A Dangerous Deceit in Faerywood Falls

by Blythe Baker

  He’s not here, Athena said from the doorway. And I’m not coming in and getting all of that sawdust stuck to my paws.

  I sighed. “You’re right. He’s not – ”

  Just as I was turning to leave, a small basket beside the door caught my eye.

  My heart leapt into my throat. It couldn’t be –

  I picked up a finely made, hand-carved medallion about the size of my palm. The back was sanded so smooth it was as soft as paper. On the front, however, there was the shaggy head of a wolf, its teeth showing, and its eyes focused.

  “Athena, this is exactly like the medallion that the hunter was wearing,” I said. “The dead hunter?”

  Yes, I assumed that was who you meant, she said. But how did that get in –

  “Who are you?”

  I froze. My blood turned to ice at the sound of a voice I didn’t recognize.

  Slowly, I turned around, and found myself staring at a girl who couldn’t have been more than twenty, maybe even nineteen.

  She had dark red hair that was French braided. The end of the thick rope of hair hung down over one shoulder. Her plaid overshirt was rolled up to her elbows, and there were holes in the knees of her dark washed jeans.

  Her fists were planted on her hips, and she was glaring at me with dark green eyes that reminded me of the jeweled wings of a beetle.

  “I’m only going to ask one more time…” the girl said, her eyes narrowed and her forehead wrinkling in frustration. “Who are you?”

  “I’m really sorry,” I said automatically. “I was just looking for – ”

  The girl’s eyes widened suddenly. “Wait a second, I know you,” she said, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “You’re that girl who came to have dinner with Dr. Valerio awhile back, aren’t you? Marianne something, right?”

  I felt my cheeks flushing, but her smile only grew warmer. “Yeah, he talks about you a lot.”

  I wanted to run and hide, my face was so red. “My name is Marianne, and yes, I did come over for dinner one night – ”

  “Were you looking for him now?” she asked, tossing her braid over her shoulder. “He’s not home at the moment. Went to go do some wolf things,” she said, raising her fingers in the air in air quotes.

  “I see,” I said. Obviously, she knew that I was already aware of the Gifted situation. Did that mean she was a shape-shifter herself?

  “The name’s Alessa,” the girl said, prodding herself in the chest with her thumb. “I’m Lucan’s cousin.”

  “His cousin?” I asked. “Oh, well it’s really nice to meet you.”

  “I’m glad to meet you, too, at last,” she said with a smirk. “I’ve heard a lot about you. How smart you are, how pretty your eyes are…dang, girl, your eyes are really cool!”

  She leaned in closer to me, squinting as she stared right into my face.

  “Silver…whoa, I wouldn’t have believed it. Lucan kept going on and on about them, but I guess I need to apologize for teasing him so much.” She leaned back, smiling at me. “He’s got a little bit of a crush on you, if you haven’t already guessed it.”

  I cleared my throat, looking away. “I just happened to see these beautiful carvings when I peeked in here to see if Dr. Valerio was around – ”

  “Oh, come on, you of all people should call him Lucan,” Alessa said with a smile. “He’d like that, I think.”

  I swallowed my pride. “Did he make these?” I asked.

  Alessa stepped into the shed beside me and peered down at the carvings in the basket. “Oh, no, my brother Gian actually made all these.”

  I looked at her closely. “Wow, really? They’re amazing.”

  “Yeah, he started doing things like this as a way to deal with the transformations and stuff,” Alessa said flippantly. “They were a lot harder on him than the rest of us. Lucan built this shed for Gian as a place to get away from the rest of the pack. He started making these from some of the trees in the forest. Apparently, the wood has magic in it, because the medallions seem to bring good luck and safety to anyone who wears them.”

  “Sounds pretty cool,” I said, picking one up and turning it over in my hands.

  “Yeah, Gian got so good at making them that Lucan convinced some of the shops in town to sell them, and they can’t seem to keep them on the shelves. It’s good. I’m glad to see my brother picking up a project like this.”

  Alessa’s eyes narrowed as she looked up at me.

  “You seem awfully interested in them. Have you seen one before or something?”

  “Uh…yeah, I have, actually,” I said. I looked up at her. “Did you hear about that hunter they found dead in the woods a few nights ago?”

  Alessa’s face hardened slightly. “Yeah, what about him?”

  I held up one of the medallions. “He had one of these around his neck.”

  Alessa’s eyes widened, and her mouth hung open. “Wait a second…are you trying to accuse my family of somehow being involved in that hunter’s death?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying – ” I said.

  “Because if you come around here and think that you can try to ruin my family’s reputation based on a complete coincidence, then you’ve got another think coming,” she said.

  “Listen, that’s not what I was saying,” I said, my heart jumping into my throat. “Do you know if your brother had ever met the hunter? Or if he’d been the one to sell him the medallion?”

  “How dare you!” Alessa said, her voice rising. “Is this what you think of us? That we’re some murderers?”

  “No, of course not,” I said. “I just wanted to know – ”

  “You don’t get to know anything,” Alessa said.

  She reached out and grabbed my arm, dragging me out of the shed.

  My blood ran cold at her touch, and fear surged through me, making me dizzy. My skin prickled, and a tingle like my arm was going numb swept from the tips of my fingers all the way up to my shoulder.

  Athena was running after me, growling and snapping her teeth up at Alessa.

  Alessa was pulling me across the yard back toward the front of the house. “I can’t even believe you. And to think that my cousin actually likes you. Someone who snoops around, asking accusing questions. I don’t care if you have silver eyes or magic in your blood or whatever. You’re as bad as those vampires.”

  She let go of me when we got closer to the driveway. She waved me toward my car.

  “Excuse me if I don’t have anything nice to say about you when my cousin comes home,” she said. She was breathing heavily as she glared at me. A moment later, though, she was reaching up to grab her head, trying to steady herself on her feet. “Oh my gosh…what happened…I feel like I’m going to be sick…”

  My own head was swimming, too. It was like all I could see or think about was moonlight. My temples throbbed and my thoughts swam like I was trying to fight for control of my mind.

  The world spun, and my knees hit the dirt.

  I grabbed onto my skull, and the image of the moon flashed across my eyes.

  “What did…what did you do?” Alessa asked in a mangled shriek. “What did you do to my – my shifting power? Something is wrong…it’s like it’s just…gone!”

  I look down at my hands, cold sweat dripping down my back. My vision was going in and out of focus.

  “I…I don’t know,” I mumbled.

  “You did this – ” Alessa said, stumbling away from me, her arms wrapped around herself. She nearly tripped over a hedge on the path leading up to the front door, but her eyes were glued on me. “You did something to me. You – you – ”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, looking up at her, my eyes filling with tears. “I don’t know why – it just – ”

  Alessa turned and hurried into the house, slamming the door shut behind her.

  My body sagged, and tears sprang from my eyes.

  “Why does this keep happening to me?” I asked, rubbing the fat tears from my cheeks, staring up at the door.
“Why do I keep doing this to people?”

  You’re a faery…Athena said, appearing beside me. She sat down at my side, the warmth of her tiny body permeating my now freezing self. You have immense powers that the werewolves, vampires, and even the spell weavers can’t hope to understand.

  “I don’t care about that. I just want to stop hurting people. I want them to stop looking at me like…like that,” I said, shaking my head helplessly.

  We shouldn’t linger here, Athena said, nudging my arm with her nose. If Dr. Valerio comes back, he is probably not going to be very happy.

  A weight tied itself to my heart. The last thing I wanted to do was upset Dr. Valerio…

  I swallowed, but my throat was dry. “Yeah,” I croaked, struggling to my feet. “That’s a good idea.”

  I dragged myself over to the car and into the driver’s seat. Athena hopped in beside me, her eyes glued to me as I snapped my seatbelt into place.

  Somehow, I managed to get home, but I didn’t feel any better when I was sitting on my own couch than I had when I was sitting in Dr. Valerio’s front yard.

  If anything, I felt worse.

  “There’s got to be a way to figure this ability out,” I said.

  My heart burned with frustration and determination.

  “I need to find out who my parents were,” I said, frowning. “I need to figure out how to be a faery. And I am going to stop stealing people’s powers…somehow.”

  5

  It took me a few days to accept what had happened to me. Just like I had with Mrs. Bickford, I felt awful about stealing Alessa’s power. The longer I thought about it, the more I realized it was no small matter. Shape shifting was almost certainly a huge part, if not the biggest part, of her life. And I’d robbed her of it.

  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to give the power back. It wasn’t like the ghost speaking power, though. Since I’d never used the power myself, I didn’t know what it looked like in the miasma of magic surging through me. It was like trying to find a diamond in a mess of broken ice shards.

  There is no point in agonizing over it so much, Athena said from her perch on the windowsill. You’re not skilled enough to know how it works.

  “I realize that,” I said. “But it doesn’t mean I don’t feel awful about it.”

  What good is it going to do for you to sit here and harm yourself by worrying? Athena asked. Do you think it will get you to the answer any sooner?

  “Well, no…” I said.

  Then stop, Athena said. You’re just making me feel awful for no reason, too.

  Eventually, I came to accept what she was saying. There was nothing I could do, and it wasn’t like I’d taken the power on purpose.

  I resolved to find a way to return it to Alessa, just like I’d done with Mrs. Bickford. If that was possible, then surely the transfer of power back to Alessa would be possible, too.

  It was hard to be upset on a beautiful day in early fall, though. The air was warm and smelled of fallen leaves. The lake was brisk, and I hardly saw anyone out swimming in it, except children who didn’t care how cold the water was, or those trying to keep up an exercise regime.

  The change in seasons meant that Aunt Candace’s lodge was getting busy again. The summer vacationers were starting to give way to those seeking colder activities, like skiing and hiking. While snow hadn’t started to fall in Faerywood Falls, and likely wouldn’t for some time, guests were dragging wet ski clothes in and out of the lodge, their boots clunking across the foyer, their brightly colored snow hats hanging to dry beside the large stone fireplace in the living room.

  On my days off from working at the antique shop, I’d offer my help to my aunt and cousin at the lodge. It was a lot of work keeping the place up to snuff, and I found the simple act of dusting and making beds and cooking meals to be relaxing. It certainly helped to get my mind off the other things going on in my life.

  It was on one of these days when I was helping at the lodge that I found myself making up a pair of queen sized beds. The sheets had been freshly washed and were even still warm from the dryer as I pulled them on, smoothing the wrinkles from the surface as I went. The quilts, all handmade, were hanging over the benches at the foot of the beds, waiting for me to throw them back over the mattresses.

  The rhythm of getting everything arranged was so simple, so mind-numbing, that I found myself singing. Not just any song, either.

  Even though I’d only heard it for a few minutes, the song that Ruth Cunningham had been singing had gotten itself stuck in my head. I found myself humming it wherever I went. In the shower, in the car, and at the lodge while cleaning.

  I didn’t know the song, though, not really. I didn’t even know the words that she’d been singing. But the melody was catchy, and so I found myself singing it.

  I was just tossing the pillows up to the front of the bed when Bliss walked into the room.

  “Whoa, where’d you learn that song?” she asked, setting down a bundle of fresh towels she carried in her arms.

  I looked up, my voice fading away. “From this woman that I went to go see about the missing death records,” I said, fluffing the pillows and straightening them before moving to collect the quilt at the foot of the bed. “Why, do you know it?”

  “I definitely know it,” Bliss said, giving me a pointed look, her bright green eyes sharp. “It’s a spell song. Those are very hard, high levels of magic.”

  “Really?” I asked, my head tilting to the side.

  “Yeah,” Bliss said, brushing her fingers through her long, thick, dark hair. “But even without the words, I can still feel the effects of that spell. It’s just a little watered down.”

  “Is it a calming spell or something?” I asked, tossing the quilt up onto the sheets.

  “Yeah, that’s probably the most basic way to describe it,” Bliss said, walking to the other side of the bed to help me straighten the blankets. “Although, when you sing it, it feels different somehow…maybe it’s because you don’t know the words?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I mean, I guess it always makes me feel better when I sing it.”

  “Of course it would,” Bliss said with a grin. “Just be careful where and how you use it. Like I said, it’s pretty intense magic.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, my stomach roiling slightly. “The last thing I want to do is harm anyone.”

  “Oh, it wouldn’t harm anyone,” Bliss said. “But it’s a power that some would definitely take advantage of if they knew it. Not that you would, of course, but still…”

  “I know what you mean,” I said, tucking the corners of the quilt in.

  “So, who did you hear singing that?” Bliss asked, returning to her towels and carrying them toward the bathroom.

  “Oh, right,” I said. “I haven’t seen you since that whole thing happened…”

  I gave her the quick story about the death records and how they’d mysteriously disappeared. I told her how the clerk had pointed me in the direction of Ruth Cunningham, and how I’d gone to visit her.

  “Ruth Cunningham…” Bliss said with a look of recognition as we left the room and headed across the hall to the next one. “No wonder. She’s a spell singer, a group of spell weavers with more specialized skills. They don’t use wands or books or anything, but when they use magic, it’s pretty intense,” she said.

  “So you know her?” I asked as she unlocked the door.

  Bliss shrugged. “Not well, no. I met her a handful of times at some of the guild hall meetings, but we’ve never spoken to each other. She likes to keep to herself.”

  “That’s what the clerk at city hall said,” I said, propping the door open. “But she seemed really nice when I met her.”

  Bliss’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, I’ve heard she’s good at putting on a show. She’s so nice to people that they won’t ever dream of questioning her. It’s like being really grumpy and mean so nobody will bother you, just using different tactics.”
>
  “I don’t know,” I said, starting to strip the linens off the bed into a pile on the floor. “She didn’t seem manipulative or anything.”

  “Of course she didn’t,” Bliss said. “She’d just used that spell on you.”

  “Wait, you’re saying she knew I was there and did it on purpose?” I asked.

  Bliss began straightening up the wooden desk underneath the window, brushing papers and receipts into the trash can on the floor. “You wouldn’t know, since your mind was so calmed.”

  A chill ran down my spine. “So did that conversation with her even happen?” I asked.

  “Oh, yeah, it definitely happened,” Bliss said. “I don’t think that spell messes with your memory or anything, but you just may have heard things differently than you would have if she hadn’t sung that spell.”

  I chewed on the inside of my lip. “Wow…I guess I should keep an eye on her, shouldn’t I?” I asked.

  Bliss shrugged. “I don’t think there was anything malicious behind it or anything. What did she say she knew about the missing death records?”

  “She said she didn’t know anything,” I said. “She did give me this weird warning, though. Told me not to go poking around in the past.”

  Bliss’s gaze hardened. “You’ve heard that from a couple different people now, haven’t you?” she asked.

  “Yeah…” I said. I picked up the stack of fresh sheets from the credenza beside the door and walked them back over to the bed. “It’s like she was concerned about me or something. They all have been.”

  “Well, these people aren’t stupid,” Bliss said. “They all can sense some kind of magical ability in you. They probably assume you’re just a novice spell weaver with an immense amount of magical potential. I don’t think any of them would’ve jumped to faery, at least not yet. There haven’t been any in so long.” Bliss stooped underneath the sink at the vanity outside the bathroom and found a fresh stack of towels already waiting.

  “What I don’t understand is why people would want to hide information about my parents from me,” I said, unfolding the fitted sheet. A dryer sheet clung to the cotton. “Were they criminals? Or did they step on the wrong person’s toes? Is there someone who wants to forget that faeries ever lived here in the first place?” I asked.