Shadow Faerie

by Rachel Morgan

  “And you never cared to find out,” I murmur.

  He shakes his head. “No. You can hate me for it, but I didn’t care to find out. I didn’t ever want to think of them again.”

  “What were—”

  Crack.

  My gaze whips toward the bubble. The rope around Ada’s wrists is now glittering glass instead of glittering gold. With another crack, she tugs her arms apart, shattering her bonds into hundreds of shards before climbing upright.

  Thirty-Five

  Ada’s angry cries, only somewhat muted by the bubble surrounding her, greet my ears. She pummels the inside of the shield with glass, hail and stones. “And she mocked us for wanting to use fancy magic,” Dash says to Zed.

  “Dash,” I say as I fumble with the pocket inside the backpack, “maybe this shield bubble thing wasn’t such a good idea. You should have gathered more magic to stun her a second time.”

  “And then have to wait another few hours for her to wake again?”

  “A small stunner spell then! But this? She’s going to get free.” I wrap my fingers around one of the vials and jump upright.

  “She won’t,” Zed says. Both his hands are raised. Hopefully he’s reinforcing whatever magic is surrounding Ada.

  “Is that Dani?” Ada demands, pausing briefly in her attack of the shield bubble. “You stupid people. You know she can’t wake up, don’t you? I put her into an eternal sleep!” She continues flinging her magic around, trying to break free.

  “Em, are you ready?” Dash asks. “Tell her what you need to tell her.”

  “Wait. Will my Griffin Ability work through the shield?”

  “I don’t know! Why wouldn’t it?”

  “I’m going to kill you!” Ada screeches, reminding me for a moment of the woman in the Unseelie prison. “I’m going to kill you two useless excuses for guardians. I’ll hide Dani in a distant hole no one will ever find, and then I’ll take what I came for. You!” she spits at me.

  “So you’ve changed your mind about me?” I ask as I pull the stopper from the vial. “Because back in Stanmeade, you made it sound like you didn’t have much use for me. But whatever your reasons are for showing up here, Adaline, I’ll soon discover them all.” I tip at least half the vial’s contents down my throat.

  Ada goes still. She clenches her fists, shuts her eyes, and lets out a blood-chilling scream. Glass explodes from the floor in a ring around her, slices straight through the shield, and embeds itself in the ceiling.

  The shield bubble is gone.

  She freezes for one second, a triumphant smile on her face and a terrifying gleam in her eyes. Then she raises her hand toward me. That familiar tingling sensation starts at the base of my spine as my Griffin Ability gets ready to rush to the surface. But it isn’t quite there yet, and if I can’t—

  Zed launches across the room and collides with Ada.

  “No!” I gasp as the two of them crash to the floor. I expect Zed to turn to glass in an instant. I expect to see all my hopes for Mom shatter to pieces. But the two of them become strangely still as they lie there on the floor. Zed’s hand is wrapped around Ada’s wrist, but his grip isn’t tight, and she isn’t fighting him. They’re staring at something beyond sight. Twitching, moaning. “No,” Ada whimpers, watching something neither Dash nor I can see. “No, please don’t. Stop, please.”

  Frozen in place, without a clue of what to do, I ask, “What’s happening?”

  “I don’t know.” Dash inches closer to the two of them.

  Then finally, my Griffin magic races to fill my voice with power. Words tumble from my mouth: “Ada, your glass magic has no power in this world.” An unexpectedly large amount of magic floods from my body, leaving me a little unsteady. I raise my hands to steady myself. Fortunately, I sense some remaining Griffin magic lingering at the edge of my control. “Ada, you will obey me when I tell you to wake Dani from the enchanted sleep you placed over her,” I add quickly. “And Zed, you will answer my questions with the truth, and you’ll do everything possible to heal Dani and return her to the way she was before the changeling spell.”

  My voice has lost its deep resonance for the last few words of my command, but I’m confident I managed to say enough to ensure Zed can’t intentionally hurt my mother. Just in case it turns out he’s lied about everything so far.

  I take a few careful steps closer to Ada and Zed. His hand slips away from her wrist. Her whimpering ends, and they both lie still, trembling slightly. As Ada blinks and looks around, Dash rushes to her, grabs her hands, and forces them behind her back. Zed pushes himself up, wiping moisture from beneath his eyes. “You swore you’d never do that to me,” Ada whispers shakily to Zed.

  “I swore I’d never do that to Dani,” he answers without looking at her. “I didn’t swear anything to you.”

  “What did you do to her?” I ask, my eyes shifting back and forth between them.

  He swallows. “My Griffin Ability. I try never to use it. But … desperate times and all that.”

  I crouch down in front of them. “What does it do?”

  “Nightmares. I can make people relive their worst nightmares.” He closes his eyes. “The catch is that I have to feel every ounce of terror they’re experiencing. So my Griffin Ability tortures me almost as much as it tortures my victims.”

  An involuntary shiver crawls across my skin. “That’s horrible.”

  Ada yanks suddenly against the bonds that now hold her hands behind her back. “What did you do to me? What did you say?”

  “If you’ve realized you can’t use your Griffin Ability anymore, then you can probably guess what I said.”

  “You little cow,” she spits. “How dare you take my own magic from me?”

  My gaze hardens. “You’ve killed people. You were about to kill Zed and Dash. You’re the reason my aunt and cousin are dead. Forgive me if I can’t muster an ounce of pity for you over the fact that you can’t use your horrible glass magic.”

  Her gaze narrows. “You never loved your aunt and cousin. Your friend always told me that. I did you a favor by getting rid of them.”

  I stand and take a step back. “What friend? What are you talking about?”

  Her glare turns into a taunting smile. “I seem to remember telling you I’ve always had someone watching you. Someone ready to update me every few months when I stopped by Stanmeade to find out if anything interesting had happened to you yet. I’m not going to tell you who, of course. I might need to use that person again.”

  “You won’t,” I assure her, “because we’re going to make sure you’re put back exactly where you’re supposed to be.”

  A frown creases her forehead as she looks between the three of us. Then her gaze settles on my unconscious mother—and I watch as understanding finally dawns in her eyes. “No,” she says. “You can’t. It isn’t possible. Dani has to be awake for—”

  “She will be awake. You are going to wake her up.”

  She goes still for a moment, her mouth open, probably ready to refuse. But she can’t escape my Griffin Ability. A wordless cry of anger finally breaks free as she begins shuffling across the floor toward my mother. Dash takes hold of her arms and helps her along. He deposits her right beside Mom, where she begins thrashing from side to side. “Dash, her arms,” I say, moving closer. “I think she needs to use her hands.” He bends as a knife forms instantly in his grip. He cuts the ropes binding her wrists, and she brings her hands around to hover over Mom’s motionless body.

  “Dammit—I don’t want—Argh!” She’s putting up a good fight against my magical command, but even as her furious cry leaves her mouth, other foreign words begin flying from her tongue. Dash takes a step back and raises a crossbow, pointing it straight at Ada. Zed moves to stand beside him, a short curved blade appearing in each hand. For good measure, I pick up the dagger from the floor and walk to Dash’s side.

  “We shouldn’t need to stop her,” Zed says to Dash as the speed of Ada’s chanting increases. “I r
ecognize the words. She’s saying the right thing.”

  Dash nods. “Em’s voice is hard to resist. But we don’t know what she’ll try once Dani’s awake. Be ready to act.”

  I tighten my sweaty grip on the dagger’s hilt. As Ada chants her spell repeatedly, I sense something different and unnatural pervading the atmosphere. Something that gives me the urge to look over my shoulder to see whether some kind of threatening force is inching closer, about to grab me. I flinch as her chanting reaches a new level of frenzy. She tilts her head back, and an uncomfortable shiver raises the hair at the back of my neck. Dash’s hand wraps around mine, and I don’t pull away. I want to flee as far as I can from this unnatural magic, but since I can’t, it’s good to feel the solid, reassuring warmth of someone right beside me.

  Suddenly, it’s over. Ada lowers her head and stops speaking. Zed drops his knives—which vanish before hitting the floor—and grabs Ada’s wrists. She tries to release a few sparks of magic, but he manages to force her arms behind her back without too much difficulty. “Not so dangerous without your glass touch, are you?” he says.

  “Why isn’t she awake?” I ask, lowering myself onto my knees beside Mom as Zed drags Ada away from her.

  “She will be soon,” Ada says bitterly.

  “How soon?”

  She gives me a twisted smile. “You shouldn’t be so eager for her to wake up, Em. You know I’m going to tell her what you did once the two of us are joined again. I’m going to make sure she knows all about how you handed her over to me in your weak attempt to save a human town you don’t even like. At least I’ll get one moment of satisfaction out of this mess: getting to tell Dani that her beloved daughter—the changeling she stole from someone else—betrayed her.”

  Everything in me longs to lunge at Ada and rip my fingernails down her face, but that would probably give her more satisfaction than it would give me. So I pretend to be perfectly level-headed and sensible, and ask, “Why didn’t my Griffin Ability work to wake her?”

  Ada shrugs and looks away. “Clearly you’re not as powerful as you think you are.”

  “That has nothing to do with it,” Zed says. He looks at me. “People have known about Griffin Abilities for a long time now. Some of the witches figured it out even before Prince Zell began to put the pieces together and started rounding us up for his army. So the witches, who’ve always been particularly creative with their spells—”

  “And particularly evil,” Dash adds.

  “Creative,” Ada repeats with a chuckle. “They certainly are.”

  “The witches,” Zed continues, “came up with a few spells that are resistant to Griffin Abilities. Not many. Just some basic ones they could be certain would resist any kind of magical influence. Like, for example, putting someone into a permanent sleep.”

  “Which doesn’t seem to be that permanent,” I breathe, inching closer to Mom as she begins to stir. I’m so happy that for a moment I forget she’ll probably still be confused and scared. I have to remind myself that her mind is still as messed up as the day we rescued her from Tranquil Hills. She may not even recognize me.

  “Look at you,” Ada murmurs in disgust. “So excited over nothing. You won’t win this, you know. You won’t stop me.”

  I grit my teeth and continue staring into Mom’s face. “I will.”

  “You won’t. You know why? Because you want your mother. And as long as she’s alive, so am I. And as long as I’m alive, I’ll never give up.”

  “On what?” I demand, looking up again. “What is your goal anyway? To turn as many people into glass statues as you can and kill them? For no reason other than the fact that you enjoy being in control instead of having Dani control you?”

  “You honestly think I don’t have a better reason than that? I have a very good reason, Em. And seeing as how you’ve been hunted by the Guild just as I was—just as Zed was—you should understand. Zed understood, once upon a time, and then he got scared off by a baby. By you.”

  Dash takes a step toward her, moving his crossbow closer to her head. “All the people you’ve killed have been related to the Guild in some way. Guardians, former guardians, family of guardians. So is that your goal? You’re still trying to get revenge on the Guild, even though the rest of your guardian-hating group disbanded years ago?”

  “I’m not just trying. I’m succeeding.” She directs her glare at him. “What else do I have to live for? It was our life’s purpose until Dani decided we should leave magic behind and pretend to be human. Of all the disgusting things she ever made me do against my will, that was the worst. Serves her damn right for going crazy. She deserved it.”

  “Em?” a quiet, raspy voice says.

  Everyone falls silent. My gaze drops immediately to Mom’s face. Confusion fills her eyes, but she recognizes me! Emotion wells up abruptly, cutting off any words I might have been planning to say. Tears fill my eyes so quickly they spill onto my cheeks before I can stop them. “Mom,” I manage to choke out. I blink furiously and clear my throat. “You’re awake.”

  Her eyes slide past me and land on Ada. And that’s when everything goes wrong. She shuffles weakly away from me. “What … what’s happening? Who are you people?”

  “Mom, it’s okay.” I hold my hands up to show her I mean no harm. “It’s just me. It’s Em.”

  “Dani, hey, just calm down,” Zed says gently. He takes a step toward her, then stops when she begins scrambling away from him.

  She shakes her head. “I don’t … I don’t know who …”

  “Yes you do. You know me. You know Zed. And that’s Ada.” I point across the room to the exact image on Mom. “You know her too. She’s … she’s part of you. And we’re going to make you one again.”

  “No, no, no,” Mom moans, her terrified eyes fixed on Ada. “She isn’t real. I’m seeing things. They keep telling me … that I see things.” Her shallow breaths are shaky. “Why are you all … in my room?” She shuffles further back, covers her head with her hands, and presses her back against the far wall.

  I bite my lip to keep it from shuddering. I wrap my arms around my middle, attempting to hold myself together, and look at Zed. “Can you just do it please? Start the spell. The reversal—whatever. I don’t want to see her like this.”

  He nods and moves toward Mom without pause, as if the only thing he’s been waiting for is my permission. He gently takes her arms and speaks quietly to her, encouraging her to lie down. Dash walks to Ada and pulls her to her feet. “Don’t struggle,” he tells her. “You’ll only make things more difficult.”

  “I’m happy to make things as difficult for you as possible,” she says between gritted teeth as she shoves her elbow into his stomach.

  “Stop it,” he groans, throwing her into the air.

  And there she stays, floating. Wriggling, but unable to get away. With one hand raised, Dash directs her through the air and toward my mother. He lowers her to the ground, where she continues squirming. But his magic must be holding her in place, because she doesn’t move anywhere. “I’ll break free again,” she says. “I swear I will. You can’t meld me with her and expect me to be the weaker one.” She twists her head to the side and glares at Dani. “Look at how weak she is. How pathetic. Useless, insane—”

  Zed covers Ada’s mouth, cutting off her words with one hand and producing a piece of cloth that’s just as golden and sparkling as the rest of the guardian weapons I’ve seen so far. He places it over Ada’s mouth, and despite the fact that she writhes around, the cloth successfully ties itself behind her head within seconds.

  “Don’t worry,” Zed says to her. “Dani may be weak now, but I’ll help her to become strong again. And until that happens, I’ll personally make sure you don’t go anywhere.” He turns to Mom. “Dani,” he says gently. “Dani, love, I need you to do something.” Mom is still crying quietly, but Zed manages to gently pry her hands away from her face. “See this woman? She isn’t imaginary. She’s real and she’s your sister. And all you’
re going to do is touch her arm, okay? Touch her arm, and don’t resist.” Mom looks wildly uncertain, but she’s spent the past few years doing what doctors and nurses tell her what to do, so perhaps that’s why she lets Zed take her arm and extend it toward Ada. “Just relax,” Zed says to her. “Relax and don’t resist.”

  Mom’s hand touches Ada’s arm—and the strangest and most unnatural thing I’ve ever seen takes place. With a stifled shriek, Ada is sucked into Mom’s body. It’s over in less than a second. If I’d blinked, I would have missed it.

  “Sorry,” Zed says, looking up at me. “It’s freaky if you’re not used to it.

  I swallow. “Um … yeah. Definitely freaky.” What’s even freakier is the way Mom’s expression keeps alternating between rage and fear. One moment her lips pull into a snarl, and the next her gaze darts fearfully about the room. As if the two personalities inside her are at war. “Is it … will the spell take long?” I ask Zed.

  “Yes, it’s a quite complex.”

  “Are you sure you remember it all?”

  “Yes. I made sure to memorize every step while the prince, Crisanta and I were crafting this changeling reversal. I knew he only planned to use it as a last resort. That he’d probably never do it. I hoped I’d be able to get away eventually, find Dani, and perform the spell myself.”

  “Okay,” I whisper. “You can start.”

  With Mom lying down, Zed places a hand on her arm and closes his eyes. As he begins speaking, I imagine I can see magic seeping from his fingers into her body. Dash moves a little closer and stands beside me. “It’s finally happening,” he says quietly. “You’ve wanted this for so long.”