Glimmers of Thorns

by Emma Savant

  “And with good reason,” Dad said, as Mom waved her wand in a series of sharp flicks. The carrots began to shed their skin, the orange curls piling up in the sink.

  He turned to me. “We haven’t had to clean memories on this scale since riots in the nineteen-sixties.”

  Daniel sauntered forward and slid onto one of the stools by the island.

  “I’ll bet it doesn’t help that Queen Amani still hasn’t picked an heir,” he said.

  Dad cleared his throat. “That’s true, though I don’t know what you know about it,” he said.

  “Just gossip,” Daniel said. “I’ll bet that makes your job harder.”

  “Queen Phoebe had three potential heirs selected by the time she was Queen Amani’s age, even if it took her some time to make her final decision,” Dad said. He’d missed the sarcasm in Daniel’s voice. “And, of course, there are people who hold me responsible for that as well, though Titania knows why. It’s enough that they’re angling for my job like vultures.”

  Heat started to rise off of him, a dry feeling I associated with irritation. I jumped up and went over to Mom.

  “Anything I can help with?”

  She took the hint. “Enough about politics, more about dinner,” she said. “Olivia, pull the chicken out of the fridge. Daniel, there’s garlic bread in the bag on the counter. Turn the oven on. Reginald?”

  “I’m going to the office. Don’t wait up for me,” he said, before she could give him an assignment. Not that he would have done it if she had. He gave me a quick appraising look, but I pretended to be busy.

  A Humdrum had been kidnapped. My dad was being held personally responsible.

  So why hadn’t Queen Amani told me?

  Chapter Four

  The air froze the inside of my nose every time I breathed in. I buried as much of my face in my scarf as I could and hurried down the street toward Lucas, who looked just as cold as I was.

  “You could have gone in,” I said when I reached him.

  His dark eyebrows tensed. “In where?”

  “Um, right here?” I said.

  He frowned. “You said it was a café. This looks like the wrong place.”

  “This is a café,” I said, waving toward the windows. The words Pumpkin Spice curled across them, and the walls inside were the color of butterscotch. Hazy nebulas and constellations floated around the Glims who sat around the place, each unique aura a fingerprint of magic.

  He glanced at the windows, raised his eyebrows, and looked back at me.

  “Pretty sure that’s a Lebanese restaurant.”

  Of course. I’d forgotten.

  The Oracle had dropped Lucas in my world, and he’d found his way to Wishes Fulfilled the next day through the building’s elevator. Humdrums—usually relatives of Glims—had to come see us now and again, so I knew getting to our office wasn’t impossible for them, but it was hard. I’d started to assume he could find everywhere as easily as he’d found my cubicle.

  I took my wand out of my hair and tapped its tip on the frame of my glasses. I forced my energy to merge with Lucas’ for a brief moment, just long enough for me to get a taste of what it meant to live in a world without magic. I pushed his energy through my wand and into the lenses.

  With full Humdrum vision, Pumpkin Spice wasn’t even there. The windows of the Lebanese restaurant stretched in from one side, and the brick of the real estate office next door stretched in from the other.

  The emptiness of his world relaxed me instantly, but we were both too cold for me to enjoy it. I let the spell fade and put my hand on Pumpkin Spice’s door.

  “Take my hand,” I said. “And just trust me.”

  He reached out and took my hand. I stepped forward, trying to push as much magic back through my hand and into his as possible. As we walked through the door, he stumbled, then said, “Whoa.”

  The door swung shut behind us, and I let go.

  The café pulsed with life, and the baristas at the far end of the room seemed up to their eyebrows in orders. There was nowhere to sit. I caught Elle’s eye. She waved at me from across the room, then twirled her hand and thrust it toward us, palm out. A table and chairs sprang into being in front of us, tucked against the wall in what appeared to be one of the only free spaces in the building.

  Her witch abilities had taken off since I’d first introduced her to our world. Now, she juggled the many demands of her business, made the best fairy dust-laced coffee on this side of Portland, and, apparently, had developed an ability to conjure furniture out of the air.

  I slid into one of the chairs. Its back was carved with pumpkin leaves.

  “Sit,” I said to Lucas. He stared around the room, his eyes as wide as the coasters on the tables.

  A moment later, Elle wove her way across the room, drinks in her hands. She’d gotten weirdly good at intuiting people’s cravings, and now she set two steaming hot chocolates in pumpkin-colored mugs on the table. Mine smelled vaguely like oranges and Lucas’ was topped with a giant swirl of whipped cream dusted with cinnamon.

  I stood to give Elle a quick hug.

  “This is Lucas,” I said, sitting back down.

  “No kidding,” she said.

  She eyed him up and down, not bothering with subtlety.

  “Welcome. How are you acclimating, kid?” She waved a hand around the room.

  I hadn’t told Elle everything about the Oracle, of course, but she did know the Oracle had allowed Lucas into our world. She was probably the only person who had a clue what he was going through right now.

  He cupped his hands around the cocoa. “A little overwhelmed.”

  “You seem to be handling it better than I did,” she said. “Good job.”

  “This is your place, right? This is amazing.”

  “Aw,” she said. “Thanks.”

  She smiled at him, then widened her eyes at me. We were going to talk later.

  “I’ve got to get back,” she said. “It’s Crazy Town today.”

  She gave us a little wave and went back to the counter, where she was immediately busy throwing together drinks and calling out orders to her staff.

  “She was my first faerie godmothering case,” I said. I couldn’t stop watching her. This was probably what it was like to be a proud mom. “Cinderella Archetype.”

  “What’s an Archetype again?”

  I swirled the cocoa. It left a thin brown film on the inside of the orange mug.

  “It’s like a stereotype,” I said. “But not quite. She had certain traits, which meant her Story—her life—was supposed to include certain elements.”

  “Cinderella goes to the ball,” he said.

  “Prom, in her case,” I said. “Which then turned into a dance at a geek culture convention.”

  Lucas’ eyes widened. He’d gone to that dance with me, right after he’d gotten into an argument with his ex-girlfriend. He hadn’t had a clue what was going on at the time, and now, I watched his face as the pieces clicked into place in his head.

  “Your job is more interesting than mine,” Lucas said.

  I believed it. He worked part-time at a food cart.

  A jingling bell followed by a freezing draft announced that the door had opened. I looked up and waved Isabelle over. She twisted her dark hair into a wispy bun as she walked toward us.

  She unzipped her jacket and pulled off her gloves.

  “Sorry I’m late,” she said. “Missed the train.”

  “No worries,” I said. “We just got here. Isabelle, this is Lucas.”

  She held out her hand and he shook it.

  “Hi, Lucas,” she said. “So you’re a Humdrum.”

  She slid into her seat, not taking her eyes from him.

  “Still not sure how I feel about that word,” he said.

  “What do you prefer?” she said. “Mundane? Non-magic being?”

  “Person?” he said.

  “We’re all people,” she said dryly.

  She shot me a sharp look. “S
o, I have to be honest, I’m not really understanding what’s happening.” She nodded toward Lucas. “Why is he here?”

  “He’s my friend,” I said. “He’s involved in this, or he’s supposed to be.”

  “Olivia’s been telling me about what’s been going on with the Oracle,” he said, lowering his voice on the last words. “We think I might be able to help. As a… Humdrum person… I might hear things you won’t.”

  Isabelle pursed her lips. “So how do you know about our world?” she said. “You’ve got a Glim relative?”

  “No,” he said. “Nothing like that.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. This was going to be the hard part, and I wished Isabelle had at least given me three minutes to enjoy my cocoa before launching into it all.

  There was no good way to say it.

  “The Oracle introduced him to our world,” I said.

  Her lips pressed together.

  “He saw everything that happened at the Fountain,” I said.

  “That’s why you look familiar,” she said, and not like it was a good thing.

  “He was able to get past the Humdrum barrier,” I said. “Imogen—the girl who walked into the Fountain—Imogen is his girlfriend. Was his girlfriend.”

  I felt my face go hot, for no good reason whatsoever.

  “Wait,” Isabelle said. “You mean to tell me that you’re discussing our concerns about the Oracle,” she said, putting the slightest emphasis on the word, “with someone who is in league with the Oracle?”

  “I’m not ‘in league’ with anyone,” Lucas said. His voice was instantly sharp.

  “It sounds like you are,” Isabelle said. She leaned back and folded her arms tight across her chest. “Olivia, can you explain this to me?”

  “No,” I said.

  Lucas frowned at me. A tiny crease twitched between his eyebrows. He seemed to be asking a question, one I didn’t understand. Isabelle had just cleared her throat when he spoke.

  “I can,” he said. “I think I can, anyway.”

  “No kidding?” I said.

  “No kidding,” he said. “I mean, it’s obvious, when you step back and look at it.”

  News to me.

  “I was dating Imogen,” he said. His gaze flicked toward me and then away. “The Oracle wanted Imogen, and it sounds like the Oracle wants Olivia, too. But I think, if they’d been on speaking terms, they would have talked each other out of following her. They’re smart, both of them, and they balance each other out. But if she could isolate them—either one of them—then…”

  “She isolates her prey before attacking,” I said.

  I couldn’t help staring at him. That had been freaking insightful, especially coming from a guy I hadn’t thought was paying attention.

  “The Oracle used me to break them up,” he said. “Get a guy in the picture and it ruins female friendships.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” I said, but he laughed, without much humor.

  “I’ve watched my mom do this a million times,” he said. “Her friends practically disappear when a new guy comes into the picture, and she’s not much better when she gets a boyfriend. If you want to make a girl feel lonely, throw a guy between her and her best friend.”

  He barely met my eyes, then stared down at his cocoa. Embarrassment flared from him like heat from a bonfire.

  Isabelle continued to frown at him.

  “The Oracle knew I liked Lucas,” I said. The words came out in one long string. “She used that to divide Imogen and me. That and some other stuff. Not important.”

  The pieces clicked into place. It was so obvious. I couldn’t see how I’d missed it all these months.

  “By the time Imogen walked into the Fountain, of course Lucas could get through the Humdrum barrier,” I said. “He’d been at the center of a powerful faerie’s plans for months. He was already involved in our world; he just didn’t know it.”

  “She probably didn’t think it was worth kicking me back out after all that,” Lucas said. “Unless you’re right.” He met Isabelle’s gaze. “Maybe she does still have plans for me. But if she does, I don’t know about them.”

  Isabelle leaned back in her chair with her arms still folded like a shield. She examined him for a long moment. Just when I was about to snap at her to get over it already, she nodded.

  “I can live with that.”

  “Gracious of you,” I said, unable to keep an edge from my voice. I rushed on before she could say anything about it. “Okay, so what are our next steps? What have you learned?”

  Isabelle narrowed her eyes at me, but then shook her head. “I have some information about the Humdrum child who was kidnapped,” she said.

  She dug into her purse and pulled out a folded piece of paper. I touched the back of my neck and felt the thin metal chain that held Queen Amani’s ring beneath my shirt.

  Amani still hadn’t called to tell me about the kidnapping. If she didn’t think the Hum child was worth mentioning to me, maybe she wouldn’t care about these details.

  Or maybe I’d done something wrong at the Fountain. I hadn’t been quick enough to save Imogen. How could she trust me with anything bigger?

  But, to be fair, I hadn’t told her about Isabelle yet, either. I’d been waiting for this meeting so I’d actually have something to tell. Maybe Amani was waiting until she had more information, too.

  “Girl was three years old,” Isabelle said, running a finger down the paper. “Daughter of a Humdrum guy whose stepsister is a muse. No clear motive, but it sounds like he and his sister didn’t always get along. I heard he thought the Glim world was dangerous or something, but that’s just rumor. I couldn’t get a confirmation on any of it.”

  “Do you have their names?” Lucas said.

  “Daughter is Maddy Barnes,” Isabelle said. “Dad’s Jason Barnes, Mom is Jessica Sullivan-Barnes. The dad’s sister is Ruby Barnes, adopted by Jason’s Humdrum dad when she was a toddler.”

  Lucas shook his head. I’d never heard of them either.

  “Glimmering law enforcement talked to all of them, but their stories match,” Isabelle said. “The parents were at the mall, and they turned around and the kid was gone. The sister was at work.”

  “Where in the mall?” I said, knowing the answer.

  “Right by a fountain,” Isabelle said.

  I knew the one she was talking about. Imogen had always stopped there to say hi to the sprites and get fresh enchanted water for her cosmetics and spells.

  Crackling and sparks filled the air as a wizard girl across the room started shooting fireworks out of her fingers toward an elf friend. The elf girl squealed and giggled. Behind the counter, Elle held a hand up in the air; a moment later, the fireworks had stopped and the wizard stared at her fingertips in confusion.

  Elle caught my eye and winked.

  “Do you want anything?” I asked Isabelle, gesturing at my hot chocolate.

  Isabelle shook her head and tucked the paper back in her purse.

  “No, I have to get going,” she said. “Just wanted to make sure everything was going okay and keep you updated.”

  She gave Lucas another appraising look. Her dark, sharp features made her look like an eagle deciding whether or not to attack.

  “Keep me posted if you hear anything else,” she said, standing up. “I’ll do the same.”

  Lucas and I watched her leave. Lucas’ eyebrow quirked, his expression hard to read. I felt out into the air around him, searching for emotions, but I didn’t come up with much. He was thoughtful, I could tell that much. What was hard to get at was the content of the thoughts.

  I sipped my cocoa. It was perfect, as always. The tiniest refreshing hint of rainwater gathered on a new moon mingled with the orange and chocolate, keeping the drink from being too heavy.

  “I have something else to tell you,” Lucas blurted.

  I waited, my mug halfway back to the table.

  “It’s really off-topic,” he said. “Just, I’ve been talking
to Aubrey.”

  I set the mug down. Out of everything I’d expected him to say, that wasn’t on the list. Aubrey was his ex, the one before Imogen. She was gorgeous, flirtatious, and kind of a nasty person when he wasn’t around.

  He tapped on his mug and didn’t meet my gaze.

  “She wants to get back together.”

  Chapter Five

  Aubrey wanted to get back together with Lucas.

  At this point, I was impressed he’d managed to stay single for a whole month.

  A fresh wave of embarrassed heat rolled off him, but he swallowed and met my eyes.

  “Okay,” I said, too quickly, sounding so much like I didn’t care that it was beyond obvious that I did. “So?”

  I was trying to keep him posted on the evils of the Oracle and a Humdrum kidnapping and what were maybe the beginnings of the end of the world as I knew it. And he was worrying about his obnoxious ex. I glanced past his shoulder and out the window, where drizzly sleet had started to fall.

  “I’m only mentioning it because, well, Aubrey might have seen something.”

  And my attention was back. I frowned at him. “Like what?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I wouldn’t bring it up, except it was near the Oracle’s Fountain, so it might matter. I guess she saw a bunch of teenagers doing some weird dance around a fire in a barrel. The cops broke it up—they aren’t supposed to have fires there, you know—but the fire kept burning blue and she said people were doing magic. She called them magic tricks, but she sounded suspicious.”

  “Why would she be suspicious?” I said. “She’s a Humdrum. Humdrums never believe magic is actually happening.”

  “I’m guessing it wasn’t really discreet,” Lucas said. “She said something else about how this woman in her neighborhood started doing really accurate tarot card readings or something, plus she said she saw Imogen a while ago and that Imogen’s skin was actually glowing.”

  “Probably fairy dust,” I said. “Because some people don’t know how to show restraint around controlled substances.”

  Years ago, Imogen had experimented with adding fairy dust to lotion to make it sparkle, but she’d stopped because it gave her too much of a magic high—and too much of a crash afterward. But the Oracle’s pet probably didn’t need to worry about crashes.