by D. R. Perry
Rising windows squeaked and the soft thunk of locks engaged in an unsatisfying counterpoint. I itched for a fight I shouldn’t get into but at that moment didn’t care. The seven-year fire in my belly kicked up higher than ever. Trolls are built to destroy. Rage threatened to touch down like a tornado, savage in its hunger for destruction. At least I wouldn’t be on campus when it swept in. Two steps separated me from the sidewalk at the boundary.
A familiar wave of power crashed around me, starving that rage, except it felt more like a force of will than any nameable school of elemental magic. I knew from experience that Air, Fire, Water, Umbral and Spectral each had a distinct identity. This had none. All the same, it felt warm, how room temperature seems after an hour out in freezing temperatures.
Logical people think two spells always pile up and do more damage, like a set of natural disasters. Magic isn’t logic. If it were, the Monarchs wouldn’t need rules. Magic also isn’t a force of nature. It comes from inside us, it’s part of us, something only we have the power to control—or not. And, whether between allies or enemies, it has a way of balancing out.
I’d almost let the asshole driver turn into the last straw on my back even though I didn’t have to. But I didn’t have to let that other magic, whatever it was, help me back down. I made the choice: static calm over raging destruction.
My fist stayed brandished as I stepped off the street and on to PPC property. The magic stayed behind me the whole time, like a good tailwind. The caster literally had my back.
“Broad as a term to describe a lady is crass in any case.” Al's voice, of course. “Take care with your manners in the future.”
Al came out from behind me, his own Glamour dropped as he stood at my side. We watched the driver lay down skid marks on the asphalt, his car squealing away. I probably shouldn’t have looked at the Sidhe but since I’d behaved myself with the bad driver I indulged. I turned, tilting my head to look him full in the face.
Beautiful wasn’t a word people used to describe most men. Albert Dunstable was not most men, even with the glamour that made faeries seem more human. Flowing platinum hair framed a face with fine-boned, symmetrical features. The glasses perched on the bridge of his nose only magnified the effect. Sidhe looked breakable, like creations of spun glass meant for decor, but their faerie magic made them sturdier than they appeared.
I glanced down at my un-Glamoured hands, gnarled and callused from years at sea in both the Under and the mortal realm. My nails, tough as steel, ended in points like any other Troll’s. We’re more powerful than we appear, too, but the only time we took anyone’s breath away was when we knocked them out on the battlefield.
“Hey, Odd Couple,” shouted a voice. “Catch up and make it snappy!”
The shouter was none other than Josh Dennison, leader of the pack everyone belonged to except me. He had a Klingon on his starboard bow, a tiny woman with stripy brown hair. I remembered Kim Ichiro from the Lane Meyer search and rescue adventure. Striding over, I peered at Josh
“Don’t call us a couple.”
The Tanuki chick raised an eyebrow, then scrunched them together as her eyes moved from me to Al and then back again like we played ping pong instead of just standing there like relatively normal people.
“Odd.”
“Yeah, your Alpha already called us that.” I shrugged. “Whatever. Anyway, Newport PD is interrogating your boyfriend, Ichiro. I should probably catch up with the Headmistress, so see you later.”
As I power-walked toward Henrietta Thurston’s retreating back, I heard Kim mention something about Al’s luck and then my name. But I couldn’t be bothered with Tanuki rumors while the Feds were on campus. I rolled my eyes at no one.
The Federal investigation came straight out of circumstances built by the guy trying to get the school shut down. If they found anything hinky, Richard Hopewell might just get what he’d wanted all along. But I couldn’t let that happen. PPC was probably my only shot at seeing Hope again.
Hope
“Come on, Ed.” I let go of his shirt with one hand and grabbed his arm with the other. “Step away from the angry dragon.”
“Um.” He looked at his shoes, so I did, too. They weren’t untied or anything, so I pulled him along, heading for the door. He stumbled for one step but came along after.
The door wasn’t easy to open with one hand, and Ed didn’t help. I put my back into it like Mama always told me to do when I helped swab the deck. My wings flapped out, and after that, the door moved like a scared rat.
I took a left this time, away from the creepy spider-goblin’s room. I thought it was morning but didn’t want to take any chances. The door clicked shut on its own. Ed planted his feet.
“What gives?”
“We have to go back and visit the Tsuchigomo.”
“Oh, no. No way, Ed. I’m not going in there with an actual unfriendly spider-man. Unless he’s a Peter Parker kind of guy, which I already know he isn’t.”
“It’s daytime, though. He can’t do a thing to us now.”
“He wants to eat us.” I wasn’t about to tell Ed that spiders scared me more than anything in either world.
“He also said he had something to tell us.”
“That’s what I’d say if I wanted to eat someone and was too old and creaky to chase them.”
“But it’s the daytime—Look, I don’t get it with you. You’re not scared of sharing a room with a literal dragon lady who could poison us in our sleep, but you won’t visit a little old spider-man who has no powers at the moment.”
I blinked and dropped his arm. He was right, of course. The know-it-all.
“Hertha’s supposed to watch us, though. The queen said so.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean she’s any safer than the Tsuchigomo in the daytime. Anyway, you can come with me or not. I'll have a chat with him.”
I watched Ed’s back getting smaller as he walked down the hall but couldn’t let him go it alone. Psychics were almost human, especially a medium with no ghosts around. And yeah, I was only just human two days before. That’s a lot of time for a kid. The Alkonost thing comes with this idea about what to do and what not to do. I can’t explain it, but the rest of this adventure might.
Going after him was easy. He was taller, but I was still faster than Ed Redford, famous kid medium. Magic bird stuff kind of rocks. Okay, it’s almost totally awesome, except for the whole automatically being Seelie part. Saying I didn’t like the queen back then was a big fat lie. But I liked the creepy spider goblin even less.
Ed walked right up and knocked on the door to his room, which was closed now. I saw a mark on it, something that looked smeared on with finger paint sparkly enough to come from a unicorn. Except everyone said those don’t exist.
“Come in.”
That creaky old voice made all my feathers stand up. The hair on the back of Ed’s neck did the same trick, but he twisted the knob and pushed the door open anyway. My face scrunched up because the nursery door opened in. I turned my head twice, like crossing the street. The spider goblin’s door was the only one hung to keep something in instead of out. The queen wasn’t stupid, then. Or at least only stupid about her jerk of a suitor. Maybe she was stupid about Hopewell the same way I was stupid about my dad, wanting to make him happy because she cared too much.
“Love stinks,” I mumbled.
“What’s that?” Ed looked over his shoulder with one foot on either side of the doorway.
“Nothing.” I waved my hands at him, like shooing a fly. “Go, already.”
He entered, and so did I.
The walls in there had white tapestries everywhere. I wrinkled my nose because that wasn’t right somehow, but before I could put my finger on it, I saw the old fellow. He sat on a cushion like the Caterpillar in Wonderland with all eight of his legs folded under him.
“Shouldn’t you be smoking?” I slapped a hand over my mouth. Hanging out with Ed and Hertha had made me forget that asking questions was a bad idea.
/> “Don’t be ridiculous, child.” The spider-goblin man-thing tilted his head, making his neck crack. “My webs are too flammable for that.”
“I'm Edward Redford, and I’m here because last night you said there’s something we should know.”
My mouth dropped open. Ed wasn’t wasting any time here. He also looked directly at the creepy half-human creature, as though he was trying to ignore something else in the room I hadn’t noticed yet. That only made me want to find whatever it was.
“Yes. You children seek a box.”
“Well, duh. We’re kids, and toy boxes are a thing.” Maybe I shouldn’t have sassed the old guy, but I didn’t like how he knew about a quest we’d only just gotten.
“Hope, quit it.”
“What? he's an unfriendly neighborhood spider-guy. I'm not going to treat him like we're bosom buddies."
"Still, he's offering us information, info we need. Tone back the sass already."
"Okay fine." I crossed my arms over my chest and folded my wings. Ed had a point, even if I didn't like it. I turned my nose up, then looked at the spider-man from the corner of my eye. This let me watch the curtain covered doorway at the back of the room, which Ed hadn't glanced at yet.
"So, you have something to tell us about a box." Ed's foot twitched, and I could tell he wanted to tap it but didn't dare.
"Yes. It's not here, but it needs to be. Unfortunately for you, your brother's friends made a mistake. They left it with someone they shouldn't have." The big bad spider-goblin clicked his feet. Not all of them, just maybe three. He had a few more working in his web, which he kept glancing at.
I wondered whether he saw and heard things through them. Spider shifters use their silk to hear and see things when they're not in the room. This guy was doing something like that, probably. I couldn't be sure. If I was a dragon or a magus, I might have been able to tell just by looking. But being the Alkonost meant that all I could see were annoying ghosts.
"So you said your information would help us. This isn't helpful."
"I said no such thing, but I know more than what I'm saying to you now. However, if you want to know it too, you must ask me directly."
"Oh. Being in your debt is dangerous." Ed folded his hands so tight, his knuckles whitened. "There has to be another way to do this."
"With all danger, what's most important is to decide which risks are worthy." Spider feet tapped again for a few moments. "It's up to you to decide whether you think this reward merits the debt."
"Nothing makes up for that." I tugged at my friend's sleeve. "Ed, we should get out of here."
I couldn't say anything about it in front of evil spider-man, but I'd seen something behind that curtain. Something that moved with hitches and jerks. There was no way for me to know what it was, but I didn't want to stick around and find out. Or worse stick around and end up back there with whatever it was.
"It's worth the risk. I'll do it." Questions spilled out of Ed's mouth on purpose, like the one time I'd seen Grandpa pour beer on a grave, instead of by accident like when I knock over my juice cup. "Where is the box? How do we get it? Where do we have to bring it?"
My mouth dropped open. With those three questions, Ed had put himself in debt to the spider-goblin. He was already in debt to me. I could use that somehow to cancel the favor out if it went bad. I tried not to watch the thing behind the curtain while I waited for the answers to Ed's questions.
"The box is in the mortal realm but hidden from most. You get it by finding Joyce Watkins, and you bring it back here to the Under."
Ed held up one finger and opened his mouth. I understood what that meant; he wanted to ask another question. I shook my head. Those answers could only be meant to get my buddy to ask even more questions and make an even bigger debt. But my warning worked. Being smart makes a big difference to a measly medium in a faerie court.
"Thank you for the answers, Sir." Ed bowed his head. "I will use them as best I can."
"Yeah, now it's time to go. We have curfews and stuff like that. I mean, we’re kids, you know?"
"Oh, yes, I am well aware." More legs clacked, majorly giving me the creeps. I'm usually pretty brave, but spiders scare me. The only thing that could have spooked me more was the giant squid out in the ocean between the king’s and queen’s realms.
Ed backed out of the room. I copied him. That's just what you do when you're a C student, and the guy sitting next to you gets straight As. Ed had almost six more months of experience with the Seelie side than I did. It didn't matter that he hadn’t been brought up in Faerie. It never does when it comes to the queen's rules versus the king's rules. There's such a thing as the home team advantage, but it's really how you play the game that counts. Ed knew this game's rules way better than I did.
Once we were out in the hall, Ed planted his face in his palm.
"What's wrong?" I scratched my head, thinking things had gone pretty well compared to how wrong they could have gone.
"I can't believe we have to find Joyce Watkins."
"What's wrong with that?" I shrugged. "I mean, how hard can it be? If she's an extrahuman, she’ll be in the Registry."
"She's in the Registry, all right." Ed shook his head. "The thing is, no one's seen her since just after the Reveal. Joyce didn't even show up when her brother-in-law was in a coma for six months. How's that for missing?" Ed's hands balled into fists, and he stamped his foot. "Fewmets!"
"Now what is it?"
"I can't believe you're not gloating about me asking you another question." He walked away down the hall back the way we had come.
I had nothing to say to that, so I shut my trap and followed him. By the time I got back to the nursery, I realize that I didn't care what Ed owed me anymore. What bothered me the most was what he owed the spider goblin. I had no idea what Tsuchiwhatsis even wanted from people. That would be serious trouble before all of this was over.
Chapter Eight
Albert
Being back on campus with Gemma was weird. Being back anywhere with her was likewise strange but in a good way. Unfortunately, like most times I entered the campus, the wet towel smacking the back of my eyes got worse. Even with Gemma's air magic still in effect, all those different schools of magic hurt me.
Most people assumed my calm and care equaled reserved or uptight. They thought wrong. What they didn't get was that for me, being part of the magical community meant near-constant pain. The magic in the Under was different, mostly. Faerie magic and use, or faerie creatures, or vamps, or shifters just existing didn't give me a headache, but the spellworks of the magi sure did.
I frowned and then winced. As I tried to smooth out my wrinkling forehead, I pondered what in the courtroom could've kicked my migraine off. Magicpsychic devices often record court proceedings, but those rarely made my headaches this bad. Somebody had been using magic then, against the rules and restrictions inherent to the night court or any court of extrahuman proportions. But who?
With Gino Gitano vanishing into witness protection and Richard Hopewell stuck in the Under due to multiple arrest warrants, I couldn't figure out who would dare cast spells in an extrahuman court of law. All the usual devices to detect such illegal doings hadn't registered.
I tried to watch Headmistress Thurston stride toward the pair of Federal agents, but my eyes kept drifting toward Gemma. I told myself to cut it out; quit staring before she noticed and got angry with me. She'd agreed to meet with me and even seemed amicable to my calling that meeting a date. History told me this didn't mean she'd go quietly.
Nothing about Gemma Toland was quiet or safe. Motherhood hadn't mellowed her either. If anything, she strode more boldly than before. She used to be a literal breath of fresh air. Now my old love whistled like a sword arcing through space and time toward an enemy. I understood now after just one day with Hope. Children have a magnifying effect. How would her influence change me? I had no idea at that point.
Pushing my glasses up my nose, I kept pace but hung
back. Story of my life. I could've gone past Gemma and even the headmistress, but I never felt like it was the right time to take the lead. Who was I, anyway? A Seelie knight who needed glasses outside the Under and got headaches every time a magus cast a spell, that's who. I was next to useless in the mortal realm as far as the queen was concerned, except when it came to gathering information.
I hated being Her Majesty's spy because there’s so much lying in it. Feeling like everything I heard might become a payment for a favor was no way to live. It definitely was not how to win friends and influence people, but it had been my reality since I'd tithed to the queen all those years ago.
Taking a left to where the FBE agents waited, I thought back to the night we'd graduated from Trout Prep and made our promise. Like everything else between us that vow and the trust at its foundation snapped like a frayed rope. I'd thought for so long that trust was all beyond repair. But as I walked toward the Federal agents whose presence tempted me to come clean, I realized that sharing information with the right people might cost my freedom.
If they threw me in jail, so be it. At least I wouldn't snitch to the queen on the people I loved at Richard’s suggestion. I closed my eyes, letting my feet travel ground familiar enough to trod in my sleep. Blaine Harcourt had accused Tony for months of the transgressions I'd been under orders to make. It was about time I paid my dues for membership in the club he'd nearly been expelled from.
"Sir Dunstable," the voice matched the woman seated inside the room better than the man who'd greeted me at its door, but I understood immediately. The werewolf was the good cop in this partnership. “Agent Derek Dennison. And this is Agent Natalie Johnson."
"Hello, Agents." I walked about halfway through the room before my knees knocked like kids out in the cold. Would I make it to a seat before blurting everything out? My composure had been at a breaking point for the last six months and I couldn't take it anymore, not even for the moments required to cross that room.
