The guard forces me to fly over to their headquarters. Pine flies over, as do several other guards.
“I found her flying about,” he says, squeezing my arm.
I wince. “I have a note, and—”
“We all knew that the notes would lead to another attempt!” he continues angrily.
“An attempt was made tonight,” I say. “I know not because I was going to set the fire but because I saw the perpetrator!”
“A likely story,” the guard snaps.
Pine holds up his hand. “Wait. Let’s hear what she has to say.”
“Thank you,” I gush.
But the guard holding my arm shakes his head and laughs bitterly. “Why should we listen to you? We all know you’re smitten with one of the students. This one her?”
“No,” Pine says.
“Full disclosure, I’m friends with her,” I say.
“See? He can’t be trusted, and neither can she!”
“I just told you so that you would trust me!” I shout. “You have to believe me! I saw Spring. She’s the arsonist. I followed her inside the mini mansion where the professors lived. She went into the basement, and she had papers and a lighter.”
“No papers or lighter were found on the scene,” the guard spits out.
“Because she took them with her! I scared her off and—”
“A likely story. I think we need to bind her up and—”
“Wait! I can prove it!”
“How?” Pine asks quickly.
“There will be white dust on the floor. Fairy dust. There was fairy dust where Orchid’s talisman had been. Some of the other victims recalled seeing dust where their items had been taken. You have to believe me. The arsonist and the thief are the same person, and that person is Spring! She’s a third year with green hair, and she lives—”
“With your twin,” another guard says.
My eyes widen.
This guard marches forward. He has short brown hair and deep lines around the corners of his mouth. “You’re Rosemary Suncloud, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I say slowly, wondering how he knows so much about me.
“Your sister has come up as a person of interest in all of this.”
I gasp. “No, she’s not involved—”
“Of course you would say that,” the guard holding me snaps. He squeezes my arm even tighter.
I close my eyes and do my best not to show any sign of weakness despite the pain.
“Unhand her,” the guard who knows my name demands.
“Yes, Inspector Cedar.” The guard releases me.
Pine clears his throat. “She is right about one thing. I interviewed the victims of the thefts. Most of them did notice a white powder, but none of them could confirm that the powder was fairy dust. I don’t believe any of them would recognize fairy dust immediately.”
The inspector nods slowly. “You did report that to me earlier,” he says. “And why did you ask them about that?”
“An anonymous tip.” Pine swallows hard.
Inspector Cedar eyes me and lifts his eyebrows.
“Not me.”
“It wasn’t her,” Pine says.
“Well, not directly,” I mumble.
Pine winces. “Wren told me.”
The inspector huffs. Clearly he knows about Pine and Wren. Great. He’s not going to give the guard any credit for that, but the information is sound.
“Do you have any proof at all that this Spring is responsible?” the inspector asks me.
“I saw her,” I explain. “And there’s the dust she left behind where she had been standing in the basement.”
Inspector Cedar nods to Pine, who flies off, I’m assuming, to see if the dust is still there.
“Unfortunately,” the inspector says, “your word isn’t good enough.”
“I’ll undergo any kind of magical spell,” I say in a rush. “I’ll open my mind, and then you can see—”
“Memories can be falsified,” the inspector says.
I gape at him. “Are you serious?”
“I’ve witnessed it before. It’s a terrible thing, the lengths some will go to avoid being sent to Dark Fae Penitentiary. If the dust is there, then we will go and talk to Spring, but—”
“She’ll deny it, and there’s no way she still has the stolen goods here on campus, so she’ll get away with it. She’s gone this long without trying to set another building on fire. She’ll wait and bid her time, or maybe she won’t even bother to commit arson again here. Maybe she’ll wait until after she graduates.” I shake my head. My faith in them has always been a bit on the short side. Now, my faith is completely tarnished.
“You’re welcome to stay until we learn about the dust,” the inspector says, “or you can be escorted to your dorm.”
“I don’t need—”
“Acorn!” the inspector calls.
Another guard flies over. He’s a bit older, with a bald head and gray eyebrows.
“Please escort Rosemary to her dorm.”
“Right away.”
I grumble under my breath as Acorn flies beside me. He tells me all kinds of stories about this and that and the other thing, but I don’t listen. I don’t even pretend to listen. I just fly through the open window and wait for him to fly away.
He doesn’t.
Of course not.
Immediately, my friends rush up to me.
“What happened?”
“Why is there a guard outside our window?”
“Why are you shaking?”
I calmly wave to the guard and shut the window. I don’t close the curtain, though, but I do turn my back to him.
“I learned who the thief and the arsonist is,” I say, “but the guards want proof. My word isn’t good enough.”
“Who is it?” Wren cries.
“Spring.”
Delia tilts her head to the side. “Isn’t she friends with your sister?”
I nod. “Do you want to know the worst part? She was going to set fire to the building where the professors live.”
“That’s insane!” Wren shouts.
“Hush!”
Wren begins to pace while flying above our heads. “First, she sets a dorm on fire when no one is supposed to be there. I was, granted, but she didn’t know that. Then, she sets fire to a school building where she knows students will be. And now this? What is she thinking?”
“She’s not thinking. She’s high on fairy dust.”
“It really should be made illegal,” Delia murmurs.
“Yes, but I don’t know, and I don’t know if any of you know, but it should be harder to do magic while high, right?” I ask.
“I would think so,” Wren says.
My mind races. Does that mean someone else is helping Spring? Or is she really that powerful of a fairy?
Orchid’s been quiet all this time, her head down. Slowly, she lifts her head.
“Wren, Delia, we need your help,” she says softly. “We opened our room to you. Please, stay here and make sure that guard stays here too.”
“Why?” Wren asks, but Delia’s already nodding.
“Why doesn’t matter,” Delia says.
“Can’t a fairy be curious?” Wren complains.
“They want proof,” I murmur.
“We’re going to go get it,” Orchid continues.
I grin at my first friend here at Light Fae Academy. Hand-in-hand, we fly out of the room to the hallway and out a window in the back. We have to fly down low to avoid any of the guards seeing us, but it doesn’t take us all that long to arrive at the cottage.
Only, they are guards there already, talking to Bracken, Cosmo, and Thistle.
“Now what?” Orchid whispers.
My mind races. “Back to the guards’ headquarters.”
“Why?”
“She won’t be going after the professors again. That place will be watched. She’s growing bolder with each attempt.”
“She might be targeting our d
orm,” Orchid counters.
“But there’s a guard—”
“One old guard versus how many at their headquarters?” she argues.
“Fine. You go back to our dorm and make sure she’s not on the first floor or in the basement if there is one. I’ll check out the headquarters.”
“Be safe,” Orchid says.
“You too.”
“I will be, but I’m not the one people are hailing as a hero. Don’t let that go to your head. If she is there, get the guards to help you, okay?”
“Sure,” I say quickly.
“Promise me.”
A fairy’s promise is just like a vow.
And that’s a promise I can’t afford to make. If there’s no time to get the guards, I will go after Spring alone.
So I say nothing, give Orchid a hug, and fly off into the dying night.
Chapter 29
My heart is racing. It takes everything in me to continue flying. I’m sure I’m right, that Spring will be there. What I’m not sure of is if I’ll be there in time to stop her.
I don’t have a choice, though.
I’m startled by the lack of guards that I can see inside the headquarters. Quietly and quickly, I fly around to the back of the building until I find a window that doesn’t reveal any of the guards inside.
As I approach it, however, I spy another window that’s right up against the ground. A window for the basement.
I check the window. It’s loose. Because someone beat me here?
My heart is pounding even harder now, loud enough that I can hear blood rushing through my veins. I swallow hard as I inch the window open. It’s a tight fit to make my way inside, but I manage.
The basement is dark, nearly pitch-black, but then, without warning, there’s a light.
A spark.
“Spring!” I call out boldly.
She whirls around. “Bay, what are you—Oh. You’re the other one.” Spring sniffs. Her eyes look even more haunted in the fiery illumination from the lighter in her hand.
“Spring, stop this. There’s no reason for you to—”
“For me to what?” she snaps. “I never wanted to come here. My parents should never have sent me here. There’s no light within me.”
“There’s light within—”
“Don’t start that crap with me.” She spits out the words with venom and spite. “Not everyone is good and pure and innocent.” Her lips curl into a nasty smile. “Not even you, so it seems.”
Spring holds up the papers.
Before I can even think about what I’m doing, I blast her with my wind.
In the flickering flames of the lighter, the swirl of the wind is visible, and the gust blows right into Spring. It almost seems like slow motion as she jerks backward, the papers flying out of her hands, the lighter falling to the floor.
But wind spreads fire, so I have no choice but to let the fire go.
As soon as I do, Spring recovers. The lighter crashes to the ground and snaps shut, descending us into darkness.
But the night is over. The sun is rising, and natural light is starting to enter the room. My eyes adjust to see the whites of Spring's eyes seconds before she plows right into my mid-section, ironically knocking the wind out of me.
Her eyes are crazed as she winds her arm back.
Seriously? She’s a fae. A dark one apparently. Why is she going to punch and attack me like a human?
I wait for her to commit to the punch and then fly so hard that she has no choice but to hold onto me. With both hands directed at her head, I blast her with wind. Her eyes roll back in her head, and she starts to fall. I catch her and begin to shriek as she convulses in my arms.
“Help! Someone, please, help!” I call out over and over again, sinking to the ground, sitting, cradling her head in my lap. Her body won’t stop shaking uncontrollably.
Did my wind do this? Am I to blame? What’s happening to her?
Tears stream down my face as the guards enter the room. A dull ringing in my ears combined with a rushing sound makes it almost impossible to make out what they’re saying, but gradually, I realize that they are talking about how she’s reacting badly to the fairy dust, how it’s causing a seizure. They take her from me, and I follow them up to the main portion of their headquarters. A healer is called for, and several come, and they start to work on her even as Inspector Cedar arrives and places cuffs on her wrists and ankles.
“Is that necessary?” one of the healers asks, scandalized.
“Considering she was about to set this building on fire, yes, I do believe this is both necessary and warranted,” he says.
The healers exchange a look before one approaches me. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Maybe bruised a little, but…” I shrug.
Another comes up to the inspector. “I’ve magically examined the fairy dust. It’s a fairly potent kind, one that greatly increases one’s strength—physically and emotionally. One’s mental state, their senses, all of it is heightened.”
“I didn’t think fairies under the influence of fairy dust can use magic,” the inspector says.
“No, she should not be able to use magic right now, not until the fairy dust is out of her system.”
“She won’t be able to even then, not with those cuffs on her,” the inspector states.
“Does it cause darkness?” I blurt out.
The healer eyes me and glances at the inspector, who nods. “That I don’t know,” she says slowly, “but I am not an expert by any means on this substance.”
“We can look into that, but…” Inspector Cedar shakes his head. “Given her track record at her previous academy—”
“Her previous academy?” I ask.
“She did for her first year. She had been expelled.”
“On what grounds?”
“I’m afraid I do not feel that you should have such information,” he says firmly. “We thank you for everything you’ve done. You are free to go.”
I cross my arms, wanting to argue, when Spring moans. She’s not seizing anymore, and her lips part, moving a few times before she utters, “Bay? Bay? Please, I want more dust. You have—You have to give it to me! I’ll get—I’ll get you the money. I will. I’ll sell—I’ll sell…” Her eyes close, and she appears to be sleeping.
The inspector glares at me.
“I don’t keep track of my sister’s wings,” I say, holding up my hands.
“Do you know if she is dealing fairy dust?”
I hesitate. “You said I should go.”
“Rosemary, I can charge you with obstruction of an investigation.”
“That’s a fine prize for solving the case,” I mutter.
“Stay here,” he instructs me and then orders another fairy to bring in Bay. She must have already been answering questions for another guard because she and two guards arrive within minutes.
Her gaze falls on Spring’s sleeping form, and her eyes widen ever so slightly when she notices the shackles.
The inspector follows her gaze and then glowers at her sternly. “Bay, based on what Spring tells us, you supplied her with fairy dust. Is this true?”
Bay says nothing.
“Did you sell Spring and other students fairy dust?” he persists.
“Fairy dust doesn’t—”
“Fairy dust is not permitted on campus grounds.”
Bay eyes me and smirks. “Check my body. Check my room. Check all of my belongings. I have no dust in my possession.”
“Because you sold it all already?” he challenges.
“You have no proof,” she says sweetly.
“What Spring told us—”
“Fairy dust can cause hallucinations if taken too much, can’t it?” Bay asks, her tone still just as sweet. “Isn’t it possible that she wasn’t of sound mind and wing when she told you whatever it is that she said?”
The inspector’s frown deepens the lines around his mouth until they’re carved as if by daggers. “We
know that her magic has been suppressed, so for her to dismantle the protection spells in order to start fires suggests that she has an accomplice.”
“It seems to suggest that, yes,” Bay agrees.
“Do you confess?”
“No.”
“You claim you have had no part in any of this?”
“None whatsoever,” she says confidently.
I roll my eyes. The inspector is asking questions that are far too broad. Bay can easily manipulate the truth without lying.
“Bay, have you ever sold fairy dust?”
“No.”
“Bartered? Traded goods for it?”
She stares him down but doesn’t answer.
“Did you accept stolen goods—”
“I might be able to recover some of the stolen goods,” Bay ventures. “Give me a few days.”
His eyes narrow. “So you knew that Spring stole them and you did not inform us?”
“I suspected,” Bay says, “but without proof, I did not want to waste your time.”
The inspector eyes me and harrumphs. “One who offers intel without any proof and one who waits too long because of lacking proof. You two are quite the pair.”
“We are twins after all,” I say with a slight grin.
“Yes indeed,” he grumbles. “Bay, recover the goods if you can, but know this. We will be keeping a close eye on you.”
“She’s allowed to leave the campus grounds?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Does this mean the lockdown is lifted?” I press.
“I cannot give the final decree on that. The headmaster will decide.”
And Headmaster Caliphe does decide that. The announcement comes not two hours later. Cheers erupt around me and then a second chorus rings out as she shuts down the school for the day so that we can go visit family or friends for the first time in what feels like a lifetime.
Maybe now, life can start to get back to normal.
Chapter 30
Let’s just say that Mom and Dad are not the happiest about the way our first year has started. Not at all.
Bay somehow managed to locate the stolen goods and bring them back before the headmaster’s announcement, which means we fly home together.
Light Fae Academy: Year One Page 14
