I look at the sky once more with a frown. “I thought this was just a normal storm.”
“Oh, it is.”
“What’s the difference between a normal storm and—”
“Em, someone’s here,” she whispers.
My gaze darts back down in time to see a uniformed man step out of a doorway in the air. The two young boys walking out of the cafe stumble back against the door in fright, one of them losing his ice cream cone in the process. “Crap, no glamour?” I murmur.
“Obviously not,” Calla replies as a second Unseelie guard exits the faerie paths. And behind him—a brownish green creature roughly the size of a person, with bulging orange eyes, hairy arms, and long, pointed ears.
“Holy heck,” I whisper. “What is that?”
“That,” Calla says, “is a goblin.” As the two men and the goblin move toward the cafe door, she adds, “Quickly. I’ll stun one of the Unseelies. You stop the other two.” She hurls her magic forward without pause. My mind races, almost causing me to stumble over my command, but as the first guard falls unconscious to the pavement, I manage to successfully tell the other guard to drop down and stay there. The goblin swings around, his orange eyes searching for any sign of a threat. “Goblin, you—”
Screams erupt from inside the cafe. “Shoot, there are two more guards inside,” Calla says. “They must have come through another doorway.” I rush to the window and peer inside, forgetting the goblin for a moment. The people in the cafe are more important. I have only a moment to see the man and woman in Unseelie guard uniforms before every table and chair explodes into the air. Screaming people fall to the ground, crashing into those who were already standing or rushing for the door. The furniture breaks apart in the air, and splintered chair and table legs fly around. As the two guards vanish into the faerie paths and uninjured people race for the door, the goblin moves into the doorway and spreads his hairy arms, blocking the way.
“Stop!” I shout out, but my thoughts are so scattered that my Griffin Ability has no idea what I’m yelling at. “Tables and chairs, stop moving and remain in the air,” I say. Every item of furniture freezes. At the same time, Calla throws a handful of sparks at the goblin’s back, then kicks him so hard he stumbles forward into the cafe. As people shriek and scramble out of his way, she draws a knife from each boot.
“No human is injured,” I say. “They can all stand up and leave the cafe.” They obey my command almost instantly, standing, hurrying for the door, and climbing over the two Unseelie guards. The goblin turns and lurches after them. Calla throws a knife above the heads of the escaping humans just as I say, “The goblin is—Oh!” I gasp as someone grabs my arm and spins me around.
“Who are you and what are you doing?” the unfamiliar man demands. It takes only a second for me to notice the dark patterns on his wrists marking him as a guardian. Crap, crap, crap. Calla must have lost hold of her illusion. “Get off me!” I shout, already looking away from him and at the large hairy creature rushing out of the cafe. “The goblin is unconscious!” I yell, finally getting my command out. An invisible force knocks the guardian away from me just as the goblin falls forward across the two Unseelie guards.
“Well, look at that,” a voice says behind me. “Some guardians have come along to ruin our fun.” I spin around and find the Unseelie man and woman who were inside the cafe standing in the middle of the road.
“I’m the only guardian here,” the guardian says, jumping up from where my magic threw him onto the pavement. He brandishes two glittering swords, pointing one at Calla and the other at the two Unseelies.
“The Unseelie man and woman can’t move,” I say immediately, hoping I still have enough Griffin power left. They freeze in place a second later, and the guardian whips his head around to look at me. I think he might be about to say something, but at that moment, wild whooping and calling and the sound of hooves beating against the ground reach my ears. From around the corner on the other side of the Unseelies, dozens of horses—no, centaurs?—come racing down the street. The startled guardian points both swords at the centaurs as they gallop past the motionless Unseelie man and woman.
With absolutely no idea what I can say to stop this stampede, or if I should stop it, all I can do is stare. Calla grabs my hand and pulls me further along the pavement, away from the guardian, the Unseelies and the centaurs. Together, we slip around the side of the building at the end of the block. When we’re out of sight, Calla stops and looks back. After the last centaur disappears around a corner at the end of the street, she quietly says, “I just want to make sure the guardian can handle all those Unseelies and the goblin.”
“What on earth?” I gasp. “Centaurs? Freaking centaurs? In Stanmeade?”
“Illusion,” Calla answers. “Distraction. You can’t believe everything you see around me, remember?”
All I can do is gape at her.
“He’s tying them up,” Calla says, looking around the edge of the building again. “He should be able to get them all into the faerie paths if he ties them together.”
“I—you—” I shake my head, still trying to come to terms with the fact that the centaur stampede never existed. I suddenly become aware of the fact that rain is pattering down on us, and probably has been throughout the whole encounter. “Um, can the Unseelies move at all?” I ask, wiping my hand over my face and peering carefully around her. “Or do you think my magic’s going to keep them frozen forever? Maybe I should say something else. If I have any power left, that is. I think my it’s almost depleted.”
“Yes, okay, just let the guardian finish tying them all up. And the goblin.”
Once the guardian is done with his glittering rope, I say another command telling the four Unseelie guards and the goblin they can move again. “That’s gonna give the poor guardian a fright,” I say, “but at least he’s—”
“Em?”
I whip around at the sound of the voice, accidentally knocking the backpack into Calla. I mentally grasp for the glamour magic that’s supposed to be concealing me from human sight—and realize abruptly that I completely forgot to keep that magic in place.
“Is it really you?” asks the girl standing in front of me. Dark frizzy hair frames a face as familiar as my own, and her eyes are as wide and scared as the last time I saw her, when my magic almost sucked her into the ground.
“Val!” I hesitate for only the briefest of moments before flinging my arms around her. I’m sure she’s mad at me for leaving, but she can shout as much as she wants once I’ve hugged her. I forget about Calla standing behind me, about the goblin and centaurs, about the terrified humans whose memories will now have to be altered, and simply cling to my best friend.
But after several moments in which Val stands almost as still as the Unseelie man and woman I magically paralyzed just minutes ago, I pull away and take a step back. She blinks at me. “I just—saw—what did you just do?” she stammers.
Words tumble from my mouth. “I can explain everything. I promise. And I’m so, so, so sorry about that night at the Masons’ farm. I know you think I ran away after that, but I swear I didn’t. I’m going to tell you the truth. I’m going to tell you everything.”
“Actually, we need to go,” Calla says from behind me. “If either the guardian or the Unseelies recognized you, this place will be swarming with Guild members within the next few minutes.”
“She’s … gold,” Val whispers, staring at Calla.
I turn back and find that Calla’s already raising her stylus to the wall. “The guardian didn’t recognize me, and I don’t think the Unseelies did either. They thought you and I were guardians at first.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that we need to go.” A doorway opens up, causing Val’s mouth to drop open even further.
“No,” I tell Calla. “I’m not going anywhere. I need to explain things to Val.”
“Em—”
“I have to!” My gaze flashes once toward Val, standing completely still
with her wide-eyed gaze stuck on the faerie paths doorway, before returning to Calla. “You know what happened that night my magic broke out,” I continue, my voice lower now. “How would you feel if you’d done something like that to your best friend and then vanished with no explanation?” Calla’s expression softens a little, and her gaze moves to Val. “Please!” I add, seeing her wavering now. “Remember what you said about past mistakes and fixing them if I can? Well I need to fix this. I need to make things right with Val.”
After another moment’s hesitation, she gives in with a nod. “Okay. Val?” she says, but Val’s eyes are still trained on the gaping hole in the side of the wall.
“Val,” I say, gently placing my hand on her shoulder. Finally, she looks at me.
“You need to go straight back to your house,” Calla tells her. “Em and I will go a different way. We’ll meet you there. And don’t tell anyone what you’ve seen or that we’re coming.”
I squeeze Val’s shoulder. “Are you okay? Can you get back home?”
She breathes in deeply, blinks a few times, and starts looking a bit more like the self-assured Val I remember. “Yes. I’m fine. It’s all just … a bit shocking.”
Calla looks over her shoulder again. “Seriously, Em. We need to go.” Without waiting for an answer, she takes my arm and pulls me into the faerie paths.
“I’ll see you at your place,” I call back to Val. “Run!”
Twelve
I picture Val’s backyard, a small patch of ground with a swing set that broke years ago, and the faerie paths deposit us there moments later. Calla brushes her hand absentmindedly through the air, which causes the rain to divert itself around us. My gaze moves up to a window on the second floor before returning to Calla. “I’ll be up there.” I shrug free of the backpack and hand it to her. “Are you going to hide down here?”
“Yes. Wait, Em,” she says before I can move. “I know you’ve known this girl for a long time, so you’re probably going to be offended by this, but are you sure you can trust her? She isn’t going to … I don’t know, try to sell your story to the tabloids or something?”
A few weeks ago, that kind of statement about my best friend definitely would have offended me. But almost everyone I’ve trusted in the fae realm has, at some point, tried to kill me, incarcerate me, or take advantage of my power, so I understand where Calla’s coming from. “Yes, I’m certain I can trust her. There’s no way she’d try to cash in on my situation like that—even though her family could definitely do with the money.” I gesture at the broken swing set that some of Val’s younger siblings would no doubt love to use. “And even if she does happen to tell her mom or some of our friends about me, well …” I shrug. “So what? It’s not like magic is a huge secret anymore.”
Calla raises an eyebrow. “You know we’re hoping to change that, right? We’re hoping to make it secret once again.”
“I know, I know, but how long is that going to take? Even if it can be done, it’ll be months or years before the Guild figures out how to make the whole world forget. But right now, my best friend is confused, and I need to tell her the truth. That’s all there is to it.”
“I understand. I really do. I just want you to be careful, that’s all. So … I don’t know, maybe keep your glamour on until you get up to Val’s room. It’ll just make things more complicated if you have to explain yourself to her family as well.”
I nod. “Probably a good idea.”
From inside the house, I hear Val shouting, “Mom, I’m home. I just need to finish some homework, then I’ll help with dinner.”
“Wow, that was quick,” Calla comments. “Is the cafe close?”
“Not that close.” I head for the back door. “But she’s fast. Like me.”
After quietly opening and closing the back door, I pass through the kitchen and living room, experiencing again that intense familiarity overlaid with the jarring sense that everything has changed. After all, I’m walking right past three of Val’s siblings fighting over a cell phone, and not one of them can see me. I can barely believe it, despite the many magical wonders I’ve witnessed in recent weeks.
I cross a hallway, hurry toward the stairs, and ascend as quietly as I can. Halfway up, I stop and pause, instinct suggesting something isn’t right. Is that magic I can feel? In a place where magic shouldn’t exist? A shiver whispers across the back of my neck. I look down the stairs, then up again, but I see nothing suspicious. Slowly, I draw a knife from one of the custom-made pockets inside my jacket. I tiptoe the rest of the way up the stairs, the knife gripped tightly in my hand, words like ‘get away from me’ ready to fly from my tongue.
Could it be the guardian who showed up outside Bloomberry Cafe? Perhaps he saw us speaking to Val and followed her back here. Perhaps he’s hiding somewhere upstairs, waiting to rush into the room once he knows I’m here. Or perhaps I’m overdoing it with the glamour thing, and it’s my own magic I’m sensing.
I peek into the bathroom and two other bedrooms before reaching Val’s half-open door, but I don’t find anyone. Slowly, I push her door open. Her back is to me as she leans over her dresser. My eyes dart about, but I don’t see anyone else—until a furry orange shape leaps at me from the bed. I shriek in fright, and Tibs the cat streaks out of the room. Val spins around, clutching at the dresser before swearing loudly and slapping one hand to her chest. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I just thought …” I look back over my shoulder. “I had this weird sense that someone else—or something else—might be up here. But I can’t feel it anymore. I think I’m just imagining stuff because it’s so weird to be back here.” I face Val again and find her gaze fixed on my hand. I realize belatedly that I’m still holding a knife. “Oh. Sorry. I should probably stop waving that around.” I bend and push it into the side of my boot before straightening.
“Is that … did you just put a knife into your shoe?”
“Uh … yes?” I look down again at my brand new ankle-high boots, purchased after our first night on the run when Calla and I stopped to buy a change of clothes and some food. After spending days wearing the ballet pump-type shoes I escaped the Unseelie Palace in, I would have been happy with anything that looked like regular sneakers. But Calla insisted boots would be better. “Weird, I know,” I say to Val, “but it’s actually quite a convenient location for a knife. More comfortable than the ones inside my jacket.”
“You have knives inside your jacket?”
“Yes. Um … Calla—the woman you met near the cafe—created these little pockets inside the jacket on each side so I have somewhere to keep my … uh … knives.” I trail off as Val’s eyes continue to widen. “Okay look. I know it’s weird, and we always thought that only creeps with strange obsessions carry knives around with them, but when almost everyone you meet in a foreign world wants you dead or imprisoned, you learn to carry weapons around so you can defend yourself.”
Val blinks.
I sigh.
And the awkward moment is interrupted by a dull light pulsing from within the half-open top drawer of Val’s dresser. She shoves the drawer shut. “Sorry. Cell phone. Now is so not the time to answer it.”
I almost laugh. “I guess not.” Then, as I push my hand through my hair, I ask, “Can I start at the beginning?”
She nods slowly. “Please do.”
We sit on Val’s bed and I tell her everything that’s happened since the moment I said those horrible words that came to life: Then let the earth split open and swallow you whole. I tell her about the special magic I possess, about the Griffin rebels who are just like me, about living at the Unseelie Palace for a while, about discovering who I really am and why I grew up in the human world, and about the changeling mother who isn’t really my mother. Val watches me with a frown the entire time, her mouth dropping open when I tell her that Dash is actually from the magical world too. When I tell her about Dani, she finally interrupts.
“Wa
it, she’s—say that again. She’s actually two people? Inside one? Daniela, the person you always visited in the hospital, and—what did you say the other one’s name is?”
“Ada. Adaline. She was always the weaker one, but since Zed forced the two of them back into one body and reversed the changeling spell, she’s now the one in control.”
Val’s frown deepens as she looks away. “That’s so freaking weird,” she whispers.
“Yeah. Tell me about it.” I finish off by explaining everything that’s happened since I escaped Roarke and the shadow world. “Technically, I’m not supposed to tell you any of this,” I add when I’m done. “The magical world and all the beings who inhabit it are supposed to be a secret. But that isn’t exactly the case anymore, judging by what I’ve seen on the news.”
Val looks at me again. “The things they’re reporting are just insane, Em. I didn’t believe the news at first. I mean, who would? It looks like special effects movie stuff. But then more and more stories were reported from all over the world—by, like, reputable news people—and I started to think it must be true. I kept saying to my mom, ‘Is it really that impossible? People used to believe in magic and paranormal stuff centuries ago, and there must have been a reason for it.’ And then … what happened at Bloomberry Cafe …” She inhales deeply. “I can’t exactly deny all this magic stuff now that I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
“Yeah. So, um …” I reach for one of her pillows and hug it to my chest as I finally voice the thought that’s been plaguing me every time I’ve thought of Val over the past few weeks. “I thought you’d be furious with me for leaving Stanmeade. For running away without telling you, since that’s the story the guardians said they spread. But you don’t seem mad at all.” That last statement comes out sounding more like a question.
“Of course I’m not mad, Em. I was just seriously worried about you. If you did run away without explaining anything to me, then I knew there must have been a damn good reason for it. I was more concerned about what that reason might be than about the fact that you didn’t explain anything.”
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