“Then Dash showed up out of nowhere. I’d never met him before. Didn’t know who he was. And suddenly he started running toward us for no reason, launched himself right over the table, and crashed directly into Mom. I was standing near her, and he managed to knock us both down at the same time. I got up and started yelling at him. That’s when Mom lost it.” I wrap my arms around myself and focus on the river as we walk alongside it. “I realize now that she couldn’t see him. That she thought I was yelling at nothing. Or maybe she saw something I didn’t. One of the imaginary people always out to get her. Maybe that’s who she thought I was yelling at, I don’t know. Anyway, she ended up completely freaking out. She was cowering on the ground, sobbing and rocking, wailing about someone coming to get her and her daughter. Everyone in the park was watching her—and me. Dash had somehow vanished by then.
“Some of the other grown-ups in the park tried to help her. Tried to figure out what was going on. But she screamed at them to get away. To stop trying to hurt her. And then she started scratching at herself, trying to get something invisible off her skin. Someone must have called an ambulance, because the next thing I knew, paramedics were strapping her to a gurney—I guess to stop her from hurting herself—and carrying her away. I was allowed in the back of the ambulance with her, and that was the last time I saw my friends. I still remember the looks on their faces just before the ambulance doors slammed shut. The fear, the confusion. The whispers to one another.
“I went to live with Chelsea after that, and unlike before with the previous episodes, Mom never got better. It was like the incident in the park was the trigger that sent her off the edge completely. I don’t know. Maybe it would have happened anyway because of something else, or maybe she would have stayed the same if there had been no incident that day.
“Then I saw Dash a few months later in Stanmeade. I thought it was a cruel coincidence that we ended up living in the same crummy part of the world. I had no idea, obviously, that he was there because of some magical assignment, or that he later hung around because he was keeping an eye on me. All I knew was that I hated him for ruining my life and my mother’s life. It could have been so different if not for what happened in the park.”
Violet touches my shoulder, and I realize we’ve come to a standstill beside the river. “I’m so sorry. It must have been traumatizing to see your mother like that.”
I nod slowly, breathing in a long breath and exhaling all the memories. At least, that’s what I’m trying to do. It doesn’t seem to be working.
“But didn’t Dash tell you why he was in the park that day?” she asks. “I realize he couldn’t tell you as long as you didn’t know anything about magic and our world, but has he told you in the past few days?”
“Something about an assignment? A group assignment, I think. He didn’t give me details.”
“He and some of his fellow trainees were there because a Seer had a vision of that park. A vision of several trolls running through and injuring people. Humans wouldn’t have been able to see the trolls, of course, so I suppose it would have appeared as a tremor, with people falling and getting hurt. The assignment was given to a group of first years and their mentor because the Guild didn’t think it was a serious threat. The trainees were meant to divert the trolls. They almost succeeded, but one got away. Dash saw it heading for your mother. If you don’t remember seeing it, then perhaps it was behind you. Anyway, Dash knocked you and your mom out of the way, and his mentor chased after the rogue troll. Then you got up and confronted Dash, who was so shocked that you could actually see him that he couldn’t come up with an explanation.” She chuckles. “I remember him telling us about it in great detail. He said it was the most exciting assignment he’d had so far.”
I take a few moments to absorb this information before responding. “So … you’re saying … he actually saved my mom?” This is a difficult concept for my brain to wrap itself around, given that I’ve spent years blaming Dash for putting Mom in a mental institution.
“Yes. I mean, she would have been badly injured otherwise, or worse. Humans have been killed by trolls before. So it’s a good thing he got her out of the way. What happened afterwards, though, was horrible. I’m not trying to diminish that in any way.”
I shake my head slowly. “No. I know.” I cross my arms, then drop them to my sides, then start pacing along the bank as confusion and frustration tangle around each other. “Why didn’t he tell me this?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Ugh, now I have to be grateful to him. How am I supposed to do that?”
“Uh … I don’t know.”
I stop, let out a huff, and say, “Sorry, let’s keep moving. I know we’re supposed to be at the lab now.”
“Yeah, okay.” We continue walking, and eventually Violet says, “Thanks for telling me what happened. I know it can’t have been easy.”
I nod. Then, since I don’t seem to have left my frustration behind just yet, I blurt out, “What is it about him that makes so many females fawn all over him? I mean sure, he’s good-looking, but that doesn’t make up for being a gigantic asshat most of the time. And yes, I realize that he’s now an asshat who saved my mom, but he’s still an asshat.”
A snort-laugh escapes her. “Asshat?”
“Yes.”
She sighs. “If you’ve only ever hated him, then you’ve never had a chance to see the side of him everyone else sees.”
“Which is?”
“He’s friendly and charming, and he has a way of paying attention to people and showing an interest in their lives that makes them feel … special, I suppose. It’s just part of his personality, but some girls read too much into it. They like it when a handsome guy pays attention to them—even if he’s a few years younger, which, you’ll soon find out, doesn’t mean much when you live for centuries—and they end up wanting more than Dash ever intended to give.”
“Okay, all I’m hearing is that he uses his charm to manipulate people, and then he acts like he has no idea what’s going on when they want more from him.”
Violet smiles and shakes her head. “I’ve known him since he was born, so I’m probably biased in the other direction, but I’m pretty sure he isn’t manipulative. I’ve seen that he’s respectful toward his parents, that he’s honest, that he’s extremely hardworking when he thinks no one’s watching.” She rolls her eyes. “Granted, he can be a little too full of himself at times, but on the whole, he’s a good guy. He genuinely cares about people. He likes to put them at ease, make them laugh. And that’s why they end up liking him and enjoying his company.”
“Well, you’re right that I haven’t seen that side of him.”
Violet directs me toward a bridge. “Perhaps you’ll get a chance to see that side of him now.”
I almost say, I certainly hope not, but I realize that sounds a little too negative. We cross over the river and head for a large building on the other side. It looks like the kind of ordinary house one would see in a nice neighborhood in the human world. We walk up the steps and onto the porch, and Violet opens the door. The first room we pass is taken up mostly by a long rectangular table and chairs, but the wide bay window and the plants spread across the windowsill give it more of a homey feel than a boardroom feel. The rest of the doors we pass are closed—I remember Jack saying something about out-of-bounds areas—until we reach the end of the passage, where the last door is ajar.
Violet pushes it open and gestures for me to walk in. My first thought is of the labs at school, but this is a far more more interesting version. The counters around the edge of the room are covered in jars with colorful liquids and oddly shaped ingredients, laboratory equipment like test tubes, beakers and burners, all interspersed with scattered cogs, levers, pipes, and gadgets I don’t recognize. The three parallel workbenches across the center of the room are slightly tidier, with flames, bubbling beakers, and steaming pots indicating live experiments in progress. Except they’re probably not experiments, now
that I think about it. They’re probably … potions?
“Oh, hey there.” A woman comes sliding toward us on a wheeled chair. Except it isn’t a wheeled chair, I realize when she stops in front of us. The chair has no legs at all, and it’s floating in midair. The woman, who has pointed ears and an interesting hairstyle of thin braids twisted around each other and piled on top of her head, stands and places her hands on her hips. “You’re Emerson, right?”
“Yes. Um, I’m supposed to give you a sample of my magic?”
“Yes, for the Griffin Ability elixir.”
“This is Ana, by the way,” Violet adds.
“Right, yes. I’m Ana.” She walks to one of the shelves and removes an empty glass sphere. “It’s pretty simple,” she says, returning to me. “Hold the orb in your hands, I’ll recite the incantation, and by the end of it, some of your magic will have been drawn out of you and into the orb.”
“Does it hurt?” I ask.
“No, but you’ll feel a kind of tug. The important thing is not to resist.”
I nod. “All right.”
“Just relax. Seriously, this isn’t a big deal. Close your eyes and chill.”
I do as she suggests, blocking out the beakers and gadgets and the glass ball in my hands. The words she begins chanting are foreign, so I have no idea what she’s saying. As she slowly repeats them, I begin to feel the tug she spoke about. A strange, slow pull in the region of my chest. I try not to resist. I think I might even be leaning forward a little.
“Okay, all done,” Ana says.
I straighten and open my eyes. The orb is filled with the same glowing, sparkling mass that appeared in my hands when Azzy taught me how to access my magic. “Cool,” I murmur.
“I should have the elixir done by tomorrow,” Ana says, taking the orb from me. “So what’s your Griffin Ability?”
I scoop my hair back, twist it, and pull it over my shoulder. “Sometimes, when I say something, it actually happens. Like if I told you to drop that glass ball on the floor, you’d have no choice but to do it. And if I told the river outside to dry up … well, I think it would dry up.”
Ana’s eyes widen. She nods slowly. “Hectic. That’s a big one.”
“Yeah. I discovered as much. Now I need to know how to control it so I’m not a danger to everyone. Honestly, though, I’d be happy if you guys could just get rid of it.” I frown. “That isn’t an option, is it?”
Ana’s gaze flicks to Violet for a moment before returning to me. “It used to be, but Gaius isn’t well anymore. His Griffin Ability is that he can remove and transfer others’ abilities. He did it many times, for those who didn’t want to be Griffin Gifted. And slowly, he started getting sick.” She moves to the other side of the room and places the glass orb in a box. “He didn’t connect it to his Griffin Ability until a few years ago,” she continues, walking back to us. “He started realizing then that each time he removed another one, it made him sicker. He’s very weak now. Doesn’t often come out of his house. This lab—all the inventions and the potions—used to be his.” Her eyes slide across the counters and shelves. “He taught me everything.”
“And we’re very grateful you stepped up,” Violet says.
“Yeah, yeah. Okay, go away now. You people keep giving me too much to do.” She plops back onto her chair and glides away.
“Thanks, Ana,” Violet calls after her.
On the way back to the tree, we talk about what kind of lessons I need in order to learn all the ordinary magic I still know nothing about. I joke that I might not need to learn anything if I can just get my Griffin Ability right. And then I wonder, as Violet continues talking through a plan for my magical education, if there might be some truth to my joke. If I can make things happen with a simple verbal command, shouldn’t that be enough?
When we get back to the base of the tree, Calla and Ryn are already waiting for us. “Ready for the rescue mission?”
Twenty-One
“Okay, this is fairly straightforward,” Ryn says as the five of us stand hidden amongst the trees a good distance down the road from the entrance to Tranquil Hills Psychiatric Hospital. “We’ll wait until Perry and his sister get here. Em, you’ll stay with them. Calla and Dash will go into the hospital, and Vi and I will wait outside near the entrance. If anything goes wrong and you’re followed out by guardians, we’ll be ready to fight. That shouldn’t happen, though, since you’ll be invisible.”
“Is she in her room now?” Calla asks.
Ryn produces something that looks like a small round mirror. “Yes. Still in her room.”
“What’s that?” I ask, leaning closer.
“I left a spider in her room yesterday,” Calla says. “Not an actual spider,” she adds quickly. “It’s a little enchanted surveillance device. It didn’t look like the guardians were going to do anything to your mom when I left yesterday, but I thought we should keep an eye on her anyway.”
“The Guild probably has some of their own in there,” Dash says, “in addition to that Griffin Ability detector.”
“Anyway, the spider is linked to the mirror,” Calla says, handing it to me so I can take a closer look. “So when the charm is on, we can see into your mom’s room.”
A jolt passes through me as I look down at Mom sitting on her bed, paging through a magazine. She seems so normal. So completely different from yesterday. Her head jerks up suddenly, her gaze pointing across the room at the door. It doesn’t open though. She stares at it for a while, hugging the magazine to her chest. Then her lips move, saying something we can’t hear, before she returns to reading the magazine.
In the awkward silence that follows, I hand the mirror back to Ryn, then turn to face Dash. “Please don’t scare her.”
“I won’t, I promise. She won’t even see me.”
“How are you sedating her?”
“Calla’s going to make me appear as one of the nurses, and I’ll take her a drink.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
He flips his hood up over his head. “Then we’ll figure something else out. Don’t worry, Em. Everything will be fine.”
At the sound of a car slowing down on the road, I turn and peer through the trees. “Is that them?”
The car comes to a stop. Ryn holds a hand up for us to be quiet as the front passenger door opens and a tall guy with green in his hair climbs out. “Yes, that’s Perry. And that must be Hannah,” he adds as a woman gets out the other side of the car. We walk toward them, and Perry waves when we come into view.
The introductions are quick, then Calla says, “Right, let’s get this done.”
“Okay, Vi and I will be waiting near the entrance,” Ryn says, raising his amber and glancing at it. He frowns.
“What is it?” Vi asks.
“Message from Azzy. The girl who tried to help Em escape, Aurora, disappeared from Chevalier House this morning. Azzy assumes she ran away.”
“Not surprising,” I say. “Aurora spoke about running away the night she got there. She wanted me to go with her.”
“Interesting.” Ryn pushes the amber into a pocket. “Anyway, we can wonder about that later. Let’s get moving.”
Calla and Dash disappear through one doorway, then Ryn and Vi head through another one to wait further up the road near the hospital entrance. Perry bids them a cheery farewell, then turns to me with interest. “So. You’re Em.”
“Yes. I am. You, uh, might have seen me when a whole bunch of guardians chased me through the Guild foyer.”
“I missed that, unfortunately, but I’ve heard all about your magnificent Griffin Ability.”
“Magnificent, huh? Well, I’d offer to give you a demonstration, but I don’t really know how. This thing seems to switch on and off by itself.”
“Probably best not to try it,” Hannah says, placing her hands on the roof of the car and resting her chin on them. “Things could get scary.”
I lean against the car and face her. “So you grew up knowing about ma
gic, but you don’t have any magic yourself?”
“Yeah. Kinda the opposite of your experience.”
“I used to go visit her and show her all the spells I’d learned,” Perry says.
“And I’d show him my computer and the Internet and the best shows on TV. It was fun.”
We chat for a while about their respective childhoods, but nothing can distract me from the fact that time is ticking by and Calla and Dash haven’t returned yet. “Do you think everything’s okay?” I blurt out eventually, interrupting Perry in the middle of a description of his first time using a TV remote. “They’re taking a while. I thought they’d be out by now.”
“I’m sure everything’s fine,” he says. “And if it isn’t, Vi and Ryn would have gone in to help them.”
I push my hair back, then start winding some of it around and around my finger. “I hate this. Just … waiting and not knowing.”
“Do you want to play a game?” Perry asks. “I’m sure we can come up with—”
“Wait. I hear something.” Something like feet slapping against tar. I walk into the road and try to see further up the hill past the curve. So far, no one’s come into view. I can definitely hear them, though. I clench my hands together and press them against my chin as I hold my breath, barely blinking.
Then I see them. All four of them running, Ryn and Dash easily carrying Mom between them. I take off up the hill to meet them. “Yes, glass,” Calla pants when I reach them. “Or crystal, I don’t know.”
“But who the hell was it?” Violet asks.
“I don’t know!”
“Is Mom okay?” I ask, running faster now to keep up with them.
“It was that hooded, cloaked person who showed up with the Unseelies by the cliff,” Dash says. “I’m sure of it.”
“She’s bleeding!” I gasp, noticing the trail of blood running down Mom’s arm. “Why is she bleeding?”
“She’s fine,” Dash says.