Rebel Faerie

by Rachel Morgan

  “And the natural openings between the worlds?” Dash asks, pointing out yet another problem. “Those who don’t forget will come looking for them. And even if they can’t see the openings, they know exactly where they are now, so they’ll come right back through them.”

  “Possibly,” Chase says. “And while that’s a risk the Guild and everyone else is willing to take—mainly because they have no other option—it isn’t a risk we’re willing to take.” He looks at Calla. She turns to me.

  “We were kind of hoping you could close the openings,” she says.

  “Oh. Yes. I can do that.” I sit forward and place my arms on the table, a small thrill racing through me at the idea that I’m being allowed to make a meaningful difference with my magic. “And I can do other stuff too. Like telling all the humans to go back to their own world. That would keep the Guild and Seelies from having to do a whole load of fighting. And if Roarke still has a shield up around his enchanted forest by the time everyone wants to invade this afternoon, I can tell it to come down. That’ll save the guardians and everyone else from trying to break through it with magic.”

  Concern fills Calla’s expression, but she doesn’t say no. “All these things would require quite a lot of power from you, Em.”

  “That’s okay. I drank some of that elixir before I went to the Guild, and I still have power left over from that. And my ability will replenish again before this afternoon, so that will be additional power. Plus, I can go back to the oasis and get the other vial. Then if I do run out of power, that will stimulate more. I should be fine.”

  She still doesn’t look entirely convinced. “Em, have you seen the size of the area Roarke’s magic has spread across? Because that’s the size of the shield he and his followers have created. It’s far bigger than the one that was around Noxsom. And there are a lot of human soldiers who’ve now made their way into the fae realm. That’s a lot of people to control. And on top of that, closing three gaps in the veil is going to take a huge amount of power. Even with the elixir, I’m worried you’re going to run out.”

  “Okay, then I won’t worry about commanding the humans. I’ll bring down the shield so everyone can get through to Roarke and his army, and then I’ll go close the gaps after all the humans have been pushed back into this world.”

  Calla says, “Okay. I guess bringing down the shield is important too.”

  “Wait,” Dash says. “One more problem. How do we know the Seers aren’t going to See that Em’s planning to close these openings? If they do, they might send a few guardians to capture her. That’s what happened after we got away from Reinhold with the rest of the rebels.”

  “Ah, I wondered how those guardians found you,” Calla says.

  “How did you find us?” I ask, tilting my head to the side. “Did Aurora tell you where we were?”

  “Yes. She used your amber to send me a message telling me her location. She explained that you and Dash had gone to Reinhold to rescue the others and were planning to return to her.”

  “Okay, back to Dash’s question about the Seers,” Chase says. “Hopefully they won’t interfere if they See a vision of you closing the gaps, Em. You’ll be helping the Guild. They’d close the gaps themselves if they knew how to.”

  “And what,” a new voice asks, “if these natural gaps are not supposed to be closed?”

  “Aurora,” I say, looking up. I push my chair back and stand.

  She places her hands on her hips as she looks at me. “You kicked me.”

  “I did. I’m sorry. But at least Ada didn’t slice your throat open.”

  She rushes around the table and wraps her arms tightly around me. “Thank you. I mean, you could’ve used magic to shove me out of the way, but I understand that magic still isn’t automatic for you. Kicking clearly comes more easily.” I roll my eyes as I pull away from her. “Can I stay for the rest of this meeting?” she asks. “I think my question is valid.”

  “Uh, sure,” Chase says. I return to my chair, and Aurora takes the empty seat on my left. “Your question definitely is valid,” he continues, “and no one knows if the natural openings in the veil exist for a reason or not. But we do know there are more than just three, so we hope that closing only those three won’t have any negative impact on either world.”

  “Okay,” Aurora says. “And I suppose the negative impact of not closing them would be worse.”

  Dash leans forward. “So you’ve told us what the Guild, Seelies and Unseelies will be doing, but you haven’t said what you guys and the rest of your team of rebels will be up to. I assume you’ll be involved somehow? You wouldn’t stay away from something this important.”

  Calla smiles as she looks at Chase. “He knows us so well, doesn’t he.”

  “There are plenty of people who will be facing Roarke,” Chase tells us, “but until they’ve defeated him, no one will be holding back the human forces in those three parts of the fae realm, other than the local fae who’ve already been fighting for days.”

  “Some of whom have no idea how to fight,” Calla adds.

  “So that’s where we’ll be,” Chase continues. “We’ve split our team—our full team minus Vi and Ryn—into three groups. That isn’t much, but we have Griffin Abilities, which puts us at a major advantage.”

  “Including a whole bunch of abilities from Gaius’s vault,” Calla says, “which he’s finally allowing us to use.”

  “Is that where everyone else is right now?” Dash asks. “Back in our world fighting humans?”

  “Not yet,” Chase says. “I gave them a couple of hours off to sort their lives out. Take care of personal or family matters, or whatever. After all, half our team just spent a week locked inside their own minds. I figured they needed a few hours off before launching into the next battle.”

  “A few hours,” Aurora mutters, her tone suggesting that number isn’t nearly enough. And I guess she’s right, but with our worlds in the state they’re currently in, I guess Chase couldn’t give them much more than that.

  “So that’s where Calla and I are off to now,” Chase tells us. “To meet everyone else before we split into three groups. Dash, you’ll stay with Em near Roarke’s enchanted forest so Em can remove the shield surrounding it when our army shows up. Then you’ll go with her to close the gaps. These are the locations.” He slides his amber across the table toward Dash.

  “And don’t you dare let anything happen to her,” Calla says.

  “Hey, she’s actually not too bad at taking care of herself,” Dash says, pulling the amber closer.

  “If my Griffin Ability doesn’t run out. Which it won’t,” I add at the sight of Calla’s raised eyebrows. “Because I’m going to pick up the rest of the elixir before we leave for this little mission.”

  “Good.” Chase stands. He looks at Calla. “Then I guess you and I need to go battle some human soldiers and their not particularly nice weapons.”

  I stand as well, suddenly anxious about the fact that they’ll be fighting against bullets and explosives. “What is it you guys say to each other sometimes? Stay alive?”

  “Yeah,” Dash says. “That’s the one.”

  “Stay alive,” I say, looking first at Calla and then at Chase. “I mean it.”

  Twenty-Seven

  “You know I’m going with you and Dash, right?” Aurora says to me that afternoon when I return from the oasis with the remaining vial of elixir.

  “Aurora,” I say patiently. “You need to stay here with Vi and Ryn. If the countdown timer reaches zero and they’re still asleep, you need to move them somewhere else.”

  “Firstly,” she answers, “I think every guardian in existence has more important things to do right now than track down Griffin rebels. And secondly, if we’re gone that long, I’ll just come back here at the right time and move them. It’s not like someone has to be with them at all times. Calla said she put, like, a bazillion protective enchantments around this apartment to lock out anyone who isn’t us.”

/>   “I know, but I think guardians can eventually get through those because they’re not the super complex kind, and …” I sigh. “I would just feel a whole lot better if I knew someone was here with Vi and Ryn. Also, if they happen to wake up while we’re all still gone, you can tell them what’s going on.”

  Aurora groans. It looks for a moment like she might even stamp her foot, but then she calmly places that foot back on the floor and says, “Okay. If this is what you need me to do, then I’ll do it.”

  “And can you make sure Bandit doesn’t follow me when Dash and I leave?” Bandit, curled up on the couch in the form of a cat, looks up at me. “See?” I say. “He’s already plotting how to get out of here without me noticing.”

  “Hey, Em, are you ready to go?” Dash asks, turning away from the window. “I can see them from here. The fae army. At least, the part that’s coming down this road. I assume they’ll be approaching from all sides.”

  I move to the window and look out at the lines of marching people down below. “That’s so freaking weird. I wonder if they’re glamoured or if any human who hasn’t evacuated the area can see them too.”

  “Well, if they can,” Dash says, pulling his jacket on, “they’ll forget about it once the battle’s over and the Guild has spread their memory-altering enchantment.”

  “True. Okay then.” Noticing that there’s no longer a cat lying on the couch, I look around for Bandit and find him sneaking up my leg in the spider form he used on the table earlier. “You know, Bandit, this is not a particularly safe form,” I tell him as I carefully detach him from my pants and place him back on the couch. “You’re in danger of being squished by every spider-hating person in the world.”

  “In both worlds,” Aurora says with a shiver. Bandit shifts back into a cat, and Aurora adds, “That’s better. I like cats.” She sits on the couch and tucks Bandit beneath her arm.

  “Ready, Em?” Dash asks. I turn and find that he’s already opened a doorway beside the window.

  Suddenly, I feel ridiculously nervous. As nervous as I was before we broke into Noxsom. “This is going to be fine, right?” I say to Dash, allowing some of my fear to peek through.

  “Of course.” He gives me that cocky grin of his. The one I used to hate. The one I haven’t seen in far too long. “I’m with you, that’s why.”

  I almost kiss him. If I wasn’t feeling like I might throw up at any moment, I’d definitely tug him closer and press my lips against his. Instead, I take his hand and step into the faerie paths. “Don’t do anything silly,” Aurora calls after us. “Stay out of danger. Shoot, I think I’m channeling Calla right now.” Then the darkness swallows us up, and Aurora’s voice is gone.

  We walk out of the paths onto a cracked road and find ourselves between an upturned doughnut van and half a bench. The crackling sound of magic reaches my ears. I duck down immediately, tugging Dash with me. We look around, getting our bearings. We’re right at the edge of Roarke’s forest. A few roots have pushed their way through the road, and slim vines have wrapped around some of the vehicles left behind, but that’s about the worst of it right here on the edge.

  “I see them,” Dash says. “The army. They’ve reached the edge of the forest.”

  I lean past him to get a better view. Between two cars, I catch a glimpse of the fae army. Flashes of magic light up the air just ahead of them. “Looks like they’re trying to get through the shield already. I guess it’s time to help them.” I sit back against the van, remind myself that I have nothing to be nervous about, and then say one simple sentence: “The shield around Prince Roarke’s enchanted forest no longer exists.”

  Power rushes out of me. A large amount, but not everything. I have more than the normal amount, thanks to all that elixir I swallowed before charging into the Guild. I hear a roar from the fae army, and I know it must have worked. “Well done,” Dash says, reaching for my arm and squeezing it. “You did it.”

  I sit up and look past him again. Doorways are opening up all along the perimeter of the forest, and faeries are disappearing into them. “I wonder if they know where they’re going,” I say. “I wonder if Roarke’s army is spread out, hiding in the forest and waiting to attack, or if they’re all lined up somewhere. Like, maybe Haverton Tower is his new palace, and his army is guarding it.”

  “I don’t know, but we don’t need to worry about that. We need to get to our first location inside the fae realm and wait to close the gap.”

  I sigh. “Seems like it might be useful to try to hunt down Roarke and command him and his army to stop all of this, but that’s—”

  “Definitely not happening,” Dash says. “It’s unlikely we’ll get close enough for your voice to have any influence over him, and it’s way too dangerous.”

  “Hmm, that is actually a good question,” I say, sitting back. “How close to a person do I need to be in order to command them?”

  “I hate to be the boring one,” Dash says, “since that’s not usually my role, but now’s not the time to find out.” He opens a doorway against the side of the van, takes my hand, and we crawl into the darkness.

  A boom almost deafens me the moment we reach the other side. Something—sand?—sprays through the air nearby. One of the tall, spindly trees cracks right down the middle, and the two halves begin falling to either side. I hear a rapid puh-puh-puh before something wraps around my arm and tugs me into the darkness once more.

  “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Dash says the moment we tumble out of the paths a second time. We’re surrounded by the same spindly trees, but they’re blackened and smoking, and ash covers the ground everywhere I look. The sounds of explosions and gunfire are in the distance now. “Are you okay?” Dash asks. “I’m sorry, that was too close. I took us too close.”

  “I—yes—I’m fine.” I cough as smoke catches in my throat.

  “Fuzzbucket. That’s what needs to end before you can tell the gap to close. In three different places.”

  “Dash, I think …” I turn and look in the direction of the distant booms. “I think I need to stop that. Surely that’s more important than waiting for other people to stop it—for more people to get hurt or killed—and then closing the gap behind them?”

  He nods slowly. “Yeah. I think you’re right. Maybe Calla and Chase didn’t realize how bad it’s become. Or maybe they thought it would be easier for them to stop it.”

  I push one hand through my hair. “Crap, I hope they’re okay.”

  “They have shield magic, don’t worry.”

  “So should I do this?” I ask, dropping my hand to my side. “Should I tell the human forces to leave? Ugh, but there’s so much noise, and they can’t hear me, and—”

  “Em, that doesn’t matter. Do you think the reception desk inside Reinhold could hear you when you told it to show you where all the Griffin rebels were? No. It didn’t have ears.”

  A small and somewhat hysterical laugh escapes me. “You’re right. Of course you’re right. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking for a moment.”

  Dash takes hold of my shoulders, and his intense green gaze locks onto me. “I think you should stop them. And hopefully it won’t take as much power as stopping a magical army would. It’s not as though you have to halt actual magic. You’re just telling them to stop, turn around, leave, and not come back.”

  “Yes. Okay, yes.” I bite my lip, then add, “Calla and Chase are going to be so mad when they realize what I’ve done.”

  “You know what? If they’re in the middle of that—” he points toward the noise “—I don’t think they’re going to be too mad.” He opens a doorway once again. “I’ll try to get close, but not too close. Be ready to use your power.”

  The noise sounds shockingly near when the faerie paths open on the other side. I should speak immediately, but I hesitate, questioning what I’m about to say after the confrontation I had with Chase. But deep down, when I really think about it, I know this is the right thing to do. This isn’t like controlling the Guild. This is a
battle and both sides are fighting with whatever skills they possess. This just happens to be my skill.

  “Every single human in this area will stop fighting, turn back toward the gap between this world and the non-magical world, walk through that gap, and never return.”

  Dash grasps my hand. I open my eyes.

  And I watch my command come to life.

  As the humans file dutifully out of our world, Dash takes me closer to where the actual opening in the veil is. It doesn’t look like the artificial tear that was once above Velazar II Island. If I hadn’t known this one was here, I wouldn’t have seen it. There’s nothing at all to see. The humans march along between the trees, and then at some point, they simply … vanish.

  Once they’ve all walked through, I drink about a third of the elixir. I don’t want to risk running out of power before this command is complete. Then I focus on that patch of air where everyone disappeared, and I tell the gap between the worlds to close. It uses almost all my power, leaving only a little bit behind. “I hope it worked,” I say to Dash. “It’s hard to know when I can’t see anything different.”

  We duck quickly behind a tree as several guardians race up to the spot where the last human disappeared. They try various forms of magic and move their hands in different formations, but nothing happens when they try to walk through something.

  “Yep,” Dash says. “I think it worked.”

  We move to the second location, and after drinking another third of the elixir, I repeat my commands. The humans are gone, the veil is closed, and we move on to our final spot.

  And this one, it seems, is the worst. More yelling, more gunfire, more flashes of magic and lightning. Rain slams at my face, and wind almost knocks me over. I lean closer to Dash’s ear and say, “Something tells me that Chase might be at this location.”