The Fairytale Curse (Magic's Return Book 1)

by Marina Finlayson

  But there was a Reilly file.

  “CJ! Get in here.” She looked up, caught by the note of excitement in my voice. “I’ve found our file.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  We huddled together between the shelves. The cupboard was so tiny there was barely enough room for both of us. We had to shut the door so we could both fit, jammed up against cold metal shelves. The space smelled of old paper and dust.

  “Give me that,” CJ said. “I don’t believe you. Why should there be a file on us?”

  “It’s test results. Remember Dad said everyone from magical families was tested as children?”

  He’d also mentioned the importance of latency. The Gilded Cage had given me a bit more information on that too. Apparently bloodlines were a big deal: no one could be a warder unless they were descended from the Founders, the seven mages who’d trapped the Sidhe originally. No one could be a seeker unless their latency score was higher than seventy-five per cent, and people like that mostly came from the same small group of families. I hadn’t yet discovered why these rules were so important; the book seemed to assume that any reader would already know.

  There were several pages of graphs, and scores for all sorts of things I didn’t recognise. I handed her the bundle labelled Crystal Jane Reilly.

  “What’s perception?” CJ asked, tilting the pages toward the light of the dim bulb above us. “I got 38% in that when I was five. And 34 in projection.”

  My own five-year-old attempts were no better. “I’ve got 35 in projection and 52 in resonance.” I flipped through the sheets. “I can’t find one for perception.”

  “I don’t remember any of this,” CJ said, frowning at the pages as she turned them. “Look, it says here we were retested at puberty. That’s only a few years ago. I don’t remember any magical testing.”

  “Me neither. They must have ways of doing it that aren’t obvious.” Considering how many weird and wonderful gadgets Dad usually had in the house, he could have been up to anything. I flipped over until I found my own most recent results. “Hey, look at that. My projection’s up to 86, and resonance is through the roof.”

  CJ said nothing.

  “How’s yours?” I leaned over to see, but she flipped the pages closed.

  “Never mind.”

  “Come on—tell me.”

  “Fine. It says ‘no latency detected’.”

  Her tone was flat and final. The message was clear: I don’t want to discuss this any further. I tried to get her to look at me, but she turned away. Was that a tear?

  “Hey, don’t be upset.” I took the pages from her, shoved everything back in the folder and put it away on the shelf. “It doesn’t matter—there’s no magic in the world any more anyway. So what difference does it make if you’re latent or not?”

  Then why are you so pleased your scores are so high? I had to admit, it felt good to know that in another place and time I might have been a mage. It was a pretty cool kind of secret to have. What might I have been able to do? Cast illusions? Spin straw into gold? And maybe—just maybe—it felt good to finally be better than CJ at something. It’s not like I was going to rub her face in it, but I was only human. I couldn’t help a little buzz of pleasure.

  CJ shrugged off my hand as if she knew what I was thinking. I guess it was a new experience for her, not being better than me at everything. She was taller, prettier, more popular. More of a people person. She was always the one that people gushed over, while I hovered in the background. Not that I was complaining; I preferred the background. But she’d grown used to the limelight.

  “It doesn’t make any difference,” she said, but she still wouldn’t look at me.

  She had the door half-open when we heard the click of the office door opening, and voices in the corridor outside. There was no time to dash back to the couch and pretend we hadn’t been snooping; there was no time for anything but what CJ did—shut the door as quickly and quietly as possible, leaving us hidden in the dark of the filing cupboard.

  We heard a number of people enter the room and shuffle around finding chairs. Mum offered drinks, followed by the clink of glass on glass as she poured.

  “What’s the latest on Sergei?” Mum asked.

  “Dena’s with him,” Dad replied. “Fortunately she arrived this morning. We have him heavily sedated, and a crew posing as police have secured the hangar. I’m afraid I have no idea where to go from here.”

  There was a long pause, then someone sighed heavily.

  “How can these attacks keep coming?” That sounded like Dorian.

  “And getting worse?” another asked, a woman’s voice I didn’t recognise. “I thought we had the Sidhe responsible in custody.”

  “We have Puck,” said Mum, “but clearly there are others, though for some reason the monitors aren’t showing activity.”

  “This makes no sense,” the other woman replied in obvious frustration. “They shouldn’t be able to get out at all! How can there be multiple escapees?”

  “As to that, it seems they’ve had outside help.” This was a new voice, another man.

  “What do you mean?” Dorian asked sharply.

  “My team has found evidence of tampering with the seals.”

  There was a collective intake of breath.

  “What?”

  “I expected something of the sort,” Dad said. “It stands to reason. They’ve been locked up in there for two centuries—they’re not going to suddenly come up with a way to break out after so long. Someone must have helped them.”

  “But who would do such a thing?” the unknown woman asked, horror quavering in her voice.

  “And who would have the power?” Mum added, which caused another uncomfortable silence.

  “It must be one of the seekers,” Dorian said at last. He sounded reluctant to believe such a thing. “They’re the ones with the security clearance and the highest latency.”

  “I suppose so,” said Mum.

  She sounded exhausted, and I suddenly felt horribly guilty for overhearing this conversation. She had so much on her plate already—if she knew we were in here listening it would only make more trouble for her.

  “I wish they’d hurry up,” CJ whispered. “I have to pee.”

  “Sshh!”

  We could hear them clearly through the closed door; I had to assume they’d be able to hear us too.

  “Well,” said Dad, “we’ll have to look into that. Bryan, I assume your team has checked out clean?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you can give them the task of going through the other seekers’ records. See if we can turn up anything in their history, any motive for betrayal—money, health, love. Anything.”

  I shifted nervously. That better not mean he had to come in here right now and grab people’s records. That would be one hell of an awkward conversation.

  “Doug, what about my sister? Can you do anything for her?” Right. Bryan must be the warder who was Kerrie’s brother.

  “Ah …” Dad shifted in his chair. “I had some success with my girls, but I don’t want to get your hopes up. Kerrie’s case is quite different. There’s no aether physically emanating from her that I can pinpoint with dampener, and I’m hesitant to go too deep in case I cause some damage. But I’ll certainly do my best.”

  “I appreciate anything you can do.”

  “And I assume we have the same problem with Sergei?” Dorian asked. “The aether must be buried quite deep in his case, to have that effect on his whole body.”

  “I’m afraid so,” Dad replied. “The initial assessment isn’t promising. Dena’s very good, though, and she may see something I’ve missed.”

  “Let’s hope so. We now have four warders affected by these attacks, directly or indirectly.”

  The other three must be wondering if they were next.

  “And what of this Puck?” the other woman asked. “What do you propose doing with him?”

  “We should condense him,” Bryan said immedia
tely. “What’s the sense in leaving loose ends? If there are traitors among us, they’ll try to free him. Hasn’t he done enough damage already?”

  “We have guards watching him night and day.”

  “And who’s watching the guards? Send him back, and get rid of the problem.”

  “I understand you feel strongly about this,” Dorian said. “We’re all worried about Kerrie—”

  “It’s not just Kerrie!”

  “—but it may not be the best idea to send him back. If he’s escaped once before, he can do so again. At least at the moment we know where he is.”

  “I think Dorian’s right, Bryan,” said Mum. “While we have him in the vault he’s not out causing more mischief.”

  “Do we have any idea yet what he was doing when he was captured?”

  “He was within spitting distance of the cathedral,” said Dorian. “I think we have to assume the spear was his target.”

  “But that’s not possible,” the other woman said. “The Sidhe can’t enter holy ground. And the spear is well-protected.”

  “Frida, if he had human assistance to escape in the first place, it seems likely his human allies would have a plan to access the spear—if that was indeed his target. The question we have to answer is why he would be going after the spear.”

  “Perhaps they simply want it back,” Dorian said. “More likely, they have a plan to use it against us in some way. It seems clear that Puck’s ability to break out isn’t widespread, or we’d be inundated with Sidhe by now. Perhaps they think the spear can help them widen the gateway, as it were.”

  “What of the other treasures?” the other woman asked—this must be Frida, the warder who’d just flown in. “Are we sure it’s only the spear they need?”

  “We’re not sure of anything,” Mum said. The frustration in her voice was clear. “I’ve checked with the guardians of the other three, and there is no suspicious activity.”

  “That doesn’t mean they’re safe, though, does it? The four of them were used to anchor the very foundation of the Sidhe prison. What if the Sidhe have found a way to use them to reverse the process?”

  “Perhaps we’re jumping at shadows,” Dorian said, “but I must confess, I share Frida’s unease. For the last century we’ve assumed that because the cauldron, the sword and the stone are in the Northern Hemisphere, they are out of the Sidhe’s reach. But we’ve also assumed that the Sidhe were unable to break out of their prison. Can we afford to rely on any of our assumptions any more?”

  “What would you have us do?” Bryan asked.

  “I think we need to consider strengthening the anchors.”

  Talk about dropping a bombshell. Whatever “strengthening the anchors” meant, it wasn’t a popular idea, judging by the shouting that broke out. It sounded like a playground brawl out there. Any minute someone was going to start chanting “fight, fight, fight”.

  Eventually Mum managed to calm everyone down enough that we could make out what they were saying again.

  “Obviously that would be a last resort,” she said. “In the meantime, we need to put everyone on high alert, particularly at the other sanctuaries. But I at least would sleep better if one of us were at each site.”

  “I can go to Stockholm,” Frida said. “I have family business there anyway.”

  “I don’t like to leave Kerrie,” Bryan said, “but there’s nothing I can do for her by staying. Perhaps I could be more use elsewhere.”

  “I could make a quick trip to Paris,” Dad said. “I want to consult with Luthor anyway. Emmet can run the trials for a couple of days without me.”

  “Good!” Dorian clapped his hands, and we both jumped. “That’s settled, then. But I want you all to think about the other option.”

  CJ bumped a folder on a lower shelf. I caught it just before it thumped on its side, then we froze, waiting to see if anyone in the outer room had heard our quick, furtive movements.

  Apparently not. The meeting broke up soon after, and we waited, listening for the last of the warders to leave. The outer door closed, cutting off Dad and Bryan mid-conversation about Kerrie. I shut my eyes and let out a long, relieved breath.

  Then the cupboard door opened. Mum stood there, hands on her hips, that terrible I am so disappointed in you look on her face again.

  “How much of that did you overhear?”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “I wish we were back in Townsville.” I stared at the back of Kyle’s head as he drove us home in disgrace. Mum hadn’t been that angry since the time we played hairdressers when we were seven, and CJ hacked off most of my hair. “So far Sydney really sucks.”

  “I don’t know,” said CJ. “I think it has its compensations.”

  She’d already texted the caveman, asking him to come over. She was so caught up in her new romance it hardly seemed to bother her that Mum was furious, Dad was too preoccupied to see us as anything other than a problem to be solved, and we were being ferried around like unwanted baggage. Plus we had to wear atrocities round our necks that made us look like Frankenstein’s monster, to ward off the curse some fairy had placed on us. Oh yeah, and magic was real and apparently trying to take over the world.

  Townsville had been much quieter.

  “How many Sidhe do you think have escaped?” I asked Kyle.

  He gave me a brief, troubled glance in the rear vision mirror. “According to the monitors, there’s not enough aether showing for anyone to have escaped except Puck.”

  “But someone cursed Sergei, didn’t they?”

  Maybe the monitors had been tampered with, if there was a human traitor involved. But Gretel and Ronnie had been all over the hardware, and they said nothing was wrong with it.

  Unless Gretel and Ronnie were the traitors. That wasn’t a happy thought. I liked Gretel and Ron. But Bryan had said someone had tampered with the seals, so someone was playing for the other team. I hated having to suspect everyone I knew.

  “Yes. Someone did. Maybe Puck did it before we caught him, but the curse didn’t take effect for a while.”

  Well, that was another possibility, I guess. Or maybe Kyle was the traitor, and he was making up crap to throw me off the scent. What did I know about how magic worked? He could tell me anything.

  “What will you do if more Sidhe turn up while we’re at home?”

  Mum had said we’d be safe there, but I couldn’t see how one guy on his own could protect us from a curse like the one that had hit poor Sergei. Even if he wasn’t a traitor. I fingered my collar nervously. I would almost rather have stayed at HQ, but Mum said it was more important than ever to keep up normal appearances, and had shoved us out the door as fast as possible. Guess she didn’t want us poking our noses into anything else we weren’t supposed to know.

  “The house is protected by iron boundaries,” Kyle said. “No Sidhe could even set foot on the property. Warders’ homes have always been protected, just in case.”

  Okay, then. There were no press lying in wait to protect us from, either. Kyle set himself up in the dining room with his laptop and proceeded to ignore us. That was fine with me. I could do with a quiet night.

  Sadly, that only lasted until Josh turned up on the doorstep. CJ dragged him inside like a starving woman who sees food and they snuggled up on the couch in the family room, supposedly watching TV, but really just exchanging spit.

  Eww. I retreated to my room and texted Sona. She reminded me that she was supposed to be helping me find something to wear to the formal, and announced she was coming over. I pointed out that I wasn’t going, but she wasn’t having any of that.

  I came downstairs when I heard the doorbell, and CJ and the caveman quickly rearranged themselves on the couch into a more upright position.

  “Hi, Sona.”

  She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that said “Geek girls rock”, and lugging a bulging shopping bag. I’d never seen her out of uniform before; it made her look older.

  “Hi! Did you miss me?” She stepped
inside and threw a kiss at the air beside my cheek. “Of course you did! How are you?”

  “Yeah, okay, I guess.”

  “That’s what I like about you, Vi, always so positive. Come on, why so serious?” She was a terrible Joker impersonator.

  I led the way back through the family room. “My sister is sucking Josh Johnson’s face in my own house.”

  “Hey, I heard that!” CJ said.

  I gave her a deadpan look. “Whoops.”

  “Hi, Sona,” she said, ignoring me. “What’s in the bag?”

  “Dresses for the formal. I’m helping Vi find something to wear.”

  “Cool.”

  “Except we’re not going, remember?” I gazed at both of them in exasperation.

  CJ smiled sweetly up at me. Her dark hair straggling over Josh’s shoulder reminded me of Kerrie, her long hair neatly arranged in that glass coffin. “You can stay home if you like, but I’m not missing the biggest event of the year.”

  I glanced through the door into the dining room, but Kyle had a set of headphones on and was working away, oblivious of our conversation.

  “You can’t go. Mum grounded us.”

  She shrugged and pretended to be fascinated by the TV.

  “Is your sister always so straight?” Josh asked.

  Jerk. I ignored him. “Remember last time you went out without permission? Remember how well that turned out?”

  “So? You think Puck’s going to show up at the formal? That was a one-off, Vile, so get out of my face.”

  “Who’s Puck?” Sona asked, looking confused.

  I wasn’t going to enlighten her. “God, you are such a jerk sometimes, CJ. Come on, Sona, let’s leave these two alone. They deserve each other.”

  Fists clenched, I marched upstairs and slammed the bedroom door behind us.

  Sona regarded me seriously. “Your mum grounded you too? But I need you. What did you do?”

  And that was another question I couldn’t answer. This was getting tricky.

  “You don’t need me. You didn’t even know me a couple of weeks ago.” I threw myself on the bed and put one of my pillows in a headlock. “God, she makes me so mad. She always has to get her own way! Never mind what I want, or what anyone else says to her. I don’t know why Mum even bothers grounding her. She doesn’t take the slightest notice.”