Rebel Faerie

by Rachel Morgan

  “Okay.” I nod, relieved. “And you’re sure you don’t remember anything about that night at the Masons’ place? About getting sucked into the ground?”

  She swallows and shakes her head. “It sounds … terrifying.”

  “So what did you think the next day when you woke up?”

  “Um … my mind was a little hazy. I thought I’d drunk a bit too much. And then I heard from my uncle that you’d run away. I was shocked, obviously. It was so unexpected. I thought maybe something happened to you at the party. I tried to get hold of you, but none of my messages were delivered, and whenever I called, it just went straight to your voicemail. Like your phone was dead.”

  “I’m sorry.” I hug the pillow more tightly. “As soon as that Councilor told me they’d cooked up some story about me running away, I wanted to come back here and set the record straight. But she wouldn’t let me. And then it was just one thing after the next, and even though I was constantly battling to try to figure a way out of it all, it was like I got sucked further and further into that world until I realized I actually …” I breathe in slowly and push my hand through my hair as I think again of the changeling spell and the moment in Zed’s home where I discovered exactly who I am and who my family are. I can’t help the small smile lifting one side of my lips. “I realized I actually belong there.”

  Val’s smile is wider than mine. “It’s weird how you ended up with your own family and you didn’t even know it at first. But I guess, like you said, if they search for people who have special magic, and you’re one of those people, then the chances were always good that they’d find you.”

  “Yeah.” My smile slips away as I try not to imagine the horrors Vi and Ryn might be going through right now.

  “You found your family, Em!” Val says, wrapping her hand around my arm and squeezing. “That’s incredible! And I know you’re worried about the situation your parents are in right now, but they sound like they’re super kick-ass. I’m sure they’ll be just fine.”

  I nod and clear my throat. “So, uh, how’s everything been here? How’s your family?”

  She rolls her eyes. “Are you kidding? You want to talk about my boring family that hasn’t changed since you left? Tell me about your family.”

  I laugh and stop hugging the pillow so tightly. Placing it on my lap, I say, “Okay, well, the woman who was with me outside Bloomberry is my aunt. She’s the one who first figured out who I am.”

  “She’s beautiful,” Val says. “I was going to ask if she’s wearing contact lenses made of actual gold, but I assume that’s … just … the way she is?”

  “Yes. And the gold bits in her hair are natural too. Anyway, while I’ve been traveling around with her, she’s been telling me about everyone else in my family. I mean, we’ve been doing a lot of other stuff—like learning self-defense and combat magic—but at night before one of us falls asleep and the other stays awake to keep watch, she tells me all about them. I swear, it’s almost like a soap opera, Val.”

  Her curls bounce as she leans to the side and laughs, and when she says, “Okay, now you have to tell me more,” it almost feels, for a moment, as if this evening is the same as any other evening sitting on her bed chatting about anything and everything.

  “So, three of my four grandparents are still alive,” I tell her, deciding to give in to the nostalgia and pretend everything’s normal for just another few minutes, “which is apparently quite something considering they were all guardians. Vi’s mother died when Vi was very young, and then her father died when she a teenager—although he didn’t actually die. It was all part of a major undercover operation he was working on for the queen—”

  “The queen?”

  “I know, right? It was this elaborate cover-up because faking his death would ensure his daughter’s safety. Ryn’s parents divorced after Ryn’s older brother died. His father remarried and had Calla, so she’s, like, my half-aunt? And then some years after that, Ryn’s mother and Vi’s dad—who’d been friends for years—ended up having a brief relationship after Vi and Ryn got together.”

  “What? Oh my gosh, super awkward.”

  “Yeah, it must have been,” I agree with a laugh. “I can’t wait to ask them more about it. Oh, and this was all after Vi and Ryn spent years hating each other because Ryn blamed Vi for his brother’s death.”

  Val shakes her head. “You’re right. Definitely soap opera-worthy. And the part about Dash? I mean, who would ever have guessed he was actually from another world? And then you kissed him!”

  I roll my eyes. “Yep. That was definitely one of the, uh, nicer things that’s happened in recent weeks.” The laugh I hear then is the silly, girly, giggly type I never thought would leave my own lips. I clear my throat and continue quickly. “I’m not really sure how I feel about him—aside from, like, really missing having him around all the time—but now doesn’t feel like the most appropriate time to be figuring out romantic entanglements.” I take in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “So, anyway, it’s a bit strange wrapping my head around all of this. And at the back of my mind, I can’t stop thinking about Ada and Dani. This woman I always thought was my mother, and now doesn’t even look like my mother, and how maybe … maybe I killed her. Them? How do you even refer to someone like that?”

  “I … I don’t know.”

  “I just feel super guilty every time I think of her.” I press one fist into the pillow on my lap. “Then I have to remind myself that she wanted to kill me, but that doesn’t really make me feel any better.”

  “She wanted to kill you?”

  “Yes. I think I became too much of pain in the ass and more trouble than I was worth.” I’m pressing both fists into the pillow now. “And Prince Roarke wanted to use us both as a weapon, and she didn’t want to compete to be the favorite. Something like that. The words every child wants to hear their own mother say.”

  “Em … she isn’t really—”

  “I know, I know.”

  “And it would have been Ada who said that, right? Not Daniela.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I relax my shoulders and stop squashing the pillow. “Still. It sucks when the evil half of your ex-mother wants to kill you.”

  “But … you can fight her off now, right?” Val asks. “You’re carrying all these weapons around with you, and you said you know something about self-defense and … combat magic? Is that what you called it?”

  “Yes, but I doubt I could actually fight her off. I’d have to use my Griffin Ability and say exactly the right thing before her glass gets me. That is, if she’s still alive.”

  Val looks down at her hands twisting together in her lap and mutters several expletives. I consider telling her about Dash’s creative alternatives to curse words, but that doesn’t seem important right now, so instead I simply say, “Yeah. Exactly.”

  She looks up at me. “We should go for a walk.”

  “You know what? I was actually about to suggest the same thing.” I push against the edge of the bed and stand. “There’s something I need to do. I want to go to—the cemetery.” It sounds odd saying it out loud. “I assume Chelsea and Georgia are buried there? I remember Chelsea saying she didn’t want to be cremated when she died because the idea of her body burning freaked her out.”

  “Yes, they were both buried,” Val says as she climbs off the bed.

  “So, I know it probably sounds stupid, seeing as how I didn’t really love them and they didn’t really love me, and now it turns out they’re not even my real family, but … I feel like I need to say goodbye.”

  “That doesn’t sound stupid at all.”

  “Okay. Good.”

  Val’s gaze moves to the window. “It looks like it might start raining again soon. We should go now.”

  I look past her and take in the heavy clouds darkening the sky outside her window. I shrug. “Getting soaked is pretty low on my list of problems these days.”

  She points at her head. “You know what happens to this fr
izz in the rain, don’t you?”

  I smile. “The frizz gets frizzier. We should definitely get moving before the rain comes back.”

  Val opens her wardrobe doors and grabs a jacket with a hood. “I should have been wearing this earlier. This frizz is already getting out of control.”

  As she pulls the jacket on, I say, “So, uh, don’t be surprised when we’re walking downstairs and I suddenly go invisible. It’s this type of magic—a glamour—that hides me from humans. I just don’t want your brothers and sisters or your mom to see me. It’s easier than having to explain everything to them.”

  Val’s expression suggests she’s on the verge of being freaked out, but, to her credit, she does her best to shrug it off. “Sure. That doesn’t sound weird at all. Um, I’ll see you outside then?”

  I nod, and she goes downstairs ahead of me. I follow her a few moments later, pausing when I reach the living room to make sure no one’s noticed me. I’m about to walk quickly across the room when I see Calla standing on the other side, also entirely unnoticed by Val’s siblings, one of whom is playing a game on a phone while the other two hover over her, watching.

  “Em,” Calla says quietly. “Come here. Have you seen this?” She nods to the TV where running soldiers and flashes of gunfire light up the screen while a ‘breaking news’ banner scrolls across the bottom. My first thought is that I’ve never seen anyone in Val’s house watching the news. Calla must have changed channels without anyone noticing. My second thought is that the blood-splattered person currently being wrestled to the ground on screen looks distinctly inhuman.

  “What’s going on?” I ask. “There’s no TV upstairs. I haven’t seen any of this.”

  “I don’t know how, but a group of human soldiers has discovered one of the natural openings into the fae realm. This channel’s just reported on the first expedition into the Other World, as they’re currently calling it. They’ve got guns and other horrible weapons, and I saw … I saw several fae bodies. Dead. And this reporter is using words like ‘experimentation’ and ‘aliens.’ It’s just … horrifying.”

  “Crap,” I breathe. “Stupid freaking Roarke. These people would never have come looking for our world if not for him. He’s going to end up starting a war between our worlds.”

  “I’ve never wanted to kill,” Calla says between her teeth. “Justice without death has always been important to me. But right now?” She shuts her eyes and exhales sharply. “Right now I could kill Roarke if no one was there to stop me.”

  I press my lips together as the camera catches a glimpse of trees with rainbow leaves and softly pulsing dots of light hovering in the air just beyond the ordinary green and brown trees of this world. Then an explosion obliterates our view of the rainbow side of the image as the camera shudders and the reporter babbles on. Unexpected anger flashes hotly through my body. That’s my home now. That’s my world. And it’s being destroyed.

  “I need to get the mirror out and talk to Chase,” Calla says, looking down at her backpack sitting in the corner of the room. “We obviously don’t want to get in the way of whatever the Guild’s planning to do, but I feel like we need to help somehow. At the very least, I want to know what the Guild’s doing about this.”

  I shove my anger deep down and say, “I was … well, I was planning to go to the cemetery with Val. To see—to say goodbye—to Chelsea and Georgia. I know it isn’t important in comparison to what’s going on in the magical world, but—”

  “Em, of course that’s important.” Calla shakes her head. “I’m sorry, I’ve been so consumed with what’s happening out there, in this world and the fae world, that I didn’t even think about your—about Chelsea and Georgia. But of course you’d want to go to their graves.” She bends and lifts her backpack. “I’ll go with you. I can contact Chase once we’re at the cemetery.”

  We cross the living room, and though I tell myself not to look, I can’t help one last glance back at the news. My stomach twists at the sight of a blue-green scaled hand sticking out from beneath a sheet covering a motionless body. “I can’t believe they’re showing things like that on TV,” I growl as we leave. “That’s the kind of horrible behind-the-scenes footage that the government usually tries to keep hidden from the public.”

  “I think it’s impossible to hide anything to do with the discovery of the ‘Other World,’” Calla says, curling her fingers into air quotes for those last two words. “I’m sure almost every reporter in the world is looking for a story related to it.”

  “Not just reporters,” I mutter. “There must be tons of amateur footage spreading across the Internet every second.”

  “Yes. Meaning it’s less and less likely that we’ll be able to make the whole world forget what’s happened,” she mutters grimly.

  “Hey, there you are,” Val says when we reach the pavement outside her house. “I told my mom I need to go get some study notes from Sherry. Since my education is more important than me helping with supper and making sure Lincoln and Lissa bath, she didn’t mind too much. Oh, hi,” she adds, looking at Calla. “You’re … gold.” She clears her throat. “Sorry. I mean … you’re Em’s aunt, right?”

  “Yes.” Calla smiles as she holds her hand out to shake Val’s. “It’s good to meet you, Val, even though it isn’t under the best of circumstances.”

  “Yeah, you’re right about that.” Val looks up. “Come on, let’s get moving.”

  I follow her gaze to the stormy sky above. When I lower my eyes, she’s pulling her hood up and over her head. “Good idea,” Calla says as we start walking. “Em, remember the hood we added to the inside of your jacket? You should put that on. We don’t need anyone recognizing you between here and the cemetery.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I reach back, tug the hood free, and pull it over my head.

  As I tuck a few stray strands of blue hair beneath the hood, Val says, “Did I tell you your hair is totally awesome?”

  “I don’t think so. Did I tell you I was born this way?”

  “What?” she stops walking. “Shut the front door. Are you serious?”

  “I am. All faeries are born like this. You know, like the gold in Calla’s hair, and the green in Dash’s hair.”

  “Dash’s hair?” Val walks forward again, confusion pulling at her features. “I’ve never seen any green in Dash’s hair.”

  “Oh. Huh. He must have been using a glamour all these years.”

  We turn off the main road and head around the side of the high school so we can cut across the school field. “We probably shouldn’t go back to my house after this,” Val says. “In case someone saw you go there with me. They might be waiting for you there.”

  “Yes, I suppose it would be safer not to return.”

  “Do you think you’ll ever be safe?” Val asks. “Or will you be running from people forever?”

  “Probably forever.”

  Calla nods. “Yes. Well, unless we stage a dramatic scene in which everyone watching believes they’ve witnessed your death.”

  I pause, waiting for her to laugh, but she doesn’t. “Uh, that’s a joke, right?”

  She glances sideways at me, smiling. “Actually, no.” She taps her forehead. “The entire thing would be an illusion obviously. I’ve done it once before. To save—someone. I knew the Guild would never stop hunting him if they believed him to be alive.”

  “Wow,” Val says. “That is one serious con.”

  “It was.” We continue past the school wall and onto the field. “If the right situation presented itself, I’d do the same thing for you, Em. The Guild would stop looking for you if they thought you were dead.”

  “Yes, but … wouldn’t they want proof? Like a dead body? If you did an illusion of some sort and we escaped, then we’d leave nothing behind. No bodies. Surely they’d know it’s a trick?”

  “That’s why it would have to be the right kind of situation.”

  “And how exactly—”

  But I never get to ask how we would pro
vide bodies for the ‘right kind of situation,’ because racing toward me across the field is a stream of glass shards. And on the other side of the glass stands a woman.

  Ada.

  She’s alive.

  Thirteen

  “Run!” I shove Val to the side, and though I didn’t plan it, a burst of magic escapes my hand, propelling her a lot further than I intended. I don’t have time to see if she lands okay, but I trust she’ll perform an expert shoulder roll and be up and running within seconds. My gaze darts back to where Calla hurled a small fireball of magic to stop the glass racing toward us. I look at Ada and reach for my remaining Griffin power. “Your glass—”

  Ada twists her hand, and something zooms through the air and slaps itself over my mouth. It’s white and sticky, and though I claw at it, I can’t remove the damn thing. I scratch more desperately at it, telling myself not to panic.

  And then I vanish completely.

  I stop struggling for a moment and look around. Calla’s gone too, and so is Val, so this must be one of Calla’s illusions. “How interesting,” Ada calls to us as she walks closer. “This is a Griffin Ability, I assume? The power to make people invisible?”

  “Don’t make a sound,” Calla whispers from somewhere nearby. “I’ll try to open a doorway and keep it invisible. Though I’m not sure how I’ll know it’s actually there …”

  As Ada moves closer, my thoughts race to catch up with what’s happening. She’s alive! That means Dani’s alive. And that means there’s still a chance I can separate Dani from the body she’s forced to share with Ada. Also, how the heck did Ada find me here?

  “Aah!” Calla groans out loud at the same time horrendous pain shoots through my head. A moment later, we both become visible again. I know I should be worried about Ada and her glass and the thing stuck over my mouth, but I can’t think of much beyond the pain. I press both hands against my forehead and bend over.