I squinted at the drying photograph in the red light of the darkroom, searching desperately to pick out some detail that I had missed before. I breathed shallowly through my mouth to avoid smelling the harsh chemical developer. These rolls of film had sat in the bottom of my camera bag for months. Now I looked at pictures of Mom’s store, Rose’s Garden, taken during the late October night that I broke in with my friends.
Back then, I had been looking for the spell that Mom used to enchant our whole family, and I took pictures in case I missed something. When I found the spell at home the next day, I’d forgotten about the undeveloped rolls of film. But since Mom had covered all of her tracks since her disappearance—clearing out her witchcraft tools in both the attic at home and all of her supplies in the magic shop, these were the only record that I had of her things in the last days before I broke her spell and drove her away.
Before September, losing Mom would have felt like the end of the world; by October, when I knew the truth, I wanted nothing more than for her to just disappear and leave me to live my own life. I still couldn’t understand why she decided to control even my thoughts and memories. That kind of magic was illegal because it was the ultimate invasion. I wanted to see her one more time, just so I could tell her how angry I was and demand an explanation.
I was free, but I had to rescue Akasha. My twelve-year-old sister hadn’t believed me when I told her about the spell, so she might have gone with Mom willingly back then, but I doubted that she was happy now, unless Mom was using more spells to keep her under control. Either way, she didn’t belong on the run with Mom.
The pictures showed mainly the back room of the store, because I’d let my friends search the front for me. A dusty cabinet full of sales records, dark glass jars full of dried herbs, and the soot-smudged dish where I’d burned the poppet spell she’d used to bind my own powers after I triggered an alarm while searching at home. The flash from my camera had outlined everything in stark contrast. But the pictures told me nothing that I didn’t already know: Mom had crafted spells for her clients in the store, but she never wrote down the details of her magic, let alone her connections to anyone else who she knew. Even the clients were identified only by their initials. The writing in the books was blurry and hard to read.
At last I found the photograph of her suppliers list. Ashleigh said some of the ingredients in the store were illegal, and there was a chance she had written the sources down, but the photograph only showed part of the list. I reached into my pocket and touched the memory charm—a bundle of dried herbs tied together with a ribbon—that Ashleigh had helped me make. Using the picture as a focus, I cast my mind back to that night.
New images rose before me: Heather picking the lock on the door, Kai sitting next to me in the car, the poppet made with my own hair bound in a chain. I pushed these aside and focused again on the filing cabinet and the records I’d found. I saw the notebook full of sketches of her garden, with all of the herbs laid out in particular places—a secret pattern that turned out to be the spell itself. I saw the binders full of purchase orders and heard myself say again, “You’d think it would be easier to keep all of this information on the computer or something.”
And then, in Mom’s ornate handwriting, I saw a recent purchase order jump out at me. “Fly Amanita Mushrooms from Angelica.”
Ashleigh and Heather had found a strange kind of mushroom hidden in the safe under the front counter of the store. I dug through my memories again, found the list of suppliers, and saw that Angelica had a store: Black Forrest Dreams in Cave City.
Before I could forget, I pulled out a little notebook from my pocket and scribbled down the address. It wasn’t much to go on. I crossed my fingers and hoped that it could lead to more.
When I left the photography classroom, I found Kai leaning against the wall outside. He wrapped both arms around me and for a long moment my whole world shrank down to the feel of his warm, soft lips on mine.
The creak of the door jolted me back to the present. I pulled back and glanced around to see if anyone was staring at us. We’d gone public with our relationship, but I still wasn’t comfortable putting it so much on display.
Kai frowned and put one arm around my waist. “What’s wrong? I missed you, Rosa.”
“It’s been less than two hours,” I snapped, harsher than I meant to. In our small junior class of only thirteen students, we had only one class apart, our electives on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Heather and I shared photography, while Kai worked on the school paper.
He backed off and I saw the hurt in his eyes. “Sorry that I like spending time with my girlfriend. Were you not able to find what you wanted?”
I smiled apologetically and held out my hand for his. “I’m sorry that I snapped. Yes, I found something, but let’s go somewhere else before I tell you, okay?”
Kai looked past me to Heather, who was just coming out of the classroom. “Hey, you going too?”
I gave him a warning look and shook my head slightly, but it was too late.
Heather smiled. “Going where?”
“Uh, no. I want some time with you alone,” I said quickly, batting my eyelashes at Kai.
At least Heather could take a hint. “Okay. I’ll go see if I can get a ride from Glen. See you later.” She walked away.
When she was out of earshot, I elbowed Kai in the ribs. “I want to keep this private for now. Hurry up and let’s go before the others start asking questions, too.”
He frowned. “Why not? They could help.”
I shook my head. “I haven’t told them yet that I’m taking over the search. Glen still wants me to let the hunters do their thing, but they aren’t getting anywhere. They think I made up stuff like the Unseelie symbol and the illegal spell ingredients, even though you guys all saw it, too.”
“Yeah, but going after the Unseelie on your own is dangerous.” Kai wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “This isn’t something you can do on your own.”
I nestled closer. “I’m the only one who’s gotten results so far. What if I can go places and get info that the official investigators can’t?” I could see his face starting to soften, so I leaned closer and flashed my sweetest smile. “Besides, I’ll have you there to watch out for me.”
“Hm.” He kissed me on the tip of my nose. “I still don’t like the idea of not telling our friends. If we run into a problem, we have to call them.”
I nodded. “Deal.”
We headed for the parking lot. I unlocked my broom from the bike rack and Kai put it into the back of his pick-up truck. He opened the passenger door for me and we both got in.
According to Crowther Private Academy’s rules, as a shape-shifting kitsune Kai had to stay in human form, but he often changed the moment he got the chance. Although we weren’t off school property yet, Kai shifted his form in the truck. He stayed the same height and build as a human, but he added fox features to create a hybrid form: his ears grew red and pointed, his whole body was covered in a pale white fur, and his face elongated into a fox’s snout. His long, bushy white tail stretched across the bench and tickled my leg with its red tip.
Was the rule fair? I didn’t really know why it was even an issue. Our small town, Madrone, was known for having more than its usual share of magikin—the blanket term for non-human people, like kitsune, dwarves, faeriekin and pookhas. And while most local teens drove half an hour to the public high school in San Andreas, the little Crowther was an alternative school for magikin and humans with an interest in magic from grades seven to twelve, so most of the seventy-plus students and teachers weren’t human. I was the only witch, but some of the humans were in the sorcery class and others took magitek shop. Of the magikin, most of them had no shape-shifting abilities, so the pookhas had their horse ears all of the time, the nagas always had snake tails, and the dwarves were shorter than everyone else. Yet Kai had to look human—although I had to admit, I liked him better that way. It was just too awkward to kiss a fox mouth.
When we finally made it out of the crowded parking lot, I pulled out my notebook with the address I’d written down. “This place sounds kind of shady.”
Kai glanced away from the road with a frown. “What do you mean?”
“Well, Heather and Ashleigh found these mushrooms in my mom’s store that they thought might have been illegal.” I held up the address. “I think I found the place that sold them to my mom. But since Ashleigh and Glen feel like they have to report everything so they don’t get in trouble—” I trailed off, looking out the window.
Kai grunted. “You’re afraid that if we do find an illegal mushroom trade, those goody two shoes will get them arrested, and then you won’t have a chance to get any information out of them.” He took one hand off of the wheel and patted my knee. “So we’ll go check it out on our own.”
I smiled. “Thanks for understanding.”
“Of course. Anything to help you track down your mom.”
I read him the address.
“Cave City, huh? I guess it figures that you’d buy mushrooms from a dwarf.”
Kai reached for the radio dial. “It’s going to be a bit of a drive, so how about some music?”
I said nothing as he put his favorite station on. Electronic pop music came out of the speakers, a repetitive song I’d already heard over a dozen times that week. I tried to ignore it.
Kai tapped the beat on the steering wheel. “So do you have any plans for this weekend?”
“Huh?” I glanced up from the notebook and took a moment to register what he’d said. “Oh, not really. I haven’t hung out with Heather for a while. Maybe I’ll see what she’s doing.”
“Oh, okay.” Kai sighed.
I put away my notes and looked at him. “Did you have something else in mind?”
His ears perked up. “Since you mentioned it, my moms haven’t met you yet. They asked me to invite you over for dinner this Saturday. You can invite your dad, too, if you want.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Since his split with Mom, Dad had put a lot of emphasis on giving me my freedom. He knew that I had a boyfriend, and he always said hello to Kai when he came to pick me up for dates, but otherwise the two of them had never had a real conversation. Getting over that hurdle while meeting Kai’s moms at the same time sounded like a long, awkward evening.
“Um, I guess I could see if he’s available,” I said noncommittally.
“Great! We’d love to treat you guys to a home-cooked meal.”
I looked out the window at the passing trees to hide my sadness. Back before the split, Mom cooked family dinners every night. But now that Dad and I were on our own, he worked later hours at the hospital, and we often ended up having take-out or frozen dinners without the time to cook. Even when we tried to make food ourselves, neither one of us was the experienced culinary genius that Mom had been. I guess I took for granted before just how much she did for the family.
As if he could sense how upset I was at the memory, Kai took his right hand off the wheel for a moment and reached over to squeeze my hand. I glanced at him and smiled back. I was lucky to have him and my friends supporting me through everything that I was going through because of Mom.
I didn’t want her back, not after what she’d done to us. But it was hard not to miss the way things had been before. I was a lot happier before I knew the truth about my family. Now it was broken, and I had to find a way to deal with my new life.
But first, I had to find my sister and bring her home safe. With Akasha, we had a chance of being a family again. I couldn’t rest as long as I knew she was still under my mom’s thrall.
Kai’s tail thumped on the bench beside me, startling me out of my reverie. “Hey, it’s our song!” He reached for the dial and turned up the radio on a very upbeat love song. He began to sing along. “Only youuuuu—!”
Cave City was named after the large system of caverns found in the area. The so-called city actually had two parts: above-ground it had a small human community, and underground in the caverns was an actual dwarven city. Unlike most other magikin, dwarves preferred to live apart from humans, so almost all of the local dwarf population lived there. A human like me and a kitsune like Kai wouldn’t be welcome visitors. Tours of the caverns’ natural rock formations were rare and usually took place only in the summer months, when the caves were dry.
Fortunately, Black Forrest Dreams was one of several dwarf-run businesses that had a shop just outside of the cave entrance for non-dwarf visitors. Out on Cave City Road between a souvenir shop and Esther’s German Bakery, the place was small, but it didn’t look like the kind of store that would give us a hard time.
Kai parked on the shoulder across the road and we crossed over to Black Forrest Dreams. Parts of it reminded me of Mom’s old store: crystals hanging in the windows, pentacles of protection painted above the windows and door. A metal bell rang and several beaded crystals jangled when we opened the door. There was a wild-haired, middle-aged dwarf woman who I hoped was Angelica perched on a tall stool behind the counter. She looked up from her logbook long enough to acknowledge us and then went back to writing.
Kai squeezed my hand and whispered in my ear, “How do you want to do this?”
“Just look around casually and let me handle it,” I murmured back.
The store was full of magical ingredients, some of which I recognized from my training, with an emphasis on those uncovered by dwarven mining efforts: crystals, semi-precious stones, roots, and dwarf-cultivated mushrooms. I also saw a shelf of dried herbs, almost all of which had my mom’s rose-motif label. This was definitely one of her business partners.
I picked over the mushroom display with interest, but of course every type was legal. I selected a few at random and carried them up to the counter.
The proprietor shoved aside her logbook and pulled out a receipt pad to write down my purchases. “Will this be all for you today?”
I leaned against the counter. “Actually, I was looking for one more thing. A more, ah, unusual mushroom.” I gave her a significant look. “I used to buy it from Rose’s Garden in Madrone, but they’ve gone out of business. I heard from a friend that you were their supplier.”
She put down the receipt pad and glared at me. “Look, witch,” she sneered. “I know who you are. I’m not going to let you turn me in to your friends in the Faeriekin Court just so they can punish someone after your mother gave them the slip.”
I took a step back from the counter in shock. “I didn’t mean any harm. I just want to find my mother. Please.”
The dwarf shook her head. She swept the mushrooms off of the counter and pointed to the door. “I don’t need your nose in my business. Get out, and take your nosy fox friend with you.”
I stepped back again, and bumped into Kai. He took my hand and opened the door. “Pardon our intrusion, ma’am,” he said.
I let him lead me back outside to the truck.
2
On The Run
Rosmerta
I fought the urge to touch Rosamunde’s image on the security monitor. She’d managed to track me all the way here, when none of the damn faeries had gotten anywhere near this place. I’d never seen her so focused before. My heart swelled with maternal pride even as I dreaded what must come next.
My baby girl. I wanted to rush into the front of the shop and take her in my arms. But she was here because she hated me, to hunt me down. And she had that cocky kitsune boy with her—was he the one she’d been so eager to date? I winced when he put his hand on her arm, guiding her out of the shop like he owned her. She was far, far too young to date anyone, but especially him. A kitsune would break her heart and leave her crying without a single look back, and I wasn’t there to help her through her first relationship.
“Rosmerta?” Angelica called to me from the front. “They’re gone now. I think I managed to scare them off.”
I went to the door of Angelica’s office and looked out through the front window just in time to see the
truck driving off. “We can’t guess that they won’t come back another time to snoop around. Somehow, they managed to break into my store through normal locks and my security spells. I have to move.”
Angelica took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Are you sure? I could take you to my sister Esther’s place next door. The bakery’s small, but she said she could squeeze you in for a few days. Let your daughter stage a break in, see that you’re not here, and when she’s gone you can move back.”
I shook my head. “Thank you, but no. That’s still too close. I don’t think Rosamunde’s capable of any serious tracking magic yet, but if she bring the hunters, they’ll sniff me out.” I reached over and touched her arm. “And I don’t want to risk getting you caught up in this. It’s been very kind of you to hide us for this long.”
She smiled up at me. “We’ve got to stick together.” Her smile faded, and I saw a new worry cross her face. “But where will you go? It’s dangerous for you to stay in the county. Someone’s bound to find you sooner or later.”
I looked back out the window. “This is my home, and everything I’ve built for myself and my family is here. If I run away from it now, there won’t be anyone I can turn to for help.”
Angelica began rummaging around in her desk for stationery supplies. “Maybe I can write her a better warning, just to be sure. The only question is, how do we deliver it?”
It took me a moment to figure out what she was suggesting, but then I smiled. Angelica always managed to come through when I needed her the most. “I know just the guy.”
If I was going to get out of Angelica’s building before anyone could come back and find us, we had to move quickly. I went upstairs and started pulling suitcases out of the closet.
My younger daughter, Akasha, put a finger in her book and sat up on the bed. “Why do we have to leave in such a hurry?”
Fae of Calaveras Trilogy Box Set Page 27
