Rising Silver Mist

by Olivia Wildenstein

  I spun, about to sprint downstairs to inform Lily, but froze. She was standing in my doorway, one hand planted on a slender hip, the other holding out her phone. What the hell was that?

  Since I didn’t want to talk about that, I yanked her into my bedroom, flung my door shut, and waved the paper in front of her face.

  She read it over quickly, then her gaze jumped to mine, lips forming a perfect O. She typed quickly on her phone: I was right!

  “You were.”

  She stared at the paper some more, but then her eyes lifted back to mine and she pointed to the floor, opening both her palms and turning them toward the ceiling.

  I bit down on my lower lip. How I wished the DNA test could have distracted her until the next morning. I sighed. She would find out sooner or later, but I’d rather she found out once I was gone.

  You’re seriously leaving for Africa?

  I nodded.

  That’s crazy. But sort of cool, I suppose.

  I folded and refolded the paper as though it were some elaborate origami.

  By the way, I meant to ask you why you had a picture of Gregor on your phone.

  “A picture of— On my phone?”

  She crooked her finger at me. I handed her my cell phone—which showed three missed calls from Faith. I’d messaged her during my trek back to the house that I couldn’t work at Astra’s anymore, but obviously, my messages hadn’t been enough of an explanation for her.

  Lily entered my password, then clicked on my photo app and brought up the picture I’d taken of Faith’s father.

  I blinked at the picture, then at Lily. “That’s Gregor?”

  She nodded.

  When I’d confronted Stella in the hospital, she’d said Gregor wasn’t Faith’s father. She’d lied! It wasn’t as surprising as it was shocking. Why had she lied?

  Lily tipped her head to the side, then touched the back of my hand to get my attention.

  “He’s Faith’s father,” I explained.

  Her already large eyes grew wider.

  “Yeah…”

  I went back to wondering why Stella had lied to me, and something Ace had told me returned to me. “Is Gregor married?”

  Lily nodded.

  “Was he married to Stella Sakar?”

  Lily shook her head.

  Stella had claimed she’d kept Faith in the dark about Neverra because Astra demanded it, and perhaps Astra had cautioned her daughter to keep Neverra a secret, but perhaps Stella had kept Faith away because she knew the law: her bastard daughter would die.

  Stella lost some of the monstrosity she’d accumulated in my eyes during her last days in this world. She had cared for her daughter. At least enough to want to keep her alive.

  Unless… “How long has Gregor been married?”

  For almost as long as my parents.

  He’d been married when he’d had an affair with Stella. Which confirmed her chest had harbored an actual heart.

  I closed my eyes, breathed in deeply. Guilt and shame consumed me. But then I remembered she’d killed my father, and that thought drove away the guilt and shame.

  A knock made my lids jolt upward. I was about to say come in when I realized the banging was coming from my window and not my door. I spun around.

  Ace was floating in front of the glass, a wolfish grin plastered on his face and a bouquet of gold roses clutched in his hands. A wire of tension wrapped around my throat. He tapped the glass again, and even though my body felt weighted down, I jumped.

  Lily walked over to the window and opened it.

  Ace drifted inside my bedroom, landing soundlessly on my carpet. There was something off about his grin. Something that tightened the wire and turned its edges barbed.

  “I hear congratulations are in order.” His voice was off, too. High-pitched and merry.

  I flinched.

  He tossed the flowers onto my bed. Instantly they turned to sparkling dust. Oh God, had they grown from the ashes of a dead faerie? The unearthly particles blinked into oblivion.

  A deep groove settled between Lily’s narrowed eyebrows.

  “Catori hasn’t told you her incredible news?” His eyes blazed an icy blue.

  I lowered my gaze to my black socks, apprehension simmering underneath my skin.

  “She’s getting married!”

  Lily turned to me so fast, her hair fanned out. And then her hands moved.

  “In Africa?” Ace frowned. “No, no. She’s getting married in Neverra.”

  Lily’s hands froze. I didn’t dare look at her face. I steepled my fingertips against my temples and closed my eyes.

  “She asked Cruz to marry him. Isn’t that so fucking romantic?”

  Lily raised a hand to her gaping mouth.

  Silence. The worst possible kind, the type that was so thick it caked everything in a room and soiled the air.

  “Did you always have feelings for the traitor—meaning while we were together—or did they develop when you found out he was available?”

  I didn’t answer, but I did raise my face. Lily’s hand slowly fell off her mouth. She shook her head, and I could tell she was screaming at me inside her skull, screaming how stupid I was, how reckless. Finally, she signed something I didn’t understand.

  Ace frowned, then scowled. “How can you not care?”

  Lily gesticulated her hands.

  “He was the love of your life, Lily!”

  She moved her hands again, and the fury that had iced his eyes when he’d dropped into my room returned with a vengeance. Shards of it lifted off him and sliced through the air, chilling my already clammy skin.

  Ace exhaled roughly. “This is why he walked all over you, Lily. Why he screwed everything that moved. Because you are too soft. No man could ever take you seriously.”

  Lily’s cheeks reddened as though her brother had slapped her.

  “Get out of my room, Ace,” I said, my voice returning, steady, strong. Hurting me was one thing, but hurting Lily…that was unnecessary.

  Ace speared me with a thorny look, and then he leaped through the window and shot into the sky.

  I slammed my window shut, then turned toward Lily whose entire upper body was shaking, from her head to her torso to her hands. She clutched her phone and typed. You don’t actually like Cruz, do you?

  “Of course not.”

  But you asked him to marry you? I can’t decide if you’re stupid or stupid.

  I bit down hard on my lip.

  Why did you do it?

  Because I don’t have a freaking choice. As the thought skimmed my mind, my traitorous stomach cramped. “You said that if I went to Neverra, my powers would manifest.”

  Her jaw clenched, and then her fingers flew over the touchscreen. As she typed, I thought, Well, this isn’t so bad. She could’ve thought you’d done it to hurt her. I could live with being considered stupid.

  You didn’t have to freaking marry a faerie to get there! You could’ve asked my brother to take you. I have friends there. I could’ve asked them to take you! Do you realize what you’ve done? Do you get the insanity of your plan? Do you even have a plan? She paused and looked up, first at me then at the ceiling, and then she stared back down at the phone. We have to tell Ace why you’re going. He’ll help you.

  I swallowed. “That would make him my accomplice. I don’t want to put him in danger.”

  Now you’re being noble?

  I rubbed my brand. “Only he can kill me, right? You said he wouldn’t kill me.”

  Death is far from the worst thing that can happen to you in Neverra. Do you know that they have torture cages? Insects that can eat your gray matter? Carnivorous flowers that can poison you?

  I swallowed.

  You have no clue what world you just decided to go gallivanting in, do you?

  I pushed back the locks of hair that had escaped my ponytail. “Tell me about it then.”

  Cupolas look like gilded birdcages. They’re the faerie version of a prison cell. They float
around Neverra for all to see. Once the gate is sealed, the cage draws the prisoner’s nightmares and fears to the surface and plays them out so vividly the prisoner becomes crazed. I’ve seen some people tear off their own skin, so convinced were they that faerie fire was burning it. One even bit off his tongue, mistaking it for dust. Most don’t make it an hour in those cages.

  “I’ll be careful not to end up in one, then.”

  She dropped onto my bed and stared up at me. Don’t go. It’s not worth it.

  Would she be telling me this if she knew I was going so I could save her life?

  Her face became animated with an idea. I sat beside her and read the words popping onto my screen over her shoulder. Once your powers come in, break your engagement.

  “That’s the plan,” I lied.

  Lily’s breathing seemed to ease. Better come into them quickly, because I’m not sure how long Gregor and Lyoh will leave you alone.

  “I’ll try. And, Lily? Thank you.”

  She frowned.

  “For not hating me.”

  I might not hate you, but I still think you’re massively stupid.

  I nudged her with my shoulder, and she smiled. And then she took my hand and squeezed it in her blisteringly warm one. With her other hand, she typed, Kajika’s going to go insane.

  “Just make sure he doesn’t kill too many faeries while I’m gone.”

  That’d mean spending time with him.

  “Would that really be so bad?”

  Lily’s cheeks flushed pink as she extracted her hand from mine.

  “That’s why he was shocked yesterday, wasn’t it? Because you had some indecent thoughts about him?”

  She shook her head, but toyed self-consciously with the hem of my comforter. It had taken me a little time to figure out what had happened at the barn, but I had. Normally, I wouldn’t even have talked to Lily about it, but now that I was leaving, I wanted to encourage this attraction. If anyone could keep Lily safe, it would be Kajika.

  “He’s a good person.”

  She made a face.

  “But doesn’t he smell bad to you?”

  Sometimes.

  “Only sometimes?”

  Opal camouflages his scent.

  “Really?”

  Yes, really. Can we not talk about him right now?

  “Okay.”

  So we discussed Neverra instead. She listed the names of the people I could trust: Veroli and Dawson. Warned me about poisonous plants and made me swear not to pet the wild dogs or I would open a telepathic link with them, and I did not want to be inside their heads.

  After an hour, Dad came to get me for our boat ride. He invited Lily to come with us, but she told him she wanted to stay home and read. I doubted she would read. I smiled gratefully at her for letting me have my father to myself for a couple hours.

  After the boat ride—which felt like a frozen moment of splendor in my crazy life—I stopped by Astra’s and explained about my trip to Africa. After a lot of glowering, Faith wished me a bon voyage, then told me not to expect my job back when I returned.

  I smiled. “Send me a picture of your baby once she comes.”

  Faith didn’t look at me, but nodded. Although her face had widened from the pregnancy and her eyes were blue instead of brown, her resemblance to her mother was so strong it made me shiver.

  “Thank you for trusting me with the bakery.”

  She flapped her hand before giving me her back. In the glass of the swing door, I caught her wiping a tear. I wondered if those tears were for me or if they stemmed from the frustration of having to man her mother’s business on her own again. I pretended not to see them as I left.

  I stopped by Bee’s next. For the first time in a very long time, Bee was in the room, gray hair wrapped in a neat bun. She smiled at me, but there was something sad in her smile. I suspected that every time she looked at me, she saw her grandson and remembered how he’d ended his life because I hadn’t loved him like he’d loved me.

  Still, she smiled and hugged me, and I hugged her back, wishing I could take some of her pain away. Perhaps not seeing my face would help her heal. When she went to attend to a customer, I sat on a barstool in front of Cass, who was sporting the amethyst necklace I’d given her for her birthday.

  Tears bloomed in her eyes when I told her I was leaving for three months.

  “But your birthday. I had everything planned.” She walked around the shiny wooden bar and pinned me down with a long hug that almost made me topple off my barstool. “Bee, can I take off early? It’s Catori’s last night.”

  “Go, hun,” Bee said. “And, Catori, be safe.”

  “I will.” At least, I would try my best. I kissed her papery cheek and left with Cass to drive around in her little pink car. We listened to music, pulled into a drive-through and ordered junk food and extra-large sodas, then drove, talking about everything and nothing.

  “I’m coming back,” I promised Cass when she dropped me off.

  “But then it’ll be September, and you’ll be going back to college and—” Her voice broke with a sob as giant as her compostable soda cup.

  I hugged her tight and thanked her for being the most incredible friend in the world, and then I made her promise to hang out with Lily from time to time. After nodding, she drove away in her eyesore of a car.

  Inside, Dad and Lily had prepared a feast. I hadn’t been hungry when Cass bought me a burger, and I still wasn’t hungry, but I ate the meal they’d prepared. My poor, distended stomach grumbled plaintively.

  I didn’t try to sleep that night. Instead, I stayed up all night watching TV with Lily. Although Dad tried to stay awake, he snored after the second hour of TV. I woke him gently and helped him up to his bedroom.

  “Wake me when you need me to drive you to the airport.” He yawned. “Love you to the moon and…” His last word tangled with his pillow.

  “I love you even further than that.” Tears coursed down my cheeks as I closed his door.

  I tiptoed back down, feeling the creak of each step inside of me, storing it inside of me—the sound of home. I never thought I’d get emotional over a staircase.

  I waited for dawn like a prisoner awaits his executioner. When pale light crept over the windowsill and tinted the living room, my heartbeat grew more frantic.

  Better come up with an excuse why it didn’t work out in Africa, she’d written on a sheet of paper.

  I frowned at Lily.

  For when you break your engagement.

  A knock sounded on the door.

  Lily’s eyes moved to the door. She took both my hands in hers and squeezed them hard. And then she released me and wrote: Can you tell Veroli not to worry?

  “I will, if I meet her.”

  Oh you’ll meet her. She flicked her palm so that it hovered in front of her, then bent her middle finger and touched her chin, mouthing two tiny words: Good luck.

  I would need more than luck to get out of Neverra. I would need a damn miracle. “Tell Kajika…tell Kajika not to hate me too much.”

  Lily smirked softly, then she shuffled into her bedroom and closed her door so I could open mine.

  32

  Locker Number Four

  Cruz studied my face, took in the under-eye circles I hadn’t even tried to camouflage. I suspected it would be the first in a long series of sleepless nights.

  He extended his arms. “Climb on.”

  I glared at his proffered hands.

  “We need to get to the boathouse.”

  Right… One of the portals to get to Neverra was in locker number four. The little metal box transformed, for the right people, into a gateway to the faerie isle.

  “I’ll drive there.”

  “And leave your car parked at the beach for three months?”

  “No. You’ll drive it back, then fly back over.”

  He squinted one eye, not liking my suggestion, but I didn’t care if he didn’t like it. He tried to touch me, but I jumped back. “You touch m
e, Cruz, and I’ll cut off your hand.”

  His jaw tensed. “I’m going to have to touch you to get you through the portal.”

  “Until then, you keep your hands to yourself.”

  I skittered down to my car and started the engine. I drove slowly past Holly’s field. In the distance, I spotted several hunters walking the perimeter. They might not have been running wild around Rowan, but they were there, ever-present. I thought I spotted Kajika but was too far away to be certain.

  I wondered how he would react to my departure. Would he think me stupid or courageous? My mind emptied of thoughts after that.

  The air was nippy, and the smell of the Michigan spring was green and wet.

  When I parked by the boathouse, Cruz was already there. I squeezed my steering wheel then heaved myself out of the car and dropped the keys in his open palm.

  As he drove away, I slid off my sneakers, rolled up the hem of my stretchy jeans, and walked to the lapping waves, reveling in the feel of the fine grains of sand beneath the soles of my feet, between my toes. Bees buzzed over the white trilliums tucked between the shifting hemlock dunes, and goldeneye ducks swooped overhead, cawing before landing with great fanfare on the sapphire waters.

  “What happened to you, Chatwa?” I whispered to the lake.

  As though the lake were trying to answer my question, it splashed my jeans all the way to my knees. I shivered, but didn’t step back. Too soon, I’d be ripped from my home.

  When I sensed a presence behind me, I closed my eyes, sent a silent farewell to my world, and turned. Cruz nodded to the boathouse.

  I walked back up the dunes, grabbed my shoes, and entered in front of him. I sat on a bench, dusted the sand off my feet, and put my shoes back on. Cruz headed to locker number four and eased it open.

  “How does it work? Are you going to shrink me?”

  He smiled and offered his hand, and this time, I had no choice. “Toss out those arrows in your pocket.”

  How had he known?

  Swallowing hard, I dug into the pocket of my windbreaker and extricated the white rowan sticks.

  “All of them.”

  I fished the two remaining ones out, leaving my pocket terribly empty.