Banishing him, however, is much more easily done. The Fibbing Gate may be our only chance to accomplish that. I’ve risked quite a lot to learn about it, how to summon it, and how it can be opened and closed again. Enclosed in this letter are all the instructions you’ll need. Read them carefully. Memorize them. After that, you must destroy them because such knowledge is too dangerous to endure.
You must choose the next faerie ruler, regardless of what else happens. Understand that this choice will change the course of history, not just for faeries, but for mankind as well. You’ll be ending a dispute that has existed for thousands of years. Will it end the fighting? No, absolutely not, but your power extends beyond simply being a source of energy for faeries. Vessels have always been a symbol of unity, which is a far greater thing than any magic circle or spell. You can become the beacon that will call together both humans and faeries in resistance to Fir Darrig, even if the Fibbing Gate fails. So take care when you choose the next king or queen. It should be someone capable of making tough decisions for the sake of the greater good, but with enough conviction of conscience to show mercy. I know you’ll choose well.
Sweet Josie, I love you more than anything. Sometimes I worry I don’t tell you that often enough. You are my greatest treasure, and not a moment goes by when I don’t feel proud of you. Stay strong. Remember, it’s okay to follow your heart, as long as you don’t leave your head behind.
Your loving father,
Marcus Barton
I carefully folded the letter back up with the rest of the papers and tucked them into the envelope. For a moment, we just sat in silence. I didn’t know what to say, and my mind was struggling to absorb and process everything. I’d known I would have to choose a new faerie ruler for a while, but I hadn’t had time to give it any actual thought.
It was a terribly big choice to make on a whim.
“Zeph, can I ask you something?” I glanced sideways at him.
He was staring down at that old Polaroid picture of us. There was a soft, nostalgic look of sadness on his features as he nodded. “Sure.”
“Did you cloud my memories so that I wouldn’t remember you and the others?”
Zeph gave a heavy sigh. He brushed a thumb over that picture and then placed it back on top of the stack. “Yes.”
My heart ached and my stomach twisted. I almost didn’t want to know. “Will I … ever get those memories back?”
“I gave them back a long time ago,” he answered quietly.
“What?”
“The feather. The one you’ve kept on the windowsill.” He looked away. “You didn’t think it was strange it never dissolved away?”
I frowned, trying to understand. “My memories are inside that feather?”
“Burn it. Or wait until after the Singing Moon. It’ll dissolve on its own then, and you’ll get your memories back.”
“You mean after you die?” I grabbed his arm, forcing him to look back at me. “You really have given up, haven’t you? You don’t believe we can win against Fir Darrig.”
The depth of the sorrow in his eyes made my throat close up and my confidence crumble. “Josie, he’s taken people I’ve loved from me before. He took my dignity. And now I only have this one chance to keep him from taking the one person in the world who means the most to me.”
People he loved? Was he talking about someone else or …
“What was it that killed my dad? What started the fire?” I asked shakily. “Was it Fir Darrig?”
Once again, he wouldn’t meet my gaze. “To be honest, I’m not sure. Magic can have strange effects on human minds. It can be as addictive as any drug. I think your dad was beginning to reach that point. He was consumed with saving you and stopping Fir Darrig. Once he got his feet wet in the world of spellwork, he couldn’t get enough. He got his hands on a wild tome somehow. Those books are like hazardous waste.”
“What are they?”
“Basically what Eldrick said before—unregulated scripts with original spellwork in them. Sort of like diaries that fae have kept over the years, writing down their own personal spells and charms or things that have been passed down. Because no scholar has ever checked them over to validate if the spells would even work, it’s dangerous to use anything you find in a book like that. In most cases, you don’t know who wrote it or what their intentions were. It can just as easily kill you as help you.” He handed the stack of pictures to me. “He never would tell me who gave it to him. I had my suspicions it was connected to Fir Darrig, and I made the mistake of leaving him alone with it. I didn’t have a choice, really. You came home from school early that day. Your dad and I had agreed that you shouldn’t see me or any other faerie again until you were ready. We didn’t want to provoke any more of your power to surface. When I came back later that night, the whole damn place was up in flames.”
Zeph’s strong shoulders tensed up. His lips were pressed together like he was trying to keep his emotions from reaching the surface. He shut his eyes tightly and bowed his head before he continued. “I couldn’t save him. I was too late. I found you passed out in the hall. You had breathed in too much smoke. I carried you out so the firefighters would find you on the lawn, and I sat beside you until they arrived. Then I had to disappear.”
“It wasn’t your fault.” I put a hand on his back. “You did everything you could, right? But Dad wouldn’t listen? I don’t know who told you that you had to be everyone’s personal bodyguard, but that’s not true at all.”
He put his head on my shoulder and wrapped one of his arms around my waist. “How can you be so nice to me? I messed everything up. I ruined your whole damn life.”
I kissed his forehead. “Don’t be such a drama queen. It wasn’t your fault that I was born the vessel. My life would have been messed up regardless. Even if you’d never provoked him, Fir Darrig would have come for me anyway, right?”
He didn’t answer.
I jostled his shoulder a little, trying to get a response. “Right? Isn’t that why you confronted him in the first place?”
“Fine,” he grumbled. “Yes, you’re right.”
Leaning over, I rested my head on top of his. “Besides, the best parts of my messed-up life are the ones with you in it. I want those memories back. So as soon as this is over, that feather is toast.”
Zeph cleared his throat. “I should probably forewarn you about the makeup incident, then.”
“Makeup incident?”
“Uh, let’s just say you wanted to play princesses and William didn’t. You did the damn lip trembling thing so … I let you put makeup on me. Tiaras might have also been involved.”
I smiled. “Okay, I definitely want that memory back.”
He groaned. “Figures. Well, as long as there’s no repeat performances.”
I laughed, but heavy questions hung in my mind like boat anchors, keeping me tethered so that I couldn’t feel hopeful. Could we even hope to beat Fir Darrig? Just thinking about the consequences of our failure made my lungs constrict with panic. Zeph’s life hung in the balance. If he didn’t take me to Fir Darrig on the night of the Singing Moon, then he would die from his curse. That couldn’t happen. I could not lose this man.
That’s when I had an idea.
A bad, terrible, reckless, super dangerous idea.
“Sloppy.” Zeph leaned over me. “Start over.”
I seriously wanted to ram my pen into his forehead—especially since I knew it wouldn’t kill him. Instead, I crumpled up the piece of paper I was practicing my spell circles on and threw it at him.
“Yeah. That’s really mature.” He scoffed and turned around to drink milk straight out of the gallon.
“You’ve been at this for six hours. Perhaps she has earned a break?” Eldrick was peacefully sipping his seventh cup of coffee, flicking through the TV channels until he found a medical drama I was beginning to suspect he liked.
“No breaks.” I took out another piece of paper t
o start over yet again. “I can get this.”
Eldrick frowned over the rim of his mug. “That’s an extremely ancient and complex spell. It’s useless to keep trying if you’re already exhausted. You won’t make any progress that way.”
I slammed my hands down on the table. “No! We don’t have much time left. I have to memorize this perfectly! I can’t screw it up like I did with the focused blast!”
Zeph and Eldrick glanced at one another wordlessly. Abandoning his half empty gallon of milk, Zeph came over to sit down across from me. He put a hand on my arm. “You’re not gonna screw it up.”
“Yeah? And what if I do?” In the back of my mind, I knew Eldrick was right. If anything, I was getting worse. Fear jumbled all my thoughts. I couldn’t concentrate for more than a minute or two without starting to imagine all the things that would happen if I messed this spellwork up.
I stared down at my ink-speckled hands and the mountain of balled up papers spilling out of the garbage can next to me. Everyone was counting on me, and for our plan to work, I had to be able to do this on my own. And right now, my brain probably resembled an old raisin, all shriveled up from stress and worry.
“As you were, then.” Eldrick’s eyes never left the TV screen, but I could tell from his tone that he was up to something. “Say, wasn’t that school dance tonight?”
I flinched.
Zeph perked up. “What dance?”
No—no!
“Oh, what do they call it … these human words escape me,” Eldrick stalled.
I squeezed my pen so hard I thought it might crack in half.
Zeph hadn’t gone to school as Joe in a while, so he had no idea it was prom week. Of course, I’d still been going the extra mile to make sure he wouldn’t find out. Eldrick was supposed to keep it a secret—that jerk. He was selling me out!
“Prom?” Zeph guessed.
Eldrick smirked, his silver eyes twinkling with mischief. “Ah, yes. I believe that was it. I heard someone mention it just the other day when I walked her home from school.”
I could feel the heat of Zeph’s glare without looking up to see it. “Prom is tonight? And you didn’t say anything?”
I tried to sound blasé. “Must’ve slipped my mind. Too late now, though. I didn’t buy tickets.”
I could hear the wicked smirk in Eldrick’s voice without having to see it curl up his lips. “No, you didn’t. So I took the liberty.”
I ground my teeth, frantically trying to devise any excuse to get out of this. There was a faint, magical chime of bells before the pen in my hand morphed into a long, green snake. I screamed and threw it on the floor. “Ew! I hate snakes!”
“You,” he said, pointing at me. “Go get ready. Now.” He pointed at Eldrick and then held out his hand. “You, tickets. Now.”
Eldrick was still smirking as he took out his wallet and passed them over.
I glared at him. “We don’t have time for this. This is the last night before the Singing Moon and we can’t afford to waste one of our last nights—”
“Going on a date together?” Zeph finished for me.
My heart wrenched and I snapped my mouth shut. Of course I wanted to go out with him again. It didn’t even have to be to prom. But I was barely keeping it together as it was. Time was running out. I needed to practice—I had to get a grip on this.
“I don’t have anything to wear to a dance like that,” I muttered as I started digging through my backpack for another pen.
He stepped in and snatched my backpack away. “That’s too bad. Shoulda thought of that before you decided to get all sneaky on me. Now go, or I’ll turn your hair into snakes, too.”
“B-but seriously, Zeph, I don’t have any dresses like that. Please, let’s just forget about it,” I begged. “It’s not a big deal to me, I promise.”
He didn’t budge. In fact, he didn’t speak at all. He just pointed over my head, toward my bedroom, and scowled harder.
I wasn’t going to win this fight. I could tell by the furrow of his brow that Zeph already had his heels dug in. One way or another, I was going to the prom tonight.
“Fine.” I grumbled.
“Good. Meet me downstairs in two hours.”
“Two hours?” I gaped in horror. “That’s absurd!”
He arched an eyebrow, apparently unconvinced. “Two hours.”
I didn’t say anything else as I watched him leave for his own apartment. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to—there was plenty I wanted to yell at his back as he swaggered out my front door. But it wasn’t going to change anything.
People spent months getting ready for prom. I had two measly hours. I didn’t have a dress, my hair was a wreck, and my hands were splotched with blue ink from my pen. I was so tired I couldn’t think straight.
Basically, I was a hot mess, and it would take more than two hours to fix it.
I trudged back to my bedroom and began digging through my closet. I’d never had much reason to keep a lot of fancy, dressy clothes around. I never went on dates before Zeph came along. No boys my age ever gave me a second look thanks to my reputation as the schoolhouse nutcase. I didn’t know how to do super fancy things with my hair or makeup because my mother had never been around to teach me. I didn’t even own a pair of heels.
Pulling a plain, khaki, pencil skirt and one of my nicest sweaters from my closet, I laid them out on the bed, and went to take a bath. I couldn’t get all the ink off my hands no matter how I scrubbed. When I glimpsed my reflection in the foggy bathroom mirror, I shuddered at my own haunted appearance. There were dark circles under my eyes from not getting enough sleep.
My face burned with humiliation as I came back into the kitchen, dressed like I was going to visit a relative in the nursing home instead of my senior prom. I couldn’t even bring myself to look at the mirror hanging in the living room. I didn’t want to see what I looked like again if I could help it.
Eldrick was leaning in the kitchen doorway, holding a coffee mug as his silver eyes glanced me up and down. His dark, handsomely defined eyebrows knitted together like he didn’t approve.
“I hardly think that is appropriate evening attire,” he observed between sips of coffee.
“It’s all I have.” I was trying to keep up a cool front, but simply admitting that out loud made my throat feel tight and uncomfortable. I swallowed back the emotion and blinked the tears out of my eyes.
“Hmm.” Eldrick set his mug on the counter and walked over to stand right behind me. “I can’t reasonably allow any ward of mine to go to a ball looking like this.”
“You were the one who threw me under the bus, remember?” My chin trembled. “And it’s not a ball. It’s just a stupid dance.”
“I’m told there’s little difference between the two.”
Suddenly, Eldrick put his hands over my eyes. Everything went dark, and I could feel his presence standing very close behind me. His scent was complex, like a mixture of old books, rich coffee, and crisp eucalyptus.
“W-what are you doing?”
“Hush,” he scolded.
Chimes of magic whispered in the air, humming over my skin. It made my pulse race as I took in a shuddering breath.
Slowly, Eldrick took his hands away from my eyes.
My breath hitched. A beautiful silk gown the color of platinum hugged my body in all the right ways. It flared at the knees, and fit like a glove everywhere else. The bodice was encrusted with little sparkling bits that looked suspiciously like diamonds. There were black satin gloves on my arms, and a big, black diamond pendant hanging against my chest.
When I went to look in the living room mirror, I realized even my hair had been twisted into a fancy half-updo. There were matching black diamond studs in my ears. My makeup was perfect and my lips were an alluring shade of ruby red.
Eldrick’s reflection appeared in the mirror, standing behind me with his head tilted to the side. “This will do, I suppose.”
“It isn’t free, I can assure you. I’m not some godmother sweeping in to grant all your desires without any expectation of payment.” He grasped one of my hands and turned me around to face him. “I’m not that generous.”
I smiled. “Figures there’d be a catch. What do you want?”
He drew me in closer and put his other hand on my waist. I stiffened. My heart raced and my face started to feel hot.
“I will settle for a dance. The first dance, mind you. Be sure you make that imbecile downstairs aware of that fact.”
I smiled wider, and nodded.
As we danced in the living room, swaying slightly to a nonexistent melody, I laid my head against his shoulder. For someone who emanated an aura of darkness and cold bitterness, he was incredibly warm to the touch. To call him mysterious would have been the understatement of the century.
I didn’t know how to tell him how much he meant to me. I didn’t know if he cared about that, or if he even wanted to know. He had become family. I loved him. It wasn’t the same love I had for Zeph, but it was every bit as strong. Eldrick was the brother I’d never truly known, and the father who’d been taken from me too soon. He was my teacher, my protector, and my friend.
“Thank you,” I whispered as our dance slowly came to an end. I stood up on the toes of my black glass slippers and kissed his cheek.
Eldrick grasped my chin with his hand. Before I could pull away I felt the touch of his warm, firm lips as he kissed my forehead gently. “Enjoy yourself tonight.” His silver eyes lingered on mine as he slowly, reluctantly let me go.
“I’ll try.” With my hand on the doorknob, I paused and looked back. “Does this spell end at midnight, too?”
Eldrick stood with his hands deep in the pockets of his dress slacks. He was still staring at me, and there was something strangely sad in his expression. I didn’t quite understand it. “Of course not.”
Mad Magic Page 29