“It’s not the same. With a demon or half-demon like Mikka, I can track them and know exactly where they are. I can’t find fae at will. But if I’m within close range, like in a room, I’ll sense it if a faerie is there. The same applies to open space like a street if the faerie is close enough. And yes, unfortunately, it works the other way around as well. I waited until the last second to teleport. If I had hesitated, Acacia and her friends would’ve known that I was there.”
“You should’ve left me behind to overhear the rest of their conversation.”
Lorenzo raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying you would’ve been able to maintain your cover if I disappeared suddenly, without any warning?”
I scowled. “I would’ve managed.” Or freaked out.
“Well, even if you would’ve adjusted in time, I was afraid you would confront them directly.”
I had no retort to that since I had confronted Acacia just days earlier about helping the stepsisters change their ugly voices into something beautiful. The decision had seemed right at the time, but now I wondered if it had been wise to reveal my cards. If I had gone to Lorenzo with my knowledge first, we could have watched Acacia without revealing our hand. Oh well, what was done was done. No point in beating myself up over it. At least confronting her had given me the confirmation that she was indeed helping the sisters and shown that she was willing to help whomever to do whatever for the right price.
I flipped from my conversation with Acacia to the exchange I had just witnessed. “Do you think the fae have anything to do with Queen Ella’s disappearance?”
Lorenzo considered this. “Perhaps indirectly.”
A shudder seized me. If someone came to Acacia or her colleagues and asked them for an insecurity or low self-esteem potion, they could easily sell it. Acacia had siphoned negative emotions from me on countless occasions. Perhaps Ella’s stepmother, Madam Fontaine, had bought a potion and slipped it to the queen, leading to her abandoning the king. “Could Madam control Queen Ella’s emotions and behavior through potions? That would certainly explain why she was terrified all the time and chose to trade in the throne for the kitchen.”
Lorenzo’s forehead wrinkled. “A potion changes someone’s emotions and behaviors only temporarily. Even with a very strong potion, Fontaine would have to administer it every day or so, and eventually, the queen would’ve developed a resistance. Fontaine might’ve gotten Queen Ella initially out of the castle by slipping her a draft, but the way the queen has been acting, refusing to even talk, tells me Fontaine must have something very serious on Queen Ella to literally silence her and make her go into hiding.”
I shook my hand. “What could Madam have on Ella? She’s the queen. She has countless guards, a loving husband, and a fairy godmother.”
Lorenzo sighed. “Yes, in terms of brute-force and numbers, the queen is safe, but someone might still sneak into the castle and, for example, poison the king.”
Madam must’ve threatened Queen Ella with something that was so horrendous that Ella saw no other choice but to abandon her husband and slave away once again under Madam’s brutal hand. With Ella missing, the only one who could give us answers was the king. Too bad, he didn’t want to see either Lorenzo or me. Something occurred to me then. “If you’re able to teleport, can’t you teleport into the castle?”
There was a hesitation on Lorenzo’s face, which gave me all the answer I needed. “Then why didn’t you do it after the guards turned you away?”
Anger flashed in Lorenzo’s eyes. “Just because I’m a demon, doesn’t mean I don’t have morals.”
“I’m not suggesting you teleport into the castle to steal gold. I’m asking you to teleport into the castle to tell the king that we know where his beloved wife is or at least used to be and have an idea of who is responsible for her disappearance.”
“It’s not that easy.”
I crossed my arms.
Lorenzo sighed. “If I teleport into the castle, I’m broadcasting my abilities. Besides you and Tia, nobody outside the demon community knows what type of demon I am. If I do as you suggest, I risk all demons, or at least my kind, being banished from the kingdom due to safety concerns.”
“But, you would be using your teleportation to help the king.”
Lorenzo’s face softened. “You and I know that, but all the king and his guards would see is an unknown demon invading the castle. It would be viewed as an act of aggression, and they would attack first, ask questions never.”
The truthfulness of his words weighed heavily on me, exhausting me. “So, we do nothing?”
A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips, and he nodded toward the mental institution. “I’m sure we’re going to find some juicy information in there.”
“What about the fae?”
“We’ll deal with them later.”
Not I, but we. I smiled.
I turned toward the mental institution to see that the two guards at the gates were being replaced by a new set of guards. How many more were on the inside? “Where exactly are we going to teleport to?”
Lorenzo wrapped his arms around me in response. “Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
My surroundings vanished into a blur of colors only to rearrange themselves into a new view. The decrepit houses around me had been replaced by tiles, sinks, and mirrors. Lorenzo had teleported us into the females’ bathroom, which mercifully was empty of anyone who could scream bloody murder at the sight of us.
Gingerly, Lorenzo pushed open the door. When it became clear the corridor, too, was empty, we took a right and walked until we reached a door that read “Director’s Office.” We listened for noises coming from inside. There were none, so Lorenzo took my hand, and we teleported inside. The office was nothing impressive. A sad-looking desk and chair stood on one side of the room, a metal bookcase opposite it. Not a touch of warmth or personality. I swallowed, trying not to think about what type of person ran the facility and how he treated its patients when a cave was more inviting than his office.
Lorenzo searched the desk drawers. I went over the contents of the bookshelves, which were filled with biology and medicine titles, all the while listening for any sounds coming from the outside. Straining my ears hard for footsteps and voices, I imagined them several times only to realize there weren’t any.
After ten minutes, Lorenzo closed the drawers. “Nothing.”
“Are you sure?” I hadn’t expected to find anything on the bookshelf, but I had hoped he would be more successful.
“There are only patient files, and none of them talk about the unrest or emotion and energy siphoning that is going on around Arcadia. There are a few letters, but none discuss the queen or recent events.”
“Are you sure you checked everything?”
He nodded, “I speed read. The absence of any suspicious correspondence doesn’t necessarily mean nothing fishy is going on.”
“What are we going to do now?”
Lorenzo teleported us outside into a different part of the corridor where the lights were dimmer and the walls uneven. “Interview the inmates.”
“You think they’ll talk to us?”
He nodded. “Unlike the nurses and other staff members, most patients won’t be here of free will. I bet they’d love the opportunity to spill the beans.” We headed further down the corridor, past rooms that had small windows on the doors, allowing us to look inside. The first few patients we saw appeared to be sleeping.
Finally, we reached a door from which hushed whispers emanated.
“We should leave today,” one of the inmates said. Her hair was cut unevenly, and her arms were muscular.
“No, we’ll wait until tomorrow. They’ll be busy with their meeting, and we can sneak out between five and six.” The second girl sat on one of the cots cross-legged.
The third girl bit her lip. “Are you sure this is a good idea? Where are we going to go?” She was painfully thin, and when she moved, her long-sleeved shirt exposed red, angry scars on her
wrists and arms.
The first one put her fists on her hips. “Anywhere. The streets might be dangerous, but they’re better than staying here and dying. You do want to live, don’t you?”
The skinny girl glanced away. The second girl wrapped her in a hug. “We’ll be fine.”
“We should talk to them,” I said.
Lorenzo pulled me away from the room. “Not today. We’ll only scare them. Tomorrow.”
“What if they fail to escape, and we’ll lose our chance?”
“They won’t.” He glanced back at the girls. “I’ll send Mikka to ensure they’ll get out.”
My heart warmed. Even when thinking about the greater good—Arcadia’s future, Lorenzo never forgot about the little people.
“Time to return to Daydream.” Lorenzo’s strong arms wrapped gently around me, and in that moment, I knew that to be with him, I would learn how to trust and show him all of me. For him, I would overcome my insecurities and become the best version of myself.
2
30th July
My shift at the post office flew by. Only a week ago, receiving a stack of letters that needed to be delivered sent me into a tailspin. Now, I was confidently going from house to house, having developed a good route. I biked from house to house, no longer afraid that cycling would lead to a head injury. It wasn’t just the path and the biking that my brain and body had memorized. I also knew what houses had a mailbox and which required me to throw the mail onto the doorstep to avoid vicious guard dogs.
Last week had been one steep learning curve. After quitting work at Madam’s boarding house, I needed a job to keep me afloat while I worked on my singing career. Just like my previous job as a maid, working for the post office was physically exhausting, but in a better way. I didn’t have to bend over all the time or scrub floors. Instead, I got to bike through Arcadia with its lively market smelling of spices and apples, past houses with fragrant rose gardens, and toward cottages that smelled of homemade broth and baked pastries. It was also nice not to have a boss who could appear at any moment and yell at me to release her frustration or admonish me for a perceived wrongdoing.
Mrs. Flannigan was so much nicer than Madam Fontaine. She was strict but fair. The only downside to no longer working at the boarding house was that unless I had letters to deliver, it was hard to know what was going on over there.
I had used the maids’ entrance to sneak in several times to check up on Queen Ella, who went by Cinder. Unfortunately, the last time I went uninvited into the boarding house, I had been discovered by Thomas, a patrolman and the partner of my ex, Victor. Thomas had caught me trespassing when the property had been corded off after a suspicious death and told me to stay away. Since then, I hadn’t dared to return, afraid that if Madam or her daughters saw me, they would call the police, and this time, Thomas wouldn’t show me mercy. Thus, I couldn’t snoop safely and see whether the Fontaines were involved in any illegal activity other than buying fake voices for the national singing competition.
As for Queen Ella, Lorenzo had reassured me that after teleporting into the kitchen at the boarding house and discovering she was gone, he had left a demonic device behind that would notify him if she returned. So far, she hadn’t. But maybe today was the day.
I climbed up from the first level of Daydream where the bar and Lorenzo’s office were to the second floor. Upstairs, there were three bedrooms—Lorenzo’s, Mikka’s, and Tia’s and mine.
“Come in,” Lorenzo called after I knocked.
I entered his room, mesmerized by the rustic décor—wooden and brick walls and a slanted ceiling window. “Any news about the queen?”
He shook his head. “No, but I think it’s for the best. It will allow us to fully focus on the mental institution.”
“What do you think the patients know?”
“If they’ve been locked up for a while, they’ll be able to inform us of any recent changes, rules, and staff turnover. Perhaps any new experiments going on or drugs administered.”
“At least one of them seemed to think they’d die if they stayed. I wondered if their fears are connected to the women’s house. A resident visited Acacia, reporting that she aged overnight.”
Lorenzo nodded. “Life energy siphoning. It’s a possibility, but if that’s what the doctors are doing, they need help from magic wielders.”
“Acacia siphons emotions. You think she’s behind this as well?” She had acted surprised and innocent, but I no longer trusted anything she said or did. Not after I had caught her selling fake voices to the Fontaine sisters, uncaring that she was giving them an unfair advantage at the royal competition.
“Maybe Acacia is involved, maybe she isn’t. It’s too early to tell,” Lorenzo said, and we both fell silent.
I wondered how many innocent citizens would have to suffer before we could uncover the head of the hydra and cut it off. After my conversation with Acacia and overhearing her discussion with the other fae, I was certain they were involved.
“We need to figure out when and where the fae are meeting,” I said. “I could go back to Acacia’s.”
“And do what, confront her?”
I clenched my hands. “I did that once.”
“Which was one time too many.” Lorenzo tilted his head, and his voice softened. “I’m not trying to be hard on you. But because of your confrontation, Acacia knows you’re on to her.”
“What if I pretend that I’m there to hide the golden rings in my eyes and sniff around while she works?”
Lorenzo shook his head. “I never liked the idea of her siphoning off your emotions. The further away from her we stay, the better.”
He had a point. “But how else will we find out when the meeting is happening?”
A wicked smile curled Lorenzo’s perfect lips. “Fae aren’t only sellers of magic. They’re also buyers. I anticipated that we might need to convince them to cooperate, so I brought something back from my journey.”
“Was that the reason behind your delay in getting back?”
He nodded. “I’m sorry I cut it that close to your recording.”
“Thank you.” I smiled. “You showed up. That’s what matters.”
Lorenzo hesitated. “Now that we’ve cleared that up, we need to talk about the other question you asked yesterday.”
I shook my head. “I was upset. I was wrong to question why you had come to Arcadia.”
“No, you weren’t. I didn’t just come here to open a bar or because my gut told me to.” He hesitated. “A demon with the ability to see the future told me I needed to go to Arcadia. That I was meant to help someone come into their own.” He rubbed his chin. “At first, I thought it was Mikka. It’s hard to be a half-demon, not completely human, but also not fully demon. It’s even harder to be an ice demon when no one from your caste is there to teach you about your abilities.” He sighed. “But now, I think I was meant to meet you. Our paths were meant to intersect.”
I had to remember to breathe. What he had said was too much to take in. I needed time to process this. “What did you bring to negotiate with the fae?” I asked weakly.
Lorenzo nodded as if understanding that I needed a moment to get my bearings about his revelations. He pulled a small set of scales from his drawer that fit into the palm of my hand.
“I don’t understand.” The miniature thing was neither practical nor pretty enough to be considered art.
“You’re holding balanced scales. They are infused with a demonic power that allows you to shift a decision or outcome in your favor. It can be used only once.”
I wrinkled my forehead. “So if a faerie brought that into the meeting, she could manipulate the vote outcome?”
Lorenzo nodded. “I’ll bet that Abigail, the faerie who was shut down by Acacia yesterday, would love to get her hands on these balanced scales. Obtaining them in exchange for telling me where and when the meeting will be held would be a bargain for her.”
“What if she betrays you and tells the ot
hers about her deal with you?”
“She wouldn’t expose herself like that. If she told on me, she’d have to admit that she accepted the balanced scales.”
“What if she says you attacked her?”
Lorenzo chuckled. “She wouldn’t. She wouldn’t want the other fae to think that she was helpless and weak. She’s not stupid enough to make herself prey. She’ll accept the scales and keep quiet. The temptation will be too much for her to reject my offer.”
“All right. That leaves the question of what we’ll do with the information if you don’t want me to go to the fae alone and you can’t go with me because they will be able to sense your presence in a room.”
Lorenzo’s eyes flashed. “Teleportation isn’t the only skill I have.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can listen in on conversations without being present.”
I felt my forehead furrow. “Come again?”
“Astral projection. My body can be in one place, while my mind is in another place. I can also project the image of my body into the second location if I choose to, making others think I’m there when I’m not. In this case, I won’t project my image. I’ll be there with my mind only, making it impossible for the fae to know I’m listening in on their conversation.”
I blinked rapidly, trying to wrap my head around this information. “If you can do that, why didn’t you use this skill to spy on the king?”
“Because everything has a price. I can’t do astral projection for long periods of time. It’s a time-bending, gravity-defying power. The universe can only tolerate it for so long. To stop demons like myself from misusing it, we’re punished by a visit into hell if we astral project for too long.”
I didn’t like the sound of this. I couldn’t lose Lorenzo. “We should look into another way.”
“Why?” Lorenzo’s face sobered. “Do you not trust me?”
Trust. It all boiled down to trust. What had happened in the past to lead to this obsession? “I think you’re very capable, but I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Halia: Daughter of Cinderella Page 19
