by Shelby Bach
Dad hesitated, and you could practically see him thinking, Should I tell her this on her birthday? He must have decided to go for it, because all of a sudden, he straightened up, very serious. I braced myself. Serious Dad almost never appeared, but when he did, I never liked what he had to say.
“He likes you. And not just as a friend,” Dad said. “I can tell, and it’s not right that he likes you while he’s dating someone else.”
I hated that he felt like he could say any of this. He had no right to pass judgment on the people in my life. Except for this summer, I’d seen a lot more of Chase in the past few years than I’d seen of Dad. Also, for the record, when you’ve just turned fourteen and your father tells you some boy likes you, you’re almost obligated not to believe him.
I refused to encourage this conversation. I took a bite of pizza.
“I don’t know who is supposed to tell you that, but someone has to,” Dad said. “Even if you don’t have feelings for him, he’s not being a good friend to you. That’s what really bothers me.”
He looked too earnest. I was afraid that if I looked him in the eye, I would admit that he was right.
I’d been telling myself that one flaky, emotionally confusing summer couldn’t destroy two years of friendship. But if we weren’t part of the newest Triumvirate, I probably wouldn’t have pretended as hard as I did.
“Happy birthday, Rory!” said a loud, cheerful voice.
“Not again,” Dad said.
But it wasn’t Chase who pushed the leaves aside and plopped into a seat. Ben reached a hand out to Dad. A new scar crossed his palm, where he’d lost his shield and had to block a troll’s spear bare-handed. “Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Landon. I’m Ben Taylor. My mom and I loved Hallow End.”
Dad looked slightly less upset about being interrupted, now that Ben had complimented one of his movies.
“Fourteen! I remember turning fourteen like it was just yesterday,” Ben said. “Probably because an ice griffin dropped me in Lake Michigan two days later. An experience like that tends to make a splash.”
I groaned. Dad looked from Ben to Dani, like he hadn’t known kidnapping by ice griffin was a possibility and he was worried about the daughter too young to defend herself. Chase would have told Ben that there was a line between good corny and bad corny, and he had just crossed it.
“No, come on. That was a good one! I’ve been saving it up for a special occasion,” Ben said, which meant that he’d said it mostly to cheer me up. Then he ruined it. “Do you know where Chase is?”
Of course I didn’t. I tried to keep my voice even. “No. Did you ask Adelaide?”
“Yeah. She says that she hasn’t seen him since he rushed off to Marty Mason’s farm,” Ben said.
“He didn’t come back with you?” That would explain so much. Already, I could feel guilt creeping in. The Director hated to send us on back-to-back missions, but sometimes it couldn’t be helped.
“No. You called him, didn’t you?” Ben said. “You called him at midnight when we were moving all of Mr. Mason’s stuff, and Chase dropped everything and painted a temporary-transport spell right there in the garage.”
I stared at Ben. The terrible thing that was going to happen today—this was it.
Ben was beginning to catch on. “It wasn’t you.”
I shook my head.
“I thought it was weird that he was speaking in Fey,” Ben said. “I just assumed you both had those gumdrops in.”
I fumbled through my carryall. My fingers brushed the velvety cover of my M3. I pulled it out. “Chase? Chase?” No answer. My heart thumped hard. “Ben, he brought his mirror with him, right?”
“Yeah. You really don’t know where he is?” Ben said, starting to sound worried. “Rapunzel was with Adelaide when I talked to her earlier. She—I mean, Rapunzel—said, ‘Rory should know.’ Those were her exact words.”
“She was telling you to let me know he was missing. Not that I knew where he’d gone.” I stood up so fast I knocked my chair over.
Dad clamped his hand around my wrist. “Rory, what’s wrong?”
Maybe nothing.
Chase did sneak off to Atlantis sometimes. He liked to visit his mom and Iron Hans, though only Lena and I knew about the ancient character. But Chase wouldn’t abandon a mission for a regular visit.
It was one o’clock in the afternoon. If he’d left before midnight, then he’d been missing for more than twelve hours. A lot could happen in half a day.
My dream thundered back to me. It didn’t seem so harmless now. He could be knocked unconscious in a tower somewhere. The Snow Queen could have already captured him. That would explain why he wasn’t answering his M3.
“I have to find Rapunzel,” I said.
“The girl with the long hair? She’s over there.” Dad pointed across the courtyard.
Rapunzel stepped out of the door to the infirmary, Gretel behind her. On Mr. Swallow’s back, Sarah Thumb swooped and fluttered around them.
I took off running. Ben was on my heels.
Across the courtyard, Rapunzel noticed us first. She shook her head at me. “I know only that he is on Atlantis. I am blind to his location upon it.” Gretel shot her a look that clearly said, Do you think you’re making sense?
But she was. I wished she weren’t. “No one knows where he is?”
“Who? Chase? No.” Sarah Thumb reached me, and Mr. Swallow landed on my shoulder. His pale feathery chest heaved. The Thumbelina representative’s face twisted with distress. “We’re calling an emergency Canon meeting,” she said.
“Why?” I asked. Gretel’s face was so pale.
“Need the grade representatives?” Ben asked.
“I don’t think so. Missions won’t help,” Sarah said. “There’s nothing we can do. The Snow Queen attacked the Seelie Court this morning. Queen Titania has been captured. King Oberon and his nobles have fled.”
“My sister is no longer satisfied with a mere hunt,” Rapunzel told me sadly.
My heart hammered against my ribs, like it was desperate to escape my chest and start searching for Chase on its own. So, the Snow Queen had been waiting until my birthday to jumpstart the war, and she’d begun by destroying any chance we Characters had of allying with the Seelie again. They couldn’t rally their armies if their king was on the run, but right then, they weren’t the Fey I cared about. “What about the Unseelie?” I asked.
If the Director had been here, she probably would have refused to tell me anything more, but Sarah’s tiny face softened. “We haven’t gotten a response from the Unseelie. The Director sent Jack to see what he could find out.”
It would be crazy to attack two powerful courts on the same day. It would take genius planning and perfect timing and lots of guts, but the Snow Queen could do it if she had the element of surprise. She would do it too.
“You think Chase went there?” Ben said. “To one of the Fey courts?”
Yes. Lady Aspenwind must have called Chase on the M3. Chase would have dropped everything to go save his mother.
And judging by their grim faces, the grown-ups thought the same thing.
I bolted for the Atlantis door. It was just on the other side of the Tree of Hope, and I tore dozens of leaves off it as I bashed my way past a low-hanging branch. Then I skidded to a halt. One of the Canon members guarded the door. Hansel’s arms were folded, his stance wide. “You can’t go to Atlantis, Rory,” he said.
“He’s in trouble, Hansel,” I said. “Of course I’m going.”
“If you knew where he was, I wouldn’t stop you,” Hansel said. “I might even go too. But you haven’t got a clue. Besides, if he did meet up with the Unseelie, they’re probably en route in the air.”
“I have a boon left from the West Wind,” I said.
“Doesn’t matter,” Hansel said. “Atlantis is the largest hidden continent, too big to search in a week, let alone an afternoon.”
“I don’t care.” It didn’t matter how long it took. I had to f
ind my best friend. He needed me.
Hansel ran a hand over his face and sighed. “Rory, we can’t risk losing you to a mission that can’t succeed. We can’t afford to lose two of our best fighters. We need you here.”
For the first time in a long while, I hated Hansel. Not because I thought he was picking on me, but because he was right. And he knew exactly what to say to stop me from fighting my way past him and into Atlantis. “You just want me to wait?” I whispered raggedly. That was the worst torture I could imagine.
“It won’t be easy,” Hansel admitted, sounding relieved, “but wait for news. If we find out where he is, we’ll send you there, I swear it.”
It didn’t seem like enough, but it was the best we had. Hansel went to the emergency Canon meeting. I found a nice cushy couch positioned underneath the Tree of Hope facing the Door Trek door to Atlantis. Ben reappeared a few minutes later with Lena in tow. They settled in right beside me.
It seemed so strange. The rest of the courtyard continued on like nothing was wrong. Moms and kids lined up at the Table of Never Ending Instant Refills. Parents thronged through the doors from the East Coast, happy to be home from work. The adult archery class met at its normal time, and the air filled with the thwacks of bowstrings and the thunks of arrows hitting targets, as it always did.
And yet, word about the Snow Queen’s attack and Chase’s disappearance must have spread. When someone near me sneezed, I glanced sideways and was shocked to see others. Kyle had claimed the spot to Lena’s right. Adelaide had taken over a leather love seat beside our sofa. Candice had squeezed in beside her, but Adelaide was the only one who looked as worried as I felt. That comforted me a little, knowing someone else felt as scared as I did, even if she didn’t understand why Chase had gone to help the Unseelie. I couldn’t decide whether knowing made the wait easier or worse.
Kevin and Conner joined us after that, then Daisy, Paul, and the stepsisters. Darcy stopped by to see if we had any news, and when we didn’t, she ended up staying. Chatty—I mean, Sherah—called Ben at least a dozen times on his M3 to find out if Chase had contacted us yet. Kenneth walked by every ten minutes or so. He didn’t want to sit down—I guess it would be bad for his image—but I could tell he was worried too.
Any one of us could have pointed out that it didn’t make sense for us all to wait for him there. He might not even use the Atlantis door to return.
He might have taken one of Lena’s new rings of return. He might use a temporary-transport to get home. He had a supply of them that went to the weapons closet in the training courts instead of the courtyard. Hansel had told Chase off for asking Lena to make them. “There’s only supposed to be one way in or out of that room. The training courts double as our safe house. It’s useless if it’s not secure.” Lena had grumbled too. Figuring out how to make a temporary-transport spell that went somewhere inside without any dirt had taken up a huge chunk of time, which she could have used to complete the Director’s order of M3’s.
Even if you didn’t count Chase failing to show up for our battles, he still drove everybody insane sometimes, but we would miss him so much if he didn’t come back.
Later, my family came to check on me.
Dad’s warm hand slid around my shoulder. “Hansel told me what happened. Chase is still missing?” he asked, like he was worried too. That surprised me, considering what he’d been saying earlier.
I nodded.
With Danica cradled against her shoulder, Brie passed around a plate piled high with sandwich halves. “Well, we’re here for you, sweetie. We support you in your vigil thing, but we don’t support you skipping meals, especially on your birthday. You’ve all been out here for hours already.”
I took a sandwich half and passed the plate down the couch. Brie smoothed my hair away from my face. I didn’t know if I wanted them to go or if I wanted them to give me my space, but I felt a rush of warmth, knowing they were there if I needed them. Dad kissed the top of my head and told me to call him and Brie if we heard anything.
We waited. The sun hung so low that not even the Tree’s leaves could shade us from its glare. No one came through the Atlantis door.
Around dinnertime, Mr. Swallow flitted down and landed on the arm of the sofa beside my elbow. Sarah Thumb actually dismounted and walked closer to me. The news must have been serious. “The Canon meeting’s over.”
Silence spread across the sofas. I didn’t even notice the others had been talking until they stopped.
“Jack checked in,” said Sarah. “He didn’t find Chase. The Unseelie Court’s palace has been abandoned. Burning and empty. The Fey have fled.”
I’d visited the Unseelie palace a little more than a year ago. It was colossal and ancient, magically made from trees woven into walls, towers, turrets, arches, and staircases. It was hard to imagine it in ruins. The Fey who had lived there had seemed so powerful.
“Jack stayed in Atlantis,” Sarah Thumb added. “He’s trying to track them.”
Sure, Jack got to track them, but I couldn’t leave.
Sarah Thumb gathered Mr. Swallow’s reins and leapt back into the saddle. “I’ll let you know if Jack finds anything. Hang in there, kids.”
After that, none of us talked. I barely breathed.
The next thing I knew, Mom and Amy were hovering over the couch, smiles on their faces. They must have just come home from work. Behind them, the setting sun stained the sky red. “Are you ready for some celebrating?” Mom asked. She looked like she’d never been angry with me.
“We picked up a surprise.” Amy lifted a bakery box, cake–size.
They had no idea. They had missed so much. I couldn’t believe it was still my birthday, and I couldn’t imagine trying to celebrate it. It was worse than if Mom had just launched straight into lecturing mode. I knew I had to tell them about Chase’s disappearance and the fall of the Unseelie Court. I knew I wouldn’t even get through telling her about the first part without breaking down.
But I didn’t need to speak. Mom’s expression shifted from birthday excitement to fury when I didn’t move from my spot on the couch. “Rory, we talked about this. The evening is family only.”
She could yell at me as much as she needed to. I couldn’t go home. I would just stay where I was, where I could see the Atlantis door. “I can’t.”
Mom didn’t soften.
I braced myself, waiting for her to lay it on me, in front of Lena and everyone.
But before Mom could say anything, Amy said, “Rory, what’s wrong?”
“Maggie!” Across the courtyard, Dad jogged toward us. “Rory, it’s okay. I’ll explain.”
I was suddenly sure I had the best father in the world, and for the first time ever, I was glad my parents lived in the same place again.
“Please,” I told Mom. “Just let me wait a little longer.”
Mom looked like she might argue, but when Amy tugged her away to go talk to Dad, Mom let her.
The sun sank behind the western buildings. Gloom descended on the courtyard. The door stayed shut.
I wondered if it was dark in Atlantis yet. I could never keep the time differences straight.
I wondered if I should tell Sarah Thumb about my dream. I wondered if Jack was searching all the Unseelie towers. Chase could be in one right now, one beside a river. He could be knocked unconscious and captured and need us to rescue him. He could be—
I’d been pushing that thought away ever since I found out Chase was missing.
I couldn’t remember seeing him breathe in the dream. He might not be sleeping.
I drew a big, shaky breath. Beside me, Lena looked up, already listening, ready to hear my terrible theory.
Then the Atlantis door cracked open. A bunch of winged figures stumbled in. The Unseelie Fey, their weapons drawn, their clothing torn, their faces haggard.
One winged guy held open the Door Trek door and directed a stream of angry-sounding Fey at a woman with pale pink wings and dots lining her face.
; Chase.
e didn’t stand like he was hurt, but his T-shirt was full of stains, tears, and singes. He was missing an entire sleeve. His mother was a mess too. Absentmindedly, she wiped her bloodied blade on her tattered skirt.
I glanced back over to the couches. The other kids just looked dumbfounded. Even Lena hadn’t recognized Chase yet. Maybe we could still keep it a secret. Maybe if I distracted them. “We should go get the grown-ups,” I said.
Candice gasped and pointed. Not at Chase, thankfully. At the Door Trek door to Atlantis. A young Fey woman and her child eased through the entrance to EAS. One of her emerald-green wings had a hole in it, but Candice wasn’t looking at them. She was looking at the person helping them to safety.
The sun hadn’t set on the Atlantis side of the door. Light bounced off the figure’s pewter skin. The red edging his double-headed ax was easy to spot. Two more Fey children stumbled through, clinging to each other. The pewter figure straightened, and his eyes met mine.
“Iron Hans,” Lena breathed. She was one of the few people who knew he was on our side, but she hadn’t actually ever seen him before.
Chase must have recruited his help.
The old Character reached his hand through the door. Half the kids on the couch shrank back. As far as they knew, Iron Hans was still the Snow Queen’s deadliest warrior.
I stood up, ready to throw myself between them.
But Iron Hans just reached over, grabbed the handle, and closed the Door Trek door. Well, with that distraction gone, the others were going to get a good look at Chase before his wings disappeared. I had to act fast. “We need grown-ups. We need a nurse. Gretel—” I started.
“I am here, Rory.” Rapunzel stood beside the couch, holding a silver tube. The ointment of the witch whose power was in her hair. It was almost as good as the Water of Life, and better yet, you didn’t need the Director’s permission to use some.
Adelaide didn’t pay any attention to us. “Chase!”
He and Lady Aspenwind both turned to see who was interrupting their argument, their wings fluttering with irritation. The secret was out then: No one could deny the family resemblance.