by Nicole Hall
Respect shone in Ryan’s eyes. “Good question. Your grandmother, with some help, softened her memories, but even so she was afraid to live here.”
“Evie could do that? Take away someone’s memories?”
Ryan paused, then continued. “I guess I’m allowed to talk about this. It’s possible to take away the trauma of an event, but not the actual memories. I’m told it’s about speeding the healing process by making the memories seem like they’re farther away than they are.”
“That sounds like a Fae thing.”
“Magic is magic. It’s limited by the practitioner.”
“Do you know why my mom was afraid?”
“I know very little about your mom personally, only stuff that’s been told to me secondhand or that I overheard when they thought I wasn’t listening.”
“They? Who was talking about my mom when they thought you weren’t listening?”
Ryan grinned. “Evie and Zee.”
Sera stared at the shadows on the wall and tried to come up with a way to ask the next question that would get her an answer. It was clear he couldn’t give her direct information and that the Fae were involved somehow, but he wanted to help. Evie wasn’t a bad person, and Sera believed she loved her daughter. The magic must have been meant to protect and heal, but from what?
“What else was happening around town during the time Zee and Evie were talking about?”
“The 32nd Annual Strawberry Festival was kicking off with a pie-eating contest.”
A quick Google search and some basic math told Sera the 32nd Annual Strawberry Festival happened in May twenty-seven years ago, six months before she was born. Whatever happened, her mom had been three months pregnant.
Sera let her phone thunk to the table and stared at Ryan. The process of prying information out of him was exhausting. Why would the Fae care about her pregnant mother? If she asked Zee, would she get a straight answer? Probably not, unless Zee thought it would benefit her or her people in some way. The whole thing was probably not important anyway.
“Did Evie make the seal?”
No response from Ryan.
“Did Zee?”
Nothing. Maybe something crazy.
“Did Jake?”
“No.”
Sera sucked in a breath. “You’d have said no, that means yes. Evie and Zee made the seal? How did Zee lie about it when I first met her then?”
Ryan got up to refill his coffee. “Fae can’t lie, remember.”
Sera shifted around in her seat. “Then Zee didn’t make the seal, but you’re not allowed to talk about something involved with Zee and the seal. And you overheard Zee and Evie talking about something that happened to my mother when she was pregnant with me. Evie was insistent that she train me, probably because I had no experience thanks to her seal. It’s not like my parents were around to teach me about magic. Mom is completely powerless anyway, and my dad…”
The idea dawned slowly, and she almost dismissed it because it was utterly insane. Ryan leaned against the counter and waited. She wasn’t sure how she could tell, but he seemed eager. If she was right, there was a lot more that Zee owed her than a quick lesson on shields.
“Do you know who my father is?”
Ryan raised his cup and took a sip without breaking eye contact.
“You can’t answer that. You fucking can’t answer that.” Sera felt like someone was sitting on her chest. She couldn’t get a full breath, and it took her a second to realize it was the beginning of a panic attack. Her stupid lungs weren’t working, so Sera closed her eyes and reached for her shields. To her surprise, she grabbed the bond instead.
Jake’s energy flowed into her, and she was able to take a deep breath. It wasn’t like before, when they’d been intimately connected. She couldn’t feel him personally, but she could sense his presence in the bond. A second breath, and she let go much calmer. It was a useful tool, but it bothered her on a lot of levels that it was Jake that calmed her instead of something in herself. Especially now that she’d decided to distance herself from him. That couldn’t happen again.
She almost expected Jake to call, like he had the day before when she’d freaked out about Will and the wolf. Her eyes opened, but her phone stayed silent. It was for the best. She told herself what she was feeling was relief, but it was suspiciously close to disappointment. Either way, she had other things to deal with at the moment.
Ryan was watching her, but he hadn’t moved from his spot by the coffee maker. If she could read his mind it would make things so much easier.
“I’m going to squash Zee the next time I see her. This is stupid. I can only think of one reason that Zee would care who my father is… he’s Fae.”
Sera wasn’t sure what she was expecting with that declaration. Fireworks, a sudden influx of knowledge, maybe an admission that she was right. She didn’t get any of that. Instead, Ryan put his cup down and started a slow clap.
“I think I hate you, this whole stupid situation, definitely all the Fae, and possibly Jake, though the jury is still out on that last one,” she said.
“I just felt the spell release, so ask me your questions, bridge keeper, I am not afraid.”
Sera narrowed her eyes. The phrase sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it. He was probably making fun of her somehow, but she’d gotten what she wanted. “Is my father Torix?”
Ryan started laughing and kept going until he was bent over wheezing for breath. It was both annoying and a welcome relief. Torix was the only male Fae she knew of, the only Fae she knew at all outside of Zee, and she’d wanted to be absolutely sure. It would have explained the memory wipe, but not how he’d managed to impregnate a human female from inside a tree. Sera shuddered and tried to imagine something small and cute. Of course, zombie bunnies popped up instead.
She’d take it. Anything to distract from thinking about her mother having sex with a tree.
Ryan straightened up and wiped tears from the corners of his eyes. “I was really convinced up until now that you were some kind of master detective, but wow, that was super off. Your father’s name was Richard, and he was summoned back to the homeland after it came out that he’d knocked up a human.”
“Did my mom know he was Fae?”
“The consensus is no. Evie thought she had suspicions, but messing with her memories took care of that. As far as your mom knew, he simply up and left her one day, pregnant and unloved.”
“That was harsh, but it’s almost verbatim what my mom always told me.” The shock was wearing off a little. “How is it possible? How am I possible? I thought the Fae and humans were completely different species or whatever.”
“I’m no expert on biology, but both groups seem to have the appropriate parts, and you’re evidence that it’s possible. Evie and Zee were talking about Evie messing with your mom’s memories and whether or not it was a good idea to leave you under your mom’s influence. Evie was confident the seal would hold your magic in place. She wanted you to come back on your own, because it made you happy not because you needed help.” He slurped up the rest of his coffee and set the cup in the sink. “Guess that plan backfired.”
She could believe that about Evie. “What did Zee think?”
“That your magic would keep building until you exploded. Metaphorically. She was pretty sure you weren’t going to be raining down like confetti, but the magic would find a way to burst free even if it injured you in the process. I know they mentioned a promise too, but they didn’t go into detail about that one.”
Sera rubbed her temples. “I can’t believe they kept all of this from me. I’m not even human.” Tears threatened, but she willed them away with brute force.
“You’re half-human. And if Evie was even slightly right, that half was pretty powerful to begin with, add in a whopping shot of Fae magic to anchor you and you’re a superhero. Yeah, secrets suck and your life was probably a mess, but if you tried hard enough, I’ll bet you could fly.”
Ryan looked
pissed, but Sera wasn’t interested in sparring with him when they still had Torix to deal with. They’d wasted a long time excavating all this information. She strongly suspected she was compartmentalizing, but the thing with her father was important because it might give her more of an edge.
“We were talking about Maddie before we dredged up all this insanity. I was with her the night Evie sealed my magic, could it be possible that they did the same to her?”
Ryan shook his head and walked aimlessly around the kitchen, picking things up, examining them, and putting them back down. “Maddie doesn’t have power.”
“Everyone’s so sure, but—”
He set an empty vase back down with a thunk. “You need to learn to trust the people around you.”
“Yeah, because everyone has been so honest and forthcoming thus far. Every person in my life who I trusted has lied to me about who I am and what is going on. I trust myself, period. End of list.”
“What about Jake?”
The bond flared to life inside her, filling her with warmth. “Did he know?”
“No, and if he had, I think he’d have moved heaven and earth to tell you somehow.”
Sera nodded. “I believe you, but it doesn’t matter.”
“You don’t trust him?”
“I know I’m really mad at him right now, but I don’t know if I trust him.” It was the unvarnished truth. She’d spent a long time questioning herself. But once she’d developed the confidence to believe in herself, she’d had to start questioning everyone else. She couldn’t handle being in a relationship with him, but maybe with time they could be friends again. “Jake thinks it might be Will.”
Ryan laughed. “Because he wants a good reason to beat Will’s ass. Honestly, I’d join him, and I’ve never met the guy.”
“He had some compelling evidence that Will at least had the opportunity to be in Torix’s service.”
“What do you think?”
“I think it’s too easy. Will is a narcissist, so he’s sneaky and cunning, but he’d have used the threat of Torix to try to bring me back under his control. It could be a stranger, but why keep breaking into the high school to steal stuff? I’ve talked to most of the people on the list in the last week, and as far as I can tell, they don’t even know they have power. They all just think they’re lucky.” She couldn’t contain her nervous energy any longer, so she nudged Ryan out of the way to wash the dishes. “It’s impossible to deductively figure out who it is. We have to find some other way.”
Sera washed, and Ryan dried, both lost in thought. It was kind of nice to be able to exist with someone in silence that she didn’t need to fill, though Jake seemed to have an unending number of dirty dishes.
“Can you keep an eye on Maddie and Will at the same time?” Sera asked eventually.
“I can’t be in two places at once. Give me twenty minutes and a laptop, some duct tape, a paper clip… maybe.”
The idea struck her hard enough that she stopped mid-scrub and speared Ryan with a look. “Two places at once. The servant has to be present to summon the circle, right?” He nodded, and she turned her focus back to the suds, triumphant. “We don’t know who’s helping Torix, but we know where they’ll be at sundown.”
Ryan slapped his forehead. “I’m stupid, and I retract my previous statement. You are a master detective.”
They were almost done, Sera figured they might as well finish the dishes. “The hard part is going to be finding the right trod to take us to Torix’s tree.”
“You can do that. The trods come when the Fae call, and I saw you do it that first day.”
“I didn’t have access to my power the first day.”
Ryan dried the last dish and tossed the towel onto the counter. “You had access to more than you thought. We should call Jake.”
“He claims he won’t be long, and I don’t want to involve him.”
“Well then, want to take a walk in the woods?”
“I believe I would.”
He made an after-you gesture, and Sera grabbed a small pack sitting by the door. “What’s that?”
“A little something I started carrying around after all this started.”
“That’s vague and somewhat alarming. It’s not TNT, right? Wile E. Coyote seems smart, but he’s always blowing himself up.”
Sera snorted out a laugh. “It’s not explosives. C’mon, I want to be in and out of the woods before it gets dark on this side.”
They walked out of Jake’s house and into a beautiful fall day. The temperature was hovering around seventy, but when the sun went down, she’d need a sweater. There was one in a box somewhere in the attic next door. She glanced at her house, Evie’s house, but decided it wasn’t worth another long detour. They’d be fast.
Across the street, a trod was clearly visible between the trees, sprites floating around happily. The time difference worried her. She had no intention of confronting Torix and his helper without backup, preferably a Fae army, but she wanted to see if she could figure out who it was. The list Ryan had compiled of stolen stuff was extensive, and she was betting it would take some time to set everything up for the ritual.
She didn’t try to do anything magical when they left the street. The image of Torix’s tree was firmly in her mind, but the path seemed darker than usual. Ryan followed her lead then moved up to walk beside her.
“I texted Jake.”
Sera glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, not surprised. “Fine. He was going to follow me anyway. I’m not clear on why you’re here though. I thought you hated Fae stuff, and yet here you are throwing yourself into the fray.”
He raised a brow. “If there’s a fray, I fully plan to throw myself out of it. I’m here so you can keep your promise to Jake.”
“How do you know about the promise to stay safe?”
“I am the great and powerful Ryan, I know all.”
“Jake texted you to come over.”
“Forgot you were a master detective. Yeah, he thought you might want some company. In my defense, I thought the note was a terrible idea and advised him strongly against the keys.”
That made Sera smile a little because she agreed with him. She was still pissed at Jake, but summoning Ryan, whatever his reasons, had proved useful.
The trod carried them further into the woods than Sera thought it would. They’d gone into the trees at mid-day, and it appeared to be dusk in the fairylands. She wondered if the ritual was supposed to be completed in Fae time or in human time.
Sera stopped and looked up at the darkening sky, considering. It would make sense for the two times to converge at points of power, like midnight on Samhain. She’d bet it would be both.
Ryan nudged her. “Staring at the trees isn’t going to make the time difference make sense.”
She stepped past a bush thick with brambles and glanced back at him. “Actually, I think Samhain will be the same here and outside the woods.”
This time Ryan stopped. “If that’s true then—”
He was cut off by the sound of growling to their left. Ryan immediately pushed Sera behind him, much to her chagrin. They’d come past the brambles into a wider part of the path, but she could feel that they weren’t at the end yet.
Sera couldn’t find the wolf at first, but as she shifted out from behind Ryan, it appeared a few feet off the path. The sprites were still dancing around them in the weakening sunlight, and Sera remembered the last time they’d faced the wolf on one of the trods.
He’d been unable to approach them as long as they stayed within the boundaries of the path.
Sera had no idea if Ryan knew that, but when she tried to tell him, he shushed her. Zee was right, it was a miracle her species survived. She caught sight of her glowing hands and corrected herself. Her human side anyway.
The wolf was staring at Ryan, and Ryan was watching the wolf, both of them appeared on the verge of violence. In that matchup, she’d bet on the wolf, so it was a good thing they were prote
cted. She tugged on his sleeve, and when he ignored her, she huffed, then resumed following the path without him. Let him continue the stand-off until midnight, she had shit to do.
Sera hadn’t taken more than a few steps when a yelp of pain had her spinning around.
Ryan had a long scratch in his forearm that was dripping blood, and the wolf had maneuvered between them on the path.
“Go, Sera. I’ll keep him busy.”
The wolf lunged at him, and to her shock, narrowly missed his leg. They were supposed to be protected. Chills shot up her back as she realized that the sprites were few and far between now, most of them congregated around her. When she’d walked away, she’d taken the sprites with her.
It wasn’t the trod that protected them, it was the sprites. Which was exactly what Zee had told her in the beginning.
Sera wanted to smack herself, but the wolf was inching closer to Ryan. He’d managed to back Ryan away from her, and no matter how hard she’d tried she couldn’t make shields appear outside of herself. She’d have to go past the wolf to bring the sprites back to Ryan.
“Sera, stop standing around and go. I can handle this.”
He dodged another lunge, and Sera made up her mind. She was sick of people, men especially, trying to protect her. She could handle this.
She relaxed her sight and caught her breath at the beauty of the magic all around her. The forest breathed with it. Streaks of colors blended into one another. If she’d had more time, she could have stood there for hours gazing at the movement, but Ryan was still dripping blood.
The wolf was encased in a shimmering dark blue field shot through with black. It looked like oil, and she recoiled at the thought of touching it. He was still ignoring her in favor of Ryan, probably went for the weakest first she thought with irritation. Her magic flared, and the number of sprites doubled. She’d intended to use her magic to knock the wolf to the side, then rush past him with her army of sprites. Her plan didn’t extend beyond covering Ryan in sprites, but she was confident something would come to her.
