“Oh, come on, don’t get soppy now.”
She sniffs. “You think this is soppy? Wait until your graduation.” I groan and she laughs, wiping at her eyes. “I know you like to keep your emotions boxed away, Miss Top-of-the-Class,” she says, reaching for the door handle, “but I know you’ll miss me too.”
*
I manage to leave the Guild without bumping into Ryn. I know we’ll have to meet at some point to plan this assignment, but at the Guild in front of his friends probably isn’t the best place. I arrive in my kitchen and see Filigree—still a pig—sniffing at a parcel on the counter. It’s in the spot where my mail always materializes.
“Oh, when did that arrive?” I ask, walking over to him. He looks up at me and makes a snuffling sound. “Yeah, I have no idea what you just said.” I pick up the parcel. It’s about the size of my palm, wrapped in fabric and tied with a ribbon. I open the note wedged beneath the ribbon.
I forgot to give this to you earlier! While I was away I visited one of those fairs with all the latest spells and gadgets and fell in love with these little guys. It’s a mirror, just like any other you’d use to communicate with, but when someone tries to get hold of you the mirror will jump up and come find you. Cute! Anyway, I thought you might like it. I have a green one. I named it Bartholomew.
Love, Tora
P.S. Flint already programmed it to recognize you.
“Hmm.” I pull the ribbon off and unfold the fabric to reveal a circular mirror. Protruding from one side of the circle are what look like two little legs, which would mean that the two skinny shapes folded across the mirror’s glass are . . . arms? And it’s purple. Honestly, what is with people and their fixation on giving me purple gifts? Do they really think I want everything I own to match my hair and eyes?
Anyway, I should probably thank Tora. It is a cute gift, and it’s nice that she thought of me while she was away. I pull my amber out of my pocket and write her a quick thank you message.
“Come, let’s read all about our final assignment,” I tell Filigree. He shifts into cat form, jumps off the counter, and changes back to a pig. I head to the sitting room with my training bag over my shoulder, Filigree trotting behind me. I flop onto a couch and pull the rolled up assignment pages out of my bag. “Okay, are you ready to find out everything there is to know about Mr. Edgar Hart?” I help Filigree onto the couch where he positions himself next to me and rests his head on my knee. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
An hour later Filigree is snoring and I’m almost asleep. Tora was right when she talked about boring, old rich people. It’s just golf, lunch, gym, salon, entertaining—and then they mix it up by doing the same activities in a different order the next day. Total snore. I feel sorry for whoever it was that had to watch the Harts long enough to figure out their daily schedule.
I feel my eyelids drooping when suddenly—
“VioletVioletVioletVioletViolet!”
“What the freak?” I jerk awake and jump to my feet, scattering papers everywhere as I search for the source of the high-pitched, squeaky voice that won’t stop calling my name. Then I see it. The purple mirror. Tearing across the floor on its little legs, pumping its tiny fists in its desperation to get to me. “VioletVioletVioletVioletViolet!” It slams into my leg, then grabs the bottom of my pants and starts yanking. Filigree, a bear now, roars and swipes at it.
“Okay, okay.” I bend to pick up the little guy and see Honey’s face in the mirror. When I touch the shiny surface, the squealing of my name finally stops. “Hello?”
“Hey!” Honey says. She waves at me. “I wanted to speak to you at the Guild, but Tora said you’d left.”
“Oh, yeah, I was avoiding my new partner.” I sit back down on the couch.
“That’s why I wanted to talk to you.” She looks desperate. “I am so sorry about that.”
“Why? It’s not your fault we all got switched at the last minute.”
“I know, but I shouldn’t have said anything to you before. It must have made it even more of a shock when you found out it was actually Ryn.”
“Don’t worry about it, Honey. I can handle him.” I lean back and massage one of my shoulders with my free hand. “So, who’d you end up with?”
“Asami.” She shrugs. “He’s okay, I guess.”
I nod. “And where are you going?”
“Egypt!” She bounces up and down. “It’s so exciting. There are these bronze-skinned elves I’ve never heard of before that live inside the pyramids. And the Seers have Seen that some pixie-type creatures are about to invade them, and some humans are going to accidentally get involved, and basically we have to fix up the whole mess.”
“Wow. Sounds amazing.”
“I know.” Her smile couldn’t be any wider. “And what about you?”
I shake my head and let out a humorless laugh. “You should be grateful you’re not my partner anymore. My assignment isn’t half as exciting as yours.”
We talk a few minutes more before saying goodbye. I place the mirror on the couch beside me—where it promptly folds its arms back over its glossy surface—and start gathering my assignment pages from the floor. I stare at them a bit longer before finally deciding I need to visit Ryn. This assignment isn’t going to plan itself, and I can’t exactly do it without him.
CHAPTER FOUR
I exit the faerie paths in front of the tree that conceals Ryn’s home. It looks like any other tree in this part of the forest, but when I lean forward and gently blow air against the bark, gold dust rises to reveal a door knocker shaped like a mermaid. Stamping down my nerves—and telling myself I’m ridiculous for feeling nervous in the first place—I grab the mermaid’s tail and knock. Then I stand there, biting my lip and twisting my hands together. And right then is when I remember Ryn saying something about being with a girl tonight. Crap it. This could get embarrassing. I reach hastily for my stylus, preparing to leave as quickly as I—
“Vi?” Light spills out of the open doorway on the tree, revealing Ryn’s mother Zinnia standing there. “What a nice surprise.” Her grin is wide as she steps back. “Please come in. Are you looking for Ryn?”
“Uh, yes. Is he in?” Please say no.
“Yes, he’s in the kitchen.”
The kitchen? “Oh, so, he’s alone tonight?”
“No, but I’m sure he won’t mind you being here.”
I highly doubt that. I step inside and follow her across the sitting room. “Sorry for just showing up,” I say. I used to do it all the time when I was younger, but it doesn’t feel right anymore.
“It’s not a problem at all. Ryn told me you two are partners for your final assignment, so I expected to see you this weekend. It’s . . . nice that you two will be working together.”
I raise an eyebrow. “If by ‘nice’ you mean ‘potentially disastrous’, then yes. It will be nice.”
She stops with her hand on the kitchen door, looking momentarily horrified at my honesty. But then she laughs. “Well, I didn’t want to be the one to say it.”
“We’re all thinking it,” I tell her. “Someone may as well say it out loud.”
She chuckles as she pushes the door open. I follow her, steeling myself for the embarrassing situation I’m about to walk into.
The first thing I notice is the delicious aroma of honey cupcakes. The smell floats in the air, curling around me, conjuring up memories of happier times when Reed and my dad were still alive, and Ryn’s father hadn’t left his mother. Then my eyes fall on Ryn, sitting at the table playing a card game with—Calla?
The girl with the golden hair and eyes looks up, a smile spreading across her face when she sees me. She moves as though to get up, but then her smile turns shy, and she gives me a small wave instead.
I force my gaze back to Ryn “This is why you didn’t want Dale over here tonight? You don’t want him to know you’re babysitting your little sister?”
Ryn glances at Calla, then glares at me as though my words may have offende
d her. But she’s busy examining the cards clutched in her hands and doesn’t seem bothered.
“You lied to your friends?” Zinnia asks as she pulls a chair out for me at the table.
“No.” Ryn leans back. “Dale asked if I had a girl over here tonight. I said yes. That wasn’t a lie.”
Zinnia rolls her eyes and heads for the oven. I place my scroll of assignment pages on the table and sit down.
“So, do you babysit often?” I ask.
Ryn lifts one shoulder in a gesture that could mean yes, no, or pretty much anything in between. “My dad and his, uh—” he glances across the room at Zinnia “—and Calla’s mom are out tonight. They don’t like to leave Calla alone at home.” He places a card with an illustration of a vine on it down on the table.
“I’m sure they don’t,” I mutter.
“What type of icing do you want, sweetie?” Zinnia asks Calla.
“Um.” Calla purses her lips while watching Ryn’s vine card strangle her kelpie card. “Can I have the one with the sparkles that tingle on your tongue, please?”
“The faerie kisses one?”
Calla giggles and nods. Apparently when you’re six years old, faerie kisses are too embarrassing to talk about, even if they’re only referring to a type of icing. With a wink at Calla, Zinnia turns back to her mixing bowl. I watch her as she adds ingredients, pushing her long, dark curls out of the way when they fall across her face. Am I the only one who finds this situation a little weird? Zinnia’s husband left her, formed a new union with someone else, had a child with that someone else, and now that child is sitting in Zinnia’s kitchen. And Zinnia is baking for her. I shake my head and turn back to the card game.
“Yay, centaur beats pixie!” Calla says, putting down her last card and throwing her arms into the air. A tiny cloud of dust rises from the table as the centaur card gallops over the pixie card.
“I guess you also didn’t want Dale seeing what kind of games you play on a Friday night, hey?” I tease.
Ryn’s blue eyes pierce mine. “Did you come here for a reason, Violet?”
Ooh, my full name. I must have struck a nerve. “A reason, hmm, let me think. Oh, there is that assignment we’ve been forced to do together. Remember that, Oryn? The most important assignment in our five years of training?
“Yeah.” He continues staring at me. “What about it?”
“Have you read the pages yet?”
“Nope.”
“Ryn! This is a straightforward assignment. If we plan properly we can get it done before Friday and get bonus points. I know you want to be top of the class just as badly as I do.”
He shakes his head, chuckling. “I don’t think there’s anyone who wants the top position as badly you, V.”
I cross my arms. “Well, we still need to plan.”
“No, you need to relax.” He gathers the cards scattered across the table and throws them into the Card Eaters box Calla holds out to him. The box rattles as all the defeated cards reform. “We have plenty of time to—”
“No.” I point a finger at him. “Do you know what happens when people say they have plenty of—”
“Are you really pointing your finger at me?”
“So,” Zinnia says loudly. “Who’s ready for a cupcake?”
I stand up, my chair scraping back against the floor. I look at Ryn, then tilt my head toward the door.
“Are you trying to say something, V? A problem with your neck, maybe?”
Calla smacks him on the hand with the lid of the card box. “She wants you to go into the other room with her, stupid.”
“Oh, really?” He grins at his little sister. “Thanks, Cal. I never would have guessed.”
With a barely disguised groan of frustration, I head out to the sitting room. Ryn follows me, closes the door, and leans against the wall beside it, refusing to meet my gaze.
“Okay, look,” I say. “We have to figure out a way to work together. It’s not fun, but I know it’s not impossible either because we managed to do it when we rescued Calla. So all you have to do is pretend this assignment is as important as saving her life, and we’ll be fine.”
Ryn tightens his arms over his chest, but says nothing.
“Hello?” I wave a hand in front of his face. “Anyone in there?”
“I don’t know how to do this!” he says, abruptly throwing his hands up. He pushes himself away from the wall and sits down on the arm of a couch. “I don’t know how to be your friend.”
Well. That was unexpected. I sit down in the armchair opposite him. I try to think of something to say, but nothing seems right.
“When I sat on your bed and asked if we could be friends, I meant it,” he says. “I still want that. It’s just . . . I’m so used to not only ignoring you, but also intentionally trying to hurt you, that . . . I don’t know how to be nice.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” I run a hand through my hair. “I’m sorry. I guess I have a bit of a problem with that too. It’s kind of like my first instinct when I’m around you.”
He looks up, managing half a smile. “I know what you mean.”
“So, how about we aim for somewhere in the middle?” I suggest.
He considers that for a moment. “And ‘the middle’ would entail . . . fun insults instead of mean ones?”
I match his half-smile. “We could try that.”
Zinnia pokes her head around the kitchen door. “If you’ve finished arguing, your cupcakes are waiting for you.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Ryn stands up. “You know, I meant it when I said you need to relax, V. We really do have plenty of time to plan for this assignment.”
“Fine. You can have tonight off. But the rest of the weekend is for planning.”
We enter the kitchen to find Calla giggling as she licks the icing off her cupcake. “It tickles,” she says. Which makes sense, given that bright sparkles of color are literally bouncing and shooting off the cupcakes sitting on the plate in the middle of the table.
“Calla, do you want my icing?” I ask, grabbing a cupcake from the plate and sitting down. I’m only interested in the cake part.
“Mm,” Calla says, nodding and handing me a spoon to scrape off the icing.
“Don’t you like faerie kisses?” Ryn asks, his eyes dancing with some hidden meaning. “You’re missing out, you know.”
I bite into the cake, closing my eyes as the rich honey flavor melts on my tongue. “Trust me,” I say after chewing and swallowing, “there is nothing I’m missing out on right—”
My words are cut off by a shuddering clap of thunder. Calla freezes, a spoon of icing halfway to her mouth. She blinks a few times, then whimpers as the light in the room flickers.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Ryn says. “The glow-bugs don’t like thunder, that’s all. They like to go into hibernation mode when they feel the vibrations. It makes them feel safer.”
“But then I don’t feel safe,” Calla whispers. She jumps off her chair and runs to Ryn’s side of the table, taking her spoon of icing with her. Thunder rumbles again, louder this time, as she climbs onto Ryn’s lap.
“Let’s play another round,” Ryn says. He reaches for the box of cards, then stops with his hand in the air and looks across the room at his mother. She’s standing in a corner, reading a message on her amber. A crease forms between her eyes. “What’s wrong?” he asks.
She shakes her head. “I missed a message earlier.” She hurries out of the kitchen just as rain begins to patter down in the forest outside. A moment later she’s back in the room, pulling on a pair of boots similar to my own. They lace themselves up as she slings a bag over her shoulder and opens a doorway on a blank part of the wall. “I need to get to the Guild.”
“What happened?” Ryn asks.
Zinnia’s eyes dart to Calla, then back to Ryn. “I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell you,” she says. “But you’ll know soon enough.” And with that she disappears into the faerie paths.
*
The storm still
rages outside when I wake up Monday morning. My enchanted skylight gives me a glimpse of lightning flashing every few seconds and wind and rain tearing at leaves. I turn over and grab my amber from next to my bed, mumbling the spell to make it show me the time. I close my eyes and snuggle deeper beneath the bed covers. Ryn and I have read everything there is to know about the Harts, and we’ve planned as much as we can, so I may as well sleep in a little bit. Ryn’s right—I really do need to relax more.
“Morning, V.”
My eyelids spring apart, and a glittering knife has formed in my hand before I can even think about it.
“Whoa, careful, it’s just me.” Ryn is sitting in my desk chair, looking entirely at ease.
I pull the covers up to my chin, trying to remember what I’m wearing and how much skin it covers. “What are you doing here?” I demand.
“I felt in need of a laugh and knew the sight of you first thing in the morning would do the trick.”
“Thanks. I’m flattered. Can you leave now?”
“Nope.” He leans forward. “I’m actually here to make breakfast.”
“Breakfast? Is that the burning I can smell coming from downstairs?” To be honest, the only thing I can smell is the vanilla charm I put on my bed covers once a week. But Ryn doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who cooks, so I’m guessing the chances are high he’s about to burn something in my kitchen.
“Indeed it is. Burnt pancakes especially for you.”
“And what did I do to deserve burnt pancakes?”
“It’s in celebration of our final assignment, and because you need to get used to seeing my handsome face first thing in the morning.” He stands up and walks to the door. “Oh, and I thought you might want to know that what’s happening outside isn’t a normal storm. It’s a magical one.”
“What do you mean?”
“Lightning got inside the Guild.”
“WHAT?” I sit up so fast it makes me feel dizzy.
“Yeah, I thought that’d wake you up,” he says, then disappears out of the room.