And then I run. No point in wandering around casually if people in the surveillance room are already watching this passage.
Calla, please tell me what’s happening.
Just making a hasty exit, that’s all.
Up, up, up the stairs. I’m still invisible, so no one in the foyer bats an eye as I streak past them. Whoever’s watching on the other end of a surveillance bug will be too late to catch me. I dodge to the side to keep from running into the trainee who just walked out of the entrance room. As I hurry into the room and write on the wall with my stylus, the image I project onto the guard is one of a blank wall. Seconds later, I’m inside the safety of the faerie paths, long before any guardian can come chasing after me.
Made it, I tell Chase.
Feeling immensely relieved, I walk out of the darkness into Chase’s lakeside home in the human realm. I take only two steps across the open-plan kitchen and living area before noticing the figure standing by the wide kitchen window. I throw both hands up, automatically raising a shield of magic—but then I see the purple streaks of hair and the bundle of blankets in the woman’s arms as she turns to face me.
“Vi? What are you—”
“I need help,” she says, hugging her child more tightly to her chest. “Something isn’t right with Victoria.”
CHAPTER
FOUR
“What’s wrong?” I ask immediately, hurrying to Violet’s side and laying a careful hand on Victoria’s back. “Is she sick? Do we need to get her to a healing institute?”
“No, it isn’t like that. It’s not something immediately life-threatening. It’s … I can’t really explain it. She just seems different since … you know.”
I lower my hand slowly to my side. “Since Zed took her.” Can we talk later? I add silently to Chase.
Sure. Not going anywhere, remember?
“I’m probably just imagining things,” Vi says in a low voice, probably so as not to wake Victoria. “That’s what Ryn thinks. He says we didn’t know her long enough before the Zed incident to tell if there’s actually a difference now. And the healers checked her out within hours of Zed taking her, and they said she was fine.”
“But?” I prompt.
“I don’t know. I think something’s different. Nothing visible, although I do think her birthmark is lighter than it was before.” Vi leans against the kitchen counter. “It’s more … her personality? She seems fussier. She cries a lot more. I can’t … I can’t make her happy. I talk to her and sing to her and hold her close, but it only makes things worse.”
I quirk an eyebrow. “You sing?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Not the point.”
“Sorry, sorry.” I give her an encouraging smile. “Aren’t babies supposed to cry a lot? That’s normal, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but is it normal that I can’t comfort her? She seemed to respond to me before, but now she doesn’t. I finally got her to sleep, but I think it was more to do with complete exhaustion from all her crying than any comfort I provided.”
“Well … I don’t know. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Yes. That’s why I searched for you.” She glances around the house. “This isn’t where you live now, is it? I thought you were staying somewhere hidden from me, but I kept thinking of you this morning, and suddenly this place flashed into view.”
Keeping the details vague so she won’t be able to give anything away if the Guild questions her, I say, “No, I’m not staying here. This house is sort of … on the way.”
“I see. Well, the friend you’re staying with—the one who can take away Griffin Abilities—is a botanist, correct? I think you mentioned that?”
“Yes.”
“Farah told me about a type of berry that’s used to counteract harmful spells. She said it used to be an ingredient in many healing potions, but healers thought it had become ineffective over the centuries, so they stopped using it. But she believes it can still help against certain spells, and it has no negative side effects, so I thought I should try it.” Victoria squirms in her sleep, and Vi gently strokes her back. “Farah doesn’t know where to get any seeing as it isn’t commonly used anymore, but I thought your friend might.”
I watch the odd facial expressions Victoria is pulling in her fitful sleep. “He might. His greenhouse is overflowing with hundreds of different plants.”
“Can you ask him if he has fire tongue?”
I look up. “You want to give a baby something called fire tongue?”
“Apparently the leaves burn your mouth if you eat them, but Farah says the berries aren’t as bad.”
“Hopefully she’s right about that. Well, uh, if you don’t want to know anything about where I’m going, you’ll need to wait outside.”
“Right, of course.” She looks around. “Do you have a key for the front door, or … never mind.” She opens a faerie paths doorway with a stylus and appears on the porch a moment later.
I head back to the mountain through the faerie door. I run upstairs, and then up again to the level with the enchanted greenhouse. Gaius is already there, digging through the dirt in the far corner to plant something new. He nods when I ask him about the fire tongue and adds that he still uses it occasionally in his own potions. He points me in the direction of the right bush. I gather a handful of berries, then stop at the rusted metal shelves near the entrance and select an empty glass jar from the collection. I drop the berries inside and return to the lake house.
I find Vi sitting on the porch step outside bathed in the twilight mix of orange and lavender light. I still don’t know where in the human world this house is, but it’s a number of hours ahead of both Creepy Hollow and the mountain. “What will you do with the berries?” I ask as I hand her the jar.
“I’m not sure. I think Farah will make some kind of juice from them.”
She moves as if to stand and I quickly ask, “Can I hold her before you go? Just for a little bit.”
“Oh, yes, of course. I have to wait another hour before I can meet with Farah anyway.”
I sit beside Vi on the step and she places the sleeping Victoria into my arms. One tiny, clenched fist has broken free of the blanket that swaddles her. I run my finger gently over it, then across her fine, dark hair. “Have you had any clue as to what color she’ll settle with?”
Vi leans her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands as she watches her daughter sleeping. “Not yet. Her eyes are too dark to make out their color most of the time, and her hair … it seems to switch from light brown to dark, but I’ve seen no other color in the past few days, which is also what’s been worrying me.”
“It happened quickly with you, didn’t it?”
“Yes. My parents weren’t certain about my hair color, but my eyes were a very deep blue-purple from the beginning.”
I nod. “What birthmark did you mention just now?”
“Oh, it’s this dark pink shape on her left shoulder.” Vi lifts Victoria and holds her against her chest. She carefully pulls aside the blanket and clothing at the back of her neck. “See, it looks just like a flower. It’s almost a perfect shape.”
“That is so sweet.”
“I know. It’s grown lighter in the past few days, and I’m sad that it might fade away completely.”
“I guess it doesn’t matter what marks she does or doesn’t end up having, as long as she’s healthy.”
Vi nods and kisses Victoria’s head. “I just want her to have a safe, normal life. I can completely understand now why your mother never wanted you to join the Guild,” she adds with an apologetic smile. “It’s terrifying imagining my own child in the kinds of dangerous situations we’ve faced.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Looking at Victoria, I feel the same way. “Well at least she won’t have to worry about keeping a Griffin Ability secret. It isn’t possible for—” I cut myself off as that scrap of information I pushed to the back of my mind while at the baron’s house rushes suddenly to the forefront o
f my thoughts. “Unless … hmm.” I sit up straighter. “Unless it is possible. Unless our understanding of Griffin Abilities has never been complete.”
Instead of looking surprised, Vi nods. “That’s the question, isn’t it.”
“You’ve considered this?”
“I have. We’ve always been told that the Gifted were born to those who used a griffin disc. The increased power those people possessed while using a disc was somehow transferred to their children. But those discs lost their magic after they unlocked Tharros’ power from the chest it was trapped inside, and that was over a decade ago.”
“Right,” I say. “But what if that’s not the only way? What if … maybe … two Gifted can produce a child who’s also Gifted.”
“Exactly. I’ve wondered about this ever since I discovered I was pregnant, but there’s no record of it on the Griffin List. If there are other Gifted couples out there who’ve had children in the past decade, they’ve kept their abilities hidden, just as we have.” She looks out at the lake, becoming darker and darker as night draws near. “Without proof, we can only speculate whether this is possible or not.”
“I think I’ve seen proof.”
Her gaze snaps back to me. “You have?”
“Last night I rescued a Gifted faerie child whose touch could turn objects into gold. That isn’t normal magic, and her father didn’t deny that it was a Griffin Ability. She was only five years old.”
Vi’s eyes widen. She hugs Victoria closer as she murmurs, “So it must be possible then.”
“Look, we don’t know nearly enough about this to know if Victoria is Gifted. And even if she does turn out like us, is that such a bad thing? I mean, we’ve all managed to deal with our abilities.”
Vi closes her eyes and groans. “This motherhood thing has given me so many more things to worry about. I don’t—Oh.” She hands Victoria back to me so she can remove her pinging amber from her pocket. A tiny fist smacks my jaw as Victoria continues to wriggle and make nonsense sounds in her sleep.
“She really doesn’t enjoy sleeping, does she,” I mutter as Vi reads a message on her amber.
“Oh, finally,” she exclaims, her face breaking into a grin. “My dad’s visiting on Friday.”
As her words sink into my brain, I have to hold back a gasp of excitement. Vi’s dad—the only person I know who works at the Seelie Palace—will be in Creepy Hollow on Friday night. Reminding myself to continue acting normally, I ask, “Hasn’t he met Victoria yet?”
“He has. He was given a grand total of about twenty minutes off work the day she was born. But now he’ll be able to spend the whole evening with us.”
“That’s wonderful.” For more reasons than one. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I have to get the location of the Seelie Court out of Vi’s dad, and this will likely be my only chance.
Victoria’s sleepy protest noises grow louder and her eyes are half open now. “Here we go again,” Vi grumbles. “I should probably go before she starts screaming her little lungs out.”
I look over my shoulder and check the time on the clock inside. “I have to go too, actually. I have a meeting.”
“A meeting?” Vi asks as she takes Victoria from me and stands. “You know I’m curious, but I won’t ask.”
“Probably best.” I’d rather she not know that we’re about to discuss plans for breaking into the Seelie Palace.
CHAPTER
FIVE
I dash into the meeting room on one of the lower levels of the mountain and drop into a chair, noting that I’m the last person to arrive. The other five members of Chase’s team are already seated. Meeting time, I tell Chase. In case you want to add anything.
“Late again,” the elf girl with the spiked hair mutters from across the table. “You know some of us have actual jobs to be at in, like, ten minutes, right?”
I open my mouth to ask when last I was late, but Gaius gets in first. “Oh, did you find a new job, Ana? How wonderful.”
She absently twists one of the piercings in her left ear. “Yeah, well, we might be busy cooking up the biggest mission of our lives, but I’ve still got bills to pay.”
“You know you’re welcome to stay here if you—”
“Thanks, but no,” Ana interrupts. “I like my own space. Besides, Chase taught me well, so it wasn’t too hard to find work.”
“Oh, you’re also a tattoo artist?” I ask, working hard to keep my tone polite.
“Of course I’m a tattoo artist. Did you think I was just the receptionist?”
Darius, the blue-eyed faerie slouching in the chair beside Ana, snorts. “Receptionist,” he grunts in amusement. She flicks his arm with a tattooed finger.
“Perhaps we should begin,” Lumethon suggests, focusing her gaze on Gaius. With her perfectly white hair and colorless eyes a stark contrast against her dark skin, she might be a faerie with particularly exotic coloring or some other being entirely. I thought it too rude to ask.
Beside me, the drakoni man named Kobe who never says very much, nods in agreement.
“Right,” Gaius says. “Quick updates.”
I told you Ana doesn’t like me, I say to Chase as I fold my arms and focus on Gaius.
Give her time. She takes a while to warm up to new people.
The spider-like contraption I noticed on Gaius’s desk last night climbs onto the table. Lumethon snatches her hand out of the way as the device made of cogs, wheels, various pieces of metal, magic, and needle-thin sticks for legs moves past her toward Gaius. One spindly leg holds a scroll and another holds a quill. “Excellent, very good,” Gaius mutters with a smile.
Ana shakes her head and whispers, “Ridiculous.”
The spider raises the scroll and allows it to unroll, the bottom edge of the paper hitting the table and unfurling another few inches. Gaius leans forward to read whatever notes are on the scroll. “All other projects have come to an end, so we’re now focusing solely on Chase, the Seelie Court, and this terrible veil-splitting vision that Amon and Angelica are so interested in.” He looks around the table. “You’ll be pleased to know I’ve found some information on the prison beneath the palace. Most people don’t even know it exists, but it turns out an old friend of mine had a brother locked up there at some point, and he was allowed to visit before they, uh, carried out the sentence. And before you ask,” Gaius adds quickly, “he does not know how to get there. He was both stunned and blind-folded.”
“Seems excessive,” Darius comments.
“Indeed. Anyway, this friend of mine has agreed to put together some drawings of everything he remembers. We can examine the drawings in depth once I’ve got them.
“Next …” Gaius examines the scroll again. “Darius and Kobe met with the mer king last night and confirmed that the monument involved in the veil spell is under heavy guard. The king is still refusing to have it moved, though, and destroying it isn’t just out of the question, it’s apparently impossible as well.”
“I wish he’d at least let us try,” Darius says. “That would be fun.”
Kobe frowns, his reptile-like eyes narrowing at Darius. I see a flick of his forked tongue as he says, “Do you have no respect?”
“You know I have no—”
“What’s so magical about this trident monument anyway?” Ana asks. “I know the witch in the vision said something about magic of the heights and magic of the depths. And we all know the full moon can have a powerful influence on spells, so that’s the height part. Obviously the mer statue is for the depths part, but what’s so special about it?”
“As the name suggests,” Gaius says, “it’s been around since the time of the very first mer king. That was … oh, centuries and centuries ago. Every king and queen since then has added their magic to the monument in some way. That makes it a very powerful statue. Probably the most powerful object beneath the ocean’s surface.”
“Okay.” Ana sits back. “I guess that makes sense.”
“Right then,” Gaius sa
ys. “Lastly, we now have an invitation to Princess Audra’s birthday party at the Seelie Palace, so that’s our way in. It’s nine days away, including today, which means we still have time to find out how to actually get there. Ana and Lumethon, any luck with that?”
“Nothing yet,” Lumethon says as Ana shakes her head. “As we’re all aware, it’s a well-kept secret.”
“I think I can help there,” I say tentatively. Everyone’s attention focuses on me. “I know someone who works for the Seelie Queen.”
Ana’s hand slaps down on the table as her mouth drops open. “You didn’t think to mention this before?”
Patience, I remind myself. She’s a friend of Chase’s and I need to make an effort with her. “I did think of it,” I explain to the group, “but I decided there was no point in mentioning it since he hardly ever leaves the Seelie Court. It’s been months since I last saw him and we don’t have that kind of time where Chase is concerned. But I just found out that he’ll be visiting my brother and sister-in-law on Friday evening, so we have until then to come up with a way to get the Seelie Court location out of him.”
“Can’t you just ask him?” Darius says.
I try to keep my frustration in. “He’s a close advisor to the Seelie Queen. I am one hundred percent certain he won’t approve of a group of outlaws breaking into the palace to rescue the man who enslaved our world a decade ago.”
“I wasn’t suggesting you tell him that,” Darius says. “Just, you know, say that you’re curious.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Curious?”
“Okay, you have a point,” Darius concedes. “He’s definitely not going to just tell you.”
“I wonder if it might be possible to follow him,” Lumethon says. “You can keep yourself invisible so he doesn’t know.”
“I could, but what about the faerie paths? I assume they’d be involved for at least part of the journey, so I’d have to touch him in order to wind up at the same destination on the other side. How will I get away with that without him noticing?”
A Faerie's Curse (Creepy Hollow #6) Page 4
