by Jaclyn Weist
Eoin’s face dropped even more. “I tried snapping Megan’s luggage back here so she’d leave. The mermaids in Atlantis are now enjoying her clothes.”
Jared looked over at him in shock. “Atlantis? How’d they get them?”
“Don’t ask. Anyway, I can’t help you. You’ll need Henry. I’d better go find Beth. I promised Megan I’d talk to her, and then I still have to find a way to get Megan’s clothes back.” He popped out of the truck.
Jared couldn’t decide whether he should laugh at the thought of Eoin messing up so much, or if he should be upset Megan was in danger yet again, this time without him there to help her. It bothered him that he had to go to this stupid party when he really wanted to head off to Europe. At least Beth would be there. He just hoped they could find the summoning poem they’d used before to find Henry.
JARED
Jared got home and grabbed his mom’s bags from the truck. He ran up the porch steps and into the house. He could hear his mom talking to Abby in the bathroom, but otherwise, the house was pretty quiet. He grabbed a drink of water and looked through the cupboards and fridge for a snack.
His mom came into the kitchen holding Abby. Both were dressed in nice clothes, and Abby’s hair was pulled up in pigtails. “Oh, you’re home. You need to get ready for the party.”
“Yeah, I’m going to change as soon as I’m done with my food.”
“Your new tie is on your bed. And your suit just got back from the dry cleaner.”
“I have to wear a suit and tie? It’s June.” Jared’s dad liked to dress up whenever he had the chance, but Jared preferred a T-shirt and jeans. They’d had this argument enough that it was more of a routine than actual arguing.
Jared’s mom smiled, playing along. “He has some partners coming, and he’s hoping to get a promotion. Now, please go get dressed.”
Jared sighed and set his cup in the sink. “Fine. I’ll be over there as soon as I can.”
“Thank you, sweetie. This is a big thing for your dad. It could mean a nice raise, which means more money for college for you.”
“In that case, I’ll be an angel.” Jared kissed his mom’s cheek and headed upstairs to change. His nice suit and tie didn’t match the messy room. There was a method to the madness—the dirty clothes by the door, and the clean clothes by the closet—but he needed to get it cleaned up before his mom tried to do it. He ran the dirty laundry downstairs and then shoved the clean clothes in his dresser before changing into his suit.
Once he was dressed and his hair was just how Megan liked it, Jared tightened his tie and grabbed his keys. He hoped Beth was on time so he wouldn’t have to sit around with all the older people. He’d sent her a text, letting her know what had just happened with the leprechaun, and she’d replied that she’d be there. He’d tried to text Megan, but it wouldn’t go through.
He hurried down the stairs to find Abby playing in the hallway. “Hey, Abby. Where’s Mom?”
“Putting on makeup.” She handed Jared a stuffed bear. “Play with me.”
Jared looked down at his suit. He really didn’t want to sit down in the hallway, but he could never say no to Abby. Plus, he knew if he didn’t join in, she’d be drawing on walls next. “Okay, but just for a minute.”
She instantly launched into the tea party, and Jared smiled at her imagination. If only she knew fairies and unicorns were actually real.
Jared’s mom came in the hallway. “Oh, there you are. Let’s head out.”
Jared set the bear down and stood. “I might head out with Matt and a few other guys when it’s done.”
“That’s fine. I’ll need to bring Abby home for bed before it’s over anyway.” She picked Abby up. “Thanks for helping her. It’s been a crazy day.”
“No problem.” He watched his mom walk away, worried about her. She was paler than usual, and she had rings under eyes. Whatever was making her sick, just seemed to be hanging on. He left the house and drove to the event center. It was a warm summer day, but they were having the party inside. He’d never understood that.
Beth was right inside the door when he walked in. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to the far side of the room, the spot where he’d spent the New Year’s Eve party with Megan.
“Eoin came to see me after he talked to you. Please tell me you have the summoning spell.”
Jared shook his head. “I was hoping you had it.”
“Well, let’s pray Adam can find it in Megan’s room.” She rubbed her forehead. “I wanted more adventure, but I wasn’t expecting it so soon.”
“We still don’t know how to help, so don’t get too excited.” Jared looked around at his father’s guests. Everyone was mingling, and Jared was glad to see that his dad was having yet another successful party—this time, without golems.
His phone buzzed, but the text was from his friend Matt instead of Megan. He replied and then set his phone on the table. “I can’t text Megan. It won’t go through. Can you let her know I’m thinking about her and ask where the summoning spell is?”
“Weird. Yes, I can.” She sent a quick text. “So why aren’t you out there with everyone else?”
“If you hadn’t noticed, most of the people here are much older than me. Matt’s supposed to get here sometime, but he just texted to say he’ll be late.”
“Plus, you miss Megan.”
Jared nodded. “Yes, that too.”
“What if we leave and go get that spell from Adam?” Beth’s smile was contagious.
“Let’s do it. I already told Mom I might leave early. I just don’t have to tell her how early.” He stood and followed Beth as she weaved her way through the tables. They avoided Jared’s dad and slipped out of the building.
“Your car or mine?” Beth asked.
“I’ll drive,” he said, and they hopped in the truck. Jared laughed to himself as Beth pulled out her makeup. “What are you doing?”
“Hey, it’s Adam.” She touched up her makeup while Jared drove in silence. He liked Beth and all, but he was glad Megan didn’t spend as much time on her hair and makeup.
They arrived at the Crenshaw’s and climbed out of the truck. Beth knocked, and the door was opened by a surprised Mr. Crenshaw. Jared couldn’t help the nervousness he felt around Megan’s dad. He was one of the nicest guys Jared had ever met, but he was still intimidating. He liked to ask tough questions and threaten all kinds of off-the-wall things when Jared took Megan out on dates. Megan insisted he was joking, but Jared wasn’t so sure.
“What are you two up to? Shouldn’t you be at a party?” Mr. Crenshaw asked.
“Hey, Mr. C. We needed to talk to Adam if that’s all right.” Jared could hear chaos in the background.
“Of course.” He looked closer at them. “Is everything all right?”
“I think so.” Jared swallowed.
Mr. Crenshaw laughed. “I know you two and my daughter well enough to know something is wrong. Plus, my wife called to tell me Louie’s son keeps showing up. So what’s really going on?”
Beth moved around Jared. “We just need to summon Henry to see if he can help us. We want to help Megan if we can.”
“Ah. Well, come on in.”
Jared and Beth headed toward Adam’s room, but they were tackled by Maddie and William. Well, Jared was. Beth managed to get past, but Maddie grabbed Jared’s hand.
“Jared! You’re here! I didn’t think you’d come because Megan’s not here. Why’d you come? Is Megan okay? Did you miss us?” Maddie stopped to take a breath.
“We just came to talk to Adam. Megan is fine.” Well, at least as far as Jared knew, she was.
“Oh, good. When you’re done talking to Adam, can you play with us? We miss Megan.” She stuck out her bottom lip.
Jared laughed. “We’ll see. I miss her too.” He went to find Beth and Adam. He knocked first and opened the door. They were standing at Adam’s computer, and had apparently been kissing, judging by their blushes. They’d dated off and on over the last couple of years, but had spent
a lot more time together since school got out.
“There you are. I thought Maddie would never let you go.” Beth pulled away from Adam.
“She almost didn’t.” He looked over at Adam. “So do you know where the paper is?”
“From what I’ve seen, Megan put away all her leprechaun fighting things and moved on. If it’s anywhere, I’m guessing it’s in her hope chest.” Adam headed for the door, and Jared followed him out. “She locked her room before she left so the twins couldn’t get in. I’m hoping I can.”
“I’m sure she’d love knowing you broke into her room,” Beth said.
“Do you have a better idea?” Jared asked.
“Nope. That’s where I think it would be too.” Beth ran up the stairs and stood in front of Megan’s room. “We just need the key.”
Jared reached up to grab the key from above the door. “I guess you need me to get that?”
Beth huffed. “So I’m short. Big deal.” She took the key from Jared and opened the door.
Adam walked over to the chest and tried to lift the lid. “Great, it’s locked.”
“No, it gets stuck.” Beth knelt down in front of it and yanked up on it. When she looked up to see the boys staring, she shrugged. “What? We used to hide all our notes in here.” She pushed the lid open and moved things around. The sword sat on top, and Megan’s boots from Henry were stuffed down below. It was too hot to wear them in the summer, so Megan had changed to wearing sandals instead. The tattered book from Mrs. Brooke was in the chest, along with the news clippings her grandma had saved.
Adam sat down with the book and flipped through it. “Wow. I didn’t know Grandma had all these.”
“She showed them to Megan right before that last battle.” Beth found another pile of papers, but they were old report cards. All straight A’s, of course. Jared couldn’t help but smile at that. Megan’s luck had followed her everywhere she went, and school was no exception.
Jared leaned over the chest, but there was nothing else inside. Ugh—it had to be here somewhere. “Does Megan have another hiding place?”
Beth stopped going through the papers and looked around. “Not that I know of. I mean, she hid her fantasy books under her mattress, but that hasn’t been for a while.”
Jared looked at his watch. It was in the middle of the night in France, so they couldn’t ask Megan. He sent a text anyway, then he lifted the mattress, knocking pillows to the floor. “Do you see anything?”
Adam pulled out the books and flipped through them. “Nope, not here. Hey, wait. Look—it’s Bob.”
“Bob? She still has him?” Beth laughed.
Jared glanced between them. “Bob?”
Adam picked up a stuffed bear from the floor, and pulled a small piece of paper from a small tear in the seam of the bear’s leg. “This is Bob. She’s had him since she was little … and apparently uses him for a hiding place now.”
Jared and Beth gathered around Adam. The words on the paper were faded, but they could just make out what they said.
“Awesome. So do we want to do this now, or wait until it’s dark?” Adam asked.
“I don’t want to wait. Let’s try it now.” Jared took the paper.
Beth snatched it out of his hand. “Wait. We don’t want to do that here. Let’s go outside.”
“No way. Our neighbors already think we’re crazy.” Adam took the paper back and read the chant out loud.
It was silent for a moment while they waited for Henry to appear.
“Um, did you say it right?” Jared peeked over Adam’s shoulder.
“I read what was on here.” He looked over at Beth. “You try.”
She read the same thing with a slightly different inflection, but it didn’t work for her either. “What’s going on? It’s worked every other time.”
“Maybe we really did need to read it at night.”
Beth shook her head. “No, because we went to go get you during the day. It’s not that. What if … what if it’s blocked somehow? A leprechaun should’ve appeared. Any leprechaun. But nothing happened.”
“So we’re stuck here?” Jared pushed down the panic. He needed to help Megan. He couldn’t just stay here and doing nothing. The fact that he couldn’t get Henry—or anyone else—only made things worse.
Beth put a hand on Jared’s arm. “We’ll figure it out. I promise. Then you can save your damsel in distress. For now, we can only look for signs that things are happening and follow them.”
Adam bit his thumbnail. “I wish my tracker still worked. Then we could at least find Louie.”
“Yeah, we should’ve slapped another one on him when we had the chance.” Jared picked up the papers and set them inside Megan’s trunk. Beth grabbed the boots, and then Adam set the sword on top.
“We’ll just have to wait until Eoin gets back to us, I guess. Come on. I want to go see if Mrs. Lincoln know anything.” Beth helped Jared up. “If anyone knows what’s going on, she will.”
Jared nodded. “You’re right.” He made sure the door was locked as they left.
Maddie stood outside the door, her eyes wide. “Why’d you go in Megan’s room? She is in trouble, isn’t she?”
Adam pulled her into a hug. “She’s fine. We’re just making sure she stays that way.” Jared and Beth followed Adam downstairs to let his dad know he was going with them. Mr. Crenshaw stood and took the twins upstairs for bed, making Adam promise he’d be careful.
Beth, Adam and Jared headed out to the truck and drove over to Mrs. Lincoln’s.
Mrs. Lincoln must have had help putting her house put back together. The last time Jared had been there, walls were missing and windows were broken.
Mrs. Lincoln opened the door. Her silver hair was accented by the bathrobe she wore over her clothes. Jared had known her his own life, but it wasn’t until just a few months ago that he’d learned she was part fairy. “Ah, how nice to see you. Come on in.” She moved so they could go past her into the house.
Everything was in perfect order. She had shelves of ceramic elephants, lambs, and small glass plates. Her bookshelves ranged from new novels to old books that looked like they would fall apart if they were moved. Many were in languages Jared had never seen before.
“How are you two doing? All ready for college?” She moved into the kitchen, pulled out glasses and lemonade, and poured some for each of them.
“I haven’t thought about it much. I’ve been too busy with work.” Jared took a drink. It had to be the best lemonade he’d ever tasted.
“I’m ready. My sisters keep fighting over who will get my room when I leave.” Beth held up her glass. “This is amazing.”
Adam nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“It’s my own recipe. Now, what can I do for you? Where’s Megan?” She smiled, but the concern was obvious in her eyes.
“Megan’s off in Europe playing volleyball. She’s fine. We think.” Jared noticed he was holding the glass tighter than normal and set it down on the counter.
“What do you mean, you think? What happened?” Mrs. Lincoln’s eyes widened.
Beth leaned forward. “Louie’s son said that his mom is missing, and he thinks his dad is too. When we tried to summon a leprechaun, it wouldn’t work.”
Mrs. Lincoln stared for a moment. “And you know you can trust his son?”
“He’s still a child. I’m not sure he can be anything but trustworthy.” Jared still couldn’t believe Eoin was just born earlier that year.
“Never underestimate leprechauns. But it does go along with what I’m finding—I’ve been trying to contact my fairy friends. I’d heard rumors that the midsummer festival was going to happen this year, which goes against the agreement we’d made so long ago.” The fire in her eyes made Jared lean back. “I find it interesting that they want to start it up again just months after you all opened the portal to throw O’Malley in.”
“Who’s doing it?” Beth folded her arms.
Mrs. Lincoln shook her head. “I wi
sh I knew. I fear the worst.”
“That’s not what I like to hear. So, how can we help? If we don’t have a leprechaun to get us to Europe, we can’t do anything.”
Mrs. Lincoln brushed away Jared’s concern. “You can prepare things here. I’ll let you know when I have things ready to go.” She stood.
“What are your plans?” Adam asked. His eyes showed the same spark of anger that Megan’s eyes would when she was upset.
“I’ll contact my friends.” She placed a hand his shoulder. “We will do our best to keep your sister out of harm’s way.”
Adam’s jaw clenched before he nodded and backed up.
“Please stay safe.” Beth gave her a hug.
“Oh, I’ll be just fine. I’ve been more careful with my shields. It’ll take an army to take my house down now.”
“Wasn’t it an army—”
Beth nudged Jared. “Thanks, Mrs. Lincoln. We’ll let you know if we hear anything else.” She pushed Jared out the door.
Jared rubbed his arm. “What’d you do that for?”
“You don’t just say things like that.” Beth stormed to the truck.
“But her house was hit by an army of creatures.” He climbed in.
“Yes, well, she doesn’t have to be reminded.”
“Sorry.” Jared drove back to his dad’s party, and they joined in with the rest of the group until the end. Beth and Adam left soon after. Jared helped his mom and Abby out to the car so they could get home, and then went back in to help clean things up. He knew he wouldn’t sleep that night, so cleaning up after a party was a good distraction.
MEGAN
Mom and I had just gotten settled when there was a knock at the hotel door. I hurried over to answer it. I needed normal about now. Coach Peterson stood at the door.
“Hey, we’re heading down to dinner.”
“All right. We’re ready to go.” I looked back to see Mom grabbing her small backpack.
The other team members had started gathering around behind Coach. We followed and headed for the elevator.
We walked a few blocks to the restaurant. The cars sped by us, and the scent of flowers filled the summer air. I was able to forget everything I’d talked to Eoin about and just enjoyed being with friends. Mom had gone up ahead with Shelby’s mom and I walked along with Shelby and Brinley.