I have no idea how to use these boots!” she yelped.
“The start button’s on the heel.” At another roar, I flew to the window and waved my wand, causing it to snap open. Alissa yelped as I grabbed her arm, pulling both of us out of the window and onto the lawn.
Glass shattered over us from behind, and Alissa screamed.
“Just fly—the wards should let us out—”
There was a flash of glitter, and Sky appeared in the middle of the lawn. He strode towards us, not at all like we’d just escaped a mad wizard and his pet monster.
“MIAOW.”
In place of Sky appeared a giant furry creature—a huge catlike monstrosity with one glowing blue eye, one grey one.
My cat was a monster.
Sky roared and jumped past us, right at the pursuing monster. Alissa and I ran—or flew—towards the fence, and freedom. The wizard hadn’t lied—there were a number of people gathered outside the wards. They’d probably heard the racket all the way from the vampires’ place, and formed a temporary truce to see what in the world was going on here.
The vampires, werewolves and witches all collectively stared at me. Oh, no. Everyone could see what I was. There was no hiding it now.
16
I hovered, wings beating, wishing I could evaporate on the spot, and wishing harder that I had the faintest clue how to turn my glamour back on. I didn’t know how it’d come off in the first place. But Nathan—I didn’t dare meet his eyes, not wanting to face the distrust and revulsion I knew I’d see staring back. He stood slightly apart from the crowd, but no glamour would hide me from him.
I guess I was still a coward after all.
Alissa moved to my side, still hovering above the ground. That helped. A little.
“Can anyone bring those wards down?” I said.
There came a loud shout from behind. The wizard stormed towards us, still shedding glitter everywhere. “GET BACK HERE!”
“Not happening,” I said.
Leaving the limp form of the monster behind, Sky lunged at the wizard, tackling him off his feet. The wizard screamed, high and shrill, but Sky held him pinned down.
“That ought to hold him until the police get here,” said Vincent, leaning casually on the fence as though highly entertained. “You’re different,” he remarked, eying my wings.
“No, I’m the same person I’ve been all along.”
“Killers!” yelled one of the werewolves. They stood in their own group, all wearing disgruntled expressions as though annoyed the vampires had abandoned their imminent battle to come to watch the show instead. I nearly laughed at the sight of Callie’s cousin, who seemed more put out that the vampires had run off in their middle of his ranting than he and the others had been about the potential war.
Before anyone could start a fight, the pixie flew past, drawing everyone’s eyes. So it’d turned its glamour off, too.
“Hey,” I said, beckoning it over. “Can you tell me how to turn my glamour back on? It’d help if people stopped staring at my wings so I can explain how we caught the wizard.”
The pixie snapped its fingers, and glitter flew from its hands, straight at me. Hang on—
I fell out of the air as my wings disappeared. Luckily, Alissa caught my arm before I fell, using the levitating boots to bring us both down to ground level.
“MIAOW,” said Sky, who remained sitting on top of the struggling wizard. Everyone looked at him, instead of my sudden transformation from fairy to human.
A blast from Madame Grey’s wand drew the crowd to silence. “We have our killer,” she said, indicating the wizard. He flailed feebly, pinned under Sky’s giant paw. I hardly believed I’d been living in the same flat as that monster for weeks without knowing what he really looked like. Which part of him was glamoured? Or was he a shapeshifter, like the werewolves?
“He was hiding with the vampires,” Chief Donovan said accusingly. “They were complicit.”
“None of us had any association with that individual,” said Vincent. “He was quite rude to us, actually, when we requested entry to his house.”
“He inherited that house from one of you!” insisted the werewolf chief.
“By murdering the owner,” Vincent said, with a flash of fangs. “I’d suggest keeping your mouth shut until Blair has told us the story.”
Once again, everyone turned to look at me. “You saw,” I said, with a glance at the flailing wizard. “Peter is the killer. He needed to kill different paranormals… ask Madame Grey if you want to know why. He threw off the trace by pretending to leave town, and trying to turn everyone against one another. He also tried to attack the witches’ headquarters, if you need any more proof. And I guess he’s been keeping his pet monster in the forest for weeks. Probably to draw the police away.” Note to self: tell Madame Grey that the witches’ headquarters is covered in glitter and paint before anyone goes back in there.
“Speaking of monsters,” said Callie’s cousin, jerking his head in the direction of Sky the Monster Cat. “Just what is that?”
“My pet cat,” I said.
“What I don’t get,” said Alissa, “is that Peter seemed pretty convinced he didn’t send the death threat to our house.”
“Oh, he said something like that to me,” I said. “I didn’t think at the time, but… I don’t know. Maybe he didn’t.” I looked at the crowd, and spotted Bryan hidden near the back. As he didn’t meet my eyes, Alissa stiffened next to me.
“Bryan?” said Alissa. “Did you?”
Bryan looked at his feet. “I didn’t want to kill you,” he said quietly. “I wanted you under close watch so you didn’t run into the killer. I swear. It was supposed to knock you out so you stayed at home.”
“And in the hospital?” I asked.
“Not then. I didn’t know.”
“They weren’t the same flowers,” said Alissa. “I’d thank you, but you nearly got my friend killed. They’re poisonous to fairies.”
“I didn’t know she was—did anyone know?” He looked around as though expecting someone to deny that I’d transformed in front of them, but everyone seemed more interested in Sky the Monster Cat, and the still-struggling wizard.
“So Bryan left the flowers,” I said. “Anyone else unaccounted for?”
“Yes,” snapped Chief Donovan. “If the killer was a wizard, why were there bite marks on the dead werewolf’s body?”
“Because the killer wanted to hide his traces,” I said. “And stoke tensions between you and the vampires. Vampire bites probably aren’t that hard to fake, not if he knew the werewolves would conclude that the bite marks belonged to a vampire without looking too closely.”
“Wasn’t there a rogue vampire in the woods?” asked Chief Donovan, refusing to be deterred.
“Yes,” said Lord
Anderson. “I bit someone in the forest.”
Shouts and exclamations ensued from the werewolves.
“You attacked one of us!” yelled Callie’s cousin.
“Monster!”
“Murderer!”
“A wizard,” he said, his voice rising. “He was attacked by the creature that wizard kept in the woods, I’d guess. I found him dying and I chose to save his life. In the process, I turned him. I take full responsibility for what I did. I didn’t take a life in the forest: I saved one.”
The exclamations continued, only to cease at a second explosion of noise from Madame Grey’s wand.
“You turned a human against his will,” she said.
“Yes,” Lord Anderson said. “I confess. I did. I’ll take punishment as the vampire council sees fit.”
Nathan said, “I can back him up. He confessed what he did, when I confronted him over the murders.”
So that was his big secret. And he still hadn’t looked at me.
Vincent stepped in. “I will handle the matter myself. As for the killer, he won’t be getting out of there.” He passed through the gates into the grounds, leaving a faint shimmering behind.
I frowned at him. “What did you do?”
He smiled, showing pointed teeth. “I changed the settings on those wards using my own blood. You can all get out, but the wizard can’t.”
“He has a transportation spell.”
“Not for long.” He tilted his head, and I turned around. Sky the Monster Cat had disappeared, while several gargoyles flew over the fence to surround the dazed-looking wizard.
Alissa nudged me. Sky sat at my feet, back to normal size.
“Miaow?” I said.
“Miaow,” Sky agreed.
What a spectacle we’d made. The vampires hung around watching the wizard’s arrest, while the werewolves had already begun to slope away, some of them still looking disgruntled. The gargoyles paid no attention when I walked out of the grounds, Sky purring at me the whole way. “Thanks,” I whispered, stroking him behind the ears. “I’m glad the war’s off.”
“Tell me about it,” said Alissa. “Er—do you want these boots back? I can conjure my shoes back from the mansion.”
I looked down at my shoe-less feet. “Oh, yeah. Sure.”
While Alissa pulled off the boots, I turned back to watch the gargoyles haul the wizard to his feet. I hoped that monster of his was dead, even if it freaked me out that Sky could transform into an equally scary beast.
I don’t think I’m going to need a security guard again.
Once I’d tugged my boots back on, Alissa gave me another urgent nudge. I turned, seeing Nathan walking away, separate from the crowd.
Guess it was up to me, then.
I headed over to him. “Nathan,” I said. “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you. Before. I…”
He finally looked at me. “You know… I think I knew. Deep down.”
That this was never going to work? “I didn’t know at first,” I said honestly. “Blythe did—god knows how—but she led me to believe I was all fairy, and not a witch at all. I thought I’d get kicked out of the town for deceiving the witches. When I found out I was a witch after all, I hoped I’d be able to put it behind me. It’s not like I’ve actually met my fairy relatives.”
“No,” he said. “But it strikes me that an awful lot of other people seem to know. Veronica… Madame Grey… even Lord Anderson.”
“He… told you?” So he’d known the whole time.
He nodded. “Veronica clued me in the moment she hired me, but I thought I’d give you the space to work through it alone.”
My heart seized on the word alone. I’d told everyone except him. “Sorry,” I said, again. “I thought you’d been through enough of my drama without me adding that on top of it. Mr Falconer, the murder attempts, having to play security guard outside my house…”
“I didn’t mind doing any of that, Blair,” he said. “It’s your business. I shouldn’t have implied you needed to tell me all your secrets.
Ouch. “I didn’t intend the whole town to know either,” I said. “Blythe read it from my mind without my permission. Same with the vampires. And the witches all found out by accident when Rita used a spell to divine my magic type. The rest was on me. And I really should have… I should have told you.” I drew in a breath. “Does this mean you don’t want to see me again?”
“No,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea at the moment.”
My heart free-fell. “Okay. I understand.”
“Not because of what you are,” he said. “But because I haven’t been entirely honest with you either, Blair.”
“I—why?” My palms went sweaty.
“That note you received,” he said. “I wondered… when I saw the handwriting. I was sure I recognised it.”
My insides pitched downwards. “You recognised it? How?”
“I’ve seen it before,” he said. “When I used to work for the hunters.”
What? “You… why?”
“There’s another paranormal prison, further north,” he said. “I used to work there as security, for a time. I remember your father was brought in, before he was transferred somewhere else. He… I’m sorry, Blair, but I don’t know why he was arrested, or where they took him afterwards. But the writing is his. I remember he left a note with the staff.”
“My father. You… had him arrested?” I was having a nightmare. This was one of my weird fairy dreams. It couldn’t be real.
“I’m sorry, Blair,” he said. “I didn’t know he had a daughter. I don’t normally talk to the prisoners, but that particular incident stuck in my memory.”
I opened and closed my mouth. Nope, no words.
“Anyway, I thought you deserved to know.”
I stood frozen, barely aware of Alissa moving to my side. At that, he gave me a brief look I couldn’t read, then walked away.
“Blair?” said Alissa. “What did he—?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t say it.
The paranormal hunters might have arrested my only living family.
“You look terrible,” said Alissa, accosting me in the kitchen the next morning.
If I looked half as bad as I felt, I wasn’t fit for human company. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this wretched, including being number one on a killer’s hit list. At least then I’d had hope that things would work out with Nathan.
“Ugh.” I sighed. “I know, I know, I brought this on myself. Still hurts.”
“You couldn’t have guessed he…”
I’d told her the truth when we’d made it back home yesterday, after shaking off Madame Grey and the other people curious to speak to the town’s resident fairy. I didn’t need a lie-sensing power to tell Nathan felt bad for having to break the news, and he’d only been doing his job. The paranormal hunters wouldn’t have arrested someone without reason, right?
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Maybe if I keep saying it aloud, I’ll eventually get halfway over him. I just wish I knew where they… they took my father. Or what was in the note he left.”
So who had been leaving the notes inviting me to speak to them? Someone who knew my family? Or that pixie? I hadn’t seen it since yesterday, but there’d been a lot of ugly crying last night, and it’d probably wanted to leave me in peace.
No. I didn’t blame Nathan. I blamed me, for not telling him the truth from the outset, and the fact that he’d known all along made things even worse. He’d seen me without glamour. He must think I was a freak, at the very least.
“What about… you and Keith?” I asked Alissa.
“We’re taking a break,” she said. “Considering everything that’s happened, he has a lot to adjust to. As for me, I think I’ll swear off dating for a while.”
“Me too. At least the whole town knows what I am now, so there’ll be no more unwelcome surprises.”
“It’s not the end,” Alissa said firmly. “He just needs tim
e to process. So do you. Put it on hold until both of you are in the right state of mind.”
“Normally I’d say you’re right, but he did kind of lock up my family. We have to address that at some point, otherwise I’ll never be able to stop wondering. I don’t know. I never met my father. But part of me really wants to think he’s innocent. Nathan told the truth when he said he didn’t know where he’d been taken, but still, he has contact with the other hunters. He can probably find out. Is it bad that I want to contact him again, just for that?”
“I don’t blame you,” she said. “We might be able to get the full story…”
“What, by stalking Nathan? That won’t help. Besides, I don’t know where the actual collective of paranormal hunters operates from, only that they live north of the lake.”
Her expression turned thoughtful. “I could ask my grandmother. There’s little she doesn’t know about when it comes to the citizens of the town. With a background like his, I’m sure she asked him a lot of questions. To make sure he wouldn’t act against innocent citizens. The others… the hunters in general don’t mix with paranormals on a casual basis like he does.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to see why,” I said.
“He never actually said he’d hold it against you,” she said.
“He may as well have.” I shook my head. “Even if he doesn’t, we still deceived one another pretty thoroughly. That’s not a good basis for a relationship.”
“You’re not wrong, but maybe you should talk to him again, when you’re not in such a precarious position. I think he was pretty shocked when you took the glamour off.”
“So am I,” I said. “My father. He’s—alive. Maybe my mother is, too. And I doubt the other hunters will easily tell me where he’s locked up.”
“No, I suppose not. But we can find out.”
I blinked at her. “You’re set on this, aren’t you? How would we even begin to get into a paranormal prison, even if we managed to find it?”
“You do own a fairy cat who can walk through walls, don’t you?”
“Yeah…” I looked around for Sky. “Speaking of whom, I’m sure he knows when I need him.” He’d only left my side after I’d cried myself to sleep, and had seemed weirdly tolerant of my sobbing into his fur.