A Faerie's Curse (Creepy Hollow #6)

“More research on Amon?” Elizabeth asks from the doorway.

  I look up to find her watching me closely. “Um, yeah. Oh, thanks, Gaius,” I add as he places a plate of food in front of me. “I’m going to eat upstairs, okay?”

  “Oh, all right. Yes, I suppose we should all get an early night.”

  “Yes, we should,” Elizabeth says, still watching me. Her gaze remains upon me the whole way up the stairs.

  I shut my bedroom door and sit on the bed. I push the plate to one side, place the book in front of me, and turn to the Mitallahn Desert page. I lean forward for a closer look. I’ve definitely seen this pyramid construction before, in the background of the mirror when I spoke to the witch. Could she and the other witch and Angelica still be there now? Is that where they’re staying? Possibly, if they’re working for Amon and this is where Amon used to live. I guess he doesn’t know yet that Angelica’s decided to leave him in prison.

  I turn the book sideways and read Vi’s notes. V spell placed by Z. Spells belongs to Z. Follow spell, find Z. Pyramids. BUT HE WASN’T THERE!

  I assume V is Victoria and Z is Zed. So Vi has obviously been looking for Zed. With her Griffin Ability that allows her to find anyone as long as she’s touching something that belongs to that person, it shouldn’t be too difficult—except that she doesn’t have anything that belongs to Zed.

  Oh. The spell. The magic that slowly killed Victoria. That’s the only thing Vi would have access to that belonged to Zed. I cringe away from the image of Vi touching the lifeless body of her child in the hopes of finding the man who killed her.

  BUT HE WASN’T THERE!

  Her words glare up at me, screaming silently. Of course he wasn’t there, I realize. Because the spell or curse or whatever it was that he placed on Victoria didn’t belong to him. The witches made it. It would belong far more to them than it would to Zed. So when Vi touched Victoria and saw images of pyramids in a desert, she was seeing the location of the witches.

  Which lines up with what I saw in Elizabeth’s mirror.

  I snap the book shut and head to my bathing room to fetch a glass of water. After mixing a spoonful of Elizabeth’s tonic into the water, I drink it slowly, listening to Gaius walking down the passage to his bedroom. We should all get an early night. Hopefully he’s taking his own advice. I, however, am not.

  I tie my hair back, strap weapons to my body, zip my jacket up, and listen at the door for a minute or so. When I hear no further sound, I slip out and head downstairs. The guilt-beast, that ever-present shadow of dark and terrible truth, follows me. Hopefully, when tonight is done, that foul, stinking creature will plague me no more.

  I stop in front of the faerie door. As my hand reaches for the doorknob, I hear footsteps behind me. “Look at you,” Elizabeth says in a sing-song voice, walking past me and placing herself between me and the faerie door, “making me go against my selfish nature in order to do the right thing.”

  My words are almost a growl. “Get out of my way.”

  “No. I know where you’re going, Calla, which unfortunately means I’m the one who has to stop you.”

  “You don’t know anything.”

  “Don’t I? ‘I’ll search every desert in the world if I have to.’ Isn’t that what you said about the witch?”

  My glare intensifies. “Bravo. So you know where I’m going. How clever of you.”

  “You’re not going,” she says.

  “Look, if you’re worried about the mission, don’t be. I’ll be back in time for that.”

  “I’m not worried about the mission. Well, I am a little bit, but mainly—believe it or not—I’m worried about you.”

  “Move,” I tell her.

  She shakes her head. “You know you’re not going to do this.”

  “Elizabeth—”

  “You won’t. You might plan to. You might think you will. But in the end, you will not kill those witches. It isn’t you.”

  “You don’t know anything about who I am.”

  “Oh, but I do. Chase has told me plenty about you. And don’t—don’t be mad at him for that. He and I are … kind of like family. We tell each other everything, and we’ve kept each other’s secrets for years. So that’s how I know that you’re so much stronger than either of us ever was. We were both new to this world and didn’t know what to do with the power we found ourselves with. I was weak and let others control me; Chase was scared and angry and broken, and that led him down a terrible path.”

  I ball my fist and press it against my chest. Emotion makes my voice quaver. “What if I’m scared and angry and broken too?”

  “You might be, but you’re also brave and honest and optimistic. You endured things no one should ever have to endure, and you came out on the right side at the end of it, unlike some of us.”

  I squeeze my eyes shut and shake my head. “Stop. I can’t be any of those things right now. I don’t want to be any of those things. I have to do this.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my brother will never forgive me!”

  Opening my eyes, I see confusion on her face for the first time. “What do you mean?”

  “I let this happen! And he … what if he never …” My throat constricts and I can barely breathe. All I can see is Ryn sitting alone in the dark, refusing to look at me, his heart turned forever cold toward me. “You don’t understand how … how he’s always been there for me … always. And now …”

  Elizabeth touches my shoulder. “Whether your brother holds you responsible or not, do you really think killing the witches whose magic brought this about will make everything right?”

  I can barely force a sound out as I whisper, “I just want to hate someone other than myself.”

  “Calla,” she says gently, kinder than I’ve ever heard her. “If you do this, it will only make you hate yourself more.”

  I cover my eyes with my hands as tears fall. Perhaps she’s right, but I can’t do nothing. I can’t leave Ryn sitting in perpetual darkness and do nothing. I sniff and wipe my tears away. “Fine,” I say. “Fine. I won’t kill them. But I’ll capture them and leave them tied up outside the Guild. And I’ll get them to tell me where Zed is so I can capture him too. I’ll leave a note pinned to the witches explaining that they’re the ones responsible for the dragon disease. The Guild will question them with truth potion, and they’ll—”

  “Calla,” Elizabeth interrupts. “It isn’t the right time for this. You know how important tomorrow night—”

  “Of course I know,” I snap. “But I can do both. I can surprise the witches, tie them up, and take them to the Guild. And then Ryn will know that the people responsible for Victoria’s death will be properly punished.”

  “Calla! This is our one chance to rescue Chase. You need to sleep tonight instead of fighting witches, and you need to be ready to leave with the rest of us tomorrow afternoon. You can’t risk not being here when we depart.” She grasps both my hands and squeezes them. “I know you want to do this for your brother so he’ll stop blaming you. And I know you want to rescue Chase. But you can’t. Do. Both.”

  I can’t do both. The realization leaves me feeling weak. “I can’t do both,” I whisper. At least, not tonight. And not tomorrow night. The night after that, the witches might be gone, but I’ll search for them anyway. I’ll search forever if I have to. One day I’ll make them pay.

  CHAPTER

  NINETEEN

  Elizabeth clearly doesn’t trust me to stay in my bedroom all night, so she conjures up a magical, glowing string, ties our wrists together, and falls asleep beside me. When I wake in the morning, she’s gone.

  I spend the first part of the day with Gaius looking through the costume closet and choosing outfits for everyone. He and Ana will be posing as the baron and his daughter Brynn. If all goes according to plan, they’re the only two who will be seen tonight. Lumethon and Elizabeth will be beneath the palace floors, searching for Chase and keeping out of sight. But if someone does happen to see any of them,
they need to be dressed appropriately so they can pretend to be nosey partygoers who wanted to explore the palace and ended up getting lost. Kobe and Darius, who will also be searching for Chase, will be dressed as palace guards. They can pretend to usher the tipsy ladies back upstairs if need be. Gaius and I alter two Guild uniforms—I don’t ask where he got them from—by changing the color to midnight blue and adding the Seelie Queen’s insignia to the top of each arm, using my projection of the guard I saw the other night as a reference.

  I’m the only one who doesn’t have to wear party clothes. I’ll be hiding outside the ballroom, staying in constant contact with the team, manipulating illusions, and essentially playing the puppet-master. My clothing will be as dark and inconspicuous as the shadows I intend to hide in.

  We lay out all the formal wear and masks on the meeting room table as the rest of the team begins to arrive. Lumethon, whom I cannot imagine in a dress, picks the least frivolous garment, lengthens it with a simple clothes casting spell, and passes Darius and Kobe their guard uniforms. Gaius, already dressed, makes adjustments to his mask.

  “If that’s what royals have to wear,” Darius says, eying Gaius’s outfit, “then I’m happy to be one of the common folk.”

  “Ha!” Ana says as she walks in. “You’d be common even if you were royal.”

  “It’s traditional faerie formal wear,” Gaius explains to Darius. “Haven’t I ever sent you to a formal event for one of our missions?”

  “Nope. You always make Kobe go to those things.”

  “I don’t mind,” Kobe says with a shrug.

  “No way,” Ana exclaims as Lumethon hands her a purple gown. “You want me to wear this?”

  “Now who’s the common one?” Darius whispers loudly into her ear before leaving the room with his uniform.

  “Do I have to wear this ridiculous thing?” Ana moans. She turns to me. “Can’t I wear something normal and then you just imagine this puffy dress on me?”

  “I think we should leave her here,” Elizabeth says. I glance over my shoulder and find her leaning against the wall fixing Ana with a less-than-impressed stare. Her glittering red dress is her own. Nothing out of the costume closet for her.

  “I’m not going to spend the entire evening picturing your dress for you,” I tell Ana. “You and Gaius are close enough in appearance to the baron and his daughter. Once you’re inside and have your masks on, I’m not wasting any more energy disguising you.”

  “This is for Chase, remember?” Lumethon says quietly, patting Ana’s arm as she walks past with her own dress.

  With a sigh, Ana gathers up her dress and walks out to find another room to get changed in.

  I look around at Gaius and Elizabeth. “Well, if you need me, I’ll be upstairs getting ready.”

  “Don’t forget a wig,” Elizabeth adds. “You won’t stay hidden for long with that gold hair flashing around.”

  “Is there an easy alternative?” I ask. “A hair dye spell or something? Those wigs are uncomfortable. I don’t want to be thinking about my itchy head when I should be picturing an illusion.”

  Elizabeth looks at Gaius. “Do you have obsidian thorn?”

  “The bush with the black berries? Yes, I believe I do.”

  With a sigh, Elizabeth pushes away from the wall. “Great. I’ll go crush some berries while you get dressed, Calla.”

  I return to my room and change my clothes. My attire is pretty much exactly what I would wear if I were a guardian on an assignment: black from head to toe, close-fitting and easy to move in. My boots are black too, except for the blue laces, and my everyday jacket is, of course, also black.

  While waiting for Elizabeth, I dilute some of the tonic she made into a bottle of water small enough to fit into an inner pocket of my jacket. I make it a little stronger than she suggested, knowing I’ll almost certainly need a boost at some point tonight. I screw the lid on tightly, slip it into the pocket, and zip my jacket up. The bottle isn’t the only thing hidden within my clothing. I wrestled with a few clothes casting spells earlier until I was able to add several straps and extra pockets inside the jacket for a mirror, some throwing stars, and other useful items.

  I’m about to turn away from the bed when I notice Filigree sitting in cat form between my pillows. He pads forward, stops at the edge of the bed, and stares up at me with wide, mournful eyes. “No,” I say sternly. “This is one outing you can’t come along for. I’m serious, Filigree. No sneaking into my pockets.” He lies down, lowers his head onto his paws, and continues watching me with sad eyes.

  Elizabeth knocks and walks in carrying a bowl of black liquid. “Ready?” she asks.

  “Yes. Thank you. Sorry to make you do that. I hope you didn’t get any juice on your dress.”

  “Oh, I didn’t do the actual berry crushing. That’s what magic is for.”

  “Right. That’s true. So … do I need to lean over the pool?”

  “Yes.” She walks past me into the bathing room. “Well, you don’t have to, but it might be cleaner that way.”

  I kneel down on the enchanted grass beside the pool and pull my mass of golden hair over the water. “Do I need to wet my hair?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Magic’s involved, so you don’t really need to do anything.”

  I feel cold liquid pouring onto my head, but I can see Elizabeth leaning against the wall, which means she’s controlling everything from a distance. Her hand flicks to the side every now and then, moving my hair or the dye, but mostly she remains relaxed against the wall. A stream of water arcs up and rinses my hair without wetting the rest of me, and when I sit back, hot air blows through my hair and dries it within minutes. “You’re actually quite good at this,” I admit when she tells me to stand.

  “I know,” she says. “Remember when you and I first met? I told you I was Chase’s hair stylist, and you didn’t believe me.”

  “Of course I didn’t.”

  “Well, now you know who helps him out with his two-toned faerie hair disguise so he doesn’t look like a halfling.”

  I nod slowly as I walk to the mirror. My eyes widen at the sight of such dark hair atop my own head. “It looks pretty cool, actually. How long will it last?”

  “Only until you wash your hair. I assumed you didn’t want a permanent change, which is why I went for the berry juice option.”

  “Cool.” I pull my hair back into a high ponytail, secure it tightly, and say, “Okay, let’s go.”

  “Makeup?” Elizabeth asks.

  I pause. “What about it?”

  “Are you going to put any on? Your face is as pale as a moon in a starless sky against all that black. You’ll hardly blend into the shadows that way.”

  Well, as poetic as that sounded, it was hardly a compliment. I cross my arms. “What do you want me to do? Paint my whole face black?”

  “Not your whole face, but we could put a ton of black makeup around your eyes, at the very least.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “A ton?”

  By the time Elizabeth’s done, it looks like some kind of ink-streaked black swan is painted across the top half of my face. It actually doesn’t look too bad. Elizabeth nods approvingly. “Pretty badass. Definitely not my style, but badass nonetheless.”

  Badass. I like the sound of that. We head to the door, but I pause after opening it and look back at her. “I don’t want to dwell on this, but it’s possible I might actually … die tonight.”

  “Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” she says, stepping past me.

  “I’m being realistic, Elizabeth.” And I’m trying not to let the fear of death consume me. “This curse isn’t a joke. If your tonic stops working and I use my Griffin Ability too much—which is highly likely, given everything we’ve planned—then tonight could be the night I become too weak to keep going. So if I don’t get to see Chase again, will you—”

  “Honestly, Calla, you need to stop worrying about this,” she says, continuing along the passage, making me hurry to catch up to her. “C
oncentrate on not messing up tonight, and we can deal with the curse afterwards. If you were going to die any time soon, Luna wouldn’t have Seen you in Chase’s future.”

  My steps come to a halt. A shiver raises the hairs on my arms. “What?”

  A few paces ahead of me, Elizabeth freezes. She doesn’t look around at me, but I hear her curse beneath her breath. “I forgot he never mentioned that bit to you,” she mutters.

  I close the distance between us and take hold of her arm. “What are you talking about? What did Luna See?”

  “I … I’m not completely sure. You’ll have to ask Chase.”

  “You’re lying. If you and Chase really do tell each other everything, then he would have told you about this.”

  “Look, Calla,” she says, removing my hand from her arm. “It isn’t my place to say anything, and I honestly don’t remember any details beyond the words ‘woman in gold.’ The vision was about you and Chase, and if he decided not to tell you, he must have had a good reason. I should have kept my mouth shut, and I’m sorry.” She walks away.

  “So that’s it?” I call after her. “I have to go into this mission now and completely forget about what you’ve just said?”

  “That’s exactly it.”

  With a great deal of effort, I force my questions to the back of my mind, telling myself that if all goes well tonight, it won’t be long before I can ask Chase exactly what Luna Saw. I’ll probably be so happy to have him back, though, that questions like this will hardly matter. I smile at the thought, my insides filling with warmth as I imagine finally being able to touch and see and hear him again. I give myself one last silent lecture as I follow Elizabeth: I’m not going to die, it doesn’t matter what Luna Saw, and every thought needs to be pointed toward our mission now.

  Downstairs, I find the rest of the team assembled in the entrance hall. “Everyone ready?” Gaius asks, at which I feel a twinge of nervousness. Everyone nods, so I nod too. I am ready, I tell myself. It’s just the curse I’m a little concerned about. “Shall we do the communication spell then?” Gaius adds.