Or, more accurately, I faded away.
This wasn’t the twisting chaos of Thatch’s or Vega’s Celestor transportation spells. It was smooth by comparison. Fae magic.
The world around me disappeared, another scene overlaid on top of it. Sound returned, classical music, growing louder. Far below where I stood on a balcony, a ballerina on a stage danced. A wave of vertigo washed over me. I wobbled uncertainly, feeling like I might make an ungraceful swan dive over the banister of the balcony and onto the stage next to her. Someone tugged me backward, and I landed in a chair.
“I heard you’ve never been to a performance in the Unseen Realm,” Elric said.
I found him seated beside me, dressed in an eclectic mixture of attire. His long brocade jacket reminded me of the foppish Baroque decadence of the seventeen hundreds, out of place with his pink-and-white pinstriped breeches, plaid vest, Victorian shirt, and cravat. His fashion sense was all kinds of confusing, and yet it worked for him.
“Um, hi,” I said.
He smiled merrily. “Good evening, Miss Lawrence. I do apologize for interrupting you like this, but this meeting is long overdue.” He spoke over the orchestral music coming from below, loud enough to be rude.
I could vaguely make out other shapes of people seated below and more in other balcony seats.
I kept my voice low. “Vega told me not to talk to you unless she was present.”
“No need to whisper. My private booth is soundproof, only music can travel through the barrier. It’s a handy enchantment.” He patted my hand amiably. “Miss Bloodmire will be along shortly. She insisted on changing. She doesn’t like to arrive anywhere underdressed.”
He settled back in his chair, his gaze drifting to the stage. “This is the theater where I met Deborah, my late wife.”
“Oh,” I said.
“I must confess I wonder if it was a mistake coming here, using this as a middle ground.” He waved a hand at the auditorium around us.
“We could just as easily have met in Lachlan Falls or at the school. Even that dance club,” I said.
“Not for this meeting. It was my intention to show you where the auction and performances are to be held. I mean for this to serve as our grange hall. It was what Jeb and I agreed upon. There is a stage, plenty of room for an audience, a large lobby that will be sufficient for displaying art, and room for catered tables of organic Witchkin food.”
This wasn’t a grange. It was a concert hall. It must have been expensive to rent.
Elric’s gaze drifted back to the stage.
The ballerina on the stage was dressed in white feathers and plumage. Her movements reminded me of a bird in flight. She was so graceful it didn’t look as though her feet touched the stage. It took me a few more seconds to realize her feet didn’t touch the stage. When the flock of swans descended from the rafters, slowly transforming from birds to dancers on their way down, I gasped in surprise.
This was Swan Lake, but it was also magic.
Elric gazed across the theater at another box. “The entertainment industry is a highly overlooked profession in the Unseen Realm and the Faerie Realm. Even members of the Raven Court like to get out and enjoy beauty every now and then.”
I followed his gaze. In a box closer to the left of the stage, I was able to make out several figures wearing black.
“Is that the Raven Queen?” I asked. “You brought me somewhere she might snatch me?”
“I would never put you in harm’s way.” Elric handed me a pair of opera glasses. “See for yourself.”
These were no ordinary opera glasses. It was like the zoom button on a computer giving me perfect vision. A young woman clad in frills of feathers sat in a seat, her back upright with perfect posture. She didn’t wear a crown, but she had long black hair and pale skin. She was surrounded by attendants. Or I suspected they might be attendants. Some stood in the back. They wore less elegant clothes.
The woman’s eyes met mine. It was Odette, Thatch’s sister.
I hurriedly handed the glasses to Elric, embarrassed to be caught looking at her. She was now just a shadowy figure in the theater that I could pretend wasn’t there.
“The important thing is that people will see you with me in public, and they will talk. Not all rumors will ruin you. Some will lend you power.” He took my hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed it.
I wanted to pull away, but I recognized his gesture of affection was a calculated move to show me off to Odette, not necessarily a statement of love. He was making a statement to the Raven Queen.
A square of light shone into the box, and I turned, finding Vega dressed in a glittering gown that flowed to her ankles. One side was slit high enough to allow her to walk freely. On her head she wore a sparkly headband with a large flower made of gems. Her glamourous attire looked more like what a nightclub singer would wear than a dancer.
I looked down at my striped leggings and school clothes. I felt self-conscious and underdressed among all these glamorous people.
Vega seated herself on Elric’s other side. He greeted her.
“I trust Clarissa hasn’t opened her big mouth and said anything stupid.” Vega cast an annoyed look my way, eyebrow raised. “Like agreed to hand her soul over to you on a silver platter.”
“Not her soul. Yours,” Elric said with a wink.
She lifted her nose, but a smile played across her lips. “Very funny.”
“Shall we discuss business or pleasure first?” Elric asked.
Vega batted her eyes lashes at him. “Must they be separated?”
He laughed and shook his head. “Miss Bloodmire, you would entertain any Fae with your wit. I mustn’t allow you to distract me from my duties.”
“Me? Would I do such a thing?” Vega reached across Elric and poked me in the knee. A smile stretched across her lips. “Try to look like you enjoy being in the company of a Fae prince.”
Their banter looked playful, not full of tension and double entendres. I hated being caught in a game of cat and mouse. I smiled, my face feeling stiff. Elric hooked a finger under the chain of the amulet, untucking it from under my collar so that it could be seen by all.
Elric touched a finger to Vega’s nose. “You’ve been keeping Miss Lawrence all to yourself, haven’t you? You didn’t want her to strike any bargains with me that didn’t benefit you as well. Am I correct?”
“I see you’ve got me all figured out.”
I kept smiling, trying not to look at the box across from ours.
Elric took my hand again. “Are you ready to commit yourself to my house?”
Vega snapped her fan against his arm. “Not a chance. And don’t you dare touch her again. I know what you’re doing to her magic when you do that.” Her smile widened. “Besides, I’m your date. You’ll make me jealous.”
A hint of worry leaked through his façade as he looked to me. “Miss Bloodmire knows how your magic works?”
I spoke through my smile. “I can’t keep a secret from Vega. It would have been way easier to do so if you hadn’t asked her to spy on me.”
He cleared his throat. “I see.”
“Here’s the way it’s going to work,” Vega said. “Clarissa will ally herself with your court. You will provide her complete amnesty and protection from other courts so that she can live her life in peace and be able to do as she pleases with relative autonomy. In exchange for granting her this privilege, she will help you produce an heir within a reasonable time frame that you both agree upon. Is this to your satisfaction?”
“Indeed. And what do you want out of this for your . . . assistance?” He said the word doubtfully, as though he wasn’t sure she had done anything.
Only I knew what she had become, proving the Fae Fertility Paradox could be solved and that I didn’t have to be the one to give him an heir. At least, I hoped creating Red affinities would solve this problem.
“You will give me the same amnesty and protecti
on you give to Clarissa. You need her for her lineage with Alouette Loraline because it will cause uncertainty and fear amongst Fae. They will want to align themselves with you rather than against you because they will think you have a powerful and unstoppable Witchkin on your side . . . which is true. You’ll have me.”
Elric laughed. “You can’t be serious. I understand you’re highly skilled, and very powerful for a Celestor, but you aren’t. . . .” He cleared his throat, his smile sheepish. “I don’t know how to tell you this, Miss Bloodmire, but you aren’t anything special.” He coughed. “I will concede you are beautiful and skilled and cunning—but not enough so to keep up with a Fae. You have nothing of interest to offer. Not like Clarissa does.”
He was wrong about that.
I expected Vega to leap forward and claw his eyeballs out. Instead, she leaned in closer, her Cheshire cat smile in place. “Don’t underestimate me.”
Then Vega did the unthinkable. She slipped a hand over his knee, across his thigh and between his legs. She didn’t go quite as far as his groin. I glanced at the other boxes, praying they weren’t watching. Elric shook his head and laughed. He placed his hand on hers to stop her before she went any farther.
She sent a jolt of electricity into him, a pink arc of light flashing in his lap. He shot out of his seat, screaming. His pink-and-white pinstriped pants caught fire.
I jumped back. His guards poured in through the doors. Someone doused him with water, getting the front of my shirt wet as well.
Elric cursed, some in English, some in another language I’d never heard him speak before.
Vega tugged me out of the way as Elric’s guards crowded around him. The commotion in our box drew the attention of other Fae in their booths.
“Send over that contract when it’s ready,” Vega said. “If I find it to my liking, I’ll allow Clarissa to sign it. Toodles.”
She dragged me out the door after her.
“Why did you have to do that?” I asked. “That wasn’t very nice.”
It was worse than a condom covered in nonorganic lubricant. I doubted he would ever be able to have children now.
“I had to show him who was boss. Not him. Me.” She jabbed a finger at me. “And don’t you forget it either.”
Two days later, our contracts arrived, requiring us to sign them in blood. Vega thought it was flawlessly worded, without hidden agenda, but I asked her if we could get a second opinion.
“Certainly.” She smiled sweetly. “Who else do we know who excels in treachery and dealing with Fae? Who do you not mind knowing about your secrets? How about Felix Thatch?”
I shook my head at her.
“No? I didn’t think so.”
I suggested Gertrude Periwinkle. She had come in handy the last time a Fae had wanted to steal me away. She looked over the contracts and declared them to be sound.
“Now do you feel better? Or should we ask Khaba too?” Vega asked. “How about that blabbermouth you call a friend? Let’s just tell the entire school while we’re at it.”
I rolled my eyes.
“You’re going to have to start trusting me, whether you want to or not,” Vega said. “I’m the person who is going to get you through that All Hallows’ Eve Open House and everything that comes after, for better or for worse.”
For better or for worse sounded like a marriage. An unhappy marriage. I didn’t trust anyone anymore. Especially not Vega.
I prayed this bargain wouldn’t be for worse.
The concert hall was located in the Unseen Realm beyond the village of Lachlan Falls. I had never been to a Witchkin city, only farmland, an estate, and a village. I hadn’t even known there were cities.
It would have been easier to transport the students if there had been buses. Instead, we took carriages. Each was chaperoned by a teacher. In total it took ten carriages, all provided by Elric, each carrying four or five students, a teacher, and luggage of instruments and costumes heaped on top. Sixteen students were musicians, the rest dancers and performers of other sorts. Elric had wanted to invite student artists whose paintings and sculptures would be on display, but Jeb had put his foot down at that.
Half our staff would be at the celebration in the concert hall off campus, the other half would be watching the majority of the students at the school. Students stayed with their assigned teachers. Imani was in my group. The five students I chaperoned were all female dancers and would help me set up the art before the show.
The other teachers on the field trip included Pro Ro, Thatch, Vega, Josie, Jasper Jang, Jeb, Jackie Frost, and Coach Kutchi. They’d sent the strongest Celestors as well as the teachers who had student projects to set up and show off, or teachers who needed to direct the performances.
It seemed dangerous to leave the school itself so vulnerable, but Khaba was there with six teachers and other staff. Pinky had already shown he was talented enough with glamour that he could give the illusion that our school was more protected than it actually was.
Our carriages passed farmland and entered a dirty city that reminded me of Victorian London, with cobblestone roads and street urchins watching from the shadows of alleys. Black smoke rose from chimneys, and we passed through fetid patches that smelled like urine. Witchkin who resembled the beautiful creatures of mythology traveled along the streets in groups. The people in the city were just as diverse as my students: satyrs, elves, and furies who wore a mishmash of clothes from various eras. I watched the sights around us with as much curiosity as my students. I would have loved to stop at the shops advertising cures for common curses, a boutique of edible music, and guillotines for business and pleasure, but I had a school function to attend.
The moment my group of girls and I walked into the lobby of the concert hall carrying the boxes of art, I found Elric directing male servants in their simple but elegant livery. Jeb leaned on his staff next to Elric, looking haggard. I wondered how old Jeb was. It seemed like he should have retired by now.
Many of the servants sported pointed ears or minor features that set them apart from humans, but they were noticeably less beautiful and glittering than Elric or the guards that flanked him. I guessed the servants were Witchkin, not Fae.
Elric lifted his hand, I thought to greet me and my group of students. Instead he pointed to a portrait of a woman two men were hanging on the wall. “What is this painting doing here?”
He loped off in that direction. The servants mumbled something in response, shrugging. Elric turned to one of his guards. “How did this painting of Deborah get here?”
That was his latest late wife, the dancer he was always talking about? She was beautiful, not that I would have expected anything less from the wife of a fairy prince. The artist had painted her in the realistic style of the era. She sat on a settee, layers of fabric draped around her in a late Edwardian style. Her hair was black and her skin dark. In my mind I had always imagined a woman named Deborah in that era to have the facial features of someone Hebrew, and it was possible she might have, but this woman looked more of African descent.
Imani grabbed my arm. “That was his wife?” she asked. “She was black?”
“That’s what it looks like.” I remembered when I’d seen Dox Woodruff’s corpse. I had known he had mixed ancestry and wondered if that had been one of his fiancée’s parents’ objections to their marriage. I suspected the racism of the era extended into the Witchkin and Faerie Realm just as rampantly as it did in the Morty Realm. Vega had assured me the objection was the Fae lineage, not racial.
Imani stared at the painting in wonder. “She was beautiful.”
Elric spoke more loudly this time, looking flustered. “Will someone please tell me how this painting came to be here?”
The captain of the guard, dressed in his silver chain mail of feathers, stepped forward. “I assume the mistress of the house selected it with these other pieces, Your Highness.”
Elric’s face flushed pink. “That sneaky viper
! When I asked Quenylda to clean the house of items she didn’t want, she knew full well this wasn’t hers to give.”
The guard bowed his head. “I’m sorry you are displeased. I assure you, your staff had nothing to do with the matter.”
“Indeed.” Elric heaved the painting from the wall and handed it back to a servant. The frame was so thick and heavy, it took two men to carry it off.
Elric flashed a chagrinned smile at Jeb. “Sorry about this. I’ll pay for this mistake later. In more ways than one.” He laughed airily.
“Clarissa!” Someone snapped her fingers at me.
I looked away from Elric to find Vega standing there, hands on her hips. “Are you going to stand there all day or hang up some art? Get your—” She looked as though she was making an effort to gain control of her potty mouth. “Get yourself over to Exhibit Hall A and set up the art. These students have an hour before dress rehearsal.”
So began the next few frantic hours of set-up and chaperoning.
Things went fairly smoothly considering the circumstances. Only one student vomited from nervousness. Naturally it was one of my charges, Missy, a freshman I had met on the day of the meteor shower.
“I’m so sorry,” she cried.
“It’s okay, honey. There’s a cleaning spell we can use for that,” I said.
I was supposed to be hiding my magic, so I made students use the spell. Lemony fragrance masked the odor of puke. Mostly masked.
All the student art was hung and auction items set up in time. Elric provided an early catered dinner for students, though I suggested they eat small portions before the show and save the rest for later. Vega and Pro Ro were extremely thorough checking for poison and Fae substances that might bind us to the realm.
Elric gave a speech at the beginning of the show as the event’s patron, followed by one Jeb bumbled through. It was embarrassing to see him speak after Elric’s eloquence.
I got to watch the performances in the seats of the auditorium during the rehearsal. It was amazing to see the dancing and acrobatics, even with minimal magic. The first performance was Morris dancing, students using staffs in a display of choreographed dance fighting. Jackie Frost’s students used Elementia magic to change the costumes into fire or snowflakes.
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