Hallie felt herself harden, and suddenly the demesne felt cold. She wrapped her arms around herself. “What else could it be but greed?”
Wyn sighed again. “If they haven’t shared, there may be a good reason. Maybe it would be better to just give up your discovery. Let us all move on. Let Kat rest.”
Hallie glared. “How could you?” And without waiting for a reply, she jumped up and bolted for the door.
“Hallie!” Wyn called, but Hallie didn’t stop, didn’t even turn.
The mists clawed at her as she passed between the trees, then she was out, back into the alien forest, her bare feet on the cold, hard dirt of the path. She swung her head back and forth, but no one else seemed to be nearby. She turned away from the direction they had come, away from the court of creatures where she made her second bargain, and sprinted away. She needed to be alone.
After her breath grew short and her thighs began burning, she slowed to a walk, panting. The path was still empty, and she glanced down at her pajamas, grateful for the emptiness. Grateful there was no one to see her so vulnerable.
She took a few steps to the side, letting her bare toes sink into the cold, wet moss lining the base of the trees, and crouched down, finally letting tears come. The suffocating pressure in her chest built until it exploded out of her in keening wails.
Kat. This was all for Kat. Wyn was also her best friend, but Kat was the first: the first one to talk to her when she went to school, the first one to be her friend. Nothing could ever replace that.
And if she failed here, Kat was gone forever. How could she just let that go?
Eventually the pressure subsided as she released the pain in waves of tears. It was still there, clawing deep into her chest as if covered in thorns, but she could almost breathe again. She let herself collapse against the trunk of the tree, the tears flowing silently now.
She should probably find Wyn. Apologize? Explain? Something.
Hallie pushed herself to her feet and took the first few steps back onto the dark earth of the path. Mist swirled around her feet, carrying something else with it. Faint music and the scent of...books?
Hallie turned toward the smell, toward the music, and stepped toward the tree line. Small steps made of tree roots led between two trunks heavily veiled in mist. Perhaps there was another demesne here. As she passed through the layer of fog between the trees, the eeriness of the forest faded and the music rose in a crescendo...along with some voices. But the mist grew thicker until she could barely move forward, though she could still step back, and she stood still, listening.
“Another bargain, though? You haven’t even collected on the first one,” came the first voice, sweet and low. “And frankly, no other outcome is permissible. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone knew about this? The Court would collapse.”
And then the boy’s voice answered, and her steps faltered. She hugged herself closer.
“Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten,” he said. “One way or another, no one will learn about it. But perhaps if she understands why, she will give up this ridiculous venture.”
“But how did she learn it in the first place?”
The music stopped, and Hallie’s heart skipped a beat.
“You may as well enter,” he said, raising his voice. “We can hear you breathing.”
She caught her breath, only now noticing how loud it sounded in the still air of the passage. They were Fae; of course they could hear her lurking out here.
Hesitantly, she took the few remaining steps into the demesne, no longer held back by the thick mists.
The light grew as soon as she crossed the threshold, sunlight streaming down into a library of sorts. Crooked shelves made of tree branches rose up around the edges of the room, surrounding a round table edged in bark, as if it had been cut directly from a tree. The boy sat in an armchair, a violin cradled against his neck, and a young, too-beautiful woman stood next to him, her arms crossed and her glaring eyes on Hallie.
“Did you need something?” the boy said too sweetly, like a coffee with too much sugar that turns the stomach.
Hallie’s heart was pounding, and she looked down at her bare feet. She could certainly use some clothes, but she clenched her teeth together rather than say she hadn’t gotten a chance to put on a bra before being dragged into whatever Court this was.
The woman spoke. “Are those pajamas?”
Hallie closed her eyes in relief and nodded.
“Vesque, would you get her some proper attire?” the boy said. He stood, tucking the violin under his arm, and strode toward the exit. “She may be here a while.”
Hallie’s stomach flipped at the comment, but she couldn’t find words to respond.
Vesque nodded. “At once, sir.”
Sir. Hallie’s first clue.
***
“Here, try this,” Vesque said, pulling a gauzy dress from the tree branch that served as her closet.
Vesque had brought her to her own demesne, since Hallie was so close to her size, and promised to set up an appointment with the Court seamstress for the next day. The boy’s words about her being here a while bounced around her head, and she wondered if they were simply building her wardrobe for when she failed the challenge.
Hallie held the gossamer gown up to herself, its rosy color glowing in the soft sunlight through the tree canopy above. It looked like it would fit, and it had enough structure that she’d be comfortable walking around and interacting with the Fae here.
For the week. Not her life.
Vesque turned to a dresser and began rooting through drawers. “Well, go on. I haven’t got all day.”
“Now?” Hallie said, feeling her face flaming.
“Yes. Please.” Vesque sighed. “Humans. It’s not like I’m watching you change.”
Her face still hot, Hallie quickly stripped out of her pajamas and pulled on the dress. The fabric was different than anything she’d felt before, cooler than silk and smoother than the softest cotton. It settled against her skin, conforming to her curves like a hug.
“It fits,” she proclaimed.
Vesque turned back to her, holding out a hairbrush and a mirror. Hesitantly, Hallie took the brush and ran it through her tangled locks.
The silver dye vanished beneath the brush’s strokes, revealing her natural dark brown hair, and she nearly dropped the brush.
Vesque smiled smugly. “I knew it. Few humans have hair the color of spider’s silk.”
Hallie examined the brush. “What did it do?”
Vesque shrugged. “It’s a simple spell. It undoes magic. Good for the end of a long party when you’re too tired to undo all the magic holding your look together.”
She held out her hand, and Hallie deposited the brush in her palm.
“Hair dye isn’t magic.”
Vesque shrugged. “Close enough. Human illusion magic, and it breaks illusion.”
Hallie found herself nodding, even though she wasn’t quite sure how to take that. Somehow, the loss of the silver hair she’d had for three years made her feel more vulnerable than her pajamas.
“So what do you do here?” Hallie ventured, pushing past the discomfort. Maybe she could at least get another hint while she had one of the Fae’s full attention.
Vesque ran the brush through her own dark hair, and it began shifting from deep blue-black to the light gold of a springtime sun. “Advisor to the royal family.”
Wow. Way up there on the ladder, then. But Hallie couldn’t just ask who the boy was. She had to be more subtle. Even if Wyn did always tell her she was about as subtle as a hammer.
“So, the Fae I made the bargain with...” Hallie began.
Vesque’s eyes grew hooded. “Yes?”
“You work for him?”
“Nice try.”
Hallie narrowed her eyes at Vesque, biting her lip in thought. The woman had closed like a book, but not before adding more to her meager list of clues. It was a small triumph, but a triumph nonethele
ss.
The boy was a sir. And the royal family’s advisor tended to him.
He had to be a royal.
Chapter Seven
The next morning, Hallie flopped onto the bed in their demesne. She was already dressed in the pale pink dress from Vesque, her hair clean and brushed with a magical brush Wyn found in the dressing table, as if she’d gotten a chance to wash it.
“I don’t know how to figure this out,” Hallie said with a dramatic sigh. “I mean, I have clues and suspicions from yesterday with Vesque, but where do I even go from here?”
Wyn ran a mascara brush through her eyelashes, not turning from the mirror at the dressing table. She was already dressed in a grass-green sundress that would fit with the attire of many of the Court nobles. “Maybe you should have thought about that before making yet another ill-advised bargain.”
Hallie sat up. “Wyn. Please. I can’t change what’s already been done. Haven’t I already apologized for yesterday? I promise I’ll think about what you said. About the resurrection power.”
Wyn sighed. “Fine.”
“Fine. Now. What do we do?”
“We go to breakfast like normal people. Vesque sent a messenger giving us an appointment for ‘appropriate attire,’ as she put it, so we have to go see the seamstress after breakfast. And apparently our ‘human stench’ is making the Court unbearable, so the baths are after lunch.”
“Wow.”
“Wow indeed. At least you get to enjoy the finer things of a Court, since you’re going to be trapped here forever.”
“Wyn!”
Wyn held up a hand. “Okay, okay. Think of these...excursions...as a chance to learn more about the Court. Maybe you’ll pick up some more hints. ‘Sir’ isn’t much to go on, even though it narrows him down to the nobility. And even if you do suspect he’s royal, you don’t know who the royal family of the Spring Court is to even guess at his position, let alone his name. The Fae Courts tend to have several offshoots of heirs, and many of them have their own smaller Courts all across the world.”
Hallie dropped her face into her hands with a groan. “You’re right. And I’ve been studying the Fae lore for two years. How could I have missed that?”
Wyn shrugged. “You’re not Fae. There’s plenty you won’t find in the human lore.”
Based on how excited Wyn had been to do Fae things Hallie never could have imagined, she believed it. Last night’s meals had been delivered after Hallie returned from Vesque. The girls had only ventured out once, intent on finding the library again and maybe some list of inhabitants of the Court, but after two hours of fruitless searching, they gave up and returned to the room. Hallie started drafting out plans to find the identity of the boy while Wyn did all kinds of Fae things she couldn’t do in the human world, like talking to pixies, playing with nature magic, and looking up old friends to visit while she was here. And throwing Hallie the occasional name of someone she might be able to contact for information.
When was the last time Wyn visited the Fae world? Must have been a while.
But Hallie couldn’t focus on anything other than the bargain. If she let herself enjoy the Court too much, she might forget why she was here in the first place.
Hallie rose to her feet, and Wyn capped the tube of mascara. They linked arms and headed through the corridor of fog out of the room.
While it’d been quiet and empty yesterday, this morning it was bustling with Fae of every type, humming with the noise of conversation and activity. Some of the Fae wore simple garb, nothing more than a frock or plain shirt and pants, and bustled around a flow of finely dressed Fae all headed in different directions. And then, ahead of them, Vesque.
Hallie and Wyn doubled their pace to catch up with the tall, fair woman. She practically sparkled in the bright light of morning; her eyes were clear and focused, her sunshine hair streaming out behind her as she pranced down the forested hall. Earrings glimmered all up the edges of her gently pointed ears.
“Vesque!” Wyn called, holding up a hand over the crowds to get her attention.
Vesque slowed, looking back over the heads of the Fae around her, then recognition lit her eyes and she stopped, waiting for them to catch up.
“Good morrow,” Vesque said brightly. “I assume you received my messenger?”
“Yes,” Hallie said. “But we don’t actually know where any of this is.”
“I will send more messengers for you.”
“Thank you.”
Hallie studied Vesque carefully as they made their way in the direction of the delectable scent of breakfast. Why would she be the one sending messengers? At whose request? What kind of authority did the Fae boy have to assign an advisor of the royal family to care for Hallie’s and Wyn’s needs?
Unless she wasn’t assigned. Maybe Vesque was just kind.
Vesque danced a few steps ahead, and Wyn leaned close to whisper in Hallie’s ear, her antler ribbons fluttering into Hallie’s face. “This is a great chance to learn about the Court. Nobles love to talk at meals, and it might just be early enough that you’ll catch a few too sleepy to guard their words.”
Hallie waved away one of the ribbons and nodded.
And then Vesque was leading them through the mist between two of the largest trees Hallie had ever seen. The fog broke up quickly, revealing a bright, green clearing covered in soft grass and ringed by flowering trees waving pink, violet, and snowy-white blossoms. Petals floated on the breeze, landing gently on the many round tables intricately laid with glowing white tablecloths and shining white dishes rimmed in gold. Fresh, clear water sparkled in crystal pitchers on every table, and each place was set with a champagne flute filled with bubbly orange liquid.
Hallie pointed at one and whispered to Wyn. “Are those mimosas?”
Wyn grabbed her arm and swept her to one of the tables. “Better.”
She handed Hallie a glass, and Hallie sniffed it. Definitely orange, but something...else.
Another thought occurred to her, memories of all her studies, of the Fae food that ruins human food for any human that eats it.
“Uh, Wyn?” Hallie said hesitantly.
Wyn smacked her forehead, then wandered to a sideboard set to the left of the clearing. She took the lid off a glass dish and returned, handing Hallie a small green sphere that glittered in the morning sun.
“What’s that?” Hallie said as she dropped it in her hand.
Wyn gestured across the clearing. “Look around, Hallie. You’re not the only human here. And the Court can’t very well have a bunch of non-magical addicts to take care of forever.” She pointed at the sphere. “It’s an antidote. Eat one before every meal, and you can enjoy the Fae food without your body remembering.”
Well, that certainly hadn’t come up in Hallie’s research. She popped the sphere into her mouth, and it burst on her tongue with a flavor a bit like key lime and chocolate. But she felt no different.
Experimentally, she took a sniff, then a sip, of the orange drink. It had notes of champagne mixed in with orange juice, but the bubbles were brighter somehow, filled with fresh energy, happiness, the joy of a spring morning when the sun is finally shining and the air is warm for the first time in months.
And yet, it was just like any other drink. She didn’t feel any of the danger of Fae food, none of the desperation to eat more until she was consumed by the feast, none of the inhibition-lifting effects that some Fae foods carried.
She smiled at Wyn and took a deeper drink, feeling the bubbles tickle as she swallowed. “So where do we start? How does this work?”
Wyn took her own long swallow, momentarily closing her eyes in bliss. “Well, the servants will bring the food in soon, but until then, it is expected that nobles will mingle.”
Hallie couldn’t help the look of horror on her face. “This early?”
Wyn nodded at the drink. “Just what do you think these are for? Not even the biggest night owl is immune to the energy boost these things give.”
Hallie nodded and turned to survey the occupants of the room. As Wyn had noted, there were a few humans, recognizable by their dazed expressions and lack of sparkle. They seemed to be in awe of the world around them, like Hallie, but were nowhere near as bright or beautiful as the Fae surrounding them.
Did Hallie have that same dull appearance next to Wyn?
Besides the humans, there were several other Fae like Vesque, tall with pointed ears and inhuman beauty, as well as Fae of different animal types, similar to Wyn and the frog-man who had brought them to their demesne the day before.
But everyone was attired like Hallie, wearing bright, gossamer gowns or glittering suits. Everyone here appeared to be upper class, and even the servants weaving around the small groups of Fae with trays for empty glasses were in beautiful gowns.
And the Fae boy was nowhere to be seen. Was he trying to hide his station?
Probably.
“Where is he?” she muttered.
Wyn gave a half-laugh, as bitter as the drink in her hand was sweet. “Did you really think he’d give himself away? He already told you he had enough authority to forbid the Court from helping you. Why should he dress up and join everyone else and give away any more?”
Hallie glared, tipping her glass up for another sip. Of course Wyn was right. But she’d been right about too many things lately, and that made Hallie testy.
Wyn bumped shoulders with her, almost sloshing the magical mimosa out of her glass. “Oh, come on. Don’t get grumpy now. You’re lucky I was around when that guy showed up.”
The words seemed to echo in Hallie’s ears.
You’re lucky I was around.
***
Three Years Ago
“Jeez, Hallie!” Kat said, holding a paper towel to Hallie’s hand. “You’re lucky I was around.”
Hallie dropped the knife into the sink, trying to keep as much blood as possible off the laminate counter. She wasn’t sure it wouldn’t soak it up and stain forever. The college didn’t exactly spring for the highest quality materials in their campus apartments.
She took a deep breath, grateful for the crisp spring air blowing through the window and into the kitchen. She was already feeling woozy, and the breeze pulled her back enough to let Kat guide her to the dining table.
Seasons of Magic Volume 1 Page 18