Fae of Calaveras Trilogy Box Set

by Kristen S. Walker

  Akasha reached over and squeezed my hand. “Is this really going to work?” she whispered.

  I smiled at her. “I’m going to make it work, don’t worry.”

  After the meeting, I threw myself back into studying the book with enthusiasm. We had a goal and I was going to make it happen. My heart felt strangely lighter now that I had told the others what I was planning and gotten their approval, even my daughter’s. After years of keeping these things to myself, it was liberating to know that I wasn’t alone and I would have help.

  I didn’t want to waste the chance to bond with Akasha further, so I used the book to give the girl her first introduction to magic theory. I showed her some of the diagrams I was trying to decipher. “All magic practitioners keep notes on their spells and rituals in order to remember what works, especially when they’re creating something new,” I explained. “Often, you have to test and re-test different aspects until you find a way to make it all fit together. But see, many people are also afraid of letting others get their secrets, so they develop a personal code in order to hide what they’re writing about.”

  Akasha usually shrank away from any mention of magic, but now she looked more bored than anything. “Yeah, yeah, so you have to look for a key or something to the code. I’ve got a cryptology book if you want to borrow it.” She waved upstairs in the direction of her bedroom. “I invented my own code, once, so Rosa couldn’t read my diaries.”

  I frowned. “I doubt this is a basic code.” I pointed to the runic symbols. “There could be a spell on the words themselves that prevents the wrong person from reading them. Really, I should be looking at the original documents, not just these copies. Something important could be missing here.”

  Akasha stretched her arms and looked away. “Then go ask Rosa to steal the old books, or that Allen guy. I bet they have them in the castle somewhere.”

  I sighed. “Aren’t you interested in helping me, though? I thought you wanted things to get better.”

  “I don’t really care about the magic part, though.” She rolled her eyes and walked away.

  And in fact, ever since Akasha had gotten the first part of what she wanted—the return of her books, and getting enrolled in an online school—she’d stopped complaining, but she’d also stopped talking to me altogether. She spent a lot of time alone in her room or on the computer in Mary’s office. And like any mother, I began to worry if there was something going on.

  So when Akasha logged on to Mary’s desktop computer for studies, I went upstairs to her bedroom and looked for her diary. When something was bothering her, she usually wrote it down in one of her books. They were supposed to be private, but I used them as a way to find out the things that she was afraid to tell me. It was more important that I knew what was going on with her.

  In our old house, Akasha had a whole wooden trunk of diaries locked up to keep other people from reading them. Most of the diaries had been left behind, but I knew she’d brought a small blue notebook with her and kept it under the pillow on her borrowed bed.

  I left the door open, so I would hear anyone coming down the hallway, and settled down on the bed to read her most recent entries. It didn’t lock, and it wasn’t written in code, just Akasha’s elaborate cursive handwriting, often written with purple gel pen.

  Half the book was filled with rants and laments from the last two months. Most of it was a repeat of things she’d said to my face: she regretted coming with me, she felt guilty for missing school, she hated living in the tiny apartment with Angelica and not having her things. Other things she hadn’t told me, like just how much she missed her father and sister. I felt a pang of guilt at that, but there was nothing I could do about it—Samuel and Rosamunde had both chosen to turn their backs on me. I read on.

  There was one brief entry in the diary after we’d moved into the Burbages’ house. Akasha was a little happier about the new place, and hopeful about my promise to get more of her things. But then nothing else.

  I frowned and flipped through the rest of the empty pages, just to make sure that there wasn’t more hidden somewhere else. It wasn’t like Akasha to switch to a new diary before she’d filled her previous one, since she hated to waste blank books. Something, then, had stopped her from writing things down at all. But what? It certainly wasn’t happiness—things were better for her now, but still far from what she wanted.

  I tucked the diary away and decided to keep a closer eye on Akasha. One way or another, I would find out what was going on with her. She could not hide the truth from her mother for long.

  15

  Best Friends

  Rosamunde

  I was juggling my time between Kai and Zil, so I didn’t see my other friends often. I felt okay about pulling away from Glen and Ashleigh, because the faeriekin were starting to make me nervous. I didn’t know what they knew or what they would do. But I did regret leaving Heather out, and as she continued to spend more time with the faeriekin, I worried that I was losing the closeness we’d had when she first joined the school.

  So on Friday afternoon, when Kai had plans to hang out with his friend Anil and Zil didn’t pull me aside at the last minute, I caught Heather before she went to board the bus home. “We haven’t had a chance to hang out in forever,” I said with a little too much enthusiasm. “Just you, me, and my broom. What do you say?”

  “Oh—okay,” she said, and a moment later, she smiled back brightly. “That sounds great, Rosa. You’re right, it’s been forever.”

  I hid my guilty expression as I retrieved my broom from the bike lockers. I arranged my messenger bag on my right hip so she could put her arms around my waist. I didn’t need to tell her how to sit on the broom: she slid right behind me with practiced ease, and soon we were rising above the treetops.

  I hadn’t thought about what we were doing until we were already halfway down the hill from the school. “Where do you wanna go?” I called back over my shoulder.

  “Um, I don’t know. Are you hungry?”

  I shrugged. “Not really. We could go for coffee, I guess.”

  We ended up at the Drip by default, because neither of us had a better idea. It wasn’t very exciting, because everyone else was there after school too, but we were limited to indoor locations because the snow on the ground made it very cold outside.

  We got our drinks and sat down at a table. We made small talk about school and photography, but we ran out of things to say pretty fast.

  “So,” Heather said at last. “How is the hunt for your mom going?”

  I shrugged. “The same. The history lesson was interesting, but it doesn’t really help me find the current Unseelie now.”

  She looked down at her cup. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t help you get close to them.”

  “That’s okay.”

  The silence stretched out between us again.

  I didn’t know why things felt so awkward now. Heather and I used to have so much to talk about. What had come between us?

  I cleared my throat. “You’ve been hanging out with Glen and Ashleigh a lot lately.”

  Her turn to shrug. “Yeah, they’ve been really nice. And you’re usually busy, so . . .”

  I looked away again, at the crowd milling around the cafe.

  “How are things with you and Kai?” she said politely.

  “Pretty good.” I took a sip of my tea and grimaced. It was already growing cold. “We’ve been together almost three months. It feels like forever. I don’t know why I took so long to agree to go out with him.”

  Heather pushed aside her cup. “Yeah, you guys seem like you’re good together.”

  I straightened up with a sudden idea. “Hey, Kai and I are going out on a date tonight—dinner at that Chinese place. You and Anil could come along with us as a double date, and then we could do the Black Light Bowl in Fenton again. That was so much fun last time.”

  She pursed her lips together. “Rosa, you’ve got to stop pushing us together like this,” she said in a stra
ined tone. “Anil is a nice guy, but I’m just not interested, and the more you try to make this happen, the more awkward it gets.”

  “I—I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I thought you guys were just shy and you needed a push. I just wanted to make you happy.”

  She shook her head, her lips pressed together in a thin line. “This isn’t making me happy. Thank you, but please stop. I can make my own choices about whether I want to date someone or not.”

  “Are you sure there’s no hope for it, though?” I tilted my head to one side. “I mean, if you and Anil were together, then the four of us could all hang out.”

  “If you just want to hang out, then fine.” Heather pulled out her phone. “But you have to promise not to make it awkward. No setting me up with anyone.”

  By now my face was bright red with embarrassment. I was sure that everyone else in the coffee shop had overheard the conversation. “Maybe another time,” I mumbled, looking at my hands. “I think I’ll just go home. Sorry.”

  “I’m sorry, too.” Heather stood up and walked out.

  I flew home alone, but when I saw the empty house, I immediately regretted it. I was way too upset to sit alone in my room. I had to get my head straightened out.

  I tried calling Ashleigh, but her phone was busy. I left a message saying that I needed her advice.

  A few minutes later, she called me back. “Hey, sorry, I was just talking to Heather,” she said.

  Oh, great. “So I guess she told you what happened.”

  “Yeah.” I heard the exasperation in her tone as she sighed. “Do you want to tell me what you were trying to do, Rosa?”

  I flopped down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, cradling my cell against my ear. “I guess I just thought I was doing a nice thing. Y’know, I’m happy, and I wanted my best friend to be happy, too. Why does that make me the bad guy?”

  She didn’t respond for a moment, and I could picture her collecting herself, trying to decide the gentlest way to get her point across. That faeriekin etiquette again.

  “Rosa,” she said at last. “I know when Heather first moved here, she didn’t know anyone and she was shy, and you were really nice to help introduce her to people and make her comfortable. But you’re not responsible for her anymore. Especially not for deciding if and who she dates.”

  I spluttered in surprise. “Wow, that was blunt.”

  “Yeah, but you can be very stubborn. I’d like to think we’re close enough that you’ll let me say what I mean.”

  “Not when it hurts.” I rolled over and propped myself on a pillow.

  “Let me put it this way.” The phone hissed as Ashleigh took a deep breath. “Do you remember how long it took you to get over Lindsey, and you didn’t want to date anyone else? You told people it was because your mom didn’t want you dating, but you were still hurting. If I’d tried to make you get over it by repeatedly setting you up with people you weren’t interested in, would you have been happy with me?”

  My grip on the pillow tightened. “Are you saying that Heather’s suffering from a broken heart? Did she leave someone behind when she moved here?” I couldn’t believe that Ashleigh knew Heather’s secrets and I didn’t. I really was losing her as a friend.

  “I’m saying that Heather has her reasons not to be interested in a relationship right now, just like you had your reasons back then.” Ashleigh’s tone was strained.

  Something was burning my leg. It took me a moment to remember that I still had the lie detecting charm in my pocket. I’d carried it around for the past few days out of habit, with no more reactions from anyone. And now it told me that Ashleigh was deliberately telling me the opposite of what she knew from Heather.

  So they did have secrets from me. I almost threw the pillow across the room. Ashleigh had replaced me as Heather’s friend, and that left me with no one but Kai.

  “I thought—” My voice caught in my throat. I had to sit up to breathe evenly. “I thought Heather would tell me her reasons. She used to talk to me.”

  “It’s complicated,” she said in a gentle tone. “You’ve had a lot of your own problems to deal with. If you stop trying to control her, and just be a friend again, maybe she’ll feel comfortable enough to open up to you.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “Do you think there’s anything we can do to make her happy?”

  Silence for a moment. Then, “How about we all go dress shopping together this weekend? We can all find something for my birthday party next week.”

  After all the planning that went into Ashleigh’s seventeenth birthday, I had a hard time believing that she didn’t already have the perfect dress picked out. But it was a sweet gesture, and a girls’ outing with Heather and Ash sounded like a lot of fun.

  “Sure.” I let my tension go with a sigh of relief. “That sounds awesome. Thanks!”

  16

  Ashleigh's Birthday

  Rosamunde

  A week later on Saturday, Ashleigh sent a town car to pick up Kai, Heather, and me. We were all dressed to the nines: me in a slinky, backless emerald evening gown, Heather in a more modest silver gown, and Kai in his tux. We were laughing and joking in the car, ready for a fun evening. The formal dinner party was supposed to be a smaller, less elaborate affair than the usual Faerie ball or Ashleigh’s sweet sixteen blowout last year.

  The car didn’t stop in front of the main castle building, driving around to another wing on the side. Inside, instead of separate dining and ballrooms, there was a single long, tall hall with a stage at one end, an open space where faeriekin and humans already mingled, and small round tables were set at the other end. On the stage, music stands and a piano were set up for a band, but then there was nothing but a phonograph playing soft orchestral music.

  I looked around the room with a smile. The bright geometric shapes painted on the walls were clearly inspired by Art Deco, and the elegantly dressed servers, fine porcelain place settings, and gilded phonograph all looked as if they had been teleported directly from the 1930s. Ashleigh clearly had fun with the theme.

  As if on cue, Ashleigh and Glen emerged from the crowd with brilliant smiles. “You’re finally here!” the hostess said, clapping her hands together. Instead of her usual curtsy, she greeted each of us with a kiss on the cheek. Glen, more reserved, settled for a firm handshake.

  Heather looked around the room, her eyes glittering. “Everything looks so beautiful,” she murmured.

  I admired Ashleigh’s red halter gown in sheer satin. There hadn’t been anything like it at the boutique dress shops we’d visited last week. “Did you have that custom-made?”

  She looked down and smoothed the fabric with her hand. “Actually, it’s vintage, something Serafina had from the old days. This dress was actually the inspiration for the theme.” She winked at Glen. “Your family spoils me.”

  Normally, Glen would’ve smiled and told her that nothing was too good for her. But he was distracted and had to pull his gaze up from the floor. “What? It’s your birthday,” he said in a flat tone. “Of course they spoiled you.”

  I saw Ash’s smile start to fade. I added quickly, “Well, it looks like it was made for you. Heather and I tried to look taller with these long dresses and crazy heels, but the style is way better on you. Like a fashion plate from the thirties.”

  I wasn’t exaggerating—she was statuesque, with the simple lines of the dress hugging her long, lithe body, and her blonde hair was coiled up on her head, exposing her long neck. But her usual confidence was missing, her eyes darting around the room and her hands twisting together.

  We all hovered together for several awkward moments, and then Kai broke the silence. “What’s wrong? You seem unhappy.”

  “Well—” Ashleigh gestured to a knot of Fae at the far side of the room. “I had to invite my mother. And it’s like she hates everything here.”

  Heather gave her a sympathetic smile and put her arm around Ashleigh. “Relax, it’s your party. If she doesn’t like it, she can l
eave.”

  I turned my head to stare at the Fae. I’d only met Ashleigh’s mother a few times, but I knew enough to be afraid. Duchess Auriana wasn’t an affectionate parent: she’d given birth to Ash for one reason, and she only came to the mortal realm to see that her daughter was fulfilling that purpose. She took the stuck-up Fae stereotype to the next level. As a human, I’d barely gotten a “hello” from Her Grace.

  And she did look unhappy. Her hawklike gaze took in the hall and the party guests, and then she murmured something to her entourage of other Fae nobles and courtiers. They were all looking down their noses at everyone else.

  Worst of all, though, she saw the five of us standing together. Her eyes narrowed.

  “Oh, no,” breathed Ashleigh. “She’s coming over here.”

  Duchess Auriana swept forward, and the crowd parted before her like a wave. She came to a stop a few feet away from Ashleigh and Heather. Her face puckered up and she pulled out a lace handkerchief to cover her face, as if she smelled something vile.

  “To think that I should see the day when my own daughter chooses to sponsor such a disgusting creature.” Her voice carried to fill the room. “I should have a conversation with the mortals who raised you.”

  Ashleigh flinched and looked down at the floor.

  I moved in front of her. “This is a private party,” I said sharply. “If you don’t like it, then you don’t have to be here. Ashleigh worked hard to plan this party for her friends.”

  “You should watch your tongue, criminal’s daughter,” the duchess hissed. “You have no right to defend the bloodsucker’s presence.”

  “How does her presence affect anyone here?” I folded my arms and planted my feet. “She’s never harmed another living being in her life.”

  Duchess Auriana tossed her head back. “I doubt that her parasitic family or your degenerate mother have really been able to help either of you grasp ethical concepts like ‘harm’. Just because she hasn’t hurt anyone yet doesn’t mean that she’s not a threat.” She looked at Heather. “Are your parents not grooming you to become one of their kind once you come of age? When you’ve tasted blood, how can you be sure that you won’t be tempted to prey on the innocent citizens of this Court?”