Shadow Faerie

by Rachel Morgan

  “We can make it safe.” Her hands clasp my upper arms as she gazes proudly at me. “You can make it safe.”

  “I suppose I can.”

  “And we can fill it with life. Your power can create almost anything, and my magic can help. In small amounts,” she adds with a laugh. “It doesn’t matter that it’s a small world. It only needs to be big enough for the two of us—and maybe a few other people over time. And you can tell it to belong to us, so no one can ever try to take it away.” Her hands slide down to grip mine. She swings our arms back and forth between us the way an excited child would. “This will be our home, Em. Our fresh start. What do you think?”

  I don’t know if it’s reckless or stupid, but suddenly I don’t care. Mom’s enthusiasm is contagious, and the way she says it, it sounds like a perfect idea. “Yes. Okay. Let’s do that.”

  And so, about fifteen minutes later when the color has filled my ruby completely, Mom and I stand at the window together, looking out at our wispy grey surroundings as power fills my voice. “The shadow world is ours. Yours and mine. The Unseelies will never enter this world. The Guild and its members will never enter this world. Only those we give permission to can enter this world. The ink-shade creatures will never attack anyone here. We will be safe.”

  In the distance, a ripple of magic races along the horizon as my Griffin power rushes out of me, leaving me weak but happy, knowing the shadow world is about to become our home.

  Part Four

  Thirty-Eight

  DASH

  The only place Dash wanted to go was home. First, to reassure his mother he hadn’t met a horrible end at the hands of the Unseelies, then to send a message to Ryn, and lastly, to enjoy a proper shower and a good sleep. But he knew that after almost a week of unexplained absence, he needed to report to the Guild first. So, with the traveling candle blazing in his hand, he pictured the inside of the Creepy Hollow Guild’s entrance room—and that’s exactly where he appeared moments later.

  The light faded to reveal two guardians with weapons pointed directly at him, probably due to his unorthodox arrival. “Dash?” one of them said, lowering her sword. “You’re not dead.”

  Dash raised both eyebrows. “Nope.”

  “Is that a candle?” the guy next to her asked, his knives vanishing as he let go of them.

  “Yep. No stylus. I had to improvise.” Dash headed through the archway—which would scan his wrist markings to determine he wasn’t an imposter, and would detect any other dangerous enchantments that might have been placed on him—and into the main foyer. He hastily made his way upstairs. The sooner he explained himself to a Council member, the sooner he could get home. But he expected his report meeting would take a while, so if he could send a message to his mother first, that would be great.

  Reaching the open-plan office area he shared with several other junior guardian teams, he rifled through his desk drawers, searching for an old amber. Or perhaps he had a mirror here somewhere. He could make a quick call while on his way to the Councilors’ level.

  “Dash!” He looked up and saw Jewel across the room. He expected her to run over and hug him, but her delighted expression soon turned to wary confusion. Guilt stirred uncomfortably in his chest. He’d abandoned his team—including one of his best friends—to go on this unofficial mission. Hopefully they’d understand why he did it, once he explained himself, but he still felt bad about whatever worry he’d caused them.

  “Dash?” A different voice uttered his name this time, and he turned to the side to see Councilor Delmore walking through the door, accompanied by several senior guardians. “I’m glad to see you’ve returned safely,” she said, though her eyes lacked their usual warmth. “We need to talk.”

  “Great timing,” he said. “I was just about to come looking for a Council member. I have a lot to report.”

  “Good,” she says. “We have a lot to ask you.”

  “I’m just calling my parents first,” Dash added, his fingers finally locating the edge of a mirror in one of his drawers. “They don’t know I’ve returned.”

  “We’ll get a message to your father,” Councilor Delmore said. “He’s on duty nearby in the forest. Your debriefing is more important.”

  Dash hesitated for a moment, then moved to walk beside her. He wondered at the presence of the additional guardians who accompanied her, but he told himself there was no reason to be concerned. He assumed they already knew he’d been with the Unseelies—he’d told his mother not to lie about that part seconds before he climbed into the Unseelie carriage—so they were probably here to ensure there wasn’t some form of dangerous magic lingering about him.

  But a minute later, as he and Councilor Delmore sat across a table from each other in one of the oval conference rooms and six guardians lined up along the wall, his apprehension returned in full force. There was definitely something different about this debriefing.

  “I’ll get right to the point, Dash. We received correspondence from the Unseelies this morning regarding your unauthorized presence in their court.”

  “Okay,” Dash said with some uncertainty. “But you were already aware of that, weren’t you? Didn’t my mother inform you straight after I left her studio for the Unseelie Palace?”

  “She did.”

  “I know it wasn’t an authorized mission,” Dash hurried to explain, “but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I’d heard the rumors about a new young lady at the palace and the royal family’s interest in her. I strongly suspected it was the Griffin Gifted girl, Emerson. I discovered at the last minute that my mother was handing over a dress to one of the Unseelies, so I had to act immediately. There was no time to alert the Guild or make an alternate plan. I’d hoped to correspond with you from there, but the prince took my amber when he discovered I was a guardian. Oh, and this?” Dash tapped the piece of metal behind his ear. “The prince added this special little touch to make sure you couldn’t summon me if I was tagged. And then I was thrown into their prison. Which, I might add, we knew nothing about. I think there are plenty of people imprisoned there who shouldn’t be. The Guild needs to get involved.”

  “Well, we’ll be sure to look into that,” Councilor Delmore said. “But for now, I’m far more concerned about the part of the letter than implied you have inappropriate connections to the Griffin rebels.”

  Dash’s stomach lurched. After a beat of silence, he said, “What? That’s insane.”

  “The Council has reviewed the letter, and we believe we have sufficient cause to question you under the influence of a truth potion.”

  Crap, crap, crap. Dash tried to keep the alarm from showing on his face. “Woah, seriously?” He laughed her words off in his usual manner. “You’re going to believe the Unseelies over me?”

  She sighed, leaning back a little and regarding him with an almost apologetic expression. “Dash, I’ve known you since you began your training here. I don’t believe you’d work against us like this. Not for a second. But it would be remiss of us not to be absolutely certain. And the fact that you’ve been missing for days …” She lifted her hands from her lap and placed them on the table, revealing a tiny bottle in her grip. “We just need to know what’s going on. I don’t want any unpleasant surprises further down the road.”

  Dash swallowed, his eyes on the bottle of truth potion. He couldn’t refuse. He could only hope that the protective enchantment would keep him from revealing anything too important, and that any other questions would be vague enough for him to avoid giving away too much information. “Well, let’s get this over with then,” he said, holding his hand out for the bottle. “We’ve all got work to get back to.” He opened the bottle, allowed a few drops to fall onto his tongue, then passed the bottle back. Behind him, he heard the door open and a few more people walked in.

  “Councilors,” Councilor Delmore said with a nod, and Dash decided not to look over his shoulder to see who, exactly, had joined them. He needed to appear unconcerned. So he leaned back and l
oosely folded his arms, giving Councilor Delmore an expectant smile. He would feign innocence as long as he possibly could. Across the table, she laced her fingers together and asked her first question: “Are you keeping information from us about the Griffin rebels?”

  Damn. There was no avoiding that one. Dash tried to clamp his mouth shut, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t. His answer left his mouth almost as a grunt. “Yes.”

  Councilor Delmore blinked. In her eyes, Dash saw not only disappointment, but sadness as well. She shook her head and looked away. “Do you know, I didn’t actually believe it until this moment.”

  He wanted to cry out that he wasn’t the traitor she thought he was. The Griffin rebels were good people. He was doing the right thing by helping them. But he’d only dig himself into a deeper hole, so he bit his lip and remained silent, waiting for the next question.

  “What do you know about the Griffin rebels?”

  “I … mmm.” He pressed his lips tightly together, breathing out sharply as he struggled against the barrage of information that longed to pour free from his mouth. There was certain information he’d never be able to give away, but there were so many other things. It was too much. Far too much for one answer. He wouldn’t even know where to start, and that—he realized with relief—was what helped him to fight off the potion’s influence.

  But Councilor Delmore was smarter than that. “Sorry. That was far too broad.” She paused, then asked, “Where are the Griffin rebels based?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Are they planning a move against the Guild?”

  “No.”

  “Are they planning to interfere in the veil restoration ceremony?”

  Interfere. Focus on interfere, he instructed himself. They weren’t planning to interfere. They were only going to watch. He’d suggested it, and he knew they agreed it was a good idea. They would be back-up. Just in case something went—No! Nothing would go wrong. They wouldn’t have to interfere. “Nnnnno,” he managed to force out.

  Councilor Delmore’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t sound like you entirely meant that, Dash.”

  “They don’t plan to interfere,” he said, the words tumbling quickly from his lips.

  She nodded slowly. “I see.” Then she asked, with far more emphasis on each word, “Do they plan to be there?”

  Dash squeezed his eyes shut, gripped the chair’s arms fiercely, and tried with all his might to force the answer down. But it slipped from his mouth anyway. “Yes.”

  Footsteps sounded behind him as someone moved around the table. Head Councilor Ashlow, with her stiff posture and her unreadable expression. She nodded as she stopped beside Councilor Delmore. “Good. Now we know who it is. This confirms what the Seers have Seen and filled in the specifics that weren’t clear to them.” She looked across the table. “Thank you for being so helpful, Dash. We’ll question you further at another time.”

  As glittering handcuffs snapped around his wrists and rough hands tugged him to his feet, Dash shut his eyes and let the horrendous guilt at having betrayed his friends sink into him.

  Thirty-Nine

  Bandit prances from rock to rock across the pool of water I created earlier, leaping from the last rock into the air and landing in my arms as a cat. Mom laughs at him. “He is very sweet. Where did you say you found him?”

  “The forest outside Chevalier House. And it would probably be more accurate to say he found me. He’s been following me ever since.”

  “Lovely,” Mom says. She leans back in one of the two beach chairs I spoke into existence earlier and looks out at what we’ve achieved in our first day together: a river that leads away from the rock pool, clouds that change shape, drift across the sky, and never actually disappear, and a new section of the castle. Plus what isn’t currently visible: the two wardrobes of normal, court-inappropriate clothing back inside the castle.

  My command to the shadow world late last night sapped me entirely of my Griffin power, but I took one of the elixir vials from the backpack and walked to where the portal used to be, planning to command Roarke not to interfere with the veil. I was then going to light a candle and tell it to take him and his guards back to the Unseelie Palace. But I couldn’t find him or his men. Perhaps Aurora or some of the Unseelie guards showed up and took them away while we were hiding inside the castle. Or perhaps it had something to do with the command I gave this world about Unseelies not being able to enter. Either way, Mom and I now seem to be the only ones in this world.

  So I returned to the castle, where Mom had chosen two bedrooms near each other that were mostly furnished, and prepared one of the beds for me to climb into. I almost cried when I saw it. I decided to blame my emotional state on exhaustion, but I knew the real reason: my mother was finally here to take care of me.

  I slept for so long that my Griffin Ability was almost replenished by the time I woke up. After using it for the big things—the river, the clouds, the castle, and telling the dim light in the sky to mimic the day and night of the Unseelie Court—Mom taught me a few things with ordinary magic. Like changing the patterns on our bedspreads, using an organizational spell for all the food we found in the pantry, and getting a cleaning spell going in the kitchen to take care of the dirty dishes left behind by Roarke’s guards. And all the while we chatted endlessly. I decided not to go for any of my big-deal questions yet—like ‘How could you allow a human to die so you could take over her life?’—choosing to stick to less serious topics until Mom and I get to know each other a little better.

  Now we’re sitting by our little rock pool drinking something Mom concocted as the light around us gradually grows dimmer. I’d love to watch a real sunset, but I’ll have to make do with the enchanted lighting. Perhaps I can add color to it when my Griffin Ability next refuels itself. Or I could use the elixir, but I’d rather save that for emergencies.

  As I sit in my comfy chair with Mom right beside me, Bandit on my lap, and a strange yet tasty drink in my hand, my thoughts turn toward Dash. He may have been joking when he said he’d wind up tortured wishing he could kiss me again, but I’m starting to feel a little tortured myself. It’s not as though I’ve never kissed anyone else, but none of the boys in Stanmeade can quite match up to a guy with magic racing through his veins. I’ve replayed that kiss over and over in my mind, and each time I remember something else that seems sort of … magical. And not in the corny, figurative sense. I mean actual magic. The flashing lights I noticed through my closed eyes, the sensation of sparks on my tongue, the hot-cold shiver that didn’t quite feel like a normal shiver. Not to mention the flames that briefly encircled us.

  Interesting. Very interesting. Like Dash said, we’ll definitely have something to talk about the next time we see each other. I probably shouldn’t get too attached to the idea of him, though. He might have already moved on to whatever new guardian girls have arrived at the Guild in his absence. It may feel to me like we’ve created some kind of bond while surviving life and death together, but he’s probably experienced the same thing with plenty of other guardian females. Life and death situations are an everyday occurrence for them, right?

  “Everything okay?” Mom asks, and I realize she’s watching me.

  “Yes. Better than okay. Why?”

  “You just had this frown on your face, that’s all.”

  “Oh.” I make sure I’m smiling instead. “Sorry, I didn’t even realize.”

  “Do you have more questions?” She shakes her head. “I mean, of course you have questions. But is there something in particular you were wondering about right now?”

  “Um …” I suppose I could ask her about the magical side-effects of kissing, but I don’t feel entirely comfortable about that. Right now, it still feels like something private that I want to keep between Dash and me. So I decide to ask a different question instead. “You said you have Ada’s memories of the years since the two of you separated, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I ask you som
e things?”

  “Of course, honey.” She turns a little in her chair to face me. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask more about my Griffin Ability and Ada. I thought you’d be more curious.”

  “I am curious, I just didn’t know if it was something you’d want to talk about.”

  “Em, I’m happy to talk about anything with you.” Her smile crinkles the skin around her strange peach-colored eyes. “No more secrets, okay? I want everything out in the open.”

  “Okay. So … how did Ada know about this world? I thought it was just a few of the Unseelies and their guards who knew about it.”

  Mom pauses for a few moments, perhaps digging through Ada’s memories to find the answer. “It seems she discovered it by accident, actually. She wanted to, uh … Ugh, this is horrible. She wanted to kill the guardians stationed by the veil tear. But they saw her coming and chased her with magic. She escaped into the faerie paths, but the guardians were so close behind her, she was worried they might actually be able to follow her through. So she stayed inside the paths. Which, in case you don’t know, is a difficult thing to do,” Mom adds. “And while she was hiding there, she began to notice light in the distance. She thought that was odd, since the faerie paths are supposed to be completely dark, so she followed the light, and she discovered this world. There was a wall and a door, and once she went through it, she found a half-formed castle, and soldiers or guards in the distance. She didn’t stay long, but I can tell from her memories that she’s been here a few times since, just to see what’s going on.”

  Suspicion has been growing inside me while Mom’s been talking. “That’s very weird,” I say when she’s done. “That’s almost exactly how Roarke and Aurora discovered this world.”

  “Oh.” Mom tilts her head to the side. “That is strange. I wonder how many other people have also accidentally stumbled into this world, probably not even realizing what it is. It’s a good thing you told this world it belongs to us. Now we don’t have to worry about random strangers wandering through our home.”