by Amy Boyles
The world went black.
TWENTY-THREE
Roman cradled my head in his lap. “That was a risky stunt,” he whispered.
I opened my eyes and whispered. “Is a risky stunt. It’s not over.”
We were still in the theater. People surrounded us, all staring at me. “I’m fine,” I announced. “Just a little woozy. I’ll be okay.”
Grandma pushed through the crowd. “Who did it? Who killed Queen Catherine?”
I rubbed my head. “I can’t remember.”
“It’s the fall,” she said loudly. “It must’ve damaged her short-term memory.” She placed the back of her cold hand to my forehead. “Let’s hope it’s not permanent.”
I pushed myself off Roman. “Do you think it is?”
She frowned. “Hard to say. Right now you need rest. A lot of rest. Everyone clear back. We must let her rest. All alone. We’ll find you a new room.”
“I’ll do that,” Gladiolas said. She whisked me into her arms. “We must keep you safe. Above all else.”
Grandma poked the air. “Exactly right.”
“I’ll take you to my room,” Gladiolas said. “No one will bother you there.” Her face twisted into a look of concern. “Unless there’s somewhere else you’d rather be. I don’t want to keep you from your family.”
Roman helped me to my feet. “No, that’s fine,” I said, making my voice break on the last word. “They’ll make too much of a fuss.”
“I’ll escort you,” Roman said.
He helped me to Gladiolas’s suite. He tucked me onto her couch, being sure to wrap me snugly in a throw. “I’ll be outside if you need anything.” Roman’s lips grazed over my forehead.
“They won’t take Boo now,” I said. “They’ll leave your dad alone.”
He nodded grimly but didn’t reply to that. “I’ll be outside.” He rose, his knees cracking as he straightened. Roman’s gaze met Gladiolas’s. “Call me if you need anything or if she remembers.”
She escorted him to the door. “I will.” Roman stepped into the hall and Gladiolas slowly shut the door, closing the two of us off from the rest of the world.
She wrung her hands for a moment, and then the movement stilled. Her chest inflated as she took a deep breath and slowly released it. Gladiolas slipped out of her beige high heels and unclipped the garnet earrings from her lobes. She dropped them into a dish on a desk.
“I didn’t realize there were frogs who could give you that sort of information.”
I rubbed my forehead. “Yeah. It’s weird. I was only trying to turn back time a few minutes, but when I caught the frog, the first thing it ever showed was someone whispering to Henrietta. At first I couldn’t remember that part of the vision; all I saw was her digging something up. But after Never Forget was found, I saw Devlin around the cup, inspecting it. My original vision returned to me—the part I’d forgotten. In it, someone told Henrietta that she’d finally be free of her mother if she stole the cup. I saw a flash of red, which I realized was a red ascot Devlin had been wearing that morning. Reid had told me she’d seen him in it. Then I put the pieces together. Devlin had convinced Henrietta to steal the cup, but I didn’t have proof. So I had Milly steal the potion back when Sera knocked it over, and then Grandma and I sneaked it into Devlin’s cape this morning, before the competition.”
Gladiolas snapped her fingers, and a steaming cup of milk appeared before me. “That’s quite a story. You’re sure Devlin did it?” She moved the cup toward me. “Drink. It will help.”
“I’m okay right now,” I said. “Yes, I’m sure. When the vision completely returned to me, I saw Devlin convince Henrietta. He needed the competition to remain popular. It was his life.”
She smiled tenderly. “It was his life. What a shame.” She paused. “Let me know if you change your mind and I’ll reheat the milk for you.” Gladiolas sat down in a chair across from me. “It was a dangerous thing you did tonight.”
I shrugged. “It needed to be done. The Master needs to be outed. Of course, now I don’t remember who did it.” I raised my hands limply.
“Let’s hope it stays that way,” Gladiolas said. She reached over and tapped a finger to my head.
“That didn’t exactly feel good.”
“It wasn’t supposed to.”
I rubbed the spot she’d poked. “What’d you do?”
Gladiolas smiled widely. “It’s the start of an unraveling spell. By the time this night is over, you won’t remember a thing about who killed Queen Catherine.”
“Well, that’s a shame, ’cause I really need that information. I kinda promised everyone that I would give it to them.” I rubbed the place again. “That did hurt. But I don’t think it’s going to work.”
Gladiolas raised her eyebrows. “You don’t think so?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Grandma and Milly somehow bootlegged their own version of Never Forget and gave it to me. So I’m pretty sure I’m going to know exactly who the culprit is.”
Gladiolas’s face pinched into a pensive look.
“But I tell you what. Wow. I found this amazing bracelet in our room.” I yanked the cuff from my arm. “What was in that head-tap thing? I feel woozy.”
“Like I said, it’s for the best. You won’t remember, and that’s for your own protection.”
I shook my head. It bobbed from side to side like a dumbbell. “I don’t know about that. I don’t think that’s for my own protection.” I pointed down to my wrist. “You should seriously try this thing on. I don’t think it’s my color.”
Before she had a chance to say anything, I grabbed her wrist and secured the bracelet to her. The clear crystal flickered to life, twinkling before it blazed a bright crimson.
I swallowed.
“I got rid of that,” Gladiolas said. “That’s not possible.”
I sat up straight and pulled the blanket off me. I leveled my gaze at her and said, “You stole the wrong pact ring. Reid made a copy. You took the wrong one. And I had my grandmother change the right one into this.”
Gladiolas pulled the cuff from her arm and threw it across the room. “It doesn’t matter. In a few minutes you won’t remember anything.”
“You mean I won’t remember that it was you who killed Queen Catherine and her daughters all those years ago?”
She stiffened. Gladiolas pursed her lips into an invisible line. “How dare you.”
I cocked my head to the fireplace, where a pair of crisscrossed swords were secured to the wall. “Those dueling swords there. Those are Damascus steel. Not just any Damascus, but the magical kind, right?”
She didn’t say anything.
I stretched my legs out in front of me and rose. “You know, I really didn’t want to believe it was you. Not at all, but so many things have added up throughout the course of the past year. You’ve always been so helpful, Gladiolas. You’ve always directed my family the right way and kept us out of trouble. Why, you even helped Boo Bane recover some memories about the night his wife was killed.”
I stepped away from Gladiolas, being sure not to turn my back on her. I edged to the mantel, which put the swords within reach. Not that I would need them. I mean, I prayed I wouldn’t need them, but let’s face it, if she felt cornered, there was no telling what she’d do to me.
“When I think about that day now, the day you pulled those memories from Boo, I realize you only let us see what you wanted us to. In fact, you were the person who said that opening up Boo’s memories could crack him open, permanently damaging the man. That might not be true, right? You were only trying to protect yourself.”
Gladiolas glared at me, her fingers tweezing her lips shut.
I continued. “I guess with all the focus on magic stealing, it’s been hard to get extra power. Your main man, or frog, was killed a few weeks ago. When Smiley Martin died, it became a lot tougher to get what you need, huh? I mean, it’s not like you’ve been manufacturing magic. If that was the case, the police would’ve known about i
t years ago.”
Gladiolas still remained silent.
“Here’s what I think happened the night Queen Catherine was murdered. First of all, you did it because she discovered something. At least, that’s what I think. She found out what you were doing, and she was going to reveal it. Maybe you convinced her to give you a little more time. Either way, that night you broke into the museum and knocked Bertie out. You stole the Crystal of Power and headed for Catherine’s room with Wanda LaRue and Edgar Norwood. Catherine and the girls were sleeping together in the same bed. You blasted them with the wand. Boo Bane walked in, and Edgar Norwood snuck him out of the room and erased Boo’s memory.
“Roman heard the commotion as you were fleeing. He knocked the wand from your hand but never saw your face. The next day, you played hero by helping unite the community and keep the castle going. Bertie wrote all about how you appeared early on and unified the population. Little did they know, you were the one who killed their queen in the first place.”
I wagged a finger at the swords. “But really the best thing I’ve got, other than the pact ring, is the blunder you made by telling me that Damon Devlin sent Roman and Pearbottom to jail for failing to find the Never Forget thief.”
I narrowed my eyes. “It was you. It was your order covered up with a whole bunch of bureaucratic red tape that did it.”
That was a total bluff, but I was willing to go with it. Because it had to be the truth anyway.
“You needed them gone. You’d gotten too used to stealing magic, hadn’t you? You had a whole network of folks stealing for you, but I was quickly draining that away. Not by my own fault, of course. See, I learned early on that people who steal magic need more and more of it to keep going. You were dwindling, your power sources completely drained the other night. So you had Roman and Jonathan removed so that you could sneak over to Fairyland with your Damascus steel blades and take their magical stores. You would know all about that, wouldn’t you, Gladiolas? You’ve made sure to keep a prominent position in the community.”
She shifted her weight. My eyes flickered to her feet. I didn’t know what she had in store for me, but I knew it would be serious.
“You stole the magic, returned here and used it sometime later, after I saw you. You looked fresh as a daisy this morning, which would be exactly what the magical stores would allow you to do.”
I heaved a gulp of air. “But the worst thing, Gladiolas, is how you lied to us. I thought you were my friend. But when I told you everything I knew, the first thing you did was erase Chasity’s memory. Then you stole what you thought was the right pact ring. You should’ve put it on, Gladiolas. You should’ve made sure.”
Gladiolas watched me carefully. She fingered the shock of bang over her eyes and said, “You have no proof.”
“Don’t I? I have a pact ring that just lit up when you put it on. I have Damascus steel. I have proof.”
Gladiolas’s mouth trembled. She would rupture. I knew she would. You can’t keep a secret for twenty years and not want to discuss it at some point. In my limited experience with murderers of this sort, they loved to gloat about their achievements.
My guess was that the councilor wouldn’t be any different.
Gladiolas smiled, but the warmth didn’t reach her eyes. “You’re very smart, Dylan Apel. Too smart, I think. I’m sure it helps that you’re on the outside, looking in. If you were as close to this as Roman or his father, it would be impossible to see the truth. Our minds protect us from the truth—that those closest to us are often the ones who end up hurting us.
“It was like that with Catherine. You’re right; she discovered my secret, that I was the Master. She was going to tell the council. In fact, tell everyone. It would have ruined me. Ruined everything about me. I convinced her to give me one night. That was all I needed and I’d come clean. But instead of coming clean, you know what happened. I gathered two of my associates, LaRue and Edgar Norwood, to help me do it. There were three pact rings. We each had one. Norwood’s must’ve disappeared.
“Yes, I murdered Catherine and covered it up to make it look like her death occurred because of political reasons. The girls happened to be in bed with her at the time. I hadn’t wanted to kill the children; that was an accident—the fog of war, as people say.” She clasped her hands behind her back. “Plenty of witches had wanted to go in and take over Fairyland, so having Catherine’s death coincide with those debates helped, for one, to put the arguments to rest, and two, to get folks to look away from me.
“Of course, they never found the killer. That was also the plan. Since Richard Bane disappeared at the same time, it was an easy rumor to start that possibly he was responsible. Everything worked out in the end.” Her expression soured. “Until now.”
She sighed, her chest deflating. “I really like you, Dylan. I do. I see much of myself in you, as I’ve said.”
I cleared my throat. “Except for the whole murdering thing. That’s not my style.”
“We all do what we have to when survival is on the line.” She rose. “Like I’m going to now.” Gladiolas took a menacing step toward me.
“Okay, Roman, you can come in now! I need you.” I glanced toward the door, but nothing happened. My hunky boyfriend didn’t break open the barrier. Heck, he didn’t even knock.
“Roman! I need you!”
Gladiolas laughed. “Did you really think I’d let our little conversation go on with Roman standing right outside? He’s asleep. In fact, the entire castle is asleep. It’s going to be too bad, really. When they wake up, they’ll discover their heroine dead, and me, weeping in shame because I couldn’t stop her murder.”
Holy crap. This was bad. Like, really bad.
“Oh ha-ha, very funny,” I said, trying to call her bluff. “That’s going to take a lot of magic.”
Gladiolas glared at me. “When I skin you alive, I’ll get it all back.” She flicked a finger toward the door. It opened with a creak that sent shards of panic racing down my spine.
On the floor, clearly quite knocked out, lay Roman.
Holy guacamole. I whirled back toward Gladiolas, whose motherly smile had quickly twisted into something snakelike and sinister.
No time to think.
I ran, darting though the door and jumping over Roman’s body. I prayed Gladiolas would be much too occupied with me that she wouldn’t stop to hold Roman’s body for ransom or anything. Because let’s face it, if she did that, I was screwed a thousand ways to Fairyland.
I raced along the hall, turning to look around only once, which gave me enough time to see Gladiolas floating out of the door and rising high into the air. She aimed a hand toward me.
A Grecian type bust of some witch whose name I didn’t know exploded into a thousand bits next to my ear.
I ducked. Shards rained down on me, sinking under the neck of my shirt. I threw a quick glance back. Gladiolas flew toward me, her hands shooting rays of magic in my direction. I wove right and left, trying to stay out of her path as exploding stone flew into my face. Debris shattered around me, creating clouds that were nearly impossible to see through.
I threw my hand back and released a blast of my own magic. Gladiolas screamed. I risked a glance and saw her clutching her arm.
Sweet. I had good aim. But put me against her one-on-one and I knew there was no winning. There was no way I’d be able to defeat her. She had power on her side, the kind of power that was only gotten by stealing.
I had an idea. I sprinted down the hall until I reached the door I needed. Throwing it open, I tossed myself in, landing with a thud on the floor. I waited one, two, three heaving breaths until Gladiolas appeared in the frame.
“That was stupid,” she said. “Putting yourself in a corner.”
I nodded. “I guess I’m just stupid, then.”
Gladiolas glanced tentatively at the doorway before crossing inside. She brushed her hands together. “Let’s get this over with. I have a huge mess to clean up before everyone wakens, and I h
ave to mend this arm, too.”
Her shirt was shredded where my magic had ripped into it. A cut ran from her bicep to elbow. It didn’t bleed badly, mainly just a flesh wound.
“I agree,” I said. “Let’s get this over with.”
Gladiolas smiled sadly. “I want you to know that this hurts me more than it’s going to hurt you.”
My jaw fell in disbelief. “This isn’t a spanking, Gladiolas! You’re talking about murder!”
She shrugged. “Some people are so touchy.”
“Pretty sure touchy has nothing to do with it.” Before she had a chance to aim a stream of magic at me, I jumped up, grabbed her injured arm and yanked her through the room.
She hit the other room half a second behind me. The wind howled in my ears and whipped my hair. My clothes fluttered in the gust that ripped through the shredded room.
Gladiolas blinked in confusion for a moment. She stared at the negative of the castle. The gray-scale image of the room took some getting used to, I had to say. It was strange and weird and left me feeling incredibly creeped out.
Gladiolas laughed. “Was this your plan? Bring me here and do what? Confuse me to death?”
I bit down on my lip. “I guess it’s not going to work?”
She cackled. “You would’ve had better luck in the castle. Now, no one will find you. Your body will be left here, in this other world, to rot in silence.”
I smirked. “It’s definitely not silent. Do you hear that wind? Boy, it’s blowing something fierce.”
Gladiolas flared out her arms. “Quiet! You’ve come far, but it’s not far enough and it won’t save you.”
A coil of silvery magic grew from her hand. It shot out, aimed straight at me. I raised my hands. A shield erupted from the ground. Gladiolas’s power bent around the invisible barrier, licking it like curls of flame.
My shield was strong, but it wouldn’t be enough to hold her back. Gladiolas sneered. She stepped forward, jetting a thicker beam of power at me. I could feel her magic boring a hole in my shield. My barrier would bend and break. It was only a matter of time.