Rebel Faerie

by Rachel Morgan

  The other successful experiment mentioned is first referred to as a ‘mental prison.’ This Griffin Ability, belonging to a woman named Shyla, can confine people within their own minds. And it’s this Griffin Ability, the next page tells me, that made The Noxsom Facility possible.

  At the sight of the word ‘Noxsom,’ my heart thumps faster. I swallow and continue to read about how Reinhold researchers combined this particular Griffin Ability with a tiny amount of poison extracted from a creature called a rememoraith. This creature is apparently a close relative of something called a morioraith—which researchers experimented on first and were unable to extract poison from—but the document doesn’t tell me what the poison from either of these two creatures actually does. The section ends with a small picture of Shyla and one last line saying that she remains in custody at Reinhold while further uses for her ability are being determined.

  The last two pages talk about plans for future experiments, along with a section about funding, which obviously isn’t helpful. I roll the pages back together and place the scroll on the ground beside me, feeling ill. I’m not sure about Dash, but the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Vi, Ryn and the rest of the Griffin rebels have been taken to Reinhold. They don’t all have Griffin Abilities, but most of them do, and if the Guild wants to take advantage of those abilities, this is the perfect way to do it.

  Feeling the need to occupy myself with something else, I pick up the knives I haven’t shrunk yet and walk a short distance away to where our makeshift targets still stand. I practice for a long time, enjoying the way I don’t have to think about anything else when I’m focusing on trying to throw a weapon correctly. As the sun goes down, I manage to form a glowing orb and leave it floating nearby while I continue.

  When it’s almost time to wake Aurora, I pack away most of our things so we’ll be ready to leave when she wakes me. The tablets, the mirror, my jacket containing knives in hidden pockets, any other weapons still lying around. I dismantle the targets, fail to transform them back into branches, and decided to just leave them. Then I unroll my sleeping bag and shake Aurora’s shoulder as I climb into it.

  She grumbles something about having been asleep for only a few minutes, but she rubs her eyes and crawls out onto the ground.

  “Walk around for a bit,” I tell her as Bandit sneaks past my arm into the sleeping bag as a cat. “That should help wake you up.”

  “Mm,” she says. As my head hits the pillow, she asks, “Can I read this?”

  I look up and see her holding the scroll. “Sure. I should warn you, though,” I add as I turn over. “It’s kinda depressing.”

  I wake with a jolt as someone shoves me roughly. For a moment, I’m back on the blue hillside, expecting Calla to tell me about Central Park. We’ll get up and race off to the city so I can tell the forest to vanish. But the sleepiness clears from my mind, and I remember that that’s already happened.

  “Em!” Aurora hisses. “Get up!”

  “What?” I sit up, pushing my hair out of my face. “What’s wrong?” It’s still dark, but faint light moves somewhere behind Aurora.

  “Guardians!” she says. “It was the light that woke me. I got up and saw them down there.” She points over her shoulder. “They’re dressed all in black, and I’m sure I saw guardian weapons. They’re coming up the hill, Em. Fast.”

  Eighteen

  The world spins as I scramble hastily to my feet. “What the … how did they …” My gaze falls on the golden digits hanging in the air. They’re all zeros. “Aurora! Dammit, how long have we been asleep?”

  Not an important question, I remind myself as she stammers out apologies, since the answer is clearly ‘Too long.’ I focus on the approaching guardians making their way swiftly up the hill toward us with orbs of light bobbing above them. I can see three figures so far, but there must be more behind them. My immediate thought is to say something, to command them all to freeze, but I remember then that I used all my Griffin magic on granting Bandit the power to become a full-sized dragon. Which, it appears, might actually save us. Because the Bandit who was curled against my chest moments ago is no longer a cat. He’s now a sleek black dragon with burning red eyes.

  Imperia and Bandit breathe flames at the oncoming guardians, but they shield themselves with magic and continue advancing. I should be running, grabbing a stylus, throwing magic at those guardians—anything except standing motionless as my brain tries to decides which will be faster: opening a doorway wide enough to fit dragons through, or climbing onto those dragons and flying away. All while a single thought batters at the edge of my mind: Calla will be so disappointed in me when she finds out I couldn’t get this one simple thing right.

  “Em, come on!” Aurora yells, spinning around and aiming for Imperia’s leg. I’m about to race after her when the orbs bob lower over the guardians and I notice something unexpected about the woman in the middle. Something … familiar.

  “Violet?” I whisper out loud. It is her. And on either side of her are Ryn and Dash. For several confusing moments, I wonder if I might still be asleep. Then Bandit lets loose another stream of flames, and I know I can’t possibly be dreaming the scorching heat. “Wait, stop!” I shout, rushing back a few paces and smacking Bandit’s side. “Bandit, stop!” He pauses his attack, but Imperia tosses her head and breathes more flames. I look back to where Aurora’s scrambling up Imperia’s leg. “Make her stop, please! Those are my parents. And Dash is with them. They must have escaped together.” And Vi must have used her Griffin Ability to find me. I launch forward and run toward them. Despite having had days to think about it, I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to say to them. All I know is that they’re my family, and they’re finally safe.

  But why …

  Why aren’t they …

  I slow down as I realize they’re not smiling. They’re not excited. In fact, their faces seem to be devoid of any expression. And their eyes … Now that they’re close enough for me to make out the details of their faces, I can see that something isn’t right. A chill skitters across my skin when I realize exactly what it is: their eyes are almost completely white. Glazed over. Staring at nothing. They must be able to see something, though, because they continue marching forward with unwavering purpose.

  “Crapcrapcrap,” I mutter, backtracking hastily. “Something isn’t right,” I shout to Aurora.

  “You think?” she shouts back in the kind of tone that says, Duh.

  “They’re like … zombies. We need to run. We need to fly.” As I pass the backpack, I reach down and grab it. “Bandit, shrink!” I yell at him, pulling the backpack onto my shoulders. Seconds later, Bandit swoops through the air in bird form and flutters around me as I scramble up Imperia’s side. Above me, Aurora reaches the saddle. She tosses one of the straps down, then yells out a command. As I grab onto the trailing piece of leather, Imperia launches into the air, her wings beating past me with powerful force. Sliding against the side of her body, I hang onto the strap with every ounce of strength I possess. “Quickly!” I yell. “Go!”

  Bandit swoops past my head and lands on my shoulder—just as bright magic burns across my right arm. I cry out and almost lose my grip on the leather strap, but I clench my teeth and cling tighter and tell myself not to look at the wound.

  I expect Imperia to veer upward, but instead, she aims straight ahead at the cliff face. Aurora’s stylus zooms ahead of us. It smacks against the sheer rocky surface, skids down, then rises up again. Clumsily, it writes against the rock—and nothing happens. Over the sound of air rushing past my ears, I can just make our Aurora’s curse of frustration. The stylus moves again, and this time, a dark space begins to form.

  Imperia tucks her wings flat against her body, and we shoot straight into the faerie paths.

  The moment we land, Imperia roars and twists around, snapping at her tail.

  “What’s wrong?” Aurora shouts.

  I look back, my heart leaping at the sight of the th
ing that’s causing Imperia’s distress. “Dash!” I yell at him. “Get off! You’re going to end up flattened!” I doubt he can hear me—and who knows if my words would even make sense to him in his zombie-like state—but he lets go of Imperia’s tail and drops to the ground. A second later, Imperia’s tail slams down on top of him.

  “No!” I gasp. Without pause, I let go of the strap and slide down Imperia’s side. As my feet strike the ground, Aurora yells a single word at Imperia, saving Dash’s motionless body from being walloped a second time. I race toward him, muttering, “You stupid, stupid boy. What the hell were you thinking?” I drop onto my knees beside him. My eyes dart across his body, searching for puncture wounds from the mastic spikes on Imperia’s tail. I can’t see any blood, though. It must have been the lower surface of her tail that struck him. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if half the bones in his body have been fractured.

  “Don’t touch him,” Aurora says, running up to my side. “You might injure him further.”

  “I know, I know.” But my hands hover near him nonetheless. “What do we do? What if he has broken bones? We can’t take him anywhere.”

  “I don’t think Imperia hit him that hard. Hopefully he’s just unconscious.”

  “You don’t think she hit him that hard?” I repeat, incredulous. “Did you see her tail coming down on top of him?”

  “I know it might have looked bad, but she’s been trained not to deliver a lethal blow. Phillyp made sure of that when my mother told him she was allowing me to take dragon riding lessons. Can’t have the princess accidentally squished, right?”

  “Okay, but this was a threatening situation in an unfamiliar environment, and Imperia knew it wasn’t you hanging on to her tail. I think she would have been a little rougher than normal.”

  “Yes, okay, but … I’m sure he’ll be fine.” She leans further over Dash as Bandit, in mouse form, creeps toward Dash’s face and gently pokes his cheek with one paw. “He may have a few fractured ribs,” Aurora says, “but faerie magic doesn’t take too long to heal that kind of thing.” As if to prove her point, a groan escapes Dash’s lips at that moment. “See?” she says. “He’s going to be fine.”

  Relief floods my body, but it’s overshadowed a moment later by the reminder that Dash isn’t himself right now. He’s still a danger to us. “Crap, we need to tie him up.” I shrug free of the backpack and pull it open. Dash groans again, louder this time, and I see his face crumple in an expression of intense pain as I glance up. “Is this what you meant by ‘fine?’” I ask Aurora as I continue to rummage through the dozens of miniature supplies.

  “Look, obviously he’s going to feel some pain. Maybe a lot of pain. But he will be fine. And can you hurry up? He’s going to be properly awake any second.”

  “I know, I know, I’m trying to—ah, there it is.” I place the tiny coil of rope on the ground and enlarge it as quickly as I can. Aurora’s magic slices it in half, and while I wind my piece around Dash’s wrists, her magic directs the other piece around his ankles. “Oh, wait, fluffing hell.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “His guardian weapons will be able to cut through a normal rope. That’s what Calla said.” I shove my hand back into the backpack and pull out a small notebook. “We have to add … a small enchantment …” I page swiftly past the first few spells Calla wrote down for me. “There!” I touch the rope around Dash’s wrists and read out the words, then do the same thing for his ankles. I’ve barely finished when he begins struggling against his bonds.

  “That was close,” Aurora says. “Maybe you should memorize that spell—and any other in-the-moment kinda spell where you wouldn’t have time to look it up.”

  “Hey, keep still,” I tell Dash as he continues to struggle. “You’re only going to hurt yourself more.” I lean over him, trying to pin his shoulders down, while Aurora does the same with his legs. Dash grits his teeth against whatever pain he’s feeling, his creepy clouded eyes darting everywhere. “Dash!” I say, louder this time. “Stop it, okay? Stop struggling. Hey, can you even hear me?”

  Finally, his body goes limp. I slowly let go of his shoulders and sit back. Dash tilts his head to the side and blinks at me. “You must be captured,” he says in a voice devoid of emotion. “If you cannot be captured, you must be killed.”

  A chill raises goosebumps across my arms. “Killed?” I exhale a shaky breath of a laugh. “That seems a little drastic. You like me, Dash. You don’t want to kill me.”

  “You must be captured,” he repeats. “If you cannot be captured, you must be killed.”

  I shake my head and whisper, “What have they done to you?” I can’t help remembering the last time I saw him. His cocky grin was in place and his green eyes sparkled as he told me not to miss him too much. Save me a kiss was the last thing he said. I hadn’t doubted then that I’d see him again soon. I always saw him again soon. That seemed to be the way things worked once I reached the fae realm. He was always just … there. Until suddenly he wasn’t, and I had no idea why, and I missed him far more than I expected.

  “You must be captured,” he says once more. “If you cannot be captured, you must be killed.”

  “Okay, that is going to get annoying really quickly,” Aurora says. “We may need to gag him.”

  I look away from his creepy gaze. “Yes. I’d rather not hear any more about how I must be killed.” As I wrap my arms around myself, I become abruptly aware of the stinging pain I forgot all about when I saw Dash had come with us through the faerie paths. I lift my arm to get a better look at the wound, then lower it quickly. The sight of the blood that’s oozed down my arm makes me feel a little dizzy.

  “Oh, ouch,” Aurora says, leaning forward to peer at my arm. “When did that happen?”

  “As we were escaping. Just after Imperia took off.” I breathe in deeply and try to think of things that have nothing to do with my own blood. Looking around at the palm trees, the tall grass, and the strip of blue sea in the distance, I ask, “Where are we, anyway? Somewhere deserted, I hope?”

  “Um … well, my mind wasn’t exactly clear when I finally got that doorway open,” she admits. “I was trying to think of places I know that are far from any dwellings. I think …” She looks around. “Yes, this is the area I was thinking of. Our coastal manor house is nearby. You know, for holidays.”

  My mouth drops open. “You brought us somewhere near one of your family’s houses? And you thought that would be safe?”

  “It’s fine, Em. The area’s deserted aside from our estate. And no one will be there now. Do you really think it’s the appropriate time for the rest of my family to take a vacation?”

  I exhale slowly. “I guess when you put it that way …”

  Dash makes a half-hearted effort at pulling his hands free of the ropes. “You must be killed,” he says.

  I turn my attention back to him, searching his clouded eyes for any spark of life or recognition. Any hint that the Dash I know still exists beneath the layers of enchantment controlling him. “Do you think he’s still in there?” I ask Aurora. “Or do you think the state he’s in now is … permanent?”

  She gives me a helpless look. “I don’t know, Em. I haven’t seen anyone in this kind of state before. It sounds a little bit like the brainwashing spell Lord Draven put on people to get them to follow him. But as far as I know, that spell didn’t have this sort of … lifeless side effect. Those people appeared completely normal, except for the part where they wholeheartedly believed they needed to serve Lord Draven.”

  I tilt my head as I watch Dash. “I wonder if my Griffin Ability might work on him. Maybe I can say something that will free him of this enchantment.”

  “Oh. Yes.” Aurora’s voice lights up. “That could work. When will your Griffin Ability be replenished?”

  “Another few hours, I think.” I look up at the position of the sun, but it doesn’t help much when I have no clue what time zone we’re in.

  “Okay, well, whenever it happen
s, you can try commanding Dash to be normal.” She sounds so certain, as if there’s no way my Griffin Ability won’t work. I, on the other hand, am not so sure.

  “Remember I tried to wake Dani—the woman I thought was my mother—when she was in that enchanted coma?” I say. “It didn’t work.”

  Aurora hesitates, chewing on her lip. “True. But you may as well try with Dash, right?”

  “Yes, I may as well.” Bandit scampers over to me and climbs onto my knee. “The reason I couldn’t wake Dani was because the sleeping spell had something to do with witch magic. It was one of the anti-Griffin Gifted spells they crafted. Hopefully whatever’s affecting Dash has nothing to do with witch magic. Maybe it’s—Oh, maybe it’s something they developed at Reinhold,” I say, thinking back to all the experimentation Perry’s document mentioned. “Did you read any of those pages last night before you fell asleep?”

  “Hey, look, I didn’t intend to fall asleep,” Aurora says, crossing her arms. “It was an accident. And that countdown timer should really have a noise enchantment added to it. If it had sung us a song when it reached zero, we would have woken up and left in time.”

  Dash chooses that moment to punctuate our conversation with a lifeless “You must be killed.”

  We both ignore him. “Whoa, no need to get so defensive,” I say. “That’s not what I meant. I was legitimately asking if you read any of the information about Reinhold Research Station.”

  “Oh. Sorry.” She unfolds her arms and looks down at her hands. “And I’m sorry I fell asleep when I shouldn’t have. I really didn’t intend to.”