“Oh, hey, here’s your chocolate unicorn,” Vi says as she reaches the kitchen counter. “You left if here after lunch.”
“Ah, yes.” I catch the small unicorn-shaped chocolate in one hand. “My reward for enduring a counseling session this morning.”
She chuckles as her magic begins sending all the food that’s lined up on the table into three large picnic baskets on the floor. “It wasn’t that bad, was it?”
“It wasn’t bad. It was just …”
When I can’t seem to come up with a word, Vi says, “I know what you mean. At the Guild, whenever a trainee ends up killing someone during an assignment, that trainee has to go for counseling afterward. I always hated it. I never wanted to rehash what happened and how it affected me. But looking back, I know it was a good thing.”
“Yeah, I know,” I say with a sigh. “And Meira’s nice. I like her. Turns out we have quite a few things to talk about. It’s just … not easy.” The ache that surfaces whenever Dani comes to mind tightens now around my chest. The thought of her induces so many conflicting emotions inside me. Disgust, because she stole someone else’s life and didn’t care that that someone would die because of her. Anger, because she never told me the truth about her background or mine. Regret, because I never got the chance to ask her about any of this. Sadness, because I also kind of miss the mother she was to me when I was little.
“Hey,” Ryn says, interrupting my thoughts as he walks into the house, “are those picnic blankets still in the top Jack’s closet? Oh, Em, are you—” He cuts himself off before he can finish. “Sorry. Doing it again.”
“It’s okay,” I say to him. “Don’t worry about it.” This has happened several times in the past two days. Ryn senses the intense emotions flooding through me, asks me if I’m okay, and then apologizes for invading my privacy by unintentionally feeling my feelings. I felt a bit weird about it the first time, but I’m getting used to it already.
“The blankets,” Vi says. “Yes, they should be in Jack’s closet above his clothes.”
“Great. And the exploding frisbee?”
“That sounds dangerous,” I comment.
“It’s actually lots of fun,” Vi says, then adds, “Um, I don’t know where it is. I’m going to have to look.” As Ryn leaves to get the blankets, Vi walks around the table and says, “Em, can you continue putting all the food in the baskets? You don’t have to use magic if you don’t feel comfortable doing that.”
She goes off to search for the exploding frisbee, and I consider whether I should risk trying to move food with magic. But at the sound of footsteps coming toward the front door, I turn around.
“Hey,” Dash says, leaning against the doorframe while holding something behind his back.
“Hey!” A smile spreads across my face. “You’re here.” I haven’t seen Dash since we left Haverton Tower. After we walked down from the roof, someone pointed out that the blond-and-green haired man in our company was not a Griffin Gifted rebel. He was a Guild employee who’d recently been arrested and was supposed to be awaiting his trial in a cell somewhere. There was a bit of commotion then, and Dash’s father—who’d been reunited with his missing son when Dash arrived to warn everyone about the Unseelies—got extremely angry. In the end, Councilor Ashlow agreed to release Dash into his parents’ custody and told him to report to the Guild the next morning to sort out his situation. But of course, she’d been too busy to deal with Dash yesterday, so he had to return to the Guild again today. “Did they make a decision about you? I thought the Head Councilor was going to let this drag on forever.”
“Nah, they all got tired of me and dismissed the whole case.”
“Really?”
“Well, not exactly. I demanded a truth potion and explained how a Councilor and three guardians beat me up and took me off to a secret research station where tests are run on Griffin Gifted and certain other fae. I didn’t even get to the end of my story when Councilor Ashlow rushed in and said she’d decided to dismiss the case and I was free to leave immediately while they dealt with more important issues.”
“Like trying to keep half the Guild from turning against her?”
“Yeah, pretty much. But everyone was very interested to hear about Reinhold Research Station. That’s all going to be out in the open soon. And Councilor Ashlow certainly isn’t going to be Head for much longer, I can tell you that. I think we’re going to be voting in an entirely new Council soon.”
“That’s great,” I say. And it is great, but I’m also wondering why he’s still standing in the doorway and leaving all this space between us.
He grins. “You missed me, didn’t you, Emmy.”
“Oh, shut up.” I fold my arms. “I didn’t miss you nearly as much as you missed me.”
He looks down before peering up at me between his lashes. “You’re right. I missed you terribly. That’s why I got you flowers. Well, not flowers. They’re actually leaves. But they’re prettier than most flowers out there, and I wanted to give you something I could be sure you’ve never seen before.” He pushes away from the doorframe and steps closer. Then he removes his hand from behind his back and produces a bunch of narrow branches with dozens of leaves still attached. Each leaf cycles through a seemingly endless palette of colors. But it isn’t just the colors that are amazing. It’s the way they glow like burning embers as each leaf shifts from one color to the next.
I carefully take the bunch from him, just in case the leaves are as hot as they look. “Don’t worry,” Dash says. “I know they look like burning coals, but they’re not hot. You can touch them.” I raise one finger and run it along the edge of a leaf. It glows a little more brightly wherever I touch it.
“They’re beautiful, Dash. Thank you.” I look up at him and add, “Okay, maybe I lied. I definitely missed you as much as you missed—”
I don’t get to finish my sentence because his lips are already on mine. With the bunch of leaves still in my hand, I wrap my arms around his neck and press myself closer. His hands slide into my hair, then down my back. Sparks zap across my lips and tongue, then down my spine and over my arms. I mold myself against him as his fingers press deeper into my back and something softer than sparks rains down onto my arms. I pull my lips away from his and take a moment to catch my breath. Then I look to the side and see what’s drifting down through the air around us: tiny star-shaped yellow flowers. I laugh in amazement. “Did those come from us?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they did,” Dash says, and I can hear the smile in his voice. As I watch them, the flowers slowly disappear. Dash presses his lips against my forehead. Then he pulls back and says. “Oh. Oops.”
I look up and find his gaze pointing behind me. I spin around. Vi and Ryn are standing in the doorway, Vi with a frisbee in her hand and Ryn holding a pile of blankets. “Well,” Ryn says, his eyebrows raised. “That was unexpected.”
“Oh, crap, this is embarrassing.” I press my free hand against my burning face.
“You know we’re gonna have to have a talk about this,” Ryn says to Dash.
“Right.”
“About your intentions.”
“Of course,” Dash says. I sense him standing a little straighter behind me. “I have only the most honorable of intentions.”
“Uh huh,” Violet says, crossing her arms and eyeing him with a doubtful look.
“So, uh, should we head down to the beach?” I ask loudly, waving my bunch of leaves in the direction of the door. “After we finish packing the baskets. Which I’m going to do right now.”
I avoid everyone’s gaze as I place the leaves on the table and hastily finish packing food into the baskets by hand.
“Yuro leaves?” Vi asks, taking a closer look at the bunch.
“Yes,” Dash says. “From Creepy Hollow. Picked them myself.”
“Nice.”
Once the baskets are packed and the blankets and games have been gathered, Vi and Ryn lift everything into the air and direct it out of the house
and down the stairs. Dash and I walk behind them, our hands clasped together, and I’m pretty sure my cheeks burn the whole way down. By the time we reach the ground, I’m starting to recover—until Dash kisses my cheek and whispers, “You’re pretty when you blush.”
I roll my eyes, but I don’t let go of his hand, and I don’t stop smiling. I know Vi and Ryn and still close enough to overhear us, and when I can no longer stand the awkward—to me, at least—silence between the four of us, I say, “So, uh, tell me … about … the Unseelies. What’s happening with the Unseelies?”
“Oh, flipping flip. The Unseelie Court is one gigantic mess,” Dash says. “I have no idea what’s going on there. The only thing I know is that Roarke and the former king will spend the rest of their lives in prison.”
“A Guild prison?” I ask. When Dash nods, I say, “I thought the Guild couldn’t really mess too much with Unseelie matters.”
“Yeah, but this wasn’t just an Unseelie matter. They exposed our entire world. And they tried to take over the human world. That affects everyone. They’ll probably end up in Noxsom for what they did.”
Ahead of us, Vi and Ryn slow down slightly until they’re walking beside us. The blankets and picnic baskets continue to glide through the air. “I almost wish for their sakes,” Vi says, “that the death penalty still existed. I wouldn’t want to be tortured for life. A few days was long enough for me.”
“Perhaps,” Dash says, “with an entirely new Council being voted in, they’ll take another look at how Noxsom is run.”
I look ahead as we near the beach and see Chase and Jack already there. It looks like Chase is giving Jack a lesson in how to move chairs around with magic.
“Oh, I do know one other thing about the Unseelies,” Dash says. “Remember that prison I was in? Beneath their palace grounds? I told the Guild about it when they first questioned me about the Griffin rebels. I thought they might conveniently forget about it, but now it sounds like they’re demanding to know exactly who’s being imprisoned there and why. And now is a good time to ask, what with so much upheaval going on in their court. They won’t be able to cover things up easily.”
“Oh, that’s great.” I squeeze his hand. “I think I might actually end up liking this new Guild that’s coming together.”
“Well that would be cool,” Dash says, “seeing as how I currently still work there. Hey,” he says to Vi and Ryn. “If the Guild decides that Griffin Gifted faeries are totally awesome and should be guardians, will you come and work at the Guild again?”
Ryn laughs, and Vi raises her eyebrows. “Look, I’m not going to say ‘never,’” she says, “since I’ve got a few centuries ahead of me still. But right now, I think I’ll go with ‘no.’”
“That would be a ‘no’ from me too,” Ryn says. “For now, at least.”
We reach the enchanted beach and find that Bandit and Filigree are there too. Filigree is sitting on a chair in the form of a miniature pig, watching dog-shaped Bandit play around in the sand.
With the help of a bit of magic, we soon have our picnic blankets, chairs and bean bags arranged. Ryn, Chase and Jack move further down the beach to play with the exploding frisbee, which apparently makes a bang and sends colorful smoke into the air if anyone holds onto it for too long before throwing it to the next person.
“Hey!” someone shouts from behind us. “Don’t start the party without us!”
I look over my shoulder to see Calla and Perry coming toward us. Calla hurries down the sand and swings her arms around me, squeezing tight as she says, “My favorite rebel.”
“Hey, what about me?” Dash complains.
“And what about Chase?” I ask with a laugh. “Shouldn’t he be your favorite rebel?”
Before Calla can answer, Perry reaches us and says, “You guys have got an awesome place here. Seriously, I love it.”
“Thank you,” Vi says. “We’ve worked hard over the years to make our oasis what it is.”
“Just think,” he adds. “If the Guild’s policies regarding Griffin Abilities change and you no longer have to live in hiding, you won’t need all the serious protective magic you’ve got around here.”
She sighs. “As nice as it would be to not worry about keeping this place hidden, I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of all the protective magic. We wouldn’t want to invite any rogue Griffin haters to our doorstep to ruin everything we’ve built.”
“Yeah, I guess not,” Perry says. Then he looks at me, reaches into his back pocket, and says, “I have something for you, Em.”
“Me?” I ask in surprise.
“Yes. An envelope arrived at our Guild this morning addressed to me, and inside it was a small scroll with your name on it.”
“Oh.” I take the rolled up paper from him. “That’s weird.”
“I guess the sender didn’t know how else to get it to you.”
I walk a few paces away to open the scroll and read it, fairly certain before looking at the name at the bottom that I know who this note is from.
* * *
Em,
I thought I should probably let you know I’m okay. I couldn’t go home, and I couldn’t go with you, so I figured I’d head off on my own. Well, not entirely on my own. Imperia’s with me. She couldn’t wait to get away from Dad.
I know it was probably one of the worst decisions you ever made, but I’m so glad you showed up at our palace. I had fun getting to know you and teaching you magic. Though I would never wish upon you the kind of fate Roarke planned for you as his wife, I still kinda wish we could have been sisters.
Anyway, maybe one day we’ll meet again. For now, I’m off to see the rest of the worlds. Both of them.
xx Rora
* * *
A small smile pulls at my lips as I lower the note. I was almost completely sure she was fine, but it’s good to know for certain.
“Good news?” Vi asks as I return to the picnic.
“Yes. Aurora’s fine. She’s exploring the world with her dragon.”
“That sounds amazing.”
“It does sound like a lot of fun,” I say. “Maybe Bandit and I can do some exploration together. After all, most of this world is new to me.”
“You know who you should meet?” Vi says at the same time Calla says, “Oh, you have to got to meet Vi’s explorer friend.”
They look at each other and say, “Tilly.” After laughing, Vi adds, “When Tilly eventually finishes whatever exciting expedition she’s currently on, I’ll make sure to introduce you to her, Em.”
“Cool. Hey, Bandit do you want to go exploring with me?” I call to the black cat currently swiping at the sand where Dash has buried his feet. Bandit looks up and cocks his head a little to the side. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’” I say as I sit at the edge of the blanket beside Dash.
As the last part of the afternoon passes, other members of the oasis community come onto the beach to join us. Gaius, Kobe, several others I’ve met once or twice, and some I only know because I helped get their unconscious bodies out of Reinhold. Even Elizabeth arrives at some point.
When the sun has disappeared completely and stars glitter in the blue-black sky above us, everyone gathers on their towels, blankets or chairs while Chase and Ryn walk a little further down the beach. I lean my head on Dash’s shoulder, watching Chase and Ryn gathering magic for a few minutes. “Not too much longer,” Vi says from beside me. “They should be ready soon.” And it looks like they are. I lift my head from Dash’s shoulder as Ryn and Chase stand apart and raise their hands. I hold my breath, waiting.
Suddenly, fireworks explode above us. Every color imaginable, spinning and darting through the sky before slowly falling, only to be joined by more light and more colors whirling high above us. With Dash’s hand wrapped around mine, and Vi sitting on my other side, I watch the display in wonder until every last spark has drifted down toward the enchanted ocean. Then, as Bandit climbs into my lap, I breathe out a sigh of absolute contentment. I raise my f
ace to the stars, close my eyes, and smile.
I am finally home.
Acknowledgments
Above all, my biggest thanks will always be to God, the original Creator, because it is only through His incredible work of creation that I can even begin to imagine my own worlds and characters.
To Heather and Krista, thank you for your helpful feedback and editing notes.
To the early readers of my books, thank you for taking the time to write reviews (and letting me know about the typos that have been missed!).
To every Creepy Hollow fan out there, thank you for going on adventure after adventure with these characters for the last five and a half years. I am so grateful for all of you!
And to Kyle, thank you for supporting me on this journey since the very beginning.
ABOUT RACHEL AND HER BOOKS
* * *
Rachel Morgan spent a good deal of her childhood living in a fantasy land of her own making, crafting endless stories of make-believe and occasionally writing some of them down. After completing a degree in genetics and discovering she still wasn’t grown-up enough for a ‘real’ job, she decided to return to those story worlds still spinning around her imagination. These days she spends much of her time immersed in fantasy land once more, writing fiction for young adults and those young at heart.
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