Fae of Calaveras Trilogy Box Set

by Kristen S. Walker

  She winked. “Someone has to start it. But you’re young; you don’t have to pick what you want yet. It’s just something to think about.”

  “Hm.” I shrugged my shoulders and changed the subject. Thinking would have to come later.

  Before long, Zil showed up, hunched over in her usual ratty black hoodie. “Hey,” she said when she spotted me. “I didn’t know you had the guts to do something like this. I guess I kinda ignored you while you were at the house. Sorry.”

  I looked up at the older girl and smiled shyly. I hadn’t expected Zil to pay much attention to me, especially since she seemed more obsessed with my sister, who was in her class at school. “You’re going to help?” I asked hopefully. “I know this could end up getting you in more trouble, when you’re already out on bail.”

  Zil shrugged. “Why not? We’re trying to bring down The Man who set up this effed-up system in the first place. If we change the laws, then maybe I won’t be in any trouble at all.”

  Morrigan stood up, towering over the pookha, and frowned disapprovingly. “That’s not the right way to think about it. We’re still breaking the law, even if we want to change it. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but I can’t guarantee that you won’t get caught. At best, I can offer amnesty in the small part of the Otherworld that lies outside of Seelie control.”

  I opened my mouth to say that the humans couldn’t go live in the Otherworld—they would go mad if they were in the wrong world for too long—but then I looked around and realized that there were no humans in our group. Mom only had a few human conspirators helping her, since most of them were magikin, but I wondered what they would do if everything backfired. And going to live in Faerie would cut me off from the rest of my family. I didn’t know if I could do that.

  I bowed my head and said nothing.

  Zil had already gone past that topic to asking questions about their plan for breaking into the castle. “I’ve snuck onto the castle grounds before without getting caught, but there were some buildings that I couldn’t get into, and I’m guessing that the jail is going to be one of the most secure areas,” she said. “But what about using the magic distortion to our advantage? How far away is it from this tear that they created?”

  One of the crow men lifted his head. “The castle is five miles away,” he spoke up. “On last survey, the affected area has only spread one mile out from Madrone. It appears to be growing at a steady rate.”

  Morrigan nodded. “So we could conceivably wait until it spreads that far. That’s a good idea.”

  I cleared my throat. “How do we know they won’t close it before then? Is anyone watching the Seelie to see what they’re doing to stop the gate? We may only have a little bit of time to act.”

  The crow man turned to look at me down his long beak. “They are still scrambling to react.”

  “They might be able to contain the tear, but they can’t close it.” Morrigan put her hand on the back of my chair. “Only the ones who opened it can do that.”

  My head snapped up and I stared at her. “Really?” I’d never thought I could be that important.

  She smiled at me warmly. “Of course. So as long as you’re safe here with us, no one can make you close the gate. We’ll have all the time we need.”

  17

  Lost in the Void

  Rosmerta

  My thoughts were a jumbled confusion, but I was certain I had flown over that particular twisted pine tree before. In fact, now that I thought about it, hadn’t I already flown over it several times, having this exact same thought? When I looked around again and tried to figure out the direction I was going in, my head just spun. I was going nowhere.

  I forced myself to land down on the ground among the trees and sat down. I didn’t know how long I had been airborne or how far I had traveled, but there was no way that the effects of the gate could have spread so far—could they? I had no landmarks to go by, no sun or stars to navigate direction. By now I was so exhausted that I could barely remember where I was going.

  My daughter—her face sprang up in my mind. No, not my older daughter, the younger one. Akasha? Yes, that was her name. Why had I given her such a strange name? I’d planned on naming my daughters after flowers, but something about Akasha was different. I couldn’t quite focus on what it was. Oh, she wasn’t human, somehow. I’d wanted to mark her as a being from another plane, a child who didn’t quite fit into the mortal world. That was a mistake—having a child who wasn’t human. I’d never known what to do with her, how to help her fit in.

  But I couldn’t help Akasha in this state. I had to take care of myself, first. And as I turned my thoughts to myself, I suddenly realized that I was achingly thirsty.

  Water. I looked down and patted the pockets of my coat, my skirt. I had no bag, and I hadn’t seemed to bring anything with me but a set of keys and a dagger.

  I pulled the dagger out and turned it over in my hand. There was dried blood on the edge. Had I hurt someone? It must have been self-defense. Was there an attack? Oh, yes, the monsters had come and taken Akasha. I had to find her.

  But first I had to find water. I blinked around the dimly lit forest, but I couldn’t see any signs of civilization, even a hiking trail for me to walk on. I could wander for miles in the wilderness and find nothing. This would never work.

  Wait, I could use magic! There was a spell for finding water, using a stick. A dowsing rod, my tired brain reminded me. I searched on the ground and found a twig with a forked shape, then stood up, holding it out before me. All I had to do was concentrate and the twig would guide me toward water.

  Ah, but—I stopped myself with a frown. I had to hold the twig with two hands. How was I going to carry my broom at the same time?

  I stared at the broom on the ground. I would have to think of a way for me to find it again. Then I looked up at the twisted pine. Well, I’d found that tree so many times already, I wasn’t likely to lose it. The distinct shape stood out among the other trees.

  I picked up the broom and leaned it against the tree, then put both hands on the ends of my dowsing rod and held it out in front of me. It took me a moment to concentrate, but then I felt a tug at the other end, pulling me to the left. I turned and followed its direction through the forest.

  18

  Sisters

  Rosamunde

  I flew Kai on the back of my broom to What a Drip. The coffee shop was locked and the barista I’d spoken to earlier was nowhere in sight; there was no response when I knocked on the door.

  Kai shifted some of his features into fox form, including his nose and ears, and investigated the area as best as he could from the outside. But after several minutes, he stopped and shook his head.

  “I’m sorry. The trail ends where they flew off again,” he said with an apologetic shrug.

  I craned my neck, looking up into the twilight, examining all of the trees nearby. “Would they have stopped to rest in a tree? It can’t be easy to fly when you’re carrying another person. If we went up in the air and circled the edge of town, maybe you could catch their scent again—”

  He put a hand on my arm to hold me back. “It just doesn’t work that way. We need to think of something else. Maybe the others can help.”

  “No!” I whipped the cloak back out of my way and swatted his hand off me. “There has to be a way to find her! I’m going to save my sister this time!”

  There was a cracking sound behind me, coming from the forest at the edge of town. I turned around and stared.

  The trees and other plants were bending back on their own, creating a pathway through the underbrush. I craned my neck to look, but I couldn’t see where it led.

  Well, it wasn’t the strangest thing that had happened me today. I might as well try it. I picked up my broom, hiked my bag up higher on my shoulder, and marched straight for the opening.

  “Rosa, wait!” Kai hurried to catch up with me. “What just happened? Are you sure it’s safe? I’m not sure we should just be runni
ng off—”

  “If you don’t want to go, then have fun walking home by yourself,” I snapped. I had zero patience for his whining. “Akasha could be that way, but I won’t know until I try it.”

  I walked several more steps before I heard him running up behind me again.

  “Okay,” he grumbled. “I’ll go with you. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Fine, I’ll watch your back, too. Don’t think that you’re here because I need protection.”

  We followed the tunnel through the forest for some time. After Madrone disappeared behind us, I could no longer keep track of the distance or the time. I didn’t care. I just kept walking straight forward the way that the trail led us.

  Other than the trees going by on either side, there wasn’t much change of scenery, and no sense of how far we had to go. Before long, Kai started asking questions about what was going on.

  I didn’t know how much I was allowed to say about my involvement with Dandelion and the Guardian of the Veil, but most of what I knew I’d learned on my own anyway, so I launched into an abbreviated explanation of what I knew about the Seelie controlling immigration between the two worlds and how they kept magikin from having any power.

  He listened to me with a frown on his face, and at the end he shook his head. “So you’re saying that all magikin are really from this Otherworld, and we’re only allowed to live in yours if the Fae nobility feel like it? And they can just send us back at any time on a whim?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know where you’re really from. Everyone keeps saying that you belong to both worlds, because magikin have been coming back and forth between the two worlds for so long. You don’t have a problem living in either one, unlike humans and Fae. But right now, the Fae are keeping the majority of the magikin on the other side of the Veil, and some of the humans are helping.”

  He touched my arm. “And what do you think?”

  I looked away. “I don’t really know if one side is really right and one is wrong. I think it’s more complicated than that.” I sighed. “Both sides have done things to hurt people, so neither of them really seem to have the moral high ground when it comes to their tactics. But in the end, should magikin be allowed to live in the human world? Well, I don’t think it causes problems, but—” I shrugged. “A lot of people think differently. And I don’t know that there’s an easy solution that would make everyone happy.”

  The kitsune boy nodded slowly and looked away. “I don’t know how I feel, either. I’ve always lived in this world, and I’ve only been to visit the other one once, for just a little while. I certainly didn’t meet any of my kind on the other side. So this world feels like home to me.” He kicked a clump of dirt away with his shoe. “I don’t think that Count Duncan or anyone else should be able to just deport me.”

  “But then there are people who are actively dangerous to others,” I said with a shake of my head. “Like my mom using mind control on everyone, and all the magikin who helped her hold me and Ashleigh hostage. Is it really safe to let them stay in this world?”

  He whipped his head around and fixed me with a stare. “Like Zil?”

  I turned away from him, blushing with embarrassment. “Well, what Zil did wasn’t really that bad. She was just relaying messages because Mom made her do it. It’s not like she killed somebody.”

  He snorted. “And she stole my girlfriend from me, but I guess that’s not illegal, huh?”

  I glared at him over my shoulder. “You don’t own me. And we had problems before I ever got involved with Zil, which wasn’t even her fault, by the way.”

  “Problems like what?” Kai threw his hands up in the air. “I did everything you ever asked me. I was so good to you, and it wasn’t because your mom or anyone else was telling me to get close to you. Isn’t that worth something?”

  “I’m not talking about this right now.” I sped up to walk ahead of him.

  He hurried to match my pace. “Look, I’m sorry, Rosa. I know I keep apologizing and I don’t seem to do a very good job at it, but I really miss you. Is there any way that I can get you to give me another chance?”

  I shook my head. “I think it’s better if I just take a break from dating for a while.” I gestured at the forest around us. “Everything’s crazy enough without figuring out what’s best for me in the romantic department.”

  Kai sidled closer and slid his arm around my waist. “What is there to figure out? Just follow your heart.”

  I bit my lip and looked down. I hated to keep hurting him, but he seemed to have a really hard time hearing the word “no.” Besides, I was pretty sure that I couldn’t follow my heart alone. My heart had led me to not talk to Kai about our relationship problems, and then to kiss Zil before I’d ended it with him, even to let my mother go free after promising to help the Faerie Court arrest her—decisions that were terrible in a bunch of ways. My heart wanted too many things that just weren’t smart. And I still didn’t know what I wanted now.

  I pulled his arm off of me and moved away. “If I change my mind about getting back together with you, then I’ll let you know. But for now you need to stop pushing about it all the time. It’s not doing anything but hurting both of us.”

  He stopped protesting and left an empty space between us as we walked on down the path.

  Finally, Kai begged me to stop. “I’m exhausted,” he said. “It must be after midnight by now. We must be walking in circles, because we would have walked right out of the affected area into the regular world if we were going in a straight line. Can we just take a rest for a while, or maybe you could fly up on your broom and take a look around?”

  I shook my head and pointed to something just beginning to take shape through the trees. “I think we’re about to reach somewhere. Can you see that light?”

  Kai turned and stared in another direction. “No. I don’t see anything.”

  “That’s not where I pointed.” I grabbed him and pointed him where I was looking. “Now do you see it?”

  He stared for a moment then shook his head. “No. I can’t tell. Everything is so turned around here. Are you sure that magikin can live in the Otherworld? I still feel totally out of whack here, and this isn’t even the real thing.”

  I adjusted the cloak on my shoulders. I’d forgotten how disoriented I’d felt when I first woke up, before I put the cloak on. It was nothing like crossing over the other side of the Veil—it was some weird mash-up of magic and reality. “I don’t think this is the same thing,” I said slowly. “I think that’s the point. This isn’t supposed to happen, and it’s not normal for anyone. Just stay with me, okay? I know where I’m going.”

  He stopped and stared at my cloak as if seeing it for the first time. “What are you wearing, anyway? Did you roll around in the weeds?”

  I sighed. “It’s not supposed to be a fashion statement. I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about it, though.” Dandelion had said that it was okay for me to talk again, but I still hadn’t checked in with the Guardian, and I didn’t know if I was supposed to keep my role in everything a secret.

  “Who won’t let you talk about it?” He looked over his shoulders. “Is that weird Fae you hang out with involved in this? You said he was the one who told you to ask me for help finding your sister.”

  “I don’t know if I can say,” I cut him off again, and pulled him to a stop. “We’re there now.”

  We’d reached the edge of a clearing full of people, all magikin from the looks of it. Most of them were sitting around on chairs that looked like they were formed from trees and rocks. I saw Fae, two big crow-men, and a pookha girl—wait, was that Zil?

  I didn’t have time to worry about that, though, because on one of the tree stump chairs I saw my sister. Ignoring everyone else, I rushed forward. “Akasha!”

  The two crow demons and a sour-looking Fae man all stepped in front of me, blocking my path. “Where do you think you’re going?” the Fae said.

  I lifted my broom i
n a defensive position before me. “You’ve taken my sister. I’m taking her back. I’ll fight you if I have to.”

  In reality, I was bluffing. I had no idea how to fight back. My plan was to grab Akasha and fly for it, and hope that I could go faster than the crow demons. But I tried to look as tough as I could.

  The Fae frowned and folded his arms, but he was cut off by a deep woman’s laugh. “We can manage a little family reunion,” she said. “Let her through.”

  One of the crow demons opened his beak and hissed at Kai. “What about the fox?”

  The woman came forward. She was the most beautiful Fae I’d ever seen, with a silver shimmering dress that hugged her slender frame and a cape of black crow feathers draped over her shoulders. Her dark hair was impossibly long, falling down her back until it seemed to merge with the cape. She looked down at Kai and me, and smiled. “If they promise not to cause trouble, then they may both come in.”

  Kai gave a sidelong look at the crow men. “I’ll play nice if they do.”

  I sighed. “Everyone promises to behave.”

  “Very well, then,” the woman said, still smiling. “I’m Morrigan. I’m sorry to worry you, but there were dangerous creatures roaming around, so I asked some of my friends to bring her here, where we could protect her.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” I said absently, but I was really only concerned about my sister. “Akasha!” The others stepped aside and I rushed over to her. “Are you okay?”

  Akasha stood up from the chair, and to my surprise, she met me on eye level. I hadn’t seen her in a few months, but she’d grown almost a foot. She looked different somehow, too—older, prettier. I almost wouldn’t recognize her.

  But she groaned just like my sister when I threw my arms around her, and pushed me away. “I’m fine. What’d you want?”