Rebel Faerie

Chapter 12-1

Twelve

I picture Val’s backyard, a small patch of ground with a swing set that broke years ago, and the faerie paths deposit us there moments later. Calla brushes her hand absentmindedly through the air, which causes the rain to divert itself around us. My gaze moves up to a window on the second floor before returning to Calla. “I’ll be up there.” I shrug free of the backpack and hand it to her. “Are you going to hide down here?”

“Yes. Wait, Em,” she says before I can move. “I know you’ve known this girl for a long time, so you’re probably going to be offended by this, but are you sure you can trust her? She isn’t going to … I don’t know, try to sell your story to the tabloids or something?”

A few weeks ago, that kind of statement about my best friend definitely would have offended me. But almost everyone I’ve trusted in the fae realm has, at some point, tried to kill me, incarcerate me, or take advantage of my power, so I understand where Calla’s coming from. “Yes, I’m certain I can trust her. There’s no way she’d try to cash in on my situation like that—even though her family could definitely do with the money.” I gesture at the broken swing set that some of Val’s younger siblings would no doubt love to use. “And even if she does happen to tell her mom or some of our friends about me, well …” I shrug. “So what? It’s not like magic is a huge secret anymore.”

Calla raises an eyebrow. “You know we’re hoping to change that, right? We’re hoping to make it secret once again.”

“I know, I know, but how long is that going to take? Even if it can be done, it’ll be months or years before the Guild figures out how to make the whole world forget. But right now, my best friend is confused, and I need to tell her the truth. That’s all there is to it.”

“I understand. I really do. I just want you to be careful, that’s all. So … I don’t know, maybe keep your glamour on until you get up to Val’s room. It’ll just make things more complicated if you have to explain yourself to her family as well.”

I nod. “Probably a good idea.”

From inside the house, I hear Val shouting, “Mom, I’m home. I just need to finish some homework, then I’ll help with dinner.”

“Wow, that was quick,” Calla comments. “Is the cafe close?”

“Not that close.” I head for the back door. “But she’s fast. Like me.”

After quietly opening and closing the back door, I pass through the kitchen and living room, experiencing again that intense familiarity overlaid with the jarring sense that everything has changed. After all, I’m walking right past three of Val’s siblings fighting over a cell phone, and not one of them can see me. I can barely believe it, despite the many magical wonders I’ve witnessed in recent weeks.

I cross a hallway, hurry toward the stairs, and ascend as quietly as I can. Halfway up, I stop and pause, instinct suggesting something isn’t right. Is that magic I can feel? In a place where magic shouldn’t exist? A shiver whispers across the back of my neck. I look down the stairs, then up again, but I see nothing suspicious. Slowly, I draw a knife from one of the custom-made pockets inside my jacket. I tiptoe the rest of the way up the stairs, the knife gripped tightly in my hand, words like ‘get away from me’ ready to fly from my tongue.

Could it be the guardian who showed up outside Bloomberry Cafe? Perhaps he saw us speaking to Val and followed her back here. Perhaps he’s hiding somewhere upstairs, waiting to rush into the room once he knows I’m here. Or perhaps I’m overdoing it with the glamour thing, and it’s my own magic I’m sensing.

I peek into the bathroom and two other bedrooms before reaching Val’s half-open door, but I don’t find anyone. Slowly, I push her door open. Her back is to me as she leans over her dresser. My eyes dart about, but I don’t see anyone else—until a furry orange shape leaps at me from the bed. I shriek in fright, and Tibs the cat streaks out of the room. Val spins around, clutching at the dresser before swearing loudly and slapping one hand to her chest. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I just thought …” I look back over my shoulder. “I had this weird sense that someone else—or something else—might be up here. But I can’t feel it anymore. I think I’m just imagining stuff because it’s so weird to be back here.” I face Val again and find her gaze fixed on my hand. I realize belatedly that I’m still holding a knife. “Oh. Sorry. I should probably stop waving that around.” I bend and push it into the side of my boot before straightening.

“Is that … did you just put a knife into your shoe?”

“Uh … yes?” I look down again at my brand new ankle-high boots, purchased after our first night on the run when Calla and I stopped to buy a change of clothes and some food. After spending days wearing the ballet pump-type shoes I escaped the Unseelie Palace in, I would have been happy with anything that looked like regular sneakers. But Calla insisted boots would be better. “Weird, I know,” I say to Val, “but it’s actually quite a convenient location for a knife. More comfortable than the ones inside my jacket.”

“You have knives inside your jacket?”

“Yes. Um … Calla—the woman you met near the cafe—created these little pockets inside the jacket on each side so I have somewhere to keep my … uh … knives.” I trail off as Val’s eyes continue to widen. “Okay look. I know it’s weird, and we always thought that only creeps with strange obsessions carry knives around with them, but when almost everyone you meet in a foreign world wants you dead or imprisoned, you learn to carry weapons around so you can defend yourself.”

Val blinks.

I sigh.

And the awkward moment is interrupted by a dull light pulsing from within the half-open top drawer of Val’s dresser. She shoves the drawer shut. “Sorry. Cell phone. Now is so not the time to answer it.”

I almost laugh. “I guess not.” Then, as I push my hand through my hair, I ask, “Can I start at the beginning?”

She nods slowly. “Please do.”

We sit on Val’s bed and I tell her everything that’s happened since the moment I said those horrible words that came to life: Then let the earth split open and swallow you whole. I tell her about the special magic I possess, about the Griffin rebels who are just like me, about living at the Unseelie Palace for a while, about discovering who I really am and why I grew up in the human world, and about the changeling mother who isn’t really my mother. Val watches me with a frown the entire time, her mouth dropping open when I tell her that Dash is actually from the magical world too. When I tell her about Dani, she finally interrupts.

“Wait, she’s—say that again. She’s actually two people? Inside one? Daniela, the person you always visited in the hospital, and—what did you say the other one’s name is?”

“Ada. Adaline. She was always the weaker one, but since Zed forced the two of them back into one body and reversed the changeling spell, she’s now the one in control.”

Val’s frown deepens as she looks away. “That’s so freaking weird,” she whispers.

“Yeah. Tell me about it.” I finish off by explaining everything that’s happened since I escaped Roarke and the shadow world. “Technically, I’m not supposed to tell you any of this,” I add when I’m done. “The magical world and all the beings who inhabit it are supposed to be a secret. But that isn’t exactly the case anymore, judging by what I’ve seen on the news.”

Val looks at me again. “The things they’re reporting are just insane, Em. I didn’t believe the news at first. I mean, who would? It looks like special effects movie stuff. But then more and more stories were reported from all over the world—by, like, reputable news people—and I started to think it must be true. I kept saying to my mom, ‘Is it really that impossible? People used to believe in magic and paranormal stuff centuries ago, and there must have been a reason for it.’ And then … what happened at Bloomberry Cafe …” She inhales deeply. “I can’t exactly deny all this magic stuff now that I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

“Yeah. So, um …” I reach for one of her pillows and hug it to my chest as I finally voice the thought that’s been plaguing me every time I’ve thought of Val over the past few weeks. “I thought you’d be furious with me for leaving Stanmeade. For running away without telling you, since that’s the story the guardians said they spread. But you don’t seem mad at all.” That last statement comes out sounding more like a question.

“Of course I’m not mad, Em. I was just seriously worried about you. If you did run away without explaining anything to me, then I knew there must have been a damn good reason for it. I was more concerned about what that reason might be than about the fact that you didn’t explain anything.”

“Okay.” I nod, relieved. “And you’re sure you don’t remember anything about that night at the Masons’ place? About getting sucked into the ground?”

She swallows and shakes her head. “It sounds … terrifying.”

“So what did you think the next day when you woke up?”

“Um … my mind was a little hazy. I thought I’d drunk a bit too much. And then I heard from my uncle that you’d run away. I was shocked, obviously. It was so unexpected. I thought maybe something happened to you at the party. I tried to get hold of you, but none of my messages were delivered, and whenever I called, it just went straight to your voicemail. Like your phone was dead.”

“I’m sorry.” I hug the pillow more tightly. “As soon as that Councilor told me they’d cooked up some story about me running away, I wanted to come back here and set the record straight. But she wouldn’t let me. And then it was just one thing after the next, and even though I was constantly battling to try to figure a way out of it all, it was like I got sucked further and further into that world until I realized I actually …” I breathe in slowly and push my hand through my hair as I think again of the changeling spell and the moment in Zed’s home where I discovered exactly who I am and who my family are. I can’t help the small smile lifting one side of my lips. “I realized I actually belong there.”

Val’s smile is wider than mine. “It’s weird how you ended up with your own family and you didn’t even know it at first. But I guess, like you said, if they search for people who have special magic, and you’re one of those people, then the chances were always good that they’d find you.”

“Yeah.” My smile slips away as I try not to imagine the horrors Vi and Ryn might be going through right now.

“You found your family, Em!” Val says, wrapping her hand around my arm and squeezing. “That’s incredible! And I know you’re worried about the situation your parents are in right now, but they sound like they’re super kick-ass. I’m sure they’ll be just fine.”

I nod and clear my throat. “So, uh, how’s everything been here? How’s your family?”

She rolls her eyes. “Are you kidding? You want to talk about my boring family that hasn’t changed since you left? Tell me about your family.”

I laugh and stop hugging the pillow so tightly. Placing it on my lap, I say, “Okay, well, the woman who was with me outside Bloomberry is my aunt. She’s the one who first figured out who I am.”

“She’s beautiful,” Val says. “I was going to ask if she’s wearing contact lenses made of actual gold, but I assume that’s … just … the way she is?”

“Yes. And the gold bits in her hair are natural too. Anyway, while I’ve been traveling around with her, she’s been telling me about everyone else in my family. I mean, we’ve been doing a lot of other stuff—like learning self-defense and combat magic—but at night before one of us falls asleep and the other stays awake to keep watch, she tells me all about them. I swear, it’s almost like a soap opera, Val.”

Her curls bounce as she leans to the side and laughs, and when she says, “Okay, now you have to tell me more,” it almost feels, for a moment, as if this evening is the same as any other evening sitting on her bed chatting about anything and everything.

“So, three of my four grandparents are still alive,” I tell her, deciding to give in to the nostalgia and pretend everything’s normal for just another few minutes, “which is apparently quite something considering they were all guardians. Vi’s mother died when Vi was very young, and then her father died when she a teenager—although he didn’t actually die. It was all part of a major undercover operation he was working on for the queen—”