Calla's Story

Chapter 21

Twenty-One

I’m standing in Chase’s lakeside house preparing myself mentally to meet the runaway Seelie princess who betrayed her family, personally hunted down a terrible and dangerous power, and stood alongside her son as he consumed that power and proceeded to bring our world to its knees. A woman who, unlike her son, most likely feels not a shred of remorse for the things she’s done.

I hear the front door open behind me. I turn immediately, knowing that it can’t be Chase. He went back through the faerie door to the mountain. To fetch something, he’d said. Before I can reach for the knife in my boot, I see who it is. Elizabeth, the woman I saw in Chase’s past. The woman I met at Estellyn Tower.

“Hello,” she says. “Where’s Chase? I thought we needed to leave now.”

Her question confuses me, and for a moment I can’t think what to say. “He—uh—he went back for something. What are you doing here?”

“Didn’t Chase tell you? I’m coming with.”

“Oh.” Chase did say he would find someone to play the ‘visitor’ while he and I sneak in under the illusion of invisibility. He hadn’t said who that person would be, though, and I didn’t think to ask. “Why did he ask you?”

She gives me her sultry smile. “I can be very, very persuasive.”

“Oh.” Then it hits me. “Oh. You’re Scarlett.”

She seems surprised for a second, but she recovers quickly. “I am.” With a roll of her eyes, she adds, “Chase seems to prefer my real name.” She tilts her head to the side as if considering me. “I take it he told you everything.”

“Yes.”

“Not a pretty story, is it.”

I shake my head. “No. I didn’t expect it to be. But thank goodness for Luna. Things might have turned out differently if not for her.”

“Indeed.” Elizabeth watches me closely as she asks, “What did you think of her vision?”

Confused and hating the fact that I have to admit it, I ask, “What vision?”

She frowns. “You said Chase told you everything.”

“He did.” At least, I thought he did. “He said Luna had a Seeing ability, but he didn’t tell me about any specific vision of hers.”

“Oh. Well, never mind then.” Elizabeth smiles, not unkindly. “It probably wasn’t right for him to share it. Forget I said anything.”

I don’t like the fact that she knows more than I do, but she’s been part of Chase’s life far longer than I have. There are probably many things she knows that I don’t. I look down at her hands and find myself distracted by what I see there. “Why do you always wear gloves?” I ask. I’m certain I’ve never seen her without them.

She lifts her hands, turning them over and splaying her fingers. “My hands are a little … dangerous. I don’t intend for them to be, of course,” she adds innocently, “but they do seem to have the unfortunate habit of sucking the life out of people.”

“Sucking the—wow. So that’s your Griffin Ability?”

“No. I don’t have a Griffin Ability. This is what siren magic looks like when you can’t turn it off. That turned out to be my unpredictable side effect of being a halfling. For the first few years they thought I had no magic. Then, after it appeared, I couldn’t turn it off. So while most sirens don’t generally practice the age-old art of sucking the life out of men, I didn’t really have a choice. And, unlike the rest of my persuasive siren magic, this part works on women too. In case you were wondering.”

“I …”

“Ah, you’re here,” Chase says from behind me, walking through the faerie door. He shuts and locks it. “Ready to go?” he asks the two of us.

Elizabeth nods. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be ready to face the inside of a prison in the company of the two women Chase was closest to when he became Lord Draven, but I nod anyway. “Yes.”

We make it inside Velazar Prison without a hitch. Elizabeth charms the guard into allowing her in without putting one of those magic-inhibiting rings on her finger, while I remain fully focused on imagining an empty space wherever Chase and I are standing. My heart pounds furiously the entire time, but I don’t allow my fear to take up any room in my brain. I need all my attention on this illusion. We make it through the confusing network of damp corridors and stairways and eventually find ourselves on the bridge spanning the cavernous space where the prison cells are kept. I watch them all floating past one another in eerie silence, wondering which one contains Angelica.

The guard who led us here presents a piece of paper to the guard standing at the gate halfway across the bridge. They exchange a few words before the gate is opened for us and we pass through. The guard leads us across the bridge to the other side of the cavern where we head down another corridor and stop outside one of the visitation rooms. As the guard lifts his hand to open the door, Elizabeth steps closer to him. “Why don’t we stay out here for a little while,” she purrs. She slides her gloved hand around his neck and whispers into his ear, “I’d like to get to know you better.”

He turns his head and swallows, his eyes focusing on her lips. I can already see there’s no hope for him. “What if … what if another guard walks past?” he asks.

“Then I’ll have a little chat with him or her. I promise you won’t be in any trouble.” She leans closer and presses her lips again his jaw.

The moment the guard’s eyes slide shut, Chase steps forward and opens the door. We walk quickly into the room that’s split in half by vertical bars. Bars made of the metal that doesn’t allow magic to pass beyond them. This visitation room is a little different from the one I was brought to last time, though. Or perhaps they’ve all been changed since then. Instead of a wall and a door on the other side of the room, there’s an open space. And into the space slides an entire prison cell.

“Remember to keep yourself hidden,” Chase murmurs. “It’ll be simpler if I don’t have to explain who you are.”

We walk toward the bars as the cell comes to a halt. There isn’t much inside it: a narrow bed, a small toilet and basin, and a table with a few books and a picture frame standing on it. After hearing Chase’s description of Angelica, I wouldn’t have thought of her as sentimental, but I suppose everyone has someone to care about. I wish I could see the picture in that frame, but it’s turned at just the wrong angle. I wonder if perhaps it might be Chase.

A woman in prison overalls rises from the bed and comes toward us. As she pushes her dark hair away from her face, I see her properly for the first time.

And I stop.

The woman from Rick’s vision. This is her. Long, messy black hair with silver strands twisting through it. Bright silver eyes. I swallow past the dryness in my throat and tell myself that just because she showed up in a Seer’s vision doesn’t mean things are going to go wrong here. Even if she does strike out at Chase the way she did in the vision, she can’t reach further than an arm’s length past the bars.

I remain standing where I am and remind myself to focus on projecting my illusion.

“Hello, Angelica,” Chase says.

Her hands come up slowly to grasp the bars. She stares at him with a stunned expression on her face and an almost-smile on her lips. Seconds tick by before she murmurs, “I knew it. I knew you couldn’t be dead. You had the necklace.”

Chase nods. “I’m sorry I didn’t come before now. I’ve been in hiding, and I didn’t know until recently that you were here.”

She smiles. “There’s no need for you to apologize. Seeing you again is enough to make me happy.”

“It isn’t enough,” Chase says. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

I’m glad I don’t have to be part of this conversation. Chase sounds so sincere, but I know his words are only part of the plan to get Angelica to trust him once more. If she could see me and speak to me, would I be able to lie as convincingly as Chase?

“Oh, how thrilling!” Angelica says. “An escape plan!”

“Yes. I’m still working on the exact details. There are many obstacles between here and the exit.”

“I have no doubt you’ll figure it out,” she says.

“In the meantime,” Chase continues, “I wanted to speak to you about whatever you and Amon are planning.”

Angelica’s expression becomes unreadable. “What do you know of that?”

“Only the rumors I’ve heard amongst those who visit you and Amon. It sounds like something big.”

“And you want to be part of it?” Angelica asks carefully.

“Yes. In fact …” Chase hesitates, and I know this is the dangerous part. The part where he attempts to split an alliance that’s bonded Angelica and Amon since they were thrown in here. He steps closer to the bars, and his tone becomes more fervent. “It was always you and me from the beginning. We took Zell down together. We destroyed the Guilds together. We hunted down unmarked fae and brought thousands to their knees. Amon was the one who messed up in the end. He was the one who found the Star and brought her to me, and that’s how she was able to destroy all that power you and I worked so hard for. We don’t need Amon this time. We can do this without him.”

Angelica appears to consider Chase’s words. “Amon knows more than I do, though. I’m not sure this plan even exists without him.”

“Of course it does. He’s locked up in here and I’m not. Anything he knows, I can find out. Just point me in the right direction.”

After several moments of indecision, Angelica gives in. “All right. Let’s do this together. After all, it’s my son I’ve always wanted to see at the top, not some old librarian. I’ll find out what I can from him, but you’ll need to do the rest.”

“Of course,” Chase says. “Just tell me where to start.”

“Amon’s plan hinges on three visions from three different Seers. He had all three of them until one—the only one who hadn’t told him her vision yet—was rescued. I don’t know what information he learned from the first two, but if I tell you where they are, you can find out.”

“I can. And recapturing the third Seer should be easy enough. Amon’s men don’t have the kinds of resources I have access to.”

“Well then,” Angelica says. “The two Seers are being kept in the center of my labyrinth. I obviously don’t have the access stone anymore, so I can’t help you get straight there. But it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to get past the various obstacles in the tunnels. After all,” she adds with a smile, “you helped me put most of them in there.”

Chase hesitates, and I wonder if he’s remembering the minotaur and the strange rainbow colored water and the chasm we fell into. When he speaks, though, he sounds confident. “That’s true. I commanded the labyrinth creatures just as much as you did.”

“You shouldn’t have any trouble then.”

Chase reaches through the bars and takes his mother’s hand. “I’ve spent so much time alone, so much time wondering if it would have been better to die than live such a purposeless life. I’m so glad I’ve found you again.”

She smiles at him. “I’ve been waiting for this too.”

“Oh, and I have a way for us to remain in contact.” Chase pulls his hand away and takes something from his pocket. Confused—I don’t remember him mentioning this part when we were discussing the plan—I take a step closer. On his palm are two simple silver rings, a blue stone set in one and a green stone in the other. “Telepathy,” Chase explains. “While we’re both wearing these rings, we can communicate through our thoughts.”

Angelica looks impressed. “I didn’t realize a spell existed for such a thing.” When Chase shows no sign of explaining where he got the rings from, she adds, “What if I don’t want to hear your thoughts all the time?”

“Then don’t wear it all the time. Besides, you won’t hear all my thoughts, only the thoughts I choose to direct at you.”

She eyes the rings. “It’s a clever idea, but far too obvious. We’re not allowed jewelry. The guards will see it and confiscate it.”

“Then wear it on your toe.”

“We’re usually searched after we receive visitors. I’ll most likely be asked to remove my shoes.”

Chase smiles. “You and I both know what you’re capable of. I’m sure you can figure out a way to hide it until after you’re searched.”

“You know me so well,” she says. Then she laughs, and it’s the same laugh I saw in Rick’s vision. I tense, getting ready to tug Chase back the moment she lunges at him. But instead, she reaches calmly through the bars and takes the ring with the green stone. I exhale slowly, wondering what changed between Rick’s vision and this moment. Perhaps Chase was originally planning to say something different. Something that would have angered her.

“I need to go,” Chase says. “I have someone outside distracting the guards, but I don’t know how long that will last for.” He says goodbye to her, promising to let her know as soon as he figures out the details of an escape plan.

I keep myself hidden as the two of us walk back to the door on our side of the room. As Chase opens it, I look back over my shoulder at Angelica. A small smile lifts one side of her mouth as she watches her son leave, and I’m left with the unsettling feeling that we may end up regretting this.