“In our third year, the girls dared Linden and me to go Underground, which was pretty much forbidden by the Guild. As you know, Undergrounders have never been fans of guardians or trainees. They generally attack first and ask questions later. But we were brave and stupid, so of course we accepted the dare. Angie said we had to steal something and bring it back to prove we’d been down there. So we broke into an old centaur’s home and found a metal disc with a griffin-snake symbol engraved into it. Rose recognized the symbol from a book she’d seen in her mentor’s office, so she asked him about it.
“He was a very old faerie—in his sixth century, I think. He told Rose about the powerful halfling Tharros Mizreth and the legend of his lost power. These were stories that had been told to him by his parents, who were guardians at the time Tharros was defeated.
“Tharros’ power was so great that he was almost impossible to kill. He had to be separated from that power, and only then could he be killed and his power destroyed independently. Some kind of weapon was constructed to do this. After much fighting and death, the best guardians from all the Guilds managed to catch up with Tharros and separate him from his power. They killed him. Most people think that was the end, but only those directly involved knew that the guardians failed to destroy Tharros’ power. Instead, they captured it inside some kind of chest. They locked the chest using six different keys—the discs with the griffin on them—one to close each side of the chest. In the process of sealing the chest, some of the power was transferred into each disc. The discs were then scattered around the world, hidden by people who were meant to keep them safe.
“But the disc-keepers soon discovered that physical contact with these discs provided access to extra power. This, of course, could not be kept a secret. So discs were stolen, again and again over the centuries. They became so scattered that it was impossible for any one person to know where all the discs were. And that is what has kept the chest of power safe all these years.”
“And Mom’s mentor just told her all this?” I ask. “It sort of feels like it was meant to be a secret.”
“It seems he thought it was nothing more than a legend. We, on the other hand, knew it was true because of the disc we’d found.”
“And she didn’t tell her mentor about the disc?” Ryn asks.
“No. We kept that part to ourselves—and then we made a decision that would turn out to be a big mistake.” He pauses to let out another sigh. “We decided to go in search of the other five discs.”
“The five discs that could have been anywhere in the world?” Ryn asks.
“Yes. We decided we wanted to use Tharros’ power. We planned to unlock the chest, share the power equally among us, and we’d be the best damn guardians any Guild had ever seen. We could defeat any form of evil. Creepy Hollow and the human realm would be safer than ever before because we would use Tharros’ tremendous power for good and not evil. We did a lot of reading, exploring, and following up on rumors, but it took us a long time. It was about ten years later by the time we were each in possession of a disc. By then we were all working for the Guild. Rose and I had formed our union, as had your parents.” Dad nods toward Ryn.
“That must have made Angelica feel a bit left out,” I say.
“Yes. It did. Especially since she’d always … well, had some feelings for me.” Dad scratches his head, looking a little awkward as he admits this. “Anyway, we’d all been working at the Guild for just over a decade when Angie started growing rather distant. She often went looking for the sixth disc without us. You see, our priorities were changing. Linden and Zin had Reed by then. Rose and I were thinking about having a child. Angie, however, was becoming more and more focused on finding that last disc and unlocking the chest. The rest of us were starting to have mixed feelings. The discs … well, it’s hard to explain, but after years of using them, we started feeling different. Moody, angrier, less compassionate for those we were meant to protect. It was Rose who made the connection to the discs. She thought they must have too much of an evil influence left in them. So the four of us decided it would be best to forget about going in search of the chest. It was also, you know, wrong to go after the power our ancestors had tried so hard to destroy. It was wrong for us to act like we were above the law.
“When we told Angie what we’d decided, she was furious. She said this was what she’d worked toward for years, and we were destroying her dreams. It wasn’t long after our confrontation that she left the service of the Guild and broke off all contact with us. We had no idea where she’d gone. We didn’t even know where to start looking.”
“Her family didn’t know anything?” Ryn asks.
“You’re going to think this sounds odd,” Dad says, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck, “but none of us actually knew where she lived. She’d always been secretive about her family and her private life, right from the day we met her. She would never answer any of our questions about her home life, so eventually we stopped asking. That was just who she was, and we accepted it.”
“Do you think she was embarrassed about her family?” I ask. “Like, were they really poor or something?”
“If she was embarrassed, it wasn’t because they were poor. Angie always had the best of everything.” Dad takes a sip from his mug and returns it to the table. “Anyway, where was I?”
“Angelica disappeared.”
“Yes. So, time passed. Zin and Linden had Ryn. Shortly afterward, you arrived, V. We were all caught up in our happy, perfect lives, and that’s when our discs began disappearing. We weren’t using them continuously anymore, only for the occasional very challenging assignment. So they remained hidden most of the time. Rose’s disappeared first, then mine. When Zinnia’s disappeared, we realized it was Angelica taking them. She dropped an earring or something in Zinnia’s cupboard. And, to be honest, we already suspected it was her.
“So Linden hid his somewhere else, and, for a while, we saw and heard nothing of Angelica. Then, one evening when I was alone at home, an elf knocked on our tree and handed me a note. It was from Angie, begging for my help. The note said nothing else except to go with the elf. Instead of going alone, I took Linden with me. We didn’t tell Rose or Zin.
“The elf lead us Underground and into the tunnels of what we later found out was a labyrinth. We found Angie in a chamber right in the center, unable to get out. And it wasn’t that someone else had trapped her down there, like she told you; she had trapped herself down there. Accidentally, of course. She had finally found the location of the chest containing Tharros’ power and stolen it. But she needed somewhere to keep it safe until she could get hold of all the discs to unlock it. So she built the labyrinth herself. She tried to put a complex spell on the chamber to prevent anyone from removing the chest. Instead, she prevented herself from leaving.”
“Well, that’s got to suck,” I say. “And she obviously wanted you guys to get her out.”
“Yes. She did. And we …” Dad hangs his head and groans. “We left her there.”
“What?” Ryn says. “You and my dad just … left her there?”
“I’m not proud of the decision we made. But we managed to convince ourselves it was the best thing to do. The chest was hidden in the labyrinth where nobody else would find it. Angie was trapped there without any of her discs, so she’d never be able to open it. With the upstairs part she’d built for herself, and the creatures running around the labyrinth ready to do her bidding, we told ourselves it was better than the punishment she would receive if we handed her over to the Guild.
“We never told Rose or Zinnia. We carried on with our lives.” Dad takes another deep breath. “Rose was killed on one of her assignments. Reed had his terrible accident. Linden eventually decided to leave both the Guild and his family.” Ryn shifts in his chair, but says nothing. “With my partner gone, I volunteered for an undercover assignment looking into the activities of one of the Unseelie Princes.”
“Zell,” I mutter.
“Yes. At first I worked alone, but as it became clear the prince was planning something big and long-term, other guardians became part of the investigation. Do you remember your friend Cecy?”
“Yes,” I say.
“Her father and I managed to infiltrate Zell’s closest circle of friends. We learned a lot about him. His relationship with his mother has always been unstable; they’ve never seen eye to eye. He’s always felt he would make a better ruler, but, unfortunately for him, he’s last in line for the throne. And unfortunately for us, after several months of being on the inside, Zell found out we were actually guardians.
“We both got away from him, but, in retaliation, Zell went after our families. Cecy was almost killed, saved only by the fact that her babysitter that day was also a skilled guardian. Her parents made an immediate decision to leave the Guild and run. I considered doing the same thing, but I was too determined to bring Zell down to admit defeat. It seemed that the only way I could do that and protect you was if he thought I was dead and no longer a threat to him.
“By that stage, I was reporting directly to the Queen herself. We planned my death together. I had thought we would make it look like my body had been destroyed, but she said that would be too suspicious a death. So she found a shapeshifter criminal and used him instead.” Dad leans forward and wraps his hands around the mug. “And, well, that’s really all there is to it. I’ve secretly been living at the palace ever since and continuing my investigation into Zell’s activities. I know he’s planning to try and take over the Unseelie Court, and possibly the Seelie Court and the Guilds. I know he’s collecting an army of faeries with special powers, although he isn’t able to control them all yet. And I also know he’s planning to get hold of all six griffin discs and unlock the chest to take Tharros’ power for himself. What I don’t know is when he’s planning his big move.”
“I suppose he’s waiting until he has all six discs,” I say. “He has four already—the four Angelica managed to collect before she locked herself up—so now he just needs to get hold of Linden’s and the sixth one you guys never found.”
“I’ll contact my father and tell him to make sure his is well hidden,” Ryn says.
Dad shakes his head. “He’ll want to know how you know about it. Rather say nothing. I trust he’s hidden it well.”
I place my empty mug on the table as something occurs to me. “Dad, how have you been continuing your investigation if Zell knows what you look like?”
“Just because we’re all faeries and can’t use glamours with one another doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to disguise ourselves.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me the way he did when I was little. “I’ve had to be quite inventive at times.”
“I wish I could have seen that,” I say with a laugh.
Ryn stands and sends the mugs back into the kitchen with a wave of his hand. “I should go now. You guys probably have some catching up to do that doesn’t involve me.”
“Yes,” I say before Dad can invite Ryn to stay longer. “I’ll, uh, see you around.” After enough time has passed for things to no longer be epically weird between us.
When the doorway has vanished behind Ryn, I turn back to Dad and ask, “Will you be able to visit here again?”
He hesitates before answering, which isn’t a good sign. “To be honest, it’ll be very difficult. But I promise I’ll try.”
“Okay. Will you be in trouble if the Queen finds out you came here?”
“Oh, she already knows. I told her what happened at the Seelie Court. She wasn’t too happy that we ran into each other, but since you and Ryn are now both guardians and not just little children, she believes you can be trusted. And it’s not as though she has a choice; she has to trust you now that you know.”
I fiddle with the edge of the cushion on my lap. “I don’t think I made the best first impression on her.”
Dad tilts his head to the side. “You obviously made some kind of impression. I believe her exact words to me were, ‘That daughter of yours has just as much spunk as her mother had.’”
“Spunk. Wow. That’s a compliment, right?”
Dad laughs. “I think so.” He spreads his hands open. “So, what else do you want to talk about before I have to leave?”
Twenty-Seven
My birthday is tomorrow.
I’ve never been big on celebrating this annual event. It isn’t all that fun when you don’t have many friends or family to party with, and it’s just another day, really. Faeries have hundreds of birthdays—assuming our lives aren’t snuffed out early by some menacing magical creature—so why make a big deal of it every year? Despite having explained this to Tora a number of times, I know she’s planning something for tomorrow night. I wonder if she’s invited Ryn. I’m torn between wanting to be around him and not wanting to face the awkwardness between us.
Over the past two days I’ve spent most waking moments replaying the conversation Dad and I had the night he came over. I’m still amazed that he was right here in this house, sitting on our couch and drinking from one of our mugs like nothing has changed. I tried not to cry when he left; I almost succeeded.
The rest of my waking moments are spent trying not to think about The Kiss. That takes a lot of effort, which means there aren’t any waking moments left to figure out if I should accept the Guild’s job offer. I’m hoping my brain is figuring it out while I’m sleeping because I have to give Councilor Starkweather an answer tomorrow.
Because I have nothing else to do, I use the social networking spell Ryn taught me and check the random updates of the few people I seem to be ‘following.’ It annoys me that I feel a weird kind of disappointment when I find there are no updates from Ryn. I consider writing something in the blank bubble at the bottom of my amber’s rectangular surface, but what would I write?
Birthdays are boring.
I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life now that I’ve graduated.
My father faked his own death and is actually alive.
Nope. None of those seem like good options. So, once again, I end the spell without having written anything. I go to the cupboard in the study and pull out a box of Card Eaters. I haven’t played in years, but seeing Ryn and Calla playing recently reminded me that it can be kind of fun in its own simple way.
“Filigree,” I call as I head back out to the sitting room. He comes slinking down the stairs in the form of a panther. “Want to play cards?” I hold the box up. He sits down beside the low table and curls his tail around his legs. He blinks expectantly. I sit on the floor on the other side of the table and deal the cards between the two of us. Filigree nudges his pile of cards with one of his paws. “Yeah, okay, you know that’s not going to work, right? You need to shift into something else.” Filigree flicks an ear, then melts into an orange, furry form that turns out to be an orangutan. He picks his cards up. “Okay, you go first,” I tell him.
An hour later, Filigree is beating me. I know it’s partly down to luck and the fact that he obviously got stronger cards than I did, but it’s still embarrassing. I look down at the four cards left in my hand. I’ve got moss—the second weakest card in the whole game—a pixie, a boulder, and an ogre, which is the only card I can play right now. I look at Filigree’s hairy hands; he has only two cards left, and they’re probably both stronger than anything I’ve got. He’s almost sure to win. I’m about to place my ogre card on top of his troll card, when I hear a knock against the tree.
Could it be Dad?
No. The sun has only just begun to set. I’m sure he’d wait for darkness before visiting again. But as I walk toward the wall, I can’t help the nervous energy coursing through me. It might be him. After all, it is my birthday tomorrow.
I wipe my hand across the wall and … it’s Ryn.
Great.
“My, uh, long-lost relative isn’t here tonight, so unless you’re here to visit Filigree, there isn’t anyone else in this home who wants to see you.”
He tilts h
is head to the side. “Why are you nervous?”
I place my hands on my hips. “Is there no way you can turn that off? Because I really don’t appreciate you knowing exactly what I’m feeling.”
“Nope. Trust me, if there was a way to turn it off, I would have found it by now.”
He appears to be holding something behind his back, which makes me suspicious. “Are you going to tell me why you’re here?”
“Are you going to invite me in?”
I make no move to stand aside.
“Fine,” he says. “It’s your birthday tomorrow. I’d like to give you something.”
“You already gave me something. New amber and an expensive charm.”
“Okay, well, now I have something else to give you. And,” he adds, “it’s rude to refuse a gift.”
“And yet we both know being rude has never been a problem when it comes to the two of us.”
He looks down at his feet, then up again. “Please?” he says softly.
Damn. He sure knows how to do the sexy-smoldering-eyes thing; he could probably light a freaking fire with the look he’s currently giving me. And he knows it, dammit, because I bet he can feel my insides melting. I clear my throat. “Um, okay, come in.”
“Actually, I don’t want to give it to you here. I’d like you to come somewhere with me.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Is this something to do with the party Tora and Raven are planning? Because I thought that was tomorrow.”
“It is tomorrow. And since you don’t like surprises, I’ll tell you exactly what time it is and who’s coming if you’ll just follow me now.”
“You’re being weird.”
“And I’ll be even weirder and get down on my knees and beg, if I have to. I’ve done it before, remember?”
I do remember, and I really don’t need him to go that far this time. “Okay, okay, I’ll go with you. Just let me get my boots.”