I sigh and say, “No, I’d probably be with you.” In fact, I add silently, if there’s a class lower than yours, that’s probably where I belong.
“So this is our house,” Jack says as we reach the first large structure built into the branches. “It’s got more rooms, like a kitchen and lounge and stuff, and then higher up are just bedrooms and bathing rooms for new people. Then if they stay and they want other rooms, Merrick just adds them on.”
I stop for a moment and look up at the smaller wooden structures built above us. “I probably shouldn’t ask about how bathrooms work all the way up there. I mean, I guess magic takes care of all the … plumbing?”
Jack shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess.” He continues moving up, and I follow him, grateful for all the physical activity Val and I have done over the past couple of years in our quest to teach ourselves parkour.
“Looks like you have to be quite fit to live here,” I comment. “It’s a long way up if you forget something when you leave your house in the morning.”
“I know!” Jack exclaims. “And I haven’t learned how to boost myself with magic yet, so it takes like forever. Mom and Dad can get up here in seconds if they have to. It’s so unfair.”
“Well, you’ll probably be able to do that soon, right? I mean, you know how to do the faerie paths thing.” I’m still particularly interested in that spell. The sooner I learn it, the sooner I’ll feel more in control of my situation.
“Oh, yeah, the faerie paths. I’m not supposed to know that one yet. But I’ve always paid attention when Mom and Dad do it. I’m a fast learner.” He looks back at me with a proud smile, then increases his pace a little, as if spurred on by his own words. “Okay,” he says a little breathlessly after we’ve passed four smaller tree houses. “This one’s empty. Or you can go higher if you want. There are another three that are empty. Merrick always adds more on when he has time.”
“This one’s fine.” I place my hands on my hips and look around as I give myself a few moments to catch my breath. The branches up here are wide enough to walk along without having any balance issues. Good thing I’m not afraid of heights, though. The distance from here to the ground is enough to cause some serious damage to anyone who might freak out and slip.
“Okay, come see,” Jack says. He skips along the branch and pushes the door open. I follow him into a bedroom, plainly furnished with nothing more than a bed, a wardrobe and a chair in the corner. It’s still nicer than the room I’ve always slept in at Chelsea’s house, though. At least I don’t have to climb over boxes of hair products and share my shelves with tiny bottles of strange concoctions.
“Is that a bathroom?” I ask, pointing to a closed door on the other side of the room.
“Yeah. So this is just the basic stuff they put in all the rooms. It’s kinda boring, so you can change whatever you want. You can even change the shape of the room, if you’d like something different. Merrick will do it. He’s an architect faerie. And Junie—she’s an elf—is a designer. So if you tell her what you want your bed to look like, she can easily change it. Or, like, if you want that chair to be a swing hanging from the ceiling, she can do that too. She did that in my room, but then I fell off one night when I was supposed to be sleeping, not playing, so Mom and Dad made her change it to an armchair, which isn’t nearly as fun. But Junie made it dragon-shaped, so I guess it’s not that bad.”
I smile at this outburst of information. “Sounds cool.” I walk to the window, and my smile stretches a little wider at the sight of the orchard, the river, and the sun going down in the distance. I’ve never imagined having a view like this from my own bedroom. And you still don’t, a small voice reminds me. This isn’t really my bedroom, and I probably won’t be here for long. Nothing this amazing could ever last.
“The wardrobe’s empty now,” Jack says, “but Mom will put some clothes in it later. Dash’s mom is a clothes caster, and she sends tons of clothes here. Some of them are weird, and Mom hides those ones, but most are normal. Oh, where did that come from?” I swing around and look to where he’s pointing. In the corner, sitting on the chair, is a kitten.
I cross the room with a sigh. “This little guy is a shapeshifting creature that keeps following me everywhere. I thought he ran away when Dash found me in the forest, but he must have just shifted into something really small and climbed into one of my pockets or something.” The creature shifts rapidly back and forth between two forms I can’t identify, like an old TV flickering between channels. Then it settles as a kitten again.
“Cool, he’s just like Filigree!” Jack says.
“Filigree?”
“Yeah, Mom’s pet. He doesn’t shift much anymore ’cause he’s super old and Mom says he doesn’t have the energy now, but he used to change into all kinds of things. He was even a dragon once, but then he slept for like three days solid after that ’cause it used so much of his magic.” Jack crouches in front of the chair. “What’s this one’s name?”
“He doesn’t have one.”
“Ah, can I name him please?” Jack begs, his eyes widening in delight as he looks over his shoulder at me.
“Sure. He’ll probably end up staying here anyway. It’s not like he’s mine. He just seems to like following me.” A strange twist, given that my first pet had the opposite reaction and ran away after only a few days.
“Yay.” Jack scoops the kitten up and cradles it against his chest. “I shall name him …” Jack squeezes his eyes shut as he thinks. “Bandit. His name will be Bandit.”
I nod slowly. “Sounds cool.”
We walk back down all the stairs—my legs getting a good workout in the process—and Jack shows me around the rest of the dome, pointing out a greenhouse, a school, a vegetable garden and orchard, an outdoor gym area, and a building that apparently contains a laboratory and some other ‘out-of-bounds’ places Jack doesn’t know much about. “It’s stuff to do with their work and how they help people. That’s all I know.”
“There’s a lot here,” I say as we stop beside a narrow river with a swan-shaped boat floating near the bank. “It’s bigger than I first thought.”
“It was smaller when I was little,” Jack says, “but Merrick keeps adding onto it. He gets bored when he isn’t helping Mom and Dad with cases. Anyway, come see the playground.” He grabs my hand and tugs me away from the river. “I kept it till last ’cause it’s my favorite place here. The swing is amazing. You have to try it.”
The playground turns out to be filled with the same kind of equipment I’d expect to find in my world. The swing, too, looks pretty much normal. “It doesn’t just go backwards and forward,” Jack says when I ask what’s so special about it. “See, you strap yourself in, and the swing goes all the way around. As many times as you want.”
“Wow, okay. That is cool. It’s enchanted, I assume?”
“Yeah, obviously. Do you want to have a go?”
“Uh, maybe another time. It’s just … this is a lot. I’m still getting used to all the magical stuff.”
“Oh, right, sorry. You’re from the other world. I remember now. So what do you do for fun there?”
“Oh. Um …” I push my hands into my back pockets. “Well, I hang out with my friend Val. We taught ourselves this thing called parkour. It’s kind of like a sport. You use whatever environment you’re in—like buildings, walls, stairs, whatever—as an obstacle course. There’s lots of jumping and running and climbing. And falling, but falling the right way. Like landing on your shoulder and rolling and standing up.”
“Okay. Is it fun?”
“Yeah. You have to be creative about getting from point A to point B. It’s like an art, actually. The art of rapid movement despite obstacles. An ordinary person might take the stairs out of a building and then walk along the road to wherever they’re going. Instead, we’d figure out how to jump or climb down, and then vault over walls and through gardens to get to the destination the quickest way possible.”
“Cool. Can you tea
ch me?”
“Uh, sure. If you can teach me how to open the faerie paths.”
“Okay.” He wraps an arm around one of the swing’s chains. “But we’d have to use someone’s stylus. Without them knowing. And … I don’t really wanna get grounded again.”
“Right. Yeah. You should stay out of trouble.” Those last few words come out sounding unexpectedly deep and resonant, and that same strange shiver from earlier ripples up my spine and across my arms.
“What was that?” Jack asks, pulling his head back as he eyes me with suspicion. “You sounded weird.”
“Um …” I’m not sure if he knows about my Griffin Ability. “Probably just some escaping magic. I don’t really know how to use it yet.” He nods slowly while I look around for something else to talk about. “So where are the hammocks? I think I’m probably supposed to meet your parents there soon.”
“This way,” he says, taking off in another direction. I hurry after him, grateful for the lasting effects of the chocolate energy drink Azzy gave me before letting the Guild take me away. I probably would have passed out from exhaustion long ago without it.
Jack leads me to a collection of hammocks strung between trees near a round, open-sided pavilion. Large couches sit beneath the pavilion’s decorative roof. “I think I’ll wait over there,” I tell him.
“Cool. I’m going to find some food for Bandit.”
I watch him wandering away until a familiar voice behind me says, “Hey, you got here safely.”
I spin around, my heart thundering in my chest. “Dash.” I jerk away from his outstretched hand. “He’s found us!” I yell. “The Guild’s found us!”
Fifteen
“Whoa, hey, calm down.” Dash blinks, confused. “I’m on your side. How have you not figured that out yet?”
“It’s okay, Emerson,” Violet says, running up to me. “He’s telling the truth. He’s on our side.”
“How can he possibly be on our side?” Anger rushes hotly through my veins, escaping in violent sparks that shoot away from me and aim straight for Dash’s face.
“Ow!” He ducks and bats the magic away with both hands. “What the heck, Em?”
“You tried to imprison me! And then you pushed me off the edge of a cliff!”
“Jeez, Em, I’m the only reason you got away from the Guild. You never would have escaped without my help.” He straightens as my magic stops attacking him. “You don’t think guardians are normally that clumsy, do you? And the cliff …” He shrugs, looking a little sheepish. “Well, we ran out of time, so I had to improvise. But I knew Ryn and Vi were out there. I knew someone would catch you.”
“You knew someone would catch me?” I repeat in disbelief. “I almost died!”
“But you didn’t. You’re fine. And now you’re safe, which was the plan from the very beginning.”
“What plan?”
“You know, to get you here to the Griffin rebels.”
“Wait.” I blink and hold my hands up. “You knew all along that I had a Griffin Ability, and you didn’t say anything to me?”
Dash’s eyes flick toward Violet before returning to me. “Well, we weren’t certain. That’s why I kept trying to get you to tell me exactly what happened that night at the party, but you weren’t interested in talking about it.”
“Are you kidding? If it was so important—if having a Griffin Ability is so dangerous—you could have forced the information out of me. Told me, ‘Em, this isn’t normal magic. You could be in danger because of it. You have to tell me what happened, for your own safety.’” I throw my hands up in complete exasperation. “Did you consider that option, Dash?”
He folds his arms over his chest, his expression growing stormier by the second. “Perhaps you don’t clearly remember the occasion on which you completely freaked out and ran away from Chevalier House, but you weren’t exactly in the mood to be forced into anything. And forgive me, but I kinda thought you had enough to deal with at that moment, having just found out about, you know, everything else. I thought I was being kind not dumping another horrible revelation on your shoulders. And I figured Azzy would get the truth out of you soon enough—which she had already done, actually. I didn’t know it, but she’d already contacted Ryn by the time I got you back to Chevalier House. We just didn’t manage to get you safely away before you revealed to everyone what you can do.”
“Hang on. Azzy’s in on this whole thing? That’s what the two of you were whispering about last night?”
“You heard that?”
“Yes, Prof Azzy’s on our side too,” Violet says.
“Then why the hell did Paul call the Guild to come get me?”
“Because Azzy is the only one who’s in on this,” she explains. “Paul isn’t. He’s firmly on the Guild’s side, just like everyone else working at Chevalier House, so his automatic response was to contact them.”
“Okay fine. Fine!” I face Dash again. “But you still didn’t explain a damn thing to me after I accidentally revealed my ability. If your Griffin friends were planning to come and rescue me, why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I tried, Em, but we weren’t alone for long enough after that. I couldn’t say anything with other guardians around. If the Guild gets even the tiniest hint that I’m not entirely on their side, things would turn out very badly.”
“Looking after your own skin, I see,” I mutter.
“Emerson—”
“Not just my skin,” Dash snaps, interrupting Violet before she can get any further. “I’m looking out for everyone else who lives here. Protective magic might keep me from being able to tell the Guild about this place if I were ever questioned, but I know far more than that. I know what Azzy’s doing and about all the people who come in and out of here. Can you imagine what would happen if the Guild got that information out of me?”
“Then why bother working at the Guild if it’s such a gigantic risk?”
“Hello! Because Vi and Ryn and everyone else here need people on the inside. They wouldn’t know what’s going on otherwise. They wouldn’t have known about you, or about what the Guild was planning to do with you.”
“It’s true,” Violet says. “The information Dash gives us about the Guild is extremely valuable. And aside from that, he wants to be a guardian. He wants to help people. He shouldn’t have to walk away from that just because he’s connected to us.”
I cross my arms tightly over my chest, wanting to say that other people have to give up their dreams all the time, so what makes Dash so special that he gets to keep his? But my childish, petty thoughts aren’t helpful, so I manage to remain quiet.
Violet’s gaze shifts between the two of us. “Should we … perhaps … sit down?” she suggests after several more moments of silence have passed.
With a terse nod, I follow her up the pavilion steps. I wait for Dash to sit so I can choose a spot far away from him, but he nods at me to sit first. Idiot. Is he pretending to have good manners or something? I take a seat on a blue-and-white-striped couch and hug one of the fluffy white cushions against my stomach. Dash has the decency not to sit right next to me. “So, are we okay now?” he asks. “You and me?”
I shrug. “As okay as we ever were, I guess.”
“Cool. So you still don’t like me, but at least you don’t believe I wanted to kill you.”
I nod. “Pretty much.”
“Great,” Violet says, waving to Ryn as he walks toward the pavilion with a tray of glasses floating in the air beside him. “As long as the two of you don’t want to kill each other, everything should be fine.”
“Dash,” Ryn says as reaches us. “Thanks for helping out with the rescue.” He shakes Dash’s hand, as if pushing me off a cliff was some great accomplishment. “I know Emerson wasn’t too pleased about the way it happened, but you had to keep your cover somehow.”
“Thanks. It’s good to know that some people appreciate my sacrifice.” He gives me a pointed look.
“Yeah, whatever. Such
a sacrifice, I’m sure. And you guys can stop calling me Emerson,” I add. “Em is fine.”
“Or Emmy,” Dash says.
I clench my teeth together. “I will hurt you.”
“I will hurt you,” he mimics in a high-pitched voice.
Violet sighs and lowers herself onto one of the couches. “Were we ever this immature?”
“Of course not,” Ryn says, taking a seat opposite her. “Well, you might have been, but I’m sure I wasn’t.”
She laughs. “That is definitely not true.”
“Dash, I heard you had a small problem getting here,” Ryn says, neatly changing the subject. “Calla said she got a message from you asking her to go meet you somewhere and bring you back here.”
“Uh, yeah.” Dash turns his gaze to me. “So, I have a small problem.”
“And why is that my problem?”
“Because it’s your fault. I can’t use the faerie paths anymore. It’s impossible for me to travel anywhere if I’m alone.”
“Aaaaand I still don’t see how that’s my problem.”
“Em, come on. It’s your Griffin Ability that did this to me. You need to fix it.”
“I don’t know how. And even if I did, wouldn’t that look suspicious to the Guild? I’m supposed to be dead, right, so how could I fix your faerie paths problem?”
“I don’t know. I guess I could say the effects of your magic wore off.”
“And when Jewel still can’t use the faerie paths? That’s going to look seriously suspicious, Dash.”
“She has a point,” Ryn says.
“Just try it, Em. Try right now. Say, ‘You can open doorways to the faerie paths.’ And if it works, then we can get you to sneak up on Jewel while she’s sleeping and do the same to her.”
“That’s really creepy, Dash.”
“Just try!”
I lean back, cross my arms, and say, “You can open doorways to the faerie paths.”
He sighs. “Perhaps you could put a little effort into it?”
“Who says it works that way?”
“I don’t know, but it certainly didn’t work the way you just said it. Your voice didn’t go all … weird.”
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