Slumber

by Tamara Blake

  Ruby waved to let Shelley know she’d heard her. On the floor in front of the passenger seat, Fairy Tales from Around the World lay open to the story of the Ruby Red necklace.

  She ripped the page out and stuffed it in her jeans pocket just as Shelley reached her. Ruby pasted on a smile and handed her sister the book. “Good thing you remembered, right? I bet Mrs. Garcia will read a story to you tonight if you ask.”

  Shelley hugged the book against her chest. “No. I only want you to read to me.”

  “I’ll do that again real soon. I swear.”

  “Promise?”

  “Cross my heart.” Ruby made an X over her chest. Then with another last look at Shelley, she got in the car.

  “Don’t worry, Shelley. I’ll keep my promise,” she whispered as she drove away. In the rearview she could see her little sister standing in the driveway, watching her go.

  Ruby stood before Cottingley Heights’ front door, wondering if she’d finally lost the last of her marbles. As usual, the air around the house felt thick and suffocating with an earthy scent that was not quite pleasant: lavender mixed with freshly-churned soil, or maybe cedar and rotting earthworms.

  She pressed the doorbell. Strange to be entering Cottingley without her own key and her cleaning supplies. Stranger still when the door opened to reveal a girl with moon-glow blonde hair clouded around an exquisite dark-skinned face. Ruby recognized her as the girl in the library, the one who totally ignored her the last time she worked there cleaning up the ridiculous crap left by the residents.

  Well, she wasn’t at Cottingley as the cleaning lady now.

  Ruby waited for the girl to speak first. An awkwardly long pause passed before she gave up being polite. “Is Tam home?”

  The girl gazed at her with a blend of pity and weariness. Then she shrugged and moved back to allow Ruby to enter.

  A chill furred the back of Ruby’s neck as soon as she stepped over the threshold. In contrast, the metal of the necklace seemed to heat against her skin, leaving the unpleasant sensation of cold and warm battling on her flesh. Dark shrouded the entryway and the now-familiar smells of debauchery hung in the air, but save a few bits of rubbish in the corners, the foyer was mostly trash-free. Though maybe the grimy tiles could use a dry mop…

  Always the professional, Ruby teased herself. “Would you tell Tam that Ruby Benson is here to see him?” she asked.

  The girl stared silently at her.

  Creepy. “Please?”

  No response.

  “Can you even speak?” Ruby asked gently.

  The girl cocked her head and studied her. Ruby got the impression she was being evaluated—and obviously not making much of a positive impression—but at that moment Tam bounded down the stairs, a bolt of sunshine into shadow, charisma oozing out of him. Ruby found herself blinking at him yet again because no matter how many times they met, his looks always came as something of a shock.

  “Ruby! You came!” Pleasure lit his face. “What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t want to come back to Cottingley.”

  “I changed my mind. My…situation is different now.”

  The mute girl huffed out a breath. Laughter? Disgust? Ruby’s attention swung sharply back at her, but before she could ask, Tam said: “Don’t mind Aryenis. She can talk, she just doesn’t want to.”

  Doesn’t want to talk? “Okaaay…”

  “We put up with her because she really knows what she’s doing out in the garden. Those weeds crawling up the side of the house didn’t get there by themselves, you know.”

  Aryenis shot him a death-glare.

  As usual, there was some strange Cottingley byplay going on that Ruby didn’t have the patience to puzzle over today. “Can we talk? In, um, private?” she added, because Aryenis seemed to have no intention of going anywhere.

  “Sure. We’ll go to my room.” He beckoned her to follow him up the stairs. “It really is great to see you,” he said over his shoulder as he started up.

  “Thanks.” Leaving the silent Aryenis behind, Ruby squashed a feeling of unease as she began following Tam up the staircase, half expecting to see semi-naked teens cavorting on the landing, frat-house style. But all was quiet when they reached the second floor, thick Persian carpets muffling their footsteps he led her to a room at the end of the corridor.

  Like everywhere else at Cottingley, Tam’s room was a study in messy opulence. An antique cabinet housed a tiny Bose stereo. A slim chrome laptop, USB sticks, quills, inkwells, and rolls of parchment paper fought for space on the surface of an Italianate mahogany desk. Random items of sports equipment littered the faded oriental carpet: a lacrosse stick, a volleyball, and an ancient tennis racket. A titanium touring bike leaned against the wall. But the centerpiece of the room was a massive four-poster bed that looked like it had come straight out of Versailles, with carved bedposts and a wine-colored silk coverlet.

  Tam sprawled on the foot of the bed and patted the space next to him. “Have a seat.”

  Ruby pointedly sat on a futuristic chair sculpted in the shape of an S. She didn’t trust Tam enough to sit thigh-to-thigh, having a confidential chat on his bed.

  Or trust yourself, a secret voice whispered.

  She dug the page she’d tore out of Shelley’s book from her pocket and held it out to him. “Ever read this fairy tale before?”

  Tam barely glanced at the story of Ruby Red. “Nope.”

  “That’s funny, because it seems super-familiar: girl puts on enchanted necklace that she can’t get off, and every time she tries, the necklace gets shorter. Bad things start happening to the girl. Magical things. It’s exactly what’s happening to me.”

  “Magic doesn’t exist in the real world, does it?”

  “Come off it, Tam!” Ruby yanked the neckline of her shirt down to expose the necklace chafing her throat. “Something whack is going on. I don’t know if you’re meant to be Prince Charming or the evil wizard or what your role in this fucked-up fairy tale is, but you said that if I came to Cottingley you’d tell me the truth. Well, I’m here now. I want the truth.”

  “But do you think you can handle it?”

  “I don’t have a choice, do I?”

  Tam’s face shuttered as he considered her. After a long moment where Ruby thought he was going to change his mind, he said: “Fine. You’re right, something supernatural is at work in your life.”

  Finally! Ruby didn’t know whether to be happy he admitted it or to dread what he was about to say. Or maybe she was just going insane—she was having a hard time telling the difference lately. Her pulse quickened as she said, “Go on.”

  “It’s because I’m a—”

  A word came out of his mouth that Ruby couldn’t understand, wrapped in a strident note like a raven’s caw or a wildcat’s scream. She flinched and instinctively knew that it was old, older than any living language, potent, outlandish. And sinister.

  Her confusion must have shown on her face because he went on. “You’d call us moiari, fata, sidh. Or, um…” He pondered a little before snapping his fingers. “Faerie.”

  “Fairies,” she said blankly.

  “Sure. Everyone at Cottingley is fae: Violet, Cosette, Ash, Aryenis…”

  “And you.”

  He nodded.

  Ruby had nerved herself for something like this, but to have Tam baldly confirm her suspicions was mind-blowing. As in, this could not be real. Fairies? A million questions formed, but the first one out of her mouth was, “What are a bunch of fairies doing living in the Hamptons?”

  Tam’s usual expression of ironic amusement was back. He rose and wandered over to his desk, where he began goofing with an expensive-looking MP3 player with its tiny earbuds. “Yeah, we’ve seen your books and TV shows about us. Did you think we’d live at the end of a rainbow or in a forest capering around toadstools? Typical human blindness, dismissing what you don’t understand. Why shouldn’t we live where we like, do what we like, tak
e what we want?”

  “Including…people?”

  Tam shrugged and tossed the gadget aside. “It’s not as if you can stop us.”

  He made cruel, horrible sense. How could humans stop supernatural beings from doing whatever they wanted?

  “But why are you living here? Don’t you have somewhere more…magical to live?” Magical. Ruby could barely get the word out. She seriously thought she was tripping.

  “We do come from somewhere else. A place we call the Old Country.” He tracked the shadows patterning against the wall, his eyes moving from side to side like he was reading a newspaper. “But fae live everywhere among humans. It’s so much more entertaining than at home. More exciting experiences, substances, and people to, um, play with.”

  “Play with? Is that what you do? Is that what I am? Just a sick game?”

  “Sick is relative.” He sat back down on the bed and leaned indolently on the coverlet. “American humans are especially amusing. There’s a refreshing candor in your manner. Most faeries are old, some older than memory, and like I said, it takes a lot to keep some of us amused.”

  “Oh really? Well, as a candidly speaking American, I think the way you and your magical friends operate is gross.”

  “Don’t blame me if they pick up on your human weaknesses.”

  “Like Violet picked up on mine, for example?”

  His expression darkened.

  “Exactly. She gets off on it. She’s the one who put your family under a spell of maladie. It intensifies the negative cycle. So now your mother’s illness has become fatal, you’re completely broke, and your grades are so bad you’ll never get into drama school. Your life is now destined to be tainted by bad luck for as long as you live. Which probably won’t be much longer.”

  Ruby stared at him in horror.

  “Hey, don’t blame me—I tried to help you. I made a counter-spell of fortuna to protect you, and I told you to stay with me, where you’d be safe. But you broke the spell when you ripped my gift of the bon chance rose at the party. So now you’re shit out of luck, as you Americans say.”

  He at least seemed regretful, which through her panic Ruby supposed should be flattering.

  “What if I give the necklace back to Violet? Will she call it quits and let me go?”

  “No. You put the necklace on because Violet cast a spell on you, not the other way around. She doesn’t care about it. She only cares that it hurts you.”

  “But why? I barely know her!”

  “Well…” Tam shrugged. “Well, fine, I guess because I’m interested in you. It makes her jealous. So I suppose your situation is my fault.”

  He hesitated, as though there was something he wanted to say but didn’t know how.

  “You remember Selena?” he said, finally. “The girl Violet was talking about, when I made you the coffee?”

  Ruby nodded. She was afraid to hear what he was going to say next.

  “She was a human, just like you. I knew her a long time ago. And when I say a long time ago, I mean a really long time.” He was gazing into the distance now, lost in thought. “She was the first human I— Well. We fae don’t normally feel things like you do. Not normally.”

  “What happened?” Ruby asked. She needed to know.

  “Violet didn’t like me being with her. She thought if Selena wasn’t around anymore, maybe I’d get with her instead. So she ended it. Her. Selena.”

  There was a long silence.

  Ruby felt sick. “Violet killed her, you mean?” She stood up, ran her hands through her hair. “And that’s what she’ll do to me, and Mom, and Shelley…Come on, Tam! There has to be something I can do to stop Violet’s magic. Stop her hurting my family.”

  Tam leaned forward eagerly. “Yes. There’s a way you can make sure her curses can’t touch you. You can come live with me here at Cottingley. Forever. You can be fae, just like me.”

  Ruby snorted and buried her head in her hands. “You have to be kidding me.”

  “Just hear me out, Ruby,” Tam said quickly. “You’ll never grow old or die. Violet won’t be able to go near you. You can do what you want, spend what you want, and have fun every day. You’ll never have to work shitty jobs ever again. You’ll be beautiful, rich, and young forever. And…you can be with me.”

  He gave her a shy smile. Despite herself, Ruby felt it worm its way past her defenses—and common sense. She knew Tam was not above using trickery to get what he wanted. This could be another one of his ploys. But…could she be what he wanted? To be with her forever?

  “Would that be so bad?” he pressed when she made no reply. He ducked his head like he was making an embarrassing confession. Maybe for Tam he was. “I’m into you, Ruby. Please believe me.”

  “But how long would it last?” She rose and went to the window, peeking through a gap in the tapestry drapes. She pushed them back. Down on the lawn, lush with rain, someone had ripped up and scattered rose petals like a spray of blood on green velvet. Beyond, the guardian woods loomed, the tips of the trees scraping the soggy clouds that hung over Cottingley.

  Against her throat, the necklace seemed to cinch a fraction tighter. “I don’t like it here, Tam. I don’t want to be a part of the balls-to-the-wall partying lifestyle with the drugs and the sleeping with like eight people at once. And I don’t want to go ’round using people for my entertainment like Violet. I just want to be with my family and be normal again.”

  “Why do you persist in lying to yourself, Ruby? You crave the good life. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

  “Fine. Yes, I want the good life, who doesn’t? I’d like have some extra money to buy nice things and not worry about overdue bills and pay my college tuition without taking out a massive loan. But I want to earn it myself. I want to control my life—and I don’t want to be controlled by magic.”

  Tam’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “See, that’s what I find so fascinating about you, Ruby Benson. You’ve hung on to scruples through thick and thin. It’s so unusual for a human.”

  “Really? You can’t have known very many decent people.”

  “Maybe. But no one ever holds out on me this long. All I know is that I’m never bored around you.”

  “Thanks. I’m flattered you find my moral compass so entertaining.”

  “You’re welcome,” he replied without a trace of irony.

  Ruby made a mental note to remember that Tam’s ability to pick up on sarcasm was basically nonexistent. “Since you find decency so amusing, would you like to experience it yourself and free me from Violet’s spell?”

  “Ruby, don’t you think I’d do that if I could? No. Our charms and curses have rules, older than human memory. I can’t put another fortuna spell on you because you broke the last one yourself. That’s an immutable law. So basically you screwed up.”

  Lovely. “So there’s nothing that can be done?” Ruby tried to keep her voice steady and her eyes dry. She was going to choke to death slowly. She thought of her mother lying in a hospital bed, IVs and tubes running out of her arms. She thought of her sister sheltering at the Garcias’, waiting for Ruby to return.

  “Just because I don’t know a counter-spell other than the fortuna, it doesn’t mean that one doesn’t exist.” He lifted a shoulder. “You’ll have to stay here until we figure out another way to break Violet’s curse.”

  She studied him suspiciously. “Another one of your tricks to keep me at Cottingley?”

  “I’m hurt that you think everything I do is based on selfishness. But in this case,” he said hastily in response to her raised eyebrow, “I really want to help you.”

  His sincere expression made her knees go weak. Attraction tugged at her again. Watch it, Ruby. Remember, Mom and Shelley are counting on you not to mess this up. Focus.

  “I’ll make a deal with you,” she said. “I’ll stay at Cottingley until we figure out a way to break the spell. But only on the condition that I can leave once that’s do
ne. And then you must never contact me again.”

  “Ever?”

  “Ever. I’m not made for your world, Tam. You must realize that by now. I love my mother and sister too much to ever leave them.”

  A puzzled frown darkened his features. “That’s a strange sort of love, to throw away a chance at having everything you ever wanted.”

  She ignored him. “Do we have a deal?”

  After a long moment thinking over what she said, he held out his hand. A heavy gold band carved with curling symbols shone dully against the skin of his index finger. “Deal,” he said.

  Ruby gazed at his outstretched hand. Did she really want to make a magical bargain with a fairy right now?

  Did she have a choice?

  She put her hand in his and they shook. Immediately, warmth traveled up her arm from their clasped palms. She gasped as she recognized the feeling as a spell being invoked, and it took every ounce of resolve not to jerk her hand away from his. Tam was binding them to their bargain by magic. Now there was no turning back.

  She just hoped she wasn’t making the mistake of her life.

  Chapter Twelve

  “What if Violet finds out I’m here?” Ruby asked. She flexed her hand, still tingling from the handshake. “She won’t be happy.”

  “True. If she discovers that I’ve allied with you, she might go completely insane with rage and do something even worse.” Tam rubbed the skin around the ring on his finger as if it ached.

  “Worse than slowly strangling me and giving my mother a fatal disease?”

  “Her mind is really inventive.” Tam contemplated Ruby thoughtfully. “I’ll have to cast the glamour to hide you from her.”

  “The what?”

  “Glamour. It’s an appearance charm. Usually it’s used to make someone or something irresistibly beautiful, but it can also be used to disguise. All us fae wear the glamour to some degree and use it on our humans to make them more, um, inviting. Violet won’t even notice another Cottingley resident under the spell.”

  “That sounds okay, I guess. Will it hurt?”

  A slumberous smile inched across his face. “You’re going to love it. Hang tight, I’ll be right back.”