Kai squeezed my hand under the table, and when I looked over, he was grinning, too. He’d been teased for having two moms—but bullying never got very far in our private school.
I glanced over at Zil to see her reaction, but she had her head down over her notebook. Was she embarrassed that she spoke up at all? As a girl who wore pants and didn’t have a boyfriend, she’d been called names before, but I didn’t know what she actually identified as. I felt bad for her, but I didn’t know her well enough to talk to her about it.
During lunch, Glen, Ashleigh, and Heather surrounded me in the school dining hall and pulled me over to a table in the corner where we could talk privately.
Ashleigh barely gave me a chance to set down my tray before she grabbed both of my hands. “Kai said that you got a lead yesterday. Why haven’t you told us yet?”
I looked at Kai, who was putting on his best innocent face. “I, uh, wasn’t sure that it was a big deal I should bother you over.” I shrugged, trying to look casual. “I just found the name of one of my mom’s old suppliers when I went over the photos from her store.”
Ashleigh squeezed my hands and shook her head. “So you drove all the way out there without telling us? What did you find out?”
“Nothing.” I sighed and looked down at the floor. “The owner knew who I was and she told me to go away. She said that I would turn her in to the Court just like my mom.”
Ashleigh made a humming noise in the back of her throat and patted me sympathetically. “What made you think that she knew anything?”
I gritted my teeth together and shot Kai another look, a glare this time. This was why I didn’t want to tell them about it. “It’s the store that sold my mom the illegal mushrooms, the ones you found in her safe.”
Heather let out a low whistle. “Those were poisonous. Whoever sold them to her was probably very dangerous.”
Glen leaned back with a loud, creaking complaint from his chair. “What’s the name of the store? We could arrest the owner and bring her in for questioning, offer her a deal in return for information on Rosmerta’s whereabouts.”
“No!” I yanked away from Ashleigh. “Why would intimidation get anything out of people? It’s not like your hunters have found anything useful by now.”
Ashleigh looked hurt. “We’re just trying to help you.”
Heather cleared her throat. “Rosa’s right, though. These people aren’t just going to tell you anything if you try to force it out of them. If you go after the little fish, then the big fish will just hide.”
Glen’s head snapped around to stare at Heather. “What do you know about it?”
She blushed and looked down. “Nothing, I just moved here. I don’t know anyone. But in, uh, places that I used to live—” She broke off and turned away.
I sat up straight. “No, actually, maybe you could help. You were the one who recognized the Unseelie symbol when we found it in Byrnes Camp.”
I wasn’t prepared for the immediate reaction I got for naming the ghost town. Heather went pale and hid her face in her hands. Ashleigh gasped and grabbed one of my arms. Glen practically lunged at me from across the table and gripped my other arm.
“Why did you go there?” Glen said in a strained tone.
“My—my mom used to take me there.” I got one arm free from Ashleigh and used that hand to try to pry Glen off of me. “You’re hurting me.”
Glen flinched and loosened his grip, but he didn’t let me go. “Did Rosmerta take Heather there, too? What did she say about it? Where was the symbol?”
Kai frowned and put his hand on Glen’s shoulder. “Hey, let her go.”
Glen turned and looked down at Kai, and for a moment I was very aware of just how big and powerful the faeriekin knight was compared to the two of us. Kai was the same size as me—only five-foot-four, and even skinnier. Glen was over six feet tall and although he was lean, muscles stood out on his arms from long hours of sword practice.
Then Glen let go and sat back down, folding his arms close against his chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, Rosa.”
I looked down and rubbed my arms. Even through my thick sweater, his fingers had dug into me. I stared at Glen, more confused than anything. I’d never seen him react violently.
Ashleigh put her hand on his knee and bit her lip. No one else moved.
Finally, Heather cleared her throat again and began to talk. “It was right after I met Rosa. I asked her to show me around, to find something exciting. She took me to the ghost town. After we found the symbols and the note, we realized that the local Unseelie must be using it to pass messages in secret.”
Glen shook his head. “There are no local Unseelie. What you saw must have been old, from before the town was destroyed. Rosa’s mom probably just copied the symbol from there for her own reasons, maybe the shock value. It’s not connected to her disappearance.”
I gripped the table. “Of course it’s connected. That’s why you can’t find her. The Unseelie are helping her.”
Glen sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “I told you, they’re all gone—”
“No.” Heather was quiet, but her tone cut across the table. “The note was recent, written in a new code, because it had changed since the last time I saw it. They keep their groups small and they meet in abandoned places where no one will find them. But they are active, and this mushroom seller is probably connected to them, too.”
I snapped my fingers and pointed at Heather. “Exactly. That’s why they’re threatening me now. The ghost of the sheriff from Byrnes Camp came to my house yesterday.”
Ashleigh choked on the soda she was drinking. “Wait, what?”
Glen stared at me. “You need to start from the beginning and tell us everything, right now.”
I pointed up at the clock. “Lunch is almost over. And I left the note at home. We can talk after school.”
He sighed. “Fine. We’ll meet at your house.” He turned and pointed at Heather. “And then you’re going to tell us everything that you know about the Unseelie, too.”
Kai reached to take our plates, but I hadn’t touched my food. “Do you want to eat some of this before we have to run?”
I looked at the uneaten salad and grimaced. “No, I’m not really hungry. We can grab something on the way home.”
4
The Unseelie
Rosamunde
On Fridays, class got out early. I grabbed my photos from the lab on the way out. Kai gave Heather and me a ride. We stopped in town for sandwiches.
Walking into the tiny sandwich shop, I almost ran straight into Zil. She had her head down and she wasn’t looking where she was going.
“Whoa, hey there,” I said, taking a step back. Her head snapped up and her golden eyes stared at me. “Is everything okay?”
“Rosa. I—” She looked past me and saw Heather and Kai coming in behind me. Her black horse ears flattened against her head. “I’m fine. I have to go.” She pushed her way between us and ran out the door before I could say another word.
I looked after her through the shop window and saw her getting into a beat-up old car. “That was weird.”
Kai let out his breath. “You can say that again. She’s always been weird, but lately it seems like she’s even stranger.”
Heather shook her head and pointed at the sandwich counter. “No time to worry about that now, because the others are waiting. What do you want to order?”
Ashleigh and Glen were already waiting for us in the driveway when we got to my house. We went in and sat down in the living room. I pulled out everything that I hadn’t shown them—the roses, the photos from Mom’s store, the picture and the envelope with the Unseelie seal still intact—and launched into the full explanation of everything that had happened the day before.
“And when I checked the picture for magical traces, thinking it would link me back to my mom, I saw the sheriff’s tin star instead,” I finished. “I knew it was the ghost of Sheriff Baumann in Byrnes Camp
. He always greeted me when I visited the town, and he seemed nice enough, but it was my mom who introduced me to him in the first place. I didn’t remember the Unseelie connection in the ghost town until I saw this yesterday, but it makes perfect sense. The ghosts would know any Unseelie who used their town, and they must approve of them or even work with them, because they could keep humans out.”
Glen looked over everything that I showed him very carefully with a frown of concentration on his face. “We never thought about the spirits of the dead in that town. Why would they care about the affairs of the living so long after their deaths?” He looked up at me. “We have to tell my grandfather and the rest of the Faerie Court. This goes way beyond one rogue witch.”
I stiffened. The Court didn’t believe me the first time, but they still wanted to arrest Mom. Even after breaking the spell myself, I felt conflicted about punishing her. Was Mom really such a horrible person that she deserved all of this?
I took a deep breath to calm myself. “A few hours ago, you didn’t even think that there could be any Unseelie around here. Is this really enough evidence to convince them now?”
Glen put down the pictures and sighed. “I don’t really know. My grandfather would freak out if he heard about this, but would it be justified? It could be a few ghosts carrying on an old grudge. It doesn’t mean that the Veil has been breached—“
“If there’s human involvement, they can help the Unseelie Faeries breach the Veil, if they haven’t already done so here.” Heather’s voice was as soft as ever, but it cut across the conversation and silenced everyone in shock.
Glen looked up and searched Heather’s face. “You’ve seen this before.”
She shrank back from his stare, but she nodded.
“Okay, time out before we launch into this story.” I held up my hands. “I just have to ask one thing first. If—if my mother—” I took a deep breath and started over again. “If someone is involved with actual, real Unseelie, how bad is the punishment? Worse than just breaking your oath?”
Ashleigh turned away from me, but I saw her guilty expression before she hid her face.
Glen looked at the floor. “I would say that it’s too soon to jump to any conclusions.”
I sat up straight in my chair and gripped the arm rests. “Just tell me.”
“Rosamunde—” Glen’s voice cracked as he looked at me. “When the Unseelie were banished to Faerie, that included everyone who helped them. Faeriekin, magikin, even a few humans. The ghosts who remain in our world are the lucky ones.”
Kai put his hand over mine.
I couldn’t breathe. Once, trying to escape from Mom’s spells, I went through the Veil on my own and got stuck. I was there for only a day, but the experience left me terrified. Inhabitants from the mortal realm could visit the Realm of Faerie and vice versa, but any prolonged stays on the wrong side of the Veil made people slowly lose their minds. A human exiled in Faerie would go mad, even after death, their spirit trapped forever in a world that they couldn’t comprehend.
I hated my mother for what she’d done to my family, but the thought of her stuck in Faerie going mad forever made my heart ache. I stood up. “Excuse me.” I walked quickly down the hall and locked myself in the bathroom.
When I finally calmed down and came out of the bathroom, Ashleigh had made me some hot tea. The others were all sitting around looking morose. I’d been afraid that they were talking about me behind my back, but from their faces it looked as if no one had known what to say.
I thanked Ashleigh and sat down in one chair with the tea. Ashleigh and Glen had taken the couch, and Heather had the other armchair, so Kai sat on the arm of my chair and put his arm around me. I let him hold me, but I looked straight at Heather. “Okay. Your turn for show-and-tell.”
Heather glanced at Glen. “I don’t want to get in trouble with the Court.”
Glen smiled reassuringly. “Just knowing something about the Unseelie isn’t enough to get you arrested.”
She looked down and blushed, which made me jealous because her porcelain skin only looked more perfect when she turned pink. I’d just seen my own face in the bathroom mirror all splotchy and red from trying not to cry.
I raised my eyebrows at Glen. “What about her parents? If they’re the ones who introduced her to the Unseelie, then will you turn them in, too?”
Ashleigh gasped. “That’s harsh, Rosa!”
Heather shook her head. “It wasn’t my parents. Actually, the Unseelie don’t like their kind any more than the Seelie do.”
I frowned. “Really?”
Glen nodded. “It’s true. All faeries are afraid of vampires. It’s the human governments who permit them to live—well, exist.”
That didn’t make any sense to me. Many humans didn’t trust any kind of magikin, and vampires hunted humans for food, given the chance. I opened my mouth again to protest. “But why—”
“Because humans can become vampires. Anyone with Fae blood dies if they try to turn.” Heather closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. “Can we get back on topic, please?”
I leaned into Kai and turned away from Heather. I’d forgotten, for a moment, that Heather’s parents planned to turn her into a vampire once she was eighteen. I knew almost nothing about that world, and I was really curious to know more, but of course Heather would be uncomfortable talking about it—especially in front of two faeriekin.
Glen glanced at me and then nodded at Heather. “Please, go on. I promise that I won’t ask you to name names or get anyone in trouble.”
Heather folded her hands on her lap and composed herself. “So, when I was younger, I was curious about alternatives to, uh, my parents’ lifestyle. Actually, I was sort of impatient about getting some kind of powers to make up for my health problems.” She glanced up at me. “I knew I couldn’t turn into a mermaid or anything cool like that, but I heard that you could be a witch when you were thirteen. Of course, the Seelie Court where we lived wouldn’t have anything to do with me, so I went looking for the Unseelie.”
I suddenly remembered how casual I had been about inviting Heather to a party at the Court when she first moved into town. Now I understood why she needed so much reassurance about going. It never occurred to me that she’d been discriminated against by faeriekin before.
I gave her an apologetic smile from across the room, but said nothing.
Heather smiled back at me and went on. “I didn’t really know where to start. I walked around the bad parts of downtown, and I tried to talk to magikin who didn’t seem very happy with the way things were.” She looked down at the ground. “The city wasn’t all nice like it is here, where everyone’s accepted and gets along. There was a—a ghetto, where a lot of the magikin lived, separate from the humans.”
Glen nodded, and I saw him reach over to take Ashleigh’s hand. “We’ve been to places like that.”
“At first, they were hostile to me. But when I kept hanging around and didn’t cause any trouble, I managed to get their trust. I told them I supported magikin rights, went to a few protests, played lookout when they went to—well, steal.” She twisted her hands together. “They taught me how to break in. I still couldn’t do any magic, but picking locks made me feel powerful for the first time ever.”
I struggled not to say anything while she was talking. This was a completely different side of Heather than I’d ever seen before. I’d wondered where she got the set of lock picks, the ones that she used to help break into Mom’s store months ago, but I’d never suspected that she’d been involved in criminal activities. Who was this wild girl?
“Was it like a gang?” I broke in, unable to contain myself any longer. Kai squeezed my hand.
“Not . . . exactly.” Heather frowned. “We were just a bunch of kids. They did stuff to get back at humans, they messed with the faeriekin because their Court only supported the people they liked, but mostly they were just stealing to help their families. We thought we were making a difference, although looking ba
ck, I don’t think we ever really changed anything. But just trying to do something on their own—that was all those kids had.”
Glen didn’t look surprised by anything she’d said. “So the Unseelie approached this group of kids?”
She shook her head. “Not directly. This older guy came and told us we should stop messing around. If we joined his group, we could make a real difference, he said. When I asked one of the other kids about it later, she told me there was a weak spot in the Veil that the Seelie Court didn’t know about, and he would go through and talk to the Unseelie on the other side. The next time I saw him, I asked him to take me.”
Ashleigh gasped. “You were able to just step through the Veil without the local Court knowing about it? How did they find an unguarded gate?”
“I found out later that the guy helped make it—”
Ashleigh and Glen both leaped up off the couch.
“No one can just break through the Veil!” Ashleigh said.
“It’s supposed to be a secret,” Glen hissed in a lower voice, shooting a look at Heather. “Be careful what you say.”
Heather held up her hands. “I have no idea how he actually did it. He was some kind of sorcerer, and he wanted to keep his tricks to himself. For all I know, he stumbled onto the gate and told other people he’d made it, but after some of the other stuff I saw him do—”
“Ah!” Glen interrupted her before she could go any further. “Maybe it’s better if I talk to you about this another time. In private. With my grandfather.”
Count Duncan. That meant serious business. Glen had never tried to keep something so private before.
I stared up at the two faeriekin in shock, and I realized from Kai’s tight grip on my shoulders that he was just as surprised. “Aren’t we all in this together?”
Fae of Calaveras Trilogy Box Set Page 29
