Masquerade (Creepy Hollow, #4)

by Rachel Morgan

  It feels good.

  I crawl toward the gnarled roots of the nearest tree and collapse against them. My breathing is heavy. I guess Zinnia was right about me needing more rest. I close my eyes and see Nate’s smiling face against the back of my eyelids. Something twists painfully in my chest. He said he cared about me. He almost said he loved me! So how could he trick me into walking right into Zell’s hands? Zell must have some kind of hold over him, right? My desperate heart begins grasping for excuses, but I chase them away. There is no excuse good enough for what Nate did. I would never have betrayed him like that, no matter what anyone threatened me with.

  I press the heels of my hands against my eyes. I want to stay angry. I try to cling to it, but I feel it slipping away, leaving a hollow ache behind. My chest hitches and a sob escapes my lips. Then another. The forest swims before my eyes as tears well up and spill down my cheeks. I find my stylus and write a doorway on the tree trunk behind me. I crawl into it.

  On the other side, in my sitting room, I don’t bother standing up. I drag myself over to the couch, lean back, and draw my knees up to my chest. The tears keep falling. I don’t try to stop them. I feel as though I am crying with my whole body. Great, shuddering gasps that leave me even more desperate for air.

  Something soft nudges my side. Filigree, in white mink form, slips into the gap between my legs and chest. His warm, furry form is comforting, which makes me cry even harder.

  I wipe my hands across my face. Stupid, stupid, STUPID. I should not be crying over a boy. I didn’t even love him. “I DID NOT!” I shout, watching a few sparks fly off my tongue. I’m not sure who I’m trying to convince. Filigree snuggles closer, his claws poking me through my clothes. No. I didn’t love Nate. I was just stupid enough to care about him, that’s all. And now I am alone again. There is no one for me to daydream about. No one for me to visit at night. No one for me to share my world with. It’s just Filigree and me alone in this house again. Like it was before.

  Except now it’s a lot worse, because now I know what I’m missing.

  I take a deep breath and push myself to my feet. “It doesn’t have to be like this, Fili.” I sniff and rub my eyes. “We can make it the way it used to be.” With Filigree curled around my neck, I hurry upstairs to my bedroom. I pull my emergency kit out of my training bag and dump the contents on my bed. “Where is it, where is it . . . There.” I wrap my hand around the tiny vial, then push it into my pocket. I pull Filigree off my neck and place him on the bed, where he promptly turns into an owl. He stares at me with unblinking eyes. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to take it. Not yet, anyway.” I pat his feathery head. “I’ll be back soon.”

  *

  I enter the Guild through the trainees’ entrance, not the main entrance I took Nate through the first night I met him. The faerie paths let me out into a small room off the main entrance, where I have to let Tank scan my trainee pendant with his stylus before he’ll let me in. I hurry past him with barely a greeting.

  I head downstairs to the third floor below ground. There are closed doors down here I’ve never been allowed behind, but one place I’ve visited is the potions laboratory. After all, one of the guys who works here was my assignment last year. I feel that gives me the right to visit occasionally and check up on him. And ask for favors.

  I pull the heavy door open and cough as acrid fumes greet me. It’s close to midnight, but I knew he’d be here; he’s overly dedicated to his work. I wave my hand through the air, clearing a path through the haze of blue smoke.

  “Violet!” I jump as the urisk hobbles through a doorway on the other side of the lab. As always, his appearance startles me. No matter how many times I see him, I can’t quite get used to his bald, misshapen head and scrawny, wrinkled body. It always takes a second or two to remind myself I don’t need to be afraid of him. Despite the fact that he wound up on my assignment list, he would never intentionally hurt anyone; the poor guy just wanted a friend. Unfortunately, he almost scared a human girl to death in his search for friendship. “What a lovely surprise!” he says. He carefully places a cylinder of yellow liquid on a lab bench, then tilts his head to the side. “Did you shrink, dear?”

  “What?” I look down at my loose clothing. “Oh. No, these aren’t my clothes. Anyway, that’s not important. I need your help, Uri.” Uri isn’t his real name, of course. It’s something ridiculously unpronounceable. Uri The Urisk seemed a lot easier to wrap my tongue around. He was cool with that.

  “Of course, of course.” He climbs onto a stool on the other side of the workbench. “What can I do for you? Need someone else’s eyebrows turned orange?” I wish I could smile at the memory of Ryn and Dale’s orange eyebrows. They tried every spell they could think of to get rid of the color, but Uri’s special little charm refused to budge for an entire week. My mouth feels like it’s forgotten how to smile though. Trying to force my lips upward seems impossible right now.

  “I need to forget about someone,” I say. “Well, more specifically, I need to forget that I loved someone. I mean, cared about someone. I didn’t love him. Love takes time to develop, right? And I barely knew him. Just a few weeks, really. That’s not love. Maybe it could have been, but he made sure that didn’t happen.” Stop rambling, dammit! I take a deep breath.

  “Forget someone. Hmm.” Uri rubs his hands together. “Well, the ingredients for a potion like that are—”

  “Rare and expensive. I’ve heard. But I’ve got this.” I pull the vial of Forget out of my pocket and place it on the workbench between us. “Maybe you can make use of it?” Uri eyes the vial with a raised eyebrow. He’ll be wondering how I came to be in possession of this particular potion. From his perspective there are only two options: Either I stole it, or I was supposed to use it on a human and didn’t. “And please . . . don’t tell anyone about this.”

  “Well . . .” He sits back, rolling the tiny vial back and forth between his knobbly thumb and forefinger. “I can try and isolate the ingredients from this potion, but as I’ve never needed to do that before, I’m not sure I’d be successful. And, of course, I’d need something that belongs to this boy you’re hoping to forget about.”

  “Here.” I hand over Nate’s torn and bloodied T-shirt that, for some reason, I never got around to throwing away after the labyrinth incident.

  Uri takes the T-shirt, then begins tapping a finger against an empty glass jar. “Are you sure you want to forget about him? Whatever hurt you’re feeling right now won’t last forever, and surely it’s best to keep all your memories intact.”

  I sigh. Uri’s probably right, but that doesn’t mean I have to listen to him. “I don’t want to completely forget about him. It’s in my permanent record that he followed me into the fae realm, so it would create complications if I forgot his existence entirely. But I would like to forget that I was ever stupid enough to care about him.” I lean forward. “And yes, I am absolutely sure about that.”

  *

  Tears burn behind my eyes the moment I step back into my home. I want to curl up in a corner and wait there until Uri’s managed to make a potion for me. I don’t care how long it takes him. I know I’m being completely pathetic, but I don’t want to face the world right—

  Bang!

  “What the hell?” Filigree appears in the kitchen and points his squirrel paw in the direction of my front door. Well, the area of my wall that could be called a front door if faeries homes actually had front doors. I hear the sound again and recognize it as the sound of the door knocker attached to the outside of my tree.

  A muffled voice: “Come on, Violet, just open up.” It’s Ryn. I stride into the sitting room, cross my arms, and stare at the wall. Who the heck does he think he is coming over here and demanding to be let in? What does he want? Another fight?

  He slams the knocker over and over again. “Dammit, Violet, please. I really need to talk to you.”

  Well, you are the last person I want to talk to.

  “I swear, if you don�
�t open up right now, I’m going to find my own way—”

  I sweep my hand across the wall, opening a doorway. “What?” I demand. “Here for round two?”

  He freezes, his hand still in the air, then sighs. “Look. I need your help.”

  I hear the words, but they don’t make any sense. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “I need your help,” he repeats slowly through clenched teeth.

  And suddenly it all makes sense. He only saved me because he needs something. And from the look on his face, I’m the last person he wants to ask. Which is fine with me, because I sure as hell don’t feel like helping him. I cross my arms and glare at him.

  “You going to make me beg?” he asks.

  “I doubt it’ll help, but I’d love to see you try.”

  He looks to the side and breathes out sharply, shaking his head. Then he closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and slowly gets down on both knees. “Please,” he says, refusing to look up at me. “Please. You’re the only one who can help me.”

  My mouth drops open. Maybe this is all a dream. Maybe I haven’t been on a date with Nate yet, and he hasn’t betrayed me, and I didn’t have to run from Zell, and Ryn isn’t really on his knees begging for my help. I press my fingernails into my arms. It hurts.

  “Now that I’ve completely humiliated myself, will you let me in?”

  I drop my arms to my sides and step back, still barely able to believe that Ryn would actually get down on his knees in front of me. Filigree shifts to snow leopard form and bares his teeth as Ryn gets to his feet and walks in. The doorway seals up behind him. I cross the room and settle myself on one of the couches. Hopefully we can get this over with quickly. “So what do you need help with?”

  Ryn glances in Filigree’s direction, then follows me. After removing a bag from his shoulder, he chooses a seat opposite me and sits down. “It’s my sister. She’s missing.”

  I narrow my eyes. “You don’t have a sister.”

  “Half sister,” he corrects. “My father left, remember? Broke the union with my mother?” I do remember that. It happened soon after Reed died. “Anyway, he met someone else, and now, hey presto, I have a little sister.”

  I imagine a miniature version of Ryn. A miniature girl version. Wow, I sure do pity the girls who’ll have to suffer through school with her one day. “And now she’s gone and you need me to find her.”

  “Yes. They discovered she was missing on Tuesday morning, and I know you can find people faster than anyone at the Guild can, so I went looking for you. Now it’s Thursday night and they still haven’t found any trace of her, and I’m really—”

  “It’s Thursday night?” I hadn’t expected that.

  “Yeah, you’ve been asleep for the past two days, and I was going to ask for your help the moment you woke up, but—”

  “Then you screwed that up by insulting me instead.” He runs a hand through his hair, and it reminds me so much of Nate that I have to look to the side quickly so he won’t see the tears I’m blinking away.

  “Look, I know we don’t like each other, Violet, and I don’t expect you to give a damn about my little sister, but I have to find her. All you need to do is tell me where she is and then I’ll leave you alone.” He opens his bag and turns it upside down so that the contents tumble onto the couch beside him. A guardian emergency kit along with dolls, clothes, a blanket and a book.

  “You know I only need one thing, right?”

  He shrugs. “I wanted to make sure you could definitely find her.”

  I stare at him. He looks like the same guy who’s been tormenting me for years, but this is a side of him I don’t recognize. The Ryn I know stopped caring about people years ago, but it’s clear he’ll do anything for this little sister of his. And while she’s probably a brat just like him, she doesn’t deserve to be kidnapped. And he did save my life.

  “Okay.” I lean forward. “Give me the blanket.” He passes it to me across the low table between the couches. It’s small and well-worn; I’m guessing she’s had it since she was a baby. Before closing my eyes, I look over at Ryn. “Did you tell anyone I’d be able to help you?”

  He shakes his head. “No. I remember your dad telling Reed and me to keep your little trick a secret.”

  My little trick. Well, that’s one way of putting it. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”

  “She’s still alive, right?” says Ryn the moment I open my eyes.

  “Yes. She’s alone in a bedroom. I could sense that the house is really large, and I think it’s a human one. I couldn’t feel a glamour concealing it.” I leave out the part about the icy feeling of dark magic that pervaded my senses while looking through the girl’s eyes.

  He leans further forward. “And where is it?”

  “I’m . . . not sure exactly. I guess I’ll have to show you. Just let me change into my own clothes.” I stand up as Ryn flops back against the couch with a frustrated sigh. I put my hands on my hips. “What? You know it’s not always as simple as knowing the exact address.”

  “I know, I know. Just hurry up, would you?” I roll my eyes as I head for the stairs. It’s obviously too much to hope for a ‘thank you’.

  A few minutes later, feeling far more comfortable in my own clothes, I’m back downstairs holding the blanket once more. I send my mind out again, just to be certain I can sense where she is. I open a doorway on the wall while Ryn stuffs the blanket into his bag. “What’s her name?” I ask, sticking my foot through the doorway to keep it open.

  “Calla. She’s six years old and probably completely terrified.” He slings the bag over his shoulder and holds out his hand. “Let’s go.”

  Reluctantly, I wrap my fingers around his. I can’t help thinking that the last hand I held was Nate’s. The dull ache in my chest intensifies, and I have to bite my lip as I struggle to push it away. Don’t think, don’t think, don’t think.

  Ryn’s hand tightens. “Come on, what are you waiting for?” The urge to kick him overwhelms the pain in my chest. I dig my fingernails into his skin as I pull him into the faerie paths after me.

  It could be that I’m distracted by my anger, but when we emerge from the paths, there isn’t a house in sight. We’re in a forest, but it’s nothing like Creepy Hollow. It feels dead somehow. Boring. No magic. Ryn looks around. “Large human house that isn’t concealed, huh? You sure your little talent still works properly?”

  “Shut it,” I snap. “I’m perfectly happy for you to find the house on your own if you’ve decided you don’t need my help anymore.”

  He holds his hands up, indicating surrender. “You need the blanket again?”

  “Uh . . . give me something smaller that I can hold onto.”

  He digs around in his bag and produces a simple silver bracelet. “She wears this quite often.”

  Moonlight glints off the silver as he drops it into my hand. I close my eyes, and it only takes a moment to sense the direction she’s in. I point through the trees. “That way.”

  “And she’s still okay? There’s no one else with her?”

  “I think she’s asleep. I can’t see anything through her eyes.” I push the bracelet into my pocket. “I’ll leave once we’ve found the house.”

  Ryn lets me lead the way. I can tell that my pace isn’t fast enough for him, but, miraculously, he doesn’t say anything. “Do you know why somebody would want to kidnap your sister?” I think of the young girl Tora asked me to find earlier this week and wonder if that incident is related to this one.

  “No,” says Ryn. “I have no idea. She’s just a normal child.”

  “Okay. And . . . how did you find me? On Tuesday night, I mean. I didn’t even know where I was.”

  “Well, you weren’t at your house, and you weren’t at the Guild, and the Seers told me you weren’t out on assignment. So then I checked Tora’s house. After I remembered she’s away, I just started wandering around, trying to figure out where you might be. I came across you soon after that, quite close to To
ra’s.”

  “Oh.” I wonder if I would have survived if he hadn’t found me. I’m guessing the chances are slim. “Yeah, um, I kind of fell out the side of a mountain and wasn’t thinking too clearly when I dropped into the faerie paths.”

  “Oh yes. Halfling boy betrayed you. Did he take you up there just to push you off? Seems a bit excessive to me. I’m sure there are easier ways he could have got rid of you.”

  “I’m sure there are, but I’d prefer not to talk about it.”

  “Oh, wait, you mentioned another faerie. Halfing boy betrayed you to someone else, right?”

  “Ryn.”

  “So we know there is at least one person out there who wants you, for whatever reason. Oh, is this it?” We slow down as we near a tall brick wall. Excellent timing, as I was beginning to feel an urgent need to hurt Ryn. I stop walking. Looking left and right, I see that the wall extends out of sight in both directions.

  “Guess it could be.” I wrap my hands around the lowest branch of the tree beside me. “We’ll have to get higher to find out.” I pull myself up, then continue climbing from branch to branch. I hear Ryn following me; he’d never trust me to just tell him what I see.

  When I’ve climbed as high as the tree will allow, I stop and lean back against the trunk. The forest continues on the other side of the wall, but where it comes to an end I can see the outline of a massive house. A mansion, humans would call it. “Yes, that’s it.”

  Ryn pulls himself onto the branch beside mine and whistles. “Wow, that’s an impressive home.”

  “I’ll say.” Whatever they want with Calla, it certainly isn’t ransom money. I make sure I have a clear path to the ground, then jump. I land easily, bending into a crouch to absorb the impact. I stand, place my hands on my hips and look up at the wall. “I don’t think you’re getting over that.”