by Sarina Dorie
Not on that matter anyway. I did want to find out what had happened to me and what Thatch and Elric were keeping secret. I peeked into a guest bedroom and probably people’s actual rooms, but I didn’t see any flashing lights and signs that pointed to a lockbox labeled “All Clarissa’s Secrets Hidden Here.” Life was never that easy.
I couldn’t find any secret passageways, only a servant hallway, but surely there had to be a way for brownies to get around and do the laundry secretly in an estate this big. Unless that was a job left to the paid servants. One of the maids caught me peeking behind a tapestry in the hallway and asked me what I was doing.
I tried to think of an excuse that might get me closer to what I wanted to achieve. “Do you have any brownies working here? I think one of them might have taken something of mine that needed mending. I wanted to see if I could get it back.”
“Good luck with that. Those little imps are likely to steal anything they can get their grubby hands on.”
That didn’t sound like the brownies I’d met at Womby’s, always performing good deeds like washing our clothes and darning socks if you left them gifts of food.
I continued peeking into rooms, backing out of one when I found Elric asleep in a bed. His cheeks and eyes were dark hollows, and he didn’t glitter when he wasn’t using a glamour. I didn’t think he’d want me to see him like that.
I found Constance sitting in another room, pushing pieces of a puzzle around at a table. She greeted me warmly. “Hello, child. So nice of you to pay me a visit.”
“Oh, um, hi,” I said. “Nice to see you again.”
The elderly woman smiled cheerfully. “How long has it been?”
I tried to think back to when the Silver Court had hosted the ball I’d attended.
“A day? Two? Time runs together for me.” She squinted at me. “Have you brought any books to read to me?”
“No. Sorry.” I had a feeling she thought I was someone else. “Do you want me to fetch a book?”
“No. You can help me with this puzzle instead.”
I sat with her for a time, trying to make up for the last time we’d met. I could understand why Elric hadn’t told me about her, but he should have told her about me. Sometimes lies hurt worse than the truths we tried to shelter people from.
After about fifteen minutes, Constance fell asleep in her chair, and I left.
I didn’t finish my indoor tour and secret-passage scavenger hunt. Temptation thwarted me.
I passed by a window showing a view of the garden. The bright flowers and cheerful sunshine were inviting enough, but then two children ran by. The boys were dressed in old-fashioned knickers and flat caps. They might have been real children, or just Fae who resembled children. It was hard to tell the difference. But they laughed and chased each other like real kids would do. I wondered what children were doing here at Elric’s estate. I decided exploring outside tempted me more than wandering about indoors.
The garden was planned with a mixture of practical plants and ornamental ones, a hedge of raspberries growing under giant laurel, and herbs arranged along the paths for easy access. I brushed my fingers over sprigs of lavender, loving the aroma they gave off. The flowers were like a Monet painting, the colors vibrating next to each other, looking like the art lived and breathed. There was a certain magic in the organic beauty.
My fairy godmother would love this garden.
Thinking of her made me sad, though I couldn’t pinpoint why that was the case. That lonely melancholy might have been homesickness. I wondered whether she knew about what had happened and whether she worried. Maybe I should write her a letter. I didn’t want to worry her, but I had a feeling no one had told her. If she had known, she would be here looking after me like the other time I’d been injured.
Eventually I came upon Vega seated on a bench under a tree. Even though she wore cream and not pink, her complexion was off. Always when she’d taught at Womby’s she’d been pale. Her skin was darker than I remembered. The sunlight might have been responsible, but that didn’t explain the dusky gray tinge to her skin. Maybe pastels didn’t suit her.
Then again, she didn’t look unattractive. Just not herself.
I waved at her as I approached. She was nursing a baby, a thin cloth draped across her shoulder and over the baby’s head.
“Is that your baby?”
“No. It’s my little monster.” She cooed at the baby. “You are Mama’s monster, aren’t you?”
I smiled along with her. “What’s your monster’s name?”
“Sebastian.”
“You named him after Mr. Reade?”
“Of course. He was my favorite teacher.” I hadn’t known that, only that he had taught her foreign languages when she’d been a student at Lady of the Lake School for Girls. Vega was full of surprises.
“How old is he?” I couldn’t see him with the way he was covered with the cloth.
“Three months.” She looked happy, content even. I wasn’t used to seeing that expression on her face.
“So that means . . . you didn’t miscarry? I thought you were attacked. . . .” I tried to recall the details.
“I was. At your wedding. Don’t you remember the Raven Court dropping in uninvited? And that nasty ex-boyfriend of yours who was a pirate?” She frowned at me. “Josie already told you about this.”
“I sort of remember. Yes,” I lied. I didn’t remember Derrick at our wedding. I was vaguely aware of the Raven Court being there. There had been fighting and something had happened. I could feel myself riding on Bart’s back as he galloped away, his rainbow mane flying into my face. When I closed my eyes, I could see flashes of memory. “I know something bad happened. Thatch probably thinks it will upset me. That’s the only reason he doesn’t want to tell me.”
“It’s always suspicious when Thatch and Elric agree on something. Elric told me I’m not so say anything that would interfere with your healing process. He doesn’t want me to discuss what happened because he thinks your condition is too delicate to handle any more trauma.” She looked me up and down. “I tend to think it’s your magic that’s broken, not your heart. What do you think? Will you be able to handle the truth when you find out?”
I thought about it and nodded. “Not knowing is worse because I’ll worry I did something wrong, that I used my magic in some stupid way that drained myself and Felix. But guilt isn’t going to make me unable to heal my magic, you know.”
“So you think you’ll be able to handle it if you find out everything is your fault yet again?”
She said it as though everything always was my fault. In a way, it was. I was the reason the Raven Queen attacked the school and students. I was the reason she had cursed Derrick and had hurt . . . I tried to remember whom else she’d hurt to get to me.
“I did miscarry,” Vega said quietly. “Elric brought me to his castle to recover for a while. I thought he would be angry. Disappointed in me. I thought he would say I had broken my contract with him.”
“What exactly is your contract?”
“He wanted to marry a Red affinity so he could have heirs. I told him I would give him an heir if he married me and shared half his income and estate with me and our children. He hasn’t gotten this far without being good at bargains. He insisted I had to prove to him I could have a child. We didn’t become engaged until I was pregnant.” Her lips turned down. “I have a feeling he wouldn’t have made the same demand of you.”
I stared at the pebbles in the path. She was right. He had wanted me to marry him before I had regained my affinity.
“Not that it bothers me. It was strictly a business arrangement for the both of us,” she said briskly. “It wasn’t like he loved me. I knew that. And sex with him wasn’t boring at least.” A sly smile slid across her face. “As you know.”
“Uh. Well. Um,” I stammered.
“He’s the best lover any woman could ask for, even when he isn’t using magic. Don’
t try to tell me Thatch is better. I know he isn’t.”
She didn’t know Thatch like I did. He was considerate and passionate with me because he loved me. Vega and Thatch hadn’t ever loved each other.
But she was right about Elric being very good. I didn’t want to compare them and think about who was better.
I prompted her. “Anyway. . . .”
“Anyway, Elric didn’t rush me. Even after I’d recovered, he didn’t bring up our contract. I suppose it could be that old-fashioned gentleman in him. A hundred years ago, it would be scandalous to become engaged to a lady and then break up with her, but I doubt etiquette stops Fae from bad behavior, like draining children in the Morty Realm when children don’t even know they’re Witchkin. . . .” She stared into the distance, falling silent for a moment.
I wondered if she was referring to someone in particular.
“I also knew it could be for practical reasons he didn’t pester me to fulfill my end of the bargain. I had proven I was capable of getting pregnant. If I’d done it once, I could do it again. Since I was marrying him, he knew I could have another child for him.”
“It could also be because he cares about you.” I remembered the way they’d giggled as they’d danced in the parlor. He did love her in his way. He’d had more than one wife before—sometimes at once. It was possible he had enough room in his heart to love multiple women at the same time. Just because he loved me didn’t mean he couldn’t love her.
Vega waved me off. “Who doesn’t that man care about? He feels bad every time he eats a steak. It’s pathetic.”
They were a classic example of opposites that attracted. They balanced each other’s personalities. Maybe that was why Thatch and I got along too.
“I was quite upset after I’d miscarried. In part because I didn’t know if he would break off our engagement and our agreement would be null. And in part because I felt so . . . alone and miserable and—” She cleared her throat. “broken.”
I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Because of the miscarriage?”
“Because you had been abducted. I was injured. I felt helpless to do anything about it. I couldn’t miscarry all at once and for it to be over with. It took days of bleeding to finally be done with the business. All the while, I kept hoping the baby would be all right. I didn’t know if Elric was going to throw me out of his castle the moment he realized I wasn’t of use to him.”
She didn’t say she loved Elric. She probably couldn’t admit she needed his love, but I could see she did.
She took in a deep breath, blinking away the tears in her eyes. “You weren’t available to talk to, first because you had been abducted, and then because you were distracted, and then when they brought you here, no one told me. By the time I found out, I was pregnant again and wasn’t permitted to see you. I could have talked to Josephine Kimura, but she doesn’t listen at all. All my friends in the school crypt were gone. They buried Sebastian Reade, so I couldn’t see his corpse anymore. I had no one to confide in.” She took in a deep breath. “I had no one to talk to but Elric.”
Talking to the living probably wasn’t such a bad thing. Not that saying so would make Vega feel better.
I rubbed her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t need your pity. You can save all that for your husband.” She shrugged my hand off her shoulder. “Everything turned out fine. Elric didn’t make our arrangement conditional. He didn’t ask me to conceive again. It just happened naturally after the first one ended. And if it had happened any differently, I wouldn’t have Sebastian. Now we all get to live happily ever after.”
“I’m glad you and Elric have each other. I think you’re a good match.”
“Whatever.”
I sat on the bench beside her, thinking about what she’d said. There was one detail that still bothered me. “It’s August now?” Thatch had mentioned something about going back to school soon if I was better.
“Yes.”
She lifted the baby and draped him across her shoulder, patting his back to burp him. He was turned away, only a tuft of blond hair visible above his swaddling. From what I could see, his complexion was gray like Vega’s.
“The math doesn’t make sense.” I calculated again in my head. “Thatch and I got married in early May. Then you got pregnant again. If you carried the baby for a full term, you probably had the baby in the spring? March. April?”
“May.”
“If the baby is three months that makes this. . . .”
“August. Yes, that’s correct.”
Realization came crashing down on me. I hadn’t been asleep for three months. I’d been asleep for fourteen months.
CHAPTER NINE
Boys and Ghouls
I clutched my heart, feeling like I were about to have a heart attack. “No one told me I’d been asleep for fourteen months.”
Vega shrugged. “I assumed you knew.”
Thatch had purposefully misled me to believe it was summer vacation and not much time had passed. Elric hadn’t wanted to tell me because he thought I might upset myself and fall back asleep. I forced myself to breathe slowly, to relax my muscles, and release tension I held in my body.
I waited until I could speak calmly. “Who is teaching my position?”
Vega laughed. “You don’t want to know.”
“Yes, I do! Tell me right now. Please say it isn’t Chuck Dean.” I couldn’t imagine anyone worse. Maybe Vega would be worse. It was hard to say.
She laughed even harder. Little Sebastian burped. Vega kissed the side of his head. “If I tell you, you need to promise to calm down. This is probably why no one wants to tell you anything. You get all worked up and become narcoleptic.”
I was about ready to pull out my hair. “Who? Who is it?”
“Promise first.”
“I can’t.”
She cooed at Sebastian, ignoring me.
“Fine. I swear not to get upset. Who is teaching my class?” I didn’t mean the promise. Since she hadn’t made me write my name in blood or bound me with a magical contract, I wasn’t obligated to keep my word, which was fortunate since it was unlikely I would be able to.
Vega smirked. “A recent graduate of Womby’s School for Wayward Witches. A former student with few prospects for a job in the Unseen Realm and even less of a chance of passing as a Morty to live among them unnoticed. As they say, those who can, do; those who can’t, teach . . . art.”
I ignored the dig. I scoured my brain for who had been in the graduating class a year ago. Maddy maybe. Not Imani or Greenie. They would have just graduated. Also, I wouldn’t have worried about either of them becoming art teachers. They both possessed a natural talent for the arts.
Vega smiled sweetly. “I’ll give you a hint. She only caught your classroom on fire once a year while you taught at Womby’s.”
“No,” I said, not believing her for a moment. “Not Hailey Achilles.”
“Thatch suggested it. Personally I think it was so he could lord it over her since she has no artistic talent at all. Khaba went with it because she could coach part-time and take some of the load off Coach Kutchi’s plate. Sports is something Hailey excels at. And she doesn’t have a teaching license, so she’s more of a student teacher, which means Khaba doesn’t have to pay her much beyond room and board. If anything, she should be paying the school for giving her valuable on-the-job training. I had to go to a Witchkin college and pay for that.”
She was being serious. Thatch had suggested they hire Hailey, the least artistic student of all time, to fill my position because . . . probably because she had nowhere else to go. She’d come back to my classroom again and again, even when I gave her detentions for bad behavior. There must have been something about the environment I’d created that made her feel safe and welcome.
Warmth suffused me discovering that Thatch had done this for her. And I had done something right that she wanted to return to my classroom a
gain and again.
I smiled. “That’s nice.”
“Huh,” Vega said. “Not the reaction I was expecting.”
I didn’t doubt her reason for telling me was to try to get a rise out of me.
She readjusted the baby in her arms, dabbing at his face with the cloth from her shoulder. I still couldn’t see much of him with the way she held him away from me.
“Can I hold the baby?” I asked.
“No. You might drop him.”
“I’ve held babies before.”
“He’s different. He’s … special.”
“Just like you,” I said.
She made a face. “I refuse to bleach his skin with magic like my parents did to me. If Sebastian wants to do that when he’s older, that’s his decision, but I won’t treat him like I’m ashamed of what he is. Elric agrees with me. He says he will love Sebastian no matter what color his skin is.”
The new mystery of the day.
“What is he?” It was a rude question to ask in this world, but Vega had never been known for tact and social etiquette.
She didn’t lift her nose up at me or act insulted, so that was a good sign.
“My great grandparents were ghouls.” She waved a hand over her face. “I stopped using glamours to hide my skin tone eight months ago. My natural color has started to come back. Elric says he likes this look.”
“What is a ghoul?” I was pretty sure I knew, but I’d forgotten. “It’s a kind of ghost, right?”
“Clarissa, you really are impossible.”
“I wasn’t raised in the Unseen Realm.”
“There’s this thing called books. You could read them.”
I did. I just preferred The Return of the Entwives to nonfiction when I could help it.
She turned the baby toward me. He was cute in that chubby cherub way babies were supposed to look. He could have been a model baby with his picture on a jar of baby food except that his complexion was gray. It was almost like looking at a black-and-white photograph. His hair was silvery blond and his complexion absent of color. Except for his eyes. They were a startling green. From his pallor, I would have thought he were dead if he hadn’t wiggled an arm out of his swaddling and grabbed a fistful of my pink hair.
